Sean, thank you for this post. It was quite refreshing. It moved me so much that I realized my response here included huge blocks of what you'd written above. I had to take a few deep breaths and edit a bit. 🙃 This past week, I was writing a very similar post, but I received some news last night and felt guided to go in another direction. So, I'm glad, but really not surprised, that you have said what I wanted to (and so much better than I could have).
I recently witnessed yet another discussion on what the Course is "really" saying. It focused on that age-old debate over duality vs. non-duality. In the end, it amounted to what felt like fear-mongering, "Be careful what those other guys are saying...that's not the Course." There's a lot of hot air in these debates...it begins to feel like a desert...and then I remember the Course's advice about deserts.
In a peculiar twist, I ran into some people on the other side of that debate later in the day, and they were all about love and service, completely the opposite of what you might have thought after that first discussion.
This is part of the insanity of this world, I guess. It's not a debate I choose to have. It feels like delay on the path. I look around and I see brothers and sisters struggling to find their next meal, job, apartment, or just in need of a bit of kindness and compassion. They need to be met where they are, and I am the one to meet them there in the specific way I can. The Course, too, meets us where we are and perhaps that's why we think we see certain things in it while other people see something completely different. That’s all good by me, and I see no reason for it to devolve into lovelessness.
I don't know if there will ever be agreement on what the Course says or what we truly are. I'll know when I know. In the meantime, what I get from the Course is that it is not an end in itself. I'm not meant to bury my nose in it and never look up again. There is a practice component to it. And there are tons of passages about the love we extend to others. That's where I choose to focus. The more I extend love, the clearer it gets—in ways that dissecting the same sentences over and over again without actually engaging in the practice just can't do for me.
You said it so well here: "If you are having a bad day, or if you feel lonely or full of despair, I can tell you from experience that giving food to one hungry person or standing with one person society has rejected will help you as much as years of psychotherapy. Minds heal fast when bodies are given to service in the Name of God Who is Love."
Amen, brother. I'm with you.
This part had me swooning:
"When we are awake....then we remember our own holiness and that holiness teaches us what to do in the world. Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted..."
As you say, it is the way we act that makes all the difference. Action (including activism intent on bringing about peace) can result in further division or it can provide balm for both superficial wounds and the oldest wound ever known.
When I got to this part, I was cheering out loud:
"What does this look like in practice….I mean, only you can really answer that question, right....The truth is, your heart knows who you are called to serve and how to serve them. There are no mysteries, only distractions and delay."
And then that paragraph about enough, not enough, naivete, selfishness, and confusion over ACIM metaphysics... "Ego always babbles." Indeed! Who is helped by that, you ask? No one.
I'll close by saying that in the moments I witness a debate about Course metaphysics and I feel myself tightening, that's a sure sign the ego still has its talons in me. Time to go out into the world and be a force of love, not judgment, and have that love boomerang back to me, because I need it too. Thank you!
There is a kind of fetish in the ACIM community about being The One who understands the material. I think there are some folks who took (and take) this stance publicly which sort of drives the impetus, but it also arises in the material itself which can be painfully abstruse and overwrought.
My default has become trying to focus on helpfulness. If a particular read / interpretation / approach of/to the material is helpful - which is a very personal and local question - then great. Tara Singh used the phrase "the lovelessness of I get it and you don't," which was very clear and cautionary for me.
And, of course, as you point out (without being as judgmental as I'm going to be) there can be a lot of hypocrisy or at least inconsistency in the course community, where the walk and the talk don't easily sync up. I've waded in that stream myself quite a bit. Since it's basically self-study (in many sense of the phrase), it's pretty easy to use the material to elide the very healing it aims to enact.
For me - in part because it seemed to work this way for Tara Singh, and in part because I was moving in these kinds of circles anyway - the course sort of naturally aligns with service, broadly defined (to include activism and education). Yes, absolutely, a lot of our intellectual debates about the material and its meaning are avoidance mechanisms. For me, if the study is not cashing out in a practice that is relational AND transformational, then something is missing. Which is not a crime against God or nature! But there IS another way.
So yes, study and practice seems to be the way that works for me as well. I want to understand but the understanding has to be brought into application. The two - study and practice - are not separate but cyclic, the one flowing into and informing the other (a lot of folks writing in the second order cybernetics field were very helpful to me in understanding this).
I do think there is an answer to "what we are in truth," but it doesn't lend itself to words or to a doctrine. And what happens in relationship is closer to "what we are in truth" than anything else.
Thank you again for being here, Margaret. I hope you're settling into your new digs, and that the cat is well too. I'm looking forward to your new post (which appeared in my inbox literally as I was writing to you).
You're welcome, Deborah. Thank you for being here - I am very grateful. I am learning as I go, and sharing with others is so so helpful. We are in this together 🙏🙏
Thank you Deborah. As Sean said in response to your comment, we are in this together. I wrote a post a while back about an image that came to me--on the spiritual path, we are like those monkeys in the barrel of monkeys game that link arms. We travel together and help each other out and love, love, love. ❤️
I know nothing about Tara Singh except for what I've read on your Substack, but this really hit me: "Tara Singh used the phrase 'the lovelessness of I get it and you don't,' which was very clear and cautionary for me." That is how it comes across to me. It is a lack of respect for someone's journey, which, as we exist here, is quite personal and individual even as we seek to join with others on the path. The funny part is that in the context of warning someone away from something, you can sometimes make them even more curious about it. In fact, that is exactly what has happened among my spiritual friends because we've discovered things that affirm what already resonates with us. In the end, it all works out because it already has, right? 😉
That is my favorite sentence and idea of Tara Singh's. So much cleared up in my mind when I first read it, and it has guided me often since. It is a lack of respect for the other that arises in our fear of the other, and our unwillingness to face that fear where it is - in our own heart and mind. The desire to be in the in-group - to be the one - is very strong in our biology and consciousness. It is truly a radical move to notice it and seek another way - one that is inclusive and grounded in equality. Very pedestrian work in a sense but my God, the world and relationships revealed when we begin to get some fluency with it . . .
I’m not sure what the virtual equivalent of standing up and applauding is, but that’s what my spirit was doing as I read this post. So timely. So beautifully and profoundly true or at least that’s what the applause in my heart says.
This is as refreshing as a cool waterfall on a hot summer's day: "Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted, Buddha acted, Ramana acted, Dorothy Day acted, Tara Singh acted . . ." My brother, you are the bringer of joy. I have tears!
I like what you write and it reminds me of what Keith Kavanagh said lately: "When you can't see your brother as the light that is everything, you can't know that is what you are too." This helps me understand that you can't leave anyone out of my love.
Thanks for reading and sharing, Robyn. And yes - Keith is right - we learn what we are in truth by seeing what our brothers and sisters are in truth - somehow it is easier to see it in the other. But eventually we realize we are gazing at our own self, shared with all Creation. A lovely and liberating realization . . . Thank you for being here, Robyn 🙏🙏
Thanks for the kind words, Tom and for sharing the Galloway link . . . yeah, there is a lot of power in bringing our minds into alignment with truth/love/God etc . . . like plugging into the cosmos - thanks for being here, Tom. I hope all is well with you 🙏🙏
Thankyou Sean. I have been pondering political questions, voting, judgement, and social responsibility. This post brings the Voice to me in a very helpful way. 💞
You're welcome, Deborah. It's an oddly challenging issue in the ACIM community! But for me it is helpful to remember that we are a collective and are all entitled to the happy dream and then think and act accordingly. One step at a time and always together 🙏🙏
Sean, thank you for this post. It was quite refreshing. It moved me so much that I realized my response here included huge blocks of what you'd written above. I had to take a few deep breaths and edit a bit. 🙃 This past week, I was writing a very similar post, but I received some news last night and felt guided to go in another direction. So, I'm glad, but really not surprised, that you have said what I wanted to (and so much better than I could have).
I recently witnessed yet another discussion on what the Course is "really" saying. It focused on that age-old debate over duality vs. non-duality. In the end, it amounted to what felt like fear-mongering, "Be careful what those other guys are saying...that's not the Course." There's a lot of hot air in these debates...it begins to feel like a desert...and then I remember the Course's advice about deserts.
In a peculiar twist, I ran into some people on the other side of that debate later in the day, and they were all about love and service, completely the opposite of what you might have thought after that first discussion.
This is part of the insanity of this world, I guess. It's not a debate I choose to have. It feels like delay on the path. I look around and I see brothers and sisters struggling to find their next meal, job, apartment, or just in need of a bit of kindness and compassion. They need to be met where they are, and I am the one to meet them there in the specific way I can. The Course, too, meets us where we are and perhaps that's why we think we see certain things in it while other people see something completely different. That’s all good by me, and I see no reason for it to devolve into lovelessness.
I don't know if there will ever be agreement on what the Course says or what we truly are. I'll know when I know. In the meantime, what I get from the Course is that it is not an end in itself. I'm not meant to bury my nose in it and never look up again. There is a practice component to it. And there are tons of passages about the love we extend to others. That's where I choose to focus. The more I extend love, the clearer it gets—in ways that dissecting the same sentences over and over again without actually engaging in the practice just can't do for me.
You said it so well here: "If you are having a bad day, or if you feel lonely or full of despair, I can tell you from experience that giving food to one hungry person or standing with one person society has rejected will help you as much as years of psychotherapy. Minds heal fast when bodies are given to service in the Name of God Who is Love."
Amen, brother. I'm with you.
This part had me swooning:
"When we are awake....then we remember our own holiness and that holiness teaches us what to do in the world. Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted..."
As you say, it is the way we act that makes all the difference. Action (including activism intent on bringing about peace) can result in further division or it can provide balm for both superficial wounds and the oldest wound ever known.
When I got to this part, I was cheering out loud:
"What does this look like in practice….I mean, only you can really answer that question, right....The truth is, your heart knows who you are called to serve and how to serve them. There are no mysteries, only distractions and delay."
And then that paragraph about enough, not enough, naivete, selfishness, and confusion over ACIM metaphysics... "Ego always babbles." Indeed! Who is helped by that, you ask? No one.
I'll close by saying that in the moments I witness a debate about Course metaphysics and I feel myself tightening, that's a sure sign the ego still has its talons in me. Time to go out into the world and be a force of love, not judgment, and have that love boomerang back to me, because I need it too. Thank you!
Thanks for reading and sharing, Margaret.
There is a kind of fetish in the ACIM community about being The One who understands the material. I think there are some folks who took (and take) this stance publicly which sort of drives the impetus, but it also arises in the material itself which can be painfully abstruse and overwrought.
My default has become trying to focus on helpfulness. If a particular read / interpretation / approach of/to the material is helpful - which is a very personal and local question - then great. Tara Singh used the phrase "the lovelessness of I get it and you don't," which was very clear and cautionary for me.
And, of course, as you point out (without being as judgmental as I'm going to be) there can be a lot of hypocrisy or at least inconsistency in the course community, where the walk and the talk don't easily sync up. I've waded in that stream myself quite a bit. Since it's basically self-study (in many sense of the phrase), it's pretty easy to use the material to elide the very healing it aims to enact.
For me - in part because it seemed to work this way for Tara Singh, and in part because I was moving in these kinds of circles anyway - the course sort of naturally aligns with service, broadly defined (to include activism and education). Yes, absolutely, a lot of our intellectual debates about the material and its meaning are avoidance mechanisms. For me, if the study is not cashing out in a practice that is relational AND transformational, then something is missing. Which is not a crime against God or nature! But there IS another way.
So yes, study and practice seems to be the way that works for me as well. I want to understand but the understanding has to be brought into application. The two - study and practice - are not separate but cyclic, the one flowing into and informing the other (a lot of folks writing in the second order cybernetics field were very helpful to me in understanding this).
I do think there is an answer to "what we are in truth," but it doesn't lend itself to words or to a doctrine. And what happens in relationship is closer to "what we are in truth" than anything else.
Thank you again for being here, Margaret. I hope you're settling into your new digs, and that the cat is well too. I'm looking forward to your new post (which appeared in my inbox literally as I was writing to you).
~ Sean
Margaret and Sean, as a 2nd year Course student, I breathe deeply of your wisdom (lovingvalidation!) that doing love is being love. Thankyou!🌅
You're welcome, Deborah. Thank you for being here - I am very grateful. I am learning as I go, and sharing with others is so so helpful. We are in this together 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Deborah. As Sean said in response to your comment, we are in this together. I wrote a post a while back about an image that came to me--on the spiritual path, we are like those monkeys in the barrel of monkeys game that link arms. We travel together and help each other out and love, love, love. ❤️
I know nothing about Tara Singh except for what I've read on your Substack, but this really hit me: "Tara Singh used the phrase 'the lovelessness of I get it and you don't,' which was very clear and cautionary for me." That is how it comes across to me. It is a lack of respect for someone's journey, which, as we exist here, is quite personal and individual even as we seek to join with others on the path. The funny part is that in the context of warning someone away from something, you can sometimes make them even more curious about it. In fact, that is exactly what has happened among my spiritual friends because we've discovered things that affirm what already resonates with us. In the end, it all works out because it already has, right? 😉
That is my favorite sentence and idea of Tara Singh's. So much cleared up in my mind when I first read it, and it has guided me often since. It is a lack of respect for the other that arises in our fear of the other, and our unwillingness to face that fear where it is - in our own heart and mind. The desire to be in the in-group - to be the one - is very strong in our biology and consciousness. It is truly a radical move to notice it and seek another way - one that is inclusive and grounded in equality. Very pedestrian work in a sense but my God, the world and relationships revealed when we begin to get some fluency with it . . .
Thanks again for being here, Margaret 🙏🙏
~ Sean
“Ego always babbles.”
What a helpful (and memorable) mantra for checking head talk to make space for Spirit. Thank you, Sean . . .for all of this.
Happy May!
Good morning, Cheryl. Thanks for reading and being here. Yeah, ego just prattles on and on. There's a better Voice in there fortunately 🙏🙏
~ Sean
I’m not sure what the virtual equivalent of standing up and applauding is, but that’s what my spirit was doing as I read this post. So timely. So beautifully and profoundly true or at least that’s what the applause in my heart says.
Hey Dan, thank you - I appreciate the kind words and the Holy Spirit getting rowdy :) I appreciate you being here and sharing. Thank you.
~ Sean
Sean, your words this morning were both inspired and inspiring. You 'nailed it' on so many levels for me and for that I am so grateful. Thank you.
Your'e welcome, April! Thank you for reading and sharing - I'm grateful too 🙏🙏
~ Sean
This is as refreshing as a cool waterfall on a hot summer's day: "Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted, Buddha acted, Ramana acted, Dorothy Day acted, Tara Singh acted . . ." My brother, you are the bringer of joy. I have tears!
Thanks for being here, Susan, and thank you for the kind words. We are in this together and I am very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
I must say, Sean, this is one of the most thought-provoking articles you have written. Really appreciate your insight.
You're welcome, Kim. Thank you for being here and reading. We are in this together - I'm very grateful 🙏
~ Sean
I like what you write and it reminds me of what Keith Kavanagh said lately: "When you can't see your brother as the light that is everything, you can't know that is what you are too." This helps me understand that you can't leave anyone out of my love.
Thanks for reading and sharing, Robyn. And yes - Keith is right - we learn what we are in truth by seeing what our brothers and sisters are in truth - somehow it is easier to see it in the other. But eventually we realize we are gazing at our own self, shared with all Creation. A lovely and liberating realization . . . Thank you for being here, Robyn 🙏🙏
~ Sean
truly outstanding Sean - thank you again. Yes let the Spirit of God lead us into all truth. Hopelessness and despair are clearly not the answer.
There is much that can be done with the right mind in place - meaning seeing all as the truly are not as the world would tell us they are.
I love your teachings.
Saw this last night - it resonates with your message to me;
https://youtu.be/qEJ4hkpQW8E?si=vD0kmrZj_T3Oj3K-
Thanks for the kind words, Tom and for sharing the Galloway link . . . yeah, there is a lot of power in bringing our minds into alignment with truth/love/God etc . . . like plugging into the cosmos - thanks for being here, Tom. I hope all is well with you 🙏🙏
~ Sean
❤️
Thank you Sean…
You're welcome, Kristine - I hope all is well -
~ Sean
Thankyou Sean. I have been pondering political questions, voting, judgement, and social responsibility. This post brings the Voice to me in a very helpful way. 💞
You're welcome, Deborah. It's an oddly challenging issue in the ACIM community! But for me it is helpful to remember that we are a collective and are all entitled to the happy dream and then think and act accordingly. One step at a time and always together 🙏🙏
~ Sean