Stop ANAL-yzing the Course!

[Nick Arandes]

I was asked the following question:

"In ACIM, I'm having some trouble wrapping my brain around the physical aspect of creation. What is he meaning when he is saying our creations, and is he saying I am creating the beautiful and the good of all things with my mind that God created, and the bad and the ugly (meaning my judgments of things) of all things with my ego that I created? The hardest thing for me to grasp is the dream and that my children don't really exist. Some clarity on these questions will be very helpful."

What I felt guided to respond was:

Thanks for the question, and first let's look at the language. But before doing so, I would like to offer the following. One of the biggest pitfalls with students, AND teachers of the Course is that they spend too much time trying to understand everything the course is saying, then taking it literally, not to mention that if they do not understand what the Course is really about, they end up just confusing themselves.

So, let's look at language and your question.

> In ACIM, I'm having some trouble wrapping
> my brain around the physical aspect of creation.

We do not create on earth, we "project." Creation takes place only in Heaven; our Real home. God creates, and we have the power to create for we are created in the image and likeness of God. But again, what we create is infinite. Here on earth (our illusion) everything that we "project" is temporary.

This is the basic concept of A Course in Miracles. We are having an illusion, let's call it a dream. In the dream we believe that we are human beings operating by the laws of our physical universe. That is all a "projection." None of it is real. Even quantum physics tells us that. What the course is aiming at, is to get us to stop putting our attention on illusions (the world) so that the Holy Spirit can undo the unconscious guilt that is projecting the world that we see in the first place.

A great movie to watch, that sort of illustrates that metaphor is The Wizard of Oz. While in the land of Oz, Dorothy experienced fun times, but also scary times. She experienced happiness and sadness, also known as duality. She thought that everything that was happening to her was real, then at the end, when the wizard asked her to tap her shoes and to say that there is no place like home, which would be the equivalent of saying, turn within, by quieting the noise in her head, she was able to hear the subtle voice of her friends asking her to wake up. Everything she was experiencing was just a dream. Same here, we are experiencing a dream, but like Dorothy, we believe it is real.

So don't put too much attention on what it is meant by God creating, or me creating the good the bad, etc. All that is going to do is keep you in your head, which is exactly what the ego wants. I often say to students when I am invited to speak to close the book and forget about it because I am not interested in teaching the Course, I am interesting in helping them apply what the course teaches to every area of their lives. It is really that simple. At least that is what I do for myself.

I'm going to take a look at the last part of your question:

> The hardest thing for me to grasp is the dream and that my children
> don't really exist. Some clarity on these questions will be very helpful.

And that is impossible to grasp with your mind. But if you keep surrendering your thoughts to the Holy Spirit, you'll be able to release much of those thoughts, and clarity will begin to permeate your mind. I love this line from the Course: "If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God." T-4.I.4:7

I could elaborate more but what I feel guided to say to you is, don't get too caught up in trying to intellectualize every word the course is saying. That is not going to help you. Just practice your forgiveness process and you'll do fine. Practice the lessons in the workbook without trying to make sense out of them. Just do one at a time, one a day, like the course suggest and take it from there.

For now, keep loving your kids like you have done up to this point. Keep doing whatever it is you are doing, keep showing up to your job or career, etc., and as you keep surrendering your thoughts to the Holy Spirit you'll be led as to what steps to take and you'll start seeing your world differently. That's all. And while everyone around you is freaking out about the world, you'll look at the same things they are looking at except that with a gentle smile on your face, because you know that none of it is real. That's the reason for the smile in the Buddha's face. ;o)

Remember, be gentle with yourself. Patience and trust!