Twenty Years

1996 was a very pivotal year for me. I attended a week long video presentation of Drunvalo Melchizedek's Flower of Life workshop. This put together a lot of stuff I had come across previously and introduced me to quite a lot of new material.

He introduced a very different view of history based primarily on the writings of Zecharia Sitchin. He also talked about A.H. Almaas's explanation of how we get drafted into ego-land during our early childhood. I found Almaas's book "The Pearl Beyond Price" fascinating,

During that week there was some discussion about a work that was to become the major influence in my life: "A Course in Miracles".

Since then I have read the Textbook and Manual for Teachers numerous times and done the Workbook lessons twice. Yes, I am stubborn, and it takes a long time to undo my attachment to ego-land and all its illusions. Now I cycle through Lessons 221 to 365 on a continuous basis to keep me reminded of who and what I truly am and where and when I really live.

A Course in Miracles emphasises again and again that I am as God created me and as such I have no need to be concerned about this world, or the ego's interpretation of what it thinks is going on. Ego-land is hell. Based on fear, guilt and anger, we'll stay stuck in it until we change our thinking.

There is a 'world beyond' this world that we can enter. To do this, we start looking at this world through Love and Peace. Beyond ego's insistence that we are all guilty, we are all, in fact, perfectly innocent. As God's creation, how could we be otherwise?

Guilty, Not Guilty or Innocent?

To reply "Guilty" or "Not Guilty" implies that we have been accused or have accused ourselves. From a perusal of the world media, whether newspapers, television or internet, we are exceptionally good at what I refer to as "The Blame Game". We even engage in it in our personal relationships - expressions like "It's all your fault." "It's all my fault."

When we play the Blame Game we are trying to make someone else guilty in the hope that we will remain innocent. However, the blame, and hence the guilt, we are projecting onto others comes from our illusion of ourselves.

The illusion of an autonomous independent self comes from the idea that we can be and are separate. Having accepted this as true we feel justified sitting in judgment of each other.

The problem with most accusations is that the investigation, the hearing, the judge and jury are bypassed in the assumption of guilt.

Having lived all my life in the Blame Game and its consequent "Guilt Trip" I found it very hard to accept the simple lessons of A Course In Miracles:

"As we do to each other we do to ourselves."

"We are all Innocent"

And because I found it so hard to accept I've added lots of quotations (without the quotation marks). These have been slightly edited to change "I mine you and yours" into us and ours. I declined the temptation to edit the words God, Father, Son of God, Christ. God's Final Judgment has already been delivered to us. All we have to do is accept it.



This is God's Final Judgment: "You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am your Father and you are My Son."

Our innocence protects us from all harm. Our innocence ensures us perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love, freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance from suffering. And only happiness can be our state, for only happiness is given us.

What must we do to know all this is ours? We must accept that we are all One, and nothing more. God has already done all things that need be done. And we must learn we need do nothing, for we need but accept our Self, our innocence, created for us, now already ours, to feel God's Love protecting us from harm, to understand our Father loves His Son; to know we are the Son our Father loves. God Who created us in innocence is not mistaken about what we are. We were mistaken when we thought we sinned, but we accept that we are One with God and with each other.


The self we made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal, and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the Son of God. It does not hurt him, nor attack his peace. It has not changed creation, nor reduced eternal innocence to sin, and love to hate. What power can this self we made possess, when it would contradict the Will of God?

Our innocence is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated, until it is accepted. It is true. Our innocence is guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch it, or change what God created as eternal. The self we made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless. Our innocence is guaranteed by God, and light and joy and peace abide in us.

True light is strength, and strength is innocence. If we remain as God created us, we must be strong and light must be in us. God Who ensured our innocence must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. We are as God created us. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God's Son. We stand in light, strong in the innocence in which we were created, and in which we will remain throughout eternity.


Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect innocence in you.


Remove our focus on our brother's sins, and we experience the peace that comes from faith in innocence. This faith receives its only sure support from what we see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to our guilt. And we will not transcend their sight and see the innocence that lies beyond.

We first let all such little focuses give way to our great need to let our innocence become apparent. We instruct our minds that it is this we seek, and only this, for just a little while. We do not care about our future goals. And what we saw an instant previous has no concern for us within this interval of time wherein we practice changing our intent. We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.

The world which once proclaimed our guilt becomes the proof that we are innocent. And our love for everyone we look upon attests to our remembrance of the holy Self which knows no guilt, and never could conceive of anything without Its innocence. We seek for this remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. We look neither ahead nor backwards. We look straight into the present. And we give our trust to the experience we ask for now. Our innocence is but the Will of God. This instant is our willing one with His.

Our Father, let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes. For we who are Your holy Son are innocent. We would look upon our innocence, for guilt proclaims that we are not Your Son.

And we need but remember that God's Love surrounds His Son and keeps our innocence forever perfect, to be sure that we are saved and safe forever in His Arms. We are the Son He loves. And we are saved because God in His mercy wills it so.

Father, Your Holiness is ours. Your Love created us, and made our innocence forever part of You. We have no guilt in us, for there is none in You.

Father, there is a vision which beholds all things as innocent, so that fear has gone, and where it was is love invited in. And love will come wherever it is asked. This vision is Your gift. The eyes of Christ look on a world forgiven. In His sight are all its sins forgiven, for He sees no sin in anything He looks upon. Now let His true perception come to us, that we may waken from the dream of sin and look within upon our innocence, which You have kept completely undefiled upon the altar to Your holy Son, the Self with which we would identify.

Forgiveness is a choice. We never see our brother as he is, for that is far beyond perception. What we see in him is merely what we wish to see, because it stands for what we want to be the truth. It is to this alone that we respond, however much we seem to be impelled by outside happenings. We choose to see what we would look upon, and this we see, and only this. Our brother's innocence shows us that we would look upon our own. And we will see it, having chosen to behold our brother in its holy light.

What could restore Your memory to us, except to see our brother's innocence? His holiness reminds us that he was created one with us, and like ourself. In him we find our Self, and in Your Son we find the memory of You as well.

Who is our brother but Your holy Son? And if we see him guilty we proclaim ourself guilty, not a Son of God; alone and friendless in a fearful world. Yet this perception is a choice we make, and can relinquish. We can also see our brother sinless, as Your holy Son. And with this choice we see our innocence, our everlasting Comforter and Friend beside us, and our way secure and clear. Choose, then, for us, our Father, through Your Voice. For He alone gives judgment in Your Name.


No one can escape God's Final Judgment.  Who could flee forever from the truth? But the Final Judgment will not come until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each of us will welcome it, and on that very day it will be given us. We will hear our innocence proclaimed around and around the world, setting it free as God's Final Judgment on us is received. This is the Judgment in which salvation lies. This is the Judgment that will set us free. This is the Judgment in which all things are freed with us. Time pauses as eternity comes near, and silence lies across the world that everyone may hear this Judgment of the Son of God:

Holy are you, eternal, free and whole,
at peace forever in the Heart of God.
Where is the world, and where is sorrow now?

Is this our judgment on ourself, teacher of God? Do we believe that this is wholly true? No; not yet, not yet. But this is still our goal; why we are here. It is our function to prepare ourself to hear this Judgment and to recognize that it is true. One instant of complete belief in this, and we will go beyond belief to Certainty. One instant out of time can bring time's end. Judge not, for we but judge ourself, and thus delay this Final Judgment. What is our judgment of the world, teacher of God? Have we yet learned to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment in ourself? Or do we still attempt to take His role from Him? Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. And His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening, and wait for Him.

We who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel our just due is not given us, and our best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! They are too small and meaningless to occupy our holy mind an instant longer. God's Judgment waits for us to set us free. What can the world hold out to us, regardless of our judgments on its gifts, that we would rather have? We will be judged, and judged in fairness and in honesty. There is no deceit in God. His promises are sure. Only remember that. His promises have guaranteed His Judgment, and His alone, will be accepted in the end. It is our function to make that end be soon. It is our function to hold it to our heart, and offer it to all the world to keep it safe.

Peace of Mind Healing 5. Ending this SAD Game

In his book, "Function of the Orgasm", Wilhelm Reich used the analogy of a bladder to explain how our bodies behave. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico, as reported by Carlos Castaneda, seen us in ancient times as luminous eggs. Modern man, they contended, looks like spheres.

I prefer to see us as bubbles.

God is everywhere. God is Love. Love is everywhere.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico seen love as a glue that held everything together. A Course in Miracles stresses that Love is all there is.

In our first month as babies all we are is Love. It flows freely in and around us. As we begin our attachment process to our parents we begin to identify with them as they see themselves. This process leads to the development of our senses and to our identification with images, sounds and body sensations. By the time it is complete we are totally convinced that we are bodies.

We see ourselves as separate entities subjected to encounters with other separate entities. The nature of these encounters varies depending on the nature of our childhood circumstances. If we were brought up in a caring tolerant environment then, most likely, we will be caring and tolerant. If we were brought up in an angry, argumentative and belligerent environment its highly unlikely that we will not have absorbed some of these traits.

Even though we see ourselves as separate, there really is no such thing. We can convince ourselves that we are isolated and alone, that we are worthless, or that no one loves us. Not only can we, we are totally convinced that we are these things and much worse.

We see ourselves as subjects of attack and abuse who need lots of protective defenses. Instead of bubbles of Love we see ourselves inside a dense encrusted shell. A shell that lets nothing in and lets nothing out.

To end this game we need to change our thinking. "Easier said than done" is the most frequent response I get to that idea. We need to become aware of what we are thinking at any given moment. To do this we become present.

Presence techniques are primarily based on observation of what we perceive with the senses of the body. Perception and observation are qualities of our mind and are determined by our thinking. What we look for we find! To observe is to pay attention. An observation is just an observation until we decide what to do with it. We can blame-game-guilt-trip or we can learn.

To Observe Truly

1. First suspend all belief and thought systems.
2. Then switch off any pattern recognition systems.
3. And then when we've become rightly (or leftly or wrongly) confused we may begin to know reality.
4. Having observed, accept our observations for what they are, our observations. Do not go looking for agreement for them; do not go looking for approval for them. No-one else will have switched off our belief, thought and pattern recognition systems and they will not want us breaking down their defenses.

Blame-Game-Guilt-Trip

1. We make an observation.
2. We analyse and compare our observation with our memories or with what we think is right.
3. We look for someone or something to blame.
4. We start trying to make the offender guilty and whether that works or not we end up making ourselves feel guilty.
5. Our guilt trip locks up one or more energy system.
6. This locked energy leads to disease or decay.
7. Eventually we drop the body in a ritual called death.

Learning

1. We make an observation.
2. We use our intellect to understand what it means to us.
3. Based on our understanding we appreciate what we have learned.
4. Appreciation leads to Love.
5. Love leads to eternal life, to Heaven.

At any stage in the blame-game-guilt-trip process we can convert to learning. At step 2, for example, we can change from analysis and comparison to synthesis and learn, or at step 3,4 we can realise that all we are all here to do is to learn.

Note: The text from presence techniques onwards is taken from this site with slight editing.

Peace of Mind Healing 3, The Game of Sickness and Death

An idea has been troubling me for the last few weeks. It's an idea that I am very reluctant to talk about because it causes so much emotional upset upon its victims and their survivors. And because I am going to talk about it in a different way, I fear I am going to be ridiculed.

So, what the heck, that has never stopped me before, always putting my feet in it, and while I think I'm being brave, others think I'm reckless.

The idea is that all the pain and suffering, the chronic disease and death that afflicts us, is caused by our thinking.

And now that I've said it I realise I've said it before but not in the same words.

When I was studying Western Medicine as part of an Acupuncture course I did in the '90's I was often surprised that the causes of disease were unknown and that the emphasis was placed on contributing factors and the relief of symptoms.

And even though the causes are unknown the recommended treatment option was to use something that kills it. This always reminded me of the line in police dramas - "shoot first and ask questions later".

By the time the information gets from the text books and into the public domain it has been "doctored" as this example from Wikipedia shows.

"If a person who uses tobacco heavily, develops lung cancer, then it was probably caused by the tobacco use."

and in the next paragraph

"Tobacco smoking is associated with many forms of cancer and causes 90% of lung cancer."

In the first sentence "probably" is used because the text book says "cause unknown" and that tobacco is a contributing factor. But in the second sentence it's now 100% certain that 90% of lung cancer is caused by tobacco smoking.

In Chinese Medicine, as I learned it, the major cause of all disease is emotional. It's the emotion that causes the disease. This was also the view of Dr. Edward Bach, who developed the Bach Flower Remedies to heal disease based on the emotional state of the patient.

In a A Course in Miracles, Workbook Part 2, Section 4 it states, (slightly edited)

"We play a childish game... that we have become bodies, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death...How long will we maintain the game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys? How soon will we be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would we still hold return to Heaven back?"

The emphasis in A Course in Miracles is that all our suffering and disease is caused by our belief in "sin" and the guilt that follows it. We have so identified with ego-body states that we can't see what we really are.

"Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth."

When I was a child I was always getting into trouble. This meant I got a lot of smacks, and when it was serious, some right thrashings. These I did not mind too much, I'd get over the pain and get on with it. I took it as part of the natural order - we do something we are not supposed to do, we get punished. And punishment went corporal punishment.

In first class in primary school I was introduced to the idea of sin and guilt. Now, the behaviours that I had got smacked or trashed for were sins that I should feel guilty about. The game had changed. No longer was it simply misbehave, get caught and get smacked. It had become more sinister. I was guilty, I was a sinner, I was evil.

Many years later I was talking with my father about the state of discipline in the schools. He was advocating the return to corporal punishment. I agreed with him, which shocked both of us, since we seldom agreed on anything. I explained that my worst moment in secondary school was when I had been given a mental and emotional dressing down rather than my usual "six of the best" caning. After the caning I would walk back into the study hall with my head held high and showing off the welts forming on my hand. This time, I wanted to crawl back into the study hall, I felt so ashamed. I had been caught lying.

My father asked me what had I been lying about. I genuinely could not remember, I had buried it deep in my mind. Up until that day I had not known the reason for my humiliation. He probed a bit about what year it had happened and then he remembered.

I had been in boarding school a few weeks and hated it. I wanted to go home. So I made up a story that my grandfather had died. The dean called my home to offer condolences to my parents and to ask about the arrangements. My mother had answered the phone. She went to my father and asked him what were they going to do. My grandfather was mad alive. My father decided that they could not play along. He informed the dean that grandfather was alive and well and maybe the young fella (that's me) was just feeling homesick.

He then explained that they thought about going along with me, but the chances of not getting caught out were slim. Especially since the college owned the farm beside ours on the island and sooner or later they'd be bringing their cattle through our yard and would see grandfather.

We both laughed at how naive I had been. But, the damage had been done. I now believed that they were right. In retrospect, it was probably the end of my innocence. I accepted the game as reality.

It's only a game. A game with very serious consequences for those of us who believe that we are only bodies. We are not bodies. We are minds that have convinced ourselves that we are bodies.

If we can accept the idea that we are minds and that our minds control everything that we perceive, then we can start to change our thinking.

We all suffer from Paranoid Schizophrenia, not in the clinical sense, but in the simple English translation of the original Greek and Latin words - "walled mind, split mind". We all see our boundaries as the boundaries of our bodies. We can only know what we perceive with our bodies senses. We are all separated from each other.

But, no matter how separated or isolated we feel we are, we still have access. Our minds are still part of the oneness of all minds. The part that believes it is split off can change its thinking and recognise its oneness with all of creation. We can recover and reclaim our true identity.

Peace of Mind Healing 1. World View

I've always liked riddles and in my teens was introduced to the Zen variety when an older brother asked me to figure out, "What is the difference between a duck?". The latest one I've come across is "The last one out opens the door!" They don't make sense at first look, and they are not supposed to. They are geared at making us think. You can try and figure the first one out for yourself. I'll give you my understanding of the second one.

We are all in this together. We all believe that we are separate from each other. As long as anyone continues to believe in separation then we are all kept separate. Even though I believe that we are all one, and you may believe that we are all one, we still have to wait for the last person to give up their belief in separation. So, the last one out of separation opens the door to all of us becoming one again.

There are many ways of looking at the world. We can see it as a hell on earth. We can see it as a large biosphere floating through space. We can see it as totally neutral. We can even look at it as a school. Singer songwriter Paul Brady may have got it right when he sang, "The world is what you make it, baby."

The idea that the world is a school leads to the common belief that we will always be learning. That we are here to learn our lessons, and if we don't learn them all in this life, then we will come back again and again until we do. This is not necessarily true. If we could live our lives in complete peace and happiness, then our learning would be over and we'd have no need of school anymore.

We are all making decisions all the time. Some of us are aware of this and are conscious decision makers, others go along with the flow and allow others to make our decisions for us. But, allowing someone else to make them for us is also a decision.

When we believe everything that the Media tells us we are allowing them to determine the way we look at the world. We are handing over our power to decide for ourselves to them, even though they may not have our best interests at heart. The view of the world that is portrayed is very bleak and that of the future is even bleaker.

Whatever the future may hold there is one thing for certain, the way we look at the world will end whenever we decide to change our thinking about what it is and, most importantly, what we are. For most of my life I believed that I was a body, limited to its range of perception. I now know that we have an infinite range of perception and the only thing limiting me is my thinking.

When we were in school the teacher always asked the questions and was always looking for the right answer. This makes us believe that there is only one right answer to any question, and once we get the answer we stop looking for any other. Fortunately (and sometimes unfortunately) for me, I did not go along with this and began to look for answers other than the orthodox ones.

This has led me on a merry dance of research and exploration for the past fifty years. In retrospect it has all been to do with our minds, how they work and how we get deluded about ourselves. In 1996, I started working with "A Course in Miracles" (ACIM) and it has been the biggest influence in my life, mainly because it gave me a thought system that made sense of all the others. I have been studying it for the last fifteen years and am currently on my second go round of the lessons. The reason it has taken me so long is that I am loyal and stubborn and had great difficulty letting some of my crazy belief's go.

We are all teachers. We teach what we have learned. We are always sending messages to those around us. At a body based level these messages take the form of words and gestures. Our body language tells people what we are thinking much more reliably than what we are saying, and most of the time we are not aware of, or in control of it.

We are all searching for something. We seek new things. We become attached to our possessions. Take a look around at all the things you have got. This is your investment. We are very reluctant to give it up. Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to leave them all behind. We have a much bigger investment in our thought system. This we have been investing in since we were one month old. And this one is nearly impossible to let go. But ask yourself what is the return on your investment?

Back in the 60's McGregor and others proposed a management theory called Theory X Theory Y that proposed two different views of people at work. This was based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

In Theory X, people are assumed to be inherently lazy, dislike work and will avoid it if they can. As a result of this, we have to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level.

In Theory Y, people are assumed to be ambitious, self-motivated and exercise self-control. We enjoy our mental and physical work duties and regard work as natural as play. We possess the ability for creative problem solving, we seek out and accept responsibility and exercise self-control and self-direction in achieving goals to which we are committed.

During training, managers were asked which theory they would like applied to them, most went with Theory Y. When asked which theory they applied in their work-place, most went with Theory X. I fully embraced Theory Y and used it in all my management roles. The thing that amazed me most was how difficult it was to convince the people working for me to adapt Theory Y. It was like Theory X was ingrained in them.

At the time I was working in a very specialised area and was very insular in my views. I though that a management theory applied only at work. As the years rolled on, I began to take a more generalised view and realised that Theory X Theory Y applied to the world. But nobody used these terms and anytime I brought them up in casual conversation, people looked at me as if I had two heads. So now instead of talking Theory X I say "fear" and instead of Theory Y I say "Love". (I've capitalised Love, which is general, to differentiate it from the special state we refer to as 'in love')

It is apparently simplistic to think of everyone in the world living their lives based either on fear or on Love. But it depends on how we look at it. They are mutually exclusive, we cannot be in both states at the same time. If we are in Love we cannot be in fear. If we are in fear we cannot be in Love. We can switch from one to the other and I'm proposing that we spend more and more time in Love and less and less in fear.

In "A Course in Miracles" lessons 128-132 define three mind states: a world based on fear, a world based on Love, and Heaven. The fear and Love states we can talk about, but Heaven can only be experienced. Heaven can be hinted at and we can even get instructions on how to achieve it, but, ultimately each of us finds it in our own way.

In the lessons the first two states are described as 'this world' and 'the world beyond'. And to have any chance of gaining the Heaven experience we have to move out of 'this world' and start embracing 'the world beyond'.

Beyond fear, there is Love.
Beyond darkness, there is Light.
Beyond death, there is Life.

Beyond conflict, there is Peace.
Beyond misery, there is Joy.
Beyond illusion, there is Truth.

Beyond control, there is Power.
Beyond weakness, there is Strength.

Beyond danger, we are Safe,
Beyond slavery, we are Free.

Beyond bounds, we are Open.
Beyond evil, we are Holy.

Exercise: World View

What is your view of the world? What do you see happening in the world? What do you think is going on?

Notes:


1. Media refers to any form of communication other than personal experience, and includes television, newspapers, internet and gossip.
2. This blog could be filled with links to sites that I have found useful. I prefer to let you make your own choices. If you don't understand a word or an idea, enter it in your search engine and then decide which sites you want to look at.