Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Swine Flu_Practical Application of "A Course in Miracles"

This morning it's April 30th when the swine flu concern has spread around the world and

I thought maybe we could talk this morning about how A Course in Miracles would have

us look at swine flu. The most important thing to remember when we begin to talk about a

specific, a specific concern or problem, is that the Course does not address any of these.

And the reason that it does not address any specific issues any of us has is because all

the problems are perceived as being the same. That's why the first principle of miracles

is that there is no order of difficulty among them which is a correction for the ego's first

law of chaos that there is a hierarchy of illusions. All the problems that confront

us in the world, no matter what they are on a personal or collective basis, are simply

projections of the single problem that we all share which is our decision to join with

the ego instead of the Holy Spirit, the decision to make the separation from God real, and

the concomitant thoughts of sin, guilt, and fear real as well. All these then become projected

out into the world and take all different forms. What is most important as we look at

a specific situation like swine flu is to use it as a way of monitoring our own thinking,

our own reactions. Aside from the normal reaction saying that we should take whatever precautions

would be appropriate as we would with any concern or problem, despite these concerns

and despite the form of the problem, our response if we are right-minded would still be peaceful.

Lesson 34 is always very instructive in this regard, "I could see peace instead of this."

And the "this" would be whatever it is that arouses anxiety in us, engenders guilt, causes

us to be afraid, we could still see peace instead of this because peace is a decision

in the mind. And the mind is totally unaffected by the body since the body is simply a projection

of the mind and has never left its source in the mind. Our external concerns are simply

the projections of the decision of our decision maker to join with the ego. Once we do this,

we make separation real. We make our belief in sin real. We experience guilt, and guilt

demands that we be punished for it. We then project out our fear of punishment, ultimately

the punishment by this avenging deity who wants to seize back from us the life we believe

we stole from him. That we project this out and we become afraid of all kinds of things

external to us...things that affect our bodies or the bodies of our loved ones. In this particular

case, it's swine flu. It could be nuclear war, it could be famine, it could be AIDS,

it could be the loss of a job, it doesn't make any difference. The concern would always

be the same. It would be that somehow we are going to be punished because we deserve to

be punished. And once we believe we deserve to be punished or there is a danger outside

of us, our defensiveness is then justified, namely we have been justified in somehow defending

ourselves against this threat. Typically as a threat is seen as constituting an attack

on us, our defense would be also some form of attack. This is what is discussed near

the end of the text in the section "Self-Concept versus Self" where Jesus tells us how we all

put on the face of innocence and this aspect is always acted on. In this case, we are all

the innocent or seemingly or expected innocent victims of the swine flu. That is not our

problem and therefore we are justified in defending against this invader. And the invaders

could be Homo sapiens, people. It could also be micro-organisms such as a virus or a bacteria.

In this case, once again, we are talking about swine flu. So the concern at the same time

that we take the normal precautions to protect our bodies and the bodies of our loved ones,

that we above all take precautions to protect our minds, namely not protect our minds from

the ego perceived as the enemy, but protect our minds in the sense as the third lesson

of the Holy Spirit says, to be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. Namely not that God

needs our vigilance but that we need to be vigilant how we have chosen the ego as a defense

against God or a defense against our choosing God, and that is always the problem. And when

we pay attention to that, that is the mind's protection that is building up the immune

system of the mind. And when we are at peace, then our minds would automatically dictate

to our bodies whatever it is we should do or how we should work with others to ensure

peace and safety for all people. But the peace and safety must begin within, otherwise there

is no peace and no safety. So that the Course's approach to the problem of swine flu as it

would be for any other problem is to use it as a means to heal our own minds; and when

our minds are healed, there is a peace that is totally invulnerable to anything that appears

to be outside of us.