ACFIP Newsletter
Issue 40 - March 2014
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
___________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS:
* Today I gave away my Buddha - Michael Dawson
* An Illuminating sweep from Duality to Non Duality - Jac O'Keeffe
* Wu Hsin - Selected quotes from "Solving Yourself" by Roy Melvyn
* Degrees of Consciousness - Jan Frazier
* Toward Abidance and Embodiment - Fred Davis
* 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
___________________________________________________________________________
Today I gave away my Buddha.
When I was 25, I was living in London and had recently
discovered spirituality. I rapidly consumed books on the subject and
became an "armchair occultist" dreaming of psychic powers and
initiations to come. After a while, I started to think it was time I
gave up all this pleasurable reading, and start applying some of the
teachings. I chosen Buddhism as my path. Early on, I acquired a clay
Buddha which had been made in Burma. The Buddha is depicted as
sitting in a cross-legged posture, silent and unemotional, with
downcast eyes and a slight smile. I took this to mean that when I
had finally arrived at my personal goal of enlightenment this is how
I would appear to others. This is what enlightenment looks like I
thought. Many years later I decided to study people who had deep and
permanent awakenings. After waking, the personalities were still
intact. Nobody seemed to fit the model by Buddha. Perhaps Ramana
Maharshi came the closest, but I also read that he acted quite
passionately at times.
The words of the Buddha were not written down until 500 years after
his death. How can we possibly know accurately how he behaved and
what he truly said? As I looked at my Buddha one day, I realised how
many concepts were still in my mind from those early days. How do I
know what was true? There is that phrase "When you meet the Buddha
on the road, kill him." I felt I was really beginning to see into
the truth of that statement. In my mind which was so full of
concepts, no matter how beautiful, there was little room for the
truth to dawn. Time for the Buddha to go!
I still have a great respect for Buddhism. If I was ever to adopt a
religion it would probably be that. But the Buddha never became the
Buddha by carrying many concepts in his head. Instead, he did the
reverse, and emptied his mind of concepts.
Rituals and dogma can be comforting to the ego. The Course warns
about turning the Workbook lessons into rituals.
Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal. W-pI.rIII.in.2.
Some students get caught up endlessly repeating the lessons, year
after year. The Course teaches us concepts to help undo the painful
concepts we carry. But eventually we must give up all concepts to
allow the truth to dawn in our minds. The awakened people I have
studied have said the same thing; the mind could never have imagined
this.
Forget this world, forget this course and come with wholly empty
hands and to your God.
A Course in Miracles Lesson 189.
What is required of us is humility that recognises we don't know
anything about what really matters. We can be taught by wisdom that
is beyond our reason and logic. As the Bible points out, unless we
become as little children (who don't know) will not enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Is it not He Who knows the way to you? 2 You need not know the way
to Him. 3 Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have
interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed
forever. 4 God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. 5
Ask and receive. 6 But do not make demands, nor point the road to
God by which He should appear to you. 7 The way to reach Him is
merely to let Him be. 8 For in that way is your reality proclaimed
as well.
Lesson 189.
___________________________________________________________________________
An Illuminating sweep from Duality to Non Duality - Jac O'Keeffe
http://www.jac-okeeffe.com/shop/read/free-to-read/an-illuminating-sweep-from-duality-to-non-duality.html
Download this text as PDF
Are you sure you are who you think you are? If your reply is that
you know who you are, is this a knowing that is learned or dependent
on thoughts, ideas and beliefs? If so, then you have reduced your
identity to concepts. Mind creates opinions and perspectives; that
is its job. Can mind present Truth? Can it know or recognize Truth?
Mind is a conditioned machine that adapts to ever changing
circumstances, repositioning itself constantly in order to protect,
survive and seek out experience. It does not have the capacity to
know Truth. Yet within you there is an ability to recognize that
which is beyond mind, beyond conceptual thought.
Mind constantly creates perspectives that range from subjective to
global. These stories of mind are not an issue, however whole
heartedly believing anything that your mind presents is the cause of
all suffering. Here is how it works. Believing in or identifying
with thoughts creates the idea of a thinker. This is the weak
foundation on which your personal identity is based. As long as the
thinker is taken to be real, the potential to suffer is present. Is
your identity wrapped up with the one who thinks? In other words, do
you believe you are the one thinking your thoughts? This ownership
idea creates an imagined and autonomous 'you'. These constructs of
mind are very potent and without examination they are believed into
a subjective reality. When this happens life presents as real and
the one you call yourself is the central focus. This idea of
'personal' brings the potential to suffer into existence.
In the examination of this process of thinking, the idea of a
personal 'i', or the one you call yourself is seen to be no more
than a thought enabling communication. In every day language the
first person singular refers to a character, an intellect and a body
but this is not what you are. Non duality explores the validity of
what is commonly accepted to be real and true. It requires a
willingness to see that life is not all about you. Events come and
go and the central reference point shifts from 'all about me, my
life' to the impersonal, to consciousness itself and finally to
prior to consciousness. Mind has a working capacity, using common
sense and skills for living, planning, working, etc. The thinking
capacity of mind, however, is where all pain (spiritual, emotional,
psychological and physical) is birthed and sustained. It is nearly
impossible to stop thinking, but if you identify yourself as the one
who owns thoughts, then you as the thinker will suffer. Thinking is
natural. Believing your thoughts makes this movie appear as real and
this is the problem. At its core, this is simply mistaken identity.
It is only from your thinking mind that the idea that you are
separate in any way can arise. Mind will seek your attention until
you examine and find out who/what you really are. Within this
exploration perhaps the knowing will arise that what you are
manifests as the totality of creation. However, in essence you are
prior and beyond all that manifests.
Running the idea of a desire is a natural movement of the thinking
mind. However, believing your thoughts and imagining that satisfying
desire will make you happy is suffering. Watch the unending play of
desires and see if you can recognize that the absence of desire
allows the arising of an innate natural peace and happiness. Mind
will quickly conclude that this state is boring or empty or lacks
experience and opportunities. Recognize that this is the
re-emergence of desire again, seeking something better.
What to do with desires? Stop wanting what you havenÕt got! What
appears to be happening is as good as it gets and it's a waste of
energy to resist manifestation. There is no point in wanting what
you havenÕt got. Life will move you to go after what you need. What
is for you cannot pass you by. Can you see that having desires will
lead to a cycle of insatiable wants? There's no peace or happiness
when following that thought cycle.
Happiness arises in the absence of desire. When a desire is
satisfied, all outward focus ceases and there is rest, peace. Before
long, mind will present the next desire and the roller coaster of
thoughts begins again. It can be phenomenally freeing to see that
desire underpins the birthing of every thought of the 'personal I'.
While these words are concepts, let it be seen that the best that
the theory of non-duality can offer amounts to pointers to your true
identity. It can tell you what you are not, but to tell you what you
are would be replacing one false identity for another. What you are
cannot be reduced to concepts. You are not your body, and you are
not your mind. Nor are you an identity created by mind. Imagining
you are a separate autonomous human being is no more than a
hypnosis, similar in quality to a night time dream when it shows
itself to be of no substance once awakening happens. Do not reduce
yourself to a concept.
You are not the thinker. All thoughts just pass through. None are of
a higher quality than others. Whether you make thoughts yours or not
is your play in the scheme of things. Bypass these mind games and be
empty; remain quiet and stop being a thinker.
To think that you need time, silence or any condition for spiritual
knowledge to unfold within you is an attitude that does not serve.
It is only when you identify yourself as someone who can be affected
by experience, whose existence is dependent on the perception of how
things happen, that suffering presents. The concept of non duality
can be fully understood as the subject without an object as pure
consciousness reveals itself
What you are does not need to be quiet. There is nothing separate or
united. These are thoughts accepted to be true. Remember that what
you are cannot make mistakes, but mind can. The mind is an exquisite
liar.
Part of the human experience is to seek out connection with others
and with life. Deeper still the yearning for unity emerges and this
unity consciousness is the goal of many spiritual practices. The
interconnectedness of all in creation is evident all the time but
mind can only move within the flux between separation and unity
consciousness until truth is seen. When there is just one, there is
in fact two, as there must be one to recognize that there is just
one, so then there are two! Non duality points beyond oneness,
transcending all states of mind when it is seen that unity or
oneness allows for one too many! The concept of 'one without a
second' presents a model of unity also, but any concept is one
concept too many and will only re-engage the mind where it has no
place. This is the non dual approach. It points beyond mind towards
absolute silence itself and beyond.
What you are cannot be known intellectually. You can't 'get it' but
there is an inner knowing within you that can recognize the echo of
what reveals itself
The discovery of spiritual knowledge is not a new project for your
distraction. Do not be concerned with the entertainment and opinions
of the ever-changeable and conditioned mind. Observe all that
changes. Desires come and they go. What you are does not come and
go. What you are does not change, is outside and beyond all of this.
Thoughts that you want to get it right, go all the way, know the
Truth, are just mind doing its thingÑgenerating desires. Regardless
of what path you take, the unfolding of experience will continue.
Let it be seen that experiencing happens but life cannot and does
not touch what you are unless the 'personal I' story is running
(owning/personalizing experiences). Fundamentally there is nothing
you can do to speed up the recognition of who you are, life is not
an obstacle to knowing Truth.
What you can do is begin to recognize what you are not. Don't be a
slave of the mind. Its task is to present ideas in order to allow
you to imagine that you can experience. What you are is not trying
to find itself, it's not trying to heal itself - these are stories
of the mind, believed into a subjective reality. What you are is
outside of all of this. What you are is not aware that mind imagines
and enables enjoyment of this wonderful life. What you are does not
know anything about the phenomenal 'you'. As long as conceptual
thought is believed into existence then this dream will present as
real. Your attention may be drawn to observing beliefs or it can be
pulled to examining the validity of existence itself. However, until
the concept-making machine reveals itself in its entirety, the dream
retains its capacity to present as real.
___________________________________________________________________________
Wu Hsin - Selected quotes from "Solving Yourself"
by Roy Melvyn
This clarity, this newness, is the total destruction of the old.
You can do nothing to bring it about except to avoid creating
impediments.
When one is looking from where Looking looks, the journey is over.
- - - - - - - - -
One must not confuse the suppression of thought with the
transcendence of thought.
What is the transcendence of thought?
It is where thought becomes unimportant, where one is impartial to
it and where it has lost its ability to affect you.
- - - - - - - - -
The reality of life is that the weed that does not fight for
sunlight dies.
In general, the same can be said for Self-recognition, one must
fight for it.
Admittedly, there have been instances where enlightenment occurred
uninvited.
Yet, in most cases, it is predicated on a receptivity, an
earnestness and desire to understand. To these, no further practice
as such is mandatory.
However, if the allures of the world hold sway, regardless of how
profound Wu Hsin's words are, they will not find their mark.
- - - - - - - - -
This day, Wu Hsin shall reveal the four pre-conditions for
Understanding. They are:
(a) acknowledgement of the theoretical possibility of Understanding,
(b) the intense desire to obtain it, (c) exposure to a true
teaching, and (d) the direct apperception of the subject.
The last of these results from one's disinterest in the
discontinuous.
It is one's turning away from what appears in awareness and toward
awareness itself.
Stated another way, it is not attending to what-is-other, not
attending to you, he, she, we, they, them, those or it.
- - - - - - - - -
What one is is without continuity, not progressing, not growing, not
becoming.
One can step from the river of becoming onto the shore of being at
any point.
The only requirement is silence, total silence.
- - - - - - - - -
You are where your mind is. Escape from the thought sphere,
therefore, is the imperative. It is not accomplished by killing the
mind, resisting thought or similar acts.
Instead, it happens quite naturally by removing attention from
thoughts. Without the energy of attention, thought dies.
- - - - - - - - -
You need not stop thinking.
Just cease being interested.
It is disinterestedness that liberates.
Don't hold on, that is all.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- - - - - - - - -
Wu Hsin says no effort is required in the sense that no
effort is required to be aware. Just relax, don't make an effort to
relax. In that natural relaxation, what you need to know will
present itself.
- - - - - - - - -
Thoughts appear as a necessary function in the human organism.
The organism does not decide to create them any more than it decides
to breathe.
They are sourced from that which sustains and supports the organism.
To believe that you can stop your thoughts presupposes that you
initiate them.
- - - - - - - - -
There are no goals that are not mind created.
What you strive for is what you imagine you must strive for. With
the cessation of striving, what needs to arrive, arrives.
Searching is movement and therefore can never find stillness, the
source of all movement.
Only this silent stillness can speak about the not-knowable.
- - - - - - - - -
You have failed to realize that all your running after is, in fact,
running away.
Any reinforcement of the idea of a searching entity is movement away
from what you claim you want.
- - - - - - - - -
When the situation is examined thoroughly, it is discerned that
there is no basis for selecting one appearance out of the totality
and labeling it as 'me'. As such, there is no "me" who receives
enlightenment. When there is no one home to accept the delivery,
what can be delivered?
The answer cannot be located by thinking. How many more months,
years or decades will it take until you see the futility of this
approach?
Stop trying to quench this thirst by drinking the sound of water.
Turn away from thinking.
That's it; there is no need for practices per se. Just pondering
these words and trying to grasp their full meaning is sufficient for
returning. Returning means going back to the source and support of
everything and resting there.
In that, the misconception that there ever was a thinker, a doer, a
perceiver and an enjoyer simply disappears.
Sooner or later you are bound to discover that if you really want to
end the searching, you must return the way that you came.
You can never find the truth because this "you" as an entity is a
lie. A lie can never reveal what is true.
It is like living with an ash in your eye.
You can never see clearly.
For you to see things as they really are requires the removal of
this "ash", which is the cessation of one's preoccupation with a
seeming self.
- - - - - - - - -
Your mind holds sway over you because you have granted it an
audience.
Wu Hsin suggests that you deny it an audience and see the result.
- - - - - - - - -
Here is the secret: Thought obscures happiness.
If you doubt this to be the case, stop thinking and tell Wu Hsin if
you are not happy.
- - - - - - - - -
What prevents the insight into one's true nature is the weakness and
obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus
on the gross only. When you follow my advice and try to keep your
mind on the notion of 'I am' only, you become fully aware of your
mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in
action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind
and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change
need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable; yet it is a
deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence
to awareness. For this keep steadily in the focus of consciousness
the only clue you have: your certainty of being. Be with it, play
with it, ponder over it, delve deeply into it, till the shell of
ignorance breaks open and you emerge into the realm of reality
...... Be with it, play with it, ponder over it, delve deeply into
it, till the shell of ignorance breaks open and you emerge into the
realm of reality. ........ The urge to find oneself is a sign that
you are getting ready. The impulse always comes from within. Unless
your time has come, you will have neither the desire nor the
strength to go for self enquiry whole-heartedly. Nisargadatta
Maharaj "I Am That"
- - - - - - - - -
Don't allow words, even Wu Hsin's, to dilute the power of silence.
Spend time with silence, seek it out and shun that which subverts
it.
- - - - - - - - -
Attending to thought makes attending to That which permanently
transcends all comings and goings virtually impossible.
- - - - - - - - -
The process to correction begins with being empty...........empty of
all comparisons, empty of all beliefs.
Empty of notions of the lush landscape of Heaven, empty of the
notions of the harsh terrain of Hell. Empty of what we believe lies
in between the two.
Empty.
That's what Wu Hsin leads you to.
- - - - - - - - -
There is a singular step in understanding; it is in giving up the
false concept of I/me as a separate entity.
Then there is no need for merging with the Totality because the
notional boundary has been eliminated.
It then becomes clear that it is foolish to talk about being "one
with" that which you've truly never been separate from. The idea of
oneness collapses in the absence of two-ness.
Apperception of this is not a gradual affair. Apperception is like
lightning, spontaneous and instantaneous.
- - - - - - - - -
Trust him when he tells you that this enlightenment you are seeking
wants to happen. It is seeking you as much, if not more, than you
are seeking it.
The only thing that needs to be done is to get out of your own way.
Then, knowing arises.
- - - - - - - - -
Elimination is a key to life. In the absence of the processes of
elimination, the poisons accumulate and ultimately the body dies.
What-Is is realized also by the processes of elimination.
Eliminate all that you think you know, all your beliefs, and you
will find yourself face to face with Truth.
Within the context of anyone doing anything, that is what needs to
be done.
- - - - - - - - -
When in thought, you are absent to what is present, but when you
watch the mind, without getting involved, you can discern your very
own beingness.
Over time, you discern that you can exist without thoughts, but
thoughts cannot exist without the energy you provide them.
When you are no longer chained by your beliefs and your mechanical
responses, you are autonomous, free.
- - - - - - - - -
Every man fears this Nothingness, because when he comes into contact
with it, he becomes it in the same way as flame engulfs whatever it
touches.
Then, he is no longer something distinct.
- - - - - - - - -
The only impediment to lasting peace is believing in this
individuality.
- - - - - - - - -
Realization is not by one's doing something, but one's refraining
from doing anything, by remaining still and by being simply what one
really is.
Stop looking for the source of things among the things themselves.
If chasing one's shadow is foolish, how much more foolish is it when
it is the shadow that is doing the chasing?
To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that.
Just be, allowing your true nature emerge.
- - - - - - - - -
What will eventually die? Only a way of thinking, a way of viewing
oneself and the world.
One must continue until "you" ends with the experience which never
changes, never comes and goes.
It is the experience that you are, effortless existence.
It is prior to all psychological structures, before all
discriminating processes.
It is direct perception, perception unmediated by the mind,
undistorted by imagination.
- - - - - - - - -
In one sense, there is an intense struggle that is ongoing within
each of you here.
On the one side is the attraction to appearances. Stated another
way, it is the entrancement with the world.
On the other side, is the deep calling to abide as the essential
Self.
The victory can only go to the strongest and the strongest is
determined by which of the two is better fed.
- - - - - - - - -
One is not born with an identity.
One's identity is acquired over time.
Take this acquisition and set it down for a short time. It can
always be retrieved again.
Now, spend the balance of this day without this acquired identity
and notice what arises.
That is all.
___________________________________________________________________________
Degrees of Consciousness
by Jan Frazier
http://www.janfrazierteachings.com/blog/?cat=5
1. Unconsciousness
Nothing can be seen that will free you
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sense of what self is
Self = ego/mind * Self = stable entity over time * Complete
separation from outer life and other ÒselvesÓ * Self = body, traits,
roles, history, beliefs * All of this completely unobserved
Awareness of ego
Identification with ego is absolute and unobserved
Relationship to time
Past and future feel real, are where attention often is * Impression
of life as a flow over time * Present is seldom experienced
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Ceaseless mental activity, unobserved * Complete identification with
thought (which appears ÒtrueÓ) * Deep in unrecognized belief systems
* Discomfort with not- knowing * Thought is used to manage or avoid
feelings, which distort into emotions (suffering)
Nature of emotional life
Emotions completely subject to mental activity/patterns * Impression
of being at the mercy of life * Spontaneous feeling confused with
thought-driven emotional reactivity * Constant roller coaster of
intense emotions (fear, desire, anger, shame, envy, etc.)
Relationship between inner & outer life
Life happens ÒtoÓ you * Constant attempt to gain control over life *
Assumption that the way to improve inner state is to fix outer
circumstances * At the mercy of conditioning (unobserved) * Blame or
credit events and circumstances for how you are inside * Resistance,
reactivity, and judgment are rampant, unnoticed, not seen as
optional
Perception of choice
Seen to operate in realm of action/behavior, but not in thought or
emotion * No sense of choice in whether to believe a thought * No
sense of choice in how outer life affects or changes you
Primary focus/motivator
Fulfillment of desire, escape from pain * Fear and grasping * Wish
for security * Constant vigilance * Self-maintenance and enhancement
* Concern with personal features and outer circumstances
What appears real
Egoic self * Other selves * Experience * Mental and emotional
activity * Belief * Time and things ÒinÓ time
Characteristic statement
ÒLife sucksÓ alternating with ÒLife rocksÓ
2. A Little Consciousness
Seeing becomes possible * Occasional flickers of consciousness
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sense of what self is
Continuing solid sense of self and separation from all, with
occasional observation of this
Awareness of ego
Glimmers of awareness that there is an ego * Occasional witnessing
of ego in action
Relationship to time
Recognition of power of past and future * Present seldom experienced
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Dawning awareness of how busy the mind is, and of its role in
suffering * Continued ceaseless mental activity and identification
with thoughts * Thoughts are ÒtrueÓ * Thoughts still used to manage
or avoid feelings * Ongoing search for better (ÒtruerÓ) beliefs
Nature of emotional life
Some awareness that emotional burden is outcome of thought patterns
and conditioning
Relationship between inner & outer life
Beginning of awareness of how at the mercy you are of outer life
developments * Conditioning expresses itself, largely unobserved *
New conditioning occurs, largely unobserved
Perception of choice
Realization of some choice re: where attention is directed (e.g., on
activity of ego-mind, on inner state versus outer life)
Primary focus/motivator
Same as with total unconsciousness (fulfillment of desire, escape
from pain, enhancement of self) * Growing desire for equanimity and
release from suffering, but with familiar wish to achieve that via
control of life and self
What appears real
Same as with total unconsciousness (egoic self, other selves,
experience, mental and emotional activity, belief, time and things
ÒinÓ time)
Characteristic statement
ÒMy ego is a creepy little bastard, and I canÕt seem to get the
upper hand.Ó
3. Increasing Episodes of Consciousness
More is seen
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sense of what self is
Growing observation of self as doer, thinker, feeler, reactor *
Growing sense that thereÕs something else here, watching
Awareness of ego
Growing awareness of predominance of ego and how it functions *
Recognition of attachment, reactivity, identification, resistance,
conditioning, as it manifests * Discomfort with whatÕs seen
(self-judgment, cringing, tendency to denial, attempts to ÒfixÓ or
justify ego)
Relationship to time
Growing attunement to mechanics of fear, hope, regret, and the pull
of unresolved issues from the past * Sense of being on a journey
toward awakening
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Occasional awareness of thoughts-as-thoughts, and of their power
over the
emotional life * Growing desire for spiritual ÒknowledgeÓ *
Observation of the power of belief and its role in sustaining the
ego * Beginning of the awareness of the option to believe (or not to
believe) a thought * Beginning of the awareness that a thought is a
made thing
Nature of emotional life
Early awareness of spontaneous feeling, and how thought reacts to
that, and how thought causes emotion
Relationship between inner & outer life
Occasional experience of gap between outer and inner >>>
peace, immersion in presence, sense of option in response,
relaxation of appearance of causality * Conditioning sometimes
observed in action (both old and new)
Perception of choice
Occasional observation, in the moment, of gap between thought and
emotion, and the causal relationship between the two
Primary focus/motivator
Same as before (fulfillment of desire, escape from pain, enhancement
of self), with additional focus on present moment and on inner life
* Growing wish for inner peace (but reluctance to let go of other Ð
fears, satisfactions, etc.)
What appears real
Much of the same continues feeling real (egoic self, other selves,
mental and emotional activity, experience, belief, time and things
in time), but now attention from within the ÒstateÓ outside ego also
feels real, in a way thatÕs both more substantial and fleeting
Characteristic statement
ÒHow can I get ecstatic experiences to occur, and how can I get them
to last?Ó
4. Conscious Moments Occur Regularly (but unconsciousness still
predominates)
* Still more becomes apparent
Sense of what self is
Softening sense of solid self * Growing awareness of our in-common
humanity (more alike than different)
Awareness of ego
Increasing awareness of ego-in-action, with observation of how ego
maintains itself and how ÒselfÓ appears to benefit from ego
maintenance * Better able to observe ego neutrally, without angst,
avoidance, wish to change it
Relationship to time
Past and future increasingly seen as thoughts (i.e., not real) *
Growing present- moment awareness
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Attunement to difference between thinking and attention *
Recognition of the mindÕs limited ability to access truth * Beliefs
beginning to lose power * More able to observe thought without
getting caught up in it, equating it with reality
Nature of emotional life
More able to stay with spontaneous feeling, without resistance or
mental management of it * Emotions less volatile, seeming less to
have a life of their own
Relationship between inner & outer life
Increasingly resistance gives way to acceptance * Reactivity is less
automatic * Growing awareness that inner orientation plays a
significant role in how life feels
Perception of choice
To believe a thought (or not) * To think or to attend * To be in the
now or to be in the head * To resist or to accept * To allow
circumstance to shape inner condition or to decline to * To stay
with spontaneous feeling (or escape into the head)
Primary focus/motivator
Wanting to awaken, to be freed of torment
What appears real
Much of the same (egoic self, other selves, thought, experience,
time), but the ÒhigherÓ self is increasingly sensed, felt to be
outside egoic impressions of reality
Characteristic statement
ÒIÕm going to wake up if it kills me.Ó
5. Consciousness Predominates (with lapses into unconsciousness) *
Little is missed
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sense of what self is
Self and the now sometimes experienced as the same ÒthingÓ *
Occasional loss of moorings, disorientation, fear (of ÒdeathÓ)
Awareness of ego
Ego acts up occasionally and is nearly always observed, when it does
*
Ego is taken less seriously (because less and less it seems to be
what you are)
Relationship to time
Past and future lose their grip, as they are seen to be thoughts
only, not ÒrealÓ * More contentment with the present, just as it is
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Thought occurs less on its own, and less compulsively * Thought
tends to be more practical than egoic * Diminishing inclination to
use the mind to ÒknowÓ the truth * Thought used less to manage or
avoid feeling * Thought recognized more consistently as thought *
Optional to believe a thought * Increasingly in not-knowing
(sometimes comfortably, sometimes unnerved)
Nature of emotional life
Unresisted momentary feeling is the norm * Feeling is not managed by
thought, causing emotion, so emotional life is very quiet * Feeling
is brief (but may be strong), lasting about as long as what stirred
it into being
Relationship between inner & outer life
Acceptance is the norm * Less inclination to blame life, to look to
it for fulfillment * Reactivity only very occasional * Conditioning
recognized; little new conditioning occurs
Perception of choice
Primary choice is seen: to identify with ego or with consciousness
Primary focus/motivator
Being in the now * Knowing reality
What appears real
What is happening now, whatÕs perceivable via senses, present-moment
feeling
Characteristic statement
ÒMaybe it doesnÕt matter so much if I ever wake upÓ (since
increasingly, the present, as it is, is what seems real . . . and
since the desire to awaken is recognized as a thought).
6. Pure, Stable Consciousness All is seeing
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sense of what self is
No separate ÒIÓ * End of subject-object awareness * Self = all that
is, the space in which everything occurs * Self = consciousness *
Personality is readily assumed when needed but is not identified
with and is not confused with reality * Dual awareness of being
personality and space, form and formlessness
Awareness of ego
Ego seen as entirely artificial, unable to convince you of its
reality, since consciousness does not waver, and identification with
consciousness is complete
Relationship to time
Only now feels real * ÒLifeÓ = now (only) * Past and future seen as
thoughts only, never entered into as though reality * Ongoing
stillness, rather than apparent movement (ÒthroughÓ time)
Orientation to thought & knowledge
Mind is quiet except when needed for something practical * Mind
serves at the pleasure of consciousness * Thought never mistaken for
reality * Comfort with not-knowing * Understanding (which comes via
consciousness, not thought) continues to deepen
Nature of emotional life
Suffering has ended * Thought-generated emotion is a thing of the
past * Feelings are fully allowed (so there is occasional pain, like
grief) * Pain (because not resisted) does not persist and leaves no
residue, no conditioning
Relationship between inner & outer life
No sense of being separate from present-moment life * Inner and
outer are all one (ÒwhatÕs happening nowÓ) * No impulse to judge or
resist (because not separate from what is) * You are what is * Inner
state seldom affected by outer things
Perception of choice
Primary choice exercised is how wide or narrow to direct awareness
(along the scale from a defined person to all-that-is, space itself)
Primary focus/motivator
What is (the now) * Concern for others
What appears real
Consciousness * The space in which all occurs
Characteristic statement
ÒThis is whatÕs happening.Ó
7. Degrees of Consciousness: Overview Consciousness is Being sensing
itself in the encounter with momentary reality.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Unconsciousness is the norm for humankind. Life is lived entirely
within the enclosed container of the narrowly-defined self. Nothing
can be seen that will bring freedom.
Then, for some . . .
A catalyst occurs: a severe loss . . . a deep longing to know the
truth . . . weariness
of suffering . . . a vivid experience of beingness. The spiritual
life begins. It has become possible to see, even with a small amount
of consciousness.
With the growing willingness to see, without resistance or judgment
or mental filters, the light of consciousness increases (gradually
or abruptly), ebbs and flows, perhaps eventually becoming the
predominant awareness.
It may be that at some point . . .
The walls of the the narrowly-defined self collapse. The shift to
full wakefulness represents a qualitative shift (not just ÒmoreÓ
consciousness), leaving pure, stable consciousness.
Keep in mind . . .
Each moment is simply itself, as it is, not necessarily indicative
of a stable condition. Consciousness doesn't necessarily develop in
a strictly linear way, in the stages depicted.
Growing degrees of consciousness may occur gradually or abruptly,
and may or may not endure.
___________________________________________________________________________
Toward Abidance and Embodiment - Fred Davis
http://awakeningclaritynow.com/toward-abidance-and-embodiment/
I want to talk to you today about the real spiritual journey, about
the one that truly matters. Awakening doesnÕt work the way many of
us think it does.
I help people wake up nearly every day, and because of that IÕve
learned a great deal about the awakening event and the
post-awakening process, as well as the mindset and motivations of
both those who seek, and those who find. Regardless of what we might
hear to the contrary, my own day-after-day-in-the-trenches
experience is that coming to recognize our True Nature is simply not
that difficultÐnot anymore. If it was, IÕd still be selling books
for a living.
So itÕs not the allowing ourselves to see our True Nature thatÕs the
big bear. The real trouble lies in accepting it. ItÕs not the
breakthrough, itÕs the follow through! Part of the responsibility
for this lies in the typical seekerÕs mindsetÐthe very mindset that
I had as a seeker. One of the common themes I discover in both
helping people to awaken, and in helping them to stabilize, is the
erroneous sense that somehow ÒourÓ awakening is about us, for usÐ
individual units. ThatÕs what I thought prior to awakening, and itÕs
what I thought when I was on the wrong side of identification
afterwardÐwhat we often refer to as Òoscillation.Ó
Fredness was in quite a bad life situation when awakening occurred,
and had been for about 2 1/2 years. My first motivation to wake up
was relief. I wanted out of my suffering. ThatÕs the most common
motivation I find in the field, and thereÕs absolutely nothing wrong
with it. My secondary motivation, however, was entirely egoic. Even
my notions of somehow being able to help others was egoic. Those I
helped would then see how special I was. Enlightenment was something
that I wanted to add to the Fred Story.
ThereÕs actually nothing inherently awful about this shallow
motivation either, simply because whatever it is that brings us to
awakening is just fine! If I save a bunch of children because I want
my picture in the newspaper, who cares? ItÕs the saving of the
children that matters. In this same way, itÕs the awakening event
thatÕs most important, not the mental path we took to arrive at it.
ThereÕs plenty of opportunity to Ògo deepÓ after we awaken by hook
or by crook!
But this sort of motivation begins to be a problem if itÕs carried
over into the post-awakening process. The primary early
understanding that most of us come to upon an awakeningÐwhether
initial or subsequentÐis that we see through the illusion of a
separate self. Oneness is Òseen,Ó meaning that we experience
ourselves as Oneness to one degree or another. It may come with a
Òbang,Ó or it may come with a barely noticeable Òpop,Ó or with no
pop at all. It may be seen deeply, or barely. We may have
context for it, or we may not.
Ultimately none of that matters. ItÕs the shift itself that is most
important, for once Truth is seen it cannot be totally forgotten. I
had a glimpse haunt me for twelve years before I came to a larger,
more thorough awakening, but it was that glimpse that allowed me to
drive my first stake into a beachhead in Reality and drove me back
first to Zen, and then ultimately into a less structured brand of
Nonduality. So it is beyond logicÐonly Maya could pull a stunt like
this offÐthat after awakening, in almost every case, it is the
non-existent individual who claims the awakening! ÒI did it, and it
was about me.Ó
There is a yang for every yin, so when cloudiness again developsÐas
it almost certainly willÐwe want to know where Òour personalÓ
enlightenment has gotten off to. I spent three years moving between
bliss and hell. The more time you spend as Awakeness, the less
enchantingÐor even pleasantÐthe dream becomes. And of course I knew
that I should be experiencing bliss and clarity in every moment of
every day. I knew that awakening was all about living in a
constantly enthralled, orgasmic experience. Right? Right?
Wrong.
Yes, thatÕs what I knew, but since thatÕs not the truth, what I knew
pitted ÒmeÓÐthe very same nonexistent ÒmeÓ that had been seen
through in the awakening(s)Ðagainst Reality, and time and time
again I came up the loser. My experience Òshould beÓ other than what
it is: that is the fundamental dynamic of the dream. And so long as
we believe that post-awakening is about the unit, and not Awakeness
itself, weÕre going to dream long and lousy.
The first thing we notice when we see things as they really areÐwhen
we come to the stark simplicity of What IsÐis that What Is is all
there is! There is no alternative to exactly whatÕs going on right
nowÐuntil there is. When that Òuntil there isÓ arises, it will be as
the new face of What Is, not as an alternative. ItÕs one scene at a
time, folks. And whatever scene is arising, is the only scene there
is until it isnÕt. And then thereÕs no going back, which would be
like trying to hang onto one frame of a movie. CanÕt be done.
Once we develop enough insightÐwe could often label that a budding
of humilityÐthe true Truth is seen: ÒourÓ awakening is not about the
ego, and itÕs not about the unit. ThatÕs not to say there are no
benefits for the unit! ThereÕs no benefit for ego in an
awakeningÐfar from itÐbut there are huge benefits for the unit! Mine
and BetsyÕs lives are totally different than they used to be, and
totally better. The formerly careening human roller coaster of the
Òthrill of victory, and the agony of defeatÓ is now still. We still
have great interest, and take great pleasure in living, and these
units maintain some light preferences, but the old, everyday
life-and-death intensity of even the smallest matters is simply
gone.
When we wake up, meaning that when Awakeness suddenly recognizes
that itÕs always already awake, that conscious awareness will be
seen to be coming through a particular unit which heretofore only
exuded unconscious awakeness. ThatÕs what it will look like from the
outside. From AwakenessÕs view, however, all that will be seen is
that there is nothing but awakeness, which is sometimes conscious,
and sometime unconscious; sometimes cloudy, sometimes clear. And
that experience of cloudiness or clarity includes all units, but
itÕs not about them.
The unit, in effect, becomes a window. We have a leg in each
worldÐone in the dream, and one in That beyond the dream. This, of
course, is language, so it is clumsy and suggests duality. I donÕt
mean that at all. ThatÕs why I said in that last sentence Òin
effect.Ó ThatÕs as close as I can get with words. That will be the
experience. And what awakening is truly all about is allowing That
which is beyond the dream to Òstream throughÓ unencumbered into the
dream by way of skillful action through the surrendered unit.
ItÕs not ÒourÓ awakening; itÕs AwakenessÕs awakening. The separate
personality doesnÕt wake up to the truth of God; God wakes up to the
fiction of the separate personality. There is FrednessÐidentifiable
patternsÐbut there is no Fred. Or you either. And since there is no
separate individual, awakening cannot possibly be about a separate
individual, whether that be the experienced ÒmeÓ or the experienced
Òyou.Ó
We have a skewed perception, and awakening merely straightens that
out. Nothing new has to happen; something ancient must be noticed.
ThatÕs all. If there is an accompanying spiritual experience, the
unit is welcome to enjoy it. Have at it! Who doesnÕt love a
spiritual? There is nothing cooler. But none of that has anything to
do with enlightenment. Zero.
Awakening doesnÕt add to us, it strips us down. ItÕs just not about
a buzz, or an achievement for these units. ItÕs not
self-improvement, itÕs about Self-recognition on an ongoing basis.
ItÕs about the willingness of the apparent personality to be
colonized by Awakeness so that it can, at least apparently, shine
brighter and broader. It comes to know itself, and to love itself,
and that Love then shows up more and more in the world.
ThatÕs what itÕs all about.
Let us be willing to surrender to the face of the present arising.
This single moment is all we ever have to surrender to. There is
only Now. And that Now is You.
Fred Davis 2.16.14
________________________________________________________________________
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 2014 Dates
Brisbane
Relaxation Centre
BRISBANE - 1 day - Sunday 25 May, 2014
Waking Up to Who We Are:
A Course in Miracles workshop
Release is given you the instant you desire it. ACIM
There is an inner peace and joy awaiting all of us. It cannot be
found in satisfaction of worldly desires.
We don't have to deserve it, only want it above all else. Through
forgiveness we allow the door to open to our true home within.
No previous knowledge of A Course in Miracles is needed.
9.30am-4.30pm
Fee: $55
VENUE:
Relaxation Centre,
15 South Pine Road
Alderley
Brisbane 4051
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.
__________________________________________________________________________
Germany 2014 Dates
Bonn
28th-29th June, 2014
10.00am to 6.000pm
Inner Peace - Our Natural State
- A Course in Miracles workshop -
It (inner peace) is given you the instant you would have it. ACIM
T-15.IV.9.
The purpose of this world is not to find a permanent peace and
happiness.
It cannot be found here.
You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed
you since time began. T-13.VII.3.
Instead, if we see the world as a classroom of forgiveness we will
discover the uncaused happiness that lies within - our natural
state. To forgive is to look at everything in our minds and in the
world without judgement.
Forgiveness offers everything I want. Lesson 122
While we search to fulfill our desires in the expectation of
happiness we block the awareness of the constant, uncaused happiness
within.
You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it.
..... Love waits on welcome, not on time, and the real world
(inner peace) is but your welcome of what always was.
T-13.VII.9.
Peace is the absence of desire; forgiveness reveals our natural
state.
This workshop explores, with the aid of exercises, how we block this
happiness and peace and how it can be revealed.
No knowledge of A Course in Miracles is required.
An Evening Introductory Talk - Fri 27th June 2014
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
Freiburg 2014
July 4 6pm to 9pm
July 5 10.00am to 6.00pm
July 6 10.00am to 5.00pm
Inner Peace - Our Natural State
- A Course in Miracles workshop -
It (inner peace) is given you the instant you would have it. ACIM
T-15.IV.9.
The purpose of this world is not to find a permanent peace and
happiness.
It cannot be found here.
You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed
you since time began. T-13.VII.3.
Instead, if we see the world as a classroom of forgiveness we will
discover the uncaused happiness that lies within - our natural
state. To forgive is to look at everything in our minds and in the
world without judgement.
Forgiveness offers everything I want. Lesson 122
While we search to fulfil our desires in the expectation of
happiness we block the awareness of the constant, uncaused happiness
within.
You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it.
..... Love waits on welcome, not on time, and the real world
(inner peace) is but your welcome of what always was.
T-13.VII.9.
Peace is the absence of desire; forgiveness reveals our natural
state.
This workshop explores, with the aid of exercises, how we block this
happiness and peace and how it can be revealed.
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
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.
__________________________________________________________________________
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
___________________________________________________________________________
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
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