My Facebook Statuses enable me to express myself, daily, regarding the meaning of forgiveness, and spread the word about the incredible Event coming up in the fall, International Forgiveness Week and Weekend of Perfect Peace, September 14-23, 2012, at the Healing Center of Endeavor Academy, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php
5/1
The clock on the wall is slicing the day into seconds and minutes and hours,
tick-tock, tick-tock.
It is not so.
I am as God created me before time was, now walking in this world, and after my time on earth is over.
Yet, time does have a purpose; it can be used to help us escape time. What seems to happen here can be utilized to transform our minds to timelessness.
Here is Jesus expressing this in Lesson 110, I am as God created me.
It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in passing by. 2
Letting go of time is an act of forgiveness.
5/2
Whether, or not, I truly forgive is tricky. Sometimes I may just magnanimously let someone off the hook. But then I am the one hooked by my misunderstanding of forgiveness.
It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I remember that I am as God created me, then I can forget what never occurred.
Since you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your min and other minds, and only unity within your own. Lesson 110. 4.
Forgetting is forgiving.
5/3
When we realize through forgiveness that we are “in” the world, and not “of” the world, we are living an allegory. An allegory is a representation of seeing spiritual meaning in concrete, or material, form.
Through the mind training of A Course in Miracles, we live, allegorically, knowing that while we are in the world of hell projected through the body’s eyes, we can remember that we are as God created us, complete, and healed and whole, and seeing with the eyes of Christ. We can become aware moment to moment of spiritual reflections in the material form.
Open your eyes today and look upon a happy world of safety and of peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the place of hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes, and fill your heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly born, arise in your awareness. Lesson 122.8
5/4
Yesterday, a friend called and asked me to help her look at something really bothering her. After we talked for awhile, she said, “Thank you,” and we hung up.
The content of the conversation doesn’t matter; it is always a matter of experiencing peace, or conflict, either/or, and, of course, the conflict is of our own making, and the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can let it go.
In fact, she called me back fifteen minutes later, and she said, “You can forget that we ever had that conversation.”
I cracked up, and said, “Now, THAT is forgiveness!” By forgetting what never occurred, we leave a place for something else to enter in, remembering the truth of what we are, the holy sons of God.
Be grateful God has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation. Lesson 123.2
5/5
I cannot believe that both things happened on the same day. Yesterday, I suffered two huge disappointments that involved money. Again, the content does not matter, but for awhile I went into a spiral. I felt it in the pit of my stomach; my mind chatter started racing.
I asked for help.
And sometime later these two thoughts came to me, “What does ‘this’ have to do with the fact that I am as God created me?”
“Why should I let ‘this’ take me out of my peace?”
‘This’ is of my own making and has no source in reality.
Now, I take the next step, and do what I am guided to do, and I will ask for help to step, insouciantly, (with light-hearted unconcern), knowing that these worldly occurrences are ephemeral, meaning “lasting for a day,” while I am eternal.
At one with God and with the universe we go our way rejoicing, with the thought that God Himself goes everywhere with us. Lesson 124.1
5/6
Yesterday morning, I woke up, looked at my clock, 6:50, and realized that the alarm would go off in 10 minutes. I sat up for a moment, noticed how utterly dark it was; there was no traffic, and no birds were singing.
Still, the clock said 6:52.
Christine rolled over and said, “What are you doing?”
I said, “It’s time to get up.”
She said, “That’s crazy, my clock says 4:00.”
Then I remembered that I had re-set the clock last night…wrongly.
So, these are the elements for a big, fat analogy.
My clock represents my false self trusting the body’s eyes, no matter what.
Christine’s clock represents my true Self, no matter what else is going on in my physical world, it is unfailingly trustworthy.
Now, this is a heavy burden to bear, Christine, but your voice represents God’s Voice speaking to me all through the day, bridging the gap between my body’s eyes and the vision of Christ. (OK, now let the analogy go, Christine, particularly the next time we have a disagreement.)
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides (true Self) is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind (false self) that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain. Lesson 49.1
5/7
I came across this quotation the other day while leafing through a book entitled, “Moments Bright and Shining,” a collection of quotations published in 1979 that I found in Goodwill.
Be sure to keep a mirror always nigh,
In some convenient, handy sort of place,
And now and then look squarely in thine eye,
And with thy Self keep ever face to face.
John K. Bangs
This is a helpful reminder that we are always only looking into a mirror, and the reflection we see is our choice, and obviously, it is good to remember to choose brightly.
After reading this poem, I came across this passage in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 124, Let me remember I am one with God, echoing it perfectly.
We feel Him in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts; our eyes behold His loveliness in all we look upon. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves. You will see Christ’s face upon it, in reflection of your own. Lesson 124.4
5/8
This paragraph in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles sums it all up for me, Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today, paragraph 2.
This world will change through you.
(The world is a projection of my false self, or a reflection of my true Self.)
No other means can save it, for God's plan is simply this: The Son of God is free to save himself,
(To be saved means letting go of, i.e., forgiving, thoughts from the false self that have no source in reality.)
given the Word of God to be his Guide,
(The Word is that I AM God’s perfect son.)
forever in his mind and at his side to lead him surely to his Father's house.
(My Home is the state of mind of the peace of God.)
by his own will, forever free as God's.
(My will and God’s are the same.)
He is not led by force, but only love.
(There are only two emotions, love and fear, and fear does not exist.)
He is not judged, but only sanctified.
(To judge means to stand in fearful duality and choose this over that; to sanctify means to make holy by standing with Christ in the peace of God.)
5/9
This has always been one of my favorite poems, and now, coming across it again this morning, I particularly love the I Am, indicating that the narrator is in full awareness that he is God’s Son, shining in the reflection of His Love.
Limited
I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he answers: "Omaha."
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
As my friend, Maureen, would say, “The poem turns on irony.” The poem turns on the contrast between the false self, believing in the reality of Omaha, and the true Self, I AM, knowing full well his immortality.
5/10
More than ever, Lesson 49 of A Course in Miracles is so important to me, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. I find that listening to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit is, particularly, brought into practice when I sit down to write, as is occurring right now. (The word, occur, comes from the Latin, cur, meaning “run to meet.”) I am running towards His Voice.
The thing is, I don’t actually hear a Voice, as much as I experience thoughts/ideas coming into my mind. I remember years ago in graduate school, reading an essay about Jean Piaget (1896-1980), the Swiss psychologist/epistemologist. It was entitled, “The Having of Wonderful Ideas.” That captures my experience.
And yesterday I came across this passage in a book by Echo Bodine, a Medium, entitled, “Echoes of the Soul.” This is my experience. Please remember, she is referring to “guides,” and I am referring to the Holy Spirit.
The first time I heard my guides, I was washing dishes. A very soft voice, rather like a thought, said, “My name is Theodore—but you can call me Teddy.” Then a female thought came: “my name is Anna.” These “voices” didn’t sound very different from my thoughts. From that point on I kept the radio off in the house and in my car just in case they wanted to talk to me.
Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today.
5/11
I have been sailing along rather well for some time, and in the past ten days, I experienced three jolts that, temporarily, brought me to a stop. It does not matter the content, but in each case I felt it in the pit of my stomach, and I felt sad, disappointed, angry, and so forth.
In each case, though, I was pulled out of a funk by receiving this thought, this idea, “Why would I allow “this” to prevent me from experiencing the peace of God?” “This” occurred in time and space, yet I AM God’s Son, timeless.
And in remembering this truth of what I AM, I found myself standing in a place of peace. This image just came to my mind. It is like standing on a bridge over a highway, watching the cars speed by, going in opposite directions. The cars represent the illusion of time and space, while the bridge represents reality, timelessness. It is all a matter of remembering.
And soon after, I came across this passage in A Course in Miracles.
What better way to close the little gap between illusions and reality than to allow the memory of God to flow across it, making it a bridge an instant will suffice to reach beyond? Chapter 28.1.15
5/12
Frequently, you will hear someone say, “I forgive so-and so for such-and such.” This is most often experienced as an act of charity; “I can afford to give this gift to him, or her, and I am a good guy.”
That would be like waking up from a sleeping dream, and saying, “I forgive the guy who did such-and-such to me.”
Our “waking” dream is no different from our sleeping dream, SINCE we are looking through the body’s eyes and seeing projections, false beliefs, of our brain having no sourced in reality. The real alternative is to see with vision, the eyes of Christ.
Forgiveness is recognizing that “it” never occurred at all, and that I AM safe at home in Heaven as God created me.
In silence, close your eyes upon the world that does not understand forgiveness, and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where thoughts are changed and false beliefs laid by. Lesson 126.10
5/13
The metaphor of “voice” is most useful throughout A Course in Miracles. Right now, as you are reading this sentence, a voice in your head is narrating it. No problem. That’s just what we do, as we move through the day. It is always a question of which “voice,” that of the ego, or that of the Holy Spirit?
That is why it is helpful to look at words that contain the Latin root, dicere, meaning "to speak:" dictate, predict, contradict, edict, dictionary, addict.
For example, sometimes when I experience a contradiction, I am hearing the ego’s voice speaking against the truth. And sometimes it’s simply the ego voice contradicting itself.
Accept no opposites and no exceptions, for to do so is to contradict the truth entirely. Lesson 152.2
An addict declares this is what I want no matter what.
Meanwhile, I am so grateful that God’s Voice is speaks to me all through the day. Title, Lesson 49.
He who would still preserve the ego’s goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes, according to the dictates of his guide. Lesson 133.10
5/14
Sunday morning I was working my usual shift, cooking at the incredible Cheese Factory Restaurant in the Wisconsin Dells. This restaurant is incredible, not only because of the food and the atmosphere, but also because it offers a great opportunity to learn to forgive your brother as we all work together toward the single purpose of offering everything to our customers.
You can imagine what is involved in making the restaurant work. It requires the orchestration of the cooks and expeditors and servers and bussers and hosts and preppers and dishwashers and soda jerks and silverware rollers.
The amazing thing at the Cheese is to see the perfect orchestration during our busiest times. Obviously, it can be trying at times, and at one point yesterday, after several cooking mix ups, I heard someone say, “This is really starting to be a problem!” When I turned to look at her, she was pointing at her nose, her right index finger touching the tip, thereby taking full responsibility for her upset.
Now, THAT’S true forgiveness.
5/15
Reading today’s Lesson 135, If I defend myself I am attacked, I came across this passage and found myself smiling because of a memory, actually laughing.
And herein lies the folly of defense; it gives illusions full reality, and then attempts to handle them as real. 1
I am remembering years ago when I was a senior in college. I was the right defensive end on our undefeated football team. During the week in our practice scrimmages, I would irritate the hell out of the opposing quarterback. When he came towards my end on a quarterback option play, I would penetrate a couple of yards, square off, fully balanced, and simply wait for his next move.
Now, I was supposed to move one way or the other, and that movement would determine whether he would run inside, lateral to a back running outside, or pass. Since I was simply holding my ground, ironically defenseless, he did not know what to do.
I was a walking oxymoron, or as he said after one practice, a “moron,” because I was a defenseless defensive end.
To finish this unusual analogy, my safety, indeed depends on my defensiveness, and my safety routinely rushed in and tackled the quarterback.
5/16
Less than three weeks ago, Christine and I became involved in a business opportunity. We anticipate that our investment will yield a substantial return in a short period of time. In fact, we think that by Labor Day, ironically, with very little labor, and a lot of fun, we will see significant results.
This morning upon awakening, this sentence came in:
YOU CAN STILL GO TO GOD HAVING MONEY IN YOUR POCKET; IT ALWAYS DEPENDS ON WHERE YOUR INVESTMENT IS.
The first part of the sentence suggests dualistic thinking, having money or not having money, keeping you in the world, but the second part moves you beyond duality to being depending on God, anchored in God, the only true investment, our only treasure.
And here is Jesus echoing this, exactly, in the Text of His Course:
I once asked you to sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me. This is what I meant: If you have no investment in anything in this world, you can teach the poor where their treasure is. The poor are merely those who have invested wrongly, and they are poor indeed! Chapter 12.111.1
In this context, “poor” has nothing to do with money; it has everything to do with investing wrongly in the body’s eyes and brain. The right investment is in God.
5/17
I have always loved hearing Jesus say this in His Course in Miracles.
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. Lesson 70.9
Yesterday, a friend told me of a time when Jesus stepped in and did a lot more than hold his hand.
He said that he had become sober, attending AA Meetings, and he was reading the Course.
Upon awakening one morning, all of a sudden he heard Jesus yelling in his ear:
“PRE POST TEROUS! PRE POST TEROUS!”
He realized that Jesus was making clear the meaning of his preposterous life, telling him that real Life is before, PRE, and after, POST, this earthly, illusory existence on this land, TEROUS, and during it, “if” you are in the right state of mind; and if you are not, you are utterly, painfully ridiculous.
And now his healing began.
Healing but removes illusions that have not occurred. Just as the real world will arise to take the place of what has never been at all, healing but offers restitution for imagined states and false ideas, which dreams embroider into pictures of the truth. Lesson 137.5
5/18
While reading a book entitled, “Angel Voices “ by Karen Goldman, I came across several passages that brought to mind Jesus summarizing His Introduction to His Course in Miracles, enabling the reader to begin reading His Course, experiencing the heart of it.
Nothing real can be threatened;
Nothing unreal exists;
Herein lies the peace of God.
I found myself juxtaposing passages from the angel book with His summary.
Nothing real can be threatened.
We are creatures of love, and this is our birthright and our calling. We can learn to exist beyond the trap of our mortality. We are meant to transcend our skin and feel the fires of Heaven glowing within us; to know the healing waters of joy and compassion that flow simultaneously through everything known and unknown, cleansing everything. We witness miracles of creation and dissolution, exploding in every atom of space all around us. . .to produce miracles of sanity and hold jewels of freedom in our hands. We can know intimately that which was never born and will never die as the foundation of all things known.
Nothing unreal exists.
As mortals, we have forgotten which part is the dream being dreamed and which is us. We have temporarily given ourselves into the hands of this dreaming and have forgotten tow wake up.
The materialist has forgotten he is Spirit, and sees only the obvious—the outer shells of things. He uses only his physical eyes, living identified with the physical.
Herein lies the peace of God.
In Spirit are all the expansive feelings—love, happiness, joy, ecstasy. To go toward Heaven is to expand. Not to limit, but to become Free.
5/19
While reading a newspaper this morning, I was struck by seeing this title:
Paralyzed woman uses her mind to control her robotic arm.
The article goes on to say:
“Using only her thoughts, a Massachusetts woman paralyzed for 15 years directed a robotic arm to pick up a bottle of coffee and bring it to her lips with the help of a tiny sensor implanted in her brain. The sensor, about the size of a baby aspirin, eavesdropped on the electrical activity of a few dozen brain cells as she imagined moving her arm. The chip then sent signals to a computer, which translated them into commands to the robotic arm.”
From a physical point of view, this is a tremendous achievement and gives hope to paralytics. It also reinforces the commonly mistaken idea that the body’s eyes can see, and the brain can think.
This presents the paradox of walking through the world in a body. What we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch is “not” real; what we cannot perceive with our senses “is” real—love, peace, joy, union, truth, freedom, truth, serenity. We remain as God created us, in spite of physical evidence to the contrary.
Fortunately, it is as simple matter of forgiving what is “not” real, and melting into the experience of what “is” real.
As Jesus says in His Course:
Today accept the truth about yourself, and go your way, rejoicing in the endless Love of God. Lesson 139.9
5/20
As we walk through this world, well aware that we are not of this world, we keep running across the universal assumption that what the body’s eyes see is real.
This is the depth of madness. Yet it is the universal assumption of the world. What does this mean except the world is mad? Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true? Lesson 139.6
One way to see through this madness is to note how many words are used that are synonymous with “universal.” Here are a few:
automatic, habitual, regular, natural, normal, familiar, comfortable, customary, ordinary, persistent, consistent, unconscious, repetitious, addictive, chronic, patterned, programmed, inveterate, hypnotic, taken for granted, obsessed
For several minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy Son of God. Lesson 139.12
If you can come up with another synonym, Dear Reader, please send it along.
5/21
Not only is Jesus a master in expressing the truth in words whose content is enough to wake us up, but he also arranges His words on the page in sheer poetic form. Here, for example, are ten lines of blank verse from Lesson 140, Only salvation can be said to cure. Blank verse means 5 sets of iambs, slack STRESS, marching stately across the page.
The HAP py DREAMS the HO ly SPIR it BRINGS
are DIFF erent FROM the DREAM ing OF the WORLD,
where ONE can MERE ly DREAM he IS a WAKE.
The DREAMS for GIVE ness LETS the MIND per CEIVE
do NOT in DUCE a NOTH er FORM of SLEEP,
so THAT the DREAM er DREAMS a NOTH er DREAM.
His HAP py DREAMS are HER alds OF the DAWN
of TRUTH up ON the MIND. They LEAD from SLEEP
to GEN tle WAK ing, SO that DREAMS are GONE.
And THUS they CURE for ALL e TERN i TY.
And thus Jesus postures our voice to speak His words, the medium being the message.
To see the full extent of blank verse in His Course, in both the Text and the Workbook, please click on this link:
www.throughamirrorbrightly.com
then click on “The Rhythm and Reason of Reality.”
5/22
While reading Review 1V, in A Course in Miracles, a memory came to mind when I read this passage.
So do we start each practice period in this review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we read, and see the meaning that they offer us. 4
Over fifty years ago, while I was teaching English in a junior high school in Westport, Ct., I met a man, Jack Davis, who was a Special Education teacher in a nearby district. We became best friends, and he would often say, “I stay ready, then I don’t have to get ready.” I always found this to be particularly profound.
Now, that was twenty years before I came across the Course, and he wasn’t trying to be “spiritual,” rather, as a black man in white America, he was simply, profoundly, being “street smart,” staying ready for anything that might occur while walking down the street.
For me, now, I want to stay ready to be receptive only to the thoughts that my mind holds with God and not be deceived by thoughts having no source in reality.
Your self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. No more than can a child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night. So do we start each practice period in this review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we read, and see the meaning that they offer us. Review 1V.4
Thank you, Jack.
5/23
Not long ago, my friend, Maureen, was helping me navigate my Facebook page, and all of a sudden, she said, “What’s your favorite work of art? I would like for you to have a graphic for a background for your Facebook page.”
I sat there stunned for a moment, unable to think of anything, when, suddenly, I thought of Michelangelo’s David, and soon it became my graphic.
In 1501, at the age of 21, Michelangelo began carving from a huge lock of marble his 17-foot statue. He captures David, the young shepherd boy, in the moments just before his battle with Goliath, against whom he appears to have little chance. Yet, his David is poised, his weight on his back leg, perfectly balanced, calm, peaceful, and well, “staying ready,” gazing, steadfastly, over his left shoulder at Goliath.
Here is a description by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574).
Nor has there ever been seen a pose so easy, or any grace to equal that in this work, or feet, hands and head so well in accord, one member with another, in harmony, design, and excellence of artistry.
I first became aware of David at Kalamazoo College in an Introduction to Art class, during my freshman year, and he helped me learn to be calm and ready just before all of those football games and all the times I ran the 120 yard high hurdles and 220 yard low hurdles, and the quarter mile. At 5-9, 165 pounds, I, too, was going against all odds.
5/24
At the heart of A Course in Miracles, of course, is forgiveness. And it is a bit tricky to understand its true meaning. Paying attention to common phrases helps me; e.g., “What’s it for? It’s for giving away.” The key is the referent for “it.” “It” is anything unreal, a fantasy, a dream, an illusion, anything believed to be real in reference to the body’s eyes and brain.
When I am in a state of mind of peace, it is possible to recognize the difference between what is real and what is unreal, because in that moment I am seeing a true reflection, seeing through “it” with vision, not with my body’s eyes. I am experiencing salvation.
All this came to mind when I read this passage in the Text.
When you become disturbed and lose your peace of mind because another is attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive yourself for just this same attempt. And you are holding both of you away from truth and from salvation. As you forgive him, you restore to truth what was denied by both of you. And you will see forgiveness where you have given it. Chapter 17.1.6
5/25
The NBA semifinal games are now being played. Reading USA Today’s Sport’s Section, I came across this passage about Kevin Grant, 23:
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s 6-9, 235-pounder offers everything you’d want in an NBA superstar: ball handling and shooting skills, playmaking ability and defense, unselfishness and teamwork.
He also brings the intangibles, the mental toughness…
And this is what caught my attention:
. . .the elusive feel for what needs to be done at any given moment.
I remember having this “elusive feel” playing football in college. The play would begin, and then it was over. I couldn’t remember what happened in between, but usually it was the right thing. I was “in the zone.” The point is that it was done without thinking.
In the context of A Course in Miracles, this reminds me of the holy instant.
The holy instant is this instant and every instant. Delay it not. For beyond the past and future, where you will not find it, it stands in shimmering readiness for your acceptance. The holy instant is a time in which you receive and give perfect communication. Chapter 15.1V.1
Play a sport. Dance. Sing. Write. Draw. Play an instrument. Be free of thought. Receive.
5/26
While reading a passage in the Text of A Course in Miracles, I experienced this great image coming to mind.
I imagined a person standing in my yard during the evening, his back to the west, and his long shadow falling in front of him. I realized that if I were to see only the shadow, it would be like seeing my own projections through the body’s eyes; however, if I remembered to see a reflection of my Self, I would be seeing with the person with vision.
The shadow figure enters more and more, and the one in whom it seems to be decreases in importance. Chapter 17.111.3
Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection. For the shadow figures would make immortal are “enemies” of reality.” Be willing to forgive the Son of God for what he did not do. Chapter 17.111.1
It also took me back to my Jungian days:
If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day. Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, 1938.
5/27
Newspaper editors are pretty clever wordsmiths when it comes to article titles. Here’s one;
“Fear of spiders? You can escape that web.
‘Exposure therapy’ trains the brain.”
And it goes on to say: People undone by arachnophobia holding a huge hairy tarantula in their bare hands? No worries, not after a single brief “exposure therapy’ session changes the brain’s fear response. “Exposure therapy’ gets its name from exposing a patient to what he fears. Immediately after, an MRI scan showed the b rain regions associated with fear decrease in activity when people saw spider photos.
After reading this, I thought, hmmm, all we need is a class designed to expose people to their fears. Since there are only two emotions, fear and love, they will turn to love. Simple.
But the article goes on to say: Immediately after, an MRI scan showed the brain regions associated with fear decreased in activity.
So, there’s the problem; it’s not so simple after all. ‘Exposure therapy” simply exposes the contradiction in duality, within the realm of the ego, and the brain registers less fear, as opposed to more fear. The alternative is to step out of the duality completely.
Bringing the ego to God is but to bring error to truth, where it stands corrected because it is the opposite of what it meets. It is undone because the contradiction can no longer stand. How long can contradiction stand when its impossible nature is clearly revealed? What disappears in light is not attacked. It merely vanishes because it is not true. Chapter 14.1X.2
5/28
When I say to myself, she did “this” to me, but I am going to take a deep breath and forgive her, I am engaging in “eccentric folly” as Jesus says. My false self is making up what “she did,” simply with thoughts having no source in reality, making “it” totally illusory; “it” never really occurred.
That is why I just love this passage from Lesson 134, Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
Forgiveness does not countenance illusions, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh, and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely. 6
5/29
Jesus designed His Course for our mind training, so that we can reverse our thinking from seeing with the body’s eyes to seeing with vision.
In His Introduction to Review lll, He makes it clear that this reversal will not be achieved by “ritual,” but only by our “willingness.”
Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your practicing from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness. Review 111.3
Our willingness leads to forgiveness.
5/30
A Course in Miracles offers an incredible curriculum that leads to salvation. “Curriculum” comes from the Latin word, currere, meaning to run a course.
We can learn by running this course how to be saved from our thoughts that have no source in reality, and by letting go of these thoughts, we leave open a space for something else to enter in, the truth.
To train for the 400 meter race, you run a course, a 400 meter track. Training our minds, like training our bodies, requires exercise, practice, discipline.
These practice periods are planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to everything you do. Review 111.10
Forgiveness requires rigorous practice.
5/31
A friend was really happy because of something that occurred earlier in the day, and she said to me, “I didn’t do it; it just got done.”
I love to hear a basic principle of A Course in Miracles expressed in the vernacular. For example, here is this great passage from the Course.
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom? Lesson 71.9
This is in the spirit of asking for help, and in this receptive state of mind, we experience not doing it, it just gets done, trusting, Thy Will be done, Thine not mine.
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