Are you familiar with A Course in Miracles (affectionately referred to as ACIM)? It’s an illuminating spiritual text that I’m drawn to. I decided to make 2022 the year I delve into it in some depth.
Marianne Williamson, an ACIM expert, is presenting the lessons in the Workbook for Students (one part of ACIM) with her comments on video. The Course is broken up into 365 lessons, so it’s a perfect year-long study.
I thought I might blog about my progress through this Course. I figure such a practice could help hold me accountable for getting the work done. A year is, after all, a long time to maintain commitment and allocate time to any endeavor. And so I begin …
The first lesson has to do with meaning. The exercise is to look about you and note that this object and that object don’t mean anything. It’s a hard lesson. The mind wants to judge, but judgment is always from a particular point of view. When you judge, it’s from your perspective; when I judge, it’s from mine. Judgment separates us.
I look at a dog and feel warmly toward it; someone else looks at that same dog and feels fear. The dog is the same. The dog simply is, independent of me. And what I or you or anyone else might think of it.
It’s actually a liberating lesson. I don’t need to be the arbiter of meaning. It’s not my job. My job is to love. That’s all I’m here for. There’s freedom there.
This exercise is so interesting. It gets at the idea that we project meaning onto all things. Nothing is, in fact, better or more important or more interesting than anything else. We project value, importance, interest onto the things and situations we encounter based on our own past and present experiences.
It’s like with aromas. Cats smell everything and don’t seem to find any aroma (except, perhaps, skunk) to be disgusting or otherwise negative. Aromas are simply information to most animals.
But humans judge smells as good, bad, or neutral depending on our taste in aromas.
“I do not understand anything I see in this room.” This lesson is deep—and radical. I bring my stuff—associations, history, judgments—to what I see or encounter in life. I basically project my stuff onto unsuspecting people, things, and situations. I have to learn not to do so, and it’s a hard lesson.
I make assumptions. Based on those assumptions, I pass judgments. I need to let go of this behavior to make room for love.
In other words, I have to let go of ego so I can see clearly. How does a child see? Babies have no preconceived notions—no baggage. According to A Course in Miracles, the opposite of love is fear. Babies don’t know fear. Do they know love?
Do you appreciate this kind of discourse? If so, please post a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!
Peace and blessings,
Carolyn