While working with the material last night, I discovered two extremely interesting and suggestive facts about the scribing of A Course in Miracles.
You will see miracles -
The publicity materials issuing forth from the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM) over the years has consistently presented the story of the Course's scribing as beginning with the sentence, "This is a course in miracles, please take notes."
In fact, however, this is not true.
The Helen Schucman's steno notebook page for October 21, 1965 actually begins with the sentence, "You will see miracles through your hands, through mine." This sentence , "You will see miracles . . . . ", was edited out of all subsequent versions of the Course past the urtext typescript.
The scribes and editors of the Course in the early years were personally disturbed by the entire concept of miracles, and there is plausible evidence that they each, in their own way, deprecated the concept as much as possible. Miracles are living visible proof that everything you believe about yourself and the world is simply not true.
Miracles are very disturbing things to ponder.
Great comet of 1965 - Ikeya-Seki - Wikipedia
Comet Ikeya-Seki was unknown until it was first seen in the night sky on September 18, 1965. The comet raced toward the sun in its elliptical orbit until reaching its closest point on October 21, 1965. It proved to be one of the brightest comets seen in the last thousand years, and is sometimes known as the Great Comet of 1965. It was so bright that it was clearly visible in the daytime sky next to the Sun. The comet was seen to break into three pieces just before its passage of the sun. The three pieces continued together in almost identical orbits.
October 21, 1965 was the day that Helen Schucman first begin scribing A Course in Miracles.
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Grieving the loss of paradise
Working toward an ACIM perspective on Milton and Kübler-Ross
Carmen came up with the idea of applying the Five Stages of Grieving to our emotional loss of Paradise. My mind went to John Milton's "Paradise Lost," as being representative of 17th Century Christian thinking. Very modern at the time (1667), but old, rusty, and falling apart today . . . regardless of how many people still believe that story without question.
-oOo-
Grieving the loss of paradise
John Milton and Genesis
Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, roughly based upon the Bible's Genesis story, forms one part of John Milton's 1667 epic poem "Paradise Lost". Another parallel story line in Milton's work is that of Lucifer's rebellion against God. Although the story of Lucifer is not based upon the Bible at all, it is a story that is deeply rooted in Western cultural beliefs.
The story of Lucifer in "Paradise Lost" follows the aftermath of Lucifer's war in heaven seeking to overthrow God. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and cast into Hell.
Lucifer employs his skill to organize his followers. Lucifer nominates himself to subvert the newly-created Earth, and he braves the dangers of the Abyss alone in his journey to Eden.
The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a domestic saga. Adam and Eve are presented for the first time in Christian literature as having a functional relationship before the fall, while they were still without sin. They each have passions and distinct personalities in Milton's telling. The are presented as real people.
Lucifer successfully tempts Eve by preying on her vanity and tricking her with sly words. Adam, seeing Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another so that if she dies, he must also die. In this manner Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure but also as a deeper sinner than Eve since he knows that what he's doing is wrong, and he does it anyway.
After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex in Milton's poem. This preserved the popular, if not strictly doctrinal, position that sex itself is the original sin. At first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep, have terrible nightmares, and after they awake they experience guilt and shame for the first time. Realizing that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination. Adam and Eve try to shift the blame onto the other.
"Those who think that they are sin must die for what they think they are." A Course in Miracles
Eve's pleas to Adam reconcile them somewhat. Her encouragement enables them to approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," and to receive grace from God. Nevertheless, hey are cast out of Eden and the archangel Michael says that Adam may find "A paradise within thee, happier far." They now have a more distant relationship with God, and a flaming sword bars the way back to paradise.
Lucifer is the symbol for man and the ego
It is easy to see the similarity between Lucifer's expulsion from the paradise of Heaven and Adam & Eve's expulsion from the paradise of Eden. Each rebelled against God, and each were punished by God, as is commonly believed. A Course in Miracles recognizes this parallel. "After all, Lucifer fell, but he was still an angel. He is thus the symbol for man," the Course (urtext) states. Similarly, God's children rebelled and fell, but they were still God's children. Lucifer's story epitomizes the Course's description of the ego.
One can characterize the entire melodrama as a transaction among egos, useful from beginning to end to illustrate Course teachings. It is even possible to analyse Lucifer's behavior in terms of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross model for the five stages of grief.
Although originally developed from observation of terminally ill hospital patients in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, it has been applied to the greif associated with any loss. But the statement,"Lucifer literally projected himself from heaven," from the Course urtext is a reminder that Lucifer's exile from Heaven was self-imposed.
The first stage of grief is denial.
"Listening to the ego’s voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God." - A Course in Miracles
Lucifer's denial was the denial of truth, the denial of sanity, and the denial of his own identity. He forgot it is impossible or not adventageous to attack God, the source and sustainer of his own being. Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to accept the fact he is a created being, and that he is not self-sufficient, which is rooted in his extreme pride.
"The ego believes that ALL functions belong to it, even though it has no idea what they ARE. This is more than mere confusion. It is a particularly dangerous combination of grandiosity AND confusion which makes it likely that the ego will attack anyone and anything for no reason at all. This is exactly what the ego DOES. It is TOTALLY unpredictable in its responses because it has no idea of WHAT it perceives." - A Course in Miracles
There is no war against God, and there never was.
The second stage of grief is anger.
Clearly, this is the stage where we first find Lucifer in Milton's tale. He is angry at God for his imagined punishment. "It is the ego’s fundamental doctrine that, what you do to others, you have escaped." This is why he conspires to seduce Eve into disobedience and rebellion, so that she and Adam will also suffer the same fate of exile from paradise. Lucifer's survival depended on his belief that he was exempt from his own evil intentions. We also see Adam and Eve angry with each other after the forbidden fruit was eaten.
The third stage of grief is bargaining.
After eating the forbidden fruit and remembering the consequences for that disobedience, Adam and Eve both approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," and to ask pardon from God, in Milton's version. It is a form of bargaining. In Genesis, Adam and Eve "knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons," is another form of bargaining.
The forth stage of grief is depression.
In Paradise Lost, Adam goes on a vision journey with an angel where he witnesses the errors of man and the Great Flood, and is saddened by the sin that they have released through consumption of the fruit.
The fifth stage of grief is acceptance.
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
Carmen came up with the idea of applying the Five Stages of Grieving to our emotional loss of Paradise. My mind went to John Milton's "Paradise Lost," as being representative of 17th Century Christian thinking. Very modern at the time (1667), but old, rusty, and falling apart today . . . regardless of how many people still believe that story without question.
-oOo-
Grieving the loss of paradise
John Milton and Genesis
Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, roughly based upon the Bible's Genesis story, forms one part of John Milton's 1667 epic poem "Paradise Lost". Another parallel story line in Milton's work is that of Lucifer's rebellion against God. Although the story of Lucifer is not based upon the Bible at all, it is a story that is deeply rooted in Western cultural beliefs.
The story of Lucifer in "Paradise Lost" follows the aftermath of Lucifer's war in heaven seeking to overthrow God. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and cast into Hell.
Lucifer employs his skill to organize his followers. Lucifer nominates himself to subvert the newly-created Earth, and he braves the dangers of the Abyss alone in his journey to Eden.
The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a domestic saga. Adam and Eve are presented for the first time in Christian literature as having a functional relationship before the fall, while they were still without sin. They each have passions and distinct personalities in Milton's telling. The are presented as real people.
Lucifer successfully tempts Eve by preying on her vanity and tricking her with sly words. Adam, seeing Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another so that if she dies, he must also die. In this manner Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure but also as a deeper sinner than Eve since he knows that what he's doing is wrong, and he does it anyway.
After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex in Milton's poem. This preserved the popular, if not strictly doctrinal, position that sex itself is the original sin. At first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep, have terrible nightmares, and after they awake they experience guilt and shame for the first time. Realizing that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination. Adam and Eve try to shift the blame onto the other.
"Those who think that they are sin must die for what they think they are." A Course in Miracles
Eve's pleas to Adam reconcile them somewhat. Her encouragement enables them to approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," and to receive grace from God. Nevertheless, hey are cast out of Eden and the archangel Michael says that Adam may find "A paradise within thee, happier far." They now have a more distant relationship with God, and a flaming sword bars the way back to paradise.
Lucifer is the symbol for man and the ego
It is easy to see the similarity between Lucifer's expulsion from the paradise of Heaven and Adam & Eve's expulsion from the paradise of Eden. Each rebelled against God, and each were punished by God, as is commonly believed. A Course in Miracles recognizes this parallel. "After all, Lucifer fell, but he was still an angel. He is thus the symbol for man," the Course (urtext) states. Similarly, God's children rebelled and fell, but they were still God's children. Lucifer's story epitomizes the Course's description of the ego.
One can characterize the entire melodrama as a transaction among egos, useful from beginning to end to illustrate Course teachings. It is even possible to analyse Lucifer's behavior in terms of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross model for the five stages of grief.
Although originally developed from observation of terminally ill hospital patients in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, it has been applied to the greif associated with any loss. But the statement,"Lucifer literally projected himself from heaven," from the Course urtext is a reminder that Lucifer's exile from Heaven was self-imposed.
The first stage of grief is denial.
"Listening to the ego’s voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God." - A Course in Miracles
Lucifer's denial was the denial of truth, the denial of sanity, and the denial of his own identity. He forgot it is impossible or not adventageous to attack God, the source and sustainer of his own being. Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to accept the fact he is a created being, and that he is not self-sufficient, which is rooted in his extreme pride.
"The ego believes that ALL functions belong to it, even though it has no idea what they ARE. This is more than mere confusion. It is a particularly dangerous combination of grandiosity AND confusion which makes it likely that the ego will attack anyone and anything for no reason at all. This is exactly what the ego DOES. It is TOTALLY unpredictable in its responses because it has no idea of WHAT it perceives." - A Course in Miracles
There is no war against God, and there never was.
"Do you not realize a war against yourself would BE a war on God? Is victory CONCEIVABLE? And if it were, is this a victory that you would WANT? The death of God,if it were possible, would be YOUR death. Is this a VICTORY? The ego ALWAYS marches to defeat, BECAUSE it thinks that triumph over you is possible. And God thinks otherwise. This is no war. Only the mad belief the Will of God can be attacked and overthrown. You may IDENTIFY with this belief, but never will it be more than madness. And fear will reign in madness, and will SEEM to have replaced love there. This is the conflict’s PURPOSE. And to those who think that it is possible, the means seem real." - A Course in Miracles
The second stage of grief is anger.
Clearly, this is the stage where we first find Lucifer in Milton's tale. He is angry at God for his imagined punishment. "It is the ego’s fundamental doctrine that, what you do to others, you have escaped." This is why he conspires to seduce Eve into disobedience and rebellion, so that she and Adam will also suffer the same fate of exile from paradise. Lucifer's survival depended on his belief that he was exempt from his own evil intentions. We also see Adam and Eve angry with each other after the forbidden fruit was eaten.
The third stage of grief is bargaining.
After eating the forbidden fruit and remembering the consequences for that disobedience, Adam and Eve both approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," and to ask pardon from God, in Milton's version. It is a form of bargaining. In Genesis, Adam and Eve "knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons," is another form of bargaining.
The forth stage of grief is depression.
In Paradise Lost, Adam goes on a vision journey with an angel where he witnesses the errors of man and the Great Flood, and is saddened by the sin that they have released through consumption of the fruit.
The fifth stage of grief is acceptance.
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Marigold Millennium
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The Marigold Millenium
How it works:
I have collected several thousand seeds from dwarf marigolds and from standard size marigolds grown in my back yard. I will send you enough of my marigold seeds for you to grow in your own garden or in a pot starting in the Spring of 2010.
When your marigolds bloom next summer, they will produce an abundance of marigold seeds. I will teach you how to gather, dry, and store these seeds. Then, you can share your marigold seeds with others.
Sign up to receive further details by email.
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Marigold Millennium Blog
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
Friday, October 02, 2009
What are the odds
What are the odds that this is the truth. In light of what we know about the numerology of A Course in Miracles, what are the odds that there were ever exactly 50 miracle principles? It is a minor point, but illustrative of how easy it is to be blind to the obvious.
There are 31 chapters in the ACIM Text. Thirty-one is a prime number. Thirty-one cannot be evenly divided by any whole number except itself and by the number one. The metaphysical symbolism of prime numbers indicates unitary wholeness. Metaphorically, prime numbers are indivisible wholes.
A prime number is a near-perfect conceptual reference for the idea of "oneness" . . . the many indivisibly united in the one.
As mentioned, the Text has 31 chapters. The Manual for Teachers has 29 sections and twenty-nine is a prime number. In the Urtext there were initially 43 Miracle Principles. Forty-three is a prime number. When Chapter One of the Text was edited by Bill Thetford to produce the 1972 version of the Course, there were 53 Miracle Principles, and fifty-three is a prime number as well.
What are the odds the mind that liked prime numbers so much is the same mind that decided there were to be fifty miracle principles?
Counting in tens . . . 10, 20, 30, etc. . . . seems natural because we are strongly identified with bodies having ten fingers. Finger counting is the basis for why we feel comfortable with nice "round" numbers like 50.
For someone who knows he is not a body, and who does not use fingers to count, the number 50 would have no special significance. The prime numbers 29, 31, 43 and 53 feel unnatural to one with strong unconscious body identification.
In Absence from Felicity, Kenneth Wapnick wrote:
Wapnick has proved himself to be an unreliable witness of the events surrounding the early days of the Course, and his assertions ought be taken with a grain of salt.
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
References:
Anonymous, A Course in Miracles - Original Edition
Bracken, Joseph A., S.J., The One in the Many: A Contemporary Reconstruction of the God-World Relationship
Clarke, W. Norris, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics
Wapnick, Kenneth, Absence from Felicity
There are 31 chapters in the ACIM Text. Thirty-one is a prime number. Thirty-one cannot be evenly divided by any whole number except itself and by the number one. The metaphysical symbolism of prime numbers indicates unitary wholeness. Metaphorically, prime numbers are indivisible wholes.
A prime number is a near-perfect conceptual reference for the idea of "oneness" . . . the many indivisibly united in the one.
As mentioned, the Text has 31 chapters. The Manual for Teachers has 29 sections and twenty-nine is a prime number. In the Urtext there were initially 43 Miracle Principles. Forty-three is a prime number. When Chapter One of the Text was edited by Bill Thetford to produce the 1972 version of the Course, there were 53 Miracle Principles, and fifty-three is a prime number as well.
What are the odds the mind that liked prime numbers so much is the same mind that decided there were to be fifty miracle principles?
Counting in tens . . . 10, 20, 30, etc. . . . seems natural because we are strongly identified with bodies having ten fingers. Finger counting is the basis for why we feel comfortable with nice "round" numbers like 50.
For someone who knows he is not a body, and who does not use fingers to count, the number 50 would have no special significance. The prime numbers 29, 31, 43 and 53 feel unnatural to one with strong unconscious body identification.
In Absence from Felicity, Kenneth Wapnick wrote:
"Bill [Thetford] insisted that there be fifty miracle principles, even though in the original dictation there were only 43, later changed to 53 in the two re-typings by Helen . . . In these numbering changes, incidentally, no text was added or deleted; the material was simply rearranged."We know for a fact that Wapnick's statement "no text was added or deleted" during the final editing of the Course is simply not true. We know that Wapnick did not have access to the original dictation and the urtext prior to Helen's death in 1981. Furthermore, Wapnick's characterization of the editorial work done by Bill Thetford as a "re-typing"is a distortion.
Wapnick has proved himself to be an unreliable witness of the events surrounding the early days of the Course, and his assertions ought be taken with a grain of salt.
-oOo-
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
Tom Fox on Facebook
References:
Anonymous, A Course in Miracles - Original Edition
Bracken, Joseph A., S.J., The One in the Many: A Contemporary Reconstruction of the God-World Relationship
Clarke, W. Norris, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics
Wapnick, Kenneth, Absence from Felicity
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Angels of love and hope
Give the gift of hope. That's the idea anyway. For the materialistic minded stuck in specifics, it may boil down to giving a pretty coffee mug. If it is the thought that counts, it's cool if the gift itself contains the thought.
Here are about two dozen unique angel miracle coffee mugs through CafePress.com based upon the angel illustrations of Carmen Cameron, coupled with quotes and ideas borrowed from A Course in Miracles.
Christmas Angel Miracle Mugs
Alphabet Angel Miracle Mugs
From: Give the gift of hope on The Learning Curve
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Aloneness or Oneness?
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) was the leading figure in 20th century French philosophy, in the Existentialist tradition. Sartre was also a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. His 1944 No Exit is perhaps his best known play. It has been adapted to film three times, with the most recent being the 2006 version directed by Etienne Kallos.
No Exit begins with the character Garcin being led into a room that the audience soon realizes is in hell. The room has no windows, no mirrors, and only one door. Eventually Garcin is joined by two woman. After their entry, the valet leaves and the door to the room is shut and locked. All expect to be physically tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, the characters come to understand they are there to torture each other.
Most of the play is about the pain they try to inflict upon each other verbally. They apply psychological torture to each other effectively by probing the other's flaws, desires, failings, and unpleasant memories, without compassion and absent the will to heal. Near the end of the play, Garcin demands he be released, and at his words the locked door flies open. However, none of the three will leave.
No Exit is the source of Sartre's most famous quotation, "Hell is other people." This quote is perhaps the most succinct summation of how the ego belief system views a world full to the brim with others. It is an attitude that may reliably be categorized as an ego belief because a major lesson of the Course is the right-minded view of our brother as our savior. Every encounter with an other has the potential for being a Holy Encounter. The Course teaches us the polar opposite of Sartre's statement, "Hell is other people."
Greta Garbo is famous for saying, with some considerable sincerity, "I want to be left alone." It is easy to see that this sentiment is the sugar-coated version of "Hell is other people," and that it means the same thing. I want to be left alone because being with other people is hell, from the ego's point of view.
Super sugar-coated renditions of the idea, "Hell is other people," are found the writings of various Hindu gurus and mystics, and others. One such is the following quote from the Ashtavakra Gita, an ancient Hindu text that presents the traditional teachings of Advaita Vedanta:
Whatever similarities the Hindu teachings of Advaita Vedanta may have with A Course in Miracles, it is easy enough to spot the obvious differences. Advaita teaches that you alone are God, where the Course is clear that you are not God and you are not alone. The Course teaches an over-arching oneness of unified purpose and essential relationship between God and the Sonship. Advaita Vedanta teaches an ideal of total identification with the ultimate Godhead in its singular aloneness. The contrast could not be more clear.
To modern Western ears, the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and so-called "non-dualism" sound very similar to the idea of solipsism.
Solipsism is a word constructed from the Latin root words 'solus,' meaning alone, and 'ipse,' or self. Literally it means "the self alone," and it is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists." With solipsism, the external world and other minds cannot be known, and may not exist at all.
Although this may have some superficial similarity with some isolated teachings of the Course, it is certainly not the meaning of the Course when it is taken as a whole. Entire sections of the Course relating to the joining of minds would need to be swept under the rug or otherwise discounted. The Course takes the position that other minds not only can be known, the false divisions that create an appearance of separate minds must be healed to know the true Oneness of a unified whole.
If solipsism represents the idea that nothing exists outside yourself, the Course offers the view that if anything is seen outside of yourself is only because you have defined your 'self' as much too small. We don't know who we are, in other words, or even how big we really are. Not to mention where we are. It is an important distinction.
As Peter Scholtes wrote, "There is a difference between having a vision and suffering from a hallucination."
No Exit begins with the character Garcin being led into a room that the audience soon realizes is in hell. The room has no windows, no mirrors, and only one door. Eventually Garcin is joined by two woman. After their entry, the valet leaves and the door to the room is shut and locked. All expect to be physically tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, the characters come to understand they are there to torture each other.
Most of the play is about the pain they try to inflict upon each other verbally. They apply psychological torture to each other effectively by probing the other's flaws, desires, failings, and unpleasant memories, without compassion and absent the will to heal. Near the end of the play, Garcin demands he be released, and at his words the locked door flies open. However, none of the three will leave.
" . . . . Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave! "
Hotel California - Eagles
No Exit is the source of Sartre's most famous quotation, "Hell is other people." This quote is perhaps the most succinct summation of how the ego belief system views a world full to the brim with others. It is an attitude that may reliably be categorized as an ego belief because a major lesson of the Course is the right-minded view of our brother as our savior. Every encounter with an other has the potential for being a Holy Encounter. The Course teaches us the polar opposite of Sartre's statement, "Hell is other people."
"The analysis of the ego's "real" motivation is the modern equivalent of the inquisition, for in both a brother's errors are "uncovered" and he is then attacked for his own good. What can this be but projection? For his errors lay in the minds of his interpreters, for which they punished him. Whenever you fail to recognize a call for help you are refusing help. Would you maintain that you do not need it? Yet this IS what you are maintaining when you refuse to recognize a brother's appeal, for only by answering his appeal can you be helped. Deny him your help and you will not perceive God's answer to you."The Course teaches that Heaven is other people. Heaven is here, Heaven is now, and the means are at hand through our relationships with others. Heaven is right here and now among us all. When Jesus said, "Lo, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21), he was talking to a crowd. The New International Version (NIV) of the Gospels gives an alternate translation for this passage, "the kingdom of God is among you." The "you" being spoken to is you (plural).
- A Corse in Miracles, Original Edition
Greta Garbo is famous for saying, with some considerable sincerity, "I want to be left alone." It is easy to see that this sentiment is the sugar-coated version of "Hell is other people," and that it means the same thing. I want to be left alone because being with other people is hell, from the ego's point of view.
Super sugar-coated renditions of the idea, "Hell is other people," are found the writings of various Hindu gurus and mystics, and others. One such is the following quote from the Ashtavakra Gita, an ancient Hindu text that presents the traditional teachings of Advaita Vedanta:
"He has gained the fruit of knowledge,
as well as the fruit of practice of yoga,
who, contented and purified in his senses,
ever revels in his aloneness.
Oh! The knower of truth
knows no misery in this world,
for the whole universe is filled by himself alone."
- Ashtavakra Gita
Whatever similarities the Hindu teachings of Advaita Vedanta may have with A Course in Miracles, it is easy enough to spot the obvious differences. Advaita teaches that you alone are God, where the Course is clear that you are not God and you are not alone. The Course teaches an over-arching oneness of unified purpose and essential relationship between God and the Sonship. Advaita Vedanta teaches an ideal of total identification with the ultimate Godhead in its singular aloneness. The contrast could not be more clear.
To modern Western ears, the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and so-called "non-dualism" sound very similar to the idea of solipsism.
Solipsism is a word constructed from the Latin root words 'solus,' meaning alone, and 'ipse,' or self. Literally it means "the self alone," and it is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists." With solipsism, the external world and other minds cannot be known, and may not exist at all.
Although this may have some superficial similarity with some isolated teachings of the Course, it is certainly not the meaning of the Course when it is taken as a whole. Entire sections of the Course relating to the joining of minds would need to be swept under the rug or otherwise discounted. The Course takes the position that other minds not only can be known, the false divisions that create an appearance of separate minds must be healed to know the true Oneness of a unified whole.
If solipsism represents the idea that nothing exists outside yourself, the Course offers the view that if anything is seen outside of yourself is only because you have defined your 'self' as much too small. We don't know who we are, in other words, or even how big we really are. Not to mention where we are. It is an important distinction.
As Peter Scholtes wrote, "There is a difference between having a vision and suffering from a hallucination."
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Reincarnation or recurrence?
Memories of your childhood memories of a prior incarnation. I've heard that there are many well-documented cases of children knowing things of other lives and bodies in other places that cannot be easily explained by the usual means.
I understand that. What I do not understand is the tendency to take a trivially insignificant number of examples such as those presented and then try to form a general rule from it, applicable to everyone. In this case, it seems, there may be the desire to have a rule regarding the idea of reincarnation . . . that everyone reincarnates from, say, a lifetime in Nazi Germany to a life in post-war North America.
The Manual for Teachers says this about it:
A "a slowly evolving training program" would be more in alignment with the idea of recurrence.
The idea of recurrence is basically this - A seeming split second after last closing your eyes in the sleep of death, you re-open them with a slap on the butt while hanging by your feet, smacked by the same doctor, in the same hospital room, in the same city, on the same date these many decades ago when you seemed to be born as an infant child, of your same parents and with the same brothers and sisters. You live your life again with no "changes in the external situation."
You are right back where you started . . .
. . . and you get to choose again.
It is like the movie Groundhog Day, except it is your whole life and not just one day.
Manual for Teachers - 24. Is Reincarnation So?
I understand that. What I do not understand is the tendency to take a trivially insignificant number of examples such as those presented and then try to form a general rule from it, applicable to everyone. In this case, it seems, there may be the desire to have a rule regarding the idea of reincarnation . . . that everyone reincarnates from, say, a lifetime in Nazi Germany to a life in post-war North America.
The Manual for Teachers says this about it:
"Changes are required in theof God's teachers. This may or may not involve changes in the external situation. Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God's plan. It is most unlikely that changes in attitudes would not be the first step in the newly made teacher of God's training. There is, however, no set pattern, since training is always highly individualized. There are those who are called upon to change their life situation almost immediately, but these are generally special cases. By far the majority are given a slowly evolving training program, in which as many previous mistakes as possible are corrected . . . "
A "a slowly evolving training program" would be more in alignment with the idea of recurrence.
The idea of recurrence is basically this - A seeming split second after last closing your eyes in the sleep of death, you re-open them with a slap on the butt while hanging by your feet, smacked by the same doctor, in the same hospital room, in the same city, on the same date these many decades ago when you seemed to be born as an infant child, of your same parents and with the same brothers and sisters. You live your life again with no "changes in the external situation."
You are right back where you started . . .
. . . and you get to choose again.
It is like the movie Groundhog Day, except it is your whole life and not just one day.
Manual for Teachers - 24. Is Reincarnation So?
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