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A Course in Miracles
This is a course in miracles. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim however at removing the blocks to love which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
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about 1 month ago
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LESSON 249
September 6, 2008
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 249 – Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.
1. Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss becomes impossible and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and madness has an end. What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can be sustained? 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. And so the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the light from which he came.
2. Father, we would return our minds to You. We have betrayed them, held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of violence and death. Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 249 – Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.
1. Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss becomes impossible and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and madness has an end. What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can be sustained? 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. And so the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the light from which he came.
2. Father, we would return our minds to You. We have betrayed them, held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of violence and death. Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
LESSON 248
September 5, 2008
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 248 – Whatever suffers is not part of me.
1. I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself. What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.
2. Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again as well. Father, I am as You created me. Now is Your Love remembered, and my own. Now do I understand that they are one.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 248 – Whatever suffers is not part of me.
1. I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself. What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.
2. Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again as well. Father, I am as You created me. Now is Your Love remembered, and my own. Now do I understand that they are one.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
The forty-first principle of miracles.
The forty-first miracle principle is:
“41. Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.”
Once again, we are saying the same thing. The basic principle of the ego is the scarcity principle, that there is something missing because we have excluded God. That is where guilt comes from: the thought that there is something lacking, which makes the ego and, therefore, the body real. We see other people and ourselves as lacking; the miracle reflects for us the wholeness that is our true Identity. "Wholeness" can be equated with abundance, the denial of the ego's scarcity principle. "Abundance" does not mean anything material, an association frequently made in what is called Prosperity Consciousness.
In Prosperity.Consciousness, it is typically thought that the abundance of spirit can be translated into material form: If I think abundance, then I will receive abundance. There is no question that our thoughts do influence what is outside us. This is how the whole physical world was made in the first place. But that does not make it into a spiritual principle. From the perspective of the Course, this is the mistake here. Our minds do affect the world, but this is merely a statement of the power of the mind. It is a psychic phenomenon, not a spiritual one. What makes it spiritual, as we have seen, is turning the power over to the Holy Spirit. Without His help and guidance we would merely continue to choose according to our ego's needs, rooting us still further in this world of illusion.
Thus, the miracle does not give us material things. The miracle simply undoes the defenses that were based on our belief in lack and which reinforce this scarcity principle. This process then returns our mind to its original and ongoing state of being one with God, having everything that God gave us in creation: joy, unity, freedom, happiness, etc.
[From “The Fifty Miracle Principle of A Course in Miracles,” by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.]
“41. Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.”
Once again, we are saying the same thing. The basic principle of the ego is the scarcity principle, that there is something missing because we have excluded God. That is where guilt comes from: the thought that there is something lacking, which makes the ego and, therefore, the body real. We see other people and ourselves as lacking; the miracle reflects for us the wholeness that is our true Identity. "Wholeness" can be equated with abundance, the denial of the ego's scarcity principle. "Abundance" does not mean anything material, an association frequently made in what is called Prosperity Consciousness.
In Prosperity.Consciousness, it is typically thought that the abundance of spirit can be translated into material form: If I think abundance, then I will receive abundance. There is no question that our thoughts do influence what is outside us. This is how the whole physical world was made in the first place. But that does not make it into a spiritual principle. From the perspective of the Course, this is the mistake here. Our minds do affect the world, but this is merely a statement of the power of the mind. It is a psychic phenomenon, not a spiritual one. What makes it spiritual, as we have seen, is turning the power over to the Holy Spirit. Without His help and guidance we would merely continue to choose according to our ego's needs, rooting us still further in this world of illusion.
Thus, the miracle does not give us material things. The miracle simply undoes the defenses that were based on our belief in lack and which reinforce this scarcity principle. This process then returns our mind to its original and ongoing state of being one with God, having everything that God gave us in creation: joy, unity, freedom, happiness, etc.
[From “The Fifty Miracle Principle of A Course in Miracles,” by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.]
Lesson 247
Without forgiveness I will still be blind.
This lesson is really clear. If I attack, or perceive attack, I am going to suffer. I know this is true. I am going to see what appears to be attack because that is what happens in the illusion, and I know what to do about it because I have been studying the Course and practicing it. The Holy Spirit will help me to see it differently if that is what I want. Then someone please tell me why I keep attacking and thinking I am being attacked when I know that the only effect is my own unhappiness! And worse yet, why do I hold onto it and refuse to let it go until I just can’t take the misery any longer.
My son was telling me about a car he was buying. He was very excited about it. I was getting a little red flag in my mind because of some things he was telling me. For one thing, it seems too good to be true for the money, and often when that happens it really is too good to be true. There were other things I was concerned about, and I was mentioning some things he might want to look at. As we hang up, I think that he is going to stop sharing his news with me if I keep raining on his parade. I think that it is possible I am making him afraid of his own judgment by doing this. But I also think about how he has no experience buying cars and doesn’t know what to look for.
The next day he called to ask a specific question about the car buying issue and I gave him more info than he wanted. He told me that he sometimes gets the idea that I am trying to instill fear in him. He said that I am doing it with the car, and I did it with hurricanes and other things. I felt the sting of attack, but I said that I would think about the way I talk to him and see what is going on.
Well, I can’t think about why I am instilling fear until I get past seeing attack. Attack fills the vision so that you can’t see anything else. First I have to feel sorry for myself. Poor me, just trying to be a good mother. Then I have to be the victim of a mean son. I was just trying to help and look what he did to me. Then I have to defend my point. He was going to stay with his friends in New Orleans during Katrina and I called to warn him this was no ordinary hurricane and he should get his friends and get out of there. Was I right, or what? Think about that for a moment, kid!
Then I have to notice how rotten I feel, and how much I don’t want to feel like this. I have to bounce around a bit from anger, resentment, fear, and guilt. I have to remind myself that I figured this out before he did so why am I angry with him. The problem with ego thinking is that I begin to feel like the tar baby. Every ego thought mires me more deeply into wrong minded thinking, and the harder I fight the more stuck I get. Then when I finally want out, I have to extricate myself a step at a time.
I finally went to sleep asking myself if I was really laying there defending my right to be right. I kind of chuckled at myself and thought I should get up and read the journaling I had done just that morning. I asked the Holy Spirit to work with me in my sleep. Of course, when the clouds begin to clear, I am always left wondering why I had been so upset and then I feel silly over what was just awhile ago very serious to me.
I thought I was holding onto fear and passing that fear onto my son. He noticed the same thing. I have something to look at with the Holy Spirit. My argument yesterday was that I knew things he needed to know and how could I stop telling him without leaving him unprotected. I see clearly this morning that it is not what I am saying; it is the fear behind the words that he is picking up. I forgive those fear thoughts and what I say will be perfect. They may even be the same words, but they won’t carry the energy of fear when I say them.
I also need to talk to Holy Spirit about what his words elicited in me. Why did I feel attacked?
Holy Spirit: Dear one, as Toby’s mom you have exerted a certain influence on him and you have used that influence to keep him safe. You saw this was part of your job as a mother. Your son is grown now, and you sense the loss of control and it is frightening. This is the fear both you and he are hearing in your words. You know in the sane part of your mind that you cannot control his life and keep him from his lessons. You know that you don’t even want to. Not all of your mind is sane though, is it?
Me: No, not at all. I want him to be happy and I want him to love me and depend on me for the rest of his life. At the same time, I want him to get on with what he came here to do. I want him to be independent, and I want my life to be separate from his. I have raised him, and now it is time for me get on with other things. I want to be able to love him without mothering him. I am extremely conflicted in my desires. There is no outcome that will make me happy.
Holy Spirit: Would you like to see this differently, my dear friend?
Me: Yes, I am completely ready to release everything I think I know and everything I think I want to come of this. I don’t know what any of this means. I am willing to forgive myself for my fearful thoughts, my attack thoughts, and my defense thoughts. I am completely willing to forgive Toby for mirroring for me my projections, and I am completely willing to forgive Toby for the fear his anger is masking. I want to see the truth.
Holy Spirit: Then it is done, as you wish. Would you like to consider the special relationship you have with your son?
Me: Ah. I knew there had to be a catch. I am conflicted about that as well. It has been such a satisfying special relationship for the most part, yet still, I see the need to release it. I cannot truly love him if I make our relationship special. I cannot love at all if specialness enters into my concept of love. So, yes, I am ready, but I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how I did this specialness stuff; I don’t know how to undo it. I give you my willingness, and I really want healing. I give you all the willingness I have because as I say yes, I notice reluctance in my mind, resistance to letting it go.
Holy Spirit: Dear one, you still think there is some value in special love, and you fail to see clearly that it is really an attack on the one you profess to care for. You made a bargain to gain what you thought you needed, and now it is coming unraveled as Toby seems to be drifting away from that bargain. This seems to make him your enemy, and to leave you alone and without love. Is it any wonder you felt attacked and were so willing to attack in return?
I tell you that you did not lose love, because what you called love did not resemble real love in the slightest. Love, the love of God, the love that your are is still available to you just as it always has been. As you allow the special substitute to fall away, love will fill the space you made for it. You will truly love Toby and he will reflect that love back to you, and it will be the same love that flows from you to all that is. And, hear this, all that is will reflect back to you…love. This is what you were created for, not the image of a twisted love which in its specialness is merely attack disguised as something you think you want.
Put in my hand the specialness that you mistook to be love, and in its place I will give you love that will astound you in its radiance. Love is non specific, dear one, and that is why it is for all, and will shine upon all. Love will not judge, or make exceptions. It will not come and go depending on circumstances. It never attacks for it sees no enemies. It never invites attack because it sees no one as separate from itself. Give me your specialness with its neediness, its contraction, its stinginess, and let me grace you with the memory of who you are; love incarnate.
This lesson is really clear. If I attack, or perceive attack, I am going to suffer. I know this is true. I am going to see what appears to be attack because that is what happens in the illusion, and I know what to do about it because I have been studying the Course and practicing it. The Holy Spirit will help me to see it differently if that is what I want. Then someone please tell me why I keep attacking and thinking I am being attacked when I know that the only effect is my own unhappiness! And worse yet, why do I hold onto it and refuse to let it go until I just can’t take the misery any longer.
My son was telling me about a car he was buying. He was very excited about it. I was getting a little red flag in my mind because of some things he was telling me. For one thing, it seems too good to be true for the money, and often when that happens it really is too good to be true. There were other things I was concerned about, and I was mentioning some things he might want to look at. As we hang up, I think that he is going to stop sharing his news with me if I keep raining on his parade. I think that it is possible I am making him afraid of his own judgment by doing this. But I also think about how he has no experience buying cars and doesn’t know what to look for.
The next day he called to ask a specific question about the car buying issue and I gave him more info than he wanted. He told me that he sometimes gets the idea that I am trying to instill fear in him. He said that I am doing it with the car, and I did it with hurricanes and other things. I felt the sting of attack, but I said that I would think about the way I talk to him and see what is going on.
Well, I can’t think about why I am instilling fear until I get past seeing attack. Attack fills the vision so that you can’t see anything else. First I have to feel sorry for myself. Poor me, just trying to be a good mother. Then I have to be the victim of a mean son. I was just trying to help and look what he did to me. Then I have to defend my point. He was going to stay with his friends in New Orleans during Katrina and I called to warn him this was no ordinary hurricane and he should get his friends and get out of there. Was I right, or what? Think about that for a moment, kid!
Then I have to notice how rotten I feel, and how much I don’t want to feel like this. I have to bounce around a bit from anger, resentment, fear, and guilt. I have to remind myself that I figured this out before he did so why am I angry with him. The problem with ego thinking is that I begin to feel like the tar baby. Every ego thought mires me more deeply into wrong minded thinking, and the harder I fight the more stuck I get. Then when I finally want out, I have to extricate myself a step at a time.
I finally went to sleep asking myself if I was really laying there defending my right to be right. I kind of chuckled at myself and thought I should get up and read the journaling I had done just that morning. I asked the Holy Spirit to work with me in my sleep. Of course, when the clouds begin to clear, I am always left wondering why I had been so upset and then I feel silly over what was just awhile ago very serious to me.
I thought I was holding onto fear and passing that fear onto my son. He noticed the same thing. I have something to look at with the Holy Spirit. My argument yesterday was that I knew things he needed to know and how could I stop telling him without leaving him unprotected. I see clearly this morning that it is not what I am saying; it is the fear behind the words that he is picking up. I forgive those fear thoughts and what I say will be perfect. They may even be the same words, but they won’t carry the energy of fear when I say them.
I also need to talk to Holy Spirit about what his words elicited in me. Why did I feel attacked?
Holy Spirit: Dear one, as Toby’s mom you have exerted a certain influence on him and you have used that influence to keep him safe. You saw this was part of your job as a mother. Your son is grown now, and you sense the loss of control and it is frightening. This is the fear both you and he are hearing in your words. You know in the sane part of your mind that you cannot control his life and keep him from his lessons. You know that you don’t even want to. Not all of your mind is sane though, is it?
Me: No, not at all. I want him to be happy and I want him to love me and depend on me for the rest of his life. At the same time, I want him to get on with what he came here to do. I want him to be independent, and I want my life to be separate from his. I have raised him, and now it is time for me get on with other things. I want to be able to love him without mothering him. I am extremely conflicted in my desires. There is no outcome that will make me happy.
Holy Spirit: Would you like to see this differently, my dear friend?
Me: Yes, I am completely ready to release everything I think I know and everything I think I want to come of this. I don’t know what any of this means. I am willing to forgive myself for my fearful thoughts, my attack thoughts, and my defense thoughts. I am completely willing to forgive Toby for mirroring for me my projections, and I am completely willing to forgive Toby for the fear his anger is masking. I want to see the truth.
Holy Spirit: Then it is done, as you wish. Would you like to consider the special relationship you have with your son?
Me: Ah. I knew there had to be a catch. I am conflicted about that as well. It has been such a satisfying special relationship for the most part, yet still, I see the need to release it. I cannot truly love him if I make our relationship special. I cannot love at all if specialness enters into my concept of love. So, yes, I am ready, but I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how I did this specialness stuff; I don’t know how to undo it. I give you my willingness, and I really want healing. I give you all the willingness I have because as I say yes, I notice reluctance in my mind, resistance to letting it go.
Holy Spirit: Dear one, you still think there is some value in special love, and you fail to see clearly that it is really an attack on the one you profess to care for. You made a bargain to gain what you thought you needed, and now it is coming unraveled as Toby seems to be drifting away from that bargain. This seems to make him your enemy, and to leave you alone and without love. Is it any wonder you felt attacked and were so willing to attack in return?
I tell you that you did not lose love, because what you called love did not resemble real love in the slightest. Love, the love of God, the love that your are is still available to you just as it always has been. As you allow the special substitute to fall away, love will fill the space you made for it. You will truly love Toby and he will reflect that love back to you, and it will be the same love that flows from you to all that is. And, hear this, all that is will reflect back to you…love. This is what you were created for, not the image of a twisted love which in its specialness is merely attack disguised as something you think you want.
Put in my hand the specialness that you mistook to be love, and in its place I will give you love that will astound you in its radiance. Love is non specific, dear one, and that is why it is for all, and will shine upon all. Love will not judge, or make exceptions. It will not come and go depending on circumstances. It never attacks for it sees no enemies. It never invites attack because it sees no one as separate from itself. Give me your specialness with its neediness, its contraction, its stinginess, and let me grace you with the memory of who you are; love incarnate.
TEXT CHAPTER22 SEC VII Freedom and the Holy Spirit
TEXT CHAPTER 22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP, PARAGRAPHS 51:65 [Pages 450 - 454]
VII. Freedom and the Holy Spirit
51 Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you see as means; the other, end. And one must serve the other and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own. Means serve the end, and as the end is reached, the value of the means decreases, eclipsed entirely when they are recognized as functionless. No one but yearns for freedom and tries to find it. Yet he will seek for it where he believes it is and can be found. He will believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve his choice as means to find it.
52 Where freedom of the body has been chosen, the mind is used as means whose value lies in its ability to contrive ways to achieve the body’s freedom. Yet freedom of the body has no meaning, and so the mind is dedicated to serve illusions. This is a situation so contradictory and so impossible that anyone who
chooses this has no idea of what is valuable. Yet even in this confusion, so profound it cannot be described, the Holy Spirit waits in gentle patience, as certain of the outcome as He is sure of His Creator’s love. He knows this mad decision was made by one as dear to His Creator as love is to itself.
53 Be not disturbed at all to think how He can change the role of means and end so easily in what God loves and would have free forever. But be you rather grateful that you can be the means to serve His end. This is the only service which leads to freedom. To serve this end, the body must be perceived as sinless because the goal is sinlessness. The lack of contradiction makes the soft transition from means to end as easy as is the shift from hate to gratitude before forgiving eyes. You will be sanctified by one another, using your bodies only to serve the sinless. And it will be impossible for you to hate what serves what you would heal.
54 This holy relationship, lovely in its innocence, mighty in strength, and blazing with a light far brighter than the sun which lights the sky you see, is chosen of your Father as a means for His own plan. Be thankful that it serves yours not at all. Nothing entrusted to it can be misused, and nothing given it but will be used. This holy relationship has the power to heal all pain, regardless of its form. Neither of you alone can serve at all. Only in your joint will does healing lie. For here your healing is and here will you accept Atonement. And in your healing is the Sonship healed because your wills are joined.
55 Before a holy relationship there is no sin. The form of error is no longer seen, and reason, joined with love, looks quietly on all confusion, observing merely, “This was a mistake.” And then the same Atonement you accepted in your relationship corrects the error and lays a part of Heaven in its place. How blessed are you who let this gift be given! Each part of Heaven that you bring is given you. And every empty place in Heaven that you fill again with the Eternal Light you bring shines now on you. The means of sinlessness can know no fear because they carry only love with them.
56 Children of peace, the light has come to you. The light you bring you do not recognize, and yet you will remember. Who can deny himself the vision that he brings to others? And who would fail to recognize a gift he let be laid in Heaven through himself? The gentle service that you give the Holy Spirit is service to yourself. You who are now His means must love all that He loves. And what you bring is your remembrance of everything that is eternal. No trace of anything in time can long remain in minds that serve the timeless. And no illusion can disturb the peace of a relationship which has become the means of peace.
57 When you have looked upon each other with complete forgiveness from which no error is excluded and nothing kept hidden what mistake can there be anywhere you cannot overlook? What form of suffering could block your sight, preventing you from seeing past it? And what illusion could there be you will not recognize as a mistake—a shadow through which you walk completely undismayed? God would let nothing interfere with those whose wills are His. And they will recognize their wills are His, because they serve His Will and serve it willingly. And could remembrance of what they are be long delayed?
58 You will see your value through each other’s eyes, and each one is released as he beholds his savior in place of the attacker who he thought was there. Through this releasing is the world released. This is your part in bringing peace. For you have asked what is your function here and have been answered. Seek not to change it nor to substitute another goal. Accept this one and serve it willingly, for what the Holy Spirit does with the gifts you give each other, to whom He offers them, and where and when is up to Him. He will bestow them where they are received and welcomed. He will use every one of them for peace. Nor will one little smile or willingness to overlook the tiniest mistake be lost to anyone.
59 What can it be but universal blessing to look on what your Father loves with charity? Extension of forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s function. Leave this to Him. Let your concern be only that you give to Him that which can be extended. Save no dark secrets that He cannot use, but offer Him the tiny gifts He can extend forever. He will take each one and make of it a potent force for peace. He will withhold no blessing from it nor limit it in any way. He will join to it all the power that God has given Him to make each little gift of love a source of healing for everyone. Each little gift you offer to the other lights up the world. Be not concerned with darkness; look away from it and toward each other. And let the darkness be dispelled by Him Who knows the light and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith and confidence with which you bless each other.
60 On your learning depends the welfare of the world. And it is only arrogance that would deny the power of your will. Think you the Will of God is powerless? Is this humility? You do not see what this belief has done. You see yourself as vulnerable, frail, and easily destroyed and at the mercy of countless attackers more powerful than you. Let us look straight at how this error came about, for here lies buried the heavy anchor that seems to keep the fear of God in place, unmovable and solid as a rock. While this remains, so will it seem to be.
61 Who can attack the Son of God and not attack his Father? How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed unless his Father is? You do not see that every sin and every condemnation which you perceive and justify is an attack upon your Father. And that is why it has not happened nor could be real. You do not see that this is your attempt because you think the Father and the Son are separate. And you must think that they are separate because of fear. For it seems safer to attack another or yourself than to attack the great Creator of the universe, whose power you know.
62 If you were one with God and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours. But you will not remember this while you believe attack of any kind means anything. It is unjustified in any form because it has no meaning. The only way it could be justified is if each one of you were separate from the other, and all were separate from your Creator. For only then would it be possible to attack a part of the creation without the whole, the Son without the Father, and to attack another without yourself or hurt yourself without the other feeling pain. And this belief you want. Yet wherein lies its value except in the desire to attack in safety? Attack is neither safe nor dangerous. It is impossible. And this is so because the universe is one. You would not choose attack on its reality if it were not essential to attack to see it separated from its maker. And thus it seems as if love could attack and become fearful.
63 Only the different can attack. So you conclude because you can attack you must be different. Yet does the Holy Spirit explain this differently. Because you are not different, you cannot attack. Either position is a logical conclusion if only the different can attack. Either could be maintained, but never both. The only question to be answered to decide which must be true is whether you are different. From the position of what you understand, you seem to be and therefore can attack. Of the alternatives, this seems more natural and more in line with your experience. And therefore it is necessary that you have other experiences more in line with truth to teach you what is natural and true.
64 This is the function of your holy relationship. For what one thinks the other will experience with him. What can this mean except your minds are one? Look not with fear upon this happy fact and think not that it lays a heavy burden on you. For when you have accepted it with gladness, you will realize that your relationship is a reflection of the union of the Creator and His Son. From loving minds there is no separation. And every thought in one brings gladness to the other because they are the same. Joy is unlimited because each shining thought of love extends its being and creates more of itself. There is no difference anywhere in it, for every thought is like itself.
65 The light that joins you shines throughout the universe, and because it joins you, so it makes you one with your Creator. And in Him is all creation joined.
Would you regret you cannot fear alone when your relationship can also teach the power of love is there, which makes all fear impossible? Do not attempt to keep a little of the ego with this gift. For it was given you to be used and not obscured. What teaches you you cannot separate, denies the ego. Let truth decide if you be different or the same and teach you which is true.
Original Edition ~ Course in Miracles Society
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VII. Freedom and the Holy Spirit
51 Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you see as means; the other, end. And one must serve the other and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own. Means serve the end, and as the end is reached, the value of the means decreases, eclipsed entirely when they are recognized as functionless. No one but yearns for freedom and tries to find it. Yet he will seek for it where he believes it is and can be found. He will believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve his choice as means to find it.
52 Where freedom of the body has been chosen, the mind is used as means whose value lies in its ability to contrive ways to achieve the body’s freedom. Yet freedom of the body has no meaning, and so the mind is dedicated to serve illusions. This is a situation so contradictory and so impossible that anyone who
chooses this has no idea of what is valuable. Yet even in this confusion, so profound it cannot be described, the Holy Spirit waits in gentle patience, as certain of the outcome as He is sure of His Creator’s love. He knows this mad decision was made by one as dear to His Creator as love is to itself.
53 Be not disturbed at all to think how He can change the role of means and end so easily in what God loves and would have free forever. But be you rather grateful that you can be the means to serve His end. This is the only service which leads to freedom. To serve this end, the body must be perceived as sinless because the goal is sinlessness. The lack of contradiction makes the soft transition from means to end as easy as is the shift from hate to gratitude before forgiving eyes. You will be sanctified by one another, using your bodies only to serve the sinless. And it will be impossible for you to hate what serves what you would heal.
54 This holy relationship, lovely in its innocence, mighty in strength, and blazing with a light far brighter than the sun which lights the sky you see, is chosen of your Father as a means for His own plan. Be thankful that it serves yours not at all. Nothing entrusted to it can be misused, and nothing given it but will be used. This holy relationship has the power to heal all pain, regardless of its form. Neither of you alone can serve at all. Only in your joint will does healing lie. For here your healing is and here will you accept Atonement. And in your healing is the Sonship healed because your wills are joined.
55 Before a holy relationship there is no sin. The form of error is no longer seen, and reason, joined with love, looks quietly on all confusion, observing merely, “This was a mistake.” And then the same Atonement you accepted in your relationship corrects the error and lays a part of Heaven in its place. How blessed are you who let this gift be given! Each part of Heaven that you bring is given you. And every empty place in Heaven that you fill again with the Eternal Light you bring shines now on you. The means of sinlessness can know no fear because they carry only love with them.
56 Children of peace, the light has come to you. The light you bring you do not recognize, and yet you will remember. Who can deny himself the vision that he brings to others? And who would fail to recognize a gift he let be laid in Heaven through himself? The gentle service that you give the Holy Spirit is service to yourself. You who are now His means must love all that He loves. And what you bring is your remembrance of everything that is eternal. No trace of anything in time can long remain in minds that serve the timeless. And no illusion can disturb the peace of a relationship which has become the means of peace.
57 When you have looked upon each other with complete forgiveness from which no error is excluded and nothing kept hidden what mistake can there be anywhere you cannot overlook? What form of suffering could block your sight, preventing you from seeing past it? And what illusion could there be you will not recognize as a mistake—a shadow through which you walk completely undismayed? God would let nothing interfere with those whose wills are His. And they will recognize their wills are His, because they serve His Will and serve it willingly. And could remembrance of what they are be long delayed?
58 You will see your value through each other’s eyes, and each one is released as he beholds his savior in place of the attacker who he thought was there. Through this releasing is the world released. This is your part in bringing peace. For you have asked what is your function here and have been answered. Seek not to change it nor to substitute another goal. Accept this one and serve it willingly, for what the Holy Spirit does with the gifts you give each other, to whom He offers them, and where and when is up to Him. He will bestow them where they are received and welcomed. He will use every one of them for peace. Nor will one little smile or willingness to overlook the tiniest mistake be lost to anyone.
59 What can it be but universal blessing to look on what your Father loves with charity? Extension of forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s function. Leave this to Him. Let your concern be only that you give to Him that which can be extended. Save no dark secrets that He cannot use, but offer Him the tiny gifts He can extend forever. He will take each one and make of it a potent force for peace. He will withhold no blessing from it nor limit it in any way. He will join to it all the power that God has given Him to make each little gift of love a source of healing for everyone. Each little gift you offer to the other lights up the world. Be not concerned with darkness; look away from it and toward each other. And let the darkness be dispelled by Him Who knows the light and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith and confidence with which you bless each other.
60 On your learning depends the welfare of the world. And it is only arrogance that would deny the power of your will. Think you the Will of God is powerless? Is this humility? You do not see what this belief has done. You see yourself as vulnerable, frail, and easily destroyed and at the mercy of countless attackers more powerful than you. Let us look straight at how this error came about, for here lies buried the heavy anchor that seems to keep the fear of God in place, unmovable and solid as a rock. While this remains, so will it seem to be.
61 Who can attack the Son of God and not attack his Father? How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed unless his Father is? You do not see that every sin and every condemnation which you perceive and justify is an attack upon your Father. And that is why it has not happened nor could be real. You do not see that this is your attempt because you think the Father and the Son are separate. And you must think that they are separate because of fear. For it seems safer to attack another or yourself than to attack the great Creator of the universe, whose power you know.
62 If you were one with God and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours. But you will not remember this while you believe attack of any kind means anything. It is unjustified in any form because it has no meaning. The only way it could be justified is if each one of you were separate from the other, and all were separate from your Creator. For only then would it be possible to attack a part of the creation without the whole, the Son without the Father, and to attack another without yourself or hurt yourself without the other feeling pain. And this belief you want. Yet wherein lies its value except in the desire to attack in safety? Attack is neither safe nor dangerous. It is impossible. And this is so because the universe is one. You would not choose attack on its reality if it were not essential to attack to see it separated from its maker. And thus it seems as if love could attack and become fearful.
63 Only the different can attack. So you conclude because you can attack you must be different. Yet does the Holy Spirit explain this differently. Because you are not different, you cannot attack. Either position is a logical conclusion if only the different can attack. Either could be maintained, but never both. The only question to be answered to decide which must be true is whether you are different. From the position of what you understand, you seem to be and therefore can attack. Of the alternatives, this seems more natural and more in line with your experience. And therefore it is necessary that you have other experiences more in line with truth to teach you what is natural and true.
64 This is the function of your holy relationship. For what one thinks the other will experience with him. What can this mean except your minds are one? Look not with fear upon this happy fact and think not that it lays a heavy burden on you. For when you have accepted it with gladness, you will realize that your relationship is a reflection of the union of the Creator and His Son. From loving minds there is no separation. And every thought in one brings gladness to the other because they are the same. Joy is unlimited because each shining thought of love extends its being and creates more of itself. There is no difference anywhere in it, for every thought is like itself.
65 The light that joins you shines throughout the universe, and because it joins you, so it makes you one with your Creator. And in Him is all creation joined.
Would you regret you cannot fear alone when your relationship can also teach the power of love is there, which makes all fear impossible? Do not attempt to keep a little of the ego with this gift. For it was given you to be used and not obscured. What teaches you you cannot separate, denies the ego. Let truth decide if you be different or the same and teach you which is true.
Original Edition ~ Course in Miracles Society
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Lesson 248
Whatever suffers is not part of me.
Sometimes when I read something like this, that I am disowning the truth when I identify with suffering, my mind becomes confused. I begin to wonder what I am supposed to be feeling. For instance, my brother called to say that his brother-in-law committed suicide. My thoughts went something like this.
Oh no. … Oops, that is not a proper Course response. ….What am I supposed to think and feel? ….I don’t know how to think. And finally …I’ll think about something else.
It all happens so fast that I don’t really follow the course of my thoughts, but that is pretty much it.
This time I stopped myself and asked for help. The Holy Spirit helped me understand that there is a difference between identifying with someone’s pain and feeling compassion for someone’s pain. My first thought on hearing of the suicide was born of my identity to the situation. I thought, “Oh no” because I have fear of the kind of pain that results from a suicide. I can imagine someone I love doing this and how it would feel. I am afraid of loss and death and so when I hear about loss and death I react to that fear.
I am relinquishing my fear of loss and death. It is not a complete relinquishment, but I don’t feel the same as I once did, and when I am afraid the fear is not so intense, nor does it last so long. Once the idea of someone I know committing suicide might have caused me agony, or the fear might have manifested as rage. I don’t entirely believe in death or separation anymore, so, while the reaction is there, it is different, not so intense.
I have compassion for the people involved because I know what it feels like to go through something like this. I remember believing fully in death and being unsure about an after life. I remember believing in sin and thinking that suicide is a mortal sin and hell as a real possibility. I remember believing my body was the most real part of me and believing the same about my family and friends, and so even the thought of losing that body was excruciatingly painful. Knowing how my in-laws are probably feeling right now, compassion is an appropriate response.
What Holy Spirit helped me to remember is that while it is good to mind watch, I lose site of the point if I think I am watching my thoughts so that I can control them. When I think this is true, I am listening to ego who is a real control freak. I am watching because I want to be aware of my beliefs and I can do that by noticing my thoughts and feelings. The thoughts and feelings are the effects of my beliefs. I am not interested in changing the effect, but in allowing the cause to be corrected by the Holy Spirit. My goal is not to rearrange my thoughts, it is to look at my thoughts and recognize what they are telling me about which teacher I am listening to.
Looking at my thoughts and thinking I shouldn’t be thinking them is judgment and judgment takes me in the opposite direction I want to go. Instead, I can look at my thoughts and responses as helpful guideposts which allow me to always be aware of my direction, and so get help when I am off course. My goal is to disown my belief that I am something I am not; my goal is not to deny my thoughts, and, in fact, that denial is counterproductive.
Because the Holy Spirit is always gentle with me, I am learning to be gentle, both with myself and others. My vigilance in mind watching, and my willingness to change are bringing me back to the reality of who I am. My practice is helping me release my belief in the ego identity and accept my identity as the Son of God.
Sometimes when I read something like this, that I am disowning the truth when I identify with suffering, my mind becomes confused. I begin to wonder what I am supposed to be feeling. For instance, my brother called to say that his brother-in-law committed suicide. My thoughts went something like this.
Oh no. … Oops, that is not a proper Course response. ….What am I supposed to think and feel? ….I don’t know how to think. And finally …I’ll think about something else.
It all happens so fast that I don’t really follow the course of my thoughts, but that is pretty much it.
This time I stopped myself and asked for help. The Holy Spirit helped me understand that there is a difference between identifying with someone’s pain and feeling compassion for someone’s pain. My first thought on hearing of the suicide was born of my identity to the situation. I thought, “Oh no” because I have fear of the kind of pain that results from a suicide. I can imagine someone I love doing this and how it would feel. I am afraid of loss and death and so when I hear about loss and death I react to that fear.
I am relinquishing my fear of loss and death. It is not a complete relinquishment, but I don’t feel the same as I once did, and when I am afraid the fear is not so intense, nor does it last so long. Once the idea of someone I know committing suicide might have caused me agony, or the fear might have manifested as rage. I don’t entirely believe in death or separation anymore, so, while the reaction is there, it is different, not so intense.
I have compassion for the people involved because I know what it feels like to go through something like this. I remember believing fully in death and being unsure about an after life. I remember believing in sin and thinking that suicide is a mortal sin and hell as a real possibility. I remember believing my body was the most real part of me and believing the same about my family and friends, and so even the thought of losing that body was excruciatingly painful. Knowing how my in-laws are probably feeling right now, compassion is an appropriate response.
What Holy Spirit helped me to remember is that while it is good to mind watch, I lose site of the point if I think I am watching my thoughts so that I can control them. When I think this is true, I am listening to ego who is a real control freak. I am watching because I want to be aware of my beliefs and I can do that by noticing my thoughts and feelings. The thoughts and feelings are the effects of my beliefs. I am not interested in changing the effect, but in allowing the cause to be corrected by the Holy Spirit. My goal is not to rearrange my thoughts, it is to look at my thoughts and recognize what they are telling me about which teacher I am listening to.
Looking at my thoughts and thinking I shouldn’t be thinking them is judgment and judgment takes me in the opposite direction I want to go. Instead, I can look at my thoughts and responses as helpful guideposts which allow me to always be aware of my direction, and so get help when I am off course. My goal is to disown my belief that I am something I am not; my goal is not to deny my thoughts, and, in fact, that denial is counterproductive.
Because the Holy Spirit is always gentle with me, I am learning to be gentle, both with myself and others. My vigilance in mind watching, and my willingness to change are bringing me back to the reality of who I am. My practice is helping me release my belief in the ego identity and accept my identity as the Son of God.
LESSON 247
September 4, 2008
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 247 – Without forgiveness I will still be blind.
1. Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ's vision comes to me. Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely. Brother, come and let me look on you. Your loveliness reflects my own. Your sinlessness is mine. You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.
2. So would I look on everyone today. My brothers are Your Sons. Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as well. Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 247 – Without forgiveness I will still be blind.
1. Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ's vision comes to me. Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely. Brother, come and let me look on you. Your loveliness reflects my own. Your sinlessness is mine. You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.
2. So would I look on everyone today. My brothers are Your Sons. Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as well. Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
TEXT CHAPTER 22 SEC V The Branching of the Road
TEXT CHAPTER 22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP, PARAGRAPHS 38-50 [Pages 447 - 450]
V. The Branching of the Road
38 When you come to the place where the branch in the road is quite apparent, you cannot go ahead. You must go either one way or the other. For now if you go straight ahead, the way you went before you reached the branch, you will go nowhere. The whole purpose of coming this far was to decide which branch you will take now. The way you came no longer matters. It can no longer serve. No one who reaches this far can make the wrong decision, but he can delay. And there is no part of the journey that seems more hopeless and futile than standing where the road branches and not deciding on which way to go.
39 It is but the first few steps along the right way that seem hard, for you have chosen, although you still may think you can go back and make the other choice. This is not so. A choice made with the power of Heaven to uphold it cannot be undone. Your way is decided. There will be nothing you will not be told if you acknowledge this.
40 And so you stand, here in this holy place, before the veil of sin that hangs between you and the face of Christ. Let it be lifted! Raise it together, for it is but a veil that stands between you. Either alone will see it as a solid block, nor realize how thin the drapery that separates you now. Yet it is almost over in your awareness, and peace has reached you even here before the veil. Think what will happen after! The love of Christ will light your faces and shine from them into a darkened world that needs the light. And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you. You will become His messengers, returning Him unto Himself.
41 Think of the loveliness that you will see who walk with Him! And think how beautiful will each of you look to the other! How happy you will be to be together after such a long and lonely journey where you walked alone. The gates of Heaven, open now for you, will you now open to the sorrowful. And none who looks upon the Christ in you but will rejoice. How beautiful the sight you saw beyond the veil which you will bring to light the tired eyes of those as weary now as once you were. How thankful will they be to see you come among them, offering Christ’s forgiveness to dispel their faith in sin.
42 Every mistake you make the other will gently have corrected for you, for in his sight your loveliness is his salvation which he would protect from harm. And each will be the other’s strong protector from everything that seems to rise between you. So shall you walk the world with me, whose message has not yet been given to everyone. For you are here to let it be received. God’s offer still is open, yet it waits acceptance. From you who have accepted it is it received. Into your joined hands is it safely given, for you who share it have become its willing guardians and protectors.
43 To all who share the love of God, the grace is given to be the givers of what they have received. And so they learn that it is theirs forever. All barriers disappear before their coming, as every obstacle was finally surmounted which seemed to rise and block their way before. This veil you lift together opens the way to truth to more than you. Those who would let illusions be lifted from their minds are this world’s saviors, walking the world with their Redeemer and carrying His message of hope and freedom and release from suffering to everyone who needs a miracle to save him.
44 How easy is it to offer this miracle to everyone! No one who has received it for himself could find it difficult. For by receiving it, he learned it was not given him alone. Such is the function of a holy relationship—to receive together and give as you received. Standing before the veil, it still seems difficult. But hold out your joined hands and touch this heavy-seeming block, and you will learn how easily your fingers slip through its nothingness. It is no solid wall. And only an illusion stands between you and the holy Self you share.
VI. Weakness and Defensiveness
45 How does one overcome illusions? Surely not by force or anger nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality. They go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them and not reality. Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong ones in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.
46 Consider what the ego wants defenses for—always to justify what goes against the truth, flies in the face of reason, and makes no sense. Can this be justified? What can this be except an invitation to insanity to save you from the truth? And what would you be saved from but what you fear? Belief in sin needs great defense and at enormous cost. All that the Holy Spirit offers must be defended against and sacrificed. For sin is carved into a block out of your peace and laid between you and its return. Yet how can peace be so fragmented? It is still whole, and nothing has been taken from it.
47 See how the means and the material of evil dreams are nothing. In truth you stand together with nothing in between. God holds your hands, and what can separate whom He has joined as one with Him? It is your Father Whom you would defend against. Yet it remains impossible to keep love out. God rests with you in quiet, undefended and wholly undefending, for in this quiet state alone is strength and power. Here can no weakness enter, for here is no attack and therefore no illusions. Love rests in certainty. Only uncertainty can be defensive. And all uncertainty is doubt about yourself.
48 How weak is fear—how little and how meaningless! How insignificant before the quiet strength of those whom love has joined! This is your “enemy”— a frightened mouse that would attack the universe. How likely is it that it will succeed? Can it be difficult to disregard its feeble squeaks that tell of its
omnipotence and would drown out the hymn of praise to its Creator which every heart throughout the universe forever sings as one? Which is the stronger? Is it this tiny mouse or everything that God created? You are not joined together by this mouse but by the Will of God. And can a mouse betray whom God has joined?
49 If you but recognized how little stands between you and your awareness of your union! Be not deceived by the illusions it presents of size and thickness, weight, solidity, and firmness of foundation. Yes, to the body’s eyes it looks like an enormous solid body, immovable as is a mountain. Yet within you there is a Force which no illusions can resist. This body only seems to be immovable; this Force is irresistible in truth. What, then, must happen when they come together? Can the illusion of immovability be long defended from what is quietly passed through and gone beyond?
50 Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one but rests on the belief that you are separate. Not one that does not seem to stand, heavy and solid and immovable, between you and your brother. And not one that truth cannot pass over lightly and so easily that you must be convinced, in spite of what you thought it was, that it is nothing. If you forgive each other, this must happen. For it is your unwillingness to overlook what seems to stand between you that makes it look impenetrable and defends the illusion of its immovability.
Original Edition ~ Course in Miracles Society
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V. The Branching of the Road
38 When you come to the place where the branch in the road is quite apparent, you cannot go ahead. You must go either one way or the other. For now if you go straight ahead, the way you went before you reached the branch, you will go nowhere. The whole purpose of coming this far was to decide which branch you will take now. The way you came no longer matters. It can no longer serve. No one who reaches this far can make the wrong decision, but he can delay. And there is no part of the journey that seems more hopeless and futile than standing where the road branches and not deciding on which way to go.
39 It is but the first few steps along the right way that seem hard, for you have chosen, although you still may think you can go back and make the other choice. This is not so. A choice made with the power of Heaven to uphold it cannot be undone. Your way is decided. There will be nothing you will not be told if you acknowledge this.
40 And so you stand, here in this holy place, before the veil of sin that hangs between you and the face of Christ. Let it be lifted! Raise it together, for it is but a veil that stands between you. Either alone will see it as a solid block, nor realize how thin the drapery that separates you now. Yet it is almost over in your awareness, and peace has reached you even here before the veil. Think what will happen after! The love of Christ will light your faces and shine from them into a darkened world that needs the light. And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you. You will become His messengers, returning Him unto Himself.
41 Think of the loveliness that you will see who walk with Him! And think how beautiful will each of you look to the other! How happy you will be to be together after such a long and lonely journey where you walked alone. The gates of Heaven, open now for you, will you now open to the sorrowful. And none who looks upon the Christ in you but will rejoice. How beautiful the sight you saw beyond the veil which you will bring to light the tired eyes of those as weary now as once you were. How thankful will they be to see you come among them, offering Christ’s forgiveness to dispel their faith in sin.
42 Every mistake you make the other will gently have corrected for you, for in his sight your loveliness is his salvation which he would protect from harm. And each will be the other’s strong protector from everything that seems to rise between you. So shall you walk the world with me, whose message has not yet been given to everyone. For you are here to let it be received. God’s offer still is open, yet it waits acceptance. From you who have accepted it is it received. Into your joined hands is it safely given, for you who share it have become its willing guardians and protectors.
43 To all who share the love of God, the grace is given to be the givers of what they have received. And so they learn that it is theirs forever. All barriers disappear before their coming, as every obstacle was finally surmounted which seemed to rise and block their way before. This veil you lift together opens the way to truth to more than you. Those who would let illusions be lifted from their minds are this world’s saviors, walking the world with their Redeemer and carrying His message of hope and freedom and release from suffering to everyone who needs a miracle to save him.
44 How easy is it to offer this miracle to everyone! No one who has received it for himself could find it difficult. For by receiving it, he learned it was not given him alone. Such is the function of a holy relationship—to receive together and give as you received. Standing before the veil, it still seems difficult. But hold out your joined hands and touch this heavy-seeming block, and you will learn how easily your fingers slip through its nothingness. It is no solid wall. And only an illusion stands between you and the holy Self you share.
VI. Weakness and Defensiveness
45 How does one overcome illusions? Surely not by force or anger nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality. They go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them and not reality. Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong ones in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.
46 Consider what the ego wants defenses for—always to justify what goes against the truth, flies in the face of reason, and makes no sense. Can this be justified? What can this be except an invitation to insanity to save you from the truth? And what would you be saved from but what you fear? Belief in sin needs great defense and at enormous cost. All that the Holy Spirit offers must be defended against and sacrificed. For sin is carved into a block out of your peace and laid between you and its return. Yet how can peace be so fragmented? It is still whole, and nothing has been taken from it.
47 See how the means and the material of evil dreams are nothing. In truth you stand together with nothing in between. God holds your hands, and what can separate whom He has joined as one with Him? It is your Father Whom you would defend against. Yet it remains impossible to keep love out. God rests with you in quiet, undefended and wholly undefending, for in this quiet state alone is strength and power. Here can no weakness enter, for here is no attack and therefore no illusions. Love rests in certainty. Only uncertainty can be defensive. And all uncertainty is doubt about yourself.
48 How weak is fear—how little and how meaningless! How insignificant before the quiet strength of those whom love has joined! This is your “enemy”— a frightened mouse that would attack the universe. How likely is it that it will succeed? Can it be difficult to disregard its feeble squeaks that tell of its
omnipotence and would drown out the hymn of praise to its Creator which every heart throughout the universe forever sings as one? Which is the stronger? Is it this tiny mouse or everything that God created? You are not joined together by this mouse but by the Will of God. And can a mouse betray whom God has joined?
49 If you but recognized how little stands between you and your awareness of your union! Be not deceived by the illusions it presents of size and thickness, weight, solidity, and firmness of foundation. Yes, to the body’s eyes it looks like an enormous solid body, immovable as is a mountain. Yet within you there is a Force which no illusions can resist. This body only seems to be immovable; this Force is irresistible in truth. What, then, must happen when they come together? Can the illusion of immovability be long defended from what is quietly passed through and gone beyond?
50 Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one but rests on the belief that you are separate. Not one that does not seem to stand, heavy and solid and immovable, between you and your brother. And not one that truth cannot pass over lightly and so easily that you must be convinced, in spite of what you thought it was, that it is nothing. If you forgive each other, this must happen. For it is your unwillingness to overlook what seems to stand between you that makes it look impenetrable and defends the illusion of its immovability.
Original Edition ~ Course in Miracles Society
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LESSON 246
September 3, 2008
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 246 – To love my Father is to love His Son.
1. Let me not think that I can find the way to God, if I have hatred in my heart. Let me not try to hurt God's Son, and think that I can know his Father or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize myself, and still believe that my awareness can contain my Father, or my mind conceive of all the love my Father has for me, and all the love which I return to Him.
2. I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. For in that will I succeed, because it is Your Will. And I would recognize that what You will is what I will as well, and only that. And so I choose to lSove Your Son. Amen.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
[The prelude to Lessons 241-250 is titled “What is the World?” which can be found under the 1st Reply to this message. Jesus asks us to read this prelude and think about it a little while in conjunction with the practice of each of these ten lessons.]
Lesson 246 – To love my Father is to love His Son.
1. Let me not think that I can find the way to God, if I have hatred in my heart. Let me not try to hurt God's Son, and think that I can know his Father or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize myself, and still believe that my awareness can contain my Father, or my mind conceive of all the love my Father has for me, and all the love which I return to Him.
2. I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. For in that will I succeed, because it is Your Will. And I would recognize that what You will is what I will as well, and only that. And so I choose to lSove Your Son. Amen.
[For Sarah Heummert’s reflections on this lesson:
view link ]
Lesson 246
To love my Father is to love His Son.
Salvation is so simple. All that I need to do to return to my home in God is to forgive all my grievances. The process of forgiving is simple. I just watch my mind for thoughts which are not loving or I notice when I am not at peace. Then I look at those thoughts with the Holy Spirit with a willingness to have them corrected. Could it get any simpler?
So how to do it is not a problem. When to do it is not a problem. And yet, I still think I am here. So, do I think I have a better plan than God? Do I think that there is a way to experience wholeness without being whole? I seem to believe that I can be Love without loving. This is what I am saying when I judge someone. Actually, this is what I say when I fail to love anyone or fail to love in any circumstance.
The only reason for my failure to love is that I have misplaced value. I think there is some value in withholding love. It all comes down to placing value on separateness. I don’t want to give up being a unique and special person, and so I defend my right to do so. I think I am defending myself against God, but that is ludicrous. God created me free and He created me to create. If I want to play this silly game, I can do so. God is not hurt by my illusions, and is not trying to stop them.
The only reason for me to give them up is because the thought of separation is not compatible with the thought of wholeness. I cannot have both at the same time, and so I am in a self-imposed exile from Heaven. It reminds me of my little granddaughter. She will have something in both hands and I offer her something else that she wants. She is in a quandary as she tries to figure out how to have the new toy without giving up the toys in her hands. That’s me; my hands are full of specialness which I think I still want and so I can’t accept the gift of wholeness.
Within my illusion I think there are all sorts of reasons for holding onto my grievances and I have made lots of proof to support that position. I tell myself that I would like to forgive this person, but look what they did. I mean they really did it. The proof is right there in front of me. They are wrong and I am right. Being right seems so hard to get past. For awhile my granddaughter could not figure out what to do when her hands were full but she wanted something else. Finally, one day she just looked at one of her hands, and set that toy down, then picked up the new one. From then on it was just a matter of remembering she could do that.
So this is what I do. I have all this specialness that I think I can’t live without, but I have remembered there is something else. I want it, but I am uncertain about relinquishing what I already have. It doesn’t look as good as what I could have, but I am used to playing with it and it is in my hand. So, I tentatively try releasing it a thought at a time. When I am confronted with the seemingly solid irrefutable fact that I am right in my grievance and they are wrong, I just sigh in resignation and let it go anyway. Surprise! I can do this and it doesn’t hurt, AND I get peace! Like my granddaughter, the more I do it, the easier it is to do it, and the more natural it seems.
There is only one response that will gain me Salvation, and that is love. This is truly an irrefutable fact. I don’t have to figure out when love is appropriate. It simply is. I don’t have to figure out how to love. I am love and it will flow from me like water from a spring. It will flow unimpeded unless I dam it up. The only thing I have to do is be willing to remove all the things which are preventing the flow of love. And before I can do this, I must convince myself I want to do it. I practice it and I notice that it feels good and so I want to do it some more.
I have added another dimension to my healing process. I am practicing allowing love to flow through even my errors. If I do something that causes an effect that I did not expect, or decided I don’t like, I love it anyway. That doesn’t mean I want to keep it, but it seems that not loving it binds it to me in some way. For instance, I joined in gossip with a group of people. It felt good for about two minutes as I experienced myself as part of the gang, standing around sharing stories. But it was not real sharing because it was founded on separation and specialness, and so the feeling was short lived. Then I felt guilty and wrong and I was out of peace.
Normally, I would berate myself for what I did. I would hate the part of me that falls into the old habits. I would wonder if I could somehow make up for it. I would be afraid that I had caused some permanent harm to the subject of the gossip. Mostly I would feel really separate and alone which is depressing. It takes awhile to extract myself from the ego mire, and if I don’t forgive myself then the feelings just burrow down inside me and get projected onto someone else.
So here is what I am doing now. I love the situation. I did this, and I love it. I noticed how it felt, and I choose not to hold onto that kind of behavior and the thoughts that caused it, but I love that it showed me what needs to be healed within my mind. I love that I have the opportunity to forgive. Love just feels so good. It is like a dark cloud lifted. It is like I lost 10 pounds and am now so light. Love makes it easy to forgive myself. There are no self recriminations to get past. Love invites forgiveness, whereas self hatred blocks forgiveness.
What I am seeing is that love really is the answer in every case. There is nothing to consider, no decisions to make. If I am out of peace, I need to administer a good dose of love. The healing thing to do is to allow love to flow over what ever is ill. If I am angry at someone, the answer is love. If I am afraid of something, the answer is love. If I am feeling wrong, the answer is love. This makes sense because only love heals. God is consistent. If love is the answer, it is the answer in every situation. This is what makes Salvation so simple. There is always only one answer; love through forgiveness. I forgive by loving.
Salvation is so simple. All that I need to do to return to my home in God is to forgive all my grievances. The process of forgiving is simple. I just watch my mind for thoughts which are not loving or I notice when I am not at peace. Then I look at those thoughts with the Holy Spirit with a willingness to have them corrected. Could it get any simpler?
So how to do it is not a problem. When to do it is not a problem. And yet, I still think I am here. So, do I think I have a better plan than God? Do I think that there is a way to experience wholeness without being whole? I seem to believe that I can be Love without loving. This is what I am saying when I judge someone. Actually, this is what I say when I fail to love anyone or fail to love in any circumstance.
The only reason for my failure to love is that I have misplaced value. I think there is some value in withholding love. It all comes down to placing value on separateness. I don’t want to give up being a unique and special person, and so I defend my right to do so. I think I am defending myself against God, but that is ludicrous. God created me free and He created me to create. If I want to play this silly game, I can do so. God is not hurt by my illusions, and is not trying to stop them.
The only reason for me to give them up is because the thought of separation is not compatible with the thought of wholeness. I cannot have both at the same time, and so I am in a self-imposed exile from Heaven. It reminds me of my little granddaughter. She will have something in both hands and I offer her something else that she wants. She is in a quandary as she tries to figure out how to have the new toy without giving up the toys in her hands. That’s me; my hands are full of specialness which I think I still want and so I can’t accept the gift of wholeness.
Within my illusion I think there are all sorts of reasons for holding onto my grievances and I have made lots of proof to support that position. I tell myself that I would like to forgive this person, but look what they did. I mean they really did it. The proof is right there in front of me. They are wrong and I am right. Being right seems so hard to get past. For awhile my granddaughter could not figure out what to do when her hands were full but she wanted something else. Finally, one day she just looked at one of her hands, and set that toy down, then picked up the new one. From then on it was just a matter of remembering she could do that.
So this is what I do. I have all this specialness that I think I can’t live without, but I have remembered there is something else. I want it, but I am uncertain about relinquishing what I already have. It doesn’t look as good as what I could have, but I am used to playing with it and it is in my hand. So, I tentatively try releasing it a thought at a time. When I am confronted with the seemingly solid irrefutable fact that I am right in my grievance and they are wrong, I just sigh in resignation and let it go anyway. Surprise! I can do this and it doesn’t hurt, AND I get peace! Like my granddaughter, the more I do it, the easier it is to do it, and the more natural it seems.
There is only one response that will gain me Salvation, and that is love. This is truly an irrefutable fact. I don’t have to figure out when love is appropriate. It simply is. I don’t have to figure out how to love. I am love and it will flow from me like water from a spring. It will flow unimpeded unless I dam it up. The only thing I have to do is be willing to remove all the things which are preventing the flow of love. And before I can do this, I must convince myself I want to do it. I practice it and I notice that it feels good and so I want to do it some more.
I have added another dimension to my healing process. I am practicing allowing love to flow through even my errors. If I do something that causes an effect that I did not expect, or decided I don’t like, I love it anyway. That doesn’t mean I want to keep it, but it seems that not loving it binds it to me in some way. For instance, I joined in gossip with a group of people. It felt good for about two minutes as I experienced myself as part of the gang, standing around sharing stories. But it was not real sharing because it was founded on separation and specialness, and so the feeling was short lived. Then I felt guilty and wrong and I was out of peace.
Normally, I would berate myself for what I did. I would hate the part of me that falls into the old habits. I would wonder if I could somehow make up for it. I would be afraid that I had caused some permanent harm to the subject of the gossip. Mostly I would feel really separate and alone which is depressing. It takes awhile to extract myself from the ego mire, and if I don’t forgive myself then the feelings just burrow down inside me and get projected onto someone else.
So here is what I am doing now. I love the situation. I did this, and I love it. I noticed how it felt, and I choose not to hold onto that kind of behavior and the thoughts that caused it, but I love that it showed me what needs to be healed within my mind. I love that I have the opportunity to forgive. Love just feels so good. It is like a dark cloud lifted. It is like I lost 10 pounds and am now so light. Love makes it easy to forgive myself. There are no self recriminations to get past. Love invites forgiveness, whereas self hatred blocks forgiveness.
What I am seeing is that love really is the answer in every case. There is nothing to consider, no decisions to make. If I am out of peace, I need to administer a good dose of love. The healing thing to do is to allow love to flow over what ever is ill. If I am angry at someone, the answer is love. If I am afraid of something, the answer is love. If I am feeling wrong, the answer is love. This makes sense because only love heals. God is consistent. If love is the answer, it is the answer in every situation. This is what makes Salvation so simple. There is always only one answer; love through forgiveness. I forgive by loving.
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