<AUDIO><VIDEO>

*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 

[Use 'Advanced Search' and 'Exact Phrase' option]

When we get this lesson, even to some extent, it brings forth a sigh of happiness. To recognize that there is nothing to worry about when the future is truly placed in the Hands of God, is to rest in a state of trust that there is no need for anxiety, worry and depression. It brings about total rest in God always a delicious feeling of being absolutely carefree. Imagine what it would be like to have no fear of the future and with it release from sadness, anxiety, despair, pain, death or any other kind of loss. Such a sense of freedom comes through the experience of the holy instant where we release the past and let go of all thoughts of guilt, loss, and pain of any kind. It truly is a lesson of deliverance from the ego's use of time.

We have bought into the myth that we have sinned in the past, and now we experience guilt in the present and look with apprehension to the future where we are awaiting punishment for our sins. This is the projection of the thoughts of sin, guilt and fear into form and thus it is the making of linear time. Linear time is thus illusion. It keeps us invested in it until we are freed in the holy instant, even for a moment, to recognize our eternal state of Presence. In the ego thought system, everything here comes to an end. Everything dies. Thus the ego proves that its reality is the truth, and that God has been defeated.

This is the fairy tale that we replay in our minds over and over. It is based on the insane thought system that we have sinned in the past. Now the witnesses to that sin are the feelings that we have that we have done something wrong and now we feel guilty. We believe that we must atone for that guilt. We hold the belief that we deserve to suffer so we expect punishment in the future. We expect others to betray us, to abandon us and to hurt us with their attacks on us. We believe that it is a cruel world that will ultimately forsake us. Jesus invites us to question these false beliefs that we hold. As a result of the belief that we have sinned against God, He is to be feared. How this shows up in our lives is that we don't believe that we deserve happiness and that we must suffer. If we punish ourselves enough, perhaps God will go easy on us.

In the lesson yesterday Jesus spoke of how we might free each hour from the one before by forgiving whatever events were brought forth in the previous hour. This is how he says we can loosen these chains of time. "Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it." (W. 193.12.4) It is to start the next moment with a new perspective, where the past is wiped clean. It is to release ourselves from the imprisonment of the past and instead choose the holy instant. Jesus reminds us, "The ego has a strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that your questioning might well begin. The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present." (T. 13.IV.4.1-3) In this view, the past determines the future.

In the holy instant, we step away from this insane thought system and we question it. We begin to recognize that underlying all of our unhappiness is our fight with God and our need to prove that He cannot be trusted. When we feel that events in our lives conspire against our happiness, we use this as proof that God is not who He says He is. Whenever we feel miserable, when we suffer, we are actually defending against His Love. As we learned in Lesson 136, "Sickness is a defense against the truth." We are invested in our separate existence. Proving God wrong is the basis for our misery. It proves that we are who we say we are, as unique individuals.

We need to be aware at any moment of what we are holding in our thoughts in order to see when we have mistakenly chosen the ego. Again in the lesson yesterday, Jesus says it is quite simple. You can tell if you are seeing wrong if pain seems real in your perception. (193.7.1) It means that we need to be vigilant in mind watching. We need to question the values and beliefs that we hold, where we deserve what we get and that we have it coming to us. As Jesus says, "To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your leaning."
 (T.24.IN.2.1-2)

Some of the ways that we have apprehension about the future show up when we hold the belief that happiness does not last. The natural state of this world is one of experiencing suffering, betrayal, loss, depression, sadness, anxiety, sickness, worry and all kinds of upsets with moments of pleasure and happiness incorporated here and there. These are beliefs that only make sense in the ego thought system that is built on the idea of sin, guilt and fear projected as linear time where we believe in a future. Once we accept that thought system, everything else follows, but now we are given an opportunity to question its reality.

I was listening to a spiritual leader last night who said that if we feel sad, we might see this as a state, but it can also be seen as just a moment. Thus we might say that in this moment I feel sad. In other words, we are not denying that sadness is showing up, but we don't have to accept it as the truth of our condition or describe ourselves in this way. He says that when we suffer it is because we tend to think of it as a condition rather than a moment. In that moment, when the feeling comes up, we can question what we believe. For example, I may feel sad because someone has said something or done something to me. This may have triggered a belief in my unworthiness. Jesus invites me to question why I make myself unhappy when I have another choice. Why do I give over my power to this situation? Why do I throw away my peace? No one has the power to make me sad. I chose to be sad because I am proving the ego is right about me. This proves to my mind that God is wrong and can't be believed. Can we for a moment question this and wonder if God might be right and us wrong? Can we consider that God's Will for us is perfect happiness and when we are not happy then we are buying into the ego thought system?

"In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, 'My brother, choose again.'" (T.31.VIII.3.2). Jesus knows that we will experience all kinds of difficulties, distress and perplexity in our lives. That is the nature of our experience in this world. In fact, that is why we came. We get distressed and we get perplexed and our peace flies out the window. Rather than feel guilty, angry or depressed about whatever problem seems to confront us, can we learn to accept that it is part of our learning curriculum in this classroom of our lives? Whatever form our issues come in, they are ultimately of our own choosing. It is part of the ego thought system to prove that we are these limited beings living in a body, but now we are asked to let these experiences serve another purpose, for the healing of our minds. When we see it that way, then everything that shows up is helpful.

If we were able to accept today's idea completely, it would take us past all anxiety, pits of hell, blackness of depression, and thoughts of sin and guilt. This powerful thought, when accepted totally, will release us from the imprisonment of the world, but it is a process of questioning the ego's beliefs, which we have accepted as true, about ourselves and the world. It questions every aspect of our lives, which are based on the belief that God can't be trusted. The heavy chains that seem to imprison us will loosen as we accept the truth into our minds and the door to freedom is opened. "Then is each instant which was salve to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God's Son is freed to bless the world." (5.3) Just as we were told in the lesson yesterday, we have the key. Now we must learn to apply it in every situation by being willing to be shown that our dark thoughts are all false, and that key is forgiveness.

Let's not despair about anything going on in our lives, recognizing that it can all serve the beautiful purpose of healing our minds. There may be someone who is attacking you and you may wonder how these attacks can be helpful. What they do is help us to connect with our own attacks and the guilt that is in our own minds. That is why everyone who attacks us is actually our savior from guilt because we are given another opportunity to see what is hidden in the mind so it can be released. Jesus recognizes that we won't see this all the time and will return to the ego often. We will listen to its stories that we have been betrayed and that our hatred is justified. While our perception is faulty at such times, Jesus assures us that we "will never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes." (7.7-8) It is such a loving perspective. Jesus does not judge us for making mistakes. He understands that we do. We must not feel guilty when the ego tempts us to luxuriate in grievances. We can simply remember that we can now make a choice. Love can't replace our thoughts of sin and guilt if we see them outside of ourselves.

What a glorious day we can have today when we apply forgiveness to every thought that is not supremely happy. Let us maintain vigilance of all of our thoughts and bring those that disturb our peace for healing. It is by recognizing them that none of these thoughts come to us without our choice. Why would we choose them? Because we still are invested in being right about who we are as separate beings. Every time we choose a thought contrary to the truth of who we are, we affirm that we are right about ourselves, but when we give these thoughts over, Jesus says only then can we "rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us." (9.2)

Now, "No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend."(9.6) The goal of this lesson and every other lesson is to use time to heal our minds so that the holiness that we are is revealed to us. Our part is to bring our attention to the blocks that keep our holiness from our awareness without judging ourselves in this process. We chose to take this path of deliverance, and Jesus says that this giant stride places our feet on the lawns that welcome us to Heaven. In other words, our consciousness is that of joy and peace, which is inevitable when the sin, guilt and fear are removed from the mind. Now we recognize we have another choice. "Place, then, your future in the Hands of God. For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love." (8.1-2)