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2008/6/22 ViolenceViolence What takes place when you give complete attention to the thing that we call violence? Violence being not only what separates human beings, through belief, conditioning, and so on, but also what comes into being when we are seeking personal security, or the security of individuality through a pattern of society. Can you look at that violence with complete attention? And when you look at that violence with complete attention, what takes place? When you give complete attention to anything our learning of history or mathematics, looking at your wife or your husband that takes place? I do not know if you have gone into it probably most of us have never given complete attention to anything but when you do, what takes place? Sirs, what is attention? Surely when you are giving complete attention there is care, and you cannot care if you have no affection, no love. And when you give attention in which there is love, is there violence? You are following? Formally I have condemned violence, I have escaped from it, I have justified it, I have said it is natural. All these things are inattention. But when I give attention to what I have called violence and in that attention there is care, affection, love here is there space for violence? The Book of Life - June 22 2008/6/20 3 Life of Gary P.60.My future uncle introduced my parents to each other. They were gentle souls, both Pisceans, and hit it off immediately. I was born a Pisces as well. My mother, Louise, and my grandfather were also musicians, but until the Beatles, I didn't have the desireto become one myself. George Harrison, God bless him, was my first false idol. I modeled my guitar playing after him, even though I learned the basics from Uncle Doug. I didn't become a great guitar player. It takes a lot of drive, energy, and ambition to be great at anything, no matter what it is. Natural talent isn't enough. It takes work to develop it. I did become a good guitar player, though. I had enough musical ability, which I had inherited, and enough taste to make myself sounds good. Eventually I was even successful at it.
When the time came to graduate from high school in 1969, I found myself in a tough situation. I didn't want to go to college. I hated school. I couldn't imagine how they could take such fascinating subjects and somehow manage to make them boring, but they did. I also couldn't stand the cliques and the dynamics of belonging to one group and not another. I wanted out. All I wanted to do was play my guitar. But there was this thing going on called the war in Vietnam. There were about a hundred American men getting killed every week there, and that didn't even count the ten times that many who were getting wounded and maimed.
I wasn't excited about the idea of going to war, but America had a military draft. I also didn't want to go to college, but if I didn't, then I wouldn't get a college deferment, and I'd be classified 1A, which would mean I could be drafted and sent to Vietnam at any time. I did't have enough political conviction to want to go to Canada or actively avoid the draft in some other way. My scoliosis wouldn't keep me out of the military unless I was rich or politically connected enough to have influence. After all, I could walk. I was classified 1A in March 1970.
Fortunately for me, a man had been elected President of the United States in 1968, and took office in 1969, whose name was Richard Nixon. I despised him and his campaign promise that he had a "secret plan" to end the war. When he got into office, he sure knew how to keep a secret. I wondered how the American people could possibly be so stupid. ( I would eventually take longer to 3 Life of Gary P.59.As a result of that, by the time I was a teenager I didn't have much energy at all. I went to school only because I had to. Even then I missed about 30 days one year, and they threatened to kick me out. After school I'd usually just sit there in front of the TV and not want to do anything. My parents were starting to get worried: All of my friends were out finding jobs, getting girls, and having a good time, I was sitting there with no desire or ambition. This made me feel different, like there was something wrong. That's right up the ego's alley. What's guilt but the feeling that there's something wrong with you? I'm sure I was depressed, but people didn't care about depression in the '60s. Now everybody's depressed, and you have the doping of America going on. But back then it was like, " Depressed? What do you mean you're depresed? Get a job." Fortunately for me,a group came over to America from England called the Beatles. I remember walkin on day in Beverly, Massachusetts (the town where I lid most of the first half of my life), which is just north of Salem, right on the seacoast. I went into a store called Hayes Music, which put records on so people could listen to them and decide whether or not to by them. Somebody asked the owner to put on a record by this new group that was getting a lot of publicity and was going to be on The Ed sullivan Show. The song was " She Loves You." After listening to that two-and-a-half-minute song, I was never the same. The guitar work by George Harrison sent shivers up and down my spine, which was really cool because I never felt anything in my spine. I knew right then exactly what I wanted to do. I was going to be a guitar player. I did become a guitar player. The idea wasn't that much of a stretch. My father, Rollie, played guitar, and my uncle Doug was one of the best guitar teachers in New England. He had played on national radio (NBC), back before television, when radio was the big deal. If he had been willing to tour, he could have made it big. The same was true of my father, who was a fine singer as well. They were both in a famous group in the '40s called the Moonlight Serenaders, but they chose not to tour due to family considerations. They ended up making a living the best they could in the New England area, both as soloists and in various bands together.
3 Life of Gary P.58.forget what came before birth and sincerely believed this was my beginning. Now I was totally at the effect of everything and not the cause. Now I was a body that was caused by other bodies. That way, It wasn't my fault. I didn't ask to be born. I was my parents' fault. They did it, then this while story got going about why things were the way that they were. But of course the truth was that I did ask to be born, and the world I found was exactly what I asked to be born into.
I was born n Salem, Massachusetts. Don't read anything into that, That were no witches in Salem 300 years ago--they all moved there in the 1970s. Now it's a really good tourist thing. My teachers had told me that the Salem witch trials were "a clssic example of the projection of unconsciousness guilt." Somebody else has to be found who's the cause of the problem, and any excuse will do, as long as it's them and not you. But wht goes around comes around, and your turn always arrives eventually.
My mother was a virgin. She just wasn't very good at it. All right, she wasn't a virgin. Of course, J's mother wasn't a virgin either, but it's a cute story. i was born two moths premature. I weighted less than three pounds and wasn't expected to live. Babies that small didn't usually live back then. They shoved me in an incubator, stuck me in the corner as if to say, " Good luck, kid," and that was it for a while. Mothers didn't always bond right away with their infants like they do today. It was perfect. I had every excuse in the world to be screwed up.
I was born with scoliosis, a very noticeable curvature of my spine, yet I did't find out about it until I was 31 years. We didn't have any money. Back in the '50s, people who didn't have any money or health insurance didn't get good health care, and it's nice to see that some things don't change.
In hindsight, I can see that the scolisosis robber me of all my energy. When ths spine is malformed like mine was then, the energy can't circulate . It's as if the brain is sending a signal to the body, but the telephone line is down and the message can't get through. I didn't know at the time that it's the mind and not the brain that tells the body what to do,. I was still at the effect of things. 3 Life of Gary P.57.No one who learns from experience that one choice brings peace and joy while another brings chaos and disaster needs additional convincing.
In the weeks that followed, I would occasionally remember what Arten had said about the ego. Would it really rather kill me than have me kill it? I knew the Course itself said that the ego is "capable of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst. That is its range." That wasn't a pretty thought. But I also knew that the Course said: " Do not be afriad of the ego. It depends on your mind, and as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief from it." So I came to feel that Arten wasn't trying to scare me, but to simply let me know what I was up against. How can a problem be fixed if you don't know what the problem is? I also thought it was interesting that the Course used the word dispel, because I was realizing that's exactly what the universeof time and space is, one gigantic motherfreakin's spell that I'd put myself under. Now my job was to dispel it by giving up my belife in the egom a teacher I had listened to for much too long. My belief was now in the Holy Spirit, but that didn't mean I wouldn't be tempted by the ego.
I had been tempted all of my life. In fact, the Course's idea of the ego's form of temptation was to regard myself as a body. To that end, like everyone else, I was born as a perfect little victim. I 2 Real Power P.55-6.the way you perceive it and perceive yourself. You perceive yourself as being in a body, and then the body tells you what to feel. But you should be the one who tells the body what to feel. You are not in the body; the body is in your mind. when you put the mind in the proper perspective, then you're talking charge of the cause instead of being at the mercy of the effect. Then you can choose the Holy Spirit and His answer instead of the ego's questions. thus will you be returned to wholeness. Because of that, how you experience things wull change on this level, and the Holy Spirit will take care of the job on the larger, metaphysical scale.
Make no mistake: There's a difference in levels between this and other teachings. The rest of them are moving things around in a universe that isn't really there. That's like moving the furniture around in a burning house. Yes, it might look nicer for a little while, but it's denying the real problem . A Course in Miracles, on the other hand, is the undoing of all of it, and the return to the only thing that is real. Remember what we've said so farand integrate it. There will be more. Use your speaking and traveling the best you can as lessons for forgiveness, and we'll be back in tow months.
Then Arten and Pursah disappeared, and I sat there thinking about everything they had said, and the many twists and turns my life had taken over the years. I realized now what it was all for. It was to be used to undo that which made it, and returen to our real Creator. For some reason, I remembered back to when I was a depressed teenager suffering from scoliosis and with nothing to look forward to. I could have certainly used the knowledge back then of what it was all for. But I had lived long enough to find the Holy Spirit, and turn a meaningless existence into a life with purpose ... and ultimately, the only real purpose.
2008/6/1 2 Real Power P.54.the way you perceive it and perceive yourself. You perceive yourself as being in a body, and then the body tells you what to feel. But you should be the one who tells the body what to feel. You are not in the body; the body is in your mind.n When you put the mind in its proper perspective, then you're talking charge of the cuase insteadof being at the mercy of the effect. Then you can choose the Holy Spiritand His answer instead of the ego's questions. thus will you be returened to wholeness. Because of that, how you experience things will change on this level, and the Holy Spirit will take care of the job on the larger, metaphysical scale.
Make no mistake: There's a difference in levels between this and other teachings. the rest of them are moving things around in a universe that isn't really there. that's like moving the furniture around in a burning house. Yes, it might look nicer for a little while, but it's denying the real problem. A course in Miracles, on the other hand, is the undoing of all of it, and the returen to the only thing that is real. Remember what we've said so far and integrate it. There will be more. Use your speaking and traveling the bes you can as lessons for forgiveness, ans we'll be back in two month.
Then Arten and Pursah disappeared, and I sat there thinking about everything they had said, and then many twists and turns my life had taken over the years. I realized now what it was all for. It was to be used to undo that which made it, and return to our real Creator. For some reason, I remembered back to when I was a depressed teenager suffering from scoliosis and with nothing to look forward to. I could have certainly used the knowledge back then of what it was all for. But I had lived long enough to find the Holy Spirit, and turn a meaningless existence into a life with purpose... and ultimately, the only real purpose. 2 Real Power P.54.to be undone by your forgiveness. The more the ego is undone, the easier it will get for you. You're already doing well. We're going to explain forgiveness off and on throughout the visits in this cycle. By the time we're finished with you, you'll know what to do in every situation, not just intellectually, but experientially.
For now, remember that if ideas have not left their source, then what you're seeing has never left the mind. If it;s in the mind, and if minds can be changed, then the mind is where real power is. What made J and Buddha who they were was that they were not tricked by appearances. The illusion exists to make you think you have put distance in between you and your guilt, but by making it real and judging and condemning it, you simply keep it in place. The ego has tricked you. In order to ensure its own survival, it has set you up to judge others. Now that you know the truth, it's time to put an end to all of that nonsense and go home where you belong. You're actually still there, but's it's out of your awareness, although you are fortunate enough to have had lovely glimpses of it.
We call it true forgiveness because it's not the same as the way the world usually thinks of it, you'll have unconscious resistance to this kind of forgiveness because the ego senses this is its end, and world rather kill you than have you kill it. There are teachers who will tell you to make friends with your ego or make peace with ur ego as a way of dealing with it. All that will do is keep it in place, besides, if you pratice true forgiveness, which is the only way out, then the ego isn't interested in being your colleague. As J says, you "are threatening the ego's whole defensive system too seriously for it to bother to pretend it is your friend." Your job is not to keep the ego in place; your job is to undo it through the dynamic of right-minded thinking, which we'll be talking to you about. As the Course says: "Salvation is undoing." It's time for you to turn it up a notch, bro. Not just for you, but for everyone who is ready to listen. Are you ready?
Gary: Hell, yeath.
Pursah: One of the most important things is not to make the universe of time and space real. You're innocent because it's not real. don't spiritualize the universe. Don't spiritualize matter or energy. Energy looks like matter to you sometimes only because of 2 Real Power P.53.relationships, whether individual or with countries. Unless they're one of your special love ones, or an ally, it's always the other one's fault, and the're not even there! Not really, although it certainly looks and feels that way, which is testimony to how well you've been set up in the first place. And even if you do blame yourself, what is it that you're blaming? Just another body, because when you hold your hand up in front of your dave and look at it, what's is that? IT's a body that's been projeted. Of course yo think it's a very special body because you think it's you, but it's not. It's just one out of all of the bodies you've projected. That body you see when you look in the mirror is no more real than the other bodies you see in the mirror you call the world.
Gary: And the world and all of its bodies are symbolic of the separation, and the massvie, ontological guilt we felt over it, and thus the need to escape from it through denial and projection?
Arten: That's what the universe is, brother, you scapegoat. As J says in the Course, " That was the first separation of error outward. The world arose to hide it, and became the screen on which it was projected and drawn between you and the truth."
Now your job becomes to undo it in your mind, so you can return home. Which brings up the one solution, forgiveness, to the one problem, separation. We'll talk more about forgiveness as we go along. It's way more improtant than most people think. It's vital that they stay focused on it.
True forgiveness means you don't judge and condemn another. There's not rally any sin or guilt out there, because none of what we've been talking about happened except in a dream, and dreams are not real. so J counsels you in his Course not to make the ideas of sin and guilt real in the people, events, and situations you see in the world: "Call it not sin but madness, for such it was and so it still remains. Invest it not with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality. And above all, be not afraid, but love,' and it will disappear."
Gary: If only it were that easy.
Arten: We never said it was easy, Gary, But the truth is simple. It's what the ego made that's complicated. And that's what needs 2 Real Power P.52.and thus outside of you and in them. But because projection made the perception of everything, the cause of it all is still right there in your mind,and minds can be changed. As the Course puts it:"The result of an idea is never separate from its source. The idea of separation produced the body and remains connected to it..."
So now you feel stuck in a body that has to live with all these other bodies. All of your sense, not just sight, tell you that the world is completely real. It looks and feel totally authentic. From the moment you're born to the moment you die, it's all about the survival and sucess of your body, from attaining material comfort to receiving special love. It doesn't take too much power pf pnservation to see that your society is crazed over bodies and the attainment of sex.
Gary: I can understand that. I had sex once, and it was one of the happiest minutes of my life.
Pursah: Don't forget something, dear one. In a world of duality, even the good times have to turn bad eventually, even if it's merely through death. That's because what's really going on here is the reliving of the separation from God over and over again in different forms, separation. The way J puts it about your life is,"... you but relive the single instant when the time of terror took the place of love."
Gary: I like that Jesus. He really sticks to the Course. So it may look like all these things and people are out there, but they're not. They're not real people; it just looks that way it is so what I secretly belived to be true about myself, what the Course calls "the secret sins and hidden hates" that I have buried in my mind about me over the original separation are now seen to be in others and in the world. And what holds the whole thing in place is my judgement and condemnation of others.
Pursah: Yes! Exactly. And it's all all set up to ensure that you will judge and condemn and keep the whole vicious cycle going underneath the surface. That's how the ego survives, through the projection of unconscious guilt. It's never your fault that you don't feel happy and peaceful, it's their fault. You see it at work in 2 Real Power P.51.yourself, which can be summed up in just a couple of words, like guilt, as well as the fear of punishment for the retaliation that you believe is going to follow because you're guilty... all of it is denied.projected outward, and seen as being outside of you. This causes the making of the universe of time and space, starting with the big bang. The real purpose of that universe, although you've forgotten it through denial, is for you to appear to escape what you're feeling and believing about yourself. Now it's no longer in you, it's out there!
Of course there isn't really anything out there, but it looks that way. It's an optical illusion, but done on a multisensory scale that we'll get to in a second. The thing to remember here is what the Course says about the fact that " ideas leave not their source."So, yes, it may look like you've escaped from those things by projecting then outside of you, but it's just an illusion, and they're still in your mind. It just doesn't seem that way bexue it's been denied and you're oblivious to it. So it looks like it's outside of you, and you've forgotten that when you joined with the ego, you made it. That brings up a very important principle from the Course: " Projection makes perception." In fact, why don't you read just the first few sentences of that part from the Text?
Gary: Okay, teach. What's page is it on?
Arten: 445.
Gary: Right at the top. " Projection makes perception. The wourld you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition." Vow. I never quite thought of it this way. I made what I'm seeing.
Pursah: You go it, brother. But it doesn't feel that way because of the massive denial. That also applies to all of the bodies you see, including your own. The purpose of the body is to make the illusion seem real. But since the body is part of the illusion, it can hardly be counted on to tell you of the illusion's unreality. It was given from by the same decision to be separate through projection, which is what made the entire illusion in the first place. You wanted the separation so the guilt would be in other bodies and not yours, |
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