Note's from Gary's workshop

Gary Renard: “Breaking the Cycle of Birth & Death”

Omega Institute, February 18-25, 2006 Sueño Azul Resort, Horquetas de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.

Andy’s notes (not comprehensive, may contain mistakes)

Let’s all seek to be students, learning to be at cause, unaffected by the world, totally free. The world of pain can’t be escaped by denial. God is not in the world. It can be escaped by looking at our perceptions and forgiving; in this way we return to who we really are.

The world is an illusion, but in awakening we don’t have to give anything up. That would make it real. What we are looking at is effect. There is no need to change anything in the world. It is about changing cause, the mind, and changing our perception of the world; to look at it differently and have an experience.

Ego unconsciously runs everything- what we see is horrifying; we believe it.

We have to know what’s there in order to expose it and then change our mind about it and be free of it.

Let the Holy Spirit take over:

- I’m not responsible so I’m free of guilt

- Holy Spirit guides me to what is best for everybody

We are driven by unconscious guilt; Jesus told us. Now we can understand it; in harmony with the new physics. Old physics: subject and object, the body is real; a field day for judgment.

1875 May Baker Eddy: Science and Health, “Adam is still asleep.”

1975 A Course in Miracles, “Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up.” T-2.I.3:6

The Holy Spirit takes the illusions of the ego and turns the tables, shows it’s false. Things don’t change, only the way we look at it. What we see is a symbol of our unconscious; change happens at cause, in mind.

The est program taught “be at cause.” Arten and Pursah came to keep us focused so we could become masters. Many “teachers” of the Course have gone off to start something else; they make it about what’s going on in the world. This is a mistake. We must go back to cause. Then our experience will change at once. We will become more peaceful. You can’t put a price tag on that.

Remember the truth – that’s the hard part. We defend ourselves, our body. We think the body tells us what to feel. But pain is a mental process that is felt in the body. There is no body. We appear to be in this optical delusion, separation idea, like time and space. It’s all simultaneous.

When you look at a star it changes instantly at the subatomic level because it’s a projection of your mind.

Forgiveness is realizing there are no others; I’m it; I forgive it.

What we hate in others is what we don’t like in ourselves. (If you don’t forgive them, you will become them.) We think “Only I suffer. It’s all about me.”

Shifting to cause will change our experience. With less guilt, we enjoy the world more. Course is mostly Buddhism. The ego cannot survive without judgment/condemnation. Remove it.

Then change the way that you look at people, your interpretation of them. The quantum physicists will say it’s an illusion; they’re still afraid to go so far as to say it’s not real. There is no separation; it’s all one. If I forgive you, I forgive myself. You designed the people you hate so the guilt would be theirs, not yours.

I forgive because I made them up. The reason I did so was erroneous. We always have a choice between two alternatives: 1) cause 2) all the others. Only an experience of reality will make you happy.

You are not here. There is no separation; there is no cause and effect in the world.

There is no theological answer here; no answer in words.

There is only the experience of who we really are, in which there is no separation, at a higher level, the spirit level: changeless, eternal, immortal, untouched by this world. Jesus was invulnerable, felt no pain. If I have no guilt, it is impossible for me to feel pain. I tell my body what to feel.

If you withhold forgiveness anywhere, you’re stuck in the illusion. You can’t be whole (love) and be divided. When I forgive other person, I return to who I really am. I will begin to not become upset where I used to. The blocks are my ego speaking first.

Consciousness is an ego idea. There is no such thing as “Christ consciousness.” The Holy Spirit is not in the world, doesn’t create parking spaces. HS can, however, guide me, inspire me.

There is no world. There is no one for you to leave your money to. You can’t make it better. It is a temporary effect. The Department of Peace will not lead to world peace—a nice idea but it wouldn’t work. There will be no peace in the world until there is inner peace. Then there will be peace and no world. The world cannot be changed. Change cause and the world will change.

The Holy Spirit will take the needed form to be accepted, words in any language, angels, etc.

I will begin to think like Him.

Cause is the only alternative that is real. Then your experience will change and you’ll feel happy. Our total experience is spread out over many lifetimes.

God did not create the world, is not responsible for it, is absolved.

God is perfect love. No exception. No compromise.

I may not withhold my forgiveness from anyone.

Jesus was a precocious Jewish rabbi. He said heaven is perfect oneness with God; hell is anything else.

The way I experience myself is determined by the way I look on other people. The ego knows it tricked the unconscious mind; if I condemn Bush, I condemn myself, reinforcing the ego. The ego is one appearing as many. The way I experience others is the way I experience myself. Truth is simple; ego is not. It must be undone like peeling an onion. Each forgiveness experience is huge; it cuts through all our lifetimes. The other person is not a body, not guilty. The ultimate experience is what I really am.

The mind judges automatically. The goal is to have it forgive automatically. At first you use a right-minded thought process. Gradually you get used to doing it and miss it if you don’t. You just know what things are for, which is forgiveness.

There is one dream with 6 billion perspectives, points of view. No organization will last. Attitudinal Healing is not ACIM.

Gary met Ken Wapnick, copyright holder, in 1998. Attended ACIM event in Bethel, ME in October, 2001. Sent a copy of book to Ken and received full permission to use ACIM quotes. 

Ken and Endeavor Academy (cult) in copyright law suit. Gary’s visit described in second book. Marianne Williamson doesn’t credit quotations to ACIM. Disappearance published April of 2003. Gary afraid of public speaking. Jon Mundy came to Unity in Portland; told Gary that Carlos Castaneda never spoke to public; today his books have no credibility. Jon asked Gary to do workshop in NYC. Vickie Poppe had Gary do workshops at Peakes Island, ME and at her house in Quincy, MA. Gary remembered, “I am here only to be truly helpful.” T-2.V.A.18:2

Once you choose the Holy Spirit, you are connected; it undoes the separation. When Jon Mundy’s car died he remained cool; Gary thought, “Jesus, this guy really believes this stuff!”

The world is mostly pain. It pops up, I forgive it.

Book by Trina Paulus Hope for the Flowers on amazon.com.

Most spirituality today is about manifesting abundance. It does no good, waste of time. Building on sand (world). Real spirituality is about waking up from the dream. Building on rock (spirit). In lucid dreaming you have no fear. Gary is a projection of my mind; the Holy Spirit showing up in a way I understand. There is one teacher: the Holy Spirit. There is one student: the ego.

There is a way to be guided here and now and to undo the separation on pages 350-353. Do it.

When you meditate you might visualize yourself taking J’s or the Holy Spirit’s hand and going to God. Then you might think of yourself as laying your problems and goals and idols on the altar before Him as gifts. Maybe you’ll tell God how much you love Him and how grateful you are to be completely taken care of by Him—forever safe and totally provided for. Then you become silent. You have the attitude that God created you to be just like Him and to be with Him forever. Now you can let go of everything, join with God’s Love and lose yourself in joyful Communion with Him.

Don’t put your faith in an illusory source, you have to lose.

Put faith in eternal Source, see your career etc. as tools of the Source.

Song of Prayer—joining with God is abstract. As an aftereffect of joining or forgiving you will experience an inspirational idea, an “echo of God’s love.” Join with God in Love and gratitude. Now you come from strength rather than weakness, you remember who you are. Seek first the kingdom of heaven, then you get everything. Do this every day, 5 minutes in morning and 5 minutes at night.

The Serious Business of Happiness producer Michael Lasky (wife Kris) had come to Maine to see Gary about putting DU into a movie, sparked invitation to Serious. In Serious Sean wants it all plus spirituality. In film he asks Eckart Tolle, Marianne, Don Miguel Luiz, and Gary about it. Gary is now writing screenplay for DU movie.

Arten and Pursah told Gary to bring DU to D. Patrick Miller. Miller said “no” twice. Meditation led to inspired idea, pay to have him read manuscript. Miller: “You’ve got something.” Sold 10,000 first year. In 2004 Hay House buys book, with no changes allowed. Arten and Pursah have visited 28 times, play jokes on Gary, new clothes go unmentioned. Gary likes films:  Page 161 ‘ghosts think their bodies are alive, but they’re not.’ Gary heard this in 6^th Sense. Page 264 about Isaiah. Gary saw opening screen in Mel Gibson’s Passion “And by his wounds we are healed” from Old Testament Isaiah 53:5-10.

The Course is about cause, your power to choose between the ego and the Holy Spirit. As you do this the external picture changes as well. You get to have your cake and eat it too.

Participant introductions:

Gail from Manitoba read Wayne Dyer’s books and Radical Forgiveness (Colin Tipping), Wayne gave Gary a huge endorsement.

Donna from New York, friend kept telling her about ACIM, she bought book, fell in love with it. Spiritual Cinema Circle, DU list serve http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Disappearance_of_the_Universe/

DavidPaul and Candace Doyle.

Dennis, NY, took up ACIM after est, inner prompt to get DU in bookstore.

Eleanor, CA, heard of ACIM from her patient, took it to Paris

Eileen, WI, in spiritual buffet line, desperate, sister gave her book, Ramtha, ACIM lifesaving.

Cathy, CA, Ram Dass, Marianne, ACIM, Alan and Margaret Dolit.

Andy, NH, est, divorce, AA, ACIM

Gary attended an ACIM group in Leeds, ME for 11 years; “A prophet is not acceptable in his own town.” The Gospel of Thomas, saying 31, LOL.

Arten and Pursah: You are successful if you are forgiving the other person. Miracle can have undreamed of effects in all dimensions. The imagined separation from God is being undone.

First:     God is

            Creates Christ

            Christ creates endlessly

            All perfect oneness (nothing else)

“Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh.” T-27.VIII.6:2 (“What if I separate?” But no separation ever occurs).

Like watching your child sleeping, dreaming, you notice child reacting to a dream.

Child sees dream as reality. Parent can’t see dream. Parent doesn’t shake child. Whispers to child, “It’s all right.” Truth can be heard in the dream, but it is not in the dream.

Child becomes more relaxed; dream becomes more happy. Finally child wakes up and realizes never left the bed. Same as Holy Spirit whispering to us in daily life. Our dream, which we call waking, seems convincing but is not real.

Near-Death Experiences: dying people going toward the light but unconscious guilt catches up, creates psychological pain, the way to escape is into another body.

Prodigal son decided to leave, finds only scarcity, realizes need to go home, but thinks he’s guilty. God runs to him, puts robe on him and they party.

When we thought of separation, it implied an individual existence, subject and object, a bad experience. Our life seems perfect in the womb, then birth is sudden separation, crying, post partum depression. Symbolic of separation from God. Subject and object make for duality or consciousness; need something to be conscious of. Now two-ness.

Can look at result of tiny mad idea as

1. lack, ego, scarcity, I did something wrong, sinned, guilty, will be punished, fear punishment from God.

2. Holy Spirit—no problem, just go home. (We didn’t listen.)

3. We believe what ego’s telling us: we sinned, God’s pissed and He’ll kill us. I can’t hide.

  Ego: “You can hide where God can’t come.” Ego loves duality and tries to trick us into it.

  Ego: “If you come with me you can be God, special, create your own.”

  We’re confused and upset. “You do not realize the magnitude of that one error.

  It was so vast and so completely   incredible that from it a world of total unreality had to emerge.” T-18.I.5:2-3

  A whole world cast out of heaven, forced into this mess.

4. We fuse with ego, massive denial. Eat of good and evil = opposites, duality. Held together by power of our belief.

  We projected our denied guilt in the Big Bang, universe projected in an instant.

Ego’s plan of duality plays itself out in relationships, civilizations rise and fall to symbolically portray what’s in the unconscious mind. The problem is not in me; we project on another person, thinking “you are the one who has done wrong.” But we are doing this to ourselves. The dream is very intense, we believe it is happening. We think “I’m an innocent baby; of course it’s not my fault.” We are literally out of our mind; to look into our unconscious mind would terrify us. So we look outside. The ego's maxim, "Seek but do not find". T-16.V.6:5

One problem: separation

One solution: forgiveness

Forgiveness undoes the separation. We can blame our body or any body. My secret sins seem to be in others. We know someone else is the cause of our problem. Projection goes on and on; if what I see is true then I have separated from God; confirms ego thought system.

Forgive what’s outside, symbols of your own projected guilt. The death of someone close to us is the experience that is as close to the moment of separation as we come. We weep for God, or our lost innocence.

The special relationship is our substitute. Sex is as close as we come to heaven. Heaven is constant ecstasy. Revelation is a preview of heaven; it is the answer. We can experience the difference. To make it permanent, forgive and undo the ego.

In your mind, say, “You are Christ, pure and innocent; all is forgiven and released.” (Just as Gary said that we were wafted with the scent of night blooming jasmine.)

Energy shifts between waves and particles; it is only matter when we look at it. Spirit, however, is a constant, eternal state. Bring your illusions to truth. Do not try to bring truth to illusions. Forgive illusions, look past them.

The ego likes sudden surprises: earthquakes, Katrina, tsunami, 9/11 etc. Rude awakenings as symbolic of our separation instant when terror took the place of love. We only have love (HS) or fear (ego).

Do meditation (p. 351) every day and it becomes a part of you. You become more likely to respond with Holy Spirit. You suffer until you forgive. Goal like the Buddhist end of suffering. Join with God. Stay there.

Forgiveness – at your first negative reaction to someone, remember, stop yourself. The rest will come in by habit. To get the habit: practice, practice, practice to attain this accomplishment. To experience it you must do the work.

      1)      Notice your ego, (develop an internal alarm,) and stop.

      2)      Recall the projection; rewind it, so you can choose again.

Applies to people, events, and situations. The ego’s terrible stories are unbelievable. Don’t identify with bodies, people are Christ, whole and healed. It is OK to improvise: any right-minded idea. Holy Spirit will remove your unconscious guilt automatically. Ego’s theme is always separation from God. Person you forgive may be you.

More people die from suicide than from all the wars and crime in the world. Hospitals are the third leading cause of death in America.

Forgive:

      1)      I am not really there; I am making up what I am reacting to.

      2)      The imagined guilt and fear must be in me.

      3)      Since the separation from God never occurred, I forgive both of us for what we haven’t really done,

               and I join with the Holy Spirit in peace.

You are not expected to dispel your illusions alone. Now there is only innocence. Innocence must be total, with universal application. This is wisdom, because it is the only way to see yourself as innocent. Each time you have less unconscious guilt in your mind. A trained mind always sees truly. People who treat us badly only hate themselves; see them as the suffering person; the call for love. Holy Spirit is a constant response to the inconstant world. Truth is eternal. You can only serve one master. Nothing is taken away, only its lack of value is recognized. The untrained mind can accomplish nothing. “Freedom from illusions lies in not believing them.” T-8.VII.16:5 Look and forgive.

Byron Katie dwells on the illusion. You don’t have to figure everything out. Can you find light by analyzing the darkness. Analysis holds it in place, makes it real. You can’t dispel guilt by making it real and then atoning for it. The ego is nothing more than a belief about yourself. Whole mind is still in God. The separation never occurred.

Of two seeming worlds, only one is true. We are mentally reviewing the movie, acting it out. Same movie, but through which interpretation do you choose to see it? The Holy Spirit or the ego? The Course has only one interpretation.

Laws of Chaos: “The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone.” T- 23.II.2:1 Implies that illusions are true. Thinking “my truth” will keep you stuck. Truth is not subject to interpretation. Truth is true.

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, are all based on sacrifice; the Old Testament of Abraham; on fear.

You may ask, “If heaven is perfect, how could there ever be a thought of separation?” You will never get an answer within the ego’s framework that will satisfy you. Answer is only found in the experience that you are still at home in God.

Pain is in the mind, caused by guilt. It is not in the body. It’s ameliorated by forgiveness. Cured by salvation. Healing is the result of a decision to get well; then a doctor or healer may show up. The ego believes that by punishing itself it can avoid punishment by God. God has no intent to punish.

Gary born in Salem over 2 months premature. Scoliosis sapped his energy. He heard the Beatles at 13, knew he’d be a guitar player. Born again Christian; est training 1978; concept of taking responsibility; Gary had mental shift to be at cause. Had first mystical experience seeing people in slow motion on stage. Worked too much on band. Got married. At harmonic convergence in 1987 he wanted peace and quiet. Read Bible, God is love, Sermon on the Mount rang true. Would talk to Jesus. 1990 moved to Maine, meditated. End of 1992 Arten and Pursah appear. Got better at forgiveness and life improved. Made strong impression on radio show with George Nory and book sales took off.

Experience of time travel into future: Arten and Pursah told Gary he’d go to Cahokia (where in former life he was student of Great Sun,) and see what it will be like prior to his “real” visit there. His “preview” experience was exactly what happened when he later went there. Second visit was like watching a rerun; déjà vu. That is what everything we experience is like, down to the least little movement. You can only be where you are meant to be. It’s already gone by. No reason to have mental investment in it. It all happened in an instant, one great projection. Your only freedom is to change your mind about who you’re going to watch it with, the ego or the Holy Spirit. If you watch it with the Holy Spirit you can collapse time.

Dennis told his forgiveness story.

Ego and Holy Spirit are two complete and mutually exclusive thought systems. There is only one thing to do—forgive in your mind. In Course the metaphysical is the literal absolute truth. The rest is metaphor to help us understand from where we are.

“The world is not left by death, but by truth...” T-3.VII.6:11

There are only two choices. Only one is real. In making that choice you have a different experience, which wakes you from the dream of death. Always go back to cause, not to effect. Don’t look for answers outside your mind. The truth is in your mind. Bring illusions to the truth and let go. Let the Holy Spirit do His job. It is a discipline to practice:

     ·      Forgive

     ·      Accept atonement for yourself. (There is no world to save.)

Do what works for you as forgiveness and the Holy Spirit will dominate your mind. The purpose of the Course is to bring us beyond words. Don’t feel slighted if you don’t have a mystical or revelation experience. Forgiveness is key. What would the Holy Spirit think? Any right-minded thought can trigger the whole forgiveness process. Your peaceful feeling may show up later. Dennis, “Just undo it!”

     ·      Before you get out of bed—align with Holy Spirit. Picture the day you want.

Andy and Gary in Costa Rica