ACIM – Page 25 – Pam Grout

Is your mind driving a Fred Flintstone car?

February 23, 2018 21 Comments

“Thoughts have wings.”—Jewish proverb The Flintstones.

I just read about a Malaysian sultan who owns a replica of Fred Flintstone’s famous rockmobile. The one powered by our favorite caveman’s feet, the one he brakes with heels smoking, screeching and probably aching like holy hell.

It doesn’t take an engineer to figure out that when Fred takes the family out to the drive-in for a brontosaurus burger, he’s basically running, dragging Wilma, Bam-Bam and the lumbering vehicle’s massive granite wheels along for the ride.

Can we agree that Fred’s car is probably not the most effective way to travel?

In ACIM Lesson 54, we review the fact that all thoughts have power, that the world we see is a representation of our state of mind.

When we devote our minds to the service of the physical, to the material, when we lock our minds in the inner chamber of habitual thoughts, we’re basically driving a Fred Flintstone car.

It’s like wearing one shoe. Or applying lipstick to only our top lip.

We have the capacity to use our minds (this all-powerful organ) in the service of spiritual vision. The material world (our bodies, the stuff we see in the news) is but one piece of the chessboard.

When we use our minds from the eternal part of ourselves, instead of the temporary clown suit we inhabit on Planet Earth, we open up to a much more beautiful reality.

If we want to reawaken our spiritual vision, the goal of the Course, we must transcend the linear body. The linear body is cool and all (it definitely comes in handy when dancing and passing out hugs), but it can only be in one place at one time. And its eyes can only see so far. There is SO MUCH MORE.

Focusing on our limited physical self, like driving Fred Flintstone’s car, is a yabba-dabba-don’t.

Instead, we can align our minds with our eternal, fearless, abundant selves. We can use our thoughts to create from a place of complete trust, knowing we are connected to everyone and anything is possible.

Have the best weekend of your lives, my friends!

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.

“Higher is waiting.”—Tyler Perry

February 21, 2018 20 Comments

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.” -William Blake
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I got a comment the other day suggesting that to simply change my thinking is not enough. I must take action.

Since ACIM Lesson 52 is a review, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on taking action.

I agree that taking action is important.

But only when taken from the vantage point of my higher self.

Most action is generated by the part of myself that’s strongly identified with the body, with the viewpoint I see with my human eyes. This limited self still sees bad guys and problems and can’t even begin to believe that death could actually be a more productive state of being.

It’s like standing with my nose against the pointillist painting. It looks like a bunch of dots. But when I step back and look again from a larger vantage point, from the vantage point of my Source, it becomes Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

As this ACIM review reminds me, reality is NEVER frightening. And the only reason it could ever upset me is because I have replaced first generation reality with my illusions.

Instead of reality, I see life through my filters, through the yellow waxy buildup that stops me from seeing the light within every situation, that prevents me from seeing people as they really are—beautiful souls who want nothing but to love and give of their gifts.

When my dog Izzy was a puppy, she ran full speed ahead to every single canine she saw, wagging her tail, wanting to make a new buddy. There were no exceptions to her joy and exuberance.

This is how we would be, too, (running to every other member of the human race in joyful glee) if we hadn’t erected the filters, the yellow waxy buildup.

Every person has immense light and love inside them (no exceptions) and the only reason we cannot see it is because of the lens we laid over it. We covered it up with our beliefs and expectations, with facts that we just KNOW are true. We made a judgment and assume we know what that Republican is up to or that Democrat wants to do to destroy our freedom.

Nothing is as it appears. All we see with the limited five senses is a hologram of our beliefs and expectations. And it’s flawed and it’s getting us in trouble.

Linda from my possibility posse reminded me of an amazing man named Daryl Davis who I wrote about last year.

He’s a black musician whose early years were spent overseas in diverse classrooms. When his parents moved back to the United States, he, like most of the boys in his sixth grade class, joined Boy Scouts. One day, while marching with his troop, people started throwing rocks and sticks at him.

His first thought was, “They must not like Boy Scouts.”

At that point, his parents sat him down and had the race talk with him.

He was stunned.

“How could they not like me?” he thought. “They don’t even know me.”

Since that time, he has taken on the hobby of getting to know white supremacists and, instead of yelling at them, berating them, he sits down and asks questions. He genuinely wants to know what they think.

As he says about engaging his “enemies,” “When you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself.”

In other words, he takes action from the higher viewpoint. Some activists claim he’s wasting his time talking to all these “horrible, horrible” people.

But as he likes to say, “I’ve got dozens of retired hoods and robes in my closet. How many do you have?”

So, yes, action is vital, but only when taken from the higher perspective.

Manna, pennies and umbrellas from heaven

February 20, 2018 18 Comments

“Our bodies resonate with the love and power of creative cosmic rhythms dancing through every cell in our beautiful beingness. “—Ramon Ravenswood

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Pete Holmes, one of my favorite comedians, created and stars in the HBO comedy, Crashing. I discovered him through my friend, Jessica Ortner, who interviewed him on her podcast, “Adventures in Happiness.” Holmes also produces a podcast (it’s called “You Made it Weird”), pens cartoons for The New Yorker and provides the voice for the E-Trade baby.

During the production of Crashing, a widely-praised comedy on HBO, Holmes noticed things like umbrellas showing up out of nowhere. If it started raining–poof!—an umbrella would miraculously appear. Whatever he needed—be it a set piece or a costume change or a yellow vase for a bouquet of roses—it showed up, almost magically. “I didn’t even have to ask for it,” Holmes says.

In his case, it was his crew that worked the magic. But it’s the perfect metaphor for ACIM Lesson 50—I am sustained by the love of God.

What I’ve noticed is that once we rid ourselves of the old “life sucks” paradigm, once we get it that the universe has our back, really cool things begin appearing in our lives. As you know, I get stories all the time from readers of my books who are miraculously bequeathed things like blue squirrels, Mercedes C300’s, 50 pounds of pork (these are just a few recent examples from my inbox).

I call it manna—gifts from the universe—that literally fall from the sky when we really, really let go of this idea that we need to be fearful, that we need to worry.

My dear friend, Annola, laminated a sign for me and everyone else in my possibility posse. When laid on the dashboard of my car, it reflects this sentiment in my front window: “Everything always works out for me.”

It’s my motto and today I repeat again and again, “I am sustained. I am sustained. I am sustained.”

Talking and thinking trash no more

February 18, 2018 23 Comments

“The bliss, the wisdom, the creativity, the laughter, the friendships, the joy, the serenity and peace that have been, for the most part, seen as an impossible dream will become your most ordinary state of being.”– The Way of Mastery
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Talking trash in my family was a definite no-no. Just saying the word “butt” was grounds for “the look” or, worse, a spanking

What WAS allowed, perhaps even encouraged, was THINKING trash as in, “I probably shouldn’t, I probably couldn’t, I better not.”

This trash thinking creates a cloud of debris (like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoon) that blocks the universal flow.

ACIM Lesson 49 (God’s voice speaks to me all though the day) tells us there’s a part of our mind where stillness and peace reign whether we’re aware of it or not. It tells us this part of our mind is in constant communication with the Big Cheese and all its many gifts and blessings.

We don’t always recognize the stillness and peace, let alone God’s voice, because of the trash thinking. Unlike the cloud around Charlie Brown’s friend, our energetic cloud is largely invisible. But it’s just as effective at keeping the world’s goodness locked out of our life experience.

It’s why I attempt to keep my personal climate as pure and positive as possible. It’s why I get up every morning and declare, “Something extraordinarily epic is going to happen to me today.”

It’s why I meditate and actively look for blessings.

Practicing gratitude, more than penciling a written list, is to practice alchemy.

Looking for the good in life literally changes things. Physically changes things. Financially changes things. Mentally and emotionally changes things.

It literally changes atoms and rearranges molecules.

Cynics like to discount gratitude, downgrade it as sweet, nice, something for naive Pollyannas.

What I’ve discovered is that living on the frequency of joy and gratitude causes cataclysmic reverberations.”

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite

The two words to avoid whenever possible

February 16, 2018 26 Comments

“Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind.”—A Course in Miracles
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I’ve talked about the most dangerous four-letter word in the English language. And I’ve shared the two magic words I use when I’m feeling off.

Today I’d like to share two words that, spoken together, tend to put a curse on all that’s possible.

These words sound innocuous enough. But when we say them and/or believe them, we slam shut the door of further investigation. We put an arm lock on the field of infinite potentiality.

The words are “I know……”

These two words are sneaky, because isn’t that what we’re sent to school for? Isn’t that what we spend our lives trying to accomplish? Aren’t we supposed to know.

But here’s what’s critical to remember. There are more sides to every story.

When “I know,” I basically put this unbelievably powerful force into a tiny box.

When I’m convinced and therefore attached to such stories as “I’m just not good at______________(insert your own personal nightmare)” or “The world is skidding to disaster” or “So and so is such an a-hole,” I’ve basically thwarted the field of infinite potentiality in its hell-raising-anything-goes tracks.

I’ve basically decided that this is as good as its going to get.

ACIM Lesson 47 (God is the strength in which I trust) asks me not to put the F.P. in handcuffs. It tells me that whatever “I know” pales in comparison to what’s really possible.

So today, I’m overjoyed to admit that I’m not nearly as smart as Infinite Intelligence and I gladly bow to all the really groovy things it has in store for me.

To summarize: Yo universe, bring it!!!

Be crazy with love. Love when it makes no sense

February 14, 2018 13 Comments

“We all long for love. Everything else is just killing time.”–Kenny Loggins

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends!

Here’s my favorite post for this most auspicious day. Enjoy!

Most people hear the word “love” and immediately think of long white dresses, tuxes and diamond rings. Our tendency to associate love with romance is a gaping blind spot. Not only are there millions of people to love (forget your quest to zero in on Mr. or Ms. Right), but there are million of ideas, millions of causes, million of quests to fall in love with.

Take Dale Price, for example. This stay-at-home dad from American Fork, Utah, spent three years waving at his high school son’s bus dressed in weird costumes, a different one every day. It started the first day of his son’s sophomore year when he realized the bus, for the first time, would drive down their street. Price greeted the bus (and his embarrassed son) that first day wearing a football helmet. From there, his creativity grew. He has waved at the bus dressed as Elvis, Fred Flintstone, Santa Claus and, once, a lampshade. He and Rain, the red-faced son, ended up on Good Morning America and the resulting blog, Wave at the Bus, has received millions of hits and raised money for Rain’s college fund, although his dad is quick to admit it may also end up being used for therapy.

The point is, there are lots of ways to make people happy, lots of ways to love. Don’t sit around waiting for your soul mate. Be crazy with love. Love when it makes no sense.

ACIM Lesson 45 (God is the mind with which I think) echoes this sentiment: to think with God is to love in all its bewildering ways, shapes and styles.

Go towards the light

February 13, 2018 21 Comments

“There’s more joy than I ever knew.”—Mary Karr
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I’m not psychic, but I’m pretty sure that 100 years from now (hopefully sooner), future generations are going to look back at our belief in separation and limits and wonder, “What were they thinking? How could they be so misinformed?”

They’ll scratch their heads at our refusal to live in the light, to celebrate our joy in much the same way we look back at the Roman Circuses.

“Are you kidding me?” we think, “How could thousands of people sit around drinking wine and being entertained by lions ripping gladiators apart?”

They’ll consider it a laughable curiosity that we treated ourselves this way, that we chose to suffer when right on the other side of the veil is everything we could possibly want.

And it’s all so easy and natural. It’s just that our beliefs have blocked the light that tries to stream to us at every moment.

ACIM lesson 44 (God is the light in which I see) basically tells us that it’s far more radical to live in the light than to live in despair.

The side effect of this ridiculous notion of despair and limitation is we live at half throttle. By not delighting in our inherent gifts, we actually live out the outdated Roman Circus-like notion that we are weak and incapable of creating our lives.

Future generations will also consider it freakishly odd that we felt so guilty and didn’t have the fun and joy we are entitled to. They just won’t understand why we didn’t relish in our creative powers. They’ll puzzle, “They had this amazing gift and they left it sitting in the corner, unwrapped.”

For what it’s worth, future generations, I’m doing my part now (even as we speak) to get up every day, pronounce that something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today and to spend my day in unadulterated wonderment at all the world’s blessings and miracles.

Super God to the rescue

February 12, 2018 28 Comments

“It didn’t really come up that much, the need to yodel.”—Elizabeth Berg

When George Eastman introduced the first commercially-available camera in 1888, he had a goal. He wanted to make photography “an everyday affair.” Or as his company Eastman-Kodak later rephrased it, to make it as “convenient as a pencil.” Their marketing slogan was: “You push the button, we do the rest.”

That’s sorta how I see A Course in Miracles. I don’t have to understand it. I don’t even have to like what it says. I just have to push the button.

ACIM Lesson 43 (God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him) is one of those lessons I really don’t like all that much. It’s preachy and strikes me as not much fun.

So here’s what I do when I feel grumpy about one of the lessons.

1. I flip through the text and find one of the lines I’ve underlined, ones that I DO like. For example, today I opened to:

Only you can deprive yourself of anything.

The laws of happiness were created for you.

Lack does not exist in the kingdom of God.

2. I replace the word God that, as I said in E-Squared, has more baggage than the Chicago airport with one of my trusty synonyms: the Divine Buzz, Source, the Universe. Here’s a big shout out to the person who suggested in the comments on this very blog a synonym that has become my current favorite: Super God.

3. I turn it over to the Holy Spirit. Relying on an unseen spirit that happens to be holy (and a badass at that) is kinda cool, much more fun than turning it over to that misogynist “guy” that some churches pontificate about.

4. Lastly, I remind myself that, in the end, none of it is really up to me. My only job is to push the button.

It’s all a gift

February 11, 2018 41 Comments

“We can be scared, we can be angry, we can be hopeful, we can be sad. We can be all these things and have company in it. –David Wilcox

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I’m home from my magical trip to Canada and decided to read a few of the comments. One, that I felt compelled to answer immediately, seemed relevant for all of us.

Penelope (I’ve changed the name) asked a question about my post on being very precious. She said she didn’t feel worthy of that label and couldn’t seem to get over her anger. Here’s my answer:

Dear sweet, oh-so-worthy Penelope–I just opened my computer to write today’s lesson and thought I’d read a few of the comments. I just read yours and feel impelled to reply…right this very moment. First of all, it is perfectly okay to be angry. In fact, I call “it’s okay” the magic words that can change your life forever. Whatever it is you feel, whatever it is you think, it’s okay.

Second of all, I, too, am very flawed. VERY!!! And I am learning, slowly, slowly, to observe the voice that wants to tell me ‘it’s not okay. I’m not okay.” I think what happens when we ask to see things differently, as the Course suggests, we turn the light on those thoughts that cause us so much pain and, like cockroaches, they begin to scatter.

Nothing–anger, death, guilt, frustration–makes us less precious. We are precious because we are precious. Our thoughts (what the Course calls the ego) will try to tell us we’re not precious, that it’s not okay to feel certain things.

But it’s all okay, my precious, beautiful friend. If for today, you can simply separate yourself from your thoughts (just a little) and just observe them. The trick is not to take them as your identity.

As we learn to be gentle with ourselves (sometimes the hardest thing to do), we find that there’s no need to “find brighter Penelope” or “cut the anger from our psyche.” The Truth about ourselves is underneath it all. It can’t be changed by our anger. Our judgments. Those things are all just normal antics of the mind.

But for today, just breathe and know that whatever train of thoughts is plowing through your head is all okay.

Love, love, only love,

Pam

Lesson ACIM 42 (God is my Strength. Vision is his Gift.) says this:

Your passage through time and space is not at random.

You cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course.

It’s a gift and you don’t have to do anything.

You can receive it any time anywhere, wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself.

GET OUT! Escaping the little house of horrors

February 10, 2018 19 Comments

“Love has befriended me so completely that it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.” –Hafiz
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Some people collect salt and pepper shakers. Others, coins or cookie jars.

I’m a sucker for a good quote—probably because I’m a writer and adore words and ideas. I rarely write anything (except travel articles) without leading off with a quote.

ACIM Lesson 41 (God goes with me wherever I go) is chock full of worthy words of wisdom for my collection.

For example, “Leave appearances. Approach reality.”

What appears to be (in the news, in my litany of dislikes, fears and problems) is a hologram of my beliefs. As long as I continue to “invent cures” for my personal house of horrors, they will continue to star in my reality. But the minute I question their validity, they will literally disappear.

This is SO difficult to believe because we’ve invested our entire lives in the idea of problems. We think it’s our mission to eradicate all the things we do not like.

But what if they’re not even real?

Today, instead of believing in the heavy cloud of appearances, I will celebrate the fact that the Source of all Joy (or Super God, as someone delightfully called it) goes with me wherever I go.

And I will know that anything that might look like a problem is just me making up a story that will go “poof” the minute I withdraw my belief.

The problem, as this lesson stresses, is not real.