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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 5 "HEALING AND WHOLENESS"
5 Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God Himself go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot
have what it does not choose to
be. Remember that the Soul knows no difference between "being" and "having." The higher mind thinks according to the laws which the Soul obeys and therefore honors only the laws of God. To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, the Soul
holds everything
by giving it and thus creates as the Father created.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK for STUDENTS
INTRODUCTION
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1
A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make these exercises meaningful. Yet it is the exercises which will make the goal possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines which the course sets forth.
2
The exercises are very simple. They do not require more than a few minutes, and it does not matter where or when you do them. They need no preparation. They are numbered, running from 1 to 365. The training period is one year. Do not undertake more than one exercise a day.
3
The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world. The workbook is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the undoing of what you see now and the second with the restoration of sight. It is recommended that each exercise be repeated several times a day, preferably in a different place each time and, if possible, in every situation in which you spend any long period of time. The purpose is to train the mind to generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as applicable to one situation as it is to another.
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Unless specified to the contrary, the exercise should be practiced with the eyes open, since the aim is to learn how to see. The only rule that should be followed throughout is to practice the exercises with great specificity. Each one applies to every situation in which you find yourself and to everything you see in it. Each day's exercises are planned around one central idea, the exercises themselves consisting of applying that idea to as many specifics as possible. Be sure that you do not decide that there are some things you see to which the idea for the day is inapplicable. The aim of the exercises will always be to increase the application of the idea to everything. This will not require effort. Only be sure that you make no exceptions in applying the idea.
5
Some of the ideas you will find hard to believe, and others will seem quite startling. It does not matter. You are merely asked to apply them to what you see. You are not asked to judge them, nor even to believe them. You are asked only to use them. It is their use which will give them meaning to you, and show you they are true. Remember only this-you need not believe them, you need not accept them, and you need not welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter nor decrease their efficacy. But allow yourself to make no exceptions in applying the ideas the exercises contain. Whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is required.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
L e s s o n 48
There is nothing to fear.
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AUDIO
><VIDEO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
1 The idea for today simply states a fact. It is not a fact to those who believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. In truth there is nothing to fear. It is very easy to recognize this. But it is very difficult to recognize for those who want illusions to be true.
2 Today's practice periods will be very short, very simple, and very frequent. Merely repeat the idea as often as possible. You can use it with your eyes open at any time and in any situation. It is strongly recommended, however, that you take a minute or so whenever possible to close your eyes and repeat the idea slowly to yourself several times. It is particularly important that you use the idea immediately should anything disturb your peace of mind.
3 The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, not necessarily in a place which you recognize as yet, you have remembered God and let His strength take the place of yours. The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing to fear.
~ Original Hand Script of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 48
There is nothing to fear.
Sarah's Commentary:
The Lesson today clearly reflects why there is nothing to fear. It harkens back to the Lesson yesterday: "God is the Strength in which I trust." (W.47) "The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength." (W.48.3.1) Fear is based on guilt, and guilt demands punishment. When we see ourselves as guilty, we project the guilt and expect punishment. If we want to live without fear, we need to give up the guilt. This means we first have to become aware of it. It is also essential that we see how guilt is tied to our investment in being a unique and separate self.
When we chose to dream, which was the choice for separation, we had to put blocks between ourselves and God. Fear, guilt, shame, and judgment are all effective tools of separation. When we identify with the body, it becomes an example of differences with other bodies. We had to do that in order to have the experience of a separate self, living in the world. It is an experience of fear we are no longer willing to accommodate. Now, when obstacles come up, we are more willing to let them go so that we might experience more peace and joy. It is very helpful to be willing to see what is coming up and not resist it.
We have long invested in our independence, but it is built on very shaky ground. As Jesus put it yesterday, "What can you predict or control? What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the ability to be aware of all facets of any problem, and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it?" (W.47.1.2-4) We can't. We don't have that kind of ability, no matter how much we try to develop problem-solving abilities, no matter how many skills we learn, and no matter how much brain power we have. We can't possibly have that kind of perspective where we can know every facet of every problem. There are always nasty surprises, which bring more fear, anxiety, and depression. It all starts with the guilt in the mind. The simple fact is there is only one problem and thus only one solution. The problem is the guilt of separation, and the solution is to remember who we are. It is to remember our holiness.
Jesus tells us the idea for today is simply stating a fact though it is not a fact to us. This is because we still believe in illusions, meaning we believe this world is real and can hurt us. The body can be hurt, but the body is not who we are. The seeming reality of this world does give us apparent reasons for fear as long as we still believe in it and in our own separate identity. Fear shows up when something we are invested in or attached to is taken from us or something we want is not available. Yet Jesus tells us, in truth, there is nothing to fear. To get this, we do need to understand the metaphysics of the Course---that this world of illusion is not real. While we are told this, it is not until we experience our holiness that we will know the world is nothing but illusion, and there truly is nothing to fear. It is no different than waking up from a nightmare where in our awakened state we see there was nothing real happening and thus nothing to fear.
Our biggest fear, of course, is what might happen to our bodies. We fear their destruction. Yet the message of the crucifixion is---the body is not who we are. We are spirit and cannot be hurt or destroyed. "Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so." (T.20.IV.1.1) (ACIM OE T.20.V.28) "If you will listen to His Voice [the Holy Spirit] you will know that you cannot either hurt or be hurt, and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for themselves." (T.6.I.19.2) (ACIM OE T.6.II.16)
This place of total safety is in our right minds where the Holy Spirit resides. God is not an external force we have to try to reach. We just have to look at our sadness, depression, anger, guilt, fear, anxiety, and whatever thoughts are disturbing to our mind and be willing to bring them to the truth. All these are thoughts of fear in various forms. We are called to go deep into our own minds where God is, below the ". . . trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven." (W.47.7.3)
We are part of God's Mind. We are not a figure in the dream who seems to be living here. We are the dreamer of this dream, and we can make a choice as to whether we choose the Holy Spirit or the ego as our guide to seeing. Thus, when we no longer identify with the dream, fear is meaningless. Nothing outside of God exists. Fear is the belief we hold that there is something other than God and that it has power to overcome God. We believe we have taken His power, defeated Him, and changed ourselves. With this belief comes guilt and fear. As a result, we unconsciously invite punishment into our lives. The answer lies in forgiveness, which brings us to the end of guilt, and then we realize our innocence has always been there. There is no fear in innocence. We are still the Holy Son. What we think we did in separating from our Father never happened, so there is no basis for fear.
As we affirm that God is the strength in which we can trust, we are reminded who we are in truth. We are reminded that we have never usurped God's power, He is not a punishing, angry God, and we never distorted ourselves, so there is no need for guilt.
So much of traditional religious teaching is based on fear. It is built on the belief that Adam was put into a place of temptation, which a loving Father would never do. It is also built on the belief that Jesus was allowed to suffer and die on the cross for our sins, which he clearly refutes in the Course. In retraining our minds through the application of these teachings, we can release these deep cultural and religious "truths," which continue to perpetuate our fear. God's only reality is Love, and that is our only reality. We are created in His image. We are Love. There is no fear. It is not real.
We have projected fearful images onto God and are now reluctant and afraid to turn to Him. This fear is not consciously in our awareness, but it is there and needs to be examined. We do so by looking at areas of our lives that we still prefer to manage on our own, whether it is our finances, our relationships, our security, our job, our pleasures, and so on. In each area, list your fears and concerns that would arise in your mind if you were to step back and totally surrender your independent will to God. This reflects our unconscious distrust of God. We still want to be in charge of certain aspects of our lives.
"You, my child, are afraid of your brothers and of your Father and of yourself. But you are merely deceived in them. Ask what they are of the Teacher of reality, and hearing His answer, you too will laugh at your fears and replace them with peace. For fear lies not in reality, but in the minds of children who do not understand reality. It is only their lack of understanding that frightens them, and when they learn to perceive truly they are not afraid. And because of this they will ask for truth again when they are frightened. It is not the reality of your brothers or your Father or yourself that frightens you. You do not know what they are, and so you perceive them as ghosts and monsters and dragons. Ask what their reality is from the One Who knows it, and He will tell you what they are. For you do not understand them, and because you are deceived by what you see you need reality to dispel your fears."
(T.11.VIII.14.1-10) (ACIM OE T.10.VIII.88)
"Would you not exchange your fears for truth, if the exchange is yours for the asking? For if God is not deceived in you, you can be deceived only in yourself. Yet you can learn the truth about yourself from the Holy Spirit, Who will teach you that, as part of God, deceit in you is impossible."
(T.11.VIII.15.1-3) (ACIM OE T.10.VIII.90)
Practice instructions today are for short, simple, and frequent practice periods with eyes open whenever you can remind yourself of the Lesson, and a minute or so whenever possible with eyes closed, repeating the idea slowly. Use the idea immediately if anything should disturb your peace. What we are doing in these practice periods is bringing any thoughts that come up during the day of anger, depression, sadness, or any other thought that depicts fear. As soon as we notice a fearful thought, just as quickly we can bring it to the light. To keep a fear thought is to choose the ego over the Holy Spirit. We can make another choice. It is a matter of turning from the false to the truth within.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Chapter Five: Healing and Wholeness
<TEXT AUDIO>
Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio
1 To heal is to make happy. I have told you before to think how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves and how many you have refused. This is exactly the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourselves. The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Depression is often contagious but, although it may affect those who come in contact with it, they do not yield to the influence whole-heartedly. But joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share in it and thus promotes the mind's natural impulse
to respond as one.
2 Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time and thus deprive others of the joy of responding whole-heartedly. To be whole-hearted, you
must be happy. If fear and love cannot coexist and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, then the only possible whole state
is that of love. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to
make one. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is done.
Every part benefits and benefits equally.
3
You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return out of gratitude. You do not have to know them individually or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God's holy Children are worthy to be channels of His beautiful joy because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a Child of God to love his neighbor
except as himself. That is why the healer's prayer is:
4
Let me know this brother as I know myself.
5 Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God Himself go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot
have what it does not choose to
be. Remember that the Soul knows no difference between "being" and "having." The higher mind thinks according to the laws which the Soul obeys and therefore honors only the laws of God. To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, the Soul
holds everything
by giving it and thus creates as the Father created.
6 If you think about it, you will see that, while this kind of thinking is totally alien to having
things, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with
ideas. If you share a physical possession, you
do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do
not lessen it.
All of it is still yours, although all of it has been given away. Further, if the person to whom you give it accepts it as
his, he reinforces it in
your mind, and thus
increases it. If you can accept the concept that the world
is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association which the ego makes between giving and
losing is gone.
7 Let us start our process of reawakening with just a few simple concepts:
8
Thoughts increase by being given away.
The more who believe in them, the stronger they become.
Everything is an idea.
How, then, is it possible that giving and losing can be
meaningfully associated?
9 This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit. I told you that I could reach up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you
only at your own invitation. The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your own right mind. He was also mine. The Bible says, "May the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus," and uses this as a
blessing. It is the blessing of miracle-mindedness. It asks that you may think as I thought, joining with me in Christ-thinking.
10 The Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity which is symbolic. He is referred to in the Bible as the Healer, the Comforter, and the Guide. He is also described as something "separate," apart from the Father and from the Son. I myself said, "If I go I will send you another comforter, and He will abide with you." The Holy Spirit is a difficult concept to grasp precisely because it
is symbolic and therefore open to many different interpretations. As a man and as one of God's creations, my right thinking, which came from the Universal Inspiration which
is the Holy Spirit, taught me first and foremost that this Inspiration is for all. I could not have It myself
without knowing this.
11 The word "know" is proper in this context because the Holy Inspiration is so close to knowledge that it calls it forth; or better, allows it to come. We have spoken before of the higher or the "true" perception, which is so close to truth that God Himself can flow across the little gap. Knowledge is always ready to flow everywhere, but it cannot oppose. Therefore, you can obstruct it, although you can never lose it. The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind, which senses the knowledge that lies beyond perception. It came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the beginning of the Atonement at the same time. Before that, there was no need for healing and no one was comfortless.
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