E-News

April 2008   Volume 8

Suggestions?

Our aim here is to produce a regular newsletter that is worthy of your time to open and read. So we're calling on any suggestions that you may have to add value to our newsletter. We want our newsletter to be a valuable and useful resource for you; something that will perhaps reveal new insights or reinforce lessons learnt already according to the principles of A Course in Miracles. We'd be delighted to enlist your involvement in our continuing growth.

So please, write to us at info@takemetotruth.com if you have any suggestions for our newsletter or if you wish to contribute something yourself.

The Light Side

For all of you who have attended our workshops, you'll know that we like to have a good laugh at our egos. We speak of this life as a 'black comedy of tiny proportions'. So in keeping with the theme of laughing at our egos, here is a funny contribution from our friend Ron. It's about a guy called Tim who's recently been given a diagnosis from his Optometrist: He may be going blind!... A serious concern if he were not a believer in the eternal Self.

An illusion to whom a fake authorized governmental "body" granted "official authorization" to "practice" a form of magical healing has informed me that my physical form (which has emanated from a particularly insidious error in my thinking) not only allows but promotes belief that this so called form (which I foolishly call "me") can decline with the passage of another fallacy which is commonly called "Time".

This illusion (further error identifies him an optometrist) informed this illusion, (again mistakenly) called Tim) that he is "walking" on the edge of a precipice, fallaciously called blindness. This seems to occur because these illusions engage in mutually agreed pretensions, assuming that a right eye could possibly even exist, let alone malfunction!

Malfunction? malfunction! What? Please explain? What could possibly malfunction? Some insane delusion of an illusion? Mass or collectively mutually accepted fallacious ideas are good for the economy, right?

Illusions need support to verify them and substantiate them - make them grow and seem real. The more illusions that subscribe to an idea the more traction they will have and the more the propagating illusion can claim kudos that his idea is "the right idea" - RIGHT??

Every month we endeavour to bring you articles from other authors/teachers of A Course in Miracles related material. We recognize that the path is highly individualized and so our objective is be inclusive and provide variety.

This month, our gift to you comes from Liz Cronkhite. She publishes a regular newsletter titled ACIM Mentor Newsletter www.ACIMMentor.com This month Liz has contributed an article about a topic that intrigues most of us – SEX!

Sex and the Course Student

Appetites are "getting" mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called "higher ego needs." Body appetites are not physical in origin. The ego regards the body as its home, and tries to satisfy itself through the body. But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind, which has become completely confused about what is really possible. (T-4.II.7)

Inevitably students of A Course in Miracles come around to the question of sex and its role in their lives now that they are on a path to become teachers of God. They learn that pain and pleasure are the same, that whatever the body experiences is in the mind, that God did not make bodies, etc.

Sex plays several different roles in our lives: Pleasure, bonding/connection, power and reproduction. So let's look at each of these individually.

Pleasure

Pain compels attention, drawing it away from Him and focusing upon itself. Its purpose is the same as pleasure, for they both are means to make the body real. What shares a common purpose is the same. (T-27.VI.1)

As the quote says, pain and pleasure are the same because they are both meant to make the body real to you. The body is an illusion of you and any time you want to make it real to you, you are doing so to run from the awareness that you are Part of God. So any time you identify with the body you feel the pain of separation from your own Truth and guilt for making this choice. Because this is obvious with sex, which is so focused on the body, the world's religions teach that sex in particular is sinful and they try to restrict it (only in marriage between a man and woman) in the hopes that this compromise will allow them to maintain the separation and ease guilt. Actually, seeking pleasure from anything other than God is not a sin but an error. You simply will not find real, lasting pleasure from sex.

Bonding/Connecting

Revelation induces complete but temporary suspension of doubt and fear. It reflects the original form of communication between God and His creations, involving the extremely personal sense of creation sometimes sought in physical relationships. Physical closeness cannot achieve it. (T-1.II.1)

Sometimes we use sex to feel close to others or to ease loneliness. What we are really seeking is Oneness (creation). If sex could really supply this need then we’d only have to have it once! Of course, seeking connection through sex is just a mistake. You are Spirit and can only connect with Spirit. Only by recognizing this One Spirit everywhere will your need for connection - for Oneness - be fulfilled.

Power

Some people use sex as a means of acquiring power from others. The extreme expression of this is rape, but some engage in this with all partners consenting (b&d s&m). The one needing power feels weak and is using sex to get power from others. Obviously, this will not work. Weakness is an illusion. Your Power comes from God and is within you, always.

Those who consent to giving up power during sex are seeking degradation or humiliation, sometimes trying to take back power they feel they lost during sexual abuse or rape (their consenting is their means of re-acquiring power), sometimes simply acting out guilty feelings about sex. Again, your True Power is always within you and cannot be lost or given away. Anytime you punish yourself you are expressing your fear of God. You punish yourself in the hopes that it will lessen God's punishment. But God does not punish and the belief that God does is an error.

Reproduction

Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. (T-8.VII.2)

Some religions teach that there are souls up in heaven waiting to come down to earth. The Course teaches there is One Spirit, Which is everywhere, always. God does not need you to have children. Does this mean you should not have children? Of course not! To the Holy Spirit all relationships are useful as means to remember Oneness. If you want to have children, have them. But you do not have to feel compelled to have children, either.

When the body ceases to attract you, and when you place no value on it as a means of getting anything, then there will be no interference in communication and your thoughts will be as free as God's. (T-15.IX.7)

As always, you do not have to repress your desires. This only leads to feelings of deprivation and sacrifice and anger. Turn your sexual relationships over to the Holy Spirit. As with anything else you still value, the Holy Spirit will use it to teach you until you let it go. God is the only source of lasting love, peace, happiness, pleasure and fulfilment. As you let God in and experience God directly and as you see your Oneness everywhere, sex will naturally fall away from you as a mistaken means of attaining these things. You do not have to force this. Sexual desire is not a sin, simply a mistaken "getting mechanism".

A word about responsibly expressing your sexuality: Guilt is the source of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. When someone does not want to admit they are going to have sex they don't use birth control or carry protection (condoms, dental dams, gloves) for safer sex. It's a head-in-the-sand approach meant to avoid guilt. Or a person could use an unwanted pregnancy or STD as a means of punishing themselves for being sexual. To responsibly express your sexuality you must deal with your guilt. Understand that you will always feel guilt when you identify with the body/ego, but you do not have to add to this guilt. It's a mistake to think the body can get you anything; but guilt is also a mistake. Separation from God is never real.

Liz Cronkhite mentors students of A Course in Miracles from around the world over the phone. You can learn more about mentoring, buy study aids, read from an extensive list of articles by topic about the Course, join a free study group, and subscribe to her free weekly newsletter at www.acimmentor.com.

First hand experience of our Natural State unclouded by ego ...

You will be fascinated by the account of Neuroanatomist, Dr Jill Bolte Taylor who had a stroke and became unbelievably aware of the differences in the right and left brain hemisphere functions as her left-brain shut down because of the pressure of a blood clot pushing against it... The results were amazing.

To watch an 18 min awe inspiring presentation by Jill: www.ted.com.

Workshops in your neck of the woods?

We would love to come to your region and offer our workshops so please pass the word to A Course in Miracles related networks in your area and ask them to contact us. We’ll be there sooner that you can say, "Bob's your uncle!" (Aussie term).

Oh, and remember to pass this newsletter on to any one else whom you think might enjoy this.

See you soon,
You are Love

Nouk & Tomas.

For more information visit our website - www.takemetotruth.com