RE: How to achieve Inner Peace [ACIM Series Part 3]
Interesting idea about guilt, I’ve never thought of guilt itself as being so fundamental to a life that is rooted in the ego. I’m not sure if I agree but I would like to think about this some more and read your other articles. Not all of us have the kind of guilt that comes from religious upbringing, although I do agree with the sentiment that many of us have a false sense of guilt that we are directly responsible for others happiness.
I’ve gotten over this whole “ego is bad” idea. I see the ego as just a physical manifestation. The problem we tend to have is that the ego thinks it is whole and complete, even when we delve into the spiritual, we don’t believe deeply enough in our true wholeness (which is not bound by time and space) and let a kind of ignorant child (the ego) call all the shots.
I’ve benefited most by training myself to see the outside world as a reflection of what is inside and vice versa. This has helped me chip away at that feeling of victimhood which was a common theme in my life as it is for so many others. Now the ego is still there but it’s main focus is play which is what I believe it was designed for, just a physical vessel intended to playfully carry out the will of our greater selves.
That’s my take anyway. I’m sure I have something to learn from you so I will pay attention and play with the ideas you are sharing here :-D
This is exactly what I struggled with for over 20 years with ACIM and in this time throwing the book away many times 😀
As I wrote, since I also had no religious upbringing, I had absolutely no idea, what this "guilt" stuff was all about. For me, guilt had nothing to do with the Ego at all.
Then I read this sentence in the course: "From all that things that cause you pain and suffering, not once did you think, that guilt was among them!"
Well, this got me interested, because this not only explained my experience, but also posed the question, if there was some message hidden, that I simply overlooked in all my years on my spiritual path.
One of the things, that helped me to understand the core message of ACIM really - and making it a daily spiritual path - was exactly the topic of guilt.
For me, this simply means, to look how I make myself or others the source of each others inner state and with that giving the dream a meaning. It's not only the judgement of self and others, but this guilt is deeply routed in the imagined separation from God/Source. ACIM is very radical and clear about guilt being not only one important "emotion", but as the source of everything in the world. In fact, the whole world is made (in the cosmology of the course) for one single purpose: to hide our guilt of the imagined separation from God away - it's its sole purpose. Of course this can't be understood, when you think of guilt as just being a religious word, that is made real by the worlds religions.
These religions tell us, that guilt is real, and we have to be punished or redeemed from it. ACIM is totally different here and says, that guilt is source of our suffering, but it's totally unreal.
About the Ego being the enemy: I would agree with your viewpoint and shared it too over a long period, but at the moment (and involving myself deeper in ACIM and its teachings about the Ego), I don't see it as an enemy, but also not as a valuable part of all-that-is (God etc). The Ego is now for me an option, I can take. ACIM here is also very clear and simple and says, we have 2 "teachers" in our mind - one is the Ego and one is the Holy Spirit (or Jesus, Buddha or whatever symbol you use, that represents Truth in your mind).
The only "job" we now have, is to decide each moment, which teacher we are listening to and which curriculum we want to take. I elaborated on that in the other articles and may do another one focused especially on that, since this is such an important topic....
Thanks for your awesome comment and opening up a deeper conversation around this topic @whatamidoing! 🙏
Wow, there's a lot more behind this than I had previously thought. It sounds like you use the word guilt to refer to the concept of Maya. That's certainly an interesting way to look at things that I hadn't thought of before. I don't know if that word really feels proper though. The illusion is so beautiful, I surely don't want to associate it with the word "guilt". I will try to pay attention to your posts and follow your line of thinking to understand better.
Thanks for the reply.
Indeed, there is lots more behind the Course than we think - it's the deepest message I came across since my spiritual search started many years ago, ans-I discover new pearls every day.
It's also the most radical one, because it contradicts everything our Egos thought system is made of. In the end, it describes exactly, how our Ego works and offers the exact opposite thought system.
It doesn't take away the choice though! This is a very important point, I'm about to write about in the next part of the series.
It basically offers you two totally different thought systems and tells you: "Now that you know them, it's up for you to choose!".
This would be my short summary of what ACIM is all about.
And I hear you... Yes, the illusion seems to be so beautiful, and from my experience, as long as Maya appears beautiful, there will be no motivation to wake up. You will rearrange the furniture on the Titanic and keep the music playing. This is exactly, what the Ego promises us: to make things work and to accept things, that don't work.
ACIM is not here to tell us, that we have to dislike Maya (this is a trap our dualistic mind falls into) - but one thing can be said for sure: if you don't look with different eyes on the main causes of suffering in the world and you haven't reached a state of total disillusionment, you won't look for a different solution and a different way to see things.
So yes, ACIM is surely not for "everyone".
You know what...what I just wrote is actually already the perfect introduction for my next post! I'll copy it! Thank you! 😀