In my time this month thinking about what I wanted to write, I learned that I have a lot of philosophy that I love to discuss but as I typed through it, it wasn’t long before it started to feel uninspired. I don’t think there is much I can say about the Course’s philosophies that hasn’t already been written.

I’m currently taking a ministerial course through the Course in Miracles Center, facilitated by Rev. Tony Ponticello. I learned a couple classes in that Rev. Tony looks for our philosophy to be joined with a personal experience. I am now in full appreciation of this. We don’t really know something unless we experience it in some way. I think experience is associating an emotion with our learning. When we experience lessons in our lives, they come with emotions. The course tells us over and over that our practical application of its lessons is critical to our progression.

I’ve spent that last couple of years immersing myself in metaphysical books but there came a point not long ago when I started feeling stagnant. I soon realized that I wasn’t practicing very much. Our inner journey has much to do with our practical applications in the outer. So as I dove into what I could be doing, I realized I wasn’t doing a whole lot at all. I also found out that I have been judgmental of people all my life. This was humbling because I was walking around feeling pretty good about my knowledge. This inner searching taught me that I really have only begun my journey. The books I read and have read are the lessons for the practicum (much like the Text and the Workbook in A Course in Miracles).

So now I have begun again and after asking around a little bit, I confirmed that I come off pretty judgmentally to a lot of people. I could only laugh after hearing this because I know how far along I thought I was and how I really am in the infancy of my awakening. Luckily, I have this splendid course with a 365 day lesson set for practical application of inner work.

I think the lesson here is be quiet and do my work. I LOVE to share philosophy and sometimes it resonates with people, but I am learning that most of the time, the energy is better spent making the lesson part of me through actual experience rather than trying to solidify it through sharing. If anyone has been friends with me on Facebook, they would see my sharing regularly. The truth is I am not in a place yet where a lot of the messages I have shared so far have come from true, emotional experience. I think my brothers can tell the difference between when I am speaking philosophy or speaking from experience. I also think they relate to personal experience much better than the most profound of statements.

I spoke to my sister recently about the prospect of speaking at a half-way house and she told me not to bother going in there to preach to anyone. Furthermore, she said that they want to know my story and how I got to where I am at now. I don’t think any of us will ever be masters of A Course in Miracles on this plane of existence but we are masters of our own experiences. There isn’t a person on this planet that can tell my story better than me, and that’s what most people really want to hear anyway I think.

I heard Dr. Joe Dispenza at a conference last November and the following quote was my favorite of the entire weekend. “Knowledge without experience is philosophy. Experience without knowledge is ignorance. Knowledge with experience is wisdom.”

What I am working on now is to help when asked but to get out and practice, practice, practice.

Daniel