ACIM podcast... and more connections with
Oprah/Eckhart and ACIM
30Mar2008 08:47 AM
Here's an
excellent podcast by Beverly
Hutchinson I've listened to that has some
great reminders, and there's always
Gary Renard's
podcasts,
too! (Highly recommended.)
Here is some commentary by fellow ACIM student Jim M. I also found helpful; thanks, Jim!
I am beginning to believe Eckhart Tolle when he says that we egos are "unconscious" -- not conscious that we are just figures in a dream. ACIM seems to want to lift our "consciousness" above the battlefield, above the dream, to see that "we" are the "dreamer" and not a figure in the dream. I found the following discussion by a student of Ken Wapnick on the internet and again it was a knock on the head with a 2-by-4, reminding me that I am not who I think I am. The following concepts may or may not be helpful to others and I could be wrong on my interpretation. It seems that "the Observer" is right-mindedness and "the Dreamer/the Decision-maker" is the other part of the split mind. Who needs make divided decisions but a mind that believes in duality. Eckhart Tolle says the ego, the illusory self-identity, comes from the unobserved mind. The Course does not use the terms "Observer" or "Decision-maker" but does says this:
"Even the relinquishment of your false decision-making prerogative, which the ego guards so jealously, is not accomplished by your wish. It was accomplished for you by the Will of God, Who has not left you comfortless." (T-7.X.7:1-2) "The power of decision, which you made in place of the power of creation, He [the Holy Spirit] would teach you how to use on your behalf." (T-14.VI.5:6) "the existence of the world as you perceive it depends on [your belief of] the body being the decision maker" (M-5.II.1:7) "Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, or seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks [observes/the Observer] and waits, and judges not." Neal suggested that I send this out to the group.
So if it goes over like a lead balloon I can blame him!
--jim
ACIM and the Observer and the Decision-maker
These are responses to questions about "the observer" from someone named "Jane". My [internet ACIM student] responses come from my own experience; I'm sure it is different for everyone.
---
Q: How do I become more identified with the observer?
A: Simply forgive, and it will happen of itself. It's nothing more than that. It is deserving of all your trust.
The dreamer (decision maker) having chosen the ego, dreams it is a dream figure named Jane. The way home - and home for Jane is the right mind - is for Jane to forgive her Jane-ness. She gets angry, she gets afraid, she worries and gets confused. She is thrilled when her needs are met, or when she receives praise or special attention. Forgive all of that. In the beginning your experience will be that it's Jane doing the forgiving, even though it's the dreamer (decision maker) doing it, because everything is the dreamer. It's just the dreamer dreaming it is "a Jane" doing the forgiving because, for now, that's what is most comfortable for a decision maker who is slowly beginning to turn the boat around (imagine a supertanker in a wide arc). The decision maker is too afraid to be fully in touch with its power of choice, and so still needs to defer this onto a dream figure for its own sense of safety. But that deferment won't last.
As you (a dreamer dreaming you are a dream figure forgiving a dream experience) move more deeply into forgiveness as a practice and process, you will begin to have experiences as something other than a helpless body and dream figure. You will experience yourself as a mind, as a dreamer, a decision maker.
These experiences will likely be brief at first, but will begin to show up more often and last longer and become more profound and attractive. In that experience you won't question what an oberserver is, the experience will answer all questions. The experience is the answer; you'll have no questions... until you return to your experience as a dream figure.
When you do have questions, then that means you're splitting off from the dreamer again, back to the safety of the dream figure. This is normal. Just watch it all, as best and as gently as you can.
What are the things to look out for that tell me I'm in observer mode?
When you are in observer mode you won't need signs, you'll just know. If you're looking for signs or evaluating an experience, you're not in observer mode, which would just be something else to forgive as it's the choice for the ego which results in the desire for litmus tests and specifics and naming etc. And in this forgiving will the experience/observer show up, for it is the process of forgiveness that provides the safety the decision maker needs to awake unto itself as itself.
Can the observer feel emotion? i.e. Love? ...because if it can feel love then that's an emotion and transient and to be forgiven...
The observer doesn't feel emotion as a dream figure knows it. Love as a dream figure is a physical/psychological bodily feeling of love, whereas love as an observer is a mind experience of love that has nothing to do with the body or brain or feelings, and you're it (love). It's what you are... so "you" don't feel it, you are it. You wouldn't say I am feeling love, you would be it... but there are gradations of this experience as the process evolves.
Here is some commentary by fellow ACIM student Jim M. I also found helpful; thanks, Jim!
I am beginning to believe Eckhart Tolle when he says that we egos are "unconscious" -- not conscious that we are just figures in a dream. ACIM seems to want to lift our "consciousness" above the battlefield, above the dream, to see that "we" are the "dreamer" and not a figure in the dream. I found the following discussion by a student of Ken Wapnick on the internet and again it was a knock on the head with a 2-by-4, reminding me that I am not who I think I am. The following concepts may or may not be helpful to others and I could be wrong on my interpretation. It seems that "the Observer" is right-mindedness and "the Dreamer/the Decision-maker" is the other part of the split mind. Who needs make divided decisions but a mind that believes in duality. Eckhart Tolle says the ego, the illusory self-identity, comes from the unobserved mind. The Course does not use the terms "Observer" or "Decision-maker" but does says this:
"Even the relinquishment of your false decision-making prerogative, which the ego guards so jealously, is not accomplished by your wish. It was accomplished for you by the Will of God, Who has not left you comfortless." (T-7.X.7:1-2) "The power of decision, which you made in place of the power of creation, He [the Holy Spirit] would teach you how to use on your behalf." (T-14.VI.5:6) "the existence of the world as you perceive it depends on [your belief of] the body being the decision maker" (M-5.II.1:7) "Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, or seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks [observes/the Observer] and waits, and judges not." Neal suggested that I send this out to the group.
So if it goes over like a lead balloon I can blame him!
--jim
ACIM and the Observer and the Decision-maker
These are responses to questions about "the observer" from someone named "Jane". My [internet ACIM student] responses come from my own experience; I'm sure it is different for everyone.
---
Q: How do I become more identified with the observer?
A: Simply forgive, and it will happen of itself. It's nothing more than that. It is deserving of all your trust.
The dreamer (decision maker) having chosen the ego, dreams it is a dream figure named Jane. The way home - and home for Jane is the right mind - is for Jane to forgive her Jane-ness. She gets angry, she gets afraid, she worries and gets confused. She is thrilled when her needs are met, or when she receives praise or special attention. Forgive all of that. In the beginning your experience will be that it's Jane doing the forgiving, even though it's the dreamer (decision maker) doing it, because everything is the dreamer. It's just the dreamer dreaming it is "a Jane" doing the forgiving because, for now, that's what is most comfortable for a decision maker who is slowly beginning to turn the boat around (imagine a supertanker in a wide arc). The decision maker is too afraid to be fully in touch with its power of choice, and so still needs to defer this onto a dream figure for its own sense of safety. But that deferment won't last.
As you (a dreamer dreaming you are a dream figure forgiving a dream experience) move more deeply into forgiveness as a practice and process, you will begin to have experiences as something other than a helpless body and dream figure. You will experience yourself as a mind, as a dreamer, a decision maker.
These experiences will likely be brief at first, but will begin to show up more often and last longer and become more profound and attractive. In that experience you won't question what an oberserver is, the experience will answer all questions. The experience is the answer; you'll have no questions... until you return to your experience as a dream figure.
When you do have questions, then that means you're splitting off from the dreamer again, back to the safety of the dream figure. This is normal. Just watch it all, as best and as gently as you can.
What are the things to look out for that tell me I'm in observer mode?
When you are in observer mode you won't need signs, you'll just know. If you're looking for signs or evaluating an experience, you're not in observer mode, which would just be something else to forgive as it's the choice for the ego which results in the desire for litmus tests and specifics and naming etc. And in this forgiving will the experience/observer show up, for it is the process of forgiveness that provides the safety the decision maker needs to awake unto itself as itself.
Can the observer feel emotion? i.e. Love? ...because if it can feel love then that's an emotion and transient and to be forgiven...
The observer doesn't feel emotion as a dream figure knows it. Love as a dream figure is a physical/psychological bodily feeling of love, whereas love as an observer is a mind experience of love that has nothing to do with the body or brain or feelings, and you're it (love). It's what you are... so "you" don't feel it, you are it. You wouldn't say I am feeling love, you would be it... but there are gradations of this experience as the process evolves.
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