The Third Part of the Mind

We all have a right mind where the Holy Spirit dwells, and a wrong mind which is dominated by the ego and its thoughts of separation. Which part of the mind controls us is decided by the third part of the mind; the part that observes and chooses. That’s where our real power, the power of decision is. You make that decision mostly in how you choose to think of others.

You can always tell which students are understanding and applying the Course and which ones are not. The ones who are have no need to judge and condemn others, or if they do they catch themselves, stop themselves, and change their minds. On the other hand, the students who are resisting the message and practice of the course are very, very good at pointing out the ego in somebody else. They’re experts at it. “Oh, he’s in his ego,” is a favorite observation. But that’s not forgiveness. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

What You Would Have Him Be

You change your own experience, and ultimately what you believe is your own identity, by changing the way you think about and identify other people. As the Course tells us in the final section of the Text, “Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.”~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

The Real You

The ego is the false you, but there’s another you; the real you. The real you is something that has nothing to do with this world, or the body. Your body is simply a symbol of separation. The real you is something that is immortal, invulnerable, constant and unchanging, inseparable and whole, something that can’t be touched by anything in this world; something that can’t be threatened in any way. 

When the Course starts off by saying, “Nothing real can be threatened,” that’s what it’s talking about. It means the real you. When it goes on to say, “Nothing unreal exists,” it’s talking about anything else, anything that is not this immortal, changeless, invulnerable self. That’s why the Course is a purely non-dualistic spiritual thought system. It’s saying that of the two worlds, the unseen world of God and the falsely seen world of man, only the world of God is true, and nothing else is true. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Go By What it Says

I’m often asked various questions at my Workshops about what the Course means, and I usually start off by saying the best way to know what the Course means is to go by what it says. That may seem obvious, but the Course says a lot of things people don’t want to hear, and there’s tremendous psychological resistance to getting it. For example, it says, “There is no world! This is the central thought the Course attempts to teach.” Most people don’t want to hear that. They want the world, and desire the things in it they are attracted to; hoping at the same time that the bad things won’t come to them, or at least not be too bad. 

Yet the Course also says, (with the Voice of the Course, Jesus, speaking in the first person) “I once asked you to sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me. This is what I meant: If you have no investment in anything in this world, you can teach the poor where their treasure is. The poor are merely those who have invested wrongly, and they are poor indeed!” The Course is talking here about your psychological investment. Its teachings are always done at the level of the mind, not at the level of the physical. You prepare yourself to go home by undoing the ego and gradually letting the Holy Spirit become the dominant force in your mind, and in the end, the only force in your mind. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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Changing the Truth

The ego’s specialty is changing the truth, whether it’s The Vedanta, Lao-Tsu, Buddha, or A Course in Miracles. The only solution to that is what we’ve been saying to you since the ‘90s; you’ve got to undo the ego, or the ego will continue to undo the truth. It can’t help it. That’s what the ego does. It’s like a survival machine. And of course the students and teachers don’t know that they’re changing the truth. It’s like projection. They don’t know they’re doing that either. They just think they’re right. 
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Brother in Christ

PURSAH: Now, a reminder. Your forgiveness can’t be conflicted. It has to be universal, it has to apply to everyone without exception. And when you forgive someone, it can’t be partial. You have to forgive your brother completely, not half way. Do you know what I mean?

GARY: Yeah. He can’t be my shithead brother in Christ.

~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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Don't Accept the Ego's Interpretation of You

What you really are is something that can’t even be contained by the universe of time and space. Don’t accept the ego’s evaluation of you. It does not see truly. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Spotting the Ego

A Course in Miracles is not about spotting the ego in somebody else. It’s about recognizing that there is nobody else, not really, and the things you don’t like about others are actually what the Course calls “the secret sins and hidden hates” that you really have about yourself that you have chosen to see in other people through the dynamic of projection. Thus when you forgive the other person who appears to be there you are really forgiving yourself. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other
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Knowledge of God

When the Course uses the word Knowledge, it is referring to direct experience, or Knowledge of God. How does one get to this experience, which blows away anything this world has to offer? This is accomplished by undoing your ego. As ACIM succinctly puts it, “Salvation is undoing.” And that’s a brilliant approach, because if you could really do that; if you could completely undo the false you, theneventually the real you would be all that’s left.

And you don’t have to do anything about the real you! The real you is already perfect; it’s already exactly the same as its Source. In order to experience that perfection, what you have to do is remove the ego within your unconscious mind; the walls of separation that block your experience of this perfection. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other  Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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What If It Didn't Matter What Happens?

The ego thought system is based on the idea of separation; the idea that somehow we have separated ourselves from our Source, which is God, as well as from each other. And if your happiness and peace of mind is dependent on what happens in this world, you’re in trouble, because the only thing you can depend on in this ego illusion of a world is that it will shift and change. That’s what it does. It’s fleeting and transitory, offering only temporary satisfaction at best.

But what if it didn’t matter what happened in the world? That’s heresy to the ego, but what if it really didn’t matter? What if you could be happy, strong and peaceful regardless of what happens in the world? That would be real power; it would be real strength and freedom, and it would be real spirituality. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other  Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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Bring Your Illusions to Truth

The Course isn’t part of the self-help movement, even though people try to treat it that way. Everybody wants to improve their life and make a lot of money. And the Course doesn’t have anything against that. If it did it would be making it real. But always remember, when you focus on the effect instead of the mind, you’re making the effect real. You’re giving truth to something that isn’t there. And as J puts it, “When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real, and keep them by justifying your belief in them. But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal, and thus enable you to escape from them.”

~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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Discerning Between the Ego and the Holy Spirit

Most of the time if the message is hopeful, makes your heart sing, and especially if it feels inspired, that’s the Holy Spirit. But if what you’re hearing has the tone of making the images you see real and judging others, or discouraging you from something you would really like to do in the dream, the odds are it’s the ego. Most of all, the Holy Spirit, which abides in the right part of your mind, is reminding you to forgive. The ego is always using its wrong minded ideas to try to get you to judge, which makes your world very real. As you go along your journey with the Course, you’ll develop more and more discernment. You’ll be able to tell which is which. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other
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Your Creations

When J uses the word creations in his Course, he’s not using it the way the world does. You think of your creations as being a song, or a book, or a painting, or anything you make or accomplish in this world. But J is talking about an entirely different level here. When he says the Holy Spirit will bless your creations, he’s referring to your creations in Heaven. In Heaven you create the same way that God creates, because God created you to be exactly like Him. There’s no difference or distinction between you and God. Yes, he created you, you didn’t create Him, but even that distinction is gone. You could think of it, and we’ve used this phrase before, as being a simultaneous extension of the whole. The human mind can’t really grasp the quality and the magnitude of it, but that’s the general idea.

We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with what you call your creations here. Indeed, beautiful works of art can be inspired by the Holy Spirit. But as far as the Course is concerned, only that which is eternal is real. You’ve seen great works of art, yet thousands of years from now almost none of them will exist. But what is created in Heaven will never cease to exist. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Establishing Your Own Identity

Despite what you see, there’s just one of you and one mind. But that presents a problem for you that you can’t see. The projection of a universe of time and space that you can see is coming from that one unconscious mind. That’s where the projector is hidden. Thus your unconscious mind knows everything. If that’s where everything that you’re seeing is coming from, then by definition, on some level, your mind knows everything. Even the truth is buried there, waiting to be remembered. And if the unconscious mind knows everything, then it knows that there’s really just one of you. That’s good news and bad news.

Here’s the bad news. Because the mind knows everything, including the fact that there’s just one of you, it will interpret anything you think or say, no matter how subtle, about another person, to really be about you! And it will determine how you feel about yourself, and ultimately even what you believe you are. That’s why the Course says every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is. That’s why the Course emphasizes that as you see him you will see yourself. And it’s true.

~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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The Same as God

God will always be your creator, and then you create the same as Him. The infinite extension of perfect love is not something the finite mind can understand, but the time will come when you’ll get to actually experience it. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other  

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What Real Forgiveness Will Do

The Course’s kind of forgiveness overlooks the problem, doesn’t make it real, and replaces it with the truth. Yes, you have to notice what it is you’re forgiving. You’re operating within the ego framework, where healing is needed, and as long as you appear to be here you will see other bodies, and it will look like you have real problems, real bills to pay, and real relationships to forgive. But if you forgive them they’ll stop making you feel anxious, abandoned, lacking, or any of the other negative impacts these things may have on you. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other

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The Most Radical Teaching in History

When we say the Course is the most radical teaching in history, you’ve got to remember that almost all the teachings and thought systems in history are based on the so called wisdom of the ages and universal truths. But those truths and wisdom are not true, and the Course is not the same as them. Why? Because they’re all based on the universe being real. Even the non-dualistic teachings are taken by the world and devolved into making the error real. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

You've Done it All!

You, and everyone you know, have gotten to live every kind of a life, been every kind of a person, done everything, and had every kind of experience that anyone else has ever had. You’re not missing anything you haven’t already been through. Do you really think the people you have envied in this lifetime are having experiences that you haven’t had already, or been able to do things you haven’t done before? You’ve been everywhere and done it all. You’ve been among the richest people in the world and the poorest; the most famous and most obscure, the victim and the victimizer, the King and a prisoner, the sexed up and the celibate.

True, these experiences, which really happened all at once, except they didn’t really, will look different from one place and time to another. But the experiences are the same, just like your lessons from lifetime to lifetime may look different, but the meaning is the same. So, don’t waste your time being jealous of another. You’ve been there, done that, whether you remember or not. And none of it will bring you lasting happiness, but forgiving it will. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   
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It Only Appears to Take a Long Time

The unconscious resistance to doing the Course is formidable. But if you have perseverance the ego can’t win. Although the ego is ingenious, it has one problem. It’s insane. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, has a tremendous advantage. The Holy Spirit is perfect, and has a perfect plan. You may ask, if it’s so perfect, then why does it have to take the Sonship so long to wake up? The truth is it only appears that it’s taking a long time. 

The Course teaches that the world is already over; that the tiny mad idea was only a tiny tick of time that was corrected and ended immediately. But because this is a dream of separation, it looks like everyone is waking up at different times, when the truth is there was only one time, one instant, and even that never really existed. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other

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Only One Correct interpretation of A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles says what it says. It must be understood that there is only one possible interpretation of the Course. That cannot be repeated too much. Only God is real, and nothing else is real. The world does not exist. There are students who want the Holy Spirit to be operating in the world and fixing it up. No, the Holy Spirit is in the mind, not in the world. The Course says there is no world! So what world do they think the Holy Spirit is operating in? ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

It's About You

Despite what you see, there’s just one of you and one mind. But that presents a problem for you that you can’t see. The projection of a universe of time and space that you can see is coming from that one unconscious mind. That’s where the projector is hidden. Thus your unconscious mind knows everything. If that’s where everything that you’re seeing is coming from, then by definition, on some level, your mind knows everything. Even the truth is buried there, waiting to be remembered. And if the unconscious mind knows everything, then it knows that there’s really just one of you. That’s good news and bad news. 

Here’s the bad news. Because the mind knows everything, including the fact that there’s just one of you, it will interpret anything you think or say, no matter how subtle, about another person, to really be about you! And it will determine how you feel about yourself, and ultimately even what you believe you are. That’s why the Course says every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is. That’s why the Course emphasizes that as you see him you will see yourself. And it’s true. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   

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Forgive or Celectrate

Just because the world is an illusion, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. Just the opposite. You can have a great time, and do it without guilt! It’s true that you are guiltless, Heaven was given to you by God, and you don’t have to earn it. But you do have to do the forgiveness work that it takes to undo the ego and return to reality in your awareness. So if there’s something to forgive, then forgive it. But the Course says if there’s nothing to forgive at the time, then what you should do is celebrate. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other  Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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...And Then Depression Set In

If it’s true that as you see him you will see yourself, and if you go through life thinking the world and people are just illusions, your mind will interpret it to mean that you are an illusion. That will leave you feeling empty and meaningless, which is a pretty good description of depression. 

That’s why A Course in Miracles is a lot more proactive than most people realize. It doesn’t just describe the thought system of the ego, which is the thought system of most of the world; it completely replaces the thought system of the ego with the thought system of the Holy Spirit. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Don't Make Friends with Your Ego - Undo It!

There are people who will teach you that you should “make friends with your ego.” But I’ve got news for them. The ego is not interested in being your friend. Your ego wants to kill you. Because if you can be hurt or killed then you’re a body. And if you’re a body, then the entire ego thought system of separation is true. The only thing you can really do with your ego is undo it.

A Course in Miracles is about undoing the ego, or the false you that has come to identify itself with the body and separation. But the real you has nothing to do with the body or separation. As the Course says many times, “I am not a body, I am free. For I am still as God created me.” And God created you to be exactly like God, the same as its Source forever, completely and eternally in a state of oneness. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

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God Is...And Nothing Else Is

The Course says, “The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true.” But a lot of students seem to have a big problem going all the way with that. I mean, I’ll say that according to the Course the absolute truth is this: God Is. And they don’t seem to have much of a problem with that. But then if you tell them, nothing else is, you can see the resistance on a lot of their faces. They can get the truth of God, but they can’t get that absolutely nothing about the world and their lives is real. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   

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No Unanswered Questions

A Course in Miracles gives people the whole picture that they need. If you look carefully, you’ll see the Course doesn’t leave you with a bunch of unanswered questions. It tells you what existed before time began, which was given to you by God, how you appeared to get here, exactly what you can do about it, where you’re going home to and how to get there; not that Heaven is a place. It’s an awareness you need to re-awaken in, and how the Holy Spirit has a plan that’s guaranteed to result in that happening for everyone. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other

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You Gotta Do It!

It’s not enough to know about forgiveness or even understand it. And that’s rare enough. But once you do understand it you have to get into the habit of doing it consistently. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other    Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

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A Pretty Sobering Thought

Your unconscious mind knows everything. It would have to because that’s where the projection of a universe of time and space is coming from in the first place. And if it knows everything, it knows that there’s really just one of us. And if it knows there’s really just one of us, it will interpret whatever you think about the world or another person to really be about you. That’s a pretty sobering thought. People wonder why they’re depressed. Just look at the garbage they’ve been thinking about other people, not realizing it was really just going to them, and that it would determine how they feel about themselves, and ultimately, even establish their own identity. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Changing Dimensions of Time

What happens is already pre-determined, but you still have the power to practice forgiveness at the level of the mind, and be free of feeling the uncomfortable effects of whatever happens. And even though the purpose of forgiveness is not to change the script, but instead be free of its effects, it’s also possible, within a fixed system, for the Holy Spirit to adjust time and space for you. You may then have a different experience than you would have. But that’s up to the Holy Spirit. Your job is to do the forgiveness work. The Holy Spirit knows if it’s appropriate for you to change dimensions of time. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

Jesus and Buddha Weren't Interested in Starting a Religion

Most students want to be teachers instead of students. It feels special to be a leader instead of a follower. That’s how religions get started. People think they understand Buddha and so someday you end up with Buddhism. But Buddha didn’t want to start a religion. People would ask him, “What are you?” and he would say, “I am awake.” That’s what he wanted for them, not hundreds of rituals to follow. He was a wisdom Teacher.

And of course everybody and their brother thought they knew what J was saying, or they had an agenda that led them to say something to the contrary, and someday you have a religion purported to be about him. Yet like Buddha, a religion was not something J would be interested in. He was also a wisdom Teacher. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo
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You Can't Bypass the Mind

Don’t ever let anyone teach you that you can bypass the mind. J tells you in the Course that your mind’s ability to make a choice, your power to choose, is your true power in this world. Those who want to by-pass the mind are giving up the only power they have! Pure non-dualistic thinking with the Holy Spirit reverses the thinking of the world. And the choice you’re supposed to make is spelled out for you at the end of the Text, and the choice always involves the way you think about other people. “Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.” ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo

The Experience of Enlightenment

The bliss of enlightenment is beyond words. Your body is barely noticeable. Yes, you take care of it and keep it clean, but you hardly eat any food. You drink water, but not too much. At the very end, you need no food or water. But when you’re at the very end, then by definition, you won’t be here for long anyway.

If your body is sick, that isn’t important to you. Sometimes the script calls for a Master to teach he or she is not a body by demonstrating it’s possible to go through the death of a seemingly sick body without pain, just as J appeared to die on the cross, but did it without pain. As a Master, it would be possible for you to heal your body with your mind. But you have chosen not to, just as J could have saved himself from the cross, but chose not to, and taught an important lesson instead. ~ The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other   Facebook.com/DWMJF/photo