2008-11-19 03:29:00
(JJ's Note: This post was a response to a believer in "A Course In Miracles" [ACIM] who was preaching it to me that truth is relative.)
You wrote:
"The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. Let me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. Your faith in nothing is deceiving you...." (ACIM, Vol. 1, Pg. 253)
You say the truth is relative, but I find that teaching no where in ACIM or in life. Instead I find that statement based in illusion. It is the "faith in nothing" that the course teaches.
There is nothing relative about the statement "My mind is a part of God's. I am very holy." It is absolute truth that you are a part of God and so am I just like it is an absolute truth that a wheel is part of a car.
If I am happy, I may say absolutely that I am "very" happy. This would be true and nothing else would be true in that instant. "I am very holy" is a very absolute truth about you and me when we see through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. If we do not see it, it is still absolutely true.
You ask: "Does absolute truth see you as separate from me?" The answer is yes and no. We are parts of the body of God just like the various parts of our body. My mouth may say "I am Joseph" or it may say "I am the mouth." Both are absolutely true. But the whole absolute truth is that the mouth is a part of the whole and that one part of the whole is affected by every other part.
The answer to your question is that when I look at the wholeness (or holiness) of God you are not separate from me, but if I look at the part then I am separate. This makes what I see relative to my attention, but does not make any truth relative. Truth never changes.
I can't believe that you are a student of ACIM and have not grasped one of its basic teachings about the truth.
You also state "truth has to do with the heart not the head."
ACIM teaches as much about the importance of the mind as it does about the heart. They are both two parts of a great whole. Using the heart alone to find truth is like one hand clapping. It doesn't happen and as the Course states:
"You will never learn how to make nothing everything. Yet see that this has been your goal, and recognize how foolish it has been." (ACIM, Vol. 1, Pg. 254)
It appears to me that there is some fear in you about using the mind. I think you should examine this part of yourself that avoids the inner conflicts the mind can arouse. If the mind is guided by the Holy Spirit then the conflict may arise in others when truth is presented, but not in the presenter.
Bartholomew's quote is accurate to the mind that is not guided by the Holy Spirit, but totally wrong about the mind (and heart) that is under the Spirit.
If you have learned the basics of ACIM you will not feel attacked by this but edified. My words are not as strong as the course itself.
Who Am I?
I have made several statements about ourselves and our origin.
First. We are not our physical, emotional, or mental selves. These are instead called our three vehicles. Our true self uses these vehicles to explore the three lower worlds. Just as you put on a diving suit to explore underwater, so must you acquire the right "equipment" to explore the lower worlds.
In a way we are like the diver who is under the sea with limited oxygen and gets hit on the head and winds up with amnesia. When he sees his reflection he assumes that the diving suit is himself and that is what he looks like. He must soon rouse himself and remember who he is or he will think the sea is his home and die for lack of oxygen. That would be a pity, for if he knew who and where he was he would know that he needs air and where to get it. But if he remains in deception then death is certain.
Second, I have stated that we as entities are eternal, yet all that has vibration has a beginning and an end. All matter, all form, all energy has vibration which will someday end. Just as when you pluck a guitar string it will not vibrate forever so does the vibration off all things in the universe eventually run down.
On the other hand, the eternal part of us has no vibration. Everyone thinks that to travel to the various worlds we need to speed up our vibration, but could the opposite be true? Could it be that we need to still vibration instead? The truth is a great secret.
You may ask: "If that eternal part of us has no vibration, no form and no energy then it appears that it would not even exist. How do you explain that?"
The answer is another great mystery, but even mysteries are simple when they are understood.
You as an individual entity consists of a musical chord of four notes at any given point in time and space. Your physical body vibrates on a certain note as well as does your emotions and your mind. Then your soul vibrates on a fourth note. You also play your notes in a certain key. Altogether you incarnate through a very large number of lives and in each life certain notes will change. As your higher self "listens" to the music you play he/she/it will enjoy a piece of music more beautiful than anything we can comprehend here, but the music of your whole self can only be heard from the "Eternal Now," because in our time frame it takes millions of years to play the piece.
In my journey through time I am playing one symphony for the ears of the One Great Life and in your journey you are playing another and altogether there are endless pieces of music being played for the enjoyment of our Creator. This is the true meaning of the term "Music of the Spheres."
The playing of a melody is created by vibration, but the actual melody and notes themselves exist independent of vibration and are without beginning and without end.
Let us take a familiar tune by the Beatles -- "Yesterday." We think that it had a beginning when Lennon and McCartney wrote it. But in reality that is not so. Every note that we use to play it on the piano has existed from eternity as well as did the combination of notes that make the song. [The song] "Yesterday" has always been in the mind of God. Vibration of the notes makes us aware of the tune, but the music still exists even when it is not being played. Even at this moment, when no one is playing it, when there is no vibration, the song lives within you and it can be recreated at any living moment.
The melody which is distinctly you has existed in the mind of God from eternity. But when you were given vibration you received a form manifestation that makes you and others self-aware.
Once the children of God become aware of their melodies the melody is realized to be eternal. Just as no one can destroy the song "Yesterday," no one can destroy you. Even if this planet were blown up and every piece of music destroyed with it, the song still exists; and somewhere, some time, someplace, a musician will recreate the tune and it will be played again.
You will be played again and again in newer and better versions, worlds without end. You will play until you and your Creator are satisfied. Then you will rest. After that you will play again.
This teaching is given to expand our awareness of who we are, but is still not the first key of knowledge. Any expanded awareness of who we are will help us appreciate the first key.
(JJ's Note: This is another post from me to the ACIM guy.)
You wrote:
"Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false... (very absolute, wouldn't you agree?) Salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you recognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal."
From Lesson 16: "I have no neutral thoughts."
It appears that you are trying to make your thoughts about me and my writing neutral. This is impossible. What are your true thoughts? Have you faced them?
"Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off, because you would have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication while breaking communication holds value to you...." (ACIM, Vol. 1, Pg. 289)
I have inquired and questioned you, my brother, but I have not judged you.
"Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them." (ACIM, Text, Pg. 36)
Remember the first Chaotic Law:
"The truth is different for everyone." (ACIM, Text, Pg. 455)
According to ACIM, this is the belief that sustains the illusion.
Copyright © 2008 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved