Choose Again: Moving Beyond A Course in Miracles

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Choose Again

Moving Beyond A Course in Miracles

Ron Rasmussen

Published by by Ron Rasmussen

at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Ron Rasmussen

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CHOOSE AGAIN

MOVING BEYOND

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

By Ron Rasmussen

Dedication

This book is dedicated to several people who have influenced me while I walked my journey called life.

To my wife Donna, who has shown me by example, to continue on my path no matter how many walls I hit; to always get up and continue. She has shown me how to believe in myself, how to listen to myself, and most of all, how to love myself just as I am.

To my teacher of all Teachers – Peg McGinley, who introduced me to ‘A Course in Miracles’ and led me to go beyond the words used within the book, to meanings which came from within me. What she demonstrated to me is ingrained within my heart, to be shared with others as her gift to me for you.

To my children – all six of them – who were and are my greatest joy in life. Watching them grow into adults and go down their own paths was once extremely painful, but now beautiful knowing that each of them is in their ‘right and perfect’ place.

And finally, to the ‘Spirit’ within me that constantly encouraged me to keep moving on – to walk through fears and pain – and then to be shown that life was still there for me to live. The ‘small voice within’ is ever present, ever speaking, ever knowing of what I am thinking before I have a thought. I believe in what I have written here. It was not always that way, but the ‘conflict’ with ego is just about over – I am at peace more than I am with ego.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Is This a Required Course?

Chapter 2 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter 3 - Buddhism and A Course in Miracles

Chapter 4 - Love

Chapter 5 - Fear

• Anger

• Hatred

• Jealousy

• Loneliness

• Failure

• Completion

• Success

• Lack

• Health

• Guilt

• God

• Death

• Time

Chapter 6 - The Undoing of Fear

Chapter 7 - Beliefs

Chapter 8 - What If?

Chapter 9 - Stillness and Silence

Chapter 10 - Meditation and Stillness

Chapter 11 - Channeling

Chapter 12 - Jesus

Chapter 13 - A Teacher

Chapter 14 - The Now

Chapter 15 - The New Beginning

Chapter 16 - Thoughts

Chapter 17 - God

Chapter 18 - Ego

Chapter 19 - Open Mind/Open Heart

Chapter 20 - Illusion

Chapter 21 - Judgment

Chapter 22 - Forgiveness

Chapter 23 - The Idols of Sickness

Chapter 24 - The Separation

Chapter 25 - The Journey Back

Chapter 26 - A Meaning of ‘Miracle’

Chapter 27 - The Awakening

Chapter 28 - The Final Vision

Epilogue

Lessons: 1 – 40

Epilogue to Lessons

Fourteen ‘What If’ Questions asked by the Course

1. What is Forgiveness?

2. What is Salvation?

3. What is the World?

4. What is Sin?

5. What is the Body?

6. What is the Christ?

7. What is the Holy Spirit?

8. What is the Real World?

9. What is the Second Coming?

10. What is the Last Judgment?

11. What is Creation?

12. What is the Ego?

13. What is a Miracle?

14. What Am I?

Preface

What if we were to take the Course in Miracles and rewrite it for the current time – eliminating quite a bit of repeated ideas, replacing the word ‘Father’ with God; and replacing the word ‘Son’ with ‘me’ or ‘you’; and replacing the phrase Holy Spirit with simply ‘Spirit’? And while we are at it, let’s replace ‘ego’ with ‘self’.

Are you ready for a shorten version of a tool for your spiritual path? We are all heading for the same place, so why not walk along on your path knowing the different paths connect in some way. In reading this book, you will have to stretch your mind beyond its limits – the mind has no limits other than those we placed on it.

You already know deep within you that you are not this body and that this ‘life’ you believe you see is not reality. No need to wonder how you know, what is important that you acknowledge that you do know.

So one of the first items we must look at is the concept of God – what does that word mean to you – or better, what meaning have you given that word. The Course does state that God is but an idea – and like any other thought or idea, what meaning and value do you give to the idea. And of course God would be an idea in this illusion – everything else is, but can you grab onto that? How do you feel stating that God is an idea? You are also just an idea, remember? And then, the difference between you and God is what?

With rewriting the Course, would we still require so much text and so many lessons? The text represents certain concepts many times, many ways, all for the purpose of having us accept them at some point in our reading. And as for a lesson a day, can we not simplify that by fewer lessons more powerful in their content, and that could be repeated more often?

And so it is that we begin again upon this journey. We begin to read the Course different from the original version, and yet familiar to us. We go deeper into what is being told to us rather than what we read.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. - Anais Nin

Introduction

This is a book about the miracle – the miracle of changing a thought held in mind. This is truly the only miracle we know – anything else with such a label is strictly an illusion. And yet the mind itself is an illusion. But more on that later.

I will not try to describe LOVE because it is beyond all words. I will attempt to show what Love is in your life. And like the original version, only Love and fear exist in your world. I sum up this version as:

Nothing real exists and nothing unreal exists.

Within that belief is the Peace you have long searched for.

So what does exist or doesn’t anything exist?

When we say ‘exist’ what is it we are attempting to convey? Exist for me is to be in my world – even though that world is a dream – an illusion. Is there anything in my world or your world that truly exists? If it appears in this illusion, then it too, is an illusion. We all too often forget that this is all an illusion – all of it. Can anything ‘real’ exist in an illusion? Is there anything we can label ‘real’, and if so, define real.

Where does that leave us with ‘Truth’? In this illusion, is the thought of Truth anymore than a thought? Can anything be more than a thought? Is there anything other than thought? In those moments of peace – where we believe we have experienced ‘Truth’ – was the experience a thought or was it a feeling within? When we go to that place of ‘no-thought’ in meditation, where are we? We – the body and all its history – are still where we have been – even the mind is still where we left it. In those moments of no-thought, we move beyond all thoughts – all minds – and move beyond to somewhere beyond words. We know deep within us that we have ‘gone’ somewhere, but we cannot recall where because where we were is not within our mind; where we were is not a thought.

And being somewhere not within our mind is exactly what the Course brings us to again and again. But all too often it leaves us only wanting, and never receiving. The Course contains too much description of separation – too many implications of separation – too much dependence on something or someone else.

Now if you believe you were created in the image and likeness of your Creator – Love – then what does that really mean to you. Most students pass over this as it is too deep – or too profound – or too bogus for them to accept. And it could be that you have created Love in your image and likeness.

What it means is that you are the image and likeness of your Creator – Love. A likeness beyond definition and an image not to be imagined. Bottom line here is just this: what else could you possibly be but your own Source? What you have been seeking is that which is doing the seeking. Is it any wonder that finding oneself appears so difficult? Just sit with this knowledge in your mind and allow ego to go through its dances and protests – all to no avail – you are what you are because you are! I AM WHAT I AM, I AM.

This makes you the Universe – the Energy flowing through – the Love ever present – the Source of All – no Beginning and no Ending – eternal.

If so much of what the voice says is meaningless and unnecessary, then why does it even exist? The secret to answering this question lies in understanding why it says when it says it.

Michael Singer

Chapter 1

Is the Course a Required Course?

We have read no many times that the Course ‘is a required course.’ Required for what? Required for whom? It almost sounds as if you don’t read the Course, study the Course, live the Course, something may happen to you. What about all the people who have never heard of the Course – or those who began it only to put it down as not being for them?

When I first began reading the Course, our Facilitator wanted a one-year commitment from us – it was planned by her as a one-year course. Between 40 – 50 people started the course on the first of January. By the ending in December, the number was less than 20. Some of the people had taken the Course in prior years, but still they could not commit to a one-year contract with themselves. For me, this shows the opposition of ego that is always present. Ego is the reader of the Course. And as we change our mind of particular thoughts – opposite of ego thinking – we come head on to a collision course with the ego.

So is it required? For what and by whom? Nothing is required of you. Just show up! You have All That Is just by being Who you are where you are. Any ‘requirements’ are strictly of ego. So, you are NOT required to take the Course – read the Course – live the Course. This illusion always allows you a choice to make. A choice is a thought, and it is always about a thought in the illusion. So you can choose again and again and again.

If you choose to read the Course or you choose not to read the Course matters not. What matters is that you have a choice.

We see what we believe rather than believe what we see. - Alan Cohen

Chapter 2

A Course in Miracles

This is what is referenced throughout this book – the version from The Foundation for Inner Peace. The book is written by Helen Schucman in collaboration with Bill Thetford. It was accomplished during the years of 1965 – 1972, finally edited with Ken Wapnick in 1973 and published in 1976.

It is a 1200 page, three volume book. It is a phenomenon, a work whose content and characteristics, history and impact on the world are so unique that there are no neat labels or categories for it. The Course was authored by an inner voice that dictated the material to a research psychologist beginning in the mid 1960’s. Its teachings are not of preexisting molds, and combine the spiritual wisdom of the East, and some essence of Christianity. The Course includes a highly specific mind training program in the practical applications of its principles, focusing on forgiveness in the area of relationships."

John Mundy states in his book Living A Course in Miracles: What the Course says is not new. How could the eternal be new? Mystics, masters, saints, and sages from all the world and throughout the ages have talked about that which goes beyond perception. We find ‘themes,’ ‘song,’ and ‘representations’ of the Course in the world’s oldest philosophies – the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of the Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, German Idealism, American Transcendentalism, the New Thought Movement, Unity, Religious Science, Christian Science, and many more thousand forms.

This is as good a description as I can think of – no label or category for it – and yet it has influenced the lives of so many. But what about beyond the Course – where had it taken you?

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside! - Rumi

The Course is that door Rumi speaks of. I have, through the years of reading it, been knocking on it, at times desperately, wanting to open it and yet not realizing I have been trying to open it in the opposite direction. For me it opens within.

And so now it has opened – now I have moved through it – now I know the Course from the inside – no longer words someone else wrote, but thoughts from without a mind. Thoughts that have me feeling contented, assured and complete. Thoughts once before thought but then all too soon