As I have built the website over the past months, new ideas and ways of seeing things have been springing up and asking for expression. They include: paraphrased passages where the meaning comes clear by replacing a word or phrase with another; favorite metaphors; visuals, such as contrast lists; my thoughts on fairy tales, digestive enzymes, the path of tears, and more; Course ideas explored through songs; exercises for applying Course teachings; and other reflections. The right mind is a bottomless "well of living water," and I share its flowing here.
A well of living water is waiting deep within to quench my thirst for mercy and wash my mind of sin. If I will just receive it, its sweet and holy flow, the well of living water will satisfy my soul. If I will just receive it, its sweet and holy flow, the well of living water will satisfy my soul.
This well of light is shining through all my blocks of fear, the water long forgotten through dry and dusty years. If I will just receive it, the love and light it gives, the well of shining water as Christ in me will live. If I will just receive it, the love and light it gives, the well of shining water as Christ in me will live.
The words of Jesus flowing like water in my mind have found me in the desert, restored me to new life. He bids me to receive it by sharing it with all, the well of living water born in the heart of God. He bids me to receive it by sharing it with all, the well of living water born in the heart of God.
I am the living water that ever satisfies. I am the shining fountain, the flowing joy of Christ. No more will I deny it. I am God’s holy Son, and in the living water we bless all life as one. No more will I deny it. I am God’s holy Son, and in the living water we bless all life as one.
Table of Contents
7 X WE = ONE Seven Course lessons from Part II of the Workbook are translated into "we" language. This accompanies "Introducing WE" - see below.
A Table Set For Two In Cafe Ego we get to taste all the menu offerings of the ego thought system.
A-Whereness Yoga Seven "asanas" for practicing ACIM yoga throughout the day.
Back-to-Back With Buddha Two figures sit back-to-back under the Bodhi tree: Buddha and you - the “you” you imagine yourself to be. Birthday Manifesto An exercise in remembering the “you” you think you are does not exist.
Contrasting Purposes A brief listing of the very different purposes which either the ego or the Holy Spirit have for the body.
Digestive Enzymes (for the mind) Songs, time, orderly study patterns, lived experiences, workbook lessons, second teachers, laughter - some of the digestive enzymes described here to help us digest the Course.
Entrainment Ministry Carrying a thought of peace into an encounter with another invites them to come into synch with the "good vibrations," because minds are joined.
Fairy Tale Reflections on our lives as fairy tales in the dreams of a sleeping child, featuring The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen
Forgiveness 101: Opening The Vaults Of Time SIN is our treasure. It insures our existence as separated individuals, so we carefully hide it in our projections onto other people, our past memories, and our bodies.
Forgiveness Offers Everything: The Ego’s FOE Lesson 122 in the Workbook states that "Forgiveness offers everything I want." Here is the real treasure, infinite and eternal, that dispels the attraction of the ego's SIN treasure.
The Fortress of Differences Each of us builds for ourselves a fortress of differences, where we defend our special self with an army of judgments and attack thoughts.
Four Minutes, Eleven Seconds All about my “recording angels” who oversaw the production of thirteen CDs in the Music of Christ collection.
Garden Party The lyrics of several songs make a pathway that leads from the desert to the garden of the Right Mind.
Going Vertical The ego keeps us stuck on a horizontal and hellish track of linear time that goes nowhere; the miracle shifts us vertically “above the battleground” so we can begin to observe what’s really going on.
The Guest House Of The Mind Rumi’s poem and two versions paraphrased by me; a lesson in looking straight at our difficulties and seeing what they have to teach us.
Hymn Of Kindness Paraphrase: Course quotes where “holiness” is replaced with “kindness”.
I Am A Window Our personhood is a dense covering of images we have made to block out the light that we are. We must learn to give all the people and situations in our lives a new purpose: instead of blocking the light, they allow it to shine through.
Inner Compass When we are ready to make the journey, the Holy Spirit gives us a compass set to Within.
Introducing WE The transformative power of changing the ‘I’ pronoun to “We” within Course passages.
Is He Really Tragic? Everyone in the world plays the victim - weak, wounded, and unfairly treated. Yet Lesson 166 in the Workbook tells us that we “have been given everything.” To keep the gifts of God we have to share them.
Metaphysical Journalism Using the reporter’s questions of who, what, when, where, and why to observe our lives.
Mindful Family We can use the Course as a lens through which to look at our family members, and what they are teaching us about what is happening in our mind. Mindful Workplace Looking at the workplace as a classroom where we learn to apply Course principles.
Murder, We Wrote We have to look at the self-convicted murderer within before we can receive the Holy Spirit's pardon.
My Glossary A list of terms and phrases I have coined or drawn from the Course and other sources which I have found helpful in sharing Course ideas.
“Our Identity Is Shared” In the process of letting go of body-identification, it is helpful to make a shift from “I” thinking to “We” thinking.
Perception 101 My thoughts on how the world is a set of mental constructs or thought-forms which we perceive as being outside of us.
Plugged In A quote from Marianne Williamson about plugging in to God’s Light; then paraphrased with God’s Will.
Power Play In the dream we are playing a game of pretending to be powerless, while “all power is given unto you in earth and Heaven.” (W-pI.191.9)
The Power Of Paraphrase Examples of how paraphrasing words and phrases within Course quotes breaks us free of our ruts of thinking.
Psalm 23 The traditional psalm revised for mindfulness; a tool for alignment (AOL).
Shadow Other; Brother Light As one dreaming mind we have shattered ourself into countless fragments. The only choice is whether to see the others as shadow figures to blame and attack or as mirrors that reflect back to us the spark of God within us.
Sickness: Naming Names - Worksheet Fill in the blanks with your own personal symptoms and illnesses, and see them in the context of Course teachings on sickness.
"Side By Side, Upon One Altar" At every moment we are choosing between guilt and forgiveness, which lie side by side on the decision-making altar of the mind.
Songs Of The Unchained Will Jesus in the Course promises to unchain our will, freeing it from the ego's "will" to be separate. Here lyrics from a number of songs are interspersed with passages from the Course about Will and willingness.
The Spiral Path Of Process Awakening is a process: sometimes we go around in endless circles; sometimes the path opens into an upward spiral.
Step One: Nothing Works The twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) function as a spiritual path that is very similar - in content - to the path of ACIM. AA's "our lives are unmanageable" becomes ACIM's "nothing here works."
Step Two: A Higher Power Within Us Step two of the AA 12 steps is acknowledging there is a higher power that "could restore us to sanity." That power lies within our very being. The Tapestry Of Images The transformative power of thinking of the whole world in terms of images in the mind.
There Is No Resta! I’ve used this set of paraphrased Course quotes when I or other class members had birthdays. It pairs well with Birthday Manifesto.
The Unholy Trinity A look at the unholy trinity of Sin, Guilt, and Fear, with the help of the song Ghosts.
Waterworks For over forty years I have found tears to be a path to healing. Reflections on crying. The Wrecking Ball And The Feather In the beginning it takes a ‘wrecking ball’ - some disaster in our lives - to get our attention. Eventually we can learn to replace the wrecking ball with the feather that is the Holy Spirit’s light touch of guidance.
You Can’t Fool Me We have forgotten the Light that is our Source: how to see the light in one another, and how to shine that light in our daily lives. But with the Holy Spirit’s guidance we can remember.
You Can Trust The ego cannot be trusted. Jesus and the Holy Spirit can.
“YUM!” The Spell Breaker YUM is a useful mental command that helps break negative flows of thought and feeling and lifts us from mindless feeding of the “pain-body” (Eckhart Tolle) to mindfully observing what we are doing and remembering we can choose again.
ACIM Annotation System [from acim.org] The numbering of A Course in Miracles provides a method for students of the Course to reference a specific passage within the Course and its Supplements.
Here is an example: “You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it.” (T-13.VII.9:1) T = Text 13 = Chapter 13 VII = Section VII (of Chapter 13) 9 = Paragraph 9 (in Section VII) 1 = Line 1 (of Paragraph 9)
Another example: “We say ‘God is,’ and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless.” (W-pI.169.5:4) W = Workbook pI = part I (of the Workbook) 169 = Lesson 169 5 = Paragraph 5 4 = Line 4 (of Paragraph 5)
Another example: “Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum.” (M-4.X.2:9) M = Manual for Teachers 4 = Section 4 X = Part X (of Section 4) 2 = Paragraph 2 (of Part X) 9 = Line 9 (of Paragraph 2)
Additional abbreviations: In = introduction(s) r = Review (workbook) FL = Final Lessons (workbook) C = Clarification of Terms (in the Manual for Teachers) Ep = Epilogues (end of Workbook and Clarification of Terms) P = Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice S = The Song of Prayer