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October-December, 2007

Chasing Pearls

by Rev. John Vise

Recently, a minister friend of mine asked me to fill in the pulpit for him while he and his wife took some much needed time off together. He then requested that I give him the sermon title by the end of the week, as that was his deadline for putting it in the paper for the following Saturday.

I had been thinking about how some people place a great value on spiritual awakening, some don’t even know what it means, and others think it is cool that it is available to some but not for them.  Of course I know that when you are ready it will start to happen for you, and this brought to mind the ‘pearl of great price’ parable in Matthew. So, I called him back and said the title would be ‘Pearls.”

I decided to share with the congregation some of the Pearls in my life and how I ‘sold everything I had’ to obtain them.  Selling everything you have means: To make the necessary financial and time commitments to obtain those pearls, no matter what.

About thirty years ago, after spending sixty days with friends in British Columbia, Canada, and while driving back home, I was divinely discontent, a state of mind that Napoleon Hill described in his book Think and Grow Rich. This state of mind is a good thing as you know that change is on its way. Thirty of those days were in a log cabin in a wilderness territory on the banks of a beautiful glacier fed lake. The combination of being away from the ordinary life and now enjoying this peaceful basic existence life far away from everything, stirred something in me.

I was given a copy of the Science of Mind monthly magazine and my interest in the philosophy of Earnest Holmes grabbed my attention. I ordered everything in the book by Earnest Holmes and a few books that were by other writers. For the first time in my life I was affirmed in some of my beliefs, which differed greatly from the bible belt consciousness that I grew up around. Oh… it sure felt good and I wanted more of this, so I made the decision to take one year off and study. What a beautiful year. More and more books magically came into my life and I was opening up to a whole new way of seeing things with confidence.

Toward the end of that year, I was introduced to ACIM by a United Methodist pastor friend of mine. I immediately became an avid student of the ‘Course.’  It was as if I was tied to a rocket ship as my spiritual awareness went into a completely different orbit. Then, some 20 years later, I read the Disappearance of the Universe, by Gary Renard, and the boosters on the rocket ship I was riding on ignited and it catapulted me into another orbit. The value of the information in this book to ACIM students is priceless. Another ‘pearl’ in my now long list of pearls.

Then in February I attended the ACIM Conference in San Francisco and attended one of the sessions by Pathways of Light with Revs. Mary and Robert Stoelting. I enjoyed the session and picked up some of their literature to take with me to study later after I returned home. Something kept speaking to me as I read and studied the different courses offered. I was seeing more pearls. So, I picked up the phone and called and talked to Robert. I ordered the first five courses while I was on the phone with him, and later all the rest of the courses for the O.M.C. certification.

Pearls, pearls, pearls… everywhere pearls.  What a beautiful way they have for your own further spiritual awakening and a way to share in the teachings in ACIM and my own ministry.

Rev. John Vise is a Pathways of Light minister living in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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October-December, 2007

Undoing the Ego — A Review of Take Me to Truth

by Rogier van Vlissingen

Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira in their new book Take Me To Truth — Undoing the Ego share with us from their experience as they went their own (tandem) path of spiritual growth with A Course In Miracles by living it and applying it in their daily lives, and sharing the experience with each other and other people around them.

This book is many things. It is a powerful introduction to the Course in very non-religious terms, which may be helpful to some aspiring students. The book is also a comment on the practice of the Course’s Development of Trust section (in the Manual for Teachers, Chapter 4, M-4.A.3-8), and in the process it provides clarification on the Course’s teaching of the Holy Relationship. Both of these last two are very inspiring aspects of the Course’s teachings, as much as they befuddle many readers. The guidance provided in this book gives us an answer for living and learning by providing some very powerful hand holding to readers who may find themselves struggling with the same issues.

Take Me To Truth was born from living the Course, and it is an open invitation to the reader to do the same. The first most notable aspect of this book is that it is simply a good introduction to the Course, or perhaps I should call it an “on-ramp” to the Course, for it manages to introduce Course concepts effectively without any of the religious language in the Course. Since the seeming Christian terminology of the Course can be hard to take for some, this may prove very helpful. However I do believe that while the Course is not everyone’s path, if it is your path, getting clarity about your relationship with Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit is most likely part of that process.

A lot of cultural stereotypes, including the “bitter idol” we made of Jesus in Christianity is undone exactly through sorting out our initial tendency to misunderstand the terminology, which only appears to be Christian. This aspect would be my reason for calling the book more an on-ramp to the Course than an introduction in the narrow sense. Having said that, the authors accomplished something truly remarkable without any real compromise to anything the Course teaches. Their approach ensures that this book is not a “Course book,” in the narrow sense, for it ranges more widely than the Course, though the thought model of the Course is definitely its foundation. In short, people may read this book simply because it’s good, and it may happen to introduce them to the Course in a novel way, if they weren’t Course students already, but it’s not a necessity.

The book effortlessly incorporates the notion of Byron Katie’s “The Work,” which indeed is a very solid and also non-Christian sounding approach to the Course’s notion of thought reversal, of truly changing our mind through forgiveness. It is an elegant and simple process, which simply shunts the entire train of our thoughts on to a different track altogether. “The Work” is an utterly practical implementation of the Course’s forgiveness process. The book leverages other ideas as well. In particular,  the Enneagram as a personality inventory, which can be helpful in becoming more aware of one’s patterns in this particular life we think we are leading just now. Becoming more conscious of the games we (tend to) play is a very important step in any process of spiritual growth.

Next the book explores the dynamics of special relationships and the reasons why our special relationships can be the most powerful classroom for undoing the ego, since evidently all our own issues are comprised in them. Once again it clarifies an important Course teaching without getting caught up in Course language, doing it instead in straight forward everyday language. While the basis of the authors’ story is their making this journey together, they also pay at least some attention to what seems to be the more frequent situation, that one of the two in a relationship is working on a Course journey without any apparent participation or interest from the other party. At which point we may remember with Gary Renard that the only good relationship is a forgiven relationship, for it is only forgiveness which returns us home, and helps us to truly live the Holy Relationship in all our relationships.

Cooperation from significant others is not required, simply because in essence we are forgiving ourselves in the end, through learning, with the Holy Spirit (or the Universal Inspiration, as the authors call it), to see ourself in the partners in our special relationships.

Having thoroughly explained why our special relationships are our best classroom (because they mirror us), the bulk of the book could be read as a commentary onthe Course’s section on the Development of Trust, from the Manual for Teachers, again presented in straightforward language, without making it per se necessary to consult the Course. This remains quite a feat! Undoubtedly this section (Chapters 5 and 6) are the high point of the book, and if I were to describe the book to a Course student, I’d call it a commentary on the Development of Trust. To a more general audience I might represent it as a guide for undertaking a journey of spiritual growth in the context of our most important relationships.

These chapters are extraordinary. Most people, myself included, have quite a challenge with that particular section of the Course, and here it is, all in very clear, unambiguous language. The book correctly warns us that we don’t always go through these stages in an orderly fashion, but sometimes may find ourselves switching back to an earlier stage. This is probably the main reason why people have such difficulty comprehending this section, because it seems we can never figure out where we are in the process. This is a bit like a long dive, when you come up you can see how far you made it, but while you are under water, you just keep on going as long as you can. Most of us have a terrible tendency to go scuba diving instead of swimming across. As a result we work though the stages of the development of trust in a disorderly fashion, although we will gain clarity about it as we go along.  The explanations here are crystal clear, including a diagram on the misalignment of our needs and wants through this process, which I’m sure will shed a lot of light for many readers.

In conclusion, I could only say that this book is a truly inspired work, and an inspiring read. In the process of reading it twice this year, I experienced that first hand through a lot of integration that happened in the process of reading it.

The material from the Course and other sources is so well integrated, and the paraphrasing of the Course’s sometimes arcane usage is so crystal clear that I really do believe a general reader could successfully read this book without any need to consult the Course, which is high praise indeed. Having said that, I could not imagine why any reader who did not know the Course before, would fail to become interested in the process of reading this book. My point rather is that Take Me To Truth reflects such maturity and integration that this in and of itself is perhaps the best advertising that the Course actually means what it says. Jesus in the Course clearly states that his goal as a teacher is to make himself superfluous. On the other hand the ego’s teachers always teach at their pupil’s expense, as they need to build themselves up and thus they strive for dependence instead of true independence.

Jesus in the Course strives for equality, and this book demonstrates that he means it.

Finally, I believe we should understand what the authors call a Unified Relationship as a special case in the curriculum of the Holy Relationship.

For the Holy Relationship does not require two people, but only one, who can be “the saner of the two” in terms of the Course, to realize the Holy Relationship. There are no guarantees that our significant others in this particular time will come along at the same tempo in form, nor should students be dependent on that in any way. But evidently it can be very powerful if we can experience it in such a context, as these authors share with us. However, once we accept the Atonement for ourselves all our relationships would become a reflection of the Holy Relationship, though the experience in form may be odd and out of sync at times — no one would argue the crucifixion to be a peaceful experience.

Australian authors, Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira will be presenting an ‘Undoing the Ego’ Workshop at Pathways of Light, Sun. Nov. 18th. For details visit: http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/miracles weekends.html#UndoingtheEgo

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2007

An Irresistible Plan: Translation of Pathways of Light Courses into Spanish

by Rev. Annie Arbona

The greatest thing I have learned in the last seven months is that Love’s Call is irresistible, and the response to this Call can become a magnificent adventure. A telephone call to Pathways of Light in mid February and the response to that call gave way to a chain of events that seemed to occur in perfect synchronicity.

When love calls and Love responds to that Call, anything and everything can happen. And everything did. The call and the generosity of the answer have birthed a wonderful project, the scope of which I’m sure we can’t see completely at this time, but already the results are mind boggling.

After the call to Pathways, I immediately began the Ministerial Counseling Courses, which felt so right to me that I knew it was part of a perfect plan. Shortly after starting the courses, the idea of translating them into Spanish burst forth in a moment filled with joy and enthusiasm, as do all projects inspired and directed by Spirit.

I mentioned this wonderful idea to my dear facilitator, Sharyn Zenz, and then we went to Mary and Robert with the news. I think it was quite clear to all of us from the very beginning, that we were receiving an assignment from Spirit. It was confirmed by the joy and excitement we were all feeling. As I sat down for the very first time to begin the translation, I was given the names of helpers who would be giving of their time to get the project going; someone to type, someone to edit, and off we went.

It was amazing to see how everything took off with such ease. Almost simultaneously the first potential Spanish students started to appear, from Puerto Rico, from Miami, and from New York. It has been so extraordinary to see the unfolding of a perfectly ‘calibrated’ plan. At this moment, there are twenty-one Spanish students registered for the courses, and we are almost finished with the translation of the first five courses that make up Step 1 of the Ordained Ministerial Counselor program.

Mary and Robert are becoming very knowledgeable in Spanish language, and one of our students from Miami, Johannys Hartog, is helping with the translation. The bliss that accompanies the assignment from Spirit makes the work most enjoyable and exciting.

And then… there is the gratitude. We are so grateful and honored to be doing this for the Spanish speaking communities everywhere in the world. It is a project born of a Call from Love, and definitely it has been irresistible.

Rev. Annie Arbona is a Pathways of Light minister living in Charleston, South Carolina. She is the Pathways of Light Spanish communicator and facilitates the ministerial training curriculum in Spanish and English.

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2007

Allowing A Time of Quiet

by Mary Stoelting

When I do not feel relaxed and in a state of peaceful calm, I have a way to change this when I am willing. The Course reminds me in Lesson 189: “Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashemed. Hold onto nothing.”  W-189.7:1-3

The sounds and sights of the world seem so appealing and demanding at times. It appears as though I am not doing my job unless I am constantly attending to the ‘things that come up’ in a steady stream that seem to demand my attention.

When I ask Spirit for help in returning to the peace that I know is so important to receiving clarity and understanding, I am reminded that the world will present an unending series of ‘problems’ and ‘challenges’ that disturb my being in a place of peace unless I am willing to disengage from joining with the ego thought system. Looking out through the body’s eyes and making what I see real is joining with the ego thought system — which has one intent — making separation from God’s oneness real.

The only way out of this ongoing cycle of self crucifixion is to stop and get off the ego’s bus that leads straight to forgetting What I am and Where I am in truth.

The way to get off the ego’s bus for me is to allow a time of quiet… allow an open space in my mind for peace to enter.

If I sincerely want God’s peace, I will make way for it in my mind. This is the Holy Spirit’s use for time — bridging me back to peace, where I will receive a miracle — a correction in the way I am seeing the world.

Sometimes it takes a while for all the busy thoughts of the world to stop. For this to happen in my mind, I must be willing to observe the thoughts that come up and hand them over to the Holy Spirit, no matter how important they seem to be in the moment. I would not keep them. I would not continue giving them residence in my mind. To help with this, sometimes I see these thoughts going into Holy Spirit’s Light to be purified.

As I hold fast to my one intent of handing over every thought that comes up to the Holy Spirit, my level of peace gradually gets stronger and finally fills every corner. Here I find quiet. Here I find peace. Here I find the gentleness and comfort of the Holy Spirit’s gift of Christ’s vision.

In Lesson 159 of the Course, I recently read, “Christ’s vision is the bridge between the worlds. And in its power can you safely trust to carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that shines beyond them. Holiness has been restored to vision, and the blind can see.

“This is the Holy Spirit’s single gift; the treasure house to which you can appeal with perfect certainty for all the things that can contribute to your happiness. All are laid here already. All can be received but for the asking. Here the door is never locked, and no one is denied his request or his most urgent need. There is no sickness not already healed, no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet within this golden treasury of Christ.” W-159.5-6

Is this not worth a little of my time? Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to sit down and, in quiet, receive the Holy Spirit’s gifts. I have to ask myself what I am valuing more, Holy Spirit’s insight, or the ego’s constant stream of problems that are clamoring for my attention.

Each time I allow a time of quiet listening I am renewed and energized by the treasure house that resides right in my mind when I take the time in quiet listening.

In Lesson 159 I am reminded, “Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. Are you not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth. His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God.” W-159.10

I am in the ‘time’ of transitioning from death to life. This is now what time is for. Will I take the time to receive the gift of Christ’s vision? I am saying ‘yes’ to this question whenever I allow a time of quiet listening to receive Holy Spirit’s single gift of Christ’s vision.

All that I need comes quietly into my awareness. I see that all my needs are met now. I remember What I am and Where I am in truth.

Mary Stoelting is co-founer with Robert Stoelting of Pathways of Light. They live at the Pathways of Light Center in Kiel, Wisconsin.

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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