Loving what you are both saying, Noa and Marguerite!!! Buddhists teach that we are attached to our suffering, but as you are both mentioning, it seems that the real problem is addictive processes, which goes beyond "attachment"! And I would also add, "cognitive dissonance", that thing where if evidence is antithetical to our beliefs, we simply ignore and deny the evidence. In this case, if I have spent decades and lifetimes believing in my core "badness", then it is not EVEN going to come easily that who I REALLY AM is vast unending Love! So, then the work becomes creating new neural pathways, and for most of us that are not having sudden awakenings, this takes time. Sometimes patience can be a real bugger, however!! 😉 So surrender becomes the only option, and that's a good thing. :) Am recently leaning into giving up the concept of how happy awakening will make me and am opting for simply opening my heart to whatever shows in the process. An ACIM quote comes partly up, something about gently walking down a forest path...does anyone know this quote?

This is one of those lessons that seems to simplify the process of dealing with fear and other negative emotions, as if we are able to simply will (or bully) them away. (⁵"What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear, and the return of love into my mind?"). And some non-dual teachers teach that this happens, that fear is simply gone, instead of teaching that adverse reactions sometimes catch hold but pass through much more easily.... or at least for a while during their own continuing journey to wholeness. In this mind, I need to know that no matter what goes through as an experience or emotion, every last drop of it is OK, and that the teachings of ACIM address different levels of understanding. The sentence that I mentioned above needs to be taken lightly as I come to know more and more that peace will only come when ALL is allowed...that by becoming totally soft and compassionate with my own humanity and imperfections is what is required. Much love. 💗

What a wonderful thing to know that True Freedom is not based on what happens in the world of form, where things can change on a dime...but it is to be found within one's own heart anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstance. Such utter beauty in that knowing, and it would be impossible for more gratitude to be found within this particular heart. 🥰

I remember feeling SUPER put off the first time I read this lesson! I was in a disastrous "Christian" (not) religious cult many years ago, and as per cult thinking, we were taught that we were the only ones that had possession of the truth, and that we needed to spread our beliefs in order to "save" the world from hell. (To this day I still struggle with the word "salvation", I always translate it to "liberation"). At any rate, now I see that this experience was part of the Unfolding, and it has instilled a LOT of humility. The challenges that we humans face are difficult, as we try to discern how best to walk this planet, carrying our wounded hearts whilst wanting most of all to love. LOVING what you wrote, Noa!!! Yes indeed, superior to what?!! Can a drop in the ocean be superior to the other drops?

@Noa Andermatt I love what you said, "maybe they are a little bit" (precious, the ego desires). At this stage in my amazing journey to wholeness, I need to honor my humanity and be gentle with it, which includes the thought that there is a RELATIVE reality to everything "out there". To dismiss everything as a dream is too much for me at this juncture! It seems that the Puritan upbringing that many of us had in the United States seems to spill over into our spiritual life; that if we aren't doing things REALLY WELL, there's something wrong! Recently learned...Ram Das said that ego is God in drag. Loving it! 💞