Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Patting Your Head While Rubbing Your Tummy

Remember that old game? Sitting around, say in kindergarten, and somebody asks, "Hey, can you pat your head while rubbing your tummy?"

Before long, the entire room is trying to pat their head while rubbing their tummy. What the heck does that have to do with A Course in Miracles you ask?

Well, it occurs to me that this exercise requires that we think about it. We're not wired up to automatically pat our heads while rubbing our tummies! It causes us to stop and think!

The same thing goes for A Course in Miracles. The thought system of the Holy Spirit does not necessarily come naturally, at least not at first. If it did then we wouldn't need A Course in Miracles.

In the beginning, it certainly requires that we think about it. The more we think about it and apply it to our daily lives, the more natural and automatic it becomes. I'm still in the beginning, apparently, because I still need to think about it, and think about it, and think about it...

And I'm still thinking about it!

9 comments:

  1. I was looking around inside my head yesterday... Weather was clear and I could see for miles! (I don't know of that's good or not!) I was surprised to find myself mindlessly singing a jingle in one corner and contemplating my family and recent decisions they've made in another, and then there was the most prominent which was Course related, that being that everything is predetermined or prewired. Seems Course related stuff is always in the forefront and always thought provoking. Once you get a taste for it, how can you think of anything else? I saw where my family oriented thoughts and my jingle singing could step up and take the lead whenever I thought I might need that, but the thing is I saw no need. (I'm sure next time I visit, I will find a corner where I am trying to pat my head and rub my belly at the same time!)

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  2. From DU p 92 & 93
    The Course is about the healing of your unconscious guilt by the Holy Spirit and your return to Heaven through the dynamic of forgiveness, which harnesses the tremendous power of your mind's ability to choose. As J puts it, ‘This is a course in mind training.’ And, ‘An untrained mind can accomplish nothing.

    The good news is that this spiritual path does evetually get easier.

    From DU p 157:
    One of the goals of the Course is to train your mind so that the time will come when instead of judging automatically, you will forgive automatically.

    Giddy up!

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  3. Thank you GiddyUp... I think the trip inside my head sort of showed me the choices I could make but don't... what you point out here is that maybe I should be forgiving my jingle singer and family contemplater in addition to just noticing them and refusing to let them dominate. You don't know how helpful you've been! Thanks again!

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  4. How lovely, ya'll chatting and helping each other out! I thank you dearly for all of your comments and quotes! One thing's for sure, I'm in good company!

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  5. My pleasure Anonymous person. : )

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  6. Anonymous-
    I love your original quote about the "Weather being clear and being able to see for miles".
    Thanks for writing.
    Anil
    ps. Mad Course Student - thanks for your blog - it inspired me to start writing down my thoughts (ACIM and misc) too.

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  7. Hey, you're completely welcome, and if you're writing publicly and care to share, please tell us where to find you!

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  8. The things what I write are nowhere near as readable as what you write. Besides, I find myself getting very self-concious in my writing (the blog was public on creation - I didn't really expect anyone would find it, somebody anonymous visited, and I found myself writing for them instead of me!! (:).

    So I moved it into private mode, where I can continue to write without worrying about how it looks to anyone else, even to me :)

    I wanted to get totally honest with all the thoughts buzzing in my mind, until real clarity emerged. It's been helpful.

    So with all that rambling - you perhaps get a flavor of the relatively rambling stuff/style I write in... I will take your leave for now, and many thanks again for the inspiration.

    ps. Giddyupmikey - I really like your blog too. That's how I found this blog --- Anil

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  9. Writing privately is very helpful too! I have notebook upon notebook full of letters to Jesus that I started writing when I became a student of A Course in Miracles! Those diaries have been extremely helpful to me in achieving clarity. Not that I'm always clear, it comes and goes and comes and goes....
    Thanks for hanging out, and I agree Giddyupmikey's blog totally rocks!

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