A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 8

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 8

 

"My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts."

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

 

Daily Welcome:  Hi Fellow Hikers, I hope your night was restful and you woke up ready to play for another day. It's kinda like anything else, just take it as it comes. I hope by now you are getting a feel for the landscape and are really coming to appreciate the scenery as much as I do. A funny thought just went through my head, complements of my second husband Dan. "You win some, you lose some, some get rained out, but you wear boots for all occasions." I kinda take it to mean whatever comes down the pike, at any time, in any way, God gives us what we need the most, when we need it the most. (My definition of a miracle) Have I told you lately I love your company? You guys make all the difference for me, and it sure beats typing to myself.

 

Prayer: Blessed Wholly Spirit, please heal our thoughts, and guide our minds. Please help us brick by brick to build the power of the Course within our minds, that will release us to the acceptance of who we truly are. Please help us to see the beauty in all you are and all we are within you. Please grant us all we need to stay the course, and to share it with others. Thank you for being with us allways.

 

 

Workbook Lesson: "My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts." I don't know about you, but while I was writing this it occurred to me how much I love to feel comfortable. How I love to be in a routine, same man for 10 years, same house for 10 years, same street, city, state, friends, on and on and on. I like getting lulled into a false sense of security because if I stay stuck in my same ol, same ol routine, I don't have to wake up. I don't have to truly see. I can hide in plain sight, and no one will be the wiser, except for of course myself and this deep sense of self-hate and feeling guilty for denying God. As I see it, what a wonderful setup, even when it comes to the Course, I can skate along looking good, but not even scratching the surface. I just stay in my own little manmade bubble, with my focus totally on where I have been, and the stories I have told myself. By the time I have emotionally beaten and judged everyone including me, who has the time or inclination to see things differently? If I look at who I have made me believe I am, I never have to see the truth of who I Am.

 

 

Tips & Tricks: Isn't it neat we were just getting used to one path, being able to feel comfortable and safe with the smooth terrain. And now it seems to be taking a sharper turn and could even be starting to get a little steeper and uneven. I have found along the way, that regardless of how I am defining it, I still move along the path, one step, one lesson at a time. So, when I can just be, just do, just accept, and all of a sudden, I'm ten miles down the road refreshed and peaceful, and don't even know how I got there. Surprise, surprise, God seems to have everything handled just fine, and when I kick back, and act like I believe that, then I seem to be surrounded by a whole slew of miracles. One of the things I deeply love about the Course, is it always seems to fit the one that's taking it. I don't mean like the lessons will be a different set of words for each student, just that each lesson may be interpreted a little differently. Also, I truly believe the Wholly Spirit arranges different circumstances and challenges for each student so they will absorb the lesson in the way they most need too at the time.

 

 

Upon Closing: Let's give us a group high five, and realize we are now happily hopping into week two. Maybe we'll have a sack race next time. Which reminds me, please try to sprinkle a little play and humor into your lessons, because it can sure make a difference when things start hitting a little close to home. Have a perfect rest of your day, and know you are missed and cared about.  Love & Light, Riki 🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 7

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 7

 

"I see only the past"

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome: Hi fellow buddies, YAY, let's do the wiggle, wiggle, one week dance as we merrily saunter down the road. We got this all day long. Yes, our minds may feel the buzzin like we have exchanged a cracked oatmeal bowl for an overflowing beehive in there, but God's got it, and we have each other too. A day or 2 in the workbook could just be considered a fluke or a blip on the radar. But a complete frickin week, that's a whole different ballgame. "It is all very clear, you were meant to be here, from the beginning." (ELP,1972) And please remember "By design", doesn't necessarily mean Armani. So, lets get down to it, this lesson promises to be a real page turner, and again thanks for the company.

 

 

Prayer: Dear God, I know you are love, and that you are in everything. Please help us to feel our true nature through you. Please guide us to be open to the lessons however they come to us. Please grant us compassion for ourselves and others as we proceed forward and please send your Wholly Spirit, so we won't feel alone. Thank you for being here and for being so loving and patient with us. Sorta, like we are your kid or something.

 

 

Workbook Lesson: "I see only the past", what a statement. Here over the past week, we have been fiddlin around with these lessons that seem to be hinting and pointing at something, but still kinda beating around the bush. So, finally they got off the pot and told it to us in plain english. We see only how we perceive things were, not how they truly are. As my teacher Rev Devan Jesse Byrne states," You can take it a little deeper, a little farther by doing it with eyes closed, and thinking of the things you see in your mind. Thinking of your family, thinking of your friends, thinking of places you've been, sweet foods you love, and so on. How can you see these thoughts with your eyes closed if you're seeing anything but the past? (ACIMi L7, Perceptions) I chose to share this with you because when I heard it the first time, it resonated through my whole body and helped me to understand the concept almost instantly.

 

 Isn't it a wonderful discovery to find out we are not nuts, just looking in the wrong direction? Like whew, there is a reason nothing I see means anything. Why I have giving everything all the meaning, it is why I don't understand. Why my thoughts don't mean anything, and why I am getting upset for different reasons, and even why I am seeing something that's not there. I love how the Course ties it all together and doesn't leave us hanging and brings in the whole concept of time. For me this is where I could feel my thinking turn around and leaving me more open to even think, including about releasing the past and forgiving it. A task I am still very involved in daily, hourly, minutely.

 

 

Tips & Tricks: Here is a hint for ya, if you wanna transcend the world, you gotta forgive it completely. If you don't believe me, check out my teacher, who has transcended the world. ( http://revdev.openandclear.us/ )

Usually, the best ideas are the simplest. If we have imagined everything we see, then we need to erase it. How do we erase it? We forgive it right into nonexistence, then what remains must be the truth. So, we keep doing the Course workbook lessons one by one, not focusing on anything except this lesson, this concept, this day. Honestly, I have no idea how close I am to releasing this bodysuit and forgiving my way right out of existence, but I sure am a heck of a lot closer to it then I was when I started.

 

Upon Closing: Hey you guys, I told ya this lesson was a page turner. It was kinda like just flowing down the river in a rubber raft, and then right out of nowhere hitting the rapids and holding on for your dear perceived life. Remembering the ego is right there in the back seat whispering directions in our ear. Making the suggestion of getting out of the river now, because it is so dangerous, and we will definitely drown. Sound familiar? Keep on, keepin on, have an exciting day, remembering the Wholly Spirit and we will meet up again tomorrow. Thank you for hangin in there with me.

 Love & Light, Riki🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 6

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 6

 

"I am upset because I see something that is not there."

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome: Hey all, can you imagine we are 6 days into this thing, look at how the time flies, especially when you're having fun. It's kinda like I know my head is being poked, prodded, and squoze like an orange, but I don't care cause I am enjoying the company so much. All kidding aside, I really do like we are doing this together. Most of the times I did the Course I was doing the workbook on my own, (until I found my teacher) and it got scary, and sometimes I got lonely and afraid I wasn't doing it right, and I didn't feel I had anyone to talk to about it with who would understand. So, I made a vow to myself and God that if I was ever put in a position to teach, I would be there for my students, because I do know the value of a friendly smile, or a helping hand. Or just the knowledge that someone cares, and we are in this together.

 

Prayer: Thank you loving Christ, for giving us the desire to return to you, and for creating this path for us to follow. Please help us to trust you more, to reach within to you more, and to have the honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness to keep going for it no matter how we feel at any given time. And as our brains get scrambled more and more, please reassure us that all is well. We love you and want to awaken to the truth at just the right time. Please do for us what we can not do for ourselves. Thank you for being with us allways.

 

 

Workbook Lesson: So now we get to the real crux of the issue. "I am upset because I see something that is not there."  I am seeing things that aren't there, it puts me in mind of pink polka dotted ponies and rainbow spotted zebras, or stuff you see after you've had one too many.  A lot of this lesson has to do with previous programing, old tapes, stuff we probably are not even aware of. My teacher, Rev Devan Jesse Byrne says, "You might not realize that most of the reactions you have throughout the day when you get upset, are really because you just have a habit of reacting in that fashion." (ACIMi L6, perceptions) The cool thing was as I continued to do the lessons, I was able to catch the programmed responses sooner and let them go sooner. For years I even found myself reacting differently to women that dyed their hair blonde and had large breasts, cause I felt I was in competition with them, (for what I really wasn't sure.)  Now, more and more I see them as just my sisters and paying very little attention to their bodies at all. But back then, I could be in the best mood ever, smiling, happy, glad to be alive and then I might see one of them on tv, or the internet, and it was on. There was no pleasing me for the rest of the day. In some ways finding out I was reacting to old programming was a bit of a comfort, because most of that old stuff just came from being in the world, like commercials, movies, songs.

 

Tips & Tricks: The Course has never said I was screwed up, though my mind has implied it many times. It talks about a new way of perceiving things, and that I have been imagining a shit ton, but over time, lessons after lesson, I have come to rely on the slow but sure breadcrumbs of wisdom along the way. Sometimes a calgon moment can be just the ticket to helping us remember that it's about progress not perfection. Breathe and know you are God.

 

 

Upon Closing: Life can be a fun and strange journey, so if you are still hangin in there with us kudos to you. Tomorrow will be a whole week my fellow students, so pat yourself on the back if for nothing else tenacity, bigtime. Please remember to keep doing the lessons as recommended and if you find yourself drifting a little just ask the Wholly Spirit to help get you back on track. Have a blessed night and know we your buddies are thinkin of ya, cause it just wouldn't be the same without ya. Love & Light, Riki 🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 5

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 5

 

"I am never upset for the reason I think."

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome:  Hi everyone, let's ease on down, ease on down the road, just allowing ourselves to move with the Wholly Spirit and enjoy the process. Wow, lesson 5, how thrilling, we are clearly making headway. Just a little heads up for you, if you miss a day, please don't skip the lesson or try to do two together, just do the lesson you missed on the next day. I do suggest doing a lesson every day and not missing any at all, but I am well aware that we are all human and our lives can become unpredictable, especially when a part of you doesn't wanna do them anyway. There is no right or wrong to ACIM, it's more about self-acceptance of where you are and the willingness to move forward. So, let's strut our stuff and enjoy.

 

 

Prayer: Our gentle teacher, please guide us to discover the truth about who we really are. Please help us to release the confusion and negativity, and to embrace the strength and compassion to reach to the light within. Please help us to be loving with ourselves and others and to remember we are never alone because your Wholly Spirit lives with us allways. Thank you for all you do. We are one. Please help me to get the most out of this lesson.  Thank you for being here, thank you for joining us, thank you.

 

 

Workbook Lesson: "I am never upset for the reason I think." This is a wonderful exercise for showing us that even our reasons have reasons. Also, just how multifaceted and complex the dream really is, especially when you are working on dismantling it. It's like following a string trail in a bamboo forest. I think it goes this way, nope that way, oops maybe it is this direction, or that direction. Sometimes you can follow that feeling of anger, hurt or disappointment back, but many times it just leads deeper and deeper into the woods.

 

 I have been working on a meditation technique lately that I highly recommend, it's called "Centering Prayer". It is through simply setting aside time to be with God, however you believe God to be, and then use a word you view as sacred to start the session and end the session, and if you find yourself getting knocked off track by your thoughts, you just gently use the word to pull yourself back around. If you had asked me before this practice if I had racing thoughts much anymore, I would say no. But OMG, while I am doing my meditation my mind is as busy as a cloverleaf intersection, and so I say my sacred word, and it may stop it for a minute, but then it starts right back up again. I guess my point is when it comes to my head, I have a lot going on in there.

 

So, it shouldn't surprise me that when I get upset it can be for reasons other than I can think of. Also, remember the running theme we have had for a few days, our thoughts are meaningless, the meaning we give it isn't real, and now we learn that if we get upset, we are probably wrong about why we are upset along with everything else. A real good place to breathe, call in the Wholly Spirit, ask Him to help me see this differently, and leave it all in God's hands.

 

 

Tips & Tricks: There is a line to a song that says. "I just stopped in, to see what condition my condition was in." I think of that about every time I get quiet and read the lessons.  I am grateful that the Course has 365 lessons, because it is gonna take me at least that long for me to get out of my own way. I have learned that how I think determines how I feel, and how I act, so as I start staying open to a new way of looking at things, I will think clearer, feel clearer, and act clearer. If your anything like me, when it comes time to do the lessons, my mind can find a billion other things to do at just that second, so I breathe deeply and just do the lesson anyway.

 

Upon Closing: I feel like Alice in Wonderland and her buddies, anyone up for a tea party? Most of all just go easy on yourselves, enjoy the company and the view and realize that the cool part, is nothing is as it seems anyway. Have an insightful rest of your day and know I am with you sending love & light & Hugs, Riki 🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 4

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 4

 

"These thoughts do not mean anything."

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome:  Hi Fellow Students, yay, this is an exciting time to be over half a week into studying the lessons of A Course in Miracles. I have always enjoyed the workbook lessons, but never more than I have with having you to hang out with and share my insights with. Oh, ya, I wanted to make it a point to explain that I am not the Grand Poobah of ACIM, I am just Riki, someone who has been down this path a few times, and has the desire for your company along the way. So, at any point if you see me in need of a new hat size, please feel free to remind me that these lessons are for us all, and that I might benefit from a little extra prayers and meditation.

 

Prayer: Blessed Christ, please help us to remember our reason for doing the Course, the fire that is slowly filling us with the desire to learn more about ACIM, and to realize that the Wholly Spirit is guiding us every step of the way. Please help us to stay honest, open minded, and willing, to feel our worth, and to allow the process of spiritual enlightenment to happen within our minds. Thank you for guiding us Allways, and reminding us we are never alone on our journey for you live within our mind and experience every minute too.

 

 

Workbook Lesson: "These thoughts do not mean anything", is considered a significant lesson by the Course. "It is a first attempt in the long-range purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within. It is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what is different." (A Course in Miracles - Workbook Lesson 4) I have found this lesson to shake me up a bit, because I started to feel like I was being invaded. It wasn't extreme panic or anything, just an unsettling feeling in my mind, and a nagging question, of if there is no meaning to these thoughts then what is there meaning too, if there is meaning to anything? It was usually around times like this I would get the sense that the lessons were pointless, but I would just reach to the Wholly Spirit and ask for the courage to keep going and to be guided to see things differently. Also, in recognizing that when I am open to see what I think is meaningless, it makes room for the meaningful.

 

 

 

Tips & Tricks: Remembering my commitment that I made to myself and God to do the Course no matter what can go a long way to helping me focus on my priorities. I suppose that's how it is with anything. How bad do you want it and how far are you willing to go to get it? My desire to finally be authentic, put myself first, practice self-love, and self-care was a long time in comin, but when I did reach that point of saying my time, my turn, it made all the difference. There is nothing like doing something for the right reasons. That is one of my favorite things about the Course is the clarity of mind it brings. I know during these early lessons the last thing my mind feels is clear, it more resembles a merry-go-round.

 But as stillness and peace start becoming more than brief visitors, in many ways it is like meeting my self for the first time. It is still mind boggling to me to be where I am now. The biggest change is, I am seldom afraid, oh I get nervous from time to time, but that deep gripping deer in the headlights fear, has for the most part moved on. And it was all because the truth I have learned through the Course about who I am and why I am here, has produced miracles beyond belief. I have come to believe that a miracle often times is a change in beliefs.

 

Upon Closing: It is so much fun, quite a blast. When it was proposed to me that this would be the next phase of my teaching journey, I must say there was a concern about my teachers over confidence in me, but as I continue to put me on a plate, day in and day out, I am truly seeing that my teacher was once again right. Please, let's do this again tomorrow, and remember the routine. Connect to Wholly Spirit Always and do the lessons as directed as much as possible. Take care along the way to Self. Love & Light, Riki 🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 3

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 3

 

"I do not understand anything I see."

 

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome:  Hi again, I hope you had a good sleep, but if you didn't it's ok too. because I have noticed that as I do the lessons a lot of my patterns can feel off, including my rest and even my eating, but as I continue doing the lessons I pretty much get into a rhythm, and I do even out. The mind is a very powerful device, and I find that when I start working on healing it, things can often get confused and a tiny bit jumbled. I hope you have been enjoying my company on the path as we proceed to work on lesson 3 today, I know I am enjoying yours. Please remember this isn't meant to be work, just a fun and enlightening journey to new discoveries and insights.

 

Prayer: Patient Christ, please guide us this day to understand what you would have us learn, in the way you would most have us learn it. Please help our minds to respond to these lessons in the way that is most beneficial to us and the world. Please expand us that we may know the truth. Thank You Allways, Amen.

 

 

Workbook Lesson:  This 3^rd lesson, "I do not understand anything I see" really started my brain to whirring. If I have no comprehension of anything I see, if I have given everything, all the meaning it has for me and I don't understand any of it, then I must have some real issues, I mean great, huge, scary ones. Then my ego reminded me that if I have got along just fine so far, then I really don't need this course in miracles anyway. So, let's go binge watch a good long series instead, one with a lot of seasons. The ego is no innocent bystander here by any means, it has helped to keep us trapped and ignorant already and it knows just which buttons to push to keep us comatose and in the dream.

 

Since in my head, my life pretty much consists of judging you and condemning me, after I took a few deep breaths, called on the Wholly Spirit, and slowed down a tad, I realized it is highly probable that I do misinterpret everything I see. And one of the biggest reasons is, (spoiler alert) there is nothing I see that is real, it is all illusions that I made myself. My teacher, Rev. Devan Jesse Byrne, makes an excellent point when He says" But we want to start to question our minds, that we don't know, what we don't know. We don't understand what we don't understand, and you can't actually be in the understanding of something that you don't understand." (ACIMi, L3, exercises)

 

 

Tips & Tricks: The wise and compassionate words of my teacher echo in my head and remind me to be gentle with myself. Learning how to be loving and accepting with ourselves, instead of constantly belittling and berating ourselves will go a long way in helping us to what many times feels like learning to speak a new language. It's quite simple, when I just start from the premise that I don't know anything, but I am open to learn everything, stuff can flow nicely.  Also expectations can be real setups, so if I come from the place that I am just here, just doin, just hangin, and how it turns out is up to God. I am truly just in the efforts department, and God is in the results department. Sometimes I do feel like I'm walking backwards on the path a little bit, but it always turns out for the best in the end. There are also review lessons along the way that I found very helpful in putting things in perspective.

 

Upon Closing: Well, look at us, just chatting along, stopping to smell the roses every once and a while, and we are finishing up lesson 3, quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. I do value having your company along the way, and also your willingness to see what all this is about. Please remember to do your lessons as suggested and know I am always here for you.  Enjoy, love & light. Riki 🌈

A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 2

A Course in Miracles

Workbook Lesson 2

 

"I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me."

Interpreted by Roberta Gallop

 

Daily Welcome:  Hi, nice to see you again, I hope you are well rested and ready for our second day of ACIM workbook lessons. Another step on our journey. Journey's can be very interesting things in their own right, and I have found this ACIM journey to be no different. Sometimes I think I am heading in one direction and then I get a nudge or a glimpse of something else and the Wholly Spirit leads me in a totally different direction. I'm still following along the path as a student of the Course, but I will get an insight, like when I knew I needed to move. Not all the insights are that dramatic, but they are usually connected to a change in perceptions, brought about by these profound, but simple lessons.

 

Prayer: Blessed Christ, please expand us, help us to release our grip on the addiction we have to our little self, and show us the way home to you one lesson at a time. Please give us the insight and strength to move forward and believe. With each lesson, please quiet our minds that we may know the truth of who we are in you. Thank you allways. Amen.

 

Workbook Lesson: "I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me." This was the one that figuratively turned me upside down and dropped me on my head. My mind started bending itself like a pretzel, because yesterday we learned that everything I see doesn't mean anything, and today I am learning that everything I see has all the meaning I give to it. So, my logical and rational mind (said loosely) went to the place of then this world and everything in it is illusion. I am insane, living a fantasy, because nothing I see is real. So that is one of my hints that things go a lot deeper than they appear to be on the surface. I do believe a few times it was at this point when I started meeting with some good old-fashioned resistance. I was starting to feel a lot strange about the whole workbook thing, I was getting the feeling I was in the process of being brainwashed, but that small little voice was telling me, that maybe my brain needed to be washed, maybe that was the problem all along.

I tend to agree that a clearing and making clean of all the many layers of thousands and millions of ideas, illusions, and concepts that we have rattling around inside our heads from many lifetimes, obscuring us from knowing our true oneness with God, is a good thing to be open too. So that is a good motive for daily picking up the book and doing the lessons whether I particularly feel like it or not. As you do today's lesson especially, just kind of do it without any goal or expectation in your mind at all, in kind of an emotionally detached indiscriminate way.

 

Tips & Tricks: Something that is easy to fall into is listening to your own chatter, with you feeling either this course is so far beneath you it's not worth your time. Or that you are so stupid and dark and unwanted that you can't possibly get it anyway, so why bother. Then of course you may have friends and family giving you their opinions on how they feel about you becoming a student of ACIM, ranging anywhere from naming you as a heartless traitor to them wanting to take the Course with you. The nature of ACIM brings up its own controversy and the more you can stand strong in your own conviction about your choices the smoother time you will have.  It also helps to have a study buddy, group or teacher, someone in your corner so you can feel supported and not alone.

 

Upon Closing: Since these lessons tend to bring the truth, please remember in the words of Gloria Steinem, "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off". I have definitely enjoyed our time together today, and I look forward to hanging out with you again tomorrow. Please remember to do your workbook lesson, only one a day and do that reaching to the Wholly Spirit at night and then in the morning. See ya tomorrow, Love & Light Riki 🌈