The Most Fun You Could Ever Have

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    The Most Fun You Could Ever Haveor

    How Specialness Can Be Used To Wake Up

    From The Dream

    A Transcript of a Talk Given by

    Dana Cole in the Reading Room atEndeavor Academy on December 22nd, 2004

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    Good afternoon. The topic of this class is how specialness can be used to

    wake up from this dream. Right at the outset we are going to have to admit that in

    truth this is an impossible idea. Why? Because by definition to "wake up" is to

    become free from all specialness. So strictly speaking, any kind of specialnessshould interfere with your ability to wake up.

    Yet we are gathered here today with the idea that it IS possible to wake up

    from this dream and that we ARE going to use special parts of the dream to do it.

    For example,A Course in Miracles. A Course in Miracleshas special value

    to everyone in this room. If it did not, you would not be in this room. And yet the

    very purpose of the Courseis to free your mind from all ideas of specialness.

    That is why in Lesson 189 you'll find Jesus saying,Forget this course, forget this

    world and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.So please, try to suspend your judgments about what is and what is not special

    for a moment, and please try to suspend your judgments about what I am going to say.

    I have to tell you that after all these years of transformation and conversion -

    even after undergoing my awakening - my primary function in my dream is still

    not to judge.

    And here comes the Course, saying, "Yes, and you don't have to judge

    anymore. In fact, you never did. You can stop judging any time that you like." I

    am so grateful for the Course.You may not believe it, but I am also grateful that my judgments used to hurt me. I

    don't want to be hurt anymore, and that makes me want to stop judging. And as soon

    as I want to stop judging, I stop. It's as simple as that.

    The problem is that you can't really see how many judgments you have about

    things - and how emotionally invested in them you are - until you really start trying to

    let them go. The happiness that comes from NOT judging, though, makes it

    progressively easier to do.

    So I have learned that not judging is the only thing I need to learn how to do.

    I don't really need to learn anything else. After that, everything else is given.

    After that, what I'm supposed to do or not do is written across the face of the

    world by the Holy Spirit. All I have to do is forgive. As soon as I truly forgive, I

    am guided what to do in each instant.

    Let's define our terms. What is specialness? Specialness is any kind of

    feeling, thought or assertion of inequality. It is any perception or sense that

    tells you that someone or something is not equal to you or is different from

    you. Here is the quote from Chapter 24:

    What God created cannot be attacked, for there is nothing in the universeunlike itself. But what is different calls for judgment, and this must come from

    someone "better," someone incapable of being like what he condemns, "above" it,

    sinless by comparison with it. And thus does specialness become a means and end

    at once. For specialness not only sets apart, but serves as grounds from which

    attack on those who seem "beneath" the special one is "natural" and "just." The

    special ones feel weak and frail because of differences, for what would make them

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    special is their enemy. Yet they protect its enmity and call it "friend." On its

    behalf they fight against the universe, for nothing in the world they value more.

    As perceptual beings, we are almost entirely unaware of the extent to which

    specialness affects us. For example, without specialness, there could be no Endeavor

    Academy. Why? Because for Endeavor Academy to exist, there must be a consensus

    among us that something special is going on here, There must be something that isNOT EQUAL to what is happening in other places in the world. There must be

    something that is "better" here. Otherwise, what would be the reason to come here or

    to stay?

    So as perceptual consciousnesses, we let our special ideas lead us around

    and control our lives. This happens even after we have heard that nothing is

    special. It's not a matter of reciting mantras. It's a matter of what you care about

    in your heart.

    I'll give you another example. For the past ten or so years, up to six days aweek everyone who lives in this place has been attending a class given by one

    person. A lot of people call that person the "Master Teacher." To be honest with

    you, I would rather call him, "Chuck Anderson." I actually prefer that name to

    "The Master Teacher." I think it sounds better. But nobody calls him "Chuck

    Anderson," so I call him "Dear One" instead.

    It may not look like it right now, but on the inside I am laughing with the

    Holy Spirit about everything I am saying. This is because the idea that the names

    I give to things in this world have anything to do with what I really want is utterlyridiculous! I mean, nothing I see means anything! What difference does it make

    what anyone calls anything? In reality it makes no difference at all.

    But if you are a perceptual being, that is not what you think. As a perceptual

    being, if you like being at this Academy, you definitely see Dear One as special, and

    you think that there is a special advantage to being in that class with him. If you did

    not think so, you would not go.

    What is the special advantage of being in that class? Well, it varies according

    to the perception of each person, but I think that most persons here would agree

    that it is an experience. The basic motivation for being in the room is that that

    person, "Dear One," "Chuck Anderson," "the Master Teacher," whatever you want

    to call him, has had an experience that you have not had, and by being with him in

    that room you will come closer to having that experience than you would if you

    were sitting somewhere else.

    Now, here's the wonderful thing about the mind as it was created by God:

    Whatever the mind believes, thinks or perceives actually becomes what it believes,

    thinks and perceives. Do you see what I am saying here? If you believe that there

    is a special advantage to being in that class, then there WILL BE a special advantageto being in that class.

    HAS Dear One had an experience that you have not had? If you think that

    there is a Dear One outside you, separate from you, and that he is capable of

    having experiences separate from you, then the answer is YES! He has definitely

    had an experience that you have not had. In fact, even I have had experiences that

    you have not had. In fact, I'm having one right now.

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    That was a joke, so please laugh.

    Okay, so now we have it that specialness means an inequality. It is a thought,

    sense or perception of differences between you and other things. All right. So

    what does it mean "to wake up"?

    For the purposes of this class, "to wake up" means to enter Heaven. What is

    Heaven? Here is a quote from Chapter 18:Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect

    oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this oneness,

    and nothing else within.

    "Heaven is an awareness of perfect oneness." Can you see why there could

    never be any specialness in Heaven? Specialness is an awareness that something

    is NOT one, and Heaven is the awareness that everything IS one. In other words,

    Heaven is the awareness that you are not separate from anything. So if anywhere

    in your awareness, you think that something is separate from you, then that thoughtis LITERALLY denying you Heaven. It is making you "special," or different

    from other things. You cannot be one with all the things around you if you and

    they are different.

    Some people are very afraid of being one with God. They have the idea that

    if they become one with God, they'll lose their identity. You cannot lose your true

    Identity, though, because It is Who you are.

    Some people also sometimes think that if you try to realize your oneness,

    then you are also trying to lessen God's stature or His power. That is absolutelythe most ridiculous thing you ever could think. And yet people do think it.

    To get around that little fear, you only need to learn that being one with God does

    NOT make you independent of Him. In fact, it's the other way around. Being one

    with God makes you COMPLETELY dependent on Him for everything you need.

    Can you see how that works? If you are one with God and He withholds

    something from Himself, then YOU will also not have it. You are completely

    dependent on God to give you everything BECAUSE you are one with Him.

    So by saying that you are one with God you are not challenging His authority

    or trying to leap up and become more powerful than Him. It is just the opposite.

    By admitting your oneness, you are acknowledging your eternal relationship of

    dependence on Him for everything that you want.

    So if Heaven is the awareness of perfect oneness, what keeps you out of

    Heaven? The idea that anything is special or different from anything else. That's

    what keeps you out of Heaven.

    Remember, we are talking about how specialness can be used to wake up? Did

    you know that you can PRACTICE being in Heaven even while you are still perceiving

    this world? All that you need to do is remember these words from Chapter 29:There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is nothing to

    be feared.

    Or you can practice by repeating Lesson 29 to yourself:

    God is in everything I see.

    Okay, so now we see that Heaven is an awareness of perfect oneness, and we

    see that specialness is any feeling, thought or perception that something is separate.

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    We also see that to wake up is to enter Heaven, or to become free from all

    specialness. How, then, could you use specialness to wake up?

    The answer is so simple and so easy that it continually eludes you. You can use

    specialness to wake up very easily. All you need to do is to make waking up special!

    Well, now, what in the world do I mean by that? It's simple. Let's use some

    examples from this world. Let's say you have something that is very special toyou. Maybe you really enjoy a particular movie. Or you're really attached to a

    particular food, like, say, cake. Or you're in love with someone. Those things are

    special to you. You care about them, you think about them, you'll do things for

    them - they're ON YOUR MIND. Above all else, you have STRONG FEELINGS

    for them.

    So to "make waking up special" merely means to learn how to have strong

    feelings about waking up. It means that you let waking up become what you care

    about and think about most. Even more important, it means that you're willing toDO things to wake up.

    Now, when I say that you must be willing to DO things to wake up, it may not

    mean what you think. For me, NOT DOING things is a part of what you need to

    DO to wake up. So if you ask me what you should DO to wake up, I'm probably

    going to say, "You should shut up, be perfectly still and do nothing. That's what

    you should do."

    Why would I say this? Because I've had an experience of Heaven, and I can

    tell you that the instants when you come closest to Heaven in this world are thoseinstants when you are doing nothing at all. You don't believe me? You want

    evidence? Okay, here's a quote from Chapter 18:

    To do anything involves the body. And if you recognize YOU NEED DO

    NOTHING, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind. Here is the

    quick and open door through which you slip past centuries of effort, and escape

    from time. This is the way in which sin loses all attraction right now. For here is

    time denied, and past and future gone.

    I hope you don't think that God is DOING something. God isn't doing

    anything. Nor does He feel the NEED to do anything. God is not restless. He is

    not busily looking around for something to do. God doesn't have to go to a job.

    God doesn't have to give classes. God doesn't have to change.

    And yet GOD IS HAPPY.

    In fact, God IS happiness. Why? Because God is Love, and Love IS happiness.

    That's what you mean when you say that "you love that movie," "you love so-and-so"

    or "you love cake." That movie makes you happy. So-and-so makes you happy. Cake

    makes you happy. If they didn't make you happy - or, at least, if you didn't

    THINK they made you happy - you wouldn't "love" them.Isn't that also what happens when you fall "out of love"? Have any of you

    had that experience? The person or thing that used to make you happy no longer

    makes you happy. Instead, you are now UNHAPPY with the EXACT same person

    or thing that used to please you so much. Now you no longer love them and you

    wish they would go away.

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    I have to tell you that this has happened to a lot of people who left this

    Academy. I have seen people walking around here in total bliss on one day, with

    tears in their eyes, praising Dear One up and down and saying that being at this

    Academy had solved all their problems, and then a few weeks later I saw the same

    people "outside" the Academy, writing vicious e-mails on the Internet, criticizing

    everyone here and complaining bitterly about how they had been deceived.Now, I'm not saying that the group of people who have lived at Endeavor

    Academy have not made mistakes. Everyone in this world makes mistakes,

    even awakened minds. But that's not the REAL reason why some people feel

    so much resentment about what happened to them here. The real reason is only

    that they made someone special.

    What they don't get is that all the resentment and hurt that they feel is because

    THEY made someone into an idol in the hope that the idol would make them

    happy. It's not because of anything that the idol seemed to do.What I'm saying here isn't supposed to be an excuse for what anyone seems to

    do. If you really want to be a teacher of God, a follower of Jesus, you've got to take

    responsibility for your actions. But if you have been suffering jealousy, rage,

    resentment, sadness and so on, you also have to be willing to admit the real reason

    WHY you have been suffering - at least if you don't want to suffer anymore.

    Why did you suffer? You believed that something outside yourself could

    bring you the peace and love that you can only find within YOU.

    Why do people leave the place called Endeavor Academy? Because they nolonger believe that this place will make them happy - AND SO IT NO LONGER

    DOES! When the happiness is gone, the "love" is gone too. This is a material

    reflection of the spiritual fact that happiness and love are really the same.

    It happens all the time. It's not limited to Dear One or the Academy. It happens

    all over the world every day, with friends, with lovers, with jobs, with TV shows and

    whatever. You choose to believe that something is going to make you happy and so

    you say you "love" it. When your belief changes, your "love" disappears.

    Actually, as long as you are in perception neither the Academy nor Dear One

    nor anything else in this world is responsible for your happiness. HOW YOU

    SEE THINGS is what makes you happy or not. But the tendency is to believe that

    "The person 'out there' is what makes me happy or sad." You have to be careful

    with this. It's a trick of the ego to deprive you of love.

    The only way out of this confusion is to recognize that the love and happiness

    that you are seeking are within you. You cannot find them outside yourself, in

    someone else or in some special place in the world. You have to find them first in

    yourself. Then you'll see them everywhere, wherever you go.

    Anyway, we're talking about how to use specialness to wake up from thisdream. Let's not kid ourselves that you don't have strong feelings for certain

    special things in this world. Everyone in this world has strong feelings about the

    world. That's not the question.

    The question is: How can you use those feelings to wake up?

    Waking up is a process of attraction. It is not a process of renunciation.

    When your attraction to Heaven is greater than your attraction to this world,

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    renunciation is automatic. If your desire for peace is sufficiently strong, you will

    not care about this world at all. You will not care what happens in it, who thinks

    what about it or what anyone says about it. All you will care about is getting back

    to Heaven once again.

    So how can you use specialness to get back to Heaven? You can use it to get

    back to Heaven by making Heaven more special than anything else in your mind.Here is the quote, Chapter 17:

    Let us ascend in peace together to the Father, by giving Him ascendance

    in our minds.

    How can we give the Father ascendance in our minds? By making HIM our

    special goal.

    Make God what you are hoping and wishing to achieve. Or if that's too scary,

    then make peace your special goal.

    Remember that Heaven is the awareness of perfect oneness. You may not asyet understand that this also means a state of perfect, uninterrupted peace, but I can

    assure you that it does. To be in Heaven is to be fully at peace, and to be fully at peace

    is to be in Heaven.

    Make peace what you are hoping and wishing to achieve. When peace

    becomes the only thing that you want, it is impossible you will not have it.

    This is from Lesson 185,I want the peace of God:

    No one can mean these words [I want the peace of God] and not be healed.

    He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot makea hell and think it real. He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. For

    that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive.

    "That is all he wants, and that is all he will receive." He does not want other,

    "special" things. All he wants is peace. Or, to say this in a slightly different way,

    peace has become so much more "special" to him than anything else that it is now

    "better" to him than anything else that he formerly wanted. Now he longs for

    peace as a hungry person longs for food.

    We are beginning to get into the basic two-part message that is the core of

    everything I am trying to teach and learn today. You might express the first part of

    the message by saying that everything you truly want is already inside you,

    and you could express the second part by saying that even though everything

    you want is already within you, if you are unable or unwilling to look within you

    for peace, then the next best thing is to not judge the world.

    To not judge is to forgive. That is God's plan for the healing of this world. That

    is your function as the light of the world. Lesson 62:

    Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

    It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It isyour forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness

    is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness

    does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness

    lies your salvation.

    The Holy Spirit uses the world for you to learn how to forgive. That is His

    purpose for the world. This is from Lesson 64:

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    Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions

    you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy

    Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of

    as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes

    the spiritual recognition of salvation.

    If you completely forgive the world, you will wake up in Heaven. It's assimple as that. It will happen any time that you're ready. The only problem is that

    although you want to wake up, you still also want to be happy in the world. And

    that IS a problem, at least if you are fooling yourself with the idea that you somehow

    really want to wake up.

    Trust me. When you want to wake up, you WILL wake up, and when you

    wake up, there is not going to be any world. I have seen hundreds and thousands

    of people proclaim that they understood that this world was an illusion, only to

    chase after its forms once again. Those people were all reflections of my ownattachments. They were all representations of my own desires for my own special

    relationships with the world.

    So today I am going to teach and learn a two-part process for making your own

    awakening the most "special" thing in your life. The first part is about looking for

    peace in the only place it can be found. Where is the only place that peace can be

    found? Within you.

    If you look on the sheet that is lying around, you'll see one of my favorite

    passages from the Course. Actually I always say that about every passage in theCourse. They're all my favorites. But this quote is very special to me because it

    represents everything I now want. It is from Lesson 41, God goes with me wherever

    I go. Who likes to read the Courseout loud? You? Could you read Part 1? Yes.

    Thank you:

    "Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you

    and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because

    it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its

    allegiance to them."

    Thank you. Okay, let's try a little meditation. Let's try to see if we can learn what

    this passage means. Take three deep breaths. [Pause]

    Come on. Let's try this again. Don't try to kid me that you're breathing deeply

    when you're sitting there, all full of tension and restlessness and judgments about the

    world. Just sit back in your chair, relax all your muscles and take three long, deep

    breaths. [Pause]

    Okay. That was better. Now take three more. [Pause]

    Good. Now do a quick check through your body. Look at your tongue, your

    jaw, your shoulders, the place where your collarbones intersect with your spine.Are you holding tension, anger or fear in any of those places? If you find a place

    where you're holding tension, try to relax it. Take it easy. Surrender to this moment.

    It's the best thing you can do.

    Okay. Now take three more deep breaths and try to completely relax. If you

    haven't already closed your eyes, close them now. [Pause]

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    Stop resisting this search for specialness. Stop trying to go against it. Instead,

    learn how to USE it to get what you want.

    How can you do this?

    You are already looking for happiness in the world because that is where you

    think it is. So you don't have to stop looking at the world to find peace. All you

    have to do is change the PURPOSE of your looking. Stop making the purpose ofyour looking the idea of finding something "good" in the world. Stop making it

    the idea of finding something "bad" in the world. MAKE THE PURPOSE OF

    YOUR LOOKING TO FORGIVE.

    Can you see what I mean? You are already looking at the world. That's a given.

    Until you learn how to look within you for peace, you are not going to stop looking at

    the world any time soon. So make the purpose of your looking to forgive.

    The expression of this second part of my teaching is on the bottom of that

    sheet that's lying around. It's from Chapter 20. Can you read it? Yes."Once you accept His plan as the one function that you would fulfill, there

    will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort.

    He will go before you making straight your path, and leaving in your way no

    stones to trip on, and no obstacles to bar your way. Nothing you need will be

    denied you. Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it.

    You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose

    that you would fulfill."

    THERE WILL BE NOTHING ELSE THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL NOTARRANGE FOR YOU WITHOUT YOUR EFFORT. WITHOUT YOUR EFFORT.

    YOU NEED TAKE THOUGHT FOR NOTHING, CARELESS OF EVERYTHING

    EXCEPT THE ONLY PURPOSE THAT YOU WOULD FULFILL.

    Wow! Do you think that this could be true? Well, then what is that purpose

    that we're supposed to fulfill? What does it mean here when it says, Once you

    accept HIS plan?

    "His plan" is forgiveness. Here's what it says a little further down the page:

    Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the selfsame gift, nor look

    upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as guiltless as I look on you,

    and overlook the sins he thinks he sees within himself.

    All you need to do is to look on the world with forgiveness. Or, in other

    words, all you need to do is NOT JUDGE.

    How can you tell if you're judging? If you're not completely at peace, you're

    judging. It's as simple as that. If you're finding anything "wrong" with where you

    are, who you're with, what's happening or anything else in your mind, then you're

    judging. In fact, your finding things "wrong" is what judgment is.

    Remember the early lessons? You don't really understand anything that you see.You don't know what anything is for. Nothing you see means anything. Remember

    these lessons and realize that you have no basis on which to judge ANYTHING.

    I'm sorry, I don't want to take away your cherished beliefs, but NOTHING IS

    SPECIAL. Not Dear One, not this Academy, not what you think of as "me," nor

    what you think of as "you," nor anything else that you see in this world. These are

    ALL illusions, thank You, God!

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    Just come into this present moment and accept the fact that you don't really

    know what's going on.

    Okay, let's try another meditation just for a few minutes. This time it doesn't

    matter if your eyes are open are closed. We're going to try to become aware of

    things that we don't usually notice.

    BECOME AWARE OF. These were the key words in my own transformation:BECOME AWARE OF. That's what happened in my awakening. I became aware

    of facts that had always been true but which I had been furiously overlooking and

    trying to avoid.

    Let's look at some of the things in your direct experience of yourself, just as

    you are, that you've been letting slip by, as if they were not there. This is an

    exercise in learning to admit that you don't really know what's going on.

    Okay, take three deep breaths again. [Pause]

    Now start to notice all the sounds you can hear besides the sound of myvoice. Listen. What do you hear?

    Okay, now let's turn to your own immediate physical body. Notice the different

    parts of your body that are touching the chair or the floor. Notice how, until you

    brought your attention to them, they were more or less out of your awareness.

    Okay, now we have the sounds in this room and the parts of your body that

    are touching the room. Now take another deep breath, and as you do so, pay

    attention to your lungs. Feel them moving up and down in your chest. That's

    going on all the time, you know. In fact, how you breathe and how you feel aredirectly related. Don't you think it's funny that you wouldn't pay any attention

    at all to something that was so intimately related to how you feel?

    Okay, now we have the sounds in the room, the places where your body is

    touching the room and the movement of the air in your lungs. Now go deeper.

    See if you can feel your heart beating in your chest. That's going on all the time,

    too, isn't it? See if you can feel all the arteries and veins all over your body

    pulsing with each beat.

    I could make a little departure from the script here and ask you to question

    what is the energy that is making your heart beat and your lungs breathe. I don't

    want to get into that today, though. Let's just say that those whose awareness has

    really begun to expand may find themselves using the word "Power" more than

    ever before. There is a Power that is moving this universe. That Power is in your

    mind. In fact, it is your mind.

    Okay, now we have the sounds in the room, the places where your body is

    touching the room, your lungs breathing and the beating of your heart in your

    chest. Can you see that all these things were out of your awareness until you

    began to pay attention to them? See if you can pay attention to them allsimultaneously. See if you can let your awareness expand to include

    EVERYTHING that's going on here and now.

    This is not something that you're used to doing, is it? Ordinarily, you're just

    lost back up in your head somewhere, aren't you? You're just thinking a bunch of

    thoughts that have NOTHING to do with ANYTHING that's actually going on.

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    Okay, while you're starting to pay attention to all these things that previously

    escaped your attention, let me read Lesson 267:

    My heart is beating in the peace of God.

    Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to me in

    every heartbeat and in every breath; in every action and in every thought. Peace

    fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mindis healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me

    peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed

    by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within

    His loving Arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and every one is answered by

    His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.

    Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. Father, my heart is beating in the

    peace the Heart of Love created. It is there and only there that I can be at home.

    [Pause]Okay, and.... Open your eyes and back to the room.

    Hi. Yes. Good to see you again.

    So can you see how forgiveness - admitting that you have no basis on which to

    judge - lets you look at the world in a different way?

    So these are the two-fold parts of my teaching today. I've listed them on the

    sheet as "The inner and outer paths." You should know that it doesn't say that

    anywhere in the Course, though. That's just how I see it.

    These are the two parts: One, look within you for peace because you'llnever be able to find it in any other place.

    Two? You're too restless to stop everything you're doing and look within?

    No problem. Just make forgiveness your only purpose as you look at the world.

    Try to fulfill God's plan for you, which IS your forgiveness. Stop judging whatever

    seems to be happening. Look at the world as if you'd never seen it before, not

    even a minute before, not even an instant.

    Admit that you don't understand what's going on and asked to be guided in

    every instant.

    You can make these two ideas "special" in your mind and they won't hurt you

    at all.

    I'll admit that they're related to the body and the world and that they therefore

    mean nothing. I'll admit that the idea of looking "here and not there" or of doing

    "this and not that" are ideas of specialness. But the purpose of these ideas has

    now changed. The object of your specialness is now your own peace. At the

    same time your special purpose is your forgiveness. This cancels out and prevents

    the pain of specialness completely. You CANNOT be hurt because you are

    REFUSING to judge.Okay, let me just finish with one last, little quote. This is also my favorite

    passage in the Course. This is Jesus, teaching us about judgment. Here is all you

    ever need to learn about judgment:

    Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength

    of God into everything you think and do. Do not settle for anything less than this,

    and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. Watch your mind carefully

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    13

    for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. Judge

    how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of

    judgment. Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect; to hurt

    or to heal. The ego should be brought to judgment and found wanting there. Without

    your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot exist. Let it be judged

    truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.YOUR MIND AND MINE CAN UNITE IN SHINING YOUR EGO AWAY,

    RELEASING THE STRENGTH OF GOD INTO EVERYTHING YOU THINK

    AND DO. DO NOT SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN THIS, AND

    REFUSE TO ACCEPT ANYTHING BUT THIS AS YOUR GOAL.

    How can you tell if you're not doing this? You aren't at peace. And if you're

    not at peace, you are judging.

    If you're not at peace, judge AGAINST your "bad" feelings. Very quickly you

    will learn that whenever you do this, you are also judging against your judgment.You DO want to be at peace, don't you? If you really understood that it was only

    your judgments that were causing you pain, wouldn't you let them all go right away?

    Okay? It's really all right. There's nothing to fear. None of this is so. You're

    just waking up from a dream that you thought involved others. It doesn't really

    involve others. Or, better, the others are just you.

    Okay, so that's our class. Any questions? Or does anyone have anything that

    they'd like to say? I just want to open this up and give you an opportunity to

    speak. You can say anything you like. I'm not going to judge you. We're notgoing to judge you. This is a safe space for you to say whatever you want. We'll

    just look at it together with the Holy Spirit and see what happens.

    [A participant remarks that when she tried to "look within," she felt as if she

    didn't have any access "in there."]

    [Pause]

    Yes, well, what I am being guided to say is that perhaps you are afraid of

    some very strong feelings that you have down in there. This is what happens

    when you try to wake up. I mean, we really don't need to have these classes, do

    we? We all know that there is no world. We have all heard that this is a dream.

    But at the same time the only reason you are in this dream is because you want to

    be happy in it.

    Yet this dream has not been a very happy dream, has it? For example, little

    children getting killed. So as you begin to wake up, you start to see that you are

    the cause of this world.

    That's what my awakening was. I had a direct experience of the fact that I am

    the cause of this world. That experience doesn't go away. In fact, it's the opposite.

    It just keeps expanding. It's not like when you wake up you stop learning andgrowing, at least not as long as you are still seeing this world.

    So then the horror that you feel at being the cause of this world mixes with

    your desire to find happiness in the world, and the conflict between them makes

    for some very uncomfortable feelings that you want to avoid.

    The only answer is to look directly at those feelings. Don't run away. Don't

    look for distractions outside yourself, in the world.

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    2004 by Dana Cole

    All quotes are fromA Course in Miraclespublished by the Foundation for Inner Peace,

    Second Edition, 1992. Buy it! Read it! Enjoy it!

    Feel free to contact me at [email protected]

    If you would like a PDF version of this file that you can change or edit, please write to me.

    Thank you for reading this book.

    Thank you for being who you are.

    Remember - God loves you!

    Remember I said that "deep within you" is the place where you feel peace and

    happiness? It is also the place where you feel pain. No matter what the feeling is,

    though, even if it's anger or sadness, when you try to go within, look right at it.

    When you look right at the feeling, you will discover that it is the love of God. It looks

    like anger or sadness when you're trying to avoid it, but underneath it is love. You will

    never see this, though, until you're willing to look right at your feelings.The lessons of the Course are full of instructions to go within. It's everywhere.

    Jesus really keeps hammering it home: Try to sink down and inward, away from

    the world and all the foolish thoughts of the world.

    If you want to get in touch with what's going on inside you, you've got to set up

    these daily quiet times for yourself. If you don't do it, nobody else will. Even if you go

    someplace where they are practicing vipasannameditation twenty-four hours a

    day, seven days a week, it's still going to be up to you whether you're willing to go

    along with it or not. Otherwise, it's not going to happen.Of course, as for me, I would rather practice meditation with the lessons ofA

    Course in Miracles. Or, as Jesus says early in the Workbook, make up a few

    variations on the lessons for yourself. That's what I like to do. It's just more fun for

    me. That doesn't mean that it's the only way, though. Everyone in this world has

    their preferences. That's why they're here. The lessons of the Coursejust seem to

    work better for me.

    So anyway, don't worry about not having access. You definitely do have

    access. Just don't be afraid to look directly at how you feel. Okay?You're in this dream because you want to be here. No one is asking you to do

    anything that you don't want to do. No one is forcing you to do anything. You can

    have anything that you want. The only question now is: What do you want?

    Okay. That's our class. Thank you.

    Oh, just one more little thing that I want to say:

    You don't have to have pain to feel love. It's all right to be happy all the time.

    Okay? That's it. Thank you very much.