Email Dec 6, 2004

Anyone here tried out 'The Course in Miracles' stuff?
I fell into it via the book "The Disppearing Universe"
by Gary Renard. At first I was sort of irritated, because
his book turns out to be a blatant sales pitch for ACIM.
But then I found a free copy of The ACIM on line and sort
of like what I've read so far (I've skimmed about twenty
pages here and there). Especially good if read when a
leetle bit, ung, stoned... It's sort of as if Sri Aurobindo had
written The Urantia Book.


http://archive1.thedragonscave.org/a_course_in_miracles/

I downloaded it and ran a global replace, substituting
'The Goddess' for 'God' and 'The AO' (Anointed One) for
Christ and 'Yeshua' for 'J'. Of course you have to stitch
together all the chapters (600 pages all told). There's
also a workbook and a teacher's guide, so if you're so
inclined, there's enough pages to turn to keep even a
bedridden person with one workable finger busy for months.

There are millions on folks on this path, and just in
the Bay Area about ten study groups, so it's obviously
having a serious impact.

The main thrust seems to be ALMOST non-dual - i.e. that
each of us is basically the Christ Child of God but our ego
(bad bad ego) has pulled us into this weird Dream. Then
what's important is to forgive everyone, including ourselves,
to evaporate the guilt that is Ego's main tool for keeping us
dizzy.

I can go along with this, except that I think Ego also
deserves to be forgiven and invited along (I don't think
Course people would disagree, but they don't emphasize
this much, at least as far as I've read). They are definitely
DOWN on most of what passes for Christianity these days,
so that part is good. What perhaps is not good is that
there's a kind of cult feeling to the whole thing - but
then of course that happens when any particular path takes
off.

Also, God is not responsible for the creation of the
physical universe (which is considered a big mistake,
something I find hard to accept because the universe is
so amazingly beautiful). Anyway, setting up the universe
as 'not God's' burns a hole in their non-dualistic approach,
to my way of thinking. They try to wiggle out of it by
saying that the Christ emanation had a teensy teensy
microsecond of thinking,'What would it be like to go
it alone without the Old Man' - and THAT was the cause
of the BIG BANG and the splintering of perfection into
a zillion galaxies. Sort of merges Satan and Christ,
doesn't it? An odd solution. We end up having to forgive
Christ for creating the cosmos.

If any of this interests you, you can also go to a
question/answer site as a means of learning more:
http://www.facimoutreach.org/
Someone out there must have by now boiled the ACIM
down to a ten or so page abstract. When I find it,
I'll let you know. The only reason for 600 page
books as something heavy to put on your chest in
bed to slow down your breathing, in my opinion...
The truth just can't be that long-winded...

Speaking of which, my purring exercise keeps working just
great, although I'm now also investigating popular
last names as perhaps seed-syllable mantra vehicles,
such as the Vietnamese: NG (great on the exhale!)
and the East Indian KHAN (Moslem) - also a great chest
vibration.
There are no doubt many others.
(Maybe I should chant 'SMITH' and see where it leads!)
Maybe it's just that all spoken sounds have mantric
vibrations? Whee!

Off to SNARL about the world situation for a while
and raise my bliss tolerance levels,
R

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Email Dec 16 2004

Howdy, friends:
I'm a first-time poster here. I picked up Gary's "Disappearing Universe" not realizing
it was a sales pitch for "A Course In Miracles" (I would not have purchased it if I
had known this), but now am grateful that I did, although I still have
problems with his celestial visitors (if only he'd videotaped them
or something!).
The DU sent me to the ACIM text, which I'm moving through slowly.
If nothing else, ACIM challenges me to really view forgiveness in a
more profound manner - 're-view,' really, and make sure I'm covering
all the spaces and places it implies. This has been very helpful,
and I'm truly grateful.
At the same time, I cannot view a creation so magnificent and
overwhelming as the physical universe as a 'mistake.' Nor can I
abandon the physical body. I much prefer Sri Aurobindo's
and Mother Mira Alfasa's heroic efforts to 'divinize' the material
realms - which I personally believe is part of what at least I am
called to do. I attempt to keep an open communication going with
my cells, molecules, and convince them that death is merely a bad
habit that can be overcome once they realize that they are merely
'slowed-down' light, and light itself equals love and consciousness
on various of its subtler levels. In other words, I do not
experience a duality between 'heaven' - God's realms - and the
manifesting universe. I also wonder if the dualism inherent in this
thinking has been dealt with in ACIM, which claims to be teaching
non-duality.
I view the life form as entwined in a million-year-long love
affair with the Solar Logos, gradually awakening to itself as
the sun manifesting on the planetary level, climbing ever closer
from the ocean depths to the land to the air to space in a
phototropic attempt to merge with the light. Also I don't 'hate'
the ego, which is only doing its 'thing' as a survival mechanism.
I once 'chased' my ego down in an afternoon meditation, and
symbolically cornered it in a cave. When I came up upon it, it
turned out to be a cowering, terrified little 'creature,' part of
myself who wsa so tired of being put down and hunted all the
time. So we became friends, and I promised that it too would
achieve absorption into Source when the rest of me got there.
I suppose there's no real response to all this, except to
say 'Different strokes for different folks...' but I must say
that I do perceive holes in the ACIM's purportedly nondualistic
approach.
May She Who Manifests First from the Unmanifest Continue
To Shower Us With Her Blessings,

R

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Email Dec 19 2004

Really great post to MillionPaths by someone named 'Anton.'

Go Beyond Words: See for Yourself.

In my own practice, I did not know or study much. I took the straightforward
teachings the Buddha gave and simply began to study my own mind according to
nature. When you practice, observe your self. Then gradually knowledge and
vision will arise of themselves. If you sit in meditation and want it to be this
way or that, you had better stop right there. Do not bring ideals or expectations
to your practice. Take your studies, you opinions, and store them away.

You must go beyond all words, all symbols, all plans for your practice. Then
you can see for yourself the truth, arising right here. If you do not turn inward,
you will never know reality. I took the first few years of formal Dharma text
study, and when I had the opportunity, I went to hear various scholars and
masters teach, until such study became more of a hindrance than a help. I
did not know how to listen to their sermons because I had not looked within.

The great meditation masters spoke about the truth within oneself.
Practicing, I began to realize that it existed in my own mind as well. After a
long time, I realized that these teachers have really seen the truth and that if
we follow their path, we will encounter everything they have spoken about.
Then we will be able to say, "Yes, they were right. What else could there be?
Just this." When I practiced diligently, realization unfolded like that.

If you are interested in Dharma, just give up, just let go. Merely thinking
about practice is like pouncing on the shadow and missing the substance. You
need not study much. If you follow the basics and practice accordingly, you
will see the Dharma for yourself.

There must be more than merely hearing the words. Speak just with yourself,
observe your own mind. If you cut off the verbal, thinking mind, you will have a
true standard for judging. Otherwise, your understanding will not penetrate deeply.
Practice in this way and the rest will follow.

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