Here is a rather long excerpt from A New Earth, which is essentially exactly what A Course in Miracles says is the way to heal; by healing others, we heal ourselves. By overlooking others' confused behaviour and recognizing it as their illusion, we help them to heal.
(Chapter: The Core of Ego)
"Resentment is the emotion that goes with complaining and the mental labeling of people and adds even more energy to the ego. Resentment means to feel bitter, indignant, aggrieved, or offended. You resent other people's greed, their dishonesty, their lack of integrity, what they are doing, what they did in the past, what they said, what they failed to do, what they should or shouldn't have done. The ego loves it. Instead of overlooking unconsciousness in others, you make it into their identity. Who is doing that? The unconsciousness in you, the ego. Sometimes the "fault" that you perceive in another isn't even there. It is a total misinterpretation, a projection by a mind conditioned to see enemies and to make itself right or superior. At other times, the fault may be there, but by focusing on it, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else, you amplify it. And what you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself.
Nonreaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond the ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego. But you can only be in a state of nonreaction if you can recognize someone's behaviour as coming from the ego, as being an expression of the collective human dysfunction. When you realize it's not personal, there is no longer a compulsion to react as if it were. By not reacting to the ego, you will often be able to bring out the sanity in others, which is the unconditioned consciousness as opposed to the conditioned. At times you may have to take practical steps to protect yourself from deeply unconscious people. This you can do without making them enemies. Your greatest protection, however, is being conscious. Somebody becomes an enemy if you personalize the unconsciousness that is the ego. Nonreaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for nonreaction is forgiveness. To forgive is to overlook, or rather to look through. You look through the ego to the sanity that is in every human being as his or her essence."
Exactly what ACIM says: to forgive is to overlook, to overlook is to heal another, to heal another is to heal yourself.
The one thing that I struggle with in all of the reading that I do is the suggestion that we cause our own illnesses. This is explained to me through ACIM that the body is a learning tool. It cannot of itself make decisions, or feel emotions. The ego uses the body for pleasure, pride, and (I think) punishment. The mind is what directs the body, and a sick mind, a mind divided against itself, is under the illusion that the ego is the "I am" and not the mind itself. When you heal your mind, through forgiveness (extension) and correction of errors in perception, and are no longer subject to your ego, your body is healed also. This I can accept, but I wish I was one of those people immediately enlightened and healed in times of great strife.
Also, I have struggles with fear, fearing not, working through fear, accepting fear, and all of that. Healing can't happen when fear is present, so things are a bit difficult here.
If anyone can help me here, please let me know. Use the comments spot to talk.
(Chapter: The Core of Ego)
"Resentment is the emotion that goes with complaining and the mental labeling of people and adds even more energy to the ego. Resentment means to feel bitter, indignant, aggrieved, or offended. You resent other people's greed, their dishonesty, their lack of integrity, what they are doing, what they did in the past, what they said, what they failed to do, what they should or shouldn't have done. The ego loves it. Instead of overlooking unconsciousness in others, you make it into their identity. Who is doing that? The unconsciousness in you, the ego. Sometimes the "fault" that you perceive in another isn't even there. It is a total misinterpretation, a projection by a mind conditioned to see enemies and to make itself right or superior. At other times, the fault may be there, but by focusing on it, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else, you amplify it. And what you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself.
Nonreaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways not only of going beyond the ego in yourself but also of dissolving the collective human ego. But you can only be in a state of nonreaction if you can recognize someone's behaviour as coming from the ego, as being an expression of the collective human dysfunction. When you realize it's not personal, there is no longer a compulsion to react as if it were. By not reacting to the ego, you will often be able to bring out the sanity in others, which is the unconditioned consciousness as opposed to the conditioned. At times you may have to take practical steps to protect yourself from deeply unconscious people. This you can do without making them enemies. Your greatest protection, however, is being conscious. Somebody becomes an enemy if you personalize the unconsciousness that is the ego. Nonreaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for nonreaction is forgiveness. To forgive is to overlook, or rather to look through. You look through the ego to the sanity that is in every human being as his or her essence."
Exactly what ACIM says: to forgive is to overlook, to overlook is to heal another, to heal another is to heal yourself.
The one thing that I struggle with in all of the reading that I do is the suggestion that we cause our own illnesses. This is explained to me through ACIM that the body is a learning tool. It cannot of itself make decisions, or feel emotions. The ego uses the body for pleasure, pride, and (I think) punishment. The mind is what directs the body, and a sick mind, a mind divided against itself, is under the illusion that the ego is the "I am" and not the mind itself. When you heal your mind, through forgiveness (extension) and correction of errors in perception, and are no longer subject to your ego, your body is healed also. This I can accept, but I wish I was one of those people immediately enlightened and healed in times of great strife.
Also, I have struggles with fear, fearing not, working through fear, accepting fear, and all of that. Healing can't happen when fear is present, so things are a bit difficult here.
If anyone can help me here, please let me know. Use the comments spot to talk.
1 comment:
A good way to look at it is to come to terms with the fact that ACIM teaches this "reality" that we think we see, does not in fact exist. It is a great big illusion. Therefore, it really doesn't matter if we are sick, well, rich, poor, democrat, Republican, etc, etc. Nothing "here" is real anyway. As you move more into spirit, truth emerges and any material manifestations become less important. Also keep in mind that in the realm of time, 2 years, 20 years, 70 years, is really just a flash. So even our "important" lifetime isn't that important, except to evolve in our understanding that it's not important.
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