Village Square II
In our AcimVillage, we have the plane tree that stands in the central village square. Its enormous branches spread out to cover an area wide enough to provide shade on a warm day for many a traveller or tradesman. Water bubbles and trickles from a stone fountain on the eastern side. It is under the plane tree and by the fountain that wandering sages have traditionally lead conversation with the local people, before setting off again on their way; it is here that the townspeople come to exchange views and thoughts on their beloved spiritual philosophy, learning from each other in kindness and wisdom.
Rules to ponder…
Study of A Course In Miracles benefits greatly from sharing our experiences in its practice. Here you can talk about what works, or doesn’t, for you, taking obvious care not to be ‘preachy’, please. We all learn best when someone talks from their own experience, rather than tries to tell us what we should be doing differently. Let’s take the position that none of us are teachers, we are all at the same point returning on the path Homeward. All of us will still be making mistakes for a while yet, so let’s be particularly humble and caring in how we deal with each other. Please keep in mind that this is a site dedicated to the approach Kenneth Wapnick takes to teaching ACIM. I shall certainly do my best to bring everyone back to the core principles as taught by him.
I would also like to point out that AcimVillage is the place to come to explore our judgments, but not to express them as judgments. If you feel you need to gripe, criticize and vent, even subtly, then contact me privately (at bernard@pauloandthemagician.com) where I will receive you with kindness and understanding. Please do not do so in the forums where I will inevitably moderate out this kind of post. Remember, you will feel better only when you are able to move past the investment in your judgments, not simply by unloading them for everyone to see. This means taking responsibility for your perceptions and acknowledging that ultimately no one has prevented you from feeling completely peaceful and safe, despite what might appear to be the unfortunate conditions of your life at this time. (I know, this is hard. Contact me if you’re struggling.)
So, two basic rules here. One, we avoid mention of other approaches to the study of ACIM (non-Wapnickian) as well as to other philosophies we might be studying. This is purely to achieve a stable, comfortable learning forum where we are all aiming at the same goal, using the same symbols and language to get there. This is not to cast any judgment on any other approaches or philosophies. ACIM is a sufficiently difficult path to undertake without bringing more confusion into our study than our minds already contain! If you have benefited from other paths and would like to share your thoughts, by all means do so. Just please do this in the privacy of your personal emails. It’s also my personal opinion (take it or leave it) that at some point a student of ACIM is much better off sticking with one set of symbols and one teacher, and working with these thoroughly, instead of getting too dispersed. Rule two, we try not to play ‘teacher’ with each other here, reminding ourselves to be humble and always equal with our brother.
Enjoy the discussion!
New Horizons
As of September, 2010, I’m proposing a direction for our study of the Course, which is to work together through Ken’s workshop The Meaning of Judgment. We’ll be using his transcript notes for this taken from the Foundation’s website (see link in the tool bar at the top of the page). Below you’ll find the notes for the section we’re currently working on. For previous sections, click on the ‘ACIM’ tab on the navigation bar, and then hover your mouse over the ‘Meaning of Judgment’ tab to choose the relevant section. I chose this particular workshop because it gets immediately into the real heart and practice of the Course while taking us through its basic principles at the same time. So, for those interested in finding out where the ‘rubber hits the road’, even though it might get a little confronting at times, then join us on this little adventure Homewards!
The Meaning of Judgment
Excerpts from the Workshop held at the
Academy & Retreat Center of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles
PART III
“THE FORGIVING DREAM” (T-29.IX), cont.
(3:1) All figures in the dream are idols, made to save you from the dream.
1. Everything we perceive and believe is outside us is part of the dream. These are the idols, and their purpose is to make the outside dream real to protect us from the dream within our minds, which we do not want to look at. Course students compromise this over and over again by trying in whatever way they can to make some aspect of the external dream reality. That is why many students place such great emphasis on seeing Jesus or the Holy Spirit as doing things for them in the world. That is a subtle way of making Them part of the illusion, whereas in the Course Jesus asks us to take the illusion to the truth, not to bring the truth to the illusion. We have a strong investment in making the outside dream real, because if it is real outside, we do not have to look at the dream within our minds. What better way to make it seem real than to have God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit operate in it?
2. That is why it is a mistake to confuse A Course in Miracles with New Age thought systems. The Course in no way compromises the truth that the entire physical universe is an illusion. But we want to make the figures in the dream reality, including the Holy Spirit and Jesus so we are protected from the underlying dream inside our minds.
(3:2) Yet they [all of these idols] are part of what they have been made to save you from.
3. These idols were made to save us from the idol we made within our own minds (the ego thought system) that says, “I have stolen from God and I now exist. I have what I have stolen. I no longer have to give it back, and I exist on my own. And now God exists outside me.” The ego begins with that initial thought of judgment, which is the beginning of the dream. It then becomes a full-blown dream within our minds that we are different from God, that we have stolen from God and sinned against Him. And our guilt over this now tells us God will punish us. This is the terrifying dream within our own minds. It is so terrifying that we do not look at it, but project it so that it now seems to be outside us. And anything that roots us further in the dream outside will nicely serve the ego’s purpose, even if it goes under the name of God, which is what religions have done for centuries. It is extremely tempting for people to do the same thing with A Course in Miracles — to bring part of the truth into the illusion, making the illusion real. If you do that, you will never get out of the dream, because you will not know it is only a dream.
(3:3) Thus does an idol keep the dream alive and terrible, for who could wish for one unless he were in terror and despair?
4. The “you” Jesus is referring to in these passages is the mind, the part of the mind that chooses — what I refer to as the decision maker. It is the part of our minds that has first identified with the ego thought system. It is a thought system of terror and despair that tells us we need to protect ourselves from the terror and despair by denying it, which means we would never look at it again. And then we project it and see it outside ourselves. That is why we need a world of specific people and specific objects. We project all of these thoughts of sin, guilt, and judgment so they are no longer seen within, but outside. As long as we believe in the reality of the idol, we will never know that the idol really rests within our own minds.
(3:4) And this the idol [anything in the world outside of us] represents, and so its worship is the worship of despair and terror, and the dream from which they come.
5. This is true for the idols of specialness we think are wonderful and make us happy as well as the idols of specialness we hate. Earlier in the text, in “The Obstacles To Peace” (T-19.IV), Jesus speaks about this in another form: “While you believe that it [the body] can give you pleasure, you will also believe that it can bring you pain” (T-19.IV-A.17:11). Pleasure and pain are opposite sides of the same illusion. Both of them make the body real because both say there is something outside us that can make us either happy or unhappy and bring us pain. The truth is that the only thing that can bring us happiness is choosing the Love of the Holy Spirit. The only thing that can bring us pain is choosing the ego. That is all. There is nothing else.
6. The lines here represent the same idea. That is why we become so invested in the world. It is easy to fall into this trap, even as a student of a course that teaches that there is no world, for we still believe that external behaviors somehow mean something. They mean nothing in and of themselves. Their meaning lies only in what meaning we give them. What is important is never anything external — not what bodies do or do not do — but our internal decision to choose either the ego and separation, or Jesus and joining. Once we focus our attention outside and believe what we do is important, helpful, healing, or loving, we are getting caught in specialness, worshipping the idol of specialness. We will think that we are serving a function of healing or love, but it really is an idol of despair and terror.
7. In worshipping the idols of specialness outside, we are worshipping not only terror, despair, and guilt, but the whole dream, of which terror, despair, and guilt are only components. We are worshipping the dream that we have what we have stolen from God and will never give it back, for now we exist as individuals on our own. We love terror, despair, and guilt, or we would not feel them all the time. We love them because they make real the thought of separation — the thought of the original judgment against God — which makes real our separate existence from God. That is why we have such a tremendous investment in our self-importance, in being a unique individual — it establishes that the dream is real. The state of terror or despair in our minds says the dream is real; the guilt and the sin are both real.
(3:5) Judgment is an injustice to God’s Son, and it is justice that who judges him will not escape the penalty he laid upon himself within the dream he made.
8. It is important to realize that the entire thought system of the ego is real within itself. It is not reality, but within the dream itself it is all very real. When we sleep at night and dream, we will experience the dream as very real. This entire world is a dream. As Jesus explains elsewhere (e.g., T-18.II.7-14), there is no difference between what we call our sleeping dreams and what he refers to as our waking dreams, such as we are experiencing right now. They are all the same — just different expressions of the thoughts within our minds. Within the ego dream, the fear of punishment is very real. Within that dream, our fear of experiencing harm — physical or emotional — is very real. We are not asked, as students of A Course in Miracles, to deny what our experiences are. We are asked, however, not to make these experiences reality. There is a crucial difference between those two approaches.
9. In other words, we all experience fear, and we believe our fear is due to something external to us that can impinge upon us. The ego interprets this as the wrath of God visited upon us — that is our experience. We may not consciously experience it as God’s wrath, but we certainly do experience fear as caused by something external to us. Remember, our own bodies are just as external to our minds as everyone else’s body is. But that does not make it reality. That is where the Christian Churches were mistaken; they took their experience of fear and wrote a theology about it. They said this is the reality of God: God sees our sin as real and has a plan to help us atone for it, basically a plan of murder. The plan then becomes one of suffering and sacrifice. If we believe we are sacrificing so God won’t be angry at us, then we will feel good about sacrificing. But that does not make it reality. Our experience is that the sun rises and sets but that does not make it reality. In reality, it is the earth rotating on its own axis that makes it appear as if the sun moves around the earth. And in fact, it is the earth that moves around the sun. Similarly, people may experience the Holy Spirit or Jesus doing things for them in the world, but that does not mean that they really are. Don’t confuse your experience with reality. The ego always interprets our experiences in order to construct a theology that serves its purposes, which of course is why we have the experience in the first place. Within our dream, whenever we make a judgment we are asserting that we are different from God; we have separated from Him, sinned against Him, and have stolen from Him. Our guilt over that will then demand that we not escape the penalty of God’s anger. This whole world, which is a world of change and death, then stands as the witness to the fact that what the ego has taught us is true. If our existence, which we call life, was ultimately stolen from God, then when God steals back the life we stole from Him we will be without life, which means we will be dead. That is the ego’s interpretation of our death.
(3:6) God knows of justice, not of penalty.
10. God’s justice of course has nothing to do with justice as we think of it. God’s justice states that nothing happened. If nothing happened, there is no guilt and no punishment. (3:7) But in the dream of judgment you attack and are condemned; and wish to be the slave of idols, which are interposed between your judgment and the penalty it brings. But we are not condemned by God. We are condemned by the projection of our own guilt, which makes up a God Who is angry. We then deny the whole dynamic and make up a world in which we are continually condemning and judging others, while believing they condemned and judged us first. But our judgment is within our minds; that is our guilt. We project it out and make up a world of idols that will punish us; and we actually think there is a world out there that affects us. This is all part of the dream, which seems very real from within the dream.
Annie, I couldn’t find that line you mentioned in the last paragraph of lesson 17, which I thought was a great line. So I figure you were just summarizing for Jesus (which he likes). It is what he was getting at, after all. He was saying we should persist, even when we encounter some resistance (which Ken often said, too). But then says that we should also be kind to ourselves if the resistance is too heavy. Always this gentleness, of first pushing against our fear, upset and resistance, and then easing off a bit.
The two lessons, 18 and 19, are kind of spooky when you think about them. I mean, are our minds really, really joined to that extent? I’d like to hear about your experiences of really sensing two minds were joined.
You’re welcome, Melody. I promise you all, Ken finds it much easier now to whip out the tickle-feather to keep us as unserious as possible, now that he’s not hampered by that silly ol’ body.
Sweet Melody – I have missed you! So happy to know we cannot separate when we have laughed as one mind. This is without a doubt my most raucous trip through the Lessons. I guess I thought they were serious business before. This time they feel like joyful secrets Being whispered by Jesus. I think we have a grand conductor this time using his tickle feather as a baton. And I do not feel alone experiencing the effect of this thought. I am tap dancing with sweet Pam and Papa Lawrence. Someone needs to invite Jamie and Bonnie to this year long Lesson in Oneness and tender playfulness. Jean, Nancy, Peggy, Hedda, Kenneth, Gloria, one mind, many thoughts . . .
Why can’t anyone drop in and do the day’s lesson here at our table round the Plane Tree? Our structure is based on the beat of Ken’s tickle feather. All just listening with one ear.
Ooh, I like that idea, one conducteur with a tickle-feather baton! Joyful whisperings, saying… ‘Take none of this seriously…’
Hi dear ACIM family. The week has been a very busy one so I haven’t showed up but I noticed yesterday that Susan Dugan had a new Youtube video where she is discussing Ken’s passing with Bruce Rawels. I haven’t listened to it yet.
Thanks, Hedda, I’ll go find that.
Lesson 19
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
I read all of Ken’s commentary and still do not understand what this lesson means differently than effects of my seeing. Maybe there is a silent message from Jesus here. Just listening.
I am determined to see
i am determined to see
i am determined to see
I have been doing this every 30 minutes or more – like my life depends on it.
Expecting a magic result. What a bull sh!itter I am. Even to myself.
No bullshitter: you are innocent and beloved
*still want magic*
*wink*
Lesson 20
I am determined to see.
I think I want to see magical happenings that will make me happy, like Lisa says.
Dust be diamonds, water be wine, happy, happy, happy, all the time! (Beautiful Day ~ 1971?)
Bing! — bring the HS to my world and heal my illusion.
That’s enough, I’m happy, ignore the rest, deny any pain. Affirm only the good, better, best!
Jesus says you cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and fear. You are now learning how to tell them apart. And great will be your reward. (2:6-8)
Ken illuminates wonderfully on this one:
This is how Jesus begins the process of changing our motivation — from guilt to happiness. We do not want to see now because we believe vision will be pain. Only when we learn that it brings happiness will we want to change from the ego’s form of seeing.
Correction – the Incredible String Band
Dust be diamonds, water be wine
Happy, happy, happy all the time, time, time
What you said is the best thing ever. Thank you.
Now I am determined to see things differently.
A few years ago (I have studied for 20+ years) I was sitting there and fell out of my chair, when I asked myself – WHY is this called A Course In Miracles?
Will I see water change to wine like the Biblical Jesus did?
Will the blind see? Or will it be a metaphysical blindness that is healed.
Healing and Atonement and Miracles – are they related? Are the in fact the same?
I always have to go back to the fact that I simply do not know what anything is – or what it is for.
BUT – I am determined to see….things….. differently!
ok I (for one) am confused.
First we have lessons about seeing.
Then lessons about thoughts.
Then seeing.
Then thoughts.
And a few that imply that my thoughts are images. Rather it states it outright!
Once, years ago, I had a very boring (stable) Hospice case.
In other words, it was night shift, and they told me to bring a book.
So I read 12 hours at a time, with very few interruptions.
I read from the last chapter of the text – backwards.
And I saw what Ken had said – about the introduction of a theme….
Then the theme is dropped for a while… then picked back up in a new section.
I guess that is where Ken put the chapter breaks. It really was like a symphony.
So now. The lessons – are they doing the same thing?
This gentle “weaving” of two (seemingly) unrelated ideas?
Thoughts and seeing?
I think you are seeing.
I thought that crazy me was the only one who had read the text backwards! It was my third time and I knew how it ended already. So I decided to start with Them having come and went backwards (well, chapter wise, not paragraph wise), thinking I would see how it had built. At my work we called it reverse engineering. It was fun. I don’t recall any advanced understanding. When I mentioned at a course class, they narrowed their eyes at me and nodded, like I was trying to be special, and i felt kinda guilty. I feel more normal now that you did it too!
Lesson 20 told me there was something to see that wasn’t so obvious.
Lesson 21 – tells me i can see differently. Then it goes on to have me delve into my angry thoughts.
A slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury.
And – some forms of attack are more justified than others.
2 of the favorite line, i need to go back and collect these, I think. Like in Nina’s quote book.
When I thought of my angry thoughts, i would try to vacate the justifying reasons. The judgement that i should be angry or annoyed seems so meaningless without my justifications. Like, yah, so?
Tex, As with many of your posts, I am not sure if you are asking a rhetorical question, or not (=
At any event, I will say that the thought that crossed my mind as I read the very first line of your post 1013 was….
“So are we all ” !
We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t all so confused by the whirlwind Ego that brought us here from Heaven.
Ps. The statement equating thoughts and images is one of the most precious and insightful elements of the course. I have not “figured” it out yet, but I do so find it compelling to examine and re.examine.
One day, one moment, it will be clear.
On the ‘Kenneth’ page :
“In one of those stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night. And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend…I shall not leave you.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
(Kenneth quoted from The Little Prince in his last newsletter)
My thoughts are images I have made. Or was it that my images are thoughts I have made?
Wow!
Now vengeance. Wait- what?
Lesson 22
What I see is a form of vengeance.
Form. Of. Vengeance.
Form.
Is this “me” thinking God is angry and seeking vengeance on me -for all my “sins”?
And now the guilt and the fear – the ego’s unholy trinity must follow?
hahahaha
The answer is surely obvious…. please pass the oblivion! I want the perishable. And a double serving of magic to fix it.
Loving the dialogues. I am with u all.
Computer still having problems.
I’m writing from my smart phone –
Happy I have it but it feels restrictive.
so I don’t like to write
Quick shout out to Melody!!!!
I saw a video once, of Ken talking about the line in the Course “…men have died on seeing this…” and he laughed and said (I am paraphrasing) ‘but not women – women seem to be ok with it…’ lol
I am hoping the beatific part kicks in soon, because this is pretty hard to take.
Why o why did I want that Red Pill – and who has the tickle feather?
*ah* thanks!
I don’t think the beatific part kicks in until Part Deux.
First He rips out our current thought system, then He puts the Right one in.
But I am looking forward to tomorrow’s.
I love Ken’s little jokes.
what is the Red Pill,Tex?
In the movie The Matrix, the hero (Neo) is offered a choice. Take the Red Pill and wake up… even though it might not be comfortable…. OR take the Blue Pill, and keep on dreaming! In the blissful ignorance of illusion! (Bliss Ninnie?)
To quote wikipedia – The blue pill would allow him to remain in the fabricated reality of the Matrix. The red pill would lead to his escape from the Matrix and into the real world.
Hmmmmm
Wait – there’s more!
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I’m offering is the truth – nothing more.
How deep indeed does this silly wabbit hole go!
Lesson 23
I have never done the lessons this much up till now!
There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effect will change automatically.
I will give it a year. If nothing magical happens at the end of a year – the joke is on me and I have wasted a year reading beautiful metaphysical poetry. What have I got to lose?
=)
Tex, wasted? A crummy funky whole year (lost?) with J.E.S.U.S (aka Big J)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHardyHAHAHAH
You are too funny.
Lesson 23
I CAN escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
Yesterday’s lesson was a jaw grinder for me. I didn’t feel too good going over all my grievances, angers, bad stuff. I kept seeing the 99% oppression of the 1%, everywhere i looked. I kept thinking about a very simple solution to it. Albeit, illegal and quick, but violent, I guess. But everything I was seeing was essentially violence and my idea was to end that. All day, though, i remembered that Lesson 23 was coming next, and i recalled that that lesson healed all my problems. It’s here!
I once was doing this lesson and got a picture of an attack thought as a thorny burr stuck in my ear. Whether i pushed it in, or pulled it out, it hurt my ear canal. Owww! When I was getting an affront, i thought of pushing it in, when I was formulating my revenge, i thought of how I was trying to pull it out. Since both hurt, what if I just left it alone? (I know, this is not a perfect metaphor since who advises leaving a burr in your ear canal.)
This was so vivid that i can use it and stop having attack thoughts momentarily. Just a little willingness. Try it and see if Big Sweet J has a payoff for you.
awesome, Kat
Just notice, let it be and allow it to melt into the nothingness it came from
Tex, Katrina, Nina, Anil, Annie, I’m following along. Many thanks for continuing the discussion.
I do not perceive my own best interests….
Dear Jesus – You just don’t get it, do You?
Of COURSE I know what I need.
You are the One who does not “get it.”
I would appreciate it if You would try a little harder
to answer some of the prayers I have prayed.
And what the heck does this have to do with today’s lesson?
I appreciate you trying to help, and all….
But now if You could please just get back to the business of answering my prayers?
I am getting pretty sick and tired of waiting.
Love you bunches,
Anne
Yeah! I’ve learned I have to take care of myself. I cannot trust the world. Oh, that’s one of those ear horny burrs. Okay, stop, don’t think it. I want to be humble. I want to resign as my own teacher. So, to know what i REALLY want I’d have to know what my real problem is, and what I really need. And now you say if I realized this, i COULD be taught. But i’m insisting because really I am trying to make Him not help cause I’m frightened of His help? I’m moving into very mixed up.
And now, I have to put together all of the things I want and see how they contradict each other. Boy, that shows why affirmations are so inconsistent. I want a big yummy dinner. I want a size 6 swimsuit. I want to travel the world. I hate airport hassles. I want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to be caught and annihilated by God.
Messing with my mind. Whose mind?
I playfully post this mock-up prayer here – but that is how my “mind” really chatters on (and on) to “me” all day… every day….
Back at the Monastery, I did a similar thing. Playful bantering out loud. And it just now occurs to me that in so many years I have not advanced my thoughts one slight bit!
Resign as my own teacher.
Seek but do not find.
Decision Maker.
Help! Is there any one else out there? What the h3ll is for lunch? I am famished.
lol – my capta code is 2 + 2 =
I found this on ‘A Passerby’ blog, Ken on Miracles vs. Magic.
Talking about taking medicine/vitamins. …
Q: But then there is no advancement.
A: Yes there is, if you are willing to stop calling yourself dirty names. Forgiving yourself for the use of magic is the advancement. This is the same as doing the workbook and forgiving yourself for forgetting to think of God five times an hour—really forgiving yourself. That is great advancement.
Q: When does it really happen?
A: When you stop asking the question and stop caring about it. That is a very common trap that students fall into with the Course. You understand intellectually what the Course is teaching, and then you come down hard on yourself instead of saying you are still a little child and are still on the bottom rungs of the ladder. But at least now you know you are a child, which means you know you have to grow. You know that you are on the lower rungs of the ladder, but at least you know there is a ladder and you do not have to be fearful. You do not have to feel that Jesus is mocking you or pushing you up when you are not ready to go up. At least you are aware of what you are doing.
I just love these comments. I’m giggling and crying at the same time. I think it’s a brilliant way to go through the workbook, understanding that every time Jesus want us to repeat an idea, it’s because we’re always thinking the exact opposite.
It’s really worth exploring the depth to which we experience and believe the opposite of his thought. I think that’s the way we can really make honest progress. We just have to learn what’s going on inside ourselves, and it’s really not worth hiding anything from ourselves. Who are we trying to fool?? Let’s know that whatever he says, we profoundly believe the opposite, like Tex and Katrina are helping us see.
Okay, we look at this and admit it, but we do it in a special way. First, we don’t plunge into it in order to believe it, revel and delight in it, to make ourselves right and justify our feelings. Rather, we just observe, really observe, these thoughts, and allow ourselves to be surprised at the viciousness, hatefulness, wilful manipulation, volontarily wanting this world to adapt to OUR needs, no matter the cost for others. We really want to see how much we believe our experience, our life and needs are based in this world, and this world has to satisfy our needs . That’s the part of us that is absolutely, totally insane. How can an illusory world satisfy an illusory self living in an illusory body?
The second part of this observing is to realize all that we are forfeiting, all we are giving up by this insane focus on our world and needs. We don’t want to go through this and just say, “Well, it’s okay since now I’m being honest.” That’s just a start, but it’s not enough in itself. It’s not going to produce real change if we just leave it at that.
We want to really understand what we’re choosing, not to make ourselves bad and guilty (a sure sign we’ve invited the ego to join us in our exercises), but to move along the path toward another choice. We’re giving up the experience of absolute completion and perfection, of holiness and blessedness. We give up the experience of Self, of knowing Who we truly are, and That which we are part of. We give up an experience of Home, of belonging and arriving, of Welcome, of no more questions or searching. All that is given away by the simple desire to have the world conform to our needs, as if we knew what they were.
Who’s having trouble loading this page? Might need to start a new page, what do you think?
I’m also following along with gratefulness ! You all have the gift of being funny and serious at the same time ! I met Ken once in Temecula and his advice to me was : don’t be so serious !
I’m still as serious as then but I try to look at it with kindness.
This morning while reading lesson 151 in the JTW I really couldn’t tell where J ended and Ken started . Ken has been able to create a symphony so filled with love and clarity !
This is one Freud quote from JTW 151 that is mindblowing ( it’s about reaction formation): “So powerful a prohibition can only be directed against an equally powerful impulse. What no human soul desires stands in no need of prohibition ; it is excluded automatically. The very emphasis laid on the commandment “Thou shalt not kill ” makes it certain that we spring from an endless series of generations of murderers, who had the lust for killing in their blood, as, perhaps, we ourselves have today.
I almost got my morning coffee in the wrong throath while reading this . The quote is longer so if you are curious you can sneak in to lesson 151 to see how it ends 😉
B, DO make a new page please 🙂
Please consider these page closed to further comments, and place your thoughts on the new Village Square II page. Many thanks.
PS I’ve tried for a couple of hours to research a way to move all the posts since the beginning of the year on to this new page, but, again, my computer and wordpress skills fail me. If anyone can manage to research this for me, and find a simple way of shifting the comments from the first of January on to this new page, I would very much appreciate it.