Understanding the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is essential for being able to successfully apply them to upsets that arise in your life. In order to have the experience of a constant state of peace, no pockets of guilt can be withheld. In the following five-minute video, David shares the importance of being uncompromising in this endeavor of applying the metaphysics of ACIM to everything.
After watching the above video, click on any of the subjects below to visit our Q&A directory, located on the Living Miracles center website, an invaluable resource for finding the answers to many of the most commonly asked questions about the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles.
Spiritual Answers to Modern-Day Problems:
Understanding the Metaphysics of A Course in Miracles
Click on any of the topics below for a list of questions and answers and additional resources within our Q&A directory regarding the metaphysics of A Course in Miracles. You can also click the Q&A image above to explore this section of the Q&A directory in general.
ACIM and other teachings, interpretations
ACIM general questions and answers
ACIM terms, passages, and sections
Authority Problem
Awakening/Enlightenment/Salvation/Atonement
Body
Cause and Effect
Christ
Consciousness, Awareness, Knowledge
Creation(s)
Death
Dream, Dreamer, Dream Figures
Duality, Nonduality, Subject/Object Split
Ego
False Idols
Form vs. Content
Free Will, Choice, and Predestination
God
Holy Spirit
Illusion(s) vs Reality
Jesus and Christian symbols
Judgment, Last Judgment
Level Confusion
Magic
Manifestation, Desire, Power of Thought
Mind (i.e. Right-Mind, Wrong-Mind, Split-Mind)
Miracle(s)
Perception and Projection
Real World, Happy Dream
Reincarnation
Sacrifice and Renunciation
Science, Quantum Physics
Separation, Sin, Guilt, Fear
Time/Scripts
World/Universe
The Metaphysics of “No Private Thoughts”
In our Living Miracles community, we practice two fundamental guidelines that were given to David by Jesus for the purpose of helping the mind awaken: No private thoughts and no people pleasing. In A Course in Miracles, Jesus actually says that although we believe we each have private thoughts of our own, in truth we do not (see below for some references in the Course). This community guideline is therefore a helpful means of learning this. By being willing to expose and not protect our private thoughts from each other, they lose power to keep us feeling personally guilty. In truth, private thoughts are meaningless thoughts invented by the ego. When they are seen as such in the Light of awareness, they simply dissolve into the nothingness from which they came.
David discusses the metaphysics of this no private thoughts idea in the video below. Below the video you will find clickable references to relevant sections of the Course in case you’d like a more thorough understanding.
ACIM References to No Private Thoughts:
T-15.IV.7.1 (this means Text, chapter 15, section IV, paragraph 7, sentence 1)
W-pI.19.2.3 (this means Workbook, part I, lesson 19, paragraph 2, sentence 3)
How Should One View the Course in Relation to the Bible?
Question for David:
Is it accurate to think of the Course as a reinterpretation of the Bible?
David’s Answer:
Yes, I think it is important to see that everything in form can be used by the Holy Spirit or the ego. The Holy Spirit has used the Bible for centuries to lead to the Kingdom of Heaven within, and there have been many saints and mystics who have followed that path. The Course is another tool now, but you will find in it what you want to find in it.
Some people take the Course and throw it in the river. Some flush it down the toilet—there are many such stories I have heard. One woman was so angry with the Course that she tore out the pages one by one and threw them in the trash. A Course in Miracles is very direct, and the ego is very frightened of such a book. But it is important to realize again, that all form is neutral. It is the desire of the heart that brings salvation.
The ego is frightened of the Holy Spirit. There is a line in A Course in Miracles that says that the ego “enjoys studying itself.” So the Course is meant to be a tool that leads to the experience of Christ, just as the Bible was meant to lead to the experience of Christ. Just as 2,000 years ago with the scribes and the Pharisees who focused on the form but missed the spirit, you do not want to fall into that trap. Do not make A Course in Miracles special. It is just a tool to help you go within.
The ego is the voice of comparison. The ego may attempt to compare the Course with the Bible, as if one is better than the other. Form is neutral. You will find in the Course or the Bible what you are looking for. The ego always finds sacrifice and punishment and penance and uses the symbols of the world to teach its thought system. The Course was written in such a way to make it easier to avoid these traps.
So, if you have willingness, you can reach the experience to which the Course points.
How to Live the Course’s Metaphysics
The following fifteen-minute video begins with a questioner asking about the right use of the Course’s metaphysics. There are times when the metaphysics are very helpful, and other times when they can be used by the ego as a means of repressing one’s emotions. The latter is what we refer to as “metaphysical ghosting”, which is a very helpful term that has been coined in our community. It refers to the misuse of metaphysical ideas, such as saying “Well, it’s all an illusion anyway, so it doesn’t matter what I do!” If one truly knew it was all an illusion, it wouldn’t need to be said as a justification for one’s decision to do or not do something specific. Therefore, we must train our mind to be very attentive to such thoughts, which can seem “true” on an intellectual level, but are obviously coming from the ego’s defense system based on how we feel.
Jesus says in the Course that noticing how you feel “is the one right use of judgment.” T-4.IV.8:6 Another example of metaphysical ghosting would be saying you are “fine” and then talking about high metaphysical ideals to cover over what’s really going on. The fear of letting our darkest emotions up to the surface cannot be underestimated, yet it is the only way to be free of them. A Course in Miracles is not meant to just be talked about, but to be lived, and living it requires a great willingness to be honest with ourselves.
Letting your ego-based emotions up in a safe environment is what allows you to become aware of the thoughts and beliefs that generated them. This inward process eventually clears your fearful feelings and perceptions as well. Practice becoming more honest with yourself about your feelings, even as you continue to learn the Course’s metaphysics on an intellectual level. Allow your upsetting emotions and thoughts up to the surface, and then allow the thoughts to be replaced by your Course lesson for the day (assuming you are doing the Workbook). This practice will allow you to more consistently experience the peace of God that you deserve.
Metaphysical Traps to Watch Out For:
Read the Q&A below in which some deep questions are asked of David regarding the nature of dreaming.
Question for David:
Dear David,
A number of issues have come up in my mind which I’d ask for clarity on:
1. Given that the Course says I live in a past dream, dreamed by “the dreamer of the dream” and that I cannot change the dream, then all experiences I will have in the dream, including the experience of Awakening, already occurred in the past. I therefore do not have free will to choose what to do in the dream, although the “little I” believes he does. Given that this “little I” has no “real” free will to act, then it’s obvious that there is no “real” guilt either.
2. If all I see and experience are illusions from the past dream of the “dreamer” including my thoughts, logic, and rationale, how can I ever learn to hear the Holy Spirit, which is also some voice within the dream? Maybe this is not even important. Learning, too, is an illusion, because the dreamer is whole and has no need of learning. In fact, he is not even sleeping, yet we seem locked up in his past dream. The whole ACIM theology makes me feel like a victim of the “dreamer” who “thinks thoughts that I’m not even aware of”, has direct access to God, being One with It, and who will decide in its whim when I will awaken.
So, given the above, the Course says “I need do nothing,” but then presents a whole ritual of lessons to follow every day of the year, which some of us do and re-do every year in a blind hope that the “dreamer” might wake up! You sense the frustration of trying to “do” it.
So, when you talk about bringing clarity to the mind, it’s not the “dreamer’s” mind, which is the Christ Mind, which is awake already. It must mean the little mind, of the identity we seem to have within the dream.
So there seems to be something to do in the dream to provide the illusion that we are going forward towards Awakening, yet there also seems to be nothing to do except watch it happen.
David’s Answer:
Hello Beloved One,
Thanks for your questions and the willingness to Awaken. To help clear up any confusion and illustrate what I am sharing I will use the metaphor of 3 states of mind: a dream of conflict (ego), a happy dream of non-judgment (Holy Spirit), and Mind Awake in Absolute Bliss (Christ Mind in the Mind of God).
In the first state, the mind is identified as a dream figure and sees the cosmos through the “personal perspective” of the ego. In this state the mind is either entirely unaware that it is dreaming or sees itself as a part of someone else’s dream. This state is a decision.
In the second state of mind, the dreamer of the dream is aware of dreaming and knows the content of the dream is not true and therefore has nothing to judge. Completely aligned with Holy Spirit there is indeed “nothing to do except watch.” This state is also a decision.
The third State of Mind is Christ, Pure Abstract Light, Awake forever in the Mind of God. This State of Mind knows Oneness as Divine Love and has no opposite. Love simply Is. This State is not a decision, for Heaven is a Fact and Oneness does not involve the illusion of “choice.”
One cannot be a dream figure AND simultaneously be the dreamer of the dream, yet every instant the sleeping mind makes the choice between these options (ego or Holy Spirit; wrong mind or right mind). The ego “i” is not Life and is not Alive. The ego “i” is the belief that the past is NOT over, for to it the past is retained in memory as if it were still present.
The Holy Spirit is the decision to Awaken by realizing that the past is over, and the ego is the decision to continue sleeping by retaining the past in memory. These are decisions of mind and are not decisions “in the dream.” These are decisions about which “lens” is used to view the cosmos/self. The Holy Spirit’s “lens” is a present moment decision and opens the way for “…God to take the final step.” In Reality God does not “take steps,” yet this is but another way of describing “remembering Creation” or “remembering Knowledge” or “remembering Oneness.”
You are correct that “there is no ‘real’ guilt,” yet this is experienced only in the decision for, or alignment with, the Holy Spirit. The mind identified as a dream figure (as a body or in a body) IS the ego, and the ego is synonymous with guilt. The Holy Spirit’s Perspective represents or reflects Eternity, God, and Christ (Pure Oneness) and thus the Holy Spirit represents the choice for guiltlessness. Free Will does not involve choice, Being a State of Mind of Pure Oneness in Which there is literally nothing to “choose between.” God gave Christ Free Will in creating Christ and this Free Will is Eternal Happiness.
With regard to learning, I described 3 states of mind above. The first (ego) was learned and now must be unlearned so that the second (Holy Spirit’s Perspective) can be learned. One cannot learn contradictory thought systems, and the ego and the Holy Spirit have no meeting point. The ego’s purpose is death and the Holy Spirit’s Purpose is forgiveness. To learn forgiveness is to unlearn or release the belief in death. The third state, called the State of Heaven, simply Is and has nothing to do with learning. Yet Heaven cannot be remembered until the ego has been unlearned and thus forgiveness has been learned.
The lessons and study and practice of A Course in Miracles are one way of unlearning the ego and forgiving the past. If the mind is fearful, it is not ready or willing to forgive completely, and thus the Holy Spirit uses time to undo the belief in time. This seeming “process” appears to include actions, yet the “I need do nothing” solution is ever available. As trust seems to “grow,” the mind is “closer” to the Holy Instant. Salvation takes no time. The acceptance of Salvation but seems to take time. Salvation requires no compromise and time could be viewed as a compromise attempt. Atonement is therefore the acceptance of Correction without compromise.
Love & Blessings,
David
What Does “The Script Is Written” Mean?
The “script is written” is one of the most talked about phrases by students of A Course in Miracles, because of the implication that all is predestined. Many get caught up in trying to figure out exactly what it means in order to determine if we actually have any control over our lives at all.
In the video below, David clarifies this phrase from the Course. Here is a summary of his teachings on the matter:
You are destined to wake up. The story of time, space, and personhood is false and was made as a block to the awareness of truth. You are destined to accept your divinity instead. Only then can you know that God has created you perfect and innocent. Free will is not synonymous with the concept of choice, but refers to your Will in Heaven to create as God creates (Spirit extending Itself eternally). Yet we need to be convinced of this by the Holy Spirit, and because of our attachment to the past we require practical guidance to unwind us from our erroneous belief system. We will be told specifically where to go and what to do, and this is an aspect of Awakening that cannot be glossed over.
The emphasis in the statement, “the script is written,” is in the word “written,” which means it is in the past. Experiencing loneliness, sadness, hurt, and fear is the experience of being identified with the story and not with your Christ-Identity. The story is false and your divinity is reality. The “script is written” also means that since everything we perceive is in the past, we cannot control what happens. Attempting to control the past would be like attempting to change a movie that you are watching in a theater. The only choice we have is whether to watch it through the ego’s lens or the Holy Spirit’s.
More on “The Script Is Written”
Question for David:
Hi David,
In an article I read about “the script is written”, the author says that there is nothing that can be done to “speed up” our atonement. He says that it is written that at a certain time we will simply awaken. Regardless of what we think, do, don’t do, don’t think, etc.
Can this be so? I kind of get the impression that we could decide this instant on the Atonement and it would happen. But maybe it was written that I should decide this instant? If nothing we think, say, or do makes any difference one way or the other, seems like a waste of time and money to continue with this spiritual quest.
Please, let’s hear your take on this.
Also, I am kind of confused about a perception I am having and hope you can shed some light on it. There are several people that say they channel Jesus. Among them are Paul Tuttle that channels Raj, Brent Haskell that channels Jeshua, the guy that wrote CWG, and of course, you. I have never heard you contradict the Course, but these other fellows do SEEM to contradict it. In my latest discovery, Brent has written that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing that can be done to assist in our Awakening. He says that it is predetermined exactly when it will happen. The Course on the other hand, tells us in several places that we are saving time through its help. Now, I realize that these guys and the Course and everything is all illusion, but I thought Holy Spirit uses illusion to assist us in our quest. Now, either these guys are wrong or the Course is wrong, because they contradict.
My question is, Is it possible that ego could be trying to undermine my faith in the teaching of Holy Spirit by presenting me with conflicting teachings that are reportedly all coming from the same place? Am I being deliberately misled or have I simply misunderstood something? If there is nothing that can be done at all to hasten our Awakening, what is the spiritual search all about? What is the Course for?
David’s Answer:
Ahhhhhh Beloved One,
You have come upon the DEEPEST teaching on Being Awake! You are the One Now, and nothing of linear time that seems to be thought, said, done, or imagined has anything to do with our Eternal Oneness.
This teaching is the Experience to which the Course points. This is the Holy Instant! There is truly nothing to be “done” to prepare for It. Simply desire It wholly and It is Experienced Instantly. Remember Christ has called this “a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed.”
Remember the section in Chapter 18 titled “I Need Do Nothing” and the instruction “You ARE prepared. Now you need but to remember you need do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to consider what you should do.” T-18.VII.5:4-6 There are passages in the Text, the Workbook, and the Manual For Teachers that point directly to the Holy Instant, for the mind that is willing. In the timeless moment, the Holy Instant, there are no contradictions.
Cause and Effect are together, and thus there is no gap between them. What does this mean? It means that there is no “past” which “causes” a “future,” for only a bright, clear, shining moment remains in “memory.” It means everything exists simultaneously this very moment and that nothing can be “pulled apart” from the Whole.
The phrase “the script is written” has a pre-determined ring to it and a sense of destiny. Yes, this world was over long ago. Yes, what is past has gone. Yes, Christ is Real and ever-Present. And yes, Now is the only “time” to be Awake.
Heaven seems to be a decision for the mind which believes in opposites, yet Atonement is accurately described as an acceptance of what is Now. You cannot “prepare” for It without “placing It in the future.” That is why surrender is necessary. Surrender the thought that anything of this world can be figured out. Forgiven—yes! Figured out—no!
The concept of channeling was but a tool of time. Channeling is therefore past. As with all concepts of linear time, channeling was dualistic, with source and scribe seeming to be apart. Yet the Oneness of the moment has no parts. Christ, as an Effect of God, is One with God forever. The Oneness that is God and Christ in God is Everything. Heaven is Abstract Light and extends as Eternal Creation. To the “extent” that any transitory concept seemed to point beyond all concepts to the Real, the concept seemed to be temporarily helpful. Yet it must be understood that the Holy Instant is Now the Point at which all concepts are laid by.
Now is the time of the Great Awakening. For the willing mind, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Kingdom is recognized in the Divine Silence. The Experience is beyond words. Love is a State of Mind Which knows no “other.” Very literally, the Self is Christ is One.
You need do nothing to Be as You already are. What You have is Who You are. God gives Everything in Creation, and Everything is You. Nothing can be added to Our Perfection in God. The Grace of God is the Gift of Creation. “I am” cannot, need not, will not be earned or achieved. “I am” simply Is. “I am” is before time was. And this is “why” You need do nothing to Be as You already are. Such is the Simple Truth.
Love and Blessings as the One Christ forever in the Mind of God.
You are the One. And as You recognize the One, You recognize the All of God. :)
~David
