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ACIM Journal

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The ego doesn't want to transcend suffering. As ACIM says, the ego is insane. It sees suffering, subconsciously and correctly, as a protection against increased numbness. And numbness leads to death, so the ego sees suffering as a savior, again subconsciously and not as something the ego is aware of on a conscious level. And also, the ego only thinks in dualistic terms and only understands polar opposites and believes wrongly that suffering is necessary as a polar opposite of pleasure.

Suffering serves a necessary purpose but we are meant to grow out of suffering, not remain dwelling in suffering forever. We will still be able to suffer after transcending the serious kind of suffering the ego experiences, similar to how we can suffer when failing in some non-serious video game. 

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I now got inspired by listening to Marianne Williamson, and even though she didn't say exactly the same as came to my mind, the idea is the same. One simple practice is to trust the universe instead of trusting oneself! Isn't that flawed logic since we are a part of the universe? No, not in the experiential sense from our ego perspectives because our egos experience themselves as separate from the universe and have a second order knowledge only.

Second order here means the manifested universe and first order is the intelligence which is the source of that manifestation. The ego only recognizes the second order reality and trusting the universe here means to trust everything except the ego. This then removes the block to the first order intelligence. The ego is that block and it's one's own self, at least in the non-enlightened state.

I will practice relaxing my own thinking and deal with situations in the moment instead of doing my own planning.

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Another thing I came to think of is that the ego is usually reluctant to give up control. One key is to have an integral perspective which means that the ego-self will be preserved. It's just that the thinking mind needs to radically shift and the practice of trusting the universe instead of the ego is just a temporary tool. The idea is that the personal willpower is activated again at a higher level of awareness.

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ACIM says that all minds are connected. This means that transcending the ego is about moving into a collective mind. That's a monumental evolutionary leap. As an analogy, comparing the ego to the collective global mind is like comparing a single cell in the body to the whole human being.

If we would remain as only an isolated self then that means a false kind of awakening where we actually still are trapped in ego consciousness.

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"M-27.1. Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. 2 Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? 3 We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. 4 It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. 5 This is regarded as "the way of nature," not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the "natural" law of life. 6 The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,--all this is taken as the Will of God. 7 And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this." - https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/course-miracles-manual-teachers-27-death/

Death is a result of the ego. Transcending the ego means transcending death. It's not that we humans are like cells in a larger planetary organism called Gaia. We will become Gaia. Our physical body will become the whole planet earth. And so to die in that stage would be to die as a whole planet! Won't happen.

Death is a second order phenomena, and to ego death is real, for the ego is itself a second order phenomena, and so is the physical body. Transcending the ego also means transcending the physical body. Again, it's an integral process so we will still have physical bodies but they will be filled with first order intelligence instead of decaying by aging and dying.

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Money is a third order construct since it is a creation of us humans who are a second order construct.

"In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, “protective” clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the “right” people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers." - https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-50/

So how can the love of money be the root of all evil? It's because as it says in the ACIM quote, the ego sees only second and third order power and completely misses the first order power which the ego is unaware of.

Everything the ego does become twisted, distorted and leads to conflict because of failing to understand that by itself the ego has zero power and all second and third order constructs have zero power.

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I love how ACIM is extremely hardcore, but how to get an integral perspective which might be missing when contrasting fear and love and the ego and the Holy Spirit? Take money again, it seems that of course money has power, money has huge power in the world today. That's true but it's still only a third order construct! Only the first order reality has power (called God in ACIM).

The integral approach is that yes, money has power and material things are important, and at the same time all those things are recognized as being given power by the deeper foundation of reality, the first order intelligence.

In practice this means that money will continue to be the main "glue" and "energy flow" within society for decades to come. That's perfectly fine as long as we realize that the power is not in the money itself and is just a tool. The first order intelligence, when activated within us, will use money correctly, even our own personal finances will be correctly managed.

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I think of what ACIM calls special relationships as not only between the ego and other people but also between the ego and money. To the ego money is very special. Notice again that "special" here doesn't mean grand or precious. When ACIM talks about special relationships then it's about relationships that are unholy. And that's why the "love of money" is the root of all evil. The ego has in its own mind turned money into something special, as something separate from other things which the ego thinks of as lesser and thereby made money "special", meaning unholy, which leads to evil. The ego is blind to this logic and sees money as its savior and as something leading to good while in reality the ego's love of money leads to evil, both for itself and others.

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Isn't money more important than say air or dirt? Meaning depends on context, and sure, in the ego context money is way more important than air and dirt. Hence sayings such as "money out of thin air", "money doesn't grow on trees", "right on the money" and "take it to the bank".

Marianne Williamson use to say in talks about a situation where one has been scammed or something like that: "I accept your apology but I would also want my money back" and then people in the audience laugh. That's the laughter of the ego and reveals what people really think about money, how important money is, how to them money is way more important than the apology.

From a holistic perspective meaning disappears. To the ego that is horrible and gives the impression of a bleak meaninglessness. What the ego fails to recognize is that the lack of meaning here is because of lack of context. A holistic perspective includes everything and thus doesn't have any larger context to give it meaning. From a holistic perspective money, air and dirt are equally important.

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Ok, so how to deal with money in an integral way. How is saying that money in itself lacking meaning from a holistic perspective going to pay my bills? First we can notice that money is a third order structure, which means money can't be replaced by a second order structure such as air or dirt. Secondly, money provides a lot of structure to society, and within that context money serves a crucial role. Thirdly, money is like the blood flow in society and when people hoard millions of dollars or when the money is distributed too unequal then that's like a cardiovascular vascular disease in society.

And also, money, like all third order structures, is controlled by the first order intelligence. Everything is! So the integral perspective is to recognize the value money has within the context of society and in one's own life and at the same time realize that the ultimate control of money is deeper than on the level of money itself.

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My view is that reality is changeless when seen as a totality. One consequence of that is that we can drop forgiveness, blame and guilt, because that's just a misperception of reality made by the ego. ACIM says the same thing basically:

"Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven." - https://acim.org/workbook/what-is-1/

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Isn't the idea that reality is changeless overall depressing? Only if reality is producing decay, accidents and randomness. Decay is only a second order phenomena. The first order reality is indestructible.

Personally I think it's a great realization to recognize the powerlessness of the ego. Do I know for certain that things will get better, including for myself? No, but I believe that reality will improve and that it will happen automatically. This can still require personal effort sometimes because even that can be a part of the automatic process, so it's a bit tricky at first.

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Just to prove that Actualized.org is NOT a cult ;), I will here post a competitor's view of the ego:

I haven't listened to the whole video yet, but it started with an excellent description of the unreality of the ego, which is I believe what the aim of ACIM is to point out too.

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Oh! The presenter in the previous video mentioned A Course in Miracles. That explains why my self-bias was confirmed. Here is another video about the ego that was mentioned:

 

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Pretty good presentations in the previous videos. Reincarnation was mentioned and I became curious about what ACIM says about reincarnation and found:

"M-24.1. In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. 2 There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. 3 Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense." - https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/course-miracles-manual-teachers-24-reincarnation/

Now it gets tricky for me. My theory says that there is only the present moment and that the past is information in the now. So the past is actually real, not in the sense of an actual dimension, but real as in real information in the now. With my theory there can be reincarnation in the form of information. Personally I do NOT think I have had a previous life, but I do believe it's possible to tap into past lives of people who have lived throughout history, kind of like accessing a form of Akashic record.

The tricky part is that my theory seems to disagree with ACIM which says that there is no past or future. I need to look deeper into what ACIM means by that. If it means that the past doesn't exist as something outside of the present moment, then ACIM and my theory are in agreement.

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The ego wants to be 100% certain while in reality the ego is NEVER 100% certain about the future. Combine that with the idea of the future being potentially dangerous and the result is an endless struggle and worry. The universe struggling with itself? Yes, ridiculous, isn't it? That's because the ego is a sinful sinner born in sin and living in sin. Sin here of course means missing the mark, and a deliberate tool for growth and development, not some mistake made by Adam and Eve.

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Hmm... The presenter in the recent videos made a distinction between pain and suffering. I call that a nonduality fallacy. In my opinion pain IS suffering. The mistake all those spiritual teachers make is to contextualize their understanding within the context of today's world. Even the ACIM teachers I have found so far, maybe with the exception of Marianne Williamson, I don't know yet, talk about pain as inevitable.

Here is what A Course in Miracles ACTUALLY says about pain:

"1. Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception." - https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-190/

What is needed is to recontextualize our understanding within a future framework. Tricky, yes, but even Eckhart Tolle talked about the possibility of a totally different reality. I think this is extremely important, nay necessary, for true transcendence of the ego, both of the personal ego and what I call the global ego.

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I now want to try a miracle. ACIM says that there are no orders of difficulty of miracles, they are all equally easy. And my explanation for that is that miracles come from the first order intelligence, and that's infinite intelligence (see for example Leo's video about infinite intelligence).

So, since all miracles are equally easy, I will start with a for my ego utterly impossible stunt! :D The physical human body is a second order construct. The first order reality of the body can be called an energy body. The miracle I'm planning for is to move from physical body identification to energy body identification. I think it says in ACIM somewhere that one shouldn't plan one's own miracles like that, but who says that this is my ego doing it?

 

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I'm waiting for my miracle to happen. How will I know that it's an actual miracle and not just my ego mind fooling itself? In the long run I will know since the energy body is a first order structure which means that it can't deteriorate or die. That means eternal life even for my physical body which then becomes an extension of my energy body. In ego identification the physical body deteriorates and dies (not counting transhumanism).

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Isn't to ask for a miracle that gives eternal life totally unrealistic and even a crazy idea? Maybe! But I'm so fed up will all those lame spiritual teachings out there who claim that the physical body will age and die as usual. Those kinds of parroting teachings are about what I call a mental form of spiritual realization, which totally sucks! Because it's an attempt to sweep the physical body under the rug so to speak.

And also, metaphorically speaking, how can we reach the moon when we are only pointing at the tree tops, while believing that we are pointing to the moon?

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