• A Course In Miracles Is Solipsism

    From Miracles Are Seen In Light@21:1/5 to All on Thu Nov 25 15:05:53 2021
    A Course In Miracles Is Solipsism

    "Solipsism is the ontological position that only one self-conscious being exists
    in the universe: oneself. This conclusion is the ultimate result of the Cartesian
    search for absolute certainty in Western philosophy. The only certain knowledge
    this lone consciousness has is that it is aware that it is conscious, which is the
    present moment. This is the foundation of the metaphysics of solipsism of the present moment: that the universe consists only of one self-consciousness being,
    and that this solipsist exists only in the present moment."
    - From back of book "On Solipsism" by Richard A. Watson, PhD (23 February 1931 –
    18 September 2019)
    Professor of philosophy, Washington University, St. Louis (retired)


    I didn't read Richard's book, but,
    "duality is not existing, other than in thinking." https://www.amazon.com/Solipsism-Ultimate-Empirical-Theory-Existence/dp/1587315890


    All there is, is now (A Course in Miracles):
    "The miracle enables you to see your brother WITHOUT his past, and so perceive HIM
    as born again. His errors ARE all past, and by perceiving him without them you are RELEASING him. And since his past is YOURS, you SHARE in this release. Let
    no dark cloud out of YOUR past obscure him from you, for truth lies ONLY in the present, and you will find it if you seek it there. You have looked for it where
    it is NOT, and therefore have not found it. Learn, then, to seek it where it IS,
    and it will dawn on eyes that see. Your past was made in anger, and if you use it
    to attack the present you will not SEE the freedom that the present holds. Judgment and condemnation are BEHIND you, and unless you bring them WITH you, you
    will see that you ARE free of them.

    Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the ONLY things that are forever true. All healing lies within it because ITS continuity is real. It extends to
    all aspects of consciousness AT THE SAME TIME, and thus enables them to reach EACH
    OTHER. The present is before time was, and will be when time is no more. In it
    is everything that is eternal, and they are one. Their continuity is timeless and
    their communication is unbroken, for they are not separated by the past. Only the
    past CAN separate, and IT is nowhere."
    - ACIM, Chapter 13, "The Guiltless World," Section 6 "Finding the Present" (7pdf)


    "*You* are the dreamer of the world of dreams."
    - ACIM, Chapter 27, "The Healing of the Dream," Section 7 "The Dreamer of the Dream"

    "the universe consists only of one self-consciousness being, and that this solipsist exists only in the present moment."

    "truth lies ONLY in the present, and you will find it if you seek it there."


    That absolute certainty is dependent upon the present moment, is the apex of philosophy:

    How else could you know anything in philosophy? You know what you see now. Maybe you're "thinking about things," but do not those thoughts reflect reality,
    (as in Plato's theory of forms (perfection vs. this world vs. your thoughts about
    perfection)), and is not reality the present moment? What do you believe in? [If you've ever been sad, do you believe in sadness? If you've ever been happy,
    do you believe in happiness? If you've ever been rich, do you believe in riches?
    If you've ever been poor, do you believe in poverty]? Maybe you think the present
    moment is mundane. But are you really in it? Have you ever really looked into it, and continued attempting and trying to look into it, rather than being distracted by all the responsibilities and interests of this life?

    So the present moment validates Solipsism, but a world which you can change, of friends, is world of love, perhaps if one step away from the moment. Belief in solipsism, disbelief in those antagonistic against you, is dangerous only, why?

    Because it neglects the murderer in the dark? Yet that murderer is explained away
    through the present moment.


    When everyone loves one another, solipsism wins. For love merely asks: "what do
    you want," and is asked back, "no, what do *you* want?"
    Yet this still posits an inherent contradiction in A Course in Miracles, that Solipsism is so, and yet there are "other beings" to have any relationship _with_.
    This contradiction is explained away further, through the present moment:

    "It extends to all aspects of consciousness AT THE SAME TIME, and thus enables them to reach EACH OTHER... In it is everything that is eternal, and they are one.
    Their continuity is timeless and their communication is unbroken, for they are
    not separated by the past. Only the past CAN separate, and IT is nowhere."


    Third source:
    "For I am the boundless and unfathomable Ocean of Wisdom. There are no knower and
    no wisdom but I. For those who do not seek shall know (Those who are as nothing
    before God.) For there is nothing but I. I am the knowner and the known in one.
    There are no Yogis, there have never been any Yogis, there shall never be any Yogis. For there is only one single Yogi in the entire cosmos. I am that Yogi and there is no Yogi but I.
    ...
    Brahman: I am as I am and the One and the Only. I reveal My Self to My Self and
    to none other. I am My own cause and there is no cause but I. For I am the One
    and nothing can contain Me, not even the Vedas. For I am the Nameless One, the One beyond all scriptures.

    I am the One and the source of the One, but I am not the source of anything but the One. For the One is an aspect of My being. The One is its own source, never
    created and never ending. For I am My own source and I never began and shall never end. For I am the unfathomable Ocean of Being.
    ...
    The radiant God is the All and the One and there is nothing but It."
    - "The Yoga Aphorisms of Narayana," edited by Greg Henry Water


    So, saying there is *only* God. Is that insufficient to comprehend "solipsism?"


    There is no one out there; and God is light, and within, and one with you.



    "The holy do not interfere with truth. They are not afraid of it, for it is within the truth they recognize their holiness, and rejoice at what they see. They
    look on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it, or it to them.
    And so they see that it was in them, not deciding first where they would have it
    be. Their looking merely asks a question, and it is what they see that answers them. You make the world and then adjust to it, and it to you. Nor is there any
    difference between yourself and it in your perception, which made them both.
    A simple question yet remains, and needs an answer. Do you like what you have made? --a world of murder and attack, through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear.
    *You made this up*. It is a picture of what you think you are; of how you see yourself. A murderer *is* frightened, and those who kill fear death. All these
    are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made
    fearful by their adjustments. And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within, and see the sadness there.
    Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes? The world you see is but a judgment on yourself. It is not there at
    all. Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it and makes it real. Such is
    the world you see; a judgment on yourself, and made by you. This sickly picture
    of yourself is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves, and placed outside you in the world. And to this world must you adjust as
    long as you believe this picture is outside, and has you at its mercy. This world
    *is* merciless, and were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. Yet it was
    you who made it merciless, and now if mercilessness seems to look back at you, it
    can be corrected.
    Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one
    with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell
    it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, "What are you?" And he Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, "What am I?" The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as
    you see it is not outside you.
    Seek not to make the Son of God adjust to his insanity. There is a stranger in him, who wandered carelessly into the home of truth and who will wander off. He
    came without a purpose, but he will not remain before the shining light the Holy
    Spirit offered, and you accepted. For there the stranger is made homeless and *you* are welcome. Ask not this transient stranger, "What am I?" He is the only
    thing in all the universe that does not know. Yet it is he you ask, and it is to
    his answer that you would adjust. This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance,
    and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. To it you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. And
    of the one blind thing in all the seeing universe of truth you ask, "How shall I
    look upon the Son of God?"
    Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? And if you have, would you believe the answer, and adjust to it as if it were the truth? The world
    you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust
    the world to make its answer true. You asked this puff of madness for the meaning
    of your unholy relationship, and adjusted it according to its insane answer. How
    happy did it make you? Did you meet with joy to bless the Son of God, and give him thanks for all the happiness that he held out to you? Did you recognize your
    brother as the eternal gift of God to you? Did you see the holiness that shone in
    both of you, to bless the other? That is the purpose of your holy relationship.
    Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be
    unholy. Give it no power to adjust the means and end."
    - A Course in Miracles, (Chapter 20, Section 3)
    "The Vision of Holiness," "Sin as an Adjustment"

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