MIRACLES SOURCE

Weekly Questions and Answers, 12/31/2003

2009-01-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Weekly Questions and Answers, 12/31/2003

This week's questions/topics:

Q #348: Why do I feel spiritually more at home in a particular place?.
Q #349: How does one stop perceiving physical problems?.
Q #350: God, illusion, dreams, the dreamer, and separation.
Q #351: What is the meaning of: "The memory of God comes to a quiet mind"?
Q #352: What should I do if external circumstances are making me depressed and angry?
Q #353: How can I find my "purpose" in life?
Q #354: Is the ego just a long-dead mistaken thought?
Q #355: I study the Course but why do I feel terror, panic and fear?

Chronological List of All Questions.

Q #348: I first discovered A Course in Miracles in San Diego ten years ago, and I believe was initially drawn to California due to what I perceive as an incredible spiritual energy. It's been approximately two years since I moved to a mid-western state, and although I know on an intellectual level that my sense of peace and connectedness to God has nothing to do with where I am, I cannot seem to get over the fact that since moving away from California, I can't find the same sense of spiritual awareness, closeness to God, and peace that I felt while there. Could it be that this so-called "connectedness" that I felt in San Diego was yet another ego tactic that was easy to find in such a vibrant place, or could it be that San Diego truly is where I belong?

A: You are correct in saying that your peace has nothing to do with your location. Where you happen to be living neither gives you peace nor takes it away. Nor is a geographical area imbued with spiritual energy. The only "place" where we get in touch with our true nature as spirit is in the mind. Therefore, if you are not feeling at peace in your new home it cannot be due to your surroundings. It is a reflection of the loss of peace experienced as the result of a decision to leave your real home. The guilt for having "run away" from God is the source of the feelings of sadness and loss you are experiencing.

Needless to say, in this dream of exile it is very normal for us to develop a special relationship with a geographical area that we love, and that suits us. It is our belief that we are incomplete that compels us to endow certain people, places, or things with the power to meet our needs in some way. When they fail us or are no longer "ours," we then experience a deep sense of loss. They become our "idols," taking the place (pardon the pun) of where we truly belong, i.e., at home with God: "You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. Is it your decision to do so?" (T.10.I.2:1,2). When you feel homesick for San Diego, it is important not to deny all that you appreciate and love about it, nor to deny your feelings of loss. At the same time, you may recognize the real source of your pain and ask the Holy Spirit for the correction so that the process of healing the specialness can begin. Only in this way will the sadness and loss gradually dissolve.

Q #349: I am only on Lesson 36 in the workbook of A Course in Miracles, but I want so much to assimilate it all and grow this way.... FAST! Anyway... I am currently unemployed, running out of money very quickly with none coming in, facing mold issues in my rented house, unable to lose weight due to a newly recognized thyroid problem... all physical illusions I want to and am very willing to give up, but... how does one stop "perceiving" these body/physical/survival issues and deal with them?

A: The Course will, perhaps to your disappointment, not tell you what to do to get rid of your problems, but rather it will teach you how to look at them so that you may be as peaceful as you’re willing to be, regardless of what seems to be happening. Now that does not mean that you won’t make any effort or take specific steps to resolve the problems, just as any "normal" human being might. By all means, determine the best way to take care of yourself and your body. But wouldn’t it be preferable to proceed without a sense of urgency, fear or anxiety? Now that will more than likely take time to achieve, and patience is one of the characteristics of an advanced teacher of God (M.4.VIII)! So don’t get discouraged if shifts in your perception do not happen as quickly as you think you’d like them to.

You may wish to have a focus on developing a relationship with your inner teacher -- Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or whatever you’re comfortable with calling that presence -- which the workbook lessons should be helping to facilitate. For developing that relationship in your mind can go a long way towards offering you the comfort of knowing, as you address your life challenges, that there is Someone who genuinely cares for you Who is always available to you so that you know you are never alone.

To get an idea of how questions raising some concerns parallel to the ones you have identified have been addressed, you may wish to review Questions #128, #142, #229, #235, and #313.

Q #350: Since God is only concerned about eternal things (unconditional love, etc.) and did not create, recognize, nor is concerned about anything outside of the eternal -- material, bodies, earth, etc., I would like an answer to the following question: Since we were all God, "One Mind," originally, that means that there could not have been anything else. That would mean that there could not have been a "dreamer to dream any dream" nor could there have been any separation from God (through any autonomous desire to create ourselves) because there was nothing else. God would have had to be the dreamer and, thus, He would have had to separate from Himself. In other words, to say that "anyone" is an illusion could not be true and would have to be an illusion in itself because it could not have happened! After months of struggle this was revealed to me a few days ago. Please let me have your thoughts!

A: I believe you’ve got it! What makes such issues ultimately impossible to address satisfactorily is that we are attempting to make sense of an illusory state from within that illusory state. It’s enough to make you crazy, but we already are, for believing we’re in that illusory state. Only a split mind can have a question, for within perfect Oneness, there can be nothing that is unknown, hidden or forgotten. And "anything outside of the eternal" can only be nothing, although we make much ado about it. To say that an illusion is an illusion is to operate still within the illusion, but it has the advantage of not perpetuating further illusion. That, in a nutshell, is what forgiveness is (C.3.1:3,4).

For further discussion of the ego and its origins, see Questions #10, #88, and #171.

Q #351: Regarding the phrase, "The memory of God comes to a quiet mind," which "mind" is this referencing? If it’s the "brain mind" we use in the daily dream, does this mean that it is helpful to find and use ways to try to quiet the brain, for example, meditation? If the phrase refers to the one Mind, how is it possible to "quiet" that Mind through the interference of our "Brahmanic"?

A: The mind A Course in Miracles refers to here is the right mind, not the brain. This mind is quiet. It is only when the mind chooses to identify with the thought of separation that awareness of the memory of God is blocked and the quiet is replaced by the ego’s "raucous shrieking." The Course tells us that the purpose of the ego’s shrieks is to keep us anchored in its thought system, unaware that we have a mind at all, much less a quiet one.

Meditation may be helpful to keep us focused on our goal, and there are several meditative exercises in the workbook to help us. However, neither meditation in itself nor quieting the brain is the means the Course uses to bring about the mind’s healing of the thought of separation. It is asking us to look at the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that flood into our awareness from the mind through our brains, not to try to silence them: "Our task is but to continue, as fast as possible, the necessary process of looking straight at all the interference and seeing it exactly as it is" (T.15.IX.2:1).

The beliefs we hold about ourselves as separate, sinful and guilty, and our attack thoughts that are projections of our guilt onto others keep the awareness of God’s Love blocked. They have been purposefully chosen in defense of the decision to be separate, and must be recognized as the cause of all the devastating effects we experience in the ego’s nightmare. Looking in this way leads us to question the value we place on our beliefs: "To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make" (T.24.in.2:1,2,3,4). We will eventually learn that our beliefs have no value; only then will we be free to let them go so they can be replaced by the thoughts of the Holy Spirit Who brings healing to our minds. This healed mind is the quiet mind where the memory of God returns to awareness.

Q #352: I have been reading the text and doing the lessons in A Course In Miracles for the last six months. At this point I am deeply unsettled and in a lot of pain. As a veteran of the 12 steps of AA, I am used to looking at my uglier perceptions honestly, but I seem to be feeling a deeper level of rage and hate and it is not pretty. I feel neither the ego’s pleasure nor the peace of the Holy Spirit. I really do feel of two minds and my decision as to which one to follow feels random and confusing. I feel like I have no idea who I am and what I am doing. I am recently unemployed and have no idea what to do for work now. I have no lover or intimate relationship in my life and haven’t for a long time. My friendships are solid and supportive but I am torn between feeling depressed/angry on the one hand and grateful on the other. I have felt genuine gratitude for the events in my life, even though from a cultural perspective, I may appear not to have much going for me at this time. I am now sinking into a depression over externals and am afraid of being stuck there. I could use some advice.

A: The Course assures us that it can be a gentle path (e.g., T.6.V.2:1; T.14.IX.3:2; T.15.XI.1:5,6; T.19.IV.A.11:6; T.21.I.3:1,2). However, our egos, frightened of the prospect of losing control and being dissolved in love, seem determined to allow the process to be anything but gentle. For the ego thrives on gravity and seriousness and would never want us to take its antics lightly. Know that you are not alone in the struggle you are experiencing.

You speak of feeling that you are of two minds, with your choice between them as random and confusing. One helpful step in your process may be to understand what the Course is calling us to do when it asks us to choose between those two minds -- the ego and the Holy Spirit. For most of us, for much of the time, and certainly especially when we are first embarking on this journey, choosing the Holy Spirit will mean very simply learning to look at our ego and all its ugliness without judging it. We are not being asked to deny it, for we still believe it’s real. But if we can look at the ego very honestly, without judging it, it will begin to lose some of its seeming power. Rather than overwhelming, it will begin to appear merely pathetic, even silly. And we will begin increasingly to recognize that our ego does not really make us all that different from everyone else. We all share its insanity and if we feel ashamed of it, it can only be because we are denying that commonality with all our brothers and sisters.

Now obviously, this looking is not something we can do on our own, as you are experiencing. For when we look on our own, which really means looking with our ego -- the ego, by definition, is what it means to be on our own -- the result can only be pain and despair. They are the ego’s defense against our decision to become willing to lighten up with the help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Jesus has asked us to join with him in the process of looking at our egos (e.g., T.11.V.1) because without that gentle presence alongside us, we can only deceive ourselves into believing the horror of what we see in ourselves. Yet Jesus simply smiles at all of it, and perhaps that is why we hesitate turning to him, for we may not be ready to have our egos, while we remain so intimately identified with them, dismissed so lightly.

It is also good to remember that there is no need to force the process, no need to insist on looking more deeply when our fear is too great, for then we only succeed in frightening ourselves, another of the ego’s goals to keep itself alive and kicking. In Jesus’ own gentle, undemanding words, "If you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready. Do not fight yourself" (T.30.I.1:6,7).

Depression is yet one more weapon in the ego’s arsenal of defenses against the truth about Who we really are. The Course attributes depression to the fact that we are trying to learn an impossible curriculum -- finding happiness on the ego’s terms (T.8.VII.8). Yet while we are caught in its downward spiral, it may be that seeking support from others, such as a gentle, accepting therapist, can provide the helping hand we need to pull ourselves out of the quicksand of ego judgments. If you find yourself sinking in your interpretations of your life situation, by all means please consider looking for someone who can help you find a different way of dealing with your circumstances. Again, what is important is to recognize that you are not alone. It can only be your ego that wants you to believe that you are alone and trapped, and the ego is capable only of lies.

You may find some additional thoughts that could be of help to you in your situation in Questions #95 and #313.

Q #353: Please explain to me how I can recognize "my purpose" in life. I don't get an intuitive feeling that I have found it, nor do I know what clues to look for. I have been told several times that once it is revealed to me, my whole life will just fall into place! I would appreciate your input.

A: From the point of view of A Course in Miracles, your purpose is to practice forgiveness in every area of your life, so that you would awaken from the dream that you have a life and a will separate from God, your Source. The Course is not about success or fulfillment in the world, because it teaches us that the world was made to hide our true purpose and therefore to prevent us from ever experiencing the happiness that is our inheritance as God’s Son. On the other hand, the Course is not against pursuing a career or being successful in a role in the world. For example, it is especially important for young people just out of school to devote themselves to their work and relationships. It is not usually helpful for young people starting out in life to be confronted with the idea that the world is a defense against the truth. That should come later when a deeper level of questioning comes naturally from within themselves.

The Course’s view actually is quite liberating in the sense that you can fulfill your special function of forgiveness in any role, in any career, at any time, and in any place, because it has to do only with the content in your mind, not the form your life takes (T.25.VI). You thus can view your life as a classroom that presents one opportunity after another to recognize whether you have chosen the ego or Jesus as your teacher, and then to make another choice if you discover you have chosen the ego. You would know which one you have chosen by your experience. With Jesus or the Holy Spirit guiding you, you would see your interests as less and less in conflict with others, which means that you would realize that you share the same wrong mind and the same right mind with everyone else. You would be more inclined to relate to yourself and others in the context of sharing the same needs and dynamics of the ego and the same attraction to undoing separation. Growing into this way of relating to others is your function. The lessons in the workbook, combined with study of the text, are designed to facilitate this training.

Q #354: It is my understanding that the ego is nothing more than an erroneous thought system, and is in actuality dead. I see it as a cast aside useless balloon that we choose to pick up, infuse it with the life of our magnificent minds and give it instructions to play havoc with our lives, bodies, relationships and circumstances. Is my assessment of the ego, and our total responsibility for its employment in our affairs correct and in keeping with the teachings of A Course in Miracles?

A: Yes, your assessment is very much in keeping with the Course’s teachings. It is very simple, not complicated at all. As Kenneth once said: we keep betting on a horse that dropped dead at the starting gate. The problem is that we have constructed many layers of defenses to prevent ourselves from ever getting to this point of clarity, and especially of remembering that there is an alternative for us to choose. A major thrust of the Course, therefore, is to help us identify the nature of those defenses and how they operate in our lives. The purpose of our choosing the ego thought system is also a key consideration; and that purpose, of course, is so that we can have our own special lives, apart from perfect oneness. "By definition, an illusion is an attempt to make something real that is regarded as of major importance, but is recognized as being untrue. The mind therefore seeks to make it true out of its intensity of desire to have it for itself. Illusions are travesties of creation; attempts to bring truth to lies. Finding truth unacceptable, the mind revolts against truth and gives itself an illusion of victory" (M.8.2:3,4,5,6).

Knowing intellectually that it is erroneous and totally illusory is a major step; but the integration of that understanding into our experience is where the hard work comes in, because integral to this thought system that we have allowed to program our thinking and behavior is the terrifying threat of annihilation if we change our minds about its validity and then choose a different thought system. That is why we need to develop a relationship with an internal Teacher who stands outside that entire thought system and who sees us as we truly are. That is why there is A Course in Miracles.

Q #355: I have been a devoted student of A Course in Miracles (as well as Ken Wapnick) for the past 10 years; I truly try to live my life by its principles. For the past 4-5 years I have been living in what I can only describe as "mental hell". My mind is constantly filled with terror, a fear of impending doom and extreme anxiety. Since my external world is relatively problem-free, I do not even have anything onto which to project this terror. How do I deal with living in this "circle of fear"?

A: The terror, when it has us in its grip, can seem almost palpable. And it is in the ego’s complete self-interest to convince us that the terror is inescapable, no matter what we may know intellectually about its origins and the process of release. Not to underestimate or minimize the intensity of what has been your experience for the past four or five years, but the ego would prefer nothing more than to have you believe that terror has been your only experience. In other words, the ego is invested in the denial of any right-minded experiences you may have been having during this seemingly bleak period. Discouragement and despair are just as effective weapons in the ego’s arsenal as anger and hate, for they are all simply various forms of the same underlying content of guilt, screeching that the separation is real.

While it is certainly true that our responsibility is to uncover and acknowledge the darkness within our minds so it can be released, that does not mean we should overlook or negate the experiences of light that offer the correction for the darkness, brief as they may at times seem. Do not deny them, for it is in their acknowledgment that the lifeline to peace is reinforced in your awareness. It may at first seem like the most fragile thread, barely to be trusted to bear the weight of your heavy guilt as you try to climb out of your self-imposed quagmire. But as you recognize and accept those fleeting episodes of peace, the thread becomes a string, the string a cord, the cord a rope, and the rope a ladder of forgiveness that you can climb, confidently and sure-footedly, one step at a time, until you reach the top, rising above the "circle of fear," the quicksand of guilt, and the abyss of despair. And never forget the gentle hand that is always outstretched to help you with each step, for this is a climb you need not make on your own, nor can you. And that hand may come in a form you least expect, as a brother who offers you another opportunity to remember the truth about the both of you.

You do not indicate that the anxiety and terror are so disabling that they disrupt your functioning in the world. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the Course that says you should not seek help from outside yourself, in the form of a kind and supportive therapist who can help you uncover any of the symbols of terror that are buried in your mind, still exerting a strong unconscious effect on your recognition that you deserve to be happy and at peace. The journey is not an easy one through the heart of darkness, but your vigilance and perseverance will be paid off increasingly in a light-heartedness that will surprise you. You need only be open to it and it will be yours. Do not forget that although patience may be a characteristic of an advanced teacher of God (M.4.VIII), it nevertheless is a quality we can all begin to acquire now.

Weekly Questions and Answers, 12/03/2003

2008-04-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #323: Why does the Course use the term "Son" of God?.
Q #324: Any peace I see seems to be temporary. Why?
Q #325: Isn't looking at our egos the same as "analyzing the darkness"?
Q #326: Have any Course students achieved the holy instant ?.
Q #327: How can oneness be compatible with individual beings?
Q #328: If everything is illusion, how can the Course exist?
Q #329: Is marriage a special relationship?
Q #330: What are "Iambic Pentameters"?

Q #323: In talking about A Course in Miracles I tell people that we are all children of God. Why is Son of God always used and not the unisex child of God. The term Son of God is not so familiar to the daughters of God, whereas child of God is for us all. If the Course comes from God, why exclude half of the human race?

A: It is important to clarify, first of all, that A Course in Miracles does not come from God. It comes from Jesus who symbolizes the part of the mind of the Sonship that remembers God, and knows our true identity as innocent Sons of God. God does not know about the world or our illusory separation from Him.

For a complete answer to your question regarding the use of masculine language in the Course please see Question #5.

Q #324: I sometimes feel that choosing to see peace, for me, is a kind of denial. I know I can look at a situation and choose to see peace. And often I do, and the tension alleviates and my thought of peace brings a peaceful feeling. But sometimes I am surprised by an onslaught of fear and anger and guilt feelings in an ongoing difficult situation that I thought was close to being healed, and then I feel like I had just been denying those feelings in seeing peace. It seems to me that to heal them I have to be in the feelings for a while, not try to see peace but really feel the fear and be un-peaceful for a while. I feel if I try to see peace the instant I feel anxious, I will just be covering up the fear and will not be clear about just what I am bringing to the light to be healed. I am not at the point where I can really look at the fear and be peaceful at the same time. Is this in keeping with the path of A Course in Miracles?

A: A very honest, thoughtful question. It is true that our egos can fool us at times into believing we have made a choice for peace when all that has really happened is that we have discovered how to get our own way. Nevertheless, you don’t want to dismiss all your moments of peace as fraudulent, simply because they are not yet permanent. As a result of our fear of what genuine peace brings with it -- a disidentification with the self we think we are -- we will vacillate between peace and conflict as our learning proceeds. The fact that the fear in a particular, recurring, difficult situation seems as intense as ever does not invalidate any experience of peace we may have had in a similar situation in the past.

Each thought system -- the ego’s and the Holy Spirit’s -- is total, and whichever one we choose, when we have chosen it, in that moment we are completely identified with it, regardless of our choices in the past, and we may experience the full range of feelings that accompany that choice. It is helpful to remember also that it is never the external situation that causes our loss of peace -- the situation is nothing more than a symbol onto which we choose to project our buried guilt. So the fear is really coming from a perception from within that we are sinful and guilty for attacking God and deserve to be punished. Any external situation can become the screen onto which we project that thought -- some are simply more powerful, forgiveness-resistant symbols!

Now having said all that, it is important to add that, yes, we do need to look honestly at our guilt and fear before we can release them to the light. Choosing peace is not simply a formula to be chanted whenever our guilt and fear come close to the surface in order to push the feelings back down. And the truth is, there remains a part of us that does not want peace so long as we are identified with the ego. Jesus makes this very clear in the opening lines to Lesson 185: "I want the peace of God. To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything" (W.185.1.h,1,2). We learn to want peace by looking at what we have chosen instead and acknowledging the cost. And over time, as we allow ourselves to look honestly at what we have chosen without judging ourselves for that choice, the real alternative will become increasingly desirable.

Q #325: On page 172 of the text of A Course in Miracles (T.9.V.6:3) Jesus states: "Can you find light by analyzing the darkness..." My question is: If we are to look at our egos as a process, isn't that the same thing as finding light by analyzing darkness?

A: The context of that statement is the unhealed healer who sees the darkness as real and not as a defense against the light, an expression of the only "sin" in the Course: making the error real. As Jesus tells us in the "Song of Prayer": "Do not see error. Do not make it real" (S.2.I.3:3,4). In the section in the text to which you refer, Jesus is pointing out the limitations and mistakes of therapists and theologians who attempt to heal others without first having seen their own mistakes and brought them to the healing presence in their right minds. They therefore know nothing of that true corrective process, and as a result they wind up having their egos direct them as they attempt to heal others. If you know that the ego’s darkness (the wrong mind) is simply a defense against the Holy Spirit’s light (the right mind) and that we can choose between these states, then analyzing the darkness can be helpful in identifying the choices we make. We can then reconsider our decisions. But if we are unaware of the light and the decision-making capacity of our minds, then analyzing the darkness would be fruitless, ultimately. There may be some relief from the pain, but there would be no true healing. In that sense, you cannot find light by analyzing the darkness.

Q #326: Do you know of people who in the year of taking A Course in Miracles have achieved the experience of the holy instant?

A: We direct you to Questions #26 and #104, which address this topic. The essence of the experience is recognizing and accepting the love of Jesus as the only reality in your mind. This comes about through choosing against the ego’s way of perceiving, which always emphasizes differences and separation, and instead seeing your interests and needs as the same as everyone else’s. It is a choice made in the mind, and of course can occur at any time. In the manual for teachers, Jesus speaks about different levels of relationships, the first level being "... what seems to be very casual encounters; a ‘chance’ meeting of two apparent strangers in an elevator, a child who is not looking where he is going running into an adult ‘by chance,’ two students ‘happening’ to walk home together.... Perhaps the seeming strangers in the elevator will smile to one another, perhaps the adult will not scold the child for bumping into him; perhaps the students will become friends. Even at the level of the most casual encounter, it is possible for two people to lose sight of separate interests, if only for a moment" (M.3.2:2,5,6). The holy instant is that moment. There are many other expressions of it as well. It may occur at any time during one’s spiritual process, and one need not be a student of the Course in order to have this experience. Many, many students have done so.

Finally, even though there are 365 lessons and the Course is presented as a one-year program, it is important to take note of what Jesus tells us in the very first sentence after the last lesson: "This course is a beginning, not an end" (M.ep.1:1). The training is completed when the holy instant becomes our only experience. We no longer see any value in choosing the ego rather than the love of Jesus in our minds. We go back and forth that way until we have let go entirely of all belief in the reality of separation, and sin, guilt, and fear.

Q #327: I would appreciate some clarification of the concept of oneness and the following excerpt from the text of A Course in Miracles: "God, Who encompasses all being, created beings who have everything individually" (W.4.VII.5:1).

A: Jesus is simply using the words of our symbolic, dualistic thought system to reassure us that releasing our investment and identification with the ego will not result in any real or meaningful loss. The concept of a hologram can be helpful here, for Jesus in essence is saying that the whole is contained in every part. In reality, any experience of oneness must be beyond all concepts we may employ to attempt to describe it. It is simply an experience of total love that knows no limits, no differences, no perception of an other. That it does not encompass individuality in any real sense becomes clear in Jesus’ words later in the Course:

"Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is" (W.pI.169.5).

But Jesus is also aware of our desperate desire to cling to a sense of a separate identity, and so he reassures us, "Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality" (T.16.VI.8:1). In other words, any shift towards releasing the ego is completely our choice. If it were not, we would be a victims of forces beyond our control, a situation totally antithetical to the Course’s gentle teachings on forgiveness.

See Question #17 for a related discussion on releasing our sense of individuality.

Q #328: Two questions dealing with existence:

i I was recently introduced to A Course in Miracles by a friend, but remain confused by statements, i.e., "the entire physical universe is an illusion." If true, then the Course doesn't exist, and if it doesn't exist, then no one could study the Course or be helped by it. But if it does exist, then the Course is incorrect because something in the entire physical universe is not an illusion. Does A Course in Miracles exist?

ii Since God does not know of our existence in our current state, why then does prayer to Him do anything? Further, if the Holy Spirit was created to take care of this challenge, then the existence must have been known.

A: The answer to these questions lies in understanding what the Course teaches regarding reality and illusion. Reality refers to God and the life we share with God as His one Son in Heaven. Only that is real and only that truly exists. The metaphysics of the Course tells us that: "Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh" (T.27.VIII.8:6). The "tiny mad idea" is the thought that the one Son can be separate from God. Choosing this thought results in what we are experiencing as our lives as bodies in the physical universe. The Course tells us it is an illusion, a dream: "You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality"(T.10.I.2:1). This is the Course’s "explanation" for the seeming existence of the physical universe; this is the illusion. Yet, because the Son cannot be separate from the Father, he carries with him into the dream the memory of God in his mind. The thought of separation and the memory of God are the two parts of the split mind of the dreaming Sonship. It is very important to remember that this is all part of the dream. It is therefore not real and does not truly exist. Although we have chosen to identify with our bodies there is a part of our mind that remembers who we truly are. The Course refers to this part of the mind of the Sonship as the right mind. Since we have dissociated ourselves from our minds altogether our right mind is symbolized in the Course by Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are our teachers in the dream and A Course in Miracles is Their curriculum that we may "Learn that even the darkest nightmare that disturbs the mind of God's sleeping Son holds no power over him. He will learn the lesson of awaking" (T.13.XI.9:5, 6). So, although A Course in Miracles does not exist in reality and is part of the illusion, its message reflects the memory of our reality and leads us to our awakening from the dream of separation.

The prayers in the Course that address God the Father are beautiful expressions of the content of the part of our minds that remembers God. They are formulated in a way that helps us to remember God, and to learn that in spite of our belief in the separation we have not truly left our Source. You are correct in saying that God does not actually hear these prayers. They are gentle reminders to ourselves in a form that comforts us, because we need to know that God has not forgotten us though we seem to have wandered off and forgotten Him.

Q #329: I'm having a difficult time understanding how marriage isn't considered a special relationship, or that you could truly have a sacred relationship with someone.

A: Most marriages start out as special relationships, but they need not remain on that level. The specialness resides in the purpose or the content, as opposed to the form; and the purpose or content comes from the teacher we have chosen in our minds -- either the ego or Jesus. That is the key. Thus you can be married to one person and spend most of your time with that one person, but if the content behind the form is rooted in the healing love of Jesus in your right mind, then you would be excluding no one from your love, or from your kindness, generosity, caring, etc. This obviously does not mean that you have to include everyone else in the world at your dinner table, or in your bedroom, or at the bank when you cash your paycheck. It is important to remember always that relationships are in the mind, and that we cannot usually discern the content just by observing the form. The relationship is made "sacred" by shifting from the ego’s purpose for the relationship to the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and your partner does not even have to be aware of this. The ego’s purpose is to reinforce separation and specialness, and the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to undo all of that.

Marriage, thus, can be an excellent classroom for learning how to relate without a sense of exclusion or specialness. The form might not change at all, but your motivation and interpretations would. You would still do all the same things, have the same intimacy and the same focus on family, or whatever, but you would ask for help to shift from the ego’s purpose to the Holy Spirit’s. You would then look with the love of Jesus next to you at all of the manipulation, the specialness, the guilt, and the victimization that are a normal part of relationships in the ego’s world. And when you look at all of that without judgment, your mind then would be freed to let the love of Jesus flow through you as the content of all your thoughts; and then these thoughts would direct all of your interactions.

Q #330: Please explain and demonstrate "Iambic Pentameter" as used in A Course in Miracles.

A: Iambic pentameter is a way of positioning the sounds of syllables in a rhythmical pattern, and is the most common of all meters in English poetry.

This poetry form groups five "iams" together for a total of ten syllables per line, putting stress on the second syllable, and every other one after that (i.e., weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG). An "iam" is one of the "weak STRONG" units, and "Penta" means five (as in the Pentagon, which has five sides). It breaks into five "feet," like this: weak STRONG / weak STRONG / weak STRONG / weak STRONG / weak STRONG. A foot is one of the repeating segments that is used to build a line of poetry. In the case of iambic pentameter, one iamb = one foot.

Much of A Course in Miracles is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and this is called blank verse. Examples include the following:

This will / not tempt / me to / de lay / myself.
The world / I see / holds noth / ing that / I want (W.pI.128.8:3,4).

God is / but Love, / and there / fore so / am I (W.pI.rvV.10:8).

In joy / ous wel / come is / my hand / out stretched
to ev / ery broth / er who / would join / with me
in reach / ing past / temp ta / tion, and / who looks
with fixed / de ter / min a / tion toward / the light
that shines / be yond / in per / fect con / stan cy.

Weekly Questions and Answers 12/03/2003

2006-12-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

For a complete answer to your question regarding the use of masculine language in the Course please see Question #5.

Q #326: Do you know of people who in the year of taking A Course in Miracles have achieved the experience of the holy instant?

See Question #17 for a related discussion on releasing our sense of individuality.

Q #328: Two questions dealing with existence:

Q #329: I'm having a difficult time understanding how marriage isn't considered a special relationship, or that you could truly have a sacred relationship with someone.

Q #330: Please explain and demonstrate "Iambic Pentameter" as used in A Course in Miracles.

A: Iambic pentameter is a way of positioning the sounds of syllables in a rhythmical pattern, and is the most common of all meters in English poetry.

Much of A Course in Miracles is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and this is called blank verse. Examples include the following:

This will / not tempt / me to / de lay / myself.
The world / I see / holds noth / ing that / I want (W.pI.128.8:3,4).

God is / but Love, / and there / fore so / am I (W.pI.rvV.10:8).

In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother who would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks with fixed determination toward the light that shines beyond in perfect constancy (T.31.8.11).

In joy / ous wel / come is / my hand / out stretched
to ev / ery broth / er who / would join / with me
in reach / ing past / temp ta / tion, and / who looks
with fixed / de ter / min a / tion toward / the light
that shines / be yond / in per / fect con / stan cy.

Weekly Questions and Answers 11/26/2003

2006-12-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #316: What is the meaning of "Think not you made the world"?.
Q #317: Forgiveness applied to different forms of attack.
Q #318: Jesus does seem to refer to the soul. What does this mean?
Q #319: What is meant by "the hand we hold is our own" ?.
Q #320: Is the idea of a "soul mate" incompatible with the Course?.
Q #321: How could God create something which could, in turn, create?
Q #322: The difficulty of seeing ourselves as cause, instead of effect.

Q #316: Lesson 184 paragraph 8 begins with: "Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes!" I have been studying A Course in Miracles for sometime and was under the understanding that God did not create the world, but we did as the ego. We, the ego, made (miscreated) the world in which to express our separateness. Paragraph 8 seems to say that we did not make the world, but we make the illusions we see that are not like God (the pain, suffering, lack, even love, etc.). What is the Course referring to as the world and what did God create and what did the ego create?

A: God creates only like Himself. Therefore His creations are the extension of His infinite Love and eternal Life. They are in Heaven, which is the state of perfect Oneness, and they have nothing to do with this finite world, nor can they be understood in terms of anything in this world, because this world was generated by the thought that God has been destroyed (an impossibility, of course).

The world we did not make is the real world. The Holy Spirit is the maker of the real world, which is the summation of His teaching us that the world is a classroom in which we learn that all this is an illusion. In the section called "Perception and Choice" in the text, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the "Maker of the world," with a capital M (T.25.III.4,5,8). In those passages, it is unmistakably clear that the "Maker of the world" is the Maker of the real world. And the Holy Spirit is called Maker, not creator, because He makes an illusion. The real world is an illusion, but it is a helpful illusion. Thus when Jesus says, "Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes!" he is not talking about the illusion that forgiveness is. The point he is making is that we would recognize that the shift in perception that allows us to see the world as a classroom does not come from us. The source of that shift is the Holy Spirit.

Q #317: As I read about the SARS virus the other day and how it attacks cells, my thoughts went to the attack in Iraq and then to my personal victim story of attack by neighbors (and my subsequent attack/defense). Will you please comment on forgiveness as it relates to any one of these situations and the relationship between them?

A: You are correct in associating the three different forms of attack you mention. Forgiveness applies to each situation equally, because they are all the same in content. In each case, there are seemingly innocent victims being attacked by outside forces (victimizers), which cause suffering. All the victims may make the ego’s righteous cry their own: "Behold me brother, at your hand I die" (T.27.I.4:6).

Forgiveness, as taught in A Course in Miracles, asks us to become aware of the feelings and judgments that arise when we consider each of these attack scenarios. Our reactions show us the beliefs we hold about ourselves as innocent victims, and our judgments against the victimizers. We are asked first to recognize these beliefs, and then learn to look beyond the external appearances to the real source of suffering, which is a decision in the mind to make the separation real. Forgiveness begins by taking responsibility for this choice and its effects (feeling attacked and victimized), without blaming anyone or anything external to the mind. This is what the Course means by: "…forgive the Son of God for what he did not do" (T.17.III.1:5). Any perceived attack, whatever form it may take, is always a reflection of the prior attack on our identity as God’s Son by choosing separation in the mind. This is true for ourselves, and for anyone else we perceive as suffering at the hands of others. The "others" include military forces, viruses, neighbors, natural disasters, etc. Our responsibility as students of the Course is to acknowledge in ourselves and in others the power of the mind to choose. Once we have done this, we then acknowledge that we all can use this same power of the mind to make another choice. Meanwhile, we do not deny the thoughts, feelings, and judgments about the situation as we perceive it, and bringing them to the Holy Spirit, our minds are free to be guided to act in the most loving way.

Q #318: In C.1.3:2 it says that the term "soul" is only used in direct biblical quotations. Yet I've found that Jesus does use the term several times throughout A Course in Miracles without directly quoting the Bible. "The more ‘religiously’ ego-oriented may believe that the soul existed before, and will continue to exist after a temporary laps into ego life" (T.4.II.9:5).

A: You are right in pointing out that the references to the term "soul" in the Course are not direct quotations. All but one of the references, however, do refer to well known Biblical statements regarding the soul, such as "losing your soul" (T.12.VI.1). In the Clarification of Terms it is used to contrast the Course’s use of the term "spirit." In this section it is not referring to any specific Biblical passage, but reflects traditional religious views of the soul, including Christian belief which is based on the Bible’s teaching. Hopefully, finding these imperfections is not an impediment to learning the message of the Course and practicing its teachings. That would certainly not profit the man or the soul.

Q #319: In "Jesus: the Manifestation of the Holy Spirit" excerpt, on page 6, you state "The goal however is ultimately to realize the hand we hold is our Own." And, later, "Eventually we would realize that when we reach out for help, we are really reaching out to ourselves." Could you please elaborate on these statements?

A: A Course in Miracles teaches that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are symbols which represent the part of our minds which holds the memory of God and reflects His love. When it speaks of taking Jesus’ hand, or asking for help, it is making use of these symbols because we, who have dissociated ourselves from our minds and are mistakenly identified with the body, need them. This is best described when the Course tells us: "You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you recognize" (T.18.VIII.1:7).

Since we believe we are bodies living in a world of form, the Course uses form to make its message personal and relevant to us. It meets us on the level of form because that is where we think we are. It is also more direct, i.e., in passages that clearly describe the nature of the mind and our true identity (See: T.18.VI.8). There is nothing outside the mind, and therefore, no hand to take (neither ours nor Jesus’), and nothing but the mind itself to choose the truth or the ego’s lie of separation.

Both of the statements you mention are based on this level of the Course’s teaching. Key words in the statements are "ultimately" and "eventually." They point to the time when we will have learned that our true identity is the mind. Only then will we realize that the power of choice is ours, and all of our asking has been a reminder to ourselves that we can return to the mind to choose our oneness with God rather than separation. Until then, we need to use any symbol that is helpful to us, such as holding Jesus’ hand and asking the Holy Spirit’s help, to let go of the fear of the power of our minds.

Q #320: What does A Course in Miracles teach about having a Soul Mate? Is this considered a special relationship?

A: Dear Mate: The Course has nothing against having a soul.

Seriously, the Course does not refer to "Soul Mate" specifically, but insofar as the term means that there is one special person who is meant to fill all your needs and whose needs you are meant to fill, yes, it would be considered a special relationship. If the context is needs, completion, and dependency, then the ego is involved. Special love relationships have their roots in the belief in scarcity -- that there is something lacking in us that can be filled only by some special person, upon whom we then depend for our own sense of well-being, happiness, security, etc. Most romantic relationships start out this way, but they can be transformed by exchanging this ego purpose for the Holy Spirit’s, which would be to see that both partners share the same wrong mind and the same right mind, and that their interests are shared, not separate.

On the other hand, there can be an intense attraction to another person because on a deep level there is some recognition that this is the person with whom you are going to work our your forgiveness lessons (M.3.5:2). The attraction is really to the deeper call of the Holy Spirit’s Love, which then would become the center of the relationship. Unlike the ego’s notion of completion, which reinforces separation through dependency, the completion in a relationship centered in forgiveness is simply the manifestation of the wholeness of our true Self, which we no longer choose to split off.

Q #321: How can a being create a being with the ability to create if that original being was itself not created?

A: Creation cannot be understood from our reference point as human beings, because it has nothing to do with the world of separation and individuals, and therefore has no counterpart in that world. It has meaning only within the Godhead, which by its very nature extends itself eternally in creations. Our human conceptual framework was intentionally established as a substitute for the truth of the Kingdom of God and to keep reality forever concealed from our awareness. Therefore our unhealed minds cannot comprehend what we have deliberately sealed off. Jesus speaks to this at the beginning of Lesson 192: "It is your Father’s holy Will that you complete Himself, and that your Self shall be His sacred Son, forever pure as He, of love created and in love preserved, extending love, creating in its name, forever one with God and with your Self. Yet what can such a function mean within a world of envy, hatred and attack? Therefore, you have a function in the world in its own terms. For who can understand a language far beyond his simple grasp?…Creation cannot even be conceived of in the world. It has no meaning here. Forgiveness is the closest it can come to earth" (W.pI.192.1;2:1,2;3:1,2,3).

Jesus describes creation, but only briefly, as he knows that it is virtually meaningless to us in our present condition. A similar glimpse of the nature of creation is presented earlier in the workbook: "True giving is creation. It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything away, securing it forever for itself" (W.pI.105.4:2,3,4,5). These descriptions points us to a reality that has no counterpart in this world. Creation is extension, yet it is completely non-spatial, non-linear, and non-quantitative.

The dilemma you expressed, of course, has been the subject of many a philosophical/theological treatise over the centuries. Interestingly, some medieval thinkers in the Franciscan tradition spoke of the "self-diffusiveness of love." Love is not love unless it is extending itself. And in the Thomistic tradition (St. Thomas Aquinas), the reasoning put forth is that unless there is at least one self-sufficient being, nothing would exist. That self-sufficient being would have to be infinite (without limitation), and therefore can extend its being in any way. We can get only so far with this type of speculation, though, because our limited perspective would always cause us to anthropomorphize whatever we conceive of.

It might be of help to read through the introduction to the clarification of terms, which addresses the terminology in A Course in Miracles and its exclusive concern.

Q #322: One section in Chapter 21 of the text of A Course in Miracles which has particular meaning to me is "The Responsibility for Sight." It illustrates the discomfort that comes from realizing that decisions which appear to be made by me are actually being made on another level, a level I am completely unaware of as the decision-maker. "I" and the decisions "I" appear to make are merely the effects in form of decisions for guilt or innocence made on another level. The statement, "It is as needful that you recognize you made the world you see, as that you recognize that you did not create yourself. They are the same mistake," touches on this issue, and I would appreciate any comments or elaborations on its meaning.

A: In particular, these two sentences are telling us that we need to accept that we, as the split mind, are cause and not effect within the ego thought system, so that we can let go of the world as a defense against our true Identity and recognize that, in reality, within Heaven, we are Effect and not Cause. We see here, as clearly as anywhere, the insanity of the ego thought system. The separation has seemed to come about because we have resented being the created and not the Creator -- Effect and not Cause, Son and not Father.

And so we seek to make a new, separate identity for ourselves on God’s slain corpse -- clearly here we are into a delusional thought system that believes separation from our Source is possible and murder and death are real. Delusions are unstable (T.19.4.A.8:4) and need constant protection in order to be maintained, and so, in cahoots with the ego, we concoct a wild tale of vengeance and defense, and make a world to hide in, as well as a further false identity -- a physical self with its own distinct personality -- to hide behind. We forget completely that we are the mind that has dreamed this insane hallucination and instead believe that we are at its mercy -- effect rather than cause. Hence, the insanity of it all, because we had set out to be our own cause and have convinced ourselves that we have pulled it off. But then we relinquish awareness of that "power" and accept instead a view of ourselves as effects of the world we made, in order to protect our individuality and to cover over the real source of the pain of separation -- our own choice to see ourselves as apart from Love. We see the world as the cause of all of our pain so that we never get to the source in our own mind -- of both the world and the pain -- where we could make a different choice about ourselves and the guilt we believe is so real.

As the statement you cite points out, denying that we are the cause and not the effect of the world is nothing more than a cover over our desire to make a world of our own outside of Heaven and deny our true Identity as God’s creation, Christ -- each is just a different aspect of the same mistake. But, as your question emphasizes, the shift in perspective back to the mind is not easily made, for our identities are well-entrenched in the world and we have sought to see ourselves as mindless effects or victims of that world. And so Jesus leads us out of our self-imposed prison by inviting us to take small, gentle steps along the path of forgiveness, where we learn to see our interests and our goals as shared with all our brothers rather than as separate. Those little steps will gradually undo the fear and the guilt in our minds so that we will be able first to recognize the "power" of our mind to dream of a world that seems powerful and real while we remain in the dream, and then to recognize that, since it is only a dream and we are the dreamer, we have been the cause of nothing real. And so we have remained forever the loving Effects of a Father Who has never changed His Mind about His Love for us.

For more on the decision-making power of the mind, you may wish to look at Question #226.

Weekly Questions and Answers 11/19/2003

2006-11-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #310: How can a psychologist best help a patient?.
Q #311: Does everyone have a role to play in the world?
Q #312: Is it wrong or bad for me to miss or crave a relationship?
Q #313: Help! How do I avoid a recurring disastrous pattern in my life?.
Q #314: My anger and hatred of evil prevents me from forgiving.
Q #315: How can I deal with a poor self-image?

Q #310: I have been a student of A Course in Miracles for over 10 years, and I recently entered a Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. One of the difficulties I have is that I am learning psychological material that is often at odds with the Course. On an intellectual level, I understand and can accept the distinctions. However sometimes I can't, and this causes me some frustration. I worry about how to help another, although I also recognize where the answer lies -- to turn and trust in the Holy Spirit. I even understand that much of what I am learning can be helpful if placed under the direction of the Holy Spirit -- the problem is that I often forget. I guess my question is: if I'm inclined toward a particular psychological orientation and practice, say psychoanalysis or narrative therapy, is it okay to follow my interest, but with the Holy Spirit as guide?

A: It is never the form but only the content that can ever conflict with the Course. In other words, it is the purpose for which you use the particular psychological orientation and practice that determines whether or not it will be at odds with the Course, and not its particular theoretical model of mental illness and health, with its specific applications. Use it for ego purposes, and you will judge and attack the differences it helps you identify between yourself and your clients. Use it for the Holy Spirit’s purpose and you will see it as a means for uncovering the ego’s patterns and plots and schemes and connivings, both in your client and in yourself, so that they can be released to the healing light of forgiveness.

So study whatever therapeutic model appeals to you and become as good at its practice as you possibly can. For training in the symbols of the world enables you to accept a teaching role in the plan for the healing of the Son’s mind (W.pI.184.9:1,2). Just never forget that the only true healing comes from the one Therapist Who knows no healing is necessary. Your role is to become an instrument for that healing by first allowing your own guilt and attack thoughts to be healed. When your own blocks have been removed, the healing love can then simply flow through you (T.9.V.7,8).

Q #311: It is obvious that Helen and Bill had specific, individual purposes in bringing A Course in Miracles to the world, besides the purpose we all share, which is to forgive and to wake up to knowing ourselves as the one Son of God. I can presume, as the Course says, that we all have an individual part to play in God's plan for salvation; but does that also mean a part in the world?

A: Since the Courses teaches that the world is an illusion, made by the mind of the separated Son as an attack on God (W.pI.155.2:1, W.pII.3.2:1), it follows that it would not tell us that God’s plan for salvation means we have a specific role to play in the world as individuals. It is important to remember that the Course is addressing the mind; specifically, the decision making part of the mind, because nothing exists outside of it: "Mind reaches to itself. It is not made up of different parts, which reach each other. It does not go out. Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; you within it and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever" (T.18.VI.8:5,6,7,8,9,10,11). Every reference to our role or function in the world, therefore, must be interpreted with these metaphysical principles in mind. There is only one role assigned to us by God: to be His innocent Son. The Holy Spirit’s function is healing the mind of the thought of separation, and our only function is accepting this healing through forgiveness. Many passages in the Course seem to imply that each individual has a specific and unique role from God: "To each He (the Holy Spirit) gives a special function in salvation he alone can fill; a part for only him" (T.25.VI.4:2), (See also:T.25.VI.7). However, this "part" is to accept the Atonement for himself. It is "special," in other words "specific," because we have chosen to identify with our individual bodies in the illusion, and have assigned different roles to ourselves, and to every body. Although these specifics (being a son, daughter, parent, teacher, nurse, CEO) are irrelevant to the outcome, they are important because they make up the classroom the Holy Spirit uses to teach us the truth about ourselves. Each part of the Sonship, therefore, has to play his part by accepting the Atonement "as an individual" in his specific classroom and, as you mention, by ultimately accepting his only role and identity as God’s Son.

Q #312: I just finished a meditation on why I haven't had an intimate relationship for so long. Most of the reasons that occurred to me were ego-based. The one I didn't think was ego-based was that I'm just too lazy to put in all the effort it takes. I don't know if this is an appropriate question to be asking, but I think about relationships a lot and I don't seem to be able to help it. I know the Course says that special relationships are just a device to keep you away from the truth and I notice that the A Course in Miracles never addresses the issue of sex or sexuality directly, but I must ask for some guidance here. I have these desires and I don't feel like they're being met. It's hard for me to believe that it's wrong to have these feelings. I'm becoming very frustrated with my life and with this Course. Am I misinterpreting something? I think I must be missing something? Can you help?

A: Yes, it does sound like you’re doing some misinterpreting. By the way, you don’t say what the other thoughts were that came to you in your meditation about having an intimate relationship, but the one you mention still sounds ego-based -- like someone’s mother making a judgment! Rest assured, Jesus or the Holy Spirit do not sound like our mothers’ nagging! And the truth is that fear is more likely the reason you’re not experiencing an intimate relationship, whatever answers you think you heard.

It’s true special relationships were made by the ego to distract us from the Holy Spirit’s answer -- the Course refers to them as "the ego’s most boasted gift" (T.16.V.3:1) -- for they hold out the hope that we can find in someone else the special love that God could never give us (T.16.V.4). But once we seem to find ourselves in the world of separation, the Course does not teach that special relationships are to be avoided or given up. On the contrary, they become the necessary classrooms in which we learn our forgiveness lessons. In Jesus’ own words, "I have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them (T.17.IV.2:3).

So while the Course is telling us that our special relationships -- and that would include ones involving sex and physical intimacy -- won’t bring us the joy of Heaven, nowhere in the Course does Jesus say that those feelings are wrong or bad or sinful. And furthermore, through our participation in those relationships, we have the opportunity to heal the guilt in our minds that we have projected on to them. It could be that we feel victimized either by the special relationships we are in or have been in, or by the fact that we are not now in the ones we believe we want. In the end, the different forms are all the same, but along the way, our part is merely to be willing to be open to the relationships that are already a part of our lives. For each one, whether or not it involves physical intimacy, will offer us an opportunity to find the love that has always been ours, just buried and hidden beneath the guilt and sin in our own minds.

You may wish to ask then, not for a specific relationship, but for help in releasing the guilt and the fear that seem to be preventing you from experiencing love. You may be surprised at what opportunities show up in your life when you have that willingness, but don’t make the mistake of deciding and defining in advance what those opportunities should look like. Trust that we always find what we need to practice our forgiveness lessons, as we are ready to take our next steps.

You may find Ken Wapnick’s recent tape on "Form vs Content: Sex and Money" of value in thinking about your issues around relationships. You may also wish to take a look at Question #184 for a related discussion.

Q #313: I have just realized, with somewhat of a shock, that a series of events that happened in my life -- loss of friends, my job, my home -- about five years ago seems to be playing itself out again in the same way, under similar circumstances. Everything seems to be falling apart.

I don’t want to repeat this because what followed five years ago was the bleakest, loneliest, poverty-stricken period of my life. I feel like I'm the victim of some big reality con and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop it and I'm terrified. It seems that my ego is trying to protect itself by massively intensifying its attack in order to stop me from letting it go by creating bad circumstances in my life. Is there anything I can do to stop what is happening? A friend has suggested that the first time this happened, maybe I should have chosen to go in a particular life direction but didn't and so now circumstances are repeating themselves so I can make the right choice this time. Maybe I'm getting carried away over nothing but if things do fall apart again and I can't change them, it would be nice to have some inner peace with what is happening.

A: You do not say whether you are a student of A Course in Miracles, but your hunch as to what your ego may be up to suggests you have more than a passing knowledge of the Course’s principles. The Course itself says that "trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you" (T.31.VIII.3:1). But it is always and only ever talking about the content of our own perceptions of others, and the pain those judgments bring, and not the specific form of events as they seem to play out in our lives. And there is nothing in the Course that says you must repeat the cycle of pain and suffering until you get it right, as if there were some kind of karmic debt to be paid. This may be true within the ego thought system, but the whole purpose of the Course is to expose the insanity of the ego so we can make a choice for sanity against that thought system.

So what is to be done? What we all must learn to do is to make conscious our own inner decision to see ourselves as guilty sinners who deserve to be punished for all of our transgressions, beginning with our supposed attack on our Father Who only extends His Love to us. That we believe down deep that we have attacked love is true, but we need to bring that belief into our awareness so we can question its validity, as well as the suffering and pain we believe it calls for. For there is no inevitability to the events of our lives. And even more to the point, there is no inevitability to the interpretation we give to the events of our lives. In other words, we may feel victimized by what seems to be happening to us in our lives, but that interpretation of victimization is nothing but that -- an interpretation. And if we’re willing to accept our role in giving that interpretation to external events, then we can join with Jesus and allow him to offer a different interpretation in which no one is guilty, including, and especially, ourselves.

So if you can begin to recognize that it is your ego that is fanning your fears about the future, based on a faulty premise about yourself, you can begin to question whether you want to continue to listen to that voice. For that voice never wishes any of us well (T.15.VII.4:3). But there is another Voice, once you dismiss the ego’s, that only ever wills your perfect happiness (W.pI.101).

Q #314: A problem that will not go away, no matter what I do, concerns evil in people in my life: abuse, neglect, selfishness. I want to forgive, but in all honesty I cannot, because inside I am angry and I hate evil. Prayer gives me lots of affirmation of love. I want this love from people. I am also afraid of people. How can I pass through this wall that obstructs my peace?

A: This type of situation is usually difficult to work through. It requires a great deal of patience and gentleness with yourself. Forgiveness, of course, never means that you deny the "objective facts" -- the abuse, neglect, and selfishness. It asks that you bring your anger and your feelings of victimization to the loving, non-judgmental presence within you, and just observe yourself holding others responsible for your lack of peace. If you try to forgive when you really don’t want to, you are fighting yourself and you will wind up feeling more guilty, which is not a kind thing to do to yourself. Holding on to blame and anger is not sinful and has no effect on Jesus’ love for you; it just prevents you from being peaceful and experiencing that love, as you already know. That is all.

When you are in touch with your feelings about evil, you might remember Jesus’ advice to us concerning the original choice to separate ourselves from God: "Call it not sin but madness, for such it was and so it still remains. Invest it not with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality. And above all, be not afraid of it" (T.18.I.6:7,8,9). If you hate evil, you are afraid of it and have forgotten that when love looks on it, it sees only a tiny, mad idea having no power to affect love in any way. That means that the truth about you has been untouched by what you have perceived as evil in others. The part of you that is afraid of that truth continues to see evil as real and powerful, and capable of making you weak.

Finally, a therapist or counselor might help you recover some of your inner strength and work with you on your fear of relationships. You could then look at the deeper issues and apply the principles of A Course in Miracles.

Q #315: I have a problem relating to other people. When I speak with them I feel like a stone and the situation seems to be so unrealistic. I feel embarrassed when people speak to me, or they want anything, or when I believe that I did something wrong. How can I deal with this situation? I perceive that it is my fear of Jesus and a defense against my inner guilt, but I feel so helpless.

A: Yes, your difficulty relating to other people is probably coming from your inner guilt. Guilt results in a poor self-image that makes you feel inferior to others and afraid of them. Just keep working on your lessons and ask for help in releasing your guilt. Be gentle with yourself and be confident that there is a loving, healing presence within you that sees beyond your guilt and fear. Manage your anxiety as best you can. Then, as you feel better about yourself, the anxiety will gradually disappear.

You might also consider getting help from a professional counseling service. They often have effective ways of helping you with your self-esteem and self-image.

Weekly Questions and Answers 11/12/2003

2006-11-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #303: What exactly is "grace" and how does one attain it?
Q #304: What exactly is "the authority problem"?.
Q #305: Still more about "I need do nothing."
Q #306: Why might I be preoccupied with death?
Q #307: What is the explanation of a buzzing or vibrating feeling while meditating?
Q #308: Why does the Course seem to arouse such antagonism in non-believers?.
Q #309: How can we know if we are truly bringing the problem to Jesus?

Q #303: My question is about grace. I'm working on Lesson 168-9 of A Course in Miracles…which says grace is not learned and grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain.…grace is the means to get vision first with knowledge but an instant later…I'm just trying to understand exactly what grace is and how one should try to attain it.

A: In the “Glossary-Index for A Course in Miracles” by Kenneth Wapnick, grace is defined as “our natural state as spirit” and “an aspect of God’s love in this world” (p.46). It may be helpful in reading passages in the Course which use the term grace, such as the Lessons you mention, to remember it is referring to the truth of who we are as spirit, and the reflection of God’s love present in our minds: “Spirit is in a state of grace forever. Your reality is only spirit. Therefore you are in a state of grace forever” (T.1.III.5:4,5,6). Grace is not, therefore, something that needs to be attained, nor can it be taught or learned. It is simply the truth that will be revealed of its own when we no longer believe in our guilty, sinful selves identified with the body. Our goal is to become aware of our true identity as spirit because it is what God created us to be. God’s grace, His gift, is the identity we share with Him. The process of forgiveness, whereby we uncover all the hidden beliefs about ourselves that are in opposition to this truth, is what will lead us to the awareness of this identity and acceptance of His grace.

In other places, however, grace is spoken about somewhat differently. Grace is vision in that it is awareness of our natural state. In the passage you refer to, the Course tells us that the vision of who we are in truth will be followed instantly by knowledge of our Oneness with God, and in that instant awareness of the world disappears. That is our goal, that is grace. It is “an aspect of God’s love in this world” (Glossary, p.46) because our minds hold the memory of God’s love and the memory of our true identity as spirit, God’s innocent Son. Whenever we are willing to choose to identify with this part of our minds, rather than with the ego, we accept the grace that is ours: “Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear” (W.pI.169.2:1).

Q #304: I keep thinking about what A Course in Miracles refers to as the “authority” problem. I understand it to mean that there is a constant struggle within me between what I believe is the “reason” for being here and for my life, and what God “believes” is the reason for my being here and for my life. Unfortunately -- like most concepts the Course teaches -- I have a feeling my understanding is missing the mark. Am I even close?

A: Actually, you are not far off the mark at all. Someone once said: “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats!” Jesus tells us that the problem is much deeper than that: “The authority problem is still the only source of conflict, because the ego was made out of the wish of God’s Son to father Him. The ego, then, is nothing more than a delusional system in which you made your own father” (T.11.in.2:3,4). This obviously is insane, as Jesus himself remarks in the continuation of that passage; yet we continue to allow this conflict to rage in our minds and to project itself out all over the place in many forms, because we believe that to submit to God as our Author and Source would be a sentence of death. Or at the very least, we could not exist as we would like to.

Jesus explains: “The projection of the ego makes it appear as if God’s Will is outside yourself, and therefore not yours. In this interpretation it seems possible for God’s Will and yours to conflict. God, then, may seem to demand of you what you do not want to give, and thus deprive you of what you want.…You are afraid to know God’s Will, because you believe it is not yours. This belief is your whole sickness and your whole fear” (T.11.9:1,2,3; 10:3,4).

So to the extent that you value an individual, autonomous existence, you will unconsciously believe that you usurped God’s power in order to get and keep that existence and that He is coming after you to get it back. This is the one-or-the-other principle at the heart of the ego thought system, and fear is its unfortunate consequence. “To deny His Authorship is to deny yourself the reason for your peace, so that you see yourself only in segments. This strange perception is the authority problem” (T.3.VI.10.6,7).

Q #305: Does “I need do nothing” mean that it's not OK to consciously try to develop new habits to replace the old fear based ones, like avoiding eye contact or speaking softly or giving up too soon, etc....How can I get over these things if I don't do anything about them? Lesson 135 in A Course in Miracles says that planning for things is a defense and should be avoided. However, I feel that if I don't plan or practice ahead of time I won't be able to function: I won't know what to say or do when the moment arises. I am really quite stalled here. Perhaps I am misinterpreting all of this. Can you somehow clear this up for me?

A: When A Course in Miracles says: “I need do nothing except not to interfere” (T.16.I.3:12) it is telling us primarily not to interfere, because that is what we do. It is not telling us to do nothing in the world or with the body. We need do nothing to be who we are (God’s Son), except remove all the beliefs that oppose that truth. That is why the Course describes the ego thought system in all its diverse forms and expressions. Lesson 135 of the workbook is a very good example of this. It exposes the defense system that is set in motion when the mind chooses to identify with the body. In no way does it suggest that any of the defenses or behaviors should be changed or avoided. That is not its goal. The goal of the Course is clearly expressed in the following instruction: “…seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world”(T.21.in.7:1). We can paraphrase this important line replacing “the world” with “the body,” “your behavior,” “your habits,” “your defenses.” This is a Course in mind training, and nothing else. Understanding this distinction is essential to understanding, and more importantly, applying the principles of the Course.

Whenever the Course describes all the things we do as bodies, and the beliefs we hold, it does not tell us not to do them, nor not to believe them. It teaches by showing us the contrast between the effect of the ego belief system (pain) with the effect of the Holy Spirit’s thought system (peace). It tells us that what we do on the level of form neither causes nor resolves the problem of the separation on the level of the mind. Therefore, changing your behavioral habits because it will make you feel better about yourself is just as acceptable as any of the things we do to take care of our bodies, our houses, or our cars. As long as we believe we are bodies living in the world these things must be maintained in working order, and taken care as best we see fit.

Until our minds are healed of all belief in the separation and in our identity as bodies, our only goal must be to uncover all our hidden beliefs so they can be exchanged for the belief system of the Holy Spirit. Then the mind that is free of guilt will use the body, as described in this lesson, without defenses. This does not mean that the body will then be perfect, or not need food, or sleep, or eye glasses. It means the mind will not confuse itself with the body and will not look to it for safety or for anything. In the process of healing, we are not asked not to plan, or to try to live as if our minds were healed while they are still sick. It is always important in reading the Course to remember that it is addressing the decision making part of the mind. We are asked to choose which teacher we will consult in making our plans. The Holy Spirit tells us that as we make our plans we can remember to search our minds for all of the insane beliefs that interfere with our being able to allow His wisdom to lead us to our truth.

Webmaster's note: see also questions #293 #289 #90.

Q #306: I have been studying A Course in Miracles for about 14 years now and lately I keep thinking about dying. It comes to my mind all the time. It's not particularly scary; but why all this preoccupation with death?

A: It is not unusual to have thoughts of death become more frequent as you diligently work with Jesus in undoing your ego. The part of you that is identified with the ego -- and has been for ages -- will experience itself as “dying.” Actually, all that is happening is that you are withdrawing your belief in the ego thought system. “As you approach the Beginning, you feel the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. There is no death, but there is a belief in death” (T.3.VII.5:9,10). A major part of the process involves shifting your sense of who you truly are, so it would be evident that the “you” that is withdrawing the belief and has chosen Jesus as its teacher is not what is “dying.” That decision-making part of your mind is simply choosing to identify no longer with a false identity, but with the reflection of its true Self represented in your right mind by the Atonement principle.

The preoccupation with death should diminish and finally disappear when there is no more fear of letting go of your identity as an individual. Without knowing more about you, though, we do not know whether this is the only source of the thoughts. In general, we would recommend consulting with a professional if these death thoughts persist for an extended period of time.

Q #307: I have been studying A Course in Miracles for over a year now. For the last few months, I have been having this strange and wonderful feeling -- my body starts physically vibrating during my morning and night meditations. I feel like something inside me is about to take off, like an airplane, a kind of inner weightlessness. After my meditation, I feel great and full of energy. But sometime this feeling that I am experiencing makes me think and think again. I wonder if other students are or have experienced the same thing I am. I also wonder if it is okay to feel that way.

A: Although a variety of explanations could be offered to account for your experience with your body, all you need to know is that our own minds translate any experience of abstract love, such as we may experience in meditation, into a form that we can accept, since our ego-identified minds fear the abstract. At times the form may be, as you are experiencing, sensations in your body that you find pleasant, even pleasurable. What will be most helpful to remember as you have such experiences is that you want to be willing to let go of any judgments you may have about them as either good or not good. Or any thoughts to make a big deal out of them. If you enjoy the experience, there is certainly nothing wrong with that. You just don’t want to make an altar to the experience and then seek after that, for, as wonderful as it may seem, it still falls far short of what Jesus is holding out to us in his Course. For it is still only a specific symbol, a temporary form, through which you are allowing yourself to feel his healing comfort and unlimited love.

For a related discussion, see Question #181.

Q #308: I'm not sure how to present this question, because anything I say will most likely be projection and/or an area of my own unrecognized guilt, some unconscious need for drama, to be a victim or martyr, some call for help in me. But please elaborate the Course's position as to why there is hatred and often times cruelty from others when the A Course in Miracles becomes one's path. This has been my path since 1986 and I don't thrust it upon others. If I am asked, I will talk about it. When I ask for help I often don't hear the answer or I'm too upset and caught up in fear.

A: First of all, it will be helpful to distinguish others’ feelings and reactions from your own. For your own reactions are all that you ever really need to be concerned with. Any thought system which so uncompromisingly threatens the ego thought system, as the Course does, will have to be perceived as threatening to anyone who is still identified with the ego. So, as you work with the Course, whether you speak to others of its principles or not, they at some level will have to recognize the difference in you in those moments when you are practicing forgiveness and are identified with your right mind. And if they are threatened by that, then hatred and cruelty -- among a variety of ego reactions -- are “natural” and not unexpected responses to protect their ego identity. As Jesus points out, “frightened people can be vicious” (T.3.I.4:2).

None of this really has anything to do with you or your own lessons in forgiveness, unless you in turn react to their reactions to you. For you are now in your wrong mind and are identifying with the guilt there over separation and attack on God that you believe is real. But this is nothing to feel embarrassed or apologetic about. All of us who still believe we are here in this world in the body have unhealed minds that believe in the reality of our own guilt. And any experience that allows us to get in touch with that guilt -- which will automatically be projected outward onto others if we are not aware of its origin in our own mind -- can be very helpful. So bless your brothers for being the screens for your own projections, for when you react to them with upset and fear, feeling like a victim or a martyr, you are uncovering what your ego has wanted to keep hidden from you, if you are willing to look at it that way. And whenever you remember and are ready, you can look at the no-longer-buried guilt with Jesus or the Holy Spirit, who will remind you that it is all made-up. You may initially be unable to access this help when you are in the middle of the confrontation with someone else, but the only thing that matters is that, at some point in time, you remember you have a different choice about how you can perceive that interaction. And that opens the door to the help that is always available to us.

Q #309: It keeps being emphasized in the answers here that we need to bring our ego thoughts to the love of Jesus in our right minds. How do we know we are doing that? What I mean is that it's not like talking to someone in human form where you can see them and hear them and speak directly with them and know you are doing it.

A: Although we can never be certain in any moment if we have turned our minds away from the ego and joined with Jesus, one of the clearer indications is when we feel a release from the heaviness and strain of the judgments we have been holding onto. For that in the end is all that forgiveness is and, whether or not we are conscious of joining with Jesus, we have when we let go of our thoughts of condemnation and attack. When we are honest with ourselves, we can always be aware of the tension we are holding (in our minds, projected onto our bodies) when we are judging, whether it is the negative judgment of hatred and repulsion or the so-called positive judgment of desire and attraction -- the feeling that someone or something outside of us is what we want and need. Tension in all its myriad manifestations is always a signal of conflict and separation, whether we interpret it as good or bad.

Jesus is not really a separate entity or being like your mother or a best friend, but rather is simply a presence we can experience, whom we can relate to in our minds, at a personal level, while we still believe we are persons. You perhaps have had the experience as you read his words in A Course in Miracles that Jesus is there with you and that he really is speaking to you. Don’t let your ego fool you into believing that is only your imagination. That experience is more real than all the experiences with other bodies that we seek after to stave off our loneliness. Joining and peace occur in the mind, and not between bodies. That is why we can feel very lonely despite being surrounded by others, if our thoughts are of separation and isolation. And we can feel quite content and complete just thinking of someone who is not physically present whose love and acceptance we are sure of. Jesus wants us to know that, no matter the vagaries and vacillations of worldly love, his love is always constant, always there. In those moments when we doubt it, we can simply pick up his book and read his words and his promises. There are many, but consider this one passage from the very end of the workbook: “You do not walk alone. God's angels hover near and all about. His Love surrounds you, and of this be sure; that I will never leave you comfortless” (W.ep.6:6,7,8).

Weekly Questions and Answers 11/05/2003

2006-11-23T13:11:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #296: How do I know if I have crossed into "The real world"?
Q #297: Is the Course saying my loving thoughts and my feelings of connection are not real?.
Q #298: Why are lilies a symbol of forgiveness?.
Q #299: What is meant by "happy dreams"?
Q #300: It seems that all healing necessitates attack.
Q #301: What is the special significance of giving something a name?.
Q #302: Is the Course saying we should, or should not, deny the reality of our bodies?.

Q #296: How do I know if I have crossed the bridge into the real world? Is it possible to cross over and come back? Can I get stuck half way across? Sometimes it seems like I am there. Sometimes not. Is there any sure sign, or sure signs, that I am there? How can I know without doubt or question that I am there? From what I know of ACIM, Jesus got there. Are there any other generally known people who have crossed to the real world?

A: When you have crossed the bridge into the real world, you will simply know, without doubt or question. Until such time, you go back and forth between the wrong-mind and the right-mind. That is why it may sometimes feel as if you are there, and sometimes not. And no, you cannot get stuck halfway across. However, you can certainly procrastinate, which may feel like being “stuck.”

Regarding other people having crossed into the real world, it is almost impossible to tell on this level. Our guilt determines what we “see,” so unless we are guilt-free, we would not recognize, with certainty, someone in the real world. Imagine being a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus, watching him go through the situation, and “seeing” him did so without pain, suffering, anger, or attack. Undoubtedly there were very few, if any, who “saw” the event in this way, because their guilt demanded they see it as has been written in the various gospel accounts. You may also want to refer to Question #101 for further discussion on this subject.

Q #297: I found workbook Lesson 4 of A Course in Miracles difficult in that I have some very loving thoughts. For instance, if I walk down the street and see a stranger who for a moment looks in my eyes and there is a sudden feeling of “real” connection am I to tell myself that this thought means nothing? Isn't this a moment of true reality? I'm confused.

A: First, the early part of the workbook is primarily about helping us undo our wrong-minded thoughts, which is not to say that we do not have right-minded thoughts. The focus, though, is mostly on our wrong-minded thoughts. The thrust of these early lessons is to have us understand that there is an inner world and an outer world, and that the outer world is the projection of the inner world. Jesus is helping us begin the process of learning that we are not who we think we are, and reality is not what we think it is. He does not want us to settle for anything less than our true inheritance as God’s Son. Thus, he says in Lesson 4 that our “good” thoughts are “but shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult.” Our “real thoughts” are being covered by both our “good” and “bad” thoughts. The shadow would become meaningless if we were to value only that of which it is the shadow; and that is where Jesus is leading us.

You do not describe that “feeling of ‘real’ connection” in any detail, nor do you say anything about what followed the experience. Speaking in general, then, that feeling could be of the ego (specialness) or of the Holy Spirit (we are all one). As a right-minded “connection,” it would be a shadow of your real thoughts, which have nothing to do with this world or this body. In the holy instant when we no longer perceive separation, we experience a reflection of true reality, but true reality is only of Heaven. Again, that is where Jesus is leading us. Why would we want a reflection or a shadow, when we can have the reality itself?

Q #298: Why have lilies become the symbol for forgiveness and not any other flower?

A: Lilies traditionally are associated with Easter -- the time of resurrection and awakening. And as white, they have symbolized purity and innocence. Therefore, they make a wonderful symbol of forgiveness, which restores to us the awareness of our innocence, the prerequisite for awakening from the ego’s dream of death.

Q #299: Do you know anything more about the experience of the happy dreams in life? Is this a kind of process reversing our life, leading us out, undoing and healing of what has led us into the ego-experience? Can one damage or destroy this process and entirely return back to the ego or another ego? Does one recognize the end?

A: These are questions that many students think about. It is helpful to remember that we are always involved in undoing something that never really occurred, and therefore the journey on which Jesus is leading us will conclude in our acceptance of that. So even though he maps out a strategy with various steps and stages, he knows that all of it is totally illusory. The happy dreams spoken of in the Course refer to the experience in our minds of no longer being identified with the world and bodies; we would be identified with the Holy Spirit’s correction of our mistaken thoughts and choices. We would take nothing seriously in our personal lives or in the world, in the sense that we would know that our peace could never be affected by anything external. We would know -- experientially -- that there is no reality other than the love of Jesus in our minds, which would then be the source of all that we do. In that respect, we would be at the end of the process of reversing our choice to be separate, thereby undoing and healing what led us into the ego experience. In that state, we would not be vacillating anymore, which means there is no wrong mind, nor even a decision-making part of the mind. We revert to an ego state only when we still value separate interests over shared interests. It is always a question of what we truly want and whether we are willing to pay the price of being separate. Our true Self is never affected by our choice to deny that Identity and instead be a self in the world, but we will be paying a heavy price to take on and maintain that false identity. Jesus helps us see that our lives are a result of a choice and that it has been a costly one -- to us.

Q #300: When I give an antibiotic to a patient, I may be joining with this patient on the level which he can accept. But in doing this I am attacking the germs (who made him sick, so he believes). Attacks are never justified. Sometimes it seems to me that joining with one person (the patient) means attacking someone else (the germs). What then can I do?

A: A good question, suggesting that you desire to consider fully the implications of separate vs. shared interests, not merely limiting your focus to homo sapiens. And to add to the apparent dilemma, consider that with every breath we take, we are inhaling untold numbers of microorganisms to certain death. And that with each hand-washing or shower, whether we aggressively use antibacterial soap or not, we are inflicting large-scale slaughter on uncountable numbers of tiny organisms that apparently just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And of course, to keep ourselves alive with food and drink, innumerable lives have to be sacrificed daily in the vegetable and animal kingdom. The way of the world is death, and murder seems to be unavoidable. The world of form has been made from the belief in conflict in the mind, giving apparent reality to the principle of “one or the other.” At the level of form, bodies and the world, conflict is unavoidable, despite our best intentions to eliminate or minimize it.

That is why A Course in Miracles invites our focus to be on purpose or content and not form. When we act from an ego-based orientation that sees separate interests, our purpose is always attack -- regardless of our overt behavior -- which always reinforces the guilt in our minds. When we shift to the Holy Spirit’s perspective of shared interests, joining with the Sonship as a whole becomes our purpose, regardless of the actions we seem to be taking. And that is why Jesus asks us to join with him in our minds (e.g., T.14.V.9; T.15.III.11; T.15.VI.6:10; 7:1,2,5,6) -- before we seek to join with our brothers whom we still see as bodies -- whatever form of life they may seem to be. On our own, we always join from a belief that we are separate, while joining with Jesus in our minds helps us develop the recognition that we have never been separate -- a statement that can only make sense on the level of mind and ideas. Jesus knows what we believe, but he also knows that everything we believe we see is all made up and that death and destruction are not real. And so Jesus teaches us that we need to change our minds, not our behavior (T.2.VI.3). With that shift from the ego to Jesus as our teacher, we will know that nothing that is real is ever affected by changes in the inconstant world of bodies, including death. And thus the guilt we have been holding onto over our belief in separation diminishes over time, allowing each of us to be an increasingly clear channel of forgiveness for the mind of the Sonship as a whole, encompassing all the seeming fragments that we have experienced as individual “living” entities.

Q #301: What does it mean to give something a name? Could you explain why one then gets power over it?

A: To give something a name is to establish its identity. It is a way of bestowing “reality” on someone or something. In other words, if I determine who you are, I make that definition of you real in my mind, which means I make you who you are. That is the power of giving something a name. It is the nature of the separation to name everything and everyone, herein lies the power of naming: You have made up names for everything you see. Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes, and set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it. This space you lay between all things to which you give a different name; all happenings in terms of place and time; all bodies which are greeted by a name” (W.184.1:2,3,4,5,6). This is the ego’s misuse of creative power. Naming things and people in this way is actually denying their true identity. It is a way of saying: “You are who I say you are, not who God says you are.” A Course in Miracles tells us that whatever names the ego uses to identify all things it makes, unless they are seen in the light of truth they remain nameless.

One of the most important goals we have as students of the Course is to allow our definition of ourselves to be undone. We have all given ourselves the same name: “sinner.” When we are willing to question this, and recognize that we do not know who we are, we realize that we do not know our name. As we let go of all the names we call ourselves, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us who we are, along with everyone and everything in the dream, we will become open to accepting that it is God’s creative power that establishes our identity. We are who He says we are, and so we have another name: “God’s innocent Son.” His Name is the Name we share: “A father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. His brothers share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity. Your Father's Name reminds you who you are, even within a world that does not know; even though you have not remembered it” (W.183.1:3,4,5).

Q #302: In chapter two of the text of A Course in Miracles, Jesus says. “...it is almost impossible to deny its (the body’s) existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial.” Then in the workbook, lesson 199, he says to tell ourselves today and every day “I am not a body. I am free.” How can I do the lesson, keeping in mind the statement from the text? Also Ken says that awakening from this dream is a process and we should not try to skip over steps. It seems saying “I am not a body. I am free.” is trying to skip over steps. What is Jesus up to here?

A: There are some points to keep in mind so that we can recognize Jesus’ purpose in saying things and asking us to do things that may seem to contradict each other in different parts of the Course. He knows our resistance to his message is still great and that we will not be open to everything he has to say. Yet it would be a disservice to us if he were not, at the same time, very direct about just where he is attempting to lead us and did not exhort us to join him in his way of looking at things, for he knows so much more than we do.

That Jesus knows we will resist his more radical teachings is evident near the end of the introduction to the workbook when he observes, “Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true. Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy” (W.in.8:1,2,3,4,5,6; 9:1,2,3; italics added). And earlier, towards the end of the text, as he instructs us on how make decisions to have the day we really want, he cautions us, “If you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready. Do not fight yourself (T.30.I.1:6,7).

And so Jesus presents us his uncompromising and challenging teachings while at the same time acknowledging that we may not be ready to accept them and that it will take time (e.g., W.pII.284). But he also knows that if we will just allow him to get his foot in the door to our closed mind, before we know it, we will be on the other side with him. And that is because there is already a part of our mind that knows and has accepted what he is leading us toward, but if we felt we really had no choice, our resistance would be that much greater. So a lesson such as Lesson 199 should be seen as an invitation to accept a different perspective on ourselves and the world, but never as a call to deny what we continue to experience as our reality, false as it may be.

Weekly Questions and Answers 10/29/2003

2006-11-11T05:59:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #291: How can I reconcile apparent differences between ACIM(r) and "The Pathwork"?
Q #292: Comments and thoughts on loneliness.
Q #293: More about "I need do nothing" versus "practical reality".
Q #294: Will a simplified version of the Course be available for children?
Q #295: How do I cope when loved ones are heavily invested in victimhood?.

Q #291: My question is on differences between A Course in Miracles and The Pathwork, a series of lectures channeled by Eva Pierrakos from a spiritual entity referred to as the Guide. I’ve been trying to apply the Pathwork teachings to my life for five years. The Guide’s teachings, I believe, emphasize too much the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are -- not perfect. He says we are here (on Earth) to try to improve ourselves but we should never deny the fact that we are not perfect. In other words, accepting this fact is the first step on the way to become perfect. The Guide says that trying to identify ourselves with God without facing (or accepting) our shortcomings means to fool ourselves. If we want to get lost in God we must find ourselves first. These teachings have helped me know myself better but I don’t think I have become a better person so far.

The Guide also mentions reincarnation in almost all his lectures. But when I found A Course in Miracles I became very confused and disappointed that the Jesus of the Course states that there is no reincarnation. Not because I wanted reincarnation to exist but because Jesus is denying something which the Guide speaks of so naturally, so sincerely, with such a wisdom, that I find it almost impossible not to believe in him. I think the same about Jesus (of the Course) but their teachings about reincarnation are exactly the opposite. I believe that truth is truth. How can I trust in Jesus or in the Guide if one of them is not speaking the truth?

A: Before addressing either of your concerns, it may be helpful to clarify what Jesus in the Course means when he speaks of the truth. There are really two levels of meaning of the truth that are important to understand if you are going to make sense of the Course. At the highest level of the teaching, Jesus asserts in the Course quite unequivocally that the thought of separation, as well as anything that follows from that thought, including the world of time, space and form, is illusory. Only the formless, unlimited Love of God is real and true. And Jesus means this quite literally.

But while this is ultimately true, Jesus also knows that this is not our experience, and so he speaks of what is true at a different, more practical level. Basically, any interpretation of any aspect of the world of time and space that helps us to practice forgiveness is true, while any interpretation that keeps us feeling guilty and fearful is false. Once we believe we are separate, individual selves, the issues that concern us, although ultimately illusory, are very real in our experience and need to be addressed in ways that are helpful to our healing.

Almost all other spiritual teachings only address concerns at the level of our experience in the world and do not make the ultimate distinction that Jesus does between what is real and what is illusory. They represent different paths from the Course, and it can become quite confusing to attempt to integrate their teachings with Jesus’ teachings in the Course. At the level of form and concepts, spiritual paths may be different from and even contradict each other, but the only real truth is God, toward which all genuine spiritualities are leading, regardless of the specific forms and concepts they employ to lead one back.

So let’s consider your second concern first -- about the difference between the Course and The Pathwork on reincarnation -- since that seems to have the more disturbing implications for you. “In the ultimate sense,” as we have just discussed, Jesus does say in the manual for teachers that “reincarnation is impossible,” (M.24.1:1), because it is a time-based phenomenon, and the Course says time is illusory. But if you read this same section in the manual carefully, you will see that Jesus does not deny the validity and usefulness of the concept of reincarnation at the level of our experience within time and space. That he does not simply dismiss it as untrue should be apparent from his other comments here. For example, in the same paragraph, in speaking of how the concept of reincarnation may be helpful, he observes that “if it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed” (M.24.1:6). But he also cautions that it can misused to foster “preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past” and “inertia in the present” (M.24.1:8,9,10). Later in the same section, Jesus also counsels against getting involved with unnecessary controversy around the concept (M.24.3,4). But perhaps most helpful to resolve your personal conflict about Jesus’ position on the concept is the explicit question he raises and addresses towards the end of the section: “Does this mean that the teacher of God should not believe in reincarnation himself, or discuss it with others who do? The answer is, certainly not! If he does believe in reincarnation, it would be a mistake for him to renounce the belief unless his internal Teacher so advised. And this is most unlikely” (M.24.5:1,2,3,4; italics added).

So on the level of our experience in the world, Jesus and the Pathwork Guide may not be in such terrible disagreement about reincarnation as you have supposed. It is just that Jesus in the Course is attempting to lead us ultimately to a level that transcends any concern with linear time and individual lives. And it is because of this goal that many students have resistance to his teachings and continue to find it so difficult to practice forgiveness. But along the way, Jesus will use whatever concepts have meaning and significance for us in order to help us find our way back home. And so his focus with reincarnation, as already alluded to, is on how we use it to go beyond the body and this lifetime and not simply as a tool for exploring aspects of ourselves in relationship to other lifetimes.

Now to your initial concern about what you felt is the Pathwork’s overemphasis on accepting ourselves as imperfect. In many ways, the Course’s focus is similar and many students express a similar dissatisfaction with its emphasis on the ego -- it repeatedly encourages us to identify the negatives of the ego in our minds so that, with the Holy Spirit’s help, they can be undone and released. The Course does say that we are already perfect -- as Christ -- but not as the ego selves we think we are. And so while we are not here to improve ourselves and become perfect, Jesus is asking us to uncover all the ways in which we continue to insist that our imperfections are real -- the sin, guilt and fear that we have made very real, first in our minds, and then in our world and our lives, to prove that the illusory thought of separation is in fact real. In Jesus’ own words from his Course, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false” (T.16.IV.6:1,2).

For further discussion of the Course’s perspective on reincarnation, you may wish to review Questions #24 and #153.

Q #292: What does A Course in Miracles say about loneliness? I have been feeling lonely very often in my life. Even in love relationships. I felt lonely as a child in my family and still do feel lonely very often in other family-like systems. How could I change my mind about feeling lonely?

A: The Course describes loneliness as an inevitable outcome of the thought of separation (T.13.III.12:1; M.10:6:1,2,6). Jesus adds emphasis to this causal relationship by describing God, as well as His Son, as lonely as a result of the separation -- in four different passages (T.2.III.5:11,12; T.4.VII.6:7; T.7.VII.10:5,6,7; T.15.VIII.3:2). Obviously, Jesus is using poetic license -- his purpose being to provide an alternative view of God’s reaction to the thought of separation, in contrast to the ego’s fearful assertion that God is angry because we left Him (see Question #136 for more on this point). For God is unchanged by our insane thoughts and remains forever One and undivided.

If we are honest with ourselves, all of us who truly believe we exist in the separated state of individuality, limited by and contained within our bodies, and isolated from everyone else, must feel lonely. For who could not feel he is apart from love and not experience loneliness? In the words of the Course, “As long as you perceive the body as your reality, so long will you perceive yourself as lonely and deprived” (T.15.XI.5:1).

The ego insists that we can overcome our loneliness through the companionship of other bodies. But the joining we seek through physical proximity and intimacy in our special relationships can at best only dispel the painful feelings of isolation temporarily, for bodies can not really join, and the ego’s real but hidden agenda is always to reinforce our belief in our guilt (T.15.VII.12). For seeking to be with others to take away our loneliness only gives support to the ego’s lie that the separation is indeed real and that the body is our reality. For most of us, most of the time, the resulting loneliness is too excruciating, and so we seek to cover it over through denial, employing various distractions to keep us mindless. But we never question its premise -- the reality of the separation.

It is only through raising that question that the only solution to our loneliness can be found (W.pI.41.1,2; W.pII.223.1). And the answer is found through experiencing the joining of minds, not bodies. Then we learn that we are not really separate, for that joining is always available to us. Jesus, in the following very comforting passage, reminds us that he is always with us, and so loneliness cannot be real: “I am come as a light into a world that does deny itself everything. It does this simply by dissociating [separating] itself from everything. It is therefore an illusion of isolation, maintained by fear of the same loneliness that is its illusion. I said that I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. That is why I am the light of the world. If I am with you in the loneliness of the world, the loneliness is gone. You cannot maintain the illusion of loneliness if you are not alone” (T.8.IV.2:1,2,3,4,5,6,7).

Now we may doubt that the solution could be so simple, but Jesus assures us that it is. However. that does not mean that it is easy. Yet as we become more willing to see that our interests are not separate from our brothers and to release each of our judgments against both ourselves and others, Jesus and the love that he represents will become more real in our minds, and we will come to experience the truth of his words.

Q #293: In the text of A Course in Miracles it says: “Once you accept His purpose as the only one that you would fulfill, there is nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort...”; and in another place: “Leave all your needs to the Holy Spirit. He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them”; and in the manual: “All the help you can accept will be provided, and not one need you have will not be met.” I have been struggling to understand this in the context of the world in which I cannot make clients call, students sign up for workshops, or books to sell, yet need greater income. The challenge is in needing to “do nothing” in Course language, leave my needs to the Holy Spirit, and trust that “just” by forgiveness and a willingness to be at peace, my bills will be paid, particularly when I am surrounded by hundreds of people who slave for 40 hours a week or more. Am I copping out to just let the Holy Spirit take care of my needs, send me clients or sell my books, while I meditate and be happy?

A: There are other spiritual paths that teach and advocate that approach, but that is not what the Course teaches, even though the words you quoted, if taken literally, seem to mean that. The key idea is to concentrate on the content, not the form. The content is that there is a loving, caring, comforting presence in our minds, not the punitive Divine Judge religions have taught us about, nor a Merlin-the-magician type presence conferring miracles on those he deems worthy. At the end of the clarification of terms in the section on the Holy Spirit, Jesus helps us take a step beyond that -- as he does in dozens of other places in the Course -- by teaching us to distinguish between form and content, experience and reality, and symbol and reality: “He seems to be a Guide through a far country, for you need that form of help. He seems to be whatever meets the need you think you have. But He is not deceived when you perceive your self entrapped in needs you do not have. It is from these He would deliver you. It is from these that He would make you safe” (C.6.4:6,7,9,10).

It is a question, then, of defining ourselves and our needs, and we will always be misled and entrapped if our starting point is that we truly exist as bodies in a physical world. However, if we remember that our seeming bodily life is a false identity having the purpose of concealing our true Identity as spirit, then our needs will be defined differently. We will recognize that our only real need is to awaken from the dream of separation and reunite with our true Self in Heaven, and that all the help we need to do that is already present within us. Forgiveness, then, becomes our only meaningful function while we still believe we are here (T.25.VI.5:3); and the only meaningful prayer we could ever utter would be for forgiveness, because, as Jesus tells us, “those who have been forgiven have everything” (T.3.V.6:3).

So to accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose means to see every aspect of your life as a classroom in which you can learn to identify what you are doing to block your awareness of love’s presence, and then ask help of your Teacher to make another choice. Sharing His purpose, you would deal with the details and obligations of your life responsibly, while at the same time learning that the peace of God within you cannot be affected by anything that is going on externally. Attending to the details of our daily lives affords us endless opportunities to get beyond the form of our lives and to learn that we all share the same interests; we all share the same ego thought system and its correction in our right minds. This is our special function, and because of the way we have set up our lives, it is the most effective way of undoing the thought system of separation in our minds that is the ultimate cause of all our misery and unhappiness. To ask the Holy Spirit to fix what is wrong in our physical/psychological lives is to abdicate our responsibility for our unhappiness and thereby deprive ourselves of the only means we have of ever undoing our mistake and reuniting with the glorious Self of Christ that we all are.

The sections in the “Song of Prayer” pamphlet might give you additional help, especially the first one, “True Prayer.” Also, we have addressed similar issues in Questions #72, #116, #259, and #266.

Q #294: At some point do you see an elementary version of A Course in Miracles coming out? I would like to see children be able to read this Course, since being so young, they have less baggage to release. And children grasp ideas easier and have a clearer, purer understanding of things. Since this is a life-long course, why not start early learning the truth?

A: It’s a common ego trap to fall into the thinking that this Course could be or should be for someone other than myself, whether it’s a spouse, friends, politicians, children, etc. The trap is that it distracts me from simply applying its principles of forgiveness to myself and to all my relationships. If I do my part in the plan, releasing all my judgments, everything else will follow in whatever way is most helpful. But the plan is not of my own making, and even my best intentions to help others in their healing is really a subtle -- and sometimes not so subtle -- ego ploy for seizing control of the plan and putting myself in charge, thinking I know what needs to happen.

You are making a few assumptions about children that would not be consistent with the Course’s metaphysical teachings. All of us, adult and child alike, share the same ego thought system. A child’s mind is no purer than an adult’s and no less burdened with the baggage of sin and guilt. The only difference is in the expression in form, not in the underlying content. So the Course would attribute the same full-blown ego to an infant, a child, a teenager and an adult. Each developmental stage simply expresses the ego’s underlying content in a different way -- generally more disguised and covertly as we “grow up” and are socialized to restrain our ego impulses. But the guilt that underlies the form is always the same until we are at a point where we begin to recognize that the world and all that it offers is not really anything we truly want. Usually, although not necessarily, this realization comes only with age and with disillusioning experience after disillusioning experience, as the world fails us in our expectations and we feel repeatedly victimized by forces outside of our control and want another way of being in the world.

The Course process is one of looking at all the judgments and hatred in our mind that we project out onto the world to keep ourselves mindless, accompanied by a willingness to release them to the light of forgiveness that interprets all those external situations differently. And the judgment and hate have their origins in the mind, before any individual life has begun, and not in our experiences in the world, no matter how much the world and our individual experience seem to insist to the contrary. Once we have done our part in getting ourselves out of the way, then we are available to be an instrument of forgiveness for all those other confused minds that see themselves as if they were at various stages in the process of human development.

When you speak of a more “elementary version of the Course,” I assume you mean a version that minimizes the Course’s more abstract metaphysical principles. But a teaching that does not use the Course’s metaphysical foundation as an explicit and integral part of its message would no longer be the Course. There are many spiritual paths that may lend themselves to the kind of simplification you speak of, but the Course is not one of them. It is written very deliberately in the form that it is because it is intended for adults. Adults can best teach it to children by demonstrating its principles through how they live their lives and raise their children, without ever necessarily even mentioning any of its principles.

Q #295: My question concerns being there for family members and friends when they are attached to victimhood and ailments (a judgment, I know). I think I understand what true empathy is: to comfort on the level they are, not to speak to them of Course teachings, but also not to reinforce their pain by validating it and making it real. For some family members, illness equals attention.… What is the stance of A Course in Miracles on distancing ourselves from family and friends who are clearly not a supportive, positive influence on our lives? What do we do when they are in so much pain and so miserable and so attached to victimhood that they think it's everybody else’s responsibility but theirs to change that? I'm stuck, please help.

A: One thing that might help you get unstuck is to try to get beyond the specifics and see that you share the very same ego that your friends and family do, but that you also all share the same right mind as well. Perhaps you express your wrong-minded thoughts in a different form; but the content is identical. They resort to a specific form of magic to ease their inner pain, but you would use a different form of magic. In view of that, your response to them would reflect how you must be responding to your own ego. You would be learning either that the ego is repulsive and has power to block love and peace, or that it is nothing but a “tiny, mad idea” having no power to change our reality as the invulnerable Son of God, and therefore it is deserving only of a gentle smile.

If you could get beyond the form of their complaints just for an instant -- “Nothing so blinding as perception of form” (T.22.III.6:7) -- you would hear their call for help and know that it is an echo of your own call for help. And then if you clearly knew that that call has already been answered with love, your ego would be out of the way, and you would just naturally -- and effortlessly -- do whatever is best for all concerned. There is no way of knowing ahead of time what that would be specifically, but it would just flow through you, and you would experience it as not coming from you. It might be that you would be guided to stay home and not visit, or to go and assist in some way. But you would take nothing personally. You would have no investment in their changing or being appreciative of your help; and you would feel energized, not drained and drenched with negativity afterward. Whenever you feel drained you have become personally involved -- identifying with victimization -- and more than likely have crossed over into sacrifice, which is always of the ego, because it expresses separation and a one-or-the-other attitude. If there is conflict within you, then the message you are giving is that they are right about themselves, thus confirming their worst fears.

And finally, in that holy instant in which you are joined with the love of Jesus, you would not fall into the ego trap of thinking some illusions are more serious than others; you would clearly recognize that all illusions are the same in content.

The ideal that Jesus, our model and teacher, holds out to us is to be able to regard everything as either a call for love or an expression of love. If you could do that for your family and your friends, you would be doing it for yourself. The Course teaches us in many different ways that giving and receiving are the same. This takes a great deal of practice and a great deal of patience and gentleness with yourself, because it is a complete reversal of our usual thinking and behavior. But if you believed that each interaction had the potential to bring you closer to being one with the love of Jesus, you would approach them enthusiastically, not with dread. Do the best you can knowing that, in the end, your success in this is guaranteed. If you make a mistake, it doesn’t matter; Jesus will help you correct it later.

For further study, you could look at the subsection “The Function of the Teacher of God” in the manual for teachers, under section 5, “How Is Healing Accomplished?” (M.5.III).

Weekly Questions and Answers 10/22/2003

2006-11-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #285: How can I distinguish the voice of the ego from the Voice of the Holy Spirit?
Q #286: Why are there "no accidents in salvation" ?
Q #287: What is the meaning of "The Last Unanswered Question" ?
Q #288: What exactly is a miracle?
Q #289: What is meant by "I need do nothing"?.
Q #290: What is meant by "unacceptable" in relation to bodily impulses ?

Q #285: Sometimes when I ask the inner voice (Holy Spirit) to guide me, I think I get an answer and later I find out it was the ego who answered disguised as inner voice. How can I know when it is the real inner voice that is answering and not the ego?

A: The answer to your question lies in another question: What is it you truly seek, and of whom? Much of our asking comes with hidden beliefs, goals, and desires, that we are not aware of. We are thereby seeking to make our bodies and the world real, and the ego responds enthusiastically. We can be sure the ego has answered because the response never truly satisfies our perceived need, much less our real need. In the situation you refer to, it is quite likely that the ego answered because the ego was asked. This is nothing to be upset about or afraid of. It is just that we are more deeply identified with the ego thought system than we think. As A Course in Miracles tells us: “You retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering…I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly. I will come in response to a single unequivocal call” (T.4.II.7:2,9,10). The very important words in this passage are “truly” and “unequivocal.” This means being clear, unhindered by diverse interests, unambiguous. As long as we believe in our identity as bodies, and believe that our problems are all the situations in the world that need to be resolved, we will ask with a hidden agenda, seeking something specific to allay our sense of lack, meet some need, or make life in the world more “heavenly.” Even our requests for the peace of God often hide our desire for happiness on our own terms. If the Holy Spirit were to respond to these requests, He would be reinforcing our belief in the separation.

The Holy Spirit’s guidance is always on the level of content and not form. His goal is to teach that our only problem is the separation, and the only solution is undoing the thought of separation. If, in our imperfect asking, we are willing to join with the Holy Spirit’s goal, we will be able to make decisions in this world, while recognizing the “the scraps of fear” and ego interests we retain. We can learn that although decisions have to be made, our salvation does not rest on these decisions. This opens us to the Holy Spirit’s perception, and thus His guidance, without reinforcing our mistaken belief that the world and the body are the problem.

Your question is discussed in Forgiveness and Jesus by Kenneth Wapnick. It is posed in yet another way: “The crucial question, however, should not be ‘How do I know when I am hearing the Holy Spirit?’ but ‘Why don’t I do what He tells me to do so that I can hear His Voice better?’” (Part III, “The Test for Truth,” p. 318). We are still unwilling to do what He tells us to do, and are still afraid of His guidance. If we were not it would be blazingly clear to us. While we are still afraid we do need to ask for help in seeing the hidden beliefs we hold on to in our perceived needs. Undoing our belief in the ego’s thought system takes patient practice. Meanwhile, our less than perfect asking is a preparation for the time when we will want only the Holy Spirit’s answer. The truth is we have called and He has answered. It is our fear of this that impedes our hearing. His answer for now is to show us the fear that keeps us clinging to our insane belief in the separation, the body, and the world. When we are ready to let them go we will know, and we will hear only His Voice: “His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Sons” (T.5.II.3:8,9,10,11). This will come when we are convinced that our only problem is the thought of separation, and the only answer is the Holy Spirit’s correction, which is undoing the belief in the separation.

Q #286: “There are no accidents in salvation.” I am puzzled by two apparently contradictory perspectives on this:

(1) Anything in the world of form can be used by the Holy Spirit as a means for salvation, i.e., I can use any circumstance or event to practice forgiveness. So, in the flow of events -- which could be random and meaningless in themselves -- I can use anything for the purpose of self-transformation.

(2) The Holy Spirit provides me with particular events so that I can learn specific lessons. This would suggest that the Holy Spirit makes at least certain aspects of the world: a view which appears to contradict the notion that the ego alone makes forms.

It is my impression that commentators on A Course in Miracles do not favor option number two. Yet this seems to be implied in the quote. Please comment.

A: In answering your question, it is helpful to realize that even in the illusory split mind, of which the world is only a shadowy projection, neither the ego nor the Holy Spirit does anything. And so neither is responsible for the forms that our lives may take and the events that seem to happen to us. Although the Course’s separation myth personifies them as if they were separate entities acting independently, the ego and the Holy Spirit only represent alternative interpretations or symbolic thoughts within our mind about the tiny mad idea of separation from God. It is the sleeping mind of the Son that gives form to the thoughts in his mind, using either the ego or the Holy Spirit as his guide for choosing and then interpreting those seemingly externalized forms.

A few passages from the Course itself may help make the passive nature of both the Holy Spirit and the ego clearer. Early in the text, Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit is one way of choosing....The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because It is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control. It does not overcome, because It does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what It reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you may make” (T.5.II.6:7;7:1,2,3,4,5; italics added). In the next section, Jesus observes that “the ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace” (T.5.III.9:4). The symbolic nature of the ego is described again later in the text when Jesus notes that “all that the ego is, is an idea that it is possible that things could happen to the Son of God without his will” (T.21.II.6:4; italics added).

That the ego has no power in and of itself to do anything is apparent from this early passage in the text: “Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed.…The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself” (T.4.VI.1:2,3,4,6).

So when the Course asserts that “there are no accidents in salvation” (M.3.1:6), it means that everything reflects a choice -- our own! Our sleeping mind makes all the decisions about what to experience and how to interpret those experiences. The “flow of events” is never “random and meaningless” because all things are chosen by us to serve either the ego’s purpose of separation and guilt or the Holy Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness and peace. Among the many passages in the Course that speak of the power of our minds, consider just the following two:

“Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. Every response you make to everything you perceive is up to you, because your mind determines your perception of it” (T.10.in.2:6,7).

“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. (T.21.II.3:1,2,3,4).

And so, while we may initially choose -- almost always unconsciously, out of our awareness -- an experience to reinforce our perception of ourselves as victims of a world over which we have no control, once the choice has been made we can make another choice and ask for the Help within to see our circumstances differently. And so we begin to learn that we are never the victim of the world we see (W.pI.31) and that no one or nothing else -- neither the ego nor the Holy Spirit nor Jesus nor God Himself -- intervenes within the dream we call our lives. For we alone are the rulers of our universe (W.pII.253).

For further discussion on the power of decision, you may also wish to review Question #281. As to whether God or the Holy Spirit intervene in the world and our lives, you may want to look at Question #235. And on the Course’s metaphoric or mythical use of language, see Question #72.

Q #287: One section in the text of A Course in Miracles that is of particular interest to me is “The Last Unanswered Question” (T.21.VII). Could you comment on the meaning of this section?

A: The main theme of this section is the power of our minds to choose -- ultimately, against the ego. Paragraph 7 makes it abundantly clear that this is a course about changing our minds not the world. It is a course in cause (the choices we make in our minds), not effect (behavior).

Jesus explains that when we experience ourselves as powerless or helpless, we are giving witness to our denial of our true identity as a Son of God, who could never be powerless. Once this dissociation has been effected, the authentic power of our minds then is feared as the “enemy,” and an “army of the powerless” arises to do battle with this mortal threat. Jesus, of course, is describing the battleground in our minds, of which we are not aware because of the ego dynamic of denial and projection. Hatred seethes within us, but is always attributed to some form of evil without, which we then feel justified in attacking and destroying. Jesus is also referring to the ultimate futility and silliness of the seemingly powerful armies in the world. We must perpetuate this system in order to ward off an even worse fate, which is to acknowledge that there is no enemy outside, and that we made ourselves powerless by choosing to believe in the thought system of separation and sin. Reason would tell us that, if only we were to choose to consult it (consult our right minds).

The three questions stated in paragraph 5 have to do with our choice to exist in this world in which we seem to be the innocent victims of forces beyond our control. Our feeling powerless to do anything about the conditions in our lives is purposeful. It keeps us from ever experiencing the true power of our minds to make another choice and deny our denial of the truth. Hence, the fourth question -- the last unanswered question -- is: “Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?” (T.21.VII.14). When we answer in the affirmative to the first three questions, we are saying that we have changed our minds and we really do not want to be victims of the world anymore. But the last question has us confront our decision for guilt and the reason we uphold it. Unless we reverse that decision for guilt, we will continue to deny the presence of love, and we will continually project that guilt. In addition to saying that our lack of peace or happiness is not the world’s fault -- it is our own fault -- we must realize that the guilt within us is a deliberate choice to deny the truth of the Atonement and then choose against it. Until we make that choice, we will vacillate all the time. To answer yes to the last question “must mean ‘not no’”; it is to decide that I no longer want to be who I think I am: separate, unique, autonomous, independent, free, and special. I no longer want to see myself as distinct from the Love of God.

Q #288: What is a miracle? Although they are carefully described, I am still wondering what they are. Do they resemble what we commonly think of as miracles? Do we know when they occur, or do they happen constantly without us being aware of them? Can you give any examples of miracles?

A: First, a miracle has nothing to do with anything external. Miracles pertain only to what is going on in our own minds. In that sense, they are not at all what traditional religious systems have thought of as miracles. Traditionally, conditions in the body and the world have been viewed as the problem; and therefore miracles, simply put, were viewed as the healing or removal of those conditions, usually through some kind of divine or supernatural intervention. A Course in Miracles, on the other hand, teaches that the body and the world are projections of thoughts in our minds: “It [the world] is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition... Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world” (T.21.in.1:5,7). Now, if you could really accept that the world is merely a projection of a thought of sin and guilt in your mind, you would realize that trying to alter things in the world or the body is ultimately futile, and that changing your mind about the reality of sin and guilt is truly healing. That is why the workbook states: “A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false” (W.pII.13.1,2,3). The miracle corrects our thinking, not a condition in the world or the body. Yet this passage also implies that we are not to blithely dismiss our perceptions of the world either. Rather, we are to look at the devastation in our lives, or the world-at-large, and bring that perception to the loving presence of Jesus in our minds. There, in our choosing to join with that reflection of truth, we will remember that what we are perceiving is but the content of a dream, not reality. “The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true” (T.28.II.7:1). Once we are joined with the reflection of truth in our minds, we would be guided solely by that in responding to the situations in our lives.

This takes a lot of practice, which is why we have a workbook with 365 lessons, at the end of which Jesus tells us that we are just at the beginning stages of this process of thought-reversal. The entire Course is about this. Our thinking right now is the reverse of what the truth is. What we are so used to calling causes are really effects. A miracle occurs when we remember and accept -- for just an instant -- that the cause of our and others’ lack of peace, sickness, deprivation, etc., is not something of the body or the world, but rather a choice we are making in our minds to identify with the thought system of separation and sin, guilt, and fear. “The miracle is the first step in giving back to cause the function of causation, not effect” (T.28.II.9:3).

A miracle occurs when we do not take another’s attack personally, recognizing instead that we all share the same needs and goals; we all share the same insanity of the ego, and we all share the same sanity of Christ’s vision. Sometimes we are not aware of having made that shift in our minds, sometimes we are. Miracles occur as frequently as our willingness allows them to.

Q #289: I hear over and over that I am to hold an attitude of “I need do nothing.” I believe it is to allow the Holy Spirit to take it over. Can I stay in bed and be a saint, or am I good only when I am sleeping.

A: The main point of “I need do nothing” is to help us change the pattern of our thinking. Practically all of the time, we think we know what our problems are, and then we just go about trying to solve them on our own. We define both the problem and the solution. We tell the Holy Spirit how to help us. Jesus is helping us to retrain our minds so that we will more consistently remember that all of our problems in the world and our bodies are made up by our decision-making minds in order to keep our attention away from the “real” problem, which is our choice to have the ego be our teacher instead of Jesus. We cannot make this shift if we do not stop and ask for help to perceive ourselves and our lives differently. Therefore, “I need do nothing” because there is no problem that needs attention.

However, the point is not to be inactive, but rather to shift the purpose of everything we do from the ego’s to the Holy Spirit’s purpose. We want to train ourselves to think about the new purpose for our lives, which is to learn how to perceive our interests as the same as everyone else’s -- to concentrate on the content, not the form of what we do. Our interactions with one another provide many opportunities to practice this, and they reflect back to us whether we have chosen to undo separation or to reinforce it. So withdrawing from interactions and activities is not usually helpful. It may be that you would have to stay away from specific people or groups for a while, just as a person involved with substance abuse might have to make behavioral changes at first. So “to do nothing” also means to do nothing on your own. Don’t automatically assume that your perception of your problems is correct.

When you identify with the reflection of truth in your right mind, you might still be very active in the world, but you would not experience yourself as the one who is acting. The love that is in your right mind would flow through you as the source of all you do, and you would experience everyone as the same, both on the level of the ego and on the level of the Atonement.

Q #290: I would like to know the meaning of the word “unacceptable” in relation to body impulses in T.4.V.2:5. I do not understand what this is trying to convey.

A: It refers to anything the ego says is unacceptable. Examples would include sex and food -- whatever we tend to think is “bad,” “harmful,” “socially repulsive,” “unethical,” “unspiritual,” etc.

Weekly Questions and Answers 10/15/2003

2006-11-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #281: A question about guilt, responsibility, and upsetting incidents.
Q #282: Will Buddhism help or hinder my progress with the Course?
Q #283: How do I reconcile taking care of my health with the Course's teachings ?
Q #284: A question about being a police officer and studying the Course.

Q #281: My question pertains to responsibility. I understand that I am responsible for what I think, and that by choosing to agree with the ego, I am making the world real. In the text of A Course in Miracles, chapter 5, section V, The Ego's Use of Guilt, paragraph 7, “Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts…This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly”. Please clarify.

Secondly, regarding making the world...I understand making the world real, or the mistake real, but literally making the physical world is difficult to wrap my head around experientially. If I am upset at some other car hitting my car in an accident, am I responsible for making it real by getting upset, or am I responsible for making the accident happen so I would have something to blame my anger on. To clarify, do I go out and find an excuse to be upset, or do I literally make the excuse happen. Did I cause that car to hit my car, or am I just using this occurrence as an excuse to be upset instead of choosing to be at peace looking at the whole accident with the Holy Spirit.

A: In order to understand responsibility as meant in A Course in Miracles, it is essential that you first understand just who it is that the Course is addressing. It is never the self we believe we are, living in the world, that Jesus is speaking to. That self has no power to do anything, for it is only the effect of thoughts in the mind. And it is to the mind that the Course is addressed. It is just this distinction that Jesus is making early in the text when, in the context of our learning to heal our perception and ultimately come to realize that “all perception is unnecessary,” he observes: “You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world. That is a reasonable question. You must be careful, however, that you really understand it. Who is the “you” who are living in this world?” (T.4.II.11:3,5,6,7,8; italics added). Since, as the Course states repeatedly in Lesson 132, “there is no world” (W.pI.132.5:1,6:2,7:1,10:3,13:1), there can be no “you” that is living in this world. There is only mind in which the seeming world is contained. We have an experience of this when we awaken from a sleeping dream and recognize that a complete world seemed to exist in which we moved about and acted, yet both the world and the self we thought we were while we slept both remained completely within the dreaming mind.

To understand the Course’s teaching on responsibility then, it is important to allow a shift in our perception of who this responsible self is -- mind, not body. We may understand this only intellectually at first, but it is helpful to be willing at least to begin there. And so, to consider the Course lines you quote: In this particular paragraph, Jesus is using the word responsible in the ego’s sense of guilty. We believe that we really can think apart from God and order our thoughts independently of Him, and then we assume responsibility, or blame, for having done that, never calling into question the reality of our belief that we can separate ourselves from God. And on our own, apart from God’s Help, there is no escape from the awful burden of this responsibility, because we cannot question its reality on our own. And so to accept responsibility for sin is to buy the ego’s lies, thereby acting irresponsibly. Jesus is not asking us to deny that it is our own decision that brings about this experience of guilt (T.5.V.8:1), but he does not want us to associate blame or guilt with that choice or we will not believe it can be undone.

As for how we could possibly have made the world and everything that seems to happen in it, remember that it is not the self you think you are but the mind of the Son, which we are all a part of, that is responsible for falling asleep and dreaming of a world of separation. Again, that the mind has the power to make up a world is apparent from our sleeping dreams (T.18.II.5). Still, this is usually not the most helpful perspective from which to consider the events of our lives, including such things as car “accidents.” To focus on how we are choosing the events of our lives is usually not helpful because the choice is far from conscious awareness for most of us most of the time, and such a focus is more likely to induce feelings of responsibility in the ego’s sense of guilt or blame.

The more helpful and healing perspective is to recognize that it is our interpretation of the events of our lives that we always have a choice about, in every moment. And while events can not be undone, interpretations of those events can be undone in an instant, if we so choose. We never become upset at external circumstances, but rather make the choice for separation and guilt in the mind first and then look for something external to which we can attribute our upset. This serves to keep ourselves mindless and beyond the hope of any real solution to our loss of peace. The self we think we are in the world is never the cause of anything, so it becomes irrelevant to ask whether we choose the events of our lives, so long as we see ourselves as “living in this world.” The only helpful choice to be in touch with is our choice of how to interpret what we believe is happening to us. The ego’s interpretation is always that we are victims, and not responsible for how we feel. The Holy Spirit, in contrast, says all events in our lives are the opportunities for learning to make a different choice -- releasing guilt and fear rather than reinforcing them.

For additional discussion of some of the issues related to joint decision-making in the dream and the levels at which choices are being made, see Questions #37, #233, and #277.

Q #282: In addition to being a student of A Course in Miracles, I am also a Buddhist. I find that Buddhism and the Course fit very well together. I am considering taking up robes and becoming a Buddhist nun, in order to further my spiritual understanding. By letting go of a “normal” lifestyle of having a job, paying bills, etc., am I postponing lessons that I will need to learn, or is the adoption of a monastic lifestyle a great step forward in letting go of my attachment (forgive my Buddhist terminology) to the world of illusions that my ego has created?

A: A Course in Miracles focuses only on the content in our minds, not form or behavior. And that content is either of the ego or Holy Spirit. So whether you are in a monastery or in a corporate office makes no difference from that point of view. What makes a difference, spiritually, is whether you see your interests as different from everyone else’s or as the same. The Course encourages us to see our life circumstances and settings as classrooms in which we can choose to learn either the ego’s curriculum, which is based on separation, or the Holy Spirit’s curriculum, which is based on the undoing of separation. It teaches us to think always in terms of purpose: Are we using the world and our relationships to reinforce our belief in separation or to undo it? The world and the body, thus, are not the problem; the way we use them is the problem. And that always is the result of the choice we make in our minds to be taught by the ego or by Jesus. Thus, what would be most helpful in your situation is to ask for help in undoing any specialness that might be involved in the decision you are making. That would go a long way toward removing the doubts and conflicts you experience.

Q #283: I have been a student of A Course in Miracles for six years now and practice at it daily. Every time I have a questions to ask it gets answered in some form by you. so thank you for all the help. Now I am a little confused on how to handle this situation. The last eight years I have gained 30 lbs and being 69 years of age it is a concern because the additional weight can lead to many diseases and I am not comfortable with it. So I went on a diet of healthy eating and exercises. I am comfortable with my game plan but I am confused because I know that all the illnesses, aches and pains are only my own guilt about the choice I made on leaving God and that guilt is projected on to my body. So, if I stay aware of this fact and continue on my plan will that be OK? How do we handle following the Course and doing what we think is necessary in this world. This question could be used in many different situations. Again thank you for all your help.

A: You are correct. This question can be applied to many different situations regarding behavior.

As you undoubtedly know, the focus of A Course in Miracles is not on changing our behavior, but rather on changing the teacher who will guide us through our daily lives. And yet, we have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is basically where we find ourselves right now. It doesn’t matter that yesterday I was practically sitting at the right hand of God when today I’m a hateful, spiteful, blankety-blank!

So, we start where we are. As you stated, you know your ailments come from your guilt. This recognition alone gives you more knowledge than 99.9% of the population. You are off to a good start right there! You want to lose weight to live a longer and healthier life, and as an aside, to perhaps feel better about your looks as well (although you didn’t say so). You have a plan, which seems complete and well thought out. You imply that you have implemented your plan, at least for a little while, and then you became confused -- about your plan, about your guilt, etc.

Sounds like you made a right-minded decision to take better care of yourself, to love yourself a little more, to “let go” of some of your guilt, and to be worthy of good health and happiness. It also sounds like once you started implementing your plan, a tiny voice began to whisper in your ear -- the content of its message, no matter what the words, being “who will I be without my guilt?” Once heard, you began to get confused. Should I? Would I? Could I? All of this a direct response to your right-minded decision.

This is a perfect example of what we all do in various aspects of our lives. We make right-minded decisions, become afraid of them (and their implications) and jump right back into the arms of the ego until we tire of its insanity and begin the entire process again — over, and over, and over. We continue this way until our fear is totally diminished and we make the final right-minded choice, at which point we are in the real world, and the tiny voice of the ego is heard no more. And, if you can generalize this process to your entire life, you’ll be able to more quickly and easily recognize signs of fear as they creep into your thoughts, no matter what form they take. This will help you take your doubt and self-sabotage less seriously than you have in the past, simply stating:: “Of course, I’ve gotten afraid again. So what else is new?”

Q #284: I have been a police officer for over six years. Since joining the police force, I have become interested in various spiritual teachings, including hatha Yoga and A Course in Miracles. As a result, a few years ago, I decided to resign from my police job and try to find a job more in line with living a spiritual lifestyle. The police work seemed to become more difficult as I tried to come more and more from a place of love and non-judgment. I felt as if I was becoming too vulnerable for that type of intense work.

But then I returned to the police job after taking about a year off, having concluded that I could not run away from my projections because they followed me wherever I went. Only the form changed. I went back to the police force for about two years before again feeling a strong desire to leave. I am currently on a leave of absence from my job, studying to become a certified Yoga teacher. I have almost finished the program and must make a decision on what to do next. I have thought a lot about becoming a monk in the Vedanta order since this seems to me to be the closest to what I believe to be the Truth, but I think this might just be another escape mechanism. I have continued to study the Course along with Yoga, even though in many ways these two practices seem contradictory, since Yoga focuses on using the body as a means to cultivate stillness.

My main question is, from a Course perspective, is police work a more difficult path to walk while trying to wake up, since it involves dealing so often with very intense situations and seeing egos at their worst? Is this conducive to practicing forgiveness? What about monastic life? Since the Course’s focus is on forgiving relationships, it might not agree with monastic life, i.e., renouncing the world. If I could only be willing to hear the voice of Jesus or the Holy Spirit and stop confusing myself. It's a bummer to have the awareness that I am doing this to myself, but not enough willingness to stop doing it.

A: Although you say you have one main question, it would appear that you really have two distinct, but nevertheless interrelated questions. And the prior question is to which spiritual path, Yoga or the Course, do you want to commit yourself? You recognize that they are not the same, but if you attempt to maintain a foot on each path, as they diverge more and more in your experience over time, you will feel increasingly split and confused. So this is the first question you may wish to answer, at which point an answer to the second question -- what line of work or career should you choose -- may be more readily apparent. Although the deeper metaphysical teachings of the Course and the Vedanta -- both assert the non-dualistic nature of reality -- are the same, the means to remembering that reality and awakening are different.

Jesus, addressing the student who has made a commitment to the Course, points out how the Course differs from other paths: “Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy. Your way will be different, not in purpose but in means. A holy relationship is a means of saving time. One instant spent together with your brother restores the universe to both of you.” (T.18.VII.4:9,10,11;5:1,2,3).

In other words, the Course’s process to awaken is forgiveness -- not meditation -- practiced in the context of all of our relationships in the world. Some relationships are more intense than others, but all provide opportunities to heal our projections of the guilt we have sought to place outside our minds, by withdrawing those projections and seeing them within, where they can then be released.

And so which path you wish to pursue is the first decision you may want to address. The Course makes no claim to being the only way -- “There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome (M.1.4:2). The only basis for decision is listening to your own inner teacher and becoming clearer with which path you really resonate. Should you decide that Yoga is your path, the choice to become a monk and renounce the world may then be the next step.

Should you on the other hand decide that the Course is your path to awakening, you may look at your choice about work differently. Police work is no doubt very challenging and for this reason provides tremendous opportunities to practice forgiveness, as you increasingly recognize that any reactions or feelings of vulnerability you experience are only projections of your own thoughts. But the Course would never insist that only one line of work or only certain specific relationships will afford you those learning opportunities. As you said, your projections will follow you wherever you go. So relax. Perhaps you can find some comfort in the fact that the confusion you feel is not over which line of work to pursue. That is only ever a distraction from your real choice, since salvation does not depend on anything that happens in time, but only on what happens in your mind, outside of time and space. Choosing between the ego and the Holy Spirit, between reinforcing guilt or accepting healing and forgiveness, is the only choice that ever really matters. Even if it is simply resistance to your lessons of forgiveness that is impelling you to turn away from police work, the most important thing would be to get in touch with the resistance, not to force yourself to stay in the job.

Once you are clear what your goal is, the rest will follow (T.17.VI). For if your goal is forgiveness, everything can be seen to serve that end. And then you can simply sigh a huge sigh of relief, for you don’t really have to figure anything else out!.

For some relevant previous answers, you may wish to look at Questions #90 and #141.

Weekly Questions and Answers 10/08/2003

2006-11-04T03:55:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #275: What is the meaning of "extension" ?.
Q #276: Can I still learn & practice Course principles in a group that I don't care for ?
Q #277: Am I in your dream or are you in mine ?
Q #278: If the ego has no power, how can the ego become "vicious" ?
Q #279: Could long study of the Course bring about fearful mental symptoms ?
Q #280: Is there any positive or beneficial form of denial ?

Q #275: I am struggling with the exact meaning of the verb “to extend” in A Course in Miracles. I learn in the Glossary-Index and on page 114 of the text that the laws of mind in the world are different from the laws of mind in the Kingdom: the mind of the world projects and perceives and cannot go beyond this, while the Mind of spirit only extends. Since I am from a non-English-speaking culture, I am struggling to understand what seems to be a very fundamental concept. I would really appreciate your help.

A: As you may have noticed in the Glossary-Index, to extend, or extension, has two levels of meaning in the Course. At the level of knowledge -- the oneness and totality of Heaven or the Kingdom, which the Course says is our only reality -- extension is synonymous with creation (e.g., T.11.I.3:4,5; T.14.V.3:4). But the meaning of neither of these words is comprehensible to our finite minds, since they refer to a totally abstract activity or process of Mind/spirit that has nothing to do with time or space or bodies -- all illusory dimensions of the physical world made by the false ego mind. In Heaven, we are God’s extensions or creations, and like Him, we can extend or create. But even this statement cannot be taken literally, for it suggests that we and God are separate, that He has somehow brought us into being as an entity separate from Him. Because our non-dualistic reality is one, unified, perfect and eternal, extension of that reality cannot involve adding more to it or increasing it in any way that our limited minds would understand (W.pI.105.4:2,3,4,5). And so there is little more to be said about the meaning of extension at this level that would be helpful.

The Course’s other meaning of extension refers to the level of perception, the level of the illusory, dualistic, split mind. The meaning is still somewhat abstract, but a little more comprehensible than at the completely abstract level of knowledge or Heaven. Our experience in the world of time and space and separate bodies is based on the law of mind that governs all thought at this level, the inevitable dynamic that leads us to perceive outside of ourselves the content within our minds that we have chosen to see as real. And there are only two contents to choose between within the split mind: the ego’s guilt or the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness. We see outside ourselves whatever content we have chosen within. If we have chosen the Holy Spirit as the guide for our thoughts, the Course refers to the process as extension. If the ego is our guide, the process is called projection.

The ego seeks to use the dynamic of projection to place the guilt outside of our minds and then to deny its origin in our minds. In other words, rather than seeing the guilt outside us as an extension of the same guilt in our minds -- which it is -- the ego wants us to believe that we can literally project the guilt outside of our minds so that it is now separate from us, thereby supposedly regaining for us the innocence we believe we lost with the thought of separation. And for this defense to work, we have to forget that we projected the guilt from our own mind. Of course, this is not how mind works, for denial does not alter the fact that the mind is indeed the source and “ideas leave not their source” (T.26.VII.4:7,8,9).

The Holy Spirit’s goal, in contrast, is to teach us to recognize the correspondence between what we perceive outside and what content we have chosen in our mind so that we can make an informed choice about what we will extend or project until our split mind is healed. The ego desperately attempts to hide this dynamic from us, for the success of its projection depends on our failing to recognize that we project or extend only our own thoughts (W.pI.30.2). And the ego’s strategy is very successful most of the time, for our anger and judgment reflect our belief that the outside world is indeed independent of us. So the Holy Spirit seeks to reinforce our awareness of the continuity between within and without as a result of extension, while the ego always seeks to deny the source in our mind and assert that what we see outside of ourselves -- guilt -- exists separate from and independent of us. The Course’s purpose is to help us see that the choice of what we extend or project is ours alone -- each with its own consequences for our peace of mind.

Q #276: I belong to a group that meets weekly to study A Course in Miracles. It is essentially a leaderless group, in that we meet at each others' homes, and the host(ess) sets the form and tone of the meeting. Overall, there is an agreement that we will study the Course, and that to understand and practice it is our purpose. However, over the years, it has regularly happened that someone will bring up the ideas put forth elsewhere. Sometimes these thoughts are brought up, discussed, etc., and we're back to the main theme again. Other times, the meeting gets quite sidetracked and the theme becomes decidedly un-Course-like. What to do then? Sometimes one of us will make a comment to get things back on track, and that works fine, but sometimes that comment is clumsy, and others don't make any indication that they support it. Other times no one says anything at all. We have tried, over the years, to make a better definition of our purpose, but our egos have a field day with that, and we have really argued with each other, and at one point part of us split off and formed another group. So, the question I think is, “How can I practice the loving lessons of the Course, when I’m still in the process of learning those lessons?” I will appreciate your comments.

A: Readiness does not mean mastery, Jesus tells us (T.2.VII.7). You simply practice as best you can; then review what happened, bring your mistakes to the love of Jesus, and ask his help to forgive yourself for not being perfect. There actually is no more effective way to learn this Course. The willingness to apply whatever you have learned is all that counts in the end, not how well you applied it. The ego would be thrilled if you put the practice of the Course on hold until you thought you had learned everything. Jesus, on the other hand, just asks that we turn to him and ask his help every step of the way, without judging ourselves. The essence of the process is learning how to trust, and identify with, his loving presence in our minds. He asks us to “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. If you could come without them you would not need the holy instant. Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that you must achieve the state its coming brings with it” (T.18.IV.2:3,4,5,6,7).

There is nothing in the Course about how to conduct group study, and it is not essential to be part of a group in order to learn and practice the Course. If you want to be in a group, however, it can be an excellent opportunity to practice what you have learned about special relationships and the authority problem. You can be there with the Holy Spirit or Jesus guiding you, in which case you would be learning how to perceive your interests as the same as everyone else’s, despite the differences in form and behavior. Or you can be there with the ego, in which case you would be reinforcing the ego’s view that your interests conflict with others’ interests and that the differences among you are serious and meaningful. It is no different than any other special relationship in that sense. You may choose to leave the group and form another one with the ego guiding you -- which will result in condemnation, resentment, frustration, specialness, etc., or with the Holy Spirit or Jesus guiding you -- which will result in your being peaceful, and without judgment of yourself or anyone else.

Q #277: The following answer combines responses to two different but related questions:

a) Since one person's life has many relationship connections, when something devastating happens to that person, many family members’ and friends’ lives are affected. So whose projection of guilt caused this, since many experienced the outcome? Is it everyone's in their life projections or just the person directly involved with the devastating experience? Also, with something like the attack on the World Trade Center, is everyone in the world responsible for this projection of guilt?

b) When A Course in Miracles students, including myself, go to a Course student I know to counsel with him about our problems and dramas, he tells each of us that we are the only one here. I know that there is only one Son of God, but which one is he? It seems confusing that I should think I'm the only one here and yet others also think they're the only ones here. So am I in your dream or are you in mine and who is affecting whom?

A: All events in the world reflect a level of joint decision to experience them among the seemingly separate minds that are apparently affected. But the interpretation of any event in each individual mind is what determines the nature of the experience for that mind. Two individuals can go through the same external event together and one can feel victimized and the other remain at peace because of how they choose to see the event in relationship to themselves, and perhaps, more to the point, how they view themselves. If guilt is real in the mind, external events will be taken personally. If guilt has been released, events can be observed without any personal reaction. This is true whether we are speaking of minor events involving just two people or major world events, such as the attacks of September 11th or the recent war in Iraq.

All that is important in any situation is my own reaction to the events I am experiencing. For this reason, it can be very helpful to eliminate anyone else from the equation and realize I need only be concerned about my own interpretation of what is going on. The one Son of God is not anyone in the world, but the one mind that seems to have fallen asleep and fragmented into billions of seemingly separate, individual dreamers. When you are analyzing one of your night dreams, you are not concerned with what was going on in the minds of the other figures in your dream, for they all simply reflect different aspects of your own mind -- you’re the only one here, but it’s your mind that is the only one here, not your body. And here is not in the world, but in an illusory state of separation. As all of this becomes clearer in your mind, dealing with the so-called events of the world becomes increasingly simple, for the only solution is to turn to the Teacher of peace within, leaving the teacher of separation and guilt behind.

For additional discussion of some of the issues related to joint decision-making in the dream and the levels at which choices are being made, see Question #37 and #233.

Q #278: It has been said that the ego is not real, it is a mouse roaring like a lion, it is just our belief in it that gives it power. So why then when we decide to change our teacher to the Holy Spirit, has it been said the ego becomes vicious? This makes it sound like its an entity that is striking back, like it has a life of its own. Once we change our mind, why does it not render the ego gone? How can the ego become any more vicious than it already is? This makes me confused as to how much power the ego really does have and makes me a little afraid of it getting back at me for wanting to ignore it.

A: The ego is the thought of separation. Though it is not real, it is a thought that is both weak and powerful. It is weak because it is a thought of separation from God that could never happen, and what can never happen has no effect. Yet, it is powerful because belief in it keeps us rooted in hell with love blocked from our awareness, and our minds darkened by guilt. Attachment to our identity with the ego thought system is very strong, which is why the decision to identify with the Holy Spirit is perceived as a threat and causes us to become fearful. It is this fear that motivates attack, as the Course tells us: “… frightened people can be vicious” (T.3.I.4:2, italics ours). Since it is nothing in itself, the ego does not actually become vicious, it does not do anything: “…the whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. Yet the truth is very simple: All power is of God. What is not of Him has no power to do anything” (T.11.V.3:3,4,5,6,7). We cannot do anything worse than what we have already done by taking the thought of separation seriously, thus denying the truth about our Self.

When we choose the Holy Spirit the ego is gone, because we cannot hold two mutually exclusive thoughts in our minds at the same time. The part of the mind that identifies with the ego realizes that if identity with the Holy Spirit is chosen permanently, belief in the separation is no longer possible, and the separated self disappears. Being unwilling to allow the disappearance of the self, the separation thought is chosen once again in the insane belief that it will have a different outcome -- that happiness will be found in separation and specialness. There is nothing more painful or more vicious in our experience than the repeated choice for separation. It is important to remember that this is a choice we make. It is not something that the ego does to us.

We are not asked to ignore the ego or this choice; we are asked to look at it and uncover all the ego’s schemes. Only by looking will we become aware of our responsibility for choosing to believe the ego’s lies, and realize the price we pay for this choice. The Course tells us this is the source of all pain: “The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its effect” (T.28.III.5:1). Although it is a death blow to the ego and may be perceived as painful, choosing the Holy Spirit, whose thought system undoes the separation, is the only way out of pain. When the confusion you mention comes upon you it may be helpful to consider this beautiful reminder from Jesus: “Ours is simply the journey back to God Who is our home. Whenever fear intrudes anywhere along the road to peace, it is because the ego has attempted to join the journey with us and cannot do so. Sensing defeat and angered by it, the ego regards itself as rejected and becomes retaliative. You are invulnerable to its retaliation because I am with you” (T.8.V.5:4,5,6,7).

Q #279: I know that, as A Course in Miracles says, all illness is a defense against truth. Are you aware of any case of someone who, after many years of continuous study and practice of the Course, started to feel an abstract fear of this apparent reality, like losing his mind -- agoraphobic-like symptoms?

A: It is not surprising that fear may appear to become more intense as we work with the Course over time. We are after all in the process of removing all the many defenses we have constructed to minimize fear in our awareness and to disguise it as other seemingly more manageable feelings, such as anger or excitement.

Jesus is well aware that our fear will seem to increase over time as we study and apply his Course: “You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. There is no death, but there is a belief in death” (T.3.VII.5:9,10,11). And later in the text: “As the light comes nearer you will rush to darkness, shrinking from the truth, sometimes retreating to the lesser forms of fear, and sometimes to stark terror” (T.18.III.2:1).

The form that our increased fear may take will in most cases keep our focus on the external world and on threat to the body’s life and well-being, since that is the identity as egos we are trying to maintain. Agoraphobia is certainly a specific form in which the fear could be expressed, as the experience of oneness that the Course is leading us towards is one of no limits or boundaries -- the ultimate spaciousness, if you will.

No matter what form the fear takes, the answer is always the same. All fear ultimately comes from the belief that we have attacked and destroyed love and that we will be attacked and destroyed in return. If we can quiet our minds just enough to ask for help, joining with the presence of love that has remained always there despite our beliefs, we will know that love cannot be destroyed, and so neither the guilt of attack nor the punishment we have believed it calls for are true. In the words that conclude the introduction to the text, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God” (T.in.2:2,3,4).

You do not say whether this is simply a theoretical question you are asking or whether you are describing your own or someone else’s actual experience. If the latter is the case, should the symptoms persist and continue to be unsettling and problematic, it is always a wise course of action to see a professional therapist for help in alleviating the symptoms.

Q #280: Is there a positive form of denial? Would denying the countless, tiny, fearful, negative thoughts that bombard me throughout the day be one way of applying, in practical terms, what Jesus calls, “Denial of Error”?

A: It depends on what you mean by denying. If you mean that you are aware that they are there and that you (as the decision maker) are responsible for them, but then you deny their power to take away your peace or change your reality as God’s Son, then you are using denial in a helpful, positive way. Then you would be denying the error, or denying the denial of truth (T.12.II.1:5). The mistake we all made was to take the “tiny, mad idea” of separation seriously, instead of smiling at the silliness and insanity of believing that we could exist as separate individuals apart from God (T.27.VIII.6). We repeat this mistake every time we judge our ego thoughts to be so awful and so bothersome that we need to repress them or escape from them. We correct that mistake every time we look squarely at our ego thoughts, and remember that the only power they have is the power we give to them by our belief that they define us and that they can truly affect us. So that we don’t skip steps, then, we first must deny their seeming power. And we can do that most effectively by looking at them with the love of Jesus next to us. As that love becomes more and more real to us, our ego thoughts will become less and less real to us. And then one day we will simply regard them as meaningless, as we will have finally accepted the love of Jesus as the only reality in our minds.

Weekly Questions and Answers 10/01/2003

2006-11-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #269: How do pets return to God ?.
Q #270: About the existence of the ego
Q #271: How can we develop our relationship with Jesus?
Q #272: A basic explanation of forgiveness.
Q #273: Is Lucifer a symbol for the separation?
Q #274: Is suicide ever an acceptable decision?

Q #269: In reference to Question #134 about pets being part of the Sonship, since pets, whatever form they take, are incapable of reason, how do they get back to the Oneness of God. Are we responsible for their return?

A: The question you ask makes sense to us, self-identified as bodies. But the question is based on a faulty premise, that it is the brains in our bodies that understand and reason and decide. It is the collective mind -- of which our individual mind is a fragment -- outside of time and space that is projecting the figures that we each identify as ourselves within the dream of the world, And that same mind is projecting the figures of the animals, as well as the plants and the rocks, etc.

An analogy may help. When you watch a movie, you are looking at one single picture (actually a series of individual pictures in succession, creating the illusion of movement, time and causality on the screen, but that is another subject) projected onto the screen in front of you from the film running through the projector. But your mind separates out figures on the screen and generally focuses on those that may be seen as human and makes the idea of individual bodies real in front of you, even though the total screen image is a single projection. Any figures of animals, or bushes and trees, or furniture, or buildings and other scenery that are also being projected onto the screen are really no different from the figures you identify as human. They are all simply shadows of varying colors and shapes, made by the film blocking the light that is extending from the projector, producing various patterns on the screen that you interpret as real. It is the interpretation that you give your perception of those images that gives them their meaning to you.

If you want to make any changes to the figures that are being projected on the screen, the process is always the same. None of the seemingly separate figures on the screen have any more or less power than any others to effect changes on the screen. They are all the effect of what is being decided by the projectionist in the projection booth -- it is there that the power of decision rests for what will be seen on the screen. If you are the projectionist in the booth, you can decide on a different film, or you can decide you are no longer interested in the projections on the screen and want to return to your life outside the movie theater. Now it makes no difference which figure you may have been identifying with on the screen -- an image of a human, or a dog, or even a rock -- when you pull your attention back from the screen to the film and the projector, you realize that it is all one projection. And all the figures that seemed separate and alive on the screen just disappear into the light when they are no longer being projected. The equivalence of all projected forms in the world is reflected in Jesus’ observation: "How holy is the smallest grain of sand, when it is recognized as being part of the completed picture of God’s Son! (T.28.IV.9:4).

Now there are certainly limits on the analogy, but the point is that no decisions are being made by figures on the screen of the world that we see ourselves in -- neither humans nor animals nor plants nor minerals. Thinking we are here on the screen rather than back in the mind is simply a trick we are playing on ourselves to convince ourselves that the separation is real. But the mind, when it no longer wants to project the shadows of guilt out onto the screen of the world, can pull back the projections and allow the light that has always been there in the mind simply to extend. And that is the return to Oneness. And since minds are joined, when we make that decision for ourselves, we make it for the whole Sonship (T.14.III.9:3,4,5). And the realization is that none of us ever left in reality, and so return has never really been necessary.

For further related discussions on mind-brain, animals, and choice, see Questions #117 and #211.

Q #270: The answer to Question #10 does not feel as right to me as the rest I have read on this site. It says that to answer questions i-iii justifies the ego’s existence and I agree. But if you give that answer to this specific question, I believe that answer should then be given to all the questions submitted, and to any question on A Course in Miracles. Just by typing words or acknowledging the Course you are acknowledging the ego’s existence, since words and all things of this world never are 100% truthful (or knowledge) and must then be "not God."

My point is that everything "here" is not valid so why not try to answer this question when other equally invalid questions are being answered. The Course says there is no difference in the magnitude of any beliefs "here" -- they are all of the same illusion. But the ego seems to get some sort of extra importance which is not to be questioned and answered in the same manner as other parts in the book. My feeling is that the Course simply does not give as clear an answer about the ego’s existence as it does to other issues, and it should just be acknowledged that we do not know about the origins of the ego -- it is unclear

A: Did your nonexistent ego put you up to that? Very clever! But the Course is very explicit about the ego’s origin and existence -- it can have no origin because it doesn’t exist, it is not real. The Atonement principle, upon which the Course’s forgiveness process is based, asserts the unreality of the ego -- the thought of separation -- in very definite terms. Consider the following:

"The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred. The ego cannot prevail against this because it is an explicit statement that the ego never occurred" (T.6.II.10:7,8; italics in original).

"Atonement corrects illusions, not truth. Therefore, it corrects what never was.…The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God's Son, in that same instant was God's Answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all" (M.2.2:2,3,6,7,8; italics added).

The Course would not be true to its basic metaphysical principles about what is real and what is illusory if it provided any answer that accepts and affirms the ego’s existence. However, from that it does not follow that every answer to any other question addressing aspects of the ego must also be affirming its existence. The key, as the Course emphasizes repeatedly (e.g., T.IV.5.6:7,8,9; T.17.VI.2:1,2), is what is the purpose: does the answer further reinforce a belief in the ego, or does it in some way begin to undo that belief? Clearly, to explain the ego’s origins, or even to say its origins are clouded in mystery, would be to affirm its existence.

But to explain what a belief in the ego entails and how that belief can be undone through the practice of forgiveness is not an affirmation of the ego’s existence. It is simply a very practical way to begin to undo the illusion. Here we find a major contribution of the Course to the world’s spiritualities. For it does not ask us to deny our experience of ourselves as separate but it nevertheless offers us a way out of our conundrum of mistaken beliefs. All of us, by the very fact that we believe we are here, are screaming, "The ego is real and I am my ego!" Jesus knows he has to meet us where we believe we are and use what we have made real to show us in the end that none of it is real. If he did not, we could not bridge the gap between false belief and truth on our own.

The Course never attempts to change the ego (T.22.V.1:1,2,3,4,5,6), because it does not acknowledge its existence. But it does attempt to change our belief in the ego. The only thought that does not reinforce belief in the ego is forgiveness. Forgiveness, as noted above, rests on the Atonement principle, which uses the ego’s own words to state that the separation, the ego, never happened.

And true to its metaphysical underpinnings, the Course makes no claim that forgiveness has any more reality than the ego. In fact, Jesus explicitly includes it within the domain of the illusory: "Forgiveness might be called a kind of happy fiction; a way in which the unknowing can bridge the gap between their perception and the truth.…they need an illusion of help because they are helpless" (C.3.2:1;3:1; italics added).

So the whole practice of the Course is never directed at modifying the ego -- that would make it real -- but rather at stepping back and looking at the ego and all the consequences of believing in it, until we come to recognize that none of it is real. And then the question of where the ego has come from can no longer even be asked. But while we believe it is real, Jesus will gently help us see it all differently.

Q #271: How can we develop our relationship with Jesus or the Holy Spirit, and perceive them as a reflection of Love, so we can look, with them, at our ego thought system without judgment?

A: A relationship with the Holy Spirit or Jesus begins with the honest recognition that all our efforts to make ourselves truly happy and to find peace on our own terms have failed. As long as we think we can find our way back home to God by our own devices, we will not truly seek the help of those who represent the memory of Him in our minds. When we are willing to acknowledge our failure, we come to the point where we can say sincerely: "I do not understand the world, and so to try to lead my life alone must be but foolishness. But there is One Who knows all that is best for me" (W.242.1:2,3).This is the birth of the relationship with Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are the symbols of the part of our minds that reflects the memory of God, but because we believe we are separate bodies we perceive them as "persons" who are separate from us, and we relate to them accordingly. This is necessary as long as we continue to identify with the body.

Since A Course in Miracles comes from the same part of the mind of the Sonship that Jesus and the Holy Spirit represent, studying and applying the Course teaching is also a way in which we relate to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our relationship with them develops as we deepen our understanding of the true nature of the ego thought system in all its apparent devastation, and we realize that we cannot embark on its undoing without help. From this acknowledgment comes our cry for help. It comes to us in the form of Jesus or the Holy Spirit reminding us that we are mistaken, and in need of a different way of looking at every situation and relationship we find ourselves in. The effectiveness of the help is commensurate with our willingness to seek and accept their perception. This is what is meant by listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice rather than the ego’s, and in doing so we practice what the Course asks: "Resign now as your own teacher" (T.12.V.8:3). The Course tells us later in the text: "Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught" (T.28.I.7:1). It is clear, therefore, that in order for our relationship with Jesus or the Holy Spirit to be meaningful and have results, it must be based on the willingness to unlearn everything we have taught ourselves. This is what we find so difficult, and it is what limits our relationship with Them. Looking at what we have taught ourselves with Them means looking at the beliefs we hold with willingness to first question them, and eventually let them go. Looking with the intent to uncover what was hidden so it can be healed is looking without judgment. We are not asked to do this perfectly; only to do it as best we can. In itself it is loving because it initiates the process of undoing the ego thought system, which is what will lead us back home to God. With this as our goal, Jesus and the Holy Spirit become kind and loving guides on our journey.

Q #272: As a newcomer to A Course in Miracles, I am sure you have answered this lots of times. When the Course speaks of forgiveness it refers to: (my paraphrase) what you think has happened, has not. No one has ever hurt anyone or done anything terrible. My mind goes on tilt. Are the facts of a past situation just illusions? If there is a clear written pamphlet or paper on the subject, I would appreciate a reference.

A: Forgiveness, as it is presented in A Course in Miracles, can be understood only within the framework of the metaphysics of non-dualism; otherwise it will make no sense, and its meaning will be distorted and made indistinguishable from the more traditional meanings. It cannot be detached from what the Course teaches is the origin and purpose of the world and our seeming presence in the world as individual bodies with a past, present, and future. The Course’s understanding of forgiveness is unique and follows logically from this base, but it is difficult to put into practice because our lives and experience are based on premises that are the opposite of what the Course teaches.

In order to "forgive your brother for what he has not done," we must -- at least intellectually -- begin to accept that all anger and all feelings of victimization are projections of our own unconscious guilt, which itself comes from a belief that we have sinned by attacking God so that we could have our own individual lives. All of that is illusory, of course; but because we think we are individuals, those premises are still present in our minds. Having made that sinfulness real, and not wanting to give up our individual identities and return to the oneness of God, we then deny the sin and project responsibility for it onto something outside us. Thus, the guilt that we projected is now in others who are perceived as mean, hateful, violent, insensitive, selfish, etc., and we are the innocent victims. The "we" in all of this is always the decision-making mind outside time and space, which has been forgotten and replaced in our awareness by a self that seems to exist in time and space.

That in barest outline is the origin of our perception and feeling that we or others have been unfairly treated, victimized, etc. There obviously is a lot more to these dynamics, but this at least begins to give you some idea of how the Course’s theory of forgiveness evolved. We can see from just this much, though, that the only reason we would experience ourselves as unfairly treated is so that we would be able to say that someone else is guilty. This does not mean that we are to deny the "facts" of the external events. The Course is talking exclusively about how we experience them. That is the key. Perceiving yourself as unfairly treated is an interpretation coming from an unconscious need to perceive the situation that way. (Question #262 discusses this in the context of Jesus’ own view of the crucifixion.) We are not aware of those dynamics, but not being aware of them is an integral part of the ego’s strategy of projection.

The first step in the process of forgiveness, therefore, is reversing the projection and its effects. This means recognizing that what we have attacked and judged in someone else is what we have first condemned in ourselves. It is recognizing that our projected anger is a decision we made to avoid our own guilt by seeing it in someone else. Again, this does not mean denying what someone else has done, nor does it mean that you should not do something about it. The second step entails understanding that the guilt, too, represents a decision, which is now brought back into our awareness and reconsidered. Instead of choosing to identify with the ego’s thought system of guilt, we choose instead to identify with the Holy Spirit’s thought system of guiltlessness. This paves the way for the third step, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the first two steps of forgiveness represent our decision to allow the Holy Spirit to do His healing work within us. But the Holy Spirit can take away our guilt only when we have withdrawn our investment in it. Once our guilt is gone -- even for just an instant -- we are identified only with love and kindness, and we would not take anything personally. That love and kindness alone would flow through us as we respond behaviorally in the situation, and therefore our response would automatically be what is most loving for all concerned. Behaviorally, it might appear the same as anyone else’s response; but the content would be love. In terms of our spiritual progress, that is all that matters.

These steps are described in two places in the Course: T.5.VII.6:7,9,10,11; W.pI.23.5:1,2,3,4.

Brief summaries and explanations of the Course’s approach to forgiveness are found in two of our publications: Forgiveness and Jesus: The Meeting Place of "A Course in Miracles" and Christianity, Chapter 2; A Talk Given on "A Course in Miracles: An Introduction," Chapter 4: "Anger-Forgiveness." Finally, if you have had a chance to read some of the other questions and answers, you probably have run across several applications of these principles.

Q #273: In the Bible it speaks of Lucifer the fallen angel. Is that a symbolic expression of our separation from God? When the Bible speaks of hell is that also another symbolic expression of our living in this nightmare on earth that we think is real?

A: Neither the Bible, nor traditional Christianity, refers to Lucifer or hell as a symbols. In Biblical terms Lucifer was the leader of the angels who refused submission to God, and hell is viewed as an actual place of punishment where those who reject God are doomed to an eternity in God’s absence. The teaching of the Bible is based on beliefs that are not similar to the principles of A Course in Miracles. Since the Course teaches that the separation never really happened (T.6.II.10), it follows that it cannot have any symbolic expression. The separation is a thought in the mind of the Sonship of something that could never occur in reality. It becomes a "reality" in our awareness when we choose to take it seriously and to believe it is real. Guilt over this choice is then projected out of the mind in the form of the physical universe, which is made to keep God out: "Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him" (W.pII.3:4). Since hell is defined as the absence of God, the world becomes hell in our experience; not a symbolic expression of it. The Course is very clear that God cannot be found in this world of form. However, when an individual chooses to identify with the part of the mind that holds the memory of God, the world becomes a reflection of that choice, and is no longer perceived as hell: "The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity and endless giving. It is now so like to Heaven that it quickly is transformed into the light that it reflects" (W.249.1:5,6).

The important distinction for students of the Course to make is that because separation from God is not possible, there is no hell, there are no "fallen angels," nor a world where God can enter not. The sick mind that believes in separation makes them real; the healed mind knows they are not.

Q #274: Do you think that, in the view of A Course in Miracles, there could be a point in some scripts where suicide would be considered in keeping with the "gentle laying aside of the body" when use for it is done?

A: It seems unlikely that suicide would be the means for the "quiet choice" (S.3.II.2:1) for death when "the end has come for usefulness of body functioning" (S.3.II.1:10), if by suicide you mean deliberately directing an action against the body for the purpose of causing its apparent death. If the "choice" represents the simple recognition of the end of the body’s purpose in the world of form, the body would simply no longer seem to be infused with "life" and a whole variety of so-called natural or accidental causes could be seen in the world’s view as the cause of the death. But any action seemingly taken by the body against itself for the purpose of intentionally bringing about its death would only serve to reinforce the belief that the body is real and is a cause and not an effect, not only in the mind of the individual committing the suicide, but also in the minds of others learning of the suicide. This is not likely to be a helpful lesson for anyone. Furthermore, if the one committing suicide has any sense of the death as an escape from physical or emotional limitations and problems, there would remain lessons unlearned in the mind that would still need to be addressed in another lifetime, since limitations never originate in the body or in the world.

Now it is also true according to the Course that everything that seems to happen to us, including our seeming death, is chosen by the mind (e.g., T.21.II.2:3,4,5; W.pI.152.1). And each decision may be directed by either the ego or the Holy Spirit, either to reinforce guilt or to help undo it through the relinquishment of judgment and attack thoughts. And so there may be circumstances in which a choice for suicide could reflect a right-minded decision -- although it would not be the simple laying aside of the body when its usefulness is over. Suicide is after all simply another form of magic intended to change the dream and take away pain, similar in content if not form to taking aspirin to get rid of a headache. So, for example, one who still believes in the reality of the body and its pain, who is racked with a physically devastating illness, might choose, without judgment or guilt, to commit suicide in order to escape the apparent pain of the disease-ridden body. It is not the final lesson that could have been learned, but there is no sin in choosing to postpone the lesson when the fear level is too high, which the intense physical pain would reflect. And if the suicide were done with the recognition that it is not God’s Will that we suffer and that death is not final, the experience could reflect further steps along the Atonement path. Purpose, after all, is all that ever matters in every choice we make (T.4.V.6:7,8,9).

See also Question #135 for a much more in-depth discussion of suicide from the perspective of A Course in Miracles.

Weekly Questions and Answers 09/24/2003

2006-11-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #263: Can we get in touch with the original thought of separation?
Q #264: Where exactly are the decision maker, and the Holy Spirit, in the theoretical picture?
Q #265: Why do you sell a picture of a blue-eyed blonde-haired Jesus?
Q #266: What is the script and what part does choice play in it ?
Q #267: If fear is never justified, should people in frightening situations feel no fear ?
Q #268: I understand the Course intellectually but do not feel more peaceful

Q #263: I know that it isn't necessary, but is it possible to get in touch with the original thought of separation? Are there students of A Course in Miracles who have been aware of that thought in their mind?

A: The first important consideration, in answer to your question, is the fact that the separation never really happened: “The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred” (T.6.II.10:7). No one can get in touch with an ancient moment of actual separation from God, because there is no actual separation from God. The only explanation for our seeming existence in the world is that we are dreaming a dream of separation. Even here in the dream the ancient memory is not accessible: “Time really, then, goes backward to an instant so ancient that it is beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering” (M.2.4:1). It is a dream in which the choice to make the thought of separation real is being continually relived. In this sense, there is only one thought of separation. Each time we choose to identify with the thought of separation that same original thought is being played out: “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 [the choice to believe that the separation is real]” (T.26.V.13:1,2). One of the most poignant ways to recognize the separation thought in action is to see ourselves insist on being right. The specific forms vary, and do not matter; any insistence in defense of any belief is the result of having taken the thought of separation seriously. It is the ego’s tantrum making a declaration of separation in that very moment. It is this thought acted out in the present that we need to get in touch with, so it can be healed. This is what the Course asks us to practice by asking us to “question every value that [we] hold” (T.24.in.2:1). Every thought or belief we have has its roots in the thought of separation. The separation is undone as we learn to see it reflected back to us in the “rightness” of our judgments, with the willingness to take responsibility for them and question their validity. Doing this will open the way for us to seek and to accept the Holy Spirit’s correct interpretation of the separation thought, which is that it is not real, and has had no effect: “The tiny instant you would keep and make eternal, passed away in Heaven too soon for anything to notice it had come…not one note in Heaven's song was missed” (T.26.V.5:1,4).

Q #264: A clear picture of the theoretical foundations of A Course in Miracles for me is an essential base to get into practice. Therefore I’m studying the chart on your Web site http://www.facim.org/acim/theory.htm.

[1] I see the realms: one-mindedness, wrong-mindedness and right-mindedness. Which realm is the “decision maker” in? Does it dwell somewhere between wrong- and right-mindedness? Or do you see it more as a “part” of one of these realms?

[2] It is irritating to see the Holy Spirit between truth and illusion and to see the Holy Spirit in the following description of the Trinity as belonging to one-mindedness. I have more a picture in my mind that sees the Holy Spirit as a part of the illusory world -- namely the right-mind -- pointing out of it towards truth -- or perhaps just being this right-minded world -- and thus fulfilling a mediating role between wrong-mindedness and one-mindedness. Looking at the Trinity I see God and Christ in the one-minded realm and the Holy Spirit in the right-minded realm. That view makes it possible for the “me that lives in duality” to accept the idea that the Holy Spirit is a part of me. These ideas seem to contradict what is shown on http://ww.facim.org/acim/theory.htm. Can you help me in clearing up these thoughts?

A: 1) The decision maker is the part of the mind that chooses to identify with either the ego’s thought system or the Holy Spirit’s thought system. It is never neutral; it is always choosing one or the other. On the chart it would be located on the Level Two section right in the middle, above the wrong mind / right mind boxes.

2) Within the illusion, the Holy Spirit represents the Atonement principle in our right minds. He is described in many ways by Jesus, who shares His function of helping us climb back up the ladder separation led us down. When you, as a decision-making mind outside time and space, choose once and for all to let go of the ego and identify completely with your right mind, then you become the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the same as Jesus. You would know that this is your only identity and the ego thought system of separation and individuality would be seen as totally meaningless. So the Holy Spirit is most definitely part of you, the part of your mind that contains the memory of God and your true Identity as Christ, with which you (as a decision-making mind) can choose to identify at any given instant.

There are two passages in particular that indicate that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity and also functions as mediator: “And then the Voice [the Holy Spirit] is gone, no longer to take form but to return to the eternal Formlessness of God” (C.6.5:8). Similarly, in the text, he tells us: “The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind which is aware of the knowledge that lies beyond perception. He came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the Atonement principle at the same time. Before that there was no need for healing, for no one was comfortless. The Voice of the Holy Spirit is the Call to Atonement, or the restoration of the integrity of the mind. When the Atonement is complete and the whole Sonship is healed there will be no Call to return. But what God creates is eternal. The Holy Spirit will remain with the Sons of God, to bless their creations and keep them in the light of joy” (T.5.I.5:4,5,6,7).

Finally, it is helpful to keep in mind when studying the chart that we are trying to diagram what is illusory (the mind that separated from God), and also what lies totally beyond form (God, Christ, and His creations). So while charts are useful teaching aides, they can never perfectly depict the thought systems discussed in the Course, which themselves are illusory.

Q #265: Although I really love your questions and answers I have such issues with the blonde blue eyed Jesus picture you're selling. As a black woman I do not identify with it at all. Why do you sell it -- wasn't he Mediterranean anyway!

A: The picture of Jesus that the Foundation makes available is not meant to be the likeness of the historical Jesus. Obviously no image of him is available. The voice that Helen Schucman heard and identified as Jesus’ voice is not associated with a body at all. So in neither case is the Foundation offering an image that can be said to actually portray Jesus in form. The image you refer to was used as the cover of one of the Foundation’s publications “Forgiveness and Jesus” by Kenneth Wapnick, and was made available to the public by request. The original painting by Howard Chandler Christy was later given to the Foundation. Some people like it, though it is certainly not appealing to everyone. You may find there is another representation of Jesus in form that you find inspiring and helps you to relate to Jesus in a more personal way. However, it is important for students of the Course not to confuse the voice Helen Schucman heard and identified as Jesus’, with the Jesus of traditional Christianity, nor to associate it with any particular image in form. The Course uses the term Jesus and the Holy Spirit as symbols reflecting the part of the mind of the Sonship that holds the memory of God. They are not real persons: “The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do” (C.5.2:1,2,3). However, as long as we believe we are individuals in bodies, it is helpful for us to relate to these symbols as persons in any specific form that is meaningful. This is what the Course refers to when it tells us: “You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you recognize” (T.18.VIII.1:7). Jesus himself joins with us in our perception of the body: “Reach, therefore, for my hand because you want to transcend the ego” (T.8.V.6:8, italics ours).

Q #266: What exactly is the script and what part does choice play in it? Are all events fixed because these are lessons we have chosen to learn and the choice is only in seeing everything with the Holy Spirit? Or is there a further choice in which we can actually change the script, i.e., avoid, accelerate, rearrange, omit, reorder, add situations, events, relationships, etc.? And, if the mind has been healed in certain aspects, would it then mean that certain corresponding events in the script would not come up? And would we know it? And does this have anything to do with forgiveness?

A: The script (W.p.I.158.4:3) refers to all the seeming events that could possibly be played out on the ego’s screen -- the world of time and space. All these events are fixed in the sense that they are already written. In fact, they have already happened although, A Course in Miracles tells us, in reality they never even happened at all, since the thought of separation and the consequent guilt from which they all originate is itself a fiction. In that instant of separation, everything -- every dream, every possible ego choice -- occurred and instantly was corrected by the Holy Spirit. But we who seem still to be caught in time and space have not yet accepted that correction into our minds and so, as fragmented parts of that one ego mind, continue to project our specific scripts of guilt out onto the world we made as the screen for those projections (M.2.2,3,4).

And so we now seem to have a choice as to which of all the myriad, nearly infinite number of ego events we shall review, although we generally accept certain constraints on our choices once we select a specific identity in a specific lifetime. But there are still many choices on the level of form that can be made in each moment. This range of options (from the fixed pool of possibilities) is all part of the ego’s seductiveness, as it tries to persuade us to continue to believe that if we can only choose the right forms in the right combination -- the right relationship, the right career, the right place to live, the right investment, the right lottery numbers, etc. -- we can be happy. What the ego always attempts to keep hidden is the underlying content of those choices, which must be sin, guilt and fear, based as they all are in the belief in separation and separate interests (T.29.IV.2,3).

It is the Holy Spirit’s task to teach us that the only really meaningful choice we can make in time is to allow His purpose to guide us in each of our moments of decision, so that we will use them to awaken from the dream rather than to continue dreaming in search of the “perfect” ego dream in which all our specialness needs are met. And that means we are willing to release our own judgments about how things should be, which is what it means to practice forgiveness (T.29.IV.5,6).

Generally, in any one lifetime, there is a specific victimization theme that recurs within or across relationships. It may be a theme of betrayal or abandonment or rejection or abuse or neglect, etc. Since each theme represents nothing more than the specific form of projected guilt over our buried self-accusation of how we attacked God in the moment of separation, it must recur in our lives until we are willing to withdraw the projection and heal that aspect of guilt in our own mind, rather than seeing it outside ourselves. And that is what the Course means by forgiveness.

Once the guilt behind a specific form of victimization has been uncovered and released, we will no longer need to project it outside our mind. We may or may not be aware of this inner shift as mirrored in our external relationships, although we may at some point have a realization that we are no longer being triggered by external happenings in the way we had been in the past. There would certainly no longer be any ego-based motivation to select such specific victim scripts anymore to hide our guilt.

For further related discussions on scripts and choice, you may also wish to review Questions #37, #190, and #233

Q #267: I am on Lesson 240 in the workbook of A Course in Miracles. In my words, it says that fear, in any case, is never justified. I am wondering about the people in the jets on September 11th, being aware that they were going to crash against the towers. Couldn’t they feel panic or fear, anyway?

A: Yes, by all means. It would be strange if they did not feel panic or fear. To say that fear is never justified is not the same as saying we should not feel fearful. Similarly, Jesus says that anger is never justified (T.6.I.4), and that we are never justified in perceiving ourselves unfairly treated (T.26.X.3,4). The essence of his gentle teaching is that when we become aware that we are feeling fearful -- to stay with your example -- we should not try to justify it by attributing the cause to something external, even though that is our experience. As we practice our lessons of forgiveness over a period of many years, we will become more comfortable in acknowledging that fear always comes from ego identification, regardless of what is going on externally. When our minds are healed -- when we let go of the ego entirely -- we will never experience ourselves as vulnerable or under threat, because we will have perceived the body correctly -- as simply the projection of a thought of guilt and fear in our minds. We will know that we are as God created us, and that nothing can alter that Identity. These ideas are also found in Lesson 160, “I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.”

So when Jesus says in Lesson 240 that “fear is self-deception,” he is speaking from the perspective of a healed mind. When we truly know and accept that “not one thing in this world is true,” we would never again be afraid or even upset, regardless of the circumstances. This is a slow, gentle process that begins with our simply saying the words we have read in the Course, “next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally to be accepted as the truth” (W.pII.284.1:5,6).

Finally, it may be comforting to remember that Helen Schucman experienced intense fear long after she completed the scribing of the Course. One episode in particular led to the sublimely beautiful and instructive prose poem, “The Gifts of God,” which appears as the final piece in the collection of her published poetry called The Gifts of God. This poem actually was a special message from Jesus meant to help Helen with her fear. (See Absence from Felicity, pp. 402, 403,404 for a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding this message.) Nowhere in this poem does Jesus tell Helen that she has failed in some way because she is experiencing so much fear. In some of the most inspiring and moving material Helen received from Jesus -- which obviously applies to all of us -- Jesus helps her to understand the true nature of her fear and how to get beyond it.

Q #268: I finished reading the text and started the workbook of A Course in Miracles about two weeks ago. I haven't experienced any great resistance that I am aware of and most of the ideas of the Course ring true to me. However, there does not seem to be much apparent progress with my feeling peaceful and not taking the illusion seriously. I suspect I may be accepting A Course in Miracles only on a superficial intellectual level, missing its goal in the mind. Would you recommend anything to me other than proceeding with the exercises and hoping that it will eventually work?

A: Jesus acknowledges uncertainty such as yours, “You are very new in the ways of salvation, and think you have lost your way” (T.17.V.9:1). But he also reassures all of us, “The outcome is as certain as God” (T.2.III.3:10). Your uncertainty is not surprising in light of the fact that the Course is attempting to help us unlearn a massive defensive system upon which our complete false identity as an individual physical self with its own unique personality is both based and protected. The fact that you may be willing to hear and accept at an intellectual level what it is teaching does not mean that your mind is totally aligned with putting all of what it says into practice. It would be very unusual, in fact, if you had that total willingness and, if it came that easily for you, you probably would not need the Course.

You may not have intellectual resistance to the Course’s radical ideas, but you no doubt have resistance to its practical application at a deeper level since you are not yet experiencing the greater peace this path promises. But again, that is not unexpected. So simply be patient with yourself and allow yourself to hear Jesus’ message more deeply as you practice his workbook lessons. And recognize that this almost certainly will take time for, as Jesus says at the end of the workbook, “This course is a beginning, not an end” (W.ep.1:1).

The exercises should help you begin to see the many different forms in which your resistance shows up. Just noticing how much of the day you spend judging and condemning yourself and others can be very helpful in identifying the resistance, as your recognition of the purpose of those separation thoughts deepens, as well as their consequences -- the guilt and lack of peace (e.g., W.pI.21, 22, 23, 26, 34). A key will be that you not simply evaluate the ideas in terms of whether they make sense to you and you accept them, which is a part of the process, but that you consider how they are actually reflected in your thinking as you experience your day. This is one of the goals of the workbook lessons, bringing the Course out of the realm of the theoretical to the level of application (W.in.1).

And as you look more deeply, uncovering the buried guilt in your mind, it will be helpful to remember that there is also a loving Presence within your mind -- the Course uses the names Jesus and Holy Spirit for this Presence -- that you will want to remember to invite to be a part of the looking process. Increasing your awareness of that presence, reflecting a choice for forgiveness rather than judgment, is another very practical purpose of the workbook (e.g., W.pI.30, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50).

And, perhaps most importantly, do not try to evaluate your progress with the Course -- none of us is in a position to do that (T.18.V.1). All the Course asks of us is a little willingness, promising us that if we will do our part, which is simply to look at what we have made real in our minds and its cost, the rest will be provided (T.18.IV). What more could we ask for?

Weekly Questions and Answers 09/17/2003

2006-10-31T12:58:00.001-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #258: Is forgiveness a process, or a one-time action?.
Q #259: Why does the Course appear to predict the progress of my learning?
Q #260: Does the body really die and does the soul live on?
Q #261: Can I use a central loving figure other than Jesus ?
Q #262: Please explain "Swear not to die, you holy Son of God" ?

Q #258: I have been trying to forgive a major person in my life for some time now, both prior to starting A Course in Miracles and, with more focus, since beginning it. As a result, there have been times when I seem to have let go of much of my grievance, but then something triggers the hurt, and it all comes raging back again. Sometimes it feels like I'm just lopping off the top of this poisonous weed of grievance, rather than pulling it out by the roots. What advice would you have in such a situation? Should I see forgiveness as a process, or is it an either/or, once and for all decision? And if the latter, how do I finally make it?

A: Your metaphor for how you are pulling weeds is an apt one. You’re not yet getting to the root of the problem so long as you keep your focus on the other person, for that is playing into what Jesus refers to in the Song of Prayer pamphlet as “forgiveness-to-destroy” (S.2.II). The ego’s version of forgiveness is to make sin real in someone else and then attempt to “forgive” it. As you’re finding, this just does not work. But that of course is always the ego’s goal -- “Seek, but do not find” (T.16.V.6:5).

The Course, in contrast, is attempting to lead you towards an experience of true forgiveness in which you recognize that “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred” (W.pII.1:1). In the metaphysical sense, this is true at the level of the actual behavior you are holding against this other person, since we are the dreamer of our dream and we assign the roles to the figures in our dream. But the more practical level to understand Jesus’ meaning is to recognize that it is your interpretation of what this other person has done that is the cause of your anger and your grievance, and not what the person actually has done (M.17.4). You are blaming this person at some level for robbing you of your peace, love, joy, security, etc. But no one can deprive us of any of these experiences unless we have first chosen to give them away (T4.IV.3:3). So the good news is that we don’t have to change what the other person has done, which, of course, we can’t do anyway. We only need help with changing our interpretation of what has happened. How do we do that?

What most of us are not in touch with is that we carry within our minds a huge burden of unacknowledged guilt that unconsciously controls our interpretations of all our interactions by dictating that we seek and find guilt in everyone but ourselves (T.19.IV.B.i.12). The source of our guilt is the mistaken belief, which we cling to, that we have established a separate individual existence apart from God, at His expense. And the cost to Him has been His total annihilation. Guilt at such a horrendous offense is unimaginable, and so our defense is to project it outside of our minds. Our anger at someone else then is always our attempt to justify seeing the guilt of separation outside of us, thus obscuring the projection we are making (T.6.in.1:2).

All of us are trying to do exactly the same thing. We are all walking around with intense guilt, covered over with a seething rage that is our attempt to deny the guilt within and see it outside. We may try to put a nice, socially appropriate face of innocence on all of this (T.31.V.2), but the anger, and the guilt fueling it, are always bubbling just below the surface. And there they will remain, affecting all our interactions, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, until we are willing to do the challenging and difficult work of looking within, past the anger to the guilt buried beneath it. So forgiveness then really has nothing to do with the other person, which explains in part our resistance to practicing it. For, rather than justifying our anger, if we really want to heal, Jesus is asking us to recognize that our grievances are nothing more than a cover for our guilt. Anger then becomes a signal that there is a dark place within our mind. And Jesus helps us see that our guilt, like our anger, is not what it appears to be. It only seems real and heavy and serious while it remains shrouded in darkness. Its unreality becomes apparent when we allow the light of true forgiveness to shine upon it. This is the release we seek and yet, while we remain identified still with our ego, it is also a cause for fear.

We resist looking within, preferring to hold on to our anger and to continue to project our guilt, because these are the layers of defense that we unconsciously see as protecting our individual self (T.21.IV.1,2,3). And so beneath the anger and the guilt is fear -- fear that if we forgive we will disappear, that God will seize back the life we stole from Him. For all these reasons, forgiveness will be a process for us, as you suggest, and not simply a once-and-for-all decision -- until the very end of the process, when we are ready to let go completely of our ego identity.

The more we are willing to uncover our own guilt and allow it to be healed, the more we will come to recognize that those against whom we have been holding our grievances are only in need of the same release that we have been seeking. And their guilt is no more real than our own. With that recognition, we can experience real forgiveness, for the interpretation of what has happened between us is now the Holy Spirit’s and no longer our own.

For further discussions of the process of forgiveness, you may wish to look at Questions #44 and #69.

Q #259: This question has two parts. The first starts from an observation. As I have been advancing through the workbook, I have often found that the daily lesson corresponds uncannily with a need or preoccupation which has only just begun to make itself felt in my mind -- as though some subtle synchronicity were at work between the unfolding Course and my own changing inner state. (This has also happened on occasions when reading the text). Do you think this is a frequent experience among students of A Course in Miracles? Maybe my first question goes some way to answering my second, but I'll ask it anyway. In the workbook, Jesus frequently tells his student about how he or she is responding at that particular point. For example, in Lesson 123, he says, “Today let us be thankful.…There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance…” (W.pI.123.1:1,3,4). But how can Jesus make such general pronouncements when referring to thousands of individuals, each with their own way of responding to and progressing with the Course?

A: With regard to the first question: Occasionally, we have had students relate experiences similar to the kind you described, but we have no way of knowing how common this type of experience is. Many students have said that when they were reading certain parts of the Course, they felt that Jesus was speaking very personally to them.

Second, as we know, most of what is written in the Course was given specifically to Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford for their personal spiritual process, and so the wording reflects that context. Jesus was helping Helen, in particular, with undoing what was left of her ego; so he would include comments, observations, gentle rebukes, emphatic directives, etc., that pertained to her personal process. At the same time, though, the Course can easily be understood as reflecting the more general pattern of spiritual advancement that applies to everyone. An excellent example of this are the six stages in the development of trust described in the manual for teachers (M.4.I.A). This discussion of the development of trust is meant to give us a general sense of what occurs during the process of undoing our ego.

It is not surprising that you would experience the kind of synchronicity that you describe. Recall that (a) time is not linear or real; (b) the content of the split mind never changes: the wrong mind is 100% ego -- innumerable ways of expressing the one content of separation and sin, guilt, and fear; the right mind is 100% Holy Spirit -- innumerable ways of accepting the Atonement through forgiveness; (c) having acceded to the ego’s strategy of making ourselves mindless, we are not aware of the full dimension of the content or dynamics in our minds. And we surely are not aware of the full content of each lesson Jesus gives us.

Thus, what we actually experience is almost always just a miniscule portion of what is going on in our minds, and is almost always in a defined form, rather than its original abstract nature -- the tip of the iceberg, to switch metaphors. To simplify, as Jesus does, there is “only one problem, one solution” (W.pI.80.3:5); and we are either calling out for love or extending love. Therefore, our readiness and openness to learn from Jesus reflects the call for love in our minds, and it has already been answered. We would experience this process as something new that is happening as we read words in the workbook, when all it is is our mind’s decision to stop blocking the truth that is always there. It is a perfect match, you might say, between our call for love and the answer to that call, experienced in the only way that would be intelligible to us at that moment. It is a process that happens in our minds outside time and space; but because we are still identified with a body that seems to exist in time and space, that is how we will experience it. Jesus did not know “ahead of time” how his students would respond and what they would be ready for at any given instant. To think that is to make time real. The process is experienced in time, because that is the only form in which we (the decision-making part of ours minds) can accept the truth about ourselves. We are still too invested in our identities as separate, special beings, and too frightened to get beyond them. That is quite normal, and as we continue to practice forgiveness, we will be drawn more and more to the love that inspired the words of the Course that are so meaningful to us.

Q #260: “The curious belief that there is a part of dying things that may go on apart from what will die, does not proclaim a loving God nor re-establish any grounds for trust. If death is real for anything, there is no life” (M.27.4:1,2; 1st edition, p. 63). Please explain the verse. Does the body “die” or is that only illusion?

A: Death is an illusion, but so is birth, aging, and losing vitality, as the beginning of this section states (M.27.1:2). If “there is no life outside of Heaven” (T.23.II.19:1), then the body neither lives nor dies. Jesus is really talking about the thought system of death with which we identify when we choose the ego as our teacher instead of him or the Holy Spirit. If we choose the ego, we will believe that the separation from God really happened, and that will lead us to believe that we are bodies that were born and will eventually die. The ego will try to soften the cruelty of its thought system of death by saying that even though we have to die, part of us (our souls) will survive the death of the body.

But Jesus is teaching us that there can be no compromise in this at all. “If death is real for anything, there is no life” (4:2). God did not and could not make death, any more than He could make fear. “Both are equally meaningless to Him” (4:9.10). This is a Level One statement. The ego’s god is responsible for fear and death. And so Jesus is teaching us that when we identify with the ego (Level Two), death will be a reality for us, and many people will believe that God is merciful because He takes our souls to Heaven after we die.

So the process of A Course in Miracles is to ask for help from Jesus or the Holy Spirit to begin to disidentify with that thought system, and to perceive death as just a thought in our minds that we have chosen to make real. “Ideas leave not their source,” as Jesus reminds us numerous times throughout his Course. We can gradually begin to get comfortable with the thought that nothing happens to us when the body “dies,” because we are decision-making minds outside time and space that have just chosen to believe that we are autonomous bodies, as a defense against the truth that we are the one Son of God, Who never truly left His home in Heaven.

Q #261: I am a Buddhist and feel more comfortable using Kwan Yin, rather than Jesus, as the "Christ"-like figure. Kwan Yin is a female Buddha of compassion and healing. Any suggestions for those of us who use a different "Christ" figure?

A: Any symbol that represents a presence of love outside of yourself is suitable. The only caution is to be mindful of specific resistance to having it be Jesus. Avoidance of him as the “Christ figure” may reflect unforgiveness, which another symbol will not evoke in you. However, don’t worry. If this is the case, you will have to forgive him before the process is completed, and so he will “show up” in one way or another. Other than this caveat, use whatever symbol makes you feel loved and protected.

Q #262: Could you please further explain “Swear not to die, you holy Son of God!” (T.29.VI.2:1). Someone told me that it means that we literally don't have to die. We do die, but we don't have to die by the conventional means; we can simply choose to de-materialize. Is this true? Also speaking about death of the body, why do many enlightened beings such as Jesus, Ghandi, Peace Pilgrim, to name a few who have only peace and love in their minds, choose to die violently? I thought what is in the mind will manifest in the world. Wouldn't their death be a peaceful passing? I guess you could argue that they physically didn't feel pain, but as far as an example to others viewing their life, why wouldn't the peace pervade unto their last breath to teach what is within is what happens without, and also to lessen the fear of death to their brothers who want to live as they did.

A: In our answer to Question #91, in which we commented on this passage, we stated that we have already pledged our loyalty to the ego thought system, in which death -- including ours -- is the central reality. We have already taken this oath to believe that God’s Son is not as He created him, invulnerable and eternally present within the Being of His Father. It is part of the bargain we made with the ego, so that our individual separate identities would be preserved. In this passage, therefore, Jesus is asking us to undo that bargain. He is not talking about the physical process of dying. He is talking about our decision to support what the ego says is reality, rather than what the Holy Spirit says is reality.

We refer you also to Question #135, in which we discuss the topic of death in the context of the all-important distinction of form and content, or purpose. We are always choosing at every instant to identify with either the ego’s or the Holy Spirit’s thought system. And so, in that sense, death is no different from any other thought in our minds. It can be directed by either of those thought systems. It is up to us as to how we shall die: as guided by the ego or by the Holy Spirit. The overriding emphasis in A Course in Miracles is on the mind’s decision-making capacity to choose a teacher. Jesus is interested always and only in whether our thinking is blocking his love or accepting it. The form of the body’s “death” is not relevant to our spiritual progress. The content in our minds is.

Focusing on purpose and form and content can also help to answer your question about the death of enlightened beings. Most of the time we do not know the reasons behind people’s choices, and we should be very cautious about judging solely on the basis of form, or what we see with our eyes. “Nothing so blinding as perception of form” (T.22.III.6:7), Jesus reminds us. What appears to us to be “violent,” therefore, may not be experienced by their minds that way. For example, when you experience yourself as having been victimized, you (as a decision-making mind) have interpreted an occurrence in the world; you (as a decision-making mind) have given a meaning to that occurrence or event. Jesus knew he was not his body, and so if nails were hammered through his feet, he would not have experienced himself as a victim of someone else’s cruelty. He no longer had an ego, and so he could not experience himself as vulnerable in any way. Moreover, he would have seen the call for love beyond the people’s anger. So to say he chose a violent death might be how we would interpret the event, because we have a need to see it that way, but it would not be how he experienced it. He teaches us about this in Chapter 3 “Atonement without Sacrifice” (T.3.I) and also in Chapter 6, “The Message of the Crucifixion” in which he says:

“There is a positive interpretation of the crucifixion that is wholly devoid of fear, and therefore wholly benign in what it teaches, if it is properly understood. The crucifixion is nothing more than an extreme example. Its value, like the value of any teaching device, lies solely in the kind of learning it facilitates. It can be, and has been, misunderstood. This is only because the fearful are apt to perceive fearfully.…You are free to perceive yourself as persecuted if you choose. When you do choose to react that way, however, you might remember that I was persecuted as the world judges, and did not share this evaluation for myself” (T.6.I.1:5; 2:1,2,3,4; 5:2,3).

Finally, Jesus helps us rise to his level by asking of us: “Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you” (T.11.VI.7:3). The Course helps us to learn that our perceptions are interpretations informed either by the projection of guilt in our wrong minds, or inspired by the love in our right minds.

Weekly Questions and Answers 09/17/2003

2006-10-31T12:58:00.000-08:00

For further discussions of the process of forgiveness, you may wish to look at Questions #44 and #69.

Weekly Questions and Answers 09/10/2003

2006-10-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #252: Could other "redeemer" figures exist in other versions of time?.
Q #253: If the world is unreal, why not just ignore worldly obligations?
Q #254: Is it wrong to experience judgemental thoughts, if we recognize them as such?
Q #255: How can I prevent the complexity of everyday life from blocking my peace ?
Q #256: Is it somehow "wrong" to ask my boss for more money ?
Q #257: Should one really stop taking anti-depressant medication ?

Q #252: In the Course, Jesus says that the Atonement works in time, and in all the dimensions of time. Does this mean that there is a "redeemer" figure in different worlds in every dimension of time? I've heard of this idea many years ago, but still know nothing about it. So as well as Jesus appearing in different forms in the Sonship’s dream of living on another world, could this also mean A Course in Miracles has, or will appear in other forms, in other worlds also, not excluding the fact it could also come again into this world in another, even more sophisticated form!

A: You’ve got it! Rather than seeing time in a linear way, picture it holographically (the entire history of the whole physical universe contained within each of our minds), and you can better understand how it is that a "redeemer" figure can be in all places at all times. As the Course states: "The tiny tick of time in which the first mistake was made, and all of them within that one mistake, held also the Correction for that one, and all of them that came within the first" (T.26.V.3:5). There is a hologram of "error," which contains every possible "sin," and the ramifications thereof. There is also a hologram of "Correction," along with its ramifications (reedeemer figures, spiritual teachings, etc.). At any time, at any place, we are choosing one of these two holograms.

Gloria and Kenneth Wapnick deal with the nature of the separation and the Course’s view of time in Question 16 of The Most Commonly Asked Questions About A Course in Miracles: "...when the thought of separation is projected "far away" from the mind of the Son, it is expressed in the dimension of time: The past, the seeming present, and the future do appear to reflect the huge gap of billions of years the ego wishes to introduce between the mind's decision to be separate from God and the Holy Spirit, and the Son's experience of himself as a body. When the thought of separation is experienced between an individual and another person -- i.e., closer to his experience of himself -- then it is known as space, the physical gap we experience between ourselves and others in our special relationships. To state this another way, time (and therefore space as well) was specifically made by the ego to keep cause (the mind and its thoughts) and effect (our pain and suffering) separated."

And yes, this does mean a more sophisticated form of teaching may appear in the world, and this is dependent upon the Son’s mind being more fully healed. As healing takes place, and a clear understanding and appreciation of the ego’s strategy is accepted, higher teachings are then possible.

Q #253: I understand that we made the world outside to appear real, based on error. Also, in A Course in Miracles it mentions that every time a problem arises we do not look at the problem itself (which will make it "more real"). Instead, we look within. It is like saying if worldly things (including obligations) are all unreal, then we can simply "drop it" or "let go" (let God). It is like saying -- forget about taxes, or bills, or the whole world, because they are not real. However, in the Course Jesus teaches, or at least mentions, how to look (outside or inside) without judgment (because there is nothing to judge). Please share your kind guidance to clarify this delusion.

A: A Course in Miracles is a spiritual path designed as a learning program. In this context, the world, and all the circumstances of our lives, become the classroom for learning and applying the Course principles. Everything in our lives is therefore very important to our learning, and is not meant to be merely "dropped." It is meant to be examined, reinterpreted and transformed.

Although in truth the world is an illusion (W.155.2:1), it is very real to those who perceive themselves as separate from God, which includes most of us. In order to apply the principles of the Course to our lives, it is important not to confuse levels of teaching. The Course does not ask us to stop doing any of the things we do in the world as bodies. This is not a Course in behavior -- it is a Course in mind training. A Course in Miracles is addressing the mind, and is concerned only with the content of the mind. Dealing with a perceived problem in the world is not what makes the error real. It is believing that the perceived problem is the cause of our upset and has an effect on the truth of who we are which makes the error real in our awareness, though not in truth.

When the Course asks us to look within, it does not say ignore or disregard the problem as it is perceived in the world. In fact, it tells us we must look at what we have made: "No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous…The "dynamics" of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth" (T.11.V.1:1,2,5,6; italics added). Thus, the steps involved in applying the Course’s teaching begin with seeing the problem as we have made it up in the world, dealing with the problem in the normal way (i.e., paying taxes and bills), while learning to recognize that the problem is made up as a smokescreen for the real problem, which is the choice in the mind to take the thought of separation seriously. Recognizing the purpose the ego assigns to the world’s problems is what the Course means by "looking within." Since we believe the world with its bills and taxes is real, we do have judgments which need to be acknowledged because they reveal our hidden beliefs in scarcity, victimization, etc. This is part of the process of looking within. The world and our feelings are showing us the "dark secrets" (T.22.VI.9:5) our minds contain. They cannot be dispelled if we are unaware of them.

In the same way, belief in the body cannot be undone by denying it and then ignoring the specific conditions of life in a body. Not paying bills or taxes would certainly bring on an avalanche of other problems. The exacerbated situation would reinforce the ego’s smokescreen, and would not facilitate healing. Only when the real problem -- belief in separation -- is recognized can we turn to the Holy Spirit in our minds to seek the real solution -- undoing the belief in separation through forgiveness. Once this is accomplished, we will be ready to believe that the world with all its "problems" is not real, and move beyond it to the truth.

Q #254: My question has to do with judgment. Since I have been studying A Course in Miracles, I have been very careful to see everyone beyond the body, as myself, as the Son of God. I know they are exactly the same and sinless just like me and I don't let their, or my, behavior cloud this knowledge. With this filter always in the forefront of my mind, is it wrong to make observations about myself and others, and then label the behavior? For example, my mother was acting selfishly and with prejurrdddddddddddice in my presence; or admitting to myself that I was acting selfishly and with prejudice. It seems impossible not to have some kind of physical reaction to what is in front of us, whether a person or a situation. I am not judging them badly; I am just noticing something and then letting it have no effect on my thoughts about them or me.

A: You are on the right track. The thrust of our practice is to "deny the denial of truth" (T.12.II.1:5), which means we must first observe the ego, and then choose to deny that it has any power to affect the reality of God’s Son. This world is the manifestation of a choice within our minds to attack and reject the Love of God; therefore it would be impossible not to see expressions of hatred, specialness, selfishness, and fear all around us all the time. Jesus is teaching us that we need to bring these perceptions to him, and then ask his help to look at them with him, so that we will get beyond judgment and condemnation. He ultimately wants us to be able to experience ourselves and everyone else as the same. Our starting point, though, is looking honestly at how attracted we are to seeing differences, to judging, and to condemning others for their faults and sins. We would not be experiencing ourselves as bodies in the world if we were not attracted to that. It is second-nature to us; but it is not sinful. So that is where the process of healing must begin.

Then we can learn that beneath our hatred, fear, selfishness, and all of our neediness, is a call for mercy, and a plea to be told that we are wrong about ourselves. We are all the same on both of these levels. As we learn how to approach everyone and all situations from that perspective, we will become kinder and more compassionate, and we will share Jesus’ vision of ourselves and everyone else. This is not accomplished through denying our reactions and our observations, however. Our reactions and observations are the classroom into which we invite Jesus, who will then teach us how to share his loving, kind perception.

Q #255: I am from Brasil, and have been practicing A Course in Miracles for the last 21 years. I have gone through it about three times completely, and I am going through it again now. This time I have felt the real presence of the Light, of the Christ that exists in me when I do the exercises; the absence of the physical body, the real joy of being. But, on the other side, my life is so complicated now, and it seems that the multiplication (things to do, people to care for, responsibilities of the day-by-day life, with all those magic things to organize, calculate, pay for, etc.) is getting to an unbearable state. It seems that the ego is trying to make my way difficult. What do you think? What can I do to reach, constantly, all the time, the state of mind that we get when doing the exercises -- of total peace and joy?

A: It is difficult to know the specific reason for your life becoming more complicated. It could well be a reaction to your getting closer to letting go of your ego; but there really is no way of knowing that for sure. That does not really matter, though, because the solution would always be the same. The solution is to focus on the purpose, which you can discern by the results. In other words, the increased complications have resulted in your loss of inner peace and joy; therefore, that must be the purpose of these recent occurrences. That really is all you have to know. Somewhere in your mind, you (the decision-making part of your mind) became afraid of being peaceful, and so you came up with a way of "protecting" yourself from that peace and all that it represents. The preferred defense of most of us is to become preoccupied with our lives as bodies. That quickly does away with any thought that we might be something else.

All that you need to do is to take responsibility for the state you are in and bring it to Jesus or the Holy Spirit in your mind, which means that you would not judge yourself or feel bad about it. When you no longer need the defense, you will just deal with your obligations and responsibilities the best you can, with the love of Jesus guiding you. They would no longer be experienced as "unbearable," because you would see them as classrooms in which you are learning that the peace and joy in your mind has nothing to do with anything external. If you truly knew that everything of the body and the world is intended to keep you from finding out that the source of all your distress is a choice you are making in your mind, then you would eagerly turn to Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help you give your experience a different purpose. "The world was made that problems could not be escaped" (T.31.IV.2:6).

Rather than seeing them as burdens, your day-by-day responsibilities could be seen as the means you are using to restore to your awareness the love that is your true and eternal Identity. Each interaction could then be regarded as an opportunity to learn that your interests are not really separate from anyone else’s, despite the appearance of major differences. The specifics of each situation (the form) then become less important than the meaning (the content), which is to undo your belief in separation, and accept back the identity we all share as one. Your day-by-day life is your "laboratory" in this sense. It was originally intended to keep you from the truth; now with the help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, it becomes the means of your return to God.

Q #256: In my relationship with my boss, I am having difficulty knowing the difference between the right and wrong mind. I try to practice the principles of generosity, tolerance, and patience described in the Manual for Teachers, but we have communication problems regarding my salary. My earnings change at his whim, making me feel powerless and underpaid. I am afraid that I will lose my job if I ask for what I think is really my due. Though money is not everything to me, I read in the Psychotherapy pamphlet that an unhealed healer may demand money where the Holy Spirit might guide otherwise.
I seem to be afraid of everything and always at fault somewhere. Is this the pain of a special relationship? Can you tell me if I am trying to be too good? Am I trying to apply the principles of A Course in Miracles with the ego, fearing the true guidance of the Holy Spirit? Do I suffer from an inverse form of poverty, which expresses itself in false generosity?

A: In studying the Course, it is important to remember that it speaks to us on different levels. We are learning to undo the ego thought system with which we have identified, while learning an entirely new way of perceiving. We seem to have a foot in two worlds and this can be very confusing. The wrong mind sees the problem as outside of the mind caused by an external agent, in this case your boss. The right mind recognizes that the cause is in the mind and the world of form is the effect. It does not blame any situation on anything outside of the mind. An easy way to distinguish which part of the mind has been chosen, is to ask if you are attributing the cause of your upset to something outside of yourself. This is a simple way of distinguishing the wrong mind from the right mind. Recognizing that the cause of any upset is a choice in the mind is the beginning of right minded thinking. It is not the whole story, but it is a beginning.

Since we still believe we are separate, individual bodies in the world, we have to deal with the world and our relationships accordingly. We continue to do whatever we must do to meet our perceived needs in the body. There is nothing wrong with working out an agreement with your boss about your salary. You can be honest about what you feel would be a just wage, and perhaps request a schedule for changes so your salary doesn’t fluctuate unpredictably, if that is possible. This is no different from any of the things we do to take care of the body. The Course does not give any guidelines for behavior on the level of form. Rather, it is teaching us to expose the thoughts and judgments we hold about ourselves and others in our minds, so the mind can be healed. Only then will the characteristics of a teacher of God, described in the Manual, flow naturally from the healed mind. They are not meant to be "exercised" or "practiced" while there are underlying beliefs that oppose them. The practice of the Course rests in finding all the hidden beliefs that are in operation in your relationship with your boss, and with everyone. These are the beliefs in separation, scarcity, and victimization that do in fact make all our relationships special. The way to undo the specialness is to expose the beliefs by recognizing them and bringing them to the Holy Spirit to be transformed. We are not being asked to practice holy qualities that we do not in fact possess, such as detachment from material wealth or other "virtuous" mind sets. We are not being asked to be "good" at all (by the way, neither are we expected to go out of our way to "bad"). We are asked only to look at our beliefs with a willingness to have them transformed. That is not always as easy as it seems, because we have such a desire to hold on to them. We are asked to become aware of our attachment to these beliefs and how much we do not want them to be changed. We cling to them in spite of the guilt and pain they cause. Actually it is because of the guilt and pain that we do cling to them. This is what the Course refers to as the attraction of guilt: "The sick attraction of guilt must be recognized for what it is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it, to learn to let it go" (T.15.VII.3:1,2).

This is the guidance the Holy Spirit gives. There is no imposition of His thought system, and no behavior in the world that is required. Behind all concerns about money, poverty, and injustice is the feeling of lack and deprivation that comes from the belief that our separation from God has truly been accomplished. That is the fundamental belief that the Holy Spirit is inviting us to question. It is the belief that underlies all the conflict with your boss. While you work with your boss toward reaching an agreement about your salary, you can apply the teachings of the Course by being very honest with yourself about what you are feeling, and the thoughts of judgment that occur to you. These thoughts and feelings represent the choice to identify with the ego’s thought system in the mind, which is where healing is needed. When they are brought to the light of the Holy Spirit they are gradually transformed and replaced with His peace. Only then will the issue of more or less money be irrelevant, and generosity, tolerance, and patience will replace all fear. Until that point is reached, honesty with yourself about your perceived needs, and honesty with your boss in searching for an agreement is the best place for practicing the Course. Believing that an agreement is possible is already a recognition that to some extent you and your boss do not have separate interests. And that is the beginning of healing.

Q #257: In Question #128, you state that by practicing forgiveness, one could stop taking medication for antidepressants. While this may ultimately be true, I have seen the physical and mental anguish that accompanies depression, and I believe that someone, if they are clinically depressed, would be a much better student of A Course in Miracles while taking their antidepressants than by not taking them. Clinical depression wrecks the brain's ability to function. Yes, it seems to be related to an overemphasis on guilt and punishment -- yet when in this condition, one's ability to function or think clearly is severely impaired. As long as we perceive ourselves in a body, should we not seek medical attention to make us think and behave clearly? Is it not easier to address our real problems in a state of sound mind? In fact, knowing that one might solve their depression through total forgiveness might even cause more depression when one fails and remains depressed. Is it not true that what we do here on earth, in our physical bodies, is an illusion? Is a body that takes anti-depressants any different from a body that does not? Aren't they both illusions? There is no hierarchy of illusions. Is seeking spiritual help to make us a better "body" -- i.e., no antidepressants, really a worthy spiritual goal with the Course?

A: Oh no, you misunderstood! The "flip" answer "Forgive" at the beginning was qualified in the rest of the response. The goal, as you say, is not to stop taking the antidepressant, any more than it would be to stop eating or sleeping. The Course never advises us to change our behavior, only our mind (T.2.VI.3:4). The things you say are true and are in line with the point being made in the answer to Question 128. It makes much more sense to continue taking the antidepressant and to get in touch with the implicit judgment about taking the medication, than to have a goal of getting off the medication.

It is true that forgiveness is the way to move beyond any of the world’s magic, but so long as we see ourselves as bodies, we will depend on magic- - including breathing oxygen! -- to keep the self we believe we are alive and functioning. Only at the very end of the forgiveness process, when we have accepted the Atonement for ourselves, do personal needs disappear, and with them the need for any form of external interventions. But that is not the goal of the Course. Peace is (T.8.I.1:1,2). And that can be found at any step along the way through the healing practice of forgiveness.

Besides perhaps reading the answer to Question 128 again in light of the above comments, it may also be helpful to look at Questions #57, #142, and #229.

Weekly Questions and Answers 09/03/2003

2006-10-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #246: How can I deal with my addictions from a Course perspective?.
Q #247: What is the Course's viewpoint on "same-sex" relationships?
Q #248: What does the Course mean when it says the mind "cannot create beyond itself"?
Q #249: What does the Course mean by "unholy values will produce confusion..." ?
Q #250: If "chance plays no part in God's plan," how can God not be involved in this world ?
Q #251: What is the meaning of "a celestial speedup" ?

Q #246: I've been studying and practicing A Course in Miracles for almost six years, usually on a daily basis. It has helped me a lot, but I still need help to understand and deal with addictions. According to my ego, I am addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. According to God, I am His beloved daughter. How to deal with this? Don't tell me to stop hearing my ego, it sounds like a green light to addictions. I feel there's a deeper ground to think about. Professional advice seems to reinforce sickness, guilt and sacrifice. The Course tells me I don't have to do anything, to put it in the Holy Spirit's hand. But I need further help in letting it be, in opening myself to a lesson I don't quite understand, in not paying so much attention to the world's point of view. Please, let me know if there is something in A Course in Miracles, or elsewhere, I am overlooking.

A: First, it is difficult for us to understand the nature of the specific lessons we have in our lives. We cannot see the whole picture in our minds, because we are still so fearful of regaining that part of our identity that we have split off and concealed from ourselves. In one sense, though, we don’t have to know why we chose the conditions we did, because the remedy the Course provides is so clear. Whatever the condition, the only relevant issue is whether we choose to have Jesus or the ego guide us through it. If we choose Jesus or the Holy Spirit, we will wind up feeling more peaceful, regardless of whether the condition changes or not; and we will be more inclined to be gentle and kind with ourselves and others. If we choose the ego, we will wind up feeling more guilty or hopeless; we will continue to have thoughts of self-blame and self-pity, and to hold others responsible for our plight. We will remain preoccupied with the body and will be anything but peaceful.

Putting yourself in the Holy Spirit’s hands, as the Course views this, involves accepting responsibility for whatever state you are in, and letting go of any thoughts of blame -- either self-blame or blaming others -- and then adopting a kind and gentle attitude towards yourself. The lesson the Holy Spirit or Jesus would help you with is learning that peace of mind is not conditional on physical/psychological health, or on anything external to your mind and Their loving presence in your mind. As you concentrate on learning that lesson, the thoughts that oppose it would come to the surface, and you would then bring those ego thoughts to the loving presence in your mind, where you could choose either to hold on to them or let them go. The patience and gentleness would be manifest in your assurance that when you are ready to let go of the addictions, you will, and that holding on to them is not something sinful, nor something you need to be ashamed of. Nothing we do with or to our bodies can have any affect on the love that is held for us in our right minds.

Thus, putting yourself in the hands of the Holy Spirit does not mean that it is then up to Him to do something about your addictions. Rather, it means that you have made a decision to use the Holy Spirit’s way of looking at what is going on instead of the ego’s way of looking, which will always leave you believing that you are a vulnerable, victimized body.

Finally, the choice to seek professional help many times can be a loving response to the call for help that is behind the self-hatred and guilt; it can be an expression of kindness toward oneself as a way of undoing that self-hatred. You seem to imply, however, that you have tried traditional methods of treatment, and that they have not been helpful to you. We have addressed this in previous questions asked of us: #30, #57, and #119.

In case it might be of help, we are summarizing the explanations the Course gives us that can be applied to conditions such as addictions. Although the term is never used in the Course, an addiction is nothing more than a special relationship, and there is a great deal in the Course about special relationships.

Addictions frequently are the result of overwhelming feelings of self-hatred and guilt. The pain is so great that it must be neutralized in some way. Overindulgence in alcohol and cigarettes (or any number of other forms -- food, sex, wealth, luxury, etc.) is often chosen as a means of dulling this pain.

Abusing your body through addictions can also be a way of punishing yourself for being such a "bad" person, a belief that your self-hatred and guilt testifies to. It could also be a means of punishing someone else: you could be pointing an accusing finger at someone and saying, "It’s your fault that I am an addict. You made me this way." Paraphrasing a line from the text: Behold me brother, at your hands I am an addict (T.27.I.5:6); also, "I am the thing you made of me, and as you look on me, you stand condemned because of what I am" (T.31.V.5:3). We all have a need to get rid of the pain of our self-hatred and guilt, and so we would even be willing to suffer intensely just so that we could blame it on someone else. The payoff is that we would feel like the innocent victim of what someone else did to us.

As with any form of sickness -- physical or psychological -- being addicted reinforces the belief that the body is real, and can be victimized. When we are preoccupied with the body in any or all of these ways, we more than likely have made a prior decision to keep from our awareness our true identity as spirit. Any form of preoccupation with the body is a defense against the truth. The truth about ourselves can be so frightening to us -- when we allow it into awareness even for a split second -- that we then do whatever would most effectively banish that truth from our awareness. So we make ourselves mindless in the sense of being at the mercy of some force not under our control. Our real beauty and strength as God’s Son can be so frightening to us that we substitute an identity of weakness and dependency, and then repress the real origin of it and attribute it to some factor in our own body, another’s, or some condition in the world.

To sum up then, the real issue is: Now that the addiction is there, what do I do about it? And as Jesus reminds us, we need only think in terms of purpose, or "What is it for?" (T.17.IV.2:2). We know that to the ego, the purpose of addictions is to reinforce guilt; and to the Holy Spirit the purpose is changed to a means of undoing guilt. "The Son of God can make no choice the Holy Spirit cannot employ on his behalf, and not against himself" (T.25.VI.7:5). So it comes down to discerning whether you are choosing the ego or the Holy Spirit as your teacher.

Q #247: Many denominations of "traditional" Christianity prohibit homosexual relationships, while promoting heterosexual ones. With A Course in Miracles being provided within the context of Christianity, are "same-sex" relationships similarly prohibited?

A: To begin with, the Course comes in a Christian context, but it is not simply another form of Christianity, or another denomination. Second, the Course says nothing about this issue. It neither forbids homosexual relationships nor promotes heterosexual ones. In fact, it says nothing about any form of behavior, because that is not its focus. The focus of the teaching is always on our thinking and our beliefs, which are the source of our behavior. One of its major teachings is that the world and the body, along with the multitude of issues connected with them, serve mainly as smokescreens to keep us from looking into our minds, where the source of all our problems and dilemmas are located. That is the purpose of the world and the body. Ultimately, of course, both are illusory. So the focus of the Course is always on correcting the thinking going on in our minds that leaves us preoccupied with what is essentially illusory. That is where the help is needed, and therefore that is the whole orientation of the Course. In brief, then, when we choose against the ego’s thought system of hate and separation, and for the Holy Spirit’s thought system of love and shared interests, our behavior would always be an expression of that love and oneness with which we have identified.

Finally as with anything in our lives, the only relevant aspect is purpose: "In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is "What do I want to come of this? What is it for?" The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome (T.17.VI.2:1,2,3). Thus, both homosexuality and heterosexuality can be used either to reinforce guilt (the ego’s purpose) or to undo guilt (the Holy Spirit’s purpose). That is why directing our attention to our choice of teachers is absolutely central to our work with the Course. Concentrating on that will help to keep things simple.

Q #248: I am studying the section "Healing as Release from Fear" in the text of A Course in Miracles. Can you please help me understand what is meant when Jesus says that "the mind, the only level of creation, cannot create beyond itself" (T.2.IV.2:10). I am unclear about the meaning of "cannot create beyond itself."

A: In the context of the discussion in this section, the meaning of the passage is that the Christ Mind was created by God and that Mind cannot create something totally different from itself, such as a body. There can be ideas or thoughts in the mind, but they never leave their source in the mind to become something else. The point Jesus is making is that a great deal of our confusion would clear up if we understood that the body and the mind are not two separate entities, and that the body is only an idea in the mind; it has no autonomous capabilities and therefore cannot be sick.

Q #249: Can you please clarify the following passage from the text of A Course in Miracles: "Unholy values will produce confusion, and in awareness" (T.22.III.9:2).

A: The meaning is that when we see our interests as separate from another person’s (an example of "unholy values"), we will become confused, and we will be aware of that confusion: "and in awareness" was a common psychological term at the time of the scribing of the Course.

Q #250: In Kenneth Wapnick's book Forgiveness & Jesus, he says on page xv in the Preface: "Jesus and the Holy Spirit do not operate in the world, and certainly do not send people as if they were operating a giant chess board, moving us around according to the evolution of the plan of salvation." However, the manual for teachers of A Course in Miracles says: "There are no accidents in salvation. Those who are to meet will meet, because together they have the potential for a holy relationship" (M.3.1:6,7); and then later it says, "Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God's plan" (M.9.1:3). This indicates that meeting certain people is part of God's plan, and as I have understood the Course, the Holy Spirit is operating in the illusion to help us, just as the Course is made within the framework of the illusion. Meetings are part of God's plan -- there are no accidents -- so how can this be interpreted?

A: There are no accidents because everything has already happened, and we are simply reviewing mentally what has already gone by: "The script is written.…we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by" (W.pI.158.4:3,5). In "The Little Hindrance" Jesus tells us: "To you who still believe you live in time and know not it is gone, the Holy Spirit still guides you through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone. You think you live in what is past" (T.26.V.4:1,2). So people are in our lives only because that is what our scripts involve. We have no recollection of our having written these scripts (a metaphor, of course), which is part of the ego’s strategy to keep us from remembering that we are decision-making minds. You might wish to consult Kenneth’s A Vast Illusion: Time According to "A Course in Miracles," which is an in-depth study of this intriguing part of the Course’s theory.

We are inclined to view what the Course says from our perspective, which is that the world and linear time are real. And that is why we would think that the Holy Spirit and Jesus actually do things, such as direct us to specific people so that we can learn our lessons of forgiveness. But that could not be, since there is no world, and time is not real, either. It is helpful to review the levels of language in the Course, and why Jesus speaks to us as if our experience in the world and linear time were real. Earlier answers to questions have developed these topics, and we refer you to them for further study: Questions #72 and #116.

Q #251: With world conditions the way they are, I am reminded of a section in Robert Skutch's book, Journey Without Distance (p.60), regarding Helen's asking Jesus what A Course in Miracles was for, and the answer she received: "The world situation is worsening to an alarming degree. People all over the world are being called on to help, and are making their individual contributions as part of an overall prearranged plan. Because of the acute emergency, the usual slow, evolutionary process is being by-passed in what might best be described as a ‘celestial speed-up.’ "Helen could sense the urgency that lay behind this ‘explanation,’ and strongly sensed that what was being conveyed to her was that time was running out." What does this mean exactly? What is the absolute worst that could happen? Even if we destroyed every living thing on the planet wouldn't we still be alive in spirit? Is there, in reality, anything to worry about?

A: First, a clarification of the "celestial speed-up." This was Helen’s personal experience; it was a way for her to understand the unsettling experiences that were occurring in her life at that time (1965), without increasing the fear that was already present. She had not yet come across the theory of time as totally illusory, which Jesus would explain much later; that would have been far too upsetting to her in those early months. And so the content of Jesus’ message was expressed in a form that was meaningful to Helen and with which she could be reasonably comfortable. Most likely, Helen would not have expressed the meaning in that form years later, after she had seen the complete picture. Forgetting about this form/content distinction has led many students to take Helen’s "celestial-speedup" explanation literally. When the unreality of time is brought into the discussion, it is obvious that there could not literally be a need to speed things up. The situation in the world can worsen and be cause for concern only if the world is real, and time also is both real and linear. (See Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles, pp. 464-65)

Secondly, destruction of any kind can emanate only from the ego thought system. Just because Planet Earth might no longer exist does not mean that we would have returned to our true Identity as spirit. The pain in our minds tortured with self-hatred does not disappear simply because the planet has been blown up. If we ("Who is the ‘you’ who are living in this world?" [T.4.II.11:8]) destroyed the planet, we might be very much "alive," but in the guilt of our wrong minds, not in the innocence and purity of spirit, as Christ. We would still be caught up in the dream of sin, guilt, and fear, and their projection. In other words, as minds, we would be perceiving a destroyed planet, and our guilt, which we have not let go of, would then manifest in some other form.

Understanding that the world is not real and that we are not our bodies is a step in the right direction -- a major step; but our healing is not yet complete. It is very comforting to be assured that the world and bodies are not real, because we would no longer fear that the end of the planet is the end of "us." That dimension of our terror subsides, fortunately, which then frees us to move to the next step, which is experiencing ourselves as decision-making minds that are constantly choosing to identify with either the ego’s or the Holy Spirit’s thought system.

We must look at our investment in upholding the purpose served by our belief in sin, guilt, and fear. Ultimately, we must reach the level of readiness to let go of all sense of individuality, consciousness, and specialness before we return to our existence as spirit. The interim stage, though, is the right-minded awareness that we are the dreamers of the dream. This is the stage in which we consistently choose to perceive everything from "above the battleground," confidently assured that all destruction and suffering, all pleasure and excitement, are but the outcome of a mind dreaming it has separated from the Oneness of Heaven.

Weekly Questions and Answers 08/27/2003

2006-10-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

This week's questions/topics:
Q #239: How can we kill others and still be loving and forgiving?.
Q #240: Is the Course's thought system compatible with gods and goddesses?
Q #241: Could my relationship with Jesus be a special relationship?
Q #242: What does the Course mean by "Proper learning conditions" ?
Q #243: What is the Course perspective on "unpardonable sin" ?
Q #244: Is happiness the goal of life?
Q #245: Does the term "at-one-ment" have any specific meaning?

Q #239: I have a question regarding the March 2003 Lighthouse article. The beginning, about "regime change," made sense to me, and had me laughing. But at the end I was frustrated -- I didn't know how to formulate how to act, or what actions to support. If the only sane response is forgiveness, does that mean we shouldn't try to stop people who are hurting others? Can we stop them lovingly? What if we have to kill them to stop them -- can that be loving?

A: The answer to your questions lies in understanding the teachings of A Course in Miracles on forgiveness, which is not the same as the ego’s version of forgiveness. Forgiveness, according to the ego, rests on seeing sin, and then forgiving it. It then esteems some "sinners" as deserving of forgiveness, and some as not. The important thing for the ego is making the error real by believing some harm has been done by one part of the Sonship to another, and that its effect is real. These beliefs are in full operation in a situation, such as the war in Iraq. It is a perfect opportunity to see the ego thought system in action -- not on the battlefield of the Iraqi desert, but in our mind, which is where forgiveness is needed. It is also a perfect opportunity for forgiveness, as stated in the Lighthouse article. Forgiveness, as taught by the Course, begins by looking at the world, and events like the war in Iraq, paying attention to all the judgments and feelings that come up in us, and recognizing their source, which is the mind: "It [the world] is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition"(T.21.in.1:5). The real war, therefore, is in our mind. The judgments and feelings are projections of the guilt in our own mind which is caused by our choice to identify with the ego’s belief in the separation. The mind then becomes a battleground, and the war in the world merely reflects the conflict in the mind. Since this is an activity of the mind, it needs correction on the level of the mind, not on the level of form. As a student of the Course our part in "ending the war" lies in this forgiveness process.

The next step in the Course’s forgiveness process is the recognition that no true harm is done by the war: "There is nothing to forgive. No one can hurt the Son of God" (T.14.III.7:5,6). Any perceived damage is based on the belief that the separation and the body are real. Though in truth they are not, our belief makes them real in our awareness. As we watch the devastation of war on television we realize how much we do perceive damage and we do believe the body is real. All our reactions to the war come from this belief, along with so many other beliefs about how the world should work, who is responsible for the war, who are the victims, and on and on. The list of misperceptions is very long, particularly in an extreme example, such as war. It is this belief system that causes our upset, not the events of the war. And it is this belief system that brings about war in the world in the first place. That is why the real solution to war is forgiveness, not negotiation, or any specific action. However, while we turn within to see the turmoil in our own minds and seek help to undo our misperceptions, it is still possible to take action in the world. Just as we continue to take normal care of our bodies as we learn to undo our belief in them, so too we can do whatever we think may be helpful to resolve conflicts in the world. The decision is not whether or not to act, or what action to take, but with whom we make the decision: "And make no mistake, nowhere in A Course in Miracles does Jesus suggest that we not act in the world; only that we not act alone" (The Lighthouse, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 5). Is the purpose of taking action to reinforce the ego’s belief in victims and victimizers, taking sides with those who are "good" against those who are "evil", or are we willing to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see that everyone in the war is a brother calling for help, rather than a sinner, and that their truth remains inviolate no matter how insane their ego behavior is? Whatever form the action takes will then reflect the belief system of the teacher we have chosen: the ego or the Holy Spirit. Choosing to accept the Holy Spirit’s perception is the only loving response in any situation, including war. When these steps are taken it is possible to stop an aggressor from physically hurting someone else without attack. If the only way to do this is by killing another, and if a person has clearly chosen to identify with the Holy Spirit, not the ego, in principle the killing can also be done without attack, without judgment, and without guilt. There are probably very few people who would fall into this category. It may indeed be more loving to stop someone from killing another (although not necessarily), but that would only be clear if you are coming from the right mind, having chosen the Holy Spirit, and not from fear. In applying the principles of the Course to any situation in the world the only important thing to remember is the content of the mind, not the form. The mind is what we are being trained to be aware of, and it is the mind that is in need of healing.

A last consideration, but certainly not the least, is the Course teaching that there is no death: There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are One" (W.167.1:5,6,7). It is when we perceive ourselves and others as separate that the Son of God is "murdered." It follows that a person who claims to support peace and brotherhood, but is filled with judgment against political leaders responsible for war, inflicts a death penalty on the Son of God, while a soldier who fully identifies with the Holy Spirit’s perception and knows his oneness with all brothers, can perform his duty, which includes killing, with the Holy Spirit’s love that flows through him. This is possible only by joining with the Holy Spirit in the mind: "He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death" (T.27.VII.14:4,5).

Q #240: In the course of a recent Tantra workshop I experienced a powerful "goddess" energy, which immediately provoked a conflict, as I thought, "Hey, there aren't any goddesses in A Course in Miracles!" Would you say the notion of god or goddess energies, of Shiva and Shakti, is incompatible with ACIM, or could the fusion of these sexual polarities be seen as analogous with the overcoming of duality as envisioned by the Course?

A: Although -- with only one exception (C.2.8:2) -- all the gender references in the Course are masculine, the only reality according to the Course is a genderless one. Any polarities, whether they be male-female, good-bad, hot-cold, in-out, etc., must be a product of the ego thought system, originating as it does in a belief in opposition -- against God. Given that we experience them, the only question worth asking, according to the Course, is for what purpose shall such polarities be used? (T-24.VII.6:1,2,3,4). To reinforce the thought system of sin, guilt, fear, differences and specialness? Or to serve as a classroom for our forgiveness lessons that leads us beyond the perception of differences and specialness?

The Course process does not involve any fusion of polarities -- that would be more in line with the Jungian approach of reconciling opposites, where both poles are afforded reality, but a higher level of experience is arrived at by their integration. In the Course, even such seeming dualities as love and fear, or light and darkness, are not really opposites for, as the Course observes at the very beginning, "The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite" (T.in.1:8). Fear and darkness have no reality and so there is no possibility to integrate them with their "opposite." Rather, we need to step back and look at the fear and the darkness with the Holy Spirit until, over time, we come to recognize their illusory nature. And in that recognition is the realization that there is nothing to overcome. There is no war to be waged against duality. All that is needed is a shift in perception that produces a totally different perspective, from above the oppositional battlefield.

As for your specific experience of a powerful "goddess" energy, the Course would make no specific judgment except to have you ask yourself: Was this experience of power in any way associated with seeing yourself in opposition to anyone else, as having separate interests, such as a female-male split? If so, it would have reflected an alignment of your thinking with the ego thought system. If however, the experience was one of shared, mutual possibilities for yourself with everyone else, excluding no one, it would be a reflection of right-minded thinking. For it is your interpretation of that experience of power that determines what you have used it for, as we noted above.

Q #241: Jesus, for me, is a symbol of God's Love in my mind, that I use interchangeably with that of the Holy Spirit, for looking at the blocks (grievances) in my mind. I do not proselytize A Course in Miracles, and indeed feel that everyone must choose their own spiritual pathway. Recently however I read where someone on the internet suggested that any one using the Course or Jesus, had formed a special relationship with both. I do not see it that way. Could you give me your opinions on this?

A: As long as we have any belief that the separation is real, and as long as we identify with the body to any degree, all of our relationships begin as special: "…every relationship on which the ego embarks is special" (T.15.VII.1:7). In A Course in Miracles, the term "special" refers to the belief that since we are separate individuals in bodies, we are incomplete, and have need of persons, things, and events outside of ourselves to be made complete. In other words, anyone who perceives any need in themselves (this means just about everyone) brings specialness to all their relationships. Only those who have accepted the Atonement for themselves do not relate with specialness. The fact that Jesus (or the Holy Spirit) is perceived as different, in that he symbolizes the memory of God’s love in the mind, makes him special. In truth, we are not only one with the symbols of the memory of God, we are one with God at home in Heaven. Only this is not special. For the sake of clarity, it might be helpful to substitute the word "separate" for special. Wherever perceived separateness or differences are, there specialness is. It is the inevitable outcome of belief in separation. When the Course says "The Holy Spirit knows no one is special" (T.15.V.5:1), it means no one is separate, also meaning not in need of anything or anyone. When we identify fully with the Holy Spirit in our minds, we will no longer have a special relationship with Him, with Jesus, or with the Course, because we will no longer perceive ourselves as separate. Meanwhile, we still perceive ourselves as incomplete, and in need of help to accept the Atonement for ourselves, and, we establish special relationships with everything. Again, "For every relationship on which the ego embarks is special" (T.15.VII.1:7). Only by recognizing this can the special relationships become a classroom the Holy Spirit uses to transform them. We initially turn to the Course and to Jesus out of a sense of need. This does make them special. It is necessary to recognize this so we can allow our relationship with them, along with everyone else, to be transformed. If we deny this, we deny ourselves the opportunity to look at the beliefs that underlie our sense of need and incompleteness, thus withholding them from the power of healing. In the end, we will learn that we have no need. Until then, remember that "This course is a beginning, not an end" (W.ep.1:1). Jesus knows we come to him with our specialness intact. In fact, he tells us we must forgive him: "Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he" (W.pII.288.2). As long as we perceive ourselves as different than Jesus -- separate from him -- we bring specialness to our relationship with him, and need to "forgive him" for our mistaken beliefs.

Q #242: I am confused by A Course in Miracles’ use of the word conditions. We are not to ask for help with the "release of fear," but rather to ask "for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about." Would you say it's also appropriate to ask for help in bringing "proper learning conditions" about?...for help in bringing about the conditions for peace?...for help in bringing about the conditions for love?...etc. I assume it's talking about conditions of mind.

A: Yes, the term conditions always refers to a choice made in our minds, which accounts for our lack of peace, for our not being aware of love’s presence, etc. The point of the passage you are referring to (T.2.VI.4) is that Jesus was helping Helen and all of us to learn to take responsibility for our thoughts and feelings, so that we can get back in touch with the power of our minds to choose. We essentially chose to repress this power and become mindless instead when we gave our allegiance to the ego. So Jesus is saying that it really would not be helpful to us in the long run, if he simply took our fear away from us, without our having learned that it is there only because of our ongoing choice to prefer separation to oneness (the conditions that led to the fear). He tells us several paragraphs later: "You may still complain about fear, but you nevertheless persist in making yourself fearful. I have already indicated that you cannot ask me to release you from fear. I know it does not exist, but you do not. If I intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would be tampering with a basic law of cause and effect; the most fundamental law there is. I would hardly help you if I depreciated the power of your own thinking. This would be in direct opposition to the purpose of this course. It is much more helpful to remind you that you do not guard your thoughts carefully enough" (T.2.VII.1:2,3,4,5,6,7).

So Jesus is emphasizing the importance of guarding our thoughts very carefully, just as the entire workbook comes back over and over again to the importance of our being vigilant about our thoughts. That is what he wants to help us with: looking at how willing we are to keep ourselves separate and special, how willing we are to see others as the sinners and ourselves as innocent victims. These are the conditions that result in our fear and our lack of peace, etc.

Thus is it very appropriate to ask for help in bringing about the conditions that would facilitate our learning, and that would bring about the conditions for peace and love, etc. If we were to look with him at all of our ego thoughts, and then let them go, fear and guilt would vanish forever, and then the love that had been blocked by the fear would be our only reality. All fear and guilt rest on our willingness to choose against the love of Jesus and for the ego, which ensures our survival as separate individuals.

Finally, if we ask him to help us look at our choice to keep him away, then we have already begun the process of correcting that choice. That is the kind of help that would benefit us most.

Q #243: Some verses in the New Testament seem to speak of an "unpardonable sin" against the Holy Spirit. What is A Course in Miracles’ view of those passages?

A: The Course always views sin as part of the illusory ego thought system. It has no basis in reality. Therefore there are no pardonable or unpardonable sins, parallel to the principle that there is no hierarchy of illusions. The ego attempts to keep sin real in our minds because that is what keeps its own existence real. Without a notion of sin, there would be no need for dynamics to cope with its effects.

Jesus talks about this in the Course by teaching us that we have done nothing in reality that would warrant the label sin. What we would be inclined to call sin -- our attack on God by separating from Him -- is simply a "tiny, mad idea," easily corrected by making the choice to accept the Atonement principle, which states that the separation never happened; and therefore there is no such thing as sin.

Q #244: Is happiness the goal of life?

A: A Course in Miracles states that "there is no life outside of Heaven" (T.23.II.19:1); so what we call life here is really illusory. But since we think we are here as individuals in a world, Jesus talks to us on that level in order to help us begin the process of awakening from the dream we call life. In that context, Jesus says that our goal is to achieve a state of abiding peace in our minds, which is the natural outcome of the practice of forgiveness. "Happiness," he says, "cannot be found apart from Your joint Will [with God]," which is reflected in our choice to see our interests as shared with everyone else’s, not separate from them. We might say that no happiness the world offers can match the happiness we would experience when we experience the oneness and sinlessness of God’s Son.

Q #245: In many groups studying A Course in Miracles that I have attended, people mention that atonement and at-one-ment are the same thing. I consider at-one-ment to be a new age euphemism that actually has nothing to do with Atonement as it is used in the Course. I don't find the word at-one-ment anywhere on the Course CD. Please give me your thoughts on this subject.

A: You are right. At-one-ment is not the same as Atonement as it is used in A Course in Miracles. "The Glossary-Index for A Course in Miracles" by Kenneth Wapnick defines Atonement as "the Holy Spirit’s plan of correction to undo the ego and heal the belief in separation" (p.32). The term at-one-ment is not used in the Course.

The Course tells us "the sole responsibility of God’s Teacher is to accept the Atonement for himself" (M.18.4:5), meaning to no longer believe that the separation is real. The term oneness in the Course refers to the unity of the Father and the Son in Heaven, and is reflected in the dream by joining with another through forgiveness. Neither of these principles of the Course’s thought system is expressed by the term at-one-ment.