Happy New Year!

 May 2013 be all harmony, happiness and prosperity for you

...but just in case anything should happen during the next 365 days (or minutes) to disturb your peace of mind, to irritate, upset or offend you, with this next workshop you will be well prepared to meet whatever comes with equanimity, and whoever comes with compassion...or at least if not, to know why not.

Saturday January 12^th 2013

10.30 am to 2.30 pm

31 Harrow Way SP10 3RQ

The Happy Learner Workshop 5: Anger is never justified (T30 VI)

This is another of those Course in Miracles statements that only seems to put us more in the wrong than we already feel we are, and when the fault is someone else's, too. But as with all these irksome course principles, when you put aside your assumptions of what you suppose it might mean and pay attention to what the idea can offer you personally, the truth is only comforting and liberating.

This workshop looks at provocation and attack, the ancient war of good against evil and what we mean by justice. Why do you get angry? Why do you try not to get angry? How do you deal with violent emotion in yourself or in others? We will explore what the course teaches about correcting error, and how we can find peace even among the endless succession of outrages that people commit against each other.

I look forward to seeing you!

Thank you for being there this past year, and may the next one be full of delights.

Happy Christmas!

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was fill’d with such delight
As prison’d birds must find in freedom
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on – on – and out of sight.

Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted,
And beauty came like the setting sun;
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but every one
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

Siegfried Sassoon

A Course in Miracles describes our true nature as like a forgotten song. From time to time, in a moment of peace or reconciliation, we may suddenly experience the sweetness of complete happiness. This is when we come closest to remembering what we are, the course tells us. Truth is always in us, around us, everywhere unchanging and joyous, but it is only in rare instants that we consciously become aware of it. We are not much used to listening for this unceasing song, and even when we do catch a few notes of it we have learned to dismiss it, forget it again, focus on the 'more important' noises of fear and distraction. Even what we do hear is no more than an echo, just a 'wisp' of a reality that seems unreal as we measure reality in this world, but at the same time we know is more true than any of the incomplete satisfactions we pursue here. 

When the world talks of 'being true to yourself' or encourages you to 'take care of yourself' or recommends you allow yourself some 'me-time', it is helpful to ask yourself which self are you being true to? If you think happiness depends on singing from your own songsheet, you will not hear the wordless song that all of us everywhere is singing in harmony, for the most part unknowingly. Listen to everyone you meet or think of today and hear the bird in them that is singing the same song as the bird in you. 

Listen,–perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you (T21 I 6)

To have, give all to all

It’s the time of year when people begin to say “Ready for Christmas, are you?” like the five-minute call before an actor is due on stage; and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau publishes anxious letters saying “I’m starting to worry about how we’re going to pay for Christmas this year. I don’t want to disappoint the kids…”

But the course (of course) has the solution to any harassment you may be feeling about the pressure to give (and to receive).  At some risk of a frosty winter, try announcing these glad tidings to your loved ones: Forgiveness is the only gift I give (W297)…

On a more universal and timeless note, the theme of the upcoming workshop on Saturday week is To have, give all to all (T6 V A). Here is your first decisive step towards freedom from the frustrations, fears and futility of life in this world:This fundamental and very practical lesson begins the shift in how we see ourselves, from apart to united, from impoverished to abundant…

But it is clearly not very practical to ‘give all to all’ in any way that makes sense in the world. The course does not teach any kind of ‘prosperity consciousness’. It is not about attracting abundance from the universe, or tithing, or positive thinking. Nor is it talking about charity, and certainly not self-sacrifice.

So what does the course mean by having, and giving, and how is this relevant to you personally, at any time of year?

Looking forward to seeing you round a warm fire, and even in December we will still end before it gets dark.

Happy Learner Workshop 4

Saturday 15th December

10.30 am to 2.30 pm