Lesson 256

God is the only goal I have today.

 

While Jesus reminds us to make God our only goal today, which is a vertical perspective, he reminds us that we make that goal real for us through healing of relationships here, a horizontal perspective. And just in case we may think that the way to God is to retreat to a monastery to meditate and pray, the means given us in the Course is to heal through relationships. He says in this lesson, "There is no other way," (W.256.1.2) which is the case for many of us who follow the teachings laid out in the Course.
 
Jesus tells us that forgiveness is an illusion, but it is an illusion that ends all other illusions. In the context of the discussion on sin, it is an illusion because sin is not real and we have not sinned. We do believe that we have sinned because we have bought the ego's story that we have done something terribly wrong and are now guilty. Sin only seems real to us because Jesus says that it is "cherished by the mind." (W.256.1.3) In other words, when we release our belief in guilt and sin, we will remember who we are and where we are. We are at home in God, where we never left except in this dream.
 
The Course reminds us that sin is a false belief . It is based on our belief that we have done something wrong to creation in order to establish our individual identity. We believe that God had to be killed in order for us to exist, and the ego tells us that that was a horrendous crime on our part. Now we walk around feeling like we have done something terribly wrong but we can't place our finger on what that feeling is all about. Yet there is a sense of deep unworthiness, that we try to compensate for by being good.

We are reminded of our belief in sin whenever we blame and judge others for their indiscretions as a way to make them guilty. In comparison, we present our own face of innocence. Thus we hope that, at the end, they are the ones that get punished by God and we get off scot free. But while the ego tells us that this is a way to be rid of our guilt, it does not let us see that this is precisely how we keep it. We now seem to be buried deeper and deeper into the insanity. But Jesus shows us our way out of this darkness by redirecting our senses to see innocence in our brothers instead of guilt. Now we can choose to send out messengers of love instead of messengers that bring back evidence of our brother's guilt.

When we do see guilt in our brothers and make judgments, we willingly give them over to the Holy Spirit to have them reinterpreted by Him. It requires that we watch our minds for these judgments and, when they come up, realize that we are at a choice point to condemn or forgive. Which one we choose determines our decision for heaven or hell, and where we think our brother is, that is where we will see ourselves. "The sword of judgment is the weapon that you give to the illusion of yourself, that it may fight to keep the space that holds your brother off unoccupied by love." (T.31.VII.9.2)(ACIM OE T.31.VII.76) "Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free." (W.192.9.4-5) Which one will we choose? How much longer will we choose to suffer? Salvation is in our minds and the power of decision is our own.
  
In the section on "What is Sin?", we are reminded that sin is insanity, where the mind actually seeks to replace the truth. Why would we ever want to do that? What would truth reveal to us that we are so afraid of? Ultimately we are afraid to lose our specialness, our uniqueness and our identity, and thus we hold onto sin instead. Through forgiveness, we release the blocks in our own mind to the awareness that we have never separated from God. "Forgiveness is the means by which our minds return to Him at last." (W.256.1.9) Thus if we don't choose the means given to us to heal our minds, forgiveness, then we are not committed to our goal for God today.
 
Forgiveness is the means by which we learn that we are not egos with separate identities. Through forgiveness we learn that our reality is not contained in a body and that there is no death. Yet we fear to learn this as our sense of identity, individuality, specialness, and control all seem to be threatened, as we hang onto our perceived small selves. The world seems very real to us because we are always looking out through our senses which bring back evidence that the world of form is, indeed real and solid. Our eyes, and ears give us the evidence we are looking for that people are guilty. "Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold? (W.PII.Q4.1.4)
It is important to remain vigilant in looking at our interpretations and being willing to ask for help to see our brothers through the eyes of Christ. That is why it takes so much work and discipline. It seems much easier to simply go with the 'evidence' offered by the ego because we like being right about our judgments of others. These judgments are based on the 'evidence' gathered by our senses. Yet it is the ego that directs those senses. Thus the information gathered is based on the beliefs that we hold rather than on what is true. Therefore we will always be wrong about how we are seeing our brothers when we use our own judgments to guide us. It can be unsettling to acknowledge that we just don't know. It may feel like the ground is shifting under our feet without any solid footing in this new territory that we are entering.

Jesus says, "The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. Its purpose is to strive." (W.PII. Q4.2.1-2) When we strive for things of this world, the implication is that they are real and that they are of value to us. So most of us do have other goals for which we strive, because we still think that there is something in the world that will make us happy, but this is all self deception. The more we see this for ourselves, the more we will be willing to give up these attempts at self deception, and instead use our striving for another purpose, which is to know the truth. Anything of the ego can be turned over to be used by the Holy Spirit for our awakening.
 
There is only one mind, but we have the illusion of many minds, all asleep and dreaming. So why did we set things up so miserably for ourselves? We have kept hidden from ourselves our secret goal which is to be the victim of others in all of our relationships so that we never have to get in touch with the real cause of our misery. We think that the world, beginning with our parents and continuing with all of our other relationships, are the cause of our unhappiness. But they are not. The world and all of our relationships are only a clever diversion that we have made to keep the real source of our unhappiness hidden from ourselves. What is that source? It is our all-consuming desire that the separation be real at any cost because we value our separate selves that we think we are. But the truth is that we can't separate from truth. We can only be unaware of who we are.

The world is the effect and not the cause of how we feel, no matter how much we may have convinced ourselves otherwise. So we need to change our thoughts about the world by looking within our own minds to uncover the blocks that we have placed there to the awareness of love's presence. The world is just an outward picture of our inward condition. Thus it serves a very important purpose as a classroom to look at bringing this picture back into our own minds so that we can see our unhealed perceptions. This is not an easy process. Learning to forgive takes practice. It is even more difficult as we look at the insanity of this world. But the insanity is helpful when we see it as a curriculum for healing. It does not matter if it comes in a movie, in nature, in circumstances in our lives, in people who seemingly attack us---it is all just our curriculum in whatever form it takes. Whatever unloving thoughts are brought up, in whatever form they appear (uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry, attack, insecurity, and so on---see lesson 39) we need to become aware of them and recognize that this is not the truth of who we are.

So everything in the world provides many opportunities to forgive. All of the things of this world have no other purpose and no other value except this. Can I simply learn to be grateful for the curriculum of this world and allow it to be the beautiful classroom that it is for my awakening? It has no other purpose than this. When we accept this purpose, then the world becomes meaningful. "And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way." (W.256.2.1)