I would pick up lots of books and I could pretty much flip through the book
and just to start to discern where the author was coming from,
what were some of the underlying assumptions
and beliefs of the author of a book.
Now, with the Course, when I picked up the Course, I lost my breath.
I lost my breath entirely.
And I just could barely utter,
you know, three or four words...
"Who wrote...
this...
Course?" And it was like a stunning feeling.
And then before I could even
even think of an answer,
a feeling washed over me, and it was like the author is not in this world.
There is no author of this book in this world.
It was like a transcendent author, and that was a powerful experience.
It's the first book I picked up where I went through the whole book,
and I felt like the author was not in time and space.
So I thought "Well, this is going to be interesting
if I really go for this, who knows what will become of me?
Who knows what will become of my career aspirations
or my worldly life aspirations?
I don't know.
I'm just going to dive in, but I have no idea what will become of me."
It's more important that we're just open
minded and willing than that we know a lot about spirituality.
In fact, really, the less we know about
spirituality is actually the better.
Because I know many people who are Catholic,
who've been raised Catholic,
and they had a heck of a time with A Course in Miracles,
because the definitions
that Jesus was bringing forth in the Course were so different.
Atonement had a whole different meaning and
and sin had a whole different meaning,
and the Holy Spirit had a whole different meaning.
And it's like, they were like, "Oh, now I've got to unlearn my entire
associations with all these words
and learn new meanings.
Like he's using these words to point me in a new direction."
And so to the extent that you've got a lot of past learning
and even past associations around spirituality, those will be the inhibitors
because he wants to unwind the mind from what you have learned before
in the past and take you into what Buddha called emptying the mind.
Jesus is doing the same thing.
Some of you might remember lesson 189: "Simply do this:
Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is..."
It sounds very Buddhist.
Jesus and Buddha are both on the same wavelength.
They're saying the same thing.
Come inside. Let go.
Let go.
Release. Keep coming.
Build your faith.
As part of your joining with Spirit,
you're helping people unwind and unravel from the ego.
That's what true therapy is.
It's like spiritual psychotherapy.
That's kind of a neat phrase
if somebody says "What is this Course in Miracles anyway?"
You can say "oh, it's just spiritual psychotherapy."
If they say "What the heck is that?"
It's just unwinding from the ego.
And then they have to see it more demonstrated in you
because the words will fail.
Like, I still don't know what you're talking about.
And I read that book that you told me to read,
and I still don't know what you're talking about.
So it's more your attitude will have to be, that love
and lightness and joy and and non judgment, that will be a draw.
That will bring up some curiosity.
Why are you so happy?
Why are you so consistently happy?
That will be the way that you'll be teaching
the Course is through your presence and your attitude.