We will read three Q&As per day through March 17th, and four Q&As per day from March 18th until the end of the year. All monklings are invited to share their journey in the Cloister (the “whispers” section at the bottom of each post).

The questions & answers for each day will be provided here in the daily post for your convenience and with the kind permission of Ken Wapnick. If you miss a day, here is the link to the FACIM Q&A site.

Day 72: Q&A numbers 214-216

Q #214: When A Course in Miracles refers to the “many thousands of other forms” of the universal curriculum in the Manual, what does it mean, exactly? Since there are not that many religions, does it count such “paths” as music, or the love of nature, as possible ways home?

A: “Many thousands” is not meant to be taken literally, it simply means “a large number.” It is also not necessarily referring to religious paths in an inclusive way. Religion may be a path for some, it may be a deterrent for others, and it may even be used as an attack. The important message in this section is that there is only one outcome — God; only one content in our learning — undoing our belief in the thought of separation from God, but many, many forms, for accomplishing this. In fact, any form can reflect this choice made in the mind. What actually occurs is a decision in the mind to no longer choose the ego, which is a choice not to deny God. This choice is then manifest in the dream, in all the forms that make up an individual’s life situation. It begins with an awareness that there are no separate interests. This can come about in “thousands” of different ways. A good example of this is Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford’s decision to “find a better way” of relating with their colleagues at Columbia Medical Center together. They were not consciously seeking a spiritual path to God. They were truly no longer interested in continuing the discord and conflict in their work environment, and, they were sincere in their decision to seek together. This decision was made in the mind and became manifest for them in the dream in this form, and ultimately in the form of A Course in Miracles.

The section in the manual that you are referring to speaks of this in the definition of the teacher of God: “…somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else’s” (M.1.1:2). It is this content that is the path to return home to God, regardless of the form it may take in the dream. It is very important to make this distinction between form and content in order to understand the rest of the description: “He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in Him…They come from all over the world. They come from all religions and from no religion. They are the ones who have answered. The Call is universal. It goes on all the time everywhere” (M.1.1:6; 2:1,2-5). Clearly then, neither religion nor belief in God are required for one to be on the path to God. “Many thousands of other forms” can actually be restated as “any form,” because the form does not matter. It merely reflects a decision made in the mind. When the decision for God is made completely: “There is no path that does not lead to Him” (T.31.IV.11:7). On the other hand, however beautiful, or religious a form may be, without this content it will lead nowhere.

Q #215: The Song of Prayer, p. 6, says that praying for material things is not what prayer is. This is only a call for hiding our guilt and a call for enemy (our own). Then is the correct way of praying a prayer of gratitude only? How do we deal with our internal desires? If our only goal is knowing God, how do I pray? Should I be in silence? Praying with others is then both looking to God? How do I deal with wishful thinking?

A: This beautiful scribed piece, The Song of Prayer, came in response to the way in which students of A Course in Miracles were using the Course. Many students thought that the Course was telling them to ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit to heal their bodies, fix things, solve problems in the world, and get them what they wanted. So Jesus teaches us in The Song of Prayer what true prayer is. He tells us, first, that it is not wrong to ask for material things; and in fact, as long as we think we are individuals living in the world, we cannot avoid praying that way (1.I.2:3). Prayer, he says, is like a ladder that we are climbing, and as we make our way up, our prayer will take a different form, because our needs will change. We will have less and less guilt as we practice forgiveness, and “without guilt there is no scarcity. The sinless have no needs” (1.I.3:5,6). Thus, at the top of the ladder — when we are advanced teachers of God — we will not experience lack of any kind, we will not perceive separation, and therefore our prayer will be just a song of gratitude. But that is at the top of the ladder.

On the lower rungs of the ladder, we experience all kinds of needs and desires. That is normal. We need to be gentle about that and not deny them. If we are honest, and we acknowledge that they are coming from a faulty perception of ourselves, we will not be held back by them. Asking for specifics is not wrong; and feeling guilty about the fact that we have needs and desires is never helpful, nor is fighting against them. We need only say “That is where I am right now; and when I am less fearful, I will allow more love to come in, and I will not experience lack or scarcity.” It is so important to remember that this is not a course in sacrifice or asceticism. This is a slow process, a gentle one, and we do not jump from the bottom of the ladder right up to the top. There are many steps in between, and if we are doing the best we can wherever we are, nothing more is ever asked of us. As we practice forgiveness, the form of our prayer will change of itself.

Our prayer on the lower rungs is always to ourselves, that we would ask the help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit to look gently and without judgment at our ego thoughts, and to see our interests as shared with everyone else’s. When we have “enemies,” we have already seen our interests as separate from, and in conflict with, others. That is when we need to ask for help to have our own minds be healed through forgiveness. When our need to have an enemy is recognized and then healed, we will have advanced closer to our true state of oneness, and then praying with someone will simply be a joyous acknowledgment of our Oneness as Christ, and the Oneness of Christ and God. Asking-out-of-need will no longer have any meaning.

Q #216: During the 12 years that I have been a student of A Course in Miracles, I have seen a very unsettling pattern. I achieve a temporary state of being that I have yearned for, experiencing real happiness, absence of pain, a wondrous sense of connectedness. Then something really tiny happens in time and I suddenly experience being invaded. Before I know it, all the happiness and sense of balance and love are totally gone. The guilt that follows is more unsettling, and any return to the previous state of mind has become impossible, resulting in a feeling of deep loss. I seem to flow into states of mind of either bright or gentle light, to find myself suddenly thrown back into darkness. Even the darkness emits rays of light. The whole of the pattern is like traveling though a series of experiences that cannot be explained in terms of the world: from black to white and back to black. The effect of the experiences however is to lose respect for myself and others, since my attitudes seem to be swinging to diametrically opposed points of the ‘compass’. My question then is: if the goodness I think I experience can be punctured so easily, how real is it, really?

A: The pattern you describe is not really an unusual one, although the specific form it is taking may be somewhat unique to you. Until we accept the Atonement for ourselves (T.2.V.4:4; T.9.VII.2: T.14.III.10:1,2), we will continue to alternate between our right mind and our wrong mind. The real problem is not the vacillations you experience but your judgments of them. Certainly, the shifting is likely to be experienced as unsettling, especially while you see yourself as at the mercy of the returns to darkness. What will be helpful to recognize, even if it is just intellectually at first, is that it is your own fear of the light and peace and happiness that plunges you back into the darkness. Jesus knows that this will happen to all of us, observing that “as the light comes nearer you will rush to darkness, shrinking from the truth, sometimes retreating to the lesser forms of fear, and sometimes to stark terror” (T.18.III.2:1). There is a decision that you are making, buried deeply in your unconscious, to invite in “something really tiny” to disrupt your experience of happiness. For if you allow yourself to continue with this experience indefinitely, all boundaries around the self you think you are will dissolve and you will no longer identify with that self. And that “loss” of self is terrifying to any ego-identified mind. Fear and judgment and guilt are the ego’s favorite antidotes to experiences of peace and love, for they reinforce our identification with the separate self. After all, it is only a separate self with its self- imposed boundaries that can experience “being invaded.”

A key in all of this is to recognize that the state of happiness is not something that you need to “achieve” and that your yearning for it only denies the power of your own mind to choose against it. If you can ask for help in uncovering your own fear of the light, and begin to observe your vacillations without judgment, without imposing the categories of desirable and undesirable (for all polarities are from the oppositional ego thought system), the power that these negative experiences seem to hold over you will begin to subside.

As we travel along the path of forgiveness, we will allow ourselves glimpses of the real unchanging happiness that comes only at the end of our journey. But only when we truly know that we are not the self we now think we are, only when we know we are not in this world and so can not be its victim, will we be open to the real happiness that never changes and the real peace that can never be disturbed.

I will create individual posts for each project we are involved in, and will provide any updates I receive in the whispers-section of that post. A sidebar box will be added under the The Abbey and above the Ken Wapnick sidebar boxes for easy access to these posts and the information and updates they contain.

To begin, we have provided a loan to Sreyroth, a mother of four who lives in Cambodia who is beginning a small business selling lotus. This has been done through Kiva.

Other projects we are suppporting in 2010:

• The three-year retreat scholarship program at Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada where I was born. This is one of the monasteries I was looking into (joining) before I met and married Bonnie.

• Peace House Africa who care for and educate AIDS orphans in Africa.

• The Nunnery Building Project at Deer Park monastery, a Buddhist community in Escondido, California, 25 miles from FACIM.

• The sponsorship of a Tibetan elder through Tibet Aid.

To see summaries of each program, please scroll down to the posts directly beneath this post, or visit them in the Community Works sidebar box beneath The Abbey sidebar box.

This has been done through Kiva (wikipedia summary), a non-profit organization that promotes development through microcredit.

A summary of the loan request from the Kiva website:

Mrs. Sreyroth Sorn (pictured with her children), age 39, and her husband, Mr. Sopheap I, age 41, live in a small village across the Mekong River, about 15 kilometers from Phnom Penh City. They have been married for 16 years and have four children: two sons and two daughters. All of them are still young.

Sreyroth has been a silk weaver since she was young, a skill she learned from her mother. Her husband is a construction worker. He works in his village. In addition, Sreyroth hopes to create another new business, selling lotus, but she doesn’t have enough capital. So she is requesting a loan of 500 USD to help her to purchase lotus under contract for resale.

A portion of all monies from Oratory subscriptions, private sessions, and donations will support our 2010 projects. Thank you for your support.

The “post picture” to the left is the Sopa Chöling Long Term Retreat Center overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Gampo Abbey is a Western Buddhist monastery in the Shambhala tradition located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada where I was born. This is one of the monasteries I was looking into joining before I met and married Bonnie in 2002.

Here is a video of Life at the Abbey:

A portion of all monies from Oratory subscriptions, private sessions, and donations will support our 2010 projects. Thank you for your support.

From their website:

In the spirit of giving hope, Peace House Africa is creating a brighter future for Africa’s orphans, vulnerable children and their communities through nurturing care, dynamic education, technology research and business development… Our goal is to create a positive, sustainable future for AIDS orphans and their communities.

Current and future programs include:

Peace House Secondary School (PHS): A major new boarding school for orphans and vulnerable children, located just west of Arusha. PHS aims to be a unique school with a special focus on creative problem solving and entrepreneurial business skills. Graduates of PHS will be job creators — young people who can build a sustainable future for Tanzania.

Peace House Institute (PHI): Planning is underway for PHI, an innovative center for post-secondary training, appropriate technology research and related business development.

Peace House Scholarship Program: Currently, Peace House Africa provides financial support to over 500 orphaned or otherwise vulnerable children allowing them to attend a variety of primary and secondary schools in and around Moshi, Tanzania.

A portion of all monies from Oratory subscriptions, private sessions, and donations will support our 2010 projects. Thank you for your support.

From their website:

Building a nunnery will enable the nuns of Deer Park to all live together and will open up more space for lay friends to live and practice in Clarity Hamlet.

Since it’s opening in 2000, Deer Park Monastery has become the spiritual home for many practitioners who regularly participate in our Days of Mindfulness and ongoing retreats. In order to accommodate for the needs of the Deer Park Community we have initiated the Nunnery Building Project.

This project will create a central living place for the nuns to live and practice together. It will also enable us to renovate the remaining buildings and use them guest accommodation for lay women practitioners, couples or families who wish to practice with the nuns. Currently the nuns are spread out in two separate areas in Clarity Hamlet and the remaining rooms have only enough space for 8 to 12 lay women practitioners but no space for families or couples.

Here you can read Sister Abbess letter asking support for the nunnery.

Sketch of the future nunnery.

Nunnery in the making photo gallery.

A portion of all monies from Oratory subscriptions, private sessions, and donations will support our 2010 projects. Thank you for your support.

A description from their website:

These Tibetan elders reside in nomadic villages on the Tibetan Plateau. None of them have adult children living with them who can help them or care for them in their old age. They live in poverty and sometimes go days without an adequate meal.

These Tibetan elders and elder monks and nuns fled their homelands seeking religious freedom. Now they find themselves entering their old age in refugee communities that cannot easily support them and provide needed medical care.

Some excerpts from the biographies on their website:

B is 64 years old, although she looks far younger. She lives in a small tent with very few furnishings. Your sponsorship will add nutritious food to her diet and keep her warm during the cold winter months.

C is 70 years old and lives with S, her roommate, who is 83 years old. They keep their mud hut with its dirt floor neat and tidy, but do not have means to buy food and fuel.

G is 80 years old, yet she is cheerful and vigorous. She wears sunglasses to prevent further deterioration of her vision in the harsh sun of her high altitude home. G lives in a tent constructed of many patchwork fabrics. She likes to cook, and your support will provide her with nourishing ingredients and fuel for her kitchen.

A portion of all monies from Oratory subscriptions, private sessions, and donations will support our 2010 projects. Thank you for your support.

Time of class: 1:04:28

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Time of class: 1:12:35

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