NOW is the only time. Truth is true. Illusions vanish. Only the truth remains.

“There was a past, but it does not matter. It does not explain the past or account for the future.” Absence from Felicity page 286

About the question of karma

Is Reincarnation So?

In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. Our only question should be, "Is the concept helpful?" And that depends, of course, on what it is used for. If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed. Is any other question about it really useful in lighting up the way? Like many other beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. At least, such misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past. At worst, it induces inertia in the present. In between, many kinds of folly are possible.

Reincarnation would not, under any circumstances, be the problem to be dealt with now. … A teacher of God should be as helpful to those who believe in it as to those who do not.

From

Here I am Lord.

Relating to the scribing of ACIM, “Absence from Felicity” (Keneth Wapnick, 1991) does contain some interesting ideas. I’m presenting a few tidbits. Please read the text to verify the content and context of the material presented.

Karma/Past Lives/Reincarnation

·         Time is linear, the so-called past (karma, reincarnation) is merely symbolic of a more repressed thought that is actually coexistent with the more conscious ones experienced as occurring in the present.

·         Karmic theories tend to induce genetic fallasy (reducing all behaviour and feelings to the past whether in the form of past lives genetic make-up. or early developmental makeup), over looking the 'truly' religious fact that NOW is the only time.

·         Both karma and reincarnation are linked to linear time, as opposed to the REALITY of ETERNITY. Everything we DO, THINK or FEEL comes from a decision made by the mind in the present. NOW is the ONLY TIME.

Spiritual Power

·         Spiritual power can be misused so it becomes self-serving rather than God-serving. (para-phrased)

Atonement

·         In ACIM, the chalice represents a symbol of the Atonement, the Holy Spirit’s correction of the belief in the sin of separation.

·         The impersonal nature of miracles is because Atonement is one. By being one it unites all creations with their Creator.

·         Complete restoration of the Son-ship is the only true goal of the miracle minded.

Prayer.

·         “For where two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Mt 18:20) [There was also a reference to four of them going into the silence, asking for guidance and all receiving the same answer.”After all, minds are joined”. I found it interesting that I took a Prosperity course at Unity and they seemed to have missed the mark of True prayer and guidance.]

·         True prayer in ACIM terms is the joining with God in forgiveness and love.

·         Meditation is a collaborative venture with God. It cannot be undertaken successfully by those that disengage themselves from the Son-ship because in doing so they are disengaging themselves from Me.

·         I would like to pray that my will be united with Thine, recognizing that Thy perfect love will correct for my imperfect love. I pray that I may accept the Atonement with conviction, recognizing its inevitable worth, and my own divine worth as part of this identification with Thee. I pray that my fear be replaced by an active sense of Thy love, and Thy continual willingness to help me over come the split, or divided will , which is responsible for my difficulty with this. I accept the divinity of the messages I receive and affirm my will in both accepting  and acting upon the Atonement principle. Here I am, Lord.

·         I will to see myself only as I truly am. Nothing else can matter but this. The kingdom is entirely filled with peace and joy, and I am an essential part of it. \I will only for God and His kingdom. That is my reality, all else is illusion. I will be helpful as I offer to help others. I will know myself as I recognize my only true relationship with all my brothers. Amen.

Within the world of separation, every person’s mind contains both ways of seeing: the ego’s guilt and attack, and the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness and Unity.

Lighthouse analogy.

·         ‘Jesus represents an abstract presence of love in our minds, similar to a lighthouse that simply shines its light into the darkness. The ships lost at sea sail to the light. The light does not actively call them but merely reminds them where safety lies.’

·         We have sometimes seen an image of a lighthouse shining it’s light unto the sea, calling to it those passers-by who sought it. For us, the light is the Course’s teachings of forgiveness …

Why ACIM.

1.       A return to the original form of Christianity.

2.       Undoing the belief in the reality of separation and guilt.

3.       To have us choose the Holy Spirit as our Teacher.

Perhaps Quimby, Hopkins, Cramer, Brooks and others connected with the “new thought” were a 1^st attempt or sowed the seeds of that generation.

Learn better concentration. When the mind flits about too much for good communication use a very short phrase like "Here I am Lord" and don't think of anything else. Just pull in your mind slowly from everywhere else and center it on these words. This will also give you the realization that YOU really are.

Similar to the exercise that the French philosopher, Rene' Descartes, used as the foundation for his philosophical system. http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/07/i-think-therefore-i-am.html

“Jesus, my brother, show me your love.”

What Emma Curtis Hopkins called the “race mind’, belief in SIN / GUILT / PUNISHEMENT / SEPARATION / DISEASE, I’ve often referred to as wRONG-minded thinking. RIGHT-minded thinking is listening to the Holy Spirit, the Christ Mind or the Christ Consciousness.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. You are the co-creator of all things that live. For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must shine on them.

Rawson on reincarnation.

There is a good deal of difference of opinion with regard to details of reincarnation. Schopenhauer, Fichte the younger, Herder, Lessing, Hegel, Leibnitz, Paracelsus, Boehme, and Hume, all were in favour of the theory of reincarnation. The reason for this is that reincarnation is a little nearer the truth than the belief that when man dies he goes to hell or to heaven.

A series of compulsory reincarnations?

Allan Kardec is the pseudonym of the French teacher and educator Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, (1804-1869), who is known today as the systematizer of Spiritism.

Allan Kardec was a disciple and collaborator of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and a teacher in courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, physiology, comparative anatomy and French in Paris. For one of his research papers, he was inducted in 1831 into the Royal Academy of Arts. He organized and taught free courses for the underprivileged.

Reincarnation

In reality we are all dreaming; when man fully awakens he knows that planets are thoughts, suns and moons are thoughts, and his own consciousness is the space which sustains them all. He begins to realize that the whole world is a thought. For example, he becomes aware of the fact that the body is not real, but it is a thought or idea held in consciousness. The body has no life apart from consciousness. He realizes that there is absolutely no reality to matter or the body of man; it is a group of ideas and opinions. Man gives life to ideas and opinions as long as he believes them. When he disbelieves the errors, these ideas have no life in them.
Man was never born and he will never die. There is no death. Death is an idea that exists in the minds of men. As long as man believes in death, he must witness and experience it. Man has no beginning and no end; he always was, just as God always was, is and shall be. “God and man are one.” “I am my Father are one.”
The man who is always quoting so-called authorities to prove the modern theories of reincarnation is himself without authority. He is still crying in the wilderness and calling other men masters and adepts. Call no man master. “Salute no man on the highway.” Salute the God within. The Kingdom of God is within, and if someone tells you it is “Lo here; lo there,” believe him not. The Kingdom of Heaven is within man.
Where is the Truth? It is within yourself.
Rev. Joseph Murphy
THIS IS IT: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration [1948]

Where there is an effect there is always a cause; there is no such thing as chance.
This question is answered through the law of reincarnation. Man goes through many births and deaths, until he knows the truth which sets him free.
He is drawn back to the earth plane through unsatisfied desire, to pay his Karmic debts, or to "fulfill his destiny."
The man born rich and healthy has had pictures in his subconscious mind, in his past life, of health and riches; and the poor and sick man, of disease and poverty. Man manifests, on any plane, the sum total of his subconscious beliefs.
However, birth and death are man-made laws, for the "wages of sin is death"; the Adamic fall in consciousness through the belief in two powers. The real man, spiritual man, is birthless and deathless! He never was born and has never died—"As he was in the beginning, he is now, and ever shall be!"
So through the truth, man is set free from the law of Karma, sin and death, and manifests the man made in "His image and likeness." Man's freedom comes through fulfilling his destiny, bringing into manifestation the Divine Design of his life.
Florence Scovel Shinn
The Game of Life And How To Play It [1925]



There is a simple test by which you can tell a true teacher from a false one.