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.”

This month’s lesson will compare an aspect of the Course’s teachings with Advaita Vedanta, the doctrine of non-duality, which is at the very heart of Hinduism. This doctrine was promulgated by the great spiritual master, Sri Sankara, also known as Shankarcharya (788 AD – 820 AD). Several centuries later his teachings were revived by the great spiritual teacher Sri Ramana Maharshi (1897 – 1950), who translated some of the works of Sri Sankara. Ramana Maharshi emphasised the need for Self-enquiry and Self-knowledge. He said one should ask oneself, “Who am I?” and eventually one will come to the realisation that one is not one’s body or one’s mind as these are unreal. Only the Self is real and everything is the Self. In an essay written in the 1920’s, Ramana Maharshi stated, “Self itself is the world; Self itself is the ‘I’; Self itself is God; all is Siva, the Self.” http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/

In Lesson 62 of A Course in Miracles we read, “…Your goal is to find out who you are, having denied your Identity by attacking creation and its Creator…” Our true identity is the Son of God, who is one with God and every aspect of creation (that is why the word identity is capitalised.) ACIM asks us to recognise or remember that we are all Sons of God and that we have never left our state of oneness with God and with each other because all that we see around us in the world of form is unreal—an illusion. Although the terminology in Advaita Vedanta and A Course in Miracles differs, both these great teachings emphasise the need for self-enquiry, and both are non-dualistic systems of thought. Non-duality means only God or the Absolute is and everything exists within the Absolute.

Lesson 91 asks us to pose the question, “What am I?” As we read on page 157, “Miracles are seen in light. The body’s eyes do not perceive the light. But I am not a body. What am I?” Then we reminded that it is a mistake to believe that we are physical bodies. “If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be corrected…” We are reminded that although we may think we are, among other things, weak, helpless and limited, we are actually strong, all powerful and unlimited.

On page 147 of the Text Jesus tells us, “…The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself. There is no separation of God and His creation…God’s Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness encompasses ours. To join with me is to restore His power to you because we are sharing it…” And in Lesson 183 we are told that if we call upon God’s Name it is the equivalent of calling upon our own name because of our oneness with Him. “God’s Name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own…Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His. Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective…Repeat God’s Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him, creating in His Name…”

The last sentence in the passage above refers to the fact that God endowed us with creative powers—the mind being the creative agent of the spirit. This is explained in Chapter 2 of the Text, which starts off by explaining that God created us by extending Himself, and in doing so he gave us the ability to create as He had done. “In the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same loving Will to create. You have not only been fully created, but have also been created perfect. There is no emptiness in you. Because of your likeness to your Creator you are creative…” But a problem occurred at the time of the separation when the mind split into two, and one part “miscreated” the ego, the human body and the universe through the process of projection. In other words, we used our creative powers inappropriately and the result was “the detour into fear.”

In Lesson 191 Jesus paints a very bleak picture of our “miscreated” world and says that if we believe in duality and deny our oneness with God there will be little hope for us. “…Deny your own Identity, and you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of dust against the legions of your enemies. Deny your own Identity, and look on evil, sin and death, and watch despair snatch from your fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.”

Yet, all it takes is the belief in non-duality to help us rise above the world we created and return us to our rightful, pre-separation place with God in Heaven. In Lesson 191 Jesus says that if we really believe we are the holy Son of God we will no longer be a prisoner of this world. “But let today’s idea find a place among your thoughts and you have risen far above the world, and all the worldly thoughts that hold it prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape you will return and set it free. For he who can accept his true Identity is truly saved. And his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone, in gratitude to Him who pointed out the way to happiness that changed his whole perspective of the world.” Not only do we escape from the world of the ego but, because all our minds are joined, we give the gift of freedom to others too.

It is interesting to note that although the Course talks about us being prisoners in the world it also stresses that this hasn’t really happened because the separation never actually occurred; we only believe that it did. So, strictly speaking, we are not in bondage here on earth and are already liberated. However, because we believe that we are in bondage, we need help to awaken to our true nature or our true Identity. Similarly, Ramana Maharshi also taught that both bondage and liberation are unreal. In an interesting short story on this website http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/ we learn that Ramana said that through self-enquiry we will eventually discover that the ego is non-existent and that bondage and liberation are false. This makes sense because if it is the ego that is keeping us in bondage, if there is no ego, there can be no bondage.

The last two passages of Lesson 191 in the Course are very moving; they deal with the need that we have to awaken from our dream of life on earth and help others to do the same. “Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness….You are the holy Son of God Himself. Remember this, and all the world is free. Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one.”

Maybe we don’t really believe life is an illusion; it seems so real, tangible and solid. Maybe we also don’t really believe that we are all God’s sons. Perhaps we think that only Jesus had this honour. But if we thoroughly take in the teachings of A Course in Miracles we will realise that we are all God’s sons; this is repeated over and over again. We will also realise that anything and everything in the world of form is an illusion. This, too, is repeated umpteen times in the Course. So, if we accept the fact that we are God’s sons and that all that we see with our eyes is an illusion, then we probably would agree that it doesn’t make much sense to linger too long in a world of dreams.

The first thing to do as Course students in our quest for salvation is to look firmly and squarely at our lives and realise that everything in them is an illusion. As we read in Chapter 11 on page 202: “No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected…. What is healing but their removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them…

Our lives are filled with what the Course refers to as “idols”. These are things we think will bring us happiness but, even if they do, they could keep us from awakening and finding our way back Home, unless we are very vigilant. The ego’s purpose of idols is exactly that—to keep us trapped in the illusion instead of becoming healed and aware that we are still as we were when God created us. “…To see a special person or a thing to add to you to make yourself complete, can only mean that you believe some form is missing. And by finding this, you will achieve completion in a form you like. This is the purpose of an idol; that you will not look beyond it, to the source of the belief that you are incomplete…” T631. If we are honest with ourselves we will acknowledge that we search for the perfect partner, the perfect job or house or car or piece of jewellery to make us feel better about ourselves. But we have no need to find external things to boost our worth because we are all holy sons of God, whole and complete as we were when He created us.

“No one who comes here but must still have some hope, some lingering illusion, or some dream that there is something outside of himself that will bring happiness and peace to him. If everything is in him this cannot be so. And therefore by his coming, he denies the truth about himself, and seeks for something more than everything, as if a part of it were separated off and found where all the rest of it is not…” T617. This last sentence deals with the fact that we feel we are individual beings, separated from each other, which, we are told, we are definitely not. The problem is that if we continue searching for idols within the illusion we will end up trapped. “The lingering illusion will impel him to seek out a thousand idols, and to seek beyond them for a thousand more. And each will fail him, all excepting one; for he will die, and does not understand the idol that he seeks is but his death. Its form appears to be outside himself. Yet does he seek to kill God’s Son within, and prove that he is victor over him. This is the purpose every idol has, for this the role that is assigned to it, and this the role that cannot be fulfilled.” T618. The last two sentences of this passage refer to the ego’s desire to take the place of God and make sure we turn away from our true Self, which resides within us in the “right” portion of our split minds.

It may sound pessimistic but we need to really perceive the ultimate futility of life in order to be encouraged to awaken. Life is futile because it is brief, repetitive in nature and it inevitably ends in death. Ken Wapnick, in his interesting book From Futility to Happiness points out on page 16, “The value of A Course in Miracles lies only in helping us to recognize that there is nothing worthwhile here. Otherwise, we condemn ourselves to a life of futility, struggling against the impossible, somehow believing we can conquer it, never realizing that the world is set up to be impossible; a place there things do not work forever…”

It’s precisely because we fail to recognise that there is nothing worthwhile in this world, that we are not motivated to awaken. “Who would be willing to be turned away from all the roadways of the world, unless he understood their real futility? Is it not needful that he should begin with this, to seek another way instead? For while he sees a choice where there is none, what power of decision can he use?” T654. Recognising that we don’t really have any real choices in this world is very important. It appears that we do have many choices but all the choices we make are within the illusion, i.e., we are simply replacing one illusory thing with another, and this is a pointless thing to do. “There is no choice where every end is sure. Perhaps you would prefer to try them all, before you really learn they are but one. The roads this world can offer seem to be quite large in number, but the time must come when everyone begins to see how like they are to one another….All must reach this point and go beyond it…” T653.

We have a resistance to acknowledging the futility of our lives because firstly, there are many events that do seem meaningful, e.g., marriage, the birth of a child, a successful career, exotic holiday, etc. Secondly, fear is a major obstacle. If our lives are ultimately meaningless and unreal, what is the alternative? The alternative is unknown and the unknown, understandably, arouses fear in us. Yet, Jesus frequently assures that the end of our world is nothing to be feared. “The final judgement on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless. Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ’s sight, it merely slips away to nothingness. There it was born, and there it ends as well. And all the figures in the dream in which the world began go with it. Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away, because the Son of God is limitless.” W455. That’s not so scary; the world and our bodies will merely fade away upon completion of all our forgiveness lessons.

One could become despondent if one focuses on the futility of life on earth. But ACIM offers us hope and promises a much better future, “This is God’s Final Judgement: ‘You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am your Father and you are My Son.’” W455. Knowing that, illusions can no longer be satisfying. And those who have discovered that it’s all an illusion should rejoice because they have taken the first step Home. Whilst we make our way back home there is no harm in enjoying what this illusory world has to offer, but it is important to remember to practice the teachings of the Course and to remember that our ultimate goal is to awaken.

Spiritual seekers all have the same goal even though they may choose different paths to achieve that goal. The goal can be summed up in one word: liberation. The word use more often in the Course is salvation. In theory it is quite simple as it involves becoming aware of the illusory nature of the world and returning, in our awareness, to our only true nature—spirit. However, in practice it requires a lot of hard work because we have been living in the clutches of the ego for lifetime after lifetime. Undoing the ego is, therefore, quite a slow process but not an impossible one, we are told. The fact that Jesus and other spiritual seekers have gone ahead of us and shown us it is possible is encouraging.

Lesson 99 explains that we need to be saved because all that we see around us is not the will of God; it is the will of the ego, which sought to create an alternative to God. “…when the mind is split there is need of healing.” W407. But, in reality, the ego was not able to create an alternative to God. However, because we believe we are separated from Him and think our illusions are real, we do need salvation. “Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity and peace. You cannot lose the gifts your Father gave. You do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of God. Forgive yourself the one you think you made. Forgiveness and salvation are the same. Forgive what you have made and you are saved.” This passage tells us that we are whole and complete and have not separated from God. We, therefore, need to forgive ourselves for believing in the ego and in the reality of its world so that we return to our original state.

Throughout ACIM salvation and forgiveness are described as being the same thing; this is not surprising since forgiveness is at the core of its teachings. A huge part of the Course deals with the need to forgive others because we have projected all our own inadequacies, fear and guilt onto them. But it is equally important to forgive ourselves, as Lesson 99 teaches us. We are asked to repeat the following: “Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not His Will.” Then we read, “Try to perceive the strength in what you say, for these are words in which your freedom lies. Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you…” If we are unable to forgive ourselves we will continue to carry guilt around with us; the result could well be ill health, grief or depression. So forgiveness of oneself is as important as forgiveness of others.

Although it seems difficult to accept the fact that the world of the ego is nothing but a mental projection or a dream, ACIM frequently reminds us that we can awaken from the dream and achieve salvation because God has not deserted us. He has entrusted us to the Holy Spirit, whose function is to guide us back to Him. “Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well.” W407. Then it is explained that salvation simply involves not believing in our dream world. “Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to support the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust. And what they hid is now revealed; an altar to the holy Name of God, whereon His Word is written, with the gifts of your forgiveness laid before it, and the memory of God not far behind.” This passage implies that forgiveness of ourselves (and others) for the illusions of the ego will lead to our salvation, and restore the memory of God to our healed minds.

In Chapter 31 of the Text we also read about the simplicity of salvation. “How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be. The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects. And that is all. Can this be hard to learn by anyone who wants it to be true? Only unwillingness to learn it could make such an easy lesson difficult. How hard is it to see that what is false can not be true, and what is true can not be false?…” T645. Put like that it makes the utmost sense. And yet, all of us in this world who are struggling, suffering, experiencing pleasure and pain, and taking this world seriously must, at some level, be choosing to do so. It could be because the ego is quite a might enemy, determined to ensure its own existence. Yet all that is needed is a “little willingness.”

All those who have chosen A Course in Miracles as their path back Home must have salvation as their ultimate goal. Yet, Jesus warns us that we need more than just good intentions. “Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came….The miracle of the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be.” T380.

We can express our willingness to learn what the Course is teaching us by studying and practising the Workbook lessons; by reading and re-reading the Text and Manual and by remembering: “Salvation is my only function here. Salvation and forgiveness are the same.”