ACIM Notebook

Current events got you down? Just do the two-step!
By: Rev. Deb Brown

Just about everywhere you go and in every conversation there is likely to be some doom and gloom about the economy, politics, prices, health, etc. We hear it everywhere and sometimes, we even repeat it back to those that speak it and thereby support that energy of pain and sorrow or drama. We think that if we commiserate with everyone and join with them in the experience that somehow we are supporting our friends. What we are left with is a communion of sadness that really does not feel better just because we are together in it.

In my profession, I get the chance to join the "Doom & Gloom Club" with almost every conversation. Being a student of Truth principles, I also get to change the direction of the conversation with "Yeah, we can look at these events and say that there is only bad happening, or we can look at the situation differently. We can say that these times are great because they make us think outside the box and new ideas and solutions are waiting for us there." We get to choose how we see things, we get to choose to be more creative and more loving and more everything because we don’t want to keep our membership in the Club active…it does not serve us.

If you are a student of Unity principles, or A Course in Miracles, or other New Thought ideas, you know that the fear we endorse with our minds expands just as the truth of our being as loving co-creators, beings of Light, expressions of God in Form can expand with only a little willingness.

We have all been given the Divine Directive to be Joy, to bring the Love and Peace that you are to each moment in every instance. Free will means we have the choice to be Spiritual Lightworkers here and now. As a Spiritual Warrior for the Light, you can choose to step back and look through Christ’s Vision at the world of possibilities, to see a world where Love is brought into each conversation. In the Course in Miracles, we understand that we do not always hold the Vision if we allow our ego mind to engage first, so we learn to ask Holy Spirit to look at what we see and show us where the Love is within it. Lightworkers know they have only to ask, "How can I bring Love to this situation in a world where the news is always sad and painful? How can I bring Love to the conversation?" We ask to bring light to the darkness and illumine the truth of Love always…. no matter what the event is, no matter what we think we see in front of us.

In the Course in Miracles class we are learning the 2-step program.

First, if we rush in with our best "knowing" ego, we will often try to join with the negative, or try to fix it, or go to fear based thinking and join with our brothers there. We have to start from the place that "I Know Nothing". Step back before you open your mouth, before you start thinking, before your ego mind engages — step back, first in your mind.

Second, ask, "How can I see this differently? How can I be Love in this situation?" The Holy Spirit will step in and guide us to a loving outcome, to a new viewpoint, to say the right thing to transmute the conversation, to bring Peace to everyone concerned. Remember, to paraphrase what the Course says, "The Holy’s Spirits’ voice is only as loud as your willingness to listen." Imagine the possibilities in a world such as ours, what effect your Love could have on the conversation. Choose to be a Spiritual Warrior for the light. Choose to be Love Here and Now — it is a whole new world in each moment. Walk in Gratitude and Thank you for you!

Blessings of Love, Joy, and Peace.

Rev. Deb Brown
www.peacefulheartcenter.com

1. You are not asked to be crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them falsely as justifications for anger.

2. You are not persecuted, nor was I. You are not asked to repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit, whom we share, makes this unnecessary. To use my experiences constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to perceive them.

3. You are not asked to make insane decisions, although you are free to think you are. It must, however, be insane to believe that it is up to you to decide what God’s creations are.

4. The ego’s voice is a hallucination. You cannot expect it to say “I am not real.” Hallucinations are inaccurate perceptions of reality. Yet you are not asked to dispel them alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you. Every response to the ego is a call to war, and war does deprive you of peace.

5. Do not delay yourselves in your return to peace by wondering how he can fulfill what God has given him to do. Leave that to him who knows. You are not asked to do mighty tasks yourself. You are merely asked to do the little he suggests you do, trusting him only to the small extent of believing that, if he asks it, you can do it. You will see how easily all that he asks can be accomplished.

6. You have made much progress and are really trying to make still more, but there is one thing you have never done; not for one instant have you utterly forgotten the body. It has faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of Atonement happens. Afterwards, you will see the body again, but never quite the same. And every instant that you spend without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.

7. Why would you want peace homeless? What do you think that it must dispossess, to dwell with you? What seems to be the cost you are so unwilling to pay? The little barrier of sand still stands between you. Would you reinforce it now? You are not asked to let it go for yourselves alone. Christ asks it of you for himself. He would bring peace to everyone, and how can He do this except through you? Would you let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming barrier, stand between your brothers and salvation?

8. All that is asked of you is to make room for truth. You are not asked to make or do what lies beyond your understanding. All you are asked to do is let it in; only to stop your interference with what will happen of itself; simply to recognize again the presence of what you thought you gave away.

9. You are not asked to fight against your wish to murder. But you ARE asked to realize the form it takes conceals the same intent. And it is this you fear, and not the form. What is not love is murder. What is not loving must be an attack. Every illusion is an assault on truth, and every one does violence to the idea of love because it seems to be of equal truth.

10. What can Love ask of you who think that all of this is true? Could He, in justice and in love believe, in your confusion, you have much to give? You are not asked to trust Him far. No further than what you see He offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself.

11. Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation. It is here escape from fear begins, and will be made complete. Here is the real world given in exchange for dreams of terror. For it is on this forgiveness rests, and is but natural. You are not asked to offer pardon where attack is due, and would be justified. For this would mean that you forgive a sin by overlooking what is really there. This is not pardon. For it would assume that, by responding in a way which is not justified, your pardon will become the answer to attack that has been made. And thus is pardon inappropriate, by being granted where is it not due.

12. Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

13. Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one intent. You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.

14. God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God’s hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in his hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.

Inquiry letter and response below.

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September 22, 2004

Robert E. Smith
Registered Agent for Northwest Foundation for “A Course in Miracles”
620 Kirkland Way, Suite 200
Kirkland, WA 98033

CERTIFIED MAIL – RETURN RECEIPT

Dear Mr. Smith,

It is my understanding that Northwest Foundation for “A Course in Miracles” is a 501(c)(3) public charity with yearly receipts in excess of $25,000, and thus subject to the annual reporting requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.

As a 501(c)(3) public charity, the final regulations under section 6104(d) of the Code relating to the public disclosure requirements of tax-exempt organizations apply to Northwest Foundation for “A Course in Miracles.” Specifically, copies of this organization’s annual IRS information return, form 990, including all attachments and schedules, must be disclosed and made available to any person upon written request accompanied by tender of payment for reasonable photocopy charges and postage.

The IRS currently defines reasonable photocopy charges as $1.00 for the first page and $0.15 for each subsequent page. Allowed postage charges are for actual cost.

Failure to timely provide the requested documents as required by law may subject the tax-exempt organization to monetary penalties up to $10,000, for each occurrence.

I hereby request that NWFFACIM provide me with photocopies of its annual IRS information returns, complete, for the tax years 2001, 2002 and 2003. Enclosed is my personal check for $7, which should be more than sufficient to cover all allowed costs.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas W. Fox

Copy:

Bill Henley, President
Northwest Foundation for “A Course in Miracles”
P.O. Box 1490
Kingston, WA 98346-1490

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October 6, 2004, VIA EMAIL ONLY

Thomas W. Fox
1704 Brentmoor Lane
Louisville, Kentucky 40223

Re: Northwest Foundation for “A Course in Miracles”

Dear Mr. Fox:

I am the registered agent for the referenced Foundation. From time to time I render legal services on a transactional basis. The Foundation has asked that I respond to your letter dated September 22, 2004. This letter is that response.

The Foundation sought, received and followed tax advice regarding governmental filings of required reports and returns. I am advised that based on that advice no 990 returns were filed for the tax years in question.

Your personal check will be returned under separate cover.

Very truly yours,

Robert Earl Smith
Attorney at Law

Cc Client