We have so much to be grateful for and so much to thank God for. Gratitude comes naturally to those who are on their way back Home. A Course in Miracles equates gratitude with love, as we can see from Lesson 195. Yet, Jesus points out that the ego feels grateful when it thinks it is better off than someone else, which he describes as pitiful. “How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has cause for thanks while others have less cause? And who could suffer less because he sees another suffer more?”

The problem stems from the ego’s sense of lack—a basic ego characteristic. This results in others being considered to be our rivals instead of our brothers; we feel glad and grateful because we have more than they have because we don’t believe we are living in a world of abundance, where there is enough of everything for everyone. But when we walk the path of love and forgiveness we will learn that, “love makes no comparisons.”

Gratitude is due to God for having created us as His Son and endowing us with His power. We also owe Him gratitude for the fact that we are at Home with Him, even though this is not apparent to us. In Chapter 6 of the Text, page 95, Jesus tells us: “I do not need gratitude, but you need to develop your weakened ability to be grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. He does not need your appreciation, but you do. You cannot love what you do not appreciate, for fear makes appreciation impossible.” Remember that the ego lives in fear of the wrath of God and that is why, if we listen to the ego, we will not be grateful to God or to Jesus.

Lesson 195 states that the reason that we should be grateful to God is that we are one with Him. “We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore one with Him…We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.” Not only do we need to be grateful because of our oneness with God but we also need to be grateful for the fact that we are one with the rest of humanity, and in helping others to awaken to the truth we are, in fact, helping ourselves too: “Then let our brothers lean their tired heads against our shoulders as they rest a while. We offer thanks for them. For if we can direct them to the peace that we would find, the way is opening at last to us.” We can see from the last sentence that our freedom is directly linked to the freedom of others.

Students of A Course in Miracles are also very grateful to Jesus for having sent us this relatively new spiritual teaching which, if we are good students, can save us thousands of years of searching and study. We read in the Manual, “Jesus has led the way. Why would you not be grateful for him? He has asked for love, but only that he might give it to you…In his eyes Christ’s vision shines in perfect constancy. He has remained with you. Would you not learn the lesson of salvation through his learning?”

We should be grateful to Jesus for being such a steadfast teacher. It is because of his dedication to our awakening that he sent us A Course in Miracles—a direct path back Home, provided we can learn the lessons and practise forgiveness. So, the Course is yet another reason to be thankful for.

Thanks are also due to the Holy Spirit Who has remained in our right minds ever since the mind split in two, and Who is there to guide us when we call upon Him. Each time we listen to His guidance and each time we experience a Holy Instant we should feel grateful to Him. By following the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will, eventually, overcome the ego. That is definitely something to be thankful for.

We also owe thanks to all the people who irritate us, make us angry or otherwise upset us in some way, because they are our teachers. They are simply reflecting back to us the contents of our minds and, in doing so, they are showing us that we are still in need of healing. If someone makes me angry it means there is still anger in my mind. If someone acts selfishly towards me, then I still have selfish tendencies. Such people are also giving us the opportunity to practise forgiveness. It is, therefore, important to remember that these people are our teachers, and for that we owe them gratitude (even though this is not the way we would normally react to those who push our buttons.)

In Lesson 195 gratitude is referred to as, “the way of love,” and Jesus tells us that it speeds up our learning. “Our gratitude will pave the way to Him, and shorten our learning time by more than you could ever dream of. Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For gratitude is but an aspect of the Love which is the Source of all creation…” For those who have been on spiritual paths for many years and possibly for many lifetimes, it is heartening to learn that gratitude will, “shorten our learning time.” If we remember that our goal is God, then anything that hastens us on our journey is, indeed, most welcome. We can smile and say, “I thank my Father for His gifts to me,” Lesson 123.

This lesson follows on from the two preceding lessons which deal with the fact that our minds are preoccupied with the past. These lessons explain that when we are thinking about the past we are not really thinking at all. “…No one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts projected outward…The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions…” W13. This is an important point to make because we all think about the past. Whether it is recalling happy moments spent with loved ones or remembering things that upset us, we are thinking about the past and this, Jesus tells us, is equivalent to having a blank mind. “…The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.”

It seems harmless enough to let one’s mind wander back in time to relive a happy occasion but there is a very good reason why we should not do this: “…While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked…” W13. When we catch ourselves daydreaming about a past event we could gently bring our mind back to the present by remembering, “This instant is the only time there is.” Lesson 308

To return to this month’s lesson, Lesson 9, we are told that we cannot understand that we see nothing as it is now. But this is all right because, “In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas…” W15. And undoing our false ideas is one of the goals of A Course in Miracles, which states, on page 16 of the Text, that it is a course in mind training. We need to train our minds to think with the “right portion” in which the Holy Spirit resides, as opposed to the “wrong portion” in which the ego dwells. When we are completely healed and whole our minds will no longer be split, and we will return in our awareness to our oneness with God and all of creation.

The Course tells us that all the things created by the ego are meaningless, even things that actually seem very important to us. We read in Lesson 76, “…You think you must obey the ‘laws’ of medicine, or economics and of health. Protect the body, and you will be saved. These are not laws, but madness. The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself…There are no laws except the laws of God…Your magic has no meaning. What it is meant to save does not exist. Only what it is meant to hide will save you.” W134. So many times the Course points out that the mind is the cause of all our suffering and the body is a neutral thing which is governed by the mind. The word magic in this passage refers to all the man-made devices we have at our disposal to bring about the health and well-being of the body. This, according to ACIM, is meaningless and futile because the only thing that can help the body is the mind, but in order to do so it must tune in to the Holy Spirit.

“…Only one Teacher knows what your reality is. If learning to remove the obstacles to that knowledge is the purpose of the curriculum, you must learn it of Him. The ego does not know what it is trying to teach. It is trying to teach you what you are without knowing what you are. It is expert only in confusion…” T139. And that is why we see nothing as it is now, because we are seeing with our ego minds (lower minds).

It takes humility to acknowledge that we see nothing as it is now; we spend all our lives studying, learning new things, being trained in one skill or another, acquiring qualifications, etc., so it doesn’t come naturally to us to admit that, actually, we know nothing and that our thoughts are meaningless. But this is the first step we have to take in this course in mind training if we want to achieve the ultimate goal, which is the Atonement or recognition that the separation from God never took place.

As one contemplates all that is going on in the world it often seems incomprehensible. One just shakes one’s head as it seems impossible to find solutions to the problems we are confronted with. Some of the things we see on television news bulletins are totally meaningless. One newspaper headline in December 2011 stated, “Woman, 19, found stabbed to death.” Why, one has to ask, would anyone stab a young woman who was simply babysitting her niece and nephew? There is no sensible answer to that question. This is just one illustration of all the insanity we come across in the world of the ego. All we can do is admit that we see nothing as it really is now (Lesson 9) and our meaningless thoughts are showing us a meaningless world (Lesson 11).

All our perceptions are distorted according to the Course. “Your distorted perceptions produce a dense cover over miracle impulses, making it hard for them to reach your own awareness. The confusion of miracle impulses with physical impulses is a major perceptual distortion…All real pleasure comes from doing God’s Will. This is because not doing it is a denial of Self…” T15. Then it is explained that the only true use of the body is to enlarge one’s perception so that real vision (Christ’s vision) can be achieved. The only way to achieve real vision is to turn away from the ego.

“…Even if you could disregard the Holy Spirit entirely, which is impossible, you could still learn nothing from the ego, because the ego knows nothing…The ego has never given you a sensible answer to anything…The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God’s Will. This unnatural lesson cannot be learned, and the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, making you afraid of your will because it is free. The Holy spirit opposes any imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, knowing that the Will of the Son is the Father’s…” T140. Those who are concerned with spiritual growth will want to make sure they don’t oppose God’s Will; that’s why the ego has to be overcome. The best way to do this is to turn to the Holy Spirit Whose teaching, “…takes only one direction and has only one goal. His direction is freedom and His goal is God….” T140.

How do we turn to the Holy Spirit? First, we acknowledge that we see nothing as it is now and then we call upon Him and ask for His guidance. We could do this last thing at night and first thing in the morning. We may, when we are calm, hear His Voice; or we may receive guidance through a dream; or we may have a sudden flash of inspiration or a strong gut feeling; or we may open a spiritual book at random and read a few words of wisdom that are relevant to us.

Lessons 361 to 365 in the Workbook ask us to offer holy instants to the Holy Spirit:

This holy instant would I give to You.

Be You in charge. For I would follow You,

Certain that your direction gives me peace.

It is worth stating this frequently throughout the day, especially when one is feeling troubled or confused. Each time we forgive someone we are experiencing a holy instant. The more holy instants we are able to experience, the more likely we are to completely awaken from the dream. Holy instants are steps along the path of forgiveness and, as such, they are miracles, to use Course terminology. Miracles have the ability to save us time and speed-up our journey Home.

This lesson explains why forgiveness is so important; it brings us peace instead of sorrow, pain and death. If we choose to continue to judge others, which means we choose not to forgive them for any perceived grievances, we are, in effect, binding ourselves to the wheel of life. In other words, we will not be able to awaken from the dream and will continue to go through the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Whether we realise it or not, we make judgments about people and events all the time. We judge when someone says something upsetting; we judge when we watch the television news; we judge when we side with a political party—believing that the party we support is “superior” to others; we judge people who have different religious beliefs from ourselves; we judge people whom we consider to be too fat, too thin, too greedy, too lazy, too ugly and too old. In judging people and events, in taking sides, we build barriers between us and “them”, and these barriers will: “…bind my eyes and make me blind.” Pick up any newspaper and read the headlines; nothing could be more judgmental. In fact, journalists would have very little to write about if they were told to eliminate all judgment and finger-pointing from their writing.

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognise what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning.” T47. Judgment is meaningless because we are all one; thus in judging another we judge ourselves.

Not only is judgment meaningless, it brings with it, “all the sorrows of the world.” One example that springs to mind is war. Wars are waged because one country judges another and feels the need to change that country in some way— so it starts a war. And what can be more sorrowful than war?

In Lesson 311 we read, “Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth. It separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a thing apart. And then it makes of it what you would have it be. It judges what it cannot understand, because it cannot see totality and therefore judges falsely.” No one can see totality; no one can know for certain why a certain person acts in a certain way. “In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. Who is in a position to do this?” M27.

Jesus points out on the same page in the Manual for Teachers that the recognition that judgment is impossible is the aim of the Course’s curriculum. Furthermore, he says there is only one judgment anyone can make: “God’s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist.” If sin does not exist and we are all guiltless, judgment is, indeed, meaningless.

The reason why judgment and love are opposites is simply because if we judge someone it means we cannot forgive him; therefore, we cannot give him the miracle of love. “Forgiveness…merely looks, and waits, and judges not. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive…” W401. If we remember that a miracle is the correction of our false perceptions, and that in order to give the miracle of love to another, we have to be able to forgive him, then we can see that love and forgiveness are definitely the opposite of judgment. “Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The eyes of Christ deliver them to all they look upon in mercy and in love. Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless…Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love…” W473.

It is helpful to remember that in giving up judgment, we are only giving up illusions. We forgive because we are aware there is really nothing to forgive. “Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.” W401.

Speaking to God’s teachers in the Manual for Teachers, Jesus points out: “You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel your just due is not given you, and your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! They are too small and meaningless to occupy your holy mind an instant longer. God’s Judgment waits for you to set you free…” M38. We all feel sad and angry at times. And we may sometimes feel that our efforts are not appreciated. But Jesus is asking us to rise above these petty, insignificant feelings and to remember that God is our only goal, and that forgiveness is the way of reaching that goal.

The following description that Jesus gives of God’s final judgment upon us is encouraging and uplifting:

Holy are you, eternal, free and whole, at peace forever

in the Heart of God. Where is the world, and where is

sorrow now?” M38.

]]> http://allanillusion.com/march-2012-judgement-and-love-are-opposites-from-one-come-all-the-sorrows-of-the-world-but-from-the-other-comes-the-peace-of-god-himself/feed/ 0 http://allanillusion.com/february-2012-i-am-not-the-victim-of-the-world-i-see/ http://allanillusion.com/february-2012-i-am-not-the-victim-of-the-world-i-see/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:37 +0000 cmacneil http://allanillusion.com/?p=152 “Today’s idea is the introduction to your declaration of release. Again, the idea should be applied to both the world you see without and the world you see within…..” ACIM, Workbook page 48, Lesson 31.

A Course in Miracles insists that none of us are victims of what is going on in our lives or in the world. It asks us to take full and total responsibility for everything we experience in our lives because we have projected our thoughts out into the world and onto other people; these thoughts are then reflected back to us in the form of our experiences.

The affirmations on page 448 of the Text spell this out clearly:

I am responsible for what I see.

I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide

upon the goal I would achieve.

And everything that seems to happen to me

I ask for, and receive as I have asked.

It seems difficult to understand how we would choose a deadly disease, a life of drudgery or an unhappy marriage, to give a few examples. Surely, we would prefer to make other choices, such as winning the lottery or having perfect health. But Jesus, in A Course in Miracles, insists that we are not victims. As we read on page 448, “Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you…It is impossible the Son of God be merely driven by events outside of him. It is impossible that happenings that come to him were not his choice. His power of decision is the determiner of every situation in which he seems to find himself by chance or accident. No accident nor chance is possible within the universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing…” No accident nor chance is possible!

It is explained in Chapter 21 that if we listen to the voice of the ego (and, therefore believe that we are guilty due to the separation from God) then we will experience suffering. On the other hand, if we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will be happy.

Ill health is an example of guilt being projected back onto oneself, and so it is a consequence of believing that the separation actually happened, and of listening to the ego in the wrong portion of the mind. Ill health is also an ego ploy to get us to focus on our physical bodies. How difficult it is to forget about our physical form when we have a throbbing headache! Yet, one of the key teachings of ACIM is: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Lesson 211.

It is important to understand the role that guilt plays in our lives. In fact, one could say that it wreaks havoc in our lives, and it is all tied up with our belief in the ego–or rather, with listening to the ego. This is clarified on page 84 of the Text: “The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. How could part of God detach itself without believing it is attacking Him? We spoke before of the authority problem as based on the concept of usurping God’s power. The ego believes that this is what you did because it believes that it is you. If you identify with the ego, you must perceive yourself as guilty…”

So how do we silence the ego in our minds so that we can experience more joyful lives? “…you must learn to think with God. To think with Him is to think like Him. This engenders joy, not guilt, because it is natural…The guiltless mind cannot suffer. Being sane, the mind heals the body because it has been healed. The sane mind cannot conceive of illness because it cannot conceive of attacking anyone or anything….” By believing that it has replaced God, the ego feels guilty and is in fear of the wrath of God; the result of this is self punishment in some form or another. “The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate the punishment of God. Yet even in this it is arrogant. It attributes to God a punishing intent, and then takes this intent as its own prerogative…” T85.

To learn to “think with God” we need help, because we have been thinking “with the ego” for aeons. That is why ACIM tells us we need a teacher—we need to keep calling on God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit for help. A very useful way is to ask for guidance as soon as one wakes up. A lovely prayer that we could use is found in Lesson 232: “Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You…” Another way of calling upon the Holy Spirit is to use this prayer, which David Hoffmeister suggests: “Abide with me, Holy Spirit. Guide me in what to say and do and where to go.” David also says that if we welcome and trust the Holy Spirit, He will respond to this prayer.¹

If we can really accept the idea that we are not victims of our experiences then it is the beginning of our release from the ego because it means we have started to acknowledge that we have a choice between the ego and the Holy Spirit (which, in fact, is the only choice we have.) If we experience someone acting in a selfish way, for instance, jumping the queue in front of us, it means we still have traces of selfishness within ourselves. We, therefore, accept this, instead of thinking badly about the person who jumped the queue, we forgive him and we ask the Holy Spirit for help once again.

Lesson 304 is another lesson which deals with the projection of our minds. On page 451 of the Workbook we read, “…Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.” In other words, by looking upon everything with forgiveness (through the eyes of Christ), we will experience a joyful existence because we will have overcome the guilt in our minds (signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.) Then we will be able to understand and accept Lesson 35: “My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.”

An interesting discussion about projection can be found on page 2 of The Purpose of Psychotherapy. All of us who are still asleep are considered to be “patients” who are in need of healing. “Everyone who needs help, regardless of the form of his distress, is attacking himself, and his peace of mind is suffering in consequence… What he does not realize and needs to learn is that this ‘self,’ which can attack and be attacked as well, is a concept he made up…Psychotherapy, then, must restore to his awareness the ability to make his own decisions. He must become willing to reverse his thinking, and to understand that what he thought projected its effects on him were made by his projections on the world. The world he sees does therefore not exist…” The world we see does not exist; it’s all an illusion. It exists only in our minds.

I am not a victim of the world I see because I created it with my thoughts. If I can be loving and forgiving, I will receive love and forgiveness. It really is that simple but it takes a lot of trust to come to this realisation. It also takes a lot of hard work because every time the ego complains and starts its usual meaningless dialogue in our minds, we have to tell it to be quiet and call upon the Holy Spirit for help.

This month’s lesson is a very powerful one; if we are really able to understand it, it could help us save a lot of time on our spiritual journey. We are told that since guilt (one of the ego’s tools) is in our minds, so, too, is salvation. This is because God placed the Holy Spirit in our minds at the time of the illusory separation, to help us heal ourselves and return to the awareness of being one with God. “…He wants you to be healed, so He has kept the Source of healing where the need for healing lies.”

If we accept today’s lesson it means that, “…nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace. But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb your peace or upset you in any way. Today’s idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong because of what you are…” W119. That last sentence is extremely empowering: because of our oneness with God, we are in charge of the universe.

It may appear that some of the things we do in this world make us feel guilty. But this is just an illusion as all guilt stems from our belief in the separation from God. Similarly, we may turn to a number of outside things (belief systems or people or places) to bring about out salvation but Jesus is telling us in Lesson 70 that both guilt and salvation can be found in our minds. He says that we have surrounded the light in our minds (the Holy Spirit) with clouds of illusion (stemming from the ego) and we need to ask Him to lead us out of these clouds into the light. “…Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this is no idle fantasy.”

Whenever something comes along to disturb our peace of mind, it means that we haven’t forgiven either the person or the situation that caused the disturbance. We certainly don’t feel powerful when something upsets us, but in such a situation we are asked to think again. In an important section in the Text entitled, This Need Not Be, we read, “…When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass…” T63. So, we have an important gauge we can use—our moods. How often do our moods tell us that we are not tuning into the Holy Spirit in our minds but are tuning in, instead, to the ego? Whenever we are not joyous! The remedy is very simple: turn away from the ego and use the tool of forgiveness. We also need to remember how powerful we are because of our connection to God.

“When you are sad, know this need not be. Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise. When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know this need not be…When you feel guilty, remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but you have not…” T63. Notice the distinction between us and the ego. Notice also that in this passage Jesus tells us that we have the ability to “decide otherwise.” We have to teach ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, how to be joyous without the things we thought we needed to make us joyful.

Further on in the same section we are reminded about the power that we have if we choose to listen to the Holy Spirit. “I do not attack your ego. I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit, whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its home. I am your vigilance in this…Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible…” T65.

The connection between forgiveness, healing and salvation is a very close one. In fact, we are healed, according to the Course, by forgiving others, forgiving ourselves and forgiving the world of the ego. And through forgiveness we achieve salvation or Atonement—recognition that the separation from God never took place; we return in our awareness to our oneness with God.

“Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical…That forgiveness is healing needs to be understood, if the teacher of God is to make progress…” M55. The link between forgiveness and salvation is explained further on in the Manual. We receive Atonement by refusing to judge others (which is the same as forgiving them). “Herein does he receive Atonement, for he withdraws his judgement from the Son of God, accepting him as God created him…” M57. This means that whatever an ego appears to have done to us, we need to accept that all of us are still as God created us (spirit) and therefore none of this matters—none of this is really happening. If we can manage to change our mind about the world, we are well on our way to salvation. That’s why Lesson 70 tells us, “My salvation comes from me.” We have to change our perceptions of the world and allow ourselves to be guided by the higher mind (Jesus or Holy Spirit) instead of the lower mind (ego).

How can I apply the above teaching in my everyday life? I start by refusing to judge others and by forgiving them because the Course tells us that all that is happening in this world is unreal and, therefore, what we think someone has done to us, never actually occurred. By consistently being forgiving we heal our minds—we heal the split in our minds and become whole, and this is our salvation. Once we are completely healed we will have accepted the Atonement and will be aware that the separation from God was just an illusion. So, we start off by trusting Jesus’ teachings on the Atonement, then we forgive (as he instructs us to do) and then we will eventually experience the Atonement. Trust plays an important part in all this. But in the Manual we are reminded that Jesus has promised to help us and, therefore, he will not abandon us. “Is he still available for help? What did he say about this? Remember his promises, and ask yourself honestly whether it is likely that he will fail to keep them. Can God fail His Son?…Would the greatest teacher be unavailable to those who follow him?” M58.

With Jesus to lead the way, we try to heal our minds by turning away from the ego whenever possible, and by never holding any grievances towards anyone or any situation. It will help if we remember, “My salvation comes from me. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Within me is the world’s salvation and my own.” W120. The reason the salvation of the world is mentioned here is because whatever we give, we receive. In bringing about our own salvation we contribute to the salvation of the world because all minds are joined. This is explained in Lesson 297, “Forgiveness is the only gift I give.” We give forgiveness because we want to receive forgiveness and because forgiveness is our path to salvation. “…And everything I give I give myself. This is salvation’s simple formula. And I, who would be saved, would make it mine, to be the way I live within a world that needs salvation, and that will be saved as I accept Atonement for myself.” W447.

We need to be saved from time because we are trapped in it. We are not really trapped in it because it is all part of the illusion, but we are trapped in it because we believe in it. And one of the key teachings of ACIM is that it takes only one holy instant to awaken from the dream and release ourselves from the world of form, time and space— all of which were devised by the ego at the time of the apparent separation as a means of “escape” from Heaven.

In Chapter 5 of the Text we read, “…You have elected to be in time rather than eternity, and therefore believe you are in time. Yet your election is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is only in eternity, where God Himself placed you forever.” T86.

Time is the most fascinating, baffling and mind-boggling topic that is dealt with in ACIM. We are all so used to thinking of it in linear terms with the present following on from the past and the future following on from the present, but in reality time is just not like that. The Course teaches us that far from being linear, time is holographic, i.e., every present moment contains all other moments. Thus the past, present and future are all taking place simultaneously, only we choose to focus on one segment of it at any given time.

The reason we are trapped in time is explained very clearly in ACIM: “Each day, and every minute in each day, and every instant that each minute holds, you but relive the single instant when the time of terror took the place of love. And so you die each day to live again, until you cross the gap between the past and present, which is not a gap at all. Such is each life; a seeming interval from birth to death and on to life again, a repetition of an instant gone by long ago that cannot be relived. And all of time is but the mad belief that what is over is still here and now.” T552.

The way to release ourselves from time is to forgive; forgive ourselves for having “created” time and the world of form, and forgive others who are sharing this dream with us. “Forgiveness is the great release from time. It is the key to learning that the past is over….The unforgiven is a voice that calls from out a past forevermore gone by. And everything that points to it as real is but a wish that what is gone could be made real again and seen as here and now, in place of what is really now and here…And do you want that fearful instant kept, when Heaven seemed to disappear and God was feared and made a symbol of your hate?” T551. In other words, the ego clings to the moment of separation because by doing that it is clinging onto its own existence. It therefore wants to relive that moment (the fearful instant) over and over again and so it wants to remain trapped in time. The question is: do we want to remain trapped in time?

ACIM refers to guilty feelings as being, “the preservers of time.” We feel guilty because of the ego’s apparent “creations” and so we project this outwards onto others as well as onto ourselves. If we hold onto guilty feelings we will remain trapped in time because they, “…ensure that the future will be like the past. This is the ego’s continuity. It gives the ego a false sense of security by believing that you cannot escape from it. But you can and must. God offers you the continuity of eternity in exchange.” T86. If we hold onto any grievances or bear a grudge towards someone for something they did to us in the past, we are holding onto time and we are preventing our own awakening.

This is clearly set out in Chapter 13, where we read: “…The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful…’Now’ has no meaning to the ego. The present merely reminds it of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it were the past. The ego cannot tolerate release from the past….It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality…” T246. This is a very important passage which, in effect, is telling us that we must wipe the slate clean each time we meet others; no matter what someone may have done to us in the past, we must overlook that and see him in a new light now. It might help if we remember that he is one with us and probably just as lost in this world of darkness as we are. Calling upon the Holy Spirit in such a situation is very helpful and it works. If we are extending loving thoughts to a perceived “enemy”, he will respond lovingly. “Let peace extend from my mind to yours” (see Lesson 82), is a very useful thought to hold in mind whilst we are in his company.

“The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must escape. They are not real, and have no hold over you unless you bring them with you. They carry the spots of pain in your mind, directing you to attack in the present in retaliation for a past that is no more. And this decision is one of future pain. Unless you learn that past pain is an illusion, you are choosing a future of illusions and losing the many opportunities you could find for release in the present…”T246. If we hold onto any grievances as we go about our daily lives, we will be carrying a lot of emotional pain around with us. But if we release all pain inflicted upon us in the past through forgiveness, we are releasing ourselves from the clutches of the ego and we are waking up from the dream. All we need to do is to remember that this present moment is the only time there is, and it is up to us to decide whether we want to use the present moment to focus on past grievances or to release the past altogether by forgiving and forgetting any grievance.

The ego keeps us trapped in time by making sure a steady stream of memories flits across our minds—both sad and happy memories—and by keeping us hooked on the future by means of planning and anticipating good things to come. But the “holy instant” can help in the release from time. If we offer the miracle of forgiveness to someone who may have hurt us in some way, we are denying that the past has any effect on us and in doing so we are, in fact, making use of the holy instant. “It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future.” T389. The Course teaches us that the miracle of forgiveness is a way of collapsing time. “The miracle minimizes the need for time…the miracle entails a sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception. This introduces an interval from which the giver and receiver both emerge farther along in time than they would otherwise have been. The miracle thus has the unique property of abolishing time to the extent that it renders the interval of time it spans unnecessary….The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years.” T8. That is amazing!

If we continue to listen to the ego we will not have any holy instants. If we choose to hear the inner guidance that comes from the Holy Spirit we will definitely experience holy instants and we will be well rewarded for that. We are told, “…Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.” T303.

Do we really believe that our goals in life are “pointless little goals which offer nothing and do not exist?” Of course we don’t. Most of us share the same goals, which include getting a good education, having a fulfilling career, a happy family life and money in the bank. These goals seem real to us and that’s why it is difficult to remember that our only true goal is God. Yet, if we want to awaken, God really is our only meaningful goal.

But that’s the problem with the world of the ego; the ego convinces us that our goals are valid and worth working towards. The more we focus on our worldly goals, the less likely we are to focus on awakening to God, which is the last thing the ego wants us to do. Remember that the ego has set itself up as a sort of God substitute, and if we listen only to the voice of our egos, we will remain trapped in an unreal world with meaningless goals.

It could be argued that goals such as an education, career, family, etc., are understandable for all of us experiencing life in the earth plane. These goals are fine provided we don’t let them obliterate the much more important goal of awakening from our dream. One will always have preferences in this world. Some people prefer city life; others prefer the peace and calm of the countryside. Many of us choose to have families whilst others prefer not to. Some enjoy having the security that goes with a regular job; others choose instead to travel around the world seeking fun and adventure. So long as these choices are just preferences which leave us time over for our spiritual growth, then all is well. But if we focus all our attention on achieving any goals in the transient, illusory world we find ourselves in, we will have wasted a lifetime.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that we need to accept the gift of Christ’s vision. The reason we don’t yet have Christ’s vision is because we have conflicting goals. Yes, we want to awaken but we also have earth-based goals. In Chapter 12 of the Text, Jesus acknowledges that we have called upon him but he points out that the reason we may not hear him is that we have conflicting goals: “…I have heard your call and I have answered it, but you will not look upon me nor hear the answer that you sought. That is because you do not yet want only that…” T232. In other words, we want to awaken yet we also want certain things in our dream world.

David Hoffmeister, in his wonderful book, Awakening through A Course in Miracles, says pretty much the same thing. A Course student asked him why it was so hard for him to have the atonement, when he had been practising the teachings of ACIM for many years. The reply that David gave him was, “All doings, behaviors and perceptions seemed to spring from a heart that desired God and desired idols….By desiring only God, remembrance of God comes back into Full Awareness. False desires will go for they have no Reality, no Source…” page 89.

If we look back at our lives we will realise that many “false desires” have now vanished, and even the things we still desire are not as important as they once were. So, with time, we will gradually grow to desire only God as we slowly turn away from things that once seemed so important to us. Of course, we still have to live somewhere, eat, clothe ourselves, go to work, look after our families, etc., but we will do all that whilst remembering that our only true goal is God. It may initially appear to be a matter of being in this world but not of it. However, we are not supposed to be in this world at all and so that Biblical phrase is not strictly accurate; we need to awaken from the dream and leave this world altogether. The Course tells us that the world will simply slip away when we have awakened.

If our only true goal is God, we will spend time with Him each day in meditation or prayer; we will practice all our forgiveness lessons and remember to stop ourselves when we find that we are judging others or ourselves. We will follow the instructions of our chosen Path whilst still fulfilling all our responsibilities in the dream world until the dream world is no more.

As we read in Lesson 258, “…Shall we continue to allow God’s grace to shine in unawareness, while the toys and trinkets of the world are sought instead? God is our only goal, our only Love. We have no aim but to remember Him.” W423.

If we remember that we are not at home here on earth, it might make it easier to focus on God as our only goal. We live in homes but they are not our true Home because they will not endure forever—neither will our bodies. ACIM frequently reminds us that we are wandering lost in a world that was not created by God. Thus we read in Lesson 200, “…This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here…”

The following passage from Lesson 205 is a good way to conclude this month’s lesson: “The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home.”

This lesson points out that we are deceived by the things in this world that we perceive with our senses. We use our senses to come to decisions and to pass judgement on others; what we fail to realise is that we can never count on our senses to show us the truth. Jesus questions our faith in our senses and says, “You do not seem to doubt the world you see. You do not really question what is shown you through the body’s eyes. Nor do you ask why you believe it, even though you learned a long while since your senses do deceive…How can you judge? Your judgment rests upon the witness that your senses offer you. Yet witness never falser was than this…?” W278. Witness never falser was than this! Yet we seem compelled to trust the things we see with our eyes and the words we hear with our ears. If the world of form really existed, maybe we could have relied upon our senses. But, as ACIM repeatedly stresses, this world is an illusion.

It is the ego which compels us to rely on our senses and the reason for this is given in paragraph 4 of Lesson 151: “It guides your senses carefully, to prove how weak you are; how helpless and afraid, how apprehensive of just punishment, how black with sin, how wretched in your guilt.” The guilt and fear, of course, stem from the initial separation from God or the fall. Yet that never happened; we only think it did. Speaking of the ego, Jesus says, “…It is itself alone that it condemns. It is within itself it sees the guilt. It is its own despair it sees in you.” W278.

If we rely only on our senses we will feel weak and vulnerable. As we age our eyesight deteriorates, our hearing may become impaired and even our sense of taste may diminish as we grow old. And it is not only our senses that weaken with age; our bones become more fragile; our digestive and respiratory systems become less efficient; and other organs may begin to fail—not a pleasant thought if we identify with our physical bodies, which we all do. But the Course reminds us constantly that we are not our bodies. As we read in Lessons 201 to 220, “I am not a body, I am free. For I am still as God created me.”

If one stops to think about life one could very well come to the conclusion that it is inherently meaningless—even the pleasurable things begin to lose meaning. The longer one lives, the more apparent that becomes. Things that were fun gradually become less so. Then one understands that God did not create our meaningless world, and God becomes the only truly meaningful goal.

Perhaps it is the repetitive nature of life that eventually causes one to become aware of the fact that it is lacking in meaning. In the film The Truman Show it was the repetitive nature of his life that aroused Truman’s suspicion. When he eventually realised that everything all around him was part of a large TV studio he decided to walk away from it all. In the last scene of the film, the director of The Truman Show tried his best to convince Truman to remain in that safe and secure environment but Truman would not listen to him. Similarly, the ego would like us to remain in its grip forever and tries to convince us that we can find security and shelter in this illusory world. But can we? The only true safety and shelter we will ever find will be when we return in our awareness to our Source.

So what is the solution now we have come to realise that we can’t trust our own judgement (which is, in fact, the ego’s judgement) or our senses? There is only one thing we can do—turn to the Holy Spirit. “…Let the Voice for God alone be judge of what is worthy of your own belief…” The Holy Spirit guides us beyond our senses and beyond the ego’s judgement of others, which is based on our senses. The Voice for God is the only voice we can trust. So when our ego judges and condemns others, we can tell it to be quiet and recognise that what it is telling us is false. The Holy Spirit will lead us from illusion to truth, and truth, after all, is the goal of all spiritual seekers.

The ego keeps reinforcing in our split minds the idea of guilt and sin and fear. But the Holy Spirit knows that we are all holy Sons of God, as Lesson 191 tells us. If we listen to Him, He will help us reinterpret all that we see, thus enabling us to recognise that our world is nothing but an illusion or the mental projection of a split mind.

But what if we aren’t actually able to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit? Some people can but many cannot. It is important to realise that He guides us in different ways: maybe through the words of a friend or passerby; or through a page of a book opened at random; or through our dreams when we sleep or through our gut feelings. If we are open to His guidance, He will reach us through ways in which we are able to receive him. So it is very important to follow our intuition and to take our hunches seriously. Our sixth sense is probably the most reliable of all our senses.

It is also important to spend quiet times in meditation because even though we haven’t heard His Voice up to now, one day we may suddenly do so. And even if we don’t, if we remember that, “All things are echoes of the Voice for God,” then we know that He is all around us, even though we can’t actually hear His Voice.

The beauty of awakening to truth is that, in doing so, we help others to do the same because our minds are joined. “Behold your brothers in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of darkness. The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave your asleep. The vision of Christ is given the very instant that it is perceived…” T274.

Lesson 104 informs us that we, as holy Sons of God, are entitled to the joy and peace of God. The problem is that we cannot receive these gifts from God if we substitute our own gifts instead. In other words, we need to focus less on the things we value in the world so that we can receive God’s joy and peace, which belong to us; the things we value are just illusions, whereas joy and peace are not.

Lesson 104 asks us to “…lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goals made of illusions…and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we ask to recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome…”

It is important to recognise that if we place too much value on anything in this world, it will keep us chained to world, which is exactly what we want to avoid if we are serious spiritual seekers. The sages of the Far East have always warned against attachment to things in the world of form, and A Course in Miracles does the same. In Lesson 128 we read, “Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this…Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world holds anything you want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish…”

Another Workbook lesson which ties in nicely with this theme is Lesson 133, “I will not value what is valueless.” Specific criteria are given in this lesson to test if the things we desire have any value. One of the criteria is permanence; if we value something that won’t last forever, then it has no real value. Most of the things we cherish in this world don’t really last very long at all. Another criterion is guilt; if our choices in life make us feel guilty, we can be sure we have been listening to the ego instead of the Holy Spirit. Also, if we value something belonging to another person and we try to take it, this will only bring us loss because we are all one; if we hurt another person, we hurt ourselves.

On page 553 of the Text we are warned that by if we cherish things in the world it means we are denying that the world is unreal and this will only bring us pain. “Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real.” Once again the Course is highlighting the need to accept the fact that this world is an illusion—a mental projection and nothing more. And if there is only one thing we hold onto, it will keep us trapped within the dream. “For no one can make one illusion real, and still escape the rest…Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world…”

The things we value, such as a career, family, wealth, health, fame, success, power, etc., all come to an end in time—sometimes quite abruptly— so it worth remembering that there is a much more lofty goal in life. Lesson 258 reminds us: “Let me remember that my goal is God.” We live our lives just as anyone else, but we never forget our goal, and so we adhere to our spiritual practice regardless of what is going on in our dream world. For students of ACIM, it means constantly extending love and forgiveness to everyone and every circumstance that calls for it. It also means studying the Workbook, Text and Manual not just for a short while but for the rest of our lives. It means calling upon Jesus or the Holy Spirit for guidance whenever the ego rears its head, and for most people that happens quite frequently. Furthermore, it is important to have quiet moments each day when we turn away from the world and try to calm our minds and turn within.

Listening to the Holy Spirit instead of the ego brings with it a huge reward—peace. As we read in Chapter 12 of the Text, “When you have accepted your mission to extend peace you will find peace, for by making it manifest you will see it…” Listening to the ego is unlikely to bring us peace but if we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow the teachings of ACIM, we will extend peace by being loving and forgiving and by refusing to judge others. This is the best way to avoid conflict in life.

Lesson 105, “God’s peace and joy are mine” explains that the more we offer peace and joy to others, the more we receive them ourselves. We are urged to think of any enemies we think we may have and say silently to them, “My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.” And, as we have seen, Lesson 104 shows us that we are entitled to joy and peace, which are God’s eternal gifts to us. Who could ask for more?

We search for ways to achieve freedom in this illusory world. We think that perhaps when we have paid off the mortgage or no longer need to go to work that we will be free. Or we think we can become free if we end a relationship or if we travel around the world with no commitments and no ties. But is this the way to freedom? No matter what we choose to do with our short, little lives, they ultimately come to an end. Can death be called freedom? We are not freer after death than we are whilst alive because death will simply lead to rebirth unless we have become liberated before dying.

The wise try hard to find a path that will lead them Home; there are so many paths and A Course in Miracles is just one of them. It does not suit everybody because it is a very radical teaching. Students of ACIM do not try to attract others to the Course, insisting that others should follow in their footsteps. But they know that the only real function of their physical form is to be a means of communication. So they offer information about these teachings to those who show an interest. This is helpful because ACIM might be their path back Home. Some who hear the teachings will walk away from them or even pour scorn on them. Yet this is all right. It means that A Course in Miracles is not for them and hopefully they will find a more suitable path.

On the other hand, some people who hear about A Course in Miracles become passionate about it. This is because the Course is their path and it will lead them Home. A key teaching of ACIM is that we are lost here on earth in an illusory world created at the time of the separation by the mind that split in two. We are, in fact, trapped here because we really believe we are here; actually, we are still at Home with God but are unaware of it. “You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.” T182.

If we think we can find freedom in this world, we will remain trapped here. Hence the importance of Lesson 321, which reiterates that true freedom can only found by following the Voice for God. “…Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You…” W462.

The first step to take when seeking to extricate ourselves from the world of the ego is to recognise that it is illusory. And it is also important to realise that all the distractions we have created simple serve to keep us focused upon the world of form. “No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected.” T202. Once we are ready to accept that the world of duality is unreal, we are then able to focus on turning towards the Kingdom of God. We will still, of course, have physical needs and preferences, and there is nothing wrong with that provided we don’t lose sight of the goal—which is awakening from our collective dream.

Awakening from the dream is not an unpleasant experience and Jesus tells us in the Course, “There is no need to learn through pain. And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. What gives you happiness you want to learn and not forget…” T446. He goes on to explain the reason why we may not be a “happy learner” is that we are still uncertain about our goal. We are not yet sure that we should ignore the ego and turn from wrong-mindedness to right-mindedness by following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Yet, there is a part of us which vaguely remembers what it was like before the separation from God. “…You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since.”

This paragraph on page 447 of the Text is followed by one of the most beautiful and evocative passages in the whole Course. “Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not. This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well…”

That is a description of what it will be like when we awaken from the dream and return to our pre-separation state. When we are able to remember this vision we will have achieved a miracle. Moreover, our awakening will hasten the awakening of others. “…What is a miracle but this remembering? And who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one awakens it in all. And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone.” T447.

We see the light in others by never judging them and always forgiving them. We have the Holy Spirit at our side to guide us when we need His help. All we have to do is to remember to call upon him. When upset or irritated or sad or lonely just call upon Him and wait quietly for His response. It may not come instantly but if we continue to call upon Him we will eventually hear Him. Lesson 327 assures us of this: “I need but call and You will answer me. I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself…”

The important thing to remember is that salvation will never be found in our world, however much happiness we may find here. The renowned ACIM teacher, Ken Wapnick, on page 52 of his book, From Futility to Happiness, stresses, “It is imperative to see how miserable our existence is, even when it seems to work, which it often seems to do. In the end, however, all worldly experience comes to naught, for everything here comes to an end…” Yet, there is no need to be pessimistic about the inherent meaninglessness of life because, as he explains on page 80, “However, what does give it meaning is seeing that it affords us the opportunity of learning this is a dream from which we can awaken.”

When we have taken the decision to definitely awaken we will understand and agree with these words in Lesson 321: “…Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.”