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“David is a living demonstration of peace and joy. He uncovered this state of mind, which is accessible to us all, by living what he teaches in This Moment Is Your Miracle . Although the process of transcending fear is not always easy, it is simple, and David’ s explanations and exercises guide you to claim the happiness that is your birthright. This Moment Is Your Miracle illuminates the pathway to complete awakening , so you can experience the deep peace and everlasting love that dwells within you, in this very moment.” —Corinne Zupko, EdS , bestselling author of From Anxiety to Love “It is said, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’; this book is the harvest of all the teachings that David Hoffmeister has acquire d during the learning and living of A Course in Miracles . The joy of David is his trust, his willingne ss to give freely , and his simple practice of listening to the Holy Spirit and following His directions. The resulting inspir ation of this book is due to the experience of direct communion with the Spirit, and consequently is a blessing to all who want to live a life of forgiveness and healing.” —Nick Davis , founder of the first UK-dedicated Miracles Centre, The Centre for Inner Peace, and the retreat, September Cottage; author of An Invitation to the Awakening Heart “David Hoffmeister is one of the most authentic teachers of A Course in Miracles . His commitment to the text comes through in all of his work. I love David ’s gentle teaching style and his genuine love for life. David walks his talk!” —Gabrielle Bernstein , #1 New Y ork T imes bestselling author of The Universe Has Y our Back“‘Imagine if you were motivate d only by love and nothing else?’ asks David Hoffmeister in his new book, packed with detaile d explanations, practices, prayers, and recorded meditations. David unpacks A Course in Miracles in bite-sized pieces about how to undo the mind and pump up the volume of Holy Spirit. Dive deep into this book and you will experience your miracle-mindedness strengthen as you practice the core teachings of A Course in Miracles . Move over Ego, we are merging into the ‘Glorious Flow’!” —Maria Felipe , author of Live Y our Happy , international speaker of A Course in Miracles , and ordained minister through Pathways of Light “I’ve known David for nearly thirty years. There are several folks who have dedicated themselves to understanding and living the principle of A Course in Miracles . In the case of David, it’s clear that his commitm ent is strong, his vision is sharp, and his ability to teach brilliant. This Moment Is Your Miracle is a well-written, comprehensive explanation of some of the most basic, revolutionary , and transformative concepts in the Course.” —Jon Mundy , PhD , author of Living A Course in Miracles , publisher of Miracles magazine, and executive director of All Faiths Seminary in New Y ork City , NY “With his new book, This Moment is Your Miracle , David Hoffmeister gives the reader a tour de force of spiritu al knowledge that will result in a major acceleration of their spiritual path. I’ve known David for many years, and he’s a brillia nt teacher and writer . This book shows him at his best. I highly recommend this important work.” —Gary Renard , the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe trilogy and The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other“The journey within is the greatest journey of all. David Hoffmeister takes us through a journey of self-discovery , inner truth, healing, and rebirth…. David gives us the tools to face our fears…. I recommend This Moment Is Your Miracle for anyone wanting to take the greatest journey of all.” —Tina Fiorda , coauthor of A Book of Insight “For both new and seasoned travelers on the path to self- discovery , this book is filled to the brim with a wealth of inspiring, practic al material that can lead you straight to the heart of deep inner peace. These abundant, essential reminders about the constant and powerful choice for beginning anew are presented in a bright, masterful, and compelling way. More than ever, this easy, loving way of living will now feel within reach, and you can eagerly begin to claim your birthright!” —Carol Howe , author of Never For get to Laugh “This Moment Is Your Miracle brings the luminous love and transforming clarity contained within A Course in Miracles alive for a new generation of seekers. With eloquence and grounde d wisdom, David shows us that miracles are not only possible, but natural and abundantly available to us all.” —Miranda MacPherson , author of The W ay of Grace “David Hoffmeister is a master teacher when it comes to understanding the profoundly healing spiritual practices in A Course in Miracles . David shares simple, step-by -step healing practices that correct the mind and liberate us from the dominio n of the ego’s false concepts and precepts. A Cours e in Miracles readers can be deceived into thinking that studying the books will bring healing, but healing is not an intellectual process, it is a spiritual awaken ing. With this book, we’re given the practical tips and tools that bring us to that awakening. This helpful book is amaster ’s guide to practicing A Course in Miracles and living the teachings moment by moment for true liberation.” —Jennifer Hadley , spiritual writer , speaker , teacher , minister , and counselor; founder of the Power of Love Ministry “This Moment Is Your Miracle is a heartwarming and heart- opening read. It creates a sense of shelter and safety , navigating you through practical exercises that show you God within and all around you. You are invited to trust love. You are shown how to heal obstacles such as fear and guilt. This book prepares you to surrender to love. There are clear explanations of how life has distracted your attention, taking you from the flow of love. This book is an invitation to recognize your oneness with God and with the Holy Spirit. It offers intimacy with pure love, for those who have the heart for it.” —Jac O’Keeffe , spiritual teacher , author , and cofounder of the Association of Professional Spiritual T eachers (APST)Publisher ’s Note This publication is designed to pr ovide accurate and authoritative information in r egard to the subject matter cover ed. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other pr ofessional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent pr ofessional should be sought. Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books Copyright © 2019 by David Hof fmeister Reveal Press An imprint of New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5674 Shattuck A venue Oakland, CA 94609 www .newharbinger .com All quotes from A Course in Miracles , copyright © 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, P .O. Box 598, Mill V alley , CA 94942-0589, www .acim.or g and [email protected] g, are used with permission. I extend my gratitude to the Foundation for Inner Peace for their devotion. Cover design by Amy Shoup Acquired by R yan Buresh Edited by Gretel Hakanson All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on fileThis book is dedicated to the group of people I have lived with for years who have dedicated their lives to experiencing the truth within: Living Miracles W orldwide Spiritual Community . I am honored by your dedication and devotion and touched by your kindness and generosity . There are no words to adequately express my gratitude.Love is completely transpar ent; it’ s an open book.Contents Foreword Introduction: The Ever -Present Miracle of Now Part I: The Miracle of Moving Thr ough Separation Chapter 1. Judgment and Knowledge Chapter 2. Perception Chapter 3. Fear Chapter 4. Guilt Chapter 5. Private Thoughts Part II: Miracles W ithin Chapter 6. Finding T rue Guidance Chapter 7. T rust Chapter 8. Acceptance Chapter 9. Peace of Mind Part III: Miracles in Relationships Chapter 10. T ransforming Special Relationships Chapter 1 1. From People Pleasing to T rue Empathy Chapter 12. Communication Chapter 13. Collaboration Chapter 14. Holy RelationshipPart IV : Being the Miracle Chapter 15. Healing Chapter 16. For giveness Chapter 17. Extending from W ithin Conclusion: Living in Freedom Gratitude and Acknowledgments Resources NotesForeword It is easy to talk about spiritual ideas, harder to live them. When a spiritual teacher comes along who actually walks the talk, all who look upon that person are blessed with a rare opportunity to learn, heal, and grow . David Hof fmeister is such a one. When I discovered David through his Y ouTube videos, I was deeply impressed by his clarity , authenticity , sense of purpose, and ease. He is authoritative and consistent. David has devoted his life to proving and teaching the principles of A Course in Miracles . I have been with the Course about as long as David has. Still, I encounter fear, resistance, and ego. David has been a huge inspiration and accelerator to my advancement in the Course, through his impeccable understanding and, most important, his model. If you sincerely intend to master A Course in Miracles or any related spiritual path, David is a guide of the highest caliber . A Course in Miracles is a delight to the spirit, but a huge confrontation to the ego. It pulls the rug out from under the ego’s tricks and exposes it for the nothingness it is. For that reason, all students of the Course experience resistance to the program. Many students quit doing the lessons, and others complain, “I don’t understand the text.” Yet, the very same students admit, “I know the Course contains truths that can change my life. I just wish it were easier to apply .” The book you are holding can help you do exactly that. Here is a brilliant map of the journey from fear to love. David takes the essential principles of the Course and breaks them down into easy-to-grasp ideas, exercises, and steps to help you make the truths work in your life. David can take you where you want to go because he has walked the path you and I now walk . He knows where the open road is and where lurk the pitfalls that may waylay us. Read, learn, open, awaken, and transform. In one of David’ s teachings, he mentions that Mahatma Gandhi retained his peace of mind even while he was in prison. The reveredleader did some of his best writing there. The lesson David extracts is that it is not what our body is doing that makes us happy or miserable, but where our mind is. Hearing that, I remembered a prisoner I used to visit. While Ray was in college, he flew into a fit of rage and beat his girlfriend. A few days later, she died. Ray was conv icted of manslaughter and sentenced to many years in jail. I met Ray during his ninth year of incarceration, when he came up for parole for the third time. “My girlfriend’ s parents are wealthy and politically influential people,” he told me. “Every year when I come up for parole, they wage an intensive campaign to ‘keep this vicious killer off the streets.’ So far, they have been successful, and I have been denied parole.” I didn’t see a vicious killer before me. To the contrary , the Ray I knew was a gentle, kind man, penitent for his tragic mistake. He was a model prisoner , given the highest privileges and appointed manager of the prison laundry . He was a devoted student of A Course in Miracles . He was peaceful, his heart was open, and he displayed an exemplary disposition. Ray’ s attitude and that of his girlfriend’ s parents were a great teaching for me. His body was in prison, but his spirit was soaring. That couple had all the material amen ities and physical freedom anyone could desire, but their hearts were consumed with hatred and revenge. Who was really in prison? After walking the spiritual path for many years, I have observed two kinds of seminars: One kind teaches us how to get stuff. The other kind teaches us how to get free. David’ s teachings are among the best of the latter . When I met David, I told him that I watch his YouTube videos and read his books before I go to sleep each night. Immersing myself in his ideas and consci ousness is a soothing, healing way to undo the tangles of the day and segue into a peace ful night’ s sleep. David’ s teachings can achieve the same for you, day or night. I count this man as one of the great blessings in my life. When climbing a mountain in India, Sherpas (guides) help you ascend. One Sherpa takes you to a certain altitude, and then anotherSherpa guides you to the next level. So it is with life. We are graced to have guides show us the way when we feel lost or confuse d. David Hoffmeister is a Sherpa of immaculate purpose. Trust him. He can show you the way to the mountaintop. —Alan CohenIntroduction The Ever-Present Miracle of Now All we need to do is go within to find the answer of love. There is an answer that is so deep that it can bring truth and healing to everyone and to this whole world. We have been searching for it everywhere, except in the only place we could truly find it: within. This moment extends all the way to eternity . It is the now that extends peacefully and is forever and ever. It is infinite happiness, without end, without limit. It is untouched by fear, guilt, or suffering of any kind. It is untouched by anything but love. There is so much appreciation when experiencing something for the first time. There is no comparison. For in the ever-unfolding now, we are always brand new. We can just bask in it, fully mer ge with it. There are no past references to it, for it doesn’ t fit on the timeline. It’s just a happy sense of soaring way beyond time and space, like an ongoing meditation. This ever-present miracle of now is our doorway within. It is our doorway Home. It is an experience of something ever-new . It’s a happy feeling, one that makes you want to sing to the world. It’s very beautiful and very simple too. It’s having the allowance to merge when you are watching a flower , a butterfly , or a bird singing in the tree; it’s a contentment like, “Ah yes, thank you; let me be whole.” This is what Saint Francis was talking about: just communing. The allowance that everything is perfect. W e can really allow ourselves to smell the roses. It is through the doorway of the present moment that we are truly able to hear the deep messages of love coming from within. They are boundless and eternal, for the voice of the inner guide is always speaking to us of our true identity and of our oneness with everyone and everything. But in order to hear it, we need to walk through the doorway and invite this deeply loving guide into our minds and lives.I first knew about this present moment, where boundless joy resides, early on. The true drive of my heart, even as a young boy, was to feel joy and extend love. I remember playing all summer . I loved the neighborhood creek, which was full of frogs and crawdads. I would just play, play, play—play my heart out all day. I was truly in the moment, naturally! Then, as I got older and the world’ s rules and expectations set in, I bought the bait. I started thinking that I had to learn my way through this world. However , the more intricate the education and learning, the more confused and lost I became. I didn’t like the idea of “improving” and the sound of “makin g a living.” It sounded like pressure, like living to just survive. That was not inspiring. It felt like the world was set up with an ever-increasing number of complications. There came a time when I began to question all this; I questioned how it was all set up. I started seeking the answer when I got into graduate schoo l. I began to question everything that I believed and everything I had learned in my ten years of university . Even though I got a couple of degrees, I soon realized that there was no point in learning more stuff and developing more special skills. I wanted the answer to something deeper . This was definitely not popular with people in my life. They said, “No, no, not good, you have no direction; you are going to amount to nothing.” They would say things like, “Y ou are crazy , get a life.” So, I would say, “Okay , let’s talk about that. Get a life: Can you be a little more specific? I actually believe I am going for life. So, would you tell me what you mean by get a life ?” They said, “Well, get a life: a girlfriend, a partner ...something. Then get a house, get a mortgage, get in debt like the rest of us.” “That is what you mean by get a life? And then what?” And they said, “And then you grow old, and your hair goes gray .” “And then what?” “And then you get sick.” “And then what?”“And then you die.” And I said, “Absolutely unacceptable. All I can say is, if that is your definition of a life, I am not going to get a life. There has to be something more than just strugg le and work and suffer and get sick and die and get educ ated along the way. There has to be a little bit more than that, a deeper and more fulfillin g experience. And I am going to get the bottom of it; I am going to get to the bottom of this fishy world, and I am going to find out what is truly possible.” When A Cours e in Miracles finally came along for me in 1986, I opened it up and almost lost my breath. I felt like a lot of people do: that it was really , really powerful. Something inside of me said, “Ahhh. … Support!” It was such a powerful wayshower . It was like a guide. There was an inner voice urging me, “Keep it up. Don’ t stop now. You are on the road to truth. You are coming inward with all this deep questioning. Keep going.” The journey that followed can be summed up as a love affair with God. I never plann ed my life to unfold that way. And I certainly did not grow up consciously thinking that this was how I wanted to spend my life. After several years of reading A Course in Miracles, I began to hear the voice of the inner guide. This quiet voice was giving me very helpful and often very specific instructions on where to go, what to say, and what to do. I no longer had to navigate through this maze of a world on my own anymore! Listening to and following this voice seemed to assure my peace and happiness. My prayer had been answered! I had an inner guide who was there to answer any question and help me make every decision. It was an amazing gift and a tremendous relief! Nowadays, I spend most of my time meeting people like you who are looking for happiness and a deeper sense of purpose in their lives. And time and time again, people all over the world ask me the how questions: How do I find true peace? How do I find true happine ss? How do I find the quiet peace, the kind of peace and happiness that will last? I have taught on six continents and in forty-four countries, and no matter where I go, people always ask me, How, How , How?And this is what I say: “By unveiling and forgiving your blocks to love.” And then they ask: “But how do I forgive? How do I let go of fear? How do I heal and come to peace of mind? Can you give me a practical formula? Can you give me something that I can use every day?” There is nothing more fun to me than giving the how away—and that is my intent ion with this book. Once you experience it, you feel how wonderful it is, and then you will want to give it away too. The bottom line of the how is: Make contact with Holy Spirit, with God, with the Higher Self, whatever you prefer to call it. Once you connect with Spirit—which I call Holy Spirit—you are in direct contact with the how, for the Holy Spirit is the how. You are right there in the moment with the how , experiencing it moving through you. It is in the powe r of this mome nt where the how resides. It is only now that we are truly able to forgive and move from a fearful state into a loving one. It is only in this mom ent that we are truly able to experience the miracle of letting every dark thought and feeling and every pain and suffering go, shined away by the Holy Spirit. It is only in this moment that we are truly able to perform the miracle of forgiveness. The miracle of this moment is always available, ready to take us beyond the intellect and back into an experience of pure love and of our true divine nature. Forgiveness—the process of seeing no problems—of fers a doorway into the intuitive flow of presence and the ability to just ride that presence like a feather floating on the breeze. Presence with the Holy Spirit brings us to a place where there are no difficult decision s, for the Spirit is always out in front of us, showing us the way. There is no hesitation or doubt, just an increasingly consistent sense of relaxation and ease. When we have conta ct with Spirit, with our internal teacher , and this contact becomes consistent, the ease comes into our life. The primary aim of this book is to help you come into the flow of the prese nt mom ent where you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the ever-present comforter and guide, is always there in the quiet depths of your mind, waiting for you to come with your prayers, with your offerings of forgiveness, and with your requests for guidance.The Holy Spirit is always there to help you let go of what you no longer want and to help you unwind from your faulty perception of the world— a fragm ented perception that tells you that you are separate from the unifying love at your core, the love that you are. If you truly want to experience a lasting sense of peace and happiness and of love and joy, and want to save time getting there, I would like to offer you a spirituality that is very practical. In my experience, it comes down to the formula of 1 percent principle and 99 percent practice. The 1 percent principle must be truly helpful, leading you out of the illusion of separa tion and not deeper into it. At the end of the day, focusing much more on the practice of forgiveness rather than on the theory is the fast track to true peace and happiness. The consistent practical application of true principle is what makes lasting change. To help you do this, I am going to take you on a journey deep within. It’s a journey of self-inquiry and self-discovery that makes change possible . Without going within, studying your own mind, and taking a good close look at the false thoughts and beliefs you have about yourself, you cannot find the answers and change you are looking for. Throughout the book, I will use the terms “Holy Spirit” and “ego” as if they are separate, autonomous powers. This way of communicating about the two different thought systems in our mind has a purpose: to acknowledge that the ego-thought system is separate from God. The ego- thought system, which is separate from your true Self, come s from a false belief in fear, guilt, and sacrifice. It is behind every doubt, every feeling of littleness, and every wish for separation. The Holy Spirit’ s thought system, on the other hand, is something we are relea rning to think and operate from, bridging the gap of separation in our disconnected hearts and minds and allowing us to remember our true identity as Divine Spirit. The only way out of the ego-thought system is through the doorway of the moment, this miracle moment that is untouched by any past association or future anticipatio n. Yet, to live in an experience of the present moment , we must become aware of and expose our unconscious beliefs. We need to expose the ego fully, which is nothing more than a voice of fear and doubt. It is important not to be hard on ourselves when we fall into the ego’s doubt trap, for here lies our opportunity to raise theego into awareness. And it is only by becoming aware of the ego that it can be seen for what it is and then forgiven in the light of the Holy Spirit. We cannot really judge our advances from our retreats. In fact, we cannot conclude anything as we go through this transformation. So, be gentle with yourself as you allow the darkness to rise into your awareness to be released. As you start to release the attack thoughts, grievances, and judgments that come up, the world will slowly start to light up. You will start to see more and more loving reflections. And though it may seem like there is more light in the world, it is really your mind that is filling with light again. A devoted practice of bringing all your dark thoughts and feelings to the light will result in revelations of evermore light and love filling your mind. The exposure of the ego is an ongoing and necessary process that precede s the complete joining with the Holy Spirit. With your willingness, this book will help you take the beginning steps toward this most glorious experience of becoming happy , becoming at peace, and finding your true purpose. The Holy Spirit’ s answer to all of the world’ s seeming complexities and choices is the miracle. In A Cours e in Miracles , the “miracle” is defined as a change of perception from fear to love. Although there are steps involved, with practice, all thoughts of conflict and suffering are easily raised into the Spirit’ s light and released to free the mind to experience the miracle. The miracle is never out there, in the future. It is always right here, in the presen t. It’s merely been covered by the doubt and fear generated by our mistaken belief that we are separate from God. The journey within leads us beyond the intellect and into an experience of pure love, which is our true nature! In order to experience that feeling of love consistently , however , we have to go through an experiential purification and transformation process. And it’s interesting that the word “course” is in the title because at some point when you’re reading A Course in Miracles , it begin s to dawn on you that this course is asking you to unlearn absolutely everything that is unlike your true nature. So, instead of “doing” a course and “learning” something new, your mind is being emptied of everything it has ever learned about itself and the world, which has nothing to do with who you really are.This is why we need mind training. Mind training is training ourselves to think with Spirit again, with love again, with God again. Mind trainin g makes the unconscious mind conscious. I call the unconscious mind “the unwatched mind,” for it is constantly wandering and distracting us from rememb ering our true identity . When the mind wanders into an ego trap, it’s very important to come back to the present moment and the sense of peace it brings. The practical spiritual path is a practice of finding and tapping into the Holy Spirit’ s thought system of freedom and following it carefully . The practical tools I offer you throughout this book will support you in finding and establishing this thought system. Sometimes peop le ask me if they need to love the ego. We can’t love the ego since the ego is the belief that there is no love. We can’t love something that is the total denial of love! The ego doesn’ t really exist since it is just a belief. So, we are not trying to heal or awaken the ego. That is impossible. Self-improvement does not solve anything. The Self that God created does not need to be improved; it is already perfect. What you can do is expose your ego beliefs, raise them to the light of the Holy Spirit, and then watch them disappear . This is how you see that the ego wasn’ t real, and you can have a good belly laugh at it. Until our belief system is deeply examined, the ego will continue to have a grip on us. It has control over our roles and responsibiliti es. It has control over almost everything we do and say. Until we have examined our mind deeply enough to allow Spirit to use our roles and responsibilities for a loving purpose, the ego will use them for its own ends. There is nothing in betwe en: you either let your mind be used by the Spirit or by the ego. By giving over the roles and responsibilities to the Holy Spirit, they can be repurposed for the Spirit’ s healing of your mind. Your career , hobbies, talents, and relationships can all be used in miraculous ways you never dreamed were possible. I’ve marveled as I watched all the skills that I had developed be used in comple tely new and different ways by the Holy Spirit. The practicality of it is amazing. It is like the unwinding action of turning a screw out of a wall. The ego has really wound us into this belief system, and that’s why it takes many gentle turns to come out of it.I am very excited to start this journey with you. When I meet someone, it is never a fleeting encounter . We are here to truly bless each other ’s lives, to be of full support to one another . I feel like I am always meeting my beloved Self. We have a lifelong link; we have a lifelong connection of awakening to truth together . Even though our bodies seem to be in different parts of the world, we have a communication link. We can join together through the power of thought, through the power of prayer , and through Spirit. It is in our hearts. The result of this journey is profound beyond imagination . In spiritual practice , like any other practice, the more you put in, the more you will get out. Willingness goes a very, very long way! The tools I will give you can help you see that the sticky and painful aspects of your everyday life can ultimately be the springboards to a sustained experience of profound freedom and joy . If you have a strong desire to know your beloved Self, know that the feeling is mutual and that joining together in this unified purpose is more profound than you might think. Let’ s begin.Part I The Miracle of Moving Through SeparationChapter 1 Judgment and Knowledge One time I was walking with a friend when she spontaneously burst into laughter and said, “You have a butterfly on your butt!” I looked back, and, sure enough, there was a butterfly getting a free lift on my backside. I said, “Okay. Enjoy the ride!” We continued to walk down the road, and it dawned on me that the butterf ly would be more comfortable riding on my finger . So, I put my index finger in the air and told my friend that I was going to call the butterfly to ride on my finger . She was all for it. I called to it telepathically , “Com e on up. There is a great view here. The butt is okay , but you’ll like it up here. You can be like a little hood ornament.” And it did! It flew around, landed on my finger , and stayed there with its little antennae out. Of course, my friend laugh ed even harder . It was a fun walk, with the butterfly symbolizing our innocence. Like children, animals respond to defenselessness. When you are meek, joyful, and innocent, you draw forth many reflections. At our monastery , the chipmunks come right up our legs. It is like a Saint Francis moment . Everything we see is innocent. I see this truth in people and events. I am into not seeing error . I am into seeing innocence everywhere and in everyone. This is why people and animals, and even butterflies, want to be near me. When the mind is whole and not split, you see only innocence, and you feel happy and loving all the time! The Split Imagine for a second an awake mind. This mind is used to the wholeness, sameness, and constancy of Heaven’ s oneness. Suddenly , a doubt thought seems to arise. Now the mind has two irreconcilable thought systems —one of love and one of fear. The tension from trying to hold this split together is intolerable since the two thought systems haveno meeting point and are total opposites of each other . There fore, the mind attempts to see the split outside instead of within, where it was conceived. Thus , a world of duality and opposites is made: a place with opposing views and changing desires. The ego says, “I know how you can alleviate this terrible tension: just get rid of your feelings of pain and guilt by projecting them out onto the world.” This is how pain, fear, doubt, and sorrow became the common experie nce of this world. This is how the mind made a world of duality , of up and down, of good and bad, and of right and wrong. The only reason we seem to experience health and sickness, war and peace, life and death, and all the variations, degrees, and extremes is simply judgment. That is the trick of this world. Whenever we judge or condemn, the mind is projecting, and says, “That person, thing, or situation out there is at fault.” It does this to cover the guilt of the separation from God, which, believe it or not, is at the core of every conceived problem in this world. It makes the world into a smokescreen as it thinks it can be free of the guilt by putting it outside, while believing it is actually within. It is only by believing there is darkness within that our mind would ever attempt to project it outside. How Good Is Good Enough? Growing up in this world, there is a lot of pressure and high expectations to do something constructive, develop skills, and gain special knowledge to develop a life skill for self-suf ficiency . We’re told that it’s important to get higher and higher degrees and accumulate more and more special knowledge. This is stressful, and it’ s coming from a strong cultural belief in perso nal responsibility , whic h has, at its core, a sense of guilt. It’s built in to the system, and it seems noble and good, yet the pressure for self-reliance is hurting us. Not many can escape the questions running in the back of our minds: How good is good enough? Did I do enough? Did I fulfill obligations? Did I live up to standar ds? The ego sets us up to be forever stressed-out, always thinking that there is something we could change or make better . This is rigid learn ed behavior , but another perspective isavailable, a perfectly different and perfectly gentle means and perspective. A Course in Miracles says, “In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy .” Not in some—in none! But you’re not left hanging; the next lesson states, “Everything is for your own best interests.” Everything! This can feel just as shocking as the first message. All things work together for good with no exceptions except in the ego’s judgment. Talk about undoing the analytical mind! Suddenly , there’ s no point in trying to analyze or judge anything. What a relief! Our Deepest Problem The deepest problem that we have is the thinking, the stereotyping, the breaking-things-apart mechanism. I call this the “I-know” egoic mind. The ego is always fragmented; it made up a fragmented world, and it’s always categorizing, analyzing, diagnosing, and fixing things. It’s very much a dysfunctional thought system, based on the myth of separation. In the traditiona l Genesis story , God said to Adam and Eve, “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” But the serpent lured Eve into taking an apple, and she gave one to Adam . Then, according to biblical myth, they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. This is the fall from grace—the separation from God after which a lot of darkness and fear arose in the mind, reflected in the form of wars, division in religions, and all kinds of insane pursuits. The exercise of religions is largely an attempt to find a way to return to God’ s love through ritual and tradition. I would like to propose a different path than ritual and traditio n, a different story about a God that didn’ t kick anyone out. We can call this the metaphysical take on the traditional story: let Adam and Eve represent you and I, and in this story , we never left God. And he never abandoned us. Here, the “fall” is nothing more than a perceptual distortion, a vast illusion in which the mind believed that it pulled offsomething that in reality is impossible: separation from an all-knowing, all-loving creator . We have very powerful minds that are capable of imagining, or “thinking up,” this whole univer se. In my revision of Genesis, there was no apple. We simply asked a question: Could there be anything more than Heaven or oneness, more than everything? This question was like a little puff of madness since “more than everything,” more than perfect love and harmony , is of course completely impossible. Imagine this idea, this question, or this doubt thought as one of those little white dandelion puffs blowing across the road. This powerful mind of ours allowed the thought, this puff, to spread. It was of course a totally ludicrous idea, but instead of laughing it away with our all-powerful, divine mind, we took it seriously . Taking this puff of an idea seriously made us forget the truth that we have everything and are one with God. We closed ourselves off and started dreaming we were a tiny part of an impossible world. Many people ask me how this could happen if our mind is part of God’ s and if we are divine. The truth is, it didn’t happen apart from our belief, and there’ s a true knowing or aware ness of this once all our false beliefs are questioned and released. Into eternity , where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remem bered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishmen t and real effects. Together , we can laugh them both away , and understand that time cannot intrude upon eternity . It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity , which means there is no time.… It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. In fact, it is the best question you could ask. There is, however , no point in giving an answer in terms of the past because the past does not matter , and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present.The Answer to a World of Duality Many mystics call this the world of duality . This is what the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden builds for us. Adam and Eve wanted to hide in the Garden, so they covered themselves and their “private parts” with fig leaves. They felt guilt and shame for what they had done. By way of this analogy , at the moment of the fall or separation, because the guilt feels so awful, the mind projects this guilt out as the time-space cosmos, which then becomes like a giant fig leaf under which the mind tries to hide from its creator . The mind wants to hide what it believes are its private thoughts because it’s terrified of God’ s love, so it makes a fake identity , the persona. God is pure love and oneness. He has no awareness of separat ion; thus, He cannot come into duality. The world of duality is the illusory hiding place for the sleeping mind that believes it has separated from God. To this mind, the ego says: “Here is your new home now. Be content with the body and the world as your new home. We will make up everything that you seemed to have in oneness. W e will make a new kind of love with bodies. We will make a new kind of freed om with movement of bodies. We will make a new kind of happin ess with pleasures of the senses to take the place of your Home in Heaven. And God cannot come in and find you here, you will have privacy , and you can do anything that you want.” This is how the body became the central focus for the ego. The ego wants God to bless its new world and give reality to the fantasy of time and space. There is an anger deep down in the mind because God cannot do this. God cannot give reality to a projected dream of form! God is divine love. God knows you only as divine love. This love is abstract light, total joy, constant communication, and peace. It is infinite and perfect. God would not be God if He granted the ego’s wish to give this world reality . Therefore, all anger is a temper tantrum based on a desire for the temporary to be true and real. Ego tries to lure you to think that you are free in a world of form, but it doesn’ t tell you that it, the ego, is the ruler . It thinks that as long as you are busy planning for the future, dreaming of a better form (or lamenting the past), you won’ t think about God and the oneness that is your true identity . This isshowing you that the ego is a thought system in your mind that doesn’ t lead you into a true experience of who you are. It only makes sure you stay preoccupied in the world of form, in time and space. So, once the mind fell asleep and started to dream of separatio n, it was like a nightmare at first since God and Heaven were completely pushed out of awareness. It was a deep sleep of forgetfulness, and there were suddenly two thought systems instead of one. One was the fear- based thought system of the ego, the “puff,” and the other was the thought system of God’ s lovin g answer , the Holy Spirit. The ego’s thought system, based on the premise that an impossible separation happened, says, “If you ever go back into your mind, and into that white light, God will get you and destroy you!” This creates a perpetual neurotic state that compels the mind to constantly seek for answers and safety where they can’t be found: in the projected forms of this world. But in the stillness, at the core of our being, the loving answer just keeps reminding us, “You never left. You never could have separated . God is not angry at you! Your Father loves you! Your Father will always love you!” We can’t solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them. We can’t find the solution at the level of the problem, at the level of separation; the answer has to be a higher order thinking that lifts us up and back into harmony . You cannot approach a solution with the sleeping mind since this was the mind that believed in the problem in the first place. You have to rise above the level of the problem, above where the problem is perceived, to find the answer . You have a perceptual problem, and as long as you try to make things bette r and fix things at the level of the ego, you’re not going anywhere. You’re just spinning your wheels like a hamster going round and round, and there’ s no progr ess whatsoever . You are more like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, where all of your straw is scattered all over the road. But when you let go of compartmentalizing, categorizing, labeling, and ordering everything, you find yourself coming into peace. You find yourself identifying with your true Self and not with a separate identity . The peace that you find is a state of mind in which you perceive that everything is perfect, it has always been perfect, and nothing has been out of order . Your mind just needs some training to reach this awareness.Leaping into Spirit’s Perception The fall from grace, the separation, which is an idea in the mind and not a point on the timeline, didn’ t leave us forever lost and without an answer . At the moment of that tiny mad idea—the separation—God gave an immediate answer . Being all-knowing love, He answered this doubt thought, this tiny mad idea, this “puff,” with the awareness that this never happened, that it is impossible. We can call this answer the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be referred to as the still, small voice within the mind, or the intuition, that guides us. It’s like a presence that we can sense whenever we get still enough to tune in and listen inwardly . We need to know this and also become aware of how easily defenses like judgment, worldly knowledge, denial, and repression are used to dilute the terror and prevent us from experiencing God’ s answer . We don’t go from analysis and judgment into perfection witho ut a willingness to say, “Show me Holy Spirit; I need to be shown.” Even in moments when you’re upset with God, with life, or with the way you perceive the situations you’re involved in, you need to be willing to perceive things differently and open up to relying on the Spirit’ s healed perception. You need help to truly see anoth er world than the one you projected from your ego’s fear and doubt and worry . You can freely say, “You need to convince me,” and throw it all back to the Holy Spirit. Ask to be shown. Let it be a convincing job for the multitude of angels cheering every time you make a movem ent toward trusting your intuition. That should catch your attention and turn you toward the miracle in your mind. You need the Holy Spirit’ s help to see things as they are, to see clearly without projection, judgment, and interpretation. As soon as the ego judges somebody else as lacking, it always compares and tells you, “Well, you are not that way; you are beyond that.” This promotes inequality , division, and separation. You need to ask the Holy Spirit to start cleaning the filter you are seeing through because that truly is the only hope you have of not judging. Once you tap in to that help, it is delightful. Every moment without a filter is deligh tful. But if there is a concept or a judgment involved, then it is bette r to justpause, introspect, and become aware of what that filter is. You can cultivate a willingness to quest ion every value and every concept you hold. When you catch yourse lf judging or thinking that you know something, I advise you to exercise what I call, “stop, drop, and roll.” You first pause your running thoughts and your reactions; you stop! And second, you exercise your willin gness to drop it. And third, you roll with the Spirit’ s guidance. When your filter starts clearin g and the more intuitive and less judging you become, the more you reap the emotional benefits. You can tell by how you feel: you’re more stable, you’re calmer , and this is how you know you’re headed in the right direction. This develops into acceptance and a receptive mind, an open mind, a mind that doesn’ t “already know .” Then the miracle within can happen. It’s norm al in this world to encourage opinions, but opinions block the experience of peace. Opinions do not have anything to do with truth or reality . The “I-don’ t-know” state is humble. In the Zen tradition, it is called beginner ’s mind. It is a great experience to wake up every day and feel like you don’t know anything. It’s a beautiful feeling to not have an opinion but to be open to be shown.Exercise: Moving from Opinions to Prayer Spend one day observing the I-know mind and try spending it without one single opinion. Try it out! Get the flavor of it. As you go through your day, ask yourself, “Where is my mind when I am caught up in my opinions, thinking I know something, and how do I feel when I am open and I do not think I already know the answers?” Throughout your day , notice how many times you: think you know the answer to something want to know the answer say or think opinionated statements make assumptions about someone or something interrupt a conversation because you think you know better than someone do something solely based on past outcomes and past learning After your practice day of having no opinions, spend some time reflecting in your journal. Find a quiet place where you won’t be distu rbed. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, relax, and allow your mind to get still for a few minutes. Then, read the following questions slowly . Reflect and write down your answers. Allow yourself to have an experience of the answer—go beyond the intellect. 1. Has my way, my own “knowle dge,” brought me to a state of consistent peace and happiness? 2. Seeing that my “knowledge” or choices have not yet led me to a state of consistent peace and happiness, am I willing to open to the possibility of another way?3. In releasing my I-know mind, am I willing to trust that there is a wisdom, a Holy Spirit, within my mind, that has my best interests and my highest good in His hands? 4. Do I trust that He knows what I need? 5. Can I trust that He knows the prayer (desire) of my heart and that He will bring to me what is truly most helpful for my healing and therefore my happiness? If any of your answers to questions two through five is no, there is a line in A Cour se in Miracles that can help ease your mind. It states that if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you should not fight yourself. Be gentle with yourself and give yourself permission to pray for help with any areas or patterns you’ve noticed. Acknowledgment of where you are is all that is required. There is no need to try to fix anythin g. Your contribution is your willingness, nothing more. Prayer is a way to acknowledge the presence of Holy Spirit as a guide and friend. Prayer is equal with desire since we always get what we desire in our hearts and minds. You can think of prayer as your practice of direct connection to your higher power . It doesn ’t matter the method, the technique, what words you use, or how you pray. What matters is that you stay open to an experience of inner connection. Surrender in honest communication and sincerity , while earnestly acknowledging that which is felt deeply in your heart. The Holy Spirit is the healer . True Knowledge Is Not Knowing Anything About the World When you live in a state of nonjudgment, you naturally live in a state of ultimate freedom and compassion because you accept everyone and everything regar dless of what happens. To not know anything about the world of form and to be in a state of not-knowing, opens an experienceof the present moment. The I-don’ t-know mind is the highest state of mind, higher than “yes” or “no.” This is essential. This state of mind doesn’ t judge. It doesn’ t interpret: good, bad, right, wrong. It is close to true knowledge, the knowledge of God. Anything that you think you already know ends up being a block to true knowing. Anything you have a preconception of would block true knowing. This is because opinions and preconceptions keep you from an experience of innocent percep tion. You also miss both the present moment and the guidance that’s available when you are occup ied with intellectually “knowing” something or living in autopilot mode. In believing that you know best and that your knowledge is valuable, you identify as the opinions that you hold. Your identity becomes a small self. All personal interpretations of absolutely everything in all of time and space and history are wrong minded and erroneous. To hold an opinion is the same as not knowing who you are and not knowing who God is. Now you can relax as you are looking to unlearn the habit of personal judgme nt and interpretation. It’s a relief to know that you don’t have to carry any judgment or opinion about your identity as a person— good or bad, spiritual or unspiritual, and so on. You also don’t have to interpret, judge, or even understand the world, although you can choose how you perceive it, and this we will get more into later in the book. In fact, the only way to come back to divine innocence is when you can say , “Wow! I have been mistaken about absolutely everything. Not 99.9 percent mistake n. I have been completely hoodwinked; I have been completely deceived. I’ve been mistaken about everything!” This is why you shouldn’ t struggle with the giving up of judgm ent, because the only awareness that you can come to is that you never , ever have been capable of it in the first place. You’re truly not capab le of any judgments. That’ s the good news!Chapter 2 Perception There’ s never anything inheren tly wrong about what’ s going on in the world or the way things are unfolding. Whenever you are having a problem at work, with a relation ship, or anything, you are experiencing a perceptual problem . The way you are seeing it is the problem. Blaming the external world, and this includes yourself, is the ego keeping the illusion of duality going. When you get angry , it is because the ego says, “Blame this person, or blame that thing.” You can blame your boss, blame the government, blame your mother , blame your past, or blame the dog. This is a world in which blame seems to be everywhere—and is seen as justified. The mind uses blame to avoid looking at the belief in separation. It blames anything that feels disagreeable to it without taking responsibility for the split and without accepting the Holy Spirit’ s healing of the split. But once you see that the anger comes from your own attack thoughts and grievances, always with the fearful belief of separation underneath, you can release those thoughts. Instead of trying to define the problem as a specific situation, the first thing to do is remind yourself that it is a perceptual problem. Whether it is “I can’t pay my bills,” “My boyfriend said he would leave me if I don’t do this,” “It’s been raining for four days straight, and I’m going out of my mind waiting for some sun,” or “The national debt is ticking higher every day,” you just say, “I have a perceptual problem.” Poverty may be spreading and spreading: “I have a perceptual problem.” I need the rent money in two days, and I don’t know where I’m going to get it: “I have a perceptual problem .” Perception is the realm of the five senses. Perceptual problems are never real proble ms, although they can point us back to the one problem of believing in separation. Perception is the realm that we appear to be in. This was highlighted for me when my sister got married. The day after the wedding, people from different generations were gatheredwatching TV. It was a comedy special. Because there were so many of them, I couldn’ t see the TV. All I could see were faces turning red, eyes shifting around, some embarras sment, some downright humilia tion, and some outright anger and rage. And then my brother -in-law fell out of his chair and rolled on the floor laughing. They were all watching the same images, and they were all listening to the same sound. Yet, they were each seeing something different. They were having such diverse reactions, and they were giving their own meaning to those sounds and images. It wasn’ t the images that were making them laugh and makin g them rage. It was the beliefs in their minds that they reacted to. We have it all backward when we think things like You hurt my‐ feelings, and If you hadn’ t done what you did, I wouldn’ t be so hurt. So, you could say that these percep tions in the mind are associations from the past—memo ries and beliefs. Lesson 2 of A Course in Miracles teaches that you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you. That’ s all that is happening. Nothing else is ever happening. Our mind is full of past thought s, and these past thoughts are projecting onto the world. Caught in the Projection The world perceived through the body’ s eyes and heard through the body’ s ears is a screen of images. It is just the shadowy reflection of the attack thoughts in the sleeping mind. Let’s use the analogy of a movie projector to explore this. Inside the projector is a glowing, brilliant, radiant light—a great metapho r for the Holy Spirit. This brilliant light seems to pass through the film, which is filled with a lot of dark images. These dark images are like attack thoughts or ego thoughts. As these thoughts are projected, what seems to be produced on the screen are shadows. To the sleeping mind, these shadows appear to have meanin g. However , the only meaning the movie has is given to it by the mind—a mind that has forgotten that what it sees is just a movie. It has identified with figures on the screen and thought ofitself as part of the screen, as a person among other persons. The mind then appears to be caught in the projection, identifying itself as a body . Therefore, we need to bring the darkness—the shadowy thoughts and beliefs that are playing out on the screen of consciousness—back to the radiant light within, for this is how they will disappear . This is a way of facing what is coming up from our unconscious mind. We tend to try to avoid a lot of our problems by pushing away what is in our mind. We are trying to insulate ourselves from our problems and what lies beneath the surface of our conscious mind. The human condition is often all about trying to live a certain way or building up “the good, successful life” to protect something. This something we are trying to protect is actually a separate self-identity . The ego is terrified of any of our routines being broken because of this protectionism of the self-concept. It wants to keep the status quo so we can remain in the dream , in the projection, and not wake up. When we are asleep in the dream, we can’t help but believe in what we are perceiving. That is why the Holy Spirit supports a very gentle awakening. A world is going on in our minds: the world of images and the thoughts we’re thinking. This is the basis for how we perceive the external world. The external world and the internal world are the same. They are identical. It doesn’ t matter if somebody is yelling or screaming at us at work, whether we’re just at home thinking about when somebody was yelling and screa ming, or even if we’re not in touch with what the though ts are. We just know we’re feeling yucky and depressed. I call these past thoughts—thoughts that weren’ t created by God. They are in there, and the mind has anchored to them; it could be fear, envy , jealousy , boredom, or irritation. Knowing this, we can see that we need to clear our perception because there is no objective world of events, circumstances, and images separate from our perception and interpretation. The realizatio n is “My thoughts are images that I have made.” What you perceive is just a motion picture of what you believe and of your thoughts. So, when you have ego beliefs and harsh attack thoughts, you will perceive a world of fragmentation. You will perceive victimization. You can’t help it. Traditional science and biology have taught us that thehuman being is an autonomous creature: the world is outsid e of this creature, and it is experienced through sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. When light goes in throug h the retina, the image gets turned over in the brain, and then there are brain impulses. But we’ve got it all backward. It’s more accurate to think of the eyes as projectors rather than receptors. The eyes are projecting what the mind is thinking and believing. Because of the filter of consciousness or ego, we sense a world that is projected through this filter , and therefore we are just drawing forth witnesses to what we believe and think all the time. We perceive only that which we believe, and so without attack thoughts in our mind , we cannot see a world of attack. That’ s why the only solution is in the mind. The Levels of Mind I once asked the Holy Spirit for a map of the mind so I could know what was going on underneath percep tion. I said, “It’s getting a little ethereal here, give me a picture.” I was shown the image below of the mind and its layers. Think of the mind as five concentric circles. The inner areas determine the outer , and altogether , these layers compose our perceptual experience of the world, our own personal reality . The ego wants you to think that cause is at the level of perception, the outer layer . This way the ego would have you think that events are causative. In truth, this is reversed. The cause is in the center , where desire is, and the effect is on the outer ring. Everything follows from the desire of our heart. 1. Perception is how you see and interact with the world and includes even what you perceive in the world. It includes everything that the five senses report back to you. 2. Emotions determine your perceptions. They can be fear -based, such as guilt, shame, envy , worry , and so forth, or love-based, such as peace, joy , happiness, freedom, and so forth. 3. Thoughts determine your emotions. They are the ceaseless, moment-by-moment train of ideas and images passing through your mind. They can be Spirit-inspired or ego-driven. 4. Beliefs are the foundation of your thinking. Beliefs are concepts. Examples can be about job roles and career identity or family identity as father , mother , husband, wife, sister , brother , daughter , or son. They can be about roles of friendship, or cultural, religious, or class roles. They include opinions about the planet, society , psychology , philosophy , and politics, and beliefs about food, health, and education. As well, time and space are also actually only beliefs. All beliefs are ego-based except for one— forgiveness. 5. Desir e is in the center and determines your beliefs. It is all about what you seek in the core of your being. Y ou can always only choose between love or fear , Spirit or ego. W ith the belief in separation, desire became split. Split desire is egoic, while the single desire for love is unified and is the desire for Spirit. When our core desire is split in impossible attempts to reconcile Spirit and ego, purity is lost. The desire in the core of our mind and being dictates our experiences on the surface of consciousness. Nothing comes to us unbidden. From a split desire, all the other layer s follow .The belief becomes egoic, the thoughts are attack thoughts, the emotion is fear, and the perception becomes fragmented and distorted. Fragmented perception includes everything that we see, hear, and touch, all the different facets of the cosmos, including the people, the events, and the world of separate objects. This explains why all the differences of the entire cosmos spring from the desire for something more than the unified oneness God gives, as if we could get more than everything. But the power to change our perception rests in the core of our mind. Because of our powerful mind, the prayer or desire of our heart is always answered. This is something we will explore in depth in the following chapters. Shifting of Our Core Desire When we change our minds to be Spirit-inspired rather than ego-driven, our core desire has changed. It is singular rather than split. This change permeates all the layers of the mind. This is the miracle that leads to the following transf ormation: the belief is forgiveness, the thoughts are “real thoughts,” the emotion is love, and the perception is peace ful, true perception. With the help of the miracle, the mind is turned right side up, away from its former upside-down way of being and operating. Enlightenment or healing is a matter of desire. This is a world of distraction, isola tion, and hiding from the light. If the prayer of your heart is to expe rience the love and the light, then the symbols or the means for this can be given or drawn to you quite rapidly . The only proble m in the world is the one in the mind. A clear understanding of the layers in the mind helps us become aware of the story—what’ s causing our perception as we trace back all our projections to the core desir e. In doing so, we can uncover beliefs and assumptions that we may not have realized were there. The mind will continue to invest faith in these beliefs until it becomes clear that they don’t offer what we truly want. When we are willing to question what we believe, with the Holy Spirit, the results are nothing less than miraculous. All that is requir ed is a little bit of willingness to begin to see things differently .To expose and let go of old, unhelpful conditioning, we need to go into the mind step by step through all the layers. Perception and the Movie Projector Metaphor As we look around, we perceive the gross perceptual world. With sky, clouds, mountai ns, houses, bodies, trees, and grass, the gross perceptual world is the “farthest out” from the core, the farthest away from the point where we are connected to Source or God. Metaphysically , the perceptual realm is the projec tion of our state of mind. One of the deepest teachings I can offer you is that you cannot change the projected world; you can only change your mind (about the world). To illustrate this, let’ s return to the analogy of a movie projector and movie screen. Have you ever gone to a movie when there was a glitch in the film? You know that you cannot fix the glitch by trying to fix the screen. When you try to change things that appear to be external to your own mind or look to the world for things to change, it is like going up and banging on the movie screen believing it will change the movie. What you need to do instead is check out the projector room, which, in this analogy , represents what you desire in your core. The external world runs like the film going through the projector creating overlays. Once you are able to overlook dark thoughts (the film), the world you see lights up. But when you interpret things as painful, for example war and conflict, it is the ego’s lens that you are looking through , and that is what is twisted. It is not about anything “out there” in and of itself. Before a movie starts, there is just a beautiful, pure white light reflected on the screen. You can imagine drawing a body on it; now, we have form overlays. Then the ego names this body as male or female and puts some skin color on it. Then we can put age in there. Concepts that come from judgment and interpretation have gotten between the light source and the screen. And there we have all the problems: sexism, racism, ageism, and so on. It seems as if those are big problems in the world; we hear about them on the news, but it all stems from having a split desire in the mind.When we can see that all is projected, all the specifics, all the differences, and also all the preferences, it is clear that what we are now really going for is an unlearning or a subtraction process. We can think of it as a process of cleaning the film.

This-Moment-is-Your-Miracle_by_David_Hoffmeister.txt

Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms: “David is a living demonstration of peace and joy. He uncovered this state of mind, which is accessible to us all, by living what he teaches in This Moment Is Your Miracle. Although the process of transcending fear is not always easy, it is simple, and David’ s explanations and exercises guide you to claim the happiness that is your birthright. This Moment Is Your Miracle illuminates the pathway to complete awakening, so you can experience the deep peace and everlasting love that dwells within you, in this very moment. ” —Corinne Zupko, EdS, bestselling author of From Anxiety to Love “It is said, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’; this book is the harvest of all the teachings that David Hoffmeister has acquire d during the learning and living of A Course in Miracles. The joy of David is his trust, his willingne ss to give freely, and his simple practice of listening to the Holy Spirit and following His directions. The resulting inspir ation of this book is due to the experience of direct communion with the Spirit, and consequently is a blessing to all who want to live a life of forgiveness and healing. ” —Nick Davis, founder of the first UK-dedicated Miracles Centre, The Centre for Inner Peace, and the retreat, September Cottage; author of An Invitation to the Awakening Heart “David Hoffmeister is one of the most authentic teachers of A Course in Miracles. His commitment to the text comes through in all of his work. I love David ’s gentle teaching style and his genuine love for life. David walks his talk. ” —Gabrielle Bernstein, #1 New Y ork T imes bestselling author of The Universe Has Y our Back“‘Imagine if you were motivate d only by love and nothing else. ’ asks David Hoffmeister in his new book, packed with detaile d explanations, practices, prayers, and recorded meditations. David unpacks A Course in Miracles in bite-sized pieces about how to undo the mind and pump up the volume of Holy Spirit. Dive deep into this book and you will experience your miracle-mindedness strengthen as you practice the core teachings of A Course in Miracles. Move over Ego, we are merging into the ‘Glorious Flow’. ” —Maria Felipe, author of Live Y our Happy, international speaker of A Course in Miracles, and ordained minister through Pathways of Light “I’ve known David for nearly thirty years. There are several folks who have dedicated themselves to understanding and living the principle of A Course in Miracles. In the case of David, it’s clear that his commitm ent is strong, his vision is sharp, and his ability to teach brilliant. This Moment Is Your Miracle is a well-written, comprehensive explanation of some of the most basic, revolutionary, and transformative concepts in the Course. ” —Jon Mundy, PhD, author of Living A Course in Miracles, publisher of Miracles magazine, and executive director of All Faiths Seminary in New Y ork City, NY “With his new book, This Moment is Your Miracle, David Hoffmeister gives the reader a tour de force of spiritu al knowledge that will result in a major acceleration of their spiritual path. I’ve known David for many years, and he’s a brillia nt teacher and writer. This book shows him at his best. I highly recommend this important work. ” —Gary Renard, the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe trilogy and The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other“The journey within is the greatest journey of all. David Hoffmeister takes us through a journey of self-discovery, inner truth, healing, and rebirth…. David gives us the tools to face our fears…. I recommend This Moment Is Your Miracle for anyone wanting to take the greatest journey of all. ” —Tina Fiorda, coauthor of A Book of Insight “For both new and seasoned travelers on the path to self- discovery, this book is filled to the brim with a wealth of inspiring, practic al material that can lead you straight to the heart of deep inner peace. These abundant, essential reminders about the constant and powerful choice for beginning anew are presented in a bright, masterful, and compelling way. More than ever, this easy, loving way of living will now feel within reach, and you can eagerly begin to claim your birthright. ” —Carol Howe, author of Never For get to Laugh “This Moment Is Your Miracle brings the luminous love and transforming clarity contained within A Course in Miracles alive for a new generation of seekers. With eloquence and grounde d wisdom, David shows us that miracles are not only possible, but natural and abundantly available to us all. ” —Miranda MacPherson, author of The W ay of Grace “David Hoffmeister is a master teacher when it comes to understanding the profoundly healing spiritual practices in A Course in Miracles. David shares simple, step-by -step healing practices that correct the mind and liberate us from the dominio n of the ego’s false concepts and precepts. A Cours e in Miracles readers can be deceived into thinking that studying the books will bring healing, but healing is not an intellectual process, it is a spiritual awaken ing. With this book, we’re given the practical tips and tools that bring us to that awakening. This helpful book is amaster ’s guide to practicing A Course in Miracles and living the teachings moment by moment for true liberation. ” —Jennifer Hadley, spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, minister, and counselor; founder of the Power of Love Ministry “This Moment Is Your Miracle is a heartwarming and heart- opening read. It creates a sense of shelter and safety, navigating you through practical exercises that show you God within and all around you. You are invited to trust love. You are shown how to heal obstacles such as fear and guilt. This book prepares you to surrender to love. There are clear explanations of how life has distracted your attention, taking you from the flow of love. This book is an invitation to recognize your oneness with God and with the Holy Spirit. It offers intimacy with pure love, for those who have the heart for it. ” —Jac O’Keeffe, spiritual teacher, author, and cofounder of the Association of Professional Spiritual T eachers (APST)Publisher ’s Note This publication is designed to pr ovide accurate and authoritative information in r egard to the subject matter cover ed. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other pr ofessional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent pr ofessional should be sought. Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books Copyright © 2019 by David Hof fmeister Reveal Press An imprint of New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5674 Shattuck A venue Oakland, CA 94609 www. newharbinger. com All quotes from A Course in Miracles, copyright © 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, P. O. Box 598, Mill V alley, CA 94942-0589, www. acim. or g and info@acim. or g, are used with permission. I extend my gratitude to the Foundation for Inner Peace for their devotion. Cover design by Amy Shoup Acquired by R yan Buresh Edited by Gretel Hakanson All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on fileThis book is dedicated to the group of people I have lived with for years who have dedicated their lives to experiencing the truth within: Living Miracles W orldwide Spiritual Community. I am honored by your dedication and devotion and touched by your kindness and generosity. There are no words to adequately express my gratitude. Love is completely transpar ent; it’ s an open book. Contents Foreword Introduction: The Ever -Present Miracle of Now Part I: The Miracle of Moving Thr ough Separation Chapter 1. Judgment and Knowledge Chapter 2. Perception Chapter 3. Fear Chapter 4. Guilt Chapter 5. Private Thoughts Part II: Miracles W ithin Chapter 6. Finding T rue Guidance Chapter 7. T rust Chapter 8. Acceptance Chapter 9. Peace of Mind Part III: Miracles in Relationships Chapter 10. T ransforming Special Relationships Chapter 1 1. From People Pleasing to T rue Empathy Chapter 12. Communication Chapter 13. Collaboration Chapter 14. Holy RelationshipPart IV : Being the Miracle Chapter 15. Healing Chapter 16. For giveness Chapter 17. Extending from W ithin Conclusion: Living in Freedom Gratitude and Acknowledgments Resources NotesForeword It is easy to talk about spiritual ideas, harder to live them. When a spiritual teacher comes along who actually walks the talk, all who look upon that person are blessed with a rare opportunity to learn, heal, and grow. David Hof fmeister is such a one. When I discovered David through his Y ouTube videos, I was deeply impressed by his clarity, authenticity, sense of purpose, and ease. He is authoritative and consistent. David has devoted his life to proving and teaching the principles of A Course in Miracles. I have been with the Course about as long as David has. Still, I encounter fear, resistance, and ego. David has been a huge inspiration and accelerator to my advancement in the Course, through his impeccable understanding and, most important, his model. If you sincerely intend to master A Course in Miracles or any related spiritual path, David is a guide of the highest caliber. A Course in Miracles is a delight to the spirit, but a huge confrontation to the ego. It pulls the rug out from under the ego’s tricks and exposes it for the nothingness it is. For that reason, all students of the Course experience resistance to the program. Many students quit doing the lessons, and others complain, “I don’t understand the text. ” Yet, the very same students admit, “I know the Course contains truths that can change my life. I just wish it were easier to apply. ” The book you are holding can help you do exactly that. Here is a brilliant map of the journey from fear to love. David takes the essential principles of the Course and breaks them down into easy-to-grasp ideas, exercises, and steps to help you make the truths work in your life. David can take you where you want to go because he has walked the path you and I now walk. He knows where the open road is and where lurk the pitfalls that may waylay us. Read, learn, open, awaken, and transform. In one of David’ s teachings, he mentions that Mahatma Gandhi retained his peace of mind even while he was in prison. The reveredleader did some of his best writing there. The lesson David extracts is that it is not what our body is doing that makes us happy or miserable, but where our mind is. Hearing that, I remembered a prisoner I used to visit. While Ray was in college, he flew into a fit of rage and beat his girlfriend. A few days later, she died. Ray was conv icted of manslaughter and sentenced to many years in jail. I met Ray during his ninth year of incarceration, when he came up for parole for the third time. “My girlfriend’ s parents are wealthy and politically influential people,” he told me. “Every year when I come up for parole, they wage an intensive campaign to ‘keep this vicious killer off the streets. ’ So far, they have been successful, and I have been denied parole. ” I didn’t see a vicious killer before me. To the contrary, the Ray I knew was a gentle, kind man, penitent for his tragic mistake. He was a model prisoner, given the highest privileges and appointed manager of the prison laundry. He was a devoted student of A Course in Miracles. He was peaceful, his heart was open, and he displayed an exemplary disposition. Ray’ s attitude and that of his girlfriend’ s parents were a great teaching for me. His body was in prison, but his spirit was soaring. That couple had all the material amen ities and physical freedom anyone could desire, but their hearts were consumed with hatred and revenge. Who was really in prison. After walking the spiritual path for many years, I have observed two kinds of seminars: One kind teaches us how to get stuff. The other kind teaches us how to get free. David’ s teachings are among the best of the latter. When I met David, I told him that I watch his YouTube videos and read his books before I go to sleep each night. Immersing myself in his ideas and consci ousness is a soothing, healing way to undo the tangles of the day and segue into a peace ful night’ s sleep. David’ s teachings can achieve the same for you, day or night. I count this man as one of the great blessings in my life. When climbing a mountain in India, Sherpas (guides) help you ascend. One Sherpa takes you to a certain altitude, and then anotherSherpa guides you to the next level. So it is with life. We are graced to have guides show us the way when we feel lost or confuse d. David Hoffmeister is a Sherpa of immaculate purpose. Trust him. He can show you the way to the mountaintop. —Alan CohenIntroduction The Ever-Present Miracle of Now All we need to do is go within to find the answer of love. There is an answer that is so deep that it can bring truth and healing to everyone and to this whole world. We have been searching for it everywhere, except in the only place we could truly find it: within. This moment extends all the way to eternity. It is the now that extends peacefully and is forever and ever. It is infinite happiness, without end, without limit. It is untouched by fear, guilt, or suffering of any kind. It is untouched by anything but love. There is so much appreciation when experiencing something for the first time. There is no comparison. For in the ever-unfolding now, we are always brand new. We can just bask in it, fully mer ge with it. There are no past references to it, for it doesn’ t fit on the timeline. It’s just a happy sense of soaring way beyond time and space, like an ongoing meditation. This ever-present miracle of now is our doorway within. It is our doorway Home. It is an experience of something ever-new. It’s a happy feeling, one that makes you want to sing to the world. It’s very beautiful and very simple too. It’s having the allowance to merge when you are watching a flower, a butterfly, or a bird singing in the tree; it’s a contentment like, “Ah yes, thank you; let me be whole. ” This is what Saint Francis was talking about: just communing. The allowance that everything is perfect. W e can really allow ourselves to smell the roses. It is through the doorway of the present moment that we are truly able to hear the deep messages of love coming from within. They are boundless and eternal, for the voice of the inner guide is always speaking to us of our true identity and of our oneness with everyone and everything. But in order to hear it, we need to walk through the doorway and invite this deeply loving guide into our minds and lives. I first knew about this present moment, where boundless joy resides, early on. The true drive of my heart, even as a young boy, was to feel joy and extend love. I remember playing all summer. I loved the neighborhood creek, which was full of frogs and crawdads. I would just play, play, play—play my heart out all day. I was truly in the moment, naturally. Then, as I got older and the world’ s rules and expectations set in, I bought the bait. I started thinking that I had to learn my way through this world. However, the more intricate the education and learning, the more confused and lost I became. I didn’t like the idea of “improving” and the sound of “makin g a living. ” It sounded like pressure, like living to just survive. That was not inspiring. It felt like the world was set up with an ever-increasing number of complications. There came a time when I began to question all this; I questioned how it was all set up. I started seeking the answer when I got into graduate schoo l. I began to question everything that I believed and everything I had learned in my ten years of university. Even though I got a couple of degrees, I soon realized that there was no point in learning more stuff and developing more special skills. I wanted the answer to something deeper. This was definitely not popular with people in my life. They said, “No, no, not good, you have no direction; you are going to amount to nothing. ” They would say things like, “Y ou are crazy, get a life. ” So, I would say, “Okay, let’s talk about that. Get a life: Can you be a little more specific. I actually believe I am going for life. So, would you tell me what you mean by get a life. ” They said, “Well, get a life: a girlfriend, a partner. something. Then get a house, get a mortgage, get in debt like the rest of us. ” “That is what you mean by get a life. And then what. ” And they said, “And then you grow old, and your hair goes gray. ” “And then what. ” “And then you get sick.

As we take steps to face and undo what’ s blocking us from the joy that is our birthright, we finally arrive in the miracle, in the light. The way to come from split to unified desire is to see that the problem is not out there, outsid e of our minds; we have to look inside. To illustrate this, let’s use the levels of mind map and insert all the seeming proble ms of the world on the outer layer of the mind, perception: floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, or tornadoes; diseases like cancer , heart diseas e, or HIV; financial problems, economic conditions around the world, poverty , and world hunger; terrorism; and wars. We can fill in with anythin g we conceive of in our mind that we’ve been conditione d to think of as a problem within time and space on any scale or of any magnitude. It’s all out there on the screen. There seems to be a myriad of external causes and external effects on the screen, but, gently , the Holy Spirit keeps singing this song to the mind: “That’ s not the reason why. The problem’ s not out there; you have to look inside.” The Holy Spirit is not only telling us to look inside, but has also given us the steps, the how to move throug h illusion and to find the solution. The correction to this erroneous thought system can only happen in the mind. With Spirit’ s help, we can find the correction in our own minds, just like Jesus did. He simply accepted the correction for every false belief. And now Spirit is giving us a detailed roadmap. The way is made clear! Going Back to the Projector How do we get to a peaceful perception of the world? By not judging. The less you judge anything in your life, the more it seems like you are just watching a movie or theater play (sometimes with lots of good acting going on!). Rather than being within the movie as a character among other characters, you have the greater perspective of an observer . It’s only the ego that tries to separate out and thinks it knows the motivations of all the characters , why they did certain things, and what they were thinking. The ego is constantly reading meaning intoeverything. And whenever you see through fragmented perception and try to analyze the characters , including your own, it gets very complicated. In fact, it’s so complicated that you couldn’ t possibly see it as just a dance of form. You can’t even enjoy the movie of life because there’ s too much judgment going on. And part of that judgment is control. The mind that has fallen asleep, has forgotten its Creator , and is trying to control absolutely everything. It’s always showing up with an agenda. It needs to back off the screen and make its way back to the projector room. Through the miracle, you can experience that everything is thought. It all can merge and meld into holistic perception and awarenes s. When that happens, it’s so peaceful; there are no parts to conflict and no parts to defend and attack. Your perception becomes more and more unified in the joy. Therefo re, things that others identify as problems and may even apologize for, you don’t even notice; they are not in your awareness. This is how it goes with perception. It’s subjective. And it is through facing your beliefs, allowing your emotions to come up, and becoming more aware of your thoughts, you will find that your perceptions become lighter . You are moving toward unified perception where your experience is more and more one of peace and harmony . A Different Tool for Awakening to Joy I am a huge fan of using movi es as helpful tools on the journey . I see movies as modern-day parable s, and the journey can be quite fun. I encourage you to explore your perception in every movie-watching experience. A spiritual journey need not be cumbersome or tiring. Movies are an excellent way to watch your mind, to pay attentio n to your emotions, and to help you discover what your unconscious beliefs are. When you react emotionally to a movie, it’s the same dynamic as when you react to people in your life. If you have issues with people, it’s a projec tion of your mind. And it’s the same if you have react ions to a movie—it’ s coming from a projection of your mind. Watching movies is an enjoyable way to wake up and heal, compared to being in a difficult family situation or in a confrontational relationship. W atching movies forhealing can help you get clear in those difficult situations faster . Being aware of your state of mind, thoughts, and reactions while watching movies accelera tes healing. It can be intense at first when you start to get in touch with emotions and belie fs, but it gives way to joy, and you open up more to lasting peace, happiness, and contentment. Ultimately , movies can help guide you to enlightenment. The Spirit showed me techniques for watching movies in a new way—not as entertainment or escapism, but as a way to allow intense emotions to arise for healing. Movies can trigger memories that have been repressed and denied. When these intense emotions come up for you, pause the film so you can be present with whatever is arising for healing in the moment. Welcome the feelings so they can be released and open up to a new perspective.Exercise: Enjoy the Show! Watch the Disney movie, The Kid. Even if you’ve seen this movie before, it is guaranteed that with this new purpose, you will have a deeply meaningful and healing experience. Remember that the purpose of watching the movie is for healing the mind by releasing unconscious beliefs. Hold this intention of using it for healing clearly in your mind before you start the movie. A simple prayer can be helpful: “Holy Spirit, I invite a new and healing experience, watching this movie with You.” During the movie, watch your emotions and anything that the scenarios or characters bring up for you. Even if you experience discomfort, try not to distract away from it. More than anything, be willing to stop the movie and feel and observe your emotions during intense scenes, attractive scenarios, or moments when you want to know or think you know what will happen next. Give yourself permission to stop investigating and just be with what is arising in awareness. Following your viewing of the movie, answer these questions in your journal (you may use some of these questions for any movie that you watch going forward): 1. Do you see how observing your different perceptions allows you to identify certain emotions and maybe even beliefs? Write down the emotions and beliefs you identify . 2. Did you experience any triggers or upsets from seeing any particular scenes or conversations in the movie? What were they? 3. What were your general feelings and associations about Russ as a character in the beginning of the movie? 4. Russ seems to have a lot of stress over keeping his self- image. How might this relate to you? Do you attempt to keep a good self-image in dif ferent situations?5. How did you feel when little Rusty confronted him about the way his life ended up as a forty-year-old—that he had no dog or girlfriend and that he does not fly planes? 6. Does this movie remind you of anything about your past that you try to hide or might still be upset about? Write down anything that feels unresolved. 7. There is a funny scene when Russ makes an attempt to find safety in a sandwich. Are there situations when you feel that your self-image begins to fail? What are the forms of “safety” that you try to use to cover insecurities? 8. How does Russ’ s attachmen t to his false identity block him from true love and happiness? 9. What enables Russ to let go of his false identity and step into an experience of love? Release and Rest: Take some quiet time to detach and let emotions and ideas from the processing of the movie drop away . Open your mind to the Holy Spirit to wash away any remaining feelings and relax into peace . Take your time; there is never any rush. Peace in Spiritual Perception The power of desire is the determ iner of your state of mind. You are now in the early stage of changing your perception, which really means changing your life toward the real experience of peace. Small steps can lead to some big shifts in your awareness. It’s important to be vigilant with your perception and the tendency to perceive upsetting things as real problems. This is a process of looking honestly at your mind while allowing your heart’ s desire to be purified. The spiritual journey will culminate when you open up to spiritual vision, the vision of Christ, which takes you beyond the body entirely , back into an awakened state. Spiritual vision is a vast experie nce. The observer and the observed are one through healed, peaceful perception.When you perce ive the entire cosmos as unified and as neutral, you have reached true perception. It’s like a happy movie that includes everything and everyone. That’ s how you return to your Christ awaren ess. You return first to this full and complete awareness that everything is really one, everything is the same, there are no differences. The purpose is to see everything through the Holy Spirit’ s peaceful perspective or interpretation. Therefore, “it is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.” In this perception, nothing is a struggle! “The miracle is a lesson in total perception.”Chapter 3 Fear What if we knew that all the things that we do—all the plans, all the busyness, as well as drama, bewilderment, despair , and conflict—are chosen by a mind that is afraid of being present? This fear of being present is disguised as many other fears. It can be fear of being alone, fear of losing someone, fear of what other people think, fear of accidents and catastrophes, or fear of threats, violence, and abuse, to mention a few. Fear serves one egoic purpose: to keep us from feeling the wonderment, the beauty , and the eternal calmness of the present moment. The separate mind is untrained and unwilling to keep attentive to the present since it is afraid of it. It is afraid of the Holy Spirit. The reason for this may not be apparent. It believes the ego, and thus separation from God, is real. It is attached to a tiny, imposter concept of self that is not true or real. We have all felt fear; it is a universal experience. It is an experience that exists in our minds but nevertheless, because of projection, it always seems to have external causes and also solutions, yet those solutions are never permanent. Fear locks us down. It closes us up and isolates us from the world. Until questioned, it binds us in a small and separate existenc e. Fear stems from a belief in a world of duality . Once fear is questioned, it will no longer rule our minds, as my friend Jenny learned through her experiences. Jenny’ s Example I was br ought up in a family that went to an ecumenical chur ch. There was a deep belief in sin and guilt. For me, what sin was always seemed strange, vague, and unclear . The teaching was that we ar e all sinners. As a r esult, I had to r eally face the fear of going to hell. One day , I sat on a stool in my r oom feelingbewilder ed, scar ed, and extr emely determined all at the same time. The feeling was, “I have to follow my heart, and I have to leave my chur ch.” And the belief in hell, which to that day had been in the back of my mind, surfaced. The fear that I could possibly go to hell was in the for efront. But I r esponded with, “Okay , if I go to hell, I will still do this; I still want to follow my heart. I have to.” And looking back at it now , I know that the fear itself is what hell is. Facing this fear shook me to the cor e, and I could only sit through it, allowing the fear to move thr ough. Y es, potentially I would actually go to hell by this move, and if so, it would be worth it; it would be my choice. I faced the deepest depr ession of my life. I was in a dark tunnel, and one day I was at the end of it, facing the back with no exit. Ther e was nothing else rising in fr ont of me; it was like being stuck in the darkest part of a deep cave. A friend, whom I trusted, called me that day . She asked if I wanted to shar e how I was doing. I spoke about the darkness, and after the call, I r ealized I had turned ar ound and was facing the way out of the tunnel. Fr om then on, I could feel the possibility of light and healing and I began to take steps towar d the light. Stepping out of Normal On the spiritual journey , you will probably find that you will feel called to make some changes in your life, like Jenny did. But becaus e of fear, you may find many reasons not to make a move or even take a step. Even if you have some hesitatio n at first, when you feel ready , you will find that it’s worth it to feel uncomfortable, to let go of your routines in order to find all the joy of God’ s love that’s available. It can feel like a solo journey at times because you have to go within to find the answers. At other times, companions show up to help you along the way . When I was in graduate school, I would take long walks in the woods. During these walks, I’d ask myself, “What am I doing this for? Is there a purpose for studying at university?” And the ego would rattle off, “Yes, you need to have a degre e because you need to have a good job.Because if you want to have a relationship, you can’t be broke. This is why you are here, and this is why you have been here for ten years. Just keep at it, and we’ll get through this phase.” All of my reasons for being there were fearful, based on my fear of consequences. Becoming aware of this poor motivation for my life got me in touch with a deep desire to open up to the guidance of Holy Spirit. I would ask, “Why am I here? Am I afraid of something? Is there something driving me to get all this education? Is there something pushing me from underneath? Am I afraid of something besides what the world would call a ‘fully engaged life?’” The more I took the questions inward, the more Jesus was able to show me that it was freedom, peace, happiness, joy, love, and intimacy that I wanted . He showed me that I had many beliefs about what one has to do in this world to get those things. And it was those beliefs that were driving me. He said: “If you listen to Me, I will show you how to experience the things you want, through Me. In other words, through listening and then following Me, it will come from the inside of your mind. It won’ t come from any event or outcome in the world.” This turned me in the right direction. In the beginning, I was astounded to see what a huge percentage of my actions were motivated by the fear of consequences. It could have been tempting to judge myself at that point, but I was determined not to do that. I was happy to discover how plugged in to the fear of consequences I was. I was happy to begin to unplu g with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’ s help. I found that to be very practical. It was something I could contemplate and ponder . I knew it was going to be a big job. I knew I wasn’ t going to take a pill and wake up the next day free of fear. I knew it would take contemplation and mind training. But I had A Course in Miracles , and it was a great tool to burrow deep into the mind. As I mentioned in the introduction, the mind can be directed by one of two thought systems: either of fear or of love. The ego-thought system produces fear. The Holy Spirit’ s thought system produces love. The ego speaks first because it is impuls ive. It is usually very harsh and critical. And the voice of the Spirit has to wait patiently , and then, when your mind is open, you can experience how He is there, unceasingly and very gently reminding you of the truth of who you are. The ego wants you tobelieve in its thought system and tricks to keep you asleep and dreaming, while the Spirit wants you to see your thoughts, your feelings, and your beliefs so you can become aware of them and start to loosen the bindings that limit you. To know this simplifies things as you realize you can choose which thought system to use. It is a decision in the mind. You will see that you are making decisions all along the way. You’re vacillating between two thought systems and between two emotions, and there’ s got to be a way to bring an end to it. You can make a choice. It is a matter of being alert to which voice you will give your attention. Whichever you give more attention to is the one that will become stronger in awareness. It’s very much like the old saying about the black and the white wolves in the mind: one represents fear, and the other represents love. The question is: Which wolf will you feed? The Ring of Fear In the explanation of the levels of mind in chapter 2, we saw that underneath the gross perceptual world is a layer of emotion. A Course in Miracles calls this “the ring of fear.” This whole world—everything that we perceive through the five senses—is built on unconscious fear. How can this be? How does our fear translate into objects of time and space: houses, buildings, streets, and people? By the power of our mind. The mind simply can only see what it believes, which is why we need to release false beliefs. In the end, the spiritual journey becomes all about facing this unconscious fear. This is the transformation of the projected world into peace. When we take steps inward on the way to discover peace and true freedom, we first encounter the ring of fear, and it usually gets quite intense. In addition to fear, all of our other emotions are right underneath the far outer ring of perception as well. This means we really need to get in touch with our emotions as a starting point. If we ever want to reach the point of truth deep within our minds, we need to engage the natural process of allowing our emotions. The ego tries to control us by scaring us with many hypothetical consequences, so we push down and suppress all our emotions.Most of us weren’ t raised to get in touch with our emotions and thoughts. Many of us, if we were feeling upset, angry , or belligerent, were told, “Go to your room! ” or “You’re grounded!” The response wasn’ t “Oh sweetie, tell me what you are thinking.” Your parents were probably not Christlike psychot herapists filled with unconditio nal love and positive regard. They proba bly didn’ t say, “Let’ s get in touch with those thoughts underneath the fact that you just punched a hole in the wall.” They said, “You are grounded! You will fix that hole in your wall, and we’re taking away your allowance.” We were usually met with a lot of harshness when our emotions came up. There is a different way of relating with feelings, and when you understand the metaphysics of the mind, you discover what’ s beyond your perception down in the levels of mind. You can become much more sensitive to what’ s underneath the surface. Sometimes in meditation if you start to sink very deeply inward, a very surprising fear can come up, and it will seem to come from nowhere. Y ou are getting in touch with the darkness of the unconscious mind. This is fear that’s buried very deep. It is the reason why a personal identity was made. The personal identity was made to cover a very deep fear that you could be separate from God, from everything, from your Self—that you could be alienated from your Father and from oneness and be utterly lost. Mystics and saints have often shared that they encounter this fear when they begin letting go of their personal identity and they are coming closer to a merge with God. The stillness inside is so powerful that it can seem to burn up the “self.” This is a huge threat to the ego, which is why it feels like a burning up or dissolving. The fear-based ego-belief system is based on having no safety in a dark world of hurts and needs, and of believing in the reality of victims and victimizers. This is so only because of an identification in the mind with the self as the body . But how could we truly know of safety and comfort except to identify with something real and true, something that cannot die or change? Everyone who is asleep and dreaming in this world is actually afraid of the Holy Spirit. This is so because even though people’ s lives are not happy and fulfilled in time, there is a familiarity to linear time. The things and activities of linear time are believed to be safe, while theHoly Spirit is associated with the unknown and is something completely different than anything in time. In the state of oneness, the mind is naturally at peace. The first fear was the fall from grace. It was a tremendous shift in mind, from loving, peaceful, and happy to terrifying and frightening. So, each step that you take with the Holy Spirit will have some reverberations of fear associated with it. Because even though you are awakeni ng from a nightm are, the ego is afraid of this awakening. The ego is afraid that it will be annihilated, that it will cease to exist. When we perceive something fearful, we can always allow ourselves to take a moment to pause rather than react. By taking a moment to open our minds and invite Holy Spirit into our percep tion, we invite a miraculo us shift in how we see things, and we can start to let go of habitual reacting and conditioned behaviors. We open up to inspiration. The beauty of the journey to happiness and freedom is that we all have the power to follow our inspiration and Spirit. We choose this and no longe r live based on fear of consequences. Otherwise, how would we ever get past this fear of love? We make a decision to no longer go for the seem ingly prudent, safe choice based on our past learning. We decide against the closed loop of the past and allow for the miracle, allow for the inspiration.Exercise: Looking at Fear When fear (or other negative, upsetting emotions) comes up, you can be alert to it. You can face it with a “bring it on” attitud e where you’re actually happy that you’ve got something to work with since releasing fear and doubt is really releasing the grip of a false identity . This exercise has the potential to help you to deepen in trust beyond desired results and outcomes—time-based desires and wishes that your sleepin g mind hopes to attain and achieve because of the belief that they are safe and can of fer something of value. Make sure that you have half an hour to an hour to yours elf. Choose a current life situation that brings up fear or maybe just some anxiety or worry . It could be around losing a job or a relationship, or it could be other fear-based issues around family or friends. Fear can also be disguised as anger because there is always fear underneath ange r. Try to be aware of other defenses or self-concept s that may cover the feelings. Take a look at ideas such as “I am a person who never gets worried, anxious, or fearful. I am strong and competent. Nothing ever worries me.” These may be cover-ups, and you may not yet be aware of a deeper part of your mind that actually has a lot of fear or anxiety , which explains why the defense was built up in the first place. Keep this particular fearful life situation in awareness and relax for a moment. You are now going to look inward, following these steps. 1. In your journal, write down all your feelings and thoughts about the situation. 2. Is there a certa in meaning and importance you have given to this situation ? How are you perceiving the situation? How does it affect your peace of mind? Close your eyes if it helps you focus.3. Now take a moment and inquire on this very importa nt question: Where do I believe my safety lies? Sit with this question for a moment. Write down the thoughts that come to mind . Make sure you don’t censor yourself or come up with an answer that you belie ve is “right.” Allow yourself to experience these thoughts as they reflect the beliefs that you hold around safety . Then write down all your associations to this fear until you feel complete. 4. Slowly read this list of possible fears: fear of not having enough money fear of not being a good enough father , mother , son, brother , or sister fear that I actually feel some misery inside and that it will get worse fear of my own anger or someone else’ s anger fear of standing up for myself fear of being tiny , small, and unimportant fear that I don’t really know enough fear of expressing myself, especially the love fear of making a dramatic change in my relationship fear that I might not “make it” fear of losing special attention from others fear of sexual intimacy fear of touching others or being touched fear of connecting and communicating with others fear of attraction to certain people fear that someone will reject me fear of trusting fear of facing the day when I wake upDo some of the items in the list relate to you? Take a moment to first notice and then journal your reactions and discomforts with these particular fears. 5. Take a few minutes to settle in and, using free association, list additional fears that come to mind. Allow all your thoughts and emotions around these fears to pour out in your journal. 6. You are now going to relax and invite the Spirit to shift your perception. Gently and prayerfully go over each fear and say: “Holy Spirit, I hand this fear about over to you.” Feel free to add, “Be you in charge.” Take enough time to allow yourself to feel the release for each one. Continue on with this handover until you feel a calm and assuring restfulness. You may feel that the fears are loosened from your mind or even gone! Fears Can Become Possibilities Fear in the mind is nothing other than the ego actively attacking your peace of mind. This means that you often experience a lot of attack thoughts and doubt thoughts. In those moments, it’s important to be able to face the fears and really ask, “What am I afraid of?” When you are able to see your fears and what’ s behind them, you can really get into the strength of choosing to be with the Spirit and realizing there’ s nothing that can threate n you at all. The fear does leave. I live a completely fearless life because I allowed all the darkness to come up. I stopped hiding and protecting it. I don’t use any kind of defense mechanisms. When you refuse to stuff it down and let it fully come up, it comes, and you go back to the light in the present now . This is importan t in any situat ion where you want to know your heart’ s calling and your way back to peace. You need to be very honest with yourself and look at what you’re afraid to lose. When what you are afraid of is seen, you will be in a space to tell the Holy Spirit, “Just show me if it is Your will.” Your mind is now open to all possibilities and all options. Then, from a place of feeling the joy and the peace, you caneasily access deeper inspiration. And you will be able to see a lot of signs and symbols because the Holy Spirit doesn’ t just provide guidance; He always provides the means to achieve it too! I join you in accepting the next steps in this journey . I encourage you to follow your heart in the face of any fears that you may experience. Our journey together is one of inspiration—of opening to all that is possible with the Holy Spirit.Chapter 4 Guilt There will be times when you feel resistance to the Holy Spirit, when the ego says, “Stop! No! Stay away from my life.” Or it will say, “I will give you some parts of my life, but I’m going to keep some to myself.” As we listen to and follow the Holy Spirit, we become more and more willing to give over all of our pictures, the whole film, to Him. Let’s zoom in on one of fear’s major derivatives: guilt. We all know how it feels to have feelings of guilt and shame. Most of the time, we associate feeling s of guilt and shame with something in form, something we think we have done wrong, or something that we didn’ t do that was expected of us, and we feel like we came up short. This shows us that guilt always seems to be related to behavior , whether it’s our behavior or somebody else’ s behavior . By refusing to face the guilt of separation, we project this guilt, which I call “ontological” guilt, onto many different things. We can feel guilty about food. W e can feel guilty about sexuality , body image, or past memories of behaviors. I have met people who have been in prison for what the world would judge very shameful crimes. I have met people who would look me in the eye and feel me out: “Can I expose a secret to you? And will you still love me afterward?” Once they know that yes, I will, then they tell me that they have killed somebody . Or they reveal their deepest darkest secret, their hidden secret of what they find most shameful, what they believe makes them a sinner , makes them unloving, unlovable, and so forth. When someone exposes their guilt this way, I stay with the presence of love and don’t judge whatever they did. And in their exposing it, it is automatica lly handed over to the Holy Spirit. Their first step of unveiling the ontological guilt has been taken. The ego wields guilt. That is why you reinforce a feeling of guilt anytime you use the body or the world for the ego’s purposes. The ego’spurpose could be possessiveness or “getting.” It can be to defen d, attack, compete, or use the body for pride or pleasure. The guilt is not inherent in anything. It’s only the purpose we give to things that determines whether we feel guilt or peace. The purpose we give to anything can either reinforce the separation or it can be used for healing and forgiveness. Let’s take the example of food. Food is generall y a huge target for the projection of a lot of guilt. The truth is that deep-down, people don’t feel guilty around fatty or sugary foods, even though the nutritionists tell us not to eat these foods. Even brands play on our guilt by marketing products as “guilty pleasures,” “guiltily delicious,” and “sinfully delicious.” But there aren’ t good foods and bad foods. There isn’t anything wrong with ice creams or cookies, sweets or meats. We should not feel guilty about eating certain foods. The belief in guilt is in the mind . There is no guilt in the foods, nor can eating them cause any guilt at all, although it sometimes seems to get projected that way. Like with anything else, we can open up to Spirit’ s guidance around what to eat. It is the Holy Spirit’s task to purify the mind. You need to let Him reinterpret every thing that the ego made, including the body . This is not something that you can try to skip over; there is going to be a lot of guilt that will come up as you relate in this world. Along the spiritual journey , the ego defense mechanisms attempt to minimize fear and guilt without actually letting them go. Instead , the ego minimizes the fear and guilt to the point of being tolerable—so that you will keep them! The ego- thought system does not want to get rid of them, so it acts ingeniously: minimize the intensity to keep you trapped. It is as if you were forced to agree to drink a cup of lethal poison but were granted one wish of deciding how you would drink it. Your wish was to mix the poison with the ocean first, let it blend in, and then you fill your cup. That is what the ego is doing; it lets you dilute the poison before you drink it. It dilutes the guilt so it gets unrecognizable and acceptable to the sleeping mind. But diluted poison is still poison, although it’ s harder to recognize. The Origin of GuiltGuilt is the feeling that something has gone wrong. The mind gets fixated on it, gripping something that is not loving, but how do you become aware of and release this feeling of wrongness? Guilt is also associated with linear time. Projection and guilt are the “making” of time, for without those, there is only timeless eternity , where all is one. Because the ego invented linear time, it tells you that you were guilty in the past, that there has been much wrongdoing in the past, and that the present moment is nothing or insignificant. It rolls over or skips the present moment where the answer of peace is and moves into the future, making us believe that the future will be the same as the past. This guilt comes from way down inside. It originates in believing that we are separate from God. The ego-thought system uses linear time to keep the mind trapped in guilt, and then it maintains the guilt by the repetition of this same mistake of separation, over and over again. But it is all a big trick to keep you feeling you have done something wrong. In this way, guilt has nothing to do with behaviors. Guilt gets generated from the core split in the mind (see the levels of mind discussion in chapter 2), not from things in the world, although it is immediately projected out as the world of form. This means that the experience of guilt is solely a result of the purpose the ego gives to things. Most people are not consciously aware of this, so no matter how much we try to change behavior , guilt is still there. The belief in hell, the devil, or some dark force separates the mind from the experience of being one with God. Metaphysi cally , it is our own guilt that projects the whole idea of an external dark force or hell. Since the ego believes in opposites and is scared of God and love, it makes up ideas such as hell, the devil, and sin. It is as if the ego is using what should be the most sacred to scare the mind with opposite ideas. For example, Christianity in its core is pure. It is supposed to lead people into God. Jesus’ s pure teachings—present in mystical Christianity , Gnosticism, and The Urantia Book IV—are all about that. And the ego seems to take what is the purest and make it dark to scare people. This separation guilt is all unconscious. Most people don’t come home from an emotionally bad day and tell their partner , “Dammit, it’s that belief I’ve separa ted from God; I’ve been acting it out all day.” We don’t get into traffic and say: “That guy tried to cut me off! Ah…separation from God again!” Andthen we don’t eat lunch and say, “Oh, I overate; I feel bloated…ahhh… separation from God.” This separation from God arises, and we feel so guilty . But we don’t go throug h the day consciously thinking that we have separated from God. We are not aware that this separation is our only problem, nor are we askin g ourselves why we keep playing this game. We are not aware that it’s ontological guilt that’s causing all the specific problems. In attem pting to fix our life or to heal, we mistakenly focus very strongly on specifics. The mind gets tangled and complicated; that’s why we can work with a psychotherapist for years and make very little headway—because we focus on the wrong thing. It is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the ship is going down. As long as we have guilt coming up, there is a deep fear of love way down in the mind. Whether we’re aware of it or not, there is a tremendous terror of love. Of course, it’s the ego’s terror , and as long as we’re identified with the ego, we’ll feel its emotions. W e’ll feel the ego’ s guilt. How Ego Wields Guilt to Keep Us Trapped We need to disidentify from the ego, to expose it, and show its nothingness. Once we are disidentified from the ego, we are free of guilt forever . So how is the ego maintaining guilt? What are its tricks at the bottom of the mind where the guilt actually occurs? There is a lot of guilt in the mind. The ego has it wired that way for a reason: to keep us trapped in a small self-concept that is very limited and experientially very far from our true Self. The way it does this is through memories, conditioning, and anticipation. We just keep having certain memories and experiencing events that reinforce the guilt over and over again. This is because guilt is wired to behaviors. But no matter how much we try to behave and be a good little boy or girl and no matter how old we get, because of the guilt, we still seem to mess up. And we still seem to have behaviors that we associate with guilt. It seems like we are caught with our leg in a trap, and we can’t get out of it because the guilt just recirculates and recycles through the memories and theconditioning. And our anticipation that this is just the way it is keeps projecting the guilt out onto the future, and so we keep experiencing it. There is a line in A Cours e in Miracles that says, “For you must learn that guilt is always totall y insane, and has no reason.” That is a pretty clear teaching from Jesus: there is no reason for guilt. Another line says, “All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty .” I call this the unholy trinity: guilt, fear, and anger . They are coming from the ego belief system in an attempt to project. It’s a dynamic where, if you get angry enough, somebody is supposed to admit guilt or feel bad. It’s all an egoic attempt to not look at our own guilt, which actually only maintains our guilt and anger . My great suggestion is that when you have those emotions arising, do not buy in to ego justifications or rationalizations for them or look for causes in the world to blame. You can never fully know the bigger picture of mind while the ego is believed to be real. We can only feel angry , guilty , or afraid while we still have the belief of separation active in our mind. All guilt arises from the attempt to think apart from how God thinks. God is love and the illusion of guilt can only come from having thoughts that aren’ t of God. They must be ego thoughts because that’s the belief in separation from God. A Course in Miracles states that guilt feelings are just a sign that we don’t know that God Himse lf orders our thoughts and that we believe we can think apart from Him. How does this relate to all the problems we see in the world? To believe you can think apart from God is “the authority problem.” It’s believing you can author yourself. So, the authority problem is a question of authorship: Am I the author of me, or is God the author of me? Am I as God created me, as Spirit, or can I make myself something other than Spirit : flesh, separate, tiny, and little? It happens in the mind, but it gets projected to form. It plays out when children have problems with parents. Think about two-year -old children and the first “No!” coming toward Mom or Dad. You know how it goes when the teen years come, parents get authoritative: “You are drinking; we’re going to give you a curfew; we’re taking away your driving privileges.” The war may start against parents and transfer to classmates and teachers, and then, as the young adult grows up, there are authority issues with police officers,politicians, lawyers, and bosses. It goes on and on. It’s all a projection of the initial authority issue, of thinking we are the author of our self. Guilt and judgment always go together . We judge because we feel guilty . But where does the guilt come from? Where does that deep ontological feeling of wrongness, of separation, come from? Not the personal guilt of I, personally , am unworthy or I’m not good enough, which most people deal with for their entire lifespan. I mean that fundamental feeling of wrongness, that something has gone dramatically wrong, that all this fragmentatio n wasn’ t meant to be—the core guilt. It comes from the belief that you can order your own thoughts, that you can judge. It’s misusing the power of your mind. It’s like sayin g, “Hey , I’m in time and space now, and I can do any damn well thing I want to do here. I’ve got my currency to spend. I’ve got my time to spend.” Giving this power to ego is almost like giving a small child a credit card and saying, “Go at it! Go have some fun with that credit card and do whatever you want with it. I don’t care!” Ego believes this time is yours, it’s a currency to spend between birth and death, and you can do whatever you want. And, wow! Look at the variety that’s involved with that, if you consider all the years, the centuries that this has been going on, and all the different ways an individual life is spent: as a Roman centurion, as a prostitute, as a governor , as an athlete, as an of fice worker or doctor , as a husband or wife, as a nurse or carpenter or whatever . There are all kinds of combinations. It’ s almost like the new age teaching you might have seen: “Crea te your own reality .” That’ s what’ s underneath this: the belief that you’ve got a menu in time and space, and you can pick and choose and select from all the different possibilities, all the images, and make a conglomerate, a synthetic personal self. With a sense of these dynamic s that go on in the mind, you can learn, not to stop judging, but to let the Holy Spirit judge for you. The Holy Spirit, Who knows us as we truly are, judges every one and everything as innocent. We can refer to the Biblical expression: judge not, lest you be judged. That was spoken by Jesus two thousa nd years ago. Do you know anyone who has been able to completely follow these words?Returning Home to Our Father Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, where one son left after asking for his inherita nce. Off he went and used his entire inheritance for riotous living until he had nothing, until he was hungry , until his only job was feeding the pigs and he was eating the husks. And after some time, he said, “Even my father ’s servants have more than me. Maybe I should go back.” And he went back in shame; he went back in guilt. He went back with his head bowed low . But before he even got close to home, his father came running down the road, running to welcome, running to celebrate. In the same way, our shame, guilt, and believed wrongdoings are met with open arms. The father can only see the son’s innocence, so he celebrates with a party , by killing a fatted calf. And then the other son, the dutiful son, the son that tried to play it safe and do all the right things, sees the condemned brother come back. He says, “What is happening here? A party? I have stayed here dutifully by your side all along and not once have you killed a calf for me. This wanderer , this betrayer , this weak one who blew it all, you welcome him back and have a party?” The dutiful one is angry . And the father says to him, “Dear son, all that I have is yours; it has always been yours. But your brother , my son, he was lost, and now he is found.” There is nothing more important than to be found, to find our true inheritance again, regardless of what seemed to happen when we were lost. This second chance is the olive branch that is there for all of us. God is saying, “Just take the olive branch, just take the branch of peace.” This realization is what the second coming of the Christ means . It’s our Self-realization. When the awareness of our true Self dawns—the knowledge that all is forgiven and that we are one in God where we have always been—we know that we are nothing but mind. This mind is whole and complete. It never dreamed of fear, loss, and separation. It is free and happy in God. It is guiltless—innocent!Exercise: Looking at Guilt—From Blame to Innocence To listen to a recorded version of this exercise, go to http://www .newharbinger .com/41870 . (There are a host of other materials available for download there. See the very back of this book for more information.) Sometimes we really want to be right about a situat ion. Whenever the pain of guilt or the desire to be right arises, remember that if you yield to it, you are deciding against your happiness, and you will not learn how to be happy . In this two-part exercise, you are going to use a situation to look closely at your experie nces of blame and guilt and move toward the release of them. Acknowledge and invite the presence of Spirit, your higher power , to guide your mind through this process. Part 1: Exploring the Feelings of Blame and Guilt Identify a person you blam e for hurting you. In your journal, answer the following questions: 1. What do you blame this person for? 2. Why do you think they are guilty? 3. How are you maintaining the story that they are guilty in your mind? 4. In this situation, what do you think you did that you regret or feel guilty about? Prayer for Release from Guilt I ask you for help, Holy Spirit, to see myself and my friend as you created us. I cannot do this alone, so I ask that Y ou be with me now .I want to be happy . Holy Spirit, help me to decide for peace. I give this situation or relationship over to Y ou. I trust that Y ou will guide me in the way ahead. Peace of mind is a present decision, which I gratefully choose right now! Blame and guilt only seemed possible because I was determined to hold on to a false belief about who I am and who my friend is. I let go of the meaning I gave to the situation and open my mind to the present—absolved and innocent. I am grateful for the realization that the cause of my upset, which I thought was in the world, was actually only an unquestioned belief and decision in my mind. I have decided anew for my peace of mind. Part 2: Innocence Stay with the same person and situation. You and they have a shared identity in God as perfect innocence. Spend a moment and reflect on this. When you’re ready , answer the following questions in your journal: 1. Do you feel this person deserves to be innocent? Why or why not? 2. If you cannot see that you are both innocent, can you feel a sense of wanting to be right? 3. If being right means that you will be unhappy , do you still want to be right? 4. Can you see how accepting your innocence releases both of you from guilt? 5. What is innocence to you? Write it down and focus your attention on how this experience of innocence feels to you. 6. Take a moment now and reflect on this prayer:I am the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. This is how a man must think of himself in his heart because this is what he is. To further process and deepen your healing experience using the levels of mind, you can find a downloadable works heet at http://www .newharbinger .com/41870 . Let Miracles Replace Guilt Thoughts Nothing we perceive is there by accident; it is just exactly as it is because that is the way our mind wants it to be. By making our unconscious guilt conscious and then releasing it, we can heal and start to perce ive the world differentl y. We have a choice in how to interpret things. In truth, there is no guilt going on at all. It has no purpo se. Only as long as we still have some unconscious desire for guilt do we interpret the world in a harsh way. We can learn to be more gentle with ourselves and free ourselves from those harsh interpretations and be light-hearted! We can laugh and sing in joy and really feel that we are moving on in the right direction. Why not let every day be like that? In our hearts, we can find the innocence even when things seem to fall apart and when things seem to implode. Don’ t try to hold it together! We are going Home. We are waking up. There is no need to make it any more complicated than that. We are here to expose the ego’s guilt game. Everything the ego does—every scheme, every defense, every trick in the book—is aimed at perpetuating guilt. Let it arise and release it. You need to realize how closely you are identified with the thoughts you think. If you project judgments onto the world, how could you not feel guilty? Of course, in truth, you are not guilty because God didn’ t create guilt. God didn’ t create a stream of guilt thoughts and say, “This is my beloved stream of guilt thoughts, in whom I am well please d!” God doesn’ t work that way! No, He says, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” God is please d with the Christ, the Christ of pure love, pure innocence, which is you, and not a stream of guilt thoughts!Where the ego’ s purpose is to make you guilty , Spirit’ s purpose is to extend innocenc e. That is why you need to go inward and bring the guilt to the Holy Spirit. Bring that darkness to the light so you see that the guilt has nothing at all to do with the world or your behaviors. As you go deeper , you start to realize that there is never a reason to feel guilty—it is just part of that false ego belief system. You start to become aware that the way out is miracles. The more miraculous your life beco mes, the more habitually miracle-minded you become, and you experience the innocence that comes from miracle-mindedness. You have had glimmers of this innocence. You don’t need to change. You don’t need to become better at something. You don’t need to fix something . You are just perfect. In the next chapter , we will bring more clarity to this as we get into the importance of our thought s and the power of our minds. Think of all your relationships. How would it feel if you saw everybody as perfect? What if when somebody came to you and said, “Oh, I feel so bad for what I’ve done,” and you could just smile and give them a big hug and say, “I love you so much.” When you can give that gift to yourself, you have the power to give that gift to everyone : to all of your friends, family members, coworkers, and people in the grocery store. And it feels so good to give that gift. It must come from the Holy Spirit because the ego could never conceive of such a gift. It has been the greatest joy in my life to give the gift of innocence away: “You are not guilty; you are innocent. I see you as innocent, I will treat you as innocent, and I will think of you as innocent.” It is only by giving away that which you want for yourself that you can escape from guilt!Chapter 5 Private Thoughts We communicate through words, through language, and by sharing our thoughts. This happens every day: in our families, in our schools, and at work. When we share our thoughts with others, we expand our view , connect, and grow . Communic ation can also be wordless and still be shared clearly , for example through body language. But if we don’t have someone to talk to, we believe that our thoughts are not shared. It seems like we can think about whatever we want, and nobody else knows about it. This is the belief that we have privacy inside our minds. But our thoughts alone make up the whole (seemingly private) world we see. At our Course in Miracles –inspired monastery , we have no vows of poverty , chastity , or obedience as they do in traditional monasteries. Instead, we have a guideline: we encourage everyone to have no private thoughts and to expose what has been hidden. Private minds with private thoughts seem to be the very basis of the human condition: humans value privacy , autonomy , and independence. It is said that these things make the human being, but it is a game of pretense, a ruse. These unreal concepts and ideas generate a fiction of the human race, a fiction of individuality and separateness. In this fiction, it seems each person goes their own way and leads a distinct life apart, only to meet with others at certain times. This has never brought us consistent joy, happiness, peace, or contentment. Stemming from the belief in separation, private minds and private thoughts have us wandering, lost in time and space. We just need to open up and share. Returning to Jenny’ s story , she says: In my early twenties, my marriage was not happy . It felt abusive, and my husband even raged a lot. I didn’ t feel like I had anyone to talk to about it. Then I met a pastor at a conference who I found very, very trustworthy . I poured out my whole heart to him,all my experiences, and all the pain from my marriage. This pastor just listened to me. He was very open-minded, very interested, engag ed, and patient, and I felt such an opening in my heart and in my mind. It felt so valuable, like a long-sought lifeline. I felt seen and heard. This opened me to the many steps I needed to take to move forward and heal. Opening up my priva te thoughts opened up my life. The urge to keep stuff within and not share comes from our urge to defend and protect ourselves. But the need to be defensive can only come when we have identified with an illusion of our self. If you take a thought that comes, a feeling of mild concern, or a bit of worry , and follow it down into your mind, you will find an image of yourse lf that is not the real you. It is a picture that was made to take the place of your true Self. It’s not that good or bad things happen to us. We can learn to not judge the form and instead see that everything is an opportunity to expose our fears, doubts, and beliefs. We’ve been accustomed to taking things on, to taking things personally , to feeling bad, and to feeling like we’re not worthy of sharing, not worthy of being . Experiencing and perceiving an external world is rooted in hiding and holding on to private thoug hts. When you become more aware of your thoughts and beliefs, you’ll find that what seems to be happ ening in form is connecte d to your inner feeling experience. The interna l and the external world aren’ t really different; they merge. It seems like there’ s a world outside the mind, but it’s actually not out there. It’s synonymous with mind. This means you really don’t have interpersonal relationship problems. You really don’t have any physical problems. You really don’t have issues with what could happen to the environment. It’s all in your mind. It’ s all mental. The Core Private Thought When it comes to healing the mind and opening up to freedom and joy, the big shift happens when we open up our most private thoughts.Underneath all the others, there is one core secret that is intolerable to hold in mind, and it is this idea: “I am separate from God.” This core private thought marks the birth of a belief in time and projects a whole world. This thought puts everything fearful “out there” as well as what is believed to be enjoyable. This is where beliefs such as pleasure and pain come in attempt ing to strengthen the idea that you are a body . We can say that thoughts of valuing the body and identification with it are diluted private thoughts that cover the core private thought of separation. Essentially , all the thoughts that separate a “me” and a “you” are private thoughts. Thoughts that lead you away from an experience of this present moment, or any thoughts invol ving time, are private thoughts. This is because time, as used by the ego, excludes the experience of the present, the miracle. A private thought always involves the past or the future in one way or another . Regret of something that seems to have happened in the past or worry about something that can happen in a hypothetical future are examples of this. These thoughts, often concerns, worries, or even hopes, only involve the perception of a separate individual. They are therefore also called hypothetical thoughts. Hypothetically speaking, as-if, in the future, something may or may not occur . If you really watch your thoughts as they roll through, you’ll see that there are a lot of hypothetical, private thoughts. Some of them are judged to be very desirable, which explains why you think about them over and over. Some of them are very fearful or worrisome and have a lot of doubts, anger , and guilt attached to them. But they are all part of a mechanism to distract you and keep you from experiencing the present moment. The Holy Spirit knows that the sleeping mind is heavily invested in private thoughts. When the Self is realized and there is an expe rience of pure oneness, there are no longer any experiences of private thoughts, yet the condition of being in this world is to believe in those thoughts. In fact, they are believed to be the only reality . So in truth, I have no private thoughts, but as a separate self, all that I am aware of is private thoughts. This must mean that the separate self is not who I am. By their very nature, private thoughts come from an individual mind, with memories and thoughts of the past as well as future planning and looking forward to things. So, through exposing all your thoughts to the Holy Spirit andmaybe to a very trusted friend, you are opening up to a completely different experience, dif ferent than you’ve ever had before. You have surely noticed that there are a lot of emotions connected to private thoughts, and that’s why it can seem like the human condition is just an emotional rollercoaster ride. Up and down. People will even say, “Life is meant to be a serie s of challenges,” and “It’s inevitable that you will have challenges every day.” And this is an experience most people have, which is based solely on these private thoughts and the emotions that come with them. If we had to give a definition of God’ s will for us, it would be perfect happiness. God’ s will is definitely not for a rollerc oaster ride of emotions and painful experiences. That is why it seems to take a lot of conscious willingness to allow private thoughts to come into aware ness and then to be willing to not protect them, not push them down or repress them, and not to deny them. Just allow them to come into awareness, then let them go, and give them to the Holy Spirit. This is not like a lot of spiritualities where we were taught to accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives, or to use positive affirmations. That’ s a common thing that people talk about on the spiritual path, as if you can just eliminate the negative and then have only positive thoughts in your mind. But the positive thoughts and the negative thoughts are both coming from a dualistic perspective, a part of a continuum, and it’ s the very continuum that’ s the block. So, the attainment of happiness and inner peace is a matter of willingness to not hide and protect private thoughts. Because we judge our private thoughts as terrible or wrong, we hide them. There’ s a mask that the mind wears. It has the personality mask on with underlying beliefs and thoughts that it’s too afraid to face and expose because they are believed to be real. We believe that if people knew about these thoughts, then they wouldn’ t want to be around us. But as we expos e these private thoughts more and more, we come to a point where we say, “Aaah , these are just thoughts in my mind. I can’t believe I held onto them for so long.” The only way to reach the real you, or to reach that sense of invulnerability and a constant state of being happy, is to let go of the mask, the part of you that plays a role as a personality self. Let go of the belief that those thoughts are really whoyou are and question the validity of those thoughts. The ego set it up that way to obscure the truth about who you are. “And yet it is only the hidden that can terrify , not for what it is, but for its hiddenne ss.” Ego made up all the differences that led to all the private thoughts. Therefore, it’s only through the awareness that there are no private minds that we know freedom and love as it really is, the love that is at the core of our being, the love that is our true, divine self. Open Up, Share, and Be Free We only hide our thoughts out of fear and guilt, and this is just a holding on to a make-believe identity of guilt. When we truly give private thoughts to the Holy Spirit, we let them go forever . It’s like talking to your best friend. The best friend does not take these thoughts seriously and may laugh when you share them, and then you laugh too because you see how silly they are. This is how healing occurs. We have heard and often felt the deep value of communication. The holy instant is the experience of total communication. It is what I call communion. Communion with God is total communication in which everything is out in the open. The whole journey to enlightenment and self-actualization is about voluntarily , willingly , and gently letting the private thoughts come up into your awareness. Seeing that they no longer serve you, you realize that you don’t need them for survival. You don’t need them for a sense of well-being. You will relax, sink into the present moment, and experience that everything you could ever want or ever need is in this very moment. It takes a lot of trust to let go of thoughts that you believe bring about safety, security , and many , many desirable things. But they haven’ t truly brought about safety . It’s been more like a wheel; you’ve just kept thinking about them over and over. The wheel does not bring peace of mind. This wheel, a wheel of distraction, is what has kept you apart from the present moment in experience. When you go deeper , you start to get insights about how your everyd ay life can only reflect what’ s in your mind—your thoughts. I call them the “top forty”—the thoughts that recur over and over. Work with your top forty; they are topics andopportunities that are just waiti ng to be dissolved. Try to not interfere with the healing that’ s always occurring. Some of my best times, the times that I have enjoyed the most on Earth, are when I have done long retreats, and people line up for one-on- one sessions. This often happens after profound talks since people get in touch with a strong desire to open up and share what’ s in their heart. Some people unload their deepest darkest secrets, their deepest shames, or their deepest fear. I honor this deeply . It is immensely sincere and beautiful. I love being used as an instrument of innocence and healing. Often when I sit with someone, their eyes are saying, “Can I trust you? Will you still love me after I speak these next words to you?” And then they go for it. What follows these sessions is usually a moment of sparkly eyes, and we are both in happiness and love because the love of God transcends anything that the ego can come up with, any memory , any perception. We have an expe rience of our divine innocence, which is what we all want. A very helpful step toward not taking the world so seriously and not taking things personally is to have a safe environment, a safe atmosphere like a best friend with whom you can release your private thoughts and grievances. Imagine having the presence and spaciousness, to have someone, maybe your spouse, a coworker , a close friend, or a relative that you can just pour your heart out to, knowing that they love you. You trust them, and you know that they are not going to take anything you say personally; you can let up all the darkest things. I think that was the original intentio n behind the confessional booth of the Catholic Church —unburdening yourself. Talking to someone who is loving and caring is a symbol of giving it over to God and not holding on to anything. The more you say, “I want to heal; I want to bring this up, to release it, and to give it over,” the more you hear others speaking the exact same thoughts and sharing the exact same feelings. And when you are the one listening to them, you think, Oh, how could she think that about herself? How could he believe that? I feel love for him; she is beautiful. And the feeling is I love you, once the private thoughts are expressed! Whether you are giving thoughts over or hearing someone else express private thoughts, you see clearly that it is the ego being exposed, and that it is not who you or they are. You can truly see these thoughts,and they get lighter and lighter and funnier and funnier . What is really powerful is that we do not try to fix the thoughts or adjust the story . We are just letting them go so a deeper awareness can come and take the place of the busy thoughts. Issues simply dissolve, and you get to see that the Holy Spirit is really the healer . It is practicing the prayer of bringing illusion s to the truth and praying to bring the darkness to the light of love that brings the healing!Exercise: Express Those Private Thoughts Do this exercise when you can spend an hour by yourself. Get your journal, and silence your cell phone. This is a time set aside just for you. Part 1: Write a Letter Imagine someone whom you can trust completely , whom you could say absolutely anything to and they will not pass judgment on you. This person can be real or imagined; you could even write to the Holy Spirit. This friend listens to you lovingly and is not affected by anything you say or by any of the thoughts that you are ashamed of. This is some one who listens to you with a caring heart and of fers you unconditional love. You are now going to write a letter to this friend. Sit quietly and allow all private thought s to come to your mind. Write down your thoughts in this letter: thoughts you have hidden, thoughts that cause fear, thoughts of judgment on yourself, thoughts that you think would cause others to judge you, thoughts you feel ashamed of, unloving thoughts you have toward others or yourself, thoug hts you worry would cause a person to extract their love from you. Recall the importance of bringing private thoughts up to be exposed: when anything is hidden, it cannot be heale d. Take some deep breaths, and continue to write all hidden thoughts and thoughts that are so intoler able that you have avoided writing them down. Exposing these thoughts is where the healing lies. They can now be offered up. This letter is proof that you are willing to look at absolutely anything that comes up on your journey to healing. Once you have finished writing, sit or stand in front of a mirror and read your letter aloud. Allow yourself to feel the emoti ons thatsurface, knowing that a loving presence exists that accepts you unconditionally regardless of these thoughts. The next steps are up to you.

This-Moment-is-Your-Miracle_by_David_Hoffmeister.txt

Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms: As we take steps to face and undo what’ s blocking us from the joy that is our birthright, we finally arrive in the miracle, in the light. The way to come from split to unified desire is to see that the problem is not out there, outsid e of our minds; we have to look inside. To illustrate this, let’s use the levels of mind map and insert all the seeming proble ms of the world on the outer layer of the mind, perception: floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, or tornadoes; diseases like cancer, heart diseas e, or HIV; financial problems, economic conditions around the world, poverty, and world hunger; terrorism; and wars. We can fill in with anythin g we conceive of in our mind that we’ve been conditione d to think of as a problem within time and space on any scale or of any magnitude. It’s all out there on the screen. There seems to be a myriad of external causes and external effects on the screen, but, gently, the Holy Spirit keeps singing this song to the mind: “That’ s not the reason why. The problem’ s not out there; you have to look inside. ” The Holy Spirit is not only telling us to look inside, but has also given us the steps, the how to move throug h illusion and to find the solution. The correction to this erroneous thought system can only happen in the mind. With Spirit’ s help, we can find the correction in our own minds, just like Jesus did. He simply accepted the correction for every false belief. And now Spirit is giving us a detailed roadmap. The way is made clear. Going Back to the Projector How do we get to a peaceful perception of the world. By not judging. The less you judge anything in your life, the more it seems like you are just watching a movie or theater play (sometimes with lots of good acting going on. ). Rather than being within the movie as a character among other characters, you have the greater perspective of an observer. It’s only the ego that tries to separate out and thinks it knows the motivations of all the characters, why they did certain things, and what they were thinking. The ego is constantly reading meaning intoeverything. And whenever you see through fragmented perception and try to analyze the characters, including your own, it gets very complicated. In fact, it’s so complicated that you couldn’ t possibly see it as just a dance of form. You can’t even enjoy the movie of life because there’ s too much judgment going on. And part of that judgment is control. The mind that has fallen asleep, has forgotten its Creator, and is trying to control absolutely everything. It’s always showing up with an agenda. It needs to back off the screen and make its way back to the projector room. Through the miracle, you can experience that everything is thought. It all can merge and meld into holistic perception and awarenes s. When that happens, it’s so peaceful; there are no parts to conflict and no parts to defend and attack. Your perception becomes more and more unified in the joy. Therefo re, things that others identify as problems and may even apologize for, you don’t even notice; they are not in your awareness. This is how it goes with perception. It’s subjective. And it is through facing your beliefs, allowing your emotions to come up, and becoming more aware of your thoughts, you will find that your perceptions become lighter. You are moving toward unified perception where your experience is more and more one of peace and harmony. A Different Tool for Awakening to Joy I am a huge fan of using movi es as helpful tools on the journey. I see movies as modern-day parable s, and the journey can be quite fun. I encourage you to explore your perception in every movie-watching experience. A spiritual journey need not be cumbersome or tiring. Movies are an excellent way to watch your mind, to pay attentio n to your emotions, and to help you discover what your unconscious beliefs are. When you react emotionally to a movie, it’s the same dynamic as when you react to people in your life. If you have issues with people, it’s a projec tion of your mind. And it’s the same if you have react ions to a movie—it’ s coming from a projection of your mind. Watching movies is an enjoyable way to wake up and heal, compared to being in a difficult family situation or in a confrontational relationship. W atching movies forhealing can help you get clear in those difficult situations faster. Being aware of your state of mind, thoughts, and reactions while watching movies accelera tes healing. It can be intense at first when you start to get in touch with emotions and belie fs, but it gives way to joy, and you open up more to lasting peace, happiness, and contentment. Ultimately, movies can help guide you to enlightenment. The Spirit showed me techniques for watching movies in a new way—not as entertainment or escapism, but as a way to allow intense emotions to arise for healing. Movies can trigger memories that have been repressed and denied. When these intense emotions come up for you, pause the film so you can be present with whatever is arising for healing in the moment. Welcome the feelings so they can be released and open up to a new perspective. Exercise: Enjoy the Show. Watch the Disney movie, The Kid. Even if you’ve seen this movie before, it is guaranteed that with this new purpose, you will have a deeply meaningful and healing experience. Remember that the purpose of watching the movie is for healing the mind by releasing unconscious beliefs. Hold this intention of using it for healing clearly in your mind before you start the movie. A simple prayer can be helpful: “Holy Spirit, I invite a new and healing experience, watching this movie with You. ” During the movie, watch your emotions and anything that the scenarios or characters bring up for you. Even if you experience discomfort, try not to distract away from it. More than anything, be willing to stop the movie and feel and observe your emotions during intense scenes, attractive scenarios, or moments when you want to know or think you know what will happen next. Give yourself permission to stop investigating and just be with what is arising in awareness. Following your viewing of the movie, answer these questions in your journal (you may use some of these questions for any movie that you watch going forward): 1. Do you see how observing your different perceptions allows you to identify certain emotions and maybe even beliefs. Write down the emotions and beliefs you identify. 2. Did you experience any triggers or upsets from seeing any particular scenes or conversations in the movie. What were they. 3. What were your general feelings and associations about Russ as a character in the beginning of the movie. 4. Russ seems to have a lot of stress over keeping his self- image. How might this relate to you. Do you attempt to keep a good self-image in dif ferent situations. 5. How did you feel when little Rusty confronted him about the way his life ended up as a forty-year-old—that he had no dog or girlfriend and that he does not fly planes. 6. Does this movie remind you of anything about your past that you try to hide or might still be upset about. Write down anything that feels unresolved. 7. There is a funny scene when Russ makes an attempt to find safety in a sandwich. Are there situations when you feel that your self-image begins to fail. What are the forms of “safety” that you try to use to cover insecurities. 8. How does Russ’ s attachmen t to his false identity block him from true love and happiness. 9. What enables Russ to let go of his false identity and step into an experience of love. Release and Rest: Take some quiet time to detach and let emotions and ideas from the processing of the movie drop away. Open your mind to the Holy Spirit to wash away any remaining feelings and relax into peace. Take your time; there is never any rush. Peace in Spiritual Perception The power of desire is the determ iner of your state of mind. You are now in the early stage of changing your perception, which really means changing your life toward the real experience of peace. Small steps can lead to some big shifts in your awareness. It’s important to be vigilant with your perception and the tendency to perceive upsetting things as real problems. This is a process of looking honestly at your mind while allowing your heart’ s desire to be purified. The spiritual journey will culminate when you open up to spiritual vision, the vision of Christ, which takes you beyond the body entirely, back into an awakened state. Spiritual vision is a vast experie nce. The observer and the observed are one through healed, peaceful perception. When you perce ive the entire cosmos as unified and as neutral, you have reached true perception. It’s like a happy movie that includes everything and everyone. That’ s how you return to your Christ awaren ess. You return first to this full and complete awareness that everything is really one, everything is the same, there are no differences. The purpose is to see everything through the Holy Spirit’ s peaceful perspective or interpretation. Therefore, “it is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises. ” In this perception, nothing is a struggle. “The miracle is a lesson in total perception. ”Chapter 3 Fear What if we knew that all the things that we do—all the plans, all the busyness, as well as drama, bewilderment, despair, and conflict—are chosen by a mind that is afraid of being present. This fear of being present is disguised as many other fears. It can be fear of being alone, fear of losing someone, fear of what other people think, fear of accidents and catastrophes, or fear of threats, violence, and abuse, to mention a few. Fear serves one egoic purpose: to keep us from feeling the wonderment, the beauty, and the eternal calmness of the present moment. The separate mind is untrained and unwilling to keep attentive to the present since it is afraid of it. It is afraid of the Holy Spirit. The reason for this may not be apparent. It believes the ego, and thus separation from God, is real. It is attached to a tiny, imposter concept of self that is not true or real. We have all felt fear; it is a universal experience. It is an experience that exists in our minds but nevertheless, because of projection, it always seems to have external causes and also solutions, yet those solutions are never permanent. Fear locks us down. It closes us up and isolates us from the world. Until questioned, it binds us in a small and separate existenc e. Fear stems from a belief in a world of duality. Once fear is questioned, it will no longer rule our minds, as my friend Jenny learned through her experiences. Jenny’ s Example I was br ought up in a family that went to an ecumenical chur ch. There was a deep belief in sin and guilt. For me, what sin was always seemed strange, vague, and unclear. The teaching was that we ar e all sinners. As a r esult, I had to r eally face the fear of going to hell. One day, I sat on a stool in my r oom feelingbewilder ed, scar ed, and extr emely determined all at the same time. The feeling was, “I have to follow my heart, and I have to leave my chur ch. ” And the belief in hell, which to that day had been in the back of my mind, surfaced. The fear that I could possibly go to hell was in the for efront. But I r esponded with, “Okay, if I go to hell, I will still do this; I still want to follow my heart. I have to. ” And looking back at it now, I know that the fear itself is what hell is. Facing this fear shook me to the cor e, and I could only sit through it, allowing the fear to move thr ough. Y es, potentially I would actually go to hell by this move, and if so, it would be worth it; it would be my choice. I faced the deepest depr ession of my life. I was in a dark tunnel, and one day I was at the end of it, facing the back with no exit. Ther e was nothing else rising in fr ont of me; it was like being stuck in the darkest part of a deep cave. A friend, whom I trusted, called me that day. She asked if I wanted to shar e how I was doing. I spoke about the darkness, and after the call, I r ealized I had turned ar ound and was facing the way out of the tunnel. Fr om then on, I could feel the possibility of light and healing and I began to take steps towar d the light. Stepping out of Normal On the spiritual journey, you will probably find that you will feel called to make some changes in your life, like Jenny did. But becaus e of fear, you may find many reasons not to make a move or even take a step. Even if you have some hesitatio n at first, when you feel ready, you will find that it’s worth it to feel uncomfortable, to let go of your routines in order to find all the joy of God’ s love that’s available. It can feel like a solo journey at times because you have to go within to find the answers. At other times, companions show up to help you along the way. When I was in graduate school, I would take long walks in the woods. During these walks, I’d ask myself, “What am I doing this for. Is there a purpose for studying at university. ” And the ego would rattle off, “Yes, you need to have a degre e because you need to have a good job. Because if you want to have a relationship, you can’t be broke. This is why you are here, and this is why you have been here for ten years. Just keep at it, and we’ll get through this phase. ” All of my reasons for being there were fearful, based on my fear of consequences. Becoming aware of this poor motivation for my life got me in touch with a deep desire to open up to the guidance of Holy Spirit. I would ask, “Why am I here. Am I afraid of something. Is there something driving me to get all this education. Is there something pushing me from underneath. Am I afraid of something besides what the world would call a ‘fully engaged life. ’” The more I took the questions inward, the more Jesus was able to show me that it was freedom, peace, happiness, joy, love, and intimacy that I wanted. He showed me that I had many beliefs about what one has to do in this world to get those things. And it was those beliefs that were driving me. He said: “If you listen to Me, I will show you how to experience the things you want, through Me. In other words, through listening and then following Me, it will come from the inside of your mind. It won’ t come from any event or outcome in the world. ” This turned me in the right direction. In the beginning, I was astounded to see what a huge percentage of my actions were motivated by the fear of consequences. It could have been tempting to judge myself at that point, but I was determined not to do that. I was happy to discover how plugged in to the fear of consequences I was. I was happy to begin to unplu g with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’ s help. I found that to be very practical. It was something I could contemplate and ponder. I knew it was going to be a big job. I knew I wasn’ t going to take a pill and wake up the next day free of fear. I knew it would take contemplation and mind training. But I had A Course in Miracles, and it was a great tool to burrow deep into the mind. As I mentioned in the introduction, the mind can be directed by one of two thought systems: either of fear or of love. The ego-thought system produces fear. The Holy Spirit’ s thought system produces love. The ego speaks first because it is impuls ive. It is usually very harsh and critical. And the voice of the Spirit has to wait patiently, and then, when your mind is open, you can experience how He is there, unceasingly and very gently reminding you of the truth of who you are. The ego wants you tobelieve in its thought system and tricks to keep you asleep and dreaming, while the Spirit wants you to see your thoughts, your feelings, and your beliefs so you can become aware of them and start to loosen the bindings that limit you. To know this simplifies things as you realize you can choose which thought system to use. It is a decision in the mind. You will see that you are making decisions all along the way. You’re vacillating between two thought systems and between two emotions, and there’ s got to be a way to bring an end to it. You can make a choice. It is a matter of being alert to which voice you will give your attention. Whichever you give more attention to is the one that will become stronger in awareness. It’s very much like the old saying about the black and the white wolves in the mind: one represents fear, and the other represents love. The question is: Which wolf will you feed. The Ring of Fear In the explanation of the levels of mind in chapter 2, we saw that underneath the gross perceptual world is a layer of emotion. A Course in Miracles calls this “the ring of fear. ” This whole world—everything that we perceive through the five senses—is built on unconscious fear. How can this be. How does our fear translate into objects of time and space: houses, buildings, streets, and people. By the power of our mind. The mind simply can only see what it believes, which is why we need to release false beliefs. In the end, the spiritual journey becomes all about facing this unconscious fear. This is the transformation of the projected world into peace. When we take steps inward on the way to discover peace and true freedom, we first encounter the ring of fear, and it usually gets quite intense. In addition to fear, all of our other emotions are right underneath the far outer ring of perception as well. This means we really need to get in touch with our emotions as a starting point. If we ever want to reach the point of truth deep within our minds, we need to engage the natural process of allowing our emotions. The ego tries to control us by scaring us with many hypothetical consequences, so we push down and suppress all our emotions. Most of us weren’ t raised to get in touch with our emotions and thoughts. Many of us, if we were feeling upset, angry, or belligerent, were told, “Go to your room. ” or “You’re grounded. ” The response wasn’ t “Oh sweetie, tell me what you are thinking. ” Your parents were probably not Christlike psychot herapists filled with unconditio nal love and positive regard. They proba bly didn’ t say, “Let’ s get in touch with those thoughts underneath the fact that you just punched a hole in the wall. ” They said, “You are grounded. You will fix that hole in your wall, and we’re taking away your allowance. ” We were usually met with a lot of harshness when our emotions came up. There is a different way of relating with feelings, and when you understand the metaphysics of the mind, you discover what’ s beyond your perception down in the levels of mind. You can become much more sensitive to what’ s underneath the surface. Sometimes in meditation if you start to sink very deeply inward, a very surprising fear can come up, and it will seem to come from nowhere. Y ou are getting in touch with the darkness of the unconscious mind. This is fear that’s buried very deep. It is the reason why a personal identity was made. The personal identity was made to cover a very deep fear that you could be separate from God, from everything, from your Self—that you could be alienated from your Father and from oneness and be utterly lost. Mystics and saints have often shared that they encounter this fear when they begin letting go of their personal identity and they are coming closer to a merge with God. The stillness inside is so powerful that it can seem to burn up the “self. ” This is a huge threat to the ego, which is why it feels like a burning up or dissolving. The fear-based ego-belief system is based on having no safety in a dark world of hurts and needs, and of believing in the reality of victims and victimizers. This is so only because of an identification in the mind with the self as the body. But how could we truly know of safety and comfort except to identify with something real and true, something that cannot die or change. Everyone who is asleep and dreaming in this world is actually afraid of the Holy Spirit. This is so because even though people’ s lives are not happy and fulfilled in time, there is a familiarity to linear time. The things and activities of linear time are believed to be safe, while theHoly Spirit is associated with the unknown and is something completely different than anything in time. In the state of oneness, the mind is naturally at peace. The first fear was the fall from grace. It was a tremendous shift in mind, from loving, peaceful, and happy to terrifying and frightening. So, each step that you take with the Holy Spirit will have some reverberations of fear associated with it. Because even though you are awakeni ng from a nightm are, the ego is afraid of this awakening. The ego is afraid that it will be annihilated, that it will cease to exist. When we perceive something fearful, we can always allow ourselves to take a moment to pause rather than react. By taking a moment to open our minds and invite Holy Spirit into our percep tion, we invite a miraculo us shift in how we see things, and we can start to let go of habitual reacting and conditioned behaviors. We open up to inspiration. The beauty of the journey to happiness and freedom is that we all have the power to follow our inspiration and Spirit. We choose this and no longe r live based on fear of consequences. Otherwise, how would we ever get past this fear of love. We make a decision to no longer go for the seem ingly prudent, safe choice based on our past learning. We decide against the closed loop of the past and allow for the miracle, allow for the inspiration. Exercise: Looking at Fear When fear (or other negative, upsetting emotions) comes up, you can be alert to it. You can face it with a “bring it on” attitud e where you’re actually happy that you’ve got something to work with since releasing fear and doubt is really releasing the grip of a false identity. This exercise has the potential to help you to deepen in trust beyond desired results and outcomes—time-based desires and wishes that your sleepin g mind hopes to attain and achieve because of the belief that they are safe and can of fer something of value. Make sure that you have half an hour to an hour to yours elf. Choose a current life situation that brings up fear or maybe just some anxiety or worry. It could be around losing a job or a relationship, or it could be other fear-based issues around family or friends. Fear can also be disguised as anger because there is always fear underneath ange r. Try to be aware of other defenses or self-concept s that may cover the feelings. Take a look at ideas such as “I am a person who never gets worried, anxious, or fearful. I am strong and competent. Nothing ever worries me. ” These may be cover-ups, and you may not yet be aware of a deeper part of your mind that actually has a lot of fear or anxiety, which explains why the defense was built up in the first place. Keep this particular fearful life situation in awareness and relax for a moment. You are now going to look inward, following these steps. 1. In your journal, write down all your feelings and thoughts about the situation.

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"The medical information and procedures contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for\(...TRUNCATED)

Dmso_Nature_s_Healer_-_Morton_Walker.txt

"Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numeri(...TRUNCATED)

"This will\nsay to doctors, ‘protect your people without fear of being sued.’”\nState Senator (...TRUNCATED)

Dmso_Nature_s_Healer_-_Morton_Walker.txt

"Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numeri(...TRUNCATED)

"These later chapters will be devoted\nexclusively to particular disease conditions or body systems (...TRUNCATED)

Dmso_Nature_s_Healer_-_Morton_Walker.txt

"Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numeri(...TRUNCATED)