Because from the first word it felt to me like coming home after being gone such a long, hard time. I have loved and believed it ever since. When Jesus talks in firm absolutes, I'm so grateful. Give it to me straight, no soft-pedaling, please. I'm ready. By earthly terms, I'm old. People are suffering, and I don't want to do this again.
What is your practice - the application of your study - like?
I practice it like a scientist performing experiments: "Okay, this thing has cropped up in my life. What does Jesus say about it? All right, let's try it his way and see what happens." Increasingly, peace and love and happiness happen, and gratitude hurries after them yelling, "Thanks!".
I was loaned ACIM the day after my first child was born. It was strange because it was an acquaintance, not a friend who lent it to me and said she had to have it back in 3 days. That was 45 years ago when ACIM was in its infancy. I wasn't a religious person and initially had difficulty with the Christian language but it affected me so profoundly that I couldn't stop reading. I didn't want to like it, but I was hooked. Now, after all these years I can't imagine my life without it's wisdom. Fear comes up in various disguises all the time and my mantra is 'I only want the peace of God' and IF I focus on that and not what is causing the fear, my mindset changes.
Thank you Sean for reminding me that God speaks to each of us in our own unique way.
Thank you very much Sean, for your dedication to writing and sharing, and also, for giving us a space to share our experience of the Course and find comfort from listening to each other on this path. I love Jesus’ no compromise firm manner. This contrasts very well with ego’s fleeting, slippery fish like, ‘if I can be manipulative enough I can change this’ approach 😊 no matter how much ego is screaming, throwing tantrums, coming up with all sorts of suggestions how Jesus should improve his Teaching, the Course works! The difficulty for ego is to recognise and finally accept peacefully that this has nothing to do with me. It works despite me 😊 All I need to do is to learn to stay quiet and be gentle with myself and others, that is the practice. No judgment no interference no projection. But, learning this doesn’t come easy when we have been so long identified with and addicted to ego. Paradoxically it is not ego does the acceptance, it merely dissolves into acceptance, and in my experience, very very slowly, by tiny small bits by bits, hence support/reminders from fellow students so helpful. Much gratitude to all.
Why do I study the course? It began as a yearning to know God, which led to the need to know what I am in truth, an absolute longing for peace, and finally, wanting to know what Love truly is.
My practice is my life, the application multifaceted. It sometimes looks like my next breath, daily reading of the text and lessons (most days), awareness and reflection of my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (which often times aren’t pretty), a moment by moment forgiveness practice, prayer and meditation, long walks in nature and ongoing talking and listening to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, laughing, crying, and smiling, making eye contact with passer-byers, and joining with others in community. (I’m grateful for this one.)
AND, sometimes my practice is being an ego that acts out, filled with sin, guilt and fear that is resistant to healing, miracles, and God’s Love.
I’m grateful for your continued faithfulness to the course and sharing your writing with us here, Sean. You’ve been so kind to remind me often that I’m not alone, and it has made a difference.
Thank you Sean...I really appreciate that the course, while it can feel forceful in some lines, does truly say that our role is not to be missionaries to sell anything but to live in peace and love. And that may well attract others, but not through our preaching. Having come from a background of missionaries, it was the one thing that shied me away from any belief that I saw as religious since there were dogmas, ways to believe, ways to live...and what a wonderful relief in studying the Course in Miracles in that there is no dogma, and even "right and wrong" only come from dualistic thinking. Thank you Sean for continuing to be a beacon of light as we each walk our individual pathway in love.
Half-assed and performative is the MO of most folks regarding most things, I think, Sean. The very fact that you are blogging and putting thoughts out there for other people to benefit from tells me your ass has to be at least three-fourths in it.
Yummy, brilliant, loving and kind...this post has a giddy, joyful voice, Sean! My Course practice is now a place of spaciousness: sitting to listen and be sustained by Divine Love.
Hi Sean. What I love most about this post is that you've described/articulated exactly what I do in my own practice of the Course. I have a total love/hate, relish/resist, affirm/question relationship with these teachings. Having grown up in a belief system that, at one time in my life, I was sure I had to completely abandon in order to live an authentic life, I learned the hard way to question all my gurus and to avoid meeting my heroes. Fortunately, I guess, I managed to never blame Jesus for all my struggling with spirituality. But I still bump up against what I perceive to the Course's (or Helen's or Helen's Jesus') arrogance. And when I bump up again it, I ask 'my Jesus' what is this? What is this for? What does it mean? How do I make sense of this often heady, demanding, obtuse material telling me something that goes against everything I sense and much of what I've believed? And the really irritating thing is that, more often than not, 'my Jesus' ends up saying the same thing to me that the Course seems to be saying (albeit sometimes in language that makes it clearer or easier for me to 'get' and absorb. Helen did not write a book that I am called to accept as Truth word for word without question. Neither did Matthew, Mark, Luke or John or Paul. We all have a direct line to God if we'll only acknowledge and open to it. Truth is Truth. But my direct line to it is mine, as yours is yours. The God I know is never threatened by any questions I ask.
So as spirit which is eternal changeless there is no sign ,good or bad ,no choices just love ,that explains why I find it so difficult here in an earthly body it's so heavy in energy until we experience love ,then there's a lightness
Yes, the perception difference before and after true forgiveness is in stark contrast.
In the face of all the evidence heaped on us in the course about the ego, resistance to letting go of the belief and identification with/as ego is very strong.
Brilliant essay Sean. And for me the answer to everything is always Love. What are you? Love. What do you want to do? Love. What am I? Love. Who is everybody I see? Love. Why am I here? to Love. The answer always comes back to Love.
When you look for the Love in everything then you find the Truth, you have your answer to peace and joy. It is then that you are with God.
Why do you study A Course in Miracles?
Because from the first word it felt to me like coming home after being gone such a long, hard time. I have loved and believed it ever since. When Jesus talks in firm absolutes, I'm so grateful. Give it to me straight, no soft-pedaling, please. I'm ready. By earthly terms, I'm old. People are suffering, and I don't want to do this again.
What is your practice - the application of your study - like?
I practice it like a scientist performing experiments: "Okay, this thing has cropped up in my life. What does Jesus say about it? All right, let's try it his way and see what happens." Increasingly, peace and love and happiness happen, and gratitude hurries after them yelling, "Thanks!".
Love, NP
I was loaned ACIM the day after my first child was born. It was strange because it was an acquaintance, not a friend who lent it to me and said she had to have it back in 3 days. That was 45 years ago when ACIM was in its infancy. I wasn't a religious person and initially had difficulty with the Christian language but it affected me so profoundly that I couldn't stop reading. I didn't want to like it, but I was hooked. Now, after all these years I can't imagine my life without it's wisdom. Fear comes up in various disguises all the time and my mantra is 'I only want the peace of God' and IF I focus on that and not what is causing the fear, my mindset changes.
Thank you Sean for reminding me that God speaks to each of us in our own unique way.
I love this story. Thank you for sharing it, April.
Thank you very much Sean, for your dedication to writing and sharing, and also, for giving us a space to share our experience of the Course and find comfort from listening to each other on this path. I love Jesus’ no compromise firm manner. This contrasts very well with ego’s fleeting, slippery fish like, ‘if I can be manipulative enough I can change this’ approach 😊 no matter how much ego is screaming, throwing tantrums, coming up with all sorts of suggestions how Jesus should improve his Teaching, the Course works! The difficulty for ego is to recognise and finally accept peacefully that this has nothing to do with me. It works despite me 😊 All I need to do is to learn to stay quiet and be gentle with myself and others, that is the practice. No judgment no interference no projection. But, learning this doesn’t come easy when we have been so long identified with and addicted to ego. Paradoxically it is not ego does the acceptance, it merely dissolves into acceptance, and in my experience, very very slowly, by tiny small bits by bits, hence support/reminders from fellow students so helpful. Much gratitude to all.
🙏🙏
Why do I study the course? It began as a yearning to know God, which led to the need to know what I am in truth, an absolute longing for peace, and finally, wanting to know what Love truly is.
My practice is my life, the application multifaceted. It sometimes looks like my next breath, daily reading of the text and lessons (most days), awareness and reflection of my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (which often times aren’t pretty), a moment by moment forgiveness practice, prayer and meditation, long walks in nature and ongoing talking and listening to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, laughing, crying, and smiling, making eye contact with passer-byers, and joining with others in community. (I’m grateful for this one.)
AND, sometimes my practice is being an ego that acts out, filled with sin, guilt and fear that is resistant to healing, miracles, and God’s Love.
I’m grateful for your continued faithfulness to the course and sharing your writing with us here, Sean. You’ve been so kind to remind me often that I’m not alone, and it has made a difference.
Thank you.🌸
Thank you Sean...I really appreciate that the course, while it can feel forceful in some lines, does truly say that our role is not to be missionaries to sell anything but to live in peace and love. And that may well attract others, but not through our preaching. Having come from a background of missionaries, it was the one thing that shied me away from any belief that I saw as religious since there were dogmas, ways to believe, ways to live...and what a wonderful relief in studying the Course in Miracles in that there is no dogma, and even "right and wrong" only come from dualistic thinking. Thank you Sean for continuing to be a beacon of light as we each walk our individual pathway in love.
Half-assed and performative is the MO of most folks regarding most things, I think, Sean. The very fact that you are blogging and putting thoughts out there for other people to benefit from tells me your ass has to be at least three-fourths in it.
Yummy, brilliant, loving and kind...this post has a giddy, joyful voice, Sean! My Course practice is now a place of spaciousness: sitting to listen and be sustained by Divine Love.
Hi Sean. What I love most about this post is that you've described/articulated exactly what I do in my own practice of the Course. I have a total love/hate, relish/resist, affirm/question relationship with these teachings. Having grown up in a belief system that, at one time in my life, I was sure I had to completely abandon in order to live an authentic life, I learned the hard way to question all my gurus and to avoid meeting my heroes. Fortunately, I guess, I managed to never blame Jesus for all my struggling with spirituality. But I still bump up against what I perceive to the Course's (or Helen's or Helen's Jesus') arrogance. And when I bump up again it, I ask 'my Jesus' what is this? What is this for? What does it mean? How do I make sense of this often heady, demanding, obtuse material telling me something that goes against everything I sense and much of what I've believed? And the really irritating thing is that, more often than not, 'my Jesus' ends up saying the same thing to me that the Course seems to be saying (albeit sometimes in language that makes it clearer or easier for me to 'get' and absorb. Helen did not write a book that I am called to accept as Truth word for word without question. Neither did Matthew, Mark, Luke or John or Paul. We all have a direct line to God if we'll only acknowledge and open to it. Truth is Truth. But my direct line to it is mine, as yours is yours. The God I know is never threatened by any questions I ask.
If one can function in the world, one will automatically half ass the course and use it as a self help book.
When one reaches his limit for pain and suffering, then he 3/4 asses the course for a long time.
But when one becomes completely dysfunctional, completely mad, one begrudgingly takes the course.
By that time one is beat down, the body is diseased, and he has become a stranger to everyone he has ever met.
After all that, it’s party time !!!
Just putting it out there but if we didn't have a body would be still be fearful and if so what would we fear?
The body is a huge limitation, without belief in it, nothing could move, nothing could change.
It gave birth to “sin” which is just the belief that something changeless can and did change.
So as spirit which is eternal changeless there is no sign ,good or bad ,no choices just love ,that explains why I find it so difficult here in an earthly body it's so heavy in energy until we experience love ,then there's a lightness
Yes, the perception difference before and after true forgiveness is in stark contrast.
In the face of all the evidence heaped on us in the course about the ego, resistance to letting go of the belief and identification with/as ego is very strong.
Brilliant essay Sean. And for me the answer to everything is always Love. What are you? Love. What do you want to do? Love. What am I? Love. Who is everybody I see? Love. Why am I here? to Love. The answer always comes back to Love.
When you look for the Love in everything then you find the Truth, you have your answer to peace and joy. It is then that you are with God.
Love + Blessings Always, Suzy xx