ACFIP Newsletter
Issue 32 - March 2012
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

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CONTENTS:

*  Don't ask how to be at peace. Rather ask, why do I leave peace?
*  Kenneth Wapnick Interview
*  You DonÕt Need to Change - Jan Frazier
*  Desire - Jac O'Keeffe
*  Workshops
*  Books and Audio Materials for Sale
*  Links
*  Inspirational Quotations

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

New
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.

¥ 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







Don't ask how to be at peace.
Rather ask, why do I leave peace?

If only you could see this.  Stop trying to change yourself.  You are so busy trying to change yourself (suffer less, be less attached, become enlightened) that you canÕt see the forest for the trees.  Some of the really huge, light-blocking, preoccupying trees are your efforts to improve Ñ as if the one youÕre working to improve were who you are!
Jan Frazier

Perhaps the most common question of the spiritual seeker, is "How do I find peace, truth, happiness, joy etc?" However, the Course states that our natural state, as God created us, includes all these things.

No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it.  For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God's Will.  Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already?  Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give?  The peace of God is yours.

For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and established as His Own eternal gift.  How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? 
A Course in Miracles Lesson 185

If our natural state is peace, why are we not experiencing it now? This is a much more fruitful area to explore. As Lisa Cairns has stated, "To seek is to suffer". Of course, few of us escape seeking. The teacher Jac O'Keefe, realised when she awoke that, all the hard years seeking were not necessary. Yet she knew she still had to do them, to realise she did not have to do them.

Who is it that is seeking? It can only be the ego. The Course's definition of the ego is the desire to be separate. As a spiritual seeker, the desire to be separate is still there as we desire the fruit of the spiritual path Ð peace. But to be an ego means that we will never experience peace. After giving up a materialistic ego, we simply take on a spiritual one. The ego always has desires, except now they are spiritual desires. We used to seek for money and status and power but now we are seeking peace and love and joy. There is actually no difference. This is still desire. And while we have desires, will not have peace. The very last desire is for truth, God, peace and happiness. Yes, it is the highest desire but even this must go in the end. The ego desire implies looking outside ourselves for what we want. The Course says we already have it so why are we seeking?

Seek not outside yourself.  For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.  Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there.  Each idol (substitute for God's love) that you worship when God calls will never answer in His place.  There is no other answer you can substitute, and find the happiness His answer brings.  Seek not outside yourself.  For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found.  What if it is not there?  Do you prefer that you be right or happy?  Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere.  You will fail.  But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.
A Course in Miracles T-29.VII.1

What we need to become interested in is why we depart from our natural state of peace. When we wake up in the morning we may detect a moment of peace. Then the thoughts start to rise. Desires, fears, judgements, expectations, worries, hopes and the list goes on. The movement away from peace begins. Here is where vigilance is required. Here is where forgiveness is required.

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

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgement. When you recognise what you are and what your brothers are, you will realise that judging them in any way is without meaning.
T-3.VI.3:1-3

We make a decision to leave the peace, and then we ask how we get to peace. This is the craziness of ego thinking. With vigilance, you can see the thoughts that lead us away from peace start up. We can observe these without judgement - what the Course means by forgiveness. This does not mean these thoughts stop, though this could happen. Our task is just to notice them, to gently smile at them which takes their power away. By watching, as much as we can, these movements away from peace, the likelihood of the awareness of peace is greatly increased.

The ego loves to ask questions, and to seek for ways to accomplish what it wants. Yet the dictum of the ego is "seek and do not find" (T-12.V.7.) The ego asks endless questions but doesn't really want a true answer. A true answer that is followed will cause the ego to dissolve. And the spiritual seeker is still an ego, and the bottom-line is that any ego wants to continue.

To find peace we must arrive at the end of seeking. The desire to wake up and be liberated means the seeker is still present. Even that desire must be given up. It can be hard to see that pursuing the highest truth is still an obstacle to truth. It seems such a noble pursuit. But who is doing the pursuing? It's still an ego with an object of desire. And the spiritual ego will still pursue truth until the day comes when insight shows the futility of what it's doing. Once spiritual seeking is seen for what it is it loses its foothold. This is why most people will continue seeking until they stop from exhaustion or insight. We need to give up hope.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.
Lesson 188

Paradoxically our pursuit of truth continuously moves us away from rather than nearer to our natural state of peace. It makes time real, because it puts awakening  in the future. This will also lead to the fear that by the time we die we may not have awoken. And then may come the fear we will be reborn again trapped by desire, either material or spiritual.

The older I am the more respect I have for the ego. In my younger days it was perhaps easier to spot its actions as it sought happiness in material goals. At first glance a spiritual ego sounds like an improvement, though nothing has changed. Happiness is still seen outside ourselves and we must seek to find it. If the years go by, and we do not awake, sadness and depression can easily come. This is the real goal of the ego, because we will still believe in it and continue to listen to its hopeless advice.

So instead of seeking the peace, the Course asks us to seek the obstacles to peace and forgive them.

The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance.
Intro, Text.

We have clouded this awareness with ego pursuits. Let's turn our attention to watching the games of the ego, smile at them and forgive them and wait patiently for the day when these ego thoughts will no longer be seen as important. Let's give up our search for enlightenment. Let's use the happenings in our daily life as a classroom of forgiveness and forget about the future. Forget about finding peace and enlightenment, give up all hope of this. Whether we wake up or not, this will lead to an ever increasing sense of peace and joy as we let obstacles go. Our natural state will appear more and more often to us. This will give us the encouragement to continue with our path of forgiveness. And after we have forgotten all about awakening and enlightenment, one day it will just happen in God's timing.

And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself. T-11.VIII.15.   


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A Conversation with Ken Wapnick:

The Course really works, if you work at it and smile.

by Susan Dugan

http://www.foraysinforgiveness.dreamhosters.com/interviews

NOTE: Clinical Psychologist, Teacher and Author Kenneth Wapnick, PhD, has been studying A Course in Miracles since 1973, and worked closely with Course Scribe Helen Schucman and Collaborator Bill Thetford in preparing its final manuscript. With his wife, Gloria, he is president and co-founder of The Foundation for A Course in Miracles (http://facim.org) in Temecula, California.

In the following conversation, Ken Wapnick generously answers my questions about the daily practice of forgiveness, the fear and resistance that arises on our journey home, and how to keep our faith and focus on being kind, gentle, and patient with ourselves and other Course students while learning to with our inner teacher at all we still use to push love away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I recently found myself in a lot of fear around this Course; feeling stuck and judging myself for it. You told me to remember not to take it seriously. How can we be serious about practicing forgiveness day-to-day while simultaneously not taking it seriously?

Well, the daily practice really is not to take it seriously. The principle is that line at the end of Chapter 27, ÒInto eternity where all was one there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh.Ó The problem is not the egoÑwhich means not any of the problems a person thinks he or she hasÑor the difficulty a person thinks he or she has with the Course. The problem is the reaction to it. The whole idea of not taking it seriously or learning to laugh at it does not mean you minimize it or deny it or make believe it hasnÕt happened but that you recognize that the problem is never the form. The problem is always the mindÕs decision.

Anything you do during the day whether itÕs related to the Course or something else in your life; the key is always to bring it back to the mindÕs decision maker. The problem is not the ego or its expression in thought or behavior, not whatÕs in the wrong-minded box because how could an illusion be a problem? What the Course calls the Holy Spirit which really is just our right-minded thinking or sanity; thatÕs not the answer either. The answer lies in choosing the right mind just like the problem lies in choosing the ego. ThatÕs where people really get kind of confused.

The key is always to bring it back to the power of the mind to choose, not to bring it back to Jesus or the Holy Spirit as some magical figure. The problem is simply the choice about wanting to remain in the dream or awaken from it. So that even when one is having a bad time with the Course or a relationship or sickness or something thatÕs happening in the world, itÕs not what it seems. The problem is never external. The practice is always bringing the problem back to the mind from where we projected it.

OK, so hereÕs a not so serious question: In many of your CDs you joke that Jesus canÕt stand Course students.

(Laughs) You canÕt blame him, can you?

Not really.  So, what are the characteristics of A Course in Miracles students that tick Jesus off most?

Well, itÕs their seriousness. I sometimes also say that if you read the Gospels it never, ever says that Jesus laughed. It never says he smiled. It describes him as getting angry, as weeping. Ultimately the Jesus of the Bible is not the Jesus of the Course. The Jesus of the Course is always smiling. But in a sense, thatÕs the issue. When I say that half-jokingly, itÕs the seriousness Course students have, the seriousness with the Course that makes them judge other people, judge other Course students and other Course teachers. ItÕs what makes them say such unkind things to people who are sickÐnamely that Òsickness is a defense against the truthÓÐthings that tend to be so insensitive.

IÕve probably quoted that one line in the text about remembering not to laugh more in thirty-five years of teaching than any other because thatÕs the problem. I also say that sin, separation, the ego canÕt be the problem because how can an illusion be a problem? If people could recognize that and then apply that and generalize it to everything during their day it would change everything. ThatÕs whatÕs in back of the line ÒSeek not to change the world, choose to change your mind about it.Ó How can a non-existent world be the problem?

The mistake people sometimes make after my saying something like that is that it turns you into someone whoÕs insensitive and doesnÕt pay attention to anything, but it doesnÕt mean that at all. To really know the world does not exist allows you to be the kindest, most sensitive, most caring and loving person imaginable. Because you donÕt get hooked into anything and so the love automatically flows through you and takes whatever form is most helpful. It doesnÕt mean you donÕt relate to the world but you relate without neediness or specialness and only with love.

So as youÕre sitting and watching the election returns, for example, you can have real compassion.

Well, obviously you can watch how seriously everybody takes it including the commentators and realize that everybody lies and everybodyÕs the same no matter what side of the aisle youÕre on, which is why nothing every changes.

Many Course students experience a real sense of loss as they begin to recognize the egoÕs fleeting adrenaline highs for the defenses against all-inclusive, eternal Love they are and accept the true valuelessness of the world we once completely believed in. Can you speak to this phase?

Well, another source of confusion for people working with the Course is the confusion of body and mind. As long as you identify as a body, then itÕs impossible to work with the Course and not feel a sense of loss because it says over and over again youÕre not a body. Your body doesnÕt think and feel and sense; doesnÕt live, doesnÕt die. Reading that as an individual body; how could you not feel a sense of loss that somehow the Course is taking something away from you? And, of course, itÕs not taking something away from you; itÕs simply showing you that what you thought you were was an illusion.

Even in the larger sense, itÕs impossible to work with the Course without recognizing what specialness is. Specialness is our identity; we identify with our neediness, our special love, special hate. The Course is really exposing that for what it is. And so I think itÕs almost impossible for a serious student as he or she goes through the Course over a period of years not to feel a sense of loss and a sense of sacrifice and then a consequent sense of resentment.

In another context that makes the same point, IÕve been accused by people over the years of taking Jesus away from them. Because what I emphasize is that the Jesus of the Course is not the Jesus of the Bible, not this magical Santa Claus to whom you turn over your problems without doing any work yourself. HeÕs not this person who heals problems in the world; and so people feel a sense of loss that the God, the Jesus theyÕve prayed to is not the Jesus or God of the Course. Basically what students feel as loss is really the loss of their specialness. But, again, it all comes down to; am I a mind, or a body?  If I choose to see myself as a body that feeling of loss and sacrifice is inevitable.

And thatÕs the fifth stage of the Development of Trust where it just takes a long time to let go of that specialness and we need to be patient with ourselves?

Well, it doesnÕt specifically say that but, yes. Accepting the true valuelessness of oneÕs self in order to achieve the sixth stage is what takes a long time. The Course is meant to be taken literally in the sense that its goal is to help us awaken from the dream. And you canÕt awaken from the dream when you think youÕre still a dream figure, which means the body; you can only awaken when you realize youÕre the dreamer, which means the mind. YouÕre the mind that can choose whether to awaken or not.

You know youÕve made some real progress with this Course when you recognize that the you being addressed in the Course is the decision-making mind and not the person you think you are. ThatÕs a qualitative shift. But thatÕs really hard to hold onto because we read it as a person with eyes that think they see and a brain that thinks it thinks. And that shift that IÕm not a bodyÑand thatÕs why that line ÒI am not a body, I am freeÓ appears more than any other in the workbookÑis so important. People donÕt realize that because itÕs as if thereÕs a wall that separates what we intellectually know from what we really experience. So we may read and believe the words that the world is an illusion and the bodyÕs not real and IÕm not really here and at the same time experience ourselves very much as persons. And thatÕs what takes a long time; losing our belief in our identity.

In a recent newsletter articleÑÒA Heroic Frame of MindÓÑyou describe the tendency of Course students Òto arrogantly believe they have attained its magnitudeÓ when they have not yet done the daily work of forgiveness. Can you give a specific example of how this might manifest in a Course studentÕs behavior?

Well, that gets back to one of your previous questions. In a sense you end up being very judgmental and unkind. Because if you really do the daily work you will minimize your ego which means that you recognize everyone is the same and your heart goes out to everyone because you feel the pain in everyone. When you donÕt do that and think youÕve accomplished something when you havenÕt it means the ego is still alive and well but itÕs buried. And whenever it is buried it projects out and you end up separating, judging, attacking, and just being unkind.

You know I talk and write about kindness more than any other term these days because people just forget common decency; just being kind. I wrote an article, I did a workshop on a line that they attribute to Philo of Alexandria: ÒBe kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.Ó And when you realize that everyone is fighting a hard battle then you realize that we all have the same split mind. But when you think youÕve understood the Course but you really havenÕt thatÕs the arrogance of thinking that youÕre ego free. And then the ego stays buried and the guilt stays buried.

IÕve pointed out that what has gone wrong with Christianity for 2100 years is Christians think that just because they profess that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord and savior, they are free. But theyÕre not aware of their own guilt and ego thought system so they continue projecting and thatÕs why Christians end up being just like Course students when they donÕt do the work. TheyÕre very self-righteous and they end up condemning and judging everyone. If you donÕt deal with your ego which you have to work daily on doing in terms of exposing it and choosing against it, it stays there. You think youÕre ego free and yet your ego is alive and well. YouÕre unaware that youÕre continually choosing it which inevitably means youÕll project it, and then you wonÕt be kind. And you wonÕt realize that everybody in this world is suffering because the world is not their home.

In that same article you talk about Òthe humility of being wrongÓ which seems to be the real opening or prerequisite to forgiveness. From moment to moment, catching myself being unkind, wanting to hold on to my specialness, and then deciding again thatÕs not what I really want. I want to see my innocence in others.

Right. You quoted that article about being willing to say IÕm wrong and learning for that to be joyful, learning the Course is the means to awakening and returning home. And so you should be joyful because every day takes you closer to your goal. Learning is exposing your ego. And if youÕre so afraid of making a mistake and you want to be perfect youÕre not going to learn. ThereÕs all that tension and anxiety and false belief again in thinking that youÕve done it when you havenÕt. So in a sense when you find yourself making judgments about people; that should be a happy thing because itÕs exposing your ego and that allows healing to occur. ThatÕs the importance of that line Òwould you prefer to be right or happy?Ó The way you can be happy is to be wrong and to learn from the mistake. But if you want to be right, youÕre going to think that youÕve done something when you havenÕt and then you make yourself and everybody else around you unhappy.

Course students often repeat statements such as ÒI am as God created meÓ but I find it doesnÕt work for me. Is there an inherent danger for Course students in trying to embrace our ÒmagnitudeÓ on the level of Truth rather than just focusing on forgiving our pull toward ego specialness?

I use the metaphor of the ladder. The Course speaks on many different levels and passages that really reflect whatÕs at the top of the ladder such as ÒI am as God created meÓ remind us of where weÕre going and our goal of awakening from the dream. ItÕs not to live a happier dream here, but to awaken. At the same time there are all those passages that refer to this as a process and the work involved and the workbook itself is all about that. It says at the end of the workbook Òthis course is a beginning not an end.Ó So you have to understand the different levels or rungs of the ladder the Course speaks to.

When people seize on statements such as ÒI am as God created meÓ and leapfrog to the top or so they think what theyÕre really doing is avoiding the daily work. One of the things I emphasize is that the oneness of Christ and Heaven is not what we experience here. The way that weÕre created as spirit is perfect oneness but the reflection of perfect oneness in the world is sameness and thatÕs where the work is. To realize that weÕre all the same and if I keep that in mind, I canÕt judge anybody because judging only differentiates and separates and attacks. So the way to remember that I am as God created me and awaken from the dream is to practice everyday realizing how weÕre all the same and therefore no attack thought is ever justified.

And youÕre absolutely right; you donÕt go from the bottom rung to the top rung. People who think they have done it are denying the guilt in the mind and they project it out and become unkind and itÕs just another form of specialness. But if they do the daily work which is reflecting perfect oneness by learning to see everyone as the same, thatÕs forgiveness and thatÕs what gets you up the ladder. And the higher up the ladder you get the more you realize weÕre all the same and attack is impossible. How could you attack yourself? ItÕs that samenessÐthe all-inclusiveness of forgivenessÑthatÕs the heart of the practice. Everyone is fighting the same hard battle and if the Sonship is one in reality, then what awakens us is recognizing you are also the same in the illusion. You canÕt exclude anyone from your forgiveness.

I sometimes say that if people started on page one of the text and went through all three books and looked at every time the word ÒallÓ and ÒeveryÓ appear whether literally or as a concept, theyÕd be astounded. ItÕs the all-inclusiveness of the CourseÕs vision that makes it what it is.

Practicing forgiveness day in and day out with whatever comes up, IÕve found that some areas and people in my life that used to trigger conflict no longer do, as if healed without any direct effort on my part. Conversely, I have completely new areas and people IÕve never had a problem with that suddenly seem to be in conflict. WhatÕs going on here?

Well the first part of what you saidÑthat a grievance all of a sudden is goneÑand really the second partÑall of a sudden getting upset with someone you had no grievances withÑare really heads and tails of the same process. In the first part, when you keep working at undoing the guilt and unforgiveness of yourself, it generalizes. So you donÕt have to forgive every single person because theyÕre all the same. And the Course says behind each brother are thousands and behind each one of those, another thousand. ItÕs like a domino effect. So when youÕre really working on some key issues and can let those grievances go, they have to generalize. So all of a sudden someone you had a grievance with, the grievance is gone because the unconscious guilt is gone. But, not all the guilt is gone. So, youÕre saying IÕm no longer angry at person A but thereÕs still guilt and all of a sudden that guilt will be projected at person B that you never had an issue with before.

That shows you that the problem was never person A or person B, anyway. ThatÕs where you have to understand the CourseÕs metaphysics that thereÕs no one out there. So the guilt will just land wherever it works best for your ego. So itÕs not only that youÕre never upset for the reason you think, youÕre never angry for the reason you think and youÕre never angry at the person you think because itÕs not the person. So as you do your daily work and youÕre forgiving more and more and letting go of your unforgiveness of yourself, then people you thought you hated all of a sudden the hate is gone because the guilt is gone. But if thereÕs still some guilt lurking it can easily find another target. All of that helps you realize, itÕs never the external thatÕs the problem.

And there just seems no end to the places where it can crop up.

ThereÕs never any end to it as long as thereÕs still some guilt.

But it is being chipped away at as you forgive whatÕs in your face, in your classroom everyday. ThatÕs the process part?

Yes. But you donÕt have to know whatÕs going on, because itÕs unconscious anyway. Each and every time you find yourself angry you remember that IÕm never upset for the reason I think. I sometimes say the only two lessons you really need to master are lessons 5 and 34, ÒIÕm never upset for the reason I thinkÓ and ÒI could see peace instead of this.Ó That brings the problem back to my mind, and reminds me peace is a decision. And as long as IÕm doing that, there will be wonderful effects that I donÕt even need to understand.

I love this Course. Forgiveness has brought me so much real comfort and IÕm really grateful to you for helping me understand the practice. ItÕs helped me see everything as the same problem, and generally made me much more tolerant. But I am still on a journey, still often afraid of losing this special identity, ambivalent about its value and at times terrified of losing my special relationships even as I watch myself pushing human love away. Can you give those of us somewhere in the murky middle of this journey home any advice on keeping the faith?  In other words, can you give us a little pep talk, Ken?

Well, the process really works and you feel much better. I sometimes tell people just plant your nose on the page in front of you, donÕt worry about the whole rest of the music, work on whatÕs directly in front of you and trust that thereÕs a love in you that youÕre choosing to get closer and closer to. And if you really work day in and day out on just looking at your ego projections, then the payoff is immeasurable. ItÕs just incomprehensible how wonderful it is and you will continue to feel much better. The Course really works, if you work at it, so donÕt stop. The key is to work at it with a gentle smile and not with all that seriousness.



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You DonÕt Need to Change


Jan Frazier
http://www.janfrazierteachings.com

If only you could see this.  Stop trying to change yourself.  You are so busy trying to change yourself (suffer less, be less attached, become enlightened) that you canÕt see the forest for the trees.  Some of the really huge, light-blocking, preoccupying trees are your efforts to improve Ñ as if the one youÕre working to improve were who you are!

WhatÕs needed is not for you to change your familiar self (the one that longs to awaken, the one that hurts, that is dissatisfied with itself).  WhatÕs needed is for you to see that that person is not what you deeply are.  Trying to improve the person that isnÕt what you deeply are Ñ believing this could wake you up Ñ is like planting a bunch of new trees in the forest, further obscuring the blinding light that is your very nature.  It is (to switch metaphors) scoring points for the other side.

Do you see?

It is as if there are two of you.  As long as you believe that you are your egoic self, for all practical purposes, there are two of you.  The self that is capable of believing it needs to change is your egoic self (however much it may entertain itself with thoughts of wanting to awaken).  What you need to do, rigorously, is remember that there is always another of you available in each moment Ñ that you can (as it were) step inside that other awareness, the one that is not hurting, not trying to change, not believing it must awaken. 

This is the only truly useful thing to do.

You may be ready to see this, to actually do it (sometimes anyhow).  You may not be.  When you are ready, you will see it.  You will experience the truth of it, that there is another awareness inside you already that is able to step outside the turmoil, in a given moment, and observe your struggling self, the one that believes it needs to change.

Meanwhile, if you are not able to step outside and look at yourself in a moment of life, smack in the middle of some kind of angst, at least do this:  stop believing that your egoic mind can somehow bring about a useful change in itself that will move you toward awakening.  The oft-stated idea that you already are that which you seek isnÕt just blah-blah-blah.  When you focus all your effort on trying to improve your egoic self, you are turning away from this truth.  (Just because you canÕt yet see its reality doesnÕt mean it isnÕt so.)

Anytime you are in torment, even subtle torment, and you notice it, instead of trying to ÒfixÓ the problem, instead of judging yourself for being so unawake, just step gently to the side of the whole thing and look at it.  Look at yourself feeling this thing, thinking these thoughts.  That other looker, that un-caught-up observer, is always (always) there, available, if only you will remember its presence.  You may not always be able readily to step inside it, assuming its perspective.  But at the very least you must remember that itÕs possible.

This is the whole thing.

Stepping outside and looking at yourself in this moment is not the same thing as escape.  Escaping is turning on the TV, chanting, meditating or doing yoga to try to bring on an ecstatic experience, mixing a drink, talking to yourself about how Òthis isnÕt who I really am.Ó  These things accomplish nothing to demonstrate to you that you are something very different from the one who needs to escape.  Instead, stay where you are.  Stay in the moment Ñ the feeling Ñ you are in.  But also step outside and watch it happening.  Realize that the one who is doing the looking is not experiencing discomfort, is not needing escape.  Is not needing to wake up!  Because it already is awake.  This moment, just now, awakeness is feeling its reality.  It doesnÕt mean youÕre Òawake for good.Ó  Never mind that.  Stop thinking about that.

Do you see?

DonÕt get lazy.  DonÕt stop remembering that this is available to you, this location outside the drama.  One time you will find yourself entirely outside, watching your regular self, and you will say Oh my God, THIS is what I am!  ÒThisÓ being the looker.  You may know this for just a second.  Just a fleeting, delicious, utterly peaceful few moments.  DonÕt (really) say, If only this can last.  Just be there.  Later (maybe ten seconds later) you will be back in the muck, having completely forgotten.  ItÕs okay!  The instant you notice youÕve forgotten, just step back outside and look.  Forget trying to make it last.  When you have that kind of thought, realize itÕs just the ego-mind doing the only thing it knows how to do.

You may be thinking Well, but doesnÕt my regular-life stuff matter?  Or you may be thinking WhatÕs the relationship between the regular-life stuff and this other perspective?  ItÕs only the mind that feels the need to sort this out.  When you grow accustomed to stepping outside a moment in which youÕre feeling very attached to something, when you give yourself the peace and delight of experiencing your ÒotherÓ self, then the regular-life stuff sorts itself out.  It isnÕt your business to answer the mindÕs pesky questions.  Just trust that your really huge, utterly non-attached self is saturated with wisdom that is dying to leak into your regular life, and if you give it half a chance, it will do that.

One thing that happens, the more you do this, is that you (bit by bit) stop believing that the regular-life You is what you most deeply are.  So you are able to Òhold itÓ more lightly, because there isnÕt so (bloody) much invested in its upkeep.  Yes, you will still tend what needs tending (very tenderly).

The point is, you donÕt have to figure everything out.  Something in you (that outside looker) knows this.

When you are hurting, or feeling very unawake, or dissatisfied with yourself, instead of saying ÒIÕve got to changeÓ or ÒIÕve got to get enlightened,Ó instead of those (useless) things, do this:  even as you are immersed in the present-moment feeling of discomfort, dislike of self, etc., step outside of the whole thing and look at yourself.  Neutrally, without judgment.  (If thereÕs judgment, youÕre not outside the whole thing.  Get farther out.)

The entire problem is that you believe you are your egoic self, the regular-life person, the one that suffers (and wants to wake up).  That is the whole thing.  When you step outside and look at it, you are reminding yourself of what you really are.


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Desire
(From Awakening to Liberation - Forthcoming new book)

Jac O'Keeffe

http://www.jackieokeeffe.com

All desire arises from an innate lack of contentment. While nothing that mind can imagine and want is of any real value, the personal 'I' will ensure that each day is peppered with efforts to fulfill desires. In fact when identified thought is running, there is interest in little else. It is the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment.

The state of craving for anything inhibits deeper experience. When mind is fixated on a desire, maturation is arrested. If you inquire into yourself, all you really desire is desirelessness. Desirelessness can be recognized as the moment of satisfaction when desire is fulfilled. There is calmness, perfection and a feeling of completeness. Desire for an object or experience is a compensation for the lack of fulfillment of the ultimate desire Ð desirelessness. There is no end to the cyclical nature of desire; however, the cycle falls away when it is seen to be a looped pattern of thinking. The perpetuation of desire is predicated on the fact that personal ÔIÕ desires the very thing that cannot come by desire.

The smallest desire has the ability to ignite a long line of action as one objective idea feeds the next. To engage in desire is a lack of discrimination; let it be seen that acquiring objects, be it a car or a lover, can never bring you to the end of desire. In order for you to enjoy something it must first be objectified by mind as an independent form or formless experience. There is only movement in consciousness which we call life force or functioning and we give names to create an objectified world. Then if this apparent division into subject-object is taken to be true, the desires to have and to own, to acquire and enjoy, will follow. Thus the mind will make the body dance to its tunes.

When a desire is fulfilled the personal 'I' is happy for a while. This happiness arises because of the absence of desire and has nothing to do with the properties of the object of desire. Original perfection is restored when desire is not running. If you imagine yourself to be separate from the world then the world will appear as separate from you, and you will experience desire and fear. As long as there is identification with the body, attractions and repulsions will operate. You cannot but see the world through the ideas you have about yourself. Managing desire has nothing to do with your relationships with objects of desire; it is your own misunderstanding that requires correction. Find out how the perception of objects arises in mind and do not follow thought patterns in ignorance.

There is no object which is of a different nature from the subject, and as there is only the subject, how can it be seen as an object ? Let it be realized that there is only subject and then it is clear that there can be no division in such a vision. All experience rests on the reality of objects. If you investigate you will find that objects are unreal. Thus the effect of an unreal object is also non-existent and the experience of any effect is delusion. Let the end of desire and experience come into view through correct seeing. Understand that the world has no real existence and it will no longer be troublesome.

It can be said that desire is the memory of pleasure and that fear is the memory of pain. These are simply habits of mind. Once you know they are impermanent and not real, why bother with them ? Pull attention away from the personal and impersonal, and all of this is just the flickering of energy. If you cannot, then there is a deeper understanding and a dropping of attachments that needs to take place. When mind turns to go outward, turn it inward instantly. It goes out due to the habit of looking for happiness in objects, but if you have seen that external objects are not the cause of happiness, then it is time to keep the direction of mind in check. In all whom search for truth there is a root desire to be free from misunderstanding, free from the personal. This pursuit continues for as long as you can be seduced by pleasure and goaded by pain, because desire continually agitates the mind. Desire is at the root of all misunderstanding. For as long as desire continues to hold your attention, the sense of good and bad, right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, will inevitably continue.

This extract of Jac's forthcoming new book called "From awakening to liberation" was first published on nondualityamerica.wordpress.com


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Forthcoming Workshops on A Course in Miracles
in Australia and Germany


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


Australia 2012 Dates



Brisbane

Relaxation Centre

BRISBANE - 1 day - Sunday 25 March 2012

9.30a.m. to 4.30p.m.


Happiness Is Our Natural State
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Forgiveness offers everything I want.What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset? All this forgiveness offers you, and more.
A Course in Miracles. Lesson 122


While we search to fulfil our desires in the expectation of happiness we block the awareness of the constant, uncaused happiness within - our natural state.

Happiness is the absence of desire; forgiveness reveals our natural state. 

This workshop explores how we block this happiness and how it can be revealed. 

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

VENUE:
Relaxation Centre,
15 South Pine Road
Alderley
Brisbane 4051

COST
$55

BOOKINGS:
Relaxation Centre
07 3856 3733
(Please do not book through me)



The Brisbane Relaxation Centre has informed me that many people are increasingly booking at the last moment.
I check the number of participants on Friday morning before the workshop.
If numbers are small I cancel the workshop so those the are booked can be informed and make other plans for their weekend.
If you wish to attend the workshop please book by the Thursday before.


Brisbane

Relaxation Centre

BRISBANE - 1 day - Sunday 20 May 2012

9.30a.m. to 4.30p.m.

Healing the Cause
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Health is Inner Peace.
A Course in Miracles

True healing is the return to our awareness of our spiritual identity. Identification with our body as our home is the origin of all our physical and psychological suffering. The cause of all disease lies in the mind and not the body. Forgiveness undoes judgement and returns us to wholeness.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

Michael Dawson has lived and taught at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland for many years and has presented A Course in Miracles in many countries.

VENUE:
Relaxation Centre,
15 South Pine Road
Alderley
Brisbane 4051

COST
$55

BOOKINGS:
Relaxation Centre
07 3856 3733
(Please do not book through me)


The Brisbane Relaxation Centre has informed me that many people are increasingly booking at the last moment.
I check the number of participants on Friday morning before the workshop.
If numbers are small I cancel the workshop so those the are booked can be informed and make other plans for their weekend.
If you wish to attend the workshop please book by the Thursday before.

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Germany 2012 Dates


Bonn

June 16 and 17, 2012
9.30am to 5.30pm

Surrendering to the Light: Undoing the Ego
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Love waits on welcome, not on time.
Release is given you the instant you desire it.
(A Course in Miracles)

The Course teaches us that we do not know the way home and need to be guided from within. Realising we know nothing about discovering our inner joy and peace, the workshop aims to explore the path of humility and surrender to allow truth to reveal itself to us.

As we approach the light our ego will become fearful and will resist its own undoing. Our minds do not want to release control and seek to be in charge of our spiritual path. Only by stopping, letting go, relaxing, trust and surrender can we fully open to the love, wisdom and peace within us.

We play our part by discovering the obstacles to love and releasing them through forgiveness.

Workshop subjects will include: the nature of the ego, no path to God, fear of love, not knowing the way, awareness, "I need do nothing", being in the present, ladder of trust and forgiveness.

Exercises will be used to help us undo the ego and move into the present moment.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.

An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 15th June 2012
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



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Freiburg


June 23 and 24, 2012
10 am to 6 pm


Surrendering to the Light: Undoing the Ego
from the perspective of A Course in Miracles

Love waits on welcome, not on time.
Release is given you the instant you desire it.
(A Course in Miracles)

The Course teaches us that we do not know the way home and need to be guided from within. Realising we know nothing about discovering our inner joy and peace, the workshop aims to explore the path of humility and surrender to allow truth to reveal itself to us.

As we approach the light our ego will become fearful and will resist its own undoing. Our minds do not want to release control and seek to be in charge of our spiritual path. Only by stopping, letting go, relaxing, trust and surrender can we fully open to the love, wisdom and peace within us.

We play our part by discovering the obstacles to love and releasing them through forgiveness.

Workshop subjects will include: the nature of the ego, no path to God, fear of love, not knowing the way, awareness, "I need do nothing", being in the present, ladder of trust and forgiveness.

Exercises will be used to help us undo the ego and move into the present moment.

No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.



An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 22 June 2011
8pm - 9.45pm


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


Biography
Michael discovered A Course in Miracles whilst visiting the Findhorn Foundation in 1982. He subsequently became a member of the Foundation for about six years and involved himself with healing and teaching. In 1994 he published Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness which serves as an introduction to the Course. His second book, The Findhorn Book of Forgiveness (Findhorn Press) uses exercises, stories and case histories to guide the reader to inner peace through forgiveness. Michael now lives in Australia and gives workshops on the Course world-wide.

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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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BOOKS AND AUDIO MATERIALS FOR SALE - by Michael Dawson


New teaching and healing materials - eBooks and downloadable MP3s:

Ebooks:

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


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.

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

Search for A Course in Miracles Study Groups Around the World

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

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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

 
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