Forum 2008

Theresa and I were travelling in North America from August 20th to September 24th, so there were few opportunities for new postings between those dates. 

We are now back from our travels and normal activity on this page has recommenced as of September 30th 2008

Mount Stewart Garden, Northern IrelandPosted below are comments and questions from visitors to this website and responses to those comments or questions, as and where appropriate.   The Forum has grown so much since it first began in early 2006 that all postings from then until the end of 2007 have now been moved to a separate page: Forum 2006-2007.

 

Your comments, questions, sharing of your own mystical experiences, are welcome, so that this Forum can be developed; all with the objective of helping ourselves and our fellow travellers on the journey Home — to Oneness with the Giver of Life, the Creator Spirit, God, ‘Papa’  — to grow in understanding of what have historically been called the ‘Mysteries.’  The only reason they have been or still are 'mysteries' is because we have placed a ‘mist around our eyes,’ preventing us from having awareness of what has always been in plain view for us all, if we desire and are willing to open our vision to see them.

 

Any comments received that are helpful to all for growing in familiarity with, understanding of, confidence in metaphysical, spiritual, mystical and esoteric realities — as the Great Desire of Jesus and all who follow him and espouse their lives to him, for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, begins to manifest itself in the Earth-life awareness of Humanity — will be used, identifying the sender by first name only, unless the sender specifically requests complete anonymity or the use of a nickname, pseudonym or other coded form of identification.  The forum will be updated as often as appropriate, indicating a date for each new posting, so readers can keep track of where they have got to in following — or contributing to — proceedings.

 

Please note that entries start with the latest postings at the top and the earliest at the bottom.

 

In order to keep this website focussed on its objectives, editorial control of content of the forum will be exercised, so that it does not become inadvertently sidetracked (a favourite pastime of ego).  You will see that some of the subjects discussed may seem to be not directly about the Kingdom of Heaven or Spiritual Reality.  The only reason we don’t already have the Kingdom of Heaven, here on Earth, is that humanity at large is deeply confused about many aspects and issues of life, causing loss of clarity about what is ‘right’ — or serviceable to our journey back to eternal reality — and what is not. 

 

The result is that we get bogged-down in ever-increasing amounts of detail, and this clouds our vision of the Way Markers for Life, what the Master Jesus calls the Principles of Life of the Father (PLFs).  The Kingdom of Heaven is not about religion or piety but about Life and the living of it in at-onement with eternal truth.  If a person is confused about the direction to travel to find inner peace — the Kingdom — and this Forum can help them to find the Way again, by pointing out the PLFs that can help them in given circumstances or details, then this is well within the objectives of the Forum.

 

As you will see, there are incoming messages and incoming messages with a response where apposite. 

 

May you be helped by them and, where motivated, contribute for the help of others, from your own revelatory experiences or messages.

 

Author's signature

 

Brian Longhurst

 

 

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The following exchange was posted on November 28th 2008
 

Hi Brian, trusting all is well with you both.  After reading latest Message of Encouragement, all I can say is amen and wow; it gets better and better, and in the words of Alice 'curiouser and curiouser.'   This is awesome.

 

However moving on to the Forum, in reading the letter from Estelle, last week, it was as if my thoughts were being dictated in what she was saying; that she and I were as one, especially regarding the references to 'communing informally.'  I know I have a lot to learn , and a long way to go, stumbling along the path on this journey propelled by GODS GRACE .

 

 May I take this opportunity in wishing you all compliments of the season.

 

your brother in Christ

Geoff .

 

Hi Geoff,

 

Thanks for this.  I read into this that you, like Estelle, are hungering and thirsting for communing fellowship with Jesus, and don't get satisfaction for that from institutionalised religion. 

 

In seeking something more meaningful, you are drawn by, but are baulking at the SMCC (Olga Park) Communion service (or anything less formal yet still as sincere, respectful, honouring, devout in the way of communing).  This, it seems clear, is, for most of us, because ingrained indoctrination from the church says no-one who is not authorised (in other words, ordained as a minister) by them, is permitted to sanctify/bless the bread and wine of the 'holy sacrament.' 

 

Nor is one permitted, by church doctrine, to administer it to oneself, or offer it for others (incarnate or excarnate). This perception causes some deeply embedded fear, inculcated by the church (who have misrepresented Jesus so comprehensively) over centuries, about such an idea, which the church would perceive as a major apostasy and heresy.

 

I understand this fear, or deep-seated reticence.  However, it seems pertinent to ask ourselves if it is either necessary or serviceable to our awakening to the truth of Eternity, which is what Jesus' GRP is all about.  The GRP is an unfolding, growing process, moving through stages.

 

The old, church order is of the second measure of meal consciousness, which is, like the first measure before it, over.  We are now in the next measure — the final measure, the fulfilment measure — in which new levels of spiritual awareness, awakening, are being outpoured upon us, for our final awakening from the dream and back into the remembrance that we are Home in Heaven, with Papa.  

 

At the start of the second measure there was great — fierce, even — resistance from the old (first measure) order of consciousness, the 'Abraham measure,'  to the then new, and revolutionary, 'Jesus measure' thinking.  That old order remained, even as the Jesus measure understanding gathered momentum and acceptance, with those who were not yet ready to go forward.  The same applies and will continue to apply as we move from the second to the third, 'Kingdom measure,' stage of the GRP.  Those who are not ready to move forward — and that means the vast majority during the early stages/centuries of the change over — will continue with their old-order practises, even if they find little or no assuaging of their appetite for spiritual sustenance therein.

 

But that is fine with Jesus, because he knows the end from the beginning, still loves those of us who hold back just as much as those who press forward, knowing we will all eventually end up fully restored to oneness in the Sonship, by the end of the third measure.  It does not matter one iota to him because he knows that time is an illusion, and the fulfilment of the GRP is already completed, finished, even as it was upon the cross, from the Eternity perspective, which is the only perspective that has any reality.  He also knows that from a temporal, illusory perspective, the awakening moves forward, on step at a time, increasing inexorably from one generation, one act to the next, 'till the whole is leavened.' 

 

May I lovingly, caringly suggest that you re-read chapter 3 of SFGS, giving particular attention to paragraphs 30 and 31, which are pasted here for reference, and I have underlined some parts that are of particular pertinence in this exchange of messages between us: 

30But the central purpose and objective of the ritual in which the Teacher instructed her was that it was to be an exercise in unifying the focus of the soul, mind and body of the communicant in an act of attunement with the mind and spirit of the living Jesus.  The words of the ritual were assembled mostly from the words of King David (Psalms), Isaiah, Jesus, Paul and John of Patmos and linked into a cohesive, structured format by words given by the Teacher during this out-of-the-body instruction.  There were also inspirational hymns included to add to the conduciveness of getting on a spiritually attuned wavelength. 

 

31The ritual was designed to enable the communicant to gradually ascend to a place of refined, uplifted attunement and then to have a period of silent communion of hearts, minds and souls with the living Jesus.  This is to develop the faculty — dormant in most souls who have become so engaged in the ‘sojourning in time’ part of their lives that their physical and spiritual lives are not in a resonant state of peace, harmony and balance with each other — of entering into the ‘Within’ part of their mind, where they will have awareness of and fellowship with the living Jesus.  This will bring enlightenment and illumination of the eternal realities, of which Jesus is Master, for the uplifting of all who truly seek after God and earnestly desire the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. 

May I also recommend (if you are sincerely seeking such communion fellowship with Jesus, which I believe you are), that you read/study the instructions for setting up a home altar and practising communion, as set out here:   http://www.members.shaw.ca/communion/instructions.htm

 

As indicated on various (well, numerous!) occasions in the MoEs, the Forum and elsewhere on the HTG website, fear is ego's set piece for keeping us from the truth, keeping us from finding/returning to inner peace; yet ego, the church, and any and every other non-Kingdomly being, device, structure only has as much power over us as we ascribe to them.  In other words, in truth, they have no actual power over us at all, and all we have to do is ask Big Me/Holy Spirit/ Jesus to help us to open our eyes to this.  From previous exchanges between us over the last couple of years, I believe you are fully aware of that.

 

One step at a time is the best way — indeed, ultimately, the only way to go forward.  After more than 40 years, I am still impatient; with myself and with others, for us all to return Home, together.  Forgive me my impatience, my eagerness to be pressing forward, now that our Goal heaves into view!

 

Love and blessings, always,

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on November 20th 2008

Wow! Brian  This week’s MoE is awesome (well, they are most weeks, anyway) but the communings you shared with Jesus and Papa have really blown me away.  I assure you, they are blowing me away, too, Estelle. Almost everything about them is just so reassuring, comfortable, natural, spontaneous, unrehearsed – what else can I say?  This, I am in no doubt, is how it really is in the Realms of Light (Heaven), is destined to be here in time and place, and such is busting out all over.  All the old formal, rote stuff is on the way out.  Of course it will take a few more generations before it is all gone, but the writing is on the wall.  

 

I want this, I crave it, I am hungry for it.  You are one lucky, fortunate, blessed guy.  You know what I am going to say here, don’t you!  It is fully available to ‘all who will.’  There is nothing different, unusual, exceptional about me.  This is not some phoney, false modesty; according to Jesus, we, the fragments of the Sonship, are all the same, even though we appear to be functioning in many forms or guises.  Those are diversions, to distract us from the truth, that in the eternal reality, we are but one: Papa’s Son (gender differentiation is not applicable and does not exist in Eternity, because there is no separation).  The differences will all fall away as we emerge into the light of truth and remember who we are.

 

I have a couple of points to ask you about.  I have often looked at Olga Park’s communion website, and resonate strongly with pretty much all of it, yet somehow I baulk at setting up the altar and running through the procedure of the communion.  Ego, pulling many strings all at once, here.  It’s hard to put a finger on the actual reasons for this reticence, but I guess it has something to do with ego putting on the brake, Affirmative but also a feeling that I am assuming the authority to do what only ordained preachers have been authorized to do previously. Just how ego has it arranged.  I bet a pound to a penny Jesus didn’t go to seminary, and wasn’t ordained by any earthly organisation.  Such only have the authority over us that any of us ascribe to them.  That so-called authority has no place in the Kingdom, so we all know where that will end up: nowhere.   

 

Maybe there is a tinge of guilt, a sense of unworthiness, of presumptuousness; you know… ‘Who are you, Tellie, to assume this role of self-authorizing priestly activity?’ I believe this is adequately covered above, though I fully understand how you feel; we are all encumbered with centuries of the hold over us exerted by religion.  Religion is about fear, control, guilt, judgement, temporal considerations.  Spirituality, on the other hand, is about love, freedom, innocence, relinquishment of judgement and seeing only the face of Christ in all our brothers in the Sonship, including our Self, regardless of outer (illusory) appearances to the contrary, and Eternity.  

 

That word, by the way, ‘Eternity’ is simply another word for Heaven.  Some, who may have seen through religion, may not resonate with the word ‘Heaven’ because of its religious connections, but ‘Eternity’ is less likely to get people wary.  Since, however, they mean the same thing, what the heck!?  

 

Okay, so there is nobody else involved, I am not taking a collection, so don’t have to ‘perform’ up to any standard that the world will judge, but still, something inside me is feeling less than comfortable. See my next comment, below.

 

Then you spring on us this ‘less formal, yet still sincere and meaningful’ format for communing and that really pushes my buttons.  And Jesus and Papa are so ‘every day’ in their replies, their mode of  bringing to you such loving, yet amazing, inspiring, revelatory stuff.  I just love, love, love it and want to know what you think about me communing this way.  Here, I copy Jesus’ words to me in response to that matter:

 

Go with your innermost, uppermost feelings; they will guide you well.  The important thing, as well you now know, is not to get sidetracked, distracted, from your birth vision.

 

        I mean, you are one cool dude, in spite of your age, and being a Brit and all (no offence!) absolutely none taken; besides, I find the idea of being one cool dude quite fun so I really value your input, based on most of what I have read in the Forum page.  What Jesus says here really says it all:  Go with your innermost, uppermost feelings; they will guide you well.  There are no cosmic laws or rules preventing any and all of us communing in this relaxed, informal manner.  Informal does not mean disrespectful or dishonouring.  The factor that will affect the success or otherwise of your – or anyone’s – communing is sincerity of desire, or FTOC.  Your sincerity seems self-evident, or you would not have sent this message. 

 

FTOC is another matter, and can be alternatively described as ‘stick-at-it-iveness’ as they say in Yorkshire.  If you have ‘stick-at-it-iveness’ the fruitfulness will follow.  But for me, this has not been a quick fix, a 5-minute job.  It has taken steadfast, one-pointed commitment, based on knowing beyond all doubt that this was what I wanted (Jesus as my guide to Eternity, in a nutshell).  Few there are who have that ‘stick-at-it-iveness.’  Papa knows them all.  If you are one, then I rejoice with and for you, along with all the Halls of Heaven. 

 

Of one thing you can be sure: Papa hears us always and answers our earnest, heartfelt prayers FLI.  Whether we hear His reply depends on how attuned we are to Him, and that takes focus. Serious focus.  Many acts of focus.  But then, time is but an illusion☺

 

Then there is all that stuff about you and Jesus hanging out together for eons.  What are you trying to do here, shock us all to death!  Cosmic, it is!  Jesus is not seeking adulation, and I hope I am not either.  It is a big weapon in ego’s armoury.  There are no shortages of such weapons, and like chocolate, some are hard to ignore; they get inside our head and can turn it away from our birth vision.  As he says: But that is of no import, other than its serviceability in preparing you for all that matters, which is NOW.

 

But the greatest of all is what Papa told you about blasphemy:  When you deny your Self, you deny Me.  This is your only blasphemy.  I had to take a walk when I read that bit, to try to get my pulse to ease off a bit.  This turns everything on its head, big time. I went all woozy, twitchy, excited as hell.  Well, that’s not a good description, but you know what I mean.  I have read and reread that quite a few times and it’s flying around in my head.  Wow! is the only response I can think of too, so you were right on there. 

 

It is one of those out-of-the-blue items that causes one to be thankful if there is a chair handy.  I shall be pondering it for a very long while.  There are several references to blasphemy in ACIM, chapter 10, section V.  I had read that section a few times but not really taken on board the depth of meaning.  This has changed all that forever, and taken my attitude toward my brothers (and me) on a rapid journey forward toward Home.  I hope it may do the same for you, and many others who may read this.

 

Thanks, Bri, for all this far out stuff.  I hope you are going to keep this up.  All the while Big Me keeps inspiring me.

 

Peace,     received with grateful thanks, and returned, lovingly, with interest,

 

Estelle     Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on November 14th 2008

 

Hi Brian,

 

I not long ago have come to your HTG website.  It is much enthralling to read SFGS. It is one terrific adventure with Jesus.  How fantastic that is?  Your boyhood farm experiences when you did go away into the woods and commune with the Universal Life Force, or Papa, as you say, described so good in chapter 1, even that you did not knew what it was meaning at the time, say that you did came here on a mission for the Kingdom.

 

I did very much loved  also the vignette From breaking rocks to breaking bread, and The Master in bedrock hell fastening the escape ladder to the floor.  And also have I love chapter 11 where you did walk with Jesus to the Holy of Holies and he has morphed into a golden portal.  But when I did get to your description of what was inside this really has made for me a big problem.  I mean, how it can be the Holy of Holies an Edwardian English parlour?  All the rest it was really good for me and I was captived from the experience and your lovely telling of the details.  But that has made me to baulk very much.  How can someone from Germany, China, or Peru, or almost anywhere belief it like that? 

 

Better for no description than to tell readers from many places to belief that description?  I mean, this is Holy of Holies, for goodness sake (as you say), the most holy place to mans mind, and it is a parlour for English afternoon tea; something only Britishers could know.

 

Sorry I am so critical, but is a valid point of view from foreigners like me.  Please give to me some word from you that will restore me fully in belief to what you are saying.

 

Best greetings to you,

 

Siegfried

 

 

Hi Siegfried,

 

I am so grateful that you have raised this interesting point, which has been on my mind since I first wrote the description of the interior of the Holy of Holies.  I agonised for quite a while about whether to include it, but finally decided that as this was what I saw/experienced, it would not seem right to either exclude it or alter it.  For a start, to what would I alter it?  I hadn’t the faintest idea how else it might appear; and also, to give no description would have been a blatantly inappropriate blank in the narrative. And I certainly did not wish to fabricate something I had not experienced.

 

So, I thought about why Papa had shown me what He showed me, when it could have been something immeasurably more… what, celestial?  As soon as I started to ask Why, the answer came in, and was so entirely obvious that I realised it was appropriate to include it just as I experienced it.

 

Papa loves us, unconditionally, just as we are (or believe ourself to be, in this illusory dream world), whoever and wherever we seem to be; whatever culture, background we appear to be from.  His only concern is our wellbeing, our comfort, our happiness.  In the time of the Exodus, 3,500 years ago, people were fearful of and superstitious about God, and perceived that if they entered the Holy of Holies of the wilderness tabernacle (a mobile temple, in the form of a tent, the design of which was given to Moses by God), or subsequently, its stone counterpart in Jerusalem, other than by divine dispensation, they would be killed by God. 

 

But the GRP moves on, and it is our destiny to be restored to oneness in Papa, in love and peace (which must include comfortableness, inner peace, being at rest in our minds, free from fear).  How can we be in that state of mind if we find ourself, at Papa’s invitation, in a place with which we are unfamiliar, uncertain, trepidatious?

 

Well, as you rightly observe, I am British.  My childhood memories of visits to my grandparents’ home were that this was very much an Edwardian setting, and those visits were always happy, filled with expectation of being loved, cherished, given sumptuous afternoon teas, with lots of sandwiches, cakes, jam and cream scones and all manner of other goodies.  Those create powerful memories in the mind of a young, impressionable boy, not just at the conscious level but perhaps also at the deeper, unconscious level.  I felt welcome, safe, a sense of timelessness there; that there was nothing threatening. 

 

Is that not exactly how Papa wanted me to feel from the moment of entry into the Holy of Holies; a sense of comfortableness, freedom from uncertainty, doubt, threat; a sense of familiarity, that I was now at Home, where I belonged?  After all, according to our littleness mind, entering into the presence of the Almighty is not something one does every day, and most of us have a great sense of foreboding at the prospect of it one day happening to us; a day when we will be judged and our fate for all eternity determined.  So for a Brit, with my background, such a setting was entirely fitting, and there was never a moment of unease or disquiet. 

 

That is Papa’s desire for us all.  For that reason alone, I have no doubt that for a person from an entirely different cultural background being welcomed into the Holy of Holies by Papa, He will create a setting with which they will feel equally at Home and at ease.  That is how it is in Heaven; that is how it is and will be for us all when we are restored to oneness in Him there.

 

That was my objective in including the description of my experience of entering in.  I have often pondered why the experience (or at least, my recollection of it) ended within a few moments of entering (and before I had a chance to tuck in to the banquet feast so perfectly and lovingly prepared for me!)  It suddenly, now, occurs to me that if I had been able to bring back the rest of the memories of such an indescribable ecstasy, there is no way I would have wanted to return to ego dreamland.

 

I sincerely hope this has been a helpful explanation, and will restore you to fullness of comfortableness in the account of my adventures.  Thank you for your generosity of spirit in saying how much you have appreciated (and I trust, benefitted from) it.

 

With warmest greetings to you also, Siegfried,

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on November 13th 2008

 

Hi Brian, Watching the 60th birthday film about Prince Charles last night, I became aware of the valuable pearl dust that was scattered throughout as this camera tapestry unfolded.

 

Later in the film, in a piece in which Charles was walking in front of the camera, he threw down a complete pearl, to be picked up or trodden underfoot, (as is the way of the world) by the viewer/walkers who were following him through the film’s eye from the comfort of their armchairs. He said that the only things that really mattered in this world were Love, Compassion and Forgiveness. WOW!!  Alleluia!  

 

His life seems to have been a hard lesson to give and receive these. But as this pearl lay cupped for a nano-second in the hands of the Holy Instant, before the world closed over and it became again ‘intellectual knowledge’, I knew with a certainty, that there is no difference between a Prince and a pauper except in the content of their Dream. The re-cognition gave rise to the words “he knows” Amen to that and a feeling of belonging in the waking of people all over the world, as the GRP filters through into their sleeping consciousness. 

 

The last verse of a poem by Christmas Humphreys came into consciousness to express in some way the inexpressible feeling generated. “And a bird in the void of stillness / sang to the dying sun. / And a wild rose fell contented, / and Evensong was done.”  Peace... Love from Dorothy

 

My Dearest Dorothy,

 

I read your beautiful message and waves, surges of uplift sent me soaring to the heights of Heaven.  This was caused by both Charles's re-cognition/remembrance that Love, Compassion and Forgiveness are all that matter (surely he has been reading ACIM!!?) and also by the beautiful, majestic way you have described your experience of seeing the film.  I read your message again, this time out loud to Theresa, and again was exalted by the poetic expression in your words, as was Theresa also. 

 

How right you are about Princes and paupers.  These outward appearances are nothing in the only real context: Eternity.

 

It is without doubt that the emergence of the Kingdom awareness is breaking out in all directions, including the Royal Family.  Charles is clearly wakening, and I see signs in his older son, William, the heir to the throne after Charles, that the Kingdom reality will emerge further also through him as the GRP unfolds and progresses.

 

Thank you so much for your sharing this pearl of great price, which I deeply treasure, as I do all our exchanges, and our friendship in Christ fellowship.

 

Much love and many, many blessings,

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on November 9th 2008

 

Hi Brian. Hi Pearl, You say the Teachers colour is a deep blue. Maybe it is Indigo the colour of the third eye Chakra. I cannot profess to be an expert on colours — or chakras.  I do believe that each of us has an auric colour specific to our resonance, or spiritual awareness/wakefulness.  It could be likened to our spiritual fingerprint, or DNA, identifying us as who we are. 

 

Of course, when all colours are united as one, white is the result, and this will be the case when the GRP is completed and our perceived individuality (or brokenness, or fragmentation) is restored to oneness of the Sonship, in God.  So, white is seen as symbolising wholeness, or purity.  I associate this deep, rich blue that I see, and have for many years associated with the Teacher's life vibration, as 'Heaven' blue.  Jesus told me on July 6th 1997 that he is the Lord of the purple ray (part of that message is copied below, for reference). 

 

Purple signifies a perfect blend of blue (indigo) and red.  The use of red, blue and purple features purposefully in the instructions given by God to Moses for the design of the wilderness tabernacle, or meeting place of man with God in the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and also in the Jerusalem temple of Solomon (and subsequently, Herod the great).  Red symbolises the Earth consciousness, blue the Heaven awareness and purple the facility to function in the Earth illusion from the Heavenly awareness/reality, which, of course, Jesus did. 

 

The purpose of that faculty is only needful while we, Jesus’ brethren who perceive ourselves as separated from Papa, believe ourselves to be stuck in stuck in time and place.  When the GRP is completed there will be no further requirement for Jesus — or any of us — to function on that wavelength.  Hence what I wrote in chapter 11 of SFGS:

...The Old Testament Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place, was the innermost sanctum of the Jerusalem Temple, the design for which was given to King David by God through the mechanism of automatic writing (1 Chron. 28:19).  It was a cube, separated from the Holy Place, (also a cube, of similar dimensions to the Holy of Holies) by a thick curtain, or veil, woven in red, blue and purple cloth. 

At the moment of departure of Jesus’ soul from his body on the cross the record states that this veil was torn completely in half, thus ending forever, so the record indicates, the inaccessibility of God to man, because Jesus had bridged that gap. If that is not a cause for joyous celebration by humankind, assuredly, there cannot be one! 

 

This thing of forgiveness. I feel that it is the forgiving of ourselves for letting us think that someone "out there" is hurting us, when really they are only hurting themselves. But we insist on thinking (ego-conditioned thinking, of course) that if they say something or do something hurting that they are hurting us. Pearl, this is absolutely correct.  To this I would add that it helps us to keep this in mind, and understand how it can be possible, when we remember that there is only one of us, even though, in time and place, we appear to be many, divided, separated, like the splitting of white light into the colours of the spectrum when passed through a prism.

 

When we believe we are projecting hurt onto another, the old saying 'What goes around comes around' comes into effect.  If 'Red' sees 'Blue' as separate and tries to damage it, or cut it off, it prevents the restoration of Red (its illusory self) to wholeness, unless Blue refuses to see Red as separate, in which case the act of Blue negates the illusory act of Red, rendering it invalid, or not so.   That is where true forgiveness comes in.  I have finally come to realize this fact. Alleluia! Such a realisation is a massive going forward toward wakefulness.  I rejoice for and with you, for your going forward is a going forward of all the fragmented Sonship back into the oneness that is our true Self. 

 

Best regards. And to you also, dear Pearl,  Pearl.  Brian 

 

From July 6th 1997 Diary entry:

...No event in my Earthly life was ‘chance’ fulfilment of prophecy.  So also is the fulfilment of your birth vision because you have committed your life into my care.

Let no one say to you there is no joy in such commitment of life, for I am the Lord of the Purple Ray – the perfect blend of Earth-life and fulfilment with eternal truth and reality.  The joy of Heaven is thus yours in the Earth-life, and by no other means is this possible.  So is it with all who come to me.

Jesus, I can readily attest, is the Lord of Joy.

 

The following exchange was posted on November 6th 2008

 

Dear Brian,

 

It came across loud and clear in your MoE this week that sickness is a state of mind that perceives itself as separate from God and from what you call our ‘brethren’ in the Sonship of God; that by refusing to see our ‘brother’ as separate from ourself (in mind, not body, which, as Jesus tells us in ACIM, is an illusion)  — because, in the reality of eternity he is not separate from us — we are actually counteracting, or nullifying our brother’s perception that we are separate, because, according to what you shared from ACIM, both parties have to agree that they are separate for the separation to be operational, albeit only within the dream state.  This is telling us that it does not take both parties to refuse to acknowledge the illusory separation, but only one party.   

 

So, if I understand this correctly, if I have a broken relationship with a given person, and decide that this is keeping me from the awakening to who I really am, so wish to heal the relationship, restoring us to oneness, I practice what you call the ‘mind to mind true forgiveness communing’ with the other person.  Previously, I couldn’t get that because I thought the other person would never change her mind about me, so a one-sided desire to heal couldn’t work.  I am still not totally sure this can work.  I guess that is my ego-conditioning.

 

This is so staggering a revelation that it has totally transformed my approach to life and my ‘brethren’ – especially those with whom the relationship may be other than ideal – that I can see how this is a very real time-collapsing process for the restoration to oneness of the Sonship and the journey home to ‘Papa.’  Your message is helping me to see that I can love, bless and forgive everyone, regardless of their attitude toward me, and it really will make a difference; first for me – which is where we all have to start – and ultimately, for us all.

 

My only question now is, if I truly forgive a person who still holds a bad attitude toward me, how will they benefit?  Part of me still sees that as one-sided, leaving them where they were.  Can you help with this?

 

Thank you so much for what you are doing.  The world needs this.

 

Bless you,

 

Louise

 

 Dear Louise,

 

Brilliant!  This is indeed a staggering, world-changing revelation.  Imagine if governments and churches promulgated this awareness, how massively the collapse of time would accelerate.  This will, of course, come to pass, even though it may take longer than we might earnestly desire.  But let that not dampen the earnestness of our desire for it, because our sincere, steadfast, one-pointed desire is contributing very powerfully to the awakening process.

 

It is clear that time is an illusion, which its collapse demonstrates, and will be over by the end of the Aquarian age anyway.  Jesus tells us in ACIM that the end of time is pre-determined, and there is nothing any of us can do to alter the timing of the end of time (so to speak!)  Here are a couple of extracts from the Diary entries that cover this matter:

 

April 23 1989: 

…Those who desire the Kingdom of God’s righteous love and purity will be drawn, have no fear.  All is well.  All goes forward.  You cannot hasten the programme; it goes forward on all fronts.  Allow the power to catch you up and move you forward with it.  This is preferable to endeavouring to grab it by a loose corner and drag it forward!  Can you do this with a flower or a seed?

 January 29 1995:

…when Earth is in darkness and you wish to be one, again, with the light, and when you are passionate in your desire to shine the light of spiritual reality in the Earth-life affairs of man, to hasten an awakening… …you know, for I have assured you many times, this will not hasten the unfoldment of the programme for raising-up the children of Earth. 

Your prayers and love and attunement will help you and will help all for whom you pray, and will add to the transforming light.  But the season is pre-determined, even as are the seasons of the year.  All that you do in my name and with commitment to me and the Kingdom in your heart will contribute sunshine to the days, even though it will not change the seasons; therefore, keep on with goodwill.

  Have no fear.  Be of good cheer.  Relax and enjoy each and every day.  All is well.  Walk with me.  Talk with me.  Breathe with me.  Live with me.  Let the Kingdom envelop and surround and permeate your being.  I will expand your influence among the children of Earth.  This is possible by your commitment.  It is like a dynamo.  It creates energy and draws the little ones to the light as a magnet.  Joy be with you all.

 

‘My only question now is, if I truly forgive a person who still holds a bad attitude toward me, how will they benefit?  Part of me still sees that as one-sided, leaving them where they were.  Can you help with this?’

 The answer to this question is, this is the Holy Spirit’s (Big Me’s) job, and within the example given for practising true forgiveness in the May 28th 2008 MoE it says (I give the whole exercise for ease of reference here, but note the emboldened part):

Dear Blank I choose gladly to forgive you for all the things you have never done,

that I may freely receive the forgiveness that is rightfully mine.  

And I ask your forgiveness of me for all the things I also have never done,

that you may freely receive the forgiveness that is rightfully yours.

I give you this gift of forgiveness, via the Holy Spirit, so that, by His wisdom and timing He may keep it safe in you, and reveal it to you when He sees that you are ready/able to receive it,

and that I, also, may receive it.

 And now we are released into innocence, and join with the Holy Spirit in the Peace and joyous Oneness of the Sonship, with our beloved brother Jesus, in Papa.

 I bless you, bless you, bless you for restoration to fullness of your remembrance of who you really are.  You are Christ, pure and innocent.   Papa’s Son is guiltless and sin does not exist.  

Now are we forgiven, and free to see in each other only the face of Christ. 

NB:  This exercise should not be spoken face to face with the forgivee, unless you are fully confident that they will respond (at the Earth-mind level) positively.  This is why it is called 'Mind-to-mind true forgiveness communing.'  It bypasses the ego-mind consciousness of the forgivee, which, if it knew about the endeavour, would resist it.

 

Our job is to forgive; Big Me’s job is to outwork the process, according to His wisdom, timing and empowerment.  Because time is an illusion, it does not matter when that happens in Earth-awareness terms.  Leaving it to Him, without interfering, is a challenge for most of us, but it is good, nay, essential discipline. 

 

I hope this helps Louise. Thanks for writing.  We go forward!! J 

 

Love and many blessings, 

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on October 30th 2008

 

Dear Brian,

 

It is in no doubt that you are a strong advocate for A Course in Miracles and I have also seen numerous occasions when you have recommended Gary Renard’s books as aids to understanding ACIM.

 

I would therefore be grateful for your comments on the fact that there are those who are publicly condemning Gary (on the internet) as a fraud, saying they are convinced that Arten and Pursah are fictitious, along with the entire story he has written about them.  They also say that even if his books have contributed significantly to sales of ACIM, the fact that he has invented the whole thing casts a shadow over his credibility. 

 

I have also seen claims that Ken Wapnick has altered ACIM from its original manuscript, and that this puts a question mark over the veracity of the widely distributed ‘official’ or mainstream version.

 

Such controversies are very unsettling to those of us who are sincerely seeking after spiritual truth and struggling to increase our faith and trust in Jesus and the role of ACIM in his ‘Great Rescue Program’ as you call it.

 

Meanwhile, your sincerity and commitment are obvious, and since you do not appear to have a financial incentive behind your website, I have been unable to detect any ulterior motives in what you are doing.   For this I am deeply grateful

 

Yours respectfully,

 

Jeff

 

 

Dear Jeff,

 

I, also, have seen these attempts at discrediting Gary and Ken.

 

When I asked Big Me (Holy Spirit) for guidance in responding to your message the instant response was ‘Seek neither to defend nor to attack.’  It is from that position that I reply.

 

Jesus tells (reminds) us in ACIM that as we see others, so do we see and experience ourself, and the best way to release ourself and our brother from such a circle of judgement (that always comes back to us because we are seeing a reflection of how we appear to ourself in our brothers) is to forgive, knowing that nothing has happened and the idle dream of separation was over the instant it happened.  When we observe a brother making a mistake, we can — it could be strongly argued, should — bless them, forgive them and ask forgiveness for ourself for having misperceived them. 

 

All this is the essence of ACIM.  We will do well to ask ourself when claiming to be intimately familiar with its content, whether seeing a mote in our brother’s eye is actually causing us to place a beam in our own eye.

 

Jesus taught in parables, which are made up stories to illustrate a point.  If Gary made up a story that has captured the imagination (and held it) of millions of fragments of the Sonship, and helped them to remember who they are, and enable their progress toward wakefulness, is this a Kingdomly act?  Whether or not the events described ‘took place’ in what ACIM unequivocally describes as a dream — this world of time and place — that never happened anyway (because the Son of God is one, at home in Papa in Eternity) seems irrelevant to me.  It captured my imagination and got me hooked up with ACIM.  For this, my gratitude to Gary is unbounded.

 

And as for Ken, and the accounts of subterfuges with the manuscript of ACIM, I can only recommend the reading of Ken’s book ‘Absence from Felicity,’ which tells the story of the scribing of ACIM and the events that led to its publication. 

 

This book describes in comprehensive, candid, transparent and unimpeachable terms what happened, including how (and why) some parts — particularly in the first few chapters of the Text — were left in and others edited out.  Those that were edited out were mostly concerning personal issues between Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, and are detailed in Ken’s book in open-handed detail for all to see.  For those who take the time to read it, it can be seen that there is nothing untoward or suspicious about that.  For me, Absence from Felicity has been a most positive and insightful experience, completely eliminating any and all doubt about whether there were any inappropriate or covert activities involved.

 

It is very, very easy to get sidetracked (it has been happening since the illusory dawn of time), drawn into debate and controversy about the rights and wrongs of people, events, statements.  It is also damaging to our faith and trust to hear such conflicts.  In an ego-driven, upside-down, wrong-thinking world, in which hidden agendas and the antithesis of truth, Heaven, love, peace, goodwill prevail, finding anything or anyone who is totally, ultimately trustworthy can be cause for grave concern. 

 

Yet ACIM counsels us over and over that until we can trust our brother we cannot see the face of Christ reflected from us in him. Therefore, let us place our trust in Big Me, whom we can be certain is trustworthy; and then let us remember that we are all, in truth, Big Me.  By focusing on the Big Me reality of our fellows, littleness fades from our vision, foremost of ourself and inevitably, of them.

 

That may sound like we face a dreadful dilemma of trust but Jesus counsels us to be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove.  Being either one without the other is unserviceable, but being both serves us very well in time and place, until, at last, we waken from the dream, bringing our fellows with us.

 

In the Introduction to the last section of ACIM, ‘Clarification of Terms’ Jesus, states:

 

This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. The structure of “individual consciousness” is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the “original error” or the “original sin.” To study the error itself does not lead to correction, if you are indeed to succeed in overlooking the error. And it is just this process of overlooking at which the course aims.

All terms are potentially controversial, and those who seek controversy will find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defence against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver… 

(My italics, emboldening and underlining, for emphasis)

 

Of one thing I can be unequivocally certain:  Jesus saw in the countenance of his fellows, including Pilate, Judas, Caiaphas, only the face of Christ.  Those three were, along with all with whom he had meaningful contact, simply playing their supporting role in his drama.  Without them his objectives could not have been accomplished.  He knew that.  It was possible for him to see the face of Christ in them because he chose for it to be so, because he knew, beyond all doubt, that it was true. 

 

Do we aspire to be like Jesus?  Let us, then, follow him, desire to emulate him.  That is all he asks; that we desire.  Big Me will perform it for us.  If we are willing to allow him.  That is what surrendering our leasehold on our life is all about. Without Big Me this is impossible, because Big Me is Who We ARE.  We cannot become who we really are without engaging with who we really are.

 

Thank you for bringing up this most important point for consideration. I hope these words are helpful.  And thank you for your words of affirmation; they are deeply appreciated.

 

Peace be with you, Jeff,

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on October 23rd 2008

 

Hey, Old Bean:

 

Chuck here again.  I think I get that the holy instant is Heaven, and our oneness with it, but I’m still unclear about how to get it, or receive it.  I hear what you have been saying about desire, commitment, surrendering and all that, but nothing seems to be happening.  Any chance of some more help on this?  I really appreciate your time and trouble.  I know you must be on the right track, because I resonate so strongly with your writing.  And as for those Diary entries.  They are far out.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Chuck!

 

Good to hear from you again.  I anticipated this kind of question, from someone, so glad you have obliged.  This is really what the Forum is all about; exchanges that can, hopefully (no tax on hope!), help not just the individuals engaged in the exchanges (that includes me, ‘cos I am learning, growing, awakening by them as well; as ACIM reminds us, we learn by teaching) but any visitors to the page who are ready to receive the benefit of such exchanges for themselves also.

 

So, here goes.  When we think of surrendering our ego-leasehold on our life back into the care of its rightful owner — our Christ Self, or ‘Big Me’— it is not a five-minute exercise.  By that I mean it neither takes five minutes to achieve that surrender, nor should it be thought of as something one does for 5 minutes and then allows one's split-off ego-mind to reclaim it again and revert to our old ways of upside-down thinking.

 

Only when we are genuinely ready, in the ‘permanent’ sense of the term, to surrender our leasehold and seek the Holy Instant (henceforward I will use ‘the Holy Instant’ to mean Eternity and ‘a holy instant’ to mean a momentary, fleeting awareness of Eternity, from which we then return to our time and place consciousness) will we be in a state of receptiveness for Big Me to bring it to us. 

 

This will almost always be at a moment when we are not expecting it.  It will take us by surprise, catch us unawares.  This is the way it is with Jesus (of whom Olga Park rightly spoke as the Lord of Surprises) and Big Me.  This will demonstrate several things: a) that it is not ‘little self we,’ or ego, who are in control of the process, b) that it has nothing to do with that illusory unreality known as time (ego’s principality but not ours because our Home is Heaven), c) Big Me is not ego’s go-for, but has His own, perfect, Eternity-driven agenda that is always, without exception, ever, in our best and permanent interests.

 

Our ‘job’ is to be willing to co-operate with that agenda in absolute FTOC, relax, lean back into the loving, caring trustworthy embrace of Big Me, allowing Him to bring to us the appropriate holy instant for that moment, known by Him as being right for us. It is not a question of "calling for ‘Jeeves’ and demanding a holy instant, on the rocks, and be sharp about it."  Patience and time are not good bedfellows; ego has seen to that.  But patience and Eternity go beautifully together.  As Jesus says in ACIM, infinite patience brings immediate results. 

 

Ego will never be able to comprehend such a statement, but when we (anyone) have arrived at the place of recognition that the apparent rewards of time and place are tawdry, fleeting and deceptive, and that there are rewards, benefits that are truly priceless treasures that are our rightful inheritance, if only we are willing to receive them, then will we readily understand his words, and find them truly empowering.

 

Ego has us addicted to instant fixes, from which Big Me will wean us if we are willing to recognise that is not the way Home, and we are now ready to begin ‘the journey without distance.’  I have found it helps if we say to ourself something like ‘If I am not willing to be patient, steadfast in my one-pointed commitment to what, in the secret chambers of my heart, I know to be the path that will lead me to the truth of Eternity, and revert to ego’s agenda, when I get to the end of my sojourn in time and place there will be but one truth awaiting me: that I wasted, have lost an opportunity to go forward, to awaken, to grow, to be transformed from caterpillar into butterfly.'

 

The caterpillar knows about patience.  When it intuits it is ready, it does not simply turn into a butterfly. It knows it must first pupate, or move into its inactive stage, or pupa (chrysalis).  This is its own form of surrendering its leasehold, so that Big Me (butterfly) can take over His dwelling place once more, effect the transformation of the now acquiescent, lesser form (caterpillar/little self) into its true Self: soaring, radiant butterfly/Big Me.  Herein is a good parallel from which to learn acquiescence.  The dictionary defines acquiesce as: to accept or consent to something without protest.

 

The old Victorian adage that patience is a virtue is thus shown to have immeasurably more value than first glance may indicate.

 

If we are willing to allow Big Me’s leading to take us to that secret place in our own within (we can carry on with our outward activities, which we will start to see in a different light) wherein we may pupate, it is inevitable that we will emerge soaring and radiant.

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Peace, pardner,

 

Brian

 

The following exchange was posted on October 15th 2008

 

Brian:

 

You say, of getting on the wavelength of Jesus, Big Me (our Higher Self), the Kingdom of Heaven or Eternity:   

 

All we do to be one with that is to desire it and desire to attune with it.

 

Well, that sounds so simple, which it may be for you, but please give me a nutshell formula for doing this as I am eager to awaken to the reality of eternity, as you so succinctly put it.

 

I really like what you are doing, and the repetition is very good for my concentration, because ego keeps on tagging along, sitting on my shoulder, tugging my coat tails, nipping my ankle, filling my mind with distractions.

 

Keep up the Kingdomly work, ‘old bean’.

 

Peace,

 

Chuck

 

 

Hi Chuck,

 

So there really are Yanks called Chuck!  Wonderful.  “ ‘I Christen this child ‘Chuck’.“ I love it.  Of course, I know Chuck is a ‘short’ form of Charles, so the prospect of a vicar actually saying those words is remote.  But I digress, momentarily.

 

The keys to the Kingdom, so Papa told me on May 5th 1996, lie not in answers but in FTOC.  Here is some more of that message, to help expand on the meaning: 

 

My son, the Keys to the Kingdom lie not in answers but in faith, trust, commitment, obedience to My word.  Because you are My children I love you and you are responding, making yourself available by faith and obedience, to be drawn by My love.

…All I require of you is commitment to Me and I will fulfil your heart's desire for righteousness, justice, goodwill; let not your desire, which I know is an unquenchable flame within you, ensnare you into the belief that you must accomplish it.  I will accomplish it for you because of your desire and your commitment.  And answers shall be the result, not the cause, of your fulfilment, of your desire.

…Meanwhile, occupy according to that which is needful and My revelation shall be placed upon you as you are able to receive it.  All is well.  Rejoice and have no anxiety.

 

Additionally, I can only repeat that desire is everything.  If you (or anyone) do not have, feel, experience desire at this juncture, it will come, however many more acts it takes, because, as Papa’s beloved Son, it is deep within you — the desire to return Home to Him — so desire will, inevitably arise; it is the essential nature of our being, and however much ego wants, tries to convince us otherwise, it is unchangeably so.

 

But I can tell that you, Papa’s beloved Chuck, do have desire for the Kingdom, right now.  And it is according to the degree of desire that you – as with all of us – are, will be, drawn homewards.  My own desire, from childhood, has been all consumingly strong, though at that time I did not understand what it was.  It became meaningful by the time I met Olga Park in 1965.

 

Some may see spiritual desire as a curse, a hindrance to the enjoyment of the things of the Earthly life.  But, as Olga told me some time after our first meeting, as soon as she had closed the door upon my departure on that occasion, the Master immediately said to her, ‘Speak of me freely and unreservedly to the young man; and so that he return again and again, I will fill his heart with joy beyond the pleasures of Earth.’  I can affirm that she did, he did and I did! 

 

I have never seen spiritual desire as other than a normal, natural state of mind; a blessing of the highest magnitude, because it has kept me on the Path (or, at least, at such times as I strayed from the Path, it always drew me back because it didn’t take long before I realised the things of the Earth were unfulfilling of my inner self; ‘glistered’ but were tawdry, not gold.

 

If the degree of your desire is great, you will be more than willing to be one-pointed, steadfast in your commitment.  If your desire is less, so commensurately will be your steadfastness.  Papa knows, Big Me knows and ultimately you, in your Earthly consciousness, know.

 

So, let us work on the assumption that your desire is great, otherwise, assuredly, you would not have asked for help.  Here are my suggestions:

 

Read (or re-read) Synchronicity, for Goodness’ Sake (SFGS), noting for yourself what parts arouse a strong, resonant desire in you for spiritual enlightenment.  I suspect that chapter 3, from paragraph 8, will resonate strongly for you.  If it does, then

 

Go to the Communion website: http://www.members.shaw.ca/communion/ and study it, to see how it resonates for you.  Bear in mind that, as described in chapter 3 of SFGS, the Communion service is what I call an attunement mechanism for getting in touch with the Mind of the living Jesus.  It is, therefore, ‘Mind-to-Mind communing.’  See SFGS, chapter 4, from paragraph 20, and note particularly Jesus’ reply to my question, as recorded in paragraph 23.

 

From this you will clearly see that if Jesus is leading us back Home to Papa, it will be immeasurably helpful to get attuned to, or in communion with his Mind, so that you can hear what he has to say to you, one on one.  It is not a monologue; he will respond to your questions, doubts, fears, joys, and you do not have to hold back.  He loves you as the brother to him that you really are (even with the name Chuck!  Just kidding), and wants to help you as much as you are able/ready to be helped. 

 

This is why the Communion service is so indescribably helpful; it is as I have said: an attunement mechanism, and it works because performing the service once a week is a much-needed attunement discipline. Ego’s objective is to distract us, and it has done an extraordinarily effective job.  The Communion gets us focussed on Jesus, on the Kingdom, and shuts ego out (or at least down).  The service is following Jesus’ counsel to go alone into our closet and shut the door to pray (Mt. 6:6), and it works, just as he tells us it does.

 

Read A Course in Miracles (ACIM), which is Jesus’ up-to-date handbook for us, his brethren, on how to get Home.  It also works.  However, it is, in parts, highly esoteric, and there will be parts, particularly in the Text, that are obscure, abstruse, particularly to (relative) newcomers to the realities of spiritual truth.  Do not let that put you off; there will be many parts that are easy to understand, and will lift you up, increase your light of spiritual discernment.  Ego will try hard to dissuade you when you come to bits that you do not understand.  Ignore ego, steadfastly move on, and you will come to more parts that enlighten, inspire and uplift you.  Each time you read ACIM greater illumination will come to you.

 

You will, very likely, also benefit greatly in your understanding of ACIM by reading Gary Renard’s book The Disappearance of the Universe (DU) and also his second book, Your Immortal Reality.  Both of these books set out and clarify in layman’s terms many of the key issues of ACIM, and in particular the importance of what ACIM calls ‘true forgiveness.’

 

This may be slightly more than a nutshell, but I am more interested in providing as comprehensive a response as possible, since incomplete answers are just that and ego loves the lack of understanding they bring. I earnestly hope this will be helpful.

 

I would be most pleased to hear from you again if you have further questions.  Please keep me posted on progress.

 

Love and blessings from the Old Bean,

 

Brian