FACIM D6: ACIM is Not Important
We all spent the morning packing, then checked out of the Best Western, and headed to the Foundation early. We gave the staff some cookies, made a few purchases in the bookshop, and ran into Gary when we came out and made plans to get together for lunch.
It’s not necessary to reveal which of Temecula’s fine dining establishments we visited, but I will say we all had a HOOT, ER, Such a good time getting to know each other. Gary and Cindy and her mom and the close friends they brought along were as genuine and sweet as anyone you’d want to meet. We really enjoyed it.
A sampling of notes from the closing day of class:
• Whenever we do anything here with seriousness we think what our body does, what this person does, what this event does, will affect our mind. Nothing in the world, not even ACIM, can affect our mind.
• We (mistakenly) want ACIM to be about me, not a Course that says there is no me. That’s being truthful and what we must look at.
• Whatever you do with the Course, or with anything, do it, but just don’t care or think it has meaning. This keeps you from having a swelled head or a crushed head. ACIM, this book, is nothing. Don’t fall in love with it; don’t make it into another idol. It’s just a book that is but a symbol of a love that is not of this world. It should not become your life, or an obsession, but be used to help you become kinder and gentler within the context of your life.
At this point the Finnish translator of the Course stood up and asked if she was translating the course for ego reasons, and Ken said (paraphrased, as are all my notes)…. “You translated the Course because it was a form your right-mind took. That’s not to say your ego doesn’t jump in and you have hard days while working on a project. But if you do something because — for whatever reason — that’s just the loving thing to do, then it’s an expression of right-mindedness. You would look at it like this: An inner experience of love impelled you to translate the book, not because you’re doing something for the Finnish people.”
• Whenever you think you’re doing something important, stop. If you think ACIM is important, stop. (Stop, as in: Stop and forgive.)
• Therapists have high suicide rates because they think they’re the therapist. If you do what you do with love, you won’t feel resentment, burn out, have fatigue, or difficulty — it will be effortless. You let love come through you, then you feel a glitch, as everyone does, and you ask for help.
• Forgiveness is looking at the thought, “Anger/fear/specialness is going to get me something today”, and saying, “Isn’t that silly”, and smile. That’s it. The only thing you truly want is the peace of God. That’s the only thing that could ever truly satisfy you.
• See your life here as information gathering about what’s in your mind, and the information is I have a split mind. What’s the big deal? We already knew that.
• Purpose unites us. See this and the end of hell is near.
• When you see a projection (anger, guilt, fear, excitement, ecstasy) of your choice for the ego, simply say, “There I go again”. Do it very casually, which quickly shifts the focus from the “sin” in the other person out there to the “sin” in you, but if you do it casually, you won’t have a sense of sin, and it will evaporate. But you have to realize there is no sin in the person outside you.
• If you think you have to do anything with your mind, or what’s in your mind, you’ve made it real. So all you do is become more aware of the split-mind. I have a right-mind and a wrong-mind, then stop. You’ve fulfilled the function of this Course. The ego’s strategy is not to look; so the way we undo our decision for the ego is simply to look. And looking always implies looking without judgment. That’s all. At some point you will become so tired of going back and forth, back and forth, so tired of the guilt and pain and suffering, that you’ll just stop.
• The real ACIM is the right-minded film of abstract love running through the mind, not the book on the screen.
After class we said goodbye to Ken and the rest of our wonderful friends, thanked them for a fantastic week, gave them all big hugs, and then, with grateful smiles on our faces, watched as the Foundation disappeared in our rear-view mirror.
