I noticed the movie Peaceful Warrior has been mentioned here at PI on other threads. If you haven't seen the movie yet and would like to: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UX414I/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20
I watched this movie, again, a week ago, on my plane trip to a spiritual retreat with my mentor, Erika Awakening. I was inspired to share the quotes from the movie and add a commentary based on the principles in ACIM. (I am 6'1" and mostly legs and as much as I love the miracle of flying, its a bit cramped, so a good movie helps to pass the time.:-)))
I was very surprised to see that there was already a group for ACIM. This had never come to my attention before, but obviously the timing is perfect.
I would love to get your input from your life, your wisdom, queries, current events etc, as I go through the great concepts taught in this movie and in ACIM. You, also may find another quote you like from ACIM that you want to share, too. Feel free to share quotes from the movie that I haven't addressed yet. The quotes won't necessarily be in a linear fashion.
My intention is to share the simplicity and beauty of the principles taught in A Course in Miracles. The ego seeks to complicate everything. Every moment we are choosing whether to be Host to God or hostage to the ego. It really is that simple.
{A little background is called for here. The method that Erika practices is called Holistic Belief Reprogramming, her own creation. The foundational curriculum for her approach includes A Course in Miracles. I am currently in training in Erika's approach and I am a practicing Holistic LIfe Coach, Spiritual Teacher and Healer. She and I, use EFT/Tapping to integrate the principles of ACIM. This is a powerful and effective and cutting edge approach. Yes, you can integrate the concepts of ACIM just by doing the curriculum, but combined with this approach it creates FAST and AMAZING results. Not only did I find my life purpose in Mentoring the HBR approach, but, ACIM totally redeemed God for me and I am passionate about sharing the truth.}
I see people love to share their favorite quotes on PI and else where. Quotes are great, but if you can't integrate them in to your life, then it is just an exercise in avoiding the real issues.
" The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is one. There is no confusion within Its Levels, because They are of one Mind and one Will. This single purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God."
Let's start with this one:
Socrates: Everything has a purpose, even this, and it's up to you to find it.
Dan had experienced his serious accident and of course struggles with how to move forward when his life was turned upside down. It's pretty difficult to find your purpose in everything if you are coming from a place of fear instead of faith. This quote tells why we miscreate and how to create Miracles as True Perception.
You are afraid of God's Will because you have used your own mind, which He created in the likeness of His Own, to miscreate. The mind can miscreate only when it believes it is not free. An "imprisoned" mind is not free because it is possessed, or held back, by itself. It is therefore limited, and the will is not free to assert itself. To be one is to be of one mind or will. When the Will of the Sonship and the Father are one, their perfect accord is Heaven.
Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his spirit into the Hands of his Father. By doing this the mind awakens from its sleep and remembers its Creator. All sense of separation disappears. The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is one. There is no confusion within Its Levels, because They are of one Mind and one Will. This single purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God. Yet this vision can be perceived only by the truly innocent. Because their hearts are pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves against it. Understanding the lesson of the Atonement they are without the wish to attack, and therefore they see truly. This is what the Bible means when it says, "When He shall appear (or be perceived) we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and invest it only in what is true. You cannot make untruth true. If you are willing to accept what is true in everything you perceive, you let it be true for you. Truth overcomes all error, and those who live in error and emptiness can never find lasting solace. If you perceive truly you are cancelling out misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Because you see them as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves. This is the healing that the miracle induces.
I believe this is what Soc did for Dan, he accepted Dan in his true state, not in the broken state that Dan saw himself in. Dan received his miracle but not alone. Then at the end of the movie you can see how Dan's miracle was starting to effect the lives of his friends and the world.
There are so many quotes that would work here, but this what intuition lead me to, today.
Create a Wonderful Day,
"Light is unlimited...and spreads across the world in quiet joy.
Replies
Socrates: Death isn't sad. The sad thing is: most people don't live at all.
Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real.
Joy: [to Dan, touching his chest] I don't think your leg was the only thing that got broken.
Socrates: Those who are the hardest to love, need it the most
Socrates: Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs.
Dan Millman: Let me guess, and you want me to believe yours.
Socrates: No, I want you to stop gathering information from the outside and start gathering it from the inside.
Socrates: Everything has a purpose, even this, and it's up to you to find it
Socrates: Where are you?
Dan Millman: Here.
Socrates: What time is it?
Dan Millman: Now.
Socrates: What are you?
Dan Millman: This moment.
VII. Time and Eternity
God in His knowledge is not waiting, but His Kingdom is bereft while you wait. All the Sons of God are waiting for your return, just as you are waiting for theirs. Delay does not matter in eternity, but it is tragic in time. You have elected to be in time rather than eternity, and therefore believe you are in time. Yet your election is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is only in eternity, where God Himself placed you forever.
Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. They induce fears of retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future will be like the past. This is the ego's continuity. It gives the ego a false sense of security by believing that you cannot escape from it. But you can and must. God offers you the continuity of eternity in exchange. When you choose to make this exchange, you will simultaneously exchange guilt for joy, viciousness for love, and pain for peace. My role is only to unchain your will and set it free. Your ego cannot accept this freedom, and will oppose it at every possible moment and in every possible way. And as its maker, you recognize what it can do because you gave it the power to do it.
Remember the Kingdom always, and remember that you who are part of the Kingdom cannot be lost. The Mind that was in me is in you, for God creates with perfect fairness. Let the Holy Spirit remind you always of His fairness, and let me teach you how to share it with your brothers. How else can the chance to claim it for yourself be given you? The two voices speak for different interpretations of the same thing simultaneously; or almost simultaneously, for the ego always speaks first. Alternate interpretations were unnecessary until the first one was made.
The ego speaks in judgment, and the Holy Spirit reverses its decision, much as a higher court has the power to reverse a lower court's decisions in this world. The ego's decisions are always wrong, because they are based on the error they were made to uphold. Nothing the ego perceives is interpreted correctly. Not only does the ego cite Scripture for its purpose, but it even interprets Scripture as a witness for itself. The Bible is a fearful thing in the ego's judgment. Perceiving it as frightening, it interprets it fearfully. Being afraid, you do not appeal to the Higher Court because you believe its judgment would also be against you.
There are many examples of how the ego's interpretations are misleading, but a few will suffice to show how the Holy Spirit can reinterpret them in His Own Light.
"As ye sow, so shall ye reap" He interprets to mean what you consider worth cultivating you will cultivate in yourself. Your judgment of what is worthy makes it worthy for you.
"Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord" is easily reinterpreted if you remember that ideas increase only by being shared. The statement emphasizes that vengeance cannot be shared. Give it therefore to the Holy Spirit, Who will undo it in you because it does not belong in your mind, which is part of God.
"I will visit the sins of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation," as interpreted by the ego, is particularly vicious. It becomes merely an attempt to guarantee the ego's own survival. To the Holy Spirit, the statement means that in later generations He can still reinterpret what former generations had misunderstood, and thus release the thoughts from the ability to produce fear.
"The wicked shall perish" becomes a statement of Atonement, if the word "perish" is understood as "be undone." Every loveless thought must be undone, a word the ego cannot even understand. To the ego, to be undone means to be destroyed. The ego will not be destroyed because it is part of your thought, but because it is uncreative and therefore unsharing, it will be reinterpreted to release you from fear. The part of your mind that you have given to the ego will merely return to the Kingdom, where your whole mind belongs. You can delay the completion of the Kingdom, but you cannot introduce the concept of fear into it.
You need not fear the Higher Court will condemn you. It will merely dismiss the case against you. There can be no case against a child of God, and every witness to guilt in God's creations is bearing false witness to God Himself. Appeal everything you believe gladly to God's Own Higher Court, because it speaks for Him and therefore speaks truly. It will dismiss the case against you, however carefully you have built it up. The case may be fool-proof, but it is not God-proof. The Holy Spirit will not hear it, because He can only witness truly. His verdict will always be "thine is the Kingdom," because He was given to you to remind you of what you are.
When I said "I am come as a light into the world," I meant that I came to share the light with you. Remember my reference to the ego's dark glass, and remember also that I said, "Do not look there." It is still true that where you look to find yourself is up to you. Your patience with your brother is your patience with yourself. Is not a child of God worth patience? I have shown you infinite patience because my will is that of our Father, from Whom I learned of infinite patience. His Voice was in me as It is in you, speaking for patience towards the Sonship in the Name of Its Creator.
Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary. We have repeatedly said that time is a learning device to be abolished when it is no longer useful. The Holy Spirit, Who speaks for God in time, also knows that time is meaningless. He reminds you of this in every passing moment of time, because it is His special function to return you to eternity and remain to bless your creations there. He is the only blessing you can truly give, because He is truly blessed. Because He has been given you freely by God, you must give Him as you received Him.
Thank you, Chris. I love reading the course. I feel so refreshed, like a breath of fresh air. Cleansing and so healing!!
Conclude each practice period by repeating today's idea to yourself once more.
Wow, what a wonderful share!! Thank you :)
Socrates: There is only the journey