Miracle Mindfulness: A Guide To A Course In Miracles Workbook For Students, Lessons 1-220

By Holly Fox

Endorsement From Best Selling Author Gary Renard:
"With Miracle Mindfulness: A Guide to A Course in Miracles Workbook, Lessons 1-220, Holly E. Fox gives us a tour de force of the Workbook of the Course. She offers great insight into the meaning of the lessons, preparing the reader to get the Course on a deeper level than ever. I highly recommend this book to all miracle minded people, or those who would like to be. This book will save you a lot of time in your awakening."
Gary Renard, the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe trilogy.

Introduction

Miracle Mindfulness is designed as a guide to A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students, covering Part 1, Lessons 1-220. Similar to the Course Workbook, you will be presented with the lesson of the day, followed by an explanation of the theme, which you can reflect upon to enhance your practice. You will notice some of the core ideas are presented more than once with slight variations. Repetition is necessary in order to penetrate the mind that sees, thinks and experiences life through the habitual nature of the ego.

The lessons are designed to build a bridge from the mind of the ego to the mind shared with God. The decision to see miracles is a choice: to choose the light and not the darkness, to choose love and not fear. Your mind is shared with God and thus it is not outside your reach or access at any point. All that is required is a willingness to return your thoughts to your Source. It is from this Source that you were created. It is from this Source that truth will be revealed to you.
This book can be read along with the Workbook or after, but is not meant as a replacement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holly Fox
• Release date: May 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310696749

Holly Fox

I am the author of "Miracle Mindfulness: A Guide to A Course in Miracles Workbook For Students, Lessons 1-220" (late Spring/Summer of 2015). This book will help anyone that is ready for miracles in their life. It trains the egoic mind to see with miracle mindfulness by shifting its thought-perspective.Endorsement from best selling author, Gary Renard:"With Miracle Mindfulness: A Guide to A Course in Miracles Workbook, Lessons 1-220, Holly E. Fox gives us a tour de force of the Workbook of the Course. She offers great insight into the meaning of the lessons, preparing the reader to get the Course on a deeper level than ever. I highly recommend this book to all miracle minded people, or those who would like to be. This book will save you a lot of time in your awakening.Gary Renard, the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe trilogy.Professionally, I am a writer, as well as a consultant on various media projects, from online, film to television. My articles have been published on Huffington Post, Yahoo!, The Glow, Ravishly and the Good Men Project. I also do personal spiritual coaching.

Book preview

Preface

It is with humble gratitude that I present to you a book that can only be described as a miracle. When I began writing this book, I did so with the intention to help my friends, who were also studying the Course. After a short time, the book began to write itself and I became a conduit relaying its message and teachings. Reading this book is an experience. I am amazed by the personal interaction this book has with its readers, in ways that are similar to the multidimensional nature of the Course.

From writing this book, I have gained a deeper understanding of what the Course means and still teaches me to this day. Yet, I have little ability to communicate the totality of my experience with the Course. I felt this book needed to be shared with others. The nature of extension is sharing, as what has been given is thus received and so it multiplies, like a single stone thrown in a pond, sending rippling waves across its span.

I claim no perfection of the message, but I do believe it will help on your journey in understanding the Course and the Workbook. As with any spiritual teaching, you should take whatever works for you and disregard what does not.

May you feel the presence of God within you, always.

In light,

Holly

Introduction

Miracle Mindfulness is designed as a guide to A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students, covering Part 1, Lessons 1-220. Similar to the Course Workbook, you will be presented with the lesson of the day, followed by an explanation of the theme, which you can reflect upon to enhance your practice. You will notice some of the core ideas are presented more than once with slight variations. Repetition is necessary in order to penetrate the mind that sees, thinks and experiences life through the habitual nature of the ego.

The lessons are designed to build a bridge from the mind of the ego to the mind shared with God. The decision to see miracles is a choice: to choose the light and not the darkness, to choose love and not fear. Your mind is shared with God and thus it is not outside your reach or access at any point. All that is required is a willingness to return your thoughts to your Source. It is from this Source that you were created. It is from this Source that truth will be revealed to you.

This book can be read along with the Workbook or after, but is not meant as a replacement.

Now, let us begin.

Semantics

It is important to discuss the semantics set forth in the Course as well as this book. You may notice words that are commonly associated with Christianity are used throughout. However, neither this book nor the Course defines itself as a Christian text. The Course concepts and terms are meant to include everyone; no matter what spiritual practice or religion you study or believe. Simply, allow these terms to take on a new meaning that includes and not excludes.

This can also be applied to terms associated with gender. The idea or term Son of God should be addressed due to the indicative pronoun of him or he. Some readers might feel this term does not apply to them. Keep in mind that your higher Self does not ascribe to a sex or gender. The word son is used as a metaphor to explain that you are a part of God.

In a similar vein the terms God, Christ and the Holy Spirit although referred to as he are states of awareness, not persons, and thus do not have egos. Also there are no them as you are Oneness and not separate. If you wish, these terms can be replaced with terms that you are more comfortable. It does not matter what terms you use, as long as your replacements convey the same meaning. For example, you could use the terms Source, All-That-Is or Infinite Love to replace God, as these would also be accurate. Words are merely words. Do not allow the ego to complicate the teaching by finding argument in words.

When studying the text remember that it is impossible for words to convey their total meaning. Words are merely used to convey images and symbols so that you can begin to comprehend that which has no definition and surpasses language in its own reality. Understand that what is total and all-encompassing is formless and thus cannot be fully defined.

You might also notice that the Course, as well as this book is deliberately redundant, explaining the same idea from many different angles, yet remains consistent in its teaching. This method is used to further facilitate comprehension, as this is the best practice to penetrate and train the mind that is firmly rooted in the ego.

Lesson 1 – "Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything."

You do not know what you see. You only think you know what you see. Take a moment to consider what you see and how this is determined by your past thoughts and beliefs. Currently, your past thoughts are being projected onto the present, as you are only able to define what you see by using the past. What you see is a reflection and accumulation of your past thoughts and beliefs.

Yet your past thoughts are not true. They are not true because they are not absolute. Your past thoughts only exist through perception of time and space; and anything born of perception is incapable of absolution. If you were capable of being truly present, without past thoughts, you would be unable to define anything. Your past thoughts are used to define all that you see and do, by comparing and contrasting; this creates duality. Duality creates your entire world. However, past thoughts cannot create true reality because they are not absolute.

What is absolute is truth – and in order for truth to be absolute, and without perception, there can be only one. Therefore, truth exists without perception and what is without perception is incapable of judgment. Truth is incapable of judgment because there is no counterpoint to its existence; it does not perceive duality. Truth can be referred to as God. Although the term God itself is limiting, due to your past thoughts.

God, Creation, Oneness – whatever you want to call all that is – is truth. Truth is the only reality that exists; and because truth is the only absolute in existence – and you exist – you are a part of it. You are a part of God and because of this you have an inherent access to truth. This inner resource can be referred to as either your holy, true or higher Self.

The higher Self is different from the self that experiences and sees life through the body’s perception and past thoughts – the ego. These sources are different because your higher Self’s reality is based in truth, while your ego self’s false reality is based in perception. Due to our two different sources of self, you can conclude there is a choice in how you see, as the source of your thoughts depend on how you see. It is from truth that you see miracles.

You do not know what you see because what you see is not your true reality. None of the world exists without perception, and the ego’s perception is false. You can conclude that your perception creates your world. Herein lies the problem and the solution. When you know there is another way to perceive, you can exercise your free will and choose the source of your thoughts. Allow yourself the miracle of what this first lesson brings you – the realization of choice. You have a choice of releasing your ego, and instead connecting with your higher Self, which is shared with God.

Lesson 2 – "I have given everything I see, in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me."

You are the only one who gives meaning to what you see. The mind is powerful and always active, and thus your perception of anything can change at any time. What is seen by one is not seen equally by another. The ego creates the belief that you are a body, acting separately amongst separate things. This makes the ego the creator of your world, for your belief in the body gives definition, meaning, and value to all that you see. These definitions are special to you, set up to reaffirm your belief in the separation from God.

The ego believes that you are a body held in time, meaning that you have a past, present, and future. The ego’s belief in time also means that at some point you will die. The ego’s belief in time leads to a focus on the past; therefore, what is valued most in your thoughts about the past will strongly affect how and what you see now. This ego-driven way of perceiving and being can be referred to as your lower self.

However, you also have another capacity, which is to view the world from a spiritual viewpoint, your higher self. Your higher Self is not connected to the belief that you are a body; it is an identification and connection with the spiritual. It can also be referred to as Source or Oneness.

Now you can gather why there is no absolute to anything that you see. What you think you see is only the perception of the ego, which pulls meanings, definitions, and values from an accumulation of past thoughts. Your perception is thus always unique because it has gathered only the information that you know from your lifetime. Your special meanings are self-serving and separate from the meanings and values held by others.

Lesson 3 – "I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]."

What you see is merely a projection of your past thoughts, based on your perspective as a particular ego and body. Since you see only a very individualized perspective, it cannot hold truth because it is not absolute and what is not absolute cannot be true.

From this perspective, however, you can focus on some small things and realize that you do not understand what they mean. You may experience a shift in perception when this happens. Allow your thoughts of the past to be laid aside, as well as all future projections, and look around the room in a present state of mind. Do you really know where you are, or what you see? How could you? You cannot understand anything that you see without placement of the body and its relationship to things from past thoughts. You may begin to lose the feeling of your body as you become aware that you do not actually know what you are looking at. The scale on which this is practiced today is small, as it is done with objects around the room or things you see out a window. However, this can be done with anything at anytime. You will be learning to see differently, based on a state of being present, rather than absorbed with the past perspective of the ego-body.

Lesson 4 – "These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]."

If you understand that you cannot trust your eyes to see things as they really are, then how are you to trust the meaning of your own thoughts? If your thoughts are based on the past, then they are completely biased, and you have no real understanding of what is actually before you. How can you trust ideas that shift on a whim and are constantly refigured to fit the needs of your self-serving ego from moment to moment?

The ego was created when you accepted the mad idea that you were somehow separate from God. The ego created the mind-body identification in an attempt to manifest the separation. The thoughts of the ego hold no truth, as there is no way that you could actually be separate from God; you are as God created you. You are the essence of God’s creation and you cannot be separated from your Source. Since the separation is not real, then you can see only an illusion filled with contradictions.

Until you have your thoughts brought back to Oneness, they will continue to hold no meaning or value. It is the goal of the Course to bring your thoughts back through the Holy Spirit to God. It is not the goal of the Course to have you understand the meanings of your ego’s insane thoughts, because they have none. It is, however, necessary for you to be able to distinguish the insane thoughts of your ego, which is your lower self, from your right-minded thoughts, which is your higher Self. 

Lesson 5 – "I am never upset for the reason I think."

This lesson builds on the previous ones, as you recognize that you do not understand what your thoughts mean. You do not understand your present emotional upsets either, because they are linked to your past thoughts — those thoughts that are under constant reorganization because of how you have perceived past events and then projected them into the present and future.

In fact, the ego would have no existence without constantly making comparisons and finding contrasts between events over time. Without an idea of the past, comparisons would be impossible. The ego loves to take past events and project them into the present, where they actually have no reality. You would have no depression, anxiety, anger, fear, or other negative emotions if you lived solely in the present. Your emotions are passing, never stable, and therefore do not have any foundation of truth. If they had any foundation of truth, then they would be absolute and never change.

Lesson 6 – "I am upset because I see something that is not there."

This lesson teaches you that emotional upsets stem from past thoughts projected onto your present state. Past thoughts create expectations about how people should behave and what should happen. Prediction springs from expectation, and expectation does not exist without past thoughts. Past thoughts literally filter your vision in a particular way, creating your perceptions.

When you are experiencing any form of emotional upset, it is not due to what is going on in the present. Instead, your ego is not having its expectations met, or it is using current circumstances to replay a past hurt. During an unexpected event, you might feel numb or shocked at first; this means the ego has not had time to relate what’s happening to your expectations drawn from past thoughts. Given some time, you can usually come up with many emotions about that particular situation.

Another example: pretend to put your best friend’s mind in your body. He or she would have a different thought process and experience, as you, even though he or she would be in your body. Due to their own past thoughts, they would have different expectations, and thus a different experience, even though they would be seeing and doing the same things that you would do.

You might also find yourself getting fearful about the future, again based on your projected expectations. This sounds insane, does it not — to be upset about an event that’s yet to occur, based entirely on past thoughts?

Projected upsets, even though they have yet to occur, are equally upsetting to the mind. Another example: recall the last situation that created emotional upset for you, perhaps with a spouse/parent/coworker. Now think about how upset you are about why we don’t have world peace. You are more likely to find you felt greater upset while recalling your feelings of the first example. Therefore, upsets do not have an order of importance in the mind because what is upsetting to you, even small in character, is essentially larger than world peace.

Whether you find yourself anxious about a recent conflict with someone close to you, or worried about the lack of peace in the world at large, you are upset about something that isn’t really there.

Lesson 7 – "I see only the past."

From the ego’s perspective you can see only what is the past. Think about how you define yourself: you are a particular accumulation of past experiences, packaged in the mind as past-driven thoughts that are used to define everything. In this way the ego creates the world you see.

This lesson brings you to question all that you think and thus see; it places you in the role of the observer, which eventually breaks down the ego’s perspective. When you are able to observe things and events as they are and not what you think they should be, then you are able to recognize how your emotional upsets are being triggered. In the role of the observer, you are not attached to outcomes and when you are not attached to outcomes, you are able to live a happy and fully present life. When you are in the observation mode, you will notice that your feelings are neutral and do not see things as good or bad. The process of breaking down the ego and all its belief systems is essential for inner peace.

Inner peace is found neither in the past nor in the future, but in the here and now, which is the present state, the only state that it will ever be. When you disassociate from the past and no longer project it onto your present or future, you will be able to behold what lies in front of you without any filter of the ego. This will bring you to the revelation of being present.

Lesson 8 – "My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts."

The mind is preoccupied with past thoughts because you think it is the only way to think and see. When you see with your past thoughts, you are creating illusions. To make sense of the world, you are not only constantly reliving your past thoughts, you are also comparing and contrasting those thoughts to whatever is happening in the present.

Comparing and contrasting anything attempts to prove separation by creating duality. Duality is the ego’s strategy to keep you from being present and neutral. This creates a limited view of the world, yet the mind of the ego does not know how to see any other way. If you had no