My answer to Melinda MacPherson's (agent) Stephen Dinach

Dear Ron,
Thank you so much for writing such an in-depth and heartfelt letter and response prompted by Miranda Macpherson's call last evening. I will pass it along to the appropriate parties for their review and consideration. I listened to the call as well, and appreciate and value your perspective. Thank you again for reaching out and sharing! It's part of the reason I love this community so much -- the students keeping us all on our toes!
In appreciation, and ....
With warm regards,
Debra DeWeese
The Shift Network Team 

I am glad I listened to Marjorie and you last night, but her approach is not non-dualistic. When one dwells on the "ego" as the problem - it is like fundamentalist preachers dwelling on the "devil" as the problem. She was inconsistent saying the "ego defiencies" = "I am worthless", etc. then speaking of "dissolving" the ego. And she admitted how much the dissolving "weakened" her after the episode in the cave. "Whatever you think is in the way is the way." Well, If you think "ego" is in the way, it must be the way. She has taken a step by "relaxing" the ego, however, I think we ought to "embrace" the ego. The ego like the body is necessary as long as we are on this plane, so we need to make friends with both and treat them both royally. If we are going to use the term "ego" then we need to honor the founder's original definition of it - "the CONSCIOUS bridge between the "id" and the "superego". I think of the ego as a child that one needs to be aware of constantly, and needs boundaries just as children need them.

Like the split ACIM, there are non-dualistic parts of what she spoke of..."Need do nothing" - agreeing with her message in the cave. Also, "in defenselessness, my safety lies". Very vital to awakening - "the undefended place",  I liked her definition of "Grace" - a direct experiential Knowing (agreeing with Buddha) and "Be Still and know" as "Being here now." and "feminine" way of "relaxing" rather than aggressively striving. Also, to look at the interfering defenses and her definition of ":trust" - to me is the same as "faith. Also, I am a regular Mindful Walker (with a Mantra) and, I shall use "What is holding me now."

Also, the paradox of having desire yet "need do nothing". "Cease your striving"  and watch your "desires".

I studied with Bill Thetford in Tiburon, and I consider him the "real scribe" of the Course, not Helen. He asked for it and asked the reluctant Helen to get the messages to him and he recorded them. He was her Director at the Psychology Dept. of the Columbia U. Medical School, and asked her "we are psychologist and we cannot even get along", then those messages started coming to her. Anyway, Bill sat on the edge of our group at the Rock Hill Church in Tiburon, and when we (several of us were psych. grad students) object to the demeaning of the "ego" and the "denial of the body" in the workbook., he would (beaming all the time) tell us to "tear out those pages". Bill, to me, lived the major message of the Course - "Love is the essence of our Being." My advice to Marjorie would be to take the last advice of ACIM - "forget everything you have read." Although, I would say to remember the non-dualistic parts, that agree with Ramana Maharshi

 

                                                                                                      No part of me is junk, sincerely, Ron Alexander

 

I will be out there for Jerry Jampolsky's 42 anniversary/conference at the Presidio the 18th through the  21st. The best job I ever had was as the founder and leader of the  life-threatened Young Adult Groups. They really did not want to hear all the "principles", they wanted to live for the moment. I took these Young Adults to Yosemite several times, to Monterray, to sail on the tall ship "Californian", on stage coach rides, on a trip to the Redwoods at Mariposa Grove, on Kayak rides, --- they were Angels on Earth who lived in the moment better than any I have met. Santana is a good friend and will be there, and one of my favorite teachers the Shaman Tomas Pinkson!