Tag: Dr. Ken Wapnick

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Spring Forward into Peace

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sea Ranch Iris, watercolor. Sally McKirgan

This month we all set our clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings time. I love it. More Light!!! We need more light in our lives. One way to have more light in our lives is look at and let go of the darkness, daily. Actually moment by moment.

If you cannot access peace you may be on “rewind” and replaying hurtful events from the past.  Examine and see if something is bothering you from an hour ago, yesterday or last week?

Are you happy being stuck on automatic thinking about an event, old or new?  Are you replaying blame, pain and guilt?  Was it their fault or yours?  If it was your fault you feel guilty.  If it was theirs, you feel victimized.  Neither are very happy making!

Why is your mind doing the replaying?   Ask Yourself: Do I want peace and joy rather than guilt or victimhood?  If the answer is Peace and Joy, then STOP acknowledging or listening to the replay.

STOP listening to the ego. The ego is the part of the mind that is always on replay, fear, negative, self doubt, envy, grievances, etc. It’s purpose is to keep you from realizing your true innocent Self, to keep you from peace.

You have a Beautiful Holy Mind, a Decider! START to “overlook” the disturbing limiting negative thoughts and instead say:  “I choose to look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.” You do not have to believe your thoughts. They are coming from the insane ego part of your mind. Listen to Holy Spirit, the guide that was given all of us at the point when we separated from God. He was placed there as the alternative to the ego. You can ask for help and choose which part of your mind you will listen to; the voice for peace or the voice for love.

If you are holding a grievance against someone….it is held in your MIND!  You are trapped in the grievance with them.  Are you happy?  Tell them in your mind and include yourself:

“My brother/sister/:  peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.” 

See A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 105.

We don’t realize that if we hold a grudge or a judgement against someone, that we are in effect, denying peace to our Self.  If you hold it in your mind, you are victimizing yourself, causing your own suffering.

Do you think your brother is suffering?  We don’t know but we know you are. Would you say to that brother?

“My brother/sister/myself: misery and suffering I offer you, That I may have misery and suffering as well.

You have a powerful and Holy Mind at your disposal. The Holy Sprit will take your hand and guide you as you look at any and all thoughts. This looking is forgiveness.

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From A Course In Miracles, 1. What Is Forgiveness: p.4.  Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does noth­ing. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appear­ances it likes. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.

Accept that peace and joy is your inheritance and that you are worth it. Spring FORWARD into PEACE!!

God Bless!

http://www.acim.org | http://www.facim.org | http://www.miraclecenter.org

A Principle of Forgiveness – Seeing all projections as false

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Photo:  Two “spheres” appear in a picture taken at Sun River, Oregon, 2008

Perception is the ego’s interpretation of people, circumstances, things, situations etc.  Therefore perception being from the ego’s slanted position is not TRUE it is not a FACT.

Why do we believe our ego’s perceptions and judgments?  We cannot tolerate those aspects as also being in ourselves so we must see them elsewhere.

Ken Wapnick says in his book,  ‘Journey Through the Text of A Course In Miracles’ – Volume two, Chapter 11. Pg. 84

“If we accuse others of not being Christ like to us, not being loving, sensitive, or understand, it is only because we were not Christ-like to them, if only in our unkind thoughts. No matter how hateful people may be, we experience them that way because we were hateful first; otherwise we could not judge them.”

We just cannot accept those qualities in our self so we MUST see them outside.  They are too icky!!  No way is that within me!   Ken goes on to say:

“It can never be said too often that perception is interpretation, not objective fact. There are no objective facts in the world of illusion. Regardless of the behavior of others, our accusations of un-Christ like behavior come only because we were like that, if not in actions then certainly in our minds. The guilt over perceived sin of withholding love demands that we project, judging others for what we secretly believe we have done.”

The Course in Miracles claims that this world was not created by God so it is therefore an illusion.  God only creates the REAL and ETERNAL and the world is neither.  Certainly not ETERNAL since one day it will be consumed by the sun and become a cinder.

“The world’s viciousness notwithstanding, if we choose the Holy Spirit (The voice for Love in our right mind) as our Teacher, the behavior will be perceived as an expression of fear and a call for love. The mind’s decision alone is the determiner of wrong or right minded perceptions; projection makes perception.”

How can we hear the love or Holy Spirit in our right mind?  Become QUIET!  Shhhhhhh  – don’t think.  Not one miserable thought is TRUE.   Shhhhhhhh.  Breathe – in hale long through your nose and exhale out through your mouth.  What “color” is the exiting breath?  Keep it up until that “color” is clear, translucent and filled with light.  A TRUE thought will come and it will bring tears of gratitude.

Ken continues:

 “Once again, herein lies the difficulty of practicing A Course In Miracles: there are no exceptions to this principle of forgiveness. Acceptance of this happy fact of salvation marks the end of all wars, in the mind and in the world, which ultimately originate in the authority problem. We need to accept full responsibility for everything we perceive and react to. Once more: perception is interpretation.”

Did you catch what he said?  This practice of looking at our projections is a “principle of forgiveness.”   Isn’t that nice to know.  You don’t have to “excuse” someone because you think they cheated you.  All you have to do is see that you have also cheated!  Own it!  It is the way to PEACE!

And so it is!

Go to http://www.facim.org and visit the bookstore.  Many of Ken’s small concise books are on sale!

 

Have I invented the world I see?

On By SallyIn Uncategorized2 Comments

A Course In Miracles – Workbook Lesson 32
I have invented the world I see.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of the script lately; why do we have one and where does it come from. The term is mentioned six times in the Course; four times in Chapter 30. Section VII; once each in lessons 158 and 169.

In Dr. Ken Wapnick’s, Journey through the Workbook of A Course In Miracles, Volume 1. Lesson 32. I have invented the world I see, he explains the concept, the why and the where. If you do not have this eight volume series it is well worth it, especially if you have gone through the lessons a couple of times and want to explore them further. His clarification and expertise takes one to a very deep level of understanding.

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What I understand Ken to be saying is that we cannot be the victim of the world we see because it is our own thoughts making up the world and those thoughts do the victimizing! We do this to ourselves! From the day of our birth to the day we die, we live in a dream. It is a script of victimization the ego wrote to accomplish its purpose of keeping us distracted and bound to the world telling us that it is real. Thus the ego keeps our attention rooted to our individual body and with a special script keeps us split off from others by projecting onto them the belief in sin, and the ontological guilt we inherited at the* “seeming” separation from God. The problem is that the decision making part of our mind sided with and believed the ego and even helped write the script to teach that we are the victim of the world and now its miserable prisoner. Is that sick or what?

So, it is not what I see in the world or what has happened or is happening in the world that is the problem. My decision making mind believes the script and follows it line for line, year in and year out and has hypnotized me into staring at the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave.

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I am the victim of my ego’s/decision making minds script writing until I ask the Holy Spirit for HELP. By now, everyone is probably convinced that they are a lousy script writer! The ego gets an F for failure and also the decision making mind for choosing it! The ego writes a script of guilt, guilt, and more guilt. The decision making mind just automatically goes for the ego – like a kid for the cotton candy. This is something to really be vigilant for!

The Solution: I now, take charge of the decision making mind and invite the Holy Spirit to help me see the script; the classroom. I now, as the decider have a choice between two voices – the ego’s or the Holy Spirits. In the act of choosing, the ego’s grip is diminished and reduced even further each time I choose the Holy Spirit.

What is important is, do not immediately go to guilt if you choose the ego. That is an ego trap. Just laugh and admit it was a silly mistake. And….don’t feel guilty for the script either. We have a tendency to feel “special” when we suffer, “Oh Woe is me.” If and when your script brings suffering, be normal but remember, believing IN the script causes the suffering. Suffering only makes the script and the world real.

Searanch Sunset

The Holy Spirit says the script is not REAL, there is no DEATH, the world is an illusion and this is a DREAM. With His help we see the illusion, the bad script writing, and the purpose of the classroom is to either keep the separation going or forgive it. In forgiveness it all disappears and God Is.

*”Seeming” is in quotes because it means the separation from God never happened. The ego tells us it did, we feel guilty and once again, we believe it. We have never separated from God. It is impossible. We just think we did and now we only need to change our mind.

Blessings, Sally

Visit The Foundation for Inner Peace to find out more about the work of Dr. Ken Wapnick. http://www.facim.org

Disclaimer: All of the above is my interpretation of the Course and the work of Dr. Wapnick.