It is said the world does not exist. When we speak of “the world” we need to be clear on what we are talking about. The world, specifically, as what? The world as everything other than you? (This is usually what is meant, and so the world is defined by and because of our separate sense of “I.”) If the world is everything other than you, does that mean it is somehow separate from you? How could the world be separate from you? Even scientists know that experience, sights, sounds, tastes, sensations arise in the brain, not outside of you, and that without you, none of this is possible. That there is a you and a world are just ideas superimposed on the undivided Reality, by the thinking phenomena called ego. That world is what the scriptures say is unreal. Mind cannot grasp this, because it is the illusion. Look to your direct experience, and see if you can meaningfully separate any thing from you, and have it still be there.
Commenter: “God is in everthing I see .. because God is in my mind.” ~ ACIM. When you stop for a second and realize that everything imagined or experienced is experienced within your mind .. the overwhelming sense of oneness dawns. It becomes less of a Personal ‘I’ .. and an overwhelming expansion into ‘I AM’ .
Cindy Teevens God, or Self, is all there is. And this Self is the same as your very own self. Wherever you go, whoever you are with, is there ever another sense of self present? Any thought or feeling of being separate is just that, a mere thought or feeling being known by you. All is only ever known by you.
Cindy Teevens Yes, Commenter what you speak of is the direct experience of experience, noticing what is, not believing/noticing comments (thoughts) on what is. Push past even a hint of the contraction of personal “i” (that’s what the “personal I” is, a contraction of attention onto objects in Awareness, and a comment on them). The sense of expansion is the dropping of contraction. (The “I” is not expanding, it is actually dissolving.)
Commenter: Here’s looking at ME kid
Cindy Teevens LOL … Cheers to That
Cindy Teevens I like the way someone else expressed it: “The illusion of the world is that it is something separate from “me”.”
PART TWO
Questioner: Is the world just a dream that we will wake up from, or is the world real but just our perception of it that is the illusion?
Cindy Teevens My friend, you need to define what you are calling real.
Commenter: “That’s found through a direct experience of Revelation… ” .. all that beliefs and concepts can do is point one in the direction of Truth. The Course it’self teaches that you need not believe what is says, and in fact you will find a lot of it’s lessons quite shocking, but it is in the application of the lessons through your everyday practice that you will come to know them as Truth. The Course is very clear .. God did not create the world, and knows not of it’s apparent existence.
Cindy Teevens Exactly Maureen Brown. Because initially the mind is being used, and it is very limited. Alex Reyenga. One does not need to know these things to have a direct seeing, and often there is too much mental “knowledge” we can spin the mind in.
Commenter2 Hi Questioner and everyone, yesterday it dawned on me that trying to figure out such things was not only impossible (since the mind that I am using to try to figure things out is also an illusion) – but it is also nothing more than a distraction (for me) from actually taking the time to have direct experience. I am so glad I saw this because I have had a gut full of the suffering (even though it be imagined suffering!). Anyway – love to you all and also a little smiley face
Cindy Teevens Thanks for sharing your experience Linda Gardiner. This is very good news to hear. Once you experience the stillness vs. the noise of the ego mind, and discover you prefer the peace, this is a great turning point.
Commenter2 What if it was entirely up to you, Questioner?
Commenter2 I love this types of conversations. It steers my mind to the question of innocence.. If I am utterly innocent (and I am!), what it matters whether the world or the universe is real or not?
Cindy Teevens Words can never be that to which we point to. Because mind cannot know, it does not need to know. Thus, thought about Reality needs to be given up. Otherwise it is a delay and distraction that can keep one from the real work (which is not thought.) This is the second greatest learning mind can receive. It is humbling, and quieting. To know Reality, mind needs to become clear and still.
Cindy Teevens Answering such a thing will not reveal Reality (and in fact veils it), yet upon recognition of Truth, all questions are answered or dismissed. Seek the highest and everything lower will be revealed.
Cindy Teevens And yet, while the questions arise, ask them! Ask, ask, ask. That is the purpose of this group. All questions and doubts must come forth and be satisfied, expire themselves, or until we give up on the mind–so the mind quiets.
Cindy Teevens The world, as separate from you, is not the world, and does not exist because the world is the unseparated Self. The world is real as only the Self. Believed and imagined as somehow a separate phenomena, due to believing you are somehow a separate entity, the world does not exist and nor do you, the mental separation called ego. In order to create yourself as individual, in order to separate … Separate from what? From everything else, which results in you automatically creating the world and God as separate. This is only in the mind, and not in Reality.
Dear Self
Dear Self is the spiritual version of “Dear Abby.” Get access to broadcasts: https://gobeyond.leadpages.net/join-conversations-with-your-self/ Join live or watch privately.
You are seeking answers to why you feel, act, and react the way you do, or maybe you are even questioning who you are. When the student is ready, the teacher appears (to appear). No matter where answers appear to come from–your mentor, a book, your friend, enemy, dog, or a tree–ultimately, they come from within, from your Self. So ask away, because the Truth is available, here and now. Welcome to the catalystic conversation that can unveil it.
Work with Cindy one-on-one and expose the ego: https://alchemylovejoy.com/exposing-the-ego/