Almost all of experience - good or bad, and most of our suffering was created from our choices, unfortunately most of the those choices were influenced by the EGO. Your EGO is not something to be taken lightly, it commands your respect, attention and verily your guard, I strongly suggest to take your EGO quite seriously in regards to its ability to wreak havoc and produce much suffering.
Do not fence or play the warrior with your EGO, this is what it wants, you made the EGO, deep down because your its creator you have a love for it, treat it with respect, love and be gentle, any attempt to strong arm your EGO will result in you playing right into its hands. The best approach is to renounce it. It is more deviant than you and more clever, remember it has inside information on you.
The plan we will development and the techniques we will use, must be done slowly, persistently and with great vigilance, that is to recognize and renounce the EGO , this seems like an easy enough thing to accomplish, but will take practice, I promise, you will be challenged.
The EGO watches over your thoughts and actions 24/7, it doesn't trust you or love you, its secret wish is your very death, even though this would be its death too, remember the EGO is insane.
It will use whatever it can to have its way with you, its tool chest contains addiction, quilt, shame, fear, memory and much more, the EGO is desperate, it does not understand eternity, but it knows and uses time quite well to its advantage, it also knows its days are numbered, and will do anything to survive.
In this chapter we'll be talking mainly about the EGO, time and other ACIM concepts, but I like to mention something here I found interesting about the course. I found this perplexing at first, here was a book written to help man find peace within himself, to find joy and happiness by finding himself, yet curiously no mention is made of addiction, a claimed disease that lays millions to untold suffering, a part of our society - drugs and alcohol, that you would think there be at least a whole chapter to this part of man's suffering and the path out of it. But Christ talks only of the illusion of sickness, the chapter to this is called "The Idols Of Sickness", page 181. One of the reasons a person gets sick is because they devalue themselves, this is arrogance in the eye's of GOD, how could the son of GOD devalue what he is and what was given him and what was given him was GOD's extension of creation, his son is a co-creator with the father, this is insanity.
Then to add to this he believes in his sickness, when our peace is robbed or even still when it is denied by a son, this added with stress is enough to kill a body. Make no mistake a body in and of itself can not get sick, the mind who dominates over the body makes the body sick, after all is said, this is but an illusion, an illusion backed by belief is real to you, and when another brother confirms your sickness, he makes himself part of the illusion and adds to the belief, when a brother claims sickness never cofirm this with him, you make it real (but not true) to him and yourself. Hence my opinion as to not to confirm alcoholism in myself or another, nor any drug addiction. And know this, the Holy Spirit recognizes no order of difficulty in miracles, no levels,no degrees, what does this say, can alcoholism be cured, can an alcoholic drink socially again, there are no limitations to mind or spirit, but think, would you want to drink/drug socially, how would that serve you.
There is no order of difficulty in Miracles, this is repeated most often through out the ACIM, there is a reason for this, think. The expression "I am my worst enemy" is a wisdom, the expression "We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us" is another profound wisdom that most people misunderstand. Of course I am refering to the EGO again, since we are examining the EGO so closely here it is worth mentioning the expression "A healthy ego" is a misnomer in the use of the word ego, there is no such thing as a healthy EGO, it has been sick since it was made, the reason is because the EGO was made
without love. Why the EGO was made without love is beyond the scope of this book.
In the following pages we will about talk guilt, fear, pain, shame, acceptance, and forgivness and all the fun stuff people like to discuss, this might be your favorite part?
GUILT
This is the killer of all killers, this has brought suicide upon brothers, this has sent people to institutions, THIS HAS CAUSED PEOPLE TO DRINK AND DRUG, this has caused death many times over, this has caused divorces, bankruptcies, jail time, murder, theft - you name it, but most of all this has kept GOD's son out of the kingdom of heaven by his own choice. The first guilt of man, the mother of all guilt - that we betrayed the father, and we must be punished for it, and what a job we did, we made the EGO, only a son of GOD could pull off something that sinister.
We all carry some guilt from experiences and episodes in our life, from things we did, said, whatever, some we did when we were younger, at times when we foolish, and when we were under the influence, this guil haunts us, it can go from just a unpleasant memory, to something that makes us twitch or talk to ourselves out loud without knowing it. This is a fine example where I think the 4th and 5th step of AA is an excellent tool for relinquishing that quilt, there other ways, but this is an excellant one. Although how many of you that are reading this and are in AA have heard of someone in their 4th step listing their betrayal of GOD. NOT!
But if I do another 4th step (and I will) I will definitely put it there. Doing a 4th step is good and there are many other ways to help heal ourselves, but remember we still need to deal with the EGO on this, the EGO has the ability to slip a guilt thought into you mind while your having wonderful sex, right in the middle it wants, or right at that crucial time, jeeze!
The thing is no amount of external action can squelch the EGO, this has to be addresses internally, from and through the mind, from a part that is more powerful than the EGO, Albert Einstein said to find a solution to a problem, you need to go to the next higher level to solve the problem than where the problem was created. And so it is with the EGO, you to access the part of the mind where the Holy Spirit reside, where your awareness resides, where eternity exists, a place the EGO does not even know of!
This place is your real home, before our minds where split, why did we chose the wrong side of the tracks to live, this the choice we had, this is the choice we made( why? again beyond the scope of this book), we made an error, we can correct it, we must, we can start here, we can start now.
FEAR
As debilitating as guilt, and just slightly more acceptable than guilt, some say the root of all evil, maybe. Fear is one of our greatest challenges, it is the opposite of love, over come fear and you will only know love. Fear is more acceptable than guilt, guilt sneaks up on you, where fear you may prepare for, there are many way to overcome fear, facing it is the most direct and the the most recommended. Fear is the wall we build to keep happiness out, this same wall will keep us from accomplishing our dreams. Sometime we don't when we fear, it is so buried, that were unaware that it is there.
Fear says to truth you are not real, truth does nothing, because it does not have to prove anything. Our greatest fear is of GOD and love. It is said there are only to emotions love and fear, and we fear love, almost all other emotions except love come from fear. Defense is born of fear. worry is born of fear, a panic attack is fear on amphetamines.
Oddly the things we desire most - peace, joy, love, security are the very things we fear most.
PAIN
Pain can be a friend or an enemy, pain is a great teacher, pain is many times misunderstood, the pain we cause ourselves and other is not real unless we believe in it, then we make it real.
Quotes from the
Chapter 27 - The Purpose of Pain course material-
It is a loud, obscuring voice whose shrieks would silence what the Holy Spirit says, and keep His words from your awareness. Pain compels attention, drawing it away from Him, and focusing upon itself. Its purpose is the same as pleasure, for they both are means to make the body real.
What shares a common purpose is the same. This is the law of purpose, which unites all those who share in it within itself.
Pleasure and pain are equally unreal, because their purpose (to make the body real) cannot be achieved.
Thus are they means for nothing, for they have a goal without a meaning. And they share the lack of meaning which their purpose has.
Sin shifts from pain to pleasure, and again to pain. For either witness is the same, and carries but one message:
“You are here, within this body, and you can be hurt. You can have pleasure, too, but only at the cost of pain.”
SHAME
Synonymous with guilt, this is another sneaky tool of the EGO, this emotion also is quite unnecessary, one that we made along with the EGO. Shame and secrecy go hand in hand, they need to be brought out into the light, again this is a fine example that the 12 steps of AA can greatly help, this is a great area in which the 4th and 5th step can do a lot of good for the soul, not everyone needs to do this, many do.
ACCEPTANCE
This is a very important subject within the course and AA, but there is some confusion between the two, as how to use this most loving concept, when the word acceptance is mentioned at a AA meeting, it is assumed to refer to step 1 and surrender (we will cover this next), but acceptance comes into play in many ways, lets bullet a few of them -
- Acceptance of your inheritance-A son of GOD
- Acceptance of you extension-Made from GOD with his powers of creation
- Acceptance of what your made of-love
- Acceptance of your reality
- Acceptance of your brother
Acceptance of your inheritance is hard, unbelievable, scary- let me draw analogy on this, pretend that you were born as an adult, you received a high level education while still in the womb, after being born you have a very high intelligence supported by a equally high academic education, you find out your parents are astronomically rich and powerful, this makes you equally rich and powerful, you have to the ability to do and have what you want from the beginning, the one thing you lack is any worldly wisdom, now think...
Would you be capable of making some silly mistake like wanting things that might not be good for you, maybe even overthrowing the King of the Castle. This is what GOD's son experienced, we made some mistakes, drunk with power you might say, we were lost with what to do with so much, we wanted to create ourselves, then we wanted to create our creator.
Now we need to learn to accept our inheritance with grace. We were made with love, therefore we should create with love, learn love by teaching love, and while were in these bodies, and in this world, accept what we made, the choices we made, accept responsibility for what we are.
And so so importantly, we need to accept our brothers as our-self
SURRENDER.
Another concept both shared by the ACIM and the philosophy of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, but again with some slight differences, surrender in AA again goes back to step1, surrender ourselves to an addiction we have no power over, but the course says all sickness is an illusion, a wrong belief in the mind with the power of the mind supporting the belief, the body an unknowing but willing participant in this charade.
First remember the first principle of miracles-
1st principle of miracles
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.
The only thing you need to surrender to is love and the holy spirits guidance within yourself.
Simple.
FORGIVENESS
This one act can heal the whole world, you start by forgiving yourself, then your brother, the second you do this with sincerely, with faith, with all your heart, the world would be transported into heaven instantly!
You need to forgive yourself for what you did not do.
You need to forgive your brother for what he did not do.
This is why forgiveness is so easy.
Everything we think we need to forgive is an illusion from the projection of guilt we have placed upon this world. This world is an illusion we created to comfort our pain and guilt, only love and truth are real, nothing unreal exists.
PAST
Our blindness is due in large to the past, its the dark cloud in which look through when we see our brother, we see others through our past, if we saw another human being for the first time, we would see them so differently, if you could see people without a memory of your past, it would be like seeing anew, you would have no judgements, no preconceived notions, you would not be able to profile anybody in anyway, this would be wonderful, the love would jump out of yourself uninhibited.
It is the past that that makes us opinionated toward others, this needn't be, you can change your mind now, this can be applied to yourself, you have only to decide, these things we need to address if were not going to desire to drink or drug again, its our minds that sick, a sick mind is the cause, drinking/drugging is a symptom, healing your mind is the solution to all your suffering.
FUTURE
Here again is something that takes us out of the moment, out of the NOW, when were not in the present moment, more than likely the EGO has taken control of your mind, the EGO lives in a fantasy world, it makes judgements on the moment at hand and uses this to plan the future that will never come, unless the future comes from the present moment, pain suffering will dominate your life. This is the EGO's plan.
CLOCK TIME
To be used for practical reasons only.
AWARENESS
The space between the EGO and the part of your mind that hosts the holy spirit, your awareness is the part of your mind that can step back and observe yourself thinking, from here you can watch your EGO sneak up on your mind with its sick thoughts and try to pollute the rest of your mind.
Some quotes from the A Course In Miracles-
P251.4
You would anticipate the future on the basis of your past experience, and plan for it plan for it accordingly. Yet by doing so you are aligning past and future, and not allowing the miracle, which could intervene between them, to free you to be born again.
P254.5
The miracle enables you to see your brother without his past.
P254.4
Time can release as well imprison.
P254.3
The cloud that obscures GOD's son to you is the past.
P254.3
This darkness is in you.
Try to see your addiction without its past, as if you just started abusing substances, make it new, because all that happend in the past is lost forever because it is but an illusion, the past serves no purpose in the future, it is only a reference for those who wish to keep there addiction in the present and the future, let it go and let GOD. Remember to not see addiction in others who are part of the fellowship, for what you do not see in others you do not see in yourself and this is important, if you can not see yourself without your addiction, then why would you want to give it up. Awakening from addiction is always proceeded by the happy dream of freedom, it is important to keep a vision of recovery, the type of vision that has nothing to do with the eyes.
Here is a concept that at first is hard to comprehend, in recovery you wait but for yourself, GOD only sees your un-addicted self, a clean healthy mind, your inability to do this is the wall that seperates you from instant recovery. Recovery is part release from the past, you have been creating your future based on the past for the length of your addiction. Linking the future with the past is the addicts folly, remember the addictis devoted to his EGO who thinks it is protecting you from the world it created to harm you and hold you prisoner, it does this by numbing your mind with substances, this is insanity. Another concept is that you believe in your addiction and your inability to overcome it, this will keep you prisoner till death, your future as your past.
This in keeping with the philosophy of AA-
The fastest way to recover is to help another to recover. Remember-
1. What you teach, you learn.
2. What you give, you receive.
The best time to do this is NOW! Don't wait on time, nor on this step or that step, but NOW!
Your greatest fear in recovery is recovery itself, when you fear recovery love and sobriety are your enemies, change this, the Holy Spirit only sees addiction as another dimension to awakening, this means nothing to him, and it should not to you. Know the EGO's answer to guilt attacking your peace is forgetfulness, sleep and death, addiction contains all three. The fact that the EGO is par-taking in your awakening should tell you the insanity that your up against. You can not do this alone, you need the guidance of the Holy Spirit, seek it NOW.
REALITY CHECK
Before I continue with the rest of the EGO's favorite tools of torture, lets take a reality check, we have covered a lot of ground, talked of things esoteric, and some pretty fantastic concepts and claims, like were sons of GOD, we have this power of creation, our spiritual bodies are still in heaven, our true minds are a sleep dreaming a nightmare of illusion, this world does not exists, whew!
How can anybody expect to believe this stuff? This is just too far out.
Lets step back and examine this world of ours, lets pretend were aliens from a different planet, just visiting Earth, were monitoring the air waves - TV, radio, Internet, news etc.
We observe there are approximately 6.5 -7 billion people, 90 to 99% are struggling in some perspective, some say 90% are suffering greatly within dgrees, 5-9% live pretty damn well, 1% seem to control most of the wealth and power over the other 99%, of the 90% who are suffering 20% are suffering slightly, the rest are suffering badly to the unexcuseable almost unforgiveable degree for this highly civilised and highly technological society with a very large population of people who believe in some kind of GOD.
As an alien from a more intellectual and more developed spiritual race, I having a hard time understanding how a planet with enough resources that can presently afford that every individual living presently should be living free from any suffering, that everyone on this planet should be housed, with adequate transportation, health support, lifetime supply of food, and every comfort that could be of desire without effort. That a species would poison the planet they live on, kill the the non threatening animals that make this planet so such a wonderful place to visit, pollute its ocean, insanity.
That something called greed could rule so many by so few and be acceptable is perplexing, If I dreamed of such a thing, morning and the light of day would be the only thing that reassure me that it was just a nightmare, and my gladness that it was just a dream would be enough to brighten my days forever more,
but this is the world we live, I ask you which is the more fantastic, the world we live in or the world we should be living in, The world sleeps, while it sleeps it lives and moves unconsciously, we are unconscious, this world is upside down, we kill killers, we jail millions, we fix the unbroken, we judge blindly, we drive through life with our eyes closed, ask yourself what is really the more fantastic, we are hearded and treated like cows and sheeps by our Government, and we want this, we accept this, THINK!.
Though I am no longer working in that field, I wanted to pass along what Andrew and I learned from these gutsy, committed individuals. They were willing to experiment with flower remedies, visualizations, Reiki, crystal healing, guided imagery, and anything else that would help their recovery along. No responsible practitioner would claim that alternative healing alone cures alcohol abuse, which is a multi-layered problem requiring the coordinated effort of many disciplines and approaches. However, alternative healing methods can add a much-needed element. Almost without exception, a major task we had to address was healing the heart. Eventually, it grew clear that abuse of alcohol was intimately related to heart wounds. When we talk about a broken heart, we are really talking about the heart chakra, also known as the heart center, the part of the aura or energy body found in the region of the physical heart. It governs our capacity to give and receive love on an energetic level, and a major loss often damages the heart chakra. Many alcoholics began drinking heavily after losing someone they loved. This is especially true of the men, for they seldom got permission to actively grieve their losses -- tears are a healing balm for the heart. 
who abuse alcohol--and its near but somewhat less potent relative, sugar--often are drawn to it because their own hearts are numbed or aching due to losses of loved ones or a lack of sense of connection with others. Longstanding abuse of alcohol, however, winds up even more seriously wounding the heart chakra. It is finally depleted and numbed until alcohol abusers feel isolated and alone. The love and caring they receive from other recovering alcoholics in recovery programs is a start in reawakening the heart.