Monday, October 25, 2010

Author Interview with Dr. Mushtaq H. Jaafri - Part 2

FQ: In ACIM – Text 21 – introduction 1.7 it states, “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.” Is this the message that you wish to impart to the Christians and Muslims of the world? Which path should they follow together?
You are truly a very observant person. This quote from the text of ACIM: “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world” is certainly a timely message for both the Christians and Muslims.
  
Now, why didn’t I think of it?  No, all kidding aside, let me say this that the message I was trying so hard to impart to the Christians and Muslims of the world was that people are in great deal of trouble and we should contribute our particular abilities toward this ‘celestial speed up’ plan, as an aid in setting things right in the world.

A Course in Miraclesemphasizes the urgency of the need of accepting the Atonement for himself or herself by the masses at this time, The amazing effect of A Course in Miracles in our lives is that in the past twenty-five years or so, there has been a proliferation of material that claims to be inspired by A Course in Miracles. My book is a living proof of the validity of this celestial speed up prophecy.

By way of showing my gratitude toward the teachings of A Course in Miracles, I established an International Mind-Conditioning Society, an organization devoted exclusively to the teachings of the working principles of the human mind.

I often indulge in my imagination to see a place where people from all over the world come to work collectively on a “celestial speed-up” plan to change the thinking habits of the masses just as McDonald’s changed the eating habits of the masses of the world.

The goal would be to ask the people of the world, regardless of their beliefs to contribute their particular abilities toward this universal plan to change in aiding people’s minds about the nature of the world. This will surely initiate the correction of the perception of separation from God and do the work we were created to do.

Finally let me say this: Some people may feel that the book is quite short. To those people I would say that this book is not a text filled with pages of theory but, down to earth facts based on my 30+ years of extensive, real-life, practical experience practicing these ideas on a daily basis. I was concerned with the quality of the work not the quantity of the pages of the book.

I have left the full quotes of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s books, and the full length of the “special lesions” of the workbook for students of ACIM to help the readers find the three thought systems and how they operate in our own lives.

Perhaps, that is why some readers may feel as if they are reading two different books but, by the time they finish it, they know how the ideas of each book inter mingle with each other to become a whole. This is truly an enthusiastic, inspirational self-help book for those who seek to find the meaning of life here on earth.

FQ: You claimed that you had to struggle when you first started to write the book and set down to write it several times, only to succeed on your fourth attempt. You mentioned that you completed the book “in just two weeks by asking for the Holy Spirit’s help.” Can you tell us more about your inner struggle with this?

First of all, let me say this that I’m a bit surprised that you didn’t notice the beautiful and colorful book cover. Just look at the design and wording of the front and back cover.

I say this because the designer of this unique book cover design must have intuitively grasped the essence of the message that I was trying so hard to convey in this book, in order to come up with such a front and back cover and reads you literally.

The funny this is that the designer of the both front and back cover design probably didn’t have time to read the book as thoroughly as you did. I know for a fact that you read every page of this book to ask such probing questions.

Many times, I had to stop (and think) about your very probing questions. “Think and grow rich,” said the immortal Napoleon Hill. May I borrow his thought, and say, “Think and grow rich—spiritually that is.”

So much for the sermon for the cover and now let’s get back to your probing question #6.
“One of the difficult things, when you come to the Course for the first time, is that it will use words differently from the way that we use them in ordinary speech.” I myself had a great deal of trouble with the word Atonement.

I was so ill prepared for this that I had to look for the meaning of the word Atonement in the dictionary. But, when Dr. Kenneth Wapnick read the first manuscript, he gave me another explanation and meaning of the word Atonement that different from the popular  dictionary.  He even gave me his book: “Glossary-Index for ACIM ” to look up the meanings in the future. I believe you have noticed several quotes from his books.

Another word that I had the most challenge with was the word the “Holy Spirit.” Perhaps for the sole reason that I am raised as a Muslim. The Holy Bible calls the Holy Spirit as one of the trinity but, I always thought of it as an Inner Being dwells within us.
To me, it’s the non-physical part of me that longs to communicate with me. All I had to do was to ask for His help. This fact was much more visible to me when I reworked the whole manuscript for the final and fourth times and let my Inner-Being (Holt Spirit) guide me every step of the way.

Then when the title The Original Sin came into my mind, it hit me like the lightening. Wham! It literally knocked me down for the count. The reason is that the true meaning of the story of Adam and Eve had been running through my mind for more than 10 years. And, then, I just let my Inner Being (Holy Spirit) dictate me what to write. I got on my laptop  computer and the words just began to flow like a stream of a river.

My first manuscript was not quite consistent with A Course in Miracles. So I reworked the whole manuscript the second time but, I seemed to talk about my own ego more and how great I am and have accepted the Atonement for myself.
At the suggestion of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick, I agreed to rework the whole manuscript the third time but, I was still present a view of accepting the Atonement that is different from the course’s.  That is when I decided to let the Holy Spirit (Inner Being) speak through me. And, the rest, as they often say, is history.

Yes, it’s quite true that I did have to struggle when I first started to write and set down to write several times, only to succeed on my fourth attempt. I quit several times but I was always drawn beck to A Course in Miracles.

But, you know what? In some mysterious ways, my every failed attempt was actually a step closer to what I was created to write. Sometimes, I imagine, that perhaps, writing this book was the reason that I was born. I think that I must have agreed with my Creator God to devote 30+ struggling with the material to come up with a short book.

The point I am trying to convey here is that it took me 30+ years of hard work to compile this material and you can not except to comprehend the message in this book in just 30 minutes. You must have non-judgmental and un-biased approach while ready it.

All those who will get the message quickly will be the ones who read it as You did while reviewing it for the content: Read a few pages at a time and stop and think about what is being read.When you will finish reading (and thinking) you will know that everything you read is true and make a lot of sense and now practice it on a daily basis.
From my 30+ years of extensive, real-life, practical experience in practicing these very same ideas, I can tell you first hand, that you learn only what you want to learn.

Remember, the Master Teacher is always within you (call It the Holy Spirit of an Inner Being) and you can learn from It anytime, through anyone and anything. This is the truth and you can trust. Really, you are your own teacher. Choose to learn from within.

A Course in Miracles says: “As you teach so will you learn. If that is true, and it is true indeed, do not forget that what you teach is teaching you. And what you project or extend you believe,” (ACIM- Text Chapter 6, III.2)
What, exactly, then, is A Course in Miracles? The summary introduction, which, appears it its Text is quite succinct and brief. It reads:

“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all encompassing can have no opposite.”

FQ: There are several books that have been published that one can refer to in conjunction with ACIM. Have you found any of them to be of use to you? Any suggestions?

As I mention in my book The Original Sin (pg. 92), that in the last twenty-five years or so there has been a proliferation of material that is claimed to be inspired A Course in Miracles. There are basically two edition of ACIM. One is the Original Edition and the other is the Edited and improved version of A Course in Miracles.

There are several organizations throughout the United States of America and the United Kingdom that are devoted exclusively to the teachings of either the Original edition or the Edited and more improved version of ACIM.

For example, Community Miracles Center in San Francisco, California and the Society of A Course in miracles in OMAHA, Nebraska teaches only the Original version of ACIM, while the Foundation for Inner Peace in Mill Valley, CA and the Foundation of ACIM in Temecula, CA teaches only the edited version of ACIM. My book The Original Sin is based on the edited and improved edition of A Course in Miracles. 

As I mention in my book (pg. 64), “it goes without saying that I do not want people to feel guilty if they buy or read the other versions. People should do whatever they want, as long as it is not harmful, and contrary to what some might say, there is no “Pops of the Course.” So whatever you do with the course, what is most important is that it is done without anger, judgment, and feeling or unfair treatment.”
Speaking for myself, some of the most useful books and the website in putting this philosophy together were the followings:

The Holy Bible
The Holy Qu’ran
The Holy Tora
A Course in Miracles (Edited Edition)
Glossary-Index for A Course in Miracles –
Dr. Kenneth Wapnick –FACIM
A Talk given On A Course in Miracles –
Dr. Kenneth Wapnick – FACIM
Absence of felicity – Dr. Kenneth Wapnick
www.acim.org

FQ: I for one had never heard of ACIM. Can you tell us the origin of the course and Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford’s part in its creation?

I thought you never ask. This is the one question that is most often asked about ACIM. So let me try and give you the best answer I know of.
I believe that A Course in Miracles, is probably, one of the most influential books of all times in pointing the way to attaining peace—to fulfilling your ultimate destiny in life.  In my personal opinion, there has never been another book like it, nor ever can be.
Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford an unlikely team to scribe A Course in Miracles. As career-oriented psychologists working closely together at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical center, they were attempting to develop and strengthen the center’s psychology Department.
While their professional interests and goals for the department were compatible with each other, their personalities certainly were not. Helen’s overly critical judgmental stance was just the opposite of Bill’s quiet and more passive-aggressive personality and they clashed constantly.

 It was therefore a rather startling event when, in the spring of 1965, Dr. William Thetford delivered an impassionate speech to Dr. Helen Schucman in which, he said he was fed up with the competition, aggression, and anger which permeated their professional lives, extended into their attitude and relationships, and pervaded the department.
He concluded and told her that “there must be a better way” of living—in harmony rather than discord—and he was determined to find it. Equally startling, and to their mutual surprise, Helen agreed with Bill and enthusiastically volunteered to join him in a collaborated search to find this other better way.
It was as if Helen had waited all her life for this moment, which triggered a series of internal experiences for her that carried on through the summer. These included heightened dream imagery, psychic episodes, and visions appearing more and more frequently to her both visual and auditory expressions.

(For further details about Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford’s collaborative work in the creation of A Course in Miracles, please visit: www.acim.org.)
I believe that it will be unfair not to mention about the tremendous contributions of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick—A clinical psychologist. Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s association with the Course dates back to 1972, when he met Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford in New York City shortly after the scribing of the Course was completed.
He then worked closely with Helen in editorially organizing the Course manuscript and preparing it for publication. For details log on: www.facim.org.
 
FQ: 9) How do you further your knowledge of ACIM concepts? Are you a member of a Foundation, a study group, or are you mostly the type of person who prefers to study in private? If anyone is interested how can they learn more about ACIM ?

You have asked another excellent question: How do I further my knowledge of ACIM concepts? It’s amazing how well you have truly grasped the essence of my message. Before I share with you how I further my knowledge of ACIM concepts, please allow me to share what A Course in miracles says:
“This Course is a beginning, not an end…No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need for them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God…He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when you come to Him in silence, asking for His sure guidance and His certain words.”
(ACIM- Workbook for Students, pg. 487).
The key phrase here is: How to direct your mind, and when you come to Him in silence, asking for His sure guidance and His certain Words. And, that’s exactly what I do. As I go about my daily business, I try me level to direct my mind to stay in the right-minded thought system and ask for His sure guidance in everything I do.

I try to see how long I can keep a mind without any thoughts (no-mind), this is when my mind is blank. I try to shift from worldly thoughts to having a blank mind. It took me 30+ to keep my own mind under my own full control at all times and at all costs.
While practicing the 365 ideas in the workbook for student of ACIM, I stumble upon the ‘secret’ of the 11 second rule. I found that if I can keep the mind blank (without any thoughts) for just 11 seconds at a time, I can instantly connect with the One-Minded thought system. The Course refers to this an awakening process.

But, perhaps, the most remarkable part of the mind-conditioning process is that if I can hold the mind blank for 61 seconds (just over a minute) then, I become one with the Oneness of God. Metaphysically speaking, its called the presence of God, or united with God and going home where our true reality (spirit) dwells. I know it’s very heavy stuff.

Please understand that I don’t tell you all this to impress you or to brag. I tell you this because I have experienced it and experienced with it. To get your proof here’s all you need to do.

Try to deliberately monitor your own thoughts for 11 seconds. You’ll notice that the moment you start to observe your own mind, all thoughts in your mind will begin to subside and eventually leave the mind.
This is a monumental key to becoming an awaken person. This is what gives you the proof positive that you are an awareness behind your thinking and not any part of that thinking. Once you get your very first glimpse of the separation of thinking and awareness, you, too, will know that it is absolutely true.
Skepticism in connection with all new ideas, is characteristic of all human beings. But if you follow the instructions outlined, your skepticism will soon be replaced by belief, and this, in turn, will soon become crystallized into absolute faith.

In response to your question about becoming a supporting member of a Foundation or joining a study group is a personal choice. There are certainly hundreds if not thousands of study groups for ACIM that are now being conducted in the United States and in the United Kingdom. There are also mentor program available where you pay a fee.

Speaking for myself, I am mostly the type of person who prefers to study in private. The reason is that the ACIM concepts must be experienced by your self. It’s just like I could not tell you how a mango tastes like no matter how hard I tried, until I let you taste one.

Here’s what the Course teaches:
It’s Holy Spirit’s function to teach you how this Oneness is
experienced, what you must do, where you should go to do it.”
(ACIM- Text (Org. Ed) Chapter 24:10
If anyone is interested in learning more about A Course in Miracles, I would suggest that they contact the following organizations and request their free literature.
(1) Foundation for A Course in Miracles. 41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula, CA 92590
(2) Foundation for Inner Peace. P.O. Box 598, Mill Valley, CA 94942
(3) Community Miracle Center. 2269 market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
(4) Course in Miracle Society, 7602 Pacific Street, Suite 200, Omaha, Nebraska 68114
(5) Miracle Distribution Center, 3947 E. La Palma Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92807
Here are the websites:
(6) www.acim.org
(7) www.facim.org
(8) www.miraclecenter.org
(9) www.theoriginalsinstory.com
(10) www.miracles-course.org

FQ: Lastly, you only briefly make mention that you are the founder of the “International Mind-Conditioning Society, an organization devoted exclusively to the teaching of the working principles of the human mind.” Perhaps you’d like to tell your readers about the spiritual philosophy behind this group and the work you do.

I guess, you left the best question for last. This is the question that is close to my heart. It makes my very happy that you did think of my life-work for which God gave me the opportunity to live this life as a human being.

Nature and spirituality have fallen victim of blind faith in science and technology. We share real stories about real people more than big think pieces about abstract concepts. The International Mind-Conditioning Society is more interested in solutions than problems, we pursue ideas that have a positive twist.

Spiritual masters have pointed out that in the final analysis, there would be a new heavens and the new earth. This society believes that the new heavens refer to a new form of government that is run and controlled by the intelligent optimists living on earth.
The International mind-Conditioning Society is devoted to trying to find like-minded people from other places and other points of view share their prospective and opinion on issues that matter most to them.

There is no more issue that is as important to us as teaching humanity the new AWAKENING PROCESS which is the separation of thinking of the mind and your awareness of that thinking. In other words, you are not your own mind. This is the spiritual philosophy behind this group.

Everyone carries on an internal dialogue called the “self-talk” with themselves at the rate of 150 to 300 words a minute. This works out to an astonishing 45,000 to 51,000 thoughts a day and 1.5 millions thoughts a month.

In fact research and study show that an average person cannot go more than 11 seconds without some kind of self-talk with himself or herself, unless of course, of course, he or she happens to be an experienced practitioner of the deep meditation, and even then the self-talk usually takes over. Such is the tremendous power of the self-talk.

To our knowledge, there isn’t a person alive on the planet earth that can deliberately quiet the conscious thinking mechanism of the mind at all times. The work we do is devoted exclusively to the teaching of the working principle of the human mind.

I struggled with my mind for 30+ years trying to control its incessant compulsive mind-activity we call thinking. The sad thing is that 80 to 90 percent of mind-activity is usually negative, useless, repetitive, harmful and involuntary.

The human mind is a superb instrument an excellent tool if used rightly, but it can become very destructive if used wrongly. The term “mind-conditioning” is something I coined after I became interested in spirituality and metaphysics due to a failure in a business venture in the Middle-East.
 I read every book on the subject that I could get my hands on (700+ books to be exact).

The subject of the ‘mind-power’ particularly intrigued me. I as fascinated with the working principles of the human mind. In fact, in 1984, it became a part of my doctoral degree thesis at the University of Metaphysics in Los Angeles, California USA.
I devoted countless thousands of hours in studying the working of the mechanism of the human mind. In 2001, I wrote and self-published a book: Working Principles of the Human Mind (available at amazon.com).

The response to this book was over whelming. Not a text filled with pages of theory, but down to earth facts based on my 30+ years of extensive, real-life, practical experience in practicing these ideas as outlined in this book.

Apparently, this is exactly the kind of information people all over the world were seeking. That is when I was intuitively inspired to share this knowledge with the world and thus, the birth of the International Mind-Conditioning Society. 

The goal of the International Mind-Conditioning Society is two fold.
First. To make people aware of the “celestial speed up” prophecy.  At the beginning of the dictation Helen (the scriber of the ACIM) was given an explanation for what was happening. She was told that there was a ‘celestial speed-up’ (pg. 21)
People were in great deal of trouble and some are being asked to contribute their particular abilities toward this celestial speed up. Helen and Bill were only two of many who were contributing their particular abilities toward this plan.

My contribution of my own particular ability is in the form of the book The Original Sin. This book is more of a mind-training program rather than any spiritual philosophy. It teaches the true meaning of the story of Adam and Eve.

It explains that the only ‘lack’ we have in this world is the correction of separation from God. But, mostly, it shares my thoughts on A Course in Miracles and my own journey with it. It talks about the meaning of the three thought systems, and how they effect us.
The funny thing is that the three thought systems to which I refer have been mentioned no fewer than a hundred times through out this book.

They have not been directly named, for it seem to work more successfully when they are merely uncovered and left it sight for those who are ready, and searching for them.

If you are ready to put the three thought systems to use, you will recognize them at least once in every chapter. I wish I might feel privileged to tell you how you will know if you are ready, but that would deprive you of much of the benefit you will receive when you make the discovery in your own way.
As a final word of preparation, before you begin the first chapter, may I offer one brief suggestion which may provide a clue by which you may know if you are ready. It is this:

“We teach what we learn and we learn what we teach.”
In the final analysis, teachers and pupils are virtually the same, not in form certainly but, in content indeed. To the untrained mind, this fact is very difficult to grasp. Once you truly understand this, you become one of God’s teachers.

Speaking for myself, God’s teachers are those who want to demonstrate the three thought systems to themselves first by living them, on a daily basis. They are the ones who have ‘chosen’ the Holy Spirit (Inner Being) as their internal teachers and thus, have made the right-minded choice.

Second. The International mind-Conditioning Society is now actively looking for like-minded people from the United States of America and throughout the free world to share their prospective and opinion that matter most to them.

We need your help! Help us spread the true meaning of the story of Adam and Eve, and the role of the serpent—your adversary the Satan. Your advice, tips, suggestions and resources are needed to make this mission to serve mankind possible.
All those reading audience of this Interview are urged to help us spread the word until it becomes a common household name. If you find yourself drawn to this message, it is a clear sign that you are ready to become one of God’s teachers.

If interested then, please view the video in the website: www.theoriginalsinstory.com. And then, go to www.amazon.com. Enter the word BOOKS in the department section and write the name, Mushtaq H. Jaafri in the search box and hit go.
If you like the book, The Original Sin and want to purchase it, you will receive a free gift worth $20.00 if you send us the receipt copy of the purchase of the book from amazon.com. You will also receive free a beautiful colorful certificate of participation in the International Mind-Conditioning Society to express our appreciation.

Mail your book purchase receipt to receive your free gift ($20.00 value) to:
Mushtaq Jaafri, Dept. Feathered Quill
919 Sonora Ct. San Dimas, CA 91773- 1488
USA
(Limited time offer until supply lasts)
To learn more about The Original Sin: Correcting the Perception of the Separation from God please visit our website and read the review at: Feathered Quill Book Reviews.

No comments:

Post a Comment