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Why the Dark Stuff

           Last week I wrote about projection. Whenever discussing projection, we discuss the darker aspects of ego, even though it also projects the lighter stuff. This is because the darker stuff is what triggers us emotionally. We see outside ourselves the dark stuff within that we don’t want to see. Sometimes, we are triggered purely by what we project and what we see is coming only from our mind. Sometimes, what is outside ourselves mirrors the dark stuff in our mind and we are triggered because we’ve been trying to avoid seeing it. Last week’s article was about the latter. Some readers are uncomfortable talking when I discuss the dark stuff. If you are familiar with Ken Wapnick’s teaching, then you have probably heard a term he coined for students of A Course in Miracles who do not want to face the hard and dark stuff in their minds: Blissninnies . Blissninnies insist all is always good and there is no dark stuff or they think they are to ignore t...
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Acknowledging Your Inner Narcissistic Sociopath

            For the past ten years there has been a narcissistic sociopath on the national stage in the US. He and the others like him with whom he surrounds himself are a trigger for many. I’m often asked by clients and readers how to deal with this. When you are emotionally triggered, you are projecting. Projection means you see in others something you don’t want to see in yourself. If you are not triggered, you are merely observing. So, first sort that out. To see someone’s behavior and merely not like it or to feel it does not express your values, is not to be triggered, so it is not projection. But when you have a strong emotional response, you see in someone something you don’t want to see in yourself. And when you get in touch with that, you will no longer project and no longer be triggered. (This is a form of what is known as “shadow work” or dealing with the unacknowledged dark side of your own mind.) Most psychological disorders are universal...
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But ACIM Says...

              Ah, the but . There is the indicator of conflict. And conflict always means ego. When I hear that but , I know the speaker or writer feels something naturally or has a desire but they feel their feelings or desires conflict with” being a good Course student.” And quite often, what they feel or desire does not conflict with A Course in Miracles , they’ve just misread it.   “I’m not feeling good, but the Course says I shouldn’t take medicine, it’s magic.” The Course says that unless you have attained a state of consciousness in which you can manipulate form—like heal the body—take medicine. Magical thinking is thinking that a healed body is an end in itself and true peace.   “I met someone I’m interested in, but I know I’m not supposed to want a special relationship.” The Course says you do not have to give up your special relationships. Rather, give them over to the Holy Spirit to be transformed to holy relationsh...
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Ask: Does acceptance lead to a desired outcome?

          We’ve all heard the stories: Someone struggles to accept a situation and when they do, the situation resolves or falls away, Here are some examples:   Jane has always wanted a life partner, but it has not happened. She’s 37 now and has come to accept being single. She’s at peace with this. This is when she meets the man she will marry and spend the rest of her life with.   Gretchen was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. She’s angry. She falls into depression and for a long while she can’t seem to get past it. A therapist points out that she is grieving and suggests she allow the grieving process. Then one day Gretchen suddenly accepts that she will be managing this illness all her life. A month later, during a check-up at her specialist’s office, she sees a new doctor who notices something in her chart and orders more tests. It turns out Gretchen was misdiagnosed and does not have an autoimmune disease. She is given the appropriat...
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It is Just Common Sense to be Decent

             Liz here was only twenty when she became a student of A Course in Miracles so she felt that she could not have already learned ideas presented in the Course . If she came across something she already knew she felt it must mean something “higher” or “deeper” than what she had already learned. But she was mistaken. She had not yet learned that we don’t all learn things in the same order. A person at twenty could already have learned something that someone else doesn’t learn until they are fifty. The most significant example of this is the idea that what you give you receive. Liz had already realized the reason she was a nurturer was that she felt love when she was loving, not when others loved her. Really, what she felt when she engaged in actions considered nurturing was satisfaction, but this is one of those “good” feelings that we call “love”. However, when she read the idea that one will experience whatever idea or attitude they proje...
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Ego Holds Itself Apart

            Last week I wrote, “Ego holds itself off from what appears as though what happens is supposed to be at its direction and feels confused at best and furious at worst when things don’t go its way.” What I meant by ego holding itself off is it sees itself as autonomous rather than part of a whole—the whole being appearances in consciousness. It projects this autonomy onto the neutral person, something that, like ego, is also just appearing in consciousness. This never changes for ego. It never comes to feel it “belongs” except maybe temporarily with other egos and bodies. This is easily shattered, though, when ego realizes its expression is unique and it is different or it feels others don’t see it correctly. If you have a sense of being part of something larger, a greater whole, that is not ego but is due to truth rising toward your conscious awareness. It’s a dim sense of the wholeness of truth (pure consciousness) and/or an awareness that desp...
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Living in an Expression

             A rose is an expression of a rose bush. Or, if you need a broader example, we say the weather and plants and animals on earth are expressions of that abstract idea, nature. We have no aspirations for these expressions, we don’t expect them to lead somewhere, because we understand them as expressions. They will arise and they will pass and we accept this. So, when I say that what appears in consciousness, including your life, is only an expression this is what I mean: Everything appearing in consciousness is not to bring something about but is part of a depiction of what A Course in Miracles calls the Atonement , or the correction of the perception of separation from God. To put this in the terms I use now, everything is part of a depiction of the moment the idea of not-truth arose and was simultaneously undone by truth’s all-encompassing nature. It is pre-determined, “the script is written”, because it depicts over time a moment whose o...
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