Suggested Readings Related to A Course in Miracles
- The Voice for Love by DavidPaul & Candace Doyle
- The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard
- Your Immortal Reality by Gary Renard
- Path of Light by Robert Perry
- Journey Without Distance by Robert Skutch
- A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson
My Favorite Authors
- Alan Cohen
- Don Miguel Ruiz
- Eckhart Tolle
- Gary Renard
- Iyanla Vanzant
- James Redfield
- Julia Cameron
- Louise L. Hay
- Marianne Williamson
- Neale Donald Walsch
- Paul Ferrini
- Ron Rathbun
- Wayne Muller
- Wayne W. Dyer
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About Me
- Jill Lestina
- What I love... my True Self... my being Deaf... my children... my husband... my family... my friends... my prayers... my meditation... my walk with God...
18 comments:
Hello! Looking forward to particpating in your blogspot, learning more about ACIM, etc.!
Light,
Karen
Hi Jill,
I'm so glad you're back again! I'm sorry I don't have my own vlog. Maybe soon I'll try creating my own blog -- will let you know when it happens. And then maybe a vlog someday???
Anyway, recently, when we talked about giving/receiving and forgiving/ being forgiven, you shared the scripture from ACIM text IV:1 - "When you accept your brother's guiltlessness, you will see the Atonement in him...His guiltlessness is your Atonement." The word "atonement" has several meanings. Atonement here basically means the healing of our erroneous thinking that we're separate from God and from one another. In the following paragraph, it explains that we, as spirit, created by God to be like Him and part of Him, are guiltless. Realizing that our separation from God (the fall) is an illusion and seeing our brothers/sisters as innocent, we see ourselves as innocent, too. This change of perception -- our being whole instead of split and oneness with God instead of separation from God -- is healing everyone of us. This is where forgiveness comes into the picture -- seeing ourselves in others, we forgive ourselves when we forgive them. We're all one spirit with the Divine Spirit.
Would you like to expound on this concept?
May we all remember that we live for each other!
Blessed be!
Hilda
Hi, I am still reading the ACIM (I am SLOW... I am normally a fast reader, but this book commands all my attention.
Yes, I understand that we all create our own realities, based on our perceptions, which create separation between us and God. I just finished Walsch's book "What God Wants" which discusses the theology of separation (our societies are full of separations... separations = inequalities... which create discords.)Judaism, Christianity, Muslim, etc... are really separation theologies (we see God outside of us, like Pope in Catholicism, is a constant reminder that God is outside of us, we need a mediator like Pope, to bring us closer to God... when God is already in us. Because of this, we believe the time-old illusion that God is distinct from us.) Walsch insists that God wanted nothing from us because He already is in us, what more does He want or what more we want? Huh oh...
So that is why we need to have forgiveness... to help change our perception and see everyone around us, including us, as holy beings. I find ignoring my ego is hard when I see, read, hear illusions on a daily basis!
Hilda,
Because of Walsch's book (What God Wants), I understand the definition of atonement better (one with God). The split perception as you just explained is also defined in Walsch's book as "the separation theology". I am learning about separation and atonement (I am in the stage of understanding why and how separation happened.)
I see we are blessed. I understand that we were the one who made the decision to leave the Garden of Eden, by our actions, not by God. I am bothered that the Bible had undergone a lot of translations and a lot of twistings to fit the patriachial societies' expectations, so there are a lot of blurrings in the Bible. I have the book called Lost Books of the Bible which contains a lot of writings about Jesus which were banned from the Bible... I am gonna read them this summer.
Peace,Karen
Karen, I'm glad you read Walsch's book, "What God Wants." I hope that many who have not will read it, too. All of his books are worth reading. I highly recommend them. Yes, God is. So what could God want? Nothing, indeed. It's an enlightening moment for me when I read it. Yesterday I read an article on mysticism by Jon Mundy and came across a paragraph that is relevant to this subject. He talked about Spirit (God) having no needs. Whenever we "need" something, it comes from our ego thinking (fear). Whenever we need nothing, it comes from our spirit(love). He shared a story about a fellow praying to God: "Dear God, I want peace." And God responds "When you get rid of the 'I' and the 'want' you will have peace." (Food for your thought.)
If I'm not mistaken, many of the writings about Jesus' teachings got suppressed or destroyed because they were about our true identity as spiritual beings, our oneness with God - like Jesus. In the past, there were people who claimed this as the truth, and they got into trouble with the church people who thought it was blasphemous. They would be tortured, excommunicated, or killed. Well, enjoy your summer reading. By the way, may I suggest reading Deepak Chopra's book, "How to Know God." It talks about how we perceive/know God in different stages - starting with seeing Him in our image rather than us in His image and how our consciousness evolves -- from separation to union.
Peace and light,
Hilda
Hilda, thank you for suggesting Deepak Chopra's book "How To Know God". Will look for it at the library this week...
Yes, replace "I" with "we", "want" with "need". It is a challenge when we are living in capitalist country where we are groomed to place priority on wants instead of needs. We cannot blame the system because we are the one who made the system.
Hilda and Jill, are there any movies that we could watch which touch on ACIM or any spirituality resembling ACIM? So far we have seen The Celestine Prophecy (at the end... there is heaven and we are in it, but we chose to close our eyes... could explain one reason for the disappearance of one American Native tribe. Would governement and secular religions go far to hide the truths from us... from the history, yeah, all for money and power.) My husband is very visual and likes to watch movies, computers, read comics, etc.
Thanks!
Karen, are you familiar with the Spiritual Cinema Circle? I subscribe to it and receive a DVD monthly since 2005. It was not until last fall that the DVDs are finally closed captioned. Hurrah! Usually there are three/four short films and a long one. They are spiritual (not religious)--- who we are and why we're here. I've enjoyed many of the films. I think that you can get a free DVD on trial: www.thespiritualcinemacircle.com. As for any movie related to ACIM, I'm not aware of any; however, I once heard that there's a group thinking about making a movie on how ACIM came about. Jill, do you know anything about it?
By the way, in case you're interested, Neale Walsch has a blog and writes his own entries. Often, I've found them to be interesting, thought provoking, and/or enlightening.
Talk more later.
Great, Hilda! Many thanks! I went ahead and signed up for the free DVD trial.
I have been busy with kids... kids are home for the summer and it is a challenge for me to find time for reading, with my working in the evenings (3 to 5 times a week, depending on the weekly schedules.) Ughhh....
I noticed that I had been more "egoistical" lately when I am not reading ACIM. Hmmmm...
Great, I will check out Walsch's site... I like his writing, especially after reading his book "What God Wants".
Hi Hilda and Karen!! I apologize for not responding! I've been very busy with summer teaching at Purdue University. It's the last week of the first summer session and you know how it is with the final exam and grading! I am also involved with a grant project and I'm even more busier! I start 2nd summer session next week. Four more weeks before I will have my summer break! yipee!! I will have some time with posting videos and comments!! Right now, I am staying at a campground with my RV camper. I have my laptop and webcam. I tried posting a video clip using my webcam but it wouldn't work! boo hoo! So Im stuck with typing this English thing! oh well! Smile!
Hi again!
I want to thank you for posting your comments and sharing your thoughts! They are worth reading!!
I don't know of any movies that would resemble ACIM or spirituality. "The Secret" is one of the good movies that I would recommend. It talks about the Law of Attraction. Sometimes Wayne Dyer would show up on PBS and talk about the different issues related to the power of thinking. I saw him on PBS last Sunday and he was great! It was captioned! I believe you can order through PBS and ask for Wayne Dyer's series. The latest was "The Power of Intention" - I think that is what it was called. I hope this helps... I will keep you posted of what I will find.
I grinned when you wrote "this English thing", Jill. Ahhh... one of the perks of living in th hearing world... English.
For the last few days I have been reviewing and thinking Workbook's Lesson 59 (part 1-review 1.) It speaks to me and I can feel Godhood in me, feeling part of Him/Her/It. God is in all of us, and we don't know it. The Bible keeps saying that Holy Spirit is in us, but we misterpret it as separate from us. Heck, Walsch has been saying that we separated ourselves, driving ourselves nuts with identifying us separate from God, developing multiple personalities, etc! That is why atonment is necessary... it is part of accepting that we were never separate from God. So, separation is ego.
Just want to share some spiritual wisdom from a renowned scientist - Albert Einstein. More and more scientists are now saying what the Eastern spiritual teachers have known all along: our Oneness. They use different words to explain the same concept. This, to me, is exciting. I'll try to share some titles of books later.
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
Comment: This is being taught in ACIM.
"The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them."
Comment: Regarding the second quote, our ego thinking created the problems; therefore, we can't rely on our ego thinking to solve the problems. We would need to turn to the wise one within us (Higher Self, Holy Spirit, God or cosmic power within us) to solve them. This is also being taught in ACIM.
Karen, I would like to talk a little bit about "ignoring your ego" as you've said in one of your recent comments, but I need to stop now and get some sleep. Later I will.
Take care.
PS Glad to hear from you, Jill!
Peace
Karen,
Today, when I got this e-mail from HUMUH, I thought of you and one of your e-mails in which you said how workbook lesson 59 spoke to you and that you felt God presence within you. So here it is for you.
HUMUH: Jeweled Path of Transcendental Wisdom
Web Site: www.HUMUH.org
“You don’t have to worry about taking spirituality into life….It’s already there. You need only to recognize it.” From the Transcendental Awakenings
Wisdom Master Maticintin
Copyright 2007 HUMUH
Smile.
Namaste!
Hilda
PS We all live, move, and have our being in the Divine Being!
PSS "...the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21
"Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" St. John 10:34
"The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself. There is no separation of God and His Creation." ACIM T8-V.2:7
Good night.
Hilda... yes. I have it in me. I know it rationally, but emotionally I sometimes feel it... not all the time as I'd like to. I allow myself to get distract (hey, I have two small kids, both of elementary age, soooo... Jill would tell you that she had seen my kids bouncing on the couch when she VPed me :O) ) I do make time for spiritual readings everyday, as part of my accepting and becoming one with God. It is amazing to see more and more in the Bible that say we are already here, with, not apart, God... Now I am thinking of how to gently point out to anyone about this... that we are here, all creation, with God, not apart. Hilda, I used wrong word "ignoring my ego"... I know ego is not real and my "ignoring" it makes it real.
I have to say that I am doing Ocean's Tide's pagan studies because of its environmental/feminist appeal. No, I am not a radical feminist; but it helps me understand myself as a woman in a spiritual sense and I have always loved nature, soooo... I am not looking to learn casting spells, no thanks. But it is similiar to what ACIM teaches (not 100% though, but Ocean's Tide has a lesson on Self in which it discusses ego... Ocean changed the word to Mego and Antimego... check outhttp://oceanspaganstudies.wordpress.com/ethics-lessons/the-lessons/self/self-1/
Or just check out the Ethics part. It is not complete, but Ocean has a good idea of the impact the ego has on the humanity.
Hey, speaking of Einstein, didn't science say that we only used 2% of our brains on a daily basis? My understanding is that he used more than 10% of his brain. That leads me to thinking... people with autism tend to be "spiritual". I noticed from my readings about giftedness (my son is gifted, but not profoundly gifted like others... ) and I read that there were many famous people who had autism and often their spirituality were so advanced that we did not understand them so we viewed them a bit crazy. I know a few people who have it and they are lonely, yes, but they easily understand what they learn in their ways.
Makes me wonder... I know one deaf parent who is devasted that her deaf son (3 year old) has autism because it makes learning language more difficult, but I wonder... it could be a blessing in the long run? Yes, I see there is a new biography about Einstein and I will wait for it to arrive at the library when I could check it out and read it (likely not for a while, until my kids go back to school :O) )
Anyway, I AM INTO learning. Becoming. Embracing. Being. I have not reached the stage, because I already have it. I just need to recognize it... it is like we all have diamonds but with grime... so grimy that we take it for granted, not knowing that beneath grime we are diamonds.
http://circleofa.org/cmw/GlobalWarmingAndAcim.php
Okay, I read this article... and I read the links for the clarifications. My mind is a bit befuddled by this. Okay, ACIM says the earth is an illusion, polluting the earth is the result of our ego-guilt and the need to fill up our illusion of missing something. So I read Q&A on the Sonship (http://www.circleofa.org/qanda/Sonship.php) to gain some insight into the Sonship and I understand that practically everything... organic and inorganic... is part of God.
Now, our illusion of earth is very real, just as the sensation of pressing the keys to type this comment is real. And what we are doing to our earth is damaging, even though it is illusion... but destructive. I don't exactly feel comfortable saying "oh we are part of God, the global warming is just an illusion created by ego, etc..." because to me it affects everything that lives on the earth...
Hi Jill!
This is Ocean from over at Deaf Pagan Crossroads...thought I would stop by and say hello here!
I want to thank you for listing Deaf Pagan Crossroads as one of the links on your site...I have added it to my own list of links at the Crossroads so that hopefully people will be aware of their various spiritual options.
I admit I haven't gotten into ACIM yet, but I am considering giving it a try...I'm always open to learning new things! While of course my own spiritual path is Pagan-based, I do consider myself pretty "ecumenical" in my approach - any and all paths lead to the Divine, and it is up to each of us to find the path that fits us best.
In response to the question Karen asks regarding possible movies... while I don't know if these really go along with the ACIM school of thought, I wanted to share some of the movies I have seen recently that do offer up some interesting views of spirituality ~
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - I thought this was a well-made film, it stars Jon Voight and it's based on the book of the same name. I thought it was excellent. It's CC, so no problem there, and is available thru Netflix.
Conversations With God - I confess that I haven't seen this yet, but I have read the book, and I have been told the movie is pretty good. I've got it on my Netflix Queue, and I'll be able to tell you more once I have seen it. According to Netflix, while it appears this isn't CC, it does offer English subtitles.
What the Bleep Do We Know? - This is the movie that stars Marlee Matlin. It appears to be one that either you really liked it, or you really hated it. I have mixed feelings about it. I won't deny that it's a somewhat "weird" movie, but it does take an interesting perspective on spirituality and metaphysics. It's worth watching just to get an idea of where the whole idea of Quantum Physics is coming from. In some ways, I thought the interviews with various people was actually better than the Marlee storyline itself.
The Celestine Prophecy - This is another movie in which I have read the book, but have yet to see the film. I think the book is pretty good, so I'm curious to see how the movie compares. This is another one that seems to get mixed reviews - people are saying that they don't feel it follows the book well. I prefer to watch and form my own opinion, so we will see. I just wanted to include it on the list.
Truthfully, I think it's hard to find any well made spiritual movies, at least ones that are spiritual and not heavy into dogma or preaching a specific religious doctrine, etc.
I would like to watch The Secret, but I don't see anything in Netflix that indicates it is CC or subtitled...am I missing something here?
I'd also love to watch Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth, but again I'm showing it not to be accessible for Deaf viewers. Darn!
Anyway...I have rambled on here. Just wanted to say hello and wish everyone well!
And Jill...don't work TOO hard, okay???
Virginia, yes, I have seen a few movies you mentioned. I did see The Celestine Prophecy and while it was action packed movie, at the end we learn that we do live in heaven and we do not know it (government and secular religions see to that we are kept in darkness.) I read the book and it was of course better than the movie.
Also, The Five People You Meet in Heaven was a very heart touching movie... especially at the end of the movie, when one realizes that we touched many people's lives without knowing it.
What the Bleep do We Know... was hmmm... yes, I saw it lasy year... it was a lot of quantum physics. How chemistry influenced us. Parallel universes... hmmm...I would need to watch it twice to make sure I understood every thing. You are right... you either like or dislike it. Last year I learned for the first time of water crystals... how emotions alter water crystals!!
I have heard of The Secret which is still selling hot at the bookstores... I will check it out of the library when it shows up at my local library. If I like any book I check out of the libray, I tend to buy it so that I'd read it again and again. Oftentimes I read only once...
Check out my vlog comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogh6Exzm3kk
I am having a little hard time seeing that what we are doing to our earth is just an illusion, a nightmare... and that it is a collective nightmare. I know it is our egos that make us feel dissatisfied with what we have, so we want more, and through wanting more, we manipulate our environment, abusing it... that is why healing is important, I understand, but...
Help me out here.
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