Dear All!
As I read the following, I thought of you and that the following may be of insight or interest, so I copied it to paste here. Blessings! God Is
"...From what I've read here, all of us pretty much warmly and lovingly agree
that people need what they need when they need it. We all wouldn't be
chatting here if we had not had beloved "pre-ACIM" teachers - bless ‘em!!
Now I'd like to discuss Tolle. I love and adore and greatly appreciate and
revere Eckhart Tolle. I consider him to be one of the most extraordinary
and enlightened beings on the planet. It's my opinion that Oprah is doing
incalculable good to innumerable people through her recommending his latest
book and hosting the ten classes where she and he talk to millions. I have
watched the first 90-minute class - laughing and crying and loving! He
looked so Christ-like, and looked 30-something instead of 50-something.
Oprah never looked more beautiful. The whole set looked luminescent to me.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
At the same time, it still seems important that the readers of this
keep in mind the profound and fundamental contrasts
between his teachings and those of J in ACIM and A&P in DU/YIR. We do NOT
need to explain or defend them to anyone at all. At the same time, clarity
in our own minds with respect to our chosen ACIM beliefs seems warranted.
To that end, here are a number of examples, as I in all my warped
perceptions understand them, in case they might be of help to one of my
brothers who seem to be "out there"! LOL
ET: constant focus is on raising consciousness to get beyond ego
LOL
J: goal is not to Wake Up but to realize the "happy dream" as ACIM defines
it (not of form) - and in some ineffable way, God takes the last step for us
LOL
ET: death of the body strips away all that you are not
J: death of the body is NOT death of the ego (A&P: if it were, you
wouldn't reincarnate) - the TTTS-mind as I like to call it (the
Trans-Temporal, Trans-Spatial mind) goes on and on and on and on and on . .
. did I mention it goes on and on? . . . until we have true-forgiven a lot
more than 77 x 7 (LOL) times and the Holy Spirit has commensurately
"disappeared" all our revolting, hideous, murderous, terrifying, vicious
buried guilt for seemingly having separated from Oneness ("killed God" by
"making duality").
LOL
ET: form and space make up reality
J: all form is unreal - "I do not know what anything, including this,
means ..."
LOL
ET: goal is a new earth (higher consciousness)
J: goal is not only NOT a new earth, goal is beyond anything we are
capable of imagining with our dualistic mind-sense "apparatus"
LOL
ET: "You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.
That is how important you are!" (quote on frontispiece)
J: there is no "you" - there is no world - there is no "universe" so there
is no divine purpose to it - your purpose is to realize this through the
practice of True Forgiveness until "you" and "the new/old/whatever earth"
and "the universe" disappear into their true nothingness
LOL
ET: never says a word about perception being a function of the projection
of our unconscious guilt
J: this is foundational to the entire ACIM teaching, all perception is due
to projection
LOL
ET: to be free of the ego is easy - "All that is required to become free
of the ego is to be aware of it."
J (KW, A&P): to be free of the ego is hard and it takes a longggg time of
practicing True Forgiveness!!!
LOL
ET: the inconceivable vastness and stillness of space is the unmanifested
itself, externalized, as the body of God
J: God does not equal the vastness and stillness of space - there is no
space - there is no "out there"
LOL
J (A&P): energy is just as much comprised of ego as everything else
characterized by time and space
LOL
DU p. 9 -
Gary, "My friends and I think that God produced the world so He could know
Himself experientially, which I guess is a pretty common New Age belief."
Pursah, "God did not create duality and He did not create the world. If he
did, He would be the author of ‘a tale told by an idiot,' to borrow
Shakespeare's description of life."
LOL
ET: "It is through you that the divine knows itself."
J: The divine does not know us dualistically - It knows us as One with
Itself, i.e., nondualistically
LOL
ET: Speaks of the raising of mass consciousness as being very desirable
and beneficial thing
J (A&P): Enlightenment is not related to what seeming-others are doing -
it isn't something you "catch"
LOL
ET: speaks of his concern about the survival of the earth and the human
race.
J: is not concerned with this - and with regard to what IS his focus, he J
gives us a tool (True Forgiveness) that "saves thousands of years" to Truly
Waking Up
LOL
ET: speaks often of the relevance of bodies
J: says we definitely should not try to deny our bodily experiences, but
that they are neutral - their only useful role in Waking Up is when we team
up with the HS to have Him use them for His purposes
LOL
ET: speaks of the "infinite intelligence" that runs our bodies, marvels at
the "infinite wisdom" in every cell, and says the unmanifest gives life to
the physical body
J: God did not make any form - the TTTS-mind/ego made and runs our bodies
- A&P: it's like a painter which paints a canvas which immediately begins to
deteriorate
LOL
J: "the script is written"
LOL
ET: origin of ego came through a split in the human psyche which split our
identity in two parts, "me" and "I") (or "me" and "myself").
J: teaches a vastly different origin of the ego, an ego that is not of the
psyche at all - the origin of this ego goes back "in linear time" to our
forgetting to laugh at the incomprehensibly tiny and incomprehensibly mad
idea that something besides "GOD IS" could exist.
LOL
ET: relationships - others are real and "out there"
J: others are you, there is no "out there" -
LOL
ET: forgiveness - mentioned occasionally, implying "pardon"
J: forgiveness - the bedrock of ACIM's entire teaching, but with a
radically different definition and 3-step application (I love the definition
the ACIM Monk uses, initials RI-RI: "Recognizing innocence through
right-identity")
LOL
ET: it's a do-it-yourself job
J: you must have HS help to wake up - see next excerpt
LOL
From ACIM - Teacher's Manual, p. 70 -
"There is another advantage, - and a very important one, - in
referring decisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency. Perhaps
you have not thought of this aspect, but its centrality is obvious. To
follow the Holy Spirit's guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt.
It is the essence of the Atonement. It is the core of the curriculum. The
imagined usurping of functions not your own is the basis of fear. The whole
world you see reflects the illusion that you have done so, making fear
inevitable. To return the function to the One to Whom it belongs is thus the
escape from fear. And it is this that lets the memory of love return to you.
Do not, then, think that following the Holy Spirit's guidance is necessary
merely because of your own inadequacies. It is the way out of hell for you.
Here again is the paradox often referred to in the course. To say,
‘Of myself I can do nothing" is to gain all power.' "
J is saying we CANNOT do it byourselves.
And this from DU p. 16 (A&P wasted no time getting to this point, did they?)
"Perhaps the most overlooked error of all religions and philosophies,
including the New Age models, is the failure to understand that although
doing things like thinking positively, being ‘in the now,' saying prayers,
affirmations, denying negative thoughts, and listening to famous speakers
may have a temporarily helpful impact, they *cannot* release that [guilt]
which is locked in the deep canyons of your unconscious mind."
LOL
ALL TOLLE'S EFFORTS ARE DONE WITH THE *CONSCIOUS* MIND!!
But our problem is with our *UNCONSCIOUS* mind - and we need J/HS to help us
with that, otherwise how could we ever heal it??
LOL
Yes, Tolle quotes from ACIM, when it supports his belief system . . . he
also quotes from the Bhagavad-Gita and the Bible and other sources, and they
clearly don't 100% overlap with ACIM. Wayne Dyer also quotes from ACIM and
he most assuredly misses ACIM's central teachings.
LOL
In closing, I DO realize how perfectly the following paragraph applies to
me. As with my body, these contrasts are only useful in the service of the
Holy spirit.
LOL
"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
defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. Theological
considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on
belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is
impossible, but a UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE [RRR emphasis] is not only possible
but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed.
Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty
ends."
In closing, as a precious tribute to the Reality of our Oneness (beyond all
form, Tolle would certainly agree), and the large areas of overlap between
the Tolle and the ACIM two thought systems, here's a fabulous quote from
ACIM, Workbook Lesson 132:
The present now remains the only time.
Here in the present is the world set free.
For as you let the past be lifted and
release the future from your ancient fears,
you find escape and give it to the world.
And this gem from the Teacher's Manual:
Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of
interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is
now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of
concern to God's teachers. All beliefs [RRR: including Tolle's] will point
to this if properly interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their
truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to progress should be
honored. This is the sole criterion this course requires. No more than this
is necessary.
LOVE
LOL
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