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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 8 "THE JOURNEY BACK
V. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
I am come as a light into a world that
does deny itself everything. It does this simply by dissociating itself
from everything. It is therefore an illusion of isolation, maintained by fear of the same loneliness which
is its illusion. I have told you that I am with you always, even to 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. My purpose, then,
is to overcome the world. I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of what it
is.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW II
INTRODUCTION
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1 We are now ready for another review. We will begin where our last review left off and cover two ideas each day. The earlier part of each day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other. We will have one longer exercise period and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.
2 The longer practice periods will follow this general form: take about 15 minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the idea and the comments which are included in the assignments. Devote about three or four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen. Repeat the first phase if you find your mind wandering, but try to spend the major part of the practice period listening quietly but attentively.
3 There is a message waiting for you. Be confident that you will receive it. Remember that it belongs to you and that you want it. Do not allow your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts. Realize that, whatever form they take, they have no meaning and no power. Replace them with your determination to succeed. Do not forget that your will has power over all fantasies and dreams. Trust it to see you through and carry you beyond them all.
4 Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth, and the life. Refuse to be side-tracked into detours, illusions, and thoughts of death. You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled.
5 Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as well, using the original form of the idea for general application and a more specific form when needed. Some specific forms will be included in the comments. These, however, are merely suggestions. It is not the particular words you use that matter.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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DAILY LESSON
L e s s o n 90 ~ Review II
[Review Lesson 79 and Lesson 80]
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1 For this review we will use these ideas:
[79] Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.
2 Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance which I would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is always a miracle with which I let the grievance be replaced. Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution. The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance and my welcome of the miracle which takes its place.
3 Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
4
This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.
The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me.
The answer to this problem is the miracle which it conceals.
[80] Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
5 I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out. I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their occurrence. That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by time. The Holy Spirit will teach me this if I will let Him. And I will understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been solved already.
6 These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:
7
I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 90
Review II ~ Lessons 79 and 80
Sarah's Commentary:
We think the world gives us all kinds of problems. People attack us for things we don't deserve. Things break down. Germs seem to invade our bodies. The boss does not understand us. We don't like our work. A colleague turns on us. Our relationships fall apart. We can't pay our rent. A friend betrays us. We lose our money. There are myriad seeming problems that cause us grief.
The source of these problems all seem to originate outside us. We don't see ourselves as the cause of them all. Things just seem to happen to us and we don't see ourselves as having anything to do with these happenings. Jesus tells us, "A child is frightened when a wooden head springs up as a closed box is opened suddenly, or when a soft and silent wooly bear begins to squeak as he takes hold of it. The rules he made for boxes and for bears have failed him, and have broken his 'control' of what surrounds him." (T.30.IV.2.2-3)(ACIM OE T.30.V.50) He says we are like those children, startled by unexpected events in the world we seemingly have no control over. Things just seem to happen out of the blue.
He treats the way we see our problems much the same as children playing with toys that frighten them. What we call problems he equates with toys, as they have no importance in reality. What we take seriously, and what seems to create misery for us, can't threaten who we are. Nothing matters when looked at from the point of view of eternity. While we still identify with the body and world, problems can have serious consequences for us. Our problems certainly seem very real, and we are frightened by them, as they make us feel very vulnerable. Now we think we have reason to attack and defend. To us, the world becomes a place where there is no safety, because the rules we made and the expectations we have of how things should be are not being met
What Jesus is helping us to understand is, regardless of how it looks to us, all problems can be traced back to the grievances we hold. How is that? Well, we believe that our happiness depends on how things go for us in the world. When events, people and circumstances don't go our way, we hold a grievance. When we get upset, there is someone we hold responsible and blame for how we feel. We have given the situation the power to disturb us. Events have no meaning except the meaning we give them. In other words, what upsets us is not the event, but our interpretation of it. Our problems are illusory, as are the solutions. While a perceived problem may be addressed, it is never solved and will simply reoccur in another form, until we recognize the source of all problems is the mind and the grievances we hold.
When we have a problem, there is always a grievance lurking behind it. If I have a problem, I need to take the time to look at the grievance I am holding. What is the judgment behind it? Am I willing to let it go and accept the miracle, instead of trying to control what happens? Can I just accept that perfect safety, perfect happiness, and perfect peace are available to me regardless of what is swirling around me? Can I remember there is always an inner tranquility that nothing can disturb. When we uncover the cause of our upsets, the quiet order within is revealed. It is always there, and now we recognize we don't need anything to go our way in order to be tranquil.
When the separation was healed, all problems were solved for all time. If that is the case, the part of my mind that can choose with the Holy Spirit can experience a miracle instead. I can choose peace, regardless of what seems to be happening, if I am willing to take responsibility for my grievances instead of seeing the cause outside my own mind. When I am not willing, I can ask for help so I might become willing. Regardless of my choice, I am not guilty. I am simply not ready at the moment and can take the time I need to come to readiness. Meanwhile, I can choose to rest with the disturbance, accept my current situation, and trust I will find my way through it when I am ready. We can ask the Holy Spirit to show us the situation as He sees it. To be at peace is to recognize there is another way of looking at every problem when we ask for help to see it differently.
Problems are how we maintain our investment in the world. We are convinced that we are the victims of an unfair world, which keeps us constantly occupied as we try to address one problem after another. Thus, we see the world as the cause and we are the effect. If this truly is the case, we would have reason for our grievances, but Jesus tells us it is the other way around. The mind is cause and the world is the effect. When we see the world as the cause, there is no way out, as the power is then outside us. If we believe problems are coming at us from outside our own minds, we would continue to be hapless victims, and there would be no resolution possible! If this were the way it is, there would indeed be no reason for hope.
What God did not create cannot be true, and God did not create the world. The world is a projection of the thought system of separation. Thus, all our problems are illusory. They are all a projection of the guilt in our own minds, and guilt demands punishment. The situation we experience as a problem simply can't be real because perfect love would not have created it, and what is not real has no power over us. We think if this situation were different, we would be happy, yet happiness is only a choice made in the mind. When the grievance is released, so is the problem. Every problem is some sort of grievance. When we hold grievances, we experience ourselves as alone and separate. A grievance separates me from whomever I hold a grievance against. The only way I can be happy is to let the grievance go so I can know the separation is not real.
When we appeared to separate from God, He immediately provided us with the answer. The answer is the Holy Spirit, a symbol of God's love in our right minds. This love shines forth when we release our grievances. The only problem is choosing to separate from the Love of God, and the only solution is to bring our mistaken choice to the truth. "The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me. The answer to this problem is the miracle that it conceals." (W.90.2.3-4)
Nothing has to change outside. The only change possible is in our own minds. If we really believed everything starts in our own minds, and the power rests with us to choose the miracle instead, the solution would be immediately available to every problem. Why do we experience such resistance to letting go of our worries, anger, depression, and frustrations? This is because, with the choice for separation and all that has come with it (the body and the world), we now value our separate identity and don't want to let go of our unique and special self. This explains our investment in this world. However, while we are invested in the world, we don't want the responsibility for having created it. Instead, we want to see ourselves victimized and betrayed so others could be blamed for our condition and the condition of the world. In other words, we don't want to take responsibility for the separation. This keeps us invested in the world and all the problems that arise as a result. As long as we cling to this reality, and believe in it, we value it and we value our individual separate self. Until we truly accept that it is the source of all our unhappiness, all our suffering, and all our pain, we will not be willing to let it go.
Jesus goes on to explain the way we see it. "I believe that the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out." (W.90.3.3) That is the belief we hold and that is precisely how we misuse time. We don't see that the problem and answer are actually simultaneous, so that at the moment of separation the Answer was given. Isn't that what an all powerful, loving Father would do? Why would he want us to suffer? When we think we have problems and God is not providing us with the answer, it is because werefuse to accept the miracle available right then. We ourselves are holding back the healing and the help by holding onto, and indeed cherishing, the grievance. This is something for us to really reflect on and ask for His help in releasing the grievance and accepting the miracle. He gives us specific practices for this purpose, asking us to recognize today that we need not wait for any problem to be resolved. The answer to the problem has already been given, and we simply need to accept it. Time cannot separate the problem from the solution unless we allow it.
Jesus is not asking us to ignore the problems that seem to show up in our lives. We are merely asked to see, if indeed the real problem behind all our difficulties is a grievance, the real solution is in addressing that first. When we do, the answer is given immediately. In the world, whatever the problem, resolution may indeed take some time, but our function is to recognize it is never our real problem. Our real problem is, we have excluded ourselves from love. We have forgotten who we are, and if we let the Holy Spirit help us, truth will dawn on our minds. We will experience the peace and joy of our Being instead of the grievance, and this is where our true freedom lies. Through forgiveness, we are released from the cycle of guilt and fear. Now we can see that problems in our lives provide opportunities for healing. They are part of the script we have called into our lives, recognizing that we don't know our own best interests.
Our problem is, we cherish grievances. (W.90.1.2) We can all relate to how we like to hang onto our grievances. This reminds me of the "Psychotherapy Pamphlet," where Jesus says we don't shun guilt but embrace it, hug it close and shelter it, seeing it as protecting us and thus defending it, instead, against the love. "'God may not enter here' the sick repeat, over and over, while they mourn their loss and yet rejoice in it." (P.2.VI.1.4) Often we find we really don't want to let go of grievances. We still see "order of difficulty in miracles." (T.1.I.1.1)(ACIM OE T.1.1) To us some problems seem bigger and more difficult, yet Jesus reminds us they are all the same because they are all illusory.
I don't know what the outcome of any perceived problem will actually be, but what I need to do is accept that the problem has already been solved. There is a miracle behind every perceived problem. Jesus makes it clear, the miracle will manifest in a way we can understand. It may be in form and it may not. Today, we are asked to recognize the problem has already been solved, and we can be freed of the temptation to blame and see anyone as responsible for keeping us in fear. If I am in fear, it is by my choice, and my responsibility is to do the healing work by giving over the fear to the Holy Spirit, Who will reinterpret the way I perceive it.
Today, I ask for the willingness to recognize my problems have been solved. I ask for help in having faith in myself, in those who seemingly cause me difficulties, and in the Holy Spirit. Let me see every problematic situation through the eyes of Love. Let me know every grievance will be replaced with a miracle, and everything has already been resolved. "The working out of all correction takes no time at all. Yet the acceptance of the working out can seem to take forever."
(T.26.VIII.6.1-2)(ACIM OE T.26.IX.72,73)
Love and blessings, Sarah
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V. The Light of the World
25 If God's Will for you is complete peace and joy, unless you experience
only this you must be refusing to
acknowledge His Will. His Will does not vacillate, being changeless forever. When you are not at peace, it can only be because you do not believe you
are in Him. Yet He is all in all. His peace is complete, and you
must be included in it. His laws govern you, because they govern
everything. You cannot exempt yourself from His laws, although you can disobey them. Yet if you do, and
only if you do, you
will feel lonely and helpless, because you are denying yourself everything.
26 I am come as a light into a world that
does deny itself everything. It does this simply by dissociating itself
from everything. It is therefore an illusion of isolation, maintained by fear of the same loneliness which
is its illusion. I have told you that I am with you always, even to 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. My purpose, then,
is to overcome the world. I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of what it
is.
27 Light does not attack darkness, but it
does shine it away. If my light goes with you everywhere,
you shine it away
with me. The light becomes
ours, and you cannot abide in darkness any more than darkness can abide wherever you go. The remembrance of me
is the remembrance of yourself and of Him Who sent me to you. You were in darkness until God's Will was done completely by
any part of the Sonship. When this was done, it was perfectly accomplished by
all. How else could it
be perfectly accomplished? My mission was simply to unite the will of the Sonship with the Will of the Father by being aware of the Father's Will myself. This is the awareness I came to give
you, and your problem in accepting it
is the problem of this world. Dispelling it is salvation, and in this sense I
am the salvation of the world.
28 The world must despise and reject me, because the world
is the belief that love is impossible.
Your reactions to me are the reactions of the world to God. If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are
denying the world and
accepting God. My will is His, and
your will to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you, so will I send you to others, and I will go to them
with you so we can teach them peace and union.
29 Do you not think the world
needs peace as much as you do? Do you not want to
give it to the world as much as you want to
receive it? For unless you do, you will
not receive it. If you will to have it of me, you
must give it. Rehabilitation does not come from anyone else. You can have guidance from without, but you must
accept it from within. The guidance must be what
you want, or it will be meaningless to you. That is why rehabilitation is a collaborative venture.
30 I can tell you what to do, but this will not help you unless you collaborate by believing that I
know what to do. Only then will your mind choose to follow me. Without
your will, you cannot
be rehabilitated.
Motivation to be healed is the crucial factor in rehabilitation. Without this you are deciding
against healing, and your veto of my will for you
makes healing impossible. If healing
is our joint will, unless our wills
are joined you
cannot be healed. This is obvious when you consider what healing is
for. Healing is the way in which the separation is overcome. Separation is overcome by
union. It cannot be overcome by separating.
31 The
will to unite must be unequivocal, or the will
itself is divided or not whole. Your will is the means by which you determine your own condition, because will is the
mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join and experience pain or joy accordingly. My will cannot
overcome yours, because yours is as powerful as mine. If it were not so, the Sons of God would be unequal. All things are possible through our
joint will, but my will alone cannot help you. Your will is as free as mine, and God Himself would not go against it.
I cannot will what God does
not will. I can offer you my will to make
yours invincible by this sharing, but I cannot
oppose yours
without competing with it and thereby violating God's Will for you.
32 Nothing God created can oppose your will, as nothing God created can oppose His. God
gave your will its power, which I can only acknowledge in honor of
His. If you want to be like me, I will help you, knowing that we
are alike. If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. I can
teach you, but only you can choose to
listen to my teaching. How else can it be, if God's Kingdom
is freedom? Freedom cannot be learned by tyranny of any kind, and the perfect equality of
all God's Sons cannot be recognized through the dominion of one will over another. God's Sons are equal in will, all being the Will of their Father. This is the
only lesson I came to teach, knowing that it is true.
33 When your will is
not mine, it is not our Father's. This means that you have imprisoned
yours and have not
let it be free. Of yourselves you can do nothing, because of yourselves you
are nothing. I am nothing without the Father, and
you are nothing without
me, because by denying the Father you deny
yourself. I will
always remember you, and in
my remembrance of you lies your remembrance of
yourself. In our remembrance of
each other lies our remembrance of God, and in this remembrance lies your freedom because your freedom
is in Him. Join then with me in praise of Him
and you whom He created. This is our gift of gratitude to Him, which He will share with
all His creations to whom He gives equally whatever is acceptable to Him.
Because it is acceptable to Him, it is the gift of freedom, which
is His Will for all His Sons. By
offering freedom,
you will be free.
34 Freedom is the only gift you can offer to God's Sons, being an
acknowledgment of what
they are and what
He is. Freedom is creation because it is love. What you seek to imprison you do
not love. Therefore, when you seek to imprison anyone, including
yourself, you do
not love him, and you cannot identify
with him. When you imprison
yourself, you are losing sight of your true identification
with me and with the Father. Your identification
is with the Father and with the Son. It
cannot be with one and not the other. If you are part of one, you must be part of the other because they
are one.
35 The Holy Trinity is holy
because it is one. If you exclude
yourself from this union, you are perceiving the Holy Trinity as separated. You must be included
in It because It
is everything. Unless you take your place in It and fulfill your function as
part of It, It is as bereft as
you are. No part of It can be imprisoned if Its truth is to be known. Can you be separated from your identification and be at peace? Dissociation is not a solution; it is a
delusion. The delusional believe that truth will assail them, and so they do not
see it because they
prefer the delusion. Judging truth as something they do
not want, they perceive deception and block knowledge.
36 Help them by offering them
your unified will on their behalf, as I am offering you mine on
yours. Alone we can do nothing, but
together our wills fuse into something whose power is far beyond the power of its separate parts. By
not being separate, the Will of God is established
in ours and
as ours. This Will is invincible
because it is undivided. The undivided will of the Sonship is the perfect creator, being wholly in the likeness of God, Whose Will it
is.
You cannot be exempt from it if you are to understand what
it is and what
you are. By separating your will
from mine, you are exempting yourself from the Will of God, which
is yourself.
37 Yet to heal is still to make whole. Therefore, to heal is to
unite with those who are like you, because perceiving this likeness
is to recognize the Father. If
your perfection is in Him and
only in Him, how can you
know it without recognizing Him? The recognition of God
is the recognition of yourself. There
is no separation of God and His creation. You will learn this as you learn that there is no separation of
your will and
mine. Let the love of God shine upon you by your acceptance of me.
My reality is yours
and His. By joining your will with mine, you are signifying your awareness that the Will of God is one.
38 God's Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness
encompasses ours. To join with me is to restore His power to you,
because we are sharing it. I offer you only the
recognition of His power in you, but in that lies
all truth. As
we unite, we unite with Him. Glory be to the union of God and His holy Sons! All glory lies in them
because they are united. The miracles we do bear witness to the Will of the Father for His Son and to our joy in uniting
with His Will for us.
39 When you unite with me, you are uniting
without the ego, because I have renounced the ego in myself and therefore
cannot unite with yours.
Our union is therefore the way to renounce the ego in
yourself. The truth in both of us is
beyond the ego. By willing that, you
have gone beyond it toward truth. Our success in transcending the ego is guaranteed by God, and I can share [my perfect confidence in His promise because I know He gave me] this confidence for both of us and
all of us. I bring God's peace back to all His Children because I received it of Him for us all. Nothing can prevail against our united wills because nothing can prevail against God's. Would you know the Will of God for
you? Ask it of me who knows it
for you, and you will find it. I will deny you nothing, as God denies
me nothing.
40 Ours is simply the journey back to God, Who is our home. Whenever fear intrudes anywhere along the road to peace, it is
always 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. On this journey, you have chosen me as your companion
instead of the ego. Do not try to hold on to both, or you will try to go in different directions and will lose the way.
41 The ego's way is not mine, but it is also
not yours. The Holy Spirit has
one direction for
all minds, and the one He taught me is
yours. Let us not lose sight of His direction through illusions, for only illusions of another direction can obscure the one for which God's Voice speaks in all of us. Never accord the ego the power to interfere with the journey because it
has none, since the journey is the way to what is true. Leave
all deception behind and reach beyond all attempts of the ego to hold you back. I go before you because I
am beyond the ego. Reach therefore for my hand because you
want to transcend the ego. My will will
never be wanting, and if you
want to share it you
will. I give it willingly and gladly because I need you as much as you need me.
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