Author:Amy Torres

Miracle on a Silver Platter

Posted on April 16, 2013

in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles

Yesterday, I came across this essay written over a year ago, and I felt so happy reading it, I thought I would re-post. Hopefully, it will renew your faith and bring a smile to your lips 🙂

The other day, just after I parked my car in Soho, I began my brisk walk to my office. Almost immediately, I encountered a woman with young children sitting beside a table stocked with beautiful objects. It is not unusual for people to sell wares on the street in New York City, so I assumed it was an urban garage sale. And an especially nice one at that, because Soho is filled with artists and artisans. What was unusual was that this lovely lady was saying, “Everything on this table is free! Please take something!”

I slowed down my pace and looked a little closer. Everything on the table seemed to emanate love and beauty. “Everything is free?” I asked. “Yes,” she explained. “We need to unclutter and just want to find nice homes for our stuff.” “Why don’t you sell it?” was my next question, feeling hesitant to take something so beautiful for free. “No, we just need to be free of it as soon as possible,” she said, “If you really want, you can make a donation to a local charity that we will give this money to, but there is no need.” And she tilted her head toward a jar labeled with the name of an institution worthy of donations.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, I just bought my very first house, and could really use some stuff 🙂 Plus, being a Libra, I have a soft spot for beauty in all its forms. There was a silver platter, bowl and pitcher which caught my eye. “Would it be greedy to take all three?” I asked. “No, no, no!” she exclaimed, “Please take them! You would make me so happy if you did! We just want our beloved objects to have a happy home.” “I can promise you they will have a very happy home,” I replied and she and I beamed at each other with satisfaction, her little girls smiled shyly from behind her back, and Love radiated up and down Wooster Street.

So I tossed $20 in the donation jar, and then carefully gathered the silver platter, the pitcher and the bowl in my arms. They were quite heavy and I wondered how I could carry them to my office when it occurred to me that I was still near my car! How perfect. I simply walked back to the car, stashed my booty in the trunk, and proceeded on to my office with empty arms and a full heart. I knew God promised me miracles–I should have guessed they would come on a silver platter.

The Unseen Spot by Oscar Senn

Posted on April 5, 2013

in Poetry, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles

by Amy Torres

He says it’s not so serious, that everything’s all right;
in a voice so clear and certain, so low and calmly quiet,
that when he speaks, peace is present, palpable and real,
carried not by sounds in air, but what my heart can feel.

Sudden recognition of a forgotten friend’s return
Brings a lifting of the spirit, absolution from concern.
It’s an instant of remembering, a moment unrehearsed –
time outside of time, where disorder is reversed.

His voice falls soft and thoughtful, behind and to my right –
he must have been been there all along, just outside of sight.
So winding was our road, so rapt was I in thought,
I forgot he paced my every step in that unseen spot.

He doesn’t even mention what a stranger I have been,
or all the ways I’ve wandered since last I spoke with him.
No question comes between us, not a single why or how,
a seeming lifetime’s passage cannot separate us now.

In a smiling voice he answers the last doubt that crossed my mind
with such simple stunning wisdom, so artfully opined,
that the path before us vanishes, the trees all fade away,
but in their passing shadows sparkle stars and suns at play.

The stately ordered movements of the cosmos, moon and stars,
flow from his speech like richest wine from finest earthen jars.
I drink, and heaven opens, dimensions reflect all ‘round,
in mirrored halls of the elder king where a prince reclaims a crown.

A prince who traveled with me as a brother and a friend,
who never once asked a thing of me, neither homage nor amends,
but calm and patient, shared my search, whispering in one ear,
reminding, teaching, persuading me to love instead of fear.

Thank you, Oscar, for giving me permission to reprint your beautiful poem. For those of you who loved this one, you can find more ACIM poetry at www.miracleshare.org

Ask Amy: How Do I Forgive Myself When I Caused Another Pain?

Posted on April 1, 2013

in Ask Amy

by Amy Torres

Q: In the past I made a mistake (I used to think I sinned) that hurt another person. The relationship is ruined and the person will not allow me to express any remorse for the mistake. How do I forgive myself when I caused pain? I know the past is gone (I see only the past is the lesson I am on) and I know the mistake did not occur except in my dream. I don’t understand how forgiveness works in a situation like this. Do I forgive the perceived situation or what?

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA A: The wonderful thing about A Course in Miracles is that you do not have to understand how forgiveness works at all. You are simply asked to give every belief you’ve ever held to the Holy Spirit to release and heal your judgments of the perceived situation. As you open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, forgiveness occurs naturally, so you are not actually doing anything. In Chapter 16, we are advised, “I need do nothing, except not to interfere.”

Try working with the exercises in Workbook Lesson 21, “I am determined to see things differently.” Give every thought, idea, belief, opinion, and interpretation you have about your past mistake in detail to the Holy Spirit. Either talk to Him or write a letter. Then sit and listen — open your mind to Love. You may have to do this many times. Sometimes you will feel a sense of peace, your breath will come easier, something will release. Other times, seemingly nothing happens, but the Course assures us a healing has occurred.

I’m glad you now see “sinning” as making a mistake. That’s a sign that you are allowing the mind training ACIM offers us to heal your sense of guilt and separation. The Preface states, “Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished.”

As far-fetched as it may seem, we truly cannot hurt another person. What hurts is our interpretation of events. The Course tells us we know nothing and that is true. But it is still necessary to breathe through all our feelings in order to release them to Spirit and contact the Light which is always within us. As you do this, your sense of Innocence will arise, and you will understand the entire situation through the Holy Spirit’s unified vision of Love.

This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the March-April 2013 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 Easter–Time to Wake Up!

Posted on March 25, 2013

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

by Amy Torres

Easter is here and A Course in Miracles invites us to celebrate this holiday without the church as middleman. Jesus tells us, “Let us give redemption to each other and share in it, that we may rise as one in resurrection, not separate in death.”

The world considers it a miracle that Jesus rose from the grave. Jesus tells us not to be duped by this ego-serving interpretation. He also tells us that his crucifixion was merely an extreme example of something we do everyday: carry the cross.

Yes, all our daily grievances effectively block the miracle of Innocence, Unity and Love that is our true Self. If you still have a taste for sin, guilt and fear, pain, alienation and hatred, sorrow, loss and shame, carry on! But if you’ve been studying the Course long enough to “get it” even a little bit, set your alarm clock for the holy instant instead, and, this Easter, lay that rugged cross down.

The crucifixion was quite an event–what a shame if we entirely miss the point! As Jesus says, “The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. This is not the gospel I intended to offer you.” (T-intro.3:8-10) and “You cannot crucify yourself alone. … Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated or in need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God’s Son. … The Holy Spirit offers you, to give to him, a picture of yourself in which there is no pain and no reproach at all. And what was martyred to his guilt becomes the perfect witness to his innocence.” (T-27.I.1:5 and 3:1 and 5)

Let’s not sabotage Jesus’ effort to show us that there is no need for guilt, and death is not real. Let’s stop playing the crucifixion game and focus on ACIM’s definition of resurrection instead. In the Manual for Teachers, resurrection is defined as a change of mind about the meaning of the world. The ego wants us to believe that it has overcome God and is being pursued by a vengeful Father. This delusional thinking is easily undone by the Holy Spirit–when we ask for His Help.

Make this Easter truly meaningful by responding to Jesus’ invitation, “This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the ‘gift’ of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them.” (T-20.I.2:1-6)

Now all of us rise together to the Home we never left. white lily on white background

Related Easter posts from The Unlearning Classroom are: From Crucifixion to Resurrection and What Is Easter, Really?

If you need help practicing the Workbook lessons from A Course in Miracles, sign up for my online class, Workin’ the Workbook.

The Parental Disapproval Syndrome

Posted on February 12, 2013

in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Undoing the Ego

by Amy Torres

If you are A Course in Miracles student, you know that being a parent is one big set-up. Babies aren’t innocent–they have chosen the ego as their teacher and so their experience will proceed accordingly. In other words, they have to be dissatisfied with their parents. Children have to feel victimized, no matter how idyllic their childhood may have been–and most are not so lucky. Here in the dream, the parent-child dynamic is perfect proof that life is unfair. The article below is a classic written by Leonard Orr and Sondra Ray, and gives some useful explanation of what the parental disapproval syndrome produces in the world.

The Parental Disapproval Syndrome
by Leonard Orr and Sondra Ray (Rebirthing in the New Age p. 59)

The Parental Disapproval Syndrome is another major cause of fear and negative programming. The syndrome develops as a result of your parents’ experiencing disapproval from their parents and their resentment of that disapproval. But they were not able to get even verbally or physically, so their true feelings were suppressed. They didn’t receive enough love and affection and found their parents difficult to please. So they spent the rest of their lives trying to get even with their parents or trying to please them to win their love. They constantly had to perform and conform according to their parents’ instructions in a futile attempt to win their love. This is later transferred to employers, authority figures, and “society.” They found little satisfaction until they had children (you). Then they had a captive child who was defenseless against parental hostilities and often coerced into giving them affection when the parents desire it.

To sum it up, parents take out their hostility toward their parents on their children (you). The spirit of the child is broken. Then you, as a child, have to suppress your true feelings until you have children and you take out your anger on yours—it goes on from generation to generation.

The fact is, you were a divine being when you came out of the womb.* Your parents began to disapprove of you and you resented it. But you couldn’t resist them or get even because you didn’t have a big enough vocabulary or a big enough body. The only way you could get even was to do what they disapproved of, which caused more disapproval. So you kept the disapproval syndrome going until you decided you could not win. Eventually you gave up and surrendered your loyalty to your divine nature and decided to follow instructions. So you followed instructions for the rest of your life. And when you got old enough to move out of the house, your parents (after they had invalidated your creativity, initiative, and natural wisdom) kicked you out and said, “Now is the time to succeed.” Then you went out and looked for somebody to give you instructions. That is the reason most people find employers and why people find mates. Hopefully, when you get married you will finally have found somebody who knows how to give you instructions, somebody who will solve all your problems, make all your decisions and plan your life for you. And, they don’t do it! Your mate doesn’t do it because he or she is expecting the same of you.

Behind that desire to have you plan their life for them, mates will express their hostility toward you. “Falling in love” is the hope that you have finally found a parental substitute. If you suppress your hostility successfully enough, then you will have a successful relationship. If you suppress your hostilities long enough in the relationship, then the relationship may last long enough to end in marriage. If you continue to suppress your hostility long enough, then your marriage might last long enough to have children. Guess what happens then? You get even with the bastards. You get even with your parents by taking it out on your kids. (It is obvious that people inhejit at least a portion of the subconscious minds of their parents as well as their bodies. In fact, financial and marital relationships usually follow the parents’ behavior so exactly that it almost seems mechanical.) The ultimate knowledge is self-knowledge and the ultimate freedom is internal freedom.

There are several vehicles by which the parental disapproval syndrome is transmitted. Three of the most popular are bedtime, mealtime and toilet training. You came out of the womb with “divine” energy and you probably didn’t need to sleep a whole lot. But your parents taught you that you do need to sleep a whole lot. Sleep is related to the birth trauma and to being in the womb. When you came out of the womb and all hell broke loose, you learned that the world outside the womb was a hostile place. You have gone through the rest of your life protecting yourself from a hostile world during your waking hours. After running around all day protecting yourself, you experience enough tension so that you get tired and you want to go to bed—you have reached the point of not being able to cope, which develops as an addiction. You want some rest from the world, so you go back into the womb/bedroom. You turn off the lights to make it dark, as it was in the womb. You crawl under the covers, which simulate the pressure of the walls of the womb and raise your body temperature. Then you go into a state of preverbal-like consciousness called sleep. So by going to bed you have recreated the womb experience. If you stay in bed long enough, your bed becomes a hostile place. It is hostile because your parents disapprove of your staying in bed too long, and they will come after you with sticks.

There is a lot of unpleasantness connected with bed; it is no wonder that some people have difficulty having fun in bed. It can be an unpleasant place, just as the bedroom is uncomfortable because children also get punished by being sent to their rooms. They go there and feel unloved. So it turns out later that those people can screw on Main Street and get off on sex in the back of the car, but in bed, no way! There is just too much tension and too much going on in the bedroom. It is better to make love on the dining room table, if the dining room table is a pleasant place. However, for most people, the dining room table was where they got all the bad news. Your parents criticized you for playing with your food and not cleaning your plate. Eating can make you nervous forever after.

Mealtime is the time when most kids get the bad news. That’s when you learn if you don’t clean up your plate you are not loved. So whenever people feel anxiety they go “clean up” a plate.

Then there is toilet training. Now if you had unpleasant toilet training and you go to the bathroom five or six times a day (and you “plug into” those unpleasant emotions every time you go to the bathroom), then it is no wonder you have difficulty ever being happy and experiencing bliss. Problems of constipation, diarrhea, etc., are probably all ultimately connected to your toilet training. I had one client whose mother was so obsessed with toilet training that he developed an anal fixation, became homosexual and could only get off sexually with anal intercourse. He took enemas constantly.

Being aware of parental disapproval is very valuable, because when you are disapproving you are just “running out” your parent, or replaying your parents’ tape. The idea is to express your hostility toward your parents and get it out. This will ultimately enable you to love them more. Otherwise, when your parents die, you experience failure. You never “got even” and now you are never going to get their love either. You feel disappointment for having suppressed your true nature and for not having gained their approval.

*From an ACIM perspective, babies are just as “guilty” of believing in a separate ego self as adults.

*******

Thank you Leonard Orr and Sondra Ray for your many insights into healing.

Indifference vs Detachment

Posted on February 11, 2013

in Today's ACIM Lesson

by Amy Torres

I feel moved to reprint this essay published by Wahiduddin in Bowl of Saki because it complements A Course in Miracles so well. Many times I’ve had Course students tell me they are afraid of their Inner Light because it seems boring to them. Others fool themselves into thinking they are spiritually advanced because they have visual experiences of Light, but they have an indifference toward other people and are unaware of their insensitivity. And then there is the type of person who is superior to all spiritual teachings because s/he knows better–his indifference is a psychological defense which, in the end, puts one over on only himself! Here is Hazrat Inayat Khan’s spiritual wisdom–I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:

“He who arrives at the state of indifference without experiencing interest in life is incomplete and apt to be tempted by interest at any moment; but he who arrives at the state of indifference by going through interest really attains the blessed state.” ~Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

It is the interest of God which has been the cause of all creation and which keeps the whole universe in harmony; nevertheless one should not be completely immersed in phenomena, but should realize oneself as being independent of interests. … He who arrives at the state of indifference without experiencing interest in life is incomplete, and apt to be tempted by interest at any moment; but he who arrives at the state of indifference by going through interest, really attains the blessed state. Perfection is reached not through interest alone, nor through indifference alone, but through the right experience and understanding of both.

We also see many examples in this world of how interest often limits man’s power, and how indifference makes it greater. But at the same time indifference should not be practiced unless it springs naturally from the heart. There is a saying in the Hindi language, ‘Interest makes kings, but indifference makes emperors.’ … There comes a day in the life of a person, sooner or later, the day when he no longer thinks about himself, how he eats, how he is clothed, how he lives, how anybody treats him, if anybody loves him or hates him. Every thought that concerns himself leaves him. That day comes, and it is a blessed day when it comes to a man. That day his soul begins to live… Indifference is attained by developing interest, and by developing discrimination in one’s interest. Instead of going backward one should go forward in one’s interest. Then one will find that a spring will rise naturally in one’s heart, when the heart has touched the zenith in the path of interest. Then the fountain of interest will break up gradually, and when this happens, one should follow this trend, so that in the end one may know what interest means, and what indifference means.

Our likes and infatuations have a certain limit; when their time has expired the period of indifference commences. When the water of indifference is drunk, then there is no more wish for anything in the world. The nature of the water one drinks in this world is that one’s thirst is quenched for a certain time and then comes again. When the water of divine knowledge is drunk, then thirst never comes again. … Indifference, however, must be reached after interest has taken its course; before that moment it is a fault. A person without an interest in life becomes exclusive, he becomes disagreeable. Indifference must come after all experience – interest must end in indifference. Man must not take the endless path of interest: the taste of everything in the world becomes flat. Man must realize that all he seeks in the objects he runs after, that all beauty and strength, are in himself, and he must be content to feel them all in himself. … Vairagya means satisfaction, the feeling that no desire is to be satisfied any more, that nothing on earth is desired. This is a great moment, and then comes that which is the kingdom of God.

Vairagi means a person who has become indifferent; and yet indifference is not the word for it. It describes a person who has lost the value in his eyes of all that attracts the human being. It is no more attractive to him; it no more enslaves him. He may still be interested in all things of this life, but is not bound to them. … No affair of this world, no relation, no friendship, no wealth, no rank, position or comfort, nothing holds him. And yet that does not mean that he in any way lacks what is called love or kindness, for if ever he lives in this world it is only out of love. He is not interested in the world and it is only love that keeps him here, the love which does not express itself any more in the way of attachment, but only in the way of kindness, forgiveness, generosity, service, consideration, sympathy, helpfulness, in any way that it can; never expecting a return from the world, but ever doing all that it can, pitying the conditions, knowing the limitations of life and its continual changeability.

*********

~Bowl of Saki, February 11, by Hazrat Inayat Khan compiled by Wahiduddin–many thanks Wahiduddin for sharing Murshid’s illuminated teachings with us every day.

Healing Sexual Abuse through A Course in Miracles

Posted on February 11, 2013

in Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom, What is A Course in Miracles?

by Amy Torres

Ken Wapnick has an invaluable question and answer section at www.facimoutreach.org. Below is his explanation of how to heal sexual abuse through the forgiveness practice offered by A Course in Miracles.

Q: I am in my first year with A Course in Miracles. I was sexually molested as a child. The severe shame I feel from this has made relationships difficult. With each new failure to keep or maintain a relationship, they seem to become progressively more difficult. I don’t mind being in the constant process of forgiving the perpetrators. But my life struggle seems to be in sustaining forgiveness of myself. Is there any way I can address this specifically in my renewed relationship with God?

A: It is your ego that has convinced you that the shame you feel now is the result of those traumatic and shameful abusive experiences of your childhood. That way, the problem remains in the past, never really capable of being undone. But you are not alone in thinking this way. This is the purpose of the world, to keep our focus away from the real problem in the mind, the original and only source of guilt and shame, and on events in our lives that have happened to us and cannot be reversed.

This is not to say that those childhood experiences were not horrific or that you don’t continue to be haunted by thoughts related to those experiences. But what the Course offers you now is another way in the present of looking at all of that so that it need not maintain the grip on your life and your mind that it has up until now.

The guilt buried deep in our mind over the thought that we would want to and could separate ourselves from love is the real source of all of our shame. And it is a shame so severe that we believe that we do not deserve to be loved, that a lifetime beginning with abuse by those who are responsible for us is a fitting punishment for our “crime” of assaulting love. We carry the belief that we are somehow fatally flawed and that is the real cause of our shame.

But we never go back and look at that source of shame in our mind, where with the gentle support of Jesus, God’s symbol of love in our mind, we might begin to question the validity of that original self-accusation. Instead, we shift our focus to the world of bodies and the shame associated with being helpless and abused by others over whom we have no power or control. And then this seems to be the shame that poisons our whole life, and all the relationships we embark upon in search of the love that is missing that we yearn for. But the good news of the Course is that the problem is not where we are seeing it, in the world of bodies, but rather in our minds, where the solution — forgiveness — is as well.

And so this is where your renewed relationship with God and His representative, Jesus, and his Course, offers hope. For as you are willing to uncover the deeper ontological guilt and shame that your lifetime of personal shame is pointing to, looking at it with Jesus’ love beside you, you will gradually allow yourself to recognize that there is nothing to be ashamed of. For with his love there with you, you will begin to recognize that you have not abandoned or betrayed love, and love has not abandoned or betrayed you.

*******

Thank you, Ken, for the clarity and power of your prolific teachings on A Course in Miracles which have made being a Course student much easier for so many of us.

Ask Amy: How to Deal with Abusive Relationships?

Posted on February 1, 2013

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

by Amy Torres

Q: When people in our lives will not stop abusing us, should we continue to try to love them and have our emotions hurt or stepped upon forever, or should we put an end to it?

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA A: When A Course in Miracles talks about love, it is a love that has nothing to do with the personal self or the personality of the people around us. This Love is a recognition of the Inner Light which we all share. When people in our life are abusive, we need to request guidance from the Holy Spirit. He will direct us in a loving way.

As you open to guidance from your Internal Teacher (the Holy Spirit), signposts will appear. This may involve getting help from a psychotherapist, support groups, reading books on healthy relationships, learning new communication skills, or whatever it may be.

Forgiveness, redefined by Jesus in ACIM as recognizing that “what we thought our brother did to us has not occurred,” is the healing tool on which the Course is based.

Jesus tells us to observe the ego vigilantly and uncover its beliefs so that we can free ourselves of victimization (e.g., see the ACIM Workbook, which addresses ego grievances in Lesson 68 – 78, and special relationships in Chapters 15 – 18). There is more to be revealed from your relationship with this person. Conversate with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis and miracles must follow.

But remember that you cannot dictate the form the miracle takes. Miracle principle #3 says, “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love” and this must be combined with “I need do nothing except not to interfere (with the Holy Spirit’s guidance).”

There is a Sufi quote I love, “The Message is a call to those whose hour has come to awake, and it is a lullaby to those who are still meant to sleep.” If you are awakening, and interested in your Inner Light, and the abusive person in your life is still meant to sleep and remain in darkness a while longer, that is okay. Eventually your perception of this person as “abusive” will shift to seeing her as fearful and calling for Love.

You can ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the Light in her, even if she is unaware of that Light. Being willing to “see” her Light will empower you. You can do this from a distance, without being in physical or verbal contact with her.

This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the Jan-Feb 2013 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

God’s Vision or the Ego’s Eyesight?

Posted on January 29, 2013

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

by Amy Torres

More than one spiritual path explains that this world is an illusion. Even science now agrees. But what do they mean? And if this world is an illusion, what good does it do us to know that?

This is especially of interest to Course in Miracles students. We are told right from the start, in the ACIM Preface, that “projection makes perception.” Another way the Course puts it is that our thoughts are “an outward picture of an inward condition.”

Workbook Lesson 15 explains, “My thoughts are images that I have made.” It teaches us, “It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your ‘seeing’ was made. This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.”

ACIM posits that we are hallucinating this world by projecting our imaginary ego thoughts outward. We are literally a figment of our own imagination.

Let’s break this down: “… the thoughts you think you think”–this tells you that what you consider thinking is not really thinking. What the ego (our sense of individual identity) does is replace God’s One Ever-Extending Loving Thought with images–imaginary thoughts that appear as pictures. You view these pictures and call them “eyesight.” You believe in them, but that does not make them real. The function the ego gives the body’s eyes is to hallucinate images which are not real to distract us from the Reality of God’s Vision which is Unified and Formless.

But why would the ego want to distract us from God’s Vision? Because the ego knows that if we re-discover this Abstract Creative Light within ourselves, the personal self as we know it will unravel and “die.” Within this “death” lies Eternal Life–but that’s not the way the ego sees it (pun intended). One scientist put it this way, “If you look at the universe through a golf ball-sized lens, you will see a universe the size of a golf ball.” The ego limits our experience, but denies that it does this.

Un-think your way through this. Tell yourself, “I do not really think. What I think are my thoughts are actually images the ego made. These images are neither good nor bad, they simply are not real. Would I rather think these puny little thoughts that lead to suffering and death, or would I rather gently peel these images from my eyes today, and truly see what God would have me see?” Ask God, “What would You have me see?” He will show you.

Then you can decide for yourself whether you prefer the image-making eyesight of the ego, or God’s Vision.

A Course in Miracles and Yoga

Posted on January 24, 2013

in ACIM Body Image, Spiritual Psychotherapy, Thoughts on A Course in Miracles, Undoing the Ego, Unlearning Classroom, What is A Course in Miracles?

by Amy Torres

A Course in Miracles offers us a highly individualized curriculum where we use the body as a learning device under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Yoga is one of the classrooms the Holy Spirit offers me, to use my body for spiritual purposes. ACIM provides a mind-training; therefore, all of its practices are in thought-form, or ideas. This can be challenging, since the body demands our attention all day long. Yoga offers a body-based sadhana, or spiritual practice, using the body and breath to reconnect with God’s Mind. This way, instead of letting the body run the show, we have concrete techniques so that the body serves the Mind.

“The body, valueless and hardly worth the least defense, need merely be perceived as quite apart from you, and it becomes a healthy, serviceable instrument through which the mind can operate until its usefulness is over.” W-135.

Most of us think of yoga as a physical practice, but the physical movements or asanas, known as hatha yoga, is but one of five yoga systems. (Hindu philosophy speaks of hatha yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, and karma yoga. Each of these systems can be used autonomously to realize God, or they can be used in combination.)

Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word “yuj” which means “to yoke” or “join” as in union with our brothers and communion with God. Swami Satchidananda defines yoga as “the science of mind” and explains that “the mind is a veil woven with thoughts.” Yoga is a system that helps us harness the mind, because as long as the ego mind gives us the runaround, we’ll remain unaware of the One Mind in which we all truly live.

Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga is the physical movement of yoga, the asanas, or postures. The Rishis of five thousand years ago inadvertently “invented” hatha yoga when they surfaced from deep meditation and felt stiff. The stretching they did to limber up was based on what they saw around them in nature: they mimicked animals, mountains, and trees to loosen up and invigorate the body. Nowadays, hatha yoga is used as preparation for meditation. It can also be seen as a moving meditation in itself. When the movements are linked to the breath, and smooth transitions melt one pose into the next, the mind is smoothed also. By relaxing and strengthening the body, we calm the mind and are more able to harness our thoughts and concentrate, which leads to meditation.

ACIM is not strict about a formal ongoing meditation practice. “Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.” T-18.VII.4:9-11. Yoga is an unhurried, ancient practice based, to some extent, on an accumulation of good karma. It takes time to balance chakras, activate kundalini energy, and transcend the sheaths of the koshas.2 The Course is a refreshing counterbalance to yoga in this way: ACIM promises us over and over again that it will save us time. It provides a structured practice of meditation in the Workbook Lessons, but after that, we are on our own, listening to our Inner Teacher and using the Holy Instant to connect with Universal Mind as often as possible, and in our own way.

Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti yoga is a path of selfless devotion to God. Krishna’s gopis exemplified bhakti yoga. Gopi mean “cow- herding girl.” The story goes that when Krishna played his flute, gopi women dropped what they were doing, whether it was cooking, tending to the cows, or washing clothes. Everything would be left in the middle and the gopis would abandon their families to dance ecstatically around Krishna as he seduced them with his flute. At night, Krishna would visit every gopi, in a unique form just for her, and make love to her. Bhakti yoga has a quality of unreserved love and passion for God, a full faith that recognizes that God comes first above all others.

Mirabai, the thirteenth century mystic poet, valued her spiritual marriage to Krishna over her family’s arranged marriage for her. She spurned convention, surrendered entirely to her passion for Lord Krishna, and experienced Love alternately through knowing It, and yearning for It.

A Course in Miracles asks us for the same level of devotion. Lesson 157.5, “Into His Presence would I enter now” expresses it this way, “From this day forth, your ministry takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch, and blesses those you look upon.”

Jnana Yoga
Jnana yoga uses the study of scripture as a means to comprehend our true Self. What starts out as an intellectual pursuit deepens into a felt experience. Jnana uses inquiry to uncover meaning beneath meaning beyond meaning until the Self is revealed. The great sage and realized master Ramana Maharshi taught through the question, “Who am I?” This question, aimed at everything, takes us back to the Witness, the Observer, the Decision-Maker (in Ken Wapnick’s parlance). “It undoes the veils that the ego has interposed between its little slice of mind and its Source.

Jnana yoga helps us return to the decision-making part of our mind by stripping away the false self, layer by layer. “This single purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God.” T-3.II.5:6. Ultimately, the Course tells us to “Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.” W-189; but, until we reach that point, immersing ourselves in scripture can be the royal road Home. Rather than be lost in the ego’s unconscious, we saturate ourselves in the Holy Spirit’s teachings.

Karma Yoga
Karma yoga is the yoga of taking action in the world through selfless service. It is a pure practice of brotherhood. It is the natural expression of the miracle, seeing Christ in everyone indiscriminately. It is the application of the Course concept of “generalization,” which, essentially, recognizes that all actions should be equally loving toward all people, places and things, because we are all the same. “You will recognize that you have learned there is no order of difficulty in miracles when you apply them to all situations. There is no situation to which miracles do not apply, and by applying them to all situations, you will gain the real world.” T-12.VII.1:3-4. And the way to do this is to see Christ in each other.

Raja Yoga
Patanjali, the sage who compiled the Yoga Sutras, lays out the path of raja yoga. Raja means royal and is considered a complete system. Its goal is to improve our concentration so we can move all our attention toward our Being in order to become that Being. Raja yoga is also called ashtanga yoga because of the eight limbs on which the system rests:

They are 1) Yamas, outward morality, consisting of non-harming, truthfulness, non-stealing, self- discipline and non-coveting 2) Niyamas, inner ethics, consisting of cleanliness, contentment, purification of body, mind and nervous system, study of metaphysical principles and self-examination, contemplation of God 3) Postures, or asanas 4) Control of breath and life currents, or pranayama 5) Withdrawal of the senses in order to turn within, or pratyahara 6) Concentration, or dharana 7) Meditation, or dhyana: prolonged periods of concentration which becomes contemplation and 8) Holy Trance, or samadhi, what the Course would call revelation, a direct experience of God.

As the Course says in the Clarification of Terms, “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary.” ACIM also has a curriculum, and uses a text, workbook, and manual for teachers as its “limbs,” which, when used vigilantly, integrate its teachings and deepen our learning. The ACIM curriculum is not aimed at teaching Love or samadhi because that is beyond what can be taught and is naturally revealed as we remove the blocks to the awareness of Love’s presence.

The Yoga of ACIM
Though I was introduced to yoga first, along the way it became clear to me that ACIM is my path. The lack of ceremony and ritual, the lack of deities and complicated practices, suits me. I have a gypsy nature, which finds the “no baggage” style of the Holy Spirit alluring. Still, it comes naturally for me to practice ACIM hatha yoga, where I find my mind often goes pleasantly blank and I spontaneously experience the peace of God. And ACIM bhakti yoga emerged effortlessly too, as it became natural to devote the fruits of my practice to God. ACIM jnana yoga is the pleasure of reading and re-reading the Course, experiencing a deeper and deeper understanding as I do, as well as cultivating the relationship with my guru, my inner teacher, the Holy Spirit. ACIM raja yoga is applying the practices, the Workbook lessons, and allowing the Course to work through me as an integrated whole. ACIM karma yoga is seeing Christ in my brother.

It’s fun to reverse my upside-down perception simply by doing a headstand, and to evoke the holy instant by chanting “aum.” It’s fun “to let my words be chosen for me by ceasing to decide for myself what I’m going to say” (paraphrased from M-21). Recently, I heard myself giving a guided meditation to my yoga class during savasana inviting them to contact a glowing light within them that is always there, allowing it to permeate their bodies and then extend, radiating Its light through them, so that their very presence was a source of healing to all they came in contact with the rest of the day. “The light is in you,” I said, not realizing it was a line from Chapter 18, channeling straight through me. “You need do nothing except not to interfere,” I continued, transmitting Chapter 16 from the True Empathy section. The Light flowed through me on Its way to them.

In concluding, I say to you, “Namaste. The divine Light in me bows to the divine Light in you” or, in ACIM– speak, “You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One.” Lesson 95.15:3.

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1 These are five well-known yogic systems. Kundalini yoga, tantric yoga, and kriya yoga are also frequently studied and applied, and the list goes on.

2 Yoga is a vast subject and there are countless books and online resources to explore karma, the chakras, kundalini energy and the koshas, as
well as many other esoteric topics, if you are so inclined. David Hoffmeister has an interesting chart in his book, Awakening Through A Course in Miracles, that maps the ego mind and the layers are remarkably similar to the koshas.