Time to Teach

2007-01-16T19:58:00.000-06:00

The Real Alternative

Time to Teach
There is a choice that you have power to make when you have seen the real alternatives. Until that point is reached you have no choice, and you can but decide how you would choose the better to deceive yourself again. This course attempts to teach no more than that the power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of what is still the same illusion and the same mistake. All choices in the world depend on this; you choose between your brother and yourself, and you will gain as much as he will lose, and what you lose is what is given him. How utterly opposed to truth is this, when all the lesson's purpose is to teach that what your brother loses you have lost, and what he gains is what is given you.

Reading
A.
Chapter 22 IV. The Branching of the Road
Lesson 185 I want the peace of God
Manual for Teachers 1. Who Are God’s Teachers?

B.
Chapter 21 VII. The Last Unanswered Question
Lesson 165 Let Not my mind deny the Thought of God
Manual for Teachers 9. Are Changes Required in the Life Situation of God’s Teachers?

C.
Chapter 31 IV. The Real Alternative
Lesson 133 I will not value what is valueless
Manual for Teachers 12. How Many Teachers of God are Needed to Save the World?

Inquiry
What are the alternatives open for your choosing?
According to what criteria can you tell what is, and what is not, a real and valuable option for choice?
What do you need to realize to bring the salvation of the world within the power of your decision?
How does a fundamental change and an actual escape from hell occur?

Presentation
Do you remember the moment in time, or the phases in your awakening when it became clear to you that you were in need of a real alternative and not just another substitute or signpost within the world?
What was it that offered or triggered to you the promise and possibility of this alternative?
What is the way appointed to you, now that you have seen and experienced the real alternative?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2007-01-16T19:43:00.000-06:00

The Only Choice

I am grateful again to be able to sit down and
completely immerse myself into this new topic that has
inspired me. I really enjoy the new direction that i
was directed to take concerning the mannner in which
to sequence and organise these new and reworked
assignments for the time to teach classes.

To approach an overall theme for four weeks from four
different angles i find very inspiring and enriching.
I find that i can fall deeper into the true meaning of
the central course topic that is being conveyed to me
and with which i become more comfortable and familiar.

Last week we taught the Power of Decision, this week
we couple our decision with the irreversable
recognition of the unchanging nature of this selfsame
decision. Now our minds are made aware of what the
real alternatives are.

We put a stop to the wavering and meandering of the
way in which we used our divine and all powerful
minds. Instead we are guided and reminded here to the
solid realisation that once a decision is made with
the power of heaven to uphold it,it cannot be undone.

The only 'choice' we still have is to deceive
ourselves about the nature of the alternatives and to
cover up the decision that we made long ago. Over the
nature of the outcome of our choice we have no power
since the alternatives are predetermined but we do
have to go with one or the other since everything in
between is evil.

Once again the course merely helps you to sort out the
true from the false, eternal from temporal, valueable
from valueless.
But the most important revelation and message from
this theme and this assignment is that you yourself
are delivered to the insightful experience that you
are the only one to offer and extend and manifest
this real alternative and no other than you.

We are coming clean in these lessons and for a moment
come to a halt and review the choices we have made
thus far. Let's appreciate and become powerfully aware
of our true function within and as the real
alternative itself. Allow yourself to really find
truth and recognition of your identity and true
function in this assignment, these words and this
message.

Declare yourself:

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2007-01-07T18:26:00.000-06:00

All power on earth and heaven is given you. And here
with this assignment we are asked to realistically
look at where exactly this power lies. 

Why does the lesson 152 say:"The power of decision is
my own" and not all power is given to you, to do with
as you please?

How do i apply my mind to the making of all the right
decisions? How willing am i to follow these
instructions? 
How ready am i to take responsibility for the mastery
over the outcome and 'effects' of my decisions?

Last week we focused mostly on the intention of your
mind to learn how to make the decisions that give you
the outcome that you want. 

This week we get in touch with mind as the mechanism
of the decision, what are the options between which we
choose? How real is the making of these decisions? And
how essential and inevitable is it to understand our
role in the 'process' of choice and how much is set in
stone?
How powerful is our choosing?

Lots of questions here already! I hope you recognize
the necessity to teach this, the same way that i do.
How complacent i get, when i don't give the experience
and the truth of this offering from our Jesus'
master-mind away. I recognize a strong need to stand
in the uncompromising way, truth and life of this
message.

I love you and let's do this.

With Love and Dedication Bastiaan

Power of Decision
Time to Teach
No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you. And it is only here salvation is.

Reading
A.
Lesson 138 Heaven is the decision I must make
Chapter 5 II. The Voice for God

B.
Lesson 152 The power of decision is my own
Chapter 21 II. The Responsibility for Sight

C.
Lesson 190 I choose the joy of God instead of pain
Chapter 8 IV. The Gift of Freedom

Inquiry
Explain the role of decision making in the practice of mind-training!
Explain mind as the mechanism of decision!
Can a decision be undone once it is made?
What makes a decision permanent and capable of genuine change?

Presentation
What are the alternatives that are open to your choosing?
Why does all your power lie in your decision?
What power belongs with God and which power with you?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2007-01-07T18:14:00.000-06:00

Happy new year. This is a new beginning. The first day
of the new year. For me it was the finest example of
feeling entirely separate and again recognizing the
only solution to be entire surrender to God and his
Love which i need in its entirety to restore me to my
own awareness of completion and wholeness. The
relinquishment of my self-identity. We even have
methods for that. One of them is called a Course In
Miracles. And for this week's topic and time to teach
assignment we will look at the exact procedures to
camcel out all interference between what we really
really want and all the ways in which we think we can
reach that goal. So what we really want has never
changed, it is now clarified at the beginning and then
the means in which the goal is realised is approached
systematically by giving up and cancelling out any
involvement with which we attempt to reach the goal. A
perfect example in which we step back and are shown
the very practical aspects of that action within our
own mind. From the pure intention of not making
decisions by ourself. I love you and which you the
best for this new year. Practice this course and you
will receive the benefits of a new day, a brand new
beginning and the means to make your happiness
consistent and permanent.
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

Love Bastiaan

New Beginning
Time to Teach
The new beginning now becomes the focus of the curriculum. The goal is clear, but now you need specific methods for attaining it. The speed by which it can be reached depends on this one thing alone; your willingness to practice every step. Each one will help a little, every time it is attempted. And together will these steps lead you from dreams of judgment to forgiving dreams and out of pain and fear. They are not new to you, but they are more ideas than rules of thought to you as yet. So now we need to practice them awhile, until they are the rules by which you live. We seek to make them habits now, so you will have them ready for whatever need.

First reading
Chapter 30 I. Rules for Decision

Second reading

A
Chapter 5 VII. The Decision for God

B
Chapter 14 III. The Decision for Guiltlessness

C
Chapter 31 VIII Choose Once Again

Inquiry
What is the new focus of this curriculum!
What are the specific methods and rules of thought for attaining the goal of this course?
What are the procedures to be followed, to give you the day you want?
What are the steps that will help you cancel out your own interference?
What agreement you are asked to make, permits all things to happen?

Presentation
How exactly do you turn these ideas into rules of thought! Do it!
What makes one a true follower or disciple of Jesus?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2007-01-07T18:03:00.000-06:00

Here is the next one already. The last assignment of
the Christmas series and the last one of this year.
What better way than to come to experience the Peace
of God which  we could say is the purpose of doing
this A Course In Miracles after all. A great
concluding and powerful set of readings and
workbookpractice combined with only three most
fundamental questions that Jesus poses in our first
reading of the Manual for Teachers What is the Peace
of God?
How is the Peace of God recognized?
Secondly How is the Peace of God found? And being
found how is the Peace of God retained?
Answer these questions and you you will have a very
clear understanding of what this Course really offers
you and how we can achieve the goal of this Course.
I wish you all a blessed Christmas celebration and may
these days be holy and joyful for you. If you have
some time around christmas read some of the sections i
gave you in the previous assignment about the Time of
Christ   with your friend(s) or family since Christmas
is still upcoming and then close this year with a true
experience of the Peace of God. Not a bad plan is it?
I love you and wish you a merry Christmas and a happy
new year. And thank you for your dedication in
teaching this message of Christ with me and in
allowing this to become a true experience for you
personally and for the extension of your light and
demonstration of the Way the Truth and the Life. I
will write, talk to you, hear from you and or see you
next year.

Love Bastiaan


Peace of God
Time to Teach  
Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind. But peace
begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from
this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer
to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and
meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the
bridge  where freedom lies within the peace of God.

First Reading
MFT 20. What is the Peace  of God?
         

Second Reading

A.
Lesson   34          I could see peace instead of this
Lesson 185         I want the peace of God
Chapter 13 VII.   Attainment of the Real world
      

B. 
Lesson 109        I rest in God
Lesson 188       The peace of God is shining in me now
Chapter 29 V.    The Changeless Dwelling  Place


C.
Lesson 74          There is no will but God’s
Lesson 200       There is no peace except the peace of God
Chapter 13 XI.  The Peace of Heaven
              
   
Inquiry 
How is the Peace of God recognized?
How is the Peace of God found?
How is the Peace of God retained? 

“ I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-12-15T16:32:00.000-06:00

Commencing Christmas
The third assignment of this Christmas season is
completely dedicated to the celebration of Christmas.
Its true meaning and the most genuine manifestation of
Christmas through your own personal rebirth and
reawakening from this funny dream. This is the Time of
Christ let us not forget the true significance of
these days and the true gift it holds in store for us.
A time in which i will forget about my little self and
increase my awareness of reality by returning to my
true function of giving and forgiving here and
communication and creation 'there'. I wish you a great
time and hope that you might find the peace of God
that is truly available in these days of giving and
surrender to God.
Love Bastiaan

Time of Christ
Time to Teach
This is the season when you would celebrate my birth into the world. Yet you know not how to do it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you, and let me celebrate your birth through Him. The only gift I can accept of you is the gift I gave to you. Release me as I choose your own release. The time of Christ we celebrate together, for it has no meaning if we are apart.

First Reading
New Testament, Luke, Chapter 1 and 2
&
Ch.15 III. Littleness versus Magnitude
Chapter 15 X. The Time of Rebirth
Chapter 15 XI. Christmas as the End of Sacrifice

Second Reading
A.
Ch.22 I. The Message of the Holy Relationship
Lesson 182 I will be still an instant and go home.
Lesson 303 The holy Christ is born in me today.

Or

B.
Workbook What is the Christ? (pg. 431)
Lesson 110 I am as God created me.
Lesson 308 This instant is the only time there is.

Inquiry
What is the first Christmas you remember?
What does Christmas represent for you?
What does Jesus ask you to do, to remember his birth?
How do you celebrate Christmas?

Presentation
What is the gift you are born to give?
What is the lesson you are born to teach?
How do you tend to the birth and growth of the Christ Child?

“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life”

2006-12-05T17:58:00.000-06:00

To Give is how to Live!

Hee you. This week's assignment for the academy class and for some of the other classes is the Attitude of Gratitude. But because i want to give some more preparation time for my paltalk friends i already send you the next week's assignment.

The act of giving is a very consistent topic that keeps coming back to mind and represents the whole action of A Course In Miracles. Give so you can live. Give so you may get out of your isolation and return to your original function of creation. Escape your self contained ideas of limitation and lack of self through the act of giving. Experiment, try something new, something you would never do since it so much contradicts your stale and old ideas of your self that make up your identity in boredom and death.

The act of giving. A whole new perspective on the concept of giving which stems directly from a newly conceived sense of freedom. No longer are you bound to objective reality and the observation of yourself in relation to other figures in your dream. No longer do you represent past memories of limitation, loss and different ways in which you used to sacrifice yourself for the bigger good. No more observation and formal relationships in which you repeat old grudges, and cast yourself and others into old stories in which you give in order to lose what you value the most. No more of that stuff.

You are now in the act of giving in order to experience something brand new. You give in order to break through. You live in order to give of yourself and discover that this is God's gift to you.
Not to withhold, look back or withdraw and analyze your thoughts and actions but to step forward from the place where you truly find yourself into the discovery of your true value. You are now received by your brother and your value has therefore increased in your own sight; like Jesus would say it. Anyways a lot to be grateful for because there is a lot to give. And there is always plenty more from where this came from.

So protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them.

I love you and i truly hope you will discover the necessity for giving not only because of this Christmas season but because of the importance of giving for your realisation of this most precious gift that lays just before your feet in this road carpeted with miracles.
You can tell i have been reading the Course perhaps a little too much if that is possible.

Bye for now and good luck teaching and demonstrating the act of genuine giving that starts within you, as you and will never leave you.

Love Bastiaan

Act of Giving
Time to Teach
Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them. What you thought you did not have is thereby proven yours. Yet value not its form. For this will change and grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. No form endures. It is the thought behind the form of things that lives unchangeable.

First Reading
Lesson 187 I bless the world because I bless myself

Chosen Reading

A. Lesson 105 God’s peace and joy are mine
Lesson 166 I am entrusted with the gifts of God
Chapter 11 I. The Gifts of Fatherhood

Or
B. Lesson 108 To give and to receive are one in truth
Lesson 126 All that I give is given to myself
Chapter 20 IV. Entering the Ark

Or
C. Lesson 158 Today I learn to give as I receive
Lesson 159 I give the miracles I have received
Chapter 27 V. The Healing Example

Inquiry
List all the beliefs of the world in regards to giving!
Why is it important to undergo a thought reversal in regards to your view of giving?
How do you recognize, accept and receive God’s gifts?
What is the gift God wants you to give?
Why do you think is the emphasis placed on the ‘act’ of giving?

Presentation
Give one example of a true moment in which you gave something that you thought you didn’t possess until the moment that you gave it!
Explain the transfer or transformational value of true giving?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-30T18:47:00.000-06:00

Commencing Christmas
We are entering the Christmas season. I am making a
series of four especially on the course themes related
to the very essence of christmas. Four beatiful topics
about gratitude, giving, rebirth and the nourishment
and maturity of the Christ in you.

This week's assignment is on the attitude of
gratitude, the intention and true commencing of
christmas. To fall completely back on yourself in full
appreciation of all the blessings that have come to
you and are now and will always be with you.

Gratitude for the season in which we come into action
and step into an active recognition of who we are and
what we really can and have to give in these week's of
brotherly love. Further we are being led to an
experience of rebirth and recognize the christ child
within and as yourself. A child nourished only in
defenseless innocence and the recognition of the
unalterable state of God's Peace on earth the way it
is in Heaven.

We are definitely not going on a sidetrack just
because of the holidays but instead we are standing in
the middle of the true essence and action of Christmas
and will not avoid but enter deeper in the true
meaning and message of Jesus Christ to this place and
condition of darkness, isolation and sense of
separation. We will surrender completely to our Father
and give him all our darker feelings concerning these
days and revealed to us will be his light, joy and
happiness. All the more reason to be grateful.

With love and dedication Bastiaan

Attitude of Gratitude
Time to Teach

Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads.
There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth.
A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance,
but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.

A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the
real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received.
Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself,
nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the
self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation.
Give Him thanks today.

~ Workbook Lesson 123 p.1 and p.2 ~

Practice
Lesson 123, I thank my Father for His gifts to me

Lesson 195, Love is the way I walk in gratitude

Lesson 197, It can be but my gratitude I earn

Preparation
Make a gratitude list:
Write down the gains you made and the gifts you received since you embarked upon your Course in Miracles.
Think of all the ones that crossed your path speaking and offering you saving grace!
Think of the mighty companions that go with you now and are committed to you and your awakening!
Think of all the moments where sorrow miraculously turned to joy, sickness to health, addiction to sanity and fear to love!

Presentation
Who needs your gratitude the most?
How do you express gratitude?
How does God express His thanks to and through you?
How do you obtain and sustain an attitude of gratitude?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-21T17:16:00.000-06:00

Gone and back again
Hee everyone. A special for this week. I am sending
the next assignment out before the last week's theme
has even been taught in every class that is
participating in this Time to Teach program. I do this
on request of my paltalk friends who needed more than
the weekend to prepare. So please don't get confused.

The gift of grace is the last assignment of a series
of four on miracles. This week therefore we are led
into the actual experience of grace which takes place
out of time alltogether. Get a clear feel of how on
one hand you are told that the time is set in which
you are about to have this revelation and how on the
other hand it is explained how to speed up the actual
occurrence of this revelation.

An interesting question that came to me is how you can
be in total joining with your brother and God out of
time and the next moment are asked to return to this
world of space/time and to participate in it. We will
truly learn how to sustain the experience of grace by
extending our light and becoming the genuine
demonstration of this grace here on earth. This may
not be an immediate realisation for you but you are
asked to let go of everything you are so comfortable
with and that you have tried to keep away from God's
light. The only way to sustain the light that streams
and lightens your mind while you receive this grace is
to become a vehicle for it. You have to give what is
given you in order to maintain this love and joy in
your awareness.

So it is an immeasurable gift that is offered to you
here and nothing will satisfy you as fully as this
eternal gift of God to you His Son directly from out
of space and time yet a lot closer than the next body
or object that you may perceive about you.

This is you. Forget about your old self and the stuff
that you are apparently confronted with. You are given and will give
a genuine and everlasting new perspective that will
put everything in a whole new light the moment you
reenter your dream of space and time after coming back
from a direct encounter with your Creator.

Bless you and this should give you enough time to
prepare and make you revelation ready.

With love and dedication Bastiaan

Gift of Grace
Time to Teach
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?
~Lesson 169, p.12+13~

A.

Lesson 168 Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
Chapter 7 XI. The State of Grace

Or

B.

Lesson 169 By grace I live. By grace I am released.
Chapter 25 VI. The Special Function

Inquiry
Why is grace such a precious gift and unlike any other gift?
What is accomplished and realized through the experience of grace?
What desire calls down the gift of grace?
Is there anything you can do to prepare yourself for revelation or to speed up its advent?
How is the gift of grace sustained and kept in awareness?
What is your special function here in service of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God?
What does ‘the work’ entail?

Presentation
Have you personally had the experience of revelation that Jesus presents in this reading?
If you didn’t have this experience or desire to live in a more constant state of grace what are you asked to do?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-18T11:56:00.000-06:00

Perfectly Equal
The third assignment of a time to teach series
dedicated to miracles. Called perfect equality, we
will be teaching the one and foremost principle of
miracles. Number 1 of the miracle principles:
There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is
not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all
the same. All expressions of love are maximal.

Principles before personalities is a saying within one
of the most wide spread and practically applied
spiritual programs in this world. We will see how one
principle like this can be effective in the whole
undoing of this world's perception. How simple is this
course and how exciting to teach it. How powerful to
be able to depend on and entirely utilize the
simplicity of the course to its uttermost reaches.

The previous weeks we looked at all the miracle
principles and the most fundamental text sections of
the Course, then we practiced and were teaching the
necessity for miracle mindtraining and became truly
miracle-minded. Now i ask you to zoom in on one of the
miracle principles and see how it is a golden thread
through the theory and practice of A Course In
Miracles.

Please allow this message to become personal to you.
We looking at the way your mind works not at some
external principle that rules the universe. No you do.
So can you see the value of an idea like this and how
it really helps you to reach the goal of this course
and meets your deepest desire for wholeness and
happiness. Let everything become the same not to bore
you but to set your mind free from all distinctions
and limitations.
I love you and i hope you have a great time to teach.

With love and dedication Bastiaan

Perfect Equality
Time to Teach
In this world, it is not true that anything without order of difficulties can occur. The miracle, therefore has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality.

Reading
A.
Manual for Teachers 8: HOW CAN PERCEPTION OF ORDER OF DIFFICULTIES BE AVOIDED?
Chapter 6 VA To Have Give All to All
Chapter 17 I Bringing Fantasy to Truth

Or
B.
Manual for Teachers 22: HOW ARE HEALING AND ATONEMENT RELATED?
Chapter 14 X The Equality of Miracles
Chapter 7 IV Healing as the Recognition of Truth

Inquiry
Where, how and why do you establish order of difficulties?
What keeps the belief in order of difficulties in place?
How can they be avoided and undone?
Why is perfect equality such an important principle in the light of performing miracles?
How does it help to undo the world’s perception?

Presentation
Please explain why this principle makes the mind-training effective?
How did or do you come to realize perfect equality in all your relations to your brothers, Master Teacher, Jesus and God?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-14T20:49:00.000-06:00

Miracle Mindtraining

Hee everyone. I am very early sending this new
assignment to you. This way you will have two or three
days to prepare for the time to teach class on paltalk
we will do the same topic for the class at the academy
and for the groups in Venezuela and other countries i
hope you also teach this topic so that we are all on
the same topic.
This week's assignment is called Miracle Minded. It is
not the same as the one from last week. I changed the
title for last week's class to "Miracle Principles".
So the first attachment is the new assignment and the
second attachment is last week's assignment which i
changed just a little so that this becomes a series of
four assignments on miracles.
After having carefully studied the Miracle Principles
and the earlier sections from the text of A Course In
Miracles this week we will be very practical and
discilpined in practicing a couple of workbooklessons
on miracles and look closely at how the lessons help
us to become truly miracle minded and how they assist
us to be consistent in our experience of miracles in
our day to day life.
Let it be a new and completely fresh involvement of
your mind in these miraculous mind training lessons.
That it may expand your understanding and increase
your ability to teach the importance of the mind
discipline offered to and especially designed for us.
I love you and i will see you.

With all my love and dedication Bastiaan

Miracle Minded
Time to Teach
This is the miracle of creation; that it is one forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until you see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same light and therefore one. Everyone seen without the past thus brings you nearer to the end of time by bringing healed and healing sight into the darkness, and enabling the world to see. For light must come into the darkened world to make Christ's vision possible even here. Help Him to give His gift of light to all who think they wander in the darkness, and let Him gather them into His quiet sight that makes them one.

Everyone Read
Introduction to the Workbook

Practice and Read
Lesson 77 I am entitled to miracles
Lesson 78 Let miracles replace all grievance
Chapter 30 VIII. Changeless Reality

or

Lesson 91 Miracles are seen in light
Lesson 92 Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one
Chapter 13 VIII. From Perception to Knowledge

or

Lesson 159 I give the miracles I have received
Chapter 25 IX. The Justice of Heaven

Inquiry
What are the general rules and guidelines for practice of each and every lesson in the workbook?
For each of the lessons that you chose from the list above, determine the following:
*The goal and aim of the exercises.
*The manner in which it brings you in touch with what you really want.
*How it reminds you of who you are and what you are here to do.
*To what extent you are responsible for the outcome of the practice.*The proper attitude for applying the lesson(s).
*How it helps you to maintain a state of miracle readiness/awareness.
*The unique nature and quality of this particular lesson.

Presentation
How much of the outcome of the lesson depends on your faith, willingness and discipline, how much on a power greater than yourself.
What is the true value of these miracle mind training lessons?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-05T19:40:00.000-06:00

Hee you. I am excited to be able to give you this new assignment. We will totally focus in on the most rudimentary principles on which the miracles depend and through which they are functional.

We will start with a very available section on what is a miracle and we go on to take a close look at all the miracle principles. We will start to understand that the whole rest of the book rests on these new ideas about the way your mind really works as we learn to open our minds to this new way of thinking and living. Then you have the choice between two reading assignments that will lead you through some of these fundamental sections out of the first two chapters of the text of A Course In Miracles. I know that we don't have much time this week for the acim gather group but hopefully you get this message a little before the class. This because we have decided to bring the class to a monday and didn't want to skip one week. In this group we are still getting familiar with this particular teaching format and thanks to your willingness, openness and patience we will have a great time with the upcoming classes. The class is set on Monday 4-6pm, Central Time and 5-7 pm, Eastern Time. You go to your log in on paltalk , click on chat rooms, click on rooms, choose learning and universities, then you choose other and then you see acim gather. It would be great to see you there and hear you teach. The only requirement to teach is that you do the preparation as instructed in the assignment sheet.

Thank you for your participation in Time to Teach in whatever form that may be at the moment. Never forget that there is a deeper involvement being offered to you here in regards to your function and role as a teacher of God. And because this prayer is so perfect for this week's topic i include this in my message here. Some of youwill find it in your reading of Chapter 2VA.
You can do much on behalf of your own healing and that of others if, in a situation calling for help, you think of it this way:
I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.
With love and dedication Bastiaan

Miracle Principles
Time to Teach
This is a course in mind training. All learning involves attention and study at some level. Some of the later parts of the course rest too heavily on these earlier sections not to require their careful study. You will also need them for preparation. Without this, you may become much too fearful of what is to come to make constructive use of it. However, as you study these earlier sections, you will begin to see some of the implications that will be amplified later on. Some of the later steps in this course, however, involve a more direct approach to God Himself. It would be unwise to start on these steps without careful preparation, or awe will be confused with fear, and the experience will be more traumatic than beatific. Healing is of God in the end. The means are being carefully explained to you. Revelation may occasionally reveal the end to you, but to reach it the means are needed.

Everyone Read
Workbook question 13. What is a Miracle? (follows lesson 340) and
Chapter 1 I. Principles of Miracles

Choose your additional reading
Chapter 1 V. Wholeness and Spirit
Chapter 1 VI. The Illusions of Needs
Chapter 1 VII. Distortions of Miracle Impulses
or
Chapter 2 IV. Healing as Release from Fear
Chapter 2 V. The Function of the Miracle Worker
Chapter 2 VA. Special Principles of Miracle Workers

Inquiry
What is a miracle?
Who and what are miracles for?
What is their main purpose?
On what level is correction made?
What do miracles express and what do they help you to recognize?

Explain the role and relevance of your body, mind and spirit!
Choose 3 up to 5 miracle principles that embody the most essential qualities of miracles. What prayer is given you to make yourself available for miracles to happen through you?

Presentation
What to you is the true relevance of these early text sections?How has the study of these principles and earlier sections prepared you for the performance of miracles?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-11-05T19:32:00.000-06:00

Stepping into the Holy Instant

This week we will look at some great sections in the
course dealing with special relationships and really
stepping in the Holy Instant. It completely follows
on the topic from last week the immediacy of
salvation.
The holy instant is a true experience where your mind
is restored to its actual and ever present state of
worthiness in the sight of God and His and yours
loving universe. When you read this you will be
brought back to the realisation and the confrontation
of the exact working of your mind in its judgment and
all the differences your mind constantly makes up to
divide and split yourself off from all that is real.

I love you and thanks for your dedication and
willingness to try something new and to come into the
realisation of how powerful and limitlessly liberating
it is to be a teacher of God.
With Love and Dedication Bastiaan

Holy Instant
Time to Teach
The holy instant is nothing more than a special case, or an extreme example, of what every situation is meant to be. The meaning that the Holy Spirit's purpose has given it is also given to every situation. It calls forth just the same suspension of faithlessness, withheld and left unused, that faith might answer to the call of truth. The holy instant is the shining example, the clear and unequivocal demonstration of the meaning of every relationship and every situation, seen as a whole. Faith has accepted every aspect of the situation, and faithlessness has not forced any exclusion on it. It is a situation of perfect peace, simply because you have let it be what it is.

Reading

A.
Chapter 15 V. The Holy Instant and Special Relationships
Chapter 15 VI. The Holy Instant and the Laws of God
Chapter 15 IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God

B.
Chapter 16 VII. The End of Illusions
Chapter 17 VIII. The Conditions of Peace
Chapter 26 V. The Little Hindrance

Inquiry
What is a holy instant?
What exactly makes an instant holy?
Are you able to experience an unholy instant?
Is it possible for every relationship and every situation to be or become holy? How?
What is the true function of the Holy Instant?

Presentation
How do you avail yourself of the holy instant in the practice of it?
Introduce us to this holy instant!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-10-24T14:18:00.000-05:00

Immediacy of Salvation

Time to Teach
Salvation is immediate. Unless you so perceive it, you will be afraid of it, believing that the risk of loss is great between the time its purpose is made yours and its effects will come to you. In this form is the error still obscured that is the source of fear. Salvation would wipe out the space you see between you still, and let you instantly become as one.

Reading

A.
Chapter 15 IV Practicing the Holy Instant

Chapter 18 VII I Need Do Nothing

B.
Chapter 26 VIII The Immediacy of Salvation
Chapter 27 V The Healing Example

Inquiry
Why is salvation immediate?
Is it even possible to think of salvation if it isn’t available here and now?
How does this immediacy take care of all your guilt and fear issues?
How does the role and function of the body and time shift drastically through the recognition of salvation’s immediate nature?

Presentation
What impact does your realization of the immediacy of salvation really have on your understanding and fulfillment of your role in salvation?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-10-24T14:17:00.000-05:00

A Little Willingness

Time to Teach
Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. If you could come without them you would not need the holy instant. Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that you must achieve the state its coming brings with it. The miracle of the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be.

Reading

A.
Chapter 18 IV. The Little Willingness
Chapter 18 V. The Happy Dream

B.
Chapter 11 II. The Invitation to Healing Chapter
21 II. The Responsibility for Sight

Inquiry
Explain the connection between determination and willingness! What is my difficulty in allowing myself to experience a moment of reality and the recognition of who and what I am? Look honestly at how you are still trying to assert, prepare or purify yourself for the Holy Instant? Where does my willingness really come from and what is it for? What power needs to be recognized and appreciated to have your world of perception be transformed into vision and the experience of knowledge? Does a little willingness imply a partial responsibility for the condition I find myself in? What is humility if you look at the way in which the roles are divided between you and God? Presentation Explain the action in your mind that will lead you from a situation based on error to one of holiness?

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-10-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

Will to be Free.
The title of this week's class commands you to use your free will in its truest application. Free will in its real sense has to be the will that leads you to the experience of freedom. A will that leads to conflict, confusion, pain can therefore not be your free will. The problem again is thinking that we actually have a real choice and can select what it is we prefer to experience. How great to discover the simplicity of recognizing that there is only one true will with any true direction and such is the will to be free. Once you experience this will to be ultimately and intimately your own, you will find the joy and freedom that God wills for you. You will automatically become grateful. With the burden of your self-assumed responsibility released and your perceived need to sacrifice yourself now being removed from your mind, your mind is singular, focused, happy, conflict free and at peace.Just read these sections that i give you for this week,answer the questions and discover the power of your mind. You will see that you no longer have to resist or rebel against a will you perceived other than your own. You will find the space in your mind that is open for this moment of realisation. Your heart is whole and wants to love and anticipates the present as a unified time and space instant in which it can give itself fully. Ask the eagle about the ways of freedom, allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to teach you. Discover and commit yourself to the will that leads to this selfsame experience. Now you are the teacher of the liberation; so universally sought and desired. Be you free in your mind and with heart. Will to be Free.

With all my love and light Bastiaan

2006-10-10T21:04:00.000-05:00

Will to be Free
Time to Teach
How wonderful it is to do your will! For that is freedom. There is nothing else that ever should be called by freedom's name. Unless you do your will you are not free. And would God leave His Son without what he has chosen for himself? God but ensured that you would never lose your will when He gave you His perfect Answer. Hear It now, that you may be reminded of His Love and learn your will. God would not have His Son made prisoner to what he does not want. He joins with you in willing you be free. And to oppose Him is to make a choice against yourself, and choose that you be bound.

Reading

A.
Chapter 8 II. The Difference between Imprisonment and Freedom
Chapter 8 IV. The Gift of Freedom

B.
Chapter 20 IV. Entering the Ark
Chapter 30 II. The Freedom of Will

Inquiry
What is a free will supposed to lead you to?
What exactly is the problem with designing your own plans, with following the laws of this world and making choices based on your self- will (‘free will’)?
Where does the resistance to, the denial of and the fear to accept the Will of God for you come from?
What is freedom? On what does it depend?
How do you know when you are really free?

Presentation
Lead us step by step to the understanding and recognition that only God’s will leads to freedom!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-10-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

This one is about relationships
Guess what?! This one is about relationships. Let's
get rid of all the mistaken ideas we have about what
relationships are and what they are for! Let's release
all our judgments about whether they serve your
'spiritual' purpose or fit your self-assigned
spiritual identity. Let's get to the nitty gritty of
it as they say. Let us recognize that we are merely
terrified of the Love of God for us. Let us see that
sharing our new purpose of awakening and
self-recognition with our brother is the most fearful
thing we could think of performing. Let's get over
this strong ego defense against the Love that God has
for us and all the eternal glorious gifts he holds in
store. He knows we are worthy of these gifts.
Let us not deny our creations which truly belong to us
and are actually assigned to us and have become our
responsibility, to watch over and care for. Our
precious God given brother offers us all learning
situations and all irreplacable moments for
revolutionary self-forgiveness.

Please during the preparation for this week, don't
think you know anything about relationships. Open
yourself for a whole new revelatory experience of what
a relationship really is and the unimaginable purpose
it serves within God's plan for your salvation. Give
up your illusions and fantasies about what you could
be if only he or she...
How happy you would be if he hadn't or if she would...
Find yourself with the one you are with. Enable every
situation to be one of perfect holiness and full
purpose. Go where it is uncomfortable to go and let
the change occur. Accept the Holy Spirit's purpose for
your relationship and all your relationships, which
directly and ultimately reflect your most original and
real relationship between yourself and your Creator.

You should definitely have fun with this week's
assignment. There is a lot to read in our Course about
this subject and it is really incredible to find what
Jesus says on the topic. That it may blow your mind.
Love Bastiaan

Real Relationships
Time to Teach
You have been called, together with your brother, to the most holy function this world contains. It is the only one that has no limits, and reaches out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting comfort. This is offered you, in your holy relationship. Accept it here, and you will give as you have accepted. The peace of God is given you with the glowing purpose in which you join with your brother. The holy light that brought you and him together must extend, as you accepted it.

First reading
Manual For Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING?

Choose your Second reading

A.
Chapter 13 X Release from Guilt
Chapter 15 VIII The Only Real Relationship
Chapter 17 IV The Two Pictures

B.
Chapter 17 V The Healed Relationship
Chapter 17 VII The Call For Faith
Chapter 18 I The Substitute Reality

C.
Chapter 20 VI The Temple of the Holy Spirit
Chapter 22 Introduction
Chapter 22 VI The Light of the Holy Relationship

Preparation
Make a list of all your old ideas about relationships?
How does the reading shed new light on the true meaning and purpose of relationship(s)?
What determines whether a relationship is real?
Why is the use of relationships so important in the accomplishment of the goal of this course?

Look honestly if and where you are still trying to accomplish the goal of the course by your own means and separate from your brother!
Regard your holy relationship in all its aspects; remember its beginning, think about the way it developed and how it became accomplished!
How is it the exact reversal of the unholy or special relationship?

Presentation
Explain how your relationships with your brother(s) reflect and represent your one real relationship with your Father and yourself!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-09-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

Opening the Altar to Atonement.
Hello. Another week of teaching and practice of A Course In Miracles. Last week we were looking at what we find at the heart or essence of healing. What does really occur during the healing moment? This week we look at the foundation of healing. What makes it possible for healing to occur at all.

Let's try to gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the Atonement! What does this really mean as a word, a symbol and an experience! Look at the old christian interpretation and misinterpretation of the word and its use/misuse. Then see what it really means now that the experience of it is right at your doorstep through Jesus' offering of A Course In Miracles and his unmistakable clarity and reasonability.

Now you are told to merely accept the Atonement for yourself. That takes the whole load off of it. Accept what already is accomplished. Accept that which Jesus in relationship to our Creator already accepted and prepared for us. Let us realise and appreciate his role in the Atonement and become more aware of our personal role within the broader plan of Atonement.

For teaching purposes i will ask you to use an analogy to explain the idea ofAtonement, because it is such an abstract concept and truly embodies a genuine experience waiting for your acceptance.

How incredible the selection of lessons and text are for this week's assignment. I am truly amazed at the mastership of this document. It does not leave anything or anyone out of its expression and is completely unfailing in its aim and its divine purpose to guide us to the recognition of our perfect Self created in the realm of eternal life. Let us stand still in this place and accept our true identity and function within God's creation and subsequently get a feel and understanding of your mission here on earth.

"No one who has become a true and dedicated teacher ofGod forgets his brothers. Yet what he can offer them is limited by what he learns himself. Then turn to one who laid all limits by , and went beyond the farthest reach of learning. He will take you with him, for he did not go alone. And you were with him then, as you are now."

Love Bastiaan

2006-09-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

Acceptance of the Atonement
Time to Teach
The acceptance of the Atonement by everyone is only a matter of time. This may appear to contradict free will because of the inevitability of the final decision, but this is not so. You can temporize and you are capable of enormous procrastination, but you cannot depart entirely from your Creator, Who set the limits on your ability to miscreate. An imprisoned will engenders a situation which, in the extreme, becomes altogether intolerable. Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way.

A.
Lesson 139 I will accept Atonement for myself.
Chapter 2 III. The Altar of God
MFT 22. How are Healing and Atonement related?

B.
Lesson 140 Only salvation can be said to cure.
Chapter 14 V. The Circle of Atonement
MFT 23 Does Jesus have a special place in Healing?

Inquiry
What is the Atonement? Why are you asked only for your acceptance of it?Is there a difference between your function and your identity? What is /are the problem area(s) you still exclude from the Atonement?How does healing relate to atonement?

Presentation
Choose an analogy to teach the Atonement!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2006-04-19T14:34:00.000-05:00

Picking up on the newly produced video of Master
Teacher i took the opportunity to teach solely from
the Sermon on the Mount this week.

The assignment includes some research and inquiry to
help you approach this theme. I hope it will lead you
to a deeper personal encounter with the most famous
sermon of all times representing the entire doctrine
of true christian faith.

Feel free to put it right next to your Course in
Miracles book and see how the sermon touches all major
themes of the way, truth and life. It calls on you to
take and realize your full responsibility, restores
you to the power of the mind and urges you to
relinquish all judgment leading to singular vision and
the experience of the real world.

Keep it light.
Love Bastiaan

Sermon on the Mount
Time to Teach
A biblical collection of religious teachings and ethical sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, as found in Matthew, chapters 5–7. The sermon was addressed to disciples and a large crowd of listeners to guide them in a life of discipline based on a new law of love, even to enemies, as opposed to the old law of retribution.

Research
Find out the true meaning and purpose of a Sermon?
Is the Sermon on the Mount one whole entire speech or a collection of all his most fundamental teachings in one all-encompassing doctrine?

Reading
Matthew 5, 6 and 7

Inquiry
Why do you think is this the most famous sermon ever held?
How is it structured and what does it address?
How exactly does it grab you and bring you into the core of the Christian teaching?
Does it leave much space for misinterpretation?
What is the reversal or conversion that this Sermon brings about in you?

Presentation
Choose 2 or 3 statements from the Sermon that strike a strong chord with you and with which you can truly relate through your own recent experiences!
How does the Sermon unlock the doors to power and freedom?

Have a great experience, love Bastiaan

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2005-12-26T15:35:00.000-06:00

Introduction

Hereby i want to post the last two week's practices we did at the academy. We tried them out and they really work and were real eye and mind openers. If you are serious and join your efforts with one or more that you gather for this practice you will be amazed at the results that honest and sincere practice of these lessons will bring. Practice them exactly as they are laid out for you and structured to guide you along the way in which to come to a new experience, an entirely all-encompassing vision and recognition of your Self through the works of forgiveness, decision-making, declarations, vigilance and repetition of these ideas that are vital to an effective change of the world. They are effective in the sense that trhe world changes as a direct outcome of the genuine change that will take place in your mind. What was most noticable to us who practiced during these intensive classes i held here at the academy was the infinite possibilities for the expansion of our minds that was facilitated by taking and allowing the exact period of time that is suggested to go through the exact sequence of exercises as they are described in each of the lessons. If you do decide to take the exact time in which to do them you will see miracles happen.

Structure and Spontaneity
I would like to take this opportunity to give you my spontaneous view and understanding of how Jesus structured these lessons and the personal and impeccable manner in which these exercises represent him as the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is entirely present with you in his facilitation of the training of your most precious and all powerful mind.

To write this essay i looked closely at the manner in which the lesson sequence 73 up to lesson 78 is structured.
I will give you a brief description of each element that i discovered in most of these lessons and i trust and belief them to be part of the way that each lesson in the workbook is designed to bring about the change of our minds. After you read through this essay and you want to go in deeper, read some of the sections from the course that i refer to in this essay.

Total picture
Within the starting paragraph(s) of some of the lessons or somewhere during the reading that leads up to the practice you are reminded of the relationship and relevance of the previous lessons to the lesson of this day. At some stages during the sequence of lessons you and are made aware of the relationship of today's lesson to the lessons that are to come especially concerning the form of practice that is projected for a cluster of lessons.

Jesus will do everything to tie in whatever elements are relevant for the stage of practice that you are in at present. Anything that is irrelevant and might cause distraction is wisely left out. A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. It is in doing these lessons however in which the goal of this course is accomplished. The exercises are the means to accomplish the goal of this course. So in the workbook we are only concerned with efficiency and the direct application of all aspects of our mind.

Setting the goal
In a one-liner in one of the beginning paragraphs of each lesson you will find a simple statement of the exact aim of that particular lesson. In order for the lesson to be most effective the goal has to be stated and agreed upon at the outset. Like he says in the section as paraphrased above is that without setting the goal at the beginning of any undertaking stuff just seems to happen without any apparent reason and without you having had any say in what the outcome is going to be. Remember that we are training ourselves to be mindful and not merely passive actors or reactors to a scheme of things, situations and people beyond our grasp and control. Our minds are very active and therefore need to fall under clearcut direction and guidance provided for us in these mind-training lessons.

~Setting the Goal(Ch.17VI) ~

Identity and function
During the introduction of the lesson you will often be reminded of your Identity and the function that you are asked to fulfill.
So that in accordance with the goal of the lesson and its exercises you are reminded who you are and what you are here to do. Positive statements about yourself and the function that you automatically fulfil once you recognize who you are, will bring you in more fully and wholeheartedly. We are making real attempts at salvation and therefore you need to be brought in with your hands and feet, your heart and soul.

Motivation
During the following paragraphs that lead up to the actual longer practice period Jesus will make you look very closely and clearly at what it is you really want. He frees up your mind from all the obscurity with which you cloud it. Through reason and self-reflective and rhetoric questions he will quickly lead you to a singular and natural application of the power that your mind represents.

~The function of reason(CH.21V) ~

Acceptance of responsibility
Every lesson has an element in it where you are presented with the responsibility of being the sole cause of every situation, emotion and experience that you encounter and the liberating fact that you are not delivered to outside conditions or factors for your own well-being or that of others. In a gentle yet incessant manner are you made aware that you determine the outcome of any situation, the whole way in which you see yourself, the personalities all about you and the world around you. In this mind-training you will become increasingly conscious of the fact that nothing takes place outside your mind and as you practice you are making your dedication to an altar that exists within you, an altar so holy that it needs to be treated and approached with the uttermost respect and care. For the desired outcome of true peace and joy you will find your mind has to be placed at the service, divine guidance and direction of our Source and the one who thought of us at first our one and true Father who is in Heaven.

~Responsibility for Sight (Ch.21 II) ~
~Reversal of effect and cause (Ch28II) ~

Proper attitude
Desciption of the proper attitude during the actual exercises.
You will be told what your role is in the exercises and what the proper attitude is for doing them. You will always be surprised at how little is required of you. Never will you be asked to sacrifice anything that is dear to you. Always will more be added unto by honestly and sincerely practicing these exercises.

~The Little Willingness (Ch.18 IV) ~

Specific Instructions
For the longer practice period you will find nothing short of a script that will lead you through the actual practice of the exercise, here you are told exactly what to do during the time that you set aside for practice.
The exercises are done through repetition of the central idea in several related forms to ensure the total transfer of today's idea to transform you perception of yourself, 'others' and the world leading you to a whole new experience of your self in direct relationship with God. During these exercises all means are geared towards the accomplishment of the goal as stated earlier in that lesson. Sometimes you are asked to take a certain inventory concerning grievances or laws that you set up for yourself. Sometimes you are asked to visualize your enemy and to see him transformed before your spiritual eye. Other times you will be asked to freely associate and add ideas of your own to strengthen your involvement with the central statement that preceded this task. Whatever it is you are asked to do, you are led step by step to the exact universal experience that is aimed for.

~Introduction to the Workbook (page 1 Workbook) ~

Life saving decisions
After setting the goal, remembering who you are and what you do here, having listened to the voice of reason, aware of your responsibility, with the proper attitude and under direct and specific instructions we are led to make life-saving decision(s).

At this point you will be urged to realise how much the outcome of the state of universal affairs is dependent upon your personal determination and perseverance to apply the power of your mind to make utterly simple but vital decisions. Your mind is brought into alignment with God's will. Never ever however does Jesus skip over the preliminary step of showing you that what God wills for you is in complete concordance with what you want for yourself and for which you expressed your allegiance earlier in all honesty and with sincere desire. Now you are ready to make the apparent and obvious decisions without hesitation or doubt within your heart. You always choose God, to be who you are and to do what you are designed to do in your creative function.

~Rules for Decision (Ch.30 I) ~

Divine assistance
To ensure the desired outcome that is aimed for during these exercises, a call for help is made. You are gently motivated to invite a power greater than your self to come to your aide. You will now ask for divine assistance to enter exactly at the place and time you have just set up to apply your mind to practice these exercises. Now that you have set the ball rolling and are actively involved in the first phase of the exercise you find yourself ready and willing to bring in the power of God, Jesus and/or the always supporting helping hand of the Holy Spirit. This way you will unite your desire with the power of the universe to guarantee success in accomplishing this world's salvation and to bring about fulfillment of the part that was assigned to you in God's plan for salvation.

~The Power of holiness (Ch. 16 II) ~

*Shorter practice
At the end of each longer practice period you will be asked to continue your practice through predetermined intervals during the rest of the day. This is the maintainance phase of your practice. What use would it be to set aside 5 up to 30 minutes a day for a longer practice when for the rest of the day you will be lost in worldly and bodily affairs. In these shorter periods of your practice you are asked to repeat the ideas for the day in a structured and consistent manner. You are told that these exercises will help you to stay clear of situations that you tend to react to in certain habitual manners. You are asked to be vigilant all through the day not to react to situations that used to call forth grievances, guilt-ridden emotions or fearful avoidance.

The ideas that are given you for that day will come in place of your conditioned behaviors and habitual thought-patterns. You will learn to make positive all-encompassing statements about your reality instead. Statements that you share with God and everything that is a part of what He created.

You are literally saved through the repetition of the most simple and clear-cut one-liners in the face of the most baffling, head-crunching and heart-breaking situations.You will be asked and instructed to continue to make these personal declarations to yourself, God and to others. You speak the words of truth concerning your true identity and thereby you assert your true will and put to work the forces of the universe that work together towards the good of everyone and everything during the rest of your day. These declarations are all-powerful and Jesus knows it. He asks for your active cooperation in governing God's universe.

~The reward of teaching (CH.16 III)~

I hope you feel more motivated to do the lessons that I clustered together for the Workbook Intensive classes and for the continual practice of the lessons as you are asked to do them one a day. I hope you will be as inspired as I am by the simple exercises in alert meditation and prayer which these lessons really are.

With love and dedication Bastiaan.

I posted the actual assignments right below this post.

2005-12-26T15:23:00.000-06:00

Workbook Intensive 3+4
First is the second cluster of lessons that came after we practiced the first fifty lessons. This assignment is called "the Salt of the Earth". A title that indicates that these lessons will train your mind to recognize your true function in God's plan for salvation. A real awesome, integrating and emancipating lesson in order to grow up and mature in your saviorship.

The next assignment contains the third cluster of lessons that followed after the first fifty.
I named this workbook practice "Thy will be done". These lessons will in a miraculous impeccably structured sequence lead you to the full realisation and acceptance of God's will for you and the recognition that His will is identical to yours. It will clean out your mind entirely and undo all doubt and uncertainty about what it is you are here to do.

Have fun. Hopefully you can practice these lessons with at least one other person and preferably with a little or larger group. Merry Christmas to you as we are leading up to the new year in which we will start practicing clusters of seven lessons in the series from 1-50 of the workbook of A Course in Miracles.

Lots of love and light Bastiaan.

The Salt of the Earth
“My brethren, as I send you forth, you are the salt of the earth, salt with a saving savor. But if this salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men."

Lesson 67 Love created me like itself
Lesson 68 Love holds no grievances
Lesson 69 My grievances hide the light of the world in me
Lesson 70 My salvation comes from me
Lesson 71 Only God’s plan for salvation will work
Lesson 72 Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation

This intensive if done properly will take about 90 minutes. The lessons require a longer practice period of 10 minutes for each lesson. Make sure you watch the clock or look at your watch to take the exact period of time for each practice. Don't be afraid cause 10 minutes might all of a sudden look like an awful long time. Just relax and take this time.

Thy Will Be Done
“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen"

Lesson 73 I will there be light
Lesson 74 There is no will but God’s
Lesson 75 The light has come
Lesson 76 I am under no laws but God’s
Lesson 77 I am entitled to miracles
Lesson 78 Let miracles replace all grievances

Again take 10 minutes for each practice period. And the total time for this intensive might take you somewhere between one and a half and 2 hours if practiced properly. Goodluck.

Thank you for doing the actual work that is required as the means to accomplish the goal of this course which is to reach God's infinite peace, to clean up all useless past ideas, to strengthen your commitment to a real purpose and true function in active and direct cooperation with God's will for you. Don't give up. Keep standing in this effort of immens magnitude for the clean up of your mind and the salvation of the world.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-12-26T15:12:00.000-06:00

Time to Teach assignment
Dream World

He came again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, and he said the same word.
Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Sleep from now on and get your rest; behold the hour has come, and the Son of man will be delivered into the hands of sinners.
Matthew Chap. 26 - 43,44,45.

The theme of this week’s assignment is: the transition from being first-aware that you are dreaming, to the waking moment of the escape from the dream.

A. Chapter 18 II The Basis of the Dream,
Lesson 140 Only salvation can be said to cure. Why does only salvation cure?
Workbook 7. What is the Holy Spirit?

What is the dreams’ origin? What pervades the dreamworld? What do dreams show you? How do you attempt to make your sleeping dreams come true? How does the Holy Spirit use your dreams?
How will the H.S. gap the bridge between dreams and reality?

B. Chapter 29 IV Dream Roles
Lesson 137 When I am healed....
Workbook 5 What is the Body?

What is that makes dreams, dreams?
What is the material of dreams?
How are dreams escaped?
What always causes and justifies your attack?
From what do your fears arise?
Why is the core of the Holy Spirit’s dream different from yours?
What is your brother really for?
What is the dream’s opposite?
How does the body function within the dream?
Where is every dream born?
Where does your safety and salvation lie?

What is the World?
What does the world symbolize?
What must we do to save it?

Presentation.
Talk about your awareness of the dream you are dreaming.
Talk about your awareness of the real world.

“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life” Love Andy

2005-12-13T11:44:00.000-06:00

Three Time to Teach assignments in this one post.

What A Miracle!
Do you believe in the Son of God? He who was healed answered and said, Who is he, my Lord, so that I may believe in him?
Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and he is the one who is speaking with you.
He said I do believe, my Lord; and fell down and worshipped him.
Then Jesus said to him, I have come for the judgment of this world, so that those who cannot see may see; and those who see may become blind.
When some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words, they said to him, Why are we also blind?
Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, We see; because of this your sin remains.
~John Chap 9 - 35,36,37,38,39,40,41.~

Everyone read
Chapter 1 1. 50 Principles of Miracles

Choose
A. Chapter 1 ll. Revelation, Time and Miracles
Workbook lesson 77 I am entitled to miracles.

B. Chapter 1 lll. I Atonement and Miracles
Workbook Lesson 91 Miracles are seen in light.

Inquiry
What is a Miracle?
Can you earn release from fear?
Why do Miracles heal?
What is your natural profession?
Do you have a part in the Great Crusade?
Why must you release your brother?
Can you meet a stranger?
What does Revelation unite you too?
What do Miracles unite you too?
Who bridges the gap between you and God?
Who is in charge of the Atonement?
Are Heaven and Earth Separate?

Presentation
Demonstrate Miracles are your right.
Pick 3 Miracle principles from the 50, read each one aloud and expand upon it.
Explain the difference between horizontal and vertical perception.
Give a personal example your experience of a Miracle.

To Be Born Again
Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man is not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can an old man be born again? can he enter again a second time into his mothers womb, and be born?
Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man is not born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
What is born of flesh is flesh; and what is born of Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised because I have told you that you all must be born again.
The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound; but you do not know whence it comes and whither it goes; such is every man who is born of the Spirit.
~John C. 3 - 3,4,5,6,7,8 ~

Everyone read
From Urantia "The Second Discourse on Religion" (below this post)

Choose
A. Chapter 18 V. The Happy Dream
Workbook lesson 191 I Am The Holy Son Of God Himself.

B. Chapter 18 Vll. I Need Do Nothing
Workbook Lesson 109 I Rest In God.

Inquiry
What is undone when you are born again?
Is being born again the end of dreams?
Do you know when you advance or retreat toward your awakening?
What does the holy instant have to do with joining?
What is your way in awakening?
How long does it take to be born again?
Does doing something save time?

Presentation
Use your presentation do demonstrate you are born again.
Can you prepare the body to be born again?
What does it mean to be born again?
What part does the Holy Spirit play in being born again?
Where does the Holy Spirit abide?
How does being born again save time?
Is being born of flesh fearful?
Is being born of Spirit fearful?
Who is your Daddy when you are born again?

"I am the Way, the Truth, the Life"
Love Andy

The Second Discourse on Religion
I have called on you to be born again, to be born of spirit. I have called you out of the darkness of authority and lethargy of tradition into the transcendent light of the realization of the possibility of making for yourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make--the supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in your own personal experience. And so may you pass from death to life, from the authority of tradition to the experience of knowing God; thus will you pass from darkness to light, from a racial faith inherited to a personal faith achieved by actual experience; and there by will you progress from a theology of mind handed down by your ancestors to a true religion of spirit which shall be built up in your souls as an eternal endowment.
Your religion shall change from the mere intellectual belief in traditional authority to the actual experience of that living faith which is able to grasp the realty of God and all that relates to the divine spirit of the Father. The religion of the mind ties you hopelessly to the past; the religion of the spirit consists in progressive revelation and ever beckons you on toward higher and holier achievements in spiritual ideals and eternal realities.
While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such a transient satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom and religious liberty. My Father does not require of you as the price of entering the kingdom of heaven that you should force yourself to subscribe to a belief in things which are spiritually repugnant, unholy, and untruthful. It is not required of you that your own sense of mercy, justice, and truth should be outraged by submission to an outworn system of religious forms and ceremonies. The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And who can judge--perhaps this spirit may have something to impart to this generation which other generations have refused to hear.
Shame on those false religious teachers who would drag hungry souls back into the dim and distant past and there leave them! And so are these unfortunate persons doomed to become frightened by every new discovery, while they are discomfited by every new revelation of truth. The prophet who said, "He will be kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God," was not a mere intellectual believer in authoritative theology. This truth-knowing human had discovered God; he was not merely talking about God.
~Urantia pg 1731~

Body Building
You do not seem to doubt the world you see. You do not really question what is shown you through the body's eyes. Nor do you ask why you believe it, even though you learned a long while since your senses do deceive. That you believe them to the last detail which they report is even stranger, when you pause to recollect how frequently they have been faulty witnesses indeed!

Reading
A. Workbook, What Is A Body?
Lesson: 151 All things are echos for God.

B. Text, Chapter 4 V The Ego-Body Illusion
Lesson: 199 I am not a body. I am free.

Inquiry
What is the body?
What is the body for?
Do you doubt any detail the bodies eye show you?
When was your first memory of being body?
When was you first memory of not being a body?
Can a body die?
What is the foundation of the World built upon?

Presentation
Use your presentation to teach by example that you are not a body.
Where does freedom lie?
Is the body useful?
Do you need to take care of your body?
Does your body need healthy food and special exercise?
Can you live longer better?
Where does health and healing come from?

"I am the Way, the Truth, the Life"
Love Andy

2005-12-07T14:31:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone. It's me Bastiaan. There has been a new development around Time to Teach and that is why you haven't received any messages the last two weeks. Time to Teach is branching off in two directions. On the one hand we will continue with Time to Teach as a teacher initiative that evolves around a certain theme/topic with its necessary preparation, self-reflective inquiry and concluding presentation. A good friend of mine and committed Teacher of A Course in Miracles in his dedication and recognition of the inspiring and joyful manner in which Time to Teach helps one to come into the certainty as a Teacher of God, has taken on the responsibility of continuing this teach and learning program. So if you would like to keep receiving new Time to Teach assignments please send an E-mail to>Andy@cardhappy.com. My own personal direction as a Teacher has altered and deepened a little. It was time for me to let go of the particular format in which i presented myself as a teacher because i felt it was time to let something new come in. And very exciting it is indeed to open up the space in my mind and let God come in deeper, more personal and direct. I made a connection with Josh one of our msot inspiring teachers here at the academy. He has been doing a mind-training class every monday with a group of student/teachers. I recognized ever since his first class the importance of facilitating this mind-training, since it is the exact work that is asked of us as followers and disciples of Jesus. To do the work that God requires is to believe in the one that He sent. And Jesus says that our mind is entirely undisciplined and needs to train itself to think in a entirely different manner in order to accomplish anything. A Course in Miracles is a required course and only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will is a deeply cherished human illusion. My will is God's will. His will for me is to be happy. The way that i allowed my mind to wander in the past was the cause of all my pain, unhappiness and depression. The key is in training my mind in a serious and dedicated way. Not to get away with>believing i read a lesson real quick in the morning>just to depend on external things again right after>that half-hearted moment where i read an incredible>idea and having it merely be part of my short term>memory during that day. I recognized it is time to>apply my mind and i like to invite you to join me in a>structured and committed format to come together and>expose our thinking to the corrective and>revolutionairy format in which Jesus our Master leads>us into an inevitable and extremely natural and joyful>experience of the purest light that we represent.>I am really excited and i hope you will join me in>this adventure into, in, within our own precious mind.>>So practically i will send you the mind-training>lesson every week unless you send me a message to get>off my list. You will not get the Time to teach>assignment unless you send Andy a quick message with>your Name and E-mail adress. An exception are the>brother's here at the academy who already requested to>receive the new assignments from him. The assignments>that are to comr are either newly developed, corrected>and improved or previously published assignments. We>will also be working on a book that will contain a the>whole curriculum of Time to Teach A Course in Miracles>assignments and a website that will facilitate Time to>Teach in a much broader way. Those are projects in the>make.>>Both programs work hand in hand and are one and the>same. One is a little more towards understanding and>undergoing of the experience through the theoretical>approach offered to us in the text, lessons, manual>for teachers, new testament and other related articles>and the other is purely the mind-training intensive>directed towards the actual work of practicing the>lessons in different formats and settings. This world>will change through you and no other means can save>it.>In love and dedication Bastiaan

2005-12-07T14:16:00.000-06:00

Practice
You are the light of the world. A city set upon a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your father who is in Heaven.

Lesson 61 I am the light of the world
Lesson 62 Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world
Lesson 63 The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness
Lesson 64 Let me not forget my function
Lesson 65 My only function is the one God gave me
Lesson 66 My happiness and my function are one.

Participation
The practice of this cluster of lessons will take approximayely one and a half hour if you follow the instructions. Have a great experience.

2005-12-07T14:09:00.000-06:00

Workbook Intensive
the light of the world
You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application.

Instructions
First read the whole lesson through before you do the actual exercise(s). Read out loud, and alternate the reader for each lesson.Then go back to the beginning of the exercise period and practice for the exact time you are asked to. For lesson 61, 62 and 63 take 5 minutes to practice the exercises. Look at your watch or the clock to keep track of the time for each practice period. Practice individually and if you forget the specific instructions just reread them quietly to yourself, relax cause you have plenty of time.Feel free to softly pronounce the central or your associated ideasas long as you don’t disturb members from your group during their practice.After the time for your extended practice is up, move right along to the next lesson. The next person reads and then enter the next exercise period etc.Go around the group until all the lessons are done.Shortly read out and answer the questions listed below with your group and come up with suggestions to change or improve the format for today’s intensive mind-training practice.

Reflection
Was one and a half hour enough, too much or not enough, to work through all the lessons?
Did you feel safe and secure to read the lesson(s) out loud and to expose yourself within the group?
Do you have any ideas with which to improve the particular mind-training practice we did today?
Think of the time element, available assistance, the specific manner in which we practice the lessons, the order of events, the instruction before/during and after the practice etc.

I know you will have a great experience with these lessons that bring you directly to your true function as the light of the world.
With love and dedication, Bastiaan

2005-12-04T14:04:00.000-06:00

Branching off

Hello everyone. It's me Bastiaan. There has been a new development around Time to Teach and that is why you haven't received any messages the last two weeks. Time to Teach is branching off in two directions. On the one hand we will continue with Time to Teach being a teacher/learner initiative that evolves around a certain theme/topic with its necessary preparation, self-reflective inquiry and concluding presentation. A good friend of mine and committed Teacher of A Course in Miracles in his dedication and recognition of the inspiring and joyful manner in which Time to Teach helps one to come into the certainty as a Teacher ofGod, has taken on the responsibility of continuing this Teach and learning program. So if you would like to keep receiving or these Time to Teach assignments for the very first time send him an E-mail at Andy@cardhappy.com.

My own personal direction as a Teacher has altered and deepened. It was time for me to let go of the particular format in which i presented myself as a teacher for a couple of years now. I felt it was time to let something new come in. And very exciting it is indeed to open up space in my mind and let God come in deeper, more personal and direct. I made a connection with Josh one of our most inspiring teachers here at the academy. He has been doing a mind-training class every monday with a big group of student/teachers. I recognized ever since his first class the importance of facilitating this mind-training, since it is the exact work that is asked of us as followers and disciples of Jesus. To do the work that God requires is to believe in the one that He sent. And Jesus says that our mind is entirely undisciplined and needs to train itself to think in a entirely different manner if it wants to accomplish anything. A Course in Miracles is a required course and only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will is a deeply cherished human illusion. My will is God's will. His will for me is to be happy. The way that i allowed my mind to wander in the past was the cause of all my pain, unhappiness and depression. The key is in training my mind in a serious and dedicated way. Not to get away with believing i read a lesson real quick in the morning just to depend on external things again right after that half-hearted moment where i read an incredible idea to have it merely be part of my short term-memory. I recognized it is time to apply my mind and i invite you to join me in a structured and committed format to come together and expose our thinking to the corrective and revolutionairy format in which Jesus our Master leads us into an inevitable and extremely natural and joyful experience of the purest light that we represent. I am really excited and i hope you will join me in this adventure into our own precious mind.

The assignments that are to come are either newly developed, corrected and improved or previously published assignments. We will also be working on a book that will contain the whole curriculum of Time to Teach A Course in Miracles and a website that will facilitate Time toTeach in a much broader way. Those are projects in the making. Both time to teach and workbook-intensive programs work hand in hand and are one and the same. One is a little more towards understanding and undergoing the transformational awakening-experience through the theoretical approach offered to us in the text, lessons, manual for teachers, new testament and other related articles and the other is purely the mind-training practice directed towards the actual work of practicing these revolutionary lessons in different formats and settings. This world will change through you and no other means can save it.

In love and dedication Bastiaan

2005-11-10T17:41:00.000-06:00

Hello there. Can you hear me? A week devoted now to gratitude. To really take the time to see how far you have come along this road to your salvation.
A great opportunity to make a list of your gains and the gifts that have been given you by God and that have never since left you. To become solid as a rock through the
realisation that you haven't lost anything, that you didn't have to sacrifice or exchange anything that is really part of you in order to change your ways and
walk with God.

I took this opportunity to express my own personal gratitude for what has happened to me and how far i have come. I will list some of the gains and gifts i recognize i have received and tell you of my faith, dedication and belief in the possibility and therefore the fact that there is always more in store the further you dare to step back and become ready to receive your inheritance. I came to understand that a
lot less is asked of you that you might think.

Now looking at my own experience i am starting to recognize that a lot more is possible than the allowances i made for myself. A greater freedom has come to me and it doesn't ever stop and in fact cannot stop expanding.

First of all i have become consistently happy. That was one of the things i would never allow myself to be all the time. What i used to do was to attempt in many
different ways to suppress and therefore avoid my inherent depression of not knowing who i really was and what i came here to do. As a teacher of God now, i have recognized my true function and it is what my life has become because that is the only thing it can be. I am designed and created as a expression or extension of God. There are no objectives. Everything has started to express itself through me as itself.

No-where is there a separation between what i do and what it is I am. I am grateful for the thousands of corrections i have received and for having become willing and open to accept and integrate these corrections through a discipline of constantly being undone and reborn. Which is not the road most travelled in this world. My identity is no longer mainly concerned with how i present myself as a body or what it is i do and attract to my body.

My achievements, self-assertion, attempts at being different, original and better than others are not my main priority or purpose anymore. My new purpose is to
communicate with you, to join with you, to work together with you in the truth of what we truly are and the function we happily fulfill. We do this through standing next to each other in the light of who we are. I am now finally able to work together
with others in honesty and without a hidden agenda.

I lost my guilt-ridden self, most of my arrogance and false humility. I stopped loathing, hating and attacking my self and therefore others. I have taken a more permanent vacation from my false identity and lost my deep sense of unworthiness. My relations with my closest family members have become conflict-free and transformed to such a level that i am no longer in a guilt-association with my own flesh and blood.

I am grateful for finding and being re'member'ed among the ranks of the Saviors of this world, a legion of 'old' friends, companions, loved-ones, brothers and sisters in Christ. Completely being themselves they allow me to be who I am and express myself in a glorious and powerfully free manner. In my daily life of service as well as the times that are devoted towards making direct contact with my Creator i find more and more of this freedom of self-expression.

My mind has become very active and released from my passive and victimized attitude towards life. I have become a lot more interested in others and their well-being. I mostly lost my pre-occupation with selfish concerns and worries. I am learning to do the things i want to do more freely and i found out they are exactly the things that God wills me to do. He wants me to be happy and to happily fulfill my function.

The notion of sacrifice doesn't exist in my life anymore. The thing i might be most grateful for is the appearance and continual appearance of Jesus in my Life in all the forms he took and takes that are most recognizable to me at the given time. Thank you for receiving my declaration of gratitude. I could go on for a little while but have to keep it short.
I am consistently exposed to the light through my commitment and personal dedication to be the Way the Truth and the Life.

Love Bastiaan

2005-11-07T17:12:00.000-06:00

Attitude of
Gratitude

A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation. Give Him thanks today.

Practice
Lesson 123 I thank my Father for His gifts to me
Lesson 195 Love is the Way I walk in gratitude
Lesson 197 It can be but my gratitude I earn

Preparation
List all the gains you made and the gifts you received ever since you embarked upon your Course in Miracles!
Think of all the ones that crossed your path speaking and offering you saving grace!
Think of all the moments where sorrow miraculously turned to joy, sickness to health, addiction to sanity and fear to love!

Who is in need of your gratitude the most?
How does God express His thanks?
What choice guarantees you the experience of gratitude?
How can you increase your thankfulness?

Presentation
Since the theme of all our newsletters this month is gratitude, I would like to ask you to take a pen and a piece of paper or to open a new document and write a short piece of 3, 4 paragraphs to a maximum of one and a half page.

Describe in a tangible way the miracle of the changes that occurred in your life. Offer a genuine and personal reference to whomever might be reading your declaration of gratitude. If you finish before wednesday please sent your piece to
submissions@acimi.com. Then it will be published in one of our newsletters.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-11-02T20:18:00.000-06:00

Last week's theme was to "Follow
in the Way". We read from John 13 up to 17 where
Jesus instructs his disciples. Preparing them and you
for the responsibility to be among the Savior's of the
world. This week it came in for me to deal with the
positive interpretation and true message that is
waiting to be received by us when we open our minds
enough to look at the crucifixion experience that
Jesus underwent.
We might just find out that there is more to learn
than meets the eye.
The Message of the Crucifixion is to choose Jesus'
side of the story which is a lot more amazing in its
wisdom and depth of experience than doing away with it
by saying he died for our sins or that the crucifixion
was some useless journey. As Jesus says there is
always a crucial lesson to learn. Use me. Make
constructive use of my experience so you can save
yourself a lot of time and effort. Look
at how this single experience supports his
entire teaching and all the golden rules, principles and commands
commands around which his faith is built and in which your
faith and therefore your whole experience of transformation
can flourish in your transition from human
being to a divine realisation. To do the work is to
be always self-reflective, to expose your thoughts and
to allow to let the spirit of God work with you. The
only perspective you really need, the only reference
you should use to be truly happy is God's. Your
relationship with Him is the only thing that really
matters, since He makes everything that you ask for
possible.
So look with Christ eyes and love in your heart and
see everything you thought was evil transform in a
endless number of possibilities to heal and offer
salvation. Do not observe or judge the ones you think
are responsible for your suffering. Instead take up the
cross and let the suffering convert in a single pillar
of certainty that you represent in your atonement with
your Source, your Father who is in Heaven and
available to you in all circumstances under which you
feel weighed down and burdened. Be free, take
yourself off the cross. Learn how not to give in to
situations that habitually catch you off guard and
gain power and increasing hold over you. Be free in
the realisation that what is real can not be
threatened and what is unreal doesn't exist. Herein
lies the peace of God.
So check out the blog. There is not a whole lot to
read but the questions are really designed to help you
to have a valuable experience with the message that
the crucifixion holds in your store.

With Love and Dedication Bastiaan Berende

2005-10-31T19:00:00.000-06:00

Message of the CRUCIFIXION

You are not asked to be crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them falsely as justifications for anger.
The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear:
“Teach only love, for that is what you are”.

Reading:
Chapter 6 I The Message of the Crucifixion
Lesson 196 It can be but myself I crucify

Inquiry:
What is the central message the crucifixion intended to teach?
Explain how the correct perception of the crucifixion leads to an actual experience of resurrection?
Was the crucifixion a necessary experience jesus had to go through to fulfill his part as Savior of the world?
Explain how your beliefs are always translated in what it is you teach?

Presentation:
How do you make constructive use of Jesus’ experience?
What does a constructive use of the crucifixion experience teach you about your role and responsibility as a teacher?
How do you demonstrate your equality with him?
Are you asked/or required to go through a similar experience?

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-10-25T15:51:00.000-05:00

Follow in the Way
Having been restored to your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. The real members of MY party are active workers. The power to work Miracles belongs to you. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Read:
Follow in my footsteps.
(The Gospel of John Chapter 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17).

Follow me.
(Urtext-quotes from Chapter 1 Distortion of Miracle impulses, same as Chapter 1 II. Revelation, Time and Miracles in the regular book).

The Dilemma of the Savior of the World.
(Quote taken from Spiritual Teacher’s Notebook).

The Return to Matter.
(Josh)

Inquiry:
What is a disciple?
What is it that makes you one of Jesus’ disciples?
What is the work you are required to do? How do you do it?
If there is a difference between you and Jesus, what is it?
What is your dilemma as a savior of the world?
How are you fulfilled or ‘sanctified’ as one of ‘Jesus’ chosen ones?
In what form does Jesus appear in your dream?

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-10-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

Follow me
Having been restored to your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself. The real members of MY party are active workers. The power to work Miracles belongs to you. I will create the right opportunities for you to do them. But you must be ready & willing to do them, since you are already able to. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability. I repeat that you will see Miracles thru your hands thru MINE. Conviction really comes thru accomplishment. Remember that ability is the potential, Achievement is its expression, and Atonement is the Purpose.
There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The main difference between us as yet is that I have NOTHING ELSE. This leaves me in a state of true holiness, which is only a POTENTIAL in you. “No man cometh to the Father but by me” is among the most misunderstood statements in the Bible. It DOES NOT mean that I am in anyway separate (or different) from you, EXCEPT IN TIME. Now, we know that time does not exist. Actually, the statement is much more meaningful if it is considered on a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. Regarded along the vertical, man stands below me, and I stand below God. In the process of “rising up”, I AM higher. This is because without me the distance between God and man is too great for man to encompass. I bridge the distance as an Elder Brother to man, on the one hand, and a Son of God on the other. My devotion to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I can render complete only to the extent I can SHARE it.

~from the original text, Urtext of A Course In Miracles~

The Dilemma of a Savior of the World
My awakening to Christhood or mastership is in its very occurrence a verification that God is. And in His verification of me do I verify and proclaim His reality. As a savior I am beset with the divine obligation to save the world. The absolute responsibility is mine to lift the burden of death from man or, since the earth is death, to awaken him wholly to his innate sense of eternity. There is nothing on earth to substantiate my Christhood. For just a single moment in all of time I have verified my Father, but am myself without issue. I am born but yet barren. My true creations must at that moment through faithfulness substantiate me in order to awaken to their own saviorship.

It is always initially astonishing to a newly awakened master to discover that the manner in which he thinks has undergone a radical transformation. His former limited consciousness construct finally had nothing to do with the complete expose. He stands naked with his own certainty. He has lost the capacity for specific comparison. The wholeness of his thinking inevitably makes the objective rationale of limited consciousness seem absurd. He is thrust into the position of seeing that his former value system, based on specific conclusions arrived at by comparison and analysis, has no validity or even reality. He finds himself in an illogical, unreasonable place. He must now deal with his absolute, unqualified certainty that the objectively constructed world is totally meaningless, except to the necessity of bringing about the revelation that established his own transcending consciousness. He is alone, awake among the sleeping.

~Taken out of a spiritual teacher's notebook from the Master Teacher of A Course In Miracles~

The Return to Matter...
The task at hand is one of resolution; integration. To speak of it conceptually is both ludicrous and non-productive. In fact, even the immediate accessibility of unbounded awareness fails to satisfy sufficiently to warrant consistent exploration.
Something's missing...an encompassing textured matrix, a physical ecstasy...an immersion into matter so utterly, so as to convert, transform, even baptize the physiology with an a priori admission of spirit or spontaneous awareness, sort of a great reversal! We are no longer concerned with escaping the mortal coil, but we are rather penetrating form with the a priori acknowledgment of unified awareness. This is our work. We are in fact enlivening matter.
We ARE divine intervention. We have come to claim our own. We are the divine, permeating potential to effect the spiritual birthing of matter...

~from our beloved brother Josh~

Follow in my footsteps
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
¶ I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?
Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.
¶ Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
¶ Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.
Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
These things I command you, that ye love one another.
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?
But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.
Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?
They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.
Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

~Gospel of John 13-17 from the modern New Testament~

2005-10-19T20:18:00.000-05:00

I would like to invite you this week to look at two
articles that will give us a real nice feel and
understanding of the way in which the use of language
in A Course In Miracles(for both the written as well
as the spoken word)causes an illumination of the mind.
The function of beauty that expresses itself through,
in between and underneath the lines that you read or
speak is where our focus will be this week. We look at
the Rhythm of Reality.

We repeat certain patterns of grammatical structure to
undo the dense structure in which we contain
ourselves. Beauty and real freedom of the mind,
reveals itself beyond the form but not without using
the form in its fullest capacity.

So we look at prose and poetry from A Course In
Miracles, and look at the power of your choice to
start speaking the truth instead of uttering
grievances. We use Rhythm to loosen the tight chain of
conceptual thinking that is entirely habitual. We
break this chain through mere repetition. We read,
hear and speak these new revelatory ideas over and
over in order to remember and familiarize ourselves
again with the truth that we denied. Since our Reality
is spiritual we cannot maintain the dense "life-form"
called our body in which we attempt to be autonomous
and alone.

If we ask for the Light of Reality we will
find we start vibrating in a higher frequency. We
acquire faster rhythms of life and become joyful in
the extension of our new realisation that indeed we
are not dead bodies. We are activated in this bright
light of reality, are converting the lower frequencies
of guilt and fear and allow our bodies to take on
incorruption. We are loosing the stories we told
ourselves in prosaic ways and the make belief in which
we tried to hold on to the belief that we could
actually exist without knowing who we are. From these
irregular rhythmic patterns of human nature expressed
in the drama and comedy of prose we move into the
acceptance of Reality as it truly is, the way we truly
are. We express this certainty, this knowledge, this
unmovable clarity through poetry. In the recognition
of the harmonic substance of our relationship with the
universe, we have no choice except to be alive and
lively proclaim the beauties of the Real World. We
accelerate in our ascent towards the music of the
celestial and integrate this speed up when we bring
the light into inspiring and poetic, rhythmic means of
expression. We are here to carry the light and that
always means to embody that self-same light. We learn
more about the power of thought and the responsibility
we have for the thoughts we share with ourself when we
speak. We come to see the totality of what it is we
carry with us through our thoughts and in our minds
whether we believe these thoughts are private or not.
They are expressed whether you believe that you have
any control over your thoughts or not. They are either
contained within the body which will make you teach
anger, guilt, depression and unhappiness. Or you
accept this new pulsating activity of the universe in
which you are repeatedly undone of these meaningless
thoughts. Now you are teaching love through the
fearless act of releasing your inner light by exposing
these thoughts. You are always teaching. And what it
is you teach,you think you are. What it is you choose
is what your experience will be or become. Have fun
reading these articles that i posted on the blog and
in answering the questions from the assignment. Allow
this assignment to katalyse your experience of the
lucid nature in which we express the truth, the way
and the Life that you are.
With love and dedication Bastiaan

visit http://throughamirrorbrightly.com to learn more about
Ray Comeau's work and/or to order his book.

2005-10-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

The Rhythm of Reality

If you do the lessons of A Course in Miracles with effort and great willingness to see an alternative to your present condition, you will experience an alternative. This is a miraculous undertaking with miraculous results. What other text can make such a claim? The question arises, how can such an illumination occur? How can the language, how can the words on a page, effect an illumination of my mind?

First reading
The introduction to Michael Russel’s book the “Rhythm and Reason of Reality” as I posted it below.

Second reading
The first Chapter of Ray Comeau’s book “Through a Mirror Brightly.”This chapter is titled Breath, Word, Thought, Sound. The Voice for God.

Inquiry
What is iambic pentameter and what is blank verse?
In what manner does Jesus use prose or poetry to communicate his message?

How do you experience the difference between a sentence spoken in truth or one spoken from a grievance or from habitual thinking?

How does language, the words on a page effect an illumination of your mind?
Why is both content and structure of a sentence essential to give and receive a message of light?How is breath both symbolic and instrumental for the effective deliverance of God’s message?Demonstrate and explain both the power of thought and the power of the spoken word.
How much does what you choose to express lead up to what it is you experience?
What does the tone of your voice convey about your attitude and about what it is you teach beyond the concepts?
Why is it so valuable to voice your thoughts?
What is your vocation?

2005-10-16T17:17:00.000-05:00

Rhythm and Reason of Reality

"This course has come from him because his words
have reached you in a language you can love
and understand." (Manual For Teachers)

Introduction

Those of you who have discovered the unearthly masterpiece, A Course In Miracles, will no doubt be aware of, and grateful for, its divine message of the rememberance of God and reality through love and forgiveness, that are only made possible in the realization that this world is a dream of your own making. You may remember reading, amongst the literature concerning the scribing of the Course, references to the use of the poetic form called iambic pentameter. Most of you won’t know exactly what this means, some notwithstanding your own claims to the contrary. Of those who do know what the term means, most will not be able to easily discern the poetic form within the prosaic layout of the Course.

The purpose of this volume is to present the poetry of the Course in a totally accessible manner. You need know nothing about poetic forms and meters to begin enjoying it immediately. You may, however, wish to read this introduction, since the search to ascertain the extent of the poetic form within the Course has revealed another astounding dimension in its structural integrity.

Iambic pentameter is usually described as "lines consisting of five iambs", which in turn are described as "metric feet of two syllables each, the second syllable being the stronger". Such a description is useful to few. Put simply, a line of iambic pentameter sounds like this:

Da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum.

This form is also called “blank verse”, a more general term denoting even rhythm without rhyming. Because the Course is presented entirely as prose, the extent to which this form is used is a surprising and exciting discovery.

The Text of A Course In Miracles can be seen as three distinct parts, two of twelve chapters each, and the last of seven chapters, each differentiated from the other by the use of meter. Within this structure, a gradual transition is made from prose to blank verse. Normal spoken English and prose is arhythmic, having sometimes one, sometimes two syllables between accents. The first twelve chapters of the Course are written in such prose, and the portrait of the human condition given is prosaic indeed. The very last sentence of Chapter 12 is the first glimpse of what, metrically speaking, is to come: “Your Father could not cease to love His Son.”

The second part begins with the first seven sections of Chapter 13 becoming increasingly iambic ~ one syllable between accents ~ until in section seven, “The Attainment of the Real World,” each paragraph contains on average only three or four irregularities. This is the metric characteristic of the second twelve chapters. Frequently, paragraphs begin with emphatic statements of light reality, given in iambic pentameter. “There is a light that this world cannot give;” is the first such occurrence. “You do not really want the world you see;” “We cannot sing redemption’s hymn alone;” “Your faith in nothing is deceiving you.” These glorious statements are each elucidated conceptually in the paragraphs that follow from them, but each also offers an opportunity to enter into real communication. For instance, you could read "You do not really want the world you see," and then read on to see what this means, or you could simply say: "Oh wow! That's actually true!" and spring immediately into Heaven. You are being prepared for a new mode of data transmission.

Deeper into the second part, increasingly strong “insertions” of iambic pentameter occur; longer passages that persist further into the paragraphs. For instance, in Chapter 21:

Thus they define their life and where they live,
adjusting to it as they think they must,
afraid to lose the little that they have.
And so it is with all who see the body
as all they have and all their brothers have.
They try to reach each other, and they fail,
and fail again.

Coincident with the approach of total iambic pentameter, Jesus makes this statement (in Chapter 22): “This is a crucial period in this course, for here the separation of you and the ego must be made complete.” And this:

This course will be believed entirely
or not at all.
For it is wholly true or wholly false,
and cannot be but partially believed.

Chapter 25 is the beginning of the final part. In Chapters 25 and 26 the final transition is made into perfect iambic pentameter, making feasible the presentation as poetry in the same manner as the works of Shakespeare are presented, with two columns of the short blank verse lines to a page. Encoded into the ongoing presentation of conceptual ideas is the true communication the Course aims to teach. Each line is a perfectly whole package of information. It is at this last part that this volume takes up the Text.

Some parts of these two chapters are still not regular enough to allow breakdown into lines, and so are presented as prose. Also, the regular iambic pentameter in these two chapters, and early in Chapter 27, often contains lines that have one extra syllable, or
short lines of only four or six syllables. These discrepancies are used to emphasize ideas in the same manner that the single lines of iambic pentameter were used in the second part, only rather than lifting you into communication, they drop you out momentarily, the aim being to teach you to recognize the difference.

In the remaining chapters of the Text, the iambic pentameter is perfect. Jesus never abbreviates words to achieve this, but does make use of words with an adaptable syllable count: Heaven as one or two syllables, idea as two or three. Maintenance of the meter accounts for what frequently seemed to be unusual syntax - but which now makes perfect sense, read as poetry.

A transition from prose to poetry also occurs in the Workbook, but it is much simpler, and quicker. The first ninety lessons are plain prose, with the exception of Lesson 78, which is totally poetic. The transition occurs entirely within seven lessons. Lesson 91 is prose. The following lessons have increasing percentages of verse, but the distinction is kept very clear. Any paragraph will either be entirely prose, or entirely poetry, and within the poetry there are very few uneven or short lines. Lesson 98 is pure poetry, and it is astonishing to discover that everything in the Workbook from Lesson 98 on is in iambic pentameter ~ the introductions to Reviews, the “instructions on themes of special relevance,” such as What is Forgiveness?, the prayers and the Epilogue.

The Manual for Teachers and Clarification of Terms are post-production add-ons to A Course In Miracles, and refer to Jesus in the third person, indicating different authorship, actually a collaboration. They contain very few but very beautiful poetic passages, and these are also included here, as is a collection of iambic pentameter "zingers" from within the second part of the text.

Attempts to read the poetic form directly from the original prose layout often result in diminished comprehension. Conversely, the presentation as blank verse guarantees placing correct emphasis for understanding (though not understanding itself) , and the elegance and eloquence of Jesus’ poetry, and the regular rhythmic lope, offer an expanded experience of the Course to the musical mind. The final and most exciting discovery of all is that whole communication occurs without the need to understand concepts at all.

The magnitude and beauty of the Course, simply as a work of literature and without regard to its miraculous content, adequately belie any notion of its human authorship. The divinity of the ideas expressed is beyond question. Certainly the poetic and prosaic forms contained in A Course In Miracles are there because that was necessary for the healing of God’s Son, since this is the Holy Spirit’s only purpose.

~ Michael Russell~

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000-05:00

The Voice for God
Breath, Word, Thought,Sound:

If you do the lessons of A Course in Miracles with “effort and great willingness” to see an alternative to your present condition, you will experience an alternative. This is a miraculous undertaking with miraculous results. What other text can make such a claim? The question arises, how can such an illumination occur? How can the language, how can the words on a page, effect an illumination of my mind?

There are three ways of looking at this question. The first two have to do with the content and structure of a line, and how they are seamlessly blended. For example, read aloud the title of Lesson 132:

I loose the world from all I thought it was.

First the content. I “loose” means to break up, let go. To “loosen” is the root meaning of dissolve, resolve, solve. I loosen my hold on seeing the world as I habitually “thought” it. “Thought” takes on the meaning of “I thought it was this way or that way,” and simultaneously it means I thought the world into existence. It “all” begins with a thought in my mind.

Read the sentence aloud again. You probably postured your voice like this, stressing the syllables in caps:

i LOOSE the WORLD from ALL i THOUGHT it WAS.

This is the rhythm of iambic pentameter, the perfect blend of sound and sense, the structure of the language. This blend might be taken for granted, unless you realize that you can also have one or the other, for example:

You GET the re SULTS of your THINK ing.

This statement is absolutely true, yet it is prose not poetry, having no regular pattern to the slacks and stresses.

Or you can have a regular pattern of sound without True sense:

Be STILL my BEAT ing HEART.

That there is a heart that beats is a thought that can be loosed.

We looked at only one line from A Course in Miracles:

I loose the world from all I thought it was.

There is no question that the entire Course is written with the perfect blend of content and structure.

After dealing with the illuminative effect of content and structure, we look at the third element, the medium of the Course. The medium is not the text, not the pages. The medium is something we experience moment-to-moment while reading the words on the page. The medium is ever-present. The medium carries the message. The message is conveyed by the medium. The medium is breath.

Words are carried on the breath. Words contain thoughts. The breath and words and thoughts ride on the sound of the voice. The voice is where the illumination occurs. We listen to the Voice for God that replaces our habitual voice. It is an action of the mind. It occurs in the mind.

Those last sentences rode on a gush of passion, but let’s be very exacting when we say that words ride on the breath. Otherwise, it stays just a lovely metaphor.
Read this sentence aloud:

Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.

Read it aloud again, yet this time place your hand on your chest and begin. What you may discover is that just before reading it, you took a breath, and your chest swelled as you took it in. You may have paused at the first comma, took another breath just before saying “realizing,” and then either completed the sentence or perhaps stopped between “doing” and “I,” a possible caesura, or break in the line. This demonstrates that words are carried on the breath, and it is not just a figure of speech.

Let’s break it down some more. Say the first word of the sentence, “Let.”

Observe exactly what happens in your vocal apparatus as you utter the word.

Your breath vibrates through your vocal cords. The tip of your tongue closes against your upper palate, just behind your teeth. The sound slides around both sides of your tongue, passing the inside of your cheeks, that slightly squeeze in. That is just for the “L” sound. Your tongue releases, the breath flows over the tongue, making the “eh” sound. Your tongue snaps shut just behind your teeth, slightly forward from when it rested before, and forcefully snaps open, forming the “t” sound.

Never again will the word riding on a breath be simply a metaphor.

Every word you speak can be described in a similar manner, yet with a much more precise vocabulary, by an expert in phonetics who uses 44 symbols representing the sounds, or more accurately, phonemes, of American English.

That covers breath and words. Now for the thoughts contained in words. The sentence you read, Let me learn to give ... appears in Lesson 52, a review lesson, relating back to Lesson 8. Remember, we are reading the lessons with “effort and great willingness” to transform our minds. On day 8 we are told, My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. Now on day 52 our breath carries these words, and we are saying the words of Jesus. Read the sentence again:

Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.

You might paraphrase it, “I am invoking all the power in my mind to allow myself to give thoughts of the past away.” And when I come to the word “realizing,” I take in a deep, very deep breath, breathing in the literal meaning of making real Real. In that moment, breathing in Reality I give up nothing, because there is only Reality. I am breathing in the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit. The word “spirit” comes from a Latin word meaning, literally, “to breathe.” When I am inspired, I am breathing in the Voice of God.

Of course, words and thoughts have great power. As these ideas were coming into my mind, I came across a “Wizard of Id” cartoon, illustrating the power of the word. We see the Wizard sitting at a desk in his laboratory-study, leafing through a dictionary. In the first six frames of an eight-frame cartoon, he goes through the alphabet in his mind looking for a word in the dictionary. In the seventh frame he finds his word, “Levitation,” and in the last frame he is saying the word, “Levitation” and simultaneously levitating.

And now we come to sound. We use our breath to carry the words of Jesus, and we are comforted. One way to get at sound is to talk about tone. When a phone rings in another room, and someone you know very well answers it, even if you cannot hear the words spoken, you can tell by the tone of voice who your friend is talking to. The tone of voice reveals the attitude of the listener towards the person on the line. If you were to hear passages from the Course read in another room, you would hear Jesus’ tone of voice, which is only love.

Read aloud these passages:

The Holy Spirit has given you love’s messengers to send instead of those you trained through fear. They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escape their notice. T-19.IV(A).14:1,4

The little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden light is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards. T-20.v. 5:8

Into this empty space, from which the goal of sin has been removed, is heaven free to be remembered. Here its peace can come, and perfect healing take the place of death. The body can become a sign of life, a promise of redemption, and a breath of immortality to those grown sick of breathing in the fetid scent of death. T-27.I.10:1-3

Lesson 267:
My heart is beating in the peace of God.
Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath; In every action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and every one is answered by His voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.

And now for the last portion of the title of this Part, “The Voice for God.” During the past several days as I breathed in these ideas, I “by chance” came across Section 11 of “The Voice for God” in Chapter 5, “Healing and Wholeness.” I was astonished at the emphasis in this section on voice and call and the Holy Spirit.

The principle of Atonement and the separation began at the same time. When the ego was made God placed in the mind the call to joy. This call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at its sound. T-5.II.3:1-2

There we are. When I read a line from the Course, my breath carries into my mind the Spirit of God, and my little ego voice loosens and dissolves at the sound of it.

That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. One you made yourself, and that one is not of God. But the other is given you by God, who asks you only to listen to it. The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God’s Sons are as equal as learners as they are as sons. T-5.II.3:4-11

Now I am so habituated to the voice I made myself that I am not aware of it. The contrast with the Holy Spirit’s Voice brings me into the awareness of my habitual, narratizing voice. How can I possibly loosen it until I know it is there? This process of becoming aware is precisely analogous to the process of becoming aware of how you pronounced the word “let.”

You have been saying words since you were an infant. Until a few minutes ago, were you ever aware of how your mouth moved to make words? Now that you know, say “let.” How can you ever again be innocent of an experience that was so habitual that you were unaware of its existence? After doing even a few lessons of the Course, how can you ever again be innocent of the voice you made that was so habitual? Once you experience how you made a world with your little breath, and experience the Call of the Voice of the Holy Spirit in the next breath, can you ever again be satisfied with your little voice?

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of joy. He is the Call to return with which God blessed the minds of His separated Sons. This is the vocation of the mind. T-5.II.2:1-3
The root meaning of “vocation” is a “calling.” It is our job, our function, to answer the Call. My will is Your Will. It is our duty. It requires our full endeavor. The root
meaning of “endeavor” comes from a Middle English word “to exert oneself” in the sense of doing your “duty.” It is our duty to answer the Call to wake up.

The mind had no calling until the separation, because before that it had only being, and would not have understood the call to right thinking. T-5.II.2:4

The Holy Spirit calls you both to remember and to forget. T-5.II.6:1

Both Heaven and earth are in you, because the call of both is in your mind. T-5.II.8:5

What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole? Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you. T-5.II.10:9-10

“...to restore…to hear…to listen.” The Holy Voice is within us already, always. “Restore” is a reminder to re-awaken, to re-experience what we already are.

The Voice for God comes from your own altars to him. These altars are not things; they are devotions.T-5.II.8:6-7

Altars are devotions, and “devote” comes from a word meaning “to vow,” to voice our willingness to undo the “little voice,” the one you made yourself.

This mind is unequivocal, because it hears only one Voice and answers in only one way. T-5.II.10:2

The root meaning of “unequivocal” is “voc,” meaning voice. Equivocal means equal voices, a balance between listening to the ego voice, and to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes on to define “unequivocal” as meaning “hearing only one Voice.”

Father, I am so grateful for breathing in these words and thoughts and sounds. I ask only to be an instrument for expressing these ideas. They were received and now they are given. What else is there to do?

Thank you, Father.

2005-10-13T20:26:00.000-05:00

From Disaster to Gratitude
I am so grateful that i find myself exactly where it is I am. I was brought to a place within my own mind where everything and everyone reminds me and urges me to remember i have awakened from disaster. I can see that my previous life was filled with the panic that existed in my mind , the whole outlook upon myself and the people and the world around me. I am saved. With me stands my savior everywhere i look and everywhere i go. I can see there really isn't a middle or neutral ground to stand on concerning my uncompromising choice to share in dreams (my own or my brother's) or to choose and accept the Reality of God as my only true alternative. This place, this earth, this world is a disaster there is no doubt about that. The only question here is to what extent are you allowing the emotional devastation to occur within your own being. How clearly are you able to see that this dream is unfixable. Our problem was our attempts to recycle and reproduce everything in this world. Investing more and more meaning to the images we placed outside of ourselves and producing a story of isolation, physicality and limitation. It is time to wake up and therefore time to teach what has been given us to give. Thank you for your commitment to accept a real change within your memories and the way you conceive of yourself and the world alike. Bless you and good luck teaching "waking from disaster".

2005-10-10T15:43:00.000-05:00

Waking from Disaster

A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be lingering and slow; of this you dream. Yet underneath this dream is yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy, the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike. Here is the cause of suffering, the space between your little dreams and your reality. The little gap you do not even see, the birthplace of illusions and of fear, the time of terror and of ancient hate, the instant of disaster, all are here. Here is the cause of unreality. And it is here that it will be undone.

Reading
Lesson 14 God did not create a meaningless world
Chapter 29 IV Dream Roles

Lesson 185 I want the Peace of God
Chapter 28 V The Alternate to Dreams of Fear

Lesson 198 Only my condemnation injures me
Chapter 27 VII The Dreamer of the Dream

Inquiry

What is it that defines the human “separate” condition?
Is there a middleground between the devastating experience of disaster and the recognition of perfection?
Where does disaster seem to take place at first glance?
How are we led to redirect our steps towards self-responsibility?
What is it that pervades all dreams?
How is fear replaced by love?
In what manner can and do you help ‘others’ to heal and awake from the dream of disaster?

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-10-03T18:51:00.000-05:00

SPIRIT am I

"We state again the truth about your Self, the holy Son of God Who rests in you; Whose mind has been restored to sa nity. You are the spirit lovingly endowed w ith all your Father's Love and peace and joy. You are the spirit which completes Himself, and shares His function as Creator. He is with you alw ays, as you are w ith Him."

Reading
A. Lesson 96 Salvation comes form my one Self
Chapter 4 I Right Teaching and Right Learning

B. Lesson 97 I am spirit
Chapter 31 VI Recognizing the Spirit

Inquiry
What is the difference between the physical and the spiritual?
Can they be reconciled?
Explain how your choice for the flesh or the spirit determines the entire way in which your world is experienced?
Does the recognition of yourself as spirit cause a physical or a purely spiritual transformation? How does your whole outlook on life change in this recognition?
In what manner does the spirit avail itself of your mind?

Presentation
Regard the questions purely for your preparation on this week’s theme. For the presentation focus on one or two of the questions and present your whole understanding and experience in the recognition of the spirit.

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2005-10-03T18:47:00.000-05:00

MIND - SPIRIT (additional reading from the clarification of terms of A Course in Miracles)

The term mind is used to represent the activating agent of spirit, supplying its creative energy. When the term is capitalized it refers to God or Christ (, the Mind of God or the Mind of Christ). Spirit is the Thought of God which He created like Himself. The unified spirit is God's one Son, or Christ.
In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In this illusory state, the concept of an "individual mind" seems to be meaningful. It is therefore described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit and ego.
Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well. The term "soul" is not used except in direct biblical quotations because of its highly controversial nature. It would, however, be an equivalent of "spirit," with the understanding that, being of God, it is eternal and was never born.
The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions. Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God's, seems to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. Creation continues unabated because that is the Will of God. This Will is always unified and therefore has no meaning in this world. It has no opposite and no degrees.
The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens. Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ's vision sees the real world in its place. This is the final vision, the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step Himself. Here time and illusions end together.
Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. Both this world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. Therefore it is not the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is one with God's.
In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between two choices or two voices. Will is not involved in perception at any level, and has nothing to do with choice. Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it cannot reach knowledge.

2005-09-27T10:56:00.000-05:00

Straight is the Gate
Welcome to your possibility to teach an immediate message of Salvation. This week I chose the most incredible and famous text sections out of A Course in Miracles. Each of them conveys to us the immediacy of Salvation. Salvation doesn't take time, it doesn't require a whole lot of effort and finally you can't go it alone. We are led to recognize an entire new way to perceive and work with time. Future and past are brought into the present in an all powerful moment of converting horizontal sequences and release them to the vertical alignment of our minds with the singularity of God's mind who thinks with us. We are told exactly what to do. And most importantly what not to do. Not as a command or a demand but only to save us all the time and effort that we previously wasted on trying to reach God with our human and mostly futile attempts. Further we are asked to invite our brother in and really join with him. We are asked to overcome the fear of exposing ourselves to our brother which brings about a reversal of our well-kept guilt and fear and our perceived inablity to communicate with him into an experience of true forgiveness and the infinite joy of sharing. Sounds pretty soft to you perhaps though it is the thing most feared and that is exactly where we are asked to go. Our burden is light. The world is burdened by our tendency to keep ourselves separate from and to resist the entire force of Universal mind.

The burden converts the moment we stop resisting and give in. Give in to the collapse of time and human effort. Give in to our brother who represent the desire and need of the whole universe to be at one with us and no longer separate. Heaven is being brought to earth. Behold i saw a new heaven and a new earth. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I am the Savior of this world because i bring my own inner conflict to the altar and ask it to be fused to singularity. The only peace possible is through the alignment of my own personal mind and to become immediate through the mindfulness in which i accept the Atonement for myself and become ruler of my universe. The meek shall inherit the earth since they represent this divine defenselessness in which they surrender the authority problem that we looked at last week and enter the narrow way and the straight gate that leads to life eternal.

I think you will really enjoy this week's assignment and i am sure you will have an experience of immediacy the way that i did after working with this material. This Course is impeccable and simply can't fail to give you the entirety of the freedom of your mind. Not to feel threatened by an evil outside world but to feel safe in the whole transformation of the world and yourself.

Love Bastiaan

2005-09-26T19:01:00.000-05:00

The IMMEDIACY of Salvation

Salvation is immediate. Unless you so perceive it, you will be afraid of it, believing that the risk of loss is great between the time its purpose is made yours and its effects will come to you. In this form is the error still obscured that is the source of fear. Salvation would wipe out the space you see between you still, and let you instantly become as one.

Reading
A Chapter 18 IV The Little W illingness
Chapter 18 VII I Need do Nothing

B Chapter 26 VIII The Immediacy of Salvation
Chapter 26 IX For They Have Come

C Chapter 26 V The Little Hindrance
Chapter 28 I The Present Memory

Inquiry
Look up the original meaning of Salvation and its singular nature!

What beliefs regarding salvation and the ways in which we attempt to reach it are adressed in Jesus’ teaching of Immediacy?

How does the activity of the body and its function change through the realisation of the immediate nature of salvation?

Look honestly at your perceived need to prepare and purify yourself in order to receive Salvation! Does it work?

What does salvation really ask of you?

Through what means does this course aim to save you time?

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-09-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

Intro to the
Root of all Evil

Sounds pretty scary. And it can be for a moment when you look directly at your predicament. Did i make myself, did my brother make me, did God make me. Did i make both myself and my brother. Or did God create us both and assigned us our true function, our whole reason to exist here as messengers of His Higher Reign. Will i allow His governing thoughts to control me, to manage everything about my Life and what it is i need to give. That sounds like a dangerous direction to take. Only a matter of time though since what is already true waits only for your recognition and acceptance to become true for you. Why is the authority-problem the root of all evil? Why is it essential for me to look and admit to my arrogance to presume i can do better than my ownCreator. Because if it is all about me who would be better at knowing what is good for me than me, myself. All conflict arises from this disposition. What about this other guy then, did he make himself and is he trying to put everything in order to best serve himself. You can imagine what conflict that would cause and did. Because this is exactly what you have believed until know. So take the time and give this gift to yourself in order to truly understand you are better off having been wrong about this idea this cornerstone to your separate thought-system. Recognize how better off you are and how grateful the universe would be to let it be governed by a force, a power that knows what is best for all. Since he is the One that created everything unchangeable and unchanging out of theThought that transcends and encompasses everything and everyone in It you might as well let Him be in charge. Be grateful also to be able to share in the totality of everything created instead of feeling lonely, afraid, angry and to suffer from a lack true purpose. Be liberated from your sense of worthlessness that stemmed from having denied and therefore chose to not know your origin. Be released from the arrogance and your false humility and dare to step up in the light of true creation. We are getting to the root of all conflict and guilt here. To have usurped God's power and to have disowned His perfect creation has produced an enormous amount of guilt in you. Somewhere you believe you manipulated the whole universe in your attempt to fit it to your liking and scheme of things. Who were you fooling. Are you ready to let God be who he is and to take on your role long left unfulfilled.

Check out my blog for additional reading and for the Time to Teach assignment called the ROOT of all EVIL.

Love Bastiaan

2005-09-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

the ROOT of all EVIL

The issue of authority is really a question of authorship. When you have an authority problem, it is always because you believe you are the author of yourself and project your delusion onto others. You then perceive the situation as one in which others are literally fighting you for your authorship. This is the fundamental error of all those who believe they have usurped the power of God.Being uncertain of your true Authorship, you believe that your creation was anonymous. This leaves you in a position where it sounds meaningful to believe that you created yourself. The dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in your mind that it may even doubt whether you really exist at all.

Reading:
Chapter 3 VI. Judgment and the Authority ProblemChapter
3 VIII. Creating versus the Self-Image
Lesson 72 Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation

Chapter 1V. Wholeness and Spirit
Chapter 4I. Right Teaching and Right Learning
Lesson 154 I am among the ministers of God

Chapter 4II. The Ego and False Autonomy
Chapter 28 II. Reversing Effect and Cause
Chapter 5 How It Works
( page 60 last paragraph “the first requirement...to page 63 paragraph 2 ...utterly to Him.”) out of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous posted below.

Inquiry
What is the root of all evil?
What myths or theories can you think of that illustrate and perhaps even justify this problem?How do I encounter or in better words “author” this in my day to day experience?
Through what action of mind do I perpetuate the problem?
How are you restored to your true Authorship?

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-09-18T14:41:00.000-05:00

At the Root Reading out of the Big Book of AA

The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good. Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great. Everybody, including himself, would be pleased. Life would be wonderful. In trying to make these arrangements our actor may sometimes be quite virtuous. He may be kind, considerate, patient, generous; even modest and self- sacrificing. On the other hand, he may be mean, egotistical, selfish and dishonest. But, as with most humans, he is more likely to have varied traits.
What usually happens? The show doesn't come off very well. He begins to think life doesn't treat him right. He decides to exert himself more. He becomes, on the next occasion, still more demanding or gracious, as the case may be. Still the play does not suit him. Admitting he may be somewhat at fault, he is sure that other people are more to blame. He becomes angry, indignant, self-pitying. What is his basic trouble? Is he not really a self-seeker even when trying to be kind? Is he not a victim of the delusion that he can wrest satisfaction and happiness out of this world if he only manages well? Is it not evident to all the rest of the players that these are the things he wants? And do not his actions make each of them wish to retaliate, snatching all they can get out of the show? Is he not, even in his best moments, a producer of confusion rather than harmony?
Our actor is self-centered — ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays. He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up. Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?
Selfishness — self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.
So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kill us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help.
This is the how and the why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most Good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.
When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our own little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.

2005-09-12T12:55:00.000-05:00

Intro to a matter of MINDFULNESS
We are getting closer and closer to the direct and
uncompromising message from Jesus and his appearance
and presence to us through his words. His words that
ring eternally true and lift us out of our futile
human existence and all the laws and limitations we
thought we had to live by. This week we are shown the
true intent and the life altering effect that these
proclamations from our Savior can have in our minds
and hearts. Know ye not you must be borne again. And
this is how to do it. We reaffirm our dedication and
commitment to the world of God, the real world and
therefore lay up stores through the investment of the
power of our minds on God's Realm only. We are shown
on a very mundane manner how to come up to where God
wants your mind and has placed your mind. Through a
matter of Mindfulness we are given the doctrine to
follow in Jesus' footsteps. Narrow is the way that
leads to life. Only by following his commandments and
consistently applying them to every area of your life
without exceptions can you finally enter the gate
beyond which lie no more illusions and deceptions. So
we read from the New Testament this week. Matthew 5,6
and 7. We let it become completely contemporary and
subsequently look at one of the lessons out of our A
Course in Miracles in which we discover a continuing
assistance to make this Kingdom of Heaven, this
experience a real one. One we cannot fail to find if
we ask, knock and seek to find the truth only.
I posted the Aramaeic version of this part of the
Gospel of Matthew which is incredibly fresh and new.
On the time to teach blog you will also find the
teachers assignment called a Matter of Mindfulness.
Enjoy and take in as much as you can from this bread
of Life.
With Love and Dedication Bastiaan

2005-09-11T20:31:00.000-05:00

A Matter of
MINDFULNESS

Time to Teach
You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you behave. The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This means that the perception of both must be accurate. The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others.

Reading

Matthew 5 (verse 17-48) and Matthew 6 (verse 1 - 21)
lesson 76 I am under no laws but God’s

Matthew 6 (verse 25-34)
lesson 50 I am sustained by the Love of God

Matthew 7 (verse 1-28)
Lesson 131 No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth

Inquiry
How does Jesus bring you from the Old Testament’s “do not” behaviors to the crucial importance of what it is you do in your mind?
What is the golden rule?
How is your perception corrected?
What are Jesus’ commandments to you?

Write down for yourself all the things that to you seemed to offer salvation?
What arethe laws that you have to obey subsequently?
Discern the laws of God from the reading of Matthew and your workbooklesson.

Presentation
Explain why salvation is a matter of mindfulness!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2005-09-10T12:53:00.000-05:00

Mindfulness in Matthew
Matthew 5,6 and 7

Matthew 5
17 ¶ Do not expect that I have come to
weaken the law or the prophets; I have not
come to weaken, but to fulfil.
18 For truly I tell you, Until heaven and earth
pass away, not even one yoth * or a dash
shall pass away from the law until all of it is
fulfilled.

19 Whoever therefore tries to weaken even
one of these smallest commandments, and
teaches men so, he shall be regarded as small
in the kingdom of heaven; but anyone who
observes and teaches them, he shall be regarded
as great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven.

21 ¶ You have heard that it was said to those
who were before you, You shall not kill, and
whoever kills is guilty before the court.
22 But I say to you, that whoever becomes
angry with his brother for no reason, is guilty
before the court: and whoever should say to
his brother, Raca (which means, I spit on you)
is guilty before the congregation; and whoever
says to his brother, you are a nurse maid,
is condemned to hell fire.
23 If it should happen therefore that while
you are presenting your offering upon the
altar, and right there you remember that your
brother has any grievance against you,
24 Leave your offering there upon the altar,
and first go and make peace with your
brother, and then come back and present your
offering.
25 Try to get reconciled with your accuser
promptly, while you are going on the road
with him; for your accuser might surrender
you to the judge, and the judge would commit
you to the jailer, and you will be cast
into prison.
26 Truly I say to you, that you would never
come out thence until you had paid the last
cent.

27 ¶ You have heard that it is said, You shall
not commit adultery.
28 But I say to you, that whoever looks at a
woman with the desire to covet her, has already
committed adultery with her in his
heart.
29 If your right eye should cause you to
stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from
you; for it is better for you to lose one of
your members, and not all your body fall into
hell.
30 And if your right hand should cause you
to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from
you; for it is better for you to lose one of
your members, and not all your body fall into
hell.

31 It has been said that whoever divorces
his wife, must give her the divorce papers.
32 But I say to you, that whoever divorces
his wife, except for fornication, causes her
to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is separated but not divorced, commits adultery.

33 ¶ Again you have heard it was said to them
who were before you, that you shall not lie
in your oaths, but entrust your oaths to the
Lord.
34 But I say to you, never swear; neither by
heaven, because it is God’s throne;
35 Nor by the earth, for it is a stool under
his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of
a great king.
36 Neither shall you swear by your own
head, because you cannot create in it a single
black or white hair.
37 But let your words be yes, yes, and no,
no; for anything which adds to these is a deception.

38 ¶ You have heard that it is said, An eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
39 But I say to you, that you should not resist
evil; but whoever strikes you on your
right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if anyone wishes to sue you at the
court and take away your shirt, let him have
your robe also.
41 Whoever compels you to carry a burden
for a mile, go with him two.
42 Whoever asks from you, give him; and
whoever wishes to borrow from you, do not
refuse him.

43 ¶ You have heard that it is said, Be kind to
your friend, and hate your enemy.
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies, and
bless anyone who curses you, and do good
to anyone who hates you, and pray for them
who carry you away by force and persecute
you,
45 So that you may become sons of your
Father who is in heaven, who causes his sun
to shine upon the good and upon the bad,
and who pours down his rain upon the just
and upon the unjust.
46 For if you love only those who love you,
what reward will you have? Do not even the
publicans do the same thing?
47 And if you salute only your brothers, what
is it more that you do? Do not even the
publicans do the same thing?
48 Therefore, you become perfect, just as
your Father in heaven is perfect.

CHAPTER 6
BE careful concerning your alms, not to
do them in the presence of men, merely
that they may see them; otherwise you
have no reward with your Father in heaven.
2 Therefore when you give alms, do not blow
a trumpet before you, just as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the market
places, so that they may be glorified by men.
Truly I say to you, that they have already
received their reward.
3 But when you give alms, let not your left
hand know what your right hand is doing;
4 So that your alms may be done secretly,
and your Father who sees in secret, shall himself
reward you openly.

5 ¶ And when you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, who like to pray, standing in the
synagogues and at the street corners, so that
they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you,
that they have already received their reward.
6 But you, when you pray, enter into your
inner chamber, and lock your door, and pray
to your Father who is in secret, and your
Father who sees in secret he himself shall
reward you openly.
7 And when you pray, do not repeat your
words like the pagans, for they think that
because of much talking they will be heard.
8 Therefore, do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need, before you ask
him.

9 ¶ Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father
in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done,
as in heaven so on earth.
11 Give us bread for our needs from day to
day.
12 And forgive us our offences, as we have
forgiven our offenders;
13 And do not let us enter into temptation,
but deliver us from error. Because thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

14 For if you forgive men their faults, your
Father in heaven will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men, neither
will your Father forgive even your faults.

16 ¶ When you fast, do not look sad like the
hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces, so
that they may appear to men that they are
fasting. Truly I say to you, that they have
already received their reward.
17 But you, when you fast, wash your face
and anoint your head;
18 So that it may not appear to men that you
are fasting, but to your Father who is in secret;
and your Father who sees in secret, he
will reward you.

19 ¶ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
buried in the ground, a place where rust and
moth destroy, and where thieves break
through and steal.
20 But lay up for yourselves a treasure in
heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroy,
and where thieves do not break through and
steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there also is
your heart.

22 The eye is the lamp of the body; if therefore
your eye be clear, your whole body is
also lighted.
23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole
body will be dark. If therefore the light that
is in you is darkness, how much more will
be your darkness.
24 ¶ No man can serve two masters; for either
he will hate the one, and like the other;
or he will honor one, and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon
(wealth).

25 For this reason, I say to you, Do not worry
for your life, what you will eat, and what
you will drink, nor for your body, what you
will wear. Behold, is not life much more
important than food, and the body than clothing?

26 Watch the birds of the sky, for they do
not sow, neither do they harvest, nor gather
into barns, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them.
Are you not much more important than they?
27 Who is among you who by worrying can
add one cubit to his stature?
28 Why do you worry about clothing? Observe
the wild flowers, how they grow; they
do not get tired out, nor do they spin.
29 But I say to you, that not even Solomon
with all of his glory was covered like one of
them.
30 Now if God clothes in such fashion the
grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow
falls into the fireplace, is he not much
more to you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry or say, What will
we eat, or what will we drink, or with what
will we be clothed?
32 For worldly people seek after all these
things. Your Father in heaven knows that all
of these things are also necessary for you.
33 But you seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, and all of these things
shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry for tomorrow;
for tomorrow will look after its own. Sufficient
for each day, is its own trouble.

CHAPTER 7
JUDGE not, that you may not be judged.
2 For with the same judgment that you
judge, you will be judged, and with the
same measure with which you measure, it
will be measured to you.

3 Why do you see the splinter which is in
your brother’s eye, and do not feel the beam
which is in your own eye?
4 Or how can you say to your brother, let
me take out the splinter from your eye, and
behold there is a cross beam in your own
eye?
5 O hypocrites, first take out the beam from
your own eye, and then you will see clearly
to get out the splinter from your brother’s
eye.

6 ¶Do not give holy things to the dogs; and
do not throw your pearls before the swine,
for they might tread them with their feet, and
then turn and rend you.

7 ¶ Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek,
and you shall find; knock and it shall be
opened to you.
8 For whoever asks, receives; and he who
seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door
is opened.
9 Or who is the man among you, who when
his son asks him for bread, why, will he hand
him a stone?
10 Or if he should ask him for fish, why,
will he hand him a snake?
11 If therefore you who err, know how to
give good gifts to your sons, how much more
will your Father in heaven give good things
to those who ask him?

12 Whatever you wish men to do for you,
do likewise also for them; for this is the law
and the prophets.

13 Enter in through the narrow door, for
wide is the door, and broad is the road which
carries to destruction, and many are those
who travel on it.
14 O how narrow is the door, and how difficult
is the road which carries to life, and few
are those who are found on it.

15 ¶ Be careful of false prophets who come
to you in lamb’s clothing, but within they
are ravening wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Why,
do they gather grapes from thorns, or figs
from thistles?
17 So every good tree bears good fruits; but
a bad tree bears bad fruits.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruits, neither
can a bad tree bear good fruits.
19 Any tree which does not bear good fruits
will be cut down and cast into the fire.
20 Thus by their fruits you will know them.

21 ¶ It is not everyone who merely says to
me, My Lord, my Lord, will enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will
of my Father in heaven.
22 A great many will say to me in that day,
My Lord, my Lord, did we not prophesy in
your name, and in your name cast out devils,
and in your name do many wonders?
23 Then I will declare to them, I have never
known you; keep away from me, O you that
work iniquity.

24 ¶ Therefore whoever hears these words
of mine, and does them, he is like a wise man,
who built his house upon a rock.
25 And the rain came down, and the rivers
overflowed, and the winds blew, and they
beat upon that house; but it did not fall down,
because its foundations were laid upon a
rock.
26 And whoever hears these words of mine,
and does them not, is like a foolish man, who
built his house upon sand.
27 And the rain came down, and the rivers
overflowed, and the winds blew, and they
beat upon that house; and it fell down, and
its fall was very great.

28 ¶And it happened when Jesus finished
these words, the crowds were stunned at his
teaching.
29 For he taught them as one who had the
power, and not like their own scribes and
Pharisees.

~Taken directly out of the Aramaic version of the New Testament~

2005-09-07T13:54:00.000-05:00

Intro to the Target of my Grievance
This week it was a very clear direction for me to teach the two impeccable programs i know that deal with the relinquishment of grievances in a very structured yet divine manner. This assignment is not about reading chapters and chapters of the most amazing spiritual expressions and its corresponding lessons that are dealing with the same theme. This week we practice and practice. Under spiritual leadership ofJesus Christ there is more required of us that to simply love those that already love us. We are asked to forgive our enemies so that we may come to understand the way in which our Father in Heaven loves us. We have read and taught a whole lot about forgiveness, healing, atonement, salvation but how is it really done?! How does forgiveness work in practice. How do I reach a genuine spiritual awakening and how can I help to bring this about. This assignment will show you that there are these two programs that without doubt and without any inconsistencies (except the ones you introduce) deal with adressing the target(s) of your grievance and the subsequent reversal of your thinking in regards to those persons, situations, institutions and disasters.The more you give to working these programs the more they will work you and work through you. It is simply never the way you think it is and it doesn't work the way you expect it to work. If it would, you wouldn't need a program and would be in a constant experience of the grace of God or be in the total denial of God without knowing or caring about it. So if there is just a hint of conflict in your day to day experience and you are willing to become free of this conflict, these limitations, this shame or this anger; you are ready to take certain steps and to follow specific instructions that are given you in these prorams and in this assignment. This week we bring together the 12-step program as it is practiced in Alcoholics Anonymous ( and other 12-step based recovery programs) with the mind-blowing program of our Course In Miracles. The 12-step programs recognize that grievances are at the root of all our human suffering and that to adress these grievances and to rid ourselves of our characters-defects we are made whole and home-free. Next thing we look at the workbooklessons of ACourse in Miracles that deal directly with getting rid of these evil doers, these rats in the basement that we have to catch before letting them out in the open air. So experience for yourself how both programs work. How they assist you in relinquishing these old ideas and perceptions you no longer want to manifest in your life. Then miracles will replace all of them, all this once, once and for all.Thank you for your participation, you are part of a new and efficient leadership. One that takes responsibility exactly there where it is given all power to take responsibility. For your own mind, heart and for all your subsequent perceptions and experiences.

I will attempt to include an audio talk I did on step four of the twelve step program in combination with A Course in Miracles. Feel free to listen and experience. Visit my blog at http://time-to-teach.blogspot.com/ and if you have a moment read my finished article on mind as the mechanism of decision/the necessity for mind-training, which is going to be published in our A Course inMiracles International Newsletter for september; due on monday the 19th of this month. http://newsletter.acimi.com/

With Love Bastiaan

2005-09-05T16:34:00.000-05:00

the target of my Grievance

Time to Teach

How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? Then let us merely look upon the dream's beginning, for the part you see is but the second part, whose cause lies in the first. No one asleep and dreaming in the world remembers his attack upon himself. No one believes there really was a time when he knew nothing of a body, and could never have conceived this world as real. He would have seen at once that these ideas are one illusion, too ridiculous for anything but to be laughed away. How serious they now appear to be! And no one can remember when they would have met with laughter and with disbelief. We can remember this, if we but look directly at their cause. And we will see the grounds for laughter, not a cause for fear.

Personal Inventory (12-step program)
1.What are the kinds of things you hold grievances for?
Make a simple list of all the grievances you have with persons and things!

2.Write down for each grievance in what way you are affected by this person or thing!
What ideas do they reflect about what you are?

3.What part did you play in causing this conflict?
How are you responsible?

4.What do I get out of holding on to this grievance and these beliefs?

5. Am I now entirely willing to let the grievance go?

Workbook-Practice (A Course in Miracles)

A. Lesson 68. Love holds no grievances
Lesson 69. My grievances hide the light of the world from me

B. Lesson 72. Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation
Lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances

Through what process are you led you to relinquish all your grievance(s)?
Do you see any similarities or differences with the 12-step approach?

“ I am the Way, the Truth and the Life ”

2005-08-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Necessity for Mind-training
Introduction

To structure this essay I chose a couple of definitions from Webster's dictionary that will best illustrate the workings of the mind as referred to in A Course in Miracles. I will attempt to make this essay easy to read and in harmony with my desire to express my experience and understanding of the necessity for the Mind-training that A Course in Miracles proposes. I will relate this necessity directly to the power of decision that our minds represent.

Mind is the mechanism of decision and with this knowledge Jesus is training our mind to make all the right decisions and lead us to a rebirth and a whole new place within our mind. We are given very specific instructions and revealed to us is a mind-training procedure, structured as a sequence of 365 sets of exercises, one for each day of the year. This workbook is an impeccable program for the mind's release from its self-inflicted imprisonment.
As a direct consequence the world is freed from the unrelenting pressure and distorting effect of the fear and guilt that was projected upon it. The workbook provides us with all the tools to regain the power of mind as it is given to us in heaven and on earth. Only by applying these workbook-lessons and their exercises do we truly become Jesus’ disciples.

How it works
The success of the workbook-lessons depends entirely on the mind's ability to make decisions. The first decision to be made is the resolve to accept the training exactly as it is structured and designed for the human conceptual mind. The mind needs to be undone from all its futile attempts to assert its separate identity as a self-willed individual. Our human separate thought-system has been found wanting. The way you perceived the world through eyes of judgment didn't deliver the joy and freedom that, deep down in your heart, is the thing you desire and deserve. Our human experience of severe and never-ceasing conflict, our dependence on sickness and death while existing in this futile plane of human endeavor has led us to the conclusion that within this frame of mind, no satisfactory solution is possible. We are therefore not asked to put new wine in old bottles. First the old wine is poured out of the old bottle than the old bottle is tossed and we are subsequently given a new bottle to be filled with new wine. The workbook is structured in this self-same way. The first part of the workbook rids us from our old way of thinking and we are emptied of all the misperceptions that were a result of a faulty conceptual framework. The second part of this workbook is geared toward acquiring real vision and solidifying our true identity and function within the universe that God created for, with and as us.

Mind as the mechanism of decision
So let us look at these definitions that are given in Webster’s dictionary to explain what the mind is and how it functions as the mechanism of decision in this mind-training procedure of A Course in Miracles Workbook.

1. “the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons”
Mind is the element that reasons. We depend entirely upon the light of reason and the reason of light to motivate and direct the mind to make sound choices every moment of the day. We set aside certain intervals of time and use each of them to apply the idea given for that day to every situation and every thought that appears within the windows of our mind. The mind is sped up to the frequency of the miracle and awakens to its true nature and potential in order to accomplish the learning goals this course attempts to teach. “An untrained mind can accomplish nothing”. We train our minds to activate our ability to be reasonable and to make sane choices accordingly.What we experience is determined by what it is we desire. The only genuine desire you have is to be in full communication with the Source of all creation. To that end your mind has to be guided step by step to be freed from its meaningless and false conceptual thinking. We change the direction of our mind from horizontal to vertical thinking. From a ‘life’ spent in a progression from birth to death, we are reborn to a life dedicated to sharing with each other the eternal presence of living within God’s Mind. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow the way that leads to life.

2. “to remind or to remember ”
Here we deal with the mind in its capacity to remember. The mind has to be opened and called upon to entertain an honest, disciplined and consistent attitude. It has to become aware of its responsibility for the effect that each choice to perceive a situation or person in a particular way has on a wide constellation of events. In this program, your mind is reminded every single day of the fact that you rule your own destiny and the well-being of the universe accordingly. Every time we practice these revelatory ideas we open up vistas where glimpses of reality are conveyed to us. We cultivate within ourselves a growing desire to return to our original state of beauty, vision, comfort, certainty and peace.

3. “Intention, desire”
As stated in the introduction to the mind-training, only the time you take it is voluntary but you do not and cannot establish the curriculum. The lessons help you to get in touch with your shattered and deceptive intentions and replace them with your one true intent. They offer you ideas that motivate us to fulfill our true function which is one of being in a constant universal light communication…“To be the light of the world.” When the light seems to be absent for a moment you are trained to be in a mode of letting yourself be restored to sanity. Our function on earth therefore is to heal and allow ourselves to receive healing, as it is our function in Heaven to create. The exercises help us to facilitate our desire to let our erratic thought system be replaced with the Thought of God. We allow God to think for, as and through us. We so desire to be a whole and irreplaceable part of an entirety that doesn't make exceptions and refrains from introducing hierarchies of thought, so that essential qualities like light, love, joy, equality and a genuine sense of peace can abide within it.

4. “opinion, view”
This description of what the mind consists of, is the fact that we choose, select and invest in certain beliefs and ideas. To take such an arbitrary position within a dualistic thought-system does not offer the true perpective that we are looking for. We are brought into contact with our desire for peace and are determined to let peace be manifested in our daily experience of the world and ourselves. In workbook lesson 190 of A Course in Miracles we read the opening sentence that pain is a wrong perspective. It thus states the inescapable emotion that results from our choice to be in the possession of an autonomous perspective towards life and our perception of the universe. Pain is the consequence of this attempt to be separate and to exist apart from the benificent experience of God’s love. Since mind is always active you are causing yourself pain. You have made a full demand on God and His universe, wanting it your way. Now give thanks to Him for giving you a mind-training procedure enabling you to make a different choice from the one you made before. This real and simple choice will free the energy compacted and frustrated within your futile thought system that you were protecting with all your might. Your thoughts are waiting to fly home and be loosed from your former decision to give expression to an imprisoned will.

5. “capitalized: God”
God is the Mind that creates and permeates the universe and has made all decisions already. He created everything in His likeness and nothing separate from It exists. God is all powerful and shares His power with all His creations. He creates purely in order to extend Himself, never to limit Himself. He does not oppose His own purpose to love and appreciate. Everything that is created stems directly from this all-encompassing Creator. God is my source, I cannot see apart from Him. God is the light in which I see. God is the mind with which I think, the love in which I forgive, the strength in which I trust. God is the Voice that speaks to me all through the day and God is the Love that sustains me.

6. “a conscious substratum or factor in the universe.”
You are a conscious substratum of God’s Mind and are given the power of decision to return to your original function which is to create like the Father. On your acceptance of the Atonement the Universe depends. You are a concious part of His mind and therefore are called upon to be awake. Your mind needs to come out of its slumber. It cannot afford to be neutral. It cannot exist in a grey area. It is not created to reconcile good with evil. Your mind is always active and you always know what you are doing. “You are responsible for what you see. You choose the feelings you experience and you decide upon the goal you would achieve. And everything that seems happens to you, you asked for and receive as you asked.”

7. “to attend to closely, to regard with attention, consider important, to be careful, to be cautious about, to give protective care to.”
The goal of the mind-training is to become mindful of the actual power given you to create or miscreate. You are urged to be careful and become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. Your mind cannot serve both God and Mammon. Stay watchful, because every moment could be the moment you are taken out of this field of separate existence and transported to higher ground. Give protective care to the Christ-child that is born within you and needs to be tended to. It needs to be guided towards the Source of its origin and sustenance. Be attentive to its needs and mature in your function to represent the Kingdom of Heaven which exist within you and is all about you. Make this mind-training your first and foremost priority and everything else will be added unto you. Your mind will experience release from the heavy burdens of guilt and fear. And you will see and actually enter into the light.

8. “to give heed to attentively in order to obey, to follow the orders or instructions of”
“Because an untrained mind can accomplish nothing, we are embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want. Do you not have greater reason to fear the world as you perceive it, than to look directly at the cause of fear and let it go forever?”

You are asked to follow exact instructions. You are asked to listen, learn and do. Since you weren’t able to find your own way out of misery, please trust in the mind of Jesus who did find his way out of the human drama. Here and now a true change of mind not only becomes possible but is accomplished. You are led with baby steps to the elevating universal experience that is not at all dependent on time or circumstance. You are free to be yourself and free to change your mind whenever you are tempted to not be yourSelf.

With devotion and love, Bastiaan Berende

2005-08-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

Intro to MIND the mechanism of decision
We continue in our mind training and this week we will look at the crucial role that decision plays in the change of our minds and our whole outlook on life and the universe in its totality. Mind is the mechanism of decision and we are confronted once again with our complete responsibility for what it is we choose to experience and share with others. All power is given unto you on earth as well as in Heaven. What are you here to do? What are you here to fulfill? Are you in the application of a mind-mechanism that keeps this world real in its appearance of causing your suffering as well as your well-being or do you apply your mind to the mechanism of the miracle mind training that will help you loose your investment in suffering and grants you the power to decide for yourself, gives you the power to decide for what it is you really want, helps you to decide for God and everything that is Godly.
Feel free to post comments on this blog preferably related to the theme of this week teaching.

Love Bastiaan

2005-08-28T17:59:00.000-05:00

MIND the mechanism of decision

Time to Teach
The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly.

Preparation
lesson 152 The power of decision is my own
Ch. 5 VII The Decision for God
Ch. 8 IV The Gift of Freedom

lesson 190 I choose the joy of God instead of pain
Ch. 5 II The Voice for God
Ch. 14 III The Decision for Guiltlessness

lesson 138 Heaven is the decision I must make
Ch. 15 III Littleness versus Magnitude
Ch. 26 III The Borderland

lesson 133 I will not value the valueless
Ch. 21 II The Responsibility for Sight
Ch. 30 I Rules for Decision

lesson 136 Sickness is a defense against the truth
Ch. 31 IV The Real Alternative
Ch. 31 VIII Choose Once Again

Inquiry

What is the mind? What is its relation to the body and spirit?
Why is the mind the mechanism of decision?
How does a fundamental change and a real escape from hell occur?
Why did you decide to come here?
According to what mechanism does Jesus ask you to apply the power of your decision?
Explain the role of decision making in the process of mind-training!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2005-08-22T22:08:00.000-05:00

Intro to Practice in Perfection

Back to the crux of the curriculum. This is a required course. The Practice of the mind-training is crucial for the fulfillment of its purpose. A real exciting mind-training practice.
To honestly look at our motivation for doing a mind-training and undoing our old way of thinking and therefore of perceiving ourselves and the world as a result of this undoing. Nothing is more valuable to the mind that is ready to truly awaken from its state of being asleep. Nowhere in the Bible is there a reference to the Son of Man (Adam) waking up from his sleep. Well this is it. Nowhere left to hide, just dealing with your thoughts your ideas, beliefs, perceptions and experiences of people, places and things. Straight is the gate and narrow the way to pass through this transition of the replacement of our old thought-system by this new one. It is simple, consistent and all inclusive. I invite you to read a part of the introduction to the workbooklessons that i posted on the blog as Purpose and Practice. I also want to encourage you to use the teacher's assignment that is called "Practice inPerfection". I hope you have an impeccable, unforgettable experience. Please feel free to write your comments, experience or testimonies on the blogwhere you see comments.

2005-08-22T18:50:00.000-05:00

Purpose and Practice
(From the Introduction to the Workbook of A Course in Miracles)

The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.

Transfer of training in true perception does not proceed as does transfer of the training of the world. If true perception has been achieved in connection with any person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. On the other hand, one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible.

The only general rules to be observed throughout, then, are: First, that the exercises be practiced with great specificity, as will be indicated. This will help you to generalize the ideas involved to every situation in which you find yourself, and to everyone and everything in it.

Second, be sure that you do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable. This will interfere with transfer of training. The very nature of true perception is that it has no limits. It is the opposite of the way you see now.

The overall aim of the exercises is to increase your ability to extend the ideas you will be practicing to include everything. This will require no effort on your part. The exercises themselves meet the conditions necessary for this kind of transfer.

Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.

2005-08-22T16:17:00.000-05:00

Practice in Perfection
Time to Teach

You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. (Ch. 11 VIII p.5)

Preparation
1. Choose one of the following lesson clusters and its accompanying text-section!
2. Before you do anything else write down what it is that motivates you to do or to resist practicing these first 50 mind-training lessons from the workbook of A Course in Miracles.
3. Next read your text section and allow it to give you further motivation and direction for doing these lessons.
4. Now start practicing your cluster of lessons the way they specifically instruct you to do them.

Lesson 1-6
Chapter 11 VIII The Problem and the Answer

Lesson 7-14
Chapter 31 IV The Real Alternative

Lesson 15-21
Chapter 21 II The Responsibility for Sight

Lesson 22-28
Chapter 12 V The Sane Curriculum

Lesson 29-34
Chapter 13 VII Attainment of the Real World

Lesson 35-41
Chapter 11 III From Darkness to Light

Lesson 42-50
Chapter 12 II The Way to Remember God

Presentation
Share your experience of your initial motivation, how the text motivated you to do the lessons and what the result was of actually practicing the lessons.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

2005-08-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

Introduction
After last week's assignment and looking at being God's manifestation we learned and taught to become His ultimate expression here on earth through cultivating certain attitudes and attributes within ourselves. For this week we become more and more certain of our function by no longer cherishing the fears and the doubts that held us from experiencing ourselves in our fullest extension possible, while we abide in this place where we are not really at home. We look at the paradox of being certain in an uncertain place and time. The moment we know with a certain precision what we are we can no longer be located in a body and a space/time continuum that binds us and everyone with us. We become really free. If we were really from here the world would love us. But since we are not, we are the provision of love in this loveless place by means of our true connection with God and everything he has kept in store for us. For that we can be grateful and certain.

2005-08-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

Certainty of Self
Time to Teach
How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfill, and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands in our way. For we have been absolved from errors. All our sins are washed away by realizing they were but mistakes.

Preparation:

Choose one out of three assignments:

Lesson 98 I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation

Chapter 9 VII The Two Evaluations

Chapter 28 IV The Greater Joining

Lesson 139 I will accept Atonement for myself

Chapter 6 IV The Only Answer

Chapter 20 III Sin as an Adjustment

Lesson 151 All things are echoes of the Voice for God

Chapter 3 III Perception versus Knowledge

Chapter 14 VII Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit

Inquiry:

1. What is the uncertainty-principle?

2. How does this new-science idea help me to recognize the certainty of what and who I really am?

3. How did I - in my attempt to be separate from God- try to make an uncertain existence seem certain?

4. What is the only thing to be certain about?

5. How is the certainty of my Self attained and how is it increased?

6. Why is the whole universe and your function within it dependent on your certainty of Self?

“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life”

2005-08-15T18:54:00.000-05:00

The Uncertainty Principle

The principle says that the product of the uncertainty in the position of a particle and the uncertainty in a momentum of the particle is greater than or equal to Planck’s constant.
The implications of the seemingly simple formula are immense. If we know the position of the particle to very high precision, then we cannot know its momentum better than some given level of accuracy no matter how hard we try and no matter how good our instruments may be.

Conversely, if we know the momentum of a particle to good accuracy, then we cannot know the position well. The uncertainty in the system can never go away or be diminished below the level prescribed by the formula of Heisenberg.

read more about the implications of the uncertainty principle go to http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08c.htm

2005-08-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

Introduction to attitudes and attributes
The inspiration for this week's assignment came to me last week. For this week's assignment I wanted to include Jesus' Sermon on the Mount which you can find in the New Testament
(Matthew chapter 5-7).

In the beginning of this Sermon he attempts to educate his chosen ones to incorporate a series of attitudes that will help them to understand and demonstrate not only brotherly love, but to go beyond and transcend this limitation to the experience of love. He expected more from his core group of followers and instructed and trained them to cultivate a fatherly love. To become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. To love one another the way that I love you.
To literally enhance a number of particular attitudes and attributes in order for you to become a more effective vehicle of transmitting God's message of love and His godly qualities here on earth.

In A Course In Miracles a whole section is dedicated to describe these characteristics of a teacher of God, all of them founded on the necessary development of an infallible trust in God.

I added a certain workbooklesson to each characteristic of God. These lessons are designed to acquire and develop these deeper characteristics which as a teacher of god you are called upon to cultivate within yourself. Through direct experiences with the nature of God, and in your quest to represent His being in the flesh, you attain certain divine qualities that are reflected in your attitudes towards your brother and the world.

Here is where the rubber meets the road and you will recognize the need for personal change. You will have to become pro-active in the responsibily you accepted for the salvation of this world. Remember though that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You only have to be willing and constant in your efforts and directed energies to let these programs to be downloaded onto your local disk drive drive and to let go of all fear, guilt and anger.This takes nothing less than a miracle.
Enjoy and let me know how teaching A Course In Miracles is going for you. Love Bastiaan

Below I posted a prayer lesson from A Course In Miracles, the introduction to the characteristics of God out of the manual for teachers of A Course in Miracles and an additional reading taken directly out of the Life and Teachings of Jesus from the Urantia book.

Than for newcomers an explanation of Time to Teach as a program of spiritual conversion.

2005-08-09T14:56:00.000-05:00

I am forever an Effect of God.
(Lesson 326 workbook A Course in Miracles)

Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so on earth. Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God.

Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven, fade entirely into God's holy Will.

2005-08-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

Characteristics of God's teachers
The surface traits of God's teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body's eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial "personalities" are quite distinct. Nor, at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God, have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.

2005-08-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

Attitudes and Attributes
Time to Teach

God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts, born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.

Everyone read:
Manual for Teachers 4;
Intro and section on trust and the development of trust.

Choose:
Three of the characteristics of a teacher of God that you feel you want or need to look at and practice its corresponding lessons!

Honesty
Lesson 156 I walk with God in perfect holiness

Tolerance
Lesson 35 My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy

Gentleness
Lesson 94 I am as God created me

Joy
Lesson 103 God, being love, is also happiness

Defenselessness
Lesson 170 There is no cruelty in God and none in me

Generosity
Lesson 167 There is one life and that I share with God

Patience
Lesson 67 Love created me like itself

Faithfulness
Lesson 91 Miracles are seen in light

Open-mindedness
Lesson 127 There is no love but God’s

Inquiry
Why is a development of trust essential as a teacher of God?
In what phase do you find yourself?
In what manner are the three attributes that you chose related to the experience of trust in God?
Why are all these nine attitudes which are only outward manifestations of your trust nonetheless important attributes of your teaching?
How do you nourish these attitudes and strengthen your ‘special’ attributes?

“I am the way, the Truth and the life”

2005-08-06T14:51:00.000-05:00

The Be-attitudes
Jesus did not expect his followers to achieve an impossible manifestation of brotherly love, but he did expect them to so strive to be like God--to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect--that they could begin to look upon man as God looks upon his creatures and therefore could begin to love men as God loves them--to show forth the beginnings of a fatherly affection.

In the course of these exhortations to the twelve apostles, Jesus sought to reveal this new concept of fatherly love as it is related to certain emotional attitudes concerned in making numerous environmental social adjustments.

Faith-attitudes
The Master introduced this momentous discourse by calling attention to four faith attitudes as the prelude to the subsequent portrayal of his four transcendent and supreme reactions of fatherly love in contrast to the limitations of mere brotherly love.

He first talked about those who were poor in spirit, hungered after righteousness, endured meekness, and who were pure in heart. Such spirit-discerning mortals could be expected to attain such levels of divine selflessness as to be able to attempt the amazing exercise of fatherly affection; that even as mourners they would be empowered to show mercy, promote peace, and endure persecutions, and throughout all of these trying situations to love even unlovely mankind with a fatherly love. A father's affection can attain levels of devotion that immeasurably transcend a brother's affection. The faith and the love of these beatitudes strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness. This momentous sermon started out upon the note of happiness.

1. "Happy are the poor in spirit--the humble." To a child, happiness is the satisfaction of immediate pleasure craving. The adult is willing to sow seeds of self-denial in order to reap subsequent harvests of augmented happiness. In Jesus' times and since, happiness has all too often been associated with the idea of the possession of wealth. In the story of the Pharisee and the publican praying in the temple, the one felt rich in spirit--egotistical; the other felt "poor in spirit" humble. One was self-sufficient; the other was teachable and truth-seeking. The poor in spirit seek for goals of spiritual wealth--for God. And such seekers after truth do not have to wait for rewards in a distant future; they are rewarded now. They find the kingdom of heaven within their own hearts, and they experience such happiness now.

2. "Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Only those who feel poor in spirit will ever hunger for righteousness. Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power. But it is most dangerous to knowingly engage in spiritual fasting in order to improve one's appetite for spiritual endowments. Physical fasting becomes dangerous after four or five days; one is apt to lose all desire for food. Prolonged fasting, either physical or spiritual, tends to destroy hunger.
Experiential righteousness is a pleasure, not a duty. Jesus' righteousness is a dynamic love--fatherly-brotherly affection. It is not the negative or thou-shalt-not type of righteousness. How could one ever hunger for something negative--something "not to do"?
It is not so easy to teach a child mind these first two of the beatitudes, but the mature mind should grasp their significance.

3. "Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Genuine meekness has no relation to fear. It is rather an attitude of man co-operating with God--"Your will be done." It embraces patience and forbearance and is motivated by an unshakable faith in a lawful and friendly universe. It masters all temptations to rebel against the divine leading. Jesus was the ideal meek man of Urantia, and he inherited a vast universe.

4. "Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Spiritual purity is not a negative quality, except that it does lack suspicion and revenge. In discussing purity, Jesus did not intend to deal exclusively with human sex attitudes. He referred more to that faith which man should have in his fellow man; that faith which a parent has in his child, and which enables him to love his fellows even as a father would love them. A father's love need not pamper, and it does not condone evil, but it is always anticynical. Fatherly love has singleness of purpose, and it always looks for the best in man; that is the attitude of a true parent.

To see God--by faith--means to acquire true spiritual insight.
And spiritual insight enhances Adjuster guidance, and these in the end augment God-consciousness.
And when you know the Father, you are confirmed in the assurance of divine sonship, and you can increasingly love each of your brothers in the flesh, not only as a brother--with brotherly love--but also as a father--with fatherly affection.
It is easy to teach this admonition even to a child. Children are naturally trustful, and parents should see to it that they do not lose that simple faith. In dealing with children, avoid all deception and refrain from suggesting suspicion. Wisely help them to choose their heroes and select their lifework.

Be perfect
And then Jesus went on to instruct his followers in the realization of the chief purpose of all human struggling--perfection--even divine attainment. Always he admonished them: "Be you perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." He did not exhort the twelve to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. That would have been a worthy achievement; it would have indicated the achievement of brotherly love. He rather admonished his apostles to love men as
he had loved them--to love with a fatherly as well as a brotherly affection. And he illustrated this by pointing out four supreme reactions of fatherly love:

1. "Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." So-called common sense or the best of logic would never suggest that happiness could be derived from mourning. But Jesus did not refer to outward or ostentatious mourning. He alluded to an emotional attitude of tenderheartedness. It is a great error to teach boys and young men that it is unmanly to show tenderness or otherwise to give evidence of emotional feeling or physical suffering. Sympathy is a worthy attribute of the male as well as the female. It is not necessary to be calloused in order to be manly. This is the wrong way to create courageous men. The world's great men have not been afraid to mourn. Moses, the mourner, was a greater man than either Samson or Goliath. Moses was a superb leader, but he was also a man of meekness. Being sensitive and responsive to human need creates genuine and lasting happiness, while such kindly attitudes safeguard the soul from the destructive influences of anger, hate, and suspicion.

2. "Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Mercy here denotes the height and depth and breadth of the truest friendship--loving-kindness. Mercy sometimes may be passive, but here it is active and dynamic--supreme fatherliness. A loving parent experiences little difficulty in forgiving his child, even many times. And in an unspoiled child the urge to relieve suffering is natural. Children are normally kind and sympathetic when old enough to appreciate actual conditions.

3. "Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." Jesus' hearers were longing for military deliverance, not for peacemakers. But Jesus' peace is not of the pacific and negative kind. In the face of trials and persecutions he said, "My peace I leave with you." "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This is the peace that prevents ruinous conflicts. Personal peace integrates personality. Social peace prevents fear, greed, and anger. Political peace prevents race antagonisms, national suspicions, and war. Peacemaking is the cure of distrust and suspicion.
Children can easily be taught to function as peacemakers. They enjoy team activities; they like to play together. Said the Master at another time: "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life shall find it."

4. "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
So often persecution does follow peace. But young people and brave adults never shun difficulty or danger. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends." And a fatherly love can freely do all these things--things which brotherly love can hardly encompass. And progress has always been the final harvest of persecution.
Children always respond to the challenge of courage. Youth is ever willing to "take a dare." And every child should early learn to sacrifice.

And so it is revealed that the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount are based on faith and love and not on law--ethics and duty.
Fatherly love delights in returning good for evil--doing good in retaliation for injustice.

From Urantia book
THE ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE (paper 140)
FATHERLY AND BROTHERLY LOVE (section 5 )

Time to Teach
Teaching is a method of conversion

This is the place where students of A Course in Miracles become teachers. Time to Teach is a proven and set approach towards the fulfillment of your call to express a message of love and transformation by means of your own individual recognition of wholeness and Christ-hood.The only requirements to participate in Time to Teach are;a constant and steadfast willingness to come into a brand new experience, an inquiring mind and the readiness and honesty to accept the uncompromising message of A Course in Miracles for oneself.It is not at all my intention to motivate you to present a purely conceptual teaching or deliver a merely correct sentiment.

It is my intention to fuse what it is that Jesus says in his exact words with the occurrence of your own personal awakening experience. This way you become a true teacher because you will demonstrate that the practice of the Course has a direct and profound effect on you and will therefore be communicated most effectively to everything about you.

Time to Teach is organized around weekly assignments. The assignment is designed as a blueprint around one of the central themes that the Course teaches. They are great to use in Course group-settings or individually in a variety of teaching possibilities. You will receive these assignments once a week hopefully giving you at least two or three days before your group or class.

During the stage of preparation you emerge yourself fully in the assigned material of the Course. In so doing you become the initial receiver of the message of truth.
In many of the assignments you will be asked to look at a mind-training lesson(s), prayer or a practical course section. In this way you will train yourself to become increasingly sensitive and aware exactly how the promise of a real alternative is accomplished through the practice of the application of your mind towards these new and simple but revelatory ideas.
In other assignments the main emphasis will lay on the function that you are called upon to fulfill. This aspect will support and motivate you in your teaching, healing and miracle working capacities as a Teacher of God.

According to Socratic questions, creative and self-inquiring tasks you are directed to look closely at what is being communicated to you in a very literal and exact manner.During this stage of preparation you become both subject to and vehicle of the message at the same time. It will help you to open up new vista’s of expression and to integrate your personal memories and experiences as a Teacher of the Truth.

The presentation in the class or on paper will then come to mirror your personal awakening to the truth, which is now very active and alive within you. At this stage you are invited to drop your notes and be employed as a vehicle of the Universal Communication we call God.

Some of the assignments introduce a teaching technique which you can regard as a suggested tool to communicate this message to others. They can help to break through old patterns of teaching and come to develop your own teaching-style as you are always willing to expose yourself to new ideas and suggestions.

A Time to Teach class is where every teacher who has prepared for it, will get an opportunity to stand up and teach for 5 up to 30 minutes. There are no questions asked or discussions entertained, just one teacher at a time honestly but without any compromise expressing this message in his/her highly individual and unique away.

If you creatively and open-mindedly follow the instructions and suggestions for your preparation and presentation you will begin to find and increase the certainty and fulfillment that God intended for you as his chosen teacher. Let us now gladly declare:

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

2005-08-01T19:17:00.000-05:00

Introduction
Time to Teach assignment

A really exciting week. Looking at achieving the true fulfillment in your life by living the message as it is revealed to us through the mind of Jesus Christ. It is a real occurence that takes place in you. It is different in any regard than how you used to perceive your function here on earth. It becomes a really joyous one in the knowledge that you don't have to go out in order to assert yourself, but you are asked to turn deeper and deeper inwards and forgive the blocks, grievances, hidden corners and compacted memories that are stored up your my mind. It is your function to allow these to be brought to the surface, shined upon by the light and there to be released. The new world automatically appears as a result of your fullhearted acceptance of a genuine purpose and function for Jesus and God. Have fun. And thank you.

So find the teachingsheet below and chose a reading, look at the questions of the inquiry and have an experience of sharing your experience of being immersed in this teaching/and learning experience of the truth.
If you are new to this program, please read Time to Teach Teaching is a method of conversion posted further down this blog. Love Bastiaan

2005-08-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

Fulfill your Function
All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

Reading assignment
Lesson 66 My happiness and my function are one.
Chapter 14 IV Your Function in the Atonement

Lesson 99 Salvation is my only function here
Chapter 18 V The Happy Dream

Lesson 186 Salvation of the world depends on me
Chapter 25 VI The Special Function

Lesson 192 I have a function God would have me fill
Chapter 27 II The Fear of Healing

Inquiry
What is the literal meaning of function?
How is the fulfillment of your function related to what you belief yourself to be?
Who decides on your proper function?
Contemplate your function as an activity of the mind, as a profession and
finally as the way that you as part of God’s plan relate to the whole!

Presentation
Share how the acceptance of our assignment leads to the fulfillment of your being!
Express what you used to think was your function here, and how exactly your perspective has changed.

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

2005-07-27T17:21:00.000-05:00

Everyone has a special part to play in the Atonement, but the message given to each one is always the same; God's Son is guiltless. Each one teaches the message differently, and learns it differently. Yet until he teaches it and learns it, he will suffer the pain of dim awareness that his true function remains unfulfilled in him. The burden of guilt is heavy, but God would not have you bound by it. His plan for your awaking is as perfect as yours is fallible. You know not what you do, but He Who knows is with you. His gentleness is yours, and all the love you share with God He holds in trust for you. He would teach you nothing except how to be happy.
Blessed Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you. Who can condemn whom God has blessed? There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share His shining innocence. Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity. Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms. To accuse is not to understand. The happy learners of the Atonement become the teachers of the innocence that is the right of all that God created. Deny them not what is their due, for you will not withhold it from them alone.

2005-07-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

Jesus is the most revolutionary of all teachers. He turns the world upside down for those who accept his teaching. When once you have accepted the Jesus Christ message, nothing is ever the same again. All values change radically. The things that one spent time and energy striving for
are felt to be no longer worth the having, while other things that one passed by on the way with scarsely a glance, are discovered to be the only things that really matter. Compared with Jesus, all the so called revolutionists, radicals and reformers of histo are now seen to have been merely scratching the surface- rearranging unimportant externals- whereas Jesus went down to the root of things and attacked that.

The Sermon On The Mount by Emmett Fox

2005-07-24T14:47:00.000-05:00

AS WITHIN SO WITHOUT
Time to Teach assignment

I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses.

Choose your reading
Chapter 7 VIII The Unbelievable Belief
Lesson 30 God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.

Chapter 12 VII Looking Within
Lesson 124 Let me remember I am one with God

Chapter 13 V The Two Emotions
Lesson 189 I feel the love of God within me now

Inquiry
What are the available choices regarding your guide for seeing?
How is to project the same or different as to extend?
Why are we directed to look within first rather than without?
How is the reversal of our thought and belief-system an inevitable result of this action of mind?

Presentation
Find a metaphor or example to explain this week’s theme statement.
Share your realization around this universal law of mind: as within so without!

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”