Arten and Pursah's take on some popular New Age concepts
At the end of my last post I mentioned that I wanted to share what Arten and Pursah have to say about certain New Age topics that so many people are 'ga-ga' over. A&P are very blunt in putting these many popular New Age concepts in their proper perspective - as well as putting the entire universe in its place! How can somebody not love these guys? They really hold back no punches! As an idealist, I was so excited to read what A&P had to say when I read DU for the first time in the spring of 2007. I'm now on my seventh reading - no such thing as too much repetition! Anyway, their message is intended for those ready to take full responsibility for their life's experiences - not always easy, especially when it feels like the world is being done to you rather than being done by you. In this post, we'll review what Arten and Pursah have to say about the following hot topics in the spiritual community: energy, consciousness, evolution, reincarnation, body-mind-spirit, karma, and 'being in the now.'
A note before I get started: the study of the aforementioned topics were once very helpful to me and were an important part of my spiritual path for many years. Without having studied that stuff, and applying it into my life, I would not have been able to go beyond them - and get to the point where I could accept Arten and Pursah's teachings as being true. I know ten years ago I would not have been able to accept A&P's teachings - as Pursah says on page 127 of DU, '.....not due to a lack of intelligence, but because of an abundance of unconscious resistance.' Fortunately, enough of my ego was undone during the years of my prior studies that I was able to accept Arten and Pursah's teachings without hesitation. But Arten and Pursah say that this path is not for everyone, or at least not for everyone all at once. So, I am certainly not putting these concepts down. But Arten and Pursah bluntly point out to us that we need to go beyond them if we want to go Home, and experience what we really are.
So, let's get started, shall we?
What about energy?
DU p 104
Energy cannot seemingly be destroyed on the level of form because it is not really energy, it is thought. Or more accurately, it is mis-thought, which will eventually be changed over to the eternal. In the meantime, there is a very simple criteria that the Course gives you to distinguish between the real and the unreal:
Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. Spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.
So the fact that energy can be changed means that by it's very nature it is untrue. It is not our intention to deflate the enthusiasm of your New Age buddies who are so ga-ga over energy. But energy is nothing. It's a waste of time, a trick, just another device for building your house upon the sand instead of on the rock. Sure, it may be a helpful idea for some people to be interested in the unseen instead of the seen. But we came to help you save time. The good news isn't that energy can be changed, the good news is that the mind that made it can be changed.
DU p 129
Try to remember that energy is not spirit - spirit being your unalterable, true reality. Energy, which changes and can be measured, exists within the domain of perception.
My note: I used to be pretty obsessed about energy myself. Arten and Pursah really cleared this whole thing up for me. They really simplify the whole process of enlightenment, while many other authors whose books I read prior to this point really complicated the hell out of it - making every single cell in the body real! Energy really is nothing! Just practice true forgiveness and the rest will take care of itself. What a relief!
What about consciousness?
DU p 129
Consciousness is yet another thing you foolishly value highly. In order to have consciousness you have to have separation. You've got to have more than one thing. You have to have something else to be conscious of. This is the beginning of the split mind. As the Course teaches in no uncertain terms:
Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego.
DU p 214
In Heaven, you don't have to think at all. In fact you are thought by God.
My note: So consciousness is not of God. Which means, the popular term, 'Christ-Consciousness' is actually an oxy-moron. Christ is of God, while consciousness represents separation from God.
What about evolution and reincarnation?
DU p 145,146
Since everything happened all at once, then doesn't that mean evolution is also an illusion, kind of a smokescreen?
Congratulations to the one who knows that. Your generation worships evolution, thinking that you're on the way to creating some kind of new, hot consciousness. You value evolution almost as much as you value energy. What is called evolution was merely the ego separating all at once by seemingly dividing and sub-dividing cells over and over again in order to make bodies and brains that appear to be more complex - and thus more impressive. Yet all bodies are the same in their unreality.
DU p 328
Some people believe reincarnation leads to the evolvement of the soul. True?
Your soul is already perfect, or otherwise it wouldn't be a soul; it would just be something you're mistaking for a soul - like your mind, which people do mistake for the soul, or a projection of your mind, which includes bodily-shaped ghostly images that people think are souls. Evolution is something that appears to happen on the level of form, but it's just a dream. Once your mind has learned all its forgiveness lessons, then it awakens to spirit or soul, and everything else is gone except Heaven. Most people think of their soul as being an individual thing because they can't help but think of themselves as individuals. When that false belief is gone, then you know that there is really only one soul - which is our unlimited oneness as spirit.
DU p 179
We should emphasize something about the subject of reincarnation. We talk about it as though it actually happens. Yet just like everything else, it's only a dream. Yes, it appears that you incarnate into a body, and your experience is that you are a body - but as we like to point out, the Course says that what you are seeing is not true.
At the end of my last post I mentioned that I wanted to share what Arten and Pursah have to say about certain New Age topics that so many people are 'ga-ga' over. A&P are very blunt in putting these many popular New Age concepts in their proper perspective - as well as putting the entire universe in its place! How can somebody not love these guys? They really hold back no punches! As an idealist, I was so excited to read what A&P had to say when I read DU for the first time in the spring of 2007. I'm now on my seventh reading - no such thing as too much repetition! Anyway, their message is intended for those ready to take full responsibility for their life's experiences - not always easy, especially when it feels like the world is being done to you rather than being done by you. In this post, we'll review what Arten and Pursah have to say about the following hot topics in the spiritual community: energy, consciousness, evolution, reincarnation, body-mind-spirit, karma, and 'being in the now.'
A note before I get started: the study of the aforementioned topics were once very helpful to me and were an important part of my spiritual path for many years. Without having studied that stuff, and applying it into my life, I would not have been able to go beyond them - and get to the point where I could accept Arten and Pursah's teachings as being true. I know ten years ago I would not have been able to accept A&P's teachings - as Pursah says on page 127 of DU, '.....not due to a lack of intelligence, but because of an abundance of unconscious resistance.' Fortunately, enough of my ego was undone during the years of my prior studies that I was able to accept Arten and Pursah's teachings without hesitation. But Arten and Pursah say that this path is not for everyone, or at least not for everyone all at once. So, I am certainly not putting these concepts down. But Arten and Pursah bluntly point out to us that we need to go beyond them if we want to go Home, and experience what we really are.
So, let's get started, shall we?
What about energy?
DU p 104
Energy cannot seemingly be destroyed on the level of form because it is not really energy, it is thought. Or more accurately, it is mis-thought, which will eventually be changed over to the eternal. In the meantime, there is a very simple criteria that the Course gives you to distinguish between the real and the unreal:
Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. Spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.
So the fact that energy can be changed means that by it's very nature it is untrue. It is not our intention to deflate the enthusiasm of your New Age buddies who are so ga-ga over energy. But energy is nothing. It's a waste of time, a trick, just another device for building your house upon the sand instead of on the rock. Sure, it may be a helpful idea for some people to be interested in the unseen instead of the seen. But we came to help you save time. The good news isn't that energy can be changed, the good news is that the mind that made it can be changed.
DU p 129
Try to remember that energy is not spirit - spirit being your unalterable, true reality. Energy, which changes and can be measured, exists within the domain of perception.
My note: I used to be pretty obsessed about energy myself. Arten and Pursah really cleared this whole thing up for me. They really simplify the whole process of enlightenment, while many other authors whose books I read prior to this point really complicated the hell out of it - making every single cell in the body real! Energy really is nothing! Just practice true forgiveness and the rest will take care of itself. What a relief!
What about consciousness?
DU p 129
Consciousness is yet another thing you foolishly value highly. In order to have consciousness you have to have separation. You've got to have more than one thing. You have to have something else to be conscious of. This is the beginning of the split mind. As the Course teaches in no uncertain terms:
Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego.
DU p 214
In Heaven, you don't have to think at all. In fact you are thought by God.
My note: So consciousness is not of God. Which means, the popular term, 'Christ-Consciousness' is actually an oxy-moron. Christ is of God, while consciousness represents separation from God.
What about evolution and reincarnation?
DU p 145,146
Since everything happened all at once, then doesn't that mean evolution is also an illusion, kind of a smokescreen?
Congratulations to the one who knows that. Your generation worships evolution, thinking that you're on the way to creating some kind of new, hot consciousness. You value evolution almost as much as you value energy. What is called evolution was merely the ego separating all at once by seemingly dividing and sub-dividing cells over and over again in order to make bodies and brains that appear to be more complex - and thus more impressive. Yet all bodies are the same in their unreality.
DU p 328
Some people believe reincarnation leads to the evolvement of the soul. True?
Your soul is already perfect, or otherwise it wouldn't be a soul; it would just be something you're mistaking for a soul - like your mind, which people do mistake for the soul, or a projection of your mind, which includes bodily-shaped ghostly images that people think are souls. Evolution is something that appears to happen on the level of form, but it's just a dream. Once your mind has learned all its forgiveness lessons, then it awakens to spirit or soul, and everything else is gone except Heaven. Most people think of their soul as being an individual thing because they can't help but think of themselves as individuals. When that false belief is gone, then you know that there is really only one soul - which is our unlimited oneness as spirit.
DU p 179
We should emphasize something about the subject of reincarnation. We talk about it as though it actually happens. Yet just like everything else, it's only a dream. Yes, it appears that you incarnate into a body, and your experience is that you are a body - but as we like to point out, the Course says that what you are seeing is not true.
What about body-mind-spirit?
DU p 76
Today, many believe in the existence of a trilogy - body, mind, and spirit. The 'balance' of all three is important in your philosophy. But you, the seemingly separated mind which makes and uses bodies, must choose between the changeless and eternal reality of spirit - which is God and His Kingdom - or the unreal and ever-changing universe of bodies - which includes anything that can be perceived, whether you appear to be in a body or not.
Are you saying that giving equal value to body, mind, and spirit actually contributes to me coming back here over and over again as a body, rather than being free?
Yes, but this doesn't mean that you should neglect your body. We're speaking of another way of looking at it.
My note: This means using the practical forms of judgment when it comes to the body. We are still gonna bathe it, dress it, feed it, and exercise it - hopefully! The point is your salvation is dependent on what's going on in your mind, while you go about living your daily life; it's not about giving up anything.
DU p 293
You may hear from those seeking balance: the balancing of body, mind, and spirit, or balancing dual forces like yin and yang, or balancing 'the force' itself. Balancing illusions is not forgiving them.
What about karma?
DU p 116
Karma is just an effect. We're going to change the cause of everything by changing the mind. The effect on the level of the physical is not something to be concerned about, because it isn't real. The real things you should be interested in are inner peace and returning to Heaven.
My note: In other words, karma is the result of the unconscious guilt in the mind. Once the guilt has been healed and removed by your forgiveness, then the so called karma no longer exists. Whatever 'bad' things you have done in the past are only karmic if you have yet to truly forgive yourself for doing them.
What about 'being in the now?'
IR, p 27
Where the practice of 'be here now' will get you is here. Sure, it will relax you, but it won't get you home. One aspect of that kind of a system is to watch your judgments. But watching your judgments is not forgiving them. And the now that is experienced is not the eternal always of Heaven, which can only be consistently experienced when the ego has been completely undone by the Holy Spirit. That requires that you do your part to forgive, and the Holy Spirit takes care of the part of the job you can't see, deep within your unconscious mind.
IR, p 193, 194
Keep in mind that we're not saying there's anything wrong with the idea of 'being in the now,' - there may be some good in focusing on the now rather than the past or the future - the quality of life would be improved. The problem is that doing so cannot remove the unconscious guilt over the original separation from God that's still hidden in the deep recesses of the mind. Because of that, it makes each experience of being in the now temporary by definition, because it fails to remove the blocks that prevent that experience from being permanent. All of which is to say that there's not just a minor difference between the approach of The Power of Now and the real power of A Course in Miracles. It's the difference between being temporarily in the now of an illusion, or being permanently in the presence of reality.
It's absolutely essential to remember that unless and until all unconscious guilt is removed from the mind, you cannot stay in the endless present on a permanent basis - it's impossible. Any attempt to remain in the now is doomed to failure without doing the work of true forgiveness. Until you've completely forgiven that which you made and projected outside of yourself, you are not forgiven in your own unconscious mind, and until you are, the cycle of birth and death cannot be broken. Being in the now does not heal your unconscious guilt and undo the ego. True forgiveness, on the other hand, removes the blocks to the awareness of love's presence that is your natural state of being, undoing the ego completely and making it possible to remain in the eternal 'always' simply because that's all that's left.
Remember, that any attempt at eternity is a nonstarter as long as there's any unconscious guilt in the mind, period. That guilt must be healed before you can permanently stay free of the past or future. And the way to undo it is not to ignore it, which is exactly what's going on when you shut off and deny the past or future. It's when you forgive the past and your concerns about the future that they are undone, and the endless present becomes truly available to you. That forgiveness always takes place now. Remember that there's no difference between forgiving the original separation at the time it appeared to happen, and forgiving it right now, for they are one and the same.
Ok, I covered everything I wanted to for this post. So what's in store for my next post? As Gary says on page 132 of DU, 'I have not a freakin' idea.' I'll come up with something. Stay tuned.
God Is
DU p 76
Today, many believe in the existence of a trilogy - body, mind, and spirit. The 'balance' of all three is important in your philosophy. But you, the seemingly separated mind which makes and uses bodies, must choose between the changeless and eternal reality of spirit - which is God and His Kingdom - or the unreal and ever-changing universe of bodies - which includes anything that can be perceived, whether you appear to be in a body or not.
Are you saying that giving equal value to body, mind, and spirit actually contributes to me coming back here over and over again as a body, rather than being free?
Yes, but this doesn't mean that you should neglect your body. We're speaking of another way of looking at it.
My note: This means using the practical forms of judgment when it comes to the body. We are still gonna bathe it, dress it, feed it, and exercise it - hopefully! The point is your salvation is dependent on what's going on in your mind, while you go about living your daily life; it's not about giving up anything.
DU p 293
You may hear from those seeking balance: the balancing of body, mind, and spirit, or balancing dual forces like yin and yang, or balancing 'the force' itself. Balancing illusions is not forgiving them.
What about karma?
DU p 116
Karma is just an effect. We're going to change the cause of everything by changing the mind. The effect on the level of the physical is not something to be concerned about, because it isn't real. The real things you should be interested in are inner peace and returning to Heaven.
My note: In other words, karma is the result of the unconscious guilt in the mind. Once the guilt has been healed and removed by your forgiveness, then the so called karma no longer exists. Whatever 'bad' things you have done in the past are only karmic if you have yet to truly forgive yourself for doing them.
What about 'being in the now?'
IR, p 27
Where the practice of 'be here now' will get you is here. Sure, it will relax you, but it won't get you home. One aspect of that kind of a system is to watch your judgments. But watching your judgments is not forgiving them. And the now that is experienced is not the eternal always of Heaven, which can only be consistently experienced when the ego has been completely undone by the Holy Spirit. That requires that you do your part to forgive, and the Holy Spirit takes care of the part of the job you can't see, deep within your unconscious mind.
IR, p 193, 194
Keep in mind that we're not saying there's anything wrong with the idea of 'being in the now,' - there may be some good in focusing on the now rather than the past or the future - the quality of life would be improved. The problem is that doing so cannot remove the unconscious guilt over the original separation from God that's still hidden in the deep recesses of the mind. Because of that, it makes each experience of being in the now temporary by definition, because it fails to remove the blocks that prevent that experience from being permanent. All of which is to say that there's not just a minor difference between the approach of The Power of Now and the real power of A Course in Miracles. It's the difference between being temporarily in the now of an illusion, or being permanently in the presence of reality.
It's absolutely essential to remember that unless and until all unconscious guilt is removed from the mind, you cannot stay in the endless present on a permanent basis - it's impossible. Any attempt to remain in the now is doomed to failure without doing the work of true forgiveness. Until you've completely forgiven that which you made and projected outside of yourself, you are not forgiven in your own unconscious mind, and until you are, the cycle of birth and death cannot be broken. Being in the now does not heal your unconscious guilt and undo the ego. True forgiveness, on the other hand, removes the blocks to the awareness of love's presence that is your natural state of being, undoing the ego completely and making it possible to remain in the eternal 'always' simply because that's all that's left.
Remember, that any attempt at eternity is a nonstarter as long as there's any unconscious guilt in the mind, period. That guilt must be healed before you can permanently stay free of the past or future. And the way to undo it is not to ignore it, which is exactly what's going on when you shut off and deny the past or future. It's when you forgive the past and your concerns about the future that they are undone, and the endless present becomes truly available to you. That forgiveness always takes place now. Remember that there's no difference between forgiving the original separation at the time it appeared to happen, and forgiving it right now, for they are one and the same.
Ok, I covered everything I wanted to for this post. So what's in store for my next post? As Gary says on page 132 of DU, 'I have not a freakin' idea.' I'll come up with something. Stay tuned.
God Is
Posts
4 comments:
Great read!
Hi Mike,
I found your blog on the DU site. I am also a DU, IR, and Course student. I enjoyed your stuff. I also have a blog that you can visit if you wish. Have you read "The Impersonal Life". Very enlightening for a short work written in the forties.
http://truwealth4u.org
Great summary, once again, MikeyMIke. Giddy up!
I like how you take Gary's writings (from Arten and Pursah's wisdom) and concentrate them into these mini-Gary workshops. Gary quickies, if you will.
Great reminder food for any Course student!
former new age addict
Post a Comment