If you have wondered what has happened to the newsletter we must apologize as Pam and I have been on a Miracle safari (A three month sabbatical of sorts) where we retraced our steps of 10 years ago visiting various Miracle centres throughout the US. We wanted to give personal thanks to those members of the Foundation for Inner Peace who were instrumental in shepherding A Course in Miracles® through the early years and to meet prominent teachers of the Course.
Unfortunately North America is such a huge country that it was not possible to see all the teachers we have been in contact with over the years but we were able to visit quite a few. We also were keen to observe what had happened personally to long term students of the Course. Had any 'hit the wall' as seeker Daan Dehn described the hopeless and helpless condition sometimes experienced by long term students who suddenly realized where the Course was heading them (The removal of all sense of personal specialness) Had anyone been able to "learn now, without despair, there is no hope of answer in this world" T-31.1V.4. and still be happy here? Or was it a continuing process of experiencing many dark nights of the soul as we chip away of our blocks that keep us rooted to this world?

Forgiveness was the key and obviously each one of us must find our own answer to these deeply personal questions and we were hoping to find ours as we left for overseas.

The Foundation for Inner Peace.

After a ten-day stay in Hawaii with the Lucketts we flew to San Francisco and by bus to Tiburon, the home of The Foundation for Inner Peace. The president of the Foundation, Judy Skutch-Whitson (pictured with Pam) welcomed us graciously and the next day showed us all over their offices and arranged for us to meet all the Board members at Tiburon. They discussed openly many of the projects in which they are involved and it was easy to see the deep commitment each one of them has to his or her role in the team who publish and maintain the Course in it's pure form as scribed from Jesus to Helen and Bill. Judy told us that there was no overlapping of duties or intrusion into the roles played by the others in the team and it was also clear the respect and love each of them have for the other. Like the rest of us, life does not always run smoothly for the Foundation members and they freely acknowledge mistakes have been made. There is no doubt however about their clear sense of direction and their eagerness to fulfil the covenant they entered into with Jesus.
Judy's original role was to launch the Course into the world and supervise the printing of the books in the mid-seventy's and early eighty's. Since then she has been at the helm of the Foundation's activities looking after copyright issues and supervising the translations into several languages. Ken Wapnick's role, apart from his major teaching assignment in his jointly run Foundation with wife Gloria, has been to work closely with the translators making sure that the content remains unaltered. Translations have been completed in Spanish, Portuguese, German and Hebrew with the latter yet to be printed. Translations in many other languages are in progress with French probably the next one to be completed. (See general letter from the Foundation in this newsletter.)
Bob Skutch is responsible the worldwide distribution of books and tapes. Judy's husband Bill Whitson is busily involved in constant discussions with various authors on copyright issues. Pam and I had noticed the orderly state of the office and Judy later explained that almost everything is now done with the computer and remarked jokingly how clever Jesus was to bring the Course into the world during the computer age when information could be disseminated quickly around the world. Visitors to the Foundation often ask to see the packing and shipping room but are told that orders received at the Foundation are relayed to the printers of the books in Tennessee by computer where they are packed, labeled and dispatched from there. The computer has also greatly simplified the work of the translators and has enabled the production of the electronic version of the Course in MS DOS, Windows and MacIntosh formats. These were produced in Putnam NY through the dedicated work of Ronnie Whitson of Centerlink. She has also been closely working for some time with Ken Wapnick on the Course concordance. It had been an exacting and painstaking operation with constant checking and cross-checking necessary. She told us during our visit to her Putnam office that her work on the long awaited concordance should be completed soon and printing should take place early in 1996.

The Wapnicks and the Foundation for ACIM.

Ken Wapnick the only member of the board not living on the West Coast is also, with his wife Gloria, founders of the teaching organization of the Foundation for Inner Peace known as The Foundation for a Course in Miracles. We spent two weeks at this centre observing the organization and attending both a three-day workshop run by Gloria and Ken and an academy class run by Dr. Rosemarie LoSasso and Dr. Jeffrey Seibert.
Our first impression of the Centre was the remote location in the Catskill Mountains about three hours out of New York by bus. It is set alongside a lake amongst private homes and an access road goes right through the centre. I liked this openness and thought this a nice feature as so many cult-like communities have high walls around their buildings to keep out strangers. The accommodation varied in each building and all were very comfortable. Many were self-contained with private facilities. Plans are in hand for future expansion that will provide an increased sized lecture room, cafeteria and more student accommodation.
Being a former resort there are many activities available. There is a swimming pool in the lake, walking paths, table tennis table and an all weather tennis court but the real emphasis is on the serious study of A Course in Miracles.
Apart from an initial warm greeting from Ken and Gloria, we did not get an opportunity of speaking very much to the staff and I had the feeling that they were not encouraged to engage the guests in long conversations. I reminded myself that they had a job to do and were probably busy preparing for the forthcoming workshop 3 days away. We were left pretty well to our own devices and that suited us, as we appreciated the opportunity of having some quiet time to rest up after our busy activities before then.
On the Friday afternoon the somewhat lonely atmosphere changed dramatically as the whole place burst into life and we greeted and chatted to the arriving guests. 117 people arrived from all over the US and overseas and the place was almost full. The workshop was of a very high standard with Gloria and Ken putting on a very professional presentation. The whole show was superbly researched and delivered and no one should have been disappointed. We did not hear anything we didn't agree with, even although much of it we had heard before. Everybody seemed to appreciate the workshop and enjoy the performance. Gloria, with her considerable teaching experience, was absolutely brilliant, this time doing the lion's share of the talks with Ken by her side, quite contented to take more or less a back seat merely making important comments every now and again. Nothing slipped passed Gloria's guard. Even if there was a mild 'out of line' inference or a statement disguised as a question made by one of the audience, Gloria refused to let it slip be without comment, lest it could be construed as being in line with the teachings.
It seems to me that the Wapnick's main role has always been to maintain the purity of the Course's teaching as they see it and they have never wavered from that responsibility. I do believe that every serious student wanting to learn what the Course is really saying can greatly benefit from the work of these two dedicated teachers to steer them on a straight course during the early years. There should also come a time, when and if a teacher has done his job properly, he or she would no longer be needed, after which the student can and should continue his own learning path.

Application of the Course

The Urban monks

One of the most valuable lessons learned occurred at the beginning and end of our stay in the US revolving around long time students Jack and Layle Luckett now living in Hawaii.
We first met them 10 years ago at a regular Miracle meeting in La Jolla, California, they had been holding meetings in their home for two hours at lunch time, every day, 365 days a year, for six years. After we returned to Australia Jack wrote to me asking if we could stage a 14-day intensive for them in our Newport home. We were happy to oblige and the intensive turned out to be a big success. On a personal level however we had some difficulties as we judged their approach too irreverent, zany and flippant for A Course in Miracles, as we perceived it then. In our six years in the Course up to then we had come across many students who thought it was just another transitory 'new age' teaching not to be taken seriously and we mistakenly put the Lucketts in this category. In retrospect I underestimated their total dedication to be living examples of the Course. They, on the other hand were consistently loving and at our next meeting when they returned to Australia two years later, we felt our relationship was completely healed. We have kept in regular contact since and in 1993 we spent a happy two days in Hawaii together.
On this last trip this July they arranged for us to stay in the same building on the floor above their unit. They gave up their time to escort us around for the whole 10 days we spent in Honolulu and we had the opportunity of closely observe them performing their job as 'urban monks' (Their description of what they do.) They were no longer teaching A Course in Miracles® and barely mentioned it except when we were alone together. Layle explained that after they gave up their intensives around the world and settled permanently in Hawaii, they were free of the need to control people and events any more and could just teach by example to every brother they came in contact with.
The routine was one they have used for many years. Layle would act as an icebreaker and offer everyone they met a colored heart from a roll she always carried about. Jack always by her side would move in offer a warm greeting. I realized that they were totally committed to teach love every second of the day. They never missed an opportunity to talk to every person they came in contact with. It wasn't just a insincere transitory greeting, but they seemed to take a genuine interest in whoever they were talking to, more as if they were greeting a long time friend rather that a stranger they had never met. To us it became infectious. Just being with them was enough for us to see this love around us as well.
On one occasion we were driving out of out hotel parking lot when we a man on the sidewalk called out that we had a flat tire. We stopped to get out the spare and notice the boot of our loan car was full of stored boxes left by another Miracle friend. The car had been out in the weather and the contents were moldy. Needless to say the spare was completely flat. It was midday, extremely hot and humid and starting to rain. Pam's first thought was to go back and get help from Jack Luckett. When she returned with him, I had transferred the boxes inside the car and I was on painfully on my knees on the gravel road apron about to jack up the car and remove the tyre.

An Hawaiian Guardian Angel.

All of a sudden a big delivery van parked in front and a young smiling Hawaiian man came over and offered to help. Within a minute he had the car jacked up and the wheel off and spare back on. Pam said to him "You our guardian angel" and he shyly confessed that his name was Gabriele and his nickname "Gabe" which I noticed he had printed on his shirt. He refused payment and disappeared. Jack told me I had witnessed an example of the "Aloha Spirit". At the suggestion of Gabe Jack went off to a nearby service station in his car and brought back a pressure pack car inflater which did the job. There were many other examples of witnessing love around us during our stay with them and I felt the quote we use on our letterheads "When you want only love: that is all you will see" was being lived out for us each day.
To emphasize this lesson I was learning we had a confirming experience on the latter part of our US journey. We had hired a car in Washington and were driving down Maryland on our way to North Carolina to meet Kellie Love, narrator of the audio version of ACIM (1st edition) when we stopped off for a bite to eat at a Hardies' restaurant. While we were eating our food we noticed a middle aged black couple sitting by the door at the table next to ours. They were constantly laughing as they greeted everyone coming in or going out of the restaurant.
We looked at each other and simultaneously we recognized their 'game'. This was Jack and Layle in black form! Admittedly the black lady didn't use Layle's sticking on a heart routine' but her husband did have on a Hawaiian shirt in a state about as far away from Hawaii as you can get and still be in the US so the similarity was not lost on us. We asked if we could sit at their table and engaged them in conversation that wasn't difficult, as this is what they do. I asked did they do this all the time and they answered "Yes, every day, morning afternoon and evening, we sit here and greet people:" When asked how people reacted they replied that almost everybody responded with a smile. Now and again there were 'grouches' they explained but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm or deter them from their extending their friendly greeting one iota.
I wondered whether at some level they understood about a call for love. We asked another customer leaving the restaurant to take our photo, which he did. Unfortunately the backlighting was too strong and we all ended up with black faces. We thought that itself very interesting as our different images became the same when the light was strong.
What did I learn from our long trip away? I am still processing it all but both Pam and I learned much about ourselves. When my mind was depressed, I saw depressing things around me. When my mind was in a more loving state that was what I witnessed. As far as the Course was concerned I think I learned to honor all of those who dedicated their lives to teaching it and to realize that it can be taught in many, many ways. I also learned that being a Teacher of God has nothing to do with teaching what the Course is saying or how we should study and practice it's teachings. The first page of the introduction to the Manual for Teachers puts it this way: -
From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. 8 It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less.

Bill McDonald