Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean  ACIM, if true, is knowledge beyond perspective. It offers us a thought system which is beyond perspective. In this respect, I think it is unique. |
It's convenient to have a philosophical system that is beyond perspective. All questions are handled by the simple expedient of dismissing them as egoic thinking or dreaming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean Because the universe is a creation of the bigger egoic mind. |
What, according to ACIM, is the "bigger" egoic mind. The mind of God? The corporate mind of mankind? Your own ego?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean The world responds to the thoughts that we have about it - and its perceived durability and consistency is a trick, which actually does not hold up to close scrutiny. Quantum physics has shown this. |
I realize that quantum physics is the last refuge of the New Age, but it doesn't override the law of gravity if I jump off a roof. As a practical matter, what difference does it make? If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck, sounds like a duck -- it's probably best to treat it as a duck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean If your beliefs are that the dream is solid, has external laws, then the dream will gladly show this to you. If your beliefs change, then the dream will match your beliefs. |
In what ways has reality changed for you, in response to any belief you've changed? Not your perceptions, mind you, or your attitudes -- I'm talking about your reality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean You can be very successful at your job and still have the belief that none of it is real. Causing yourself suffering is the opposite of what i mean.
This is why we are trapped here. |
I have to admit that it feels like a trap for the express purpose of causing suffering.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean >All that leaves you with is either living in despair or in a state of complete don't-give-a-♥♥♥♥ detachment.
This is exactly what you would imagine would happen, which is why so many people are frightened [and] stop searching. |
I think of it more as a game that I won't play anymore. That doesn't preclude observation / learning / growth but it does preclude having illusions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean But many, including Eckhart, say this is necessary. If you have ever played sport and got into 'the zone', it feels like you're watching yourself playing. You aren't depending on results, something is just happening through you. You have given up searching, given up on a goal to win, and it is a beautiful and sought after state. |
The zone is something I experience in my work as a software developer on my better days. It is a nice escape but hardly qualifies as an alternate reality. More of an altered perception filter or a state of cathexis. The problem with such states is that they're not sustainable. They have one thing in common: they're a simplified living environment. There is just me and the code. Or you and the tennis racket. Or just a person with their new romantic interest. Alas -- "first, enlightenment -- then, laundry". It's the need to ♥♥♥♥, shower and shave and the thousand other mundane demands of life that gets in the way of the zone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean The alternative to the illusion is reality. It is heaven, oneness. It is a place where everything that we believe that we lack we have. The world is a lie because it is a dream of lack and limits. All this implies a lack of love. Heaven is pure love. |
If heaven is pure love, you'd think it'd create world that ran on pure love. I started out life thinking that the world worked that way. That belief did not serve me well at all. In fact, it caused me to tackle some rather ill-advised things and run smack into various brick walls until I learned from experience that life doesn't work that way. If you looked out back here you'd see the claw marks where I was dragged kicking and screaming away from a worldview that life was basically benign and just. I don't see that it'd be a step forward to go back to the cheery hopefulness of my youth. The universe has spent the past five decades flogging that out of me. I have no alternative but to conclude that was a naive, lousy adaptation to reality. And indeed, once I shed my major illusions and accepted what is, I seem to have entered a sort of personal golden age [shrug].
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgrean If we created this as an escape to God, as the course implies, then we are actively hiding and blocking out God from our awareness. The course says that we are at home with God but 'dreaming of exile', and that we need to awaken from the dream to experience reality. |
I don't know what to say to that. I spent years actively embracing God, and that only produced intense suffering. The concept of exile never entered my mind until I had lost everything that mattered to me. Go figure.
I have to wonder if ACIM isn't actually a trap for people like me. It seems to want me to ignore the empirical evidence right in front of me and return to the illusion of a benign, caring, loving god.
Point of clarification: I'm not saying there isn't such a God, just that life works out more or less the same as if there weren't. I don't define myself in terms of what I don't believe in or am not sure of. But as a practical matter I limit my activities and interests to what demonstrably works for me.
Now I'm sure you or someone else will tell me that what I embraced wasn't really God, but just some flawed human concept of God; that I am disappointed with a dream of god, not the reality of god. ACIM, of course, has the correct concept of God. Just like my particular religious tradition did. Just like a thousand other traditions and philosophies have.
Good luck with that. I've awakened from
that dream.
In my view, we all have stories that we use for lack of anything better to serve as a framework for living. Stories, hopes, nothing more. No actual data. Best guesses.
Some stories work better for me than others. Unless I completely miss the point, ACIM seems to be telling a story that has very ill served me.
--Bob