Friday, August 8, 2008

How ACIM is different

It seems to me that most people who speak about nondualism stand in sharp contrast to A Course In Miracles (and Disappearrance Of The Universe). They say stuff like: "There really isn't a person. You can't have a journey to enlightenment, because there isn't a you. You can't do anything to accomplish it. There aren't any levels. There aren't any steps on the road, and no road. You can't do anything to achieve enlightenment. It can't be done on purpose. There is no process. It only happens when you stop searching." In other words, not very helpful.

Maybe some people, unlike me, find it helpful. Maybe those people are a lot closer to enlightenment than me. So they can suddenly change their mind and get there.

In contrast, ACIM speaks on different levels, and it *does* provide things one can *do* to accomplish enlightenment. The fact that it works within the illusion to undo an illusion is of no consequence. In fact it's the only place you can work with the illusion.

Pursah in DU actually says something like this, she says that just telling people that life is an illusion does not help them very much, you have to teach them advanced forgiveness.

I think that those "most speakers" I talked about may possibly be speaking from an enlightened viewpoint, but that they have no clue how they arrived there, and so they can't help very much. They especially seem to have no clue about the existence of The Guilt, or how to deal with it. For them it's not there. Which is true, but not helpful to people who still believe it is.

Another thought on the Enlightenment stories I'm reading (the book Everyday Enlightenment): they must seem quite depressing to most people because all they say is all the time: "nothing really matters" and "you are not in control".

They are missing the ingredients the reason nothing matters is that nothing we see is real.
And that Heaven/Source *is* real, and it's what matters, and it is what we have in the end.
And that "we" are not in control because the Higher Self is, but this is also us.

Basically 90% you hear about nondualism is seen from a human standpoint, which makes it very depressing.

In most writings there is an absence of data about why is there an illusion/world, and why is there suffering. How did it come about? How do we undo it?

It seems that for people who have crossed over, the Guilt is not existing and it's like it never was. And it seems to them so easy to change your mind, why can't everybody do it?

This is why ACIM is different, and also it is more or less the only non-dualistic teaching which includes teaching about Source, or god. Which one might consider pretty damn important, since it is everything there is!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the workbook makes the difference.(At least for the "New- to-this-matter-soul")

The Course says that without doing the workbook the text will seem like mere abstractions hardly to understand.

Familiar with that ?

In my opinion Non Dualism is understood/experienced while the love of God starts to dawn in us.

This awareness of love is a reference point from which it is easy to say that nothing in this world is of true importance since nothing in this world brings so much joy.

The course says that this experience cannot be put into words which I think is true.

Consequently, mere words cannot really help. At least not in a quick fashion as doing the ACIM workbook does.

forrest evans said...

I enjoy the Course in Miracles. It hasn't been my path, however.
Two years ago i was at the Oneness University in southern India, and i went through a three week process in order to be initiated to give deeksha, the oneness blessing. As they began they process, one day our young Indian guide explained that in the far east, they tend to have an impersonal relationship with the Presence, and that in the West, we have tended to have a personal relationship with the Presence. We have a visualization of God, and Jesus, as someone we can have a personal relationship with. Whereas in the Zen Buddhist world, a meditation hall will often have no statues and no representations of the Presence. The young guide's comment was that in India, being between the two, they have both an impersonal and a personal way of relating to Presence. They encouraged each of us to develop a personal relationship.
At that time, i had no symbol, no form that i connected with. I meditated and Tara came to me. She is the goddess of unconditional love, known in China as Kuan Yin. She loves us no matter what we do, completely and unconditionally. As we went through the process, she was with me. And at times, as we went deep into a sacred space, she would come to me, and sit on my lap, in a most lasivicious (sp?) manner. She was sexual for me, because i need sexual healing.
As i was saying in another comment on another blog you posted, "form is emptiness, and emptiness is form". And here is the beauty of tantra, the marriage of sexuality and spirituality. I have known this for awhile with my mind, but it is clearer than ever that for me to drink deeper of the nectar of this universe, i must penetrate the mysteries of sexuality and spirituality simultaneously. A masturbating monk is not a fully engaged, vital, enlightened being!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

There are many subtle steps along the way.

I have a friend in Denmark who took that three-week deeksha course thingy. I have not heard yet how it went.