JPE GH Tips Archives - Page 38 of 38

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Tip for Lesson 9

February 20, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

In this tip from the original Gentle Healing Year 1, Regina combines the teachings from GH Week One with this week’s reading in NTI Romans to show that a clear understanding of how we create experience can help us to undo our conditioning and motivate us to use our creative power in a way that is consistent with our desire to awaken.

Lesson 9, I see nothing as it is now.

The three most recent workbook lessons are “I see only the past,” “My mind is preoccupied by past thoughts,” and today’s lesson, “I see nothing as it is now.” The first three chapters of NTI Romans give some context for these workbook lessons.

According to NTI Romans, Chapter 2, judgment, which means decision, is the tool we use to create experience. This statement does not need to be taken on faith. This statement can be directly explored by watching our minds and experiences very carefully and noticing the relationship between them.

If I decide I don’t like someone’s attitude, what experience do I have?

If I decide that I have been rude and thoughtless, what experience do I have?

If I decide it should not be as hot/cold as it is outside today, what experience do I have?

If I decide I should not have eaten that piece of cake, what experience do I have?

If I decide to let all things be as they are, what experience do I have?

If I decide to focus on the consciousness in myself and every person I meet, what experience do I have?

It takes very little looking to see there is a direct relationship between judgment/decision and experience.

This teaching is also a review of last week’s reading assignment in NTI Luke Chapters 12, 16 & 17. That reading said that everything is given meaning by the thinker. We make an unevaluated judgment about something, and then that is the meaning it has for us. As Romans goes on to add, we then experience the effects of the unevaluated judgment we have made. This is a very simple summary of how we go about creating our experience, through one unevaluated judgment after another. NTI Luke also tells us that we then take an unevaluated judgment and reapply it when a similar set of circumstances arises. Or as the Course workbook says, “I see only the past.”

If we look, this process can be seen as true even if we adhere to the idea that the world is real and I am a person. Even in a ‘very real world’ as a ‘person’ at least the vast majority of my experience comes from my own decisions. However, both NTI Luke and NTI Romans take this further.

NTI Luke says that we experience separation because we decided things are separate from one another. We decided not to see them as whole. NTI Romans goes even further. In NTI Romans there is only one essence, which we might call ‘God.’ Within this essence, a creative question arose and was seen as having value.

There’s nothing wrong with that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a creative God. What a wonderful step in the natural growth or evolution of all-that-is!

But according to NTI Romans, something went wrong when two ideas arose in this creative mind. One idea was to notice that everything created is still the essence of God, since the essence of God is all-that-is. This option would have allowed creative play alongside remembrance of truth. The other option was the idea that something major had just changed. The essence that was ceased to be and something else had come into existence. According to NTI Romans, the ‘caster of attention’ cast its attention on this second idea, decided this option was true, and truth was forgotten as attention began a very deep journey into fantasy.

Is this true? As I sit here as an apparent 56-year old woman in my living room typing on a computer keyboard, can I look and see if there is some truth to this story?

I can see this much. It is true that I make decisions by casting attention. Thoughts come into the mind. I do not actually ‘think’ them. They appear. Some of them seem to capture my interest, and I cast attention on them. Typically, casting attention is followed by a value judgment or decision. The first value judgment or decision is simply, “This idea is meaningful.” From there, attention goes more deeply into the idea and makes additional judgments like this is good or bad, I like it or don’t like it, I can allow it or I need to change it, etc. Regardless of what those follow on decisions are, they lead deeper into the game of that thought and that thought becomes a ‘real’ part of my ‘world.’

This is the exact process that NTI Romans just described, and I can see that this process plays out over and over again with my mind.

NTI Luke talks about “unevaluated judgments.”

NTI Romans refers to “judgment without basis.”

I feel like just looking at those two statements, contemplatively casting my attention there for a few moments.

The Commentary on Mind from The Teachings of Inner Ramana says that mind cannot be ignored entirely because it is the tool of perception. NTI Romans agrees with this if we see mind, judgment and decision as synonymous. Without mind, perception would not be. Mind (judgment, decision) is a tool that allows God to be creative. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes from unevaluated judgments and judgment without basis. The problem comes from being on auto-pilot instead of being a conscious creator (caster of attention & decision maker).

“I see only the past.”

“My mind is preoccupied by past thoughts.”

“I see nothing as it is now.”

Everything I see comes from unevaluated judgments I have made topped off with reapplying that same unevaluated meaning when similar circumstances arise. That is judgment without basis, the cause of delusion.

“… all you need do is unweave your way out of fantasy. You reverse the ‘laws’ that made it by ceasing to play the game.”

Rest, accept/allow and trust. Let go of judgment without basis.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Tip for Lesson 8

February 19, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 8 “My mind is preoccupied with the past.”

This lesson starts with the statement “No-one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts projected outward.” You may have heard the analogy that says, you think your eyes are receivers, but they are not. Your eyes project your thoughts. NTI says, you take a collection of your thoughts from past learning, learned from judgement and create your own version of reality. Since this collection of thoughts has no meaning because they are made up, unreal, illusory, you aren’t really thinking at all. This lesson says “The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.” So thinking about the past, our judgments and our fragmented concepts that we believe is what keeps eternity at bay. NTI Romans, Chapter 7 says, “Remember that the universe is a reflection of the past because it is a reflection of a past wish, a past belief in the mind. Remember that your truth waits outside this wish, and your truth is calling you Home.”

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Tip for Lesson 7

February 18, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

LESSON 7. I see only the past.

As this lesson points out, this is the reason for undergoing the mind training laid out for us in ACIM. Actually, it is mind “re-training” or purification. What we are attempting to do is reprogram the brain to change/undo our conditioning.

Consider this discussion of neural pathways by Naturopath Sue Kira : “Have you ever noticed that when you drive to work or a regular place that you always go the same way even if there are alternate ways you could go? This is because you have created a neural pathway in your brain that has created this routine. Sometimes we even drive to this destination on ‘remote control’ as such. Often if I’m driving somewhere routinely I like to try going a different way, and then when I have made this change a few times, a new pattern occurs and I drive that way all the time. This has become the new neural pathway. It’s like how water always flows in the same direction that the first lot of water has run, but if that path is blocked then a new path is created. Our brains can do the same thing. Changing routines and doing things differently will promote these different pathways.”

It has been said that, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. We simply cannot expect to see differently if we continue to believe our thoughts. This is why we must allow our brains to be reprogrammed. Let’s look at other ways we can reprogram the brain.

How to Reprogram the Brain (change/undo conditioning):

An open-heart increases efficacy. In other words, joy, forgiveness (knowing all is well), willingness, trust and a positive desire or spiritual aspiration (e.g., desire to heal, to know the truth, to be only love) increases your efficiency in reprogramming the brain. Note: If your goal is negative (such as to stop suffering) consider a positive goal (such as freedom or happiness). A negative goal actually keeps you focused on the negative (a closed hearted spiritual aspiration).
Repetition and practice with new programming such as resting the mind, remembering the daily lesson, thinking of your spiritual aspiration, etc. replaces the old programming with new programming. We have neural pathways that have become well worn by our habitual thinking. Thus, we must practice consistently in order to let those old neural pathways dry up and become replaced by new ones.
Visualization of ourselves using our practices will help form new neural pathways. For example, imagine yourself resting the mind, imagine yourself remembering to do the workbook lessons, imagine yourself wanting awakening/truth more than anything else, etc. The brain cannot tell the difference between something real and imagined. Research shows that anytime you are thinking, you are engaged in conditioning neural pathways. By imagining ourselves using these practices in relatively peaceful moments, when difficult situations, emotions etc. arise, we will have already begun creating the neural pathways that will allow us to make a different choice in those situations.
Meditation is concentrated rest away from mental activity. This concentrated rest helps the old habituated ways of being and seeing fade and make room for a new way of being and seeing. (Meditation will be introduced into our daily practice later.)
Observe/watch your old programming without feeding it. Be aware of it, but don’t believe it or fight against it. As you watch, become familiar with your triggers. For example, what does it feel like in your body just before an old neural pathway begins to fire? Slowing down and paying attention to what our triggers are and what happens when our triggers get hit will enable us to see it before it happens and enable us to make another choice. We are learning what our unconscious habits are so that we can change them.
Discover how you can stay motivated to stick with gentle healing because you want to. (Positive motivation.). If you don’t want healing more than anything else, you will not “stay in the room when the screaming starts,” which, as the Way of Mastery told us, is the commitment we must make in order to experience healing.

As Lesson 7 says, “everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it.” That is, everything we believe is based on our past “learning.” Until we become aware of those beliefs, they cannot be undone. The beliefs that need to be healed will come up to be healed. We need to see them anew from this healing perspective rather than simply reapplying the meaning we have learned to give them. This is why purification/undoing/mind training is necessary. Focusing on our commitment to healing and practicing the techniques listed above will keep us moving on the path toward healing rather than remaining stuck in the insanity of our conditioned thinking.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Tip for Lesson 6

February 17, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 6 “I am upset because I see something that is not there.”

Right off the bat Jesus lets us in on what is really going on in this lesson when he says…”it is necessary to name both the form of upset (anger, fear, worry, depression, and so on) and the perceived source very specifically for any application of the idea.” The PERCEIVED source. It isn’t the real source because the upset can’t come from anywhere or anyone but me.

Isn’t that what we just learned, “I have given everything I see…all the meaning it has for me.” So we take a perceived upset and find a reason for it. This is what ACIM calls projection. I have taken thoughts and things and assigned meaning where there was none and then blamed someone else for the false associations, which were my associations. Jesus is calling upon us to stop making these false associations. Your associations are different than my associations which again points to their falsity, but all of them are unreal and a new version of reality is made up. All these made up constructs keep us from seeing truly because projection makes perception.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Tip for Lesson 5

February 16, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 5 “I am never upset for the reason I think”

The instructions contained in this lesson advise us to “Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you.”

Note that the central theme of the lesson is contained within this sentence. We do believe that something outside of us has control over our emotions. By keeping the locus of control outside of ourselves, we keep ourselves trapped within the illusion we are effect rather than cause. This victim stance thus not only keeps us helpless, but perpetuates the very illusion of separateness we would transcend on this journey to truth.

I was so excited to see that the portion of NTI I was led to focus on today was about forgiveness. What a misunderstood term! Those of us who have studied ACIM for any time at all have likely been confused by the Course’s description of forgiveness (if not, good for you!). ACIM tells us we forgive our brother for what he did not do. This can be quite confusing. I mean, can’t you see that he/she did …. (say something mean, steal my wallet, cut in front of me).

The key to understanding forgiveness is to see that it actually has nothing to do with my brother! As NTI Luke says:

So what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is simply an acknowledgment of the truth of how the offense or hurt has come about. It has not come from your brother. It has come from the meaning you have applied to thoughts within your mind. Without this meaning, you could not be hurt.

And then, forgiveness is taking this realization one step further by acknowledging you do not want to be hurt anymore. You acknowledge that the meaning that has hurt you is within the mind. You are the owner or believer in that meaning, and so you are also the one that can let go of any meaning you have applied. And when the meaning is let go, the offense or hurt must disappear also, for there is no longer a power to influence an effect. What was made has been undone. This is the process of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is taking back the power we attempt to give away by projecting the cause of our upset onto others. Ultimately, forgiveness is the allowance of all things, without the need for them to be different. Thus, it is the understanding that “All is well, all the time.”

Forgiveness is giving yourself permission to relate to all the world through your heart. As we saw in the Way of Mastery,

The heart is that which feels all things, embraces all things, trusts all things, and allows all things. The heart is that in which the soul rests eternally. The heart is that which is beyond space and time and is that spark of light in the Mind of God, which is called Christ. Only in that will you find the peace that you seek.

We are not being called on to overlook what our brother has done (or not done). Rather, we are being called to see that it is meaningless and that it only has the power to upset us if we give some meaning to it. We only assign meaning in accordance with our belief that things should be a certain way. Allowing things to be as they are allows us to rest within the peace of the heart regardless of what seems to be occurring “outside” of us.

Finally, we also will come to learn that, just as there are no big or small miracles, there are no big or small upsets. They are all the same in that upset indicates that we are continuing to believe that we are separate beings in a world of form and, as such, we need to protect ourselves from one another and from the world at large:

The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are all the same.

Gentle Healing Tips ~ Jacquelyn & Connie ~ Lessons 1-4

February 15, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Hi Everyone,

Connie and I are alternating writing tips in our contemplation of the ACIM lessons and NTI readings that form the homework for Gentle Healing Year 1. We hope you find them helpful as you complete your own homework. In the future, tips can be found at this link.

Love, Jacquelyn

Lesson 1 “Nothing I see means anything”

This exercise is the first in a series that are designed to bring you to the place of wholly emptiness that was referenced in Lesson 189:

Simply do this: Be still and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false or good or bad; of every thought it judges worthy and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.

What we will come to learn is that we have, indeed, given meaning to everything we see. In fact, as we look out on our outer world, we are constantly in the process of giving meaning to what we see, whether that be objects in the room around us or the events occurring in our lives.

To begin to see how we use the mind’s assigning of meaning as a buffer between our actual experience and ourselves, consider the objects you see in the room around you. Consider how if I were to come to your home, your office, or wherever you practice this lesson, I might see those same objects. To me the rocking chair that you inherited from your great-grandmother might look like just a chair. I would not see an image of the woman who lovingly picked it out, I would not see a sanctuary where your mother was rocked to sleep as a baby, I would simply see a chair (and would have my own opinions about it, e.g., it’s pretty, it’s old, it’s dusty, it looks like one I saw at the antique mall, etc.).

How can it be if we are not separate beings that you see one thing and I see another? This lesson shows that everything we see is mediated through who we think we are, as separate and distinct from others. Who is it that mediates? Who is it that defines what this object is and what it means to “me.” Who is the me in that sentence?

By beginning to look at the buffer of thought between what we see and how we interpret what we see, we begin to gain insight into how we keep life at bay, experience at bay, beingness at bay by allowing our thinking mind to interpret our experience.

NTI Luke Ch 12 asks us to “take the time to become aware of the thoughts that seem automatic in your mind. What are these thoughts? What are they saying to you? Why are you listening to them?”

NTI Luke points to the efficacy of these early ACIM lessons and why they are helpful in their simplicity:

“Do not worry what you will do with these thoughts as you evaluate them. I will be with you, present in your mind, as you undertake this work of looking and questioning. For now, it is simply useful to become aware of the thoughts you think and are focused on when you think you are focused on the world.”

Lesson 2 “I have given everything I see in this room all the meaning that it has has for me.”

In this lesson, Jesus tells us “Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple.” Why? Because everything I see is equally unreal. We give everything we see a range of importance. A car is more important than a pencil, a body is more important than a button, an arm is more important than an apple. We create a hierarchy so we can keep everything relative and so we know where we stand and where others stand as well. We keep the falseness perpetuated to create an order to things that have no order. We assign value to everything so this hierarchy becomes a law so we don’t really have to be present. We know, for example, a child means more to her mother than someone else’s kid would mean to her.

We can let our unevaluated judgements and constructs rule our world. NTI Luke Chapter 12 says,

” You make unevaluated judgments about the work you do, the relationships you have the pastimes you choose and the person you think of as yourself. These unevaluated judgments define everything and everyone within your world. And they are allowed within your mind without your awareness, your questioning or your evaluation.”

The introduction to the workbook lessons says, ” The purpose of the workbook is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world…The purpose is to train the mind to generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as applicable to one situation as it is to another…the aim is to learn how to see.”

It means that I haven’t really been seeing. I haven’t been Aware. I’ve been unconscious. I’m ready to wake up and be present.

Lesson 3 “I do not understand anything I see in this room”

What is it we are attempting to do when we attempt to “understand” something? Aren’t we trying to fit that something (object, event, emotion) into our overall understanding of who we are and what the world is? It is our belief that we know (what things are, what things mean) that keeps us locked within our current perception of ourselves and the world. Memory, identification, definition is a trick of the mind that would create continuity and call that continuity “me.”

NTI Luke tells us:

“Remember that you are never focused on the world, and you will not be confused. Always, in everything you seem to do, you are choosing among thoughts within your mind. Always, in every choice, you choose between willingness and resistance, joy and delay.

The law upon which you make judgments is written within your mind. And in this law, you have placed your faith until now. …

Let me tell you that of yourself, you cannot stop judging by the law that has been believed within your mind. That is because you chose to believe this law, and so the law is your desire. In order to have the law erased from your mind, you must give your willingness that it be erased. When you notice that you are making a judgment based on the law, you must rest within the mind and give your willingness again.

Do not believe your own judgments, for that keeps you stuck within the law. What is the law on which your judgments and old perceptions are based? It is the law of separateness.”

What we do is use the meaning we have placed upon objects, events and people to tell us that we are separate beings. By continuing to employ these same meanings, we give imagined continuity to a separate sense of self. Let’s be clear that when NTI (and ACIM for that matter) refer to judgment, it is not merely a reference to that “negative” thing we do when our thoughts or our words show disdain or contempt for the actions of others. Rather as the word is defined in the English Oxford Dictionary, judgment means “the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.”

It is these “considered” and “sensible” conclusions we are looking at. Who has considered them? To whom do they make sense? Isn’t it the false sense of I, the ego, the thinking mind that considers things, assigns meanings and places them within the matrix of the world and how it works as defined by the imposter self?

Lesson 4 “These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room.”

NTI, Luke Chapter 16 says,

“thought has no meaning of itself, but it is given meaning by the thinker. If the thoughts seem to have effects, it is the thinker that gives that thought any effects it seems to have. In other words, there is no power outside the power of the mind.”

Wow, no power outside the mind, but the mind is very powerful. Who created this world? You don’t still think it was some power outside of you, do you? No, you have created it and you continue to do so every day. As lesson 4 says the goal is ” separating the meaningless from the meaningful…to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within.” Your REAL thoughts are thoughts you think with God. They are thoughts you think when you are in your right mind. Right now, at least for most of us our thoughts don’t “represent your real thoughts” because our real thoughts “are being covered up by” meaningless ones. Our sight is blocked. If we can suspend our judgment we can begin to really see.