A Course in Miracles Monk

All notes courtesy of Jane-Admin

Q: Why might part of the Sonship choose to come into the world with seeming disabilities? How can they get back to the blue dot?

A: The world is seeming too. They have done it to learn that the disabilities are seeming, as is the world. Regardless of what my body is like, I am still a perfect Son of God. ‘Not one note in heaven’s song was missed.’ When you judge yourself and others you are making differences real and significant, and committing the only ‘sin’ in the Course – making the error real. My body has no effect on my identity as spirit.

Q: With reference to the question before, I also once heard you say it might be to do with mitigating the damage they could do here?

A: Helen did a lot of work with disabled children – it was the real passion of her working life. In the early days of the Course – although please bear in mind that a lot of this early material was inaccurate – Jesus told her that people sometimes choose to come into this life as disabled as this was a way to retard their will, as their ability to miscreate is very strong. There is no way of knowing if this is the case for any one individual. It is impossible to know where anyone is in their atonement process by the form. It could be their right-minded way of dealing with or mitigating their ego, which would really help them along their Atonement path.

Regardless of disability, people can choose to be right-minded, choose the teacher of peace, and get Home. The body is just a learning instrument. Have a good time with the body – seduce as many people as you can! – just know what you are doing.

We all make agreements before we come in, to assume a role for the learning that it offers. We can’t really understand this, or know what is going on with our own Atonement path, let alone someone else’s path.

Ken then gave three examples of Helen choosing to change her mind about at attack, one of which was: Helen lived in an apartment in New York. The lady above had no carpet, and walked around in high heels late at night, which used to keep Helen awake. Helen said to herself – and this was before the Course: ‘I’m upset because I think she is walking on my head’. She imagined a thread between the woman’s heels and her head, and then cut it. It never bothered her after that. The problem was not the heels, but Helen’s need to be unfairly treated. In this case, Helen changed her perception and solved the perceived problem. There would have been nothing wrong with asking the lady upstairs to stop, but regardless of the form the correction took, Helen did something in her mind.

St. John of the Cross said: ‘Where there is no love, put love, and there you will find it’. This is also true for guilt.

My anger at you is telling you that you did something terribly wrong.

We are always choosing the ego and re-enacting the separation because we are afraid of the Oneness joined as One. But we don’t want the guilt that goes along with the ego – so we project it. I give you the sin and the guilt and I retain the fear.

You don’t have to confront the fear of God directly, just learn to forgive your brothers, because God is behind them. Practice every day not seeing yourself unfairly treated.

Just notice your split mind, don’t try and fix it.

The terror comes from your attack thoughts. Just look at your judgements of other people. ‘Do not deny him the little steps he asks you to take to him’ – looking at your judgements.

Q: How do pets fit in to the Sonship?

A: Pets fit in the way people do, as part of the Sonship, like rocks, or plants. There is no hierarchy of illusions, we only think there is. A grain of sand is as much a part of the Sonship as we are. If there is no life outside of Heaven, there is no life here, therefore all bits of the world – those that we perceive as life and not life – are as important as each other i.e. not at all. Rocks and bodies are the same. Complication is a lie. Truth is simple. The forms – pets, rocks, bodies – of the broken pieces of God’s son mean nothing.

Q: On a CD you said that God should be in the foreground of your day and the world in the back ground. Could you elaborate on that?

A: The idea of figure and background is what allows us to perceive. We see the people in the room, and the room as the background. An interior designer would see the room in the foreground and the people in the background. We focus on what is important to us and don’t really notice the rest. Purpose should be in the foreground of our day – what am I here to learn? – Is this a prison or a classroom?

The background is the circumstances, people, tasks of my day. The foreground is purpose – to learn the lessons of shared rather than self-interests. The reason it is so difficult to do is that we are so concerned with the doing of our bodies, as opposed to being. God is, the ego does. If you find yourself overwhelmed with things in the world, with doing or thinking, remember that the underlying thought is ‘I want to remain a body’.

The workbook is to train the mind to want to think of God, not to make the body do the lessons at a certain time.

Only the decisions my mind makes are important, not those of the body. We believe that the body is the decision maker, but we must remember that we are the decision maker, and we are not the body.

[After lunch there was some delay getting started, as people were still in the bookstore. Ken looked around in mock exasperation and said ‘Don’t you guys know if you’ve bought one CD, you’ve bought them all?’ Ken then announced – with some relish, I felt – that he would like to spend the afternoon talking about death. Which produced groans and the immediate heckle: ‘Oh great, Ken, we’re just dying to hear about it’. More groans. ]

Because we think that there is a hierarchy of illusions, we make death something special. We make a big deal of birth and death, and when we do we are listening to the ego.

We don’t get angry at a fact; we get angry at our interpretation of a fact. Death is a fact and has no more effect on me than your verbal attack. Only my interpretation says it does. We think death is something that happens to us. Note that the Course talks about the attraction of death, not the fear of death. If your reaction to death is anything other than peace, you have chosen the ego. Minds are joined; therefore physical presence is not necessary for a relationship.

Q: What happens when we die?

A: Nothing happens when you die, because nothing happens when you live. The body can be a symbol of forgiveness, as well as attack. Death can therefore be seen in a right-minded way. Death is a thought in the mind projected onto the body. Death only becomes an issue when there is guilt – it then becomes the symbol of God’s vengeance and a punishment for sin. Your fear of death will diminish as you practice this Course. It’s only another DVD – just choose who you watch it with.

Don’t confuse symbol with source: Death is not an issue of the body. My physical death has nothing to do with me as a mind. Your learning will continue, as learning was always only in the mind anyway. Your death is just another part of your classroom, like waking up in the morning. Really look at your thoughts about death, and try not to make it different from anything else. When you feel as if you are truly joined with someone, their physical death will have little meaning for you.

When you physically die, there is still the illusion of a separated mind. So you can project out into a body again, or stay with your guilt – your learning will still continue.

What you are mourning when someone dies is the part of you that has identified with that person. The part of you that you believe has died. This will make more sense the more you remember this Course is about a mind, not a body.

Q: I have a terror of losing my loved one – how can I deal with that?

A: Just stay with that terror – don’t mess with it, don’t try and fix it, don’t throw the Course at it. Just be aware of it. The source of that terror is the guilt that says you stole your loved one from God, and he will be stolen back from you. Be aware that you are using him as a substitute for the love of God. Keep practising, and this fear will fall away – don’t try and rip it from yourself. Just be normal with your loved one. ‘The Little Willingness’ section in the Course will help with this.

The way to lose the fear of death is to not take the ego so seriously – if we identify with the ego, we are identifying with the body. Look at the ego with gentleness and quietness (looking with Jesus). You don’t have to work at it. Don’t deny your feelings, but get from the feeling to the thought.

Q: I find it difficult to deal with the idea of suffering before death.

A: It is difficult not to feel the pain of others when you identify with the body, and it is very hard not to see pain as a bodily thing. We identify with the body because we want to. Pain and suffering are the ego’s most compelling ways to keep us mindless. Don’t deny suffering, just be aware that it is coming from choosing the ego.

I would have preferred that Helen had lived longer, but relationships are not of the body. The closeness that you felt when they were alive does not change when they die. So whilst you can enjoy the presence of another body, that’s not where the closeness is, where the love is. Only special love is of the body, not real love. There is a passage from the Song of Prayer pamphlet that I suggest when people ask what to read at a funeral: chapter 3, section 2, paragraphs 2 to 4.

Our goal, on any day, is to learn our lessons to get closer to God. Hold that in mind, and life should then be a joyous journey to God.

People have asked: ‘When I die and come back, will I have to do the workbook again?’

The learning of the Course is done in the mind. The body doesn’t learn. ACIM is a projection in form of our right-minded thinking, and is coming from your mind anyway.

Q: What should I say to others about my own death?

A: Be kind, loving, defenceless, and patient. Say whatever is most loving. Just let people know that the love is there.

Q: I feel that my father is with me sometimes, and I ask him for help sometimes if I don’t feel like I can hear Jesus.

A: Your father represents a loving thought for you. It doesn’t matter whether you ask him or Jesus for help – you are still turning to that love in your mind.

Ken closed the workshop with the following reading from Chapter 11, Section 4 of the Course, the paragraph after the one containing the line: You cannot enter God’s Presence if you attack His Son.

Christ is at God’s altar, waiting to welcome His Son. But come wholly without condemnation, for otherwise you will believe that the door is barred and you cannot enter. The door is not barred, and it is impossible that you cannot enter the place where God would have you be. But love yourself with the love of Christ, for so does your Father love you. You can refuse to enter, but you cannot bar the door that Christ holds open. Come unto me who hold it open for you, for while I live it cannot be shut, and I live forever. God is my life and yours, and nothing is denied by God to His Son.