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LLiivviinngg AA CCoouurrssee iinn MMiirraacclleess Week 8 Class

Replacing Mind Clutter with True Insight

With H. David Fishman and Reverend Jennifer Hadley

Copyright © 2011 by Reverend Jennifer Helen Hadley.

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Replacing Mind Clutter with True Insight Class ...................................................... 7

Opening .......................................................................................................................... 7

Clearing the Clutter ........................................................................................................ 8

“I began to withdraw the meaning…” ......................................................................... 10

Alpha/Beta/Delta State ............................................................................................... 11

“They become like clouds. They’re just passing over.” ............................................... 12

“Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” ............................................. 13

“… the secret of salvation is, I’m doing this to myself.” ............................................... 14

“God is the strength in which I trust.” ........................................................................ 16

“Don’t complain. Don’t explain.” ................................................................................ 17

“So your just being the light allows that complaining to diffuse.” .............................. 18

“As I see him, I see myself.” ......................................................................................... 19

“… the fundamental purpose for teaching is to diminish your own self-doubts…” ..... 21

“… opening to divine guidance and wisdom.” ............................................................. 22

“In my defenselessness my safety lies.” ....................................................................... 23

“If I defend myself, I am attacked.” .............................................................................. 25

“I will step back and let him lead the way.” ................................................................ 27

“I am determined to see.” ............................................................................................ 28

“… if you are committed to seeing things differently, you will.”.................................. 29

“… there’s no way out until I’m willing to see things differently.” .............................. 30

“… this is a moment by moment practice.” ................................................................. 31

Dov’s Contacts ............................................................................................................. 32

Closing Prayer ............................................................................................................. 32

With H. David Fishman and Reverend Jennifer Hadley 7

Week 8

RReeppllaacciinngg MMiinndd CClluutttteerr wwiitthh TTrruuee IInnssiigghhtt CCllaassss With H. David Fishman and Reverend Jennifer Hadley

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Opening Rev. Jennifer So let’s center in here. We begin with a breath of gratitude and a

centering prayer, a blessing. I invite everyone to place their hand on their heart and to take another breath of gratitude with me.

We’re so grateful and so thankful that these teachings of A Course in Miracles exist. We’re so grateful and thankful for the technology that allows us to transcend time and space and to receive the insight, the healing, the clearing, the support that we so deeply desire.

In this very moment we invoke the higher Holy Spirit self, the Holy Spirit into our awareness and we partner up with divine love as our true identity. We invoke divine grace into our heart and mind.

And we willingly, gratefully surrender the clutter, the mind clutter. And we open ourselves to true insight and true wisdom, recognizing that it is this clarity of vision, this profound wisdom that is our true identity and our true nature.

And we are grateful right now to accept this class with Dov as a healing. We’re opening ourselves to receive that clear insight that forever releases any obstruction.

We are grateful to share the benefits of our healing and our expansion with everyone. We’re so grateful that we’re one with them. In gratitude we joyfully, joyfully let it be. And so it is. Amen.

Living A Course in Miracles

8 Replacing Mind Clutter with True Insight Class

Dov Amen. Thank you so much.

Rev. Jennifer Well I know people have been looking forward to this class, Dov, because I think one of the biggest challenges that the majority of people have is they do have this monkey mind. They do have this mind chatter and clutter. And I love what you said in your description about training the monkeys in your mind to go back to the zoo and leave you in peace.

And this practical application of A Course in Miracles is exactly what Living A Course in Miracles is all about. It’s what the entire 16 classes is about. So this one piece of clearing the clutter in our mind, what do you feel is the number one thing that we need to know and apply?

Clearing the Clutter Dov As you ask the question, what comes up is the very early lessons of A

Course in Miracles, the very beginning lessons that, when the first time through the lessons, most of us go through it and kind of figure well, this can’t be the whole course.

But in the last couple of years I have recently said that actually Lessons 1 and 2 in a way, after you do the course a couple of times, meaning you’ve gone through the workbook a couple of times, you begin to realize that Lesson 1, nothing I see means anything, is a very powerful lesson.

And Lesson 2, just in case you think that anything means something, then you’re the one that’s giving all the meaning to it. And then there’s a three word sentence that Jesus uses in the text Chapter 7, Section VII, Paragraph 4. He says, “Illusions are investments.”

Illusions are investments. So the way I have been successful in reducing the noise or the chatter or getting down to really a quiet mind is by withdrawing the meanings that I used to give to everything.

And that is something because when we come into this world we do give meanings to everything. That’s just part of life in this world. You know what’s good and what’s bad and what’s right and what’s right and what’s wrong.


And you give things values and priorities. And those are the things that actually which are obviously based on rules and judgments, become that which actually starts to run us. No matter what is going on in the world, no matter what the event is, or it could be something right here in my own family, my own relationships.

I have these judgments that come up and they are just meanings that I have given to things. I would say the easiest and the simplest way to begin to reduce the noise is to begin to withdraw the meanings I give to things.

I personally did workbook Lesson 25 which is “I do not know what anything is for.” I realized that that was something that was going to be helpful to me because I kind of knew that Dov always kind of knew what everything was for and if I was ever going to kick that habit, I had to use something to actually begin to let go of the thought that I knew what anything was for. So I did that one lesson for seven years as a mantra.

Rev. Jennifer So, Dov, we have a lot of people in the class who have never even picked up A Course in Miracles.

Dov Okay.

Rev. Jennifer So we break it down really simply for them. So I love what you’re offering. Can you give us an example of where perhaps it was really challenging for you to give up the meaning that maybe you didn’t even realize until you started looking at it what the meaning was and how you transformed that way of looking at it?

Dov Well, some of the things that come to mind are just things like say on health. If I knew somebody who basically had a certain sickness and I was kind of stuck in my old meanings of what that sickness was and I would immediately see them a certain way saying, “I do not know what anything is for for me” is my ability to let go of my old judgments on what that meant, whether it was cancer or whether it was arthritis or whatever the ailment seemed to be.

I began to say, “I really don’t know what it’s for.” And that put it into a cubicle and say, “And now I know what that person’s all about.” And whether the example of health or anything, somebody basically was



doing something that their behavior was something that I thought was not a normal behavior and say well that’s the way they are.

“I began to withdraw the meaning…” I began to withdraw that meaning and say, “No, I really don’t know

what that is for. I don’t know why they’re doing it. I’m not analyzing their motives anymore.” and began to withdraw my investment, my investment.

And that’s pretty much what the course is saying. Withdraw your investments and the illusions begin to disappear. The illusions are really the thoughts you have about people, about things, about events, circumstances.

And I found one thing very helpful. Rev Julie Gillespie, one of the teachers once said, “I’m never really upset for the events and circumstances in my life.” She said, “I’m really upset for my interpretation of the events and circumstances.”

So it’s our interpretation that seems to be upsetting and then we go into kind of a tiz and once we’re in that tiz the monkey mind has you.

Rev. Jennifer Yes, that’s it. And it feels literally like we have been hijacked, doesn’t it?

Dov Yes, the ego thought system hijacks your peace and unless you catch it real quick, you can spend a very long time thinking about it and making all kinds of decisions based on nothing, literally.

But you will go into a spin. The only way to actually begin to do this is to apply practicing watching your mind, watching your thoughts. And I think that the workbook of A Course in Miracles allows you…

What I found in my own first time through A Course in Miracles is I began to realize that even though I’m doing the lessons and it says do it for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening, I realized that during the day I had some upsets like something would come up in business. And something told me, a higher guidance system says, “Well, instead of doing the upset, do your lesson instead.” It’s like I could have had a V8.


Alpha/Beta/Delta State The moment you catch yourself in an upset, and I assure you that all

upsets are really meaningless in truth, but I don’t know if we have the time to discuss that, what I would do is begin to train myself I’ll do my lesson instead. And doing your lesson brings you down. There’s alpha and there’s beta and there’s alpha, brings you into like a delta place where you’re really just outside of the time/space paradigm.

Basically you are taking yourself out of it and you’re being with Holy Spirit.

Rev. Jennifer That’s so true. That’s really well observed about how. I’m sure if we did measure the brain waves we would see that they literally do shift in that way, that we could measure it.

And for me this is what I call partnering up. For me one of the most important teachings that helped me with my monkey mind experiences is to say, “I’m not interested in that thought anymore.” It’s like shutting the door on it. Nope. I’m not interested in that anymore.

Dov That’s excellent.

Rev. Jennifer And then I say, “What I’m interested in is love. That’s what I’m interested in.” And then in that moment I take a breath, put my hand on my heart and I consciously attune to the Holy Spirit, the higher self, the holy self so it is shifting that energy. We have to be willing don’t you think to take action, not be a victim of that ego chatter, that monkey mind.

Dov Yes. As you were speaking up came my Lesson 25 because I think there’s a bridge that’s somewhat necessary like you say. And I totally agree with the idea that I’m not going to do that anymore is so excellent.

But I think that it takes a little practice to get to that particular place because when a person is in a tiz you certainly can’t talk them out of it. But they must be willing. Now it doesn’t have to be Lesson 25, I do not know what anything is for. It can be any of the others. I’m never upset for the reason I think. That’s Lesson 5. Lesson 6 is I see something that’s not there. Lesson 4 is, none of these thoughts have any meaning. My thoughts are meaningless.



But you do something that is like a mantra that takes you out of it when you catch yourself there. At least you are neutralizing it. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to immediately move into the higher level but you’re not going to be hooked again.

And as you practice unhooking it becomes faster and faster that you can actually… At first it has to be kind of deliberate. You have to catch yourself. But after awhile it becomes second nature.

“They become like clouds. They’re just passing over.” You say I just don’t have to go there anymore. You just kind of smile at

your thoughts. They become like clouds. They’re just passing over. You don’t have to keep walking under the clouds. You just let them pass.

Rev. Jennifer Right. You don’t have to argue with that cloud, argue with the thought or talk yourself down from it. You can really just say, “Oh, there’s nothing trying to be something.”

Dov Right. You surely don’t want to argue with it. It’s absolutely a no winner in a win/lose kind of thing. The moment you find you’re digging your heels in and you’re defending yourself in any way, you are definitely on a battleground.

And a very famous section of the course, to rise above the battleground is literally to say, “Hey, I really don’t want conflict.” There’s a wonderful lesson, Lesson 34. I can choose peace instead of this. That’s a great mantra. I can choose peace instead.

In fact Ken Wapnick, his two favorite lessons are 5 and 34. 5 is I’m never upset for the reason I think. And 34, I can choose peace instead of this.

But if a person is doing A Course in Miracles they will resonate with a certain lesson. It doesn’t have to be 5 and 34 or Lesson 1 and 2 like mine. But it will be something that resonates with them.

Rev. Jennifer We all have our favorites. For me I love, Love holds no grievances.

Dov Yeah, that’s 68, right? Yes.


Rev. Jennifer Yeah, because for me that monkey mind, that intense chatter, for me it was always around holding a grievance, holding a complaint, judging someone, holding a grudge and gathering the evidence to support my case.

Dov Right.

Rev. Jennifer It’s such a waste of time.

Dov And you know? As many years as I’ve been doing the course I still find myself still doing things like that but you catch yourself and your ability to catch yourself is taking yourself out of basically it’s a prison.

It’s pretty much of a prison. You’re stuck in your judgment from the past and just living in an old idea what’s good and bad and right and wrong because none of that really means anything.

Rev. Jennifer As you’re saying this, Dov, you’re talking about the prison. I’m thinking of being in a workplace with fluorescent lights and piles and piles of paperwork. So I’m doing piles and piles of paperwork, analyzing and gathering the evidence to support my case so that I could go before the jury and the judge and convince them that I’m right.

And at the end of the day, even if I invested 10 or 20 years in gathering evidence and having an airtight case, I’d still, there’s nothing to win.

“Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Dov Right. When you say that, that brings up one of the most powerful lines

in the course for me personally. And you just named it. He repeats it two or three times too, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? Choose one. You can’t have both.”

And if he just said, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” and he didn’t say, “Choose one. You can’t have both.” people would say, “Well, why can’t I have both? I’ve been right and happy.”

But it’s so important to realize that in this world you’re thinking that you want to be right is at the expense of healing. Another word for happy is to heal is to make happy.

And the purpose of A Course in Miracles is really to heal your mind to awaken from the dream of not knowing who you are and trying to



basically see something while you’re bouncing off of walls walking in the dark. You really can’t see while you’re walking in the dark.

So the purpose of the course is to begin to see the light, to actually wake up and see truly rather than keep bumping into walls and tripping in places where well, I want to be right. Yeah, but what has that ever gotten you as being right is somebody else loses. You get to be right.

Somebody by the name of Candice Doyle once said, “You know, many times I know that I’m right and my husband is wrong.” She said, “But what does it do me to tell him that I’m right and he’s wrong. It squeezes the love out of the relationship. It squeezes the love out of the relationship and is that what I really want?”

So that’s what really happens when basically the ego has us and it’s kind of strangling us. It says you’re right. You’re right. You’re right. But valuing being right when I really want to heal my mind is actually going in the opposite direction of where I really want to go.

Rev. Jennifer That’s why it feels to me so much like it’s a path of moving into maturity so that a spiritually mature person can see that there’s no advantage to being right if it makes somebody else wrong or it makes them feel bad. And just like you said, it sucks the love out of the relationship. It sucks the love out of the room because sometimes we can force that rightness on people we don’t even know in a coffee shop or a store or restaurant.

But we’re one with that person too and the love in that relationship, even if it only is going to last for 10 seconds, to me is just as valuable as the love in the relationship with somebody I’m going to be connected with my whole life, because we may never have the opportunity to make amends if we offend that person and we’re only going to see them once in our whole lifetime.

“… the secret of salvation is, I’m doing this to myself.” Dov Yeah, another thing that comes up as you were just speaking is what

the course calls the secret of salvation is, I’m doing this to myself. That


no matter what seems to be going on it doesn’t really matter. And I know someone could have well, how about this and how about that?

But no matter what the event or circumstance is I’m either seeing truly, seeing my brother or sister as they truly are, or I’m blind to who they are and I am seeing an image of them which is my own judgment either upon myself or upon another that I still am locked in almost like a prisoner.

Like if I judge somebody it doesn’t matter if it’s something I judged when I was a kid or yesterday, I am locked into the same judgments as that person that I have judged poorly or wrongly or unworthy.

I’m almost the warden, the sheriff, the jailer and the jailhouse all wrapped up in one when I actually judge somebody. There is no freedom there. There is no release until I practice forgiveness.

Rev. Jennifer Gosh and it’s interesting when you think about it. If you were going to ask people, “Okay, are these the labels that you want to place on yourself?” So that when people say, “Oh, when I think of you I think of someone who’s a jailer and a judge” instead of “Oh, when I think of you I think of the open heart. I think of the open mind. I think of someone who is free, who is liberated, who is spiritually mature and living a life of service just by being patient and kind and willing to let go of the meaning that we’ve made of these things.”

You know I think there’s such a wonderful opportunity for us to realize that we have the opportunity to shift the global consciousness if you will, the way the whole of humanity experiences itself.

And this is one of the most wonderful parts of A Course in Miracles is this constant reminder that we’re one with everyone and that when we can choose love everyone benefits. It’s not insignificant. Each choice for love is profoundly nourishing and healing to everyone of us.

Dov As you’re speaking and I certainly, totally agree with what you’re saying, what I found over a period of time… Actually I only found out really recently and I’m doing the course for sometime and maybe this will be helpful for some of our listeners, is that if you think that you’re doing this alone you really do have reason to be somewhat defensive and anxious and kind of always keeping somebody a little away because



you know you kind of have doubts about people until you get to know them. You can’t really trust people.

“God is the strength in which I trust.” But there’s that Lesson 47. God is the strength in which I trust. And in

that it’s the first time I think he uses the word trust in an actual lesson title. And trust is so, so important to this course.

It begins to develop trust in your higher self. At first those are the words you actually use like I’m trusting in the Holy Spirit is always with me. There’s a wonderful lesson that says, “Ask a thousand times a day, who walks with you?” until you’re certain.

And as we begin to develop trust you begin to realize that you’re always really being guided. There’s always somebody who’s always there with you and that everything is really perfect. The people that come into your life are the perfect people to come into your life and that everyone is actually there almost as a way for you to learn a lesson that you have really come here for.

And they are the perfect people to actually give you that particular lesson. Now I remember a line that Ken Wapnick said 30 years ago and I’ve loved it and I always use it. He says, “If you really want to learn, you want to really take this course on the fast track rather than do it at a very slow pace” he says, “It’s okay to hang out with people that you don’t feel all that comfortable with. Maybe they bother you a bit or they irritate you a bit because that’s where your real lessons are. The reason they bother you or they irritate you is that you have a judgment on them. And it’s not that they bother you. It’s that the judgment…” and we talked about being the jailer in the jailhouse all wrapped up in one, “It bothers you because that defense is causing the pain. It’s not out there. That’s on the screen. It’s going on over here where I am.”

So the secret of salvation is I do this to myself. I am responsible for plucking the beam out of my own thought system before I try to remove the splinter from my brother.


Rev. Jennifer And so often we are aware that the monkey mind, the mind clutter is we are judging someone else or we are judging ourselves, judging, judging, judging.

And searching for the truth to support one of our judgments is one of the main occupations of that monkey mind. And it grabs our attention. And like you said we can be on that train and going, going, going for a long time before we realize, “Oh, this is sucking the life out of my life. Now what?” I’d like to hear what you think about this, Dov, because one of the main things that I hear all the time is, “But what if you have somebody in your life who is such a complainer? What do you do?”

Dov Okay, I’ll give you the other side of it first. As it happened my first teacher was Werner Erhard from EST. That was in ’75 and I probably could never have picked up A Course in Miracles in 1977 unless I had gone through the EST training program.

“Don’t complain. Don’t explain.” But one of his favorite lines which has become popular again is, “Don’t

complain. Don’t explain.” Of course I always knew what the don’t complain was all about. It’s only recently that I began to realize is the don’t explain is really the ego wants to be understood.

The ego has this drive, “Well, you don’t understand me so I’m going to have to tell you all over again. I really want you to know who I really am and in case you didn’t understand me the first time, let me tell you the second time.”

In a way complaining which is very blatant, and explaining are kind of related. They’re kind of cousins. And the explainer is not all that far away from the complainer. It’s still the ego.

Now if I’m a complainer or explainer I’m going to be kind of like digging in and trying to I can’t stand it or something like that or I’m trying to analyze. I’m trying to help this person.

But in a way none of that is really true. I really can’t do something for this person who’s complaining. Actually Jesus actually says in A Course in Miracles Chapter 28, Section IV, The Greater Joining. “You must refuse to enter into your brother’s dark dream.” He says, If you do



you’re only reinforcing it for them and for yourself because it takes two to agree on something.”

So even though we want to be helpful to somebody, even though we want to be helpful, and we all want to be helpful to someone, if a person really can’t hear you, not only can’t they not hear you but actually they don’t really want you to tell them anything because they want to be right.

It’s getting back to you want to be right. If something bothers you about your brother complaining it’s probably because somewhere you’re resonating with them and there’s something there for you to look at yourself, to bring to the Holy Spirit and say, “Why does this bother me so much?”

“So your just being the light allows that complaining to diffuse.” But if you have removed yourself and you’re standing in the light and

you’re saying, “I understand you’re going through a tough time and I just want you to know that I am here for you but I see you as okay.” You don’t have to enter into the dark dream and basically help fix it because you really can’t fix it at all. So your just being the light allows that complaining to diffuse.

Rev. Jennifer I’m glad we’re talking about this. I think this is really helpful to people because there’s an important distinction to be made here I think. And that is I could be in conversation, a room, a relationship with somebody who’s complaining. And the complaining doesn’t have to bother me at all because I’m looking at them with the eyes of love and I’m looking at them with a heart full of compassion.

I’m not judging them. And so I’m not irritated. I’m not frustrated. I’m not thinking that they should be different so I am not upset. I’m just being loving and compassionate.

Now there are many times when the person who is in front of me is complaining. They’re whining. They’re irritated. They’re frustrated.


And I can notice that I’m not enjoying being with them. I can notice this is not an experience that I hope will continue for much longer.

At the same time I can also be completely and totally at peace. Do you see what I’m saying?

Dov Yes.

Rev. Jennifer So this is the place of mastery that we’re intending to go to. This is the place of spiritual maturity that we can be what I think of as unbotherable because we are centered in peace. The only way to get there, stay in your loving heart.

Dov Yes, that is all that you can do with your brother and for your brother is to just stay in your loving heart and to just see them as they truly are.

There’s that one page, there’s a lovely page on Page 27 in the text. He talks about charity, charity with a capital C. And he says, “You have the power to grant to see your brother actually having already accepted the atonement for himself standing at the end of time, holding the hand of Holy Spirit, looking back and laughing at it all.” He says, “You have the power to actually see that in your brother.”

“As I see him, I see myself.” Now if you are still choosing to see your brother as the complainer, as

the person who’s still groping in the dark, that’s pretty much saying, “Well that’s how I see my brother. As I see him, I see myself. As I treat him, I treat myself.”

The ability to grant to him and see him, actually we’re kind of entering into a holy encounter now and I see him advance beyond where he is in time. And that as you know, A Course in Miracles, a miracle collapses time and you have the ability to see him there as he truly is, as the innocent son of God who is equal to you in every single way.

And you can see him that way. So if he is there he’s really there for you. Well he really is there for you. In fact that is one of the things I did want to say as a general statement which may make things a lot easier and simple. And we always want to make things easier and simple.



It’s to say that everything in this world is always here for you. There’s really nothing here against you. And that completely reverses the laws of this world.

The laws of this world are, “Well, I know what’s for me and what’s against me.” And of course that’s wanting to be right and giving meaning to things.

But as an overall general thing you can actually say, “Everything in this world is here with you. Every brother is here with you and for you.” You may not understand that at the time.

I think a great section of the course that actually speaks about that is Dream Roles which is Chapter 29, Section IV. And he says, “Every single person in your life, in your dream, is a person that you have invited.” It’s almost like central casting sent them in. And actually like no one can actually do anything to you or betray you except the role that you have assigned to them.

And so if someone is there who is a complainer that is something really for you. It’s really not against you. There’s something there for you or else it wouldn’t be there. I mean that’s how perfect this divine design is.

Rev. Jennifer Yes. It’s divine opportunity to open to see the truth which reveals that oh, in this challenge are the seeds of my answered prayer. Exactly what it is I most would benefit from learning or seeing or knowing or remembering or however we want to think about it, is in this challenge right now. It’s no accident. It’s perfectly, divinely planned.

So when we realize that our mind is the monkey mind and it’s filled with this clutter then that is the perfect moment. When we’re feeling the distress of the monkey mind it’s to say, “Aha! Right now I have the opportunity to choose love, to choose healing and put an end to this kind of trash in my mind forever. And I can take everyone with me because I’m one with them.”


“…the fundamental purpose for teaching is to diminish your own self-doubts…” Dov Yes. And that’s part of developing trust. While we are in self-doubt, and

that’s one of the things that the teacher’s manual says in the introduction. It says, “The real purpose for teaching, the fundamental purpose for teaching is to diminish your own self-doubts, not to teach anybody anything.” It’s to diminish your own self-doubt because while you’re living in a thought system of judgments and tests, old thoughts that you really don’t want anymore, you need to begin to create a new thought system.

And the course, of course, is a way to begin to teach a new thought system to yourself. So the purpose of teaching is really to diminish your own self, self-doubt.

And of course of the 10 characteristics of teachers, the first one which is trust or development of trust, is the only one that you’re actually responsible for, meaning literally you do develop trust over a period of time by practice, practice, practice.

It does take commitment just like anything that you want in this world. You really desire to know yourself, to awaken, to begin to see who you are, who your brother is which is really the same.

As you see your brother you’re going to see yourself. As you treat him you’re going to treat yourself. One of the lines in trust as you were speaking, I wanted to just kind of read because it actually says that everything is happening really for you. It’s says, “It takes great learning to understand that all things, all events, encounters and circumstances are helpful.” All.

It doesn’t say, “Oh, just the good things are helpful.” And going back to that Kenny Wapnick line he says, “If you really want to do this course on the fast track, if you really want to have miracles happen, it’s okay to hang out with people that are not always making you feel good and find out what that’s about. That’s where your real healing takes place.” The healing takes place in removing your blockages.



As you know the course says your function is not to find or learn about love but to remove all the blockages to your awareness of love’s presence. So that’s what we’re really doing here is we are removing those beams from our thought system.

Rev. Jennifer Speaking of Ken Wapnick, I interviewed him on my radio show last month. And I asked him. I said, “How do you speak to yourself when you notice that you’re in that mind clutter? What is it you say to yourself? What do you do?”

And I told him that I used that phrase, “I’m not interested in that anymore. I’m only interested in choosing love.” And he said he loves Shakespeare and he quotes King Lear when King Lear says, “That way madness lies.”

So when he notices his mind is hooked on something he says to himself, “That way madness lies.” And so he’s clearly identifying. There’s nothing I want down that road. And I think that that is really helpful is to have something that we say to ourselves that clearly helps us to cognize in that moment there is no value for me to go down that road at all.

It’s just like you would say to someone you love, to a friend saying, “Hey, don’t step in front of that bus. It’s going to hurt you.” And even the way you would say to a child, “Don’t touch that. It’s going to burn you.” We can say to ourselves, “Hey, don’t touch that thought. It’s going to burn you.”

“… opening to divine guidance and wisdom.” Now one of the other things that we said we would talk about in this

class, Dov, is opening to divine guidance and wisdom. Do you have a method for that? Do you have an understanding of how to increase our connection with intuition, divine guidance, insight?

Dov Well, actually that’s the same conversation that we’re having now. It’s actually leading into it because at first I’m talking about myself because we only know what it is that we do.


When I first started the course I kind of thought basically I had to do this course on my own. Of course like every other course I’ve taken in high school, college, whatever, you’re going to master this course, right?

You’re can learn everything there is to learn but you know…

Rev. Jennifer Be a good student.

Dov A good student, I’m going to do the lessons and do all that thing but then all of a sudden there does come a time. There’s a shift. And it isn’t that I’m really aware of the shift but all of a sudden somewhere you begin to realize that you are developing this trust.

And trust is so important because someone had an acronym for trust that I love. They just put it out recently in Facebook and I’ve used it a lot now, T-R-U-S-T, To Rely Upon Spirit Totally.

Rev. Jennifer Oh, I love that.

Dov Yeah it is great, to rely upon spirit totally. And that’s where we’re all really going truly. I mean that’s the direction in which we’re going. When you gave that King Lear thing, I don’t want to go there anymore.

And going to that place is me doing it on my own thinking that I’m going to manage, I’m going to micromanage. I’m going to control and do that, but trust is giving up control. Trust is going the exact opposite way.

As you begin to be willing to step back and allow who you are, what you are, your higher self… You can use the word Holy Spirit. You can use the word integrity, your higher truth to begin to speak to you and through you, who is always with you.

You are your higher self. And to allow that to begin to happen does take practice just like anything else. We go to a yoga class. It doesn’t matter where you go you’re doing something you have to practice over a period of time.

“In my defenselessness my safety lies.” I find a series of lessons, 153, 154, 155 all the way up to 158 like a

perfect series of lessons for anyone who wants to develop trust. And of



course the first one is 153, In my defenselessness my safety lies. And he’s really saying as long as we’re trying to do it on our self we do need to try and control and those are our defenses thinking, “I don’t want to be hurt.” Or, “I want to look good.”

One of the most subtle addictions that I came on, and if you’re a mind watcher, and if you’re doing A Course in Miracles, sooner or later you begin to get into the idea that you’re watching your thoughts and you’re not going to get hooked by those thoughts anymore.

One of the thoughts that I recently saw that was so subtle, we all have it. It’s one of the most generalized, subtle thoughts is I want to look good. I want to put my best foot forward and the opposite side of the same coin is, “I don’t want to look bad and I am afraid that people are going to know that I don’t know anything.” And those are defenses, very subtle defenses that actually kind of keep us in a prison cell you might say, where I know what I know and there seem to be a lot of people out there know a lot more than me.

And I keep thinking that they know more than I do and I don’t want people to know that I don’t know. And that’s an inner internal conversation that just keeps us stuck almost like we’re talking about being hooked.

And only I can unhook myself. Only I am responsible for removing the hooks. No one can do it for me. In fact that one line in the early chapters of the text where the author says, “Don’t ask me to do it for you. I can’t do it for you even if I wanted to. Even if I wanted to I would be interfering with the most fundamental laws of the universe.”

Rev. Jennifer Yeah, it’s fear and conflict.

Dov Yeah.

Rev. Jennifer Yeah, it’s in the fear and conflict section of cause and effect. Yep.

Dov You have to be cause in your own unhooking, in your own removing the defenses. No one can remove your defenses for you and no one wants to remove your defenses for you. You do it at whatever pace you do it.


But that is the way you begin to remove those blockages. And they come at the place you’re emptying out. You’re emptying out so much that the light starts to pour through. You do become that empty vessel where your eyes start to open up because you’re not afraid of the dark anymore.

If you have any fear you will keep your eyes closed and you will think that the world you see is the world that is either against you or for you and you’re going to determine who is against and who is for.

But as you begin to let go of the defenses that are actually the ones that are determining who is for you and who is against you, you begin to trust. You begin to see the world is really a friendly world.

As a matter of fact, everything is happening for you. And one of the most comforting lines is in the longest lesson in the course which Ken Wapnick calls the atonement lesson, Lesson 135.

“If I defend myself, I am attacked.” “If I defend myself, I am attacked.” And in Paragraph 18 it actually

says, “What could you not accept? What could you not accept if you but knew that everything that seems to happen, all events, circumstances are gently planned for you by one whose only purpose is your good?”

Rev. Jennifer That’s my second favorite lesson. A healed mind does not plan.

Dov Right, it’s Paragraphs 11 through 18.

Rev. Jennifer 11, yeah.

Dov That particular lesson is all about you don’t really want to plan. And it’s funny that you mention that whole thing about planning because anyone who plans for anything will be a nervous wreck for anything because what they’re doing is they’re thinking they’re doing this on their own and they want to look good.

They want to do all the right things and no one can blame anyone for doing all the right things. But because they don’t really know that they are with one whose only purpose is their good, who gives them everything, who gives them everything, you see.



And that’s where the reversal of the laws of this world happen. In the second of the three lesson of the Holy Spirit, the first is to have, give all to all. And the second is to have peace, teach peace to learn it.

The author actually says very clearly, “If you want to stop the ego you must reverse the getting concept.” You must reverse the getting because the ego is always into, “I’ve got a plan. I’ve got to do. I’ve got to get. I have to do.”

And that’s the control. As you’re willing to give up your defenses, give up the control, you begin to see here I am. I am the innocent child of God that I am and my father so loves me that everything that I need is given to me. And I begin to develop trust at everything that is given to me no matter what it is.

Even though I mentioned that I spent many years on Lesson 25, the first 25 years I’m very happy to say I used Lesson 365, the final lesson as my mantra lesson. “Holy Spirit, I put you in charge at my request knowing the direction that you lead brings me peace. Whatever it is I need you’re going to give it to me, whether it’s a word, a thought, a still and tranquil mind, it’s all going to be mine because I have asked and you are right there to give to me.”

And you begin to realize that you’re not really doing anything. It is being given to you and you hear advanced teachers say it’s really effortless. The only thing that you’re responsible for is your willingness to give it over, your willingness.

There’s that one section where he says, “More than willingness you cannot even give.” More than willingness you cannot give. The ego says, “I can give more than willingness.” He says, “No, no, no. It’s just your willingness to kind of just step back and allow him to lead the way.”

And if you want I can go into the other lessons that follow 153, I’m among the ministers of God, in which he says, “This is a lesson that you gave your consent to be among the ministers of God.” This is a regular lesson of the course, 154.


“I will step back and let him lead the way.” Then he tells you how in 155. “I will step back and let him lead the

way.” So I’m not really doing anything here. And the way I prepared for this evening is just to be here with you.

I was thinking what a wonderful partner I have, Reverend Jennifer. I can spend an hour on the phone together. Wow, with Holy Spirit.

Dov The way I planned for this evening is I did nothing except to realize I was going to spend an hour with Reverend Jennifer Hadley. What a wonderful way to spend an hour with you in Holy Spirit.

Rev. Jennifer I want to go back to this point about receiving divine guidance and insight because so many spiritual seekers will be searching for the magic potion, the magic formula so that they can be more clairvoyant, more clairaudient, more intuitive.

They’ll think, “Do I need to drink some magic elixir? Do I need to do some yoga?” Do I need to do all these things related oftentimes to the physical body?

And it’s definitely true that people can experience more clarity when say they’re not drinking alcohol and eating lots of sugar but everybody is different and none of that is an absolute.

But what is an absolute is that when we are holding onto the thoughts of attack, the thoughts of blame and shame, the defenses, all of that, then we will definitely be obscuring the divine guidance that is always live streaming 24/7. Don’t you think?

Dov Yes, and actually there is such a thing as something that someone can do and mainly it’s practice by the way. It’s again back to the practice, practice, practice and commitment.

I think it’s very interesting. As I see the 50 lessons, the first 19 as I call them are the unlearning lessons where you begin to unlearn all the things that you held onto and thought was true. You thought you knew what things were and you really don’t.



“I am determined to see.” The Lesson 20 and 21 he actually turns you around. I call the next 30

lessons where it begins to build you up and he actually says, “I am determined to see.” So he’s telling you right there that you’re not seeing anything. You only think you’re seeing.

He said, “I am determined to see.” And he says in 21, Lesson 21, “I am determined to see differently.” And then just a few lessons further, 27, 28 he says, “Above all else, above all else I am determined to see.” And then he says, “Above all else I am determined to see differently.”

So he’s alerting you right up front that it’s in your sight. It’s in your eyes that don’t see, your ears that don’t hear that you are blind, that you actually think you’re seeing something with the body’s eyes and the body’s ears.

But there’s that wonderful thing called the law of perception and this is a world of perception. Very clearly this is not a world of reality. It’s a world of perception. There’s that wonderful line. He says, “Perception is a mirror. It’s not a fact. It’s a mirror.”

So whatever you’re seeing is reflecting and telling you what’s going on with you. And whatever you’re seeing is what you want to see. That’s one of the laws of perception. One of the laws of perception is you see only what you want to see. You hear only hear only what you want to hear according to the dictates of the teacher that you’re listening to or the thought system, the thought system that you are subscribed to.

It’s almost like if you’re subscribed to a certain browser on a computer you have to live by the laws of that particular browser. And some people say, “Well I don’t want that browser anymore. I want to get the new super one that frees me up.”

We’re always talking this smaller mind, the mind that basically is always defending itself and has rules. Don’t do this and do this and to that. We are really bouncing into walls and you might say that we are blind.


There’s that wonderful lesson that says, “Without forgiveness I am still blind.” And that’s way up in Lesson 247. So 247 days into the year he’s still telling you, “Without forgiveness you’re still blind.”

So forgiveness is really the idea of removing that old thought system, to let it go, to let it actually go and stop holding onto it. And that’s how the sight, the seeing begins to… You begin to see things differently, exactly what it says.

Even though in the early lessons you’re not maybe experiencing… I shouldn’t say that because that’s just my experience. People might have a wonderful experience on Lesson 20 and not have to do any more lessons, you know? And that’s it. And that’s fine.

“… commit to seeing things differently and you will.” But the thing is that if you are committed to seeing things differently,

you will. There’s that wonderful line in Chapter 12 he says, “When all you want to see is love, love is all you’ll see. When all you want to see is love, love is all you’ll see. If you see anything other than love you must have looked within and saw something that you thought was true within you and you projected it out and saw it out there.”

There’s this lovely author. Her name is Carrie Trusett[?] She says, “If it’s on my screen it must be my projector.” So whatever you’re seeing out there, if it’s less than loving, if it’s something terrible or something rude, there’s something over here that I’m projecting out that I see that.

So whenever I want to see love I will see it when I go to the thought system that is focused on something beyond the body’s eyes and ears and that does take practice.

Rev. Jennifer And also you know, the good news is too is if someone is feeling worthless and they feel attracted to someone who seems to be very filled with light, very luminous being, someone who is very loving and very kind, that is within them as well.

Dov That’s so beautifully put and I’ve been saying that for years and years and years. It came to me some 25 or 30 years ago. I thought I made it up. If you spot it, you got it. And it doesn’t really matter what you spot.



If you spot beauty in another it’s your beauty. If you spot something that you don’t think is beautiful, that’s your own I don’t think it’s a beautiful thing.

Whatever it is that you’re seeing, that’s what perception is. And you begin to use the laws of perception to learn about yourself. You’re given the tools to begin to remove the blockages and the defenses within because every brother and sister is a mirror for you.

“… there’s no way out until I’m willing to see things differently.” That is why they’re in your life and why we said, “Everything is really…

Every brother is here for you. They’re here with you and for you. They’re not against you.” The ego says, “Well, are you kidding? Do you know who he is?” No. If you think you already know your brother’s motives you’re certainly caught up in your own ego’s thought system and there’s no way out until I’m willing to see things differently.

Rev. Jennifer Yep, and it takes discipline. It takes real discipline and that’s why the 365 lessons support us in building that discipline. What I absolutely know is that little willingness, it really is the key.

Dov Yes, willingness is the key. You have to be willing to say, “I do not know.” There’s a wonderful line in Chapter 31, Self-Concept versus Self. You probably know it. “There’s nothing that this world is more afraid to hear than this, nothing your ego is more afraid to hear than this. I do not know the thing I am, what I am, what this world is. Yet in these words is salvation born and what you are will tell you of itself.”

So as long as you think you know something there’s no room for what you are to speak to you and tell you of itself. So it’s up to me to begin to let go of thinking I know anything. And in letting go of the meanings which is where we started at the beginning of the evening, the meanings I give to things and saying I really don’t know what anything is for begins to loosen all those bricks that basely surround us. And once they get loosened the light starts shining right through.


Rev. Jennifer Shine baby shine. Yep. Ah, it’s so rich. Boy, we have covered a lot of territory in this class, beautiful. There’s a lot here for people who are just wondering how to get started and to begin the basic practices.

“… this is a moment by moment practice.” I think an important point, and I know I’ll go a lot more into this in the

morning class. It’s just about 12 hours from now. But it’s that as you and I know and we’re sharing with the folks, this is a moment by moment practice.

And even though we have been doing this spiritual practice, and it’s not about studying. It’s not about reading books and being able to quote things. It’s not about that at all and you and I both know that.

It’s about really being able to apply it moment by moment to choose love and to know that love is all that there is. It’s the only thing that has meaning. Love is the healer. Words are not necessary and that it’s not an intellectual game.

It’s about being able to move into that experience of love and to mentally choose love. Align with our loving heart. Take the mind and put it in the heart.

And no matter how long we’ve been studying it, we still have to do that moment by moment, day by day, and that’s how we get off that monkey mind train and into that place of true, lasting peace. There’s no other way.

Dov That’s by practice and discipline and commitment, exactly as you say, and willingness.

Rev. Jennifer Yeah, and trust. These things altogether it’s walking the talk. It’s really living the teaching. Like I say, no matter even 20 or 30 years of doing this, don’t you find that every single day, Dov, that there’s a place where we can see the mind feels a little bit attracted to that judgment or that complaint and we have to say, “No, I’m not interested in that anymore.”

Dov Right. It is on a day to day basis because stuff does keep coming up. Of course you catch yourself very quickly and you kind of smile and laugh



and usually it’s just smile and laugh. You don’t even have to catch yourself because as you see the cloud passing through you just look and say, “Yeah, right.” That’s pretty much what I say, “Yeah, right.” You just don’t have to go there.

Rev. Jennifer I’m going to close us out with a blessing and I want to thank you, Dov. Will you please tell everybody what are the websites that they can go to to connect with you again?

Dov’s Contacts Dov Sure. It’s at AcimGather.org, AcimGather.org. And we have a radio

station where people can tune in all during the day and listen to the various teachers that come seven days a week starting 6:30 in the morning Eastern time and going to midnight. And that’s AcimGatherRadio.org, AcimGatherRadio.org. And there’s one other thing on Facebook we do have a page which we have some 2,100 members. I’d love to invite people to that and it’s called Open Minds For ACIM and NTI. That’s the name of it and we’d love to have you there. And that’s a pretty open-minded kind of… We’re open to all. All are included equally no matter what their path or curriculum is.

And finally I do have 12 core themes of A Course in Miracles which basically I see the same themes repeated over and over and I’d like to give it freely to anyone who writes me at [email protected]. Just write to me at [email protected]. It’s a two page, two pages that contains a lot of what we spoke about tonight, what I call The 12 Core Themes of A Course In Miracles.

Rev. Jennifer Beautiful. Thank you.

Closing Prayer So let’s place our hand on our heart and take a breath of gratitude

together and give thanks that we can change our minds, that we can release the sense of feeling imprisoned and we can partner up with the higher Holy Spirit self and remember our true identity.


Remember that it is our true nature to be loving, to be light filled, to be luminous. And we’re gathering together right now in order to choose that and to celebrate the opportunity that we have in each and every moment to choose love.

And to remember that love is our true identity and it is the true identity of all of our brothers and sisters and no one is left out. All are included. And we are grateful and thankful that our healing really does benefit everyone, that we are bringing the light into our own life.

It’s here in our heart. We are light beings. The treasure is within. The kingdom is within and we are choosing that together. In grace and gratitude we share the benefits of our healing with everyone. We let it be. And so it is. Amen.

Dov Amen. Thank you so much, Reverend Jennifer. Really, that was so beautiful too. Really.

Rev. Jennifer Yes, yes. It’s wonderful that we get to do this together and we bring the whole world with us and I’m looking forward to the Homework Class in the morning so please join me then. And we’ve got the replays for 48 hours. They’ll be posted shortly at the LivingACourseInMiracles.com replay page.

Thank you, Dov. Goodnight everybody.

Dov Goodnight. And I am grateful too. Okay. I love you. Goodnight.

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