Good Morning!
Many of us who are on spiritual paths that are different from the mainstream sometimes find it difficult when we hear absolute statements such as, "This is the only way. Only those who follow this path will be saved." So last Tuesday's lesson from the workbook of A Course in Miracles (Lesson 23) can present some of us with a challenge. Here's an excerpt.
I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
The idea for today contains the only way out of fear that will ever succeed. Nothing else will work; everything else is meaningless. But this way cannot fail. Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed. If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn that it is these thoughts which you do not want. There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effect will change automatically. You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone?
The world is an effect, not a cause? I'm the cause of the world I see?
Pretty radical stuff. But what if it is true? What if the only way to escape the world I see is by giving up attack thoughts? In my meditations, I am inspired by the love that Jesus demonstrated when he walked the earth; how he gave up attack thoughts and saw love; and how, even in his death, there was no judgment.
If we can escape from the world we see by giving up attack thoughts, then we freely let them go. And it is the practicing of this way of seeing, thinking, and living that will demonstrate to us whether this path is truly our way home to God. Attack-free, judgment-free, complaint-free, we choose to walk today in joy.
Have a great day!
Michael
The Practicing Forgiveness group meets every Thursday at 7pm at Unity Christ Center (www.unitychristcenter.org) to share lessons in practicing forgiveness as a daily way of life. All are welcome. To receive a weekly practicing forgiveness message, send an email with “Practicing Forgiveness – Add my address” in the subject line to mwilk@mindspring.com.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Victim, Victim Transformer, Transcender
Good Morning!
Over the past several weeks, I have been listening to Ken Wapnick's audio CD, "The Meaning of Forgiveness." Ken is the head of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles - the organization that owns the copyright for A Course in Miracles. Ken was the person who worked with Helen Schucman, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, on the editing of the original manuscript.
From Victim to Victor
One of the points in his CD is that when we are ego-focused, we work diligently each day to expand our list of people we blame for our current situation. We blame our parents for us not being born in a better situation, we blame schools for not educating children better, we blame politicians for not making the decisions we "know" are right, we blame our significant others for not treating us the way we want to be treated. The list goes on and on. As Ken mentions in his CD, it is as if we are saying, "Before you came along I was okay, I was at perfect peace. Then you came and took away my peace! You're to blame."
But even on the level of the world as we know it, peace is a state of mind not a state of events. You can have 10 people in the same situation and all may be at different levels of peace. So if peace is a state of mind, the only person who can disturb my peace is me. It's not what happens in the world that changes my state of mind, it is what I think about what happens in the world that keeps me at peace or disturbs my peace.
And on the level of spirit, we know that - just as we sleep at night and have dreams that we create though we are really lying in bed - the world that we seem to live in is just a dream that our minds have created though we are really home with God. And so anything we create in this dream (happiness/sadness, peace/lack of peace) is OUR creation - even though it definitely doesn't feel like it, just as in our dreams at night when someone is chasing us, it doesn't feel like we are creating it.
And once more the only person who can disturb my peace is me. We have moved from victim to victor. We choose peace, love, joy or anything else, despite the circumstance.
From Victim to Victor to Transformer
With Ken's message fresh in my head, this week I facilitated a two-day teambuilding session with a group from a federal government agency. There were a number of people on the team who seemed to be taking a "victim" approach to their work, "Look what they did to me." As I planned for the session, I knew I wanted to introduce the concept of victim and victor, but my sense was that there was more to the message. As I got quiet, I received a wonderful insight.
Victim
• Focus: The past, self
• Action: Blame
• Example: "I didn't get the promotion"
Victor
• Focus: The future, opportunities
• Action: Take action
• Examples: Vanessa Williams (after being dethroned from Miss America), City of New York (after 911)
Transformer
• Focus: Making it better for others
• Action: Change the environment
• Example: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (a woman lost a child to a drunk driver and decided she would help prevent this from happening to others and started a national movement)
While the victor makes it better for himself/herself, the transformer makes it better for everyone. This insight helped the members of this particular government branch. Throughout the two-days we referred back to this concept of victim-victor-transformer as a standard of behavior for team members to focus on improving their environment.
But Still More...
This was very helpful to the team, yet, I still felt that there was more learning for me. As I continued to reflect, I got it: from Victim to Victor to Transformer to Transcender! What is a Transcender?
Transcender
• Focus: Seeing the truth that this is just our dream
• Action: Love and forgive
• Examples: Jesus, Mother Teresa
Whenever we are ready, we can choose to remember that this is just a dream and remember that our only purpose here is to practice the love and thought system that will allow us to reawaken to our home in God.
Of course I didn't think that my friends from the government agency were quite prepared to hear the "transcender" message from me, so I stopped at transformer!
Have a great day!
Michael
Over the past several weeks, I have been listening to Ken Wapnick's audio CD, "The Meaning of Forgiveness." Ken is the head of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles - the organization that owns the copyright for A Course in Miracles. Ken was the person who worked with Helen Schucman, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, on the editing of the original manuscript.
From Victim to Victor
One of the points in his CD is that when we are ego-focused, we work diligently each day to expand our list of people we blame for our current situation. We blame our parents for us not being born in a better situation, we blame schools for not educating children better, we blame politicians for not making the decisions we "know" are right, we blame our significant others for not treating us the way we want to be treated. The list goes on and on. As Ken mentions in his CD, it is as if we are saying, "Before you came along I was okay, I was at perfect peace. Then you came and took away my peace! You're to blame."
But even on the level of the world as we know it, peace is a state of mind not a state of events. You can have 10 people in the same situation and all may be at different levels of peace. So if peace is a state of mind, the only person who can disturb my peace is me. It's not what happens in the world that changes my state of mind, it is what I think about what happens in the world that keeps me at peace or disturbs my peace.
And on the level of spirit, we know that - just as we sleep at night and have dreams that we create though we are really lying in bed - the world that we seem to live in is just a dream that our minds have created though we are really home with God. And so anything we create in this dream (happiness/sadness, peace/lack of peace) is OUR creation - even though it definitely doesn't feel like it, just as in our dreams at night when someone is chasing us, it doesn't feel like we are creating it.
And once more the only person who can disturb my peace is me. We have moved from victim to victor. We choose peace, love, joy or anything else, despite the circumstance.
From Victim to Victor to Transformer
With Ken's message fresh in my head, this week I facilitated a two-day teambuilding session with a group from a federal government agency. There were a number of people on the team who seemed to be taking a "victim" approach to their work, "Look what they did to me." As I planned for the session, I knew I wanted to introduce the concept of victim and victor, but my sense was that there was more to the message. As I got quiet, I received a wonderful insight.
Victim
• Focus: The past, self
• Action: Blame
• Example: "I didn't get the promotion"
Victor
• Focus: The future, opportunities
• Action: Take action
• Examples: Vanessa Williams (after being dethroned from Miss America), City of New York (after 911)
Transformer
• Focus: Making it better for others
• Action: Change the environment
• Example: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (a woman lost a child to a drunk driver and decided she would help prevent this from happening to others and started a national movement)
While the victor makes it better for himself/herself, the transformer makes it better for everyone. This insight helped the members of this particular government branch. Throughout the two-days we referred back to this concept of victim-victor-transformer as a standard of behavior for team members to focus on improving their environment.
But Still More...
This was very helpful to the team, yet, I still felt that there was more learning for me. As I continued to reflect, I got it: from Victim to Victor to Transformer to Transcender! What is a Transcender?
Transcender
• Focus: Seeing the truth that this is just our dream
• Action: Love and forgive
• Examples: Jesus, Mother Teresa
Whenever we are ready, we can choose to remember that this is just a dream and remember that our only purpose here is to practice the love and thought system that will allow us to reawaken to our home in God.
Of course I didn't think that my friends from the government agency were quite prepared to hear the "transcender" message from me, so I stopped at transformer!
Have a great day!
Michael
Sunday, January 7, 2007
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Good Morning and Happy New Year!
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
My father made his transition in March 2003, losing a so-called battle to prostrate cancer. My dad was a dynamic Unity Minister, a teacher of A Course in Miracles, a strong believer that "dis-ease" was an outward manifestation of an inner need for healing. Though his body was manifesting significant signs of illness and he spent his last days in bed, to the end he was looking forward to "learning the lesson in this one." Several hours before his passing, he was singing hyms and spirituals with us.
Yet, his passing brought questions of my own mortality to the forefront and I found myself needing to better understand this death and dying thing from a spiritual perspective. By the start of 2004, my questions had gotten even more focused: Why am I here? What am I supposed to being doing here? What is this thing called "life" all about? While I had been a student and a facilitator of A Course in Miracles many years before, I was needing clearer answers.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
When my mother introduced me to The Disappearance of the Universe in February 2004, I was immediately and significantly impacted by the clarity of the message, the depth of the explanations, the no-holds-barred questioning of widely-held beliefs and assumptions, and the incredible consistency with A Course in Miracles. As someone has said, if A Course in Miracles is the can, then The Disappearance of the Universe is the can-opener. Though the message is not for the close-minded, I found that my head, my heart, and my spirit resonated strongly to the message and that my questions were answered with crystal clarity.
And then when I learned that Gary Renard, the author of The Disappearance of the Universe, would be speaking in several months at the church I had just started attending, it was clear that the Holy Spirit, our great comforter and teacher, was at work. I knew that Gary's visit would likely be a significant turning point in my life.
During the question and answer period following his workshop, I asked a question similar to: "Forgiveness is clearly the center piece of The Disappearance of the Universe. Are there groups that have formed around helping people to learn how to practice forgiveness on a daily basis? What do this groups do when they come together? What format do they use for their meetings?" His response was that he didn't know of any such groups and that I should do it and let him know.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Since February 2005, a group has been meeting weekly on Thursdays at Unity Christ Center to learn from each other's experiences in practicing forgiveness daily. My many "teachers" - the participants in the group - have been amazingly open in sharing their successes and "opportunities for success" in practicing forgiveness. Walking in forgiveness is indeed a lot more fulfilling and a lot more fun! And perhaps more than anything else, this regular sharing of forgiveness experiences has served to keep forgiveness in the forefront of my thinking as I continue to remove blame, judgment - and complaining Rev. Allison! - from my life.
Attached is a copy of the forgiveness primer and the small group norms we use in our practicing forgiveness group. Please feel free to pass them on. My affirmation is that throughout this year, the rewards of practicing forgiveness on a regular basis will continue to strengthen in you and me our desire to live and love as Jesus/Jeshua did.
In Joy,
Michael
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
My father made his transition in March 2003, losing a so-called battle to prostrate cancer. My dad was a dynamic Unity Minister, a teacher of A Course in Miracles, a strong believer that "dis-ease" was an outward manifestation of an inner need for healing. Though his body was manifesting significant signs of illness and he spent his last days in bed, to the end he was looking forward to "learning the lesson in this one." Several hours before his passing, he was singing hyms and spirituals with us.
Yet, his passing brought questions of my own mortality to the forefront and I found myself needing to better understand this death and dying thing from a spiritual perspective. By the start of 2004, my questions had gotten even more focused: Why am I here? What am I supposed to being doing here? What is this thing called "life" all about? While I had been a student and a facilitator of A Course in Miracles many years before, I was needing clearer answers.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
When my mother introduced me to The Disappearance of the Universe in February 2004, I was immediately and significantly impacted by the clarity of the message, the depth of the explanations, the no-holds-barred questioning of widely-held beliefs and assumptions, and the incredible consistency with A Course in Miracles. As someone has said, if A Course in Miracles is the can, then The Disappearance of the Universe is the can-opener. Though the message is not for the close-minded, I found that my head, my heart, and my spirit resonated strongly to the message and that my questions were answered with crystal clarity.
And then when I learned that Gary Renard, the author of The Disappearance of the Universe, would be speaking in several months at the church I had just started attending, it was clear that the Holy Spirit, our great comforter and teacher, was at work. I knew that Gary's visit would likely be a significant turning point in my life.
During the question and answer period following his workshop, I asked a question similar to: "Forgiveness is clearly the center piece of The Disappearance of the Universe. Are there groups that have formed around helping people to learn how to practice forgiveness on a daily basis? What do this groups do when they come together? What format do they use for their meetings?" His response was that he didn't know of any such groups and that I should do it and let him know.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Since February 2005, a group has been meeting weekly on Thursdays at Unity Christ Center to learn from each other's experiences in practicing forgiveness daily. My many "teachers" - the participants in the group - have been amazingly open in sharing their successes and "opportunities for success" in practicing forgiveness. Walking in forgiveness is indeed a lot more fulfilling and a lot more fun! And perhaps more than anything else, this regular sharing of forgiveness experiences has served to keep forgiveness in the forefront of my thinking as I continue to remove blame, judgment - and complaining Rev. Allison! - from my life.
Attached is a copy of the forgiveness primer and the small group norms we use in our practicing forgiveness group. Please feel free to pass them on. My affirmation is that throughout this year, the rewards of practicing forgiveness on a regular basis will continue to strengthen in you and me our desire to live and love as Jesus/Jeshua did.
In Joy,
Michael
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