Tag: Afrikaanse spiritualiteit

Lesson 14 - God did not create a meaningless world.

1. The idea for today is, of course, the reason why a meaningless world is impossible. ²What God did not create does not exist. ³And everything that does exist exists as He created it. ⁴The world you see has nothing to do with reality. ⁵It is of your own making, and it does not exist.

2. The exercises for today are to be practiced with eyes closed throughout. ²The mind-searching period should be short, a minute at most. ³Do not have more than three practice periods with today’s idea unless you find them comfortable. ⁴If you do, it will be because you really understand what they are for.

3. The idea for today is another step in learning to let go the thoughts that you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. ²The early steps in this exchange, which can truly be called salvation, can be quite difficult and even quite painful. ³Some of them will lead you directly into fear. ⁴You will not be left there. ⁵You will go far beyond it. ⁶Our direction is toward perfect safety and perfect peace.

4. With eyes closed, think of all the horrors in the world that cross your mind. ²Name each one as it occurs to you, and then deny its reality. ³God did not create it, and so it is not real. ⁴Say, for example:

⁵God did not create that war, and so it is not real.

⁶God did not create that airplane crash, and so it is not real.

⁷God did not create that disaster [specify], and so it is not real.

5. Suitable subjects for the application of today’s idea also include anything you are afraid might happen to you, or to anyone about whom you are concerned. ²In each case, name the “disaster” quite specifically. ³Do not use general terms. ⁴For example, do not say, “God did not create illness,” but, “God did not create cancer,” or heart attacks, or whatever may arouse fear in you.

6. This is your personal repertory of horrors at which you are looking. ²These things are part of the world you see. ³Some of them are shared illusions, and others are part of your personal hell. ⁴It does not matter. ⁵What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart from His. ⁶Therefore, it has no meaning. ⁷In recognition of this fact, conclude the practice periods by repeating today’s idea:

⁸God did not create a meaningless world.

7. The idea for today can, of course, be applied to anything that disturbs you during the day, aside from the practice periods. ²Be very specific in applying it. ³Say:

⁴God did not create a meaningless world. ⁵He did not create [specify the situation which is disturbing you], and so it is not real.

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✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

This lesson comes from (A Course in Miracles). Hemelbewus presents it in Afrikaans as part of a path of inner healing and forgiveness. The translation was done with great care and dedication over several years by Henri Theron, and brings the deep spiritual teachings of the Course to Afrikaans-speaking readers.

📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org

Lesson 14: God did not create a meaningless world. (ACIM, W-14)

Lesson 13 - A meaningless world engenders fear.

1. Today’s idea is really another form of the preceding one, except that it is more specific as to the emotion aroused. ²Actually, a meaningless world is impossible. ³Nothing without meaning exists. ⁴However, it does not follow that you will not think you perceive something that has no meaning. ⁵On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you do perceive it.

2. Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. ²It represents a situation in which God and the ego “challenge” each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. ³The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. ⁴And on this alone it is correct.

3. It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear. ²If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. ³To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.

4. The exercises for today, which should be done about three or four times for not more than a minute or so at most each time, are to be practiced in a somewhat different way from the preceding ones. ²With eyes closed, repeat today’s idea to yourself. ³Then open your eyes, and look about you slowly, saying:

⁴I am looking at a meaningless world.

⁵Repeat this statement to yourself as you look about. ⁶Then close your eyes, and conclude with:

⁷A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.

5. You may find it difficult to avoid resistance, in one form or another, to this concluding statement. ²Whatever form such resistance may take, remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought because of the “vengeance” of the “enemy.” ³You are not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably dismiss it as preposterous. ⁴Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear which it may arouse.

6. This is our first attempt at stating an explicit cause and effect relationship of a kind which you are very inexperienced in recognizing. ²Do not dwell on the concluding statement, and try not even to think of it except during the practice periods. ³That will suffice at present.

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✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org

Lesson 13: A meaningless world engenders fear. (ACIM, W-13)

Lesson 8 - My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.

1. This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. ²No one really sees anything. ³He sees only his thoughts projected outward. ⁴The mind’s preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. ⁵Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. ⁶It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.

2. The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. ²To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. ³Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. ⁴The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.

3. The purpose of the exercises for today is to begin to train your mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all. ²While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. ³Recognizing that your mind has been merely blank, rather than believing that it is filled with real ideas, is the first step to opening the way to vision.

4. The exercises for today should be done with eyes closed. ²This is because you actually cannot see anything, and it is easier to recognize that no matter how vividly you may picture a thought, you are not seeing anything. ³With as little investment as possible, search your mind for the usual minute or so, merely noting the thoughts you find there. ⁴Name each one by the central figure or theme it contains, and pass on to the next. ⁵Introduce the practice period by saying:

⁶I seem to be thinking about _________.

5. Then name each of your thoughts specifically, for example:

²I seem to be thinking about [name of a person], about [name of an object], about [name of an emotion],

and so on, concluding at the end of the mind-searching period with:

³But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.

6. This can be done four or five times during the day, unless you find it irritates you. ²If you find it trying, three or four times is sufficient. ³You might find it helpful, however, to include your irritation, or any emotion that the idea for today may induce, in the mind searching itself.

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✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

This lesson comes from (A Course in Miracles). Hemelbewus presents it in Afrikaans as part of a path of inner healing and forgiveness. The translation was done with great care and dedication over several years by Henri Theron, and brings the deep spiritual teachings of the Course to Afrikaans-speaking readers.

📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org

Lesson 8: My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. (ACIM, W-8)

Lesson 5 - I am never upset for the reason I think.

1. This idea, like the preceding one, can be used with any person, situation or event you think is causing you pain. ²Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you. ³The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. ⁴This is not true. ⁵However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. ⁶Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are all the same.

2. When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset in any form, use both the name of the form in which you see the upset, and the cause which you ascribe to it. ²For example:

³I am not angry at _________ for the reason I think.

⁴I am not afraid of _________ for the reason I think.

3. But again, this should not be substituted for practice periods in which you first search your mind for “sources” of upset in which you believe, and forms of upset which you think result.

4. In these exercises, more than in the preceding ones, you may find it hard to be indiscriminate, and to avoid giving greater weight to some subjects than to others. ²It might help to precede the exercises with the statement:

³There are no small upsets. ⁴Hulle is almal ewe steurend vir my innerlike vrede.

5. Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of how much or how little you think it is doing so.

6. You may also find yourself less willing to apply today’s idea to some perceived sources of upset than to others. ²If this occurs, think first of this:

³I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. ⁴Vir die doel van hierdie oefeninge sal ek hulle dus almal as dieselfde beskou.

7. Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so, and try to identify a number of different forms of upset that are disturbing you, regardless of the relative importance you may give them. ²Apply the idea for today to each of them, using the name of both the source of the upset as you perceive it, and of the feeling as you experience it. ³Further examples are:

⁴I am not worried about _________ for the reason I think.

⁵I am not depressed about _________ for the reason I think.

⁶Three or four times during the day is enough.

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✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

This lesson comes from (A Course in Miracles). Hemelbewus presents it in Afrikaans as part of a path of inner healing and forgiveness. The translation was done with great care and dedication over several years by Henri Theron, and brings the deep spiritual teachings of the Course to Afrikaans-speaking readers.

📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org

Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think. (ACIM, W-5)

Lesson 4 - These thoughts do not mean anything.

These thoughts do not mean anything.

They are like the things I see in this room

(on this street, from this window, in this place).

1. Unlike the preceding ones, these exercises do not begin with the idea for the day. ²In these practice periods, begin with noting the thoughts that are crossing your mind for about a minute. ³Then apply the idea to them. ⁴If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects for the idea. ⁵Do not, however, select only the thoughts you think are “bad.” ⁶You will find, if you train yourself to look at your thoughts, that they represent such a mixture that, in a sense, none of them can be called “good” or “bad.” ⁷This is why they do not mean anything.

2. In selecting the subjects for the application of today’s idea, the usual specificity is required. ²Do not be afraid to use “good” thoughts as well as “bad.” ³None of them represents your real thoughts, which are being covered up by them. ⁴The “good” ones are but shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult. ⁵The “bad” ones are blocks to sight, and make seeing impossible. ⁶You do not want either.

3. This is a major exercise, and will be repeated from time to time in somewhat different form. ²The aim here is to train you in the first steps toward the goal of separating the meaningless from the meaningful. ³It is a first attempt in the long-range purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within. ⁴It is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what is different.

4. In using your thoughts for application of the idea for today, identify each thought by the central figure or event it contains; for example:

²This thought about _________ does not mean anything.

³It is like the things I see in this room

(on this street, and so on).

5. You can also use the idea for a particular thought that you recognize as harmful.

²This practice is useful, but is not a substitute for the more random procedures to be followed for the exercises. ³Do not, however, examine your mind for more than a minute or so. ⁴You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly preoccupied.

6. Further, since these exercises are the first of their kind, you may find the suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts particularly difficult. ²Do not repeat these exercises more than three or four times during the day. ³We will return to them later.

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✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org

Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in the place]. (ACIM, W-4)

Lesson 3 - I do not understand anything I see in this room.

I do not understand anything I see in this room

(on this street, from this window, in this place).

1. Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making distinctions of any kind. ²Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. ³Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the idea. ⁴These are not exercises in judgment. ⁵Anything is suitable if you see it. ⁶Some of the things you see may have emotionally charged meaning for you. ⁷Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.

2. The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. ²It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to be applied. ³For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.