A Course in Miracles Teacher Talks About God, The Bible, Ego, ACIM and Advaita Vedanta

David Hoffmeister—A Course in Miracles Teacher: The Bible told us, "Hold no graven images before the Lord, thy God." It wasn't talking about totem poles or golden calves, like we thought. It was actually talking about anything in time and space that you hold more valuable than God or your true Self. Anything that you hold more valuable than God or our true Self will block you from the awareness of love. 

Spirit is not a religion or a theology. Spirit and love is a state of mind. You can't know that presence as long as you value anything else besides that presence. That's why with all the commandments; the two that Jesus emphasized was, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind." And, "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Not as a separate entity or a separate being. So, when the song we listened to earlier said, "You
literally are your brother. You literally are your sister," it's pointing to all the great traditions that say that God is one and God is love. Instead of using a spirituality that emphasizes only meditation or seclusion, for example going off in a cave or going to a forest, it's saying, No, you can actually do this as an open eyed meditation of being shown that what you think of as somebody other than you is not actually other than you at all. 

That's why giving and receiving is the same. Any A Course in Miracles teacher really applying ACIM will know that All that I give is given to myself. There literally are not two. That's what Advaita Vedanta means- not two. This is
literally a teaching of "not two." The most glorious experience is when you relax into that state. If there is not two, then all must be well. It must be that you can just relax in that state of forgiveness and remembrance of
who you are.

The key element for the ego is the belief in sacrifice and what Jesus teaches us through a Course in Miracles is that while you believe in sacrifice love is unknown. He describes sacrifice very simply in the Teachers of Teachers section - which is for A Course in Miracles teachers and students - as the belief in giving up of what you want. So, he's going to work with the sacrifice idea because, it's so heavily believed in. The giving up of what you want is very simple. You have been called by God into the most holy function there could ever be; forgiveness. And that is your calling. Your calling really isn't a calling in form. It may seem to take a form for a little while. But it's really a calling into divine presence and remembrance. You have been called by God. Jesus says, "Would you now sacrifice the call,if sacrifice is the giving up of what you want?" You have linear time on one hand and you have the call to remember God on the other hand. Really, that's the only thing you have to come to a reckoning with. Am I going to sacrifice the call to experience Spirit or am I going to sacrifice linear time? David Hoffmeister, A Course in Miracles teacher.
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