That's what we hear about in the Course, is a waking dream. In other words instead of continuing
to dream and staying stuck in the dreaming you forgive and you have a happy dream before you wake
up to eternity. Doesn't that make intuitive sense? Why would we go from nightmares into bliss? Would
be kind of shocking actually to go from nightmares into bliss. You've probably heard the analogy
of a mother waking a sleeping child or attempting to wake somebody but if the child is dreaming and
is dreaming a nightmare and the mother shakes the child on the shoulder chances are, if the
child is having a nightmare, the child will just interpret the shaking on the shoulder as fearful,
as part of the dream. And it won't be part of the wake-up mechanism; it'll be interpreted as just
another part of the dream. So A Course in Miracles is just giving us a beautiful way towards a path
of complete non judgment. And in that non judgment that's a state of acceptance and wholeness, which
is what the happy dream or the waking up from this world is all about. And we're given it step
by step because the mind that believes in this world believes in linear time and it believes in
separation, it believes in fragments, it believes in parts and segments. So it seems like the plan
of awakening as you're going through it involves phases and segments. In reality it's really just
like an instant but it's like it has to take the form of segments because it'll be too frightening
if it was just forced on you. If the Spirit said: “Okay, come on. We're going to flash out.” And you
were invested in illusions. Like I use the analogy a lot of times like going to a movie theater;
if your eyes adapt and adjust to the dark movie theater, it's not really wise to go right out the
door in the back on a bright sunny day because it'll hurt, because your eyes will hurt because
they can't stand the light when they are so adapted to the darkness. And that's why the Spirit
has to do it in segments so that it's more of like a time collapse, is what it's called, so that you
have a more of a… He calls it more of a beatific experience with awakening instead of traumatic.
The Spirit is not about trauma, it's not about shock value it's more about retranslation. And
so in one sense that's why we have our like Movie Watchers Guide to Enlightenment, waking up with
the movies. Enjoy the popcorn, enjoy the movies, enjoy the movie segments, enjoy the interactions
with your brothers and sisters, enjoy your prayer time, enjoy your meditations. It's like getting
something that you can relate to. And that's the characteristic of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
will use the things that you believe in and use the things that are even ego values. The Holy
Spirit will use what the ego made. The ego made the world in hate. That the Holy Spirit is using
the symbols that the ego made, is part of the retranslation of turning it around and showing
a forgiven world or a happy dream. So that's why it's so important to follow your heart. I know
in my case I've used those examples over and over but I was not into Yoga, I was not into Tai Chi,
I was not into a lot of different techniques that people use. I enjoyed sports so the Holy Spirit
just used my enjoyment of golf and tennis. So those were my mind training, my open-eyed
meditations. I used the golf and the tennis with the Holy Spirit to train the mind because they
were things that I enjoyed. And that's how the Holy Spirit works; if you enjoy music;
if you enjoy movies. I know my friend Gary Renard, he loves movies. We love to sit around when we get
together and talk about the latest movies, the metaphysical movies because it's something that's
enjoyable and the Spirit will use what you enjoy to take you deeper and deeper in to that release
point. So it's very different from the kind of thinking that: “Oh well, I'm just going to have
to change my whole life, my whole lifestyle.” It's more likely that the Spirit will use a lot of the
elements and the things that you believe in in the retranslation so you don't have to like reinvent
the wheel. You don't have to learn a bunch of new stuff. Isn't it great that it's about unlearning?
I was in University for ten years. It's like it's enough! You go reverse. You start to absolutely
unlearn. And more and more you start to realize that you're safe. That your are not going to be
in jeopardy through this reversed amnesia process. We had an amnesia with God so we're just reversing
the feel, we're reversing our minds in coming back to that. So I think that little 50 minute
Star Track episode has a lot of components of what we're talking about with A Course in Miracles:
With the artificial environment, with learning to withdraw the investment in the thoughts and the
belief system that keep the artificial environment in place. And once you start to do that you start
to free your mind of that. It still looks like you are having a lot of fun. I mean I feel like I have
a lot of fun every day and so it's not like this kind of big sacrificial lifestyle where you think:
“Woaa, oh gosh, what I've got to give up? I gave up this relent and now asking another of me and
another.” And as if it's a path of relinquishment, a path of renunciation and so forth. The Course
would say that the journey to authentic spiritual awakening is not a path of asceticism. So it's
not like you try to go and deprive your self of things. It's more like you get into your miracle
working capability and you let the Holy Spirit use the symbols that are part of your world,
as it's been constructed, in very helpful ways, in communicative ways. So you use the body to
express happiness and joy and express the peace and extend these things. And then through the
use of the body and the use of the symbols of the world by the Holy Spirit then you become
detached from them. It's like the Spirit uses them in ways that frees your mind from them.
So you don't have any personal investment in these things because the mask or the persona is
getting washed away. So when you really follow it it just starts to make more and more sense.