It’s always comforting and inspiring when people share ordinary miracles — things that happen daily but can easily be missed … unless you shift your attention to what is True.
Today, one of my Course students shared this beautiful miracle that occurred as she was walking on the beach.
She said a silent prayer and then looked down, saw two sea shells and took them to mean:
“Shut off your brain and open your heart and God’s Will will be done.” ~Patti Reed.
I welcome all your miracle stories. Please email them to me at miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com
Let’s practice together! You can watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Holidays come and go and I don’t notice them. But words like “transfiguration,” “metamorphosis” and “resurrection” get my attention!
When Jesus refers to Easter and Christmas in A Course in Miracles, he uses them just like everything else: to help us awaken to our true Identity. Transfiguration, metamorphosis and resurrection are meant to communicate the process of recognizing your true Self. Whether it seems possible or not, it is inevitable that you will discover that you are already awake.
Transfiguration by Alexandr Ivanov 1824
Jesus says it in many different ways throughout the Course, but the Message never varies: we are not the body, we are free, for we are still as God created us.
We are Spirit, we are One Self, we are Great Rays emanating from our Father Who has joined with us in formless timelessness. We share One Name. We are the Same.
Yet, we remain clueless about our true Identity although Jesus insists it is right in front of our nose, simple and obvious! How? By having a running monologue with the ego self. You take yourself to be a person, and are mesmerized by the person you seem to be!
The person you imagine yourself to be is the self-concept, dreamed up by the ego, who is talking to itself, disguised as many. This conversation, seemingly a dialogue, is actually the one ego-mind talking to itself. All the people around the world, good and bad, have emerged from this one ego and are fragments of the one ego mind. From savage disputes to special alliances, it is all one mind acting out different roles.
In A Course in Miracles, Jesus understands our insanity — one mind seeing itself as many and talking to and fighting against “others, out there.” He gives us a forgiveness practice to keep us busy. At first, it seems as if we are forgiving others. Eventually, it becomes clear we are forgiving ourselves. Beyond that, it is seen that forgiveness undoes the personal identity entirely.
“Through your transfiguration is the world redeemed, and joyfully released from guilt. Now do we lift our resurrected minds in gladness and in gratitude to Him Who has restored our sanity to us.” (W-151)
What does “transfiguration” mean? Basically the same thing that “metamorphosis” means. “Trans” and “meta” can both be used to mean “to go beyond.” To go beyond the figure is to go beyond the body. When we first experience that we are not the body it is miraculous! Eventually, this miracle becomes the new normal as the mind shifts from false personal identity to True Unified Identity. In other words, the process of transfiguration leads to resurrection.
Everyone who sees God’s Light in another will inevitably see her/himself as God’s Light. Jesus tells us, “Your resurrection is your reawakening. I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your mind of what is already in it. God placed it there Himself, and so it is true forever.”
At first, this may seem impractical and unattainable, but, rest assured, it is supremely practical and need not even be attained because it is already so! Rebirth may sound like a grand achievement, but actually, even rebirth is unnecessary. As the great contemporary master, Sri Mooji, puts it: You are the Unborn, beyond human life and death. Once you know this, there are no more questions.
“Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass … When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware that no time was ever better spent.” (W-124)
To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot com)
My claim to miracles is inherent in the truth of What I Am. It is God’s Strength in me that is the light in which I see, as it is His Mind with which I think … it is laughable to think I think with the brain, see with the body’s eyes. When asked if she was afraid to catch leprosy from the people she was working with in the streets of Calcutta, Mother Teresa looked into the face of the child she was holding in her arms, and said, “What lepers?” She saw with God’s eyes, she saw the face of Christ in every face. “Truth is a savior and can only will happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply.”
Sit quietly and let this Truth roll through you. There is a quickening, a tingling, an effortless expansion of breath, a great Exhale. An anticipation, a sense of promise … a widening of knowing … a thinning of personal identity … a smile on the lips … a sense of purpose with no agenda, no ambition, no goals. Yes.
LESSON 92
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. [Lesson 91: Miracles are seen in light.] You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. Thus you believe that you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes. This is among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction you are a body, and the body’s eyes can see.
You also believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.
It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless.
Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. In darkness you perceive a self that is not there. Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light.
Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness, which is like itself. Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. Its strength is shared, that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.
Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and in love. It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that it would share. It judges and condemns, but does not love. In darkness it remains to hide itself, and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size.
It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are here, but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one. The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day, and back to darkness till the morning comes again.
The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.
The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One.
Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one.
Morning and evening we will practice thus. After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be perceived.
Let’s practice together! Listen to God Goes With You. Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Q: After working with the Course for several years, I take from it the message that I am the creator of my universe. A dear friend of mine was killed in Syria recently. Did I create this? If I did, I don’t know how I can live with myself.
A: Rest assured, you did not create the killing of your dear friend in Syria. Only the ego thinks in terms of guilty responsibility, magical powers of influence, and the loss of life. Jesus, in his Course in Miracles, would never put you through this kind of psychological agony.
The idea that you are the creator of your universe is a common misconception among Course students. The primary mistake lies in not understanding who you really are. Typically, every human, and therefore, every reader of ACIM, begins with the assumption that he or she is a body, identified as male or female, labeled with a name, assigned a role as son or daughter, and so on. These designations are nothing more than ego brainwashing, layering assumption on top of assumption that the body is “you.”
But you are not a body. God’s Creation is an extension of the Creator Himself — consequently, you are Spirit, not human. Therefore, when referring to yourself, know that You are Imageless, Formless, Timeless, and Unified as God’s One Son. It is not the little ego “you” who creates; the ego “you” mistakenly dreams and that is all. The real You creates the way God creates: You naturally and effortlessly emanate Loving Light.
“Yet what is it except a game you play in which Identity can be denied? You are as God created you.” (W-191)
The one collective ego mind (of which people appear to be individual fragments) is a terrorist dictatorship thought system. The way out of this tyrannical, punitive, and vicious ego-mind cycle is to observe the ego with Jesus. Then you discover the only reason the ego felt so real is that you believed in it, while forgetting it was nothing more than a passing idea in God’s Mind.
“In a split mind, identity must seem to be divided.” (T-27.II.11:1)
When you stop unconsciously denying your true Identity, it is revealed that as long as we seem to live in a world with others, the only sane choice is to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and be a miracle worker. You will feel peaceful, comforted, liberated and illuminated, as you devote the body to serving God’s Will instead of reinforcing a false personal identity.
“It is impossible that God lose His Identity, for if He did, you would lose yours.” (T-14.XI.7:5)
Let us conclude with a prayer for your friend. May he rest in God, at Home with his Father, enlightened and free in the recognition of his true Self. Death can serve as one of the many doorways to Who we really are. Happily for all of us, it is inevitable that everyone awaken to our God-Self, each in our own perfect moment.
“The word ‘inevitable’ is fearful to the ego, but joyous to the spirit. God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him any more than He can avoid you.” (T-4.I.9:10-11)
Note: If you found this topic interesting, click here to read the Ask Amy column in the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of Miracles magazine, which delves into this same concept from a different angle.
This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the March-April 2015 issue of Miracles magazine. Miracles is a well-loved staple in the ACIM community. To get a subscription, email [email protected] or call 845-496-9089. To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com
It has been about eight months since Gatita gently laid the body aside and emerged as The Lady.
Some hours after shedding her skin, I had the clear sense that Gatita was no longer a cat. When I spoke with her in my mind she was now The Lady. She had emerged from the confines of form.
The Lady has the elevated essence of Mary’s love, purity and kindness. She is numinous, sublime and retains a feline inscrutability.
The Lady understood my great appreciation of Gatita’s form and we could mind-meld as She loved me and communicated ideas like,
“That was an exquisite form. I understand your love for it. You can love the Gatita I was and yet you don’t have to miss her. When you drop your Amy form you will not miss that. You will experience pure freedom. And you can experience that pure freedom before you drop the form as well simply by shifting your attention from form to What Is.”
All grieving felt sweet; it was a confirmation of the love Gatita and I shared. It didn’t feel like loss.
This grieving feels like a tribute to unconditional love. It is confirming of the Formless. It is liberating and tender. It is strengthening of faith and courage.
It is a pleasure to share this article by the inspiring mystical teacher, Will Johnson:
“Take me to Church,” sings the Irish singer-songwriter Hozier (although his idea of “church” is not a house of worship, but the union of lovers). What his song perfectly underscores, however, is that Church has always been where the music is.
As we enter the 21st century, music is everywhere, and the world’s young are more likely to be seen gliding along wearing Dr. Dre headphones than attending traditional venues of worship.
Forget about Esperanto. Music is now the universal language, but its near ubiquity tends to make us forget that, up until the middle of last century, music was a sublime rarity and mostly only ever heard in the context of religious worship: in Gregorian chant, the singing of Jewish cantors, the muzzein’s call to prayer, the earth shaking sound of a grand pipe organ, the ecstatic hymns of bhakti mystics and Southern Baptists alike.
The I Ching tells us that “music has power to ease tension within the heart and to loosen the grip of obscure emotions.” This healing power is the action of real religion, and music is one of its most reliable actors.
If church is indeed where the music is, then the whole world now appears to have become an expanded church, promoting a gospel of the easing of tension, the loosening of emotional holding, the breaking through to the sublime, and this is happening as much on our city streets and in our dance clubs as in our more traditional houses of worship.
Joshua is recorded as having brought down the walls of Jericho with sound alone (they may have been real walls; they are certainly, metaphorically, the walls encasing our hearts). Technologies like iAwake send binaural frequencies into our bodies through our ears, altering patterns of brain waves and even appearing to break up bodily tensions that keep the natural expression of our hearts enclosed (not perhaps unlike how blasts of ultrasound frequency break up kidney stones).
Young people dance together all night long at raves, their bodies reverberating to the sounds of drum and bass instead of a pipe organ. The most sacred mass gathering I ever attended was my very first Grateful Dead show in 1969 at which I–and everyone else in the audience, in a single moment of exaltation–became a dancer.
When you sit in meditation and hum, the sound can be felt to vibrate through your entire body. Take me to church indeed.
Many years ago, while visiting Malaysia, I saw a young man sporting a T-shirt that proclaimed “music is the weapon of the future.” The music that is being so incessantly broadcast around the world today is music that makes our bodies want to move, and it’s going to be increasingly difficult to force-feed stale and hateful dogma to a young person whose body has connected with its impulse to move, to dance, to express itself with joy.
So let’s all become soldiers in this new army of peace, bombarding the world not with weapons of destruction but weapons that melt and dissolve hatred, creating healing in ourselves and others through every note we hear and play, giving our bodies permission to move whether we’re responding to the ear shattering beats in a club or the subtle rhythm of the breath as we sit on our meditation cushion.
“Who is the ‘you’ who are living in this world?” ~Jesus (T-4.II.11:8)
Do you assume you are a person? Is it a given that your body and your personality are “you”?
One way of describing A Course in Miracles is that it offers a cure to the delusional belief all people hold that their identity is connected to the body. If this is a brand new thought for you, you are probably saying, “Wha???”
That’s okay. It’s a huge turning point for every ACIM student when he or she “gets it” that everything is happening in the mind, not the body.
The only problem people have is a mental problem; it is not a brain-body problem. Your only problem is a mind problem. This is why Jesus tells us in Chapter 21, “Seek not to change the world. Choose to change your mind about the world.”
Can you locate the mind? Try to put your finger on the mind. What is the mind composed of? Thoughts, beliefs, ideas, concepts. Can you touch thoughts, beliefs, ideas and concepts?
As you contemplate this, notice whether a click of recognition arises … or fear. Recognition is the memory of God within you surfacing through ego-imposed clouds and darkness. Fear is the voice of the ego saying, “Don’t remember!” Don’t remember what? Who you really are: Spirit extending naturally from the Formless, Timeless, Changeless, Innocent, Unified God-Mind which is your Source.
By the way, the ego offers us all kinds of cures for sickness and unhappiness. Sometimes they work on the human level; sometimes they don’t. The nature of the ego is that it is changing, contradictory and unstable. But the Holy Spirit offers a sure-fire cure that always works. The central idea in Lesson 140 states: “Only salvation can be said to cure.”
Salvation means the undoing of what never was. The ego is the dreamer of a dream that we are separate from God. Ego mesmerizes us by imagining bodies, from the celestial level to the human level. Ego mind would keep us stuck in the concept of a body forever, but Lesson 140 offers us a way out, “The happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings … lead from sleep to gentle waking, so that dreams are gone. And thus they cure for all eternity.”
We need the Holy Spirit to undo our beliefs because, as people, we are stuck within a limited ego thought system which does not want us to understand that we can be cured of personal identity. This cure, to the ego, seems to be death. As the beloved master Mooji says, it is only death to what you are not, but What You Truly Are is Life and Life cannot include death.
The cure for living as a person is to undo the person completely. The person cannot undo the person; it is the Holy Spirit’s job to unravel the tangled web we elected the ego to weave. Just withdraw your vote for darkness and complexity, and Light and Simplicity will naturally arise in the Mind of which you are an inextricable extension.
At first, improving the person seems necessary, but eventually, you get the hang of dropping the person altogether. Let me know if this makes sense to you — email me at [email protected]
Watch for my upcoming book, Sweet Dreams of Awakening. And let’s practice together! Watch and listen to my readings of each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, my online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
This is the first review in the A Course in Miracles Workbook. It covers the first 50 lessons in sets of five. Jesus tells us this is designed to emphasize the relationships among the first 50 ideas in the lessons in order to appreciate the cohesiveness of the God’s thought system which is where they are leading us.
If any of the five ideas in any given review lesson appeal more than the others, make that the focus of your day.
“The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and turmoil.” At first, we learn in solitude, but the purpose of this practice is to build up an ability to stay with Peace no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. As we dis-identify as a person-body, this becomes easier and easier because we are discovering we are Peace.
Jesus puts it this way, “You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.”
Let’s practice together! Watch and listen to Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
The ego mind is a weapon of mass distraction. Distraction is destruction, when it comes to peace of mind. That’s why it’s imperative to learn how to stop mind chatter.
Peace of Mind is God-Thought — a Oneness joined as One. Absolute God-Thought does not contain words or images, shapes or forms, time or space; It just Is. It is Life — Unborn, Undying Being.
Ego-thinking, on the other hand, is a dreamer of a false identity within God-Mind. It is an attempt to split and limit what is Unified and Limitless. It is imaginative but not Creative. The descent from Oneness to personal identity contains layers of veils to prevent you from remembering your True Self.
“Never allow purity to remain hidden, but shine away the heavy veils of guilt within which the Son of God has hidden himself from his own sight.” (T-14.V.4:4)
How do we nip ego-mind chatter in the bud?
Jesus tells us as early as Chapter 3, “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations.” And in Lesson 43, he says, “Do not allow any protracted period to occur in which you become preoccupied with irrelevant thoughts.”
It is a turning point when you are able to catch irrelevant thoughts and use mind chatter as a reminder to choose again. The tool Jesus provides in Lesson 43 is to repeat, “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.” It is one of countless expressions of God choices. You can simply say, “Holy Spirit, help me!” or “I am Spirit” or “God, God, God.”
I’ve found that a powerful alternative that fits perfectly with A Course in Miracles is to use Sanskrit, which is primarily a vibrationally-based language and only secondarily meaning-based. For a better understanding of what I mean by this and how it works, watch Prescription for Inner Peace.
Let’s practice together! My 3 mindfulness meditations on http://cdbaby.com/amytorres stop mind chatter in 10 minutes or less for only 99 cents each. Also, check out my dear friend Corinne Zupko’s free webinar http://www.acimindfulness.com
Q: As a boy, I was sexually abused by a priest, and it has crippled me as an adult in many ways. The Course has helped me to forgive him, but I feel like Jesus is blaming me when he tells us to say, “I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.” (T-21.II) How could I be responsible for this priest’s actions, especially since I was so young at the time?
A: Thank you for your courage in sharing this devastating situation. Your question is shared by so many people who were betrayed as children. There are several layers here, so let’s peel them away together.
First, you reveal that due to the abuse you are crippled as an adult. As realistic as this seems to you, please consider that no matter what your circumstances, feelings, or state of mind, Jesus clearly states in Chapter 1, “You are the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and wholly loving.” Somewhere deep inside we all know this is true. Allow yourself to be a sponge and soak up this loving testament to who you really are, and always will be, God’s perfect child.
Second, you say the Course has helped you forgive the priest. In the ACIM Preface, Jesus explains that each special relationship holds the “chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other.” This could be taken to mean that one person forgives another, but the Course clarifies that forgiveness occurs when you invite the Holy Spirit to take charge and work through you. The Holy Spirit truly empowers us by undoing projections of victimization no matter how justified they appear.
In the process, guilt may seem to move from “other” back to “self” until it evaporates entirely. Eventually, we discover forgiveness undoes the identification you have as a person and reveals there is no one to be forgiven. You don’t have to figure this out. ACIM is like a Zen koan — it boggles the mind in order to open the mind to its true Identity.
Third, you feel Jesus is blaming you, which reveals you are still carrying guilt. Not to worry. Guilt is the glue that holds the ego together. When you catch yourself feeling as if Jesus is blaming you, be aware that ego-thinking has taken over. Let this become an ongoing reminder to “choose again.” Simply say, “Holy Spirit, I choose your guidance. Remind me of my innocence.” Miracles are guaranteed.
Last, you ask, “How could I be responsible for the priest’s actions, especially since I was so young at the time?” Notice within your question is the inherent assumption that you are a person. Don’t fall for this ego trick. “A pseudo-question has no answer. It dictates the answer even as it asks.” (T-27.IV.5) The ego lures us to speculate endlessly about human affairs. Dismiss this temptation.
The prayer you cite is about a higher power of decision. There are only two choices: God or ego. You are responsible for choosing to see with the Holy Spirit’s unifying vision or the ego’s divisive eyesight. This prayer is neither an accusation nor a law of attraction mantra. Jesus is not concerned with people improving their personal lives, which only strengthens belief in ego illusions. Happily, the part of you that reads the Course understands this because it is the memory of God within you, awakening to its true Self.
Try this: “I, the One Son of God, am responsible for what I see.” Choose peace, make peace your goal, and you will come to feel peace, receive peace, give peace, and know you are peace. “Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy.” (T-21.Intro)
Suggested reading:A Course in Miracles, T-11.VIII. The Problem and the Answer; T-26.II. Many Forms; One Correction; S-1.I. True Prayer, and How to Take Yourself Less Personally.
This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the March-April 2015 issue of Miracles magazine. Miracles is a well-loved staple in the ACIM community. To get a subscription, email [email protected] or call 845-496-9089. To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com
It’s always comforting and inspiring when people share ordinary miracles — things that happen daily but can easily be missed … unless you shift your attention to what is True.
What does “transfiguration” mean? Basically the same thing that “metamorphosis” means. “Trans” and “meta” can both be used to mean “to go beyond.” To go beyond the figure is to go beyond the body. When we first experience that we are not the body it is miraculous! Eventually, this miracle becomes the new normal as the mind shifts from false personal identity to True Unified Identity. In other words, the process of transfiguration leads to resurrection.
Q: After working with the Course for several years, I take from it the message that I am the creator of my universe. A dear friend of mine was killed in Syria recently. Did I create this? If I did, I don’t know how I can live with myself.
A: Rest assured, you did not create the killing of your dear friend in Syria. Only the ego thinks in terms of guilty responsibility, magical powers of influence, and the loss of life. Jesus, in his Course in Miracles, would never put you through this kind of psychological agony.
It has been about eight months since Gatita gently laid the body aside and emerged as The Lady.
“Who is the ‘you’ who are living in this world?” ~Jesus (T-4.II.11:8)
