After studying ACIM,NTI and other forms of spiritual awareness, many of us are still left with the question, “Why did we start this whole thing if it seems so messy and painful?” “If it is a game, can’t we stop it right now?” or “How did this whole thing get started?”
ACIM explains the beginning of the illusion or life on planet earth as beginning with a “tiny mad idea” of wondering what it would be like to be separate (fromGod). NTI has a similar explanation that it all begin with a wish to experience things different than they are.
My take on all this is that the Western mind is oriented, perhaps even hard-wired to having a mental construct or intellectual framework to operate in initially.
Whenever I was giving a retreat, without even thinking about it, I would usually spend the first few hours helping to construct a model or intellectual framework that we would be working with. Even though the material would be spiritual in nature, the 12 steps, healing, etc. It always felt natural and comfortable for me have a structure to fall back on even though it essentially became irrelevant)
What I am beginning to get for myself is that no matter what system we might be working with, traditional Christianity, ACIM, NTI--any other form of Western Spirituality, there seems to be need to explain how it all began, what happened.
Buddhism and Hinduism do not seem to need this kind of explanation.
I am working on becoming less attached to the story, the explanation of how it all got started, whether it was eating an apple, or a “tiny mad idea” or “a wish to see thing differently than they are.”
All these are “stories”--ways to explain the unexplainable. They have the purpose of shutting up the thinking mind for a while, so the soul can do its work.
Soon the mind will be dissatisfied with the story and go looking for a new one.
I don’t want to spend my time thinking about or trying to prove a particular story is true or real or not.
My Soul has more important things to do or not do.
I missed an implication in NTI some time ago,and as I was rereading a passage it hit me.
Romans 4 (13-15) 3-8 p. 266
3In creating you, God extended Himself. 4In extending His Truth, that which is Enrichment was enriched further. 5So in your existence, God Himself is enriched. 6This is why you are His joy. 7You are His own enrichment. 8And that which enriches God must be Enrichment Itself.
The above passage explains the “meaning of life” in a much more positive way than the tiny mad idea, etc. It apples more to my sense of mystery as well as not involving my mind in the pseudo-judgment about guilt, fear ,etc.
I cannot understood the stemming form NTI with my head, only my heart.
The link below will take you to a sound clip from a talk given by Ram Dass. He has a delightful take on this question. There might be a short ad before the .mp3 file is available.
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