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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 19 BEYOND THE BODY
V. OBSTACLES TO PEACE
d. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God
"The Lifting of the Veil"
107 Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the self-same gift, nor look upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as guiltless as I look on you, and overlook the sins he thinks he sees within himself. Offer each other freedom and complete release from sin here in the garden of seeming agony and death. So will we prepare together the way unto the resurrection of God's Son and let him rise again to glad remembrance of his Father, Who knows no sin, no death, but only life eternal.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins, and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in this view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin
except a false idea of God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
An unforgiving thought is one which makes
a judgment that it will not raise to doubt,
although it is untrue. The mind is closed,
and will not be released. The thought protects
projection, tightening its chains, so that
distortions are more veiled and more obscure;
less easily accessible to doubt,
and further kept from reason. What can come
between a fixed projection and the aim
that it has chosen as its needed goal?
An unforgiving thought does many things.
In frantic action it pursues its goal,
twisting and overturning what it sees
as interfering with its chosen path.
Distortion is its purpose, and the means
by which it would accomplish it as well.
It sets about its furious attempts
to smash reality without concern
for anything that would appear to pose
a contradiction to its point of view.
Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still
and quietly does nothing. It offends
no aspect of reality, nor seeks
to twist it to appearance that it likes.
It merely looks and waits and judges not.
He who would not forgive must judge, for he
must justify his failure to forgive.
But he who would forgive himself must learn
to welcome truth exactly as it is.
Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show
you what to do through Him Who is your Guide,
your Saviour and Defender, strong in hope
and certain of your ultimate success.
He has forgiven you already, for
such is His function, given Him by God.
Now must you share His function, and forgive
whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees,
and whom He honors as the Son of God. "
~ Original Hand Script September 21, 1970
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L e s s o n 222
God is with me.
I live and breathe in Him.
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
God is with me. He is my Source of life,
the life within, the air I breathe, the food
by which I am sustained, the water which
supports and cleanses me. He is my home,
wherein I live and move; the Spirit Which
directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts,
and guarantees my safety from all pain.
He covers me with kindness and with care,
and holds in love the Son He shines upon,
who also shines on Him. How still is he
who knows the truth of what He speaks today!
Father, we have no words except Your Name
upon our lips and in our minds, as we
come quietly into Your Presence now,
and ask to rest with You in peace a while.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 222
God is with me. I live and breathe in Him.
Sarah's Commentary:
When Jesus says God is the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, and the water which renews and cleanses me, he is talking in beautiful metaphors. It is a way of saying God is our Source of life, and since we think of life as being sustained by food, water, and air, our sustenance by God is akin to that. Our experience of our body is our home. We want God to join us there and make our lives happier in the illusion. In other words, we want to add spirituality to our lives, so we can hold onto what we still want in the illusion while including God. Yet to awaken is to remember that our only home and our only happiness is in God. Healing is not about bringing more light to the darkness. It is about bringing our false thoughts (our darkness) to the light. It is only in this way that the veil can be lifted, so we can experience transformation and come to know our reality.
What we think of as life is not what it is. The truth is we have no life but God's. I function as if I am contained in a body, separate from others, trying to find my way in the world, trying to be successful at what I do, doing my best to be happy, to be as good as I know how to be toward people around me, and also to try to find my way back to God. But my magnitude cannot dawn on me unless I have a strong desire for it. Where is the desire for holiness in your list of what you want?
We cannot come to God if we think we know the way. "Think not that you can find salvation in your own way and have it. Give over every plan you have made for your salvation in exchange for God's." (T.15.IV.2.5-6) (ACIM OE T.15.V.36) We must trust the way will be opened up to us, as we are willing to forgo our plans and undo all that stands in the way. It is the simple recognition that we have never left Him. There is nowhere to go. Our job is only to bring awareness to what blocks us from the light. This means we have to look at our thoughts, recognize our judgments, and see how we are defending ourselves against the truth of who we are.
The truth is in our right minds. Our Teacher, the Holy Spirit within, is always available to us. His presence can be known to us more and more when the motivation is strong to release the obstacles blocking the truth. We must want the truth in order to commit ourselves to this process. The undoing of false perception is a choice. This choice is about making a decision to turn to the light of truth always available to us. The first part of the workbook is about undoing our wrong-minded perception. Through this process, we have been given an opportunity to see there is another option available to us. Until we were given this teaching, where the two thought systems in our minds were described, we were only mostly aware of the voice of the ego, which seemed to be the only voice. It constitutes the conditioned mind. Now we have some awareness of the fact there is another Voice within us, and thus we can make a choice as to which voice to listen to. The only problem to be overcome is the voice of the ego, which seems to be the most loud and persistent. Training and discipline are required to ignore this voice because it is very familiar to us. It seems to be who we are.
When Jesus says, "He is my home, wherein I live and move," (W.222.1.3) it is again a statement of our true home with God from which we have never separated in truth. I remember as a little girl sitting in church, asking God to reveal Himself to me, and when I did not get any "sign", I finally gave up on the whole notion of God even though somewhere inside I always had a strong sense of a spiritual presence. I just did not know where to look to get some confirmation of that feeling. I did not know to look in my own mind. I did not know the presence of God was as close to me as my own breath. I did not know it was a matter of uncovering the unforgiving thoughts in my mind and Love would then be revealed to me as my Self. My life is God's Life. My right-minded thoughts are God's thoughts. There is no one to seek and no one to save us. We must do the work of undoing what we have made that keeps us from the awareness we are One with Him now. All we need to do is to apply this teaching to our daily lives and His Presence in us is experienced. What a relief that is! What a comfort!
Take in the words, "He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him." (W.222.1.4) These are such powerfully loving thoughts. I think of it as God's safety, always holding me up and protecting me, no matter how the situation might look. Feel the stillness and beauty this thought conveys and know this can only come as a result of a deep contentment. When we are not content and feel restless, we seek for something we can never find. This is the substitute reality Jesus talks about, where we turn to idols of specialness we think will make us happy. Until we learn where our peace and happiness lie, we will keep looking for it where it cannot be found. We finally become disillusioned, which is a good thing. It can be a gift that turns us toward finding a better way. The answer is given when the mind is open to another way.
Loneliness has been such a big part of my life and it certainly is a condition of this state of separation. Yet now I have a growing recognition and acceptance that I am truly never alone. He walks with me and always has. Having the experience of His presence with us ends the longing. Knowing the steps to take to open up to the awareness of His presence, which are clearly laid out in this Course, reconnect us to our hearts. Any feelings of being cut off, of being alone in the world, of having no support, and of being separate from everyone else, are healed in this process when we lay them on the inner altar to be healed. The Holy Spirit does the work of dissolving what we bring to his healing Light. We cannot fix ourselves. We must trust it is done without our interference.
We make but one choice over and over again in the Course. It is the choice to remember who we are. We are making this one choice over a series of small steps we take, but it is always the same choice. We are always choosing between truth and illusion, between love and fear, between forgiveness and attack, and between Heaven and hell. There is no urgency, no rush, and no expectation put on us as we remember to be loving and gentle with ourselves in this process. Feeling guilty for any lack of progress is still part of the ego game to keep us in hell. It is hard to remember that it is not helpful to think we can judge or fix ourselves or try to make ourselves holy, but only to look at the thoughts and smile with recognition at their nothingness. We just need to be willing to look at them unflinchingly and to turn them over. Looking from outside of the dream, with the love of Jesus, we can smile as we recognize that the characters in the dream and the situations we encounter are all illusory. Yes, they seem very serious to us in the experience of the dream, but from a higher vantage point, with no judgments of good or bad, right or wrong, we can see it all differently. Indeed, it all becomes a perfect classroom for healing, as long as we keep our minds focused on the blessing available behind every seeming problem.
We are now attempting to go beyond words to experience, but we continue to do the forgiveness work by clearing the thoughts that come up in our minds and disturb our peace. We enter the holy instant so we can bring peace with us into the world wherever we go today. If we lose our peace because of someone or something that seems to disturb us, we redirect our thoughts remembering, "God is with me. I live and move in Him." (W.222) It does not matter how busy we are with the doings of the world. The focus is not on what we are doing but what thoughts we are holding in our minds. Thoughts that block our awareness of the truth are what we bring to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to help us. We do this by constantly asking for guidance. "Holy Spirit, help me how to see this situation. Help me to know how to respond. Help me not to use my own idea of what to do here. Help me to know what to say and what to do. Show me the way." With willingness, in each moment that we turn to Him, the ego becomes increasingly irrelevant. To use time in this way is to use it for a higher purpose. Time can waste us as well as be wasted.
Let us be reminded, as in paragraph two of the section on "What is Forgiveness?" (W.PII.Q1.2.1), all we need to do today with any judgments we make is to raise them to doubt. "Perhaps there is another way to look at this. What can I lose by asking?" (T.30.I.12.3-4) (ACIM OE T.30.II.26) We question our judgments by affirming, "I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself." (T.31.V.17.7) (ACIM OE T.31.V.60) Thus, we raise to doubt our need to be right about everything and instead open ourselves to happiness. "Do you prefer that you be right," about the way you set up reality, "or happy" by remembering the truth of who you are and who your brother is? (T.29.VII.1.9) (ACIM OE T.29.VIII.43)
We take our judgments and raise them to doubt. We acknowledge the way we set up reality and stubbornly refuse to put it to question, and this is what has kept us in hell. Our judgments need to be questioned. Perhaps there is another way to look at this situation or this person. Perhaps I have been wrong. Perhaps I have been stubbornly choosing against my own happiness because I justified my way of seeing this situation or this person. Now I am giving up my opinions and my need to be right. I am stepping back from my stories and not justifying my interpretations.
Releasing our way allows us to be shown another way. To see God is to see our brother's holiness, and we can only experience his innocence by releasing our grievances. We have many people in our lives with whom we can practice this. They include our parents, children, siblings, partners, politicians, and all of our special love and special hate relationships. Our special function in this world is all about forgiving these special relationships. We do so by looking at our thoughts, judgments, beliefs, and attitudes toward them as they come up and willingly releasing them to the Holy Spirit. This is the work of forgiveness that we are here to do. All of these thoughts are projections coming from our own minds, based on our own self-judgments and self-attacks. They are what we do not want to acknowledge in ourselves, but we project onto others. They contain our self-attacks, self-judgments, and self-hatred. All we see in anyone is an outward picture of our own inward condition. We are not at the mercy of the world. We need do nothing but look at our thoughts and be willing to turn them over. It requires the desire and the courage to be very honest with ourselves. When we find our mind defending, denying, justifying, or projecting, we must remember that we are choosing to be right rather than happy.
We cannot do the forgiveness work without understanding the metaphysics of the Course. It makes no sense to be told, "Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred," (W.PII.Q1.1.1) when we are so certain that we are right about what our brother has done. The whole point here is to recognize there is no world and we are all figures in a dream. Thus, what I see "out there" is just a thought projected by my mind and acted out in my brother, based on a false idea of God's Son as a separate being and different from me. Instead of seeing with my eyes, made by the ego to show me a world that does not exist, Jesus is asking me to look through his eyes and to doubt how I see anything. It requires giving up the idea that I am right. It means raising my judgments to doubt. "It [forgiveness or the miracle] merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false." (W.PII.Q13.1.3)
Jesus talks about this in the Manual for Teachers, in the section on open-mindedness, as follows: "As judgment shuts the mind against God's Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf." (M.4.X.1.3-4)
The traditional definition of open-mindedness, which is to be accepting and open to everyone's perspective, ideas, and opinions, is not the definition offered here. It is, instead, about letting go of our interpretation of what things mean, so our minds can be open to seeing with vision, which is to see only innocence in every brother. As we do, we come to know our own innocence. Every time we let a brother off the hook for what we think he has done, we release him from the prison we have put him in. It takes willingness on our part to let go of our own distorted perceptions.
To be open-minded is to be closed to our own interpretations and only open to those of the Holy Spirit. Just as Lesson 236 says, "Father, my mind is open to Your Thoughts and closed today to every thought but Yours." (W.PII.236.2.1) This transition, from our judgment of guilt to the Holy Spirit's verdict of innocence, is just another way of talking about forgiveness.
If we ever thought we have achieved complete forgiveness with someone, according to this section in the Manual, we have not and will not until we reach the end of the journey. So let us not get discouraged about our progress in the Course. As long as we are here, we have work to do in releasing our judgments. Welcome this opportunity instead of judging yourself for your judgments. "Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum." (M.4.X.2.9)
"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing." (W.189.7.1-3)
With judgment set aside, "What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God." (W.PII.Q1.1.7)
Love and Blessings, Sarah
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V. Obstacles to Peace
d. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God
The Lifting of the Veil
97 Forget not that you came this far together. And it was surely not the ego that led you here. No obstacle to peace can be surmounted through its help. It does not open up its secrets and bid you look on them and go beyond them. It would not have you see its weakness and learn it has no power to keep you from the truth. The Guide Who brought you here remains with you, and when you raise your eyes, you will be ready to look on terror with no fear at all. But first lift up your eyes and look upon each other in innocence born of complete forgiveness of each other's illusions and through the eyes of faith, which sees them not.
98 No one can look upon the fear of God unterrified unless he has accepted the Atonement and learned illusions are not real. No one can stand before this obstacle alone, for he could not have reached thus far unless his brother walked beside him. And no one would dare to look on it without complete forgiveness of his brother in his heart. Stand you here a while and tremble not. You will be ready. Let us join together in a holy instant, here in this place where the purpose given in a holy instant has led you. And let us join in faith that He Who brought us here together will offer you the innocence you need and that you will accept it for my love and His.
99 Nor is it possible to look on this too soon. This is the place to which everyone must come when he is ready. Once he has found his brother, he is ready. Yet merely to reach the place is not enough. A journey without a purpose is still meaningless, and even when it is over, it seems to make no sense. How can you know that it is over unless you realize its purpose is accomplished? Here, with the journey's end before you, you
see its purpose. And it is here you choose whether to look upon it or wander on, only to return and make the choice again.
100 To look upon the fear of God
does need some preparation. Only the sane can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion but not with fear. For only if they share in it does it seem fearful, and you do share in it until you look upon each other with perfect faith and love and tenderness. Before complete forgiveness, you still stand unforgiving. You are afraid of God
because you fear each other. Those you do not forgive
you fear. And no one reaches love with fear beside him.
101 This brother who stands beside you still seems to be a stranger. You do not know him, and your interpretation of him is very fearful. And you attack him still, to keep what seems to be yourself unharmed. Yet in his hands is your salvation. You see his madness, which you hate because you share it. And all the pity and forgiveness that would heal it gives way to fear. Brothers, you need forgiveness of each other, for you will share in madness or in Heaven together. And you will raise your eyes in faith together or not at all.
102 Beside each of you is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for the Holy Spirit is in him. Would you hold his sins against him or accept his gift to you? Is this giver of salvation your friend or enemy? Choose which he is, remembering that you will receive of him according to your choice. He has in him the power to forgive your sins, as you for him. Neither can give it to himself alone. And yet your savior stands beside each one. Let him be what he is and seek not to make of love an enemy.
103 Behold your Friend, the Christ Who stands beside you. How holy and how beautiful He is! You thought He sinned because you cast the veil of sin upon Him to hide His loveliness. Yet still He holds forgiveness out to you to share His holiness. This "enemy," this "stranger" still offers you salvation as His Friend. The "enemies" of Christ, the worshipers of sin, know not Whom they attack. This is your brother, crucified by sin, and waiting for release from pain. Would you not offer him forgiveness, when only he can offer it to you? For his redemption, he will give you yours as surely as God created every living thing and loves it. And he will give it truly, for it will be both offered and received.
104 There is no grace of Heaven that you cannot offer to each other and receive from your most holy Friend. Let him withhold it not, for by receiving it you offer it to him. [For he
will receive of you what
you received of him.] Redemption has been given you to give each other, and thus receive it. Whom you forgive is free, and what you give you share. Forgive the sins your brother thinks he has committed and all the guilt you think you see in him.
105 Here is the holy place of resurrection to which we come again; to which we will return until redemption is accomplished and received. Think who your brother is before you would condemn him. And offer thanks to God that he is holy and has been given the gift of holiness for you. Join him in gladness and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. Press it not like thorns against his brow, nor nail him to it unredeemed and hopeless.
106 Give each other faith, for faith and hope and mercy are yours to give. Into the hands that give the gift is given. Look on your brother, and see in him the gift of God you would receive. It is almost Easter, the time of resurrection. Let us give redemption to each other and share in it that we may rise as one in resurrection and not separate in death. Behold the gift of freedom that I gave the Holy Spirit for both of you. And be you free together, as you offer to the Holy Spirit this same gift. And giving it, receive it of Him in return for what you gave. He leadeth you and me together that we might meet here in this holy place and make the same decision.
107 Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the self-same gift, nor look upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as guiltless as I look on you, and overlook the sins he thinks he sees within himself. Offer each other freedom and complete release from sin here in the garden of seeming agony and death. So will we prepare together the way unto the resurrection of God's Son and let him rise again to glad remembrance of his Father, Who knows no sin, no death, but only life eternal.
108 Together we will disappear into the Presence beyond the veil, not to be lost, but
found; not to be seen, but
known. And knowing, nothing in the plan God has established for salvation will be left undone. This is the journey's purpose, without which is the journey meaningless. Here is the peace of God, given to you eternally by Him. Here is the rest and quiet that you seek, the reason for the journey from its beginning. Heaven is the gift you owe each other, the debt of gratitude you offer to the Son of God in thanks for what he is and what his Father created him to be.
109 Think carefully how you would look upon the giver of this gift, for as you look on him, so will the gift itself appear to be. As he is seen as either the giver of guilt or of salvation, so will his offering be seen and so received. The crucified give pain because they are in pain. But the redeemed give joy because they have been healed of pain. Everyone gives as he receives, but he must choose what it will
be that he receives. And he will recognize his choice by what he gives and what is given him. Nor is it given anything in hell or Heaven to interfere with his decision.
110 You came this far because the journey was your choice. And no one undertakes to do what he believes is meaningless. What you had faith in still is faithful and watches over you in faith so gentle yet so strong that it would lift you far beyond the veil and place the Son of God safely within the sure protection of his Father. Here is the only purpose that gives this world and the long journey through this world whatever meaning lies in them. Beyond this they
are meaningless. You stand together, still without conviction they have a purpose. Yet it is given you to see this purpose in your holy Friend and recognize it is your own.
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