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October-December, 2010

Comparisons

by Rev. Joanne Kraenzle Schneider

Comparisons have been floating through my mind and disturbing my peace.  I compare my friend’s sporty car to my less desirable “old lady” car, others’ exotic vacations to my weekend retreat vacations, my friend’s perceptions of the world to what I perceive about the world. I even compare what people think to what the Course teaches!

The list of comparisons continues without my knowing it, in the background of my mind. But recently, as though I have had enough, I realized this background comparing is disturbing my peace. And, although these comparisons have been there all along, my current recognition tells me the Spirit is nudging me to explore these comparisons. My first nudge is to see what the Course says about comparisons.

Even before I opened the Course I knew these comparisons are of the ego thought system. “The ego literally lives by comparisons.” (T-4.II.7:1) Comparisons are judgments and certainly not of Love.  “Comparison must be an ego device, for love makes none.” (T-24.II.1:1) Yet I wanted to get deeper with this. So after reflecting on them a few days, I recognized that my comparisons come from two underlying egoic thoughts. I either determine that my way is better, or others’ ways are better.

The first type of comparison I make comes from the underlying thought that I am special and others are lacking. The very fact that I perceive myself as special has resulted in my comparison. “Specialness always makes comparisons.” (T-24.II.1:2)  In fact, specialness “is established by a lack seen in another.” (T-24.II.1:3) As I see the littleness in others, I see myself as good, right, and stately by comparison. (T-24.II.1:6)

The second type of comparisons I make is when I see myself as lacking something.  These thoughts of lack imply that I think I would be better off possessing something I do not possess or be in a state that is different from my current state. (T-1.VI.1:5)  Whether it is from jealousy or envy, the root of these comparisons is my misplaced values. My thoughts of comparisons reflect my values and are disturbing my peace.  Hence, my peace is connected to my material values.

In addition, my perceptions of lack reinforce my thoughts of separation from God which is the only lack I need to correct. (T-1.VI.2:1) Again, this sense of separation indicates to me that I have distorted my perception of the truth. (T-1.VI.2:2) The truth is that lack does not exist in God’s creations. (T-1.VI.1:3)

Regardless of whom I judge to be lacking (myself or others), comparisons always stem from ego and reinforce my thoughts of separation from God and my brothers.  In the Bible, Paul discourages comparing ourselves with others. (2Cor. 10:12; Gal. 6:4) Likewise, in the Course, Jesus encourages us not to compare ourselves with our brothers, “for thus we split them off from our awareness of the unity we share with them.” (W-pI.195.5:4) During my comparing thoughts I am clearly not seeing my unity with my brothers. I am actually strengthening my belief that they are separate from me.

So now that I recognize my routine egoic comparisons, what do I do about them?  Again I turn to the Course which so beautifully says, “Who uses but Christ’s vision finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no counterpart.  Comparisons are still before this peace.” (W-pII.305.1:1-2) Through Christ’s vision I can find a peace that transcends all understanding. (Phil. 4:7) Within this peace, even comparisons are still. Clearly I want to see with Christ’s vision.

The Course tells me another important thing. Although I am asleep, Christ’s vision does not leave me. (T-13.VI.13:8)  I must find Christ’s vision and the best way I know how is with Spirit’s help. I must remember that Holy Spirit is in the Mind of Both the Father and the Son and knows that Mind is One. (T-13.VIII.4:2) He is always accessible to me, the Son. I need only to ask. He is a thought of God and God has given Him to me (His Son) because He has no Thoughts He does not share. (T-13.VIII.4:3) Spirit is at my service.

In the case of my first type of comparison, where I see myself as special and others lacking, through Christ’s vision I would see differently. Christ’s vision shows me that my specialness I think I see is an illusion. (T-24.II.5:6) The Course instructs me to see the light beyond the body. “Christ’s vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin.” (W-pI.158.7:1-3) Thus, I ask the Spirit that I see the light beyond the body, the idea beyond what I can touch. I ask to see that which is greater than my external surroundings. Clearly, Christ’s vision does not use my eyes. Yet, I can learn to look through His eyes and see like Him. (S-2.I.6:4) And, when I see with Christ’s vision, I see with forgiveness because Christ’s vision has power to overlook all sins. (W-pI.158.9:1)

With regard to the second type of comparison where I see others as special and myself as lacking, the Course reminds me that Christ’s vision looks on me as well.  This lesson is not difficult if I remember that in my brother, I see myself. If I see him as lost in sin, so must I be. But, if I see Light in him, my sins are forgiven as well. (W-pI.158.10:2-4) In other words, if I see him in Christ’s vision and see my brother’s Love, Light, and oneness, I see myself as Love, Light, and oneness. It is a reciprocating vision.

Christ’s vision has the power to carry me from my view of this physical world to one made holy by forgiveness. (W-pI.159.5:1-2) With the help of the Holy Spirit, each person I meet provides another chance to see with Christ’s vision and let Christ’s vision shine on me and bring me peace. (W-pI.158.10:5) Thus, I ask Spirit that I see no one as a body and greet everyone as the Son of God he is, with me in holiness. (W-pI.158.8:4) With Christ’s vision, He will show me the perfect purity that is forever within all of God’s Sons. (T-13.X.10:11)

Rev. Joanne Kraenzle Schneider is a Pathways of Light minister living in Festus, Missouri.

© 2010, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2010

A Path of Depression

by Rev. Barbara Siegel

I went to visit my 93 year old father who is in a rehab/nursing home in Denver. For 92 years, he was fine, but the last year has seen a decline in his health to the point that there is nothing more that can be done to make him well.

If my father realizes he is facing his life’s end, he hasn’t let on to any of us. He still talks about going back to live in his condo, playing golf and taking his wife to Rome. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not.

According to a book I am reading, The Journey Home: Preparing for Life‘s Ultimate Adventure, by Ann V. Graber, Ph.D., it is not good to be in denial. Dr. Graber calls it “Resignation.” She says that “Resignation is a stagnant state, devoid of the initiative to take care of the unfinished business in one’s Life: Life events are not being reviewed, repressed anger is not being dealt with, fears are not acknowledged, tears are not being shed, and closure does not occur — neither with the people in one’s life, nor with the responsibilities life brought with it.”

Perhaps a lack of closure is what I felt when I returned home to St. Louis. My father and I didn’t shed any tears together or say our last goodbye’s. I had no feeling that he had found peace with where he was and I had not found peace with leaving him. Even with all my spiritual training, guilt and sadness jumped in and grabbed hold of me.

My reaction? I got very, very sick. I had a terrible cold and cough. It took all the energy I could muster, to get up, shower and lay back down on the bed. This went on for over two weeks and two visits to the doctor to make sure I didn’t have pneumonia (which I didn’t).

I knew I was depressed, I knew the illness was a result of my grief over my father and my own fear of death. Instead of witnessing the drama with compassion as my spiritual training had taught me, I became part of it. I knew what had happened, I just didn’t know how to get out. I realized I would have to force myself to do things I may not “feel” like doing to get myself out of this depression. “Small steps are okay,” I told myself, “any step is good.” So I grabbed a book off my bookshelf and headed to Starbuck’s for a latte.

The book I grabbed was The Miracle of Mindfulness, A Manual on Meditation, by Thich Nhat Hanh. I had read this book years ago. It seemed pretty basic, but I believed that Spirit had led me to it for a reason, so, latte in hand, I found a seat outside and I began to read.

What I quickly realized in this simple, yet deeply profound philosophy, was that mindfulness was my path out of this depression. Mindfulness brings us to the present moment. Mindfulness, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, is the way to “…take hold of your own consciousness.” He goes on to say that: “Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves.”

As I read this little book and looked deeply into the meaning, I began to feel better. I became aware of the beautiful summer day, the blue sky and the soft puffs of clouds floating through it and remembered to think of my thoughts like those little clouds and to let them float by. My higher Self was emerging again, looking at the small self with love and non-judgment. Mind was observing mind, Self was observing self with the love of a parent who comforts a young child who has an emotional fear or pain. The parent listens, allows, doesn’t judge, and most of all, loves, and the strength of the love brings the child through.

Here I am three days later, and pretty much back to normal. I realize how much I need mindfulness. It is one of those things that sounds so simple yet is so difficult to really practice, especially in this society that admires the ability to multi-task. I bring myself back to it hundreds of times a day — walking, taking a shower, washing my hair, drinking a cup of coffee, writing this blog and everything in-between. When I remember to be mindful, I also bring gratitude — thank you for the beautiful day to walk, thank you for the hot water to shower, thank you for the shampoo and it’s wonderful smell.

Perhaps gratitude is the opposite of depression. What do you think?

Rev. Barbara Siegel is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Louis, Missouri.

© 2010, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2010

Who Is Responsible

by Rev. Steve Ruohomaki

The story of my current life includes a tidy assortment of victim themes which have been the material for “convincing” me of shortcomings, maladies, disease, incompetence, and unacceptability. If these weren’t enough, throw on the additional phenomenon of aging! So with all of this, shouldn’t I at least deserve to be a little grumpy and irritable? How is it that I have a shot at being happy and at peace? It would seem to take some kind of miracle to pull that off. A miracle of mind to be exact; but I am getting ahead of myself. What would I have to do to feel happy and at peace?

A couple of decades ago, while I was busy “shopping” for a new church, A Course in Miracles showed up in my life via Ken and Gloria Wapnick. They came to Chicago to present a weekend seminar. They rattled the cages of my mind, blowing circuit upon circuit in the constructs of my beliefs systems. Since then I have assumed the student role as I take my journey home to where I truly belong.

As I believe Ken describes, we learn in circular fashion, going around and around the same themes learning more deeply each time we go around. So here I am once again at the core of the “victim themes” that dominate the history of the story, pondering the deeper meaning of who is responsible for creating the story in which I’m currently playing the part of me — knowing that the story originates with a “tiny mad idea.” It’s kind of like a kick in the gut to have to say: I am responsible for the tiny mad idea! I can honestly report reasonable progress in my practice of consciously remembering the existence of my “right mind” with greater frequency, but I must also be honest and say it hadn’t really surfaced to consciousness that I was the guy who had that original idea. My ego had cleverly used the illusion of time to allow me to think that this idea occurred long ago, therefore, alleviating me from any responsibility for that in the present.

Well it is certainly a bad news — good news situation. It is the teaching of A Course in Miracles that has been the source of my understanding of where this idea came from; but, thankfully, the good news is that it also tells me that this idea is not true just because I thought it. Whew! So, since I originally had this idea, I have been very busy in my “wrong mind” creating billions of scenarios based on it, complete with victim themes, misery, war, strife, disease, and general pandemonium. The Course very explicitly instructs me to stop projecting the blame on you for all these messes and to hold myself accountable. Once I do this, I then have the extreme privilege to be informed that all this crap never really happened and that everything and everybody remains in perfect peace.

So the answer to the question: What would I have to do to feel happy and at peace in my story at my age? Answer: Take responsibility for the (tiny mad) idea that I had, see it in whatever form it shows up in my (wrong mind) story, remember Who will help me to correct it, then forgive it by realizing it was only an illusion. So since it was my idea in the first place, I wanted to let you all know that my idea has been rejected by the Truth. Thank you, Jesus!

Rev. Steve Ruohomaki is a Pathways of Light minister living in Round Lake Beach, Illinois.

© 2010, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2010

Hoodwinked by ACIM

by Rev. Jean Weston

A few weeks back I had a thought pass through that A Course in Miracles was really ‘hoodwinking’ its students, who would otherwise be a resistant strain. Normally, I let thoughts pass through that are not useful. But this thought seemed to contain some light, so I held it to take a closer look.

ACIM seems to teach a radical new Christianity. It speaks of our human experience as all illusion. It has the metaphysical elements that can cause one’s eyes to roll in two different rotational directions. Sometimes it sounds like Nihilism in that ‘nothing is.’ And it asks us to love and forgive in a way that goes far beyond usual human rational thought.

But the more I studied it to figure out how it could be so ‘bizarre’ and yet contain such beautiful prose and ideas, the more I started to understand. It took a while. I had to get to a point where I felt I would never really understand it, and then pieces starting to fit together like a puzzle. The idea of ‘fractals’ helped a lot, although, again, at first, this only added more ‘intellectual’ stuff to my mind-spinning. But each piece that seemed so radical or unworldly, slowly seemed to align in my mind in such a way that, yes, each piece was the whole… all the ideas seemed to say the same thing but in various different approaches. It was all One! Truly amazing.

After I reached this point, I started seeing everything as a ‘thought’ or a ‘symbol.’ Not constantly, as I came in and out of this way of being as I tended to my daily living, but more and more often my time seemed to be spent in this other realm of asking ‘What is it for?’ Or ‘How can I see this differently?’ And it really transformed my way of approaching so many things.

In my particular journey, I quickly saw the parallels between ACIM and Quaker philosophy. I wrote a piece called ‘George Fox and A Course In Miracles’ which I thought was amazing because of the things George Fox stated in the 1600’s that are so similar to the ideas in ACIM, and how this contributed to Quaker concepts today that are very similar to ACIM concepts. Then, in Yoga, I noticed how what the teacher was teaching us in our meditations were exactly like ACIM. In a brief conversation with him, he said that all religions were the same when you got to the deeper levels.

And that is true. Jon Mundy’s new book What Is Mysticism? points to the deeper truths shared by mystics throughout all ages. And ACIM itself states that “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends.” (C-Intro.2:5-7)

So, the truths have always been there. Nothing is new. Only the way we choose to experience them and incorporate them into our human understanding is changing and this shift is necessary as we evolve in time. A Course In Miracles is simply a succinct way for Christian based people to make this shift.

I took my daughters back to a traditional Christian church because I wanted them to get the ‘basics.’ I stayed for the service as I wanted to ‘hear’ it from my new perspective. I was incredibly amazed that when I chose to apply ACIM principles to the hymns and sermon, they were very cleansing and helpful. I just had to see all of these things from a different perspective — a truer perspective!

So it occurred to me that the shift was in me, not the places. I was seeing differently. ACIM helped me to understand it all in a new way, using traditional Christian terms differently, but in a more transformative way. So I felt ‘hoodwinked’ in a sense. I mean, here I was, sitting in a traditional church, hearing and partaking of all the songs, sermons and rituals and choosing to see the Truth in them, rather than criticize them or feel guilty for my shortcomings. I was more holy now than I had ever been in my life and yet, the church, it’s teachings and rituals did not change. I did. I now saw them ‘face to face’ rather than through a mirror, dimly. (Cor. 13) I was hoodwinked by ACIM into really getting the messages of Christianity.

I would still like our churches to do some study of ACIM so others could ‘see’ in this way of letting go of judgment and sin. Why? Because it seems churches still don’t really ‘live’ in the life of Christ, for as much as they ‘love’ Jesus, they don’t seem to be living with Him in the garden, now, and because of that, they seem to hang on to worldly ways of conducting business and relating to one another. This causes them to miss the small shift that could really ‘hoodwink’ us all back into the garden.

Rev. Jean Weston is a Pathways of Light minister living in Murrieta, California.

© 2010, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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