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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 25 THE REMEDY
X. THE JUSTICE OF HEAVEN
85 Unless you think that all your brothers have an equal right to miracles with you, you will not claim your right to them because you were unjust to one with equal rights. Seek to deny, and you will feel denied. Seek to deprive, and you have been deprived. A miracle can never be received because another could receive it not. Only forgiveness offers miracles. And pardon must be just to everyone.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
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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L e s s o n 275
God's healing Voice
protects all things today.
<AUDIO><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
Let us today attend the Voice of God,
Which speaks an ancient lesson, no more true
today than any other day. Yet has
this day been chosen as the time when we
will seek and hear and learn and understand.
Join me in hearing. For the Voice of God
tells us of things we cannot understand
alone, nor learn apart. It is in this
that all things are protected, and in this
the healing of the Voice of God is found.
Your healing Voice protects all things today.
And so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious about nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak, and what to say to him;
what thoughts to think; what words to give the world.
The safety that I bring is given me.
Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 275
God's healing Voice protects all things today.
Sarah's Commentary:
When Jesus says, "God's healing Voice protects all things today," he is talking about the fact that we are forever safe and our eternal gifts---gifts like peace of mind and joy---can't be lost no matter what we do and where we go. The gifts have always been ours and are guaranteed in our creation. What God's healing Voice does is call to us to awaken to the truth of who we are. His Voice reminds us that the separation never happened and we will ". . . seek and hear and learn and understand" (W.275.1.2) when we turn to Him Who speaks to us all through the day. The Voice of the Holy Spirit is our Guide and Teacher within us. When we listen to the ego, we are choosing not to hear this Voice.
The Voice for God reminds us of ". . . an ancient lesson, no more true today than any other day." (W.275.1.1) This ancient lesson, taught over and over in the Course, is that we have never separated from God and are still as we were created---One with Him. This is the Atonement Principle. We have not and cannot change who we are as we were created. Yet we can and do experience a self that seems to be a separate body and personality with a separate will and separate thoughts, but it is not the truth. It is the illusion, a dream of an existence seemingly happening in this moment. The truth is that we are still at home in Heaven and still One with God, never having changed ourselves in truth.
In this Lesson, we are invited to join with Jesus in hearing the Voice for God. "Join me in hearing. For the Voice for God tells us of things we cannot understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected. And in this the healing of the Voice for God is found." (W.275.1.3-6) Jesus is saying that only when we join with him, as a symbol of the truth in the right mind, can we hear the Voice of truth speaking to us. His message to us is that we are safe, we are love, we are invulnerable, we are innocent, and we are complete. This is where our protection lies. Apart from Him, we tune into the obsessive thoughts of the ego, with its constant chatter of what to do, where to go, what plans to make for our pleasure, what to worry about, and how to see our brothers, their faults, or their specialness. When we identify with this voice, we stay in a constant state of fear and anxiety. We never feel certain about anything because the ego does not know anything. Nothing is right with ego. As the song says, "I can't get no satisfaction."
The good news is that we can make another choice. The ability to make a new decision is in the mind. The mind can choose what it gives attention to. The ego wants all of our attention on it, but when we choose to withdraw our interest in its stories, its perspective, its beliefs, and its thoughts, it has no power to disrupt our peace. This requires that we notice what we are thinking and to bring all of these untrue thoughts to the Truth. We look at our thoughts from a place behind the mind of the thinker, which is the observer, and we see their unreality. When we look from this place, we look without judgment. We can laugh at the foolishness of these thoughts. Our mind is the cause and thus the source of everything we experience. Nothing outside of the mind is the cause of how we feel. By the power of our decision, we choose the thought system of separation or Oneness, and we make this choice in every moment.
We need to join with Jesus because he tells us we cannot understand anything alone. To be alone is to be with our own interpretations, which always involve the ego. When we engage with the ego, we are excluding our brother from the One Self we are. Jesus tells us again and again that when we make exceptions by determining who is worthy of our love and who isn't, we will stay in the prison of our own making. We are called to join with him and see our brother as Jesus sees him. Forgiveness sees that what your brother did has not happened. He is forever innocent. In joining with Jesus as the symbol of the love we are, we see we are all the same. As we come to experience our same Self, we increasingly know we are loved and protected.
I watched a lovely movie last night called, The Man Who Knew Infinity. It is a story of the life and academic career of the pioneer Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan and his friendship with his mentor, Professor G.H. Hardy. I love how movies offer us an opportunity to watch our minds on the movie screen, just as we are called to do when we watch our projections on the screen of this world. What this movie illustrated to me is how we invest in differences. In the movie, we see judgments based on status, culture, beliefs, values, and self-concepts, all of which were eventually healed as respect and honor replaced the judgments until there was a deep recognition of sameness. Sameness is a reflection of Oneness, which cannot be known in this world. Sameness is the closest we can come when we realize our brother is our Self.
Once we have heard the call to come home and once we have decided there is a better way to find happiness than with the ego, we have started on the road to peace. We take this road step by step. With each situation where we choose peace, we have taken another step toward wholeness. We have tried to find all kinds of answers in form---in the false belief that we can make life work for us. When we choose to give up on trying to find our own answers for happiness in this world and recognize we don't know and are wrong about everything we think will work, we start on the road to true peace. This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit to show us the way. As long as we believe anything in this world will work for us, we get distracted from our spiritual goals and look for our happiness in the world where it can never be found. Our motivation is still divided, but tolerance for pain is not without limit, and sooner or later, we get more serious and more willing to listen to the deeper Call within.
We turn more consistently to the Holy Spirit for guidance when we recognize that our way has never brought the peace and joy we are looking for by listening to the ego. As we release our thoughts of aloneness, our victim stories, our sadness, and our frustrations and simply come with "wholly empty hands" (W.189.7.5) to this place of respite, we demonstrate a willingness to be taught---a recognition that we have been wrong about everything. We have been wrong about who we think we are, who we think our brother is, and what the problem really is. This is a deeply humbling place of surrender where we open ourselves to guidance and where every question is answered about ". . . what to do and where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world." (W.275.2.3) Then our actions emanate from our right minds where we are guided by the One Voice that knows what is loving in every situation we encounter. When we get out of the way and the voice of the ego fades into the background, guidance becomes natural. We simply follow the prompts and are always where we need to be and who we need to be with.
"Who assumes a power that he does not possess is deceiving himself. Yet to accept the power given him by God is but to acknowledge his Creator and accept His gifts. And His gifts have no limit. To ask the Holy Spirit to decide for you is simply to accept your true inheritance. Does this mean that you cannot say anything without consulting Him? No, indeed! That would hardly be practical, and it is the practical with which this course is most concerned. If you have made it a habit to ask for help when and where you can, you can be confident that wisdom will be given you when you need it. Prepare for this each morning, remember God when you can throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit's help when it is feasible to do so, and thank Him for His guidance at night. And your confidence will be well founded indeed."
(Manual for Teachers. 29.5)
What is there ever to be anxious about? What is there to fear? What is there to plan? What is there to worry about? Who would we want to crucify? If we feel attacked, it is only because we hold mistaken perceptions about ourselves that we are vulnerable and can be hurt. We are wrong about the way we see everything that seems to happen to us. Every one of us is in this world for only one purpose, which is to wake up from this dream of separation. We share one goal, which is to know ourselves as the innocent Son of God we are. This world is the classroom where we can learn this about ourselves and teach it through our demonstration. When we perceive our own attack thoughts or attacks seemingly coming at us, we need not get defensive and counterattack. Instead, we can choose to bring our fear thoughts for healing, knowing our perception about any situation is always wrong. There is never anything to be afraid of. I am safe and protected always, and as I come to know this, I can bring safety to everyone I meet in every holy encounter. It is not the idea of Sarah bringing this message but the light that can now shine through this body and personality. My part is to be willing to do the healing of all my misperceptions.
Ken Wapnick says that we must not minimize the ego by choosing not to pay any attention to it or by affirming and visualizing our way past it. The Course is about teaching us to look at the ego with great honesty and courage. This is not a course about love but about mind watching. Salvation is the acceptance of the fact ". . . that you are doing this unto yourself." (T.27.VIII.10.1) (ACIM OE T.27.IX.86) What we are doing to ourselves is not recognizing our attraction to guilt and death, and that this attraction to our separate identity can only be maintained through judgment and attack. The trick, however, is not to fight the ego for that only gives it more power. It is to keep practicing forgiveness by remembering to look with the Holy Spirit, Who looks on devastation and reminds the mind that what it sees is false.
We don't know the answers, and we don't need to figure anything out because, on our own, we can't. We just need to get out of the way and allow the Answer to come through us. Protection and guidance come through the Voice for truth. You may say you don't hear this Voice, but you do. You get prompts and inspired thoughts when you stop planning, controlling, and figuring things out for yourself. In the stillness is the Answer. It comes in many forms: a thought, a sense of knowing, a prompt to be somewhere, a notion, a voice, or a sign. We will sense some kind of inner prodding and it emanates in the right mind where the truth abides. The Holy Spirit is in us and is our link to God. It is in our right minds where it can be accessed when the ego voice no longer holds our attention or our interest. To simply turn away from the ego with the thought, "I don't care what you (ego) have to say," opens the way for truth to come in.
Notice also who and what shows up in your life as a perfect answer for a situation confronting you. It may not look like a perfect answer, but you can't be the judge of that. We simply don't know. "The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of His Presence, and through them you will learn that He is there." (T.12.VII.3.1) (ACIM OE T.11.VIII.63) Initially, we will find Him in the specifics of our lives where the Holy Spirit supports what we think are our needs, even though they may be foolish. He offers us help with these needs as long as they don't delay us in time. If a parking spot shows up when we feel in desperate need of one and ask Him for it, this may be a demonstration for us of His presence. Yet further along this path, when the loving thoughts are our only Guide and the only Voice we listen to, we will experience a more constant state of peace and joy and the specifics will no longer matter. In other words, when the much longed for perfect parking spot does not show up, our peace will not be shattered.
Today, the choice is ours, to hear the voice of the ego or to hear the Holy Spirit's Voice. Clearly, we go back and forth in this process, but it is valuable to remember that any fear, anxiety, concern, frustration, or issue of any kind, is as a result of listening to the ego. We can change our minds and find refuge in the truth always present in the sane right mind where the Holy Spirit dwells.
I was recently driving through a busy intersection and saw a homeless man with a sign asking for help. A woman in the curb lane opened her window and gave the man some money, which is not particularly unusual. What was different was the beauty and radiance of her smile as she looked him in the eye and said something, which I could not hear, but what still sits in my memory was the beauty of her radiant smile. She was, for me, another demonstration of the love of the Holy Spirit, shining through her.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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X. The Justice of Heaven
78 What can it be but arrogance to think your little errors cannot be undone by Heaven's justice? And what could this mean except that they are sins and not mistakes, forever uncorrectable, and to be met with vengeance not with justice? Are you willing to be released from all effects of sin? You cannot answer this until you see all that the answer must entail. For if you answer "yes," it means you will forego all values of this world in favor of the peace of Heaven. Not
one sin would you retain. And not
one doubt that this is possible will you hold dear that sin be kept in place. You mean that truth has greater value now than
all illusions. And you recognize that truth must be revealed to you because you know not what it is.
79 To give reluctantly is not to gain the gift because you are reluctant to
accept it. It is saved for you until reluctance to receive it disappears, and you are willing it be given you. God's justice warrants gratitude, not fear. Nothing you give is lost to you or anyone, but cherished and preserved in Heaven, where all of the treasures given to God's Son are kept for him and offered anyone who but holds out his hand in willingness they be received. Nor is the treasure less as it is given out. Each gift but
adds to the supply. For God is fair. He does not fight against His Son's reluctance to perceive salvation as a gift from Him. Yet would His justice not be satisfied until it is received by everyone.
80 Be certain any answer to a problem the Holy Spirit solves will always be one in which no one loses. And this must be true because He asks no sacrifice of anyone. An answer which demands the slightest loss to anyone has not resolved the problem but has added to it and made it greater, harder to resolve, and
more unfair. It is impossible the Holy Spirit could see unfairness as a resolution. To Him, what is unfair must be corrected
because it is unfair. And every error is a perception in which one at least is seen unfairly. Thus is justice not accorded to the Son of God. When anyone is seen as losing, he has been condemned. And punishment becomes his due instead of justice.
81 The sight of innocence makes punishment impossible and justice sure. The Holy Spirit's perception leaves no ground for an attack. Only a
loss could justify attack, and loss of any kind He cannot see. The world solves problems in another way. It sees a resolution as a state in which it is decided who shall win and who shall lose---how much the one shall take and how much can the loser still defend.
82 Yet does the problem still remain unsolved, for
only justice can set up a state in which there is no loser, no one left unfairly treated and deprived, and thus with grounds for vengeance. Problem solving cannot be vengeance, which at best can bring another problem added to the first, in which the murder is not obvious. The Holy Spirit's problem solving is the way in which the problem
ends. It has been solved
because it has been met with justice. Until it has, it will recur because it has not yet been solved. The principle that justice means no one can lose is crucial to this course. For miracles
depend on justice. Not as it is seen through this world's eyes, but as God knows it, and as knowledge is reflected in the sight the Holy Spirit gives.
83
No one deserves to lose. And what would be unjust to him cannot occur. Healing must be for everyone
because he does not merit an attack of any kind. What order can there be in miracles, unless someone deserves to suffer more and others less? And
is this justice to the wholly innocent? A miracle
is justice. It is not a special gift to some to be withheld from others as less worthy, more condemned, and thus apart from healing. Who is there who can be separate from salvation if its
purpose is the end of specialness? Where is salvation's justice if some errors are unforgivable and warrant vengeance in place of healing and return of peace?
84 Salvation cannot seek to help God's Son be more unfair than
he has sought to be. If miracles, the Holy Spirit's gift, were given specially to an elect and special group and kept apart from others as less deserving, then is He
ally to specialness. What He cannot perceive He bears no witness to. And everyone is equally entitled to His gift of healing and deliverance and peace. To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you
want it solved. To keep it for yourself to solve without His help is to decide it should remain unsettled, unresolved, and lasting in its power of injustice and attack. No one
can be unjust to you, unless you have decided first to
be unjust. And then must problems rise to block your way and peace be scattered by the winds of hate.
85 Unless you think that all your brothers have an equal right to miracles with you, you will not claim your right to them because you were unjust to one with equal rights. Seek to deny, and you
will feel denied. Seek to deprive, and you
have been deprived. A miracle can
never be received because another could receive it
not. Only forgiveness offers miracles. And pardon must be just to everyone.
86 The little problems that you keep and hide become your secret sins because you did not choose to let them be removed for you. And so they gather dust and grow until they cover everything that you perceive and leave you fair to no one. Not one right do you believe you have. And bitterness, with vengeance justified and mercy lost, condemns you as unworthy of forgiveness. The unforgiven
have no mercy to bestow upon another. That is why your sole responsibility must be to take forgiveness for yourself. The miracle that you receive you
give. Each one becomes an illustration of the law on which salvation rests---that justice must be done to all if anyone is to be healed. No one can lose, and everyone
must benefit.
87 Each miracle is an example of what justice can accomplish when it is offered to everyone alike. It is received and given equally. It is awareness that giving and receiving are the same. Because it does not make the same unlike, it sees no differences where none exist. And thus it is the same for everyone because it sees no differences in
them. Its offering is universal, and it teaches but one message:
88 What is God's
belongs to everyone and
is his due.
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