I want to thank Jason, and everyone at the Monastery again for welcoming me with such openness. I’m still amazed that I was granted this opportunity to see shining examples of the teachings of A Course in Miracles, and for the first time in a long while, I do not feel alone.
Part of me wanted to stay longer, but beneath that desire was the thought that I would be doing so for the wrong reason; as a way to avoid my problems. The stronger feeling was, and is, that my travels will continue.
Before I left, Jason asked if I had had any insights acim. What I’m about to share was not yet clear at that time; only on the drive away did it coalesce.
That morning, several lines from a Vance Joy song kept running through my head, “I never should have told you, never should have let you see inside. Don’t want it troubling your mind, won’t you let it be?” This confused me as I could not think of anything that I had said that I felt regret for.
Eventually, the phrase, “don’t want it troubling your mind” stood out. This reminded me that the most prominent fear I had in coming to the Monastery was that I would somehow interfere with its residents’ peace of mind, simply by my presence alone. This belief that I could negatively affect other people’s state of mind has been with me for many years, and has colored many of my past experiences and relationships.
This fear left my awareness soon after I arrived. On the drive away it rose again, but I remembered David saying in one of his videos that minds cannot attack. I cried and laughed, and now feel as if the belief is being (has been?) released.
There are other things that happened that felt important, but I can’t think of them right now.
Prayer is changing (sharing) a Track of Enjoy and Creation or judgments of the vanity predicated on that which you look for (agree with) in the mind. There is no other way. In the Class, your head (content) is split between Lord and the vanity; and you are selecting constantly with a part as cause for effect.
Forms (all points of the world) are miscreations sending the ego’s judgmental thought system. We’ve made it up (miscreated this world) and may give it up anytime by fixing your head (forgiveness). Correct prayer involves that correction of the mind as Lord has nothing to do with forms.
What Prayer is Not:
Because you are usually determining, everything you ask for once you pray is what counts. When you plead in prayer to have Lord repair an application problem with another sort problem, you’re asking the pride brain for support (not God). These types and wants are deemed more important than God’s Love that may remain concealed to the amount you choose the illusion.
All external things (forms) are needs. Other labels are needs, dreams, position, problems, vomiting, human love (special relationships), gifts and targets these days, etc. They’re what you choose as replacements for God’s Love and the pride will distort the goal of prayer by with them to help expand the illusion. Thus, prayer cannot be about “forms” or “needs” in virtually any way.