"Just Tear Out those pages..."

Comment by Steven Cox
The Course says there is only one decision to make, ask to see the real world, over the world that you see now.

Has anyone asked to see the real world? What has been your experience when you have done this?

I accept the world we see will never live up to the hype. I get that. But, if I give this up, then what? And, for what? Also, how do I give up this world? I do see it, just as I see it. It isn't like I can pull the cover off it and look underneath it to see something else.

Don't crucify me ACIM students and teachers, however Steven Cox has made some good inquiry points.

I admire and have learned so much from ACIM and both Marianne and Eckhart, and when studying I try to see the "whole rather than get caught up in the parts."

When I sat in a group with Dr. Bill Thetford (scribe of ACIM - yes he was the first to ask, Helen channeled and Bill insisted that the words were recorded), who I think had pretty much reached a near-Mystic state, which is beyond the ego and the body, he would tell us to "tear out those pages" which to me carries a dualistic message. To be here now, we need to be fully in our body and to be aware of our ego.
I think we need to come to the wonderful essence of teaching like ACIM and its proponents like Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle and other ACIM teachers - look up definition of ego in the dictionary and in the Bible - "the body is the temple of the spirit."

To me that is everyone is innocent and loving the best they can, and an attack is a call for loving help, and forgiveness of all is essential to our own salvation. When any writing advises us to lose the ego and the body, they are informing us a "future" state, that keeps us out of the present moment, which all this writing tells us "now is the only time there is." Also, dualism is dualism whether satan, the body or the ego is demonized. In the ultimate state of Reality (big R), we are in Spirit out of our body and our ego. However, when here on Earth have "one foot on Earth and one foot in Spirit (Revelations) - the Middle Path as described by the Buddhists and by Mystics of every religion.

Fundamentalism is not just confined to the Sacred Scriptures. Anyone who believes every word in any text is a fundamentalist! And they take the "fun out of the mental" - inquiry is vital as ultimately Native Americans who call God & Spiirituality "the Great Mystery" have it right. Mystery helps us keep our sense of wonder and adventure. "just tear out those pages" and keep your peace, ron

P.S. I am glad to have my thinking challenged as "in my defenselessness my safety lies." & I like to think my mind and heart is open to Truth.
Soon afterwards in 1987, gentle peaceful joyous Dr. Thetford, told a friend "I have never felt so free,) and the next AM dropped his body on a street in Tiburon, CA.

Steven Cox said:
Thanks, Ron. And, I think I get your point. However...

To be really specific, I had an experience about 15 months ago. It will sound trite, but it wasn't.

It really, really, really hit me that nothing ever works out as one would want it to. No relationship, no job, no business project, etc. It isn't that it is bad, it just never satisfies.

Of course, this is trite because we all know this. And, this has certainly come to my attention before, but for some reason this experience went very deep and it left me in a state of very strange detachment. Nothing has grabbed me since then, (except for one thing which I am hanging onto for dear life, in a way).

It is sort of like something one would expect if you reached enlightenment, except without the good stuff.

At that time I picked up the Course to see what it says and, of course I read a section that said essentially what I was seeing was correct and this world never, ever will ever be quite right. Every relationship will leave me a little unsatisfied, every material thing will never quite live up to its advance billing, and so on. It then went on to give the next step for someone who has come to that.

The combination of the experience with the passage in the Course has left me somewhat apart from life. I'm not certain the Course had anything to do with it, but having something, or someone, say you've got it right, and here is the next step pointed me in a direction which likely exacerbated what I was feeling.

Which, as you point out, might be a philosophical trap.

However, it said, more or less, one should reject this world in favour of the real world, which we do not see.

This is very different from Eckhart Tolle, whom I don't think would say that. Maybe he would, but it is the opposite of being here, in the now.

I've spent the better part of my life learning to live in the now, I have, to a large extent, learned to be happy whenever I so choose, even when things aren't good on the surface. Even when I am sick, for example. And, I think that is a good thing to learn to do. But, I don't know whether that is the be all and end all. I'm not certain there isn't something over and above this.

But, again this might be a trap, that takes one away from a certain good, acceptance and being in the now. Most philosophies have a place they can lead you that can nullify what good they bring .Ron replies:
I say honor yourself with unconditional acceptance!
I include Eckhart and Marianne with ACIM because they say we need to become "egoless" which, to me, is impossible as long as we are in our body. I think unconditional acceptance of our bodies and egos and all of us and others is vital to experience Reality. In the Course, it is pointed out that we can have "Holy Instants" of complete Unconditional Love toward ourselves and others which I think is Real - Spirit - God as Love. I have these Onederful Instants more and more in meditation, which is why I am meditating one hour in AM and again in PM. I went for ten days of silent retreat learning Vipassana Meditation, which is Buddha's original meditation, and is very whole Body oriented and very calming. Ironically, the more I get completely into my body, the more I experience Spirit (which is Reality to me).
I have a powerful teacher, Byron Katie, who says "confusion is the basis of all our suffering". Again, the more I meditate, the more clarity and less confusion I have.
I changed the title to get away from the negative word "Satan" as of course, no one would like to think that some great teachers have been teaching us that the ego is the "new age satan"! After all, some metaphysicians insist that just the act of thinking places us in duality with Spirit. So if one can get to that place of non-thinking, say in like in meditation or any other way, one can get into that wonderful "Holy Instant of Oneness Love."
I hope I have not added to your confusion, Steve?
I honor your courage to ask very important questions, One Love, ron


Marvin Double said:
When I was a kid going to Sunday School I found the concept of Satan confusing. Long before I heard the term dualism or read anything spiritual the very idea of a devil seemed out of sync with my understanding of God. After all I was taught that God was all powerful all loving and ever present.

With that basic premise as a context I wondered why God would allow one of his angles to defy him in such a way. As God created heaven and earth could his power actually be challenged? More to the point perhaps, why would any being, angelic or moral chose to separate themselves from love which is absolute?

Questions of such fundamental childish simplicity are often the clearest. Confusion about such matters is not easily removed. We can get stuck in the wheels of deliberation and the minutia of constant debate.

We can debate the nature of reality endlessly. We can contemplate the course and consider every possible view as to it's meaning. For me at least the essence of all the lessons it contains forms one primary questions which each of us must answer. If you were God, what would be your intention?.
Ron replies:

I believe like Jesus, ACIM, and Marianne and Eckhart all believe, I think, that God is Love, and we are One in that Love, however, I think God gave us a free will, to find out for ourselves. Hence, that is why inquiry, dialogue, prayer, study and meditation are so vital to our growth.
The Buddhists use the word Beingness rather than "God", and not to believe anything unless we experience that joyful, peaceful "Beingness" ourselves.
Clarity, to me, is to experience what most of us seekers from the Christian faith, call the Inner Christ, and we all have It!
And to experience this "peace beyond all understanding" may be the Reality, that Steve questions above. What do you think? I hope we have many students reply and add their wisdom to this dialogue, as mentioned below, I had "rather be right than happy. thank you, Marvin for your reply! May all of our "Holy Instants" become "Holy Hours" then "Holy Days" then "Holy weeks" then "Holy years" and may our next decade be a "Holy Decade"! ron

WORD FOR THE DAY(gratefulness.org)
Saturday, Jan. 2

When before the beauty of a sunset or a mountain,
you pause and exclaim, "Ah,"
you are participating in divinity.

Joseph Campbell