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A COURSE of LOVE the COMPLETE COURSE
the INTERSECTION altarlight: There is indeed an intersection. All activities in the dream return to that intersection again and again...including atonement, and certainly including activities we enter upon in the attempt to cause ourself to awaken, when in fact, our awakening is completely inevitable, and is so entirely without our planned endeavors. What that means is that our endeavors fall into the loose category of blocks to awareness of love, or from a dreamside perspective, blocks to allowing awakening to occur naturally. When you remove yourself from the self-held position of "meaning giver," you let things be what they are and, allowed to be what they are, their meaning is naturally revealed. [altarlight: That is absolutely true, keeping in mind that you are the only thing there is to be what you are.] What this takes is a pass-through approach and a relinquishment of the idea of bringing things to a stop where they can be examined under a microscope quite apart from their relationship to you or to anything else. 22.15 [altarlight: It is just fine to examine the world around you through the eyes of judgment. In fact, it is impossible to be in the dream and not do so. You can "also" look beyond those judgments' reports, to that very reality you are...just as you are.] Imagine yourself brought to such a halt and examined apart from everything else within your world. Anyone wanting to learn anything about you would be wiser to observe you as you are within your world. Would you still be the same person in a laboratory? Are you still who you are when another takes you into his or her mind and assigns meaning to you? 22.16 [altarlight: Yes, you would be the same person. You ARE in a laboratory more or less, where those who look upon their perceptions of you rather than your reality...nevertheless, this does not change who you are, but is only mind play.]You have made of yourself a laboratory where you bring everything for examination, categorization, testing, and filing away. This is the scenario that separates you from everything else within your world. [altarlight: You have done exactly that; however, you cannot simply choose to abandon what you made, for you "have" assigned it false meaning values, and thus "do" believe it is real.] Everything has [false] meaning only according to what [you think] it means to you and not as what it is. 22.17 [altarlight: It doesn't mean anything at all. You cannot see what is not there "as it is."]Obviously two kinds of meaning are being talked about. The first we talked of earlier as the finding of truth. The second is what we are talking of here, the finding of a definition, a personal meaning. Can you see the difference? 22.18 [altarlight: Yes.]The personal and individual is the "I" we are dispelling. Think a moment of how you tell a story or report on events that have taken place within your life. You personalize. You are likely to report on what a certain set of circumstances meant "to you." This kind of thinking is thinking with the small "I." "I saw." "I felt." "I thought." "I did." The individual, personal, separated self is at the center of all such stories. One quite literally cannot conceive of the story without the "I." Yet this you must learn to do, and this task is given you as an exercise. 22.19 [altarlight: There isn't anything such as the "small 'I'." You are not dispelling anything...and most certainly not dispelling "I." In fact, the "I" is all there is...and it IS personal, as well as impersonal. The "I" sees no difference between the personal and impersonal. The idea that you can eradicate the "small 'I'" is the idea of separation itself...there is no such "I" to eradicate. You DO personalize all things you perceive, and that is just fine. If you elect to attempt to depersonalize your perceptions, that is also fine, but it exacerbates denial when you deny anything, whether it is real or not. You ARE (in your reality) individual and personal, but not separate. Anything you "learn" to do is illusion, and is just one more thing to unlearn, for love is all there is, and cannot be taught or learned.]Begin to imagine life passing through you rather than getting stopped for examination at its intersection with you. [altarlight: Good model for imagination to this point.] Begin to imagine seeing the world without the emphasis on your personal self. [altarlight: You can imagine a self-less world, but you cannot make it real.] Begin to form sentences and eventually to tell stories without the use of the "I" pronoun. This will seem, at first, as if it is depersonalizing the world and making it less intimate. It will seem as if you are shirking some primal responsibility to assign meaning to everything. [altarlight: That is exactly what you would be doing...shirking the primal responsibility to love one another, for you cannot disregard your personal "I" which is your altar of the all. Trying to do so is why the false world arose into sight. And attempting to control and change and fix it is what keeps it fired up and going.] Rather than resisting this, strive to cease giving meaning. [altarlight: This is contradictory ideation. To stop resisting by striving to cease something is conflicted. Simply relax and allow "meaning" to arise into vision on its own.] Start quite simply. Go from the broad to the specific. [altarlight: Specificity is the child of perception, definition and naming. That which is broad and all-inclusive looks beyond such specificity, and such "looking beyond" is looking at that reality which is awake. The erasure of illusion comes from such looking, allowing vision to agree with your already-existing wakefulness...allowing you to see you are not only awake in heaven, but that you ARE heaven itself.] For example, when you walk out your door in the morning you might generally think, "What a lovely day." What this sentence says is that you have immediately taken in your surroundings and judged them. It is a lovely day "to you." The day has all or most of the requirements you find pleasing in a day. Replace such a thought with: "The grass is green. The birds are singing. The sun is warm." Simple reporting. 22.20 [altarlight: To look at objects in a dream you made and declare them to be grass, to be green, to be birds singing, to be the sun and be warm...is exactly the same thing to declare them a lovely day. Neither declaration can harm you. As you go through your day, rather than denying the world you perceive...a fear-producing, denial-habit-producing, potentially painful and fatal activity...enjoy and accept it and adjust it as seems best to you. Do not try to erase it with thought patterns that add to its burden of denial, but look beyond the green grass and sun, to see your own self shining from within (which is also equally without).]When you are asked questions such as, "How was your day?" respond as much as possible without using the words I or my. Quit referring to people and things in terms of ownership, saying "my boss," "my husband," "my car." 22.21 [altarlight: When asked about your day, answer with however it seemed to you to be. It doesn't have to be the truth of reality, but does need to assist you in relating to the world as you perceive it. My boss, my car...whatever. Just realize and keep in remembrance, that every time you inwardly refer to yourself in any way, you are referring to the true "I"...the real you. Even though your typical self-image might be Jane or John, black or white, mean or nice, religious or non-religious, whenever you refer to yourself, for just that split second, remember your real self. This is the foundation of understanding, and such remembrance (looking at reality) will bring understanding to the surface of your mind (i.e.-into inner vision). This is where awakening the vision to meet your real awake self comes from...just as the judging and then believing in your judgments brought the illusions of a world filled with objects.]This removal of the personal "I" is but a first step to returning you to the consciousness of unity [altarlight: baloney], a first step in going beyond meaning as definition to meaning as truth. [altarlight: You do need to go beyond definition to truth, allowing meaning to be what it is (you). However, denying your personal self is not how you arrive at truth.] As odd and impersonal as it will seem at first [altarlight: It seems odd because it IS odd...and is just one more dose of denial. ACIM calls this "unwise"...despite it also saying often that this is the way to do it (rather confusing the real issue).], I assure you the feeling of impersonality will be replaced quickly with an intimacy with your surroundings that you never felt before. 22.22 [altarlight: You might feel more intimate with your surroundings, but what surroundings are we talking about? The world of illusion? You are told again and again to notice your feelings...THEY are the guide. But "I" tell you they are not...YOU are the guide, and the feelings of the body are nothing.]This intimacy itself will allow you to see your "self" as an integral part of all that exists within your world rather than as the small and insignificant personal self you generally accept as your "self." By eliminating the personal, the universal becomes available. As the universal becomes available, you will have no desire for the personal. [altarlight: The "universe" isn't any more real than the false idea of self you entertain. You do not need to erase the false self, but would do well to look beyond its ideas and visions to the real self. Becoming consciously aware of reality, which obviation of awareness does erase false ideation about self and the world...comes from looking at that reality, not from focusing on false ideas and visions and constantly planning their demise.] Even so, you will find that what you consider your individuality or uniqueness is very much intact, but that it is different than you have always imagined it to be. [altarlight: TRUE! Isn't that odd. After all this commentary, you are still quite personal, individual and unique. Well, why try to elimintate that...you can't you know?] You will find that you fulfill a grand purpose, and have a wonderful part to play in a grand design. You will not feel cheated by losing your separated self. You will feel free. 22.23 [altarlight: You won't fine that you are fulfillment of purpose, but will find that you ARE purpose and meaning itself. You are not playing a part, but are an individual altar of ALL the parts together as one. I suppose you could call that a "design" but it literally is not. Design has to do with assembling separate parts into a framework and structure, and your reality is not comprised of separate parts or structure...although to perception, it may seem so. You are whole. You are one. You are all that is...and that means you are free, for there is nothing else and no one else to control or threaten you. This of "Course," brings you right back to the opening words of ACIM.] ===========end=============== The inner light can answer any of this world's queries and resolve any of its problems. Beyond all of these concerns, the inner light will show you who you are and your relationship to all...and bring you an understanding of love and peace that transcends ordinary human thought processes. Discover what it truly means to "love one another" and to "see peace."
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- Re: [simplisticmeditation] A COURSE of LOVE presented by Mari ... RAGNAA
- altarslight
