Putting aside all the thoughts about what's real or truthful, and the meaning of all these exercises, the one effect of CIM that has been quite noteworthy is how the course is causing me to think. To REALLY think about things I've seldom dwelled upon. Oh yeah, I believe in God… but the nuances of what God is and my relationship to him - I've never spent so much time pondering these things. To be sure, I seem to discover more questions than I have answers, but the act of thinking so deeply about such a concept is new to me.
This process is an exercise I haven't yet seen in the course. I think it was Thoreau (or someone of his ilk) who said… "the unexamined life is not worth living". The Course in Miracles is forcing me to examine my life in a way that I have never imagined.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Encouragement
Lesson #9
I see nothing as it is now.
I have to control myself to not be repetitious with my comments about these first nine lessons. These are intellectual exercises, and I THINK I understand whay they are being presented, but that understanding does not make the "accepting" any easier. As the lesson goes on to say, "understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding." I take encouragement from that clarification.
The battle to KNOW (for me) far exceeds the understanding that this is an exercise. I liken these exercises to how I felt as a child when being taught how to do something. I want to play the game (NOW), I don't want to practice, I want to play!
Add to this - lessons that boggle my conscious mind such as "I see nothing as it is now" - to tell my brain that what it pictures is not really there.... I do not see the keyboard on which I am typing as it is now. One of the most encouraging statements I've read so far in the CIM was a comment that accompanied this lesson; "Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." That gives me comfort and hope.
I see nothing as it is now.
I have to control myself to not be repetitious with my comments about these first nine lessons. These are intellectual exercises, and I THINK I understand whay they are being presented, but that understanding does not make the "accepting" any easier. As the lesson goes on to say, "understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding." I take encouragement from that clarification.
The battle to KNOW (for me) far exceeds the understanding that this is an exercise. I liken these exercises to how I felt as a child when being taught how to do something. I want to play the game (NOW), I don't want to practice, I want to play!
Add to this - lessons that boggle my conscious mind such as "I see nothing as it is now" - to tell my brain that what it pictures is not really there.... I do not see the keyboard on which I am typing as it is now. One of the most encouraging statements I've read so far in the CIM was a comment that accompanied this lesson; "Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." That gives me comfort and hope.
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