6 Human Needs – Tony Robins On Ted Talks About Why We Do What We Do

Posted on 25. Mar, 2012 by dreamingson.

Listen to Tony Robbins Talk on Ted  about the 6 human needs. This is known as needs psychology and it is Tony’s belief that these principles govern all human behavior.

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Miracles vs Magic – The one true answer

Posted on 18. Mar, 2012 by dreamingson.

In the world when we perceive that things go wrong we try to fix them. We have a headache, we take a pain killer. We want to lose weight, we go on a diet. We feel anxious, we leave a situation that we perceive is causing it. All of these behaviors require some type of action in the world to get the result we are after. In the course in miracles this is known as magic. The problem is in the world and the solution is in the world. Even though these actions sometimes work, they ultimately fail because new problems will always arise and we will forever be victims of the world. This deludes us into believing there are many problems that need to be solved before we can have a sense of completion – if effect we are merely hamsters on a hamster wheel – forever going around in circles.

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ACIM – What Are You Focusing on?

Posted on 25. Dec, 2011 by dreamingson.

Yesterday I was driving over to have Christmas lunch with my family. During the journey a car was in front of me and the sun was reflecting of the rear window. This caused my eyes great discomfort. But strangely I continued to stare straight at the reflecting light!

Then it struck me that all I had to do was slightly change the focus of my gaze and all the discomfort would disappear. I thought how simple. This was really just a simple metaphor for other aspects of my life where I am focusing on the problem instead of the solution – its 101 in mind direction.

I have heard so many times phrases such as “where attention goes energy flows” and “what you focus on you get more of.” What I thought about on this trip is that a lot of times I simply don’t want to re-direct the “focus” of my gaze to the solution. I thought “how curious” and began to try to understand why it is so hard to take my attention off the problem and onto the solution. I searched my mind as I was driving for ACIM principles that would help me explain this curiosity.

Firstly I remembered that the course talked about how we “confuse pleasure and pain.” So many times I complain, both internally and externally about something that is frustrating me, swearing black and blue I want this problem solved. However by remembering the above course principle I understand I have such investment in the pain of the problem because to my ego it is really pleasure. It is pleasurable to my ego because it confirms the reality of the thought of separation and therefore the separated self – the dream figure. The ego then starts to direct the mind to find the causes of the frustration in the world outside of the mind – its most pleasured activity!

I was reminded of the passage  (The attraction of guilt) that talked about how the ego sends out the hunger dogs of fear to search out sin in everyone else. This is so pleasurable to the ego because every time it finds sin in the world it walks free of execution – it is not the one that will be punished for the denying Reality and erecting a substitute in its place.

And then I was reminded that the vicious dogs are only let loose after something else has occur, and that something else is a decision, a choice for what I want the truth to be. And if judgment, anger and attack are experienced instead of the peace of God then I want the separation to be the truth. I want to hold onto the deluded belief that an idol can give an answer in place of the principle of the atonement, to believe a love outside of me can fill the lack caused by my denial of my SELF, only to mercilessly attack it when it fails the role the ego has assigned to it (to offer completion.)

And so I will continue in my pursuit of specialness, and to blame things outside of myself for my lack of peace, but at the same time I will have the awareness that “I am never upset for the reason I think.” (I am upset because I want to be outside perfect oneness.)

I think this is how healing is done the quickest, to make all the projections the ego would make, not denying them because “they not spiritual.” To remind the mind that what it sees is false and that it never hate another for their sins but only its own. To forgive the projections I have placed on others and therefore freeing myself from the ravages of guilt.

In time, as peace becomes more valued in my awareness I will become more and more willing to divert my focus from the hypnotic reflection of the sun that strikes me blind and onto the the gentle perception of Christ Vision.

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Saving time with ACIM

Posted on 18. Dec, 2011 by dreamingson.

The one claim the voice of ACIM states about following its path to enlightenment as opposed to another path is that it will save you time.

So what does ACIM mean when it states you will save time by studying the text, doing the workbook and practicing the art of forgiveness?

Just for a moment imagine you have never heard of A Course in Miracles and you knew nothing of its metaphysical teachings – that all of this is your dream,  there are no hierarchies of illusions and your are safe at home dreaming of exile.

Imagine a situation arises with another person, situation or event that causes you great anger.  Lets say that the time when the anger occurs is time 1 and the time when you finally resolve this issue is time 2. If you believed your identity was that of being the dream figure instead of the dreamer then during the time interval between time 1 and time 2 you would have to follow the pathways of the world to resolve the anger. You would have to talk to friends, maybe see a psychologist, avoid the person, event situation in question, just to mention a few strategies. It is believed from this paradigm that healing involves taking actions in the world – which obviously involves time. So after all of this activity you get to time 2, the stage where you are healed of your issue that cause the anger to start with.

The voice of the course states that by implementing the teachings of ACIM you can collapse the time interval between time 1 (when the anger arises) and time 2 (when you are healed of this issue) to be instantaneous or close to it. Therefore you are (by utilizing the holy instant) transported to time 2, rendering the time interval between time 1 and 2 to be unnecessary because you no longer need to take all the actions to resolve the anger

 But how do you do this you may ask?

It is done be entering the holy instant. The holy instant in ACIM is a symbol for any moment you remember the truth, when you raise your awareness out of time and space and back to the point where you are observing everything as simply a dream. At this point (if it is done correctly) all anger directed outside of yourself at the world and its characters must dissolve because the awareness that you are the dreamer of it all is the only truth.

It involves remembering to see the problem as it is and not the way we have set it up. The way we have set up the dream and our place in it is to be the innocent victim of what others do to us – believing this is the cause of why we are feeling the anger, or whatever negative emotion that arises. Therefore, from this perspective the way to solve the problem involves doing something in the world of time and space (this is known as magic in the course.)

So imagine right now you are dreaming in your bed at night and someone is chasing you with a knife. If you didn’t realize you were dreaming you would think your safety involves running away, taking some type of action (magic) in the dream to protect yourself. By entering the holy instant in this moment you raise your awareness to being the dreamer and therefore the need to run evaporates.

Seeing the problem as it is, is to see you pushed the awareness of loves presence out of your mind and it is the guilt over this choice that is the source of the negative emotions, and in fact the cause of the dream itself.

So the reason why entering the holy instant collapses time in the example of resolving anger is because the issue is healed instantaneously. When you remember to see that you are the dreamer, nobody has done anything to you and that you (perfect spirit) have not been affected at all. It is understood that the anger was experienced because of the choice you made in your mind – to choose the ego, and thus make the perception of the separation to be real.

So if in the instant when the anger arises (time 1) you choose to enter the holy instant you are healed (and thus at time 2) through your shift in perception. You have just saved yourself days, weeks, months or even years of clock time because you no longer have to follow the pathways of the world – talking to friends, psychologist and doing a special dance with the one who angered you.

This why entering the holy instant abolishes time – think of it as if there is someone in the projector box at the cinema and every time you choose a miracle they start deleting all the upcoming scenes because they are no longer necessary – therefore the end of the movie (awakening from the dream) will be a lot quicker!

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Christ vision – The present memory.

Posted on 05. Dec, 2011 by dreamingson.

This post carries on from the previous one – Christ vision – seeing the past in purified form. 

The only defense the holy spirit offers in its arsenal against the ego and its temptations to perceive yourself and others as sinful is the “present memory.” In a course in miracles certain phrases point to the same meaning. The “present memory” can also be substituted for other terms such as “the word of God” and “atonement”. Basically this can be summed up by the phrase – “The truth is always True.” But what is the truth you may ask?

The truth is that perfect oneness (spirit,love) can never be compromised, the separation is impossible and the world will always simply be a dreaming holding no meaning or purpose (except as a classroom to help come to this conclusion).

Remember, the holy spirit is the aspect of your mind that links you back to the awake mind, to what “Reality” is truly like beyond the curtain of illusion. Think of it this way – You are sitting in a cinema watching a movie on screen that is completely made up. Now just for a imagine that you become so identified with the main character that you actually believe you are that main actor. You would start to have emotional reactions, believing everything that is happening in the movie is actually happening to you! (By the way this is exactly the experience movie producers are trying to produce.)

Luckily though you went to watch the movie with a good friend, a friend that wasn’t hypnotized into identifying with the movie – keeping full awareness of who they and you are, while at the same time seeing the movie as just powerless images on a screen.

This is a helpful analogy to illustrate the meaning of the “present memory.” The present memory is the remembrance of the truth which is always true – your identity has nothing to do with the movie that is playing. Also that nothing has changed outside of the cinema while you have been playing another role and even though you are having a new experience the truth of your real existence is still the same.

This is the role of the holy spirit in your mind while you are asleep, dreaming you are someone and somewhere you are not – The holy spirit function is to keep the awareness of the present memory burning brightly in your mind until it is chosen. It is a memory the dreaming son took into the dream to serve as a reminder to himself that outside the time and space movie his reality is still the same. It is the reason why the outcome of salvation is as certain as God.

However what would happen if you became so identified with being in the movie on the screen that you wanted to forget your accompanying friend and the memory he holds out for you?

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Christ Vision – Seeing the past in purified form

Posted on 31. Oct, 2011 by dreamingson.

[Note - The dreaming son is you]

One of the biggest traps the ego has to keep the son of god rooted in the dream of separation is its use of memory. It will use memory to remind the son of all his sins and of those he sees in his dreams. An important aspect of memory is that it had an effect, it changed something in a negative way. This is the denial of the principal of the atonement. That the perfect oneness of the world of spirit has never been compromised.

Time and space are two of the biggest defenses the ego uses to maintain the belief in separation in the dreaming sons mind. Time is simply the egos unholy trinity – sin, guilt and fear projected out. Sin equates to the past, guilt is experienced in the present and since guilt demands punishment, the future is feared. If innocence is the condition of the Son of God then how better to convince him that he could not be himself than to show him his sinful past. And since the mind that is ruled by the ego believes it exists within that past memory then the sin must be real. If a sin is real then it can never be escaped. This means a punishment will becoming and so begins the savage search for sin in something outside of the mind. Because the ego will dictate that if someone else can be held responsible for sin then they will be punished instead. Therefore the ego instructs the only way to regain innocence (and therefore avoid punishment) is to purchase it though making someone or something else else guilty.

The ego also uses the past as a defense from avoiding the present moment decision that will end suffering. The ego councils that the reason there is suffering is because of what happened in the past. Thus the past is given reality along with the entire thought system of the ego which is simply death leading to death.  It never wants the mind of the dreaming son to realize the reason it is suffering is because of the decision for the ego itself. However, how is the dreaming son able to make a decision against the ego if he doesn’t even know he has the ability to choose something else? This is the reason that the beginning steps of awakening most often involve the mind seeking guidance outside of itself in the forms of the dream. This is because the truth that can only be found in the mind of the dreamer has been suppressed and  is therefore unavailable.

So how does the holy spirit free the dreaming son from memory? By teaching that it has never happened. However the holy spirit does not argue that it happened in the dream, but it does instruct a dream is a dream and there is no reality in them. Also it teaches the reason why  the “sinful” deed or the experienced guilt in certain memories occurred is very very simple. When that scene occurred in the dream the dreaming son was unaware of himself as the son of god. If this is the case then he must of thought he was an illusion and therefore he was under a mountain of guilt in his mind because the unconscious belief is that he killed God and now he his coming back to get him. And whatever he didn’t or didn’t do or felt was simply a way to escape the wrought you thought was coming his way.

So when you look at the past thoughts with the holy spirit (christ vision) the only thing to so is smile at it because you recognize that no sin was committed by you. There was no victim or victimizer in the memory – in fact there was no you or other in the scene to be affected. If you remain as god created you and if the separation never happened then the only truth is perfect oneness, which means you (and anybody else for that matter) have never existed outside of the mind of god. You were just dreaming and impossible dream, it was all being done by you, to you for no other reason than to convince yourself you are who you aren’t. Now you can re-member the past differently, you can remember it through christ vision – an illusion is and illusion and that the truth is always true (you are still as God created you)

So why, if it is so simple and easy to understand is it so hard to do? Because we love to identify with the ego, and thus make the dream real through sin guilt and fear – which confirms we are bodies. As long as the desire to exist in the dream is stronger than the desire to leave it entirely then no true healing (the mind remembering its identity) can occur. However the end is certain because the dreaming son can’t sleep forever, a time will come when it states “There must be a better way.” It will rather be happy that right and it will awaken and be glad.

Nothing is lost in dreaming, its just an impossible experience of individuality which can be released at any moment when the mind is ready. Until then though – Dream On!

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