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A COURSE IN MIRACLES CH 20 THE PROMISE OF THE RESURRECTION IV. SIN AS AN ADJUSTMENT
16 The belief in sin is an adjustment. And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception or a belief that what was so before has been made different. Every adjustment is therefore a distortion and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. Knowledge requires no adjustment and in fact is lost if any shift or change is undertaken. For this reduces it at once to mere perception---a way of looking in which certainty is lost and doubt has entered. To this impaired condition
are adjustments necessary because they are not true. Who need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he is, to understand?
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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 225 God is my Father and His Son loves Him.
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Father, I must return Your Love for me,
for giving and receiving are the same,
and You have given all Your Love to me.
I must return It, for I want It mine
in full awareness, blazing in my mind,
and keeping it within Its kindly light,
inviolate, beloved, with fear behind
and only peace ahead. How still the way
God's loving Son is led along to Him!
Brother, we find that stillness now. The way
is open. Now we follow it in peace
together. You have reached your hand to me,
and I will never leave you. We are one,
and it is but this oneness that we seek
as we accomplish these few final steps
which end a journey that was not begun.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 225
God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.
Sarah's Commentary:
How do we demonstrate our love for our Father? How do we return it to Him? This Lesson says, "I must return it, for I want it mine in full awareness." (W.225.1.2) In other words, if I want to experience the love I am and for it to be in full awareness, I must extend love to my brother; for to give and to receive are one. We are basically giving to ourselves. "Father, I must return Your Love for me, for giving and receiving are the same, and You have given all Your Love to me." (W.225.1.1) The love my Father has given me must now be extended so I know it is in me to give.
If I want to know my Self, I must take responsibility to release the blocks holding me back from the awareness of what I am in truth. When I judge and hold grievances and hide behind my defenses, I cannot be aware of my true identity as love. Our nature is love, as given us by God, but we cannot know it when we value the things we have substituted for love more. In other words, the things of this world that we value more, the opinions and judgments we hold, and the need to be right, keep us from awareness of who we are. When we turn over the blocks to love that we are holding in our minds to the Holy Spirit, we release what stands in the way of love, and thus we experience the miracle.
Look again at the discussion on "What is forgiveness?" (W.PII.Q1) Here, Jesus speaks to us of our projections. "The [unforgiving] 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 wanted goal?" (W.PII.Q1.2.3-4) What we project onto others keeps us unaware of the unhealed aspects of our own minds. As I blame and judge others, I am protecting myself from recognizing the guilt in me. Instead, I see it in you. Now my mind is imprisoned by chains of unforgiving thoughts. If my goal is to see you as guilty and to see my sin in you, my fixed position will not be changed. When I justify my anger and stay with my story about you, I make my case as to why the guilt belongs to you. Now, no healing is possible. The ego mind, which is the wrong mind, holds all of these unforgiving thoughts that block the love. As long as we won't release these thoughts to the Holy Spirit for healing, we will not know the gifts forgiveness offers us.
The purpose of holding onto our unforgiving thoughts is to maintain the separation and our investment in the ego and the world. "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." (W.PII.Q1.3.4) When we become willing to release our judgments by taking responsibility for our projections and simply looking at them with the light of truth, space is made in the mind for love to come streaming in. Our belief in sin and guilt is what holds the seeming reality of the body and the world in place. With it comes an investment in the past and future and expectations of how things should be in the world to make us happy. When we choose to release our unforgiving thoughts to the Holy Spirit, we can find that quiet center in us and ". . . learn to welcome truth exactly as it is." (W.PII.Q1.4.5)
Jesus tells us we don't know how to forgive and must be taught. "Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, through Him Who is your Guide, your Savior and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success." (W.PII.Q1.5.1) Of our own, we can do nothing. The ego will never undo itself. The Holy Spirit is the light in us as a symbol of the love we are. His light shines away all that is brought to Him in sincerity and desire for healing. As we let His light guide us on whatever busy doings we are sent, we express the content of the love within us. Purification is always necessary first. This has nothing to do with the body. It is the mind that must be purified. The one thought that must be healed is the thought of guilt, which is an impediment to the miracle. If love is in our hearts and our minds, then everything we do will be an extension of that love. Purification can only come by asking for help from the Holy Spirit to release our belief in separation.
What do we know of peace? We try to find it in our way. We try to figure out how to be peaceful. We think our peace comes from things going well in the world. We think that if our needs are met, we will finally know peace. What we do is look for peace in form. We look forward to summer holidays when we think we will find the peace that eludes us in our daily lives. We look forward to relaxing and taking time from the daily grind. We think we will be peaceful if we successfully address the things in the world we think are important to accomplish. But the peace we are seeking is already in us. There is nothing to seek because we have it already. All we are asked to do is be still, come in silence, listen, go within and open to hearing His Voice. We come in certainty today leaving ". . . fear behind and only peace ahead." (W.225.1.2)
Only through forgiveness can we experience deep rest and relaxation. Judgment is what tires us, according to Jesus. Our rest comes in giving up judgment. Thus, the best way to use our time, if we truly want peace and happiness, is to watch the mind for interfering thoughts. No worldly pursuit will ever satisfy us or bring us the joy and peace forgiveness offers. It is about releasing our belief in guilt. Our belief in guilt and thus our feeling of 'I am bad' and feelings of unworthiness are the only source of suffering. Think about it. It is a startling realization when we learn that everything comes from our own minds rather than from the events of our lives. We think our suffering comes from what someone has done or hasn't done or some external circumstance. Certainly, we don't think our own guilt and all the self-attack that goes with it are the sources of all of our suffering. It is all internal. It is the beliefs and self-concepts we hold, all of which can be undone through forgiveness.
Yes, we make mistakes that need correction, but guilt calls for punishment rather than correction. Forgiveness offers us an opportunity to take responsibility for our mistaken perceptions and bring them for correction. It is our way out of this cycle of sin, guilt, and fear. Our judgments that we will not raise to doubt protect the projections we place onto others. "The mind is closed, and will not be released." (W.PII.Q1.2.2) We prefer to see our guilt in others and want it punished in them. We hope God is watching, so He will know how much others have mistreated us, and thus they will deserve the punishment we secretly believe we deserve. Yet when we blame others, the belief in sin is reinforced in our own minds rather than corrected, which brings more guilt and more need to blame, find fault, and judge. Whether we blame others or ourselves, it is the same. Blame keeps us in the cycle of sin, guilt, and fear.
We are invited today to reach out for the hand of Jesus, and when we do, he promises he will never leave us because we are one with him. Let us lean on this support today, as we release our thoughts of conflict that swirl in the mind and keep us from knowing our true Self as love and peace. Let us return to the question: "How do we demonstrate our love for God?" It is by coming to know our Self as the Son who loves Him. In other words, we come to the truth of who we are through forgiveness. We can only do that as we take total responsibility for all of our thoughts, watch our minds, and release our condemnations, expectations, and self-concepts.
"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) Let go of the "I know" mind. We don't know our Self because we have become lost in the dream. We are now given prayers that invite our minds to enter into the silence and the stillness, where the truth can be known. Jesus enters that stillness with us. He is the open doorway. "Now we follow it in peace together." (W.225.2.3) He assures us that he will never leave us. He can't, because he is one with us. He is the symbol of truth in our right minds. We are the ones who have closed the door to the awareness of his constant presence, and we are the ones who can now make another choice. He awaits our decision. Our happiness depends on it.
Love and Blessings, Sarah
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PAUSED FOR WEEKEND
16 The belief in sin is an adjustment. And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception or a belief that what was so before has been made different. Every adjustment is therefore a distortion and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. Knowledge requires no adjustment and in fact is lost if any shift or change is undertaken. For this reduces it at once to mere perception-a way of looking in which certainty is lost and doubt has entered. To this impaired condition
are adjustments necessary because they are not true. Who need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he is, to understand?
17 Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. For it is the ego's fixed belief that all relationships depend upon adjustments to make of them what it would have them be. Direct relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous. The ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever adjustments it deems necessary and interposing them between those who would meet to keep them separate and prevent their union. It is this studied interference which makes it difficult for you to recognize your holy relationship for what it is.
18 The holy do not interfere with truth. They are not afraid of it, for it is within the truth they recognized their holiness and rejoiced at what they saw. They looked on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it or it to them. And so they
saw that it was
in them, not deciding first where they would
have it be. Their looking merely asked a question, and it was what they saw that answered them.
You make the world and
then adjust to it, and it to you. Nor is there any difference between yourself and it in your perception, which made them
both.
19 A simple question yet remains and needs an answer. Do you
like what you have made-a world of murder and attack through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear?
You made this up. It is a picture of what you think you are, of how you see yourself. A murderer is frightened, and those who kill fear death. All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within and see the sadness there.
20 Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes? The world you see is but a judgment on yourself. It is not there at all. Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it, and makes it
real. Such is the world you see-a judgment on yourself and made by you. This sickly picture of yourself is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves, and placed outside you in the world. And to this world must you adjust, as long as you believe this picture is outside and has you at its mercy. This world
is merciless, and were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. Yet it was you who
made it merciless, and now if mercilessness seems to look back at you, it can be
corrected.
21 Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, "What are you?" And He Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, "What am I?"
22 The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you. Seek not to make the Son of God adjust to his insanity. There is a stranger in him who wandered carelessly into the home of truth, and who will wander off. He came without a purpose, but he will not remain before the shining light the Holy Spirit offered and you accepted. For there the stranger is made homeless and you are welcome.
23 Ask not this transient stranger, "What am I?" He is the only thing in all the universe that does not know. Yet it is he you asked, and it is to his answer that you would adjust. This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. To it you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. And of the one blind thing in all the seeing universe of truth you ask, "How shall I look upon the Son of God?"
24 Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? And if you have, would you believe the answer and adjust to it as if it were the truth? The world you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust the world to make its answer true. You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your unholy relationship and adjusted it according to its insane answer. How happy did it make you? Did you meet with joy to bless the Son of God and give him thanks for all the happiness which he held out to you? Did you recognize each other as the eternal gift of God to you? Did you see the holiness that shone in both of you to bless the other? That is the purpose of your holy relationship. Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy. Give it no power to adjust the means and end.
25 Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak and exhausted and with eyes so long cast down in darkness they remember not the light, do not leap up in joy the instant they are made free. It takes a while for them to understand what freedom
is. You groped but feebly in the dust and found each other's hand, uncertain whether to let it go or to take hold on life so long forgotten. Strengthen your hold and raise your eyes unto your strong companion, in whom the meaning of your freedom lies. He seemed to be crucified beside you. And yet his holiness remained untouched and perfect, and with him beside you, you shall this day enter with him to Paradise and know the peace of God.
26 Such is my will for both of you and for each of you for one another and for himself. Here there is only holiness and joining without limit. For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it? Here are we one, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves. Here all thoughts of any separation between us become impossible. You who were prisoners in separation are now made free in Paradise. And here would I unite with you, my friends, my brothers, and my Self. Your gift unto each other has given me the certainty our union will be soon.
27 Share, then, this faith with me and know that it is justified. There is no fear in perfect love
because it knows no sin and it must look on others as on itself. Looking with charity within, what can it fear
without? The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart see God within His Son and look unto the Son to lead them to the Father. And where else would they go but where they will to be? Each of you now will lead the other to the Father as surely as God created His Son holy and kept him so. In your brother is the light of God's eternal promise of your immortality. See him as sinless, and there can
be no fear in you.
ON LINE SEARCHABLE Original Edition
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