Without Foundation Nothing Is Secure

I dashed from my bedroom, coatless in the chilly hour before dawn, barged into his office and slid—breathless and freezing–into the familiar chair opposite his desk.

“Gluten-free BOBO bar?” I asked, starving, as usual; having grabbed an extra one for him on the way out.”

He shook his head. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.

“Well, touched one, actually,” I replied.

My inner professor leaned back and got all comfy in his chair; no doubt preparing to allow me once more to make his day.

I spent the next few minutes attempting to recreate the horrifying sleeping dream from which I’d fled. The macabre details of which had already begun to fade into the tangled web of my unconscious. Except for that culminating scene wherein I found myself lost in the solitary confinement of the ego thought system. Dodging increasingly accusatory, punishing apparitions from the cesspool of my personal, reopened Pandora’s Box, yet reaching for the promise of my Teacher’s hand. Soothed by the initial consolation of the very decision to finally extend my fingers in a right-minded direction, only to find them entwining with the appendage of a skeleton squeezing back! The ego again—that wily master of disguise—in all his ghastly glory!

“Apparently my dream is haunted,” I whispered, in case the dreaded Mr. Bones–enveloped once more in his invisibility cloak—continued to shadow me.

“So, now that you’re awake—in a manner of speaking—what can I do for you?” he asked, clearly failing to grasp the dire nature of my predicament.

Behind him, through the beveled windows, the sun’s first, cockeyed-optimistic orange rays shone through tree branches nearly naked following the assault of last weekend’s snow and plunging temperatures that had left me with the seemingly daunting task of removing a yard-full of leaves shed by our gigantic trees before our next house showing. A task I could not seem to interest my own aching bones or allergy-prone respiratory system in whatsoever.

I thought about the comparative “real” horror of my waking dream, within which my alleged decision-making mind continued to dish up one unsolvable dilemma after another. From the continuing poltergeists rattling the cages of bodily injuries past to friends suffering from even worse physical challenges to the battalions of larger, hairier, ever-more-menacing spiders brazenly materializing in the forbidden territory of our home, to the sorry state of a union peopled by citizens (myself, too often, included) riveted on personal interests, seemingly blinded to our alleged underlying bond. From dwindling environmental resources to ever more frequent and devastating “natural” disasters fueled by unnatural forces to ongoing, unwelcome changes in my personal life; toppled routines and traditions that once seemed to root me in solid ground. And, of course, the continuing saga of our house not selling, thereby theoretically preventing us from buying some measure of fantasized, future financial freedom.

“Did you know it’s been six months since we went to market after spending two months getting ready to do so?” I asked. Reviewing, as I obsessively, self-centeredly do, the process that had already devoured three seasons and stood poised to swallow another; even though we were still on step one!

He smiled, shook his head.

I should have known better than to try to interest him in taking the passage of time in an illusory dream world seriously. And so we sat, not speaking, the way we do once I’ve exhausted myself with my stories, which seems—at least to me–to happen a lot more quickly these days.

“I know what you’re thinking,” I said, at last. “I keep seeing the ego as the villain in an old-timey horror film when, really, it’s more like a stick figure in an animated Tim Burton production.”

“There’s that,” he said.

I sighed, unhappily right, and we sat quietly a while longer. Although I’ve never been a big fan of sitting still (or shutting up, for that matter) it felt, well—safe to do so. “Did I mention I’ve decided to give burying a statue of Saint Joseph in our yard to help sell our house a try?” I asked, finally, retrieving the small figure from my jacket pocket.

His brows shot up the way they do.

“I mean, even though we’re not really bodies living in a seemingly challenging, often perilous dream world, the Course does say as long as we experience ourselves as bodies it’s OK to use a compromise approach. To treat the body’s problems with “magical” solutions–such as medical care and alternative body work–the way normal, non-Course students do. As you may recall when we first put the house on the market, I explored quite a few old- and new-age rituals involving music, crystals, and sage smudge sticks to energetically improve our home’s appeal. Nothing wrong with that, right, as a way of being kind to ourselves in the fearful, body-identified condition we find ourselves in? As long as we remind ourselves that it’s the real answer to all our seeming problems—the awareness that we have never really left the unconditionally loving, forever shelter of our Creator’s home—that we’ve forgotten and become secretly afraid of.”

He nodded.

“Anyway, a lot of people have mentioned the burying Saint Joseph approach so I finally made a bargain with the universe that I would do it if I could  find and buy a statue cheap on Amazon and—voila! Eight-ninety-five, including instructions, a burial cloth, and free, two-day shipping thanks to my Prime membership.”

His eyes widened.

“And now I’m thinking that the point is not burying a plastic image of Saint Joseph in my yard to improve my chances of selling the imaginary home of my imaginary body that I’ve completely forgotten I dreamed up as a defense against an imaginary punishing God I think I ran away from. Just like everything else here it’s about which teacher I end up doing it with–you; or Mr. Bones, which has nothing to do with the outcome in form of whatever I seem to be doing here. But everything to do with the peaceful or painful quality of the experience and the direction it leads me.”

“I know what you’re really thinking,” I said, unable to meet the unwavering acceptance in his eyes. “Why am I even here, right?”

I thought about the special relationship I continued to turn to to shed that same old nagging sense of need and unworthiness weighing me down all my life. Only it wasn’t working anymore. However hard I struggled to rationalize the unspoken war between us as his problem, I realized it had always been mine. I kept seeing this frightened kid in him transformed into my toddler twin staring back. Same need, same lack; same fear of having messed things up for good with no way out. Same dwindling, hidden hope that maybe, just maybe, I’m wrong about myself. But if he was not responsible for the love gone missing forever in my life, I must be!

And yet, the last time we stood burning in the hell of our differences, I had reached for my litany of outrage and found it missing! Leaving only the awareness of that twin kid staring back, the one I had no clue how to save, but was willing to reach for a nonspecific answer—in a shared mind outside the penitentiary of you versus me—for a presence that did.

As if reading my mind the way he does, my Teacher reached across the desk and took both my hands in his. And for a while, I was enough, you know? So much more than enough. We both smiled that smile as we eventually found ourselves transported to my yard, standing side by side, surveying that thick carpet of leaves obscuring the lawn and heading toward the garage for those rakes.

 

“Without foundation nothing is secure.  Would God have left His Son in such a state, where safety has no meaning?  No, His Son is safe, resting on Him.  It is your specialness that is attacked by everything that walks and breathes, or creeps or crawls, or even lives at all.  Nothing is safe from its attack, and it is safe from nothing.  It will forevermore be unforgiving, for that is what it is; a secret vow that what God wants for you will never be, and that you will oppose His Will forever.  Nor is it possible the two can ever be the same, while specialness stands like a flaming sword of death between them, and makes them enemies.” (A Course in Miracles Text, Chapter 24 III., paragraph 4)

 

NOTE: A Course in Miracles uses the character of an unconditionally loving to all Jesus as a symbol of the unconditionally loving presence still shining in every fragment of our one mind. A presence that never took the “tiny, mad idea” of separation from our eternally loving Source and Self (within whom we remain one) seriously. Who continues to experience and teach only the truth of our invulnerable, shared innocence and worthiness of God (and each other’s) love, despite our seemingly unique, guilty dreams of separation, separate interests, and punishment deserved and realized.

 

­­­ANNOUNCEMENTS:

 

THE FOUNDATION FOR A COURSE IN MIRACLES HAS MOVED TO NEVADA!

 

The Foundation https://facim.org/ has now completed moving its headquarters to Henderson, Nevada and has resumed the sale and shipment of physical media (books, CD sets, and DVDs). The Oasis of Peace brick and mortar bookstore in Henderson is also open.

 

Foundation for A Course in Miracles

375 N Stephanie St Ste 2311

Henderson NV 89014-8903

951.296.6261 • 951.296.5117 FAX

 

The Interviews page on my forays website has been revised to make it easier to find and access interviews with Ken Wapnick and others including Gloria Wapnick, and FACIM staff teachers. These interviews provide a wealth of practical information about learning to live a truly forgiving life, as well as some history of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles.

Schedule individual MENTORING sessions with Susan Dugan here:  Although A Course in Miracles is clearly a self-study program and the one relationship we are truly cultivating is with our eternally sane and loving right mind, mentoring can help remind Course students having trouble applying its unique forgiveness in the classroom of their lives that the problem and the solution never lie in the difficult relationship, situation, behavior, health issue, etc., but in the decision-making mind. In every circumstance, without exception, we can choose to experience inner peace and kindness toward all, unaffected by the seemingly random strife of a world designed to prove otherwise. By choosing to look at our lives as a classroom in which we bring all our painful illusions to the inner teacher of forgiveness who knows only our shared innocence beyond all its deceptive disguises, we learn to identify and transcend the ego’s resistance, hold others and even ourselves harmless, and gently allow our split mind to heal. 

Susan’s mentoring sessions provide valuable support in our forgiveness practice from a Course student and teacher deeply committed to awakening through learning and living true forgiveness. While keenly aware of our resistance to Jesus’ loving message from first-hand experience, she remains faithful to opening her heart to the Course’s universal answer for all frightened hearts and to sharing her ongoing learning and growing trust with kindred faithful, but sometimes frightened and confused, fellow students. Sessions are conducted via traditional phone or Skype (your choice). Please contact me to find out if mentoring is right for you before submitting a payment. (No one is ever turned away for lack of ability to pay!)

MY BOOK, FORGIVENESS: THE KEY TO HAPPINESS, http://www.amazon.com/Forgiveness-Happiness-Susan-A-Dugan/dp/0983742022, along with my second book in the forgiveness essay collection series, FORGIVENESS OFFERS EVERYTHING I WANT: http://www.amazon.com/Forgiveness-Offers-Everything-I-Want/dp/0983742014/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=07RKZW8SHE2RNC209A2D  are DISCOUNTED on Amazon.

In this NEW video, Bruce Rawles and I discuss “true appreciation” from A Course in Miracles’ perspective:  https://youtu.be/RPcrUnJr4oM

In this NEW video, Bruce Rawles and I discuss the meaning of death from A Course in Miracles’ perspective: https://youtu.be/l3ln3bsppKw

In this RECENT VIDEO, Bruce Rawles and I discuss lesson 126 and revisit “What Is Forgiveness?” in the second part of the workbook: https://www.foraysinforgiveness.com/videos/

In this RECENT VIDEO, Bruce Rawles and I discuss recommitting to making the purpose of our days a classroom of true forgiveness with help from our inner Teacher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd7uqD5wj4E&feature=youtu.be

In this RECENT VIDEO, Bruce Rawles and I discuss what A Course in Miracles means by “the quiet center” of the mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unQXd3F4S9U&feature=youtu.be and how to get there.

In this VIDEO, Bruce Rawles and I discuss workbook lesson 194: “I place the future in the hands of God.” https://www.foraysinforgiveness.com/videos/

 

In this NEW Audio CA Brooks, 12Radio, and I talk about the pain of choosing to identify with specialness over our same need to heal our split mind and find our way home http://www.12radio.com/archive.cfm?archive=916FCDE8-26B9-4187-861F1F45141724D8

 

Another RECENT RADIO TALK with CA Brooks, 12Radio: http://www.12radio.com/archive.cfm?archive=A0B4ED31-26B9-4187-867350852AC2D78D

 

In this RECENT AUDIO, CA Brooks, 12Radio, and I talk about acim workbook lesson 193: “All things are lessons God would have me learn.” http://www.12radio.com/archive.cfm?archive=286F2689-26B9-4187-864EFF004ED83566

 

In this AUDIO CA Brooks, 12Radio, and I talk about how to connect with our inner Teacher/right mind (which can seem quite elusive at times!): http://www.12radio.com/archive.cfm?archive=7271A032-26B9-4187-863739C3EB9013D0

 

____________________

The Denver-based School for A Course in Miracles (formerly the School of Reason), an A Course-in-Miracles http://www.schoolforacourseinmiracles.org/ offers great new and ongoing classes based on Ken Wapnick’s teachings.

 

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the mind-healing Center for A Course in Miracles https://centerforacourseinmiracles.org/ is an educational Center whose focus is to teach what A Course in Miracles says, address common misunderstandings, and help students develop a relationship with their internal Teacher, inspired and guided by the teachings of the late Dr. Kenneth Wapnick.

 

My good friend and fellow Course student, teacher, and author Bruce Rawles frequently invites me to chat with him on YouTube about the Course and Ken Wapnick’s teachings. He continues to compile lots of great ACIM information well worth checking out at ACIMblog.com.

 

My good friend and gifted A Course in Miracles teacher and writer Bernard Groom has been posting beautifully written, heartfelt essays about living A Course in Miracles for years at ACIMvillage.com. Bernard lives and teaches in France with his dear wife Patricia. You’ll find a wealth of information in French on his website including recorded talks available for purchase or free download.