Anderz

A Course in Miracles is like a western version of jnana yoga which is the path of the intellect. "Jñāna yoga, also known as Jnanamarga, is one of the several spiritual paths in Hinduism that emphasizes the "path of knowledge",[1] also known as the "path of self-realization".[2] It is one of the three classical paths (margas) for moksha (salvation, liberation).[3][4] The other two are karma yoga (path of action, karmamarga) and bhakti yoga (path of loving devotion to a personal god, bhaktimarga).[3][5][6] Later, new movements within Hinduism added raja yoga as a fourth spiritual path, but it is not universally accepted as distinct from the other three.[7][8]" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnana_yoga ACIM aims at a radical recontextualization of the intellect. The end result of which is the nondual realization of the ego being a mistaken view of reality. The truth is that the ego has zero power on its own.

What I call the global ego is the whole world as it is today. This takes the concept of ego to a worldwide level. Even nature is totally a part of the global ego, and that's why nature still is so primitive and seemingly cruel in many cases. Notice that even the global ego has zero power on its own. People who say that politicians need to be responsible are totally deluded. People who say that nature is natural for a lack of a better word, are deluded! People who believe that the legal system has power are completely fooling themselves. All those things are a part of the global ego which has zero power on its own.

If the ONLY power is first order power then when we get access to that power no ego can get power over us, not even the global ego! That kind of power requires infinite responsibility. Fortunately, the ego doesn't actually have any responsibility, meaning the ego ALREADY has zero power. So it's a safe kind of power.

Here I found yet another spiritual teacher, Paul Hedderman, talking about ACIM. Hedderman is a nonduality teacher. They seem to like ACIM! In another video he said something like how the self cannot experience the self. Very good point. In a sense everything is the Self yet I see the truth of there needing to be a duality for experience to happen.

I feel like ranting a bit. It's my projection and not meant as an attack on people. It's an attack on my own belief system and on the social system. What does ACIM say about healthcare? My interpretation, to paraphrase ACIM is: fuck the doctors and the nurses and those sadistic butchers and drug pushers and fuck the pharma industry and fuck the insurance companies. That's my rant for today. Edit: Don't get me wrong, healtcare is still very much necessary, not least for all the jobs it creates, haha. My rant was about how long-term healthcare is the wrong direction as I see it, like a modern Tower of Babel.

According to ACIM only God's will is done. In my model, which fits even atheism, God's will has ALREADY been done. God is a timeless and changeless principle in my model. God is also infinite intelligence. That's the key to true inner peace I believe. Everything, including all the future, is ALREADY secure and taken care of with infinite care, including our own personal lives. If I remember correctly, ACIM says that even death is a result of the ego which is an illusion of separate control. My hope and even belief is that I will NOT die! Sure, all official history shows that death has always been a part of human existence, but actual destruction is in my model impossible, so to preserve our physical lives is actually a piece of cake.

I wrote earlier that the Word of God is everything and more. How can something be more than everything? A clarification is needed. By everything I here mean every-thing, as in manifested reality. The Word of God is all of manifested reality AND also all of the unmanifested reality yet to become manifested (infinite unmanifested reality). In this way the Word of God is every-thing and more.

Here is a new video from Aaron Abke who has used ACIM in his teachings: Good explanation about how love is not something separate from us.

ACIM has an interesting explanation about how our thoughts are attacking ourselves: "Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are." - https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-26/ Logically that's true! When for example authorities demand something and it makes me worried, I have attacked myself. When I'm afraid of hostile people, I have attacked myself. What will happen when my thoughts become peaceful instead of being attack thoughts? It will change my whole experience of life. Notice that the trick is NOT to get tough, to strengthen the protective personal wall. That just INCREASES the fear in oneself. Nor is it about becoming vulnerable since that's actually a form of attack thought. Tricky.

Some people say that ACIM is not at all like the Bible. In a way that's true. From the big picture however I think of ACIM as a kind of a third testament. The Old Testament has a lot of violence and stuff in it, and that's because in a Spiral Dynamics sense that was written for early stages of human development. The New Testament uses a language for higher stages, and ACIM is directed at today's leading stages of development. Is a vengeful and angry God a wrong picture? No! Who is God? The Word of God is everything and more! So the nasty things in the Old Testament are from an integral and holistic perspective a necessary development. At the same time we can see that many of those things if done today would be insane. A both/and integral perspective is necessary to piece the puzzle together.

And, oh I forgot! Not only in Buddhism, but what is called the kingdom of God in Christianity is obviously also the first order reality. Simple! ACIM talks about kingdom of heaven. There might be a slight difference between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. I think the kingdom of heaven means first order reality without ego distortion, and the kingdom of God is the same thing but also refers to the hidden first order reality even when we are in ego identification. ACIM says: "... allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protec­tion and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever." - https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-50/

My take on Buddhism, with only the little knowledge I have about it, is that impermanence is second and third order reality and nirvana is first order reality and is permanent. From an integral perspective Buddha nature is the realization of both! As an example, imagine that you are playing a video game and place explosives near a house and blow it up, or to use a more peaceful example, you plant a garden outside the house. That's change. That's impermanence. That's not first order reality. In this analogy the first order reality is the computer game. When you change the situation in the video game (impermanence), the video game itself remains the same (permanent). The fear vs love described in ACIM is a result of a lack of Buddha nature. And I think what ACIM means by Holy Instant is the realization of Buddha nature.

First order reality is nonlocal, meaning everything is connected instantly regardless of distance. Does that mean that miracles are independent of distance? Only in principle. Second and third order reality is a fruit of first order reality and is always integrated. In second and third order reality distance makes a huge difference and even miracles operate within second and third order reality. Therefore miracles independent of distance are probably more of an exception instead of the rule.

I believe that Politics is a dog and pony show, or rather, like a staged WWF wrestling match. It's all made-up and beforehand prepared and scripted conflicts! Take the recent Pelosi Trump impeachment affair. Both Trump and Pelosi are acting, they are playing roles out of a script. Just like a WWF wrestling match. Nevertheless, politics has real consequences and something I'm curious about is the FISA report that will be published soon. That too I think is a part of the staged saga, BUT it can act as a catalyst for cleaning up real corruption, so it's more than just entertainment. And with a Watergate level scandal like that Trump will easily win in 2020.

I was hoping that I would start feeling more inner peace. Today I feel confusion instead. And I notice how unpleasant the confusion feels. My theory is that fear is a result of confusion turned into protection. So I'm practicing observing my confusion and the pull towards fear it causes. The confusion itself is as I see it a result of the ego being trapped in only second and third order reality. The love ACIM talks about is on the first order level. I will continue practicing being mindful of my confusion and the tendency towards fear.

Looking at the polls indicates that Williamson will require a miracle to win in 2020. I have strong doubts about that happening, but who knows! My current guess is that Trump will remain President. Anyway, Marianne even being included in the first debates is a sign that integral spirituality is peeking into the big power structure. And historically it indicates that we are in a transformation of the whole world within a very short period of time. It will take many years before we see any radical changes, yet it's about decades at most, not 1,000 or even 100 years into the future so from a historical perspective my take is that it's a very fast and accelerating shift going on right now.

I got an idea! The "tsunami of automation coming to America" that Marianne Williamson has talked about is a sign of the world starting to transform from a "caterpillar" into a "butterfly". And a universal basic income (UBI) will allow more and more people to live without having a job. At first the UBI will be way too small to live on except for extremely downsized lifestyles. However, as Ray Kurzweil has explained, the technological progress is accelerating including resulting in better and better price/performance of products and services. In short, stuff will become dirt cheap, and then a UBI will be sufficient for completely replacing the need for jobs. Having a 9 to 5 job is to remain in the caterpillar, and just like how a real caterpillar turns into a cocoon, the world - the global ego - will turn into an automated cocoon. And more and more people then become "imaginal cells" who build the world butterfly. The UBI is only a temporary political tool. Further into the future even the need for money can be removed. Here is a short illustration of a similar (or even the same) analogy:

True inner peace feels extremely pleasurable to the ego. So that's a way of integrating the ego and ACIM. The ego can be preserved, it just needs to be recontextualized, and although high level concepts are useful, the ego can be modified through inner peace without the need for intellectual theories. It seems to me that peace is the foundation of love, so when ACIM talks about going from fear to love, a first step is through inner peace. The energy field of inner peace can bathe the whole body and mind so that the mental, emotional and physical tensions start to dissolve.

From Fox News minutes ago: "Hannity: Reports on alleged FISA abuse and origins of Russia probe will ‘shock the conscious and soul of the nation' ... "We know the bulk of information was that Hillary Clinton bought and paid for dirty Russian dossier ... so they could help her win the election in 2016," Hannity added." - https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-says-fisa-report-will-shock-the-conscious-and-soul-of-the-nation-as-release-date-reportedly-draws-closer Of course, comments like that are expected from Fox News, but there could be truth to it!

ACIM says that all minds are connected. That's true even in ego consciousness and we are all locked up in the global ego when we are identified with our egos. This also means as I see it that one should aim for a collective awakening, not just personal enlightenment. It also explains why I experience my ego as being so heavy; my ego is a part of the global ego. That's a massive heap of conflict resulting in all kinds of tensions in body and mind.

My model matches ACIM. Then what about science? Does my model have any support in mainstream science? In some ways yes. For example more and more physicists have started looking at information as being the foundation of physics. That's direct in line with my model. And experts such as Stephen Hawking and Stephen Wolfram have suggested that there is no actual randomness or uncertainty and the pilot wave interpretation of quantum mechanics has determinism. That's again exactly in agreement with my model. Then there is the huge pink elephant in the living room: Einstein's relativity. If Einstein's relativity is correct, then my model is false. In a way that's a good thing because it means that my model is falsifiable which is an important part of the scientific method. My model says that it's impossible to travel in time or even bend time. I predict that Einstein's relativity will turn out to be not only false, but a cruel yet necessary joke basically. Why necessary if it's a false theory? Because it maximizes creativity and uniqueness of our civilization. A too simple and correct scientific unifying theory giving to us too early would result in much less creativity and uniqueness for the development of our civilization. A really tricky issue!

The ego tries to push itself through life using willpower. That's a total illusion! In reality the ego cannot do anything and has zero power. The ego is a second order structure. Imagine watching a YouTube video and believing that the video created itself and presents itself. Such belief is complete madness. And that's the kind of belief the ego has about itself. So, then who has willpower? The answer is: nobody. Reality is an automatic process as a result of the instant manifestation of an infinite, timeless and changeless structure.

If God is infinite intelligence, then how to explain that? My model says that the amount of manifested information in our reality increases all the time. And all that information always has zero entropy. As I mentioned earlier, physicist Leonard Susskind said that entropy is hidden information. This matches my idea that if the hidden information becomes known, it's no longer entropy! Zero entropy means order and entropy means disorder. Reality is a wholeness with perfect order. The future potential has infinite information. How to construct an infinite wholeness with zero entropy? At first that might seem like an easy task, for example just take an infinite binary string such as: 01010101010101... which is perfect order and it's infinite. That's cheating! Why? Because separate bits of information cannot exist in isolation like that. The wholeness of reality is fully interconnected. Something truly separate wouldn't be a part of reality. And this full interconnectedness of the infinite information requires infinite intelligence to put together. Of course, in my model there isn't some separate God who created the infinite information at the beginning of time. Instead the infinite information just timelessly exists as a platonic form. Still, the infinite information of reality has infinite intelligence as one of its properties. So my model describes intelligent design without any designer needed.

I believe reality is predetermined. NOT in the mechanical sense of Laplace though. Stephen Wolfram has described how even simple systems have computational irreducibility, which means that it's impossible, even in theory, to predict their future behavior. The only way to fully know the future is to do the actions in the present moment to make the future manifested. This includes our own choices and actions. We cannot "cheat" and jump ahead into the future.

In addition to personal responsibility, another thing that will fall away according to my theory is trust. Only the ego needs trust. First order reality is already perfectly secure and indestructible. Therefore the need for trust disappears when moving from the ego context to a first order foundation. ACIM still has the concept of trust, but it's in essence the same idea: "The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up." - https://acimi.com/a-course-in-miracles/manual-for-teachers/i-trust It's a matter of how the word trust is used. Another way to put it is that when everything is trustworthy, where is the need for trust or distrust for that matter?