Escaping the Self-Made Matrix and Resting in God

When I first awakened yesterday morning, I found myself in a state of mind where I had no sense of identity.

This is difficult to express; I was in a state of total, let's say, blankness. I did not begin saying to myself, "Well, today, I'll do this, I'll do that." I was totally blank. I felt totally relieved. Words can hardly express this sense of relief.

My sense of identity, or Ray, my limited self, narrating my life, was simply not in my awareness.

There was an experience of a state of mind that was still, limitless, changeless, and eternal.

There. That's more like it; no sense of an identity as a person, as a body, commenting on its state of mind.

My experience while waking up in this manner provides a clear reference point for certain passages in A Course in Miracles. For example, here is a helpful sentence from Lesson 161:
Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. W-p1.161.2:1

This is a reminder that complete abstraction is natural; my state that identifies with my self, my ego, is totally unnatural.

While this post was still in draft form, I read the Lesson for the day, 129, Beyond this world is a world I want, and this passage leaped off the page.

Communication, unambiguous
and plain as day, remains unlimited
for all eternity. And God Himself
speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him.
Their language has no words, for what They say
cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is
direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
How far away from this are you who stay
bound to this world. And yet how near are you,
when you exchange it for the world you want.
W-pl.129.4

My experience while waking up is the reference point for this passage, as well.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-pl.Review Vl.Intro.3:3-5

And Jesus stops our minds for a moment in His effort to slow us down, by the two meanings, simultaneously, of the word "still;" I continue to be as God created me, and I am the stillness of God's creation.

Here is another sentence for which we now have a reference point.

I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-pll.14.What am I?1:1

When I was reflecting on these ideas, I was driving down the highway. While idly driving along, I glanced at a passing billboard that said, "After you die, you will find God." Chuckling, I said to myself, "That's funny, I don't think I'm going to have to wait that long, I found God this morning."

That brought to mind, two phrases.

An ancient Hermetic precept stating, "Know ye not ye are gods?"

And St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily," meaning that he experiences daily a state of mind of limitlessness, changelessness, thereby dying to limitation and change and mortality that we now refer to as the matrix.

It is no surprise that this experience occurred the day after an extraordinary weekend conference entitled, Out of the Matrix that took place at the Unity Church of the Heights, in Cleveland Heights, OH, May 20-22, 2011. This is a powerful program designed to be taken into schools and colleges and universities and prisons, enabling participants to transform their minds to come into a state of mind where they can take personal responsibility for constructing the matrix they find themselves in. This program is solidly based on the principles of A Course in Miracles, and they are expressed in secular metaphors, so that the illusion, or dream is the matrix, the Holy Spirit is the Inner Guide, and God's Son is What you Be, limitless, changeless, eternal.

In the sessions, worksheets are used to enable us as participants to recognize, own, and let go of limiting core beliefs. This emphasis is on learning to let go of our projections that constitute our self-made matrix. By learning to take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs, we come into an awareness of our Being, and we are then able to walk in the matrix, knowing we are not of the matrix. To illustrate this, we were shown a clip from the movie, The Matrix, where Morpheus is taking Neo for a walk through the matrix, and all the time while walking through crowds, Morpheus, knowing he is in but not of the matrix, walks smoothly, his head half-turned to talk with Neo, gliding through, while Neo is constantly bumping into people, often distracted, particularly by an attractive woman walking by in a red dress.

The two men who presented during the weekend, Tony Senf and Christ Lauretig , were outstanding in articulating in straight-forward, clear language, often citing personal examples, the basic principles of A Course in Miracles, using parallel matrix metaphors that could easily sink into the ears of the person in the street. Their presentation was well-illustrated with a large number of salient clips from movies, slide presentations, worksheets, and all the time questions and comments were encouraged from the participants. Each participant was shepherded by a mentor each step of the way.

On Sunday morning, Rev. Tony delivered a powerful lesson entitled, "It's All a Dream," frequently quoting A Course in Miracles, demonstrating that the basic principles of the Out of the Matrix Program are soundly grounded in the Course.

Sunday afternoon during the conference, Chris, after making it crystal clear that our beliefs and thoughts are the foundation of our self-made matrix, these beliefs having been imprinted in us over the years by those conditioned by the matrix, said that he often had the thought that he should come in with a baseball bat, call us up one at a time, and hit us up aside the head; when we woke up, we would experience amnesia, and be open to experiencing our Being. We would forget our imprinting and conditioning, and no longer automatically construct the matrix.

For a moment this morning, I experienced complete amnesia, and thank God, I didn't need to be hit aside the head to experience it.

Amnesia is a powerful metaphor, demonstrating that forgetting what we wrought in the first place is liberating. Walking in the world, and recognizing that we are not of it because we realize that we constructed the nothingness of it is the true meaning of forgiveness, letting go of what never occurred, the dream, the matrix. And in this act of forgiveness, we rest in God.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God,
and while the world is torn by winds of hate
your rest remains completely undisturbed.
Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances
cannot intrude on you. You call to all
to join you in your rest, and they will hear
and come to you because you rest in God.
They will not hear another voice than yours
because you gave your voice to God, and now
you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.
W-pl.109.4

And now, after the weekend, experiencing the peace of God while waking up the other morning, I am increasingly receptive to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit, talking to me all through the day, and trusting, and the more I trust the more I am hearing the guidance.

For more information on the Out of the Matrix Program, please click here.

An Out of the Matrix Conference is scheduled to be held in the Wisconsin Dells, August 26-28, 2011.

For more information, please contact me: chris.ray@charter.net, 608 254-2320

For registration, please contact Cindy Stanley: cindy@outofthematrix.org, 330-284-1025

Payment plans are available through Cindy.

Breathing in the Breath of God: The Holy Spirit

I remember taking a class in graduate school that I found fascinating at the time, and I find myself today still drawing benefits from it, particularly as I read Jesus’ unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles. The class was phonetics, a study of special speech sounds and their production.

I learned that each language operates from a set of phonemes, the smallest unit of sound. For example, in English, although the alphabet consists of only 26 letters, these letters represent 42 different sounds, or phonemes. For example, the letter /a/ is pronounced in two different ways, depending on the context. There's the /a/ in gap, and the /a/ in gape. This is one reason English is a difficult language to learn by a foreign speaker, same letters, different sounds.

One reason I am fascinated by phonetics is that it drives home the fact that words are air, i.e., each word is air passing from our lungs through our larynx and shaped by our tongue, lips, teeth, and cheeks. For example, the word “voice” consists of 4 phonemes, and each phoneme can be described. There is formal way to describe what happens in the mouth for each phoneme, and the following is a crude description.

/v/ vee

The upper front teeth touch the inner part of the lower lip and the air is forced out.

/o/ oh

The teeth release and the inside of the mouth constricts and the lips form a circle, emitting air, while the vocal chords in the larynx vibrate.

/i/ ee

The tongue rests on the back teeth, the front of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, and raises up, and the lips are slightly open.

/ce/ hiss

The lips widen, the teeth almost close, the tip of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, raises up and a hissing sound pours through the narrow slit formed by the teeth.

Now, I hear the word “voice” in a whole new way; my voice is truly air, a breath of air.

The reason for this unusual foray into phonetics is to lay the groundwork for this powerful connection: inspire and spirit have the same root meaning. Both words spring from the same Latin root: spirare, meaning “to breathe.” When I am inspired, I am breathing spirit, the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. His Voice is always speaking to me, and I am reminded of this each time I speak, knowing that my voice is breath.

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. (Title, Lesson 49)

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
W-p1.491:1,2

The part that listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. W-p1.49.2:1,2

Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. W-p1.49.4:1,2

This reminds me of a passage from the Urtext. Jesus is talking to Helen, and He says to her:

I inspired Bob (refer to elevator man who took Helen down from her apartment) to make that remark to you. (Urtext: The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth, p. 38)

This is so encouraging because it is as reminder that Jesus, indeed, is walking with us all the time.

If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:3,4

As far as breathing, yesterday I came across a brief review of a new book of poetry by the American poet, Robert Pinsky. The reviewer just happened to quote the first stanza of his poem, Song.

Air is an instrument of the tongue,
The tongue an instrument Of the body.
The body
An instrument of spirit,
The spirit a being of the air.

Reading today’s Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today, brings it all back to me, the phonetics, the breathing, the words, and I note once again the connection between my past experiences, e.g., the phonetics class, and the present, and how sometimes I feel I have been directed all along.

Since we come to the Course to learn to reverse our thinking, the first thing we need to do is to slow down.

Three times today, at times most suitable
for silence, give ten minutes set apart
from listening to the world, and choose instead
a gentle listening to the Word of God.
W-p1.1257:1

First, as we read this passage aloud, we, unconsciously, structure our breathing, i.e., we can only speak the lines by breathing out, and we are silent as we breathe in, preparing to breathe out. Isn’t that amazing? It is so habitual that we have forgotten that we breathe in in order to breathe out.

Secondly, Jesus postures our voice by the way He orders His words. For example, read the title of the Lesson aloud:

In quiet I receive God’s Word today.

First, Jesus is using only 10 syllables for each line; He has been doing this since Lesson 98, and He will continue using this convention for each line of each lesson until the end, Lesson 365. Not only that, but He postures our voice to speak each line by placing each syllable in a particular way, some are STRESSED and some are slack.

In QUI/ et I/ re CEIVE/ GOD’S VOICE/ to DAY

Five sets of syllables, basically in a slack STRESS, or iambic pattern. And Jesus, not only slows us down with this rhythmic pattern, but He postures our voice to say the words as He intends. GOD’S VOICE is what’s important here, and we find ourselves emphasizing those two words, whether we know it or not. And at one level, we certainly know it, and this is a reminder.

Only be quiet. You will need no rule
but this, to let your practicing today
lift you above the thinking of the world,
and free your vision from the body's eyes. W-p1.125.7:1,2

When I am looking through my body’s eyes, I am making up a world, unconsciously and habitually, and listening to the wrong voice, my narrative voice, associating, judging, separating, but when I slow down and listen to the Voice of God soothing me into silence, I slow down my breathing, and I can begin to see with vision, seeing a bright reflection of my silent mind.

For the past several weeks, I have been facilitating a class here at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells. The class is called, “Listen, Learn, and Write.” It is highly interactive because we are doing writing exercises that enable us to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to express ourselves. At the end of the class a couple of days ago, we were sitting quietly, listening to music after sharing our inspired writing, and suddenly and spontaneously, Peg Elizabeth, a woman who has been at the Academy for some time, said to no one in particular, “Boy, in this class it is easy to get in touch with your soul.” That pretty much sums up what it means to open up and be receptive to spirit.

Peg Elizabeth's sentiment is echoed in a article I came across in the Wisconsin State Journal about Maggie Delaney-Potthoff who teaches voice in a class offered through UW-Madison Continuing Studies. What caught my eye is that she starts and ends her training with emphasis on breathing.

Someone looking in the window of the church’s gathering room, where the class is held, might easily mistake this for a yoga class or some kind of new-age meditation session. (Wisconsin State Journal, May 1, 2011, Section G, Unleash the Scream, Andrea Azni, p. 1.)

Delaney-Potthoff says, “Our voice is directly connected to our soul. The voice is the ultimate instrument. . .I am looking for that natural voice that’s behind the curtain, and all singing takes place through the third eye.” (Azni, p. 2)

Breathe in, breathe out, knowing that you are spirit, the holy breath of God.