Swine flu?

How does a Course in Miracles student look at the recent swine flu outbreak?

ACIM teaches that the world is a projection of the unconscious mind. It symbolises the belief in guilt that lies there. In this sense, every “problem” in the world is the same problem presented in different forms. As a result, every problem in the world has the same solution: forgiveness.

I have often said that this forgiveness is not the world’s forgiveness. The world’s forgiveness accepts the reality of the problem, and then tries to overlook it. ACIM’s forgiveness, on the other hand, is about totally transcending the reality of the world.

ACIM teaches that the truth about you is immortal. While the world and everything in it will ultimately pass away, spirit will not. Your body is mortal, but your mind is immortal.

This is the basis for joy and the release from fear in ACIM. If you were only your body, then you would have great cause for fear, because all kinds of bad things can happen to the body. It is a deeply vulnerable thing. The message of ACIM is simply that you are a not a body, and, because of this, you do not need to be concerned about what happens to the body.

Of course you still take care of the body. After all, you do perceive it as your temporary home. But, when things do go wrong (and they must, sooner or later) you do not experience this as a threat against you, and therefore you have no cause for fear.

The problem that most people have with spirituality is accepting the idea that they have an immortal reality. Someone who has not experienced that as a fact can only accept or reject it as a belief. What ACIM provides is a set of practices that attempt to lead you to this experience. ACIM does not ask you to blindly believe the idea that you are immortal. It does however ask you to trust the idea and practice it until you do experience it.

That experience of your immortal reality is what ACIM calls Atonement. The state in which you experience only that and nothing else is what has been traditionally called Enlightenment.

So as far as swine flu is concerned, it is simply another form of the single error: the idea that you are a mortal body that can die. If that idea disappears, then any fear of sickness goes with it.

Namaste,
Igacim

There is no need for sacrifice

I receive random Buddhist quotes on my iGoogle page every day, and was surprised to see the following:

“Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.” - Aitken Roshi

This is a point that is also stressed very often in A Course in Miracles, that we are not asked to “sacrifice” anything:

M-4.I.A.3. 3 It seems as if things are being taken away, and it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized.

This is a difficult lesson for us to learn, because we believe that if we let go control over the things around us, we will also lose them. Worse, we may believe that we have to give them away as a sacrifice to “atone for our sins.” But ACIM teaches very clearly that there is no sin, and therefore sacrifice is pointless.

As Course students, therefore, we can simply live our lives. We do not need to do anything special (T-18.VII).

As I continue to study the history and teachings of Buddhism I am pleasantly surprised by the similarities with ACIM. The teachings may be different in philosophy, but in practice they amount to the same thing. As ACIM teaches:

C-in.2. 4 Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. 5 A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. 6 It is this experience toward which the course is directed. 7 Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends.

Therefore look beyond the theory, drop the controversy, and accept the simple peace that is there for the taking in any moment.

Remember that this is not a difficult course. Only our unwillingness to do it can be difficult. In Buddhist terms, this amounts to the refusal to accept “anicca” – the simple fact that all things pass away eventually.

Namaste.
Igacim

Siddhartha and the demon

Cover of Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment

In his book, “Buddha: a story of enlightenment”, Deepak Chopra describes an incident when Siddhartha comes face to face with the demon Mara. The demon circles Siddhartha’s mind, trying to find a weakness, a crack through which he may enter and control the young prince. But Siddhartha finds a space of peace in his mind. He learns something about demons, the mythological symbols for fear, greed, and suffering. Siddhartha learns that “demons enter the mind when we resist them. The stronger our efforts to fortify ourselves against temptation, the stronger temptation has us in its grip.” (page 95)

This is the same lesson that Jesus taught when he instructed us to “turn the other cheek” and "resist not evil" (Matthew 5:38-39). It is also a basic principle of Vipassana meditation that one should be aware of all the physical sensations of the body, while remaining equanimous towards them. This is also the basis of the practice of forgiveness as taught by A Course in Miracles. If you do not resist that which disturbs you, it ceases to hold power over you. You no longer invest energy in it, and so it dissolves naturally.

A Course in Miracles explains this in psychological principles. It states that the world as you see it is a projection. Therefore, to attack anything that you perceive, whether it is an image you see outside yourself, or a thought or experience inside your mind, is to attack yourself. As long as you believe in attack and resistance, you will create suffering for yourself.

Buddha talks about the Dharma, the natural law. The way the universe and the mind work. The Hebrew tradition similarly uses the word Torah, also translated as law. What both these concepts hint at is the idea that there is a certain machinery to the mind. There are natural laws which produce inevitable results. If you try to punch your fist through a wall, it will hurt. If you try to break the laws of mind, you will suffer.

None of this has anything to do with divine retribution. It is simply the way nature works. If you live a life of attack you will suffer simply because you are creating suffering for yourself.

It has long been my belief that any truth which can claim the title of truth must be universal. In this sense I am a comparative religious scholar. If you have many wise people from different traditions, the truth will be the space where their teachings are identical. The more one studies different systems, the more you realise that, while the teachers used different metaphors, they almost invariably gave the same practical instructions. Those who think there are big differences between Christianity and Buddhism are only correct at the level of theory. At the practical level, however, they often share remarkable similarities, especially when one returns to the core teachings of the original founders, and not those of disciples or later teachers.

If we are looking for a universal system of practice, a universal spirituality, then we can find it. The tools are out there. The basic principles of harmlessness, of nonviolence, of forgiveness, defencelessness, love, peace, tolerance – these are all there. All that is required is that we release our individual mythologies that so often cause division, and embrace each other as brothers and sisters based on these universal principles.

We are mythologizing creatures that believe in difference and separation. I think it is about time that we let such childish things go and find our common humanity, our common ability to be spiritual in the true, practical sense of the word. We need people who are willing to live a spiritual life, not spend their time arguing about spiritual theories that hardly deserve the name.

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ACIM Discourses 1: The Level of Mind

This discourse can also be downloaded as a PDF file from this location.

Introduction

This first discourse on A Course in Miracles is the result of a short trial done by Igacim and Joe, a fellow student and friend. Having discussed the contents of A Course in Miracles for many years, the idea occurred to them to record their discussions and make them available in text format for other students. This idea was inspired by the Buddhist tradition of Dharma Discourses. It is the hope of both Igacim and Joe that these discussions will inspire others in their studies of A Course in Miracles and their journey to peace. You are welcome to contact either of them via the School for Inner Peace, which can be found online at www.schoolforpeace.co.za.

This first discourse started with a random quotation from A Course in Miracles, and is relatively short. It presents a spontaneous discussion that occurred in response to this quotation. Future discourses will be longer, but will follow the same spontaneous format. It is felt that this provides a space for theory and experiences to arise naturally in a way that is most helpful and easy to follow.

May you grow in peace and understanding. May you grow in love. May all beings be happy.

With Metta, Igacim

Discourse 1: The Level of Mind

Joe: We have a quotation here from A Course in Miracles: “I have enjoined you to behave as I behaved, but we must respond to the same Mind to do this. This Mind is the Holy Spirit, Whose Will is for God always.”

Igacim: What comes to mind from that is the idea that behaviour follows belief. You cannot achieve salvation by changing your behaviour, because then your behaviour will be in conflict with your mind, which causes acute anxiety. However, if you change your mind, then behaviour follows naturally. And ACIM also teaches that it does not matter what you do, the only thing that matters is how you see the world.

Joe: And how do you change your mind?

Igacim: Well, the process of changing your mind is what ACIM calls "forgiveness", and the result is a miracle, the change itself. So the whole ACIM is geared towards teaching us how to achieve the miracle, how to change our minds. It gives very precise instructions. It is a two-step process. The first step is to remember the true cause of things. This means to remember that you are projecting the world you see. In other words, you invented it. You chose it. The second step is to realise that this choice was mistaken. The result of such a choice is impossible to achieve. That result would be the separation from God.

Joe: So, then you realise that the separation never happened. But if the separation never happened, then there is nothing to forgive?

Igacim: That is correct in one sense. There is nothing in the world that needs forgiving. However, forgiveness as ACIM defines it is required. What you are actually forgiving, or letting go, is your own belief in guilt. Forgiveness can be said to be that recognition that there is nothing to forgive. ACIM says that forgiveness sees there was no error.

Joe: Okay, so, when you get to that realisation, forgiveness won’t be necessary anymore?

Igacim: Yes. You need to think of this in terms of two levels. The conventional thinking of the world is that you forgive things in the world that actually happened. That’s the physical level, the world level. But ACIM is always at the level of mind. Forgiveness in ACIM is about the thoughts in your own mind. You believe there is something wrong. To let that belief go is forgiveness. Traditional forgiveness would say that you forgive another person for what they did. ACIM says there is no other person, only pure spirit, so they could not have done anything, and there is no “you” as separate from God, so you could not have been done anything to.

Joe: Okay, ACIM is always at the level of the mind. That’s an important note.

Igacim: Right. Then the illusion may not change, but your mind will. Often the illusion does change, but that is not the focus. This non-duality of ACIM, the idea that there is no world, is the hardest for students to accept.

Joe: Does the illusion really change, or is it only you changing? Like the bending spoon in The Matrix. It is not the spoon that bends.

Igacim: Right, like the spoon in The Matrix, it is only you that changes. Remember, the illusion is your dream. When your belief changes, your perception changes. Your dreams are caused by what is in your mind. So if what is in your mind changes, your dream will change. Now, I must point out that this does not always seem to happen, and you should not expect it to. When you forgive, you are forgiving the entire illusion as one. You cannot forgive one thing and make another real. Forgiveness is based on the principle that it is all a dream. So you may forgive someone who is unpleasant, and thus release some guilt, but they may still appear to be unpleasant. One of two things will happen. You will either be completely peaceful about it, or you will still be upset. If you are still upset, there is more guilt to forgive. It is not a once off thing.

Joe: And everything you forgive is the same. There isn’t anything "bigger" to forgive than anything else.

Igacim: Yes. One thing need not be more difficult to forgive than another because in forgiveness there are no things. Either the illusion is real, or it isn't. There are no levels there. Either attack is not justified at all, or it is completely justified. Again, there are no levels. One mistake some people make is trying to forgive individual things. They make the error real, and then try to overlook it. ACIM says very explicitly this will not work. You cannot say, "This person is unpleasant, but it's okay, I will be kind."

Joe: Okay. What do you say then?

Igacim: You have to think, "This person is my own projection based on guilt, but guilt does not exist at all because only God exists. Therefore, neither of us is guilty.” Remember, being kind is an action. ACIM is not about actions. It is about beliefs, about mental actions. It is about changing how you perceive the world. This changed perception will lead naturally to changed feelings and changed behaviour. Then it will take no effort, because you are no longer fighting your own mind. You are living in harmony with it. And since the mind is healthy, the life and emotions will be healthy. Forgiveness is the healing of the mind.

The new F-word?

Image via Wikipedia

I recently saw a book in the bookshop called “Fuck it: the ultimate spiritual way”. My first reaction was that the author was encapsulating the Buddhist idea of “letting go” within a western framework. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realised that there were important differences between letting go in the spiritual sense, and the idea of saying “Fuck it” to things.

This letting go is what A Course in Miracles calls forgiveness, and Gary Renard jokingly refers to as "the new F-word". So what is the difference between these approaches?

The first important difference lies in making the apparent problems in the world real. To say fuck it to something means that you believe the problem really does exist out there in the world. What you are doing is attacking the problem, but declaring that you won’t do anything to solve it.

When you choose to forgive something, on the other hand, you recognise that the error that you see outside yourself is merely a mistake, and does not require direct intervention on your part simply because it has no real power to harm you or anyone else. The difference is important, even though your actions in the physical world may appear to be the same. The difference lies in the way you feel. If you have forgiven something, you have achieved a level of inner peace about it. It no longer troubles you. To say fuck it to something, however, is to hold on to the anger, judgement, and attack about it.

It should be clear to anyone who is serious about inner peace that holding on to attack and guilt in any form is extremely disruptive. It is the root of all psychological suffering. Worse, by repressing your anger about the situation in this way, you will most likely fall into a state of depression. You are trying not to care about something that you do, in fact, deeply care about. This is only possible if you suppress your feelings. But by suppressing your feelings you are also suppressing your love, your carefreeness, and your creativity. This is the complete opposite of achieving inner peace. Inner peace can only come from complete psychological freedom. And psychological freedom can only exist in the absence of repression of any kind.

In other words, to be truly happy and peaceful, you must not suppress anything. In order for this to be possible, you must let all your belief in the value of attack, anger, and guilt go. It is natural for you to try to get rid of those things, but you cannot do so by bundling them into the box of the unconscious, because by doing so you are actually holding on to them, and they will resurface at the first opportunity.

So while I understand the author’s intention, I do not think his approach goes far enough. Instead of saying “fuck it” to the world you see, I suggest you say “forgive it”.

This might not agree with our western mindset that often favors strong individualistic solutions and self importance. It’s cool to say “fuck it” to things. It gives you a sense of importance, power, and superiority. But in the end, it simply will not work. It’s time to let your ego go, stop fighting the dreams you have made, and say “forgive it” instead.

Forgiveness *is* the ultimate spiritual way.

In Peace

Igacim

(The School for Inner Peace)

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The mystery of wood

Cover of Fugitive Pieces

There is a quote in the book Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels, that says that "the mystery of wood is not that it burns, but that it floats". The author explains that this means that we should focus not on that which destroys something, but on that which saves it. Also in people, we should focus not on their mistakes, as we perceive them, but on their potential for love.

A Course in Miracles teaches that you teach what you think and what you live. If you respond to someone's mistakes by attacking them, you teach only attack. If you respond to their potential for love, you teach them love. You evoke in yourself and others what you choose to see in them. Where you have projected guilt, therefore, you should choose instead to project love. This is the only way to heal the mind and undo the belief in guilt that resides there.

This is why so many of the mystics down the ages have taught forgiveness and harmlessness in one form or another. It is why Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, and why Buddha taught us not to react blindly to suffering but rather to let it go. ACIM, likewise, teaches that the Holy Spirit corrects errors simply by overlooking them.

To have peace of mind therefore, you must be willing to allow peace of mind to others, and not attack them in any way. If you attack them, your own peace of mind will suffer.

People often respond to this idea with fear. After all, if you forgive and do not attack, how will all the world’s problems be solved? We are constantly waging a "war against" something. There is the war against terror, against poverty, against AIDS . . .

I am here to say that it is not the action in the world that determines your peace of mind, but the reaction in your mind. It is perfectly possible to forgive something and still take practical steps towards its solution. We do not need to have a "war on terror", but we could still have a "movement towards peace".

The difference is in how you think about it, and therefore how you feel. This has practical benefits, besides peace of mind. If you are calm and peaceful you are more rational. You make better decisions. You see the problem more clearly and you do not blindly attack where attack would not even be useful. You will become more effective once you have forgiven the situation as you see it.

So you do not need to fear that forgiveness will lead to inaction. It won't. It will lead to more healthy action.

But beyond all that, it will lead to true inner peace, which is the ultimate goal of spirituality. So next time you are tempted to judge or attack, remember that the mystery of wood is not that it burns, but that if floats.

Teach people that they are love and not anger, and they might just surprise you by learning it.

In Peace,
Igacim
(The School for Inner Peace)