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REVIEW
A Course in Miracles is a self-study course. In the beginning it tells us, "This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean
you can establish the curric...
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Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) is an international group of Course students and teachers organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the Divine Teachings of A Course in Miracles.
As students, we seek to increase our knowledge of Jesus' words and to deepen our experience of His teachings.
As teachers, we work to circulate the message of
A Course in Miracles throughout the world by our words, by our deeds, and by the example of our lives. COURSE IN MIRACLES
SOCIETY
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"THE TRANSITION"
VIII. "Review of Principles" 63 The miracle but calls your ancient name, which you will recognize because the truth is in your memory. And to this name, your brother calls for his release and yours. Heaven is shining on the Son of God. Deny him not, that you may be released. Each instant is the Son of God reborn, until he chooses not to die again. In every wish to hurt, he chooses death instead of what his Father wills for him. Yet every instant offers life to him because his Father wills that he should live.
*Starting with the 2012 Revision, paragraph 35a was changed to 36 and therefore all of the following paragraphs, through the end of Chapter 26, have been renumbered. -Ed.
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<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
What is 'Iambic Pentameter'?
Christ is God's Son as He created him.
He is the Self we share, uniting us
with one another, and with God as well.
He is the Thought Which still abides within
the Mind Which is His Source. He has not left
His holy home, nor lost the innocence
in which He was created. He abides
unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
He is the link that keeps you one with God,
and guarantees that separation is
no more than an illusion of despair,
for hope forever will abide in Him.
Your mind is part of His, and His of yours.
He is the part in Which God's Answer lies;
where all decisions are already made,
and dreams are over. He remains untouched
by anything the body's eyes perceive.
For though in Him His Father placed the means
for your salvation, yet does He remain
the Self Who, like His Father, knows no sin.
Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home
in God alone, does Christ remain at peace,
within the Heaven of your holy mind.
This is the only part of you that has
reality in truth. The rest is dreams.
Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ,
to fade before His glory, and reveal
your holy Self, the Christ, to you at last.
The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ
in you to all your dreams, and bids them come
to Him to be translated into truth.
He will exchange them for the final dream
which God appointed as the end of dreams.
For when forgiveness rests upon the world
and peace has come to every Son of God,
what could remain to keep things separate,
for what remains to see except Christ's face?
And how long can this holy face be seen,
when it is but the symbol that the time
for learning now is over, and the goal
of the Atonement has been reached at last?
So therefore let us seek to find Christ's face,
and look on nothing else. As we behold
His glory, will we know we have no need
of learning or perception or of time,
or anything except the holy Self,
the Christ Whom God created as His Son.
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DAILY LESSON
L e s s o n 280
What limits can I lay upon God's Son?
<AUDIO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Whom God created limitless is free.
I can invent imprisonment for him,
but only in illusions, not in truth.
No Thought of God has left Its Father's Mind.
No Thought of God is limited at all.
No Thought of God but is forever pure.
Can I lay limits on the Son of God,
whose Father willed that he be limitless,
and like Himself in freedom and in love?
Today let me give honor to Your Son,
for thus alone I find the way to You.
Father, I lay no limits on the Son
You love, and You created limitless.
The honor that I give to him is Yours,
and what is Yours belongs to me as well.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 280
What limits can I lay upon God's Son?
The quotes in this article are from the Foundation for Inner Peace edition, with the reference cited. There is also the quote references for similar quotes in the ACIM Original Edition.
Sarah's Commentary:
There are many references to honor in the Course. I remember how it first came to me many years ago when I was at a retreat on forgiveness in Sedona. While I was very drawn to the words of the Course, at that time I did not understand much about it, so while many people in the group had tons of questions over the three days, I said nothing. At the end of the workshop there was an opportunity given for one more comment and that was it. Many were still clamoring to speak and now I was among them. I somehow felt this very strong compulsion to make a point and, as it happened, I was the one called on for the final comment.
The words that came out of my mouth sounded like nothing that I, Sarah, had come up with. In that context I used the word "honor" to express gratitude to Robert and Allan, who had been doing the teaching. It was like the words were coming from me, but they were not my words. I felt like there was a presence communicating through me as the words were not really my own. What struck me most in retrospect was my use of the word 'honor.' I had never used this word in relation to anyone before that I could ever recall. It communicated a deep respect of extremely high regard. What was expressed seemed to arise without any conscious thought on my part. It was one of those emotionally transformative moments that I stood back from and seemed to be witnessing.
It was not until I was reading the Text in Chapter 3.I. that I came across this phrase: "honor is the natural greeting of the truly loved to others who are like them." (T.3.I.6.3) (ACIM OE T.3.III.24) Reading those words in the context of my experience in Sedona left me speechless. Jesus also says in this section, "Innocence is incapable of sacrificing anything, because the innocent mind has everything and strives only to protect its wholeness." (T.3.I.6.1) (ACIM OE T.3.III.24) and "It cannot project." (T.3.I.6.2)(ACIM OE T.3. III.24 different wording) All it can do, he says, is "honor other minds, because honor is the natural greeting of the truly loved to others who are like them." (T.3.I.6.3)(ACIM OE T.3.III.24) The words literally jumped off the page at me because it was very early in the Course for me and, like all of us in the early stages, I needed assurance that there was Something in me that was beyond my current range of understanding.
There are many more references, of course, in how we are to see our brother and the honor that we should bestow on them. In Chapter 7 we read, "Only honor is a fitting gift for those whom God Himself created worthy of honor and whom He honors. Give them the appreciation God accords them always, because they are His beloved Sons in whom He is well pleased." (T.7.VII.6.1-2)(ACIM OE T.7.VIII.76) Later in this section, Jesus tells us that what he is teaching us is to see "the inestimable worth of every Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the infinite Love for which He speaks. Every attack is a call for His patience, since His patience can translate attack into blessing. Those who attack do not know they are blessed. They attack because they believe they are deprived." (T.7.VII.7.3-6)(ACIM OE T.7.VIII.77)
It seems that this is the lesson that is given me right now because I need so much to remember the true value of my brother. This lesson is really reminding me today not to deny to anyone the limitless freedom in which they were created as was I. This lesson is an excellent reminder today that my expectations of others, and the comparisons and judgments that I make, lay limits on my brothers rather than giving them the honor that is due them because of who they are.
So today I am called upon to release my opinions of anyone that comes to my mind, and to release the comparisons I make with anyone. I am also called to recognize any feelings of superiority and specialness that I carry about who I think I am. When we make these comparisons and see differences with our brothers, we are setting limits on them, and thus we limit ourselves. I find myself making comments about what someone is saying on TV for example and in that criticism I lose sight of the truth of who that person really is and thus who I really am. I am seeing myself as smarter. I am more special, and I lose sight of the fact that we are truly all the same. We share the same Spirit and the same ego characteristics with variations only in the story line and characters in our scripts. No one has left the Father's Mind except in illusions. We are all called to recognize the Christ in everyone we meet and to make every encounter a holy one so we can know the truth about ourselves. And thus we give honor to our brothers and sisters.
"Specialness is the great dictator of the wrong decisions. Here is the grand illusion of what you are and what your brother is. And here is what must make the body dear and worth preserving. Specialness must be defended. Illusions can attack it, and they do. For what your brother must become to keep your specialness is an illusion. He who is "worse" than you must be attacked, so that your specialness can live on his defeat. For specialness is triumph, and its victory is his defeat and shame. How can he live, with all your sins upon him? And who must be his conqueror but you?" (T.24.I.5.1-10) (ACIM OE T.24.II.7)
So, it is another reminder of how we are just seeing our own limits in our brothers and sisters when we criticize them. Their limitations certainly may look different than our own, but the content is the same. We will not know our own unlimited Self when we project our judgments on others and think that they are responsible for how we feel. It seems like such an important lesson to carry with us daily, because we have such propensity to fix others, to find fault, to see ourselves as superior and special. We can even see our superiority and specialness in our victimhood and frailty because we believe that no one can suffer like we do. To see our brothers and sisters with the honor due them, we need to take responsibility for our projections and forgive our limitations, so we can truly see with vision and recognize the Christ in everyone.
You may be thinking, "I do not feel superior. In fact, I feel others are all better than me. I don't feel special at all." Yet Jesus says that these beliefs about ourselves are hidden. Therefore, we just need to look deeper at how we actually think about ourselves. In this instance, the belief may be, "I am actually better than those people who think that they are so superior." Specialness is, in fact, the reason behind all attacks. There is no one living in a body that does not have some form of specialness going on. It is a way of seeing our brothers as different from ourselves. "And difference of any kind imposes orders of reality, and a need to judge that cannot be escaped." (T.24.I.3.6) (ACIM OE T.24.II.5) Because of the differences that we see in our brothers and sisters comes a need to judge and evaluate who they are in relation to us. And we can only judge if we feel superior and know better because a judge will always be above that which he judges. So our specialness is a way of keeping reality at bay. It simply cannot intrude on what we have decided that we are.
We value what we have made. In fact there is nothing in the world that we value more. It feels to us to be important in this world, to have value, and so we fight for it and defend against any kind of criticism. We do whatever we can to have a high sense of self-esteem, but self-esteem will never substitute for the truth of who we are. It is only a way that we prop up our fragile egos. Who we think we are is indeed a very shabby substitute for the truth of our Being.
So investing in our specialness is just another way of investing in our separate selves. There is a fear of leaving that familiar territory of our lives. Our lives may not be wonderful, but our circumstances and beliefs are what we know. What will happen to us when we leave the perception of the self as we know it? Our fear is of the unknown. What will happen to our lives and to our relationships? What will there be to talk about? Our current bonding with others is so much about sharing dramas and traumas. We seem to bond with each other through pain and struggles. We empathize with the mutuality of our personal suffering, but we can never truly join in the illusion. Our false empathy will never heal anyone.
Inviting the truth into our lives is challenging because we must be willing to release the specialness of our separate identity and we don't know what the result of that will be. That is part of the push/pull of awakening, but as our feelings of specialness fall away on this path, we see our life more like the dream that it is. The limits that we have laid on ourselves, and everyone around us, now no longer exist. We recognize increasingly that our brother, the Son our Father loves, was created limitless. Our investment in the dramas and the struggles of life have been loosened, in the recognition that they are all illusory. We are coming to know who our brother is---limitless as we are.
Let's really look at our hidden beliefs and fears today which are the core of all the dreams of this world. Unrecognized fear leads to projecting this world and seeing our fears in everyone around us. Our everyday pain and suffering become important experiences because they are the means whereby we can undo our deeply buried or repressed ego thoughts of sin and guilt, fear and hate, which reflect the sum and substance of ALL of our difficulties. But so much of that is repressed. It may not seem that way to us, but in fact Jesus tells us that these are the hidden warriors that we must learn to see. In Chapter 21.Intro. he says that first we have to look within. When we choose fear or hate, then from this choice for the ego a world of quasi infinite combinations of problems and solutions arises. Yet there is only one problem and one error even though it seems to have taken many forms. As we read in Chapter 18, "That one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life to death, was all you ever made. Your whole world rests upon it. Everything you see reflects it, and every special relationship that you have ever made is part of it." (T.18.I.4.4-6)(ACIM OE T.18.II.4)
Now we have the opportunity of returning to the true problem, the decision-making mind, that chose separation over oneness and guilt in place of love. This is what we need to keep addressing in our experiences in the world. Ken Wapnick writes that so often, when we get on the spiritual learning path, we really want to stay positive and focus on experiences of unity and love which can be a further defense against looking at the way the mind has identified with guilt. Jesus cautions against this strong temptation to deny the ego by covering it over with spirituality and love in our special relationships. "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false. Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it takes. And the attempt to escape from one illusion into another must fail. f you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it. Yet peace will never come from the illusion of love, but only from its reality." (T.16.IV.6.1-6)(ACIM OE T.16.V.35)
After the ecstasy, there is still the laundry, as Jack Kornfield describes so well in his book by the same name, "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path". In other words, we have work to do in undoing the darkness, regardless how many states of enlightenment we may have experienced. Our mystical experiences are valuable in that they motivate us to do the work of undoing the ego thought system. Simply trying to pursue more of these experiences is another way to distract ourselves from being attentive to the ego and asking for the Help that is always available to us.
Love and blessings, Sarah
[email protected]
The quotes in this article are from the Foundation for Inner Peace edition, with the reference cited. There is also the quote references for similar quotes in the ACIM Original Edition.
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VIII. Review of Principles [continued]
56 Salvation, perfect and complete, asks but a little wish that what is true be true; a little willingness to overlook what is not there; a little sigh that speaks for Heaven as a preference to this world which death and desolation seem to rule. In joyous answer will creation rise within you to replace the world you see with Heaven, wholly perfect and complete. What is forgiveness but a willingness that truth be true? What can remain unhealed and broken from a Unity Which holds all things within Itself? There is no sin. And every miracle is possible the instant that the Son of God perceives his wishes and the Will of God are one.
57 What is the Will of God? He wills His Son have everything. And this He guaranteed when He created him as everything. It is impossible that anything be lost if what you have is what you are. This is the miracle by which creation became your function, sharing it with God. It is not understood apart from Him and therefore has no meaning in this world.
58 Here does the Son of God ask not too much but far too little. He would sacrifice his own identity with everything to find a little treasure of his own. And this he cannot do without a sense of isolation, loss, and loneliness. This is the treasure he has sought to find. And he could only be afraid of it. Is fear a treasure? Can uncertainty be what you want? Or is it a mistake about your will and what you really are? Let us consider what the error is, so it can be corrected, not protected.
59 Sin is belief attack can be projected outside the mind where the belief arose. Here is the firm conviction that ideas can leave their source made real and meaningful. And from this error does the world of sin and sacrifice arise. This world is an attempt to prove your innocence while cherishing attack. Its failure lies in that you still feel guilty, though without understanding why. Effects are seen as separate from their source and seem to be beyond you to control or to prevent. What is thus kept apart can never join.
60 Cause and effect are one, not separate. God wills you learn what always has been true-that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their source. Such is creation's law-that each idea the mind conceives but adds to its abundance, never takes away. This is as true of what is idly wished as what is truly willed, because the mind can wish to be deceived but cannot make it be what it is not. And to believe ideas can leave their source is to invite illusions to be true, without success. For never will success be possible in trying to deceive the Son of God.
61 The miracle is possible when cause and consequence are brought together, not kept separate. The healing of effect without the cause can merely shift effects to other forms. And this is not release. God's Son could never be content with less than full salvation and escape from guilt. For otherwise he still demands that he must make some sacrifice and thus denies that everything is his, unlimited by loss of any kind. A tiny sacrifice is just the same in its effects as is the whole idea of sacrifice. If loss in any form is possible, then is God's Son made incomplete and not himself. [Nor will he know himself nor recognize his will.] He has forsworn his Father and himself and made them both his enemies in hate.
62 Illusions serve the purpose they were made to serve. And from their purpose, they derive whatever meaning that they seem to have. God gave to all illusions that were made another purpose that would justify a miracle, whatever form they took. In every miracle all healing lies, for God gave answer to them all as one. And what is one to Him must be the same. If you believe what is the same is different, you but deceive yourself. What God calls one will be forever one, not separate. His Kingdom is united-thus it was created, and thus will it ever be.
63 The miracle but calls your ancient name, which you will recognize because the truth is in your memory. And to this name, your brother calls for his release and yours. Heaven is shining on the Son of God. Deny him not, that you may be released. Each instant is the Son of God reborn, until he chooses not to die again. In every wish to hurt, he chooses death instead of what his Father wills for him. Yet every instant offers life to him because his Father wills that he should live.
64 In crucifixion is redemption laid, for healing is not needed where there is no pain or suffering. Forgiveness is the answer to attack of any kind. So is attack deprived of its effects, and hate is answered in the name of love. To you to whom it has been given to save the Son of God from crucifixion and from hell and death, all glory be forever. For you have power to save the Son of God because his Father willed that it be so. And in your hands does all salvation lie, to be both offered and received as one.
65 To use the power God has given you as He would have it used is natural. It is not arrogant to be as He created you or to make use of what He gave to answer all His Son's mistakes and set him free. But it is arrogant to lay aside the power that He gave and choose a little senseless wish instead of what He wills. The gift of God to you is limitless. There is no circumstance it cannot answer and no problem which is not resolved within its gracious light.
66 Abide in peace, where God would have you be, and be the means whereby your brother finds the peace in which your wishes are fulfilled. Let us unite in bringing blessing to the world of sin and death. For what can save each one of us can save us all. There is no difference among the Sons of God. The unity that specialness denies will save them all, for what is one can have no specialness. And everything belongs to each of them. No wishes lie between a brother and his own. To get from one is to deprive them all. And yet to bless but one gives blessing to them all as one.
67 Your ancient name belongs to everyone, as theirs to you. Call on your brother's name and God will answer, for on Him you call. Could He refuse to answer when He has already answered all who call on Him? A miracle can make no change at all. But it can make what always has been true be recognized by those who know it not. And by this little gift of truth but let to be itself-the Son of God allowed to be himself and all creation freed to call upon the Name of God as one.
*Paragraph 36 does not appear in the Original Edition manuscript. This content was restored in the 2009 Revision from an earlier manuscript and was numbered 35a. However, starting with the 2012 Revision, paragraph 35a was changed to 36 and therefore all of the following paragraphs, through the end of Chapter 26, have been renumbered. -Ed.
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To GIVE and to RECEIVE are One in Truth. Lesson 108
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