"A Course In Miracles" and Buddhism

In Buddhism we get very technical and specific about how to move the winds and channels in the body to achieve certain results. The past year I've been reading these quantum physics books, and A Course In Miracle, as well as Gary Rennard's The Disappearance of the Universe.  In reading these texts I find that they were perfectly describing the results that Buddhism says comes at a certain state. Exactly the same reporting from masters who have 'gone to that place' of enlightenment. 

A Course in Miracles approaches it slightly differently with the words of Christ. It's all about forgiveness on a pure non dualistic level (which is very Buddhist in some ways). It is forgiving the illusion. Forgiving the difficult boss who I created and is teaching me a lesson, forgiving this trouble, and that issue. Not condescending forgiveness which is poisonous. But true forgiveness and realizing we are all brothers of Christ and children of God. What is here isn't real and therefore is just an illusion. All there is, is God. 

And this isn't a God that created the world. Course states that karma created the world and that's that. God is formless, shapeless and sounds a lot like a codeword for dharmakaya or some sort of essence. And this God/emptiness is the only constant and therefore nothing else is real, so it must be forgiven. Or as one quantum physicists would say: it's the void that's full. The universe is empty. 

Forgive the mistaken belief that I am separated from God, b/c in fact I am not and never have been. This karma and constant reincarnation is a trick of the mind (Buddhist totally believe in this). And reincarnation was in the Bible for most of its history until Catholic Church took it out hundreds of years later. And so this cyclic thing is happening b/c of my own guilt, the constant shifts in my life are little guilt trips that trigger separation and division to appear on all levels. 

I separated from God (Big Bang) and set off a chain of events that occurred and arose the universe. In separating all time and space was created at once. My mind organizes it into a linear fashion to make sense of the universe. It is my guilt of separation and fear (God's gonna get me) that keeps me cycling around. It's what runs this world of the 20,000 illusions, shifting relationships, and separation. Fear from this guilt is what creates up and down feelings, something pleasant that must always change. So the big forgiveness lesson is with myself. I am not guilty. I am innocent. When the voices comes, when the illness comes, when mishaps come that trigger that voice of doubt/guilt which is my ego, I remember that I am innocent. 

God is...

And everything else IS NOT. So I forgive that which IS NOT, b/c it's not real. 

They say my guilt plays itself out with sickness and every dilemma. Anything that troubles or disturbs my peace is coming from that guilt/fear from the initial separation. And all of eternity is waiting. Eternity is right here waiting, for me to strip away my 'illusory guilt' which causes cancers and death, and all forms of separation. This, of course, isn't happening on a conscious level. The mind is massive and sets into motion events that will happen in this life based on that guilt. And my purpose here is to forgive. Forgive and remember: I am innocent. 

I find this works REALLY well with Buddhist studies. This is a Jesus I like and completely know. Not the condemning one, but one who is saying "I am Christ. And so are you." Then what could worry me in a long-term way if I am Christ? Would Christ care about sexual orientation, what nation I come from, what I eat if I'm talking about pure non-dualistic love? All that stuff is dualistic, set to confuse and separate, intended on perpetually re-enacting the initial separation that set everything into motion. The world is filled with outrage, scandal, war, and separation. And it must be forgiven on the purest level.

Supplementary book "The Disappearance of the Universe" is very powerful and goes through Course in Miracles at a more digestible level. The Course is very thick and big and takes a year or so to work through it. I have been feeling lighter. 

When I see scandal I forgive it. Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman: forgive it. Republicans wanting to cut taxes for rich and end programs for the poor? Forgive, forgive forgive. Truly forgive and realize that I will still vote, voice my opinion, but there isn't condemnation or rage. I am aware of the illusion and can't get enraged at it mirroring back my guilt. But when I forgive it, this illusion is released. Instead of getting sick 100 times, maybe I can get sick only 98 times and forgive it, remind myself of innocence and be released from the last 2?

At the very least, it makes reading the news and talking to people a lot easier. Anger is a call for love, so I give love. Love is a call for love so I give love. Everything negative is coming from a place of fear and guilt. So there is nothing to do but release it with forgiveness and then embrace it as Christ/Buddhamind/zero-pt field physics. God is formless, tasteless, colorless. All form comes out of duality so when I get to the level of ultimate forgiveness that is the 'disappearance of the universe' or 'clear light direct perception of emptiness' in Buddhism. The universe dissolves away b/c all duality has been released and with that there is only one thing: God. 

God is.

Modern Martyr Complex

Easter is the day to celebrate resurrection and return. The holiness on this day isn't supposed to be based in the crucifixion but the freedom from any pain-as-proof religion. Yet 2,000 years later, the world religions seem to still be focused on suffering for God theories, and martyrdom.

In Tibet, Buddhist monks and practitioners set themselves on fire as protest. It's marked and recorded in the news as an exciting/tragic/heroic protest against China. In the Mideast,  Muslim suicide bombers detonate themselves into what -they believe- will be paradise. Even in Christianity, there is the cult of crucifix. It's the people who made "Passion of the Christ" a huge hit and the idea that all great saint hoods involve deprivation and pain. 

Who planted this bizarre masochistic belief? Lord Buddha fled from asceticism and self-punishment and strongly advises against harming one's body at all. Yet one of the iconic pictures of the Vietnam War was the self-immolation of a monk. I remember having a conversation years ago with a Buddhist practitioners who praised such violent self-abuse. When I questioned why anyone would destroy their body, he seemed infuriated. I obviously didn't know anything about his form of Buddhism, which seemed like a competition in magical feats and self-flagellation. I sat there quietly as he raved about other acts of torture, while ignoring the feats of love performed by the Dalai Lama and others. 

I have another friend who is strongly Catholic. He walks around all the time with sizable wooden crucifix necklace. I imagine looking down and seeing a suffering Jesus on my chest all day. I wonder what purpose does it serve? To remind me of suffering? To make me feel so small and unworthy in comparison? Not surprisingly, my friend is hyper-critical of his actions and always seems to be in a rut. He is quite literally carrying the cross of suffering and judgment around with him where ever he goes. 

Self-torture only reminds me of the limitations of my body, the very thing religion claims to be about escaping. This martyr complex also sets up a scenario of me vs. the so-called 'demonic world.' In all martyr situations there is an oppressor and a hero. There is someone 'out there' who is trying to stop my angelic self. And I overcome this villain by subject myself to a hunger strike or some form of punishment which makes my oppressor feel guilty. What am I doing but taking my own guilt and projecting out on to an oppressor/villain? What am I doing but taking my own body -which I must perceive as impure- and cleansing it with the fire of pain?

If I really believed that my body was angelic, that I had the love of God in me, there would be no need for torture. In fact, I would cherish myself greatly and see others in the same light of love. 

That's not to say that there isn't a place for detox-ing or fasting to cleanse the mind. That's not to say that great saints haven't suffered and been oppressed. But in today's culture, we almost seem to look for the oppression first and the salvation later. 

There is a glee in being the victim, in being outraged, in feeling like everything is pitted against me. Talk shows, news, politics, and scandal play into this martyr complex. The public is told that they are the good guy and this person out here has done something horrible, or is trying to destroy America, or is cheating on his wife, or may be the father of a child he's estranged from. We 'boo' with glee at these so-called bad guys. 

Yet, more of them come forward until the entire world seems full of bad guys, hypocrites, liars, politicians, and crooks. But I rest assured in the comfort that 'I' am the last good guy. Sure I may cheat on my taxes a little, occasionally tell small lies, contradict myself, but I am the one being oppressed by this Confederacy of Con Men. It's the corporations or the Republicans, or whomever else I'm supposed to feel outrage toward this week. 

But what if all that outrage was really a deep subconscious guilt? What if my anger and need for martyrdom really comes from a oceanic deep feeling of unworthiness and uncertainty by my 'small lies' and 'little contradictions' that I would rather not look at in me? 

Over 2,000 years later, we are technologically advanced but still psychologically stuck in the age of martyrs and Inquisition. And it's never going to change unless I change myself. There will always be someone out there to project my own fear and guilt? There will always be a great villain from central casting that appears to be stopping me. 

What if Lord Buddha suffered as a human being and a last lesson so that I wouldn't have to go through with that? What if Jesus suffered -not for the sins of man or my 'evil'- but as a lesson in how deep his forgiveness could go? What if we celebrated the resurrection of his mind more than the death of the body? On Easter I think about these thoughts and all the crucifixes that people are carrying around with them all day.