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Listen to the Phelps' teaching recorded from ACIM Gather on PalTalk, November 25, 2005 [click the play button (►) on the player bar]
Playing Media Files "Recognizing Our Projections and Releasing Them" - Recorded
January 22, 2006
Rev Paul & Deb Phelps Illumination Through Silence Revs. Paul and Deborah Phelps Workshop originally presented at Pathways of Light, November 14th, 2005 and also adapted and enhanced for the ACIM Gather teaching on November 25th, 2005. Silence in the World Exercise – “The Effect of Silence”
Share with a partner:
Why do people only find comfort when they're filling the air with sound?
The Value of Silence by Rabbi Boruch
Leff Mitch describes a college experience with Morrie: "He enters the classroom, sits down, doesn't say anything. He looks at us, we look at him. At first, there are a few giggles, but Morrie only shrugs, and eventually a deep silence falls and we begin noticing the smallest sounds, the radiator humming in the corner of the room, the nasal breathing of one of the students. Some of us are agitated. When is he going to say something? We squirm, check our watches. A few students look out the window, trying to be above it all. This goes on for a good fifteen minutes, before Morrie breaks in with a whisper. 'What's happening here?' he asks. And slowly a discussion begin -- as Morrie has wanted all along -- about the effect of silence on human relations. Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?" The question got me thinking. Noise lets us ignore our most difficult struggle and our most precious possession: our true and profound selves. Very often, it is painful to face one's true inner core. It is hard to be absolutely honest with oneself. Shakespeare writes in Hamlet, "This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day," but we often fail in this regard. We fool ourselves, and the noise and distractions of life help us in this effort. Constant external stimuli and occurrences allow us to avoid dealing with our inner being. When we're alone in the car, do we immediately reach for the radio? Is it any wonder that talk radio is such a booming international business? We are so afraid of silence, so fearful of the opportunity to be with ourselves and penetrate our inner world. Silence in Meditation RULES FOR DECISION – KEN WAPNICK Let's now turn to the last paragraph of Chapter 5, which is a wonderful elaboration of this fourth rule for decision: "at least I can decide I do not like what I feel now." I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you allow yourself to feel your pain, to feel your ego's thought system in whatever way it comes to you. If you do not allow yourself to feel it, which again is what the blissninnies attempt to do (in other words, cover it over and everything is wonderful), then there will be no motivation to learn and practice this course. If you really believe you are happy and at peace, then what do you need a course for? The purpose of this course is to give you a way of undoing your pain. If you don't believe you have any pain, then you don't need this. So again, one of the first ideas in working with this course is to understand that one of Jesus' central purposes is to have you recognize that you do not recognize how much in pain you are. This whole thing rests on the idea that you are allowing yourself to be aware that you are not feeling joyous or happy -- that you are feeling anxious, guilty, lonely, sad, depressed, fearful, etc. If you don't let yourself feel that, then nothing else is possible. Another premise is the idea that if you are not feeling joyous, you are the one who has chosen that, as we had discussed before. If there is no world outside you mind, then there is nothing that can have any effect on you. If you are unhappy, you are the only one who has made you unhappy. THE SECRET WALL – KEN WAPNICK
Therefore, looking means taking the darkness I projected
outside -- anger, judgment, specialness -- and
bringing it within. I learn it is my darkness that I hold tightly around my
self, and cherish because it walls off the light of love so threatening to my
self. Forgiving my projected spots of darkness, I allow the light in my mind
to extend throughout the Sonship. I hear
everyone's call for help, for I have sought and found the quiet place of love:
LESSON 221 Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still. W-221.1. <Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. 2 I come in silence. 3 In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. 4 My Father, speak to me today. 5 I come to hear Your Voice in silence and in certainty and love, sure You will hear my call and answer me.> W-221.2. Now do we wait in quiet. 2 God is here, because we wait together. 3 I am sure that He will speak to you, and you will hear. 4 Accept my confidence, for it is yours. 5 Our minds are joined. 6 We wait with one intent; to hear our Father's answer to our call, to let our thoughts be still and find His peace, to hear Him speak to us of what we are, and to reveal Himself unto His Son. T-2.V.6. It should be emphasized again that the body does not learn any more than it creates. 2 As a learning device it merely follows the learner, but if it is falsely endowed with self-initiative, it becomes a serious obstruction to the very learning it should facilitate. 3 Only the mind is capable of illumination. 4 Spirit is already illuminated and the body in itself is too dense. 5 The mind, however, can bring its illumination to the body by recognizing that it is not the learner, and is therefore unamenable to learning. 6 The body is, however, easily brought into alignment with a mind that has learned to look beyond it toward the light. T-10.IV “The End of Sickness”.8. In many only the spark remains, for the Great Rays are obscured. 2 Yet God has kept the spark alive so that the Rays can never be completely forgotten. 3 If you but see the little spark you will learn of the greater light, for the Rays are there unseen. 4 Perceiving the spark will heal, but knowing the light will create. 5 Yet in the returning the little light must be acknowledged first, for the separation was a descent from magnitude to littleness. 6 But the spark is still as pure as the Great Light, because it is the remaining call of creation. 7 Put all your faith in it, and God Himself will answer you. VIII. The Vision of Sinlessness T-20.VIII.1. Vision will come to you at first in glimpses, but they will be enough to show you what is given you who see your brother sinless. 2 Truth is restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else. 3 Open the holy place that you closed off by valuing the "something else," and what was never lost will quietly return. 4 It has been saved for you. p441 5 Vision would not be necessary had judgment not been made. 6 Desire now its whole undoing, and it is done for you. T-20.VIII.3. Your brother's sinlessness is given you in shining light, to look on with the Holy Spirit's vision and to rejoice in along with Him. 2 For peace will come to all who ask for it with real desire and sincerity of purpose, shared with the Holy Spirit and at one with Him on what salvation is. 3 Be willing, then, to see your brother sinless, that Christ may rise before your vision and give you joy. 4 And place no value on your brother's body, which holds him to illusions of what he is. 5 It is his desire to see his sinlessness, as it is yours. 6 And bless the Son of God in your relationship, nor see in him what you have made of him. T-20.VIII.5. The body is the sign of weakness, vulnerability and loss of power. 2 Can such a savior help you? 3 Would you turn in your distress and need for help unto the helpless? 4 Is the pitifully little the perfect choice to call upon for strength? 5 Judgment will seem to make your savior weak. 6 Yet it is <you> who need his strength. 7 There is no problem, no event or situation, no perplexity that vision will not solve. 8 All is redeemed when looked upon with vision. 9 For this is not <your> sight, and brings with it the laws beloved of Him Whose sight it is. p443 T-16.VI “The Bridge to the Real World”.6. Across the bridge it is so different! 2 For a time the body is still seen, but not exclusively, as it is seen here. 3 The little spark that holds the Great Rays within it is also visible, and this spark cannot be limited long to littleness. 4 Once you have crossed the bridge, the value of the body is so diminished in your sight that you will see no need at all to magnify it. 5 For you will realize that the only value the body has is to enable you to bring your brothers to the bridge with you, and to be released together there. T-16.VI.7. The bridge itself is nothing more than a transition in the perspective of reality. 2 On this side, everything you see is grossly distorted and completely out of perspective. 3 What is little and insignificant is magnified, and what is strong and powerful cut down to littleness. 4 In the transition there is a period of confusion, in which a sense of actual disorientation may occur. 5 But fear it not, for it means only that you have been willing to let go your hold on the distorted frame of reference that seemed to hold your world together. 6 This frame of reference is built around the special relationship. 7 Without this illusion there could be no meaning you would still seek here. T-16.VI.8. Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality. 2 Time is kind, and if you use it on behalf of reality, it will keep gentle pace with you in your transition. 3 The urgency is only in dislodging your mind from its fixed position here. 4 This will not leave you homeless and without a frame of reference. 5 The period of disorientation, which precedes the actual transition, is far shorter than the time it took to fix your mind so firmly on illusions. 6 Delay will hurt you now more than before, only because you realize it <is> delay, and that escape from pain is really possible. 7 Find hope and comfort, rather than despair, in this: You could not long find even the illusion of love in any special relationship here. 8 For you are no longer wholly insane, and you would soon recognize the guilt of self-betrayal for what it is. T-2.I.4. All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. 2 Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. 3 Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. 4 The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred. 5 Only after the deep sleep fell upon Adam could he experience nightmares. 6 If a light is suddenly turned on while someone is dreaming a fearful dream, he may initially interpret the light itself as part of his dream and be afraid of it. 7 However, when he awakens, the light is correctly perceived as the release from the dream, which is then no longer accorded reality. 8 This release does not depend on illusions. 9 The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you clearly that you <are> free. T-14.XI.3. Atonement teaches you how to escape forever from everything that you have taught yourself in the past, by showing you only what you are <now.> 2 Learning has been accomplished before its effects are manifest. 3 Learning is therefore in the past, but its influence determines the present by giving it whatever meaning it holds for you. 4 <Your> learning gives the present no meaning at all. 5 Nothing you have ever learned can help you understand the present, or teach you how to undo the past p296. 6 Your past is what you have taught yourself. 7 <Let> it all go. 8 Do not attempt to understand any event or anything or anyone in its "light," for the darkness in which you try to see can only obscure. 9 Put no confidence at all in darkness to illuminate your understanding, for if you do you contradict the light, and thereby think you see the darkness. 10 Yet darkness cannot be seen, for it is nothing more than a condition in which seeing becomes impossible. T-13.V.8. Vision depends on light. 2 You cannot see in darkness. 3 Yet in darkness, in the private world of sleep, you see in dreams although your eyes are closed. 4 And it is here that what you see you made. 5 But let the darkness go and all you made you will no longer see, for sight of it depends upon denying vision. 6 Yet from denying vision it does not follow you cannot see. 7 But this is what denial does, for by it you accept insanity, believing you can make a private world and rule your own perception. 8 Yet for this, light must be excluded. 9 Dreams disappear when light has come and you can see. T-13.V.9. Do not seek vision through your eyes, for you made your way of seeing that you might see in darkness, and in this you are deceived. 2 Beyond this darkness, and yet still within you, is the vision of Christ, Who looks on all in light. 3 Your "vision" comes from fear, as His from love. 4 And He sees for you, as your witness to the real world. 5 He is the Holy Spirit's manifestation, looking always on the real world, and calling forth its witnesses and drawing them to you. 6 He loves what He sees within you, and He would extend it. 7 And He will not return unto the Father until He has extended your perception even unto Him. p249 8 And there perception is no more, for He has returned you to the Father with Him. T-13.V.11. The Holy Spirit is the light in which Christ stands revealed. 2 And all who would behold Him can see Him, for they have asked for light. 3 Nor will they see Him alone, for He is no more alone than they are. 4 Because they saw the Son, they have risen in Him to the Father. 5 And all this will they understand, because they looked within and saw beyond the darkness the Christ in them, and recognized Him. 6 In the sanity of His vision they looked upon themselves with love, seeing themselves as the Holy Spirit sees them. 7 And with this vision of the truth in them came all the beauty of the world to shine upon them. LESSON 91 Miracles are seen in light. W-91.1. It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. 2 This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. 3 It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. 4 The miracle is always there. 5 Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. 6 It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. 7 You will see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark. W-91.2. To you, then, light is crucial. 2 While you remain in darkness, the miracle remains unseen. 3 Thus you are convinced it is not there. 4 This follows from the premises from which the darkness comes. 5 Denial of light leads to failure to perceive it. 6 Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. 7 The light is useless to you then, even though it is there. 8 You cannot use it because its presence is unknown to you. 9 And the seeming reality of the darkness makes the idea of light meaningless. W-91.3. To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. 2 It is very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is there, and to see what is not there instead. 3 You do not doubt that the body's eyes can see. 4 You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. 5 Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light. 6 How can this be reversed? 7 For you it is impossible, but you are not alone in this. W-91.4. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. 2 Did you but realize how great this strength, your doubts would vanish. 3 Today we will devote ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength. 4 When you have felt the strength in you, which makes all miracles within your easy reach, you will not doubt. 5 The miracles your sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you feel the strength in you. W-91.5. Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which you try to leave your weakness behind. 2 This is accomplished very simply, as you instruct yourself that you are not a body. 3 Faith goes to what you want, and you instruct your mind accordingly. 4 Your will remains your teacher, and your will has all the strength to do what it desires. 5 You can escape the body if you choose. 6 You can experience the strength in you. W-91.6. Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and effect relationships: 2 Miracles are seen in light. 3 The body's eyes do not perceive the light. 4 But I am not a body. 5 What am I? 6 The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises today. 7 What you think you are is a belief to be undone. 8 But what you really are must be revealed to you. 9 The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. 10 The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake conceals. W-91.7. If you are not a body, what are you? 2 You need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. 3 You need to feel something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. 4 You need a real experience of something else, something more solid and more sure; more worthy of your faith, and really there. W-91.8. If you are not a body, what are you? 2 Ask this in honesty, and then devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place. 3 Say, for example: 4 I am not weak, but strong. 5 I am not helpless, but all powerful. 6 I am not limited, but unlimited. 7 I am not doubtful, but certain. 8 I am not an illusion, but a reality. 9 I cannot see in darkness, but in light. W-91.9. In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these truths about yourself. 2 Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. 3 Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith. 4 Try to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment. 5 You will be accustomed to keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along. W-91.10. Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. 2 It is from Them that your strength will come. 3 It is through Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you. 4 They are united with you in this practice period, in which you share a purpose like Their Own. 5 Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles, because Their strength is yours. 6 Their strength becomes your eyes, that you may see. W-91.11. Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself that miracles are seen in light. 2 Also, be sure to meet temptation with today's idea. 3 This form would be helpful for this special purpose: 4 Miracles are seen in light. 5 Let me not close my eyes because of this. LESSON 44 God is the light in which I see. W-44.1. Today we are continuing the idea for yesterday, adding another dimension to it. 2 You cannot see in darkness, and you cannot make light. 3 You can make darkness and then think you see in it, but light reflects life, and is therefore an aspect of creation. 4 Creation and darkness cannot coexist, but light and life must go together, being but different aspects of creation. W-44.2. In order to see, you must recognize that light is within, not without. 2 You do not see outside yourself, nor is the equipment for seeing outside you. 3 An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing possible. 4 It is with you always, making vision possible in every circumstance. W-44.3. Today we are going to attempt to reach that light. 2 For this purpose, we will use a form of exercise which has been suggested before, and which we will utilize increasingly. 3 It is a particularly difficult form for the undisciplined mind, and represents a major goal of mind training. 4 It requires precisely what the untrained mind lacks. 5 Yet this training must be accomplished if you are to see. W-44.4. Have at least three practice periods today, each lasting three to five minutes. 2 A longer time is highly recommended, but only if you find the time slipping by with little or no sense of strain. 3 The form of practice we will use today is the most natural and easy one in the world for the trained mind, just as it seems to be the most unnatural and difficult for the untrained mind. W-44.5. Your mind is no longer wholly untrained. 2 You are quite ready to learn the form of exercise we will use today, but you may find that you will encounter strong resistance. 3 The reason is very simple. 4 While you practice in this way, you leave behind everything that you now believe, and all the thoughts that you have made up. 5 Properly speaking, this is the release from hell. 6 Yet perceived through the ego's eyes, it is loss of identity and a descent into hell. W-44.6. If you can stand aside from the ego by ever so little, you will have no difficulty in recognizing that its opposition and its fears are meaningless. 2 You might find it helpful to remind yourself, from time to time, that to reach light is to escape from darkness, whatever you may believe to the contrary. 3 God is the light in which you see. 4 You are attempting to reach Him. W-44.7. Begin the practice period by repeating today's idea with your eyes open, and close them slowly, repeating the idea several times more. 2 Then try to sink into your mind, letting go every kind of interference and intrusion by quietly sinking past them. 3 Your mind cannot be stopped in this unless you choose to stop it. 4 It is merely taking its natural course. 5 Try to observe your passing thoughts without involvement, and slip quietly by them. W-44.8. While no particular approach is advocated for this form of exercise, what is needful is a sense of the importance of what you are doing; its inestimable value to you, and an awareness that you are attempting something very holy. 2 Salvation is your happiest accomplishment. 3 It is also the only one that has any meaning, because it is the only one that has any real use to you at all. W-44.9. If resistance rises in any form, pause long enough to repeat today's idea, keeping your eyes closed unless you are aware of fear. 2 In that case, you will probably find it more reassuring to open your eyes briefly. 3 Try, however, to return to the exercises with eyes closed as soon as possible. W-44.10. If you are doing the exercises correctly, you should experience some sense of relaxation, and even a feeling that you are approaching, if not actually entering into light. 2 Try to think of light, formless and without limit, as you pass by the thoughts of this world. 3 And do not forget that they cannot hold you to the world unless you give them the power to do so. W-44.11. Throughout the day repeat the idea often, with eyes open or closed as seems better to you at the time. 2 But do not forget. 3 Above all, be determined not to forget today. Taking the Silence With Us Into Our Daily Life LEARNING TO LISTEN - KEN WAPNICK
A Course in Miracles
repeatedly says that its purpose is to be practical. And it is not very
practical if I can only find peace by sitting quietly in a corner. What do I
do if I am in the middle of a traffic jam on the highway? Or what do I do as a
therapist if I am with a patient and I suddenly become very anxious, very
guilty, very fearful, or very upset? I can't excuse myself for fifteen minutes
and go off into another room and meditate. So the purpose of the Course is to
help us train our minds so that, no matter where we are, we can quickly go
back to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our minds and ask for help.
Physically, nothing changes. I am still perfectly present to you, but a part
of my mind goes back to that place of peace and says, "Help. I must have
chosen against You because I am not feeling
peaceful. I am feeling guilty, anxious, and fearful."
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