ACIM Journal

[Anderz]

Ah, now I got an insight about money. The love of money is the root of all evil. And love of money means attachment to money. It's what in A Course in Miracles are called special relationships, which as I see it is not only between people but also about material possessions.

The attachment to money results in a heavy burden. And since money is the ego's primary belief in security, the burden becomes heavy indeed, so much so that it becomes an anchor for the "devil" and thereby the root of all evil.

Up-anchor that devilish attachment to money and set sail to the shores of a new heaven and a new earth. That doesn't mean stop using money. It means stop paying attention to money. Dealing with money will be taken care of automatically.

[Anderz]

I don't think physical reality is infinite, but consciousness is connected to the infinite. So consciousness is essentially the Holy Spirit. And the pleasant state of experience Sadhguru talked about will become activated through consciousness.

And I found that ACIM says something similar, except it says that consciousness can receive either from the ego or from the Holy Spirit:

Quote

"Will is not involved in perception at any level, and has nothing to do with choice. Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego." - ACIM C-1.7.:2-3

 

[Anderz]

Paul Hedderman said that the ego experiences itself as a noun. And a noun is f*cking empty, he said. Good point! The ego is a conceptual experience, and a concept is a label. And if we take ourselves to be a label that's an empty kind of experience.

 

[Anderz]

Oh! What Shunyamurti meant by trans-conceptual awareness can be reached through recognizing that the ego is a conceptual construct. As Paul Hedderman said, the ego experiences itself as a noun. The ego is like a noun chasing other nouns in a conceptual experience of reality. And as Anna says in her latest video, we run around thinking we are going to find who we are on a journey:

 

[Anderz]

In this new video, Sadhguru explains how Bhakti yoga means devotion to something beyond the ego's relationships. Beyond what ACIM calls special relationships! So it's a devotion to the holy relationship.

Quote

"This holy relationship, lovely in its innocence, mighty in strength, and blazing with a light far brighter than the sun that lights the sky you see, is chosen of your Father as a means for His Own plan. 2 Be thankful that it serves yours not at all. 3 Nothing entrusted to it can be misused, and nothing given it but will be used. 4 This holy relationship has the power to heal all pain, regardless of its form. 5 Neither you nor your brother alone can serve at all. 6 Only in your joint will does healing lie. 7 For here your healing is, and here will you accept Atonement. 8 And in your healing is the Sonship healed because your will and your brother's are joined.

Before a holy relationship there is no sin. 2 The form of error is no longer seen, and reason, joined with love, looks quietly on all confusion, observing merely, "This was a mistake." 3 And then the same Atonement you accepted in your relationship corrects the error, and lays a part of Heaven in its place. 4 How blessed are you who let this gift be given! 5 Each part of Heaven that you bring is given you. 6 And every empty place in Heaven that you fill again with the eternal light you bring, shines now on you. 7 The means of sinlessness can know no fear because they carry only love with them." - ACIM T-22.VI.4-5

 

[Anderz]

To simplify it, one can say that special relationships are based on fear and the holy relationship is based on unconditional love. I hesitate to use the term unconditional love, and would like to just call it love as in ACIM, but it can be useful here to distinguish it from ego love.

One idea I came to think of is to detach from all special relationships which will lead to liberation from fear. And the biggest special relationship I now realized is what Eckhart Tolle talked about, that in ego consciousness we have a relationship with ourselves. Our own conceptual relationship to oneself, that's the root special relationship!

And I realized that this method is what Bhakti yoga is, as Sadhguru described it. And instead of devotion to God or to a guru, I will experiment with having devotion to consciousness, which is something that's always directly accessible, and also as I see it is connected to the infinite, whereas special relationships are always limited, isolated and ego-based.

[Anderz]

I discovered a Bhakti trap! Even when I put my devotion on consciousness, it's still me as an ego doing it. So it's still a special relationship. So the trick it seems to me is to have the knowledge of Bhakti devotion without actually doing the devotion. And instead let the new conditioning happen automatically. I will still take a look at this video about Bhakti yoga to see if there is more to it to know about:

 

[Anderz]

Money has allowed for the development of individuals. That's a necessary development. But attachment to money is also a huge part of the ego tensions. If ego consciousness was intelligent enough there wouldn't be any need for greed, not even the need for money, but since the ego only sees a tiny part of reality in isolation, money is filled with conflict.

The conflict and friction in money is actually a real physical phenomenon and much of that conflict is stored in us as ego tensions in mind and body. The good news is that it's possible to become free from the burden of money. And this can be achieved through letting go of attachment to money. Meditation is probably a useful tool for that, but I will experiment with mindfulness of money to let go of attachment to money.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Anderz

[Anderz]

Not only money, but also calendar time is a huge burden. Humanity has through ego consciousness been able to build a formidable and complex civilization. That's great. Leo explains in great detail in his new video how much humanity has gone through in order to get to the stage we are at today. That's highly valuable. So the trick is to preserve all that, along with money and calendar time, for decades to come at least, until those things can be replaced by even more advanced solutions through automation.

So freedom from money doesn't mean the abandonment of money and a regress into anarchy and barter. Freedom from money, calendar time and all forms of control structures comes through the realization that there is no individual control. The actual control is a result of reality as a whole unfolding with increasing complexity.

[Anderz]

The ego believes in randomness and accidents. Miracles are the opposite of that. If we expect miracles instead of accidents then that might change reality. I don't mean like in free will change, but change through a new understanding. The very belief in accidents may be what produces them.

Quote

"A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. 2 It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. 3 This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. 4 Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible." - ACIM T-1.I.37.

 

[Anderz]

Whoa, what is fear other than the belief that things can go wrong? What if that perspective is sin? Meaning, what if that belief is wrong?

Quote

"The plans you make for safety all are laid within the future, where you cannot plan. 2 No purpose has been given it as yet, and what will happen has as yet no cause. 3 Who can predict effects without a cause? 4 And who could fear effects unless he thought they had been caused, and judged disastrous now? 5 Belief in sin arouses fear, and like its cause, is looking forward, looking back, but overlooking what is here and now. 6 Yet only here and now its cause must be, if its effects already have been judged as fearful. 7 And in overlooking this, is it protected and kept separate from healing. 8 For a miracle is now. 9 It stands already here, in present grace, within the only interval of time that sin and fear have overlooked, but which is all there is to time." - ACIM T-26.VIII.5.

 

[Anderz]

Practical things like money and calendar time are high-order structures and are high up on the evolutionary scale. That's valuable. What sucks is that since humanity is still predominantly in ego consciousness those practical things are very burdensome to deal with.

Spiritual practice tends to be separated from the practical dealings with everyday life. That's really inefficient. Because it's the practical matters that matter a lot when it comes to our lives, not only physically, emotionally and mentally, but also spiritually.

One strategy I have for how to transcend the practical burden is to think of all of reality as an interconnected whole, including my money, my personal relationships, memories, material possessions, belief systems and other forms of social and environmental conditioning.

Quote

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

Christ is the wholeness of life, so instead of dealing with personal and practical matters as a separate entity, through the Holy Spirit they are handled as a whole and become easy.

Quote

"When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision and making it stronger. 2 As we share this goal, we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and to bring it back into the oneness in which it was created. 3 Remember that "yoke" means "join together," and "burden" means "message." 4 Let us restate "My yoke is easy and my burden light" in this way; "Let us join together, for my message is light."" - ACIM T-5.II.11.

 

[Anderz]

Money and calendar time are huge ego constructs. But to only focus on that may just cause other ego constructs to strengthen. Therefore a more holistic approach is to be mindful of all personal control. That control habit is the foundation for the whole ego, so letting go of all control means dissolving the whole ego, something the ego itself cannot do.

What the ego can do is mindfulness practice and be aware of all personal control. It's like the thorn used to remove another thorn analogy again, and in the end both thorns are thrown away. And this can be mindfulness of feelings and physical sensations which bypasses the entire thinking mind. I will experiment with this practice for a while.

Quote

"The ego is thrown further off balance because it keeps its primary motivation from your awareness, and raises control rather than sanity to predominance. 5 The ego has every reason to do this, according to the thought system which gave rise to it and which it serves. 6 Sane judgment would inevitably judge against the ego, and must be obliterated by the ego in the interest of its self-preservation." - ACIM T-4.V.1:4-6

 

[Anderz]

The ego is a structure. That's fine except for the belief that the structure is something separate. A Course in Miracles says:

Quote

"What is the ego? Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something." - ACIM C-2.

The nothingness of the ego ACIM talks about is the illusion of being a separate entity. And "a form that seems like something" is the ego structure. The structure is real but it's not a separate entity. The entity called the ego is nothingness!

Transcending the ego is "simply" about realizing that it's an illusion. The difficulty, or seeming difficulty, is that the structure of the ego contains a lot of hardened conflict and a shell of protection. The ego is a fear-based structure. And as long as the belief in separation remains, the shell of fear remains.

[Anderz]

Ken Wilber has talked about pre-trans fallacies. I think ideas about free often fall into that kind of trap. The ego is actually a very high complexity and holon development. Also, consciousness allows for far more information high-level "sensations" to be processed than a zombie state without consciousness. So consciousness plus individuality with a sense of free will is a very valuable high level of development.

And when the ego thinks of lack of free will it tends to freak out because it interprets it as a pre-ego state in the form of being an automatic puppet controlled by mindless physical laws and random events. So naturally, the ego instinctually dislikes the idea of having no free will. Even Ken Wilber falls into that pre-trans fallacy trap it seems to me when it comes to free will.

My trans-ego interpretation of free will is that reality has infinite intelligence, is always making 100% correct choices, has constant progress in the form of evolution into higher complexity and is always completely safe and secure. Compared to that, free will is a disastrous ego delusion that would lead to a complete mess if it was real. Fortunately free will is an illusion.

 

 

 

[Anderz]

Testing the idea that reality has more power and intelligence than the ego which is in a deluded state can be done by pretending to not be the ego. So when interacting with people and situations, the trick is to not do anything and let life happen automatically. That is still the ego choosing to not use willpower, choice or action.

It's like an A/B test. Situation A is the ordinary ego actions, and B is actions without free will. If A is the true way life works, then the practice of moving into B will fail. And if B is the true situation, then A will diminish and B become more and more one's experience. In this way, if B is the correct situation, then the ego dissolves along with the move from A to B.

Quote

"A/B test is the shorthand for a simple controlled experiment. [5] As the name implies, two versions (A and B) of a single variable are compared, which are identical except for one variation that might affect a user's behavior. A/B tests are widely considered the simplest form of controlled experiment." - Wikipedia

 

[Anderz]

For the A/B test to be easy, there needs to be a lot of shadow material already processed. The ego is filled with fear and protection so there is a lot of trapped energy which can come out as anger and other ego expressions. And with too much shadow material remaining the ego can't dare to let go of its control, such as self-control and manipulation tactics etc.

Another way to approach it when lots of shadow material still remains is to do the A/B test gradually, starting with small and to the ego insignificant situations where the ego feels safe to let go of personal control.

[Anderz]

In this new video Peter Ralston talks about how instead of dealing with fear to deal with the self first:

 

[Anderz]

The ego sets out to achieve something with dedication, determination, deliberation, willpower, focus, interest, personal responsibility, high moral standards, altruism and self-sacrifice. What wrong with that? First of all, there isn't such thing as self-sacrifice, and even if it were it would be a bad thing, so we are already starting to see what ACIM is talking about is correct, that the ego is totally confused about everything.

And my belief is that there isn't even any achievement possible, since the future already exists perfect and whole. So it's a similar situation to that of the pre-trans fallacy about free will. The ego mistakenly believes it can do something, achieve things, and that's an illusion. And the way out of the ego delusion is not to go into a pre-ego state with resignation and a feeling of powerlessless. Instead it's about going trans-ego into a more intelligent state of being.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Anderz

[Anderz]

What Peter Ralston hinted at in his latest video is that dealing with fear is counterproductive. Because the ego is made of fear. So dealing with the ego shadow is then the same situation. Instead of attempting to remove shadow material it's better to deal with the belief in being a separate self. A Course in Miracles says:

Quote

"Look not upon the little wall of shadows. 5 The sun has risen over it. 6 How can a shadow keep you from the sun? 7 No more can you be kept by shadows from the light in which illusions end. 8 Every miracle is but the end of an illusion. 9 Such was the journey; such its ending. 10 And in the goal of truth which you accepted must all illusions end." - ACIM T-19.IV.A.