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The Next Step
by Robert D Sears*

 PART III in the series "The Process of Learning"  

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WWW.RDSEARS.COM

This is the last in a three part series, "The Process of Learning"

So what is the next step?  Very simply moving from Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence.

While I use riding a bicycle as my example, the shift I am working toward is the true awareness of who we are, why we are here, what we gain from that awareness and how to save ourselves, our loved ones, and our planet in the process.

If you read my Short BIO, you know that I love movies.  One powerful movie I saw recently was "Alien Visitor", on streaming video from Netflix.  It is not your typical UFO style, big eyes, little green man, alien visitor.  In the movie, our 'visitor' is an attractive and intelligent woman who appears out of nowhere and makes contact with a surveyor in the Australian Outback.   It is a fun and entertaining story if you choose to watch, but here is the essence.

She is here to bring certain things into the mindset of our Australian Surveyor whom I will call "Our Hero." She points out that we, as a species, have a level of intelligence that is less than that of a child.   We live our lives in what I refer to as "Ostrich Syndrome."   We totally ignore what we are doing to ourselves, our children, and our planet, simply because we choose to remain in denial, for to understand what we are doing would be considered criminal.  We don't want to face that reality.   We are totally Unconsciously Incompetent about what we are doing toward our own destruction at some time either in the near or distant future. 

She asked of our hero, "Have you ever heard the term, intelligent species?", to which he responds in the positive, but she goes on to say, "Well you (inhabitants of Earth) are not one of them."  She goes on to ask in another scene, "Do you think these trees chose to die?"

OK.  Lest I seem to be climbing on an ecological soap box, what I am trying to point out is that sometimes we just choose to ignore what we are doing that is really killing us.  We are so burdened with unconscious guilt over our actions that it is more tolerable to remain in total denial.

What I AM trying to get to is that this type of 'ignorance' also applies to things on a Spiritual level as well, and I am trying to introduce the idea that there is more we really need to learn about our True Being, our True Existence, and how THAT knowledge will allow us to 'heal all the wounds' we have caused to each other and to this planet we call our temporary home.

Earth is NOT our home.  It is merely a place of learning...a school perhaps...but one we do need to go through, and learn all the prescribed lessons before we can return to our True Home.   Our bodies are not even real, but tools with which we can see in the script of our lives, the characters in the movie we call our lives, all the things that need to be undone before we can truly appreciate What and Who we Are and what our Real place is in this Universe.

This is the essence of "A Course in Miracles" (ACIM).  Being open to new ideas of who and what we are, will bring us from the point of Unconscious Incompetence, through the stages of Conscious Incompetence  [understanding and seeing there is a lesson at hand], and with constant vigilance, focus and practice, through the stage of Conscious Competence ['seeing' the real solution], into Unconscious Competence.

In a spiritual sense, Unconscious Competence is reached when we practice perfect love, practical compassion, and understanding without judgment, during every moment of every day, totally without effort...without exception.

Perhaps this was an early application of Occam's Razor - a principle urging one to select among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect

So here we are in the second millennium still with a flat world mentality.  How many things are we hearing today of what might be, that we completely ignore since that is not what we now believe.

Robert Sears has been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1990.  He came to ACIM after years of following a very convoluted religious path, and sometimes refers to himself as a CathoBaptiMethoCostalScientist, which explains why some call him a Spiritual Mutt. 

Bob experience the healing power of miracles by stopping two heart attacks in their tracks simply by applying a deep understanding of the content, meaning and values of Lessons 1 and 2 in the workbook.  "All I needed to do was to realize the meaning I was giving to the symptoms of a heart attack were purely mine.  I withdrew MY meaning...and poof!"

Bob is also familiar with several of the Eastern Philosophies but now finds himself most comfortable sharing and teaching ACIM.  Bob is also a non-practicing Reiki Master preferring to focus entirely on the Course.

Once led to engLove or Fearage in full time ministry as a Course teacher, Bob opted to become and independent non-denominational minister so that he could teach a pure version of ACIM without the need to satisfy any particular denominational tenets.  Bob, originally from NY, now resides in Southern California where he teaches in churches and home settings.  More on,or from, Bob can be found on his ACIM teaching web site...www.rdsears.com

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 Robert D Sears
1167 Spicestone Dr
Hemet, CA 92545
951-332-8786
www.rdsears.com

 

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