Comfort and Joy

The more popular Christmas carols these days tend to be the least explicitly Christian. ''Tis the season to be jolly', and 'We wish you a merry Christmas,' for example, celebrate the fun of Christmas, while avoiding reference to the message of spiritual comfort that is supposed to be the reason for the joy. It's party time, and that seems a good enough reason to be joyful.

An older carolling tradition brings 'tidings of comfort and joy', however; reminding us yearly that however sad, alarming or confused our lives may be, in the words of the Course we could see peace instead of this. We need not take the Gospel story of the Nativity literally to appreciate its moving promise of renewal and hope for happiness. A new kind of awareness has entered the world, a different reality has been affirmed, the possibility of spiritual awakening has been given us. Whatever particular misery or bafflement we suffer from, the birth of Christ represents a vision of release from it. These are the comfortable tidings that give us cause to celebrate. Christmas is the symbol of our own capacity for rebirth.

The comfort it offers, if we are open to it, arises from something already potential in us, from the eternal spark of truth within each of us. What we call the Christ is the only real and enduring part of us, which is why He can truly say 'Behold, I am always with you...'. The Christmas star, that in the story guides the wise men from the East to Bethlehem, is the image of a light shining in darkness, and the lesson is that if you will follow it, it will lead you out of despair.

This lovely old use of the word comfort means: be reassured, be at peace, let pain fade away, let your heart rest easy, there is no need to be afraid. This kind of comfort is not the physical and psychological comfort we associate with huge padded sofas, deep-pile carpets, cups of tea and money in the bank. Nor is it the sort of comfort that pats the underdog and dispenses praise and treats to make people (including yourself) feel better about themselves. All of these have their place, but none of them can give lasting comfort, and all of them undermine us in subtle ways even as they indulge us. The more we think that comfort means coddling the body and buttressing the personality, the more we forget to give the mind its only real and lasting comfort, which is to recognize that the truth is true, and everything beside it is not there.

It is fashionable to talk about needing to get out of our 'comfort zone'. The idea is that we feel safer within the small circle of what is familiar and under our control, but such security is an illusion, and only makes us more fearful. It is only when we do not allow our fears to rule us, but accept uncertainty and encounter the unknown that is both inside and outside us, that we grow beyond our self-imposed limitations.

For it is not a comfort zone that most of us live in, but a zone of perpetual anxiety, only offset by the distractions and evasions we can devise. Those who live in a true zone of comfort, of real peace of mind, are rare. So we should turn the question the other way around. How can you get into your comfort zone? What would be truly comforting to your state of mind?

What is called the 'miracle question' invites you to imagine this: suppose that a miracle occurs while you are sleeping, and that when you wake your particular problem, or all your problems together, have been solved. How would you know it had happened? What would it feel like? What would be different, in you and in the world you see?

The Course in Miracles trains your mind to experience just such a miracle, not overnight, because a sudden complete change in our perception of reality would be more devastating than comforting; but over time, by systematically replacing one set of ideas with another, gently releasing the mind from its compulsion to make problems for itself.

Here are some of the ideas the Course offers to comfort you, by changing your assumptions about the 'reality' we believe in:

- Everything you think or think you see that seems true, whether you love it or hate it, is only a construction of the mind. Appearances have no power to make you either happy or unhappy, beyond the power of your belief in them. The stoical equanimity of mind that this principle gives you is more comfortable than being tossed between emotional highs and lows and feeling a victim of what happens or of what might happen.

- There is no reason to be afraid of anything. The world you see is a construction in your mind and has no effect at all on your spiritual reality. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. You can be comfortable only to the degree that you are not afraid.

- You are not in competition with anyone. You do not have to 'be' anyone, you do not need to be right about anything, you do not need to 'make a difference' or prove or improve yourself. Nothing you do or think or wish or make is necessary to establish your worth...Your worth is established by God. You do not even have to believe this to feel what relief such a thought brings with it.

- There is a part of your mind that never sleeps, is ever resourceful, undismayed by anything that seems to be happening, free of all the limitations that seem to burden you. To begin with it is usually easier to imagine this presence as other than yourself, since it is so unlike you as you experience yourself. The Course speaks of this presence as if it were an invisible companion, or as a particularly loving spirit guide; but ultimately it would have you recognize in this 'brother' your own reality and your true identity. The comforting thought of a gentle Other that is always with you eventually does away with the need for comfort of any kind, to be replaced by the experience of being a Oneness joined as one.

But long before most of us are ready for transcendence, such consolations of philosophy as the Course offers are continuously shouted down by all the inner and outer voices of fear and wrong advice. More immediately and simply, the Course reminds us that the mind will find comfort by giving comfort. If only out of curiosity and open-mindedness, it suggests you try thinking of the others in your life with appreciation, gratitude and trust. Whatever other gifts you give this Christmas, give these without reservation; not because it is good of you or because the other person deserves it, for neither of those is true; but because wholeheartedly giving brings wholeness to the heart. You have to want to give comfort to feel joy.

God rest you merry, gentle men and gentle women! Be comforting and comforted. The carols we sing reflect our times, but this message is timeless, free to give by anyone to anyone, this Christmas and any other day. Have a comfortable Christmas.

A Very Simple Course?

 A talk by Anna Powell 

at the

  MIRACLE CAFE

St. Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, London W8 4HN

Thursday 28th April 2016

7 to 9.30pm 

 (doors open 6.45pm) 

 A Very Simple Course? 

  

The Course keeps telling us how simple it is. The lessons are simple, salvation is simple,  your part in it is simple. God's teachers have learned how to be simple (M4 VI). 

So why do we find the Course difficult? Why does it take over a thousand words in convoluted sentences, and a mind-boggling metaphysics, to teach us 'how to be simple'? 

'There is a reason,' says the Course; but it is not talking about any of the very obvious reasons we have for putting the book down, like the sheer size of it, or the abstract, concentrated language that is hard enough to understand. It is not just because the ideas are challenging to believe, and sound mad if you try to explain them to anyone else; nor that its terms like 'miracles' and 'forgiveness' seem to hark back to an out-dated and superstitious religious tradition, but then turn out to anticipate concepts that neuroscientists are only just beginning to explore.

The aim of the Course is simple enough. A mind at peace is untroubled, practical, light of heart. So that we may experience that for ourselves, the Course simplifies everything we do and think. It reduces our endlessly variable, multiple and complex choices to only two. Every second of every day, we choose between only two selves, only two ways of seeing, only two emotions, guiding us in two opposite directions.

But it is like the old riddle of the two doorkeepers. One always tells the truth, and one of them always lies. How do you know the difference?

We will look at how the Course helps us to distinguish reality from illusion, giving us a 'problem-solving repertoire' of simple ways to deal with anything we find difficult. And we will look at what we find difficult in the Course itself, and how it helps us to deal with that too. 

Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone through what seems theoretical and far from what the student has already learned, to bring him back to practical concerns. This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing ideas, but dwell instead on benefits to you (W133).

Miracle Cafe Evenings are fun, social gatherings with buffet-style supper and a monthly speaker. The atmosphere is friendly, personal and focused on A Course in Miracles. Evenings regularly include meditation, prayer, live music from talented singer/songwriters, socialising and networking, PLUS different speakers and activities each month!

·        * Be inspired

·        * Eat delicious food

·        * Browse our bookstall 

St. Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, London W8 4HN

Tube: High Street Kensington, Notting Hill Gate

Buses: 9, 10, 27, 28, 31, 49, 52, 70, 94, 148, 328, 390, 452, C1

Street parking from 6.30pm 

Price: £5 cheaper if you book In advance: £15 with dinner, £12 without. 

£5 extra after Tuesday 26th April (2 days prior) and on the door. 

Booking: (020) 3538 6163 or admin@miracles.org.uk

Enquiries: (020) 7262 0209 or info@miracles.org.uk

For booking and full details including location map, menu for the evening and information about previous and forthcoming events see:  

http://www.miracles.org.uk/events/events.php?type=3

Next Workshop: Who is the Third Who Walks Always Beside You?

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

These words from T S Eliot's Wasteland are the starting point for a discussion about inner guidance in general, and the sensitive subject of Jesus in particular. In times of difficulty and distress, where do you go for help? When things go wrong and other people let you down, 'Who you gonna call?'

In this workshop we will be looking at how we turn to science, religion and magic in our dissatisfied attempts to find meaning and direction. What can oracles and divination, and the sad story of Saul and the Witch of Endor, tell us about ourselves? What does the symbol of the Christ - or of the Large Hadron Collider - mean to you personally, and what has it to do with who you are, how you relate to others, and how you make decisions?

I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see...

The Third who walks always beside you represents the alternative answer to all needs and questions, because it involves a different way of thinking. It reframes both our (inadequate) self-reliance and our (frustrated) dependence on others. The workshop is about our need for answers, the practice and secret purposes of prayer, the reliability or otherwise of inner and outer guides, and our deep resistance to asking for help...unless it comes in a form we can accept, and does not help us right out of our area of control.

Date:  Saturday 2nd April 2016

Time:  Arrivals from 10 am. Workshop from 10.30 am to 2.00 pm.

Place: Harrow Way, Andover SP10 3RQ UK

Cost: £30

Refreshments and full text of the workshop notes are provided. You may like to bring a notebook for any personal notes, and something to contribute towards a shared lunch.

Bookings and enquiries: anna@unlearningschool.com or phone 01264 395579

Workshops

April: Who is the Third £30.00 GBP Sparrows and Eagles, Notes only £10.00 GBP Hero's Journey, Notes only £10.00 GBP Who is the Third, Notes only £10.00 GBP

Next Workshop: The Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey:

a new look at the hero archetype

and the spiritual journey

Saturday March 5th

Harrow Way, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3RQ

10.30 am to 2.30 pm

Every day the media talk about the fight against disease, the fight against crime, the fight against injustice. Every victim is a 'hero', every perpetrator a 'monster'. For these ancient archetypes run deep in our collective psyche. Every one of us see ourselves as walking a path beset with danger and ordeals of every kind. Every one of us the hero of our own story.

We will begin by looking at Joseph's Campbell's study of the hero in world mythology, with its classic cast of heroes and mentors, helpers and villains, its stories of leaving and returning, monsters and gifts, despair and transformation. How does this fit in with the Course's concepts of 'the hero of the dream' and 'the journey home'?

The Course changes our perception of life as a battleground to life as a process of awakening. It gives us a road-map for a 'journey without distance', a new identity and magic glasses to see everything differently. And it frees us from old myths and patterns of thinking, not by rejecting them but by giving them fresh relevance in our own lives.

 

Bookings and enquiries: anna@unlearningschool.com

Telephone 01264 395579

The full notes of each workshop are available by email attachment after the workshop, for those who are not able to come but are interested in the topic.

Workshops

March: Hero's Journey £30.00 GBP April: Who is the Third £30.00 GBP Sparrows and Eagles, Notes only £10.00 GBP Hero's Journey, Notes only £10.00 GBP Who is the Third, Notes only £10.00 GBP

Upcoming workshop: Sparrows and Eagles

Sparrows and Eagles

a workshop about the silent giant

and the tiny mad dictator in us

Saturday February 6th

Harrow Way, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3RQ

10.30 am to 2.30 pm

 A Course in Miracles uses the image of the eagle and the sparrow, among others, to explain the conflicting attraction in our minds towards both littleness and magnitude. But true greatness has nothing to do with size or status, or what the world calls 'high flying'. With reference to Tom Thumb, David and Goliath, the Borrowers, and Gulliver in Lilliput, we will distinguish the 'grandeur' of what we are from the 'grandiosity' of what we aspire to be.

This is the first of three separate workshops on the theme of greatness - what it means, how to find it, why we are afraid of it - and of our wilful retreat into littleness, illusions and disconnectedness. The workshops are a friendly and informal mix of teaching and discussion in a small group, for anyone with an interest in self-awareness and the deeper questions of life (possibly a very small group!). The workshops are based on the teaching of A Course in Miracles and serve as an introduction to the Course's principles of spiritual psychology for those who know little or nothing about the Course, and as reinforcement and further study for Course students.

 Arrivals from 10 am for refreshments before the workshop starts at 10.30 am. Let me know if you would like travel directions by road or rail. Please bring something to contribute to a shared lunch, and a notebook for your private notes.

Workshops are £30, or £70 for all three. Enquiries and bookings: email anna@unlearningschool.com or anna@annapowell.com, or telephone 01264 395579.

I look forward to hearing from you! Anna

Workshops

February: Sparrows & Eagles £30.00 GBP March: Hero's Journey £30.00 GBP April: Who is the Third £30.00 GBP All three workshops £70.00 GBP

Hope is the thing with feathers

Before I hope that you have a happy new year full of hope and happiness, let me hover over the meaning of 'hope'. The Course emphasizes that we interpret every word, thought and event either to reinforce illusions or to dispel them. We make this choice so swiftly and subliminally that we do not seem to be choosing at all. But you can usually tell when your thinking has lapsed back into self-delusion, because something does not feel right: I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace (T5 VII 6.6)

So there are two ways of understanding what it is to hope. What we mostly mean by hope is only wishful thinking. It is the limp kind of hope that wishes everything would magically arrange itself to suit yourself. You can hope you do well in the exams or the interview, as if optimism will compensate for not doing your homework. You can leave your umbrella at home and hope it will not rain; but if it does, there is no reason to blame the weather for spoiling your day. Superstitious hoping is especially directed at what you do not want to happen - 'fingers crossed',  'touch wood' - in an attempt to wave a magic wand at imaginary forces of destiny: 'I hope I won't get sick', 'I hope I won't mess up,' 'I hope someone else won't mess up', 'I'm praying I won't miss the last train.' This kind of hoping sets yourself up for disappointment, gears your mind to expect exactly what you feared, and proclaims it is not your fault how things turn out. 'I never asked to be born!' 'Just my luck!' 'Isn't it always the way?!'

To hope that something thrilling will happen, or that something awful will not happen, is to lay the responsibility for your peace of mind on other people and on external events. 'Hoping' in this sense is to reduce yourself or someone else to being a hapless victim of circumstances. 'Hoping' is how we dodge being present and decisive as each situation unfolds. This kind of hope is an expression of uncertainty, and only adds to the anxiety it is meant to dispel.

If you imagine what might happen, very often the outcome is startlingly close to what you imagined. So you might as well imagine what you would like to happen. This is at least empowering, if you have believed yourself a victim of circumstances. It is a way of reminding yourself that There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level (T2 VI 9.13). But a tranquil mind is not attached to any particular outcome, and knows it does not know what is best for anyone. If you really 'hope' for peace and joy, do not look for them in the future, but let them come to mind here and now. Then 'hoping' becomes irrelevant.

There is another way of understanding hope that is not uncertain. It is grounded in conviction, because it is a remembering of what for you is most true and lovely. This kind of hope does not depend on anything changing outwardly. It is the answer to any form of fear or horror, because the mind is free to affirm love and beauty at any moment, even in the apparent absence of both.

Hope 'springs eternal' because it is the mind's memory of its own reality. Reality can be denied, ignored and resisted, but it remains unaltered. It will find a way to reach you, sudden and surprising as a blackbird singing in the night; in that instant when for a moment the heart lifts and fear falls away. Hope asks nothing, does nothing. It only restores the soul to itself. We do not need to 'hope' that hope will join us for another year. It is already here, perched in the mind. It never stops - at all -

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Emily Dickinson

The Useless Journey, or the Journey Home?

Workshop 8: Saturday 2nd May

Remember the old riddle about the two doors guarded by two guardians? One door is the way to happiness, the other to hell, only you don't know which is which. One guardian always speaks the truth, the other always lies, but you don't know which is which. They will answer just one question. How can you find out which door to go through?

For centuries Christianity has told us that we must choose between the road to heaven and the road to hell. The Course uses the same metaphor to say the same thing, but with a crucial difference. Religion presents heaven and hell as equally real. Heaven is a promise of future rewards for good behaviour, while hell threatens a terrible retribution for our sins. The Course, however, tells us that good behaviour is nothing to do with true happiness, and that sin and hell do not exist except in our frightened and childish imagination. The only real choice we have is between freedom from illusions or a self-inflicted suffering. That is, you can use your mind lucidly and focus on what is only true, life-giving and loving; or you can use it fearfully to disconnect, to perceive yourself as attacked or justified in attacking. The first is creative and enduring, a 'journey home' to completion. The second is a painful and ultimately self-defeating process of disintegration. It is a 'useless journey' because it is a mistake, a mirage, a dead end.

There are two teachers only, who point in different ways. And you will go along the way your chosen teacher leads. There are but two directions you can take, while time remains and choice is meaningful. For never will another road be made except the way to Heaven. You but choose whether to go toward Heaven, or away to nowhere. There is nothing else to choose. (T26 V 1)

The trouble is that from where we stand, there seem to be a million directions. Our self-appointed 'teacher' is the slippery ego with its one agenda: to keep us disconnected, deluded and in denial.

Its dictates, then, can be summed up simply as: "Seek and do not find." This is the one promise the ego holds out to you, and the one promise it will keep (T12 IV 1)

Do you realize that the ego must set you on a journey which cannot but lead to a sense of futility and depression? To seek and not to find is hardly joyous.

The 'useless journey' is the life spent seeking for happiness where it cannot be found. We each think our life story is unique, but the blueprint is the same for all. To live in the ego's world is to repeatedly act out the ego's drama of alienation, guilt, regret and finally death.

The dreaming of the world takes many forms, because the body seeks in many ways to prove it is autonomous and real. It puts things on itself that it has bought with little metal discs or paper strips the world proclaims as valuable and real. It works to get them, doing senseless things, and tosses them away for senseless things it does not need and does not even want. It hires other bodies, that they may protect it and collect more senseless things that it can call its own. It looks about for special bodies that can share its dream. Sometimes it dreams it is a conqueror of bodies weaker than itself. But in some phases of the dream, it is the slave of bodies that would hurt and torture it.

The body's serial adventures, from the time of birth to dying are the theme of every dream the world has ever had (T27 VIII).     

There is another use for the body, though, and for its life in this apparent world. The mind can escape its own illusions by waking up to reality. But first it must want to. It must become aware that it is asleep and chasing dreams and being chased by them, before it can decide it has had enough futility and grief, and wake up. The Course is only another dream, but it is a dream that prepares us for waking. It represents one of 'many thousands' of such processes of inner change, like a lucid dream that introduces a dawning awareness into the dreaming mind. This process is the 'journey home'. There is nowhere to go except to stop going nowhere. There is no journey, only an awakening (T13 I 7).

The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained...Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself (T8 VI 9).

This will be the last in this present series of workshops The Two Uses of Time. For details and bookings, email anna@unlearningschool.com.

Magic, or Miracles?

Cross your fingers, touch wood, don't step on the cracks on the pavement, wear your lucky amulet...if you laugh at such superstitious nonsense, do you all the same feel uneasy, a thin chill of dread, as if you have defied the gods? Perhaps not. But do you ever talk of circumstances or people as being 'lucky' or 'unlucky'? We do not often question common idioms like 'heaven-sent' or 'Sod's Law', over-used adjectives like 'incredible!!!' and 'amazing!!!' - let alone examine our personal repertoire of strategies and defences. How much do your beliefs, your state of mind and your expectations affect your falling ill, and your recovery? Where do you draw the line between knowledge and supposition? Where does the body end and the mind begin?

The Course uses the terms 'magic' and 'miracle' quite specifically to mean the way you use your mind: mindlessly, or mindfully; to project guilt, or to extend love; to perpetuate fear, or to heal; to connect, or to separate. Magic serves the ego's secret purposes, while miracles undo the ego and all its effects. But before we can let go of 'magic thinking' and become 'miracle minded', we need to explore what the words do and do not mean in this context.

And then we can ask, how do these ideas apply to your relationships? To your health and happiness? To your understanding and peace of mind?

Workshop 7: Saturday 11th April

For inquiries and bookings, contact anna@unlearningschool.com.

Childish, or Childlike?

The next workshop in our present series about making choices is on Saturday 14th March.

With reference to Peter Pan, Pinocchio and the Selfish Giant - and other stories - we will talk about innocence and illusion, the fear of growing up, and our own child selves, past and present.

The difference between being childish and being childlike has nothing to do with age, and everything to do with truth and love. We are sentimental about childhood, and remain childishly fearful and self-preoccupied as adults. Yet we allow ourselves to lose touch with the essentially childlike qualities of vitality, trust and innocence that give our lives integrity and meaning. Spiritually speaking, we repeatedly throw out the shining baby and keep the grimy bathwater, until we learn to know the difference and to make another choice.

This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.

No one but knows whereof we speak. Yet some try to put by their suffering in games they play to occupy their time, and keep their sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad, and do not recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet who, in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny he understands the words we speak? (W182)

Inquiries and bookings: anna@unlearningschool.com

No without Guilt

Next workshop coming up, on Saturday 7th February - note for this month only, the workshop is on the first Saturday in the month instead of the second as usual.

Workshop 5: No without Guilt

  In this workshop we will look at how and why we say No. We will chew over rejections and corrections, tantrums and disappointments. We will consider why we think we have to buttress a No with anger and accusation, or butter it with apologies and excuses. And we will see why No is not the opposite of Yes.

Specifically, the workshop will include:

• Why we feel guilty when we say No
• Why the world opposes us at every turn
• Authority: why coercion never works
• How (not) to correct errors in someone else
• How (not) to correct errors in yourself
• Temptation: the cure that always works
• How (not) to change the world
• What it means to 'deny the denial of truth'
• How No becomes Yes

 At least, that's the plan so far.

See you soon! Or if No - some other time.

With love,

Anna