*Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php    
Sarah's Commentary:

Isn't it reassuring to know that we can delay our journey to truth, we can even wander off, procrastinate, have an ego fest, but ultimately we will be led back because it is a certainty for us all to return home? It is a certainty because we already are home, we just are not aware of this, and in the process nothing will be taken away from us. We will become aware that we no longer hold onto many things that we once thought were important. That which is meaningless will be no longer of interest. It will just fall away. The ego is about seeking and never finding, which is the experience of the world. Jesus tells us that to seek and never find is an experience of frustration and despair and we can certainly attest to that. All of our seeking is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. We do this by trying to solve problems in the world, but Jesus reminds us that neither the problem nor the solution can be found in the world. That is why no matter what we do, how hard we try to achieve happiness in the world, it is an impossible situation and ultimately we all come to a place of disillusionment and depression. "Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved." (1.1) And we have all done that. We have all followed the ego's mantra of seek and do not find.

Jesus says that we have all come to this world to search and that is what we will do: "But the world cannot dictate the goal for which you search, unless you give it power to do so." (3.3) So we search for things of the world, until one day we come to the same realization that Helen and Bill did when they agreed together that there "must be a better way." This is what led to the Course being brought into the world. So while goals that we set for ourselves in the world can certainly be reached, Jesus says that when they are achieved we still won't find what we are looking for. And what is that? What we are actually looking for is peace, love, safety, security, and happiness. The problem is not the goal, but where we are searching for it. It is not found in the world, but only within the mind. Until we recognize this, we will always feel like there is something missing. Until we look to the true source, our minds, where the answer is, the peace and joy that we seek in the world will always seem to be elusive.

"Goals that are meaningless are not attained." (2.1) Nothing we strive for here will ever work. Does that mean we should give up our goals? No, Jesus is not saying our goals are wrong, only that they won't bring us the happiness we seek. So we ultimately experience a sense of failure because we have found nothing of value. We have put a lot of energy and attention in a goal that can't be attained, and unless we see another way to find what we are truly looking for, we just keep trying and trying, thinking that the next time will be different. It never is. The ego will never reveal this to us. The world has programmed us to think there is something here of value to pursue, but nothing here will ever work. Nothing will ever satisfy us in bringing us the deep peace and happiness for which we all yearn.

Our whole lives are programmed so that our goals will fail in this deeper sense, of finding in them what we are really looking for. With each failure we think the next time will be different. The next relationship will be better, the next job will fulfill my needs, the next home I buy will be the one that will make me happy, the expectation of the big financial win is all that I need for me to be happy. In the background is the ego. It has set it up so that we seek and never find, but it has kept this hidden from us. The underlying program that is running in the computer of the ego self is that we don't deserve to be happy and are not worthy of love. This is the program that runs in the unconscious mind. It is what Jesus means when he says that: "Pursuit of the imagined leads to death because it is the search for nothingness, and while you seek for love you ask for death." (2.6) "You look for safety and security, while in your heart you pray for danger and protection for the little dream you made." (T. 131.2.7) The ego whispers that this is what we deserve because of our sin against God.

On a conscious level we all want happiness, peace, safety and security, but in the unconscious we are asking to be hurt, punished, victimized and betrayed. The ego has convinced us that we don't deserve happiness and that we deserve to be punished for separating from God. We project that belief, that we deserve punishment, and see others as the punishers. They will dispense God's punishment on us for Him. We project our unconscious guilt on others and see them as the guilty ones instead of ourselves. That is the ego's solution for getting rid of our mountain of guilt. The only problem is that this is how we keep it. Seeing others guilty maintains the belief that they will be the ones that will be punished as the evil doers who have it coming and we will be seen as innocent.

Of course this isn't apparent to us. If we really saw how this was set up, we would have no difficulty giving it up. It is buried in the mind, and without Jesus exposing this to us, we would never see it and just keep trying harder and harder to find peace and happiness in the world. When we are willing to say that maybe we have it all wrong and perhaps there is another choice, then we can turn to the Holy Spirit within the right mind where the truth abides. Now we can open up to what we already have within, and since the love we seek is already in us, our seeking for truth cannot fail. That is why Jesus reminds us that "the world cannot dictate the goal for which you search." (3.3) We have the power to refuse to listen to the voice of the ego and turn to the Holy Spirit.

"Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the thing you came for." (3.1-2) So it is good that we search because it will ultimately lead us to search for that which is real. For this we came, but until we choose the goal for truth, we will look for happiness at the expense of others. Yet we are free to make the choice anytime "to choose a goal that lies beyond the world...." (3.4) , which is calling to us from "an echo of a heritage forgot yet holding everything you want." (3.4) This is the echo of the Forgotten Song, where Jesus says it is "a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten;" (T. 21.I.6)

Ultimately we all realize that the things of this world only bring pain because of their transient nature and their lack of permanence. The alternative to these "painful pleasures" and "tragic joys" (7.1) is Heaven. We think it takes time to find the eternal, sometimes it even seems that this search for truth will never succeed. We think we are making progress and then experience a major setback when our egos have a heyday with us. We can feel discouraged. Will I ever arrive at certainty, where peace and joy reign at least most of the time? Today we are assured of this in this lesson when he says you "must find the goal you really want" (4.2) We will find what we seek truly. We are making progress even if it is not always apparent to us. It sometimes feels like two steps forward and one step back, but as Jesus says: "Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects." (T.5.VI.12.1)

The closer we get to the real world, the more the ego resists and makes a last ditch effort to dissuade us from this journey. When we achieve our worldly goals it can be compelling to side with the ego, but our pleasures at achieving our goals don't last and in the end bring more pain. We have been on this worldly merry-go-round for millennia according to Jesus, and now this teaching has found us because we are ready for it. We have delayed, and we have deceived ourselves, but when we realize that we are not finding what we really seek, we are "led back to our appointed task" (4.6), the only one we truly, deeply want. The inevitability of this is very comforting. We will all reach this place where we have had enough of our special relationships that are full of painful pleasures and disappointments. Inevitably we come to the place where we ask for help of the Holy Spirit Who stands ready to assist when we ask.

So while we might dip into frustration, despair, anger, discouragement at times, most of us have had sufficient reinforcement in our journey now, that we can assure ourselves that we will never completely live there again. Certainty of outcome makes for patience and contentment along the way, and nothing will be taken away from us. It will simply fall away because we no longer want it.

We have a way out and we know how to find it by going beyond the cacophony of sounds from our egos, which we increasingly are learning to release, and going beyond our trivial thoughts. This lesson tells us that there is a door in our minds that we can go through and there the radiant light will shine away all the doubts and dark thoughts. It is a holy place where: "Angels light the way so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see." (13.2) But it is up to us to bring awareness to these dark thoughts and be willing to surrender them to that holy light.

"No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth..." (15.7) The end is certain and together we can find our way home. There is no need to wait. Heaven is here today. This lesson speaks of time as the great illusion, being past or future, neither of which exist. "What He wills is now, without a past and wholly futureless. It is as far removed from time as is a tiny candle from a distant star or what you choose from what you really want." (6.6-7)The separation from God never happened. We are unaware of this in our dream, but we will find Heaven because Heaven has never left us.

"Why wait for Heaven?" (W. 188.1.1) We made time, and we made it to keep ourselves from eternity. In other words, time is the hell that we made. Time tells us that Heaven was in the past and that we threw it away. Now the ego tells us that if we are good and suffer enough we MAY get to Heaven at some future time, but, of course it is contingent on our sacrifice and having to pay God back for what we have done. This is NOT what God wills. It is impossible that the Will of God be in the past. It is NOW, and when we choose Jesus as our teacher then he teaches us that the separation never happened.

As we accept his message, our awareness of time as illusion becomes more apparent and we begin to experience the fact that perfect love is available NOW. While our self concept and bodily identity seems to be here, the true mind is always available to us in the holy instant. It is filled with light, innocence, peace, and eternal joy. "Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future." (T. 27.V.3.2.) We think it will take time for us to return to Heaven, but it is all about our choice. The will of God is all powerful. "What He wills is NOW..."(6.6) We don't have to wait.

The extent of our willingness to do the practices as the lessons describe is the extent of our willingness to know the truth about ourselves. But lack of practice does not mean that we are bad, or that we won't achieve our goal, only that we are choosing to delay. As Jesus assures us "Ultimately every member of the family of God must return." (T. I.V.4) The speed by which we reach our goal only depends on our willingness. So while we can delay, we can't fail. Having said that, forcing the practice is not a good idea, only vigilance is. So watch your mind for resistance without judging or condemning yourself. "And if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready. Do not fight yourself." (T.30.I.1.6) This does not mean we should just give up. It only means that we pick up where we left off and keep moving forward. It may take years to prepare ourselves for serious study as it did for me. It does not matter.

We live in a world of contradictions of painful pleasures and tragic joys, where we seem to be split in two, sometimes experiencing ourselves as beautiful and loving and at other times attacking and angry. We think we made hell opposing Heaven and believe that we "abide in what does not exist, while Heaven is the place he cannot find." (9.4) Heaven does seem elusive to us, doesn't it? While it does not exist, this world seems very real. And yet Jesus calls these nothing but foolish thoughts and reminds us that once we set Heaven as our goal we will achieve it as it is here right now. Only one side of the contradiction must be true. Which side will you pick? Consistency requires that we go all one way or all the other way. God did not make two minds. He did not create the good and the bad.

"He thinks he made a hell opposing Heaven, and believes that he abides in what does not exist, while Heaven is the place he cannot find." (9.4) "Leave foolish thoughts like these behind today, and turn your mind to true ideas instead." (10.1).It is foolish to think that our experience here is real and that there is a world that actually exists. God did not make this world. This entire world of time and space is an illusion. It is a projection of the split mind. The Atonement principle assures us that we have not changed ourselves as we were created. We are still a thought in the mind of God. We can't abide in a world that does not even exist! So we are asked to try to reach truth today by replacing our foolish images, which we can only do when we admit we have been wrong about everything and ask to be shown the way.

So today, "I ask to see a different world, and think a different kind of thoughts from those I made. The world I seek I did not make alone, the thoughts I want to think are not my own." (11.3) For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as well, which are compatible with such a world, and which you think are true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place where they can enter not.

See the door beneath them in your mind, which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond. Seek for that door and find it, but before you try to open it, remind yourself no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. Make this request today. Realize that nothing but this has any meaning now, no other goal is valued now nor sought, nothing before this door you really want, and only what lies past it do you seek. See yourself putting out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Remember that angels light your way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see.

As dismal thoughts and meaningless laments cross your mind today and you forget the happy fact that: "Today is set by Heaven itself to be a time of grace for you and for the world." (15.3) Then identify those thoughts. Look at them. Don't deny them or you won't be able to let them go. Then remind yourself with this: "Today I seek and find all that I want. My single purpose offers it to me. No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth." (15.5-7) Notice resistance that comes up recognizing how much fear we have of letting go of the ego.

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