http://acourseinmiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467?format=rss Tribe.net. Local Connections http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#5997b032-23fe-4fed-8700-69c9adb8c9ba Yes please, I'd love to hear more also, and I have a good Grateful Dead story I'll tell ya later Christie. Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:43:34 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#5997b032-23fe-4fed-8700-69c9adb8c9ba CG 2008-02-18T00:43:34Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#2aedf1d4-64f1-4ab5-ab61-c3615302ab70 That's a beautiful song. Here's my example of songs that can have more than one meaning. These two songs were usually played back to back at Grateful Dead concerts. "Scarlet Begonias" words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia As I was walkin' round Grosvenor Square Not a chill to the winter but a nip to the air From the other direction she was calling my eye It could be an illusion but I might as well try Might as well try. She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes, And I knew without askin' she was into the blues Scarlet begonias tucked into her curls I knew right away she was not like other girls-- other girls In the thick of the evening when the dealing got rough She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff As I picked up my matches and was closing the door I had one of those flashes: I'd been there before-- been there before. [Bridge] I ain't often right but I've never been wrong It seldom turns out the way it does in the song Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right Well there ain't nothin' wrong with the way she moves Or scarlet begonias or a touch of the blues And there's nothing wrong with the love that's in her eye I had to learn the hard way to let her pass by-- let her pass by The wind in the willows played Tea for Two The sky was yellow and the sun was blue Strangers stopped strangers just to shake their hand Everybody's playing in the Heart of Gold Band Heart of Gold Band "Fire On the Mountain" Words by Robert Hunter; music by Mickey Hart Long distance runner what you standing there for? Get up, get off, get out of the door You're playing cold music on the bar room floor, drowned in your laughter and dead to the core There's a dragon with matches loose on the town Take a whole pail of water just to cool him down Fire - Fire On the Mountain Fire - Fire on the mountain Almost aflame still you don't feel the heat Takes all you got just to stay on the beat You say it's a living, we all gotta eat but you're here alone there's no one to compete If mercy's in business I wish it for you More than just ashes when your dreams come true Fire - Fire on the mountain Fire - Fire on the mountain Long distance runner what you holdin out for? Caught in slow motion in your dash to the door The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor You gave all you got, why you wanta give more? The more that you give, why, the more it will take to the thin line beyond which you really cannot fake There's a fire Fire on the mountain Anyone else have one? Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:01:55 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#2aedf1d4-64f1-4ab5-ab61-c3615302ab70 Christie 2008-02-17T21:01:55Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#0f599949-132a-497a-84da-97ddc214ea78 "The best songs are ones that have lyrics that shed light in different ways" she weaves secrets in her hair she's deep as a whale another day wastes away and my heart sinks with the sun a new day is dawning and a new day has not yet begun so anyway there I was just sittin on your poarch drinking in the sweetest decline what's the use in regret theirs just things we haven't done yet what I regret is just lessons we haven't learned yet another day draws away and my heart sinks with the sun it's like catching snow on my tongue you can't pin this butterfly down................. Beth Orton The Sweetest Decline, from the CD Central Reservation.... your turn :) Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:07:58 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#0f599949-132a-497a-84da-97ddc214ea78 CG 2008-02-13T08:07:58Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#7a5ce117-038c-4e46-a8bc-ffa6e65e38ee That's so cool that you saw my icon that way. It reminds me of songs, or poetry. Like how songs can be interpreted in different ways. The best songs are ones that have lyrics that shed light in different ways to different people. I especially like songs in which I thought the lyrics were saying something different than what I later learned they were, but that my idea of what the lyrics were meant something beautiful, perhaps even profound. I like your interpretations of the chain. :-) Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:48:13 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#7a5ce117-038c-4e46-a8bc-ffa6e65e38ee Christie 2008-02-13T06:48:13Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b8ce69dc-297e-45ac-b29f-b3e0f48ca127 thanks Christie, It's silly, but I thought your picture was of a chain, (before I ever looked at your profile) :) I was thinking of all these metaphors for the chain in spiritual life, you know, the great chain of being, the ancestral chain linking us to each other and into antiquity........... I was thinking it was really cool as an image, and minimalist ,and sort of east coast......... Then I see it's a flying you! Now that's very cool......... I can really run with that, flying people.... oh yeah, that'll occupy me for days. "When seeing with the awareness of light, with the awareness of the Holy Spirit, and having the willingness to let the Holy Spirit use our abilities to make miracles possible for others, miracles do happen." That's beautiful Christie. Cheers... Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:00:09 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b8ce69dc-297e-45ac-b29f-b3e0f48ca127 CG 2008-02-13T05:00:09Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#f5ef5b22-88aa-4481-abfe-5c25d3a1446d I like what you wrote CG. Especially in this paragraph. I think you said it well. >>We can't stop things like death and injury from happening to our bodies, or those of our families. We can however choose what the truth about them really is. If we choose, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to see them differently, to identify them differently, we can discover a way to live with what happens to our bodies and theirs without love and what we love, ever being threatened or harmed. We can relax the well meant vigilance with which we guard them, and in it's place expand the love we already have for them. << Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:48:36 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#f5ef5b22-88aa-4481-abfe-5c25d3a1446d Christie 2008-02-12T21:48:36Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#5eca716d-cb89-4e6c-b70b-99840ce2a2ed CG There's certainly nothing wrong with what you've written. I agree that paraphrasing is best, because ACIM is not a religion or an aternate bible with all the correct beliefs that one simply learns like information. Back in the 80's Jack and Layle Luckett (the most amazing ACIM teachers) presented it to me this way. "Just take the medicine." What they further explained is that the lessons themselves are the course. We experiement with trying on the ideas contained in them. It's the lab course where you apply the principles. The text is like the big brochure that comes with the pill bottle. it describes the disease, what the medicine does, how it works, what its chemistry is, etc. You might like to know those things but the actual treatment is the lessons. So as a mystical and metaphysical path, ACIM will produce specific measurable changes and result in your life just by practicing the daily lessons. Actually I invite people to go to the teacher's manual as a secondary resource to lessons before going to the text. One reason is that the manual is pure poetry and not as heady or intellectual. Then we have forums like this and our local study groups to explore the implications of what we're experiencing in our "journey without distance" away from ego and into love. Keep the conversation alive. Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:48:18 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#5eca716d-cb89-4e6c-b70b-99840ce2a2ed Mark 2008-02-12T06:48:18Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b35a060a-7553-41dd-af4c-935218e85abc Lots of ways to answer that Sharka, and it's a good question. The Course has a lot to say about life and death.... To honor the question, I'll give you what I feel is most meaningful to me, in my mind and awareness from studying the Course. I'll put it in my own words, rather than quote directly from the book, as it helps me a lot to try to articulate what I'm still learning myself. As I reach to describe what I'm trying to make a home for inside myself, I can see where I am from how I speak about it. It helps me see what I'm still struggling to incorporate, and also what feels clear to me. One of the greatest gifts has been a growing certainty that what happens to my body, your body, all our bodies, is different than the condition of spirit as God created me. It's as If God created me perfect, safe, powerful and innocent, and then I made another version of me that is it's opposite. Someone who is in danger, imperfect, and guilty of all kinds of stuff. The self I made needs to be defended, has to learn everything, and will die no matter how well I treat it. All my "creations", need to be protected from the same things that afflict me. I love them because I made them, but feel completely vulnerable because of their frailty. When threatened, I too will go to war to protect what I love. The Course is teaching me, and I'm learning to trust what I'm learning, that what I love deeply is actually safe, cannot be harmed, and is innocent. Your supposed to protect what you love, no question about it, and protecting your body and family and everything you love is essential to your own well being. It's just a question of what constitutes the best protection, the very best, the sure thing, like no kidding, so that what I love is safe, and I'll give my life to make sure of it, if that's what it takes. We can't stop things like death and injury from happening to our bodies, or those of our families. We can however choose what the truth about them really is. If we choose, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to see them differently, to identify them differently, we can discover a way to live with what happens to our bodies and theirs without love and what we love, ever being threatened or harmed. We can relax the well meant vigilance with which we guard them, and in it's place expand the love we already have for them. Sorry if I went on to long. When I understand it better I'll be maybe I'll be able to say it really well in a few lines of brilliant prose!, (but don't hold your breath....................... cause I've got a long ways to go) :) Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:15:17 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b35a060a-7553-41dd-af4c-935218e85abc CG 2008-02-12T03:15:17Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#58fa556d-4482-4c83-8f98-735d5a5c60d2 maybe the thing to do is start reading lesson 1 today then lesson 2 tomorow... we'll see how good a student you are. As it says: "this is a required course..." That doesn't mean these three books, but what underlies them is really how to effectively be a human being. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:49:37 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#58fa556d-4482-4c83-8f98-735d5a5c60d2 Mark 2008-02-11T23:49:37Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#1bee518e-b730-4ef2-9031-7e5d545c9171 haha, no i didn't take it personaly of course...! i am pretty nice shark. although in extreme situations i know i could attack quite well. like if someone threathens my life or my kids, i would kill. therefore i would not be a very good student of The Miracle Book. or maybe i am wrong? if someone attacks, can i attack back to protect myself?? i hope so! Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:43:28 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#1bee518e-b730-4ef2-9031-7e5d545c9171 Sharka 2008-02-11T22:43:28Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#902976b5-92db-4df4-aac7-9d92849d39aa That's an excellent track to follow..... I'll bet it hurts like.......@#*% So there's the "life" of the body, beauty and tragedy and so forth, which is unavoidable...... at least while ya got one, and the condition of spirit......... can the condition of spirit maybe ease the experience of life in the body? ( I never meant the shark thing to represent anything to do with your name, I just noticed it as I was posting this now, and hope you don't feel like I was being sly or something ) In case you did, my name is Cliff, if you need to make any metaphors aimed sideways at me.. :) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:01:48 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#902976b5-92db-4df4-aac7-9d92849d39aa CG 2008-02-11T20:01:48Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b261c0a3-d8ac-47b2-911b-b84a79e5f194 Imagination, exploration, in light of divine inspiration,.............. oh shoot that rhymes...... :) Well anyway, thanks for keeping the flow of ideas moving, and for your sincerity and playfulness, in the face life"s difficult tangles. Peace. and please keep the ball rolling...... I appreciate and enjoy hearing your thoughts and ideas. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:47:10 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b261c0a3-d8ac-47b2-911b-b84a79e5f194 CG 2008-02-11T19:47:10Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#4c212031-a359-4553-8a4d-a895fc803567 That's one reason I don't go near them. :-) You know there's the famous poem: "autobiography in five chapters" it's about avoiding suffering. But when you are face to face, it makes sense to deal appropriately. Maybe it feels so real to you because you believe that you're as real as sharkey's sharp teeth! :-) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:32:32 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#4c212031-a359-4553-8a4d-a895fc803567 Mark 2008-02-11T19:32:32Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#771aa3b9-a9a0-40ba-8756-6377c7edb645 ha, but if bitten by a shark, it feels pretty real !! doesn't it ?.. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:52:21 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#771aa3b9-a9a0-40ba-8756-6377c7edb645 Sharka 2008-02-11T18:52:21Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#07ea8d3a-146e-43e3-9352-9b5306929233 I believe it was the great Tibetan master Jamgon Mipham who said that telling people (when they are suffering) that their suffering is empty just makes them mad. Well, its true! And if they get mad, that's their business. Sure. I'm the first person to agree that in ACIM and other metaphysical and mystical paths there's far too much information and not enough understanding; too much word processing and and not enough thought processing. So sometimes its honestly compassionate to be blunt with the truth; other times it's kind to let it be and maybe help the person consider that there might be other ways of experiencing what they are experiencing. But in my opinion, it does people no good to let them wallow in it. Of course, practically speaking from an ACIM point of view all action (healing action) is guided by the HS or an inner light of love. I'd never invite people to pretend that what they are experiencing isn't real for them as they experience it, yet ACIM does ask us to question our beliefs, assumptions, opinions and expectations around our experience. If the scaffolding goes, so does the experience because it wasn't real in truth-- it always was just our way of experiencing. Pretending is one thing, simulating is another. We practice what we don't yet know experientally, loking beyond appearences, trusting the intangible. That's what we get from doing the lessons. Eventually it becomes our direct experience it is not simulated. Maybe this makes sense? Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:38:30 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#07ea8d3a-146e-43e3-9352-9b5306929233 Mark 2008-02-11T17:38:30Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#3e97e52c-645b-413e-8e27-1ec99c1d59a8 It's funny how much effort goes into protecting against the "unreal" and talking about the "unreal". Going to see the "unreal" on a Saturday night. Avoiding the "unreal", by saying it's unreal, when you definitely behave as if it's real. Reality is certainly a conversation in the Course, but theres a difference between discussing that , and pretending sharks, "what sharks", don't exist while behaving as if they do. Season tickets? The post is only meant to be an exercise in imagination, using a background of study in the Course in Miracles and similar material to light up possible scenarios for dealing with life as we find it, in the hope of discovering a way to get through it with some measure of grace. Meeting sharks in the ocean, or bears in the woods, or bee's in the bonnet is an experience. Wondering about it and using my imagination to consider how it came to be, is more fun than intellectualizing about it's existence when everyday our experience tells us that we need to respond to life somehow. Try telling the folks you meet today that they're not real and see how that works for ya. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:47:59 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#3e97e52c-645b-413e-8e27-1ec99c1d59a8 CG 2008-02-11T14:47:59Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#4424e3ab-c9cf-4a0e-bf52-c1091c9340db Go Teal ! :-) (for the uninitiated, that's the San Jose Sharks hockey-- and some indeed do live near the shark tank) I was going to ask what sharks? All "sharkiness" is unreal according to the definition given in the text of real. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:32:56 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#4424e3ab-c9cf-4a0e-bf52-c1091c9340db Mark 2008-02-11T03:32:56Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#015f5d37-cba0-47e2-b066-8aaf210bfe6c He seems to be the big archetype of wrong doing. Everyones favorite bogyman, but what about gladiolas and roses and butterfly's? Was that him to? :) Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:57:09 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#015f5d37-cba0-47e2-b066-8aaf210bfe6c CG 2008-02-10T23:57:09Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#a58832de-d798-4a6d-8163-32cc86e70abe That's funny..... :) Why would anyone choose sharkness........ arrrgghhh..... Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:51:07 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#a58832de-d798-4a6d-8163-32cc86e70abe CG 2008-02-10T23:51:07Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#45243a44-6b8f-4dde-84a5-110bdfeee7dd How about this, some of us chose to be the sharks in the tank. Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:42:29 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#45243a44-6b8f-4dde-84a5-110bdfeee7dd JahaRa 2008-02-10T20:42:29Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b082528b-b11d-4e4b-8656-60ab4e41844f In that context, we are satan, the illusion maker. Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:41:50 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#b082528b-b11d-4e4b-8656-60ab4e41844f JahaRa 2008-02-10T20:41:50Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#926b942e-bc3e-49c1-a372-3fc580b94590 what about Satan....the illusion maker? {just kidding}.... Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:54:20 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#926b942e-bc3e-49c1-a372-3fc580b94590 Sharka 2008-02-10T16:54:20Z http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#49a9cf75-7803-4f1f-9a3a-c01799328502 Here's an exercise that can be fun. If God didn't make the world who did? Was it just one person, or maybe two? If it was two, what does the condition of the world say about their relationship? or, who put the sharks in the bathtub?............. Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:09:05 GMT http://aCourseInMiracles.tribe.net/thread/e8b53bf5-d1b5-4a3a-b6c3-9d5b0b35d467#49a9cf75-7803-4f1f-9a3a-c01799328502 CG 2008-02-10T08:09:05Z