Has anyone read A Course in Miracles? Marianne Williamson, the author of "A Return to Love" is teaching ACIM via the Oprah web site. Following is a passage that struck a chord with me. In one of my TV interviews I tried to explain to the anchor that traumatized people, including myself, often view the world from a fear based perspective. A shift can be made to a love based perception. That shift is a conscious choice. The shift can be made in the context of mind and spirit. The shift can be made with or without therapy. The shift is transformative for the traumatized person. It does not change the world, but it changes how one perceives the world. And the shift has cumulative, life enhancing effects on the individual's psyche as well as the collective consciousness of those around the individual. The following explains why this shift is necessary for peace of mind. (The text uses the male pronoun.) ***…describes the way anyone who holds attack thoughts in his mind must see the world. Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike at him. His own attack is thus perceived as self-defense. This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees. Otherwise, thoughts of attack and counter attack will preoccupy him and people his entire world. What peace of mind is possible to him then?*** Attack, counter attack, defense: those are words of war, when what we seek is peace. Amen.

Yes I have read A Course in Miracles.
Have you read Dorothy Rowes..Friends and Enemies.?
In it Rowe suggests we need to have both to evolve.
I find it easy to realise that everyone has a unique place in the scheme of things.
MA

I amongst many people deplore war.One poet wrote deeply about this.But hoped for a miracle.
I admire soldiers.. their dedication make no mistakes but still pray for that Miracle.
..............................................
I No Longer Pray for Peace

On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.

I pray that stone hearts will turn
to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn
to mercifulness,
and all the soldiers already deployed
will be snatched out of harm's way,
and the whole world will be
astounded onto its knees.

I pray that all the "God talk"
will take bones,
and stand up and shed
its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth.
I pray that the whole world might
sit down together and share
its bread and its wine.

Some say there is no hope,
but then I've always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on
the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God......
that we can truly love one another.

I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.


Ann Weems

Hi MA, thanks for your response. I have not read the author you mentioned. I don't care for the word "enemy." Enemy may indicate no hope for redemption of the relationship. But then that's not entirely true. After all, there are countries that were once enemies that are now allies. I now also find it easy to believe that each one of us is a child of the universe, no more or less than another. It just took me a while to realize that I was included too. I've wanted to do ACIM for a 2 decades, but never found a convenient time to take the class at a church. Doing this class via web is just perfect for pace and timing.

You would need to read the book to appreciate what Rowe means.
An Australian who is an acadamic of note she is an author of many books.Look out for her.
MA

I googled for a synopsis.
..........................
Dorothy Rowe - Friends & Enemies. Our Need To Love and Hate

One of our most admired and loved psychologists’ turns her attention to the essence of the good relationship, and why we need enemies as well as friends. The desire for friendship is fundamental to everyone - without friendship no amount of wealth, fame, power or achievement will bring us happiness, and changes in society mean that friendship is more important than ever, as we look to friends for the support and closeness that in the past would have been assumed to come firm family networks.

Friendship at its best can be both glorious and precious. Yet, if human beings crave good relationships, they also need bad ones. In imagining we have enemies we at least have the comfort of knowing that someone, somewhere, is thinking of us. People and nations seek out both allies and hate-figures, whether they are children at school or the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. It is often easy to hate, even easier to be hated, and we rarely ask why people choose to be enemies rather than friends - whether we can live without enemies or why friendship is so difficult to achieve.

By delving into what it is that makes us hate as well as what makes us love, Dorothy Rowe addresses fundamental issues of human behaviour, drawing upon her own prodigious wisdom and the work of neuroscientists and intelligence specialists to show not only what friendship is but how it may be learned as a skill.

MA

Excellent! Thank you MA. I will check it out!