Vacuum State: A Course in Miracles

This posting is based on what I have learned from the "A Course in Miracles" seminar on the 19th and 20th of April 2008 in Singapore by Dr Aaron Lim. This is fifth of a six weekend lecture series occurring once every two months. The notes is written as in the first-person for easy reading, but it is not an ad-verbatim recording of what Dr Lim speaks during the seminar.

Warning: This posting contains opinions that may be considered unacceptable by some people. If you are easily offended by unconventional views about religion and spiritualism, then DO NOT READ FURTHER THAN HERE. If you do, then do it at your own risk! If you do not agree with the views expressed below, it does not mean that you have not 'arrived', rather it just mean that you 'do not agree'. Meanwhile, try to be open. There are lots to discover about ourselves when we are open. Do feel free to leave comments. BELIEVING IS NOT NECESSARY!

[To keep the text lean here, I will not include subjects that were covered in the previous ACIM lectures. If you want to read about those subjects, you may refer to the notes in the previous posts. You can use the 'Search' facility in this blog]
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There is only one truth in the Universe. This is the ultimate truth. In the ultimate truth, we go where Love is. Unfortunately when we speak about 'Love' often it is taken as 'Romantic Love'. Love is a lot more powerful than that. Love gives us lots of energy.

However, when we seek for this truth, it appears to mean different things to different people. Also, what appears true to you now, may not appear to be true to you later. It changes with time. So, take it as a buffet. Take what you want and leave what you do not want. But that does not mean that the dish that you did not take is not edible. It is still there.

Whatever does not change is the Truth. Whatever that does, is not real. If you cling to something that changes you get pain and sufferings.

Catholics used to say that they cannot eat fish on Friday. You go to hell if you do. However, this practice has now ceased. Does it mean that they will all go to hell if they eat fish? Surely not.
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Also, what is holy in one religion, may be seen as a sin in another. For instance, the Muslims' practice of animal sacrifice is a day of holiness, but to the Buddhist, it is sinful.

There was a Sikh whose father had told him that he has to keep his hair long as they are attennas to God. Then he saw that Buddhist monks are bald, but yet they are supposedly holy. How is that so? In defiance, he did away with his turban and cut his hair. However, in doing so, he lived in guilt as a bad Sikh, sometimes fearing that lightning may strike him.

When I was a boy, my father brought me to Haw Par Villa, where they show gory statues of humans being punished in Hell for the sins they had committed while living. While looking at the various scenes, one of them with the judge struck me. I thought, "Wouldn't it be that the Hell Gate Judge had been a baby himself once upon a time? Wouldn't he had been a baby full of trust and love once upon a time? How did the Judge get from a trusting baby to become this menacing character sentencing these human beings in Hell? From there, I had my doubts about the whole story.
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My father wanted me to grow up to be an upright person, but had inadvertently brought me to see all these horrors to instill fear in me.

From then, I told myself that never again will I allow this to happen when I have my own family.

I was also told as a kid that if I blow off the candle in front of a Buddha's altar, I will have a crooked mouth.

When I was in Catholic school, I asked, "Where is God?" and the priest told me that God is everywhere. Then he told me I shouldn't go to the temple. So I thought, "Shouldn't God be also in the temple?"

There is a story of a sufi who went to the mosque to drink alcohol and angered the mosque caretakers who threw him out with a scolding that he (the sufi) should not drink in the house of God. In reply, the sufi asked, "Show me a place where God is not and I'll drink there". Which the caretakers were dumbfounded.

I used to wear many talismans with me. It was quite cumbersome, as I have to take them out when I was in the toilet, when I shower...etc. But these talismans didn't help me. I was more and more fearful. Fearful that if I forget them one day, calamity will befall me. So one day, I decided to take them off forever. It was hard to come out as the Fear is from inside. For a while, I lived with great amount of guilt. Whenever, there is thunder and lightning, I was fearful that it might strike me.

This is no longer the case now. I live with more joy, more laughter, more peace and more money. I realised that everything that goes around is actually just about me.

Hindus crack coconuts to please the Gods, so that they will be blessed. So, when they still don't get what they want, the crack more coconuts. I told them that it is no use to continue cracking coconuts, but they got angry with me instead. Why would any god need humans to crack coconuts for them? Why coconuts? Here coconuts originally were meant to symbolise the 'head' or the ego. What the action of 'breaking the coconut' symbolises is the 'breaking of the ego'.

Yesterday, at a shopping center near here, a pleasant young lady approached us to introduce to us a health product. She was very professional and very polite, and told us that she is not working for the company or paid for her time, but she was merely sharing her experience that she has benefited from the product. She said that she is just doing good to help others. Then she added that as a Christian she gets her blessings by helping others.

Then I was thinking, "Does it mean that if she is not a Christian she doesn't have to help others? Or, does it mean that if non-Christians help others they won't get any blessings?...etc".

If it is about helping people, then Muslims do better, as they have Zakat, which is a percentage of their income put into a pool for charity. Shouldn't they be well blessed too?

That is a thinking that exclude others. But if that is her truth, then this is what she is most comfortable with, she should carry on. We should not tell people how they should live their lives. People have to do what they have to do until they have enough of it.

[Lunch Break]

I have noticed that some people who were here this morning have left after my comments about Christians. This is a seminar where people can choose to take what they want and leave what they do not want. Their leaving the seminar does not worry me. All of you have chosen to come here to listen, so I speak. Outside this seminar, I do not speak like this and interfere with what other people thinks.

I was not like that once upon a time and went round telling people what to do. It was futile. Jesus said, "Do not throw pearls towards swines". (This should be taken figuratively and not derogatively. It means that pearls are precious and shouldn't be thrown to those who does not understand its value.)

When Moses spoke to God he saw a burning bush. Very bright but doesn't consume itself. It was Light. God is Light. It was a conversation that only he can hear. In other words, Moses listened 'inside'. The Kingdom of Heaven is in You. The mountain that was there then was gone. Here, it was referring symbolically to the crown of Moses head.

It is through our stillness that we reach God. There is no chosen person. There is no discrimination. Jesus said, "Be still and know I am God". So it is futile to search for God 'outside'. To fear hell, follow religions (slavishly), follow Gurus (slavishly) will get you confused and pain will set in.

We give our power away to robed monks, priests and other religious leaders. Religious leaders often talked more about Hell than Love. That is because Fear controls you. People who preaches through Fear, doesn't want you to be free.
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After that, they ask you to have Faith and trust in God, which you already had before they destroyed it with Fear.

That means, do not defend or be attached to what is not real. Ego controls and you will not grow.

'Sin' does not exist. The word 'sin' comes from the ancient practice of archery. When the archer hits the centre, it was 'bulls-eye'. When he misses, it was 'sin'. What it means here metaphorically is that the centre is 'peace'. So, if you miss 'peace' it is 'sin'.

Religions change, so why cling on to it?

This does not mean that you should not be religious. It is just that it is futile to cling to them as they changes with time. Also, it is not necessary to change to a new religion. You just have to change yourself. ie. Your thinking. Your original self does not judge. God has no beginning and no end. There is no time frame in God. God is absolutely pure. God is absolutely in Oneness.

All of us are following Beings that we haven't met and we do not have evidence of their existence. There is no historical record of Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Krishna...etc. But it doesn't matter. as long as we can separate the 'singer' from the 'song'. We don't want and don't need 'heroes' outside us. We must not cling on to something that is not us.

This is not the case for many of you now, because you bought what was told to you by your 'heroes'. You bought into those ideas, but those ideas were not 'you'. .
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You are the Christ. The 100% Love.

When we first came into being, we were pure. We were 100% Love. When you were born, you did not know if you were Chinese, boy or girl, Singaporean or not...etc. You fully trust that there will be food, shelter and cleanliness.

The Anti-Christ professes that He has a special relationship with Christ/God but you are do not. God does not discriminate.

Question: Should we advise friends whom we feel are going wayward?

Reply: No. We advise only when they ask.

Question: What if they ask for our advice and we advised, but they keep coming back with the same problem?

Reply: Tell them you can't help them. They are not serious about their life. They love drama.

Question: (In the Buddhist context) Can merits be transferred?

Reply: No. You can only influence others with your merits. They cannot be transferred.

Question: Are 'merits' still merits when one is overly conscious about it?

Reply: No. Have you ever commended someone for being kind and surprised that person, who turned around and asked, "Really? Is there any other way to do it?"

Question: Is it possible for human beings to be satisfied?

Reply: There is potential for all of us to reach there (to be contented/satisfied). If one can reach there, all the rest of us can.

Example: In a football game, the spectators have a broader and clearer view from the grandstand. They are observers of the game. Spectators often scream to the players aloud what the players on the pitch ought to do in that moment. However, the players on the field do not have the same clarity. In parallel, we ought to be observers in our own life and have better clarity.

My father admired Islam for its simplicity. He had said that he would want to have an Islam burial which is clean and simple. In that sense, Muslims are great Buddhists, in that they are free from their body when their soul departs.

Question: How do we align ourselves with the Universe?

Reply: With the Power of Intention. Set your Intention. In the documentary, "What the Bleep do we know?" The doctor set her intention in the morning and check it during the day for its harmony. What does that mean?

For instance, I am selling a tonic intended for the good health of my customers. But as a businessman, I have to charge money for it. However, if I am going to price it really high, then I will have to question if my true intention is for the better health of my customer or is it more fore the money? I have to get the right balance between making a profit vs caring for my customer.

Question: When we pass on, where do we go?

Reply: We go to where are consicousness is. When we reincarnate, we will be reincarnated into families of similar levels of consciousness. There are many bodies of low human consciousness available for the soul, whilst there are not many new births of higher consciousness. It is like in a showroom. There are many people circling around the lower class cars. For the luxury class, there are fewer potential customers circling around. The car here is like the egg waiting for a suitable soul (owner).

[End of Day 1]

[Start of Day 2]

In the movie "The Matrix", there was a part where he has to take either a blue or a red pill. If he takes the blue pill, a set of 'doors' will be opened for him. If he takes the red pill, another set of doors will be opened for him.

That meant a lot to me in the context of spirituality. Take it that if you take one pill, you open your doors to Love. Take the other pill and you open another set of doors of Fear.

Make no judgments over the choices you make. You have the power to adjust your sail to go to the direction you want. You don't have to pray for the wind directions to change. Set your intentions everyday. Sow your seeds. What you give you shall receive.

Yesterday I took a taxi that was driven that was driven like it was in the F1. Clearly the driver has put himself and us in danger. He drove with a very high chance of creating trouble for himself.

[Then, as Dr Aaron was going through the motions of the driver speeding away and everyone in the audience was getting thrilled and entertained, a little girl put up her hand and asked, "Dr Aaron, is that true?", thus punctuating the dramatic climax and drawing laughter in the audience. Dr Aaron then asked her mother if she asked her daughter to attend or that she wants to attend the seminar herself, in which her mother let the little girl reply herself. This drew praise from Dr Aaron saying that the mother is a spiritual mother, who does not take the driver seat of her daughter's life.

Oh, by the way, the little girl's reply was "Both". Meaning, her mother had asked her to attend the seminar and that she also wanted to attend.

Now continuing with story of the F1 taxi driver...]
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Imagine if this driver is going to drive like this everyday and each day he gets 10 curses. How many curses will he get in a year? 3,650 curses. But why did he drive like he did? Fear of not earning enough for the day. Fear set him back.

Question from a young lady: There are two boys that are interested in me. Both of them have their strong points and I don't know which one to choose. How do you think I should approach the matter?

Reply: Make choices in full awareness. How clear are you of yourself? Are you ready for the consequences? However, all choices are correctable in the physical world, since we are living in a phenomenal world. Remember the person you are attracted to reflects yourself. In other words, you are falling in love with yourself, or aspects of yourself. Also are you 'looking for a boyfriend'? If you are, you have a belief that you are not full.

Question: Why did God go through all the trouble to create us, send us to Earth, and send gurus to lead us back?

Reply: God didn't. We did, in our forgetfulness. In this course, we call in 'a tiny crazy idea'.

Question: But God is omnipotent right? So can't he change us?

Reply: It's about free-will.

We start with a 'tiny crazy idea' and we gave life to it. From this idea, we create other ideas. For instance, we create companies and gave it life. So we say, for instance, "I work for Shell". But Shell is a company, not life itself. Then we go on to add idea to this idea and say, "Shell can hire and fire". So you see, companies has control over you only if you allow it. A series of tiny mad ideas lead to our forgetfulness.

Here's another question: Did human beings created cars or did God create cars? If you answered it as human beings or God, both are right in their own way. Now let's consider, human beings created cars. That we can see, but before the cars were created, isn't all those materials and physical laws are already there to make the cars. So now, who created the cars? Perhaps, we can safely say, human beings co-created cars.

Question: So, is Love a mad idea?

Reply: No. Love is energy we gave meaning to. You'll know when you get there. It is like foreigners who ask me how durains taste like. I always tell them to taste it.

Question: Is Love one aspect of God?

Reply: No. Love is the only aspect of God.

About Buddhas

Buddhas are useless to other Buddhas. It is like a candle in full sunshine, what good is that candle for? But candles are very useful in a dark room. Similarly, Buddhas are of value where there are still darkness.

About Soulmates and Twin Flames

As Singapore gets richer, so there come gurus and New Age people giving seminars about this subject. You know you won't be thinking of this if you are starving in a refugee camp or if you are self-realised.

Contrary to popular belief, we have more than one soul mate. Soul mates are souls whom you have spent some time together in some previous embodiment and it was those times when your minds are joined. When you meet again in later embodiments, there is recognition of it in your eyes. You feel really good about each other. However, such marriages will be boring.

You have only one twin flame in the universe. Meeting your other twin flame is extremely rare. Meeting a twin flame around your age is even less likely. Twin flame souls are split when one of you descent to take human form. While there is attraction, there is also anger between twin flames over something that one has done that has caused the split.

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Mother Teresa say human beings always logic things out. Jesus said that if you want to got to heaven, be like children. Most Prophets are illiterate. Literate people are too logical and does not have a crack in their intellect for the Light to come in. Messages come to the head, but didn't reach the heart.