Have you done this? I know I have done it many times: "Who but yourself evaluates a threat, decides escape is necessary, and sets up a series of defenses to reduce the threat that has been judged as real?"
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An "appearance" is another term for something physical. It's what you see when you take the physical form at face value. You look at what it appears to be on the surface, on the face of it, without any...
I find very often that if I am not constantly "rebuking" everything the world seems to portray, I will fall into temptation and buy into problems. Then I'll have reactions based on ego and form and bodies and appearances,...
Sometimes doing ACIM seems very difficult. It boils down to a simple fact. Everything in the world is opposite to the truth. And that means you're going to have to become opposite to everything in the world!
"This IS...
One of the major teachings of A Course in Miracles, also present in Buddhism and Hinduism and many other belief systems, even present in the very first lessons of the Workbook, is that the physical world is a world...
Take a look at this one statement.
"Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself."
"You made the body in attempting to deceive...
"Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself."
What are you being tempted to do? You're being tempted to identify yourself with the...
The physical world was made as a projection of a false idea. Everything in it is false, untrue and unreal. It therefore depicts a lie, a deception, an illusion, and an attempt to ASSERT that something false is true. That...
A person's body is held up as a picture. It covers up who they are. It says, "this is true of me." Or "this is what I am."
"You made the body in attempting to deceive yourself."
"What you...
The ego is sneaky about projecting sin and guilt onto others. If someone else is not really doing anything wrong, it is riskier and perhaps more difficult for you to "unfairly" project your own sin and guilt onto them....
If I find anyone to be "wrong" in ANY WAY, for ANY reason, I am scapegoating.
It doesn't even matter what the reasons are. Even if the reasons are valid.
If someone is making a wrong decision... if I identify they are...
"All forms of sickness, even unto death, are physical expressions of the FEAR of awakening."
Fear is not "just fear". It's not just "an emotion". It's not just "one thing". It's not just "a reaction". Everything that fear appears to be,...
"Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what...
TEMPTATION
"What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real? "
Illusions are not inherently real. However, there is a potential in illusions to be "tempted" to believe they are real. If someone is sane, they will recognize the illusion is...
Everything about the ego appears to present one way that you can win, and one way that you can lose. It always suggests there's some way to get away with something, to escape the effects of something. To be the...
Recently I've seen how it is detrimental to spend a lot of time trying to diagnose problems or to even understand what is happening. But this was mainly in the realm of what's happening with other people. Now I've come...
When you be afraid of something, you are attempting to increase a sense of separation between you and something. You hope that if you can separate yourself from it more, you will feel safer.
It doesn't work. It is the opposite.
The...
"I've got to do something about this!" shrieks the ego. I MUST FIX IT!!!
Arghhh!!
Ok. Stop.
1) We believe something has gone wrong and think it's real.
2) Believing it is broken, we MUST believe that a remedy is needed.
3) We now try...
In ACIM the idea of evil is defined as 'ego', more or less. Not just individual egos but also a collective one.
The ego uses temptation to distract you from the truth. It is capable of creating scenarios in which...