Miracles News

Tweet

January-March, 2016

The Body Is a Learning Tool

by Rev. Rosemarie Tropf, O.M.C.

Recently I was on a kind of break from ACIM. Doesn’t that sound strange? Or maybe not to some of you. I had finished the courses necessary to get my ministerial credentials done faithfully for a couple of years, almost daily. I also did one more course afterwards, faithfully until near the end of that one.

Then I began to procrastinate. I took art classes. Then my fatigue issue increased to the point where I felt bogged down in life generally. I told myself I was still working the Course because I routinely asked Holy Spirit questions like, “help me to see this differently.” Or, “Holy Spirit I do not know what this means,” referring to my daily problems with fatigue. I would read a lesson from Myron’s daily postings and read it through it as fast as I could because I was in a hurry to go nowhere and do nothing except feel fatigued all day.

I began to think about how the Course says fatigue is dispiritedness. That means I must be lacking inspiration. I argued with myself and Holy Spirit, “How can that be? I talk to Holy Spirit every day.”

Then, on a whim, I signed up for the three day Miracle Share Conference 2015. Before the first morning was done I saw my “whim” really was Holy Spirit speaking to me because listening to the speakers I realized I was dispirited. I was spending 23 hours and 45 minutes a day asking ego mind what to do: Where is the cure? Why am I in pain? etc. I was listening to the wrong teacher about 98% of my time. The answers I got seemed quite logical, by the way.

I did not receive answers that sound insane in the ego world. Answers like, I have an organic illness, so of course I’m fatigued. I have stress so of course I’m fatigued. I’m dealing with it taking the correct vitamins and medical care so there’s nothing else I can do about this body being in the condition it’s in. I’ve done everything I can responsibly do. I’m responsible. I ‘m not taking prescription drugs, which I’ve been offered. That’s very spiritual of me. I’m eating only organic foods and taking vitamins and herbs. That’s very spiritual of me too. See? So, I am not dispirited, no sir, not me. I am the exception, because I am truly physically ill. It’s not me, it’s this body. Everybody agrees with that in the dream, so it makes more sense to go along with that. Plus, people in the dream agree with me and don’t hassle me.

See how sane the ego sounds in the dream? The body is always the target! Not my thoughts creating the body. Oh, and if my mind is creating this illness, then I am truly guilty. Disgustingly guilty to the point that my self-hatred increases to unbearable proportions. Better not look there. Besides, that can’t be true because I’ve been doing the Course for so many years.

But, if I’m truly honest, lately I haven’t really been doing the Course consistently. More guilt. I’ve never finished the lessons. I’ve hopped around a lot over the years. More guilt.

The Miracle Share conference was created on the theme of how the Workbook Lessons, done on a daily basis, (without guilt) help us find peace and love. By the end of the second day, I decided to start the daily lessons with the intention to understand them.

I began listening in my car to the Text. On page 15, Section VII titled, Distortions of Miracle Impulses, the first paragraph says, “Your distorted perceptions produce a dense cover over miracle impulses, making it hard for them to reach your own awareness. The confusion of miracle impulses with physical impulses is a major perceptual distortion. Physical implulses are misdirected miracle impulses.” (T-1.VII.1:1-3)

When I read, “The confusion of miracle impulses with physical impulses are misdirected miracle impulses,” I was astounded. I got it! My desire is for the miracle of peace and love, the miracle God gives us every moment. But my miracles are blocked by “dense cover,” so I don’t receive them but I desire them. The misdirected impulse is I think I want to “feel” better, which translates to wanting a pain free body, a strong, athletic body. I think if I achieve that I will feel peace and love. So I direct my spiritual studies there. Maybe if I feel peace in my mind, then my body will feel healthy. So I wait… and I wait… and still there is pain. Well that didn’t work, the ego mind says.

So I try again. Maybe I will do the daily lesson today and that will make me pain free. Maybe if I look at how nasty the ego mind can be, my pain will go away. (more guilt) Maybe if I see how I attack myself, or others, my pain will go away (more guilt). Maybe if I forgive every thing I can think of the pain will go away (more guilt). Maybe, Holy Spirit will make the pain go away. Pain still there, so more guilt is added to the dense cover.

Of course the pain does not go away because, if you notice, every sentence has only ego mind truth in there, which is… pain is real. As long as I make it real, it cannot go away. What disappears from my awareness when I think like this is God’s Love. However, I can use the body as a tool to change my perceptions until I “know” that truth.

Because, on the same page in the Text (page 15) it says, “You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. Learning to do this is the body’s only true usefulness.” (T-1.VII.2:4-5)

Real vision would be seeing the world as guiltless, as innocent, as the part of the dream. The result of using my body to enlarge my perception, to correct my misdirected desire for miracles has been a lessening of my fatigue by about 40-50%. I am now daily participating with my grandchildren, enjoying outings with my friends more often and feeling an interest in life again. Thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you Daniel, Corrine and Craig for the Miracle Share Conference.

In Gratitude, …Rosemarie Tropf

Rev. Rosemarie Tropf is a Pathways of Light minister living in Safety Harbor, Florida.
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

January-March, 2016

Sharing Miracles

by Rev. Gail Hamley, O.M.C.

In Lesson 159: I give the miracles I have received, the message is about forgiveness and seeing with ‘Christ’s vision,’ which is our vision when we are in union with that part of ourselves that knows the Truth. I hold this lesson as a vision for my life because I have experienced so many miracles in my life. One of the miracles is to be in a position to share them with so many people through my work and friendships. I share two miracles here with you.

Several months ago I was walking my little dog, Francis, when I came upon a little bird that was lying on the sidewalk near a tall cement flowerpot. I went over to him and clearly noticed that he was struggling for breath. He held a dried branch in his mouth and was unable to remove it so I reached down to remove it for him. His eyes followed my every move and I felt an appreciation emulating from his little body. He stretched his legs but was unable to turn or fly.

I thought perhaps he had broken his back as a result of slamming into the concrete pot. Francis and I stayed with him as I put my hand over his body to give Reiki. Again, his eyes never left my face. I was grieving his suffering deeply when a little voice in my head said, “Ask in my name….” I remembered the Bible passage that Jesus had spoken and asked in His name.

As I was asking, the little bird raised his wings, tips touching as though in prayer, too. Then he neatly folded his wings to his side and took his last breath. I picked him up and placed him in a bed of brilliant yellow flowers. All the while, Francis calmly stayed with me and watched as I laid this little body down.

Three days later I was in an office at work in a meeting when a small bird identical to the one I had been with flew up to the window outside of where I was sitting. He stayed there for several minutes looking in at me. He had ‘returned’ to let me know he was all right. I watched him die and he returned to confirm the truth: There is no sickness not already healed, no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet within this golden treasury of Christ.

In May, I was visiting France with my senior minister after attending a workshop. During that visit I started to think about a relationship that had ended very poorly several years ago. I became very distraught as I began to see my part in its demise; however, without my effort I shifted into a sense of tremendous love for this person. I could not recall any of the painful memories I had held for such a long time. It was as though my mind had been wiped clean and all that was left was the love that had never left! I sat in amazed gratitude and understood that this was indeed true forgiveness, the forgiveness Jesus instructed us to do.

What I had been taught was incomplete (You don’t have to forgive the action, only the person.) This is only the first step. True forgiveness is forgetting that there was even an action that needed forgiving. This is the next generation of consciousness in human development. When we can forgive like this (and I am so grateful for the glimpse of this blessed miracle), then miracles will become a natural state in our lives.

Perhaps you already know how to forgive like this. I didn’t. But now I know a new paradigm. If you don’t know how to forgive like this, pray. Ask for help. The lesson ends with, 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.” Amen!

Rev. Gail Hamley is a Pathways of Light minister living in Tustin, California. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

January-March, 2016

I Am Not the Ego

Rev. Ken Gorman, O.M.C.

Eckhart Tolle has a great video that describes his sort of waking up experience. He indicated he was going through a lot of depression and darkness. One night he had a thought… ‘I can’t live with myself anymore.’ The next moment he had another thought and noticed… hey, there are two things here, something that can’t live with something else. In the video he says that is when everything collapsed.

I like to do an exercise where I replace the word ‘I’ with ‘my ego.’ My ego is anxious, my ego doesn’t like this or that, my ego feels guilty, my ego just doesn’t get ACIM, my ego has a grievance against so and so, my ego just can’t let go of, etc. I remind myself, then, that my identity is NOT my ego and therefore ‘I’ am not doing these things. My awareness is simply listening to ego’s stories and its insistence on being independent from God. I am identifying with the ego temporarily, but nothing changes because this is not who or what I am.

In my experience, ACIM does a good job telling us what the ego sounds like specifically for the purpose of getting us to turn away from it and choose Holy Spirit and our Higher Mind. This is necessary as ego also has a plan for salvation (Lesson 71 basically talks about ego as a grievance machine). One of the main ways that ego side tracks us is by getting us to believe that ACIM is actually a way to fix the ego. It loves this idea because it validates the ego’s existence and gets us focused on its plan which is guaranteed not to work. The ego’s diversionary tactic keeps us away from the experience of Holy Spirit (temporarily). I don’t believe ACIM is an ego-fixing program. I believe it is all about deliberately and willing allowing and turning towards another authority in our mind, which we often refer to as Holy Spirit.

This is mirrored in the 12-step program where we don’t attempt to fix the alcoholic mind. In Step One we accept we are powerless over it; Step Two we acknowledge God; Step Three we turn to God for help and surrender all aspects of our life. Steps four to nine are all about cutting the ego’s grievance machine that draws us back into the alcoholic mind. There is no attempt to ever fix the alcoholic mind, but simply accept it, give it no credibility and rely on God’s power to be stronger.

One of the most powerful types of ego diversion is one I call ‘spiritual ego.’ This is the same as regular ego (i.e., its main goal is to always lead us to unworthiness stories and set itself up as the solution) but now it has spiritual words and a spiritual context. Suddenly we find ourselves generating more guilt for failing in our spiritual practices, stressing about whether we are doing the right thing and often becoming manic about attending every seminar going, reading every book and sometimes running endless ‘I must save the world’ stories. This is a great strategy by the spiritual ego to stay in control and keep us distracted from the Holy Spirit’s Voice. Thus it keeps us from the one path we need to follow for our healing while simultaneously creating subtle guilt about how we are failing for not doing enough. I like to remember that ‘free will does not mean I set the curriculum’ (ACIM Introduction). To me this means there is one specific path for me, and the only intention (willingness) I need to set is to be on the path. Then I need to relax and let Holy Spirit reveal God’s plan.

One of the best instructions I have heard for dealing with ego is just to attempt to ignore it. Ignoring has an element of acceptance (and respect that it has the ability to create experience) but does not get us giving it any authority or trying to fix it or rail against it, which also seems to strengthen its seeming importance. ACIM does a great job teaching us what the ego sounds like. Once we have that, it is often a simple matter of becoming aware of the ego’s endless stories. Then we can just let them go (or ignore them) and return our intention to the Holy Spirit. Often the ego is very compelling, so at least we can be willing and ask Holy Spirit to help us deepen our attention on God and our Higher Mind. We can remember that a trigger to recognize the ego’s voice is that many of its sentences start with ‘I am….’ Try substituting ‘my ego is….’ Then we can remind ourselves that the ego is not who we are.

Rev. Ken Gorman, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Wimbledon, UK
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

January-March, 2016

Transformation

by Barbara Franco Adams

As part of my studies as a ministerial student, I was recently completing an exercise in the course, The Transforming Power of Trust. This particular section states the following:

“When we believe in the idea of having an identity that is separate from God (or Love), unconsciously we know we are rejecting our true Nature, which is openness with Love. The result is feeling guilty and unworthy because deep inside, we know we are secretly rejecting Love. When we don’t want to admit to ourselves that we are rejecting Love, dissociation and projection occurs. This means we dissociate from knowing our oneness in God and throw (or project) the guilt and unworthiness that accompanies this out on the world, looking for guilt in others.”

The task of the assignment required that I write what the statement meant to me. My insight follows:

The statement above describes my life before to accepting myself as a gay woman, prior to challenging the beliefs and practices that I held of myself and others.

Much of my life prior to 1991, when I made the decision to acknowledge the trueness of my identity, was spent in descents into guilt and anxiety, panic attacks and self-loathing. I hated who I was and felt guilty that I had married (a very wonderful!) man. I did dissociate from the Essence of myself and lived too many years under a heavy blanket of depression.

When I chose to acknowledge the truth of my identity, most of the symptoms of denial disappeared. The remaining fear was that of guilt, but I am rapidly taking charge of this last vestige and am eliminating it from my thought process by ‘changing my mind.’

As a result of my internalized guilt and self-loathing, I had projected those limiting personality traits onto others. This action helped me feel good for a while as I attempted to point the finger outward instead of looking inward for the source of my pain.

I have come to understand that to be totally free, I must totally accept who I am, not only as a gay woman, but even more so as a cherished, innocent Child of God. Amen

Barbara Franco Adams, is a ministerial candidate, living in Penfield, NY. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2015, 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.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Back to main page of Miracles News.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.