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A Course in Miracles PLUS Mini Course |
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Applying ‘A Course in Miracles with Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’
Bette Jean Cundiff |
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designed specifically to help you apply the complex
concepts
presented in ‘A Course in Miracles’
Copyright 2020
All rights reserved
Bette Jean Cundiff
Books, Instant Printouts and Blog available at
bettejeancundiff.blogspot.com
Lesson
1
Introduction:
Strange Bedfellows
On the one hand, ‘A Course in Miracles’ and Sun Tzu’s Art of War and must be the most unlikely
pairing possible. However, war by any other name is still war, a battle for
supremacy. And it ain’t always a pretty sight! And as any serious student of ‘A Course in Miracles’ has noticed the
ego hangs on tenaciously and viciously in its attempt to keep us focused on its
view of ourselves and the world around us.
Ego is an insane,
dysfunctional attempt to survive at all costs, wreaking havoc on our emotional
stability. ‘A Course in Miracles’ is
here to show us another way.
In a formal war the goals are usually
the same for both sides and the combatants are all too human. But, in the
psychological battle for supremacy, the armies on each side are diametrically
opposed in goal as well as method. The goal of ego is control and camouflaged
pain. The goal of ‘A Course in Miracles’
is freedom and peace. The battle field is the mind, and our bodies and physical
world a reflecting mirror of what rages within.
Fascinatingly, the strategies set
forth hundreds of years ago in China by a superior commander named Sun Tzu, can
be utilized as metaphor in the twenty first century to help us heal our minds. The
sparsely worded military tactics of ‘The
Art of War’ written in the 6th century B.C. marries easily with
the spiritual psychology of ‘A Course in
Miracles’ written in the late 20th Century.
Strange bedfellows for sure. But, like
so many unlikely marriages that stand the test of time, these two just seem to
work.
Some thoughts to
contemplate. . .
1. Have
you been studying ‘A Course in Miracles’? Or have you always wanted to start
studying ‘A Course in Miracles’? Or are you simply intrigued with the title of
this book and know little or nothing about the ‘Course’?
2. If
you are already a student of ‘A Course in Miracles’ the following lessons can
bring you a fresh view of concepts and reinforcement of your studies.
3. If
you are unfamiliar with ‘A Course in Miracles’ then you will find these lessons a solid
overview of the spiritual psychology presented in the ‘Course’ and create a
good foundation should you wish to study it in the future.
Lesson 2
Ego’s Ninja Warriors
First, we take a
quick peak at what the ego has planned for us. Meet Ego’s Ninja Warriors. Let’s
start with this one quote from the ‘A Course in Miracles’ that speaks of the
ego’s efforts and the psychological soldiers it uses.
“. . .(The ego’s)
messengers are trained through terror, and they tremble when their master calls
of them to serve him. For (this master) is merciless even to its friends. Its
messengers steal guiltily away in hungry search. . .for they are kept cold and
starving and made very vicious by their master, who allows them to feast only
upon what they return to him. No little shred. . .escapes their hungry eyes.
And in their savage search . . .they pounce on any living thing they see, and
carry it screaming to their master, to be devoured. . .They have been taught to
seek. . .and to return with gorges filled. . .”
Sounds a little like the zombie
apocalypse in the latest B movie. But make no mistake. This is a quote from
Chapter 19 of the Text, The Attainment of Peace, from ‘A Course in Miracles’.
Those messengers are the bitter need to find fault in everyone around us and
when found, pounce with anger, usually attacking those we seem to love the
most.
Ego’s Ninja
Warriors lurk within all of us salivating at the opportunity to ravage our
peace of mind and thus our lives.
Most important, though, is to remember
ego is not something or somebody, or some force of nature or the force of evil.
Ego is simply an extremely narrow view of ourselves. And when we choose to see
ourselves, the world and our interactions only through this truncated viewpoint
our decisions for survival and wellbeing are naturally distorted, twisted and
unhealthy.
See survival through this tight focus
and paranoia reigns. Ego logic demands soldiers to keep you safe in its now
demented and dark shadow world. Guilt, fear, anger and attack are the weaponry
for ego’s Ninja Warriors and these warriors are trained from childbirth and
their skills honed over years of training.
Whew! That’s a little dark, but as we
review Sun Tzu’s advice, offered in the seventh century A.D. for succeeding in
combat, we can make superior use of it today when we marry it to the spiritual
psychology of ‘A Course in Miracles’.
Some
thoughts to contemplate. . .
1. Take
time in meditation to ask for the spiritual armor you will need to combat ego.
2.
If you are a student of the ‘Course’ notice
how ‘A Course in Miracles’ doesn’t talk only about lightness and goodness. How
do you feel about the darker explanations of ego the Course offers?
3. Take
note each time you find yourself judging others, sometimes with ‘humor’ and
other times with overt unkindness. Label each correctly as ego’s Ninja’s Warriors
at work in your mind.
Lesson 3
The Peaceful Samurai
You will need to
become a samurai to vanquish ego and its Ninja Warriors. Here are some quotes
from ‘A Course in Miracles’ that set the requirements:
“…anyone
who chooses to be one (will be one)…qualifications consist only in this;
somewhere, somehow he has made a deliberate choice. . .once he has done that
his road is established, and his direction is sure. . .The Call is universal. .
.Many hear it but few will answer.”
In
‘A Course in Miracles’ these samurais are called teachers of God. (And the
above quotes come from Volume Three, Manual for Teachers. The whole manual is
an excellent source for learning your role as a teacher of God, or in this case
a Peaceful Samurai.)
Now,
back to becoming a samurai, a Peaceful Samurai. You have been called. Have you
answered? Well, since you are reading this little mini-course we can safely
assume you have. Great, you have enlisted.
Wouldn’t
it be wonderful if all we needed to do is want something and there it was,
plopped down in front of us ready for the taking, or in this case the becoming.
After all, we become a ‘teacher of God’ aka Peaceful Samurai was soon as we
choose. Right?
Well,
not quite. We will need to desire it, be dedicated to it and be disciplined
permanently to its accomplishment.
Oh,
and we need to understand exactly what being a samurai, battling ego, is really
about. To understand all that you will need to show up at boot camp. A peaceful
samurai will have a very unique skill set. You will become the special forces
combatant for the healing of your mind.
The
battle ground will always be within your own mind. You will be fooled into
believing that the nasty neighbor, the blind justice system, the maniacal
dictator, or your failing body is the enemy and you must meet this enemy on its
own turf. Certainly, over centuries the Art of War has been used by generals,
commanders, leaders of state and today Wall Street warriors to tackle the
forces lined up against them.
But, wait. This is not the battle ground we will be engaged on. And just like the line from the poem, ‘A Road Less Traveled’, we will choose differently, ‘and that will make all the difference.’
Some thoughts to
contemplate. . .
1. Have
you already noticed that you have been called in some way to be of service to
others? What was that like?
2. Since
you have already make a decision to become a Peaceful Samurai (or you would not
be reading this) take some time to contemplate the strength of your commitment
to this goal.
3. Take some time to track how often you see
enemies around you are and are tempted to enter into battle with words, actions
or even with just judgmental thoughts.
Lesson
4
Keep your friends close,
and your enemy even closer.
Thanks
to Hollywood just about everyone has heard this saying from The Art of War at
least once and usually can quote the last tricky part – keeping those
troublesome enemies closer. Back in the day, Sun Tzu was strategizing bloody
battles. Let’s see how we can unpack Sun Tzu’s sayings and reformulate them for
our amorphous thinking processes.
Our
battleground will be within the unlimited and cloudlike substance of our
thoughts. We can train our bodies to be
superior fighting machines with skills and stamina. But now our training must
include totally different skills and a stamina that must last through the
constant and vigilant attacks of ego.
Remember
ego is a persistent opponent. Its greatest strength is its own belief that what
it does it does to protect you and help you survive. The myopic, limited view
of ego is actually our mind choosing to see with tunnel vision. We block out
the whole and see only the now twisted and distorted right in front of us. This
leads directly to a perceived a world of lack, need, greed, attack and pain.
Survival is paramount and ego shows us how.
So,
why should we keep this unpleasant enemy closer than even our beloved friends?
After all, ego is already as close as you can get. Ego pervades and directs our
beliefs, perceptions and ultimately our actions.
You
keep someone close by understanding them fully and in the understanding comes
the answers you will need to win.
Beloved
friends are easy to like and easy to love. They are easy to forgive, and we
usually find their pesky quirks kind of cute. We love keeping them near. But,
all those others? The ones that are annoying, irritating, causing pain and
havoc in our lives? They are obnoxiously repulsive and we either turn our backs
on them or beat them to a pulp.
When
it come to our own thoughts, we do the same thing. We hold onto the ones that
give us pleasure and ignore or battle the ones we find offensive. Denial and
battle, however, will not bring an end to the emotional pain we live with
daily.
There
must be another way. We must do something else. We must choose first to look
closely at ego and how it works. We must get very, very close to it indeed and
apply something totally radical, something miraculous.
As
‘A Course in Miracles’ says in Chapter 2, “The escape from darkness involves
two stages. . This (first) step usually entails fear. . .This (second) step
brings escape from fear. . .When you have become willing to hide nothing. . you
will understand peace and joy.
Some thoughts to contemplate. . .
1.
Take some time to survey your willingness
to handle your issues first with your mind, rather than with immediate action.
How consistently have you been able to do that in the past?
2.
How you define ego will directly determine
how you can combat it correctly. How have you in the past, and how would you
now, define ego?
3. Try to notice when you are ignoring the ego and when you try to fight against it?
Lesson 5
To win, Sun Tzu says:
·
Understand yourself, and not the enemy, and you suffer.
·
Understand neither yourself nor the enemy, and you lose.
·
Understand yourself and your enemy and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles
You probably noticed a recurring
theme in the above sayings – understanding. Let me tell you a story:
Years
ago, when I was teaching ‘A Course in Miracles’ support groups in the New York
City area wonderful, truly serious students attended. Two of them were a
married couple. Each had his or her own copy of the ‘Course’ to study. Each of
them, like so many students highlighted sentences and sometimes whole
paragraphs in their personal copies that impacted them especially.
One
evening at class I had occasion to notice their books sitting side by side on a
table. With their permission I flipped through each book quickly noting with
amusement what was highlighted. Easily almost half of each book was a bright
yellow. Now, here’s what amused me.
The
husband’s ‘Course’ had yellow highlights on every uplifting poetically eloquent
comment, prayer and explanation. The wife, on the other hand had highlighted
every intense, sometimes dark and scary portrait of ego at work. Hmmm. If you
read only the yellow in each book you would think there were actually two
Course in Miracles.
There
is a reason why both the radiant and the murky gloom are explained in sometimes
redundantly spiraling passages throughout the ‘Course’. We need to be able to
recognize clearly the Voice for God as differentiated from the ego’s Ninja
Warriors. And it’s not just to be able to distinguish between them. We also
need time and training to learn to truly desire only the OneVoice that will
bring us peace.
As Sun Tzu pointed out hundreds of years ago, recognizing and understanding the enemy a well as yourself is essential to success. Understand, recognize and choose correctly and we ‘need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’
Some thoughts to contemplate.
. .
1. If
you haven’t studied ‘A Course in
Miracles’ yet but could use a helpful overview of the dynamics of ego, try
the previous mini course “Fast Track to Peace’ or ‘Hand in Hand’. You can find both
in the left column of my blog either in paperback or e-book format.
2. Observe
yourself and honestly notice if you are ignoring or denying emotions and
responses that you are afraid to admit to.
3. Observe your interactions this week and notice how a greater understanding of the people around you and how your intimate interactions can change drastically with understanding and insight.
Look for the last 5 Lessons to be posted next week.
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