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Noted ACIM author and teacher Jon Mundy interviews Rev. Tony Ponticello in this extended format. Many topics related to ACIM covered 104 min.
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A Course in Miracles says “So should it be with the dark clouds of guilt, ... Let your Guide teach you their insubstantial nature as He leads you past them, for beneath them is a world of light whereon they cast no shadows.” (OrEd.WkBk.38.2) The holiday season is upon us and for those of us in the northern hemisphere, this also means less sunlight and more darkness. Yet, if we desire it, our eternal Guide will shine away every dark cloud of guilt revealing to us our true reality of loving oneness. 22 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Dear Miracle Worker
The ego world of separation is merely a manifestation of our thoughts and beliefs. Our senses generally serve our ego mind. We see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the witnesses that merely bring to us the messages we have told our senses to go find. Within the ego’s world of separation it is a closed loop.
However we are blessed that there is more than the ego’s domain, for we have Holy Spirit.
The world Holy Spirit sees is vast and beyond the five sense, although it includes those as well. This larger seeing is called Vision. Vision is filled with spiritual intuition and sublime communication. The interconnectedness of all life is a foundational ground of being. Through our practice of ACIM we move from the ego world to the Holy Spirit world. I have experienced this movement as a gradual one for myself, a few people seem to move through faster. "By far the majority are given a slowly-evolving training program in which as many previous mistakes as possible are corrected." (OrEd.Mn.9.1)
It is unfortunate that many students have a difficult time cultivating the patience to walk this slowly evolving path. They tend to fool themselves and believe they surely are one of the few who had the “express lane” to revelation and enlightenment. They want to feel the spiritual high.
Desire for peak transcendent experiences is alluring – but it is not what ACIM is about. It is “A Course in Miracles” not a “A Course in Revelation.” These peak experiences may be tempting, but it just reminds me of the drug culture of the '60s and '70s. At its best the highs were short and the crashes were frequently brutal. Approaching ACIM for the quick bliss experience frequently only results in “crash and burn.”
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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #312, Nov. 9 2021)
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I love that A Course in Miracles always tells us that salvation is now, and not in the imagined future. We do not have to wait to connect with our unlimited power. We can sit in that presence now and everyday. Actually connecting to that unlimited energy multiple times every day is a GREAT idea. The thought that this power is a future achievement is actually meaningless since there in no future. "Be not content with future happiness. It has no meaning and is not your just reward. For you have cause for freedom now." (OrEd.Tx.26.76) Many ACIM students are resistant by the idea of this much power available to them now, but confronting this resistance is a large part of the ACIM teaching. This is why sitting in our unlimited power as often as possible is such a great idea. Join me right now and on Sunday too. "Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else." (OrEd.WkBk.38.2) 24 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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I have frequently talked about how while peace is not always in my awareness, a positive and profound perception of my purpose in life always is. Many years ago when asked at a Sunday Gathering what I believed the greatest gift ACIM had given to me was, I said (without thinking about it at all) “Purpose.” There is a passage in ACIM that has always resonated powerfully with me. "Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world?" (OrEd.WkBk.122.1) That describes exactly how I constantly feel. I have a certainty of purpose that transcends the world. Nothing going on in the world ever makes even a dent in my positive, profound, perception of purpose. 26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Dear Miracle Worker
I am grateful for many things in life. Having ACIM is maybe the greatest thing. However I know that this is not by chance. It was no accident that I found the Course. "No accident nor chance is possible within the universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing." (OrEd.Tx.21.7) It was on purpose.
When I muse about the blessings ACIM has brought me, it is always purpose that feels the most profound, the most beneficial. I acknowledge that it is different for different people. Some might be more grateful for peace, perhaps some for love. Maybe some are bold enough to say and declare health. But for me, purpose has always been the clearest and the one that has brought me the most.
When I was a teen and in my twenties, I wondered what my life was going to be about. I surely wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to do things that made the world a “better” place. Noted philosopher and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children … to leave the world a better place … to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Transcendentalists believe in the basic goodness of humans and nature. ACIM also believes in the basic goodness of people and that the world itself reflects Divine goodness when we perceive it properly.
Emerson wanted to leave the world a better place. Through his writings he did. Rev. Tony’s Divine purpose is to transform and heal the world – to make it a “better” place. I’m not sure I want to “leave” it, per se. (lol) but I think you all know what I mean.
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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #310, Oct. 27 2021)
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The world has bamboozled us. That’s my new favorite word. It means, "thrown into a state of confusion or bewilderment especially by being deliberately fooled or misled.” The world is deliberately fooling and misleading us. It is not a random or capricious thing. It is by ego design. The world is throwing us into chaos and confusion so that we rely more and more on the ego for guidance. Thus the bamboozle strengthens, "... you believe that misery is happiness. This has so confused you that you have undertaken to learn to do what you can never do, believing that unless you learn it, you will not be happy." (OrEd.Tx.13.54) We must free ourselves from this confusion in order to take our rightful place in The Great Awakening. Without us taking our place, we will never truly be awake ourselves – which means we will never be truly happy. The bamboozle has to end. 20 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Dear Miracle Workers,
If you started the lessons at the 1st of the year then you’re well into the second half of the Workbook. For whatever reason, I am less vigilant with these later lessons. Finally admitting that to myself, I clearly got the message to start them over. I mention this because I didn’t chastise myself for not being vigilant nor did I feel compelled to finish the lessons like they’re a homework assignment. I was just being completely honest. I let go of my concern and obligation to finish the lessons and remembered that "There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind." (OrEd.WkBk.5.6)
I have happily started over. I seem to need the early clear cut ideas to remind me that getting guidance is easy all the time. I sometimes forget that. The goal is to ask and then to accept the guidance. The goal is not to finish the lessons.
“I am not worried about [ finishing the lessons ] for the reason I think.” (OrEd.WkBk.5.11) I am willing to see things differently. In that willingness I am free.
Of course we are supposed to use all the lessons all the time in order to free our minds, but I’ve had a lot going on lately with caring for my elderly father, renovating my house, and the sudden seeming death of a friend. So, getting clear guidance came as a relief.
“There is another way of looking at this.” (OrEd.WkBk.33.4) "My happiness and my function are one." (OrEd.WkBk.66) "Only God's plan for salvation will work." (OrEd.WkBk.71)
These ideas relieve my mind from all effort and remind me to keep it simple. I want to be happy, and I recognize that I’ve been miserable. Thank God for the lessons. They have brought me back to my one function.
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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #309, Oct. 19 2021)
Dear Miracle Workers,
Retraining the mind to conceptualize ourselves as unlimited in power is not as difficult as people think. That’s because it is actually how we are. We are just opening up to the truth. It is not something we have to learn, or manifest. It is simply something we have to remember.
Lesson #38 is a quick restorative. It states clearly, "There is nothing my holiness cannot do." (OrEd.WkBk.38) I love this lesson and will frequently open to it and read the first two paragraphs anytime I want to feel my power. It is great having a spiritual discipline that reminds us how absolutely powerful we are. "Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance, and limits of any kind." (OrEd.WkBk.38.1) We can heal anything and everything.
Remember that nuclear holocaust that wiped out all human life on the planet in the 1970s? “No?” Oh right – that’s because we healed it. I told you it was easy!
Being able to heal everything comes from the dawning realization that everything is you! There is nothing outside you. This is clearly stated. "There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is [in that] realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you." (OrEd.Tx.18.49) I've learned it! I affirm this every Sunday Gathering when I lead the meditation. I expand our awareness to fill the entire universe and declare, "There is no place where we are not. There is no time when we are not. We are everywhere and every when." When we claim that energy and identity, "Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else." (OrEd.Tx.38.2)
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(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #308, Oct. 12 2021)
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Thinking of the world as a school is a common New Age idea. The idea has a lot of merit. However ACIM takes this idea and gives it a twist. Our proper role in this metaphor is not that of the perpetual student. Our proper role is that of the teacher. “Yes” we do go through a student training, but that training in ACIM is conceptualized as being only a year. After that we are supposed to consider that we are now "Teachers of God,” and we should be assuming our role as living demonstrations of the Divinely realized. Are we doing that? Let’s not get stuck in the role of the perpetual student. 24 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Dear Miracle Workers,
Sometimes I feel like my life becomes a list of things to get done. One deadline after another puts me in an ego state of mind. I don’t like it -- it breeds guilt and anxiety. Despite our clear discomfort in this state of mind the ego counsels more busyness or compulsions that keep us a prisoner of it’s illusions. The Course says this about the ego:
"The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you try, what means you use and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you would be saved. ²Until you have accepted this, you will attempt an endless list of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before, and failing as the next one surely will." (FIP.WkBk.96.2:1-2)
When we get caught up in the ego’s muck, it's time to remember Truth. Recall that we are climbing the ladder away from the ego's despondent thought system. All we are asked to do is to make the choice for another teacher. Turn to Jesus or the Holy Spirit (or whatever symbol of God that works for you) and ask for a miracle. For me, this usually includes the decision to STOP my thinking with the ego. I have to be emphatic. I am now ready to forgive and receive a miracle in collaboration with Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it’s easier than others, but it always works with our persistence and faith. Choose again beloved spirits, and return to the peace of God!
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #307, Oct. 5 2021)
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"A magician is practiced in the art of sensory deception. They prey upon the limitations of our perception and cause us to think we see or perceive realities that are not there. The Ego thought system is like the magician. It has created a massive cult following around the religion of judgment. Judgment is a fixed belief about the world we perceive and holding onto to these beliefs despite the psychological and societal devastation they may cause. We know that our individual human experience often shows us this. We condemn instead of forgive the other or the human systems. The healing teaching of A Course in Miracles provides us with a way out of the prison of judgment and condemnation. My talk will focus on A Course in Miracles principles that can free us return us to the peace and joy of God's Love." 26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Dear Miracle Workers,
Want to be a channel or a remote viewer? I never thought I’d be able to do that, until someone taught me. I was shocked to find I could see and describe people I'd never met. But, as cool as it is, that ability is like the children's toys Jesus talks about. An even greater power is available to us; the power He is trying to teach us to access.
When we play children's games, we might say, “Holy Spirit, find me a parking place.” Or, as Helen did, ask to find the perfect winter coat. Jesus called it the “Higher Shopping Service.” (CE.Tx.1.25:6) But what if you want to mend a broken heart? Or fix an argument? What if you want to have peace instead of turmoil in your life? You can. “There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.” (OrEd.WkBk.47.8)
That place is called the Holy Spirit; that part of you that remains connected to God. It’s the true You. But, because it IS You, it knows all that is in your mind. And while you may say you want one thing, if you still have attachment to something else, well…nothing will happen. Your desires will cancel each other out. But if you can give up your attachment to what you think should happen and become quiet and go within; if you can give the situation to One who is deeply connected to much more than you will ever know, something supernatural will happen - things you were never expecting, things you never thought possible. Weird things, spooky things. Opportunities open up that never before existed. People do things you never could have expected.
Yes, you really can tap into that power and set it in motion. Step right up! Amaze yourself! Amaze your friends! Amaze your family! And heal the world.
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #306, Sep. 28 2021)
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For love to reign, to rule – we have to be that love. We will never be love if we live in fear. We think defenses protect us but they only make the fear worse and and harder to uncover. "Defense is frightening. ... You think it offers safety. Yet it speaks of fear made real and terror justified. " (OrEd.WkBk.135.4) The true defense is to be in love. The true defense is to rain love over everyone and everything in your life and then be witness to the reign of love being firmly established in the world. Many are challenged by seeming dangers in their world. To them I say “Let my love rain on you, and usher in the true reign of love in the world." 21 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE
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Rev. Tony Ponticello
Rev. Peter Graham
Deb Canja
Rev. Joanie Schaeffer-Goss
Rev. Paula Carpe
Rev. Kim Wilson
