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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 5 "HEALING AND WHOLENESS"
V. THE GUIDE TO SALVATION
32 The way to learn to know your brother is by perceiving the Holy Spirit in him. We have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge or thought-transfer of perception to knowledge, so we can use the terms as if they were related because in His mind they
are . The relationship
must be in His mind because, unless it were, the separation between the two ways of thinking would not be open to healing. He is part of the Holy Trinity because His mind is partly yours and also partly God's. This needs clarification, not in statement, since we have said it before, but in
experience.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK PART I ~ REVIEW I
INTRODUCTION
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1 Beginning with today, we will have a series of review periods. Each of them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas which you should consider in your review. In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows:
2 Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included. Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once. Devote two minutes or more to each practice period, thinking about the idea and the related comments. Do this as often as possible during the day. If any one of the five ideas appeals to you more than the others, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.
3 It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Rather, try merely to emphasize the central point and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates.
4 The review exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone in a quiet place if possible. This is emphasized particularly for reviews at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned. You will need it most in situations which appear to be upsetting, rather than in those which already seem to be calm and quiet.
5 The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. You will yet learn that peace is part of you and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.
6 You will note that for review purposes the ideas are not always given in quite their original form of statement. Use them as they are given here. It is not necessary to return to the original statements nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. We are now emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
L e s s o n 53 ~ Review I
[Review Lesson 11-15]
<
AUDIO
><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1Today we will review the following:
[11] My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.
2Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world which pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.
[12] I am upset because I see a meaningless world.
3Insane thoughts are upsetting. They produce a world in which there is no order anywhere. Only chaos rules a world which represents chaotic thinking, and chaos has no laws. I cannot live in peace in such a world. I am grateful that this world is not real and that I need not see it at all unless I choose to value it. And I do not choose to value what is totally insane and has no meaning.
[13] A meaningless world engenders fear.
4The totally insane engenders fear because it is completely undependable and offers no grounds for trust. Nothing in madness is dependable. It holds out no safety and no hope. But such a world is not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief and place my trust in reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the world of fear because I am acknowledging that it does not exist.
[14] God did not create a meaningless world.
5How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create it? He is the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His Mind. It is in my mind too because He created it with me. Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts when the perfection of creation is my home? Let me remember the power of my decision and recognize where I really abide.
[15] My thoughts are images which I have made.
6Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts which tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God's way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 53 ~ REVIEW I
[Review Lessons 11-15]
Sarah's Commentary:
We can never live in peace where chaos rules, and chaos is the nature of this world. It comes from chaotic thinking. Our minds have projected this whole chaotic, insane world. Overriding chaotic thoughts with positive affirmations about
ourselves and the
world
". . . in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, 'protective' clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the 'right' people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers." is not the answer. We need to recognize how we have tried to adjust to this insane world and how we have become conditioned to it, putting our faith (W.50.1.3)
As Jesus tells us, we have given illusions reality. We have given meaning and importance to the meaningless. We believe in the reality of this world and thus give it the power to upset us. We do our best to live in peace in this world, but there can be no real peace in chaos. In our attempts at survival and happiness in the world, we manipulate and strategize how we might best exert some semblance of control over events, situations, and people.
Now we are told we can be ". . . grateful that this world is not real." (W.53.2.6) When we accept we ". . . cannot live in peace in such a world," (W.53.2.5) instead of continuing to try to adjust to it, we are given a way out. When we no longer value it, we can escape its hold on us. It is such a relief to give up our efforts to depend on what is undependable. To expect the world to be a place of fairness and justice, and to expect it to be a place of safety and hope will end in despair and disillusionment, but Jesus does not leave us there.
When we withdraw any hope of happiness in the world and place our trust in reality, we will ". . . escape all the effects of the world of fear." (W.53.3.8) The events that seem to cause us to suffer have no reality. When we get this, we are no longer at the mercy of anything that seems to be happening. The world is not the cause of our upsets. Our upsets are the effect of our thoughts about the situations in our lives. The world has value as a classroom as it reflects the thoughts and beliefs we are holding in the mind. It is a witness to the choice we have made for the ego or the Holy Spirit.
"The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see."
(W.53.5.4) Any suffering I experience today is caused by the thoughts and beliefs I hold. This meaningless world engenders fear because there is no safety or hope in madness. It is encouraging to know these crazy images can't prevail forever, and we will all return home. Only our fear makes the journey seem long. Only our resistance to releasing the ego makes it seem hard and brings suffering. "The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can so easily make the idea seem difficult. Yet the Holy Spirit tells you that even return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be difficult. However, you can make the idea of return both necessary and difficult." (T.6.II.11.1-3) (ACIM OE T.6.III.35)
Our thoughts are all over the map. We narrate and judge our experiences, crucify ourselves for our mistakes, fantasize about what we want in the world, hold grievances, plan, and strategize how to address our problems. Our minds are never quiet. Our insane thoughts allow us no peace. That is why Jesus tells us, "Insane thoughts are upsetting." (W.53.2.2) Our insane thoughts are the cause of this world. The world is a projection of those thoughts. That is why the world is insane, as it is the effect of our insane thoughts.
We have mistakenly thought that by managing the effects of our insane thoughts we could find some semblance of peace, but this will never work. We need to go back to the cause, which is our own thoughts. Our minds are split between the wrong mind, where our insane thoughts originate, and our right mind, which holds our real thoughts of peace and love. Only by looking at our insane thoughts in the wrong mind, and bringing them to the love within, can they be released. They are the thoughts that block the real world. We can experience this world when we release our wrong-minded, insane thoughts. The real world is an inner world of peace, joy, consistency, and harmony. From here, we see the world of illusion for what it is. We see it as an observer from above the battleground of this world.
When something upsets us, it is just another opportunity for healing. Welcome it. When we don't resist whatever shows up in our script, it becomes another opportunity for healing. We can't heal what we don't see. We must become observers of our ego strategies. By watching our thoughts, we bring them to awareness, which we must do if these thoughts are to be released to the Holy Spirit so we can achieve vision. The real world reflects our healed minds.
Our minds have the power to make a world in opposition to God. It is so important that we not deny this power. If we don't recognize the pain and suffering of the world, we will not be willing to take responsibility for our own minds as the cause. The world, which is not God's plan, demands that we see it as His creation and glorify the world instead of seeing it for what it is. The world is simply a reflection of the insane thoughts in our minds, and it is these thoughts that keep us in misery. Even when they bring us what we think will make us happy in the world, the happiness is only temporary and will not last. Happiness that is dependent on external circumstances is very unstable. "Yet God's way is sure." (W.53.5.5) Jesus is appealing to the power of our minds to take responsibility for our thoughts, instead of blaming people, events, and circumstances "out there" for our lack of peace.
Underneath our insane thoughts are the Thoughts of God, and only these thoughts are real and sane. What are these Thoughts of God? They are the thoughts in our right mind. They are always there. We are incapable of separating ourselves from them, although we can be unaware of them. What is the experience of our real thoughts? Jesus says when we enter into light there is a deep sense of peace, however brief. We experience a deep sense of joy and increased alertness. (W.44, W.47, W.74) What is being said is, when we enter the realm of God's Thoughts, we have the experience of love, holiness, peace, gratitude, and Oneness. In order to achieve this state, we need to approach our meditation time with desire, a sense of the importance of what we are trying to achieve, and a confidence that we will succeed. (W.45, W.49) We approach the experience as we would an altar. "My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them." (W.45.6.4-5) Sink past the unreal thoughts that cover the truth and listen in deep silence, sinking deeply into peace.
We simply can't overlay peace on our thoughts of worry, anger, and distress. We can't force peace onto these thoughts. They have to be given over. We need to release these thoughts as they come up. We need to choose to give the thoughts up so peace can take the place of the distress. It takes desire, commitment, and willingness to do the work. It also takes effort, determination, and practice because of these monkey minds, which constantly hold a wild array of wrong-minded thoughts. This wild array of thoughts tortures our minds and keeps us from the truth of what we are. Only peace, love, and joy are real, and it is only through the power of decision to choose, trust, and do the practice will we recognize where we truly abide-in God.
Instead of judging ourselves for what gets flushed up in our insane ego thought system, let's welcome the opportunity provided to look at these thoughts with equanimity. We can be happy that our long-denied thought system, based on guilt, is being brought to the forefront with every situation where we become anxious or are upset. Each situation that comes up shows us the insanity of our thinking. Now, we can choose again to release these thoughts, which block our joy and peace. Time was made for this, and if we are to use it well, we will use it only for healing our mistaken beliefs. Now we can be grateful to all those people, situations, and events that come into our day, no matter how difficult the interaction may be because it gives us another opportunity to see our hidden guilt and to choose healing.
Our thoughts are the only indicator of which mind is currently in operation. "It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am." (W.53.5.3) The Lesson says, "The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so." (W.53.5.6) Today, certain things were not going my way and my response was one of anger, which covered over feelings of helplessness and frustration. I took some time to inquire within and noticed fear that I did not have the control I thought I should have. I realized how much I like to be in control.
Underneath the fear of lack of control was a feeling of unworthiness. Going deeper into my mind really helped me to uncover something I had kept hidden from my awareness. These dissociated thoughts and feelings are projected onto others around us, and we then blame them for what we are feeling, rather than realizing it is our own dissociated thoughts projected out. I immediately felt the release once I had become honest with what was going on for me. Denial is our enemy. Awareness and willingness help to set us free. Only the meaning we give our thoughts needs to be withdrawn. This opens us up again to the flow of love.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Chapter Five: Healing and Wholeness
<TEXT AUDIO>
Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio
V. The Guide to Salvation
32 The way to learn to know your brother is by perceiving the Holy Spirit in him. We have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge or thought-transfer of perception to knowledge, so we can use the terms as if they were related because in His mind they
are. The relationship
must be in His mind because, unless it were, the separation between the two ways of thinking would not be open to healing. He is part of the Holy Trinity because His mind is partly yours and also partly God's. This needs clarification, not in statement, since we have said it before, but in
experience.
33 The Holy Spirit is the
idea of healing. Being thought, the idea
gains as it is shared. Being the Call
for God, it is also the idea
of God. Since
you are part of God, it is also the idea of
yourself as well as of all the parts of God. The idea of the Holy Spirit shares the property of other ideas because it follows the laws of the Universe of which it is a part. Therefore, it is strengthened by being given away. It increases in
you as you give it to your brothers. Since thoughts do not have to be conscious to exist, your brother does not have to be aware of the Holy Spirit either in himself or in you for this miracle to occur.
34 Your brother may have dissociated the Call for God, just as
you have. The dissociation is healed in
both of you as
you become aware of the Call for God in him and thus acknowledge its
being. There are two ways of seeing your brother which are diametrically opposed to each other. They must both be in
your mind because
you are the perceiver. They must also be in
his because you are perceiving
him. See him through the Holy Spirit in
his mind, and you will recognize Him in
yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you
are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.
35 The Voice of the Holy Spirit
is weak in you. That is why you
must share it. It must be
increased in strength before
you can hear it. It is impossible to hear it in yourself while it is so weak in your
own mind. It is not weak in itself, but it
is limited by your unwillingness to hear it. Will itself is an idea and is therefore strengthened by being shared. If you make the mistake of looking for the Holy Spirit in yourself alone, your meditations will frighten you because by
adopting the ego's viewpoint you are undertaking an ego-alien journey with the ego as
guide. This is
bound to produce fear.
36 Delay is of the ego because time is
its concept. Delay is obviously a time idea. Both time and delay are meaningless in eternity. We have said before that the Holy Spirit is God's
Answer to the ego. Everything of which the Holy Spirit reminds you is in direct opposition to the ego's notions because true and false perceptions are
themselves opposed. The Holy Spirit has the task of
undoing what the ego has made. He undoes it in the same realm of discourse in which the ego itself operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change.
37 We have repeatedly emphasized that one level of the mind is not understandable to another. So it is with the ego and the Soul, with time and eternity. Eternity is an idea of God, so the Soul understands it perfectly. Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which
is the ego's domain, accepts it without question. The only aspect of time which is really eternal is
now. That is what we really mean when we say that "now is the only time." The literal nature of this statement does not mean anything to the ego, which interprets it at best to mean "don't worry about the future." That is not what it really means at all.
38 The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the Soul. His ability to deal with symbols enables Him to work
against the ego's beliefs in its own language. His equal ability to look
beyond symbols into eternity also enables Him to understand the laws of God, for which He speaks. He can thus perform the function of
reinterpreting what the ego makes,
not by destruction but by
understanding. Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge. The Holy Spirit is
in light because He is in you who
are light, but you yourselves do not know this. It is therefore the task of the Holy Spirit to reinterpret
you on behalf of God.
39 You cannot understand yourselves alone. This is because you have no meaning
apart from your rightful place in the Sonship and the rightful place of the Sonship in God. This is your life, your eternity, and
yourself. It is of this that the Holy Spirit reminds you. It is this that the Holy Spirit
sees. This vision invariably frightens the ego because it is so calm. Peace is the ego's greatest enemy because, according to
its interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. The ego becomes strong in strife. If you believe there
is strife, you will react viciously because the idea of danger has entered your mind. The idea itself
is an appeal to the ego.
40 The Holy Spirit is as vigilant as the ego to the call of danger, opposing it with His strength, just as the ego
welcomes it with all its might. The Holy Spirit counters this welcome by welcoming peace. Peace and eternity are as closely related as are time and war. Perception as well as knowledge derives meaning from relationships. Those which you accept are the foundations of your beliefs. The separation is merely another term for a split mind. It was not an act, but a
thought. Therefore, the idea of separation can be given away, just as the idea of unity can. Either way, the idea will be strengthened
in the mind of the giver.
41 The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace. What you perceive in others, you are strengthening in
yourself. You let your mind misperceive, but the Holy Spirit lets your mind reinterpret its own misperceptions. The Holy Spirit is the perfect teacher. He uses only what your minds
already understand to teach you that you do
not understand it. The Holy Spirit can deal with an unwilling learner without going counter to his will because part of his will
is still for God. Despite the ego's attempts to conceal this part, it is still much stronger than the ego, even though the ego does not recognize it. The Holy Spirit recognizes it perfectly because it is His own dwelling place or the place in the mind where He is at home.
42
You are at home there, too, because it is a place of peace, and peace is of God. You who are part of God are not at home
except in His peace. If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity. The ego made the world as
it perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the
reinterpreter of what the ego made, sees it only as a teaching device for bringing you home. The Holy Spirit must perceive time and reinterpret it into the timeless. The mind must be led into eternity
through time because, having made time, it is capable of perceiving its opposite.
43 The Holy Spirit must work through opposites because He must work with and for a mind that
is in opposition. Correct and learn and be open to learning. You have
not made truth, but truth can still set you free. Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands. His understanding looks back to God in remembrance of me. He is in Holy Communion always, and He is part of
you. He is your Guide to salvation because He holds the remembrance of things past and to come. He holds this gladness gently in your minds, asking only that you
increase it in His name by sharing it, to increase His joy in
you.
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