I recommend the digital editions of the Course. I have the Kindle version, and it's perfectly executed.
It is excellent that the publisher, Foundation for Inner Peace, is going with the times, despite all the work and money it must take. Many other movements still only have their works available on paper, mostly for fear of copyright issues, specifically the fear that many people might get copies for free. In my opinion this is counter-productive. Experience shows that widely available digital editions (even free ones) aid sales, not hinder them.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
"Illusions"
Did you ever read Richard Bach's "Illusions"? It's a beautifully inspired little book, and even quite funny too.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Non-perfection
Only God/Source is perfect. So to strive for perfection in anything while we are still human is fruitless, and probably just comes from a fear of criticism.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
We have problems receiving help
If you go down the street and give somebody five bucks, most people will say thanks and some will be very happy.
But if you gave them a thousand bucks, virtually nobody would take it. And if you convinced them to take it, most would feel so guilty that they couldn't enjoy the gift.
But if you gave them a thousand bucks, virtually nobody would take it. And if you convinced them to take it, most would feel so guilty that they couldn't enjoy the gift.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
You can't know everything
This is my belief: so long as you're still human and in a body, you can't possibly know or be aware of everything. The human mind is way, way too small.
So maybe the best thing to do is just give up trying to predict what will happen and what you will do in the future, and just give over control to the Higher Self.
So maybe the best thing to do is just give up trying to predict what will happen and what you will do in the future, and just give over control to the Higher Self.
Power and skills of communicating
I just came to think of one of my early proofs of non-physical communication:
In a course room many years ago I was doing some Communication exercises with a female co-student. And in the middle of it I got a… a certain male physical reaction, let’s say.
For a short while I tried to calm myself, thinking: ah, you’re just hot and bothered because you like Tina (I really did).
But then I realized that anything happening had to be related to the drill, I was not *that* bad at concentrating. And the purpose of the exercise was to make her give out strong, clean communications without distractions.
So I got the courage to say to her: “I feel some communication vibe which does not belong in the exercise.”
She nodded, but my reaction did not pass.
So I stepped up my courage one more notch and said: “sorry, the thing I feel is a sex vibe coming in.”
And she said” “Oh!”
And she continued the exercise… and my physical reaction disappeared instantly!
I had been certain I was not generating it. And she was so much master of her communication that she was able to stop it instantly once she became aware of it. I loved that.
-----
Tina was a lovely, lovely person. She also had a little kid, I think he was about four years old. One day in the garden, she was walking away, and he was trying to talk to her, but she didn’t hear him. So this tiny kid raised his voice just enough and said: “Tina! Are you listening to me?!” She was stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. This kid had way more communication skill and power than most adults! Wow.
He didn’t say “Mom”, he used her name. And he did’t throw a tantrum or anything, he just communicated powerfully and precisely.
He was also much better than I have been at any age. I am meek and don’t like to interrupt. One day in a busy airport bar I was trying to get a bottle of water, but the waitress for some reason overlooked me. I was trying to get her attention, but didn’t succeed. And a bright stranger next to me said to me: “dude, you just don’t have any impinging power.” And he was totally right.
I think the trick is to have impinging power without being rude or angry about it. If you are friendly and polite, people will not get offended if you interrupt. I guess in those days I had too much suppressed anger, so I became meek to compensate.
In a course room many years ago I was doing some Communication exercises with a female co-student. And in the middle of it I got a… a certain male physical reaction, let’s say.
For a short while I tried to calm myself, thinking: ah, you’re just hot and bothered because you like Tina (I really did).
But then I realized that anything happening had to be related to the drill, I was not *that* bad at concentrating. And the purpose of the exercise was to make her give out strong, clean communications without distractions.
So I got the courage to say to her: “I feel some communication vibe which does not belong in the exercise.”
She nodded, but my reaction did not pass.
So I stepped up my courage one more notch and said: “sorry, the thing I feel is a sex vibe coming in.”
And she said” “Oh!”
And she continued the exercise… and my physical reaction disappeared instantly!
I had been certain I was not generating it. And she was so much master of her communication that she was able to stop it instantly once she became aware of it. I loved that.
-----
Tina was a lovely, lovely person. She also had a little kid, I think he was about four years old. One day in the garden, she was walking away, and he was trying to talk to her, but she didn’t hear him. So this tiny kid raised his voice just enough and said: “Tina! Are you listening to me?!” She was stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. This kid had way more communication skill and power than most adults! Wow.
He didn’t say “Mom”, he used her name. And he did’t throw a tantrum or anything, he just communicated powerfully and precisely.
He was also much better than I have been at any age. I am meek and don’t like to interrupt. One day in a busy airport bar I was trying to get a bottle of water, but the waitress for some reason overlooked me. I was trying to get her attention, but didn’t succeed. And a bright stranger next to me said to me: “dude, you just don’t have any impinging power.” And he was totally right.
I think the trick is to have impinging power without being rude or angry about it. If you are friendly and polite, people will not get offended if you interrupt. I guess in those days I had too much suppressed anger, so I became meek to compensate.
Uncertainty is good
I had major problems for a few years, because I had started being uncertain about everything. I had an opinion, and somebody would come along and make me see the opposite viewpoint too.
I saw it as a failure and weakness.
But now I see that it was a blessing. The way to progress is be able to change your viewpoint. And when you do that, there is always a period of uncertainty, either very short or longer. And you just have to live with it for a while. Like many other problems on the Path, just... ride it out, like an illness.
I think that an important aspect of making progress is the willingness to learn. And to challenge one's own beliefs.
I like to occasionally stop up totally, and just relax and expand my mind. And try to take stock over my whole life, with as broad perspective as possible, always (and that changes). Am I really doing what I want? What's the best for me? For the world? Is there something missing?
Continually pressing on instead of thinking might make it more likely to make you a millionaire, but think of the most famous millionaires you know: how many of them seem happy? How many of them struggle with depressions and drugs? So will money solve your life?
I saw it as a failure and weakness.
But now I see that it was a blessing. The way to progress is be able to change your viewpoint. And when you do that, there is always a period of uncertainty, either very short or longer. And you just have to live with it for a while. Like many other problems on the Path, just... ride it out, like an illness.
I think that an important aspect of making progress is the willingness to learn. And to challenge one's own beliefs.
I like to occasionally stop up totally, and just relax and expand my mind. And try to take stock over my whole life, with as broad perspective as possible, always (and that changes). Am I really doing what I want? What's the best for me? For the world? Is there something missing?
Continually pressing on instead of thinking might make it more likely to make you a millionaire, but think of the most famous millionaires you know: how many of them seem happy? How many of them struggle with depressions and drugs? So will money solve your life?
Update:
Like a friend just commented: how do you know if one's new beliefs aren't also false? Well, me, I take it on faith that if one continues the process, at some point in the end one will arrive at the truth. How can it be different?
This also means it's good to resist the temptation to judge oneself for being "wrong" before. It's easier to move on if one just sees it as a long, continuing process, where every step was necessary.
Like a friend just commented: how do you know if one's new beliefs aren't also false? Well, me, I take it on faith that if one continues the process, at some point in the end one will arrive at the truth. How can it be different?
This also means it's good to resist the temptation to judge oneself for being "wrong" before. It's easier to move on if one just sees it as a long, continuing process, where every step was necessary.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
On George Bush and softness
"Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view."
-- George Bush, "All the Best, George Bush Sr"
... Now... George Bush, Jr even more than Sr admittedly, has been for me and many other progressive-minded people in the world one of the biggest and most spectacular and wonderful forgiveness-lessens we have had. The sheer hate that family inspires some (and love in others) is awesome. :-)
What I think GB is saying here is that often when a "liberal" (in the US meaning, meaning left wing) person is seeing somebody else's point of view (like somebody not liking being invaded by the US I guess), then he is not really being understanding or advanced, he is being soft, which means he's useless and ineffective. (He might be saying the opposite, in context.) I would guess he thinks that to be effective in life one has to be hard and take responsibility, and if one has to kill 100 lives to save a thousand, one just has to do it.
The Dirty Harry school of politics as it were.
Funny enough I agree with it.
But where it fails is in instances where, for example, the revenge wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) for the 9/11 incident (fall of the World Trade Center) cost 50 times as many lives on both sides as they avenged, and even then they did not solve the problem of terrorism.
To me personally anyway, it seems that as I progress and get rid of hard emotions and take more personal responsibility, I do get softer, and I get more and more of a tendency to see the other persons viewpoint.
-- George Bush, "All the Best, George Bush Sr"
... Now... George Bush, Jr even more than Sr admittedly, has been for me and many other progressive-minded people in the world one of the biggest and most spectacular and wonderful forgiveness-lessens we have had. The sheer hate that family inspires some (and love in others) is awesome. :-)
What I think GB is saying here is that often when a "liberal" (in the US meaning, meaning left wing) person is seeing somebody else's point of view (like somebody not liking being invaded by the US I guess), then he is not really being understanding or advanced, he is being soft, which means he's useless and ineffective. (He might be saying the opposite, in context.) I would guess he thinks that to be effective in life one has to be hard and take responsibility, and if one has to kill 100 lives to save a thousand, one just has to do it.
The Dirty Harry school of politics as it were.
Funny enough I agree with it.
But where it fails is in instances where, for example, the revenge wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) for the 9/11 incident (fall of the World Trade Center) cost 50 times as many lives on both sides as they avenged, and even then they did not solve the problem of terrorism.
To me personally anyway, it seems that as I progress and get rid of hard emotions and take more personal responsibility, I do get softer, and I get more and more of a tendency to see the other persons viewpoint.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Laughter is release
Sometimes when you point out a truth, people will laugh. But they may be doing it because the truth resonated with them, and out of release of mental pain rather than because they thought you were making a joke.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
What I believe is fact
A film I saw had a character who was very much into some movement which taught that it was not what others did to us, it was only our ideas about those things which make us upset.
And he was very busy trying to teach this to his family. They should forgive everything others had done, because their upset was only in their head. But the remarkable thing was that when the talk was about what others had done to him, his answer was always "no, that's not belief, that's fact".
Quite funny and good observation. We all have this tendency. It's so obvious to us that what others believe is subjective, and what we believe ourself is absolute fact.
And he was very busy trying to teach this to his family. They should forgive everything others had done, because their upset was only in their head. But the remarkable thing was that when the talk was about what others had done to him, his answer was always "no, that's not belief, that's fact".
Quite funny and good observation. We all have this tendency. It's so obvious to us that what others believe is subjective, and what we believe ourself is absolute fact.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Changing beliefs takes time
A favorite hard-rock song, "N.W.O" from Ministry has a sampled quote from George Bush Sr:
"What we are looking at is good and evil, right and wrong."
I'd guess that this was an argument for why it's right to go to war. If the "enemy" is evil and wrong, and you are good and right, then there's nothing to question about it, is there?*
And a religious man once illustrated that psychiatry is evil by pointing out that part of their goals is to eradicate the ideas of Right and Wrong.
I'm more and more coming to believe, though, that everything in the world, including Right and Wrong, is solely based on beliefs. It's hard to believe this, since our feelings about what is right or wrong are very, very deep and very, very strong.
Some people say "God hates homos". Well, do you really know this? Have you had a personal audience with God where he told you this? Are you really sure it was the God?
They'll quote the old testament to prove it. But the old testament also say that you can sell your daughter into slavery and you must not touch pig-skin, and many such things. So do you believe all it says, or are you selecting what fits with your feelings about the matter?
Now, this post is not about homos. I'm just trying to illustrate what Jed McKenna says: apart from "I think, therefore I am", there is not a single thing or belief in life we can really be totally sure about.
One should be willing to test any and all belief and ideas one has, including "facts" like one is a human on Earth.
It is not easy though, and takes a long time, because all the beliefs are packed together with old, hard-packed emotion, which tends to blow up in one's face when one challenges a belief. That's why it takes time.
* Of course the opposing belief, that Bush (either of them) is wrong and evil, is also based solely on a belief then.
"What we are looking at is good and evil, right and wrong."
I'd guess that this was an argument for why it's right to go to war. If the "enemy" is evil and wrong, and you are good and right, then there's nothing to question about it, is there?*
And a religious man once illustrated that psychiatry is evil by pointing out that part of their goals is to eradicate the ideas of Right and Wrong.
I'm more and more coming to believe, though, that everything in the world, including Right and Wrong, is solely based on beliefs. It's hard to believe this, since our feelings about what is right or wrong are very, very deep and very, very strong.
Some people say "God hates homos". Well, do you really know this? Have you had a personal audience with God where he told you this? Are you really sure it was the God?
They'll quote the old testament to prove it. But the old testament also say that you can sell your daughter into slavery and you must not touch pig-skin, and many such things. So do you believe all it says, or are you selecting what fits with your feelings about the matter?
Now, this post is not about homos. I'm just trying to illustrate what Jed McKenna says: apart from "I think, therefore I am", there is not a single thing or belief in life we can really be totally sure about.
One should be willing to test any and all belief and ideas one has, including "facts" like one is a human on Earth.
It is not easy though, and takes a long time, because all the beliefs are packed together with old, hard-packed emotion, which tends to blow up in one's face when one challenges a belief. That's why it takes time.
* Of course the opposing belief, that Bush (either of them) is wrong and evil, is also based solely on a belief then.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Opened by wonder
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
-- Gerry Spence
-- Gerry Spence
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