I acquired my first copy of the book Training in Miracles circa 2005. I needed heard it referenced by many people with the spiritual teachers I used to be into at that time and figured I would probably look it over. One of my first memories of reading this course was on a hospital bed while looking forward to x-rays in my ankle from a skateboarding accident. From the reading the introduction, which said, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” Sounds good right? Well I’d be completely brimming with shit basically said I had some revelation, or really even any clue about what that meant. It sounded as well as esoteric however, and so i keep reading. After a couple of weeks, I put the Course aside since it was the equivalent to reading the sunday paper developed in Chinese. I happily went back to reading my books by Ram Dass and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche….No less than I can understand a lot of them, or otherwise pretend to when they talk regarding the subject.

Fast-forward to 2007. I used to be inside a local library once i discovered a solid book called Tips for the Immortal: Advanced Teachings from your Course in Miracles. I’d again be lying if I said I had any revelation because of this audio book, not because its content wasn’t sufficient, but because I downloaded it to my computer and not paid attention to it. Again, I went back to reading my others spiritual texts, at this time I’d advanced on the like of Ken Wilber & Sri Ramana Maharshi, definitely much harder to pretend to know very well what they were saying in conversation, on the other hand tried.

One full year later, in 2008, for reasons unknown, I viewed my copy of A Course in Miracles generating the resolution which i would finally read it, and not only read it, but comprehend it! Well, I could state that on this occasion I tied to it, generally. I remembered the audio book I’d ripped to my library the year before, i really uploaded it to my trusty iPod and began hearing it on various commutes. Tips for the Immortal actually broke the program down inside a comprehensive, yet user-friendly method that I really could assist.

About 50 % way over the audiobook I spotted I did not know who I was listening too (damn bootlegged copies), and so i went back to the pc and found out it turned out Gary Renard. That name really meant not me at that time, nor did one of the other Course teachers like Kenneth Wapnick or Marianne Williamson, since this is not just a particularly sought after spiritual path. Not because it is a rigid discipline, or there exists dogma attached with it. Contrary, oahu is the complete opposite of that.

After completing Gary’s audio book, I moved on for the firstly his two books created by Hay House, titled The Disappearance in the Universe. I grabbed DU (because it is often referred to by it’s readers) and was literally engulfed from the moment I started. Not just made it happen carry on and break up the Course in a way that I can understand, it talked about many contemporary issues, and how they could be seen differently from the Course. I finished DU inside per week and found a copy of one’s Immortal Reality.

Your Immortal Reality really solidified my faith in Gary’s teachings as once i finished it, I had absolutely no problem reading and understanding A Course in Miracles. That’s not to state I haven’t got to sit with, and contemplate most of its passages every so often, but without Gary’s work, my copy of the Course in Miracles would nevertheless be collecting dust around the bookshelf. Now what exactly inside the hell can be a Course in Miracles? Read on and pay attention to! (*Note- I’d like to reiterate that even though A program in Miracles is my own, personal spiritual path, I, in no way, desire to promote, or endorse it over some other spiritual tradition, several of which are already wonderful catalysts on my own spiritual path, i still tap into even today.)

The Gary Renard Interview PT I of II

TIS: So let’s just get directly into it…In accordance with A Course In Miracles (also referred to as ACIM), the job interview us do at this time is an illusion. Can you explain that for the people not familiar with ACIM’s teaching?

GR: Sure. People can think about the universe of your energy and space being a projection. Whoever has read my books understand that I enjoy navigate to the movies, as well as an analogy I prefer to make is that this, I am going in to the movie theater and that i wish it to be real. The lights go down and my attention is diverted for the screen. Because i begin to pinpoint the screen, I could get sucked into the story, possibly becoming emotional, or even speaking with the screen. And so i forget there’s definitely not anything happening there, that it is trick, an illusion, a sleight of hand. The American Indians use to state, “behold, the truly amazing mystery”. Well the Course says “behold, the truly great mystery”, just about all says “behold, the great projection”. It is a projection from the projector, which is hidden. If you are within a cinema, you are not meant to look at the projector, you’re likely to forget about it while focusing on-screen, that is certainly what folks are going to do here too. They’re concentrating on the screen that we call life, and they also think it’s reality, but because the Hindu’s, Buddhist’s & ACIM says, it’s actually a fantasy. This course further refines that idea into this being wonderful that we’ll awaken from, and it’s that awakening this is the same in principle as enlightenment. It’s what Buddha meant whilst said “I am awake”. He previously actually awoken make up the entire imagine time and space.

Why don’t we say I’m from the theatre and i also want to change what’s on-screen, not in the temporary way, but permanently. A way where I can genuinely have something happen that might work. If I desired to change the thing that was on that screen, it wouldn’t do me a lot of fine up and waste time by it. I might ought to do not forget that you will find there’s projector which can be hidden from the back, that we are not likely to consider that. Well, basically really want to change what’s on screen in the permanent way, then not simply would I’ve got to remember that you will find there’s projector, I would also have to think it is, and modify what’s within it.

Now if I were to do this, I’d be dealing with the reason, rather than the effect. I might be from the position of power because I’d be going after a thing that perform permanently as an alternative to only temporarily. It will deliver real power because I can be working with the reason, instead of the result, that is just what the Course teaches, that is that it is course in cause, and never effect. It also says “seek to not customize the world, seek rather to change your mind regarding the world”. That is because by visiting your brain, you are going to where the projector is hidden, where this universe of your energy and space is arriving from. What we’re seeing is originating from your projector that is actually hidden in the unconscious mind. I’m not just speaking about someone unconscious mind, which some people call the subconscious. I’m referring to the unconscious mind we all share. There’s really only one of us sharing this unconscious mind and that’s where the universe of your time and space is arriving from.

So consider it as being like a movie you are watching. The Course says you’re revealing mentally that which has now gone. So it’s already over as much as this course is involved, and we’re just watching it. We’re feeling however, that we are actually inside it, and exactly how out, is to change what’s from the mind according to the Course. It’s a different type of forgiveness than many people consider however, which we’ll get into. So what that does, would it be undoes this thing that I’ll call the “ego”. You can imagine the ego beeing the concept of separation, the notion that we’ve adopted they identity and existence that is certainly somehow separate from its source.

Our experience now, is that we’re separate, that your body personifies. The world thinks like we’re in bodies, and outside of other individuals, in addition to our source, that’s God. To help you think about the ego as the concept of separation. What are the Course as well as other great spiritual teachings do is because they undo the ego. That’s one of the things taught to me by my teachers inside the Disappearance in the Universe as well as Your Immortal Reality. They taught me the program and just what this means, using numerous quotations from that to demonstrate what it is actually saying. They that such that we might go back and truly understand it’s teaching. Throughout their second visit, my teachers told me which i would buy my first copy of the Course, so I did, and yes it made no sense to me in any way. It could at the same time have already been designed in an international language. After 7 or 8 visits from their store however, I could turn back and study this course, and yes it actually made sense. Having looked at that, I assumed there is something there, which would definitely work.

So although it took a very long time for your book being ready, I bound to it. It absolutely was a labor passion. I never knew Whether it can be published or otherwise not, or what the reaction would be. It’s since worked out very well though. The thing my teachers educated me in was that salvation, because Course says, is undoing. The reason why which is a brilliant approach happens because if you decide to undo the ego, the false you, should you could completely accomplish that job, then eventually the real choosing all that’s left. The true you is not related to the universe of time and space. The actual you is what this course would call spirit, nevertheless the Course uses words differently than most people understand them. In the event the Course says “spirit”, it’s not discussing an idea of individuality. A lot of people think about spirit as being the equal of the soul. You have a soul and die, as there are it which goes on when you, which looks suspiciously like the body you just left. Well that’s still a perception of individuality and separation.

When ACIM uses the phrase “spirit”, it’s not referring to something belongs to it, it’s discussing something is perhaps identical to its source, that is God. It’s speaking about something can experience, and also this experience is likely comparable to being God. In fact, this course describes becoming the attention of perfect oneness, so it will be an event you’ll have, even when you seem like here running around in a body. The quickest approach to have that experience is always to undo the ego, which leaves you within a condition of spirit. At some part, the Course claims that the mind may be the activating agent of spirit. So it will be by selecting (which is where forgiveness will come in) how we consider people. We can easily decide to discover them to separate bodies, of course, if carry out that, that’s how we’ll experience ourselves. As we think of them to be beyond their though, then we’re doing exactly what the Course suggests, that is look beyond the veil, and overlooking our bodies. Eventually, we’ll come to experience our self as being spirit, but that’s provided that you imagine them to be nothing less than God, but alternatively, to be the whole thing.

There’s not one speck of knowledge from the universe of energy and space that your particular unconscious thoughts are unacquainted with. It knows everything. It could need access because it is projecting the universe of energy and space, therefore it would have to supply of the information that’s contained there. Now, one important thing your unconscious mind knows, is always that there’s really only one of us. We presume we have six billion people out there, with countless decisions from which to choose, and trillions of objects within the universe of energy and space. The fact remains though, it doesn’t matter how many times you divide and subdivide, there’s only certainly one of us that thinks it’s here. There’s just this one ego that thinks it’s separated itself from the source introduced with this personal identity and individual existence. There’s one ego that thinks it’s here, and you are it, it is not some other person, there is not anyone else.

Anything else ‘s what the Hindu’s call the concept of multiplicity. It’s literally a sleight of hand, an illusion. So we’re tricked from this thing, I’m calling the ego, as there is something unfortunately we cannot find out about it. The ego likes this concept of separation. It desires to keep it going, as it feels important & special. It’s like Jesus’ prodigal son story- he leaves his fathers house, going off by himself while he thinks he is able to fare best, which happens to be a blunder. All that he finds is scarcity, and you can’t have scarcity in heaven because what you have is surely an awareness of perfect oneness, which I mentioned earlier. In the condition of perfect oneness, you might have the whole thing, and you can’t have scarcity when you have everything. You also can’t have death when you have perfect oneness. It’ only when you will find the split from that perfect oneness which you build opposites and the possibility of another to life, that’s death, and the potential for an opposite to abundance, that’s scarcity.

So everything you’re seeing is founded on duality. That is why it says from the book of Genesis, you shall not eat through the tree of data of excellent and evil, for the day you take in than it, you will die. Well good and evil are opposites, as soon as you have opposites, you can have death. You simply can’t have death and then there no opposites though, which explains why ACIM says in it’s introduction, the contrary of affection is fear, what is encompassing, which is obviously God, might have no opposite. What exactly you want to do is return to a location and then there is not any such thing as opposites, and then there is not any death or scarcity. Which is the thought of going home that Jesus is trying to show inside the prodigal son story. Eventually the prodigal son realized he made a mistake, that’s which he had left, and that the main one decision he had to produce would have been to leave, that they did. You notice and in that story, the prodigal son has several strange ideas about himself. He thinks he’s guilty, and contains ideas that he’s committed a sin against his father, and is not worthy being called God’s on. So according to him, well maybe if I leave I will start at the end and work my high as one of His servants and have back into his good graces. Just what the prodigal son doesn’t comprehend is that God doesn’t share any sexual ideas about him.

Both the Bible and ACIM say God is good love, if perfect love in fact is perfect love, then everything God would know the way to do is love. If he knew how to be angry, wrathful or judgmental, that wouldn’t be perfect love. What ACIM does is provide us with a God that basically is good love and many types of that God wants is good for us in the future home. All of those other ideas, because Course puts it, are your own nightmare , nor exist. So in this sense, it is actually a fantasy of guilt and separation that we’re having. The concept is to undo that from the means of forgiveness in which you see people to be this perfect spirit, because your unconscious mind knows everything, and something of the items it knows is the fact that there really is one of us. So regardless of what you see another person, it’s not heading out to them, it is going to you. Your unconscious mind will interpret that it is message of your stuff, for your requirements, resulting in you, as it recognizes that there exists really only one of us.

There’s a essential law with the mind that is articulated inside a Course In Miracles that’s simple, but true. It says, “As the thing is him, you will notice yourself”, so whatever you’re interested in another individual is actually just likely to you. It will also see how you’re feeling about yourself and eventually if you agree you are. It is possible to feel that you’re a body knowning that you’re separate, additionally, you can believe that you’re this perfect spirit which is identical to God. According to the Course, mind is the activating agent of spirit that is certainly the best way to actually alter your experience of life, from a condition of depression into a condition of happiness. You gradually move over to the experience of being spirit.

The ironic thing is that you could still need your lifetime. You won’t need to give anything up, you’ll still live a standard life and have a great time. In case you meet someone and just fall in love, and even got married, do it now. I recently marry myself this past year. Whatever is in front of your face will be first of two purposes. You may either judge it, or forgive it. There’ll be instances when you won’t need to forgive anything. The main objective of ACIM just isn’t on forgiving romantic a walks on the shore or music or art. The main objective in the Course is on forgiving the negative emotions that can come up.

This course also states that anger isn’t justified. It does not point out that you may never get angry, I could pretty much promise you will. It lets you do say that it is never justified and also the sooner which you remember that, the less you’ll suffer. The reason anger is rarely justified is really because that which you are seeing is often a projection that is originating from you. You’re the one who made it up and set those individuals there, you wanted these to be there. That may seem hard to believe to start with, that is what exactly you wanted. The guilt you felt over separating from God can be regarded as being beyond you, instead of by you. This is the whole function of projection. A psychologist would let you know that whatever is denied, have to be projected. Well what we’re investigating within the universe of your time and space is actually something which is synonymous with separation, however it is using a massive metaphysical denial right before time began, right before what were the Big Bang within the universe of time and space.

There was these items that particular ego felt very guilty about, and exactly how that that ego thought it may get rid of that guilt ended up being to deny it. Once it was denied, it absolutely was projected outwards which is in which the projection is arriving from. The way in which residence is to undo the projection, which once again means that the program says that salvation is undoing. So by undoing it, eventually that experience of separation disappears. You come back towards the connection with perfect oneness and you are enlightened, and as the Course puts it, the time will come when you find yourself scheduled to view of here. So you’ll lay the body aside for the final time, and also, since there’s no ego, there isn’t any cause of one to revisit. In order that perfect oneness with God gets a prominent experience for you, when you lay one’s body aside for the final some time to simply go home. Then this experience with perfect oneness becomes your permanent reality.

TIS: Phew. I’ve read your books, and listened to your audiobooks numerous times, and that is still a great deal to consume. There exists a deep truth that resonates for me personally though when you speak however.

GR: Yeah, the Course says a good deal, but you’ll notice that everything this course says, all fits together, kind of like a hologram.

TIS: Right.

GR: You could state that the program provides you with two complete and mutually exclusive thought systems. You will find the thought system in the Holy Spirit, which is information on love and forgives, and becoming love yourself inside your experience, and how you peer at others, which will naturally cause you treating others with love. Then you’ve the ego thought system, which can be all about judgment and condemnation. The program says you can only do 1 of 2 things. It says, “He who would not forgive, must judge, for she must justify his failure to forgive”. So if you feel not going to forgive someone, then you have to create up a complete story about why they’re not worthy of your forgiveness, and it would take a shorter time simply to forgive them.

Among the other items I love in regards to the Course is that it actually provides you with a method home, an easy method because of this mess. I’m not really saying you must not appreciate it as long as you’re here, it is just that this is temporary, you won’t last. People think it’s very valuable, but how valuable can something be if it’s temporary and not planning to last? The best thing technology-not only for is to learn and communicate, and share the truth with people. Absolutely suit, how’s it going planning to utilize the time you are here. Once or twice the Course asks what is it for, regarding the pain you are seeing… what is it for? Well, it’s for forgiveness because by forgiving, you undo the ego as well as your experience can change, and it’s really a greater experience. It is actually better to be described as a spirit than the usual body. It’s safer to certainly be a butterfly when compared to a caterpillar, it’s actually a less restricted life form and a good quality of life. It’s really a win-win situation.

You’ll probably still have your health and pretend that you are a doctor, or even a racecar driver, or attempt what I really do, and pretend you’re a spiritual teacher and go all over the world and speak to people. My teachers Arten and Pursah said it doesn’t matter a few things i do, my real job is forgiveness and anything else is just a cover job. The forgiveness opportunities should come up for people, plus they come in numerous forms. This course states that the ideal lesson is obviously before you, though that is seldom recognized. Therefore it is no mystery what you’re designed to forgive, which can be whatever is correct before the face. These are lessons that the Holy Spirit wants one to learn, and forgive.

It isn’t always fun since this is a whole lot of duality. You will have both fun times and bad while you’re here. There is no leaving that because a world of opposites. There will likely be times where you must forgive, and times when you won’t, as you’re having a good time and can just “celebrate” since the Course says. ACIM can be a happy way of spirituality. It covers the happy dream and like a happy learner. One of several ten characteristics of a teacher of God is joy. So this ‘s no suffering, morose way of spirituality. It is not obviously any good religion. ACIM is a self-study course. It’s done between you and your Holy Spirit or perhaps you and Jesus, or whatever you’d like to refer to it as. Jesus may be the teacher inside the Course. He speaks in first person and it is clear it’s written by him. Making this a pleasant kind of spirituality, but that it is changing the way in which people consider the historical Jesus.

I’m happy to see that nowadays any time you go into Unity Churches, or perhaps you visit to my place, there exists a drawings and paintings of Jesus, and he’s laughing and smiling, and that’s the best way he actually was. He wasn’t some suffering, unhappy guy. He had feeling of humor and that he was married to Mary Magdalene. He normal relationships, and friends plus they partied once they wanted too. They’d search for a wedding celebration that may last 21 days because which is the way things were in those days. I believe you have a better look at what life was like in the period Jesus lived by reading the existing Testament, over one does reading the newest Testament because it is precisely what it truly was like. You read things like Solomon and pretty racy stuff. There are many sexual things mentioned. The stuff about being puritans and goody two shoes came after Jesus. It didn’t have something to use what life was like while he was travelling. All of that appeared up by the church since they wanted comprise a faith and so they did.

The material of Jesus got completely lost and changed into its opposite, the industry message of suffering and sacrifice, and that is not what he was about at all. He involved get rid of suffering and sacrifice. Most likely the best illustration is the fact that he couldn’t feel any pain at the conclusion of his life. As ACIM puts it, the guiltless mind cannot suffer, and Jesus’ mind had been completely healed from the Holy Spirit, so he had no guilt in their mind, which meant he couldn’t suffer, which also meant that he couldn’t feel any pain. Which means this whole indisputable fact that somehow he suffered and sacrificed himself for our sins is not about him. It’s really a composed theology from the apostle Paul. In fact, it’s Paul’s theology, that is the basis of Christianity. It’s not based on the teachings of Jesus.

So now you do have a Jesus who could forgive anybody, even though these folks were killing him, but nowadays there is a “Christians” who can’t forgive individuals who have done absolutely nothing to them? There exists a contradiction here. It’s a convoluted sort of Jesus. I believe one of the reasons my books, and ACIM did so well, and i think is constantly, because the Course is going to be around for the thousand years, happens because at the conclusion of the afternoon it feels right. It’s a complete thought system. All this fits together and it is based on love and forgiveness.

Should you examine a number of the old Greek texts, right from the start of Christianity, they employed to say (regarding the early Christians), “you’ll know them by their love”. The first meaning of the word “repent” in Greek is around an alteration of mind. It is not about cleaning your respond to the degree of the world. It’s really with the level of the mind resulting in an alteration of mind. That’s the initial idea, since they did get a number of what Jesus was saying during the time. ACIM is all done at the degree of your brain, because that is the level of cause, and also the world is just the effect. I’m not saying that you can not have it, and revel in it, but at the end of your day it is a temporary experience.

It’s just what the Buddhist’s call impermanence, and also, since it’s impermanent and temporary, you can not find any permanent satisfaction or happiness there. It is definitely easy to find permanent happiness in changing the way you look in the world though, which again is why the Course says, “seek to never affect the world, seek rather to change your mind about the world”. And when you accomplish that you will end up coping with the amount of cause rather than the effect, which can be crucial.

More details about acim go to see our webpage.