A Course in Miracles with Amy Torres

21 Dec 2013 Comments Off on I Am Not My Hair

I Am Not My Hair

This year, as most of you know, I built a program called Workin’ the Workbook to support people in truly experiencing the Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. It wasn’t my decision–it happened through me. The Holy Spirit guided me to share my experience in order to encourage folks to face their fears with open minds and the guidance of the Holy Spirit within them. If I could do it, so can you! And as you heal, so do I. After all, miracles are here to heal just one mind–ours.

In the ACIM Manual for Teachers, it says, “The teacher of God accepts the words which are offered him, and give as he receives. He does not control the direction of his speaking. He listens and hears and speaks. A major hindrance in this aspect of his learning is the teacher of God’s fear about the validity of what he hears. And what he hears may be quite startling. It may also seems to be quiet irrelevant to the presented problem as he perceives it, and may, in fact, confront the teacher with a situation that appears to be very embarrassing to him.” (21. What Is the Role of Words in Healing?) This does not just apply to words, but to actions as well.

At about lesson 220, which concludes the undoing process of Part I of the Workbook, I knew I was to “undo” my hair. But what did that have to do with teaching the Workbook? Wouldn’t it confuse people? I recognized the ego’s voice in those doubting questions. Being a Course student, I’ve learned to disregard that voice, and take leaps of faith instead.

So, one day it was long and brunette. The next it was a boyish buzz cut. Then I stopped using hair color, and little by little the silver-gray underneath emerged. It was a good metaphor for the inner changes the ACIM Workbook practice produces. I could have experienced it as an “ugly duckling” process, but people kept complimenting me on the unique look of my hair! Eventually, my hair evolved from pepper to salt’n’pepper to salt.

Part II of the ACIM Workbook is the acceptance of true perception. My silvery hair created a shine around my head, a halo effect. I’ve become used to receiving spontaneous gifts of illumination, so I wasn’t surprised that what seemed like a potential loss of some kind turned out to be a gain.

As India Arie sings, “I am not my hair.” As ACIM sings, “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” My new shining angel hair is simply the form one miracle in my life took this year. The real miracle was being willing to receive God’s Message. It is the same for all of us. Trust your Inner Voice and “Be not afraid to circumvent the voices of the world. Walk lightly past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today and listen to the truth.” (Lesson 106)

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom Tags: My experience with the ACIM Workbook Lessons, Spiritual Psychotherapy

15 Dec 2013 Comments Off on Subscribe Now

Subscribe Now

WORKIN’ the WORKBOOK

~ a 365-day
ACIM with Amy online class ~

How many times

have you promised yourself

to do A Course in Miracles Workbook?

Now’s your chance.

Dear ACIM Student, Are you ready for a year of miracles? Sign up for Workin’ the Workbook now and get one month free!

Helen, Bill, and Ken did the workbook practice together more than once. Human support can be truly helpful as you open to spiritual experiences and encounter resistance and fear along the way. So let’s practice together!

Workin’ the Workbook is an online class that you can take from home. Join me in this experiential approach to the 365 lessons in A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students.

“WtW has been a real blessing and your teachings are much more than I could have ever imagined. You are very clear in explaining the Course — there’s no room for misinterpretation. Your real life examples of your experiences of going through the Course also help me tremendously. By the way, I love your website. It’s done simply and tastefully and it is extremely easy to navigate. (I’m a designer, so I’m a stickler for this sort of thing!)” –N. Silva, NY

This class helps you experience:

Learning to forgive — the key to happiness
Healing your special relationships
Accepting your God-given inheritance of love, peace and joy
Developing a relationship with your Internal Teacher (the Holy Spirit)
Undoing sin, guilt and fear
Using time in the only way it will truly benefit you
Awakening to your life purpose

“Joining Workin’ the Workbook with Amy is the best thing I did for myself in 2013!” – Jack Hrabak, IL

SIGN UP NOW

for

WORKIN’ the WORKBOOK

This month only get 12 months for the price of 11.

Only $37 per month.

“Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to

believe, and others may appear to be quite startling.”*

That’s why Amy created the Workin’ the Workbook online class for you.
It includes:

EVERY DAY for 365 days a video from Amy with insights and guidance on experiencing that day’s lesson
How-to Worksheets to help you actually do the exercises
12 webinars with Amy to inspire you each month
A thriving Facebook community for this group where you, other students and Amy share and connect
And BONUS material!

* ACIM Workbook-Intro

“Your videos are way better than doing the lessons alone. I love the online class and knowing I can access the info anytime 24/7.” – Julie, MA

“Your Workin’ the Workbook videos take the difficulty out of the lessons in a way that is truly helpful! I do the videos on my phone, iPad, computer, and Kindle. And the WtW Facebook support group is the best use of Facebook in its history.” – Morgan, NY

Through this online class, the ACIM Workbook practice guides you to:

Remove obstacles to Love, Peace and Joy
Make forgiveness a tool in your daily life
Develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit (your Internal Teacher)
Purify your mind
Learn to pray effectively
Transform your relationships
Recognize your individualized curriculum
Process spiritual experiences
Experience spiritual awakening

“I wanted to let you know that I am loving the Workin’ the Workbook program. It’s my third time through and I am benefitting more than ever because of your classes.” – Jenn, FL

In 1998, the Workbook of A Course in Miracles changed my life forever. After finishing all 365 lessons in 365 days, I literally felt reborn. An iceberg of sin, guilt and fear fell away and I was more fearless and free than I had ever been! Every year since then my state of mind has been excellent (and the circumstances of my life have consistently improved as well).

Now I feel inspired by the Holy Spirit to support you in your Workbook practice. So many students of the Course tell me that they would like to begin the Workbook but need some encouragement, or want to complete the Workbook but are stuck somewhere along the way.

“Amy, I am just loving your online WtW class. When you make connections with the text it illuminates my understanding of the workbook lessons. Your warm, natural presence is calming and inspiring. Your availability to answer email questions personally, and your interaction with us in the WtW Facebook group shows how much you care about each of your students. I can truly say that the Course is coming alive inside me. I see positive changes in my relationships and my faith is growing in leaps and bounds. And it’s so fun that your cats Gatita and Smudges have cameo appearances. Thank you!” –Harper Wood, NY

Believe it or not, doing the Workbook practice can be a lot of fun!
Yes, there are painful problems and patterns to undo, but there is also the tremendous relief of unburdening yourself, and then the gift of uncovering Who You Really Are.

In Workin’ the Workbook, I do the lessons alongside you, clarifying their meaning and helping you experience the exercises on a deep level.

My background as a psychotherapist and yoga instructor makes me uniquely qualified to understand the process of ego-undoing on spiritual, psychological, emotional and physical levels.

Let Workin’ the Workbook give you the structure, support, and inspiration to sustain your spiritual practice through all 365 lessons. Give yourself the gift of a spiritual awakening.

How much is a miracle worth to you?

This month only get 12 months for the price of 11.

This 12-month online class is $37 a month – just a bit more than a dollar a day.

It works like this: you will be automatically billed every month for 12 months from the time you sign up. There will be an online lesson every day. Plus monthly webinars, worksheets, and other bonus material. And don’t worry, on a month-by-month basis, you can cancel at any time.

Click here to SIGN UP NOW.

Lesson 77 states that you are entitled to miracles. Lesson 33 tells us, “There is another way of looking at the world.” Lesson 97 promises that the Holy Spirit “will offer all His strength to every little effort that you make.” And Lesson 152 says that the power of decision is your own.

“The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. … Deny not Heaven. It is yours today but for the asking.” (Lesson 165)

It’s your decision. Are you ready for a life filled with miracles and love?

SIGN UP for Workin’ the Workbook now. Experience the inspiration and clarity that Workin’ the Workbook brings to your spiritual life. Let’s practice together!

Namaste~

Amy

Amy Torres is an experientially-focused ACIM teacher
who teaches in New York, Florida, Cleveland, Seattle
and Toronto. She writes the popular Ask Amy column in Miracles magazine and has her own blog and e-newsletter, The Unlearning Classroom.

* No one is turned away due to lack of funds. If you have a situation you need help with, or any questions or comments, email me at miracles@amytorresacim.com.

www.amytorresacim.com

miracles@amytorresacim.com

by Amy Torres in Today's ACIM Lesson

04 Dec 2013 Comments Off on I Think You’re Beautiful

I Think You’re Beautiful

A few weeks ago I ran into a local Korean deli for a late afternoon snack. It was my usual place, owned and operated by an elderly, hard-working, not-overly-friendly husband and wife team.

As I stood on line at the sandwhich counter, a man queued up behind me. He looked a little rough around the edges, but that’s not unusual in New York City. We stood there waiting and he smiled at me. The New Yorker in me said, “Don’t encourage him,” but my Inner Smile burst forth spontaneously.

Then the deli man handed me my sandwich and I went to get a bottle of water.

Lo and behold, me and Mr. Rough-Around-the-Edges bumped into each other once more at the cash register. He smiled again and this time said, “You’re beautiful.”

I easily could have taken this for a line, a come on, a rude intrusion. But my Libran nature, I admit, has always welcomed compliments, and instead of ignoring him, “Thank you,” I said, “You’re beautiful, too.” I hadn’t expected “You’re beautiful, too” to pop out.

It could have been a big mistake to tell a strange man he was beautiful, inviting all kinds of misunderstanding and an unwelcome escalation of sexual advances, but he was quite surprised. Maybe even more surprised than I was. There was a slowing down of time, a holy instant pause of quiet beauty as Love hung in the air between us.

Then, unexpectedly, the chronically grumpy wife behind the cash register, piped up in a thick Korean accent, “You don’t tell me I’m beautiful!” She had a little smile on her face.

“You are beautiful,” the rough-around-the-edges guy said sincerely. “I just don’t want to get your husband angry!”

In response to his comment, her smile broadened. Then, as she took my money, she looked me in the eye and said, “You are beautiful.”

The Love was contagious. “You’re beautiful!” I replied enthusiastically.

We all burst out laughing from sheer happiness!

A Course in Miracles teaches that, “There are no strangers in God’s creation,” and the Holy Spirit “sees no strangers; only dearly loved and loving friends.”

The moral of the story? Dare to say nice things to strangers. And receive the nice things they say to you. You will heal exponentially, and miracles will ripple throughout the world.

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom Tags: My experience with the ACIM Workbook Lessons, Spiritual Psychotherapy

01 Dec 2013 Comments Off on Ask Amy: The Body As Repository for Unconscious Thought or Communication Link?

Ask Amy: The Body As Repository for Unconscious Thought or Communication Link?

Guy Question Q: I’ve been told by a couple of people that I need to get out of my head and into my FEELINGS and work on healing using the body as a “portal.” I know you did a workshop recently that had to do with ACIM and the body. I would like to gain insights and healing through/by using the body. I’m also wondering how you’ve worked with your own body to grow spiritually, and how you meld that with ACIM’s view of “the body”?

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA A: I love how A Course in Miracles reverses (un-reverses, really) everything! For instance, in order to be free of the body, we need to embrace the body. Many of us are too much in our heads and benefit from bringing our body experience into our awareness and then integrating its energies into our daily lives. In that way, anger, for example, is embraced as fire energy, and becomes a motivating force rather than a divisive one.

I think of the body as the repository for unconscious thoughts. Body-oriented psychotherapy led to my spiritual awakening. For me, and many of the clients with whom I’ve worked, breathing through feelings brings the ego into our conscious awareness and then we release guilt, fear, grief, shame, anger, pain, etc.

Giving our thoughts and feelings to the Holy Spirit is the ACIM forgiveness practice. Definitions are dismantled. Judgment is dropped. Assigning meaning is relinquished. Sinking into bodily sensation takes us through the viscera, into the cellular structure, DNA and beyond … eventually we melt into pure Joining. This usually takes practice because the ego will sense its demise and throw up resistance.

A portal is a gateway to knowledge. The Holy Spirit can use the body as a vehicle for God’s Love to be extended in the world; a communication link through which miracles flow. “The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity,” is what we’re told in W-Pt II.5: What Is the Body? (which is worth reading and re-reading).

The body becomes a symbol of unity and forgiveness rather than personal identity and personal satisfaction. We can maintain the body like a car, using it well until the time it is no longer necessary, and, little by little, dis-identifying with it. Rather than “my” body, try saying “the” body. This needs to be done with the Holy Spirit’s help or it becomes a particularly unworthy form of denial and dissociation, rather than true perception and loving detachment.

We are also told in more than 20 lessons in the Workbook, “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Yet Lesson 353 clearly directs us:

My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today
Have but one purpose; to be given Christ
To use to bless the world with miracles.

ACIM explains that we each have an individualized curriculum, and once we are willing to choose the Holy Spirit’s purpose for our body, His wisdom will prevail in the form that best suits you. For me, I often experience the present memory of God thro violet light ugh yoga and chakra work.

There is a feeling that God’s Loving Light pours in through my crown chakra, circulates within the body and then radiates through my limbs and skin, brightening my presence which then shines on my brothers.

NOTE: Since I wrote this article, it has become clear that That which brightens “my” presence, is the Presence the little “me” ego-mind/time-body lives within. “I am” is the name that precedes all names and forms. In other words, that which lives in the body is that which the body lives within.

This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the Nov-Dec 2013 issue of Miracles magazine. Miracles is a well-loved staple in the ACIM community. To get a subscription, email Jon@miraclesmagazine.org or call 845-496-9089. To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

by Amy Torres in Ask Amy, Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom

25 Nov 2013 Comments Off on Giving Thanks

Giving Thanks

Thank you for being one of my readers.
My heart overflows with appreciation for you,
and the path of awakening we share.

The holiday version of thanksgiving is coming up this week in the USA, and for many it is a time of loneliness, alienation, overeating, and post-Thanksgiving stupefaction. And those are the lucky ones, because in their misery lies the opportunity to choose again.

Then there are those who have “Family First” magnets on their refrigerators. The ones who think life is good, place their nuclear family members first, extended family second, God and country third, and who blindly accept the hierarchy of illusions along with their identity as a mere person.

And then there’s you, an ACIM student, who may have fallen into one or both of the above categories until you found yourself on a spiritual path that leads to awakening in spite of your ego self.

The Course explains that we have descended a twisted stairway that leads away from Heaven. Thankfully, Jesus lets us know, Yet any instant it is possible to have all this undone. How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way to go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go. (T-23.II.22:5-13)

Let’s take a few breaths together, right now, and join minds with the Holy Spirit. Let your breath come easily, until you feel yourself Being Breathed. Now, open to receive the Message of Love your Friend always communicates. Feel that? A surge of peace, a heartbeat of certainty, and the fragrance of your Real Home.

Family gatherings are one of the ego’s favorite booby traps, but this year you come prepared–not with turkey, stuffing and ego judgments, but with your true purpose: to be a vessel for Love. Underneath all worldly distractions, we are the same One. This One is Love and “has” Everything.

So if you feel your buttons getting pushed during the holiday, make Thanksgiving part of your spiritual practice this year. Turn to your Friend and ask for Peace. Take a few breaths, feel yourself Being Breathed, and allow miracles to flow through you.

Remember, you are never alone. The more reminders you build into your life that you are Spirit and Spirit is within you, the more you move through the world as living prayer: you are as God created you.

Let me know how it goes. And thank you for choosing The Unlearning Classroom as one of your reminders.

Love & Blessings~
Amy

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Today's ACIM Lesson, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom

01 Oct 2013 Comments Off on Ask Amy: Is This Planet An Illusion?

Ask Amy: Is This Planet An Illusion?

Guy Question Q: Jesus has taught us throughout the Course that there is no world and then, in Lesson 184, he states: “Think not that you made the world, illusions yes!” I understand that everything that we have made and named is meaningless, but is this the world that Jesus is referring to, or is the planet an illusion, as well?

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA A: Sometimes the Shakespearean prose with which Jesus speaks in A Course in Miracles can throw us for a loop! As if the concepts weren’t staggering enough, a turn of phrase can further confuse us. But Jesus knows what he’s doing, and, in this case, it brings to light something important: there is no world.

ACIM is very definite when it teaches that there is no world. “No world” includes planet earth, and the entire cosmos. It includes anything and everything material, dualistic, and sensory. If we can see it, taste it, smell it, hear it, touch it, feel it, or sense it in any way, it does not exist and is not real.

Mighty Lesson 132, “I loose the world from all I thought it was,” is a great review of this principle. It states, “There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again.”

This is another way of reinforcing that there are no exceptions, a core teaching in the Course. When we are willing to take Jesus’ hand and awaken to our Unified Oneness, there is no reaching back with the “other” hand and holding on to something we value in the world.

At first, the awakening process threatens to deprive us of our “life,” but as we do the ACIM practices we learn to discern between the ego’s beliefs and the Truth. And the truth is, Eternal Reality has nothing to do with an illusory world.

This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the Sept-Oct 2013 issue of Miracles magazine. Miracles is a well-loved staple in the ACIM community. To get a subscription, email Jon@miraclesmagazine.org or call 845-496-9089. To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

by Amy Torres in Ask Amy

29 Sep 2013 Comments Off on The Purpose of the Body

The Purpose of the Body

As Course in Miracles students, we are deeply questioning what most people take for granted. Jesus asks us to be very honest in exploring how the ego operates in order to find out who and what we really are. In that spirit, Webinar #10 is to help you experientially understand the purpose of the body. We begin by examining the ego’s purpose, in order to awaken your ability to use the body for the Holy Spirit’s Loving purpose of forgiveness and awakening instead.

We all take the cycle of birth and death for granted. You, me, and everybody else, started off this human life believing that we were born through the body of our mother. You were labeled with a name, to identify you as a person, and believed you were the physical form called the body.

Beginning in infancy, every body experiences physical pleasure and pain. The body also experiences emotional and psychological pleasure and pain, which is called “somatizing” (morphing mental states into physical sensations). Humans continue to be highly motivated by both pleasure and pain into adulthood–and guilt is often associated with both. Spiritual teachers have referred to the body as the “pain body” and the “time body.” When you combine pain and time, you get a ticking bomb! In addition to the angst of our own personal lives, we see explosions of pain, anguish, rage, and terror throughout the world every day.

There’s rarely one among us who escapes the fear of death. The human race tries to fend off mortality by nurturing roots through a clan, tribe, extended family, ethnic, racial, cultural and/or national heritage, ownership of property, carrying on the family name through their children, honoring personal achievements by erecting monuments and awarding prizes, through competition and record setting, and even staking a claim to their spot on earth with a tombstone.

“The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.” (W-5.1:1) The ego dreamed up the idea of the body to solidify its concept of itself. The body seems to prove that we, as people, exist. The ego makes excellent use of the body as a multi-layered device:

* The ego’s grand plan was to make us Mind-less so we completely forgot our true Identity as a “Oneness joined as One” (T-25.I.7:1) in the formless, loving Mind of God. Happily, “What is the same can not be different, and what is one can not have separate parts.” (T-25.I.7:7)

* The ego accomplishes this complete forgetting by hiding within the body, which blocks out our awareness of Being One Self in God’s Mind. Mercifully, “The definition of reality is God’s, not yours. He created it, and He knows what it is. You who knew have forgotten, and unless He had given you a way to remember you would have condemned yourself to oblivion.” (T-12.VIII.3:6-8)

* The brain and sensory organs in the body serve to show us that the physical world is real. The ego seemingly proves bodies are real through the five senses, but actually the five senses falsely witness to the ego’s own propaganda that it exists. The brain is the ego’s organ of choice to interpret, judge and perceive. Jesus explains, “First, it is obvious that decisions are of the mind, not of the body. … The resistance to recognizing this is enormous, because the existence of the world as you perceive it depends on the body being the decision maker. Terms like ‘instincts,’ ‘reflexes’ and the like represent attempts to endow the body with non-mental motivators. Actually, such terms merely state or describe the problem. They do not answer it.” (M-5.II.1:4-9)

The Course teaches us to stop judging, interpreting, and perceiving: “There is one thing that you have never done; you have not utterly forgotten the body. It has perhaps faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of Atonement happens. Afterwards you will see the body again, but never quite the same. And every instant that you spend without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.” (T-18.VII.2:1-5)

* The ego uses the body as a container for its guilt, and projects this guilt onto other people. “The body is the means by which the ego tries to make the unholy relationship seem real.” (T-20.VII.5:1) In the Course, Jesus refers to us as “the separated ones” and to our relationships as “special” and “unholy.” The body is the ego’s symbol of separation. Only our belief in the body makes it possible to have physical relationships which seem to express love, but actually maintain separate and special interests. But don’t feel guilty about your relationships! Jesus tells us, “Your question should not be, ‘How can I see my brother without the body?’ Ask only, ‘Do I really wish to see him sinless?’” (T-20.VII.9:1-2)

When we are willing to see our brother as sinless then perception of the body through eyesight becomes secondary to our ability to see our brothers’ innocence. “By focusing on the good in him [your brother], the body grows decreasingly persistent in your sight, and will at length be seen as little more than just a shadow circling round the good.” (T-31.VII.3:3) In that way, we use the body for the Holy Spirit’s purpose as “the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.” (W-5.4:1)

* Last but not least, the body, by its inevitable demise, implies, quite convincingly, that we were alive. Through the cycle of birth and death, the ego makes a case that life is worldly and material, defined within time and space. We never pause to question birth, but in Reality there are no bodies to be born. God creates His Creation and there is no place where the Father ends and the Son begins–we are truly a Oneness joined as One.

When we step back and let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, we learn that, “You have the vision that enables you to see the body not. And as you look upon your brother, you will see an altar to your Father, holy as Heaven, glowing with radiant purity and sparkling with the shining lilies you laid upon it. What can you value more than this? Why do you think the body is a better home, a safer shelter for God’s Son? Why would you rather look on it than on the truth?” (T-20.VIII.4:3-7).

Practice Lesson 223: God is my life. I have no life but His. It begins, “I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity that moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I know my life is God’s, I have no other home, and I do not exist apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have none but those which are of Him.” If this does not satisfy, or if you’re feeling plagued by a body issue, ask the Holy Spirit to use your body to undo your belief in the body. You will likely be guided to work with someone who knows how to guide you in observing your physical sensations in order to release them. There are more and more spiritual practitioners (including myself) using many different methods to use our sensory apparatus to dissolve individuality.

If you liked “The Purpose of the Body,” you may also enjoy other essays in my ongoing series, How to Use the Body While You Think It’s You, including, “Body Health Is Not a Measurement of Spiritual Unfolding,” “Death Is Just a Belief,” “How to Take Yourself Less Personally” and “Flossing and Feldenkrais.” Be sure to watch Webinar #10: The Purpose of the Body on YouTube 🙂 And you might be interested in my Facebook page devoted to body issues: http://facebook.com/acimbodyimage For private sessions or if you have questions, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom

23 Sep 2013 Comments Off on Seattle ACIM Workshop, Nov 9th & 10th: How to Hear the Call to Joy

Seattle ACIM Workshop, Nov 9th & 10th: How to Hear the Call to Joy

“When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the Call to joy.
This Call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at its sound.”

So what is the catch? Most of us want to be happy–or claim we do. Then what is preventing you from hearing the Call to joy? … It is your belief in the separate self; it is your belief that you are the body. Happily, “God has given you the means for undoing what you have made. Listen, and you will learn how to remember what you are.”

Let us come together in Truth, satsang, and open our minds to our True Identity. “In this decision lie joy and peace and the glory of creation.” If you are sincere about questioning every belief you have ever held, you will allow satsang to burn away what you are not and reveal the Light which is always within you. In a powerful hybrid of A Course in Miracles special relationship work, Gestalt psychotherapy, yogic self-inquiry, and organic movement, you will have a chance to accelerate the undoing process that leads you back to where you already are.

“Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own.
We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real.”

Lucky & Sharon’s Sanctuary
Saturday, Nov 9th & Sunday, Nov 10th
10 am – 4 pm
1215 NE 188th St, Shoreline, WA

$150 including
Lucky’s home-cooked free lunch!

To register, visit www.amytorresacim.com/call-to-joy Amy Torres is an interfaith minister, Gestalt psychotherapist, yoga instructor, and writes the popular Course in Miracles e-newsletter, The Unlearning Classroom, to which you can subscribe for free at www.amytorresacim.com. You can also read her column Ask Amy in Miracles magazine, read her articles on EzineArticles.com, watch her videos on YouTube, follow her on Facebook, and subscribe to her online class, Workin’ the Workbook, which supports all 365 lessons from the ACIM Workbook.

Note: All quotes are from A Course in Miracles.

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Uncategorized, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom

19 Sep 2013 Comments Off on Spiritual Translation

Spiritual Translation

The other day, a student reminded me of something I said that had stuck with him and been truly helpful. Of course, I had forgotten all about it! Here’s the blogpost he was referring to:

When I first started studying A Course in Miracles in 1997, I grappled with the new definition of “forgiveness”* that Jesus offers us. One day, the old English usage of “for to give” popped into my head.

For to give fear to Love
For to give guilt to Innocence
For to give pain to Peace

Then I remembered a lyric from the song, A Horse with No Name by America (not Neil Young 🙂 ):

In the desert you can remember your name
‘Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain

This pop song, which I had mindlessly sung countless times when it was a hit in 1972, was suddenly offering me a spiritual solution to the riddle of forgiveness.

Didn’t Jesus spent forty days in the desert remembering his Name, that is, his true Identity? And once his true Identity was revealed, so was his Oneness with all his brothers and every living thing, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral. In fact, there ain’t no one for to give you no pain once you awaken to the Truth that we are all One.

The lyric from A Horse with No Name was biblical, mystical–an ancient nomadic sojourn of a twentieth century cowboy using an awkward yet mesmerizing grammatical construction, for to give, that spontaneously inspired me to translate everything.

For to give dreams to Reality
For to give illusions to Truth
For to give separation to Unity

One of the nicknames ACIM uses for the Holy Spirit is the Translator. Once the Holy Spirit became my Spiritual Psychotherapist and Guide, I embarked on a whole new level of translation! Up until then, as a psychotherapist, one potent tool in my healing kit was the idea of translating emotional language from its surface meaning down into the underlying messages.

Psychotherapy is an art, because it is customized to each person’s deep psychological needs and beliefs. I already loved the creativity involved in unraveling dysfunctional behavior through a process of emotional translation. How exciting to discover that A Course in Miracles offered a translation process that frees us from the ego entirely!

For to give my Amy-identity to the Holy Spirit, Who,
in turn, gives me Love and reveals my God-Identity.

This internal translation process kept working inside my head all day, every day, to this very day. And my inner conviction about the Course’s Message keeps growing.

For to give sleep to Awakening
For to give ignorance to Knowledge
For to give nightmares to Happy Dreams
For to give time to Eternity
For to give space to Infinity
For to give fragmentation to Wholeness
For to give death to Life

Homework
Make your own “for to give” list. Feel free to borrow from mine. Let me know if you come up with some good ones. And if this “technique” illuminates the ACIM forgiveness practice for you in a new way, please share. Email me at miracles@amytorresacim.com

* Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. ~ACIM Workbook, 1. What Is Forgiveness?

“The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. He sees for you, and unless you look with Him He cannot see. The vision of Christ is not for Him alone, but for Him with you. Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, and look upon them with Him. He holds the light, and you the darkness. They cannot coexist when both of You together look on them. His judgment must prevail, and He will give it to you as you join your perception to His.” ~T-14.VII6:1-11

by Amy Torres in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Uncategorized, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom

31 Aug 2013 Comments Off on No Projection, No Perception

No Projection, No Perception

Jesus told Helen and Bill, while they were scribing A Course in Miracles, that they needed to let themselves know how much they hated each other in order to find the Love beyond that hatred.* Finding the Love within us is an undoing project. Undoing is accomplished by looking within with the Holy Spirit.

When we dare to look within ourselves, we discover everything we’ve been covering up and that can be painful, mortifying, and even intolerable. Yet, somehow, we must look, because if we don’t, we are doomed to unconsciously choosing the ego as our teacher for a very, very, very long time.

Many feelings will arise, and they must be felt; not to indulge them, but to observe and release them. When you discover that feelings move through you, are impermanent and impersonal, you will also discover that feelings are not facts. The only fact is that God is formless Love, and this formless Love is the real You.

“Projection makes perception, and you cannot see beyond it. Again and again have you attacked your brother, because you saw in him a shadow figure in your private world. And thus it is you must attack yourself first, for what you attack is not in others. Its only reality is in your own mind, and by attacking others you are literally attacking what is not there.” (T-13.V.3:5-8)

Seeing shadow figures only happens in the ego’s dream. God’s Mind is Light and there are no shadows Here. The ego casts shadows when it tries to cloak its true identity in darkness. First, we lash out at God–that is the initial ego attack. Then, the ego pulls a fast one and shouts that it was God who struck first! This is the beginning of how the human personality works.

We lash out at our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our children, our pets, and the people around us. Depending on your personality, you lash out overtly, covertly, or some combination of both. You may find it acceptable to shout, curse, and weep when you’re alone at home, in the privacy of your car, or some other safe place. You may prefer suppression and the silent treatment. Either way, you are trapped within the personality. In the Course, Jesus explains that there are only two emotions, love or fear. Extension is how God’s Mind works–joining us forever in creating Love. Projection is the splitting mechanism that distorts extension and leads to perception and fear.

“Behold the great projection, but look on it with the decision that it must be healed, and not with fear. Nothing you made has any power over you unless you still would be apart from your Creator, and with a will opposed to His.” (T-22.II.10:1-2)

Find out what you are withholding. Don’t act out your unconscious feelings by leaking or exploding them onto others, or repressing them and imploding within yourself. Instead, admit to yourself with God** as your witness what you are really thinking and feeling! This is the undoing process. This clarifies the statement, “Projection makes perception.” This is how you bust the ego and remove your self-imposed handcuffs.

Noticing the perceiving process leads you back to the perceiver. This perceiver is the choosing point in the Mind, before it chose the ego and its dream of separation. This perceiver can choose again, and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance it does choose again. The Holy Spirit replaces ego perception with true perception–the reflection of God’s Love to help you awaken to your true Identity while you believe you are still a body in the world.

The choice for the Holy Spirit is the choice to stop projecting. The choice to stop projecting removes the obstacles to the awareness of Love’s presence. Rest assured that “Ideas leave not their source, and their effects [bodies] but seem to be apart from them. Ideas are of the mind. What is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not outside at all, but an effect of what is in, and has not left its source.” (T-26.VII.4:7-9) It is impossible for the unified Oneness of God’s Mind to separate from Itself.

“Forgiveness takes away what stands between your brother and yourself. It is the wish that you be joined with him, and not apart. … Although [forgiveness] falls far short of giving you your full inheritance, it does remove the obstacles that you have placed between the Heaven where you are, and recognition of where and what you are. Facts are unchanged. Yet facts can be denied and thus unknown, though they were known before they were denied.” (T-26.VII.9:1-2; 5-7)

* Ken Wapnick mentions this on one (or more) of his audio recordings–sorry, but I don’t remember which one.

** Jesus, Holy Spirit, God, Buddha–use any Name you like. Just make sure to look with Spirit and not with the ego. You will know the difference because there will be non-judgment, neutrality, perhaps relief, a healthy sense of detachment and the freedom that comes with it.

If you enjoyed this piece, watch Projection Makes Perception for further insight into this ACIM principle.