Level 1: How to Run Away From Your Self...
and Not Get Caught
and Not Get Caught
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Overview
A Course in Miracles (ACIM or Course) tells us that a thought entered the collective mind of God's children questioning what it would mean to be one's own creator. From that "tiny mad idea" sprang space and time, the material universe, consciousness, and the making of the cosmic ego. To allow for a fully immersive experience of our own self creation, we made an imaginary Game in which we choose to separate the One Son, or Christ Mind, from God. This allows us to assume a variety of imagined roles (hero, villain, victim, saint) with an underlying storyline that tells of how we betrayed God's love, lost our eternal oneness, and are now distinct beings, human beings, separate from both God and our fellow man and protected from the wrath of a now vengeful God through the raising of mental barriers to the awareness of His eternal love, as shown to the right. What Do You Give THE ChILD THAT IS EVERYTHING?
As with all great stories, we start at the beginning, which in this case takes us to a moment before the need of time or space, a moment when we were what we are now, perfect beings of divine light created in and of the loving Mind of God. At our creation, we had and were everything, and being of God we shared all things with God, being excluded from no thing except that of our own creation. We too created like our Father, adding to his glorious Kingdom in Heaven. Being of One magnificent and curious Mind, we had an odd thought: having experineced being, having, and knowing everything in the universe and beyond, what would it be like to not know that I am a magnificent creation of an all-loving God, to be completed cut off from any knowledge of what I truly am? What would be the experience of making oneself and starting from a new beginning, knowing nothing and having to learn everything, as opposed to knowing and being everything? That tiny mad idea was how we came to make the One Game. In order to play the One Game, we choose to make this world through the force of our collective free will to experience the drama that results from a dualistic, time-based environment as is found here on Earth and likely on many other planets throughout the universe. In order to fully appreciate the full range of experiences and emotions that this world had to offer, we played a trick on ourselves: we switched positions from the cause or maker of the One Game to the effect or victim of it by choosing to forgot our role in the making of the Game. It is in the awareness of our true role and identity that salvation lies. In truth, we are fully in control at all times, as revealed in the Course: (T-21.2.2) I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. "This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you. Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies. Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear." One Hell of Big (spiritual) Bang!
There are over a hundred references to the universe in the Course, but most refer to a place of peace and joy that was created by God, as opposed to the imagined reality made by His children for the purpose of escaping from the Kingdom to play a "game of fear" in which we've chosen to believe that we're "lost to hope, abandoned by your Father, [and] left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin and guilt." (L153.13) The question that naturally arises is why would we choose to leave the safety and comfort of the universe our Father created for one that is full of fearful things? It doesn't make sense at first ponder, but then you realize that each of us has done the exact same thing in our human life: we were "created" by our parents, completely dependent on them for everything in the early years, nurtured and cared for in our youth, and then we developed an overwhelming need to strike out on our own, to make our own way in the world. Sound familiar? The only difference between the spiritual and human versions is that when you've been created by and of God, which means that He has shared all of Himself with you, you don't just "make your way in the world," but actually make the world and the universe in which your youthful rebellion takes place. Think on that for a moment: You have used the unimaginable power of the One Mind to make an entire universe in which you believe you exist at this very moment. Seem hard to believe? Not if you've ever played, or watched someone play, a modern video game. You know, the ones that get more graphically realistic each passing year, that have an increasingly immersive feel to them. Ever strapped on a virtual reality headset to play one of those games, or one of a multitude of other VR-based experiences that are now available? Do you ever get lost in the experience of those worlds? Do seemingly fearful things happen like explosions, buildings crumbling around you, or being chased by soldiers, monsters, or demons that are bent on your destruction? But those aren't real, you'll say. Those are just the product of someone's imagination, the result of artful programming. Bingo! Now you're starting to understand how the One Game really works. The good news is that it's all an illusion (more about that in the next section) so in the same way that there's nothing to truly fear in the hyper-realistic video game, there's also nothing to fear in the world that you've made, as revealed in this prayer from the Course: Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so on earth. Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God. (L326.1) the mother of all dreams
I went to earth and all i got was this crummy body
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