ACFIP Newsletter 
December 2017
Issue 55
Quarterly Newsletter of the Australian Centre for Inner Peace


Michael Dawson
PO Box 125, Point Lookout
North Stradbroke Island,
Queensland 4183,
Australia

Email: mdawson@acfip.org  
Web site: http://www.acfip.org



If you wish to read previous issues please go to http://www.acfip.org/newsletterarchive.html.

If your email address ends with .au I put your address on my Australian list for advance notice of workshops I am giving in Australia. If you do not want to be on this list please let me know. If you reside in Australia and want to be on this list, but you address does not end in .au, please email me and I will include it.

If you are new to the Course you might find my summaries of help.
You can find them at http://www.acfip.org/sum.html and http://www.acfip.org/art4.html

eBooks and MP3s
Price of all three eBooks has been reduced by half to AU$4.99
1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.
Inspired by A Course in Miracles.
This is the eBook version of the paper back. The paper back is available from my website.

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes
New book in eBook format

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace. 
Inspired by A Course in Miracles
This is the eBook version of the paper back. The paper back is available from my website.

The eBook versions can be read on Kindle, iPad, Microsoft eReader, Nook, PDF readers (Mac and PC) and most eBook readers.

¥ Downloadable MP3s of my Healing the Cause self-help CDs now available.
See below for details.

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

Regards 

Michael Dawson

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CONTENTS:


A Course in Miracles Material

A Summary of A Course in Miracles (2017) by Michael Dawson.
Q. How does one tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and the ego? - Kenneth Wapnick 
Excepts from: ÒJesus: My Autobiography.Ó
Non Dual Teachings

*The Secret Room Where Peace Lives - Jan Frazier
*Everything Comes Back to Nothing - Adyashanti

Other

* Workshops
* Books and Audio Materials for Sale
* Links
* Inspirational Quotations



A Course in Miracles Material


A Summary of  A Course in Miracles (2017) by Michael Dawson.

The Course is summarised on the first page of the text, using just three lines. The first line states, ÒNothing real can be threatenedÓ. We know our bodies, personalities, concepts and beliefs can be easily threatened. In fact, any anything that can change, anything that is in time, will always change. Nothing our senses can perceive is without change. There is nothing in the whole universe that is protected from change. Our sun is middle-aged and in about 5 billion years will burn out. At that time there will be no life on this planet. What God created must be like itself - formless and outside of time or eternal. Eternal does not mean a very long period of time, it actually means no time. What we really are cannot be changed. We must be like our Creator, formless and eternal and impossible to be described. The aim of the Course is for us to discover our spiritual reality: this deep sense of peace that passes understanding, this quiet joy that never leaves us.

The second line of the summary states "Nothing unreal exists". This means that nothing in time, nothing that can change, is real in the absolute sense. It is more like a dream. The Course states that when we wake up from our dreams in the morning we just enter another dream. If we wish to play this painful game of separation, which most of us are addicted to, then it can only be played in a dream. 

You seem to waken, and the dream is gone. Yet what you fail to recognize is that what caused the dream has not gone with it. Your wish to make another world that is not real remains with you. And what you seem to waken to is but another form of this same world you see in dreams. All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same. They are your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change it.
 A Course in Miracles T-18.II.5.

You dwell not here,  but in eternity.
You travel but in dreams, while safe at home
 
Text-13.VII.17:6-7
Many will ask ÒWhy we would choose to be separate?Ó. The Course replies ÒWhy are you still choosing it now?Ó. We think itÕs better than union, than oneness. Now we can play at being God and pursue happiness according to our plans. When we finally realise that we, as separate beings, can never succeed we are ready to turn to forgiveness and go home.

You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awaking to reality Text-10.I.2:1

Forgiveness awakens us from the dream. The forgiveness of the Course is not the forgiveness normally talked about in our world which the Course states is Òforgiveness to destroyÓ. The worldÕs usual version of forgiveness is based on the misperception that the problem lies in the world and not in our minds. The only true forgiveness is for ourselves. The simplest definition of forgiveness is to look at our minds and at the world without judgement. We are asked us to smile at our ego thoughts. When we believe in right and wrong, good and bad we are caught in judgement. 

Òfor there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it soÓ. 
Shakespeare: Hamlet

For example, if we see an adult attacking or even torturing a child, and we fall into the trap of right and wrong and good and bad then we close our hearts. Our response will be from our minds and it will never be appropriate. Without judgement the response comes from the heart which has its own wisdom and we know what to say and what to do in any situation. The answer will come from inner guidance and will be a win-win solution for everyone. 

The  Holy Spirit is said to have only two judgements. It sees people either extending love or sees people asking for love. In this example both the adult and child are asking for love. Of course, this is no easy lesson as most of us do not have the perception of the Holy Spirit. However, we can start our practice of forgiveness in all the many difficult incidents that arise in the day when we lose our peace. We can start to see each day as a daily classroom of forgiveness. 

What we need to learn over time is that the problem is never in the world but in our own minds. The metaphysics of A Course in Miracles teaches us that when we chose to leave union and play this painful game of separation we carried with us great guilt and terror over what we seem to have done. In truth we have not done anything, but fall asleep in Heaven and dream all this. The Spirit within us, has never been damaged, never been altered.

The seeming act of separation has been deeply denied and buried in our subconscious. The pain and the guilt of this seeming separation is too much for us to carry. To escape from this pain we have projected it out onto the universe. Now the problems are seen outside of us and not within our minds where they truly reside. We think we have escaped this guilt with our clever plan but each day we are reminded of it. Every circumstance or person that upsets us is just triggering this hidden guilt of separation. We do not wish to see this so we say that circumstances or people are to blame. 

It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him. You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion ... Only in someone else can you forgive yourself, for you have called him guilty of your sins, and in him must your innocence now be found. Who but the sinful need to be forgiven? And do not ever think you can see sin in anyone except yourself. 
The Song of Prayer Supplement to 
A Course in Miracles S-2.I.4:2-4, S-2.I.4:6-8 

As we blame others we only make our guilt worse, for it is a dishonest act and our guilt level only increases. The Course states that all anger is an attempt to make another person feel guilty, for in this way we hope to change their behaviour to get what we want. If our angry outburst does not work then we are likely to become even more angry in the hope that we get the desired effect on the other. The greater the illusion we are trying to protect in our minds the greater our defence. Any time we experience anger it is a red flag in bringing attention to something unhealed, unforgiven within our minds. There are no exceptions, there is no righteous anger. Our egos hate to hear such a statement. 

The world is but a mirror to what is unhealed and unforgiven in our minds. As we start to slowly learn this lesson we realise that our brothers and sisters are our saviours. They perfectly reflect what needs to be forgiven in our minds. When our forgiveness lessons are complete we will only have compassion for the suffering in the world. It will be a heart wisdom that responds in all situations. When we finally wake up we realise that separation is an illusion and all that we look upon it really ourselves. Why would we want to attack others? - it would be like stamping on our own feet.

When I look within and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom.
When I look without and see that I am everything, that is love.
And between these two, my life turns.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Three stages of Forgiveness.
In one short passage the Course divides forgiveness into three stages. 

You are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then [second] let go, so that [third] it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not.  
Workbook-p1.23.5:1-4 

I've discussed the first stage above where we come to realise that what upsets us in the world is just a mirror of what upsets us in our minds otherwise we would respond with compassion. We complete that first step when we become grateful to events and people for showing us our unhealed thoughts in our minds. The form in our mind may be different. For example, we may get upset at angry people but in our case we rarely display anger. But on closer investigation we discover a quiet, brooding anger within us which manifests in shutting us off from people we dislike. Our anger, our aggression is passive. This is what we feel guilty about and project onto others.

 Now we have a chance to heal the cause. This moves us onto the second stage of forgiveness where we have to decide if we are ready to let these thoughts go. It is easy to become attached to our painful thoughts, to turn them into our identity and make them into a story about ourselves. We are asked to forgive and let go the victim that we have found the within us. However, we may now find we are deeply attached to that victim and resist letting go as we know this will cause a major change in our lives. Perhaps our friends are also victims and others rescuers. We could lose these people if we let our victim  role go. Perhaps also we have been using our sense of victim to say to the world Òdon't expect much of me for I have been abusedÓ. That excuse can no longer be used once we forgive the victim in ourselves. As Byron Katie said ÒWho would you be without your story?Ó. 

When you are ready to let your pain go you have completed the second stage of forgiveness. The third stage is automatic and divine, the guilt and pain are simply lifted from us as we no longer want them. Spirit cannot take what we still want, no matter how painful it is. We can plead with Spirit to take our pains but It knows if we secretly still think it benefits us in some way.

Forgiveness  É is still, and quietly does nothing. É. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. 
Workbook-pII.1.4:1,3

As we walk this path of forgiveness we uncover and release painful thoughts and guilt in our mind. It's like removing clouds obscuring the sun. We will start to experience light, love and peace as our true nature begins to shine through and this encourages us on our path home.

The path becomes quite different as one goes along. Nor could all the magnificence, the grandeur of the scene and the enormous opening vistas that rise to meet one as the journey continues, be foretold from the outset. Yet even these, whose splendor reaches indescribable heights as one proceeds, fall short indeed of all that wait when the pathway ceases and time ends with it. 
Manual for Teachers.  M19.2.

 18/9/17
 Michael Dawson
 www.acfip.org

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Q.43) How does one tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and the ego? - Kenneth Wapnick 
http://www.facimoutreach.org/index.htm

We begin with a statement from the Course. It comes in "The Test of Truth" in Chapter 14 of the text, and is the answer to this question, given in the context of discerning between the "dark lessons" of the ego and the "bright lessons" of the Holy Spirit:

You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned is true.  [1 ] If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and [2] if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God's lesson, and not your own (T-14.XI.5:1-2).

In other words, Jesus is providing his students with two criteria with which to evaluate whether they have chosen the ego or himself as their teacher. The first deals only with individual students, whether or not they are at peace. The second involves other people, those who live and work with us, not to mention everyone else.  We all would have to admit that it is relatively simple to delude ourselves into thinking we have chosen the Holy Spirit, when in truth we have chosen our own specialness. But it is more difficult to fool other people, especially those who know us well and who see us regularly over periods of time. Incidentally, students of A Course in Miracles sometimes wonder if that second criterion would have to exclude Jesus, since obviously the biblical figure (who, by the way, should never be taken for the historical Jesus -- see question 52 ) was crucified by angry people who quite clearly did not "share in [his] perfect peace." However, one should understand this situation to mean that people may experience your perfect peace, but may be so threatened by it that they try to attack it and you. But they could not be doing so had they not first experienced this peace as authentic, and then become threatened by it.

This test of truth is applicable to students over the long run because, again, it is difficult to fool others and even oneself over a period of time. However, in any given instant when one wishes to know which teacher has been consulted, it is almost impossible to know for certain. As all students of A Course in Miracles already know, and as we have already commented, the ego can quite deceptively pose like the Holy Spirit. Given the tremendous investment all people in this world have in maintaining their specialness, it should come as no surprise that this would be so. In this very important passage, Jesus cautions his students about underestimating the power their specialness has to mask the Holy Spirit's Voice. It is from one of the major sections in the text that deals specifically with the treacherous nature of specialness:

You are not special. If you think you are, and would defend your specialness against the truth of what you really are, how can you know the truth? What answer that the Holy Spirit gives can reach you, when it is your specialness to which you listen, and which asks and answers. Its tiny answer, soundless in the melody that pours from God to you eternally in loving praise of what you are, is all you listen to. And that vast song of honor and of love for what you are seems silent and unheard before its "mightiness.  " You strain your ears to hear its soundless voice, and yet the Call of God Himself is soundless to you.

You can defend your specialness, but never will you hear the Voice for God beside it (T-24.II.4:1-5:1, italics ours).

Therefore, our response to this question is to state, that because of students' over-identification with their egos, it is really the wrong question to ask. Rather, the focus should be on eliminating the interference to hearing the Holy Spirit's Voice, which would then simply allow the Voice for God to be Itself. Thus, the question should be: "Why don't I practice the forgiveness lessons the Holy Spirit asks me to do so that I can better hear His Voice?"  With this new question, the focus is now shifted to eliminating the problem so that the Answer can be given us.  As Jesus exhorts his students:

Your task is not to seek for love [or hear the Holy Spirit's Voice], but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false (T-I6.IV.6:1-2).

And returning to "The Test of Truth," we find Jesus making the same point to his students who despair over being able to actually hear the Holy Spirit, given the strength of their investment in their ego's "dark lessons":

Do not be concerned about how you can learn a lesson so completely different from everything that you have taught yourself. How would you know? Your part is very simple.  You need only recognize that everything you learned you do not want. Ask to be taught, and do not use your experiences to confirm what you have learned. When your peace is threatened or disturbed in any way, say to yourself:

I do not know what anything, including this, means.  
And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will  
not use my own past learning as the light to guide me 
now.

By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you. He will take His rightful place in your awareness the instant you abandon it, and offer it to Him (T-14.XI.6).

The primary focus of Jesus' Course is always on removing the interferences to the awareness of love's presence (T-in.1:7), and not on the love itself. And so, once again, the students' focus will remain on asking Jesus' help to set aside their ego thought system, rather than on asking him directly for help or guidance with things in the world. Finally, we cite one important passage in the text that underscores this major emphasis:

The task of the miracle worker ... becomes to deny the denial of truth (T-12.II.1:5).

The "denial of truth" is of course the ego thought system, which denies the truth of God. Our responsibility is to ask the Holy Spirit's help to "deny" the validity of what the ego teaches, hereby affirming His truth of the Atonement.

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Excepts from:
ÒJesus: My Autobiography.Ó
Channeled by Tina L Spalding
Available from Amazon or TinaÕs website:
https://channelingjesus.com/books/

Over 150 channellings available free at:
https://channelingjesus.com/youtube/


On A Course in Miracles

There is an aspect of you that knows you are not at home. It is that feeling all of you have that there has been a terrible mistake, that you were put in the wrong family, that you are not understood, that you are alone. This is the fear that I have come to help undo, for you unknowingly create it yourself. You do it by perpetuating these ideas of separation, and it is through the practice of forgiveness Ñ not in the sense that you believe in the sin but in the sense that you understand that the sin is not at all real Ñ that you have created the sin in your own mind to bring yourself peace. Allowing yourself to attack another brings you some sense of relief from your inner conflicts.
  That is the underlying principle of this book. It is a complicated principle when you have never heard it before. But the book I penned called A Course in Miracles covers this information. It is written in a language and in a way that is very powerful. It is written in a language and a way that will change your internal structures in a gentle and deliberate systematic way. So when you read it, it is hard to understand if you come at it from your ordinarily trained Western mind. It requires some discipline, and it requires some faith in the sense that you might not understand what it is talking about or understand what it is doing to the mind. You think that if only someone had written it more clearly Ñ if only someone had written it in a different language Ñ that it would be easier for you to comprehend. The truth is, it is written that way for a purpose! It is written in that way to undo the teaching and the conditioning of the Judeo-Christian principles of the world in which you find yourself. It is explained too, in other texts, and these I shall refer to at a later point.
  However, I am clarifying it here; I am clarifying it now. If you wish to begin to truly access peace, if you wish to begin to truly transform the thoughts and processes of your mind and come to a deep and profound understanding of that which is the truth, A Course in Miracles is the book that you will wish to read in concert with this book I am penning through this channel at this time. For if you understand my true life story, in combination with this book, you will have a complete understanding of what has transpired, what is transpiring, and how to achieve levels of communication with Spirit and levels of peace that are beyond your comprehension at this time.

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On miracles

ÒThese miracles are not as miraculous as you think they are when you begin to comprehend that everything you see is playing out in your mind as a dream, for you know that in the dream state, in your normal sleeping experience, you can change things instantaneously as soon as you realize that you are dreaming.
You do not comprehend that this idea of lucid dreaming can also apply to your life as you live it now. That is all I was doing: I was expressing my ability to lucidly dream in what you consider reality.Ó

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On the crucifixion 

ÒI went to this experience with mixed emotions; there is no doubt about that. But I went voluntarily into the death experience because I was aware of this agreement I had made to do this work. It is hard for you to comprehend this, we understand from this side, because you are attached to the body and you are fearful of pain, but you must understand that I was able, in that time and place, to remove my consciousness from my body so that the suffering was in fact quite limited. The observers of the event from the outside did not experience what I experienced. I was able to lift my consciousness out of my body very early in the process and was gone far sooner than people think.Ó

ÒBecause of many years of practice, I could at that time just shift my consciousness and remove it from the physical body. So the body that was hanging on the cross was not me. The consciousness that was me had already gone into the nonphysical and was communing and communicating with my higher guides, my higher self, and the beings who were in charge of my ministry Ó

ÒI was told that this death experience, undone through the idea of resurrection, would be the most powerful aspect of my teaching. That was the truth. I was not contained within my body, and I did not raise up a dead body. That is not what happened. The body was merely dematerialized, and I materialized a new one.Ó

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Non Dual Teachings


This part of the newsletter offers input from non-dual teachers. What is non-duality? The word Ônon-dualÕ means not two. On the first page of the ACIM text there is two line summary of a Course in Miracles. It begins with the line ÒNothing real can be threatened
This refers to what God created Ð eternal, formless, spirit. Eternal means never born and therefore cannot change or die. The Course uses the expression Ôthe ChristÕ to denote this. Behind all the seeming multiplicity of the universe there is actually only one essential reality. Just as all the images on the cinema screen seem different, the light that creates them is one.

There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. For God created only this, and He did not depart from it nor leave it separate from Himself. The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, who left not his Father and dwells not apart from Him. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within.
T-18.VI.1.

The second line of the summary states ÓNothing unreal exists.Ó This refers to everything that is born and therefore dies - the egoÕs world. Thus everything in the universe including ourselves is not real according to the Course. It is like a great dream. Only perfect oneness is real. 

There are two forms of non-duality Ð pure and impure. In the impure form God is aware that the universe is a dream and experiences itself through it - God's Leela or play as they say in the East. In the pure form of non-duality God is unaware of the universe. The Course is an example of pure non-dual teachings. A metaphor for this is a cinema projector where the lamp in the projector represents God. When the ego's film of separation is run past the light it is projected onto the screen of time and space. The light of God makes this possible, but the lamp is unaware of what is on the screen and would continue to shine when the film is taken away. To continue with this metaphor the light extending from the lamp is who we are, the Christ. ( See chart http://acfip.org/lightbulb.html)

You dwell not here, but in eternity.
You travel but in dreams, while safe at home. 
T-13.VII.17:6-7.

You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awaking to reality. 
T-10.I.2:1.


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The Secret Room Where Peace Lives - Jan Frazier
Posted on October 17, 2017
http://janfrazierteachings.com/the-secret-room-where-peace-lives/

Might it be possible to fully accept what-is, however far it departs from the thing I expected, or wished would be?

How naturally a person tends to equate accepting something with liking it. ItÕs easier to see this in the negation: If I dislike the thing thatÕs occurred, of course I reject it. ItÕs natural to rebel against any idea of accepting it.
As if acceptance werenÕt possible without approval.
The inability to tease the two apart is the heart of untold needless pain. Even to recognize how tightly yoked they tend to be (accept, like) is the beginning of a revelation. The recognition of an alternate possibility opens the door a crack Ñ the door thatÕs been closed on the restful room where peace lives, like soothing warm water patiently awaiting our arrival. In that hidden room, where resistance no longer operates, all is felt to be profoundly well (no matter the particulars of momentary life).
If the possibility has never dawned that acceptance can quite naturally occur even in the presence of an unwelcome or startling development, then in the face of something challenging, resistance will seal the door tightly shut. Resistance will be a constant (and exhausting) companion, causing the inevitable inner turmoil. Because life will continue serving up one meal after another of something unpalatable, maybe something even sickening. And we will keep blaming life itself for the upset interior of our dear selves.
Nobody wants to know that itÕs not actually life causing the ceaseless inner disturbance. To see the role I play in holding peace away Ñ to let my body register my complicity in my own suffering Ñ asks a certain courage. To inquire into the apparently inevitable gesture of holding at armÕs length anything unwelcome, as if there were no other option! Might it be possible to fully accept what-is, however far it departs from the thing I expected, or wished would be? To simply allow that question into the body is what subtly turns the knob on the door. ItÕs the dawning of awareness of the existence of the room (so surprising a space!) where peace has been waiting. ItÕs a place whose existence had never been imagined, during all the preoccupied hours and years of blaming life for one episode after another of acute suffering.
When the door has swung all the way open (through whatever miraculous means), when acceptance has blessedly become the norm, with no more enforced barrier between awareness and life, peace has become the default.
At some point the observation may be made that the question of approve-vs.-disapprove no longer is automatically posed to self. How to account for the disappearance of this life-long assessor? Is it because the primacy of reality has at last won out? Is it because acceptance occurs naturally and immediately, not waiting for the long-familiar sizing-up to occur first?
The conspicuous absence of the like/dislike assessor certainly is not because youÕve lost the ability to discern, or to care, or even to prefer. If you go looking inside yourself for the presence of such things, you will surely be able to find them: little pockets of tender gratitude, of concern, or rejoicing, in the face of one thing or another life has delivered. You do still care. You might well even proceed to take some kind of action in a certain direction. ItÕs just that whatever you do in response to a thing, or whatever you might pursue toward some end, is fueled by love, not (as before) by anger or fear or ferocious desire. And there is none of the familiar attachment to how-things-go. The yoking of the ÒrightÓ outer circumstances with inner well-being has simply dissolved in the warm water of non-resistance. You finally see that your inner reality is not dependent on outer conditions.
YouÕre the same inside, no matter what comes along.

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Everything Comes Back to Nothing - Adyashanti
Inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all disappears. The struggle disappears. The striving disappears. The person disappears. The world disappears. Everything disappears, and the person is like a pinpoint of light, just receding until it disappears. And thereÕs nobody there to witness it. The person is gone. Only, only awareness remains. Nothing else. No one to be aware. Nothing to be aware of. Only that remains itself. Then itÕs understood, finally and simply.

Then everythingÑall the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, tooÑwas just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is, and ever will be no more than a thought. With a single thought, the person seems to reemerge. With more thoughts, the world seems to reemerge right out of nothing. But now you know.

The incarnation is nothing more than a thought. A thousand incarnations are but a thousand thoughts. And this amazing miracle of a mirage we call the world reappears as it was before, but now you know. ThatÕs why you usually have a good laugh, because you realize that all your struggles were made up. You conjured them up out of nothingÑwith a thought that was linked to another thought, that was then believed, that linked to another thought that was then believed. But never could it have been true, not for a second could it have actually existed. Not ever could you have actually suffered for a reason that was trueÑonly through an imagination, good, bad, indifferent. The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness.

And so at times we talk, and I pretend to take your struggles seriously, just as I pretended to take my own seriously. You may pretend to take your own struggles seriously from time to time, and although we pretend, we really shouldnÕt forget that we are pretending, that we are making up the content of our experience; we are making up the little dramas of our lives. We are making up whether we need to hold on or surrender or figure it out or pray to God or be purified or have karma cleansedÑitÕs all a thought. We just collude in this ridiculous charade of an illusion pretending that itÕs real, only to reveal that itÕs not. There is no karma. There is nothing really to purify. ThereÕs no problem. There is only what you create and believe to be so. And if you like it that way, have at it!

But we cannot continue this absolute farce indefinitely. We cannot continue to pretend this game we play, indefinitely. ItÕs impossible. Everything comes back to nothing.

And then itÕs a bit harder to hold a straight face consistently for the rest of your life.


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PLEASE NOTE: The Australian Centre for Inner Peace is not a counselling or psychotherapy centre; 
therefore we do not offer telephone or email service or counselling, therapy, or crisis intervention for personal problems. 
Please see the Contacts section at the end of this newsletter.
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Other


Forthcoming Workshops on A Course in Miracles


For up to date information on my workshops go to http://www.acfip.org/fws.html 


Germany 2018 Dates


Bonn - Sat 9 and Sun 10 June - 2018
10am to 6pm



I need do nothing - moving from doing to being.

 To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. 
Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides.

A Course in Miracles. T-18.VII.7

Our modern age is characterised by busyness, doing and speed, leaving little room to be guided This busyness often extends into our spiritual life as well. 

The Course reminds us that the memory of God, our spiritual reality, returns to the quiet mind and not one filled with busyness - whether material or so-called Òspiritual.Ó As we learn to give up ego-based action, slow down and do nothing our actions will spontaneously come from a source of wisdom only found in the quiet mind. 

Save time for me by only this one preparation, and practice doing nothing else.  "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation.
A Course in Miracles. T-18.VII.6

This workshop explores the following:
Effort versus relaxation
Need to surrender
Being not doing
I need do nothing
Forgiveness
End of seeking
Journey from a somebody to a nobody.
Planning and decisions
Not knowing
What keeps us from the now?
Fear of the unknown
Attaining a quiet mind

Exercises will be given to help us leave the control of the ego and move into a state of beingness and receptivity.
No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.




An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 8th June 2017
7.30pm to 9.30pm


Contact:
Albert-Schweitzer-Haus
Beethovenallee 16
Bonn 53173
tel: 0228 - 36 47 37
http://www.albert-schweitzer-haus-bonn.de







Freiburg  2018 June

Fri 15,[6pm tp 9pm] Sat 16 [10am to 6pm] and Sun 17 [10am to 5pm]


I need do nothing - moving from doing to being.

 To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. 
Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides.

A Course in Miracles. T-18.VII.7

Our modern age is characterised by busyness, doing and speed, leaving little room to be guided This busyness often extends into our spiritual life as well. 

The Course reminds us that the memory of God, our spiritual reality, returns to the quiet mind and not one filled with busyness - whether material or so-called Òspiritual.Ó As we learn to give up ego-based action, slow down and do nothing our actions will spontaneously come from a source of wisdom only found in the quiet mind. 

Save time for me by only this one preparation, and practice doing nothing else.  "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation.
A Course in Miracles. T-18.VII.6

This workshop explores the following:
Effort versus relaxation
Need to surrender
Being not doing
I need do nothing
Forgiveness
End of seeking
Journey from a somebody to a nobody.
Planning and decisions
Not knowing
What keeps us from the now?
Fear of the unknown
Attaining a quiet mind

Exercises will be given to help us leave the control of the ego and move into a state of beingness and receptivity.
No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

Contact:
Margarete Sennekamp
Winterhaldenweg 4,
79856 Hinterzarten,
Tel./Fax: 07652-917530
email: M.Sennekamp@t-online.de
www.Sophia-Institut.de


Workshop dates Germany 2019

Bonn: 14 - 16 June

Freiburg: 21-23 June

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BOOKS AND AUDIO MATERIALS FOR SALE - by Michael Dawson


New teaching and healing materials - eBooks and downloadable MP3s:

Ebooks:
Price of all three eBooks has been reduced by half to AU$4.99

1. Healing the Cause -A Path of Forgiveness.
Inspired by A Course in Miracles.
This is the eBook version of the paper back.

2. A Course in Miracles - Explanations of Major Themes
New book in eBook format

3. Forgiveness - A Path to Inner Peace. 
Inspired by A Course in Miracles
This is the eBook version of the paper back.

The eBook versions can be read on Kindle, iPad, Microsoft eReader, Nook, PDF readers (Mac and PC) and most eBook readers.
For more details and how to purchase please visit: www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html


Downloadable Mp3s:

1. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 1
This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

2. Healing the Cause: Self-Help Exercises 2
This MP3 contains the identical four exercises as the CD

3. Healing the Cause: 3 Self-Help Exercises in English with German translation
This MP3 contains the identical three exercises as the CD

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html


Paperback Books:

Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness.  Findhorn Press 1994
Also available in German, Romanian, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.

The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness.  Findhorn Press. 2003
Also available in German, French, Polish and Romanian.

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/books_tapes.html

MP3s (see above) and CDs:

Healing the Cause:
Since 1986 I have been conducting healing workshops in the UK and abroad, and have continually experimented to find healing and forgiveness exercises that are effective.  I have found that a particular exercise can be effective for one person but not another. Accordingly, I was led to develop a series of exercises. Over the years workshop participants asked if these exercises could be put onto audio cassettes and CDs so they could repeat them. This has resulted in the Healing the Cause - Exercise series - Tapes 1 to 4 (2 exercises on each tape) and CD1 and 2 (4 exercises on each CD)

CD - 3 Healing Exercises in English with German translation. 10 Euro
Content: 
Ex1. Forgiving Ourselves. 
Ex2. Changing Perception and Finding peace. 
Ex3. Changing Perception of another - exercise for two people.

These exercises are similar to existing exercises already available on CDs but are translated into German.
 
Workshops:

1. Three Steps of Forgiveness. 
This workshop concentrates on the process of forgiveness from the perspective of A Course in Miracles. Includes 3 healing exercises.
 Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, November 2001. 1 hour 12 mins. One CD

2. Finding and Eliminating the Blocks to Receiving Guidance. 
This talk investigates what stops us hearing the guidance that is ever present in our lives. Recorded at the Annual Miracle Network Conference in London, October 20001 hour. One CD

For more details and how to purchase please visit: http://www.acfip.org/audio.html

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CONTACTS and COURSE INFORMATION 
Search Engine for ACIM Sites, Definitions and Articles by Joe Jesseph.
A Web search engine dedicated to finding discussion and definitions of terms and concepts found in 
A Course in Miracles as well as Web sites, articles and other writings related to the Course.

Question and Answer Service from the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. 
Their electronic outreach section has a question and answer service on the theory and practice of the Course. Their database of 1,400 questions and answers is searchable. They no longer take new questions as they feel all possible questions have now been put.

Foundation for Inner Peace..........................Publishers of A Course in Miracles and responsible for the translation programme. On-line mail order.

Foundation For A Course In Miracles................FACIM is the official teaching organisation of the Foundation for Inner Peace and the copyright-holder of_A Course in Miracles and all related materials. Publishes the quarterly Lighthouse newsletter. They have extensive on-line mail order for their books, CDs and DVDs.
The Foundation was started by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick and has moved to Temecula in California. Kenneth is my teacher of A Course in Miracles. His body died in December 2013.
Their publications can also be ordered in Australia at:
Adyar Bookshop
230 Clarence Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Kenneth Wapnick ......ÉÉÉ Biographical information and excerpts from his writings
Kenneth Wapnick on YouTube
Glossary of ACIM terms from FACIM
"The Most Commonly asked Questions about A Course in Miracles"
by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick
Index of Links to Miracle Studies Resources ...ÉÉ....... A rich resource of materials on A Course in Miracles by an ex-staff member of the Foundation For A Course In Miracle. Joe also has a blog and has recently published  A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles.
miraclestudies.net  ÉÉÉÉ A Course in Miracles Resource Web Site for ACIM Students
A Course in Miracles Study groups
Search for A Course in Miracles Study Groups Around the World. 
The Foundation for Inner peace also has a study group search engine.
Miracles Studies Australia  http://www.miracle-studies.net.au  lists study groups for Australia and new Zealand

Purchase ACIM on line
ACIM Historical Recordings & Video

A Course In Miracles Pen Pals:
The Miracle Network http://www.miracles.org.uk hosts a A Course in Miracles pen pals group:
To  join this e-mail discussion group,  send your e-mail address to e.pals@miracles.org.uk.  
They will send you  updated lists of other e.pals and  inform them of your e-mail address.

Belief.net ACIM discussion:
This Belief.net web-based discussion is hosted by Joe Jesseph.
http://community.beliefnet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=151

_________________________


INSPIRATIONAL QUOTATIONS

About three times a week I send a short quotation from some spiritual teacher or poet to people who have requested some uplifting thoughts. I have included some below. If you wish I can add your name to the email list.


How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

A Course in Miracles  Lesson 250


Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.
Co-operate with your destiny, don't go against it, don't thwart it.
Allow it to fulfil itself.
All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.

Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That

 When you listen to the voice in your head, that
is to say, do not judge.  You'll soon realize: there
is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching
it.  This I am realization, this sense of your own
presence, is not a thought.  It arises from beyond
the mind.

Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now

One is more likely to awaken through surrender than through seeking to waken. The effort to awaken is the effort of ego, whereas to surrender is to give up all efforts and to place oneself in the hands of a vast force that is more powerful than any realization of non duality.
When one finally gives up one's futile attempts to make reality conform to one's own wishes, and allows it to unfold on its own terms, all the energy that was tied up in foolish attempts to manipulate the universe is freed up.

Mariana Caplan
Halfway Up the Mountain - The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment


________________________

Michael Dawson
PO Box 125
Point Lookout
North Stradbroke Island
Queensland 4183
Australia

EMAIL:       mdawson@acfip.org
WEBSITE:   http://www.acfip.org