Book Two: The Second Treatise Chapter 6 - The Belief: Accomplishment

The Treatises of A Course of Love: Book Two

• A Treatise on The Nature of Unity and Its Recognition: The Second Treatise
  • Chapter 6 - The Belief: Accomplishment

In this episode of A Course of Love with Cheryl Forrest, the book club is looking at Book Two: Chapter 6 - The Belief: Accomplishment. We would love for you to join us in our study of A Course of Love by Mari Perron.

Get your copy of a Course of Love by Mari Perron here: https://amzn.to/3VoF2Lv

You can also get Cheryl's book, Just for Today, here: https://amzn.to/3Xr375R

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Podcast by Porthos Media, Copyright 2025

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:14

Hello and welcome to A Course of Love Study with Cheryl. I'm Cheryl Forrest. First, a big thank you to Marie Perron for writing the book we are currently studying called A Course of Love. You might consider purchasing my book just for today, which we are using as a companion in this study. Books and meditation CDs can be found in the show notes below. A big thanks to all of you who wish to support us through Patreon. The links are below. And look forward to sharing some perks with you in the future. During this podcast, you're going to hear book club folks that are in the room with me, as well as other members on Zoom. As a book club, we've been going for many years, and we've started this podcast so that others who cannot meet with us may share the insights and the love and really the humor of this group. Happy to see you join us in all of it. Most importantly, as you begin this study with us, choose to study and listen from your heart. Remind yourself often, you are precious. Whisper to yourself from your heart through your day, with the deepest of love, I am love, I am loved, I love. So let's begin. So let's start by taking some nice deep breaths and just breathing in warmth and good feeling and letting go of everything else. Let go of everything else. So long, slow inhales and long, slow exhales. And this time, as you're inhaling, feel that you're gathering up all the thoughts and questions and concerns. And on the exhale, you just let it go. And again. On the inhale, gather up all the thoughts and questions and concerns. And on the exhale, let them go. We're going to do a little experiment here. I'd like you to connect your mind to your heart. And as you do that, notice what your state of mind is, what your body is, what your emotions are. Just notice that state. And then let it go. And this time, connect from the heart to the mind. And notice what your state of mind is, how your body is, how your emotions are. And notice the difference. So it always has to be from the heart to the mind. So when we're connecting from the heart to the mind, the heart embraces the mind. And the first thing it does is calm it down. It reassures the mind, which has been spending a great deal of time in fight or flight, a great deal of time in worry, a great deal of time in doubt, a great deal of time and concern. So the heart embraces the mind. And the first thing it does is it calms it down. And when it calms the mind down, the body relaxes. The mind switches off the fight or flight. It opens up access to different chemicals that reassure the body. The body begins to heal. The body begins to repair itself. Without being in that fight or flight, higher centers of the mind open up. And we're very ready to listen to the divine us. At some point, the God within takes over the form. But that can only happen when there's a heart-mind link. Okay, you can open your eyes. It's a great way to begin this little chapter. This is chapter six in the treatise. Chapter six, The Art of Prayer. The thought system of the ego mind is a learned system, and this is why it can be unlearned. I'm going to say that again. The thought system of the ego mind is a learned system, and it is why it can be unlearned. The thought system of the truth of the eternal you is always present as the truth. is always present and can be neither learned nor unlearned. It will thus be revealed to you as soon as the learned thought system ceases to block its realization. How is this revelation to take place? It will begin by learning the art of thought as the act of prayer. Okay, this is a big change for us, okay? Learning the art of thought as the act of prayer. We've spoken already of memory here and have presented the acts of reproducing and recollecting that are involved with memory as acts of creation. Prayer is about reproducing and recollecting a divine memory. And divine memory cannot help but produce a divine outcome. Said in another way, prayer reproduces the truth and allows the truth to exist as it is. Prayer does this because it is the act of consciously choosing union. You may underline, put fluorescent lights, sprinkle fairy dust all over that statement. Okay. It's going to become your mantra till we get back together again. That of choosing union. Choosing union moves you into the real state of all, from the unreal state of the in-between. Only from within a state that is real can anything happen in truth. Thus, prayer must be...

SPEAKER_01: 8:51

The prayer, the act of prayer that he's talking about here, is this our traditional prayer

SPEAKER_02: 9:01

where we're... No, it is not. And he's going to talk about this here in this next paragraph. Okay. Okay. Thus, prayer must be redefined as the act of consciously choosing union. Okay?

UNKNOWN: 9:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 9:20

With this definition, you can see how your life can become a prayer. Again, you can underline that. So our life literally can become a prayer or union with the God that you are and the creator of all that is. And every single individual plant, mineral, worm, okay, that you meet because we're connecting to the God within. So far, so good. This does not negate the fact that a prayer is also a constant dialogue of asking, being answered and responding. This is the shift that we've been working towards here, where you are in constant conversation as the divine you with the creator. So it's a conversation that you're having day to day, moment to moment. This is the aspect of prayer that makes of it an act of creation. Prayer and miracles work hand in hand once both are seen for what they are. Do not forget what union is. Union is the mind and heart being joined in wholeheartedness. It is your union with your divine self. Union with your divine self is union with God. Thus, your concentration must not stray back to old concepts of prayer or of reaching God through the intercession of prayer as if God were separate from you and accessible only through a specific means of communication. You can see, perhaps, how this attitude towards prayer came about as it is. Like much you have learned, close to the truth without being the truth. To use prayer only as a means of reaching out to a God seen as separate is to attempt to use what cannot be used. Such ideas of prayer have had credence because this reaching out does at least recognize that there is something to reach out to. Such ideas of prayer have long been opening doors for those who are ready to walk through them to a real relationship with God and the Divine Self. But this is not the concept of prayer of which we speak, nor one that can reasonably be called a way of life or likened to the art of thought. Prayers such as these emanate from either heart or mind and have not the power of wholehearted. Prayers such as these emanate from a state of fear that is the reality of your separated self. To pray out of fear is not to pray at all, because such prayer chooses not the union that is supreme requisite. to pray out of fear as to ask from an unreal state of lack for what is seen as missing or desired. In contrast, true prayer formed in union is a means of creating, recollecting, or recalling a divine memory and transforming that divine memory into a present moment experience. That's beautiful. Memory is valuable to us now because it relies not on perception. If perception were all that were available to you, each experience would begin and end and have no ability to relate to anything else at all. Without memory, what you learned one day would be gone the next. A person you meet one day, you would not know the next. I think there's a movie about that. Of course there is. Thus, memory allows relationship. Memory allows So what happens when memories of past experiences are revisited under the all-encompassing And in this oneness is peace everlasting. I'm reading this again. It's a great sentence. What happens when this oneness is accomplished is that divine memories arise to replace perception. This is miracle-mindedness. The accomplishment of this state of being is the reason for which you are here. It is your return to your divine self. It heralds the return of heaven through the second coming of Christ, the energy that will bridge the two worlds. Thoughts or questions on this?

SPEAKER_00: 15:06

It's a beautiful chapter. Yes. It's like poetic. Mm-hmm. I just want to sink into it. I feel that I get so much goes in, and it fills it, and then that's just, I want to go back into it, you know, and read it, and just sink into it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:39

Anybody else, any thoughts or questions on it? So for me, the other, yes, beautiful. Definitely, like all the chapters, we have to read it again a few times. But what we're talking about here is the lack of judgment. If I'm dealing with union, if I'm making a decision to come from a place of union with people, places, and things, first, there's the union of heart-mind link, which gives us the wholeheartedness. And then And as I choose to engage through union, I begin to find that oneness that he's speaking about here. So the memories of our life are not separate memories. They are not about making us separate from anyone or not good enough in any way. Those memories, when seen from the God that you are and aligned to the oneness with everyone and everything, allow you to access the reflection of the God that you are or the eternal you. So now you see it from the perception of you as a God as the Christ self or the divine self, looking at it from a whole other perspective that doesn't engage that fight or flight, doesn't engage the ego's fear. It's engaged from a place of wonder and love and amazement and gratitude. Even the kaka can be amazing. Even the kaka can be hopeful when seen from that perspective. Does that make sense to you?

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Yes. And I, I've been doing work on, on the, all these things that come up. Right. And it is so exciting because, um, I just grabbing one thing that I that's passed. That's me. And that's my dad. Terrible. And I don't look at that anymore. I look at him, uh, as he was doing the best he could. They, they, uh, the youngest of six boys, and he was doing the best he could. And so now I take the bits that have made me, because I'm, you know, and I see it very, very differently. He tried really hard, but it was the wrong way. So now I just look at I wonder what happened to him you know that kind of thing so that what I have now is the feeling of the good feeling of it just goes it's not in a in a box anymore and it's just it's just another beautiful thing that I've learned that you've moved through that I've moved through That's nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 18:58

Anybody else?

SPEAKER_01: 19:00

I have a question, Cheryl. Here he talks about the very last sentence, actually. It says that heralds the return of the second coming of Christ. I kind of look at these two books, this one and A Course in Miracles, kind of as the second coming of Christ. It's his way of coming back here and giving us all his wisdom without freaking everybody else out. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02: 19:37

Yep, it makes sense. And it is not, and that has been spoken of in lots of different places, that it's not about a new world teacher. It's about all of humanity becoming Christed, if you would. Stepping forward as the God that they are, the divine being And I see that as a part of humanity growing up. We're growing up. We're taking steps. I mean, it was like over 2000 years ago when he first came and taught about love. We're still trying to get it. Okay. We're refining our perception. And what he's talking about is. Coming from this heart-mind link, we have the capacity when we engage union to not... So think about the difference. If I'm looking for the oneness, where we're connected, what is the same within us? I'm not looking at how you're going to fuck up. I'm not looking at how wrong you are. I'm not looking at trying to keep you wrong so I can be right. When And I'm coming from union and heart-mind link. I'm joyfully looking at how we are one and what's wonderfully unique about you and wonderfully unique about me. Neither is less. And then we create from some distant knowing. And that distant knowing is now present. It's now present in us today, and that knowing is coming from the wisdom of love, which is what we call miracle-mindedness. But the trick with this one that I really like is you get to, without feeling like you're insane and you're hearing voices, you get to actually have ongoing conversations with the God that you are and the Creator. And expect answers. Yes, exactly. Not to be saved, but to expect answers and to understand and let the miracles happen.

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, today during the meditation is the first time I actually... thought about the heart-to-mind and mind-to-heart difference. That was so different in how that felt by going from the heart to the mind. And it was like, ta-da!

SPEAKER_02: 22:26

I get it now. And the healing effect of the heart to the mind is quite profound. Yes. And therefore to the form. Perfect. preparing the body to house completely the divine you. So you become a God-filled being. So there, you're walking on the planet as a second Christ. No pressure. Also, there isn't any place that you're going to end up on a cross, so you're safe. Okay? We're not being asked to sacrifice. We're being asked to love, embrace, to have union, and find the miracles. And more importantly, be it. Yeah. And to give and to receive. Like that's... Yeah. Yeah. So with union, we are one. And play around with this. Let this be a big... Focus for you as well as the underlined lines that we have. Play around with being one with the coffee cup, being one with the dog that you have, the cat that you have, the child that you have, that person, that person, okay? Practice being one from that heart-mind link, not from the mind. The mind-heart link doesn't give you the union, okay? But from that heart-mind link, You can find that depth and oneness. And you don't look for what's wrong or what's different. You look for what's wonderful, what's oneness. And that's where genius comes in. Because in these higher states of being, the mind aligns to the knowledge of the eternal. And that's where genius comes in. All right. We'll see you next time. Yes? The mind. Did you see that last statement? The mind. Okay, so the mind-heart link still keeps us in ego, in separation, in survival. The heart-mind link rewires the mind itself so it can actually align to the truths that are associated with the eternal or the God that we are. And that's where we find the miracles. That's where we can grow up and be heaven, be the doorway to heaven on earth. That's our job. Okay. Yeah. Cheryl.

SPEAKER_00: 24:52

In the previous book, it was talking about union. Yeah. And then he gave us sort of a sentence to say that we choose union. Yeah. Do you remember that quote? Yeah. We're not using that.

SPEAKER_03: 25:08

No.

SPEAKER_00: 25:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 25:08

Yeah, but I'm just saying. He was talking about that already. He was. He knows that we're slow learners. I know. Okay. So this is different from prayer. We're not saying God saved me from. Okay. It's a different ongoing relationship that you're having with the God that you are, who's having a relationship with the Creator and therefore in the divine in all things. So that's the union we're looking at here. Okay, guys, we'll see you next time. Have fun.

SPEAKER_03: 25:44

Love you.