There are many pathways to mysticism, and for each of us, it is highly individualized. And yet, at the core of every path the 'curriculum' is the same. It is universal, because there is one mind awakening to Truth. The awakening involves being released from what is untrue, in order to know Truth, letting go of who we are not, to know our true Self. A Course In Miracles (ACIM) is one very direct spiritual path that leads to mysticism.
The journey is over when God is fully realized, and identification with Christ / as Spirit is fulfilled. The Course describes the awakening as "...a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed" and this makes perfect sense when you realize that the journey is one of releasing egoic identification in order to have the Truth of one's Identity flood back into awareness.
The Course describes this final 'step' as "God takes the final step". Which means that all egoic preoccupation and desires have been released from the mind, so that awareness of God is all there is.
Mysticism is awareness of oneness. Therefore the pathway to this awareness is one of forgiving / releasing the belief in duality. ACIM is an uncompromising non-dual pathway, clearly stating, "If there is pain there is no God. If there is God there is no pain".
There is non-acceptance of any identification with ego as being truth. Pain is a misperception, meaning that to experience pain means the ego is believed in and identified with. In heaven there is no pain. Spirit does not experience pain. And as you are Spirit, pain is not your reality.
The Course is a path of radical self-inquiry to empty the mind of everything. Absolutely every belief is to be questioned, using forgiveness - the one helpful tool / belief that serves this purpose. The Course even states: "Belief in God is unnecessary... because God can be but known."
The journey into the experience of God is one of giving up all defenses against it, including the intellectual mind, or the 'i-know' mind. To think 'you' personally know and have control over a situation (including our spiritual journey!) is arrogance, and will block awareness of Spirit's perfection, gentleness and joy from our awareness.
Here are a few ACIM Lessons that invite us into the direct experience of oneness
Lesson 129 - Beyond this world there is a world I want.
...close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness watch the lights that are not of this world light one by one, until where one begins another ends loses all meaning as they blend in one.
(Read the whole lesson here)
LESSON 189 - I feel the love of God within me now. ...Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God. (Read the whole lesson here)
LESSON 208
...The peace of God is shining in me now.
I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
LESSON 209
...I feel the Love of God within me now.
The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
In deep gratitude for the Gift of this awareness,
Kirsten
See more on mysticism here: www.kirstenbuxton.org/mysticism
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