I am in awe at your ability to write with such gentleness, kindness, respect, and deep love on trauma and how it keeps us separate. This article helped me in a way that words cannot express. What you wrote was something my experience was showing me, but I was afraid to acknowledge my knowing, Thank you for helping me validate my truth. As always your sharings are a gift of love. ❤️🙏
You're welcome, Glenda. Thank you for sharing, and for your kind words. The writer and the reader are not as far apart as we often pretend - gentleness, kindness, respect and deep love are my lessons! I am so grateful for you and everyone who reads and shares - you are all my teachers 🙏🙏
Every relationship becomes a site of undoing the cause for trauma and suffering. Relationships reconnect us to our potential to heal others and to be healed accordingly. We give attention to the other’s beauty - the light of Christ alive in them - and discover our own beauty reflected there
Thank you for that passage from the course. I know I have read it many times, yet it went straight to my heart and opened it in a new way. Then the application of the example of being quiet and still so as to not wake a sleeping child is what holy relationship is. Thank you for opening my understanding in a very profound way. Peace 🙏🏻
You're welcome, Janice. I'm glad it resonated 🙏 And I'm glad that example of holy relationship was helpful. When the kids were little, helping them sleep - and then taking care that their sleep would not be nterrupted - became such a site of learning for me. I found depths of care and attentiveness I didn't know existed in me. I'm very grateful.
Thanks for being here, Janice. I appreciate you very much.
Oh Sean, once again you make my heart sing. Thank you for your words of love that embrace all of us. All is well in our world, we simply need to see it with 'new' eyes.
You're welcome, Sandra. Thanks for being here - those new eyes are shared, and I am so so grateful for everyone helping me learn - and learning with me - how to share them. "All is well" indeed - more than well, even. I'm very grateful that we get to learn this together - thank you again 🙏🙏
As always, Thank you Sean for sharing your most intimate journey. May we all honor each other's fragility in our sacred journeys. Bless you all for providing a safe space to share and learn. We are tender.
You're welcome, Susan. Tenderness is such a beautiful virtue and one I am still learning to manifest. Thank you for noticing it here - that means a lot to me. And yes! May we all honor - and support and nurture - each other's sacred journey. I think that honoring is what makes the traveling sacred.
Is there no matter of degree, no order of magnitude or merit with trauma? Trauma is trauma? Your really “bad” trauma doesn’t get more cheese than my little bitty trauma? My trauma people would not like this… “easy for you to say, you non-trauma having human. If you had trauma like me, Carl, then you would understand …”
The happy dream. I think about this state often. I wonder if you would speak to the part in the course that says: the Holy Spirit will answer our call and fulfill our needs but will never provide us what would cause us to linger in time. Im paraphrasing here but maybe you know what i am talking about. I seem to be making the connection between suffering and awakening and certain hardships as necessary for awakening. And wonder if these hardships didn’t exist ( the happy dream) if I’d even be on this path and therefore lingering in time. If I never receive an explanation for my hardships/pain, I’d like to believe this is why-that it serves my awakening and the greater good for many. It’s hard to accept suffering with no purpose.
I think the happy dream is an understanding about the nature of cause-and-effect much more than it is getting things right in the external world. Dogs die in the happy dream. Picnics get rained on. Bombs fall and kids starve.
But if we understand HOW that stuff happens, then we can respond to it with creativity, and our response makes us happy in a natural and serious way.
That passage you refer to (T-13.VII.12) makes clear that all our needs are being met by the Holy Spirit, even if we are unaware of it. There is no sacrifice in doing God's Will; there is no loss. So I read that passage as encouraging me to stop focusing on MY needs, MY problems, MY state of mind.
When I do that, it is easier to give attention to you and, ultimately, to our shared responsibility to be in relationship in a way that brings peace and happiness to all the world.
As you know, the more we can get out of the way, then the more we have to offer others - whether it's a kind word, a sandwich or safe passage out of a war zone. The thing is, helping others makes us really really happy. I think that's one of the aspects of ACIM that we don't talk enough about - how happy we are helping others. It's almost like we were MADE to serve others.
The hardships and suffering reflect interpretations that can change, and do change when we shift from fear to Love, even a little. Our longing for meaning - for things to make sense, even our pain and anguish - is a form of longing for healing. In that light, meaning-making is healing.
The promise the course makes is that the meaning of our experience WILL change as the mind that perceives and describes (the mind that PROJECTS) it changes. And those changes in part reverse our understanding of cause-and-effect. We begin to see that it is our way of thinking that is causing the suffering, not the apparent external factor.
Again, this is NOT to deny suffering or hardship. Stuff happens! But it IS to shift our focus on where cause lies and how it actually operates.
Another way of saying this is that suffering DOES have a purpose - we can re-interpret it in ways that make us more cooperative, helpful, attentive, gentle, nurturing etc. But the ultimate end of that reintpretation is to understanding that suffering was premised on an illusion, a confused of cause-and-effect. Once corrected, and brought into application, the suffering cannot exist.
It's like in certain twelve step traditions when we say that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
Anyway, a lot of words . . . Thank you for a provocative question, Kate. I appreciate it.
I’ve taken to look at everything as either love or a call for love. And go from there. I try to remember the pain and suffering is an illusory form of believing we are separate. I do well most days- but as you say it’s less about getting it right. And some days my ego feels it’s all unfair and the pain is too much and I become influenced by that. Trust the process i suppose. Jesus in the course has never lead me astray so I keep going. The course has a funny way of answering my questions when they arise, almost immediately. I am grateful.
A valuable reflection, Sean. Yes, to heal--- get past/lay down pain no matter it's source--- one needs a little willingness... to allow in a Power beyond human understanding.
Thanks for reading and sharing Deborah. That willingness is so so important and I am so grateful for the teachers and fellow travelers who help me remember and practice it 🙏🙏
Another fantastic post, thanks Sean. What you describe is how we can all make a difference in the healing of the world. I have said more of the same (in other words) in my own post today and was amazed about the same themes that pop up in different places. Thanks also for circling back to your website, because there is also so much more treasures to be read over there as well! 💖🙏🏻 Love, Valentine
I'm looking forward to reading it Valentine - and thanks for reading and sharing here. Our shared contribution to healing is a joy and a practice. I'm very grateful to share it with you 🙏🙏.
Thanks, Annie - I'm glad you're here. And thanks for flagging the U.S. election - that was surely on my mind. Your last two sentences read like a very clear and elegant prayer for grace and holiness - thank you for sharing them. Yes - let us give attention to that which is Real . Thank you for helping hold the Center.
Sean, I love what your wrote here: "It's almost like looking for Christ means looking as Christ but without knowing that's what you're doing." Your note reminds me of Lesson 161: Give me your blessing, holy son of God. This lesson healed my trauma from 35 years ago! I still use it today. As you said, "we have to be in relationship with one another in a way that facilitates a shared perception of Christ. Specifically, we have to actively look for Christ in the other." The word "active" is the key. I am learning not to resist whatever comes up for me. If you are a Star Trek fan then you will be familiar with the Borg saying, "resistance is futile". Indeed, trauma cannot survive an encounter with holiness. Thank you, Sean, again for this community.
Thanks Susan and, of course, you're welcome. Yes! The active part is so important. I'm really grateful that my early study and practice relied so much on Tara Singh as that was one of the fundamental insights: bring it into application. The happy dream is an effect of our intentional practice, informed by our study, but truly manifested in relationships that are devoted to holiness rather than chaos, guilt, fear, etc. Resistance is futile! But it took a long time for me to learn that, and in some ways, the lesson is ongoing. Thanks for being a bright light 🙏🙏
You're welcome, Heidi. thanks for being here . I forget my Creator all the time :) Writing it out is part of how I remember - thanks for reading and sharing. It means a lot.
Thanks Sean. I am grateful for your description of the experience of Christ as a kind of shared stillness and holiness is sharing your own light with another. Thank you for your gift of salvation.
You're welcome, Frank - thanks for being here and sharing. I learn all this stuff in community and am so grateful that we can support and teach one another. Thank you 🙏🙏
What you write is true and it is written with such compassion. I had deep trauma many years ago, but through ACIM, I have healed. I am so thankful. But when in Trauma, it is hard to see out. Your carefully written essay will help others to see out. Thanks for writing.
You're welcome Robyn. Thank you for being here and bearing witness - there is a way out of the suffering and loneliness of trauma. ACIM isn't the only way but it can be a very helpful and effective way for folks called to it. I am thankful as well and grateful for good company in which to be thankful together 🙏🙏
I am in awe at your ability to write with such gentleness, kindness, respect, and deep love on trauma and how it keeps us separate. This article helped me in a way that words cannot express. What you wrote was something my experience was showing me, but I was afraid to acknowledge my knowing, Thank you for helping me validate my truth. As always your sharings are a gift of love. ❤️🙏
You're welcome, Glenda. Thank you for sharing, and for your kind words. The writer and the reader are not as far apart as we often pretend - gentleness, kindness, respect and deep love are my lessons! I am so grateful for you and everyone who reads and shares - you are all my teachers 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Every relationship becomes a site of undoing the cause for trauma and suffering. Relationships reconnect us to our potential to heal others and to be healed accordingly. We give attention to the other’s beauty - the light of Christ alive in them - and discover our own beauty reflected there
Thank you for that passage from the course. I know I have read it many times, yet it went straight to my heart and opened it in a new way. Then the application of the example of being quiet and still so as to not wake a sleeping child is what holy relationship is. Thank you for opening my understanding in a very profound way. Peace 🙏🏻
You're welcome, Janice. I'm glad it resonated 🙏 And I'm glad that example of holy relationship was helpful. When the kids were little, helping them sleep - and then taking care that their sleep would not be nterrupted - became such a site of learning for me. I found depths of care and attentiveness I didn't know existed in me. I'm very grateful.
Thanks for being here, Janice. I appreciate you very much.
~ Sean
Oh Sean, once again you make my heart sing. Thank you for your words of love that embrace all of us. All is well in our world, we simply need to see it with 'new' eyes.
You're welcome, Sandra. Thanks for being here - those new eyes are shared, and I am so so grateful for everyone helping me learn - and learning with me - how to share them. "All is well" indeed - more than well, even. I'm very grateful that we get to learn this together - thank you again 🙏🙏
~ Sean
As always, Thank you Sean for sharing your most intimate journey. May we all honor each other's fragility in our sacred journeys. Bless you all for providing a safe space to share and learn. We are tender.
You're welcome, Susan. Tenderness is such a beautiful virtue and one I am still learning to manifest. Thank you for noticing it here - that means a lot to me. And yes! May we all honor - and support and nurture - each other's sacred journey. I think that honoring is what makes the traveling sacred.
Thank you for being here, Susan. I'm grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Is there no matter of degree, no order of magnitude or merit with trauma? Trauma is trauma? Your really “bad” trauma doesn’t get more cheese than my little bitty trauma? My trauma people would not like this… “easy for you to say, you non-trauma having human. If you had trauma like me, Carl, then you would understand …”
Thanks for writing brother.
No degrees of difficulty in the miracle!! It's a big pill to swallow . . .
You're welcome, Carl - thank you for being here - I'm very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
The happy dream. I think about this state often. I wonder if you would speak to the part in the course that says: the Holy Spirit will answer our call and fulfill our needs but will never provide us what would cause us to linger in time. Im paraphrasing here but maybe you know what i am talking about. I seem to be making the connection between suffering and awakening and certain hardships as necessary for awakening. And wonder if these hardships didn’t exist ( the happy dream) if I’d even be on this path and therefore lingering in time. If I never receive an explanation for my hardships/pain, I’d like to believe this is why-that it serves my awakening and the greater good for many. It’s hard to accept suffering with no purpose.
Hi Kate.
I think the happy dream is an understanding about the nature of cause-and-effect much more than it is getting things right in the external world. Dogs die in the happy dream. Picnics get rained on. Bombs fall and kids starve.
But if we understand HOW that stuff happens, then we can respond to it with creativity, and our response makes us happy in a natural and serious way.
That passage you refer to (T-13.VII.12) makes clear that all our needs are being met by the Holy Spirit, even if we are unaware of it. There is no sacrifice in doing God's Will; there is no loss. So I read that passage as encouraging me to stop focusing on MY needs, MY problems, MY state of mind.
When I do that, it is easier to give attention to you and, ultimately, to our shared responsibility to be in relationship in a way that brings peace and happiness to all the world.
As you know, the more we can get out of the way, then the more we have to offer others - whether it's a kind word, a sandwich or safe passage out of a war zone. The thing is, helping others makes us really really happy. I think that's one of the aspects of ACIM that we don't talk enough about - how happy we are helping others. It's almost like we were MADE to serve others.
The hardships and suffering reflect interpretations that can change, and do change when we shift from fear to Love, even a little. Our longing for meaning - for things to make sense, even our pain and anguish - is a form of longing for healing. In that light, meaning-making is healing.
The promise the course makes is that the meaning of our experience WILL change as the mind that perceives and describes (the mind that PROJECTS) it changes. And those changes in part reverse our understanding of cause-and-effect. We begin to see that it is our way of thinking that is causing the suffering, not the apparent external factor.
Again, this is NOT to deny suffering or hardship. Stuff happens! But it IS to shift our focus on where cause lies and how it actually operates.
Another way of saying this is that suffering DOES have a purpose - we can re-interpret it in ways that make us more cooperative, helpful, attentive, gentle, nurturing etc. But the ultimate end of that reintpretation is to understanding that suffering was premised on an illusion, a confused of cause-and-effect. Once corrected, and brought into application, the suffering cannot exist.
It's like in certain twelve step traditions when we say that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
Anyway, a lot of words . . . Thank you for a provocative question, Kate. I appreciate it.
~ Sean
I’ve taken to look at everything as either love or a call for love. And go from there. I try to remember the pain and suffering is an illusory form of believing we are separate. I do well most days- but as you say it’s less about getting it right. And some days my ego feels it’s all unfair and the pain is too much and I become influenced by that. Trust the process i suppose. Jesus in the course has never lead me astray so I keep going. The course has a funny way of answering my questions when they arise, almost immediately. I am grateful.
Thanks for that reminder Kate - It's all love or a cry for love and our response to both is the same - love! So so important 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Sean. I always find your thoughts and words clarifying.
A valuable reflection, Sean. Yes, to heal--- get past/lay down pain no matter it's source--- one needs a little willingness... to allow in a Power beyond human understanding.
Thanks for reading and sharing Deborah. That willingness is so so important and I am so grateful for the teachers and fellow travelers who help me remember and practice it 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Another fantastic post, thanks Sean. What you describe is how we can all make a difference in the healing of the world. I have said more of the same (in other words) in my own post today and was amazed about the same themes that pop up in different places. Thanks also for circling back to your website, because there is also so much more treasures to be read over there as well! 💖🙏🏻 Love, Valentine
I'm looking forward to reading it Valentine - and thanks for reading and sharing here. Our shared contribution to healing is a joy and a practice. I'm very grateful to share it with you 🙏🙏.
~ Sean
A grounding read on the eve of Election Day; what will most likely be a very traumatic experience for millions.
May we hold our center and remain vigilant observers on only that which is Real.
I join in your Light and wait in certainty. ✨
Thanks, Annie - I'm glad you're here. And thanks for flagging the U.S. election - that was surely on my mind. Your last two sentences read like a very clear and elegant prayer for grace and holiness - thank you for sharing them. Yes - let us give attention to that which is Real . Thank you for helping hold the Center.
~ Sean
It’s the day after the election and I was not expecting that I would be in the traumatized group. I’ve got a lot of observing to do 💕
We are in this together, and always have been - I'm so grateful for that - even on the really hard days.
~ Sean
Sean, I love what your wrote here: "It's almost like looking for Christ means looking as Christ but without knowing that's what you're doing." Your note reminds me of Lesson 161: Give me your blessing, holy son of God. This lesson healed my trauma from 35 years ago! I still use it today. As you said, "we have to be in relationship with one another in a way that facilitates a shared perception of Christ. Specifically, we have to actively look for Christ in the other." The word "active" is the key. I am learning not to resist whatever comes up for me. If you are a Star Trek fan then you will be familiar with the Borg saying, "resistance is futile". Indeed, trauma cannot survive an encounter with holiness. Thank you, Sean, again for this community.
Thanks Susan and, of course, you're welcome. Yes! The active part is so important. I'm really grateful that my early study and practice relied so much on Tara Singh as that was one of the fundamental insights: bring it into application. The happy dream is an effect of our intentional practice, informed by our study, but truly manifested in relationships that are devoted to holiness rather than chaos, guilt, fear, etc. Resistance is futile! But it took a long time for me to learn that, and in some ways, the lesson is ongoing. Thanks for being a bright light 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Sean. Your words are always timely... On Course of course. Xx
You're welcome, Lei - thank you for being here 🙏🙏
~ Sean
...love, not fear, is our Creator...
So beautiful! So true! Thank you, as always, Sean, for a perfectly-timed and timely reflection.
You're welcome, Heidi. thanks for being here . I forget my Creator all the time :) Writing it out is part of how I remember - thanks for reading and sharing. It means a lot.
~ Sean
Thanks Sean. I am grateful for your description of the experience of Christ as a kind of shared stillness and holiness is sharing your own light with another. Thank you for your gift of salvation.
You're welcome, Frank - thanks for being here and sharing. I learn all this stuff in community and am so grateful that we can support and teach one another. Thank you 🙏🙏
~ Sean
What you write is true and it is written with such compassion. I had deep trauma many years ago, but through ACIM, I have healed. I am so thankful. But when in Trauma, it is hard to see out. Your carefully written essay will help others to see out. Thanks for writing.
You're welcome Robyn. Thank you for being here and bearing witness - there is a way out of the suffering and loneliness of trauma. ACIM isn't the only way but it can be a very helpful and effective way for folks called to it. I am thankful as well and grateful for good company in which to be thankful together 🙏🙏
~ Sean
So beautiful, Sean. So true. Thank you, Sean.
You're welcome, Joanne - thank you for being here and for sharing. I'm very grateful 🙏🙏
~ Sean
So much wisdom in your words here, Sean. You have a gift for bringing clarity. Thank you.
You're welcome, Margaret. Thank you for being here. I'm very grateful.
~ Sean