A Course in Miracles Abstract

A Course In Miracles Abstract1 PREFACE This Abstract is based on A Course in Miracles (ACIM) which consists of three books, the Text, Workbook and the Manual for Teachers, plus two Pamphlets, The Song of Prayer and Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice. ACIM can be purchased from major bookstore chains and many web sites. Over a million copies of ACIM have been sold since it was first copyrighted in 1975. This Abstract is not a substitute or replacement for ACIM, but merely a study aid and reference companion. It was compiled with a deep respect and reverence for the original work which some scholars consider the most significant sacred spiritual work written in modern times. This Abstract is a compilation of quotes from ACIM, arranged by topic. For a thoughtful look at the subject of versions of ACIM, read "A Comparison of Miracles: A Concise Study of the Differences Between the Early Versions of A Course in Miracles" published by Fearless Books Many people also find the Course difficult to read and understand. The Abstract provides an overview for newcomers and a quick review for experienced students, encouraging both to dig deeper into A Course in Miracles. The comprehensive reference notations lead the reader to the context from which each quote was taken. To fully experience the life-changing effect and beauty of the Course, you need to read, contemplate and study all of it. Blessings to everyone motivated by this Abstract to further study of the full Course and apply its principles to save the world, one student at a time. This Abstract's quotes from ACIM consist mostly of very short sentences or parts of sentences collected and assembled to address specific subjects. Starting with page 7, each page contains a collection of direct quotes on one or two subjects as listed in the Table of Contents. Forty subjects are covered in 36 pages. Each quote is referenced to the exact location of its source in the Second Edition of ACIM, using a standard notation scheme. (See REFERENCE NOTATIONS at the end of the Preface) Most lines consist of one or more complete or partial sentences, each followed by its notation. Partial sentences are usually identified with ellipses or by ending with a comma. Longer quotes are placed on contiguous lines with the notation located on the first line of the quote. Since the Course is strewn with pronouns, brackets are used to replace pronouns with their subject deduced from reading the quote in its original context. As serious students of the Course know, defining the subject of a pronoun is not always a simple matter. 2 Since this Abstract is a cooperative project with those who use it, please do not hesitate to send an e-mail explaining your reasoning if you believe any brackets or notations have been used in error. Your corrections will be made when appropriate. Also, suggested additions, deletions or rearrangements of quotes are welcomed with the understanding that the total quotes on a given subject will be limited to one page, and the number of subject pages limited to 38. The subject pages help condense the Course' s answers to four great questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? How do I get There? Under the last question, the subjects are arranged under six life changing practices: Let Go of All Ego Thoughts Use the Tools of the Course Let Go of the Three Great Illusions Let Go of False Beliefs Ask for Help from Holy Spirit Use Relationships to Learn Diligent continuous application of these practices, along with doing the Workbook’s daily lessons, will profoundly change your life and restore you to your natural state of Peace, Love and Joy. We need a new way of looking at each other and the world. This is what Jesus offered when, in the mid sixties he heard two souls in conflict cry out in pain, “There must be a better way.” Jesus saw how distorted his message of love had become and sent us A Course in Miracles. Many of the ideas in the Course were first taught by Jesus over 2000 years ago: God is Love, His Kingdom is within, the importance of forgiveness and loving our neighbors as ourselves. The Bible tell us he said "I am the way." This Abstract is not a new religion, nor is the Course. This is not to say that religion is bad, in itself. The point is that this world does not need is another religion. The Course is nothing more, and nothing less, than Jesus’ way of providing us a thought system to help us all experience each other differently and, in the 3 process, wake up to who we are. In the words of Jesus from the Course: ...this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach us, step by step how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost. Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world. I trust my brothers, who are one with me. I am responsible for what I see. Forgive, and you will see this differently. If you feel the Love of God within you, You will look out on a world of mercy and of love. W-pI.rwV.Itr.5:4;W-97.7:2;W181.Hd;T-21.II.2:3;W-193.3:7 REFERENCE NOTATIONS All references are given for the Second Editions printed in 1992 and later of the Course, and are listed according to the organization of the Course, rather than according to page numbers. Each reference begins with a letter, which denotes the particular volume or section of the Course and its extensions (T= Text, W=Workbook for Students, M=Manual for Teachers, C=Clarification of Terms, P=Psychotherapy, and S=Song of Prayer). After this letter comes a series of numbers, which differs from volume to volume: T, P, or S numbers indicate: chapter.section.paragraph:sentence; i.e., T-24.VI.2:3-4 means: Text, chapter 24, Section VI, paragraph 2, sentences 3 and 4. W-part (I OR II) numbers indicate: lesson.paragraph:sentence; i.e., W-pI.182.4:1-2 means: Workbook Part I, lesson 182, paragraph 4, sentences 1 and 2. M or C-section numbers indicate: paragraph:sentence; i.e., C-2.5:2 means Clarification of Terms, section 2, paragraph 5, sentence 2 This notation system description taken from the book "One Course, Two Visions: A Comparison of the Teachings of the Circle of Atonement and Ken Wapnick on A Course in Miracles by Perry, Mackie & Watson at www.circleofa.com 4 CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION NATURE OF THE COURSE Chapter I WHO AM I? SELF GOD THOUGHT MIND Chapter II WHY AM I HERE? THE JOURNEY HEALING MIRACLES DREAMS/ILLUSIONS TEACHER OF GOD Chapter III WHERE AM I GOING? HEAVEN LOVE PEACE JOY HOLY INSTANT ONENESS/SONSHIP Chapter IV HOW DO I GET THERE? Section 1. Let Go of All Ego Thoughts EGO Section 2. Use the Tools of the Course FORGIVENESS SALVATION ATONEMENT PERCEPTION/TRUE PERCEPTION Section 3. Let Go of the three Great Illusions TIME BODY WORLD Section 4. Let Go of False Belief s FEAR SIN and GULIT Section 5. Ask for Help from Holy Spirit 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Section 6. Use Relationships to Learn 34 HOLY SPIRIT RELATIONSHIPS Chapter V. NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CHRIST and JESUS GIVING/RECEIVING PROBLEMS DECISIONS/CHOICES PRAYER THE NAME OF GOD and THE WORD OF GOD Chapter VI. LAWS OF LIFE FOUR BASIC LAWS OF LIFE Chapter VII. SPIRITUAL TRUTH THREE BASIC SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES and TRUTH 42 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 5 INTRODUCTION This abstract consists mostly of very short sentences or parts of sentences from the Course arranged in a unique design for easy reading of quotes by subject. Starting with Nature of the Course the 40 subject names in bold italicized print appear here in the same sequence the subjects appear in the Abstract. Chapters I through IV condenses the Course’s answers to four of the great questions of life: Chapter I, WHO AM I? We are told our true Self is a Creation of God. We are spirit, a Thought in the Mind of God. Being on a zero-distance journey, our destination (a state of Love, Peace and Joy) also helps tell us who we are. Chapter II, WHY AM I HERE? We are here on a Journey to experience who we are while we still do not remember. Along the way, we will experience Healing and Miracles . This journey without distance is over when we all eventually awaken from our Dreams/Illusions and remember who we always were and will always be, One Spirit with God and all His Creations. Meanwhile, relax. We can not fail. In the words of the course , we are here "only to be truly helpful." We are also instructed in the relentless use of a kind of Forgiveness unique to the Course. Eventually this kind of forgiveness will remove the blocks in our minds which prevent us from remembering who we are. The illusion of time gives most of us many opportunities to repeat the Journey. As a student of the course, you become a Teacher of God to the extent you allow the Holy Spirit to teach through you by example. This will accelerate your progress but the journey is not over until all God's Children awaken as one. Chapter III, WHERE AM I GOING? The true home of our true self is Heaven where we exist eternally with God and all of his creations in a state of Love, Peace, and Joy. Until we are fully awakened the Holy Instant gives us glimpses of the Oneness/Sonship , of all of God’s ageless children. Chapter IV, HOW DO I GET THERE? We get there by removing all mental blocks to our awareness of Truth by using our upper (Spirit) mind to let go of all the lower mind’s Ego thoughts, which started with the tiny, insane idea that we were separate from God. We are provided with the mental Tools of Forgiveness, Salvation, Atonement, and True Perception to do this. In the Course these Tools are symbols of goals as well as the processes we can use to reach the goals. The Course teaches us to let go of three great illusions of: Time, Body and World and the false beliefs of: Fear, Sin and Guilt. Help from the Holy Spirit is also promised to all who ask and listen. The value of Relationships is emphasized as a means of speeding us along on our journey. Chapter V, NEW PERSPECTIVES ON The subjects of Christ, Jesus, Giving/Receiving, Problems, Decisions/Choices, Prayer, Name of God, and The Word of God are all put into a new perspective. Chapter VI, LAWS OF LIFE This is one subject chapter is a collection of quotes which outline Four Basic Laws of Life . When understood and applied these laws will improve your life regardless of where you are on your journey to remembering who you are and experiencing Truth. Chapter VII, SPIRITUAL TRUTH Three Basic Spiritual Principles and Truth are the two subjects of this final one page chapter. 6 NATURE OF THE COURSE This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. This is…a special curriculum…a special form … There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome. This a course in mind training. ...a unified thought system. Learning is all that causes change. For mind can learn, and there is all change made. This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. This course is perfectly clear. If you do not see it clearly, is because you are interpreting against it, and therefore do not believe it. … those who seek controversy will find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. This course will be believed entirely or not at all. This course is easy just because it makes no compromise. the ideas used for the exercises are very simple, very clear and totally unambiguous. I have made every effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but it is always possible to twist symbols around if you wish. words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality. [The course's] results are more convincing than its words. Truth can only be experienced. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. Seek only this, and do not let theology delay you. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed. … you need not believe the ideas, You are merely asked to apply the ideas … It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true. Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. In this one sentence is our course explained. Ref.: T-Int.1:1-3; M-1.4:1,2; T-1.VII.4:1; W-42.7:2; T-31.III.4:8,10; C-int.1:1; T-11.VI.3:1,2; C-int.2:2,3;T-22.II.7:4;T-23.III.4:1;W- pI.39.1:2; T-3.I.3:11; M-21.1:9,10; T-9.V.9:3; T-8.VI.9:8; W-pII.int.10:3;2C-int.4:5;C-int.2:5,6;W-int.9:1,8:3,6; M-20.5:7,8 7 WHO AM I? …"What am I?" …is the universal question of the world. [God] is my Source of life, the life within, Your worth is established by God. SELF I am free. I am spirit. I am one Self. I am not a body. You are God's Son. You were created holy. I am as God created me. Love created me like Itself. Yet all you need you have. There were no needs at all. God has given you everything. Leave, then, your needs to Him. Nothing you need will be denied you. The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. God knows what His Son needs before he asks. God is but Love, and therefore so am I. Love, which created me, is what I am. You cannot understand yourself alone. For I am still as God created me. In immortality you live forever. The Son of God is limitless. You are the Will of God. I am His Son eternally. There is no death. And so it is. Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world. Spirit is the Thought of God which He created like Himself. [Soul] would be an equivalent of "spirit," [it is of God] eternal and was never born. Spirit is immortal… You are the holy Son of God Himself. Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one. For he who can accept his true Identity is truly saved. When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. The goal of the curriculum … is "Know thyself." W-139.1:6;6:3 W-222.1:2 T-4.I.7:2 W-pI.rVI.in.3:4 W-pI.97.Hd W-95.11:4 W-pI.rVI.in.3:3 W-199.8:1 T-14.IX.1:2 W-94.3:3 W-67.Hd. T-20.II.8:3 T-1.VI.1:7 T-4.III.9:2 T-13.VII.13:1 T-20.IV.8:6 PREFACE.xii.1:4 PREFACE.xii.1:5 T-1.VI.1:8 C-3.3:2 W-pI.rV.in.10:8 W-229.Hd T-5.III.8:1 W-pI.rVI.in.3:5 W-199.8:2 W-320.1:1 T-7.VII.10:1 W-pI.94.5:3 M-28.4:2 T-14.VIII.2:16 W-97.7:2 C-1.1:3 C-1.1.3:3 T-4.II.11:9 W-191.11:6,7 W-191.5:3 T-8.III.4:1-4 T-8.III.5:1 8 WHO AM I? GOD God is Love T-9.I.9:7 He is ALL in all. T-8.IV.1:4 All power is of God. T-11.V.3:6 Where God is, there are you. T-14.VIII.4:4 His Will created you to create. T-8.VI.6:9 The Thought of God created you. W-165.2:1 Everything God created knows its Creator. T-14.VIII.4:7 Creation and communication are synonymous T-4.VII.3:6 Communication with God is life. Nothing without it is at all. T-14.IV.10:6,7 Nothing real can be increased except by sharing. That is why God created you. T-4.VII.5:2-3 Divine Abstraction takes joy in sharing. That is what creation means. T-4.VII.5:4-5 What God did not create does not exist. W-14.1:2 Nothing unreal exists. Nothing real can be threatened. T-Int.2:3,2 [The world] is of your own making, and it does not exist. W-14.1:2 You make by projection, but God creates by extension. T-11.in.3:1 [God] is the source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His Mind. W-53.4:3 Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. W-50.4:3 The ego teaches that your strength is in you alone. T-8.III.7:3,4 The Holy Spirit teaches that all strength is in God and therefore in you. God is All in all in a very literal sense. All being is in Him Who is all Being. You are therefore in Him since your being is His. "I rest in God." God is not angry. Fear not the Will of God. God's Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, God, Who created neither sin nor death, wills not that you be bound by them. He knows of neither sin nor its results. Judgment is not an attribute of God. …the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell? There is no cruelty in God and none in me. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love, A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Sometimes a teacher of God may have a brief experience of direct union with God. If it happens, so be it. If it does not happen, so be it as well. …this is so rare that it cannot be considered a realistic goal. Let us not, then, be too concerned with goals for which you are not ready. God takes you where you are and welcomes you. What more could you desire, when this is all you need? T-7.IV.7:4-6 W-pI.109.2:1 T-16.V.12:7 W.101.6:3,1 T-19.IV.C.3:3,4 T-2.VIII.2:3 W-196.5:3,4 W-180.2:1 W-196.8.:3 W-196.12:2 W-196.11:4 T-1.VI.2:1 C-4.1:1,2 M-26.3:1.5,6 M-26.3:4 M-26.4:9-11 9 WHO AM I? Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. THOUGHT …God is an idea... …you are an idea… No belief is neutral. Everything is an idea. Miracles are thoughts. God's Will <is> Thought. I have no private thoughts. There are no idle thoughts. Every loving thought is true. What you believe is true for you. Only the Thoughts of God are true. [Holy Spirit] is a Thought of God, Thoughts increase by being given away. All thinking produces form at some level. The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. The Thoughts of God are quite apart from time. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. The more who believe in them the stronger they become. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. You are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. Do not be afraid of the ego. It depends on your mind, and as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief from it. Do not project the responsibility for your belief in it onto anyone else, or you will preserve the belief. Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. death is the result of the thought we call the ego, as surely as life is the result of the Thought of God. what is life except to be yourself, I am spirit. The Thought of God created you. [His Thoughts] await not birth. They wait for welcome and remembering. The Thoughts of God are far beyond all change, and shine forever. The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. W-50.5:3 T-15.VI.4:4 T-15.VI.5:5 T-24.in.2:3 T-5.I.2:4 T-1.I.12:1 T-8.VI.7:3 W-52.5.(10):1 T-2.VI.9:13 T-12.I.3:3 T-2.VII.5:5 T-17.III.9:7 T-13.VIII.4:3 T-5.I.2:2 T-2.VI.9:14 T-5.V.3:7 W-136.13:3 T.21.Itr.1:6 W-pI.190.5:1 T-5.I.2:3 W-54.4.(19):1 W-32.1:2 T-7.VIII.5:1-3 W-132.1:3,4 T-19.IV.C.2:15 W-139.3:3 W-97.Hd W-165.2:1 T-30.III.8:2,3 T-30.III.8:1,4 10 WHO AM I? Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its home. The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant [The mind] is creating. W-192.5:5 T-2.VI.9:5-7 MIND …minds are joined… …God is in my mind. Only minds communicate. Miracles make minds one in God. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; . you within it and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever. …we are of one Mind, and that Mind is ours. Your mind is one with God's. Minds cannot unite in dreams. For minds can only join in truth. [The mind’s] power comes from spirit, Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think. But [universal] communication is internal. I have a kingdom I must rule. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. I rule my mind, and offer it to [Holy Spirit] The mind that accepts attack cannot love. True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. Your right mind depends on it. A healed mind does not plan. …the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on [the mind‘s] choice is that it cannot serve two masters. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it. It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. It is secure in …. the greater plan established for the good of everyone. There can be nothing that a change of mind cannot effect…. And no Thought within [God’s] Mind is absent from your own. [Mind] is everything because it encompasses all things within itself. What is thought by the Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation. What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart from His. Our minds are whole because they are one. Wholeness heals because it is of the mind. W-18.1:2 W-30.Hd T-7.V.2:1 T-1.I.19:1 T-18.VI.8:9 T-18.VI.8:10 T-18.VI.8:11 T-7.V.10:9 T-4.IV.2:7 W-pI.185.4:4 W-pI.185.3:2 W-96.4:3 W-96.5:1 T-18.VI.8:4 W-pII.236.1:1 W-in.1:3 W-pII.236.2:2 T-7.VI.2:1 T-2.II.2:1,2,4 W-135.11:1 T-1.V.5:2,3 W-135.11:2-5 P-2.IV.2:4 T-24.VI.3:3 T-7.V.10:11 W-45.3:5 W-14.6:5 T-8.IX.7:4;3:1 11 WHY AM I HERE? [The right to live is promised] and guaranteed by God. THE JOURNEY Be not afraid. The way is open. Yet is the ending sure. I cannot lose the way. We have begun the journey. You know not where you go. But One Who knows goes with you. Let Him lead you with the rest. And now we try again. He walks with me in love. The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. All things work together for good. The outcome is as certain as God. Now we are sure we don't walk alone. For God is here, and with Him all our brothers. Everyone seeks for love as you do, but knows it not unless he joins with you in seeking it. The lonely journey fails because it has excluded what it would find. The journey to God is merely the reawakening … Ours is simply the journey back to God Who is our home. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. The journey closes, ending at the place where it began. Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing its reality. Others have chosen nothing but the world, which leads to suffering. Between these paths there is another road that leads away from loss of every kind, for sacrifice and deprivation both are quickly left behind. This is the way appointed for you now. It asks that you accept the truth, There is no cost, but only gain. We walk to God. Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. I rule my mind, which I alone must rule. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Yet are the words but aids, We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. We wait for the experience, and recognize that it is only here conviction lies. P-3.III4:1 C-ep.3:1 W-225.2:2 C-ep.1:3 W-pII.324.1:3 C-ep.2:4 W-155.10:4-6 C-ep.3:4 W-pII.215.1:3 W-pII.215.1:2 T-4.V.1:1 T-2.III.3.10 C-ep.4:3 C-ep.4:4 T-14.X.10:5,7 T-8.VI.9:6 T-8.V.5:4 T-8.VI.9:7 T-31.VIII.12:3 W-155.4:2,4 W-155.5:1,2 W-155.8:2,4 W-155.12:1 W-pI.rV.in. 2:1,2,4 W-235.Hd W-pI.rV.in. 3:1,2,4;12:1-3 12 WHY AM I HERE? You have been told that your function in this world is healing, and your function in Heaven is creating. HEALING Healing [gladdens]. Health is inner peace. Healing is not a miracle. Who forgives is healed. ...healing is a process, not a fact Communication ends separation. All sickness comes from separation. Oneness and sickness cannot coexist. Healing always produces harmony, All healing is release from the past. Healing reflects our joint will. Sickness is not an accident. Healing is not mysterious. Is healing frightening? To many, yes. Healing is shared. When I am healed I am not healed alone. Where two have joined for healing, God is there. And I would share my healing with the world, that sickness may be banished from the mind of God's one Son, Who is my only Self. Healing is strength. For by its gentle hand is weakness overcome, and minds that were walled off within a body free to join with other minds, to be forever strong . Heal your brothers simply by accepting God for them. T-13.IV.1:3 T-7.V.6:4 T-2.I.5:11 T-2.IV.1:4 T-27.II.3:10 P-2.III.4:2 T-8.VII.4:1 T-26.VII.2:1 M-12.6:1 T-7.V.6:6 T-13.VIII.1:1 T-8.IV.5:1 W-pI.136.2:1 T-9.V.6:4 T-27.II.1:1,2 W-137.8:3 W-137.14:3 P-2.V.4:4 W-137.14:4 W-137.8:5,6 T-10.III.2:4 Healing is holy. P-2.V.4:1 ….all illness is mental illness. P-2.IV.4:1 Only the mind is in need of healing. P-int.1:3 all healing involves replacing fear with love. T-8.IX.5:2 Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the mind. T-8.IX.8:6 Illness is therefore a mistake and needs correction. P-2.IV.7:1 Once God's Son is seen as guilty, illness becomes inevitable. P-2.IV.2:1 Being sane, the mind heals the body because it has been healed. T-5.V.5:2 Healing is the result of using the body solely for communication. T- 8.VII.10:1 Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly. T-8.VIII.9:9 The body… need merely be perceived as quite apart from you, and it becomes a healthy, W-135.8:2 serviceable instrument through which the mind can operate until its usefulness is over. All forms of sickness are signs that the mind is split, and does not accept a unified purpose. T-8.IX.8:7 Do not side with sickness in the presence of a [Child] of God even if [they believe] in it, for your acceptance of God in [them] acknowledges the Love of God [they have] forgotten. Sometimes the illness has a sufficiently strong hold over the mind to render a person temporarily inaccessible to the Atonement. In this case it may be wise to utilize a compromise approach to mind and body, in which something from the outside is temporarily given healing belief. T-10.III.3:4;T-2.IV.5,6 13 WHY AM I HERE? I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal. Nothing in the world is holier than helping one who asks for help. MIRACLES Miracles are for you. Miracles are natural. A miracle is never lost. The power of God is limitless. Miracles praise God through you. Let miracles replace all grievances. Miracles represent freedom from fear. Each day should be devoted to miracles. The power to work miracles belongs to you. Miracles unite you directly with your brother. Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. Yet [miracles] have been done through you. Your understanding cannot be necessary. There is no order of difficulty here. The miracle is a learning device … The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids for facilitating a state in which they become unnecessary. Miracles are thoughts. The miracle does nothing. It does not create, nor really change at all. A miracle is a correction. All it does is to undo A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by [Holy Spirit] It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. …the miracle entails a sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception. Miracles have no place in eternity, because they are reparative. The miracle minimizes the need for time. Accept your brother in this world and accept nothing else, You cannot perform a miracle for yourself, miracles are a way of giving acceptance and receiving it. When you offer a miracle to any of my brothers, you do it to yourself Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The miracle is taken first on faith, Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. [A miracle] rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there. This world was over long ago. The thoughts that made it are no longer in the mind that thought of them, The miracle but shows the past is gone, T-2.V.18:2-6 P-2.V.4:2 T-14.XI.9:3 T-1.I.6:1 T-1.I.45:1 T-14.X.6:12 T-1.I.29:1 W-78.10:5 T-1.I.26:1 T-1.I.15:1 T-1.III.1:7 T-1.II.1:6 T-1.I.3:1 T-16.II.2:5 T-16.II.2:6 T-14.X.6:14 T-1.I.47:1 T-1.V.1:1 T-1.I.12:1 T-28.I.1:1 W-pII.13.1:2 W-pII.13.1:1;T-28.I.1:2 W-pII.13.2:3 W-pII.13.1:4 T-1.I.37.1 W-pII.13.1:3 T-1.II.6:7,3 T-9.VI.6:1 T-1.II.6:1 T-9.VI.7:8 T-9.VI.6:3 T-1.III.1:2 W-pII.13.3:1;4:1 W-pII.13.4:2 W-pII.13.4:3 T-28.I.1:6-8 14 WHY AM I HERE? DREAMS/ILLUSIONS Dreams are for nothing. Illusions will not last. Put not your faith in illusions. What is a miracle? A dream as well. Money is not evil. It is nothing. The past is nothing. Let it all go. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest Illusions are investments. They will last as long as you value them. God His one mistake is that he thinks them real. The 's Son needs no defense against his dreams. mind that sees illusions thinks them real because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God. God is still Love, and [what you see] is not His Will. The Holy Spirit reaches…to all your dreams…to be translated into truth. Illusions can be brought to truth to be corrected. Truth will correct all errors in my mind. Where truth has entered errors disappear. [Errors] are gone because, without belief, they have no life. God's sleeping Son] will learn the lesson of awaking. All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same. You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. Is it your decision to do so? T-30.IV.8:9 C-2.1:1 W-50.4:1 C-2.7:1,2 P-3.III.1:5,6 T-16.VII.2:8 T-14.XI.3:7 W-198.2:8-10 T-7.VII.4:1-2 T-30.IV.5:14 T-30.IV.5:12 W-99.3:2,4,5 W-pII.6.4:1 W-107.5:3 W-107.Hd W-107.1:3,5 T-13.XI.9:6 T-18.II.5:12-14 T-10.I.2:1,2 Truth has no meaning in illusion. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real, Bu to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal, Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you orders of reality that must imprison you. There is no order in reality, because everything there is true. T-17.I.5:2,4,5,6,7 …you are asked to let yourself be free of all the dreams of what you never were, Here does the dream of separation start to fade and disappear. even in illusions [salvation] but asks forgiveness be the substitute for fear. Such is the only rule for happy dreams. …the Son of God can have no need of [Dreams]. They offer him no single thing that he could ever want. He is delivered from illusions by his will, and but restored to what he is. T-30.IV.7:5 T-30.V.8:1,6,7 T-30.V.8:10-12 15 WHY AM I HERE? Teaching is done in many ways, above all by example. It is the function of God's teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is "true learning" in the world. [The world] is governed by a power that is in [God’s teachers] but not of them. T-5.IV.5:1 M-4.X.3:6-7; M-4.I.1:5 TEACHER OF GOD To teach is to demonstrate. As you teach so shall you learn. To have peace, Teach peace to learn it. Teach only love, for that is what you are. Everyone teaches, and teaches all the time. Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. They are not perfect, or they would not be here. A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. They come from all over the world. They come from all religions and from no religion. No teacher of God can fail to find the Help he needs. Teacher and pupil, therapist and patient, are all insane or they would not be here. Together they can find a pathway out, for no one will find sanity alone. A therapist does not heal; he lets healing be. The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. Everything I think or say or do teaches all the universe. I am alone in nothing. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S TEACHERS? TRUST All other traits of God's teachers rest on trust. God’s teachers trust in Him. HONEST Honesty does not apply only to what you say. The term actually means consistency. TOLERANCE God's teachers do not judge. Judgment destroys honesty and shatters trust. No teacher of God can judge and hope to learn. GENTLENESS Harm is impossible for God's teachers. They can neither harm nor be harmed. God's teachers are wholly gentle. JOY Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness. DEFENSELESSNESS It is not danger that comes when defenses are laid down. It is safety. It is peace. It is joy. And it is God. GENEROSITY rests ultimately on trust, for without trust no one can be generous PATIENCE Patience is natural to those who trust. FAITHFULNESS trust in the Word of God to set all things right; not some, but all. OPEN-MINDEDNESS Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. [A Teacher of God] cannot claim that title until he has gone through the workbook, M-intr.2:1 T-5.IV.6:4 T-6.V.B.hd T-6.I.13:2 T-6.in.2:2 M-int.3:7 M-int.5:4-5 M-1.1:1 M-1.2:1-2 M-3.5:8 P-2.II.5:6,7 T-9.V.8:1 T-9.V.8:4 W-54.4(19):3,2 M-4.II.1:1;V.1:9 M-4.II.1:4,5 M-4.III.1:1,10,11 M-4..IV.1:1,2; 2:1 M-4.V.1:1 M-4.VI.1:11-15 M-4.VII.1:3 M-4.VIII.1:9 M-4.IX.1:4 M-4.X.1:2 M-16.3:7 16 WHERE AM I GOING? HEAVEN Heaven can be chosen just as easily as hell, In this world Heaven is a choice, Heaven is chosen consciously. Heaven is reached through [faith, vision and belief] Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. The word "within" is unnecessary. The Kingdom of Heaven is you. Why wait for Heaven? my home awaits my glad return. I will hasten there. Heaven is the decision I must make. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, If I so choose, I can depart this world entirely. It is not death which makes this possible, but it is change of mind about the purpose of the world. If I believe it has a value as I see it now, so will it still remain for me. But if I see no value in the world as I behold it, nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me. For I have not sought for illusions to replace the truth. To everyone Heaven is completion. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven asks nothing. Heaven is sure. This is no dream. Heaven is now. …there is no Hell. for fear is hell. God made not death. …the hell I made. It is not real. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. Until you choose Heaven, you are in hell and misery. [Father] you have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. If you remain as God created you fear has no meaning, evil is not real, and misery and death do not exist. W-272.2:2 W-138.1:1;9:1 T-21.III.4:9 W-50.4:1-3 W-50.5:4 T-23.II.22:6-13 T-11.VIII.8:3 T-4.III.1:3,4 W-188.1:1 W-226.2:1;H:2 W-pI.138.H W-138.9:2-4 W-226.1:1-5 . T-16.V.5:1 T-18.VI.1:5 M-.24.6:4,5 W-pI.135.24:3 T-18.II.9:1,2 M-24.6:6 T-15.I.7:1 T-31.VII.7:6 W-163.8:6 W-342.1:1,2 T-15.I.7:2 T-22.II.7:8 W-342.1:3 W-110.1:4 T-13.XI.7:1 Have faith in only this one thing, and it will be sufficient: God wills you be in Heaven, and nothing can keep you from it, or it from you. 17 WHERE AM I GOING? Identify with love, and find your Self. Identify with love, and you are safe. The remembrance of love therefore brings invulnerability with it. LOVE Love is your safety. Perfect love casts out fear. Love is the way I walk in gratitude. [The Holy Spirit] walks with me in love. To be wholehearted you must be happy. Love offers everything forever. Love always leads to love. Love is not an illusion. It is a fact. Love is freedom. Love is not learned. There is too much to learn. [Love’s] meaning lies within itself. There is no fear in love. You do not love yourself. Be not afraid of love. Love is extension. Love has no limits, being everywhere. All expressions of love are maximal. With love in you, you have no need except to extend it. Only love is strong because it is undivided. …salvation apart from sacrifice means nothing to you. …you cannot conceive of love without sacrifice. …sacrifice is attack, not love. Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love. [God] loves you perfectly, completely and eternally. The meaning of love is the meaning God gave to it. God loves every brother as He loves you; You can love only as God loves. Love is not special. I would abide in [God], …forgetting all the foolish toys I made… I would forget all things except Your Love. Love holds no grievances. To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me and come to know myself. W-pII.q5.5:8,6 T-10.III.3:3 W-pII.5.5:4 T-1.VI.5:4 W-195H W-pI.215.1:3 T-5.in.2:1 T-24.I.1:3 T-13.VI.10:4 T-16.IV.4:1 T-16.IV.4:2 T-16.VI.2:1 T-18.IX.12:1 T-18.IX.11:6 T-18.IX.12:2 T-20.II.8:9 M-23.5:4 W-pII.q10.4:2 T-24.I.1:1 W-103.1:4 T1.I.1:4 T-15.V.11:3 T-12.V.1:1 T-15.X.5:7-9 W-103.1:1,2 T-2.VI.7:7 T-23.I.4:6 T-15.V.10:3 T-15.V.10:5 T-13.X11:4 T-13.X.11:2 W-346.1:6,7,5 W-68.Hd. W-68.1:2,3 W-68.6:3 The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. INTRO.1:6,7 18 WHERE AM I GOING? Abide in peace, where God would have you be. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. In peace I was created. And in peace do I remain. Now I ask but to be what I am. PEACE The peace of God is my one goal; When…I realize that [the world] reflects the laws of God instead of the rules I made up for [the world]… I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. Peace is an attribute in you. Seek not outside yourself. God wills you perfect happiness now. Peace is yours because God created you. My peace I give you. Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. God's answer is some form of peace. There is no substitute for peace. Make way for peace, and it will come. How is this quiet found? A tranquil mind is not a little gift. In [anger], peace cannot be found. I want the peace of God. To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. Peace be to me, the holy Son of God. Peace to my brother, who is one with me. Let all the world be blessed with peace through us. God is with me. The way is open. Now do we wait in quiet. Brother, we find that stillness now. Accept my confidence, for it is yours. Our minds are joined. I come in silence. In the quiet of my heart, [God] is my Source of life, the life within, Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. Father, Your peace is mine. I cannot lose Your gifts to me. And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for You. [The peace of God which passeth understanding] denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. T-26.VII.19:1 W-192.5:6 W-230.1:1,2,5 W-205.1:3 W-57.4:2,3 T-2.I.5:8 T-29.VII.1:6 T-9.VII.1:8 T-10.IV.6:7 T-13.VII.16:8 T-3.VI.10:1 T-Int.2:2 T-Int.2:3 T-Int.2:4 W-pII.359.int.1:1 T-24.in.2:7 T-14.XI.14:7 M-20.3:1 M-20.4:8 M-20.3:5 W-pI.185.Hd W-pI.185.1:1 W-pI.185.1:2 W-pII.360.int.1:1-3 W-222.1:1 W-225.2:2 W-221.2:1 W-225.2:1 W-221.2:4,5 W-221.1:2,3 W-222.1:2 W-221.1:1 W-273.2:1,3,4 T-2.II.1:11 19 WHERE AM I GOING? Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today. There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. God's messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair. W-340.2:2,3; W-155.1:1-3;W-100.4:3 JOY All pain Is healed; all misery replaced with joy. God’s peace and joy are mine. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth. God placed in the mind the Call to joy. [God's plan] will lead to release and joy. And what else but joy would you want? Do you prefer that you be right or happy? No misery is here, but only joy. Joy is eternal The Holy Spirit is the spirit of joy. God, being Love, is also happiness. God's Will for you is perfect happiness. We will not let ourselves be sad today. Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. Pain is my own idea. I choose the joy of God instead of pain. I seek but what belongs to me in truth, God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want. W-359.int.1:2 W-105.Hd. W-pI.190.10:5 W-pI.190.10:6 T-5.II.3:2 W-71.8:6 T-8.VI.5:10 T-29.VII.1:9 T-22.II.12:10 T-22.II.3:4 T-5.II.2:1 W-103.3:5 W-100.2:1 W-100.5:1 W-102.5:1 W-210.2,1 W-104.3:3 20 WHERE AM I GOING? HOLY INSTANT God knows you now. The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. In the holy instant, you see in each relationship what it will be when you perceive only the present. Yet in the holy instant you unite directly with God, and all your brothers join in Christ. In this redeeming instant lies Heaven The holy instant has not yet happened to you. Yet it will, and you will recognize it with perfect certainty. … you unite directly with God, and all your brothers join in Christ. …the instant of holiness is shared and cannot be yours alone. Every instant can you be reborn, and given life again. … difficulty with the holy instant arises from your fixed conviction that you are not worthy of it. It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. In the holy instant, you experience only the attraction of God In these instants of release from physical restrictions, you experience much of what happens in the holy instant: the lifting of barriers of time and space, the sudden experience of peace and joy, and, above all, the lack of awareness of the body, and of the questioning whether or not all this is possible. We cannot give experience like this directly. Let [your mind] rest in still anticipation and in quiet joy, wherein you quickly leave the world behind. The time will come when you will not return in the same form in which you now appear, for you will have no need of it. Yet now it has a purpose, and will serve it well I will be still an instant and go home. T-15.V.9:1 T-15.I.8:1 T.15.V.8:5 T-15.V.10:8 T-15.I.10:3 T-15.II.5:1,2 T-15.V.10:8 T-15.I.12:2 T-26.I.7:1 T-18.IV.3:3 T-18.VII.4:1 T-15.IX.7:3 T-18.VI.13:6 W-157.6:2;4:3 W-157.7:3,4 W-202.1 21 WHERE AM I GOING? For Christ is the Self the Sonship shares, as God shares His Self with Christ. ONENESS/SONSHIP Oneness is simply the idea God is. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood The Son of God is you. God has not many Sons, but only One. God has but one son, knowing them all as one. …the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. God's Son will always be indivisible. I trust my brothers, who are one with me. I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One. God Himself is incomplete without me. You dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone. Where God is, there are you. [Everyone] is part of you, as you are part of God. The Sonship cannot be perceived as partly sick, If the Sonship is One, it is One in all respects. Oneness cannot be divided. Father, You have one Son. Let me not see him as a stranger… We [all] are one, and therefore give up nothing. The [Sons] of God deserves your mercy. Deny him not. 192.10:2,4 Your function here on earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your Identity. He is as God created him. And you are what he is. Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him. W-169.5:1 W-169.5:4 W-169.10:1,2 T-15.V.10:10 W-64.3:4 T-29.VIII.9:1 T-9.VI.3:5 T-1.I.19:2 T-14.XI.11:1 W-181.Hd W-95.15:4 T-9.VII.8:2 T-11.I.1:6 T-14.VIII.4:4 T-7.VII.10:6 T.10.IV.3:1-3 W-262.1:1,7 W-192.6:5 WW-192.6-9 22 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of All Ego Thoughts The ego's fundamental wish is to replace God. Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? EGO What is the ego? But a dream of what you really are. To the ego sin means death, …without the ego, all would be love. The miracle forgives; the ego damns. The ego always seeks to divide and separate. the ego….[mistakes humility] for self-debasement. Humility consists of accepting your role in salvation ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness. The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. Do not be afraid of the ego. The ego cannot survive without judgment, To the ego, the guiltless are guilty. The ego becomes strong in strife. The ego wishes no one well. The ego is a contradiction. It offers you nothing. Step back from fear, and make advance to love. Minimizing fear, but not its undoing, is the ego's constant effort, The ego can and does allow you to regard yourself as supercilious, unbelieving, "lighthearted," distant, emotionally shallow, callous, uninvolved and even desperate, but not really afraid. How can [ego] preach separation without upholding it through fear, … we have repeatedly emphasized the need to recognize fear and face it without disguise as a crucial step in the undoing of the ego. W-72.2:1 T-11.II.7:1 C-2.1:4 C-2.1:5 T-19.IV.A.17:3 T-15.V.1:7 C-2.10:1 T-7.IV.5:2 W-61.2:2-3 T-9.VIII.2:7 T-5.V.3:1 T-3.IV.2:2 T-5.V.3:7 T-7.VIII.5:1 T-4.II.10:3 T-13.II.4:2 T-5.III.8:8 T-15.VII.4:3 T-4.I.2:8 T-4.IV.6:2 W196.11:6 T-11.V.9:2,13 T-12.I,8:5 The introduction of reason into the ego's thought system is the beginning of its undoing, T-22.III.1:1 for reason and the ego are contradictory The ego seeks to "resolve" its problems, not at their source, T-17.III.6:1,3,4 [Holy Spirit] seeks and finds the source of problems where it is, and there undoes it. And with each step in His undoing is the separation more and more undone, and union brought closer. The ego is not a traitor to God, to Whom treachery is impossible. But it is a traitor to you who believe that you have been treacherous to your Father. That is why the undoing of guilt is an essential part of the Holy Spirit's teaching. For as long as you feel guilty you are listening to the voice of the ego, which tells you that you have been treacherous to God and therefore deserve death. You will think that death comes from God and not from the ego because, by confusing yourself with the ego, you believe that you want death. And from what you want God does not save you. Release from guilt is the ego's whole undoing. When you lay the ego aside, it will be gone. From the ego came sin and guilt and death, T-12.VII.14:1-6 T-13.IX.2:1 T-8.VIII.8:6 T-19.IV.C.3:1 23 HOW DO I GET THERE? Use the Tools of the Course THE TOOLS Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one. No one who learns to forgive can fail to remember God. Forgiveness represents your function here. FORGIVENESS Who forgives is healed. Anger is never justified. To forgive is to overlook. Forgiveness looks past bodies. This is its holiness; this is how it heals. Forgiveness is the only sane response. Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Only my condemnation injures me. Only my own forgiveness sets me free. Forgiveness is the great release from time. Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free. …forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. Forgive, and you will see this differently. I will forgive, an this will disappear. Forgiveness offers everything I want. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. No gift of Heaven has been more misunderstood than has forgiveness. Forgiveness-to-destroy has many forms, being a weapon of the world of form. first, …a "better" person [condescends] to stoop to save a "baser" one… accepting of another's spite, and not respond except with silence and a gentle smile "I will forgive you if you meet my needs, for in your slavery is my release." All forms forgiveness takes that do not lead away from anger, condemnation and comparisons of every kind are death. How do the open-minded forgive? Forgiveness is complete. Forgiveness cannot be withheld a little. You have forgiven them entirely or not at all. Forgiveness… is still, and quietly does nothing. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. [Forgiveness] does not pardon sins and make them real. As forgiveness allows love to return to my awareness, It sees there was no sin. Do not see error. Do not make it real. forgive the sin by choosing in its place the face of Christ. "What should I do for him, Your holy Son?" should be the only thing you ever ask when help is needed and forgiveness sought. [Holy Spirit] will teach you what forgiveness is, and how to give it as He wills it be. All that you need do is to step back and not to interfere. Yet even forgiveness is not the end. [Forgiveness] is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth. Be willing to forgive the Son of God for what he did not do. C-4.3:6 P-2.II.3:1 W-192.2:3 T-27.II.3;10 T-30.VI.1:1 T-9.IV.1:2 C-4.5:3 C-4.5:4 T-30.VI.2:8 W-198.2:1,2 W-198.9:3,4 T-26.V.6:1 W-332.Hd W-pII.13.3:4 W-pI.193.5:1 W-p1.193.13:3 W-122.Hd. W-121.Hd. S-2.I.1:1 S-2.II.1:1 S-2.II.2:1 S-2.II.4:4 S-2.II.6:2 S-2.II.8:1 M-4.X.2:1 C-4.6:10 T-23.III.4:5 W-46.3:5 W-pII.1.4:1,3 W-pII.1.5:1 M-4.X.2:2pII W-.1.1:2 W-55.3(23):4 W-pII.1.1:3;S-2.I S-2.I.3:3-5 S-2.III.5:1;2:2,6 T-18.IX.10:1 W-198.3:4,5 T-17.III.1:5 24 HOW DO I GET THERE? Use the Tools of the Course Your resurrection is your reawakening. The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ come with the awakening of others to share your redemption. Salvation is a collaborative venture. God turns to you for help to save the world. T-6.I.7:1, T-11.VI.8:8, T-4.VI.8:2, M-29.8:2 SALVATION My holiness is my salvation. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, You are in charge of your salvation. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. Salvation is a thought you share with God, Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it Be glad indeed salvation asks so little, not so much. A savior must be saved. How else can he teach salvation? Salvation is immediate. Salvation is not theoretical. Salvation is as sure as God. The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, "I have done this thing, and it is this I would undo." My salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else. Salvation asks you give it welcome. And the world awaits your glad acceptance, which will set it free. No one but yourself affects you. Salvation is a paradox indeed! Holding grievances is the opposite of God's plan for salvation. And only His plan will work. …it but asks forgiveness be the substitute for fear. … we must replace attack with acceptance. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. The resurrection demonstrated that nothing can destroy truth. You have indeed been wrong in your belief that sacrifice is asked. You but receive according to God's plan, and never lose or sacrifice or die. Then realize your part is to be happy. ...find that joy that proves to us and all the world God's Will for us. God's Son is saved. Brother, forgive me now. Salvation is my only function here. Salvation and forgiveness are the same. I come to you to take you home with me. How near we are to one another, as we go to God. And as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God. How close the ending of the dream of sin, and the redemption of the Son of God. W-39.Hd. W-169.12:1 W-pI.70.10:3,7 W-pII.2.1:1 W-96.7:3 T-12.III.5:1,2 T-30.IV.8:4 W-pI.39.3:4,5 T-26.VIII.3:1 M-26.4:5 T-13.XI.9:3 T-27.VIII.10:1 T-27.VIII.10:4 T-27.VIII.11:6 W-pI.70.7:3,4 W-pII.10.4:5,6 W-pI.190.5:4 T-30.IV.7:1 W-71.10:3,4 T-30.IV.8:6 W-72.10:2 W-138.5:2,3 W-188.1:2,3 W-188.1:4 T-3.I.7:6 W-100.7:6,7 W-100.7:3;8:1 T-11.VI.10:1 W-342.2:1 W-99.9:6,7 W-342.2:2 W-344.2:1 W-342.2:3 W-344.2:3 25 HOW DO I GET THERE? Use the Tools of the Course … [Atonement] undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the mind. [The course] is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. … Atonement,…is the natural profession of the children of God… T-2.III.2:1;C-int.1:2,3;T-1.III.1:10 ATONEMENT The crucifixion had no part in the Atonement The Atonement principle was given to the Holy Spirit long before Jesus set it in motion. The Atonement principle was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love and the Atonement was an act of love. Perfect love is the Atonement. [Atonement] can only heal. "Atoning" means "undoing." Every loveless thought must be undone, The Atonement does not make holy. You were created holy. . The Atonement is a total commitment. [Your brothers] guiltlessness is your Atonement. The Atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead. It undoes your past errors, thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps … The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. … and that [the mind’s] errors are healed by the Atonement. The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement …fear comes from thoughts. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal. T-2.V.5:1,2;T-1.I.26:3;T-2.VII.3:1;T-2.V.5:3 The Holy Spirit is God's Answer to the separation, [Holy Spirit] came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the Atonement principle at the same time. Thee Holy Spirit is the Mind of the Atonement. The Voice of the Holy Spirit is the Call to Atonement, or the restoration of the integrity of the mind. The Holy Spirit atones in all of us by undoing, and thus lifts the burden you have placed in your mind. T-5.II.2:5 T-5.I.5:2 T-5.I.6:3 T-5.I.5:4 T-5.IV.6:1 T-14.V.10:1 C-2.6:4 T-2.II.4:2,3 T-2.VI.7:8 T-2.II.4:9 T-1.I.26:2 T-5.VI.9:2 T-14.IX.1:1,2 T-2.II.7:1 T-14.IV.1:4 T-2.II.6:4,5 The Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost. Your Father could not cease to love His Son. The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred. Until the Atonement is complete, its various phases will proceed in time, but the whole Atonement stands at time's end. The Atonement is the final lesson. T-12.VIII.8:8,9;T-6.II.10:7;T-2.II.6:9;T-2.II.5:2 26 HOW DO I GET THERE? Use the Tools of the Course …eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. You can see in many ways because perception involves interpretation, Real vision…does not depend on the body's eyes at all. The mind is its only source. Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. PERCEPTION Perception changes, Yet is truth unchanged. You can not see alone. Seeing is always outward. Perception is temporary. Projection makes perception. You can decide to see it right. What you believe is true for you The world is false perception. Here was perception born, As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception. The one correction possible for false perception must be true perception. Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. We must save the world. TRUE PERCEPTION It will not endure. Perception, at its loftiest, is never complete. But for the time it lasts it comes to heal. It is the opposite of the way you see now. [The fact that sin does not exist] is [what] True Perception sees. true perception brings: What was projected out is seen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear. The eyes of Christ look on a world forgiven. Now let [Christ’s] true perception come to me, that I may waken from the dream of sin and look within upon my sinlessness, If you perceive truly you are cancelling out misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Because you see [others] as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves. This is the healing that the miracle induces. All things are lessons God would have you learn. How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs. [God] would have all tears be wiped away, with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again. …forgiveness has made possible perception's tranquil end. W-pII.3.2:6 W-16.1:2 T-3.III.2:3 W-30.5:1,2 T-3.IV.2:1 T-26.VII.3:4 T-26.VII.3:5 T-14.VII.7:2 T-14-I.3:1 T-3.III.1:6 T-21.Int.1:1 T-12.VII.9:2 T-2.VII.5:5 W.pII.3.1:1;2:5 W-pII.3.4:1 W-pII.3.5:1 C-4.3:2 W-pII.3.5:2-4 T-13.VIII.2:5 W-intr.6:6 C-4.3:9 C-4.6:1 W-313.1:4 W-313.1:6 T-3.II.6:5-7 W-193.9:1 W-193.7:1-4 W-193.9:4,5 W-pII.7.1:5 27 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of the three Great Illusions The world of time is the world of illusion. M-2.3:1 The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God's Son, M-2.3:6-8 in that same instant was God's Answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all. The time is set already. W-158.3:1 Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion …. W-158.4:1,5 We but undertake a journey that is over. Yet there is a plan… For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it,… once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by. TIME Heaven is now. There is no time. God knows you now. …. now is the release from time. I can see only what is now. Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. The present is the only time there is. [Time] is thus a teaching device … [Space and time] are merely beliefs Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. In timelessness we coexist with God. In time we exist for each other. God wills you perfect happiness now. The present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world. Only the past can separate, The present is before time was, My present happiness is all I see. The past is over. It can touch me not. To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present. only "now" presents the opportunities for the holy encounters in which salvation can be found. only infinite patience produces immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary. … one level of the mind is not understandable to another. So it is with the ego and the Holy Spirit; with time and eternity. Eternity is an idea of God, so the Holy Spirit 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 that is eternal is now You are so long accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to realize it is a skill that can remember now. M-24.6:6 M-24.6:7 T-15.V.9:1 T-13.VI.8:1 W-52.5.(9):3 T-15.I.9:5 W-164.1:2 T-1.I.15:3 T-1.VI.3:6 T-1.VI.3:5 T-2.V.17:7,6 T-9.VII.1:8 W-132.3:1-3 T-13.VI.6:8,5 (See pg 37) W-290.Hd. W-289.Hd. T-13.VI.3:5 T-13.IV.7:7 T-5.VI.12:1-3 T-5.III.5.1-5 T-28.I.4:3 28 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of the three Great Illusions The body is in need of no defense. It has no needs but those which you assign to it. If you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality. But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for. The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind. Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is; a simple teaching aid, …regard bodies solely as a means of joining minds and uniting them with yours and mine. The ego separates through the body. The Holy Spirit reaches through it to others BODY I am not a body The body is a limit. The body is a dream. The body will not stay. The body cannot know. Its safety is its main concern. Its comfort is its guiding rule. The body was not made by love. You are surrounded only by [God]. [The body] is not [surrounding you]. Minds are joined; bodies are not. At no single instant does the body exist at all. W-135.7:1 W-135.5:2 W-96.3:7 W-pII.q5.3:5 T-2.V.1:9 T-8.VII.2:1 W-192.4:3 T-8.VII.2:5,3,4 W-pI.rVI.in.3:3 W-199.1:2 W-pII.q5.3:1;2:1 T-18.VIII.2:1 T-27.VIII.1:5 T-27.VIII.1:6 T-18.VI.4:7 T-18.VI.10:6 T-18.VI.9:2 T-18.VI.3:1 T-18.VII.3:1 YET Bodies act, and minds do not. To do anything involves the body. The body is the symbol of what you think you are. ...it is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the [body]. The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. …it is almost impossible to deny [the body’s] existence in this world. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. Salvation does not ask that you behold the spirit and perceive the body not. But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for. For you can see the body without help, but do not understand how to behold a world apart from it. The Holy Spirit sees the body only as a means of communication, and because communicating is sharing it becomes communion. T-31.III.3:4; T-18.VII.7:1; T-6.V.A.2:2; T-2.IV.3:12,8,10;W-133.2:3;T-31.VI.3:1; W-pII.5.3:5;T-31.VI.3:3;T-6.V.A.5:5 The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids for facilitating a state in which they become unnecessary. The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body only to reach your brothers, so He can teach His message through you. T-1.V.1:1 T-8.VIII.9:1 29 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of the three Great Illusions WORLD There is no world! The world is an illusion. The ego made the world … The world [you] sees does therefore not exist. This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. …Holy Spirit sees…the world as a teaching device... We have a mission here. The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. Nothing the world believes is true. There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought. [The world] is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. You are as God created you. If you are real the world you see is false, for God's creation is unlike the world in every way. Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. And as it was [God’s] Thought by which you were created, so it is your thoughts which made [the world] and must set it free, Release your mind, and you will look upon a world released. I loose the world from all I thought it was, and choose my own reality instead. A world forgiven cannot last. It was the home of bodies. In this world it is impossible to create. All worldly states must be illusory. Yet it is possible to make happy. Earth can reflect Heaven or hell; God or the ego. The world I see holds nothing that I want. … it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized. …through what might be called "a period of undoing." W-132.6:7 W-155.1:1 T-5.III.11:1 P-1.4:3 W-pI.132.6:3 T-5.III.11:1 W-139.9:1 W-132.4:1,2 W-139-7:1 W-132.5:1 W-132.10:3 W-139.7:2 W-132.9:2 W-132.11:5.6 T-1.V.5:1 W-132.13.6 W-132.17:2 C-4.5:1,2 T-17.IV.2:1 M-26.3:7 T-17.IV.2:2 T-14.IX.5:4 W-128.Hd. M-4.I.A.3:3,1 THE REAL WORLD The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and God's Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive… that he is redeemed The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless. T-30.V.1:1;W-155.1:1-3;W-pII.q8.4:1,2,3 30 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of False Belief s Fear and love are the only emotions of which you are capable. …[Holy Spirit] has taught you that fear itself is an appeal for help. Fear is really nothing and love is everything. Nothing and everything cannot coexist. To believe in one is to deny the other. FEAR Make no one fearful, Fear arises from lack of love. For fear is a call for love, Everyone experiences fear. God is not the author of fear. You are. Step back from fear, and make advance to love. ...look at what you are afraid of. Only your mind can produce fear. What you do comes from what you think. The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you are fearful, you have chosen wrongly. You do not need guidance except at the mind level. …ask if your choice is in accord with [Holy Spirit]. Fear is illusion, for you are like [God]. Nothing you understand is fearful. Defenses must make facts unrecognizable. Defense is of your making. God knows it not. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. You can not limit hate. Leave [fear] behind! Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation. It is here escape from fear begins, Anger without projection is impossible. I am never upset for the reason I think... No one who lives in fear is really alive. The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. When you are afraid, be still and know that God is real, and you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. If you knew Who walks beside you …fear would be impossible. Fear is deception. How foolish are our fears! Fear is not justified in any form. And what is fear except love's absence? It attests that you have seen yourself as you could never be The mind without the body cannot make mistakes. It cannot think that it will die, nor be the prey of merciless attack. Anger becomes impossible, and where is terror then? What fears could still assail those who have lost the source of all attack, the core of anguish and the seat of fear? T-12.I.9:5 T- 12.I.8:7 T-2.VII.5:3,1,2 T-13.IX.2:2 T-2.VI.7:6 T-12.I.8:13 T-2.VI.9:1 T-4.I.9:1,2 W-196.11:6 T-12.II.5:2 T-2.VI.6:7 T-2.VI.2:7 T-2.VI.4:1 T-2.VI.3:2 T-2.VI.3:5 T-2.VI.4:9 M-18.3:12 T-14.VI.1:2 W-pI.136.5:5 T-14.VII.5:4,5 W-pI.190.9:2 T-16.IV.1:5 T-4.I.10:3 T-30.VI.1:1-3 T-6.II.3:6 W-51.5:1 T-2.VIII.5:4 W-48.3:1 T-4.I.8:6 T-18.III.3:2 W-240.1:1;2:1 W-240.Hd W-pII.3.2:2 W-240.1:2 W-192.5:1-4 31 HOW DO I GET THERE? Let Go of False Belief s SIN Sins are in bodies. We can be mistaken…. But [we] cannot sin. …so they were but dreams. Every mistake must be a call for love. All sin is understood as merely a mistake. …If sin is real, both God and you are not. The Holy Spirit cannot punish sin. Sin is insanity. There is no sin. What, then, is sin? …sin is a lack of love. …a mistake to be corrected. Let [the veil of sin ] be lifted! No one is punished for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners. Sins are beliefs that you impose between your brother and yourself. Perception has a focus. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change accordingly. for just a little while. We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now. Remove your focus on your brother's sins, and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in you. And you will not transcend their sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond. Learn this, and learn it well, You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own. Whatever form his sins appear to take, it but obscures the fact that you believe them to be yours, If your mind is part of God's you must be sinless , Forgiveness recognizes what you thought you brother did to you has not occurred. [Forgiveness] sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. [Forgiveness] does not pardon sins and make them real. T-31.III.3:1 T-19.II.3:1 T-19.II.3:2 C-5.4:2 T-19.III.4:7 W-359.int.1:3 T-19.III.6:1 T-19.III.4:1 W-pII.4.1:1 W-101.5:4 T-19.III.4:8 T-1.IV.3:1 Preface.xi T-22.IV.3:2 T-6.I.16:4 T-26.VII.8:7 W-181.2:1,3 W-182.3:2,5,6 W-182.2:5,7,8 T-31.III.1:4-6 W-36.1:7 W-pII.q1.1:1 W-pII.q1.1:3,4 W-pII.q1.1:2 T-5.V.5:1 T-30.V.2:4 T-14.III.7:1 T-14.V.3:6 T-31.III.1:1 M-18.3:1 T-5.VI.2:1 M-10.2:9 W-70.1:5 T-13.II.2:2 T-13.IX.6:1 T-13.int.2:1 GUILT The guiltless mind cannot suffer. …for guilt is understood as the sole cause of pain in any form. …Guiltlessness is invulnerability. To accuse is not to understand. Only the self-accused condemn. Anger but screeches, "Guilt is real!" Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. …God's Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist. ….all guilt is solely an invention of your mind . You project guilt to get rid of it, but you are actually merely concealing it See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself. The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of the separation, 32 HOW DO I GET THERE? Ask for Help from Holy Spirit Resign now as your own teacher. You will be told all you need to know. …listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it. The Holy Spirit's Voice is as loud as your willingness to listen. You need offer only undivided attention. HOLY SPIRIT [IT] is a thought of God, [IT] is your Guide in choosing. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Joy. The Holy Spirit is in your right mind, The ego analyzes; the Holy Spirit accepts. The Holy Spirit extends and the ego projects. Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. Decide for God through [the Holy Spirit]. The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. You cannot understand yourself alone. At your request [H.S.] enters gladly. Communication ends separation. The Holy Spirit's function is entirely communication. God can communicate only to the Holy Spirit in your mind, In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In this illusory state, the concept of an "individual mind" seems to be meaningful. It is therefore described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit and ego. Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well. Accept your Father's gift. The Holy Spirit is His gift, He is the Answer to everything, Holy Spirit is God's Answer to the ego. [He] has the task of undoing what the ego has made. We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind. One is ruled by the ego, and is made up of illusions. The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides. The Holy Spirit is God's Answer to the separation, …Spirit which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. When the ego tempts you to sickness do not ask the Holy Spirit to heal the body, Ask, rather, that the Holy Spirit teach you the right perception of the body, [Memory] can be used to heal and not to hurt, if you so wish it be. The Holy Spirit can indeed make use of memory, for God Himself is there. Yet this is not a memory of past events, but only of a present state. The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, T-12.V.8:3 T-1.I.4:3 T-1.III.1:6 T-8.VIII.8:7 T-12-V.9:4 T-13.VIII.4:3 T-5.II.8:1 T-5.II.2:1 T-5.I.3:3 T-11.V.13:1 T-6.II.4:3 T-13.VII.12:1 T-15.III.6:3 T-9.V.8:4 T-5.III.10:1 T-14.II.3:6 T-5.III.8:1 T-14.VII.6:3 T-8.VII.4:1 T-14.VI.8:1 T-14.VI.10:3 C.1.2:1-4; 3:1 W-pII.7.5:1,3 T-8.IX.1:2 T-5.III.5:3,5 W-66.7:2,3,4 T-5.II.2:5 W-222.1:3 T-8.IX.1:5,6 W-28.I.2:9 W-28.I.4:1,2 W-pII.8.5:1,2 33 HOW DO I GET THERE? Use our Relationships to Learn You cannot enter God's Presence… alone. All your brothers must enter with you, for until you have accepted them you cannot enter. RELATIONSHIPS You cannot wake yourself. There are no accidents in salvation. Those who are to meet will meet, because together they have the potential for a holy relationship. They are ready for each other. No one is sent by accident to anyone. Let him be what he is, and seek not to make of love an enemy. Relationships are always purposeful. Whoever comes has been sent. If any two are joined, [God] must be there. Communion is impossible alone. No one who stands apart can receive Christ's vision. Under [Holy Spirit’s] teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS The special love relationship is the ego's chief weapon for keeping you from Heaven. The ego establishes relationships only to get something. For an unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what he has not. They come together, each to complete himself and rob the other. They stay until they think that there is nothing left to steal, and then move on. …Holy Spirit uses special relationships, … as learning experiences… Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love. …Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them. … bring a touch of Heaven to them here. HOLY RELATIONSHIPS A holy relationship starts from a different premise. Each one has looked within and seen no lack. Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. Never can there be peace among the different. Each one must share one goal with someone else, and in so doing, lose all sense of separate interests. It does not matter what their purpose is, but they must share it wholly to succeed. ….those who share a purpose have a mind as one. Yet reason sees a holy relationship as what it is; a common state of mind… It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor is your holy relationship a dream. All that remains of dreams within it is that it is still a special relationship. …through which [Holy Spirit] can spread joy to thousands on thousands… Relationships are still the temple of the Holy Spirit, and they will be made perfect in time and restored to eternity. [The holy relationship] is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. Think what a holy relationship can teach! Here is belief in differences undone. You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. This holy relationship has the power to heal all pain, regardless of its form. The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. T-11.III.7:8,9 T-29.III.3:2 M-3.1:6-8 P-3.III.6:2 T-19.IV(D).13:8 P-3.III.6:3 P-3.III.6:5 P-2.II.6:5 P-2.II.9:1,2 T-15.V.4:6 T-16.V.2:3 T-15.VII.2:1 T-22.int.2:5-7 T-15.V.4:5-6 T-17.IV.2:3 T-15.V.8:1 T-22.int.3:1-3 P-2.II.8:4 P-II.6:6 T-23.IV.7:4 T-22.III.9:7 T-18.V.5:1,2 T-18.V.5:3,5 P-2.II.1:5 T-17.V.2:2 T-22.int.4:1,2 W-95.15:3 T-22.VI.4:4 T-26.IX.6:1 34 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CHRIST Christ is God's Son as He created Him. God has but one son, knowing them all as one. …the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. For Christ is the Self the Sonship shares, as God shares His Self with Christ. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. He has not left His holy home, nor lost the innocence in which He was created. Those who are joined in Christ are in no way separate. He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God See no one as a body. Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, Greet [others] as the Son of God [they all are] acknowledging that [they are] one with you in holiness. I have no self except the Christ in me. My oneness with the Christ establishes me as Your Son, beyond the reach of time, and wholly free of every law but Yours. I have no purpose but His Own. And He is like His Father. Thus must I be one with [God] as well as [Christ]. For who is Christ except Your Son as You created Him? And what am I except the Christ in me? . JESUS Is [Jesus] the Christ? O yes, along with you. Jesus has led the way. [Jesus] has remained with you. Jesus has come to answer [your needs]. Where there was crucifixion stands God's Son. You are not persecuted, nor was I. In him you find God's Answer. Is he God's only Helper? No indeed. The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. The name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. But it stands for love that is not of this world. It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray. In my resurrection is your release. The Lord is with you, but you know it not. Yet your Redeemer liveth, and abideth in you in the peace Our mission is to escape from crucifixion, not from redemption. Trust in [Jesus] help, for I did not walk alone, and I will walk with you as our Father walked with me. W-pII.6.1:1 T-9.VI.3:5 T-1.I.19:2 T-15.V.10:10 W-pII.6.1.2,4 T-15.V.10:9 W-pII.6.1:5 W-158.8:3 W-158.7:1-3 W-158.8:4 W-354.1:2 W-354.1:1 W-354.1:3-7 C-5.5:1-2 M-23.5:1 M-23.5:9 M-23.7:6 C-2.6:14 T-6.I.11:1 M-23.7:7 C-5.6:1 C-5.6:2 C-5.2:1 M-23.4:1-3 T-12.II.7:3 T-12.II.9:2,3 T-12.II.7:4,5 35 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON GIVING/RECEIVING To have, give all to all. A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. GIVING The cost of giving is receiving. All that I give is given to myself. All that you have, you have forever. Neither give littleness, nor accept it. Thoughts increase by being given away. Our hands are open to receive Your gifts. Here does the Son of God ask not too much, but far too little. Asking for everything, you will receive it. Nothing you need will be denied you. [God] wills His Son have everything. God gives; He does not take. What you ask for you receive. To have, give all to all. Hold onto nothing. [Gifts of the world] are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. …the giver loses as he gives the gift; the taker is the richer by his loss. The truly given gift entails no loss. True giving is creation. Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift. God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but increase thereby. RECEIVING Ask with desire. Ask and receive. . The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess. How is this possible? …we have learned that things but represent the thoughts that make them. …you give ideas away, you strengthen them in your own mind. …form in which the thought seems to appear is changed in giving. Yet it must return to him who gives. Nor can the form it takes be less acceptable. It must be more To give and to receive are one in truth. I will receive what I am giving now Only what you have not given can be lacking in any situation. T-6.V.A.5:13 W-105.5:1 T-14.III.5:8 W-pI.126.hd T-15.II.3:3 T-15.III.6:6 T-5.I.2:2 W-pI.189.10:6 T-26.VII.11:7 T-18.VIII.11:5 T-20.IV.8:6 T-26.VII.11:2 T-11.VIII.5:9 M-21.1:3 T-6.V.A.5:13 W-pI.189.7:3 W-105.1:5,4,6 W-105.4:2 W-105.3:3,4,5 W-165.5:1 W-pI.189.8:5 W-187.1:8,2:1,3-8 W-108.8:2,3 T-17.VII.4:1 36 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort… PROBLEMS You have no problems, though you think you have. Every problem is an error. There is no problem in any situation that faith will not solve. To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you want it solved. Behold the problem, ask for the answer, and then accept it when it comes. The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one, regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone suffer loss and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the situation is worked out so no one loses is the problem gone, because it was an error in perception that now has been corrected. There can be nothing that a change of mind cannot effect…. …you could recognize that your only problem is separation… In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again." Do you prefer that you be right or happy? I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. [Peace, safety and joy] I choose to see, in place of what I look on now. Do not use empathy to make the past real, and so perpetuate it. In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. Dismay and depression are inevitable as you regard [ all the problems]. If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem. Your only problem has been solved! One problem, one solution. Salvation is accomplished. Now let the peace that your acceptance brings be given you. Let us be determined not to collect grievances today. Let us be determined to be free of problems that do not exist. The means is simple honesty. Do not deceive yourself about what the problem is, and you must recognize it has been solved. T-26.II.3:3 T-26.II.4:2 T-17.VII.2:1 T-25.IX.7:5 M-26.4:6 T-26.II.2:1-3 W-50.4:5 P-2.IV.2:4 W-79.6:2 T-31.VIII.3:2 T-29.VII.1:9 W-284.Hd. W-55.3(23):5 T-16.I.3:6 W-50.1:2 W-50.4:3 W-79.5:1,3 W-79.6:2-4 W-80.2:1 W-80.1:5,6 W-80.5:1 W-80.7:1-4 37 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON DECISIONS/CHOICES Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels… Decisions are continuous. You do not always know when you are making them. The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. As part of [God’s] Thought, you cannot think apart from Him. "My brother, choose again." Then try again to have the day you want. Today I will make no decisions by myself. This means that you are choosing not to be the judge of what to do. At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now. And so I hope I have been wrong. I want another way to look at this. Perhaps there is another way to look at this. What can I lose by asking? For you will hear, and you will choose again. The laws that govern choice you cannot make, But it is wise to learn ….what alternatives you choose between. …as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego's goals to come between the real alternatives. C-1.7:3,4 T-30.I.1:1,2 T-5.V.6:6,7,8 T-5.V.6:16 T-31.VIII.3:2 T-30.I.1:9 T-30.I.2(1):2 T-30.I.2(1):3 T-30.I.8(4):2 T-30.I.9(5):2 T-30.I.11(6):4 T-30.I.12 (7):3,4 T-31.VIII.9:6 W-133.3:3,5 W-190.11:2 W-133.5:3 W-133.6:1 W-133.7:1 W-133.11:2 Whenever you are not wholly joyous, T-5.VII.5:1 it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God's creations. …first step in the undoing is to recognize that you actively decided wrongly, but can as T-5.VII.6:3,5 actively decide otherwise. Your part is merely to return your thinking to the point at which the error was made, and give it over … …Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation: I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace. I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise. I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace. I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him. I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me. The way to undo an insane conclusion is to consider the sanity of the premises on which it rests. You cannot be attacked, attack has no justification, and you are responsible for what you believe. T-5.VII.6:6-11 T-6.int.1.6,7 38 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON PRAYER Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. P-1.I.1:1 It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed. T-1.I.11:2-3 "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. T-18.VII.6:7 To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you T-18.VII.7:7-9 where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides. He will remain when you forget, and the body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind. Trust Him, for help is His function, and He is of God. T-9.V.8:11 A call for help is given help. As prayer is always for yourself, so is forgiveness always given you. It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him. You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion. Yet it is the only happy dream in all the world; the only one that does not lead to death. The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. Ask, rather, to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there. [Prayer] is a song of thanksgiving for what you are. Herein lies the power of prayer. It asks nothing and receives everything. To pray with one who knows that this is true is to be answered. It will come because you have realized that Christ is in both of you. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God T-14.X.6:15 S-2.I.4:1-5 S-1.I.4:1 S-1.I.1:3 S-1.I.1:7 S-1.I.7:3-5 S-1.I.7:7 S-1.I.7.:10 W-189.7:5 39 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON The Name of God The Name of God is my inheritance. You live by symbols. The nameless things were given names, and thus reality was given them as well. This is the sum of the inheritance the world bestows. Such is the teaching of the world. It is a phase of learning everyone who comes must go through. …all the arbitrary names the world bestows can be withdrawn as they are raised to doubt. Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes! But what is true in earth and Heaven is beyond your naming. God has no name. No one can fail who seeks the meaning of the Name of God. Experience must come to supplement the Word. Father, our Name is Yours. God's Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever one with Him. The Name of God is my deliverance from every thought of evil and of sin, because it is my own as well as His. W-184.hd 1:1 3:3 6:1 7:1,2 7:5 8:1-3; 12:1 13:1,2 15:1 W-204.2 W-203.2 The Word of God Only be quiet. Only be still and listen. …to receive the Word of God. What is the Word of God? "My Son is pure and holy as Myself." This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. I am as God created me. This is the Word of God that sets you free. Let us declare this truth as often as we can. W-125.9:1,3,5 W-276.1:1,2,4 W-110.11:4,6,5 Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source from which I came. W-228.2:1-6 I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today. And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am. [God’s] Word is written on everyone's heart. M-26.1:2 40 FOUR BASIC LAWS OF LIFE 1. Erroneous thoughts block awareness of Truth It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. aim however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, 2. Erroneous thoughts can be changed Miracles are thoughts. A miracle is a correction. All it does is to undo. …you have no neutral thoughts… …[thoughts bring ]either love or fear. At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now. …[Peace, safety and joy] I choose to see, in place of what I look on now. Learning is all that causes change. For mind can learn, and there is all change made. 3. Holy Spirit will help if we ask and let go. Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. [The Holy Spirit] walks with me in love. …listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it . The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have W-pI.190.5:1 W-8.Hd. W-8.3:2 T-in.1:7 T-1.I.12:1 W-pII.13.1:1 T-28.I.1:2 W-17.1:2 W-16-3:2 T-30.I.8(4):2 W-55.3(23):5 T-31.III.4:8 T-31.III.4:10 T-5.II.8:1 W-pII.215.1:3 T-1.III.1:6 T-26.II.2:1 4. We create our own reality. Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me? T-21.VII.5:4 I have invented the world I see. W-57.2:1 I am responsible for what I see. T-21.II.2:3 Forgive, and you will see this differently. W-193.3:7 I could see peace instead of this. W-57.4:1 …do not let your mind forget this law of seeing: W-189.5:3-5 You will look upon that which you feel within. If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world, If you feel the Love of God within you, you will look out on a world of mercy and of love. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. T-21.II.2:4 -5 And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. Beware of the temptation to see yourself unfairly treated T-26.X.4:1 I am not a victim of the world I see. W-31.Hd. I am never upset for the reason I think, W-51.5:1 Nothing outside of me can hold me back. W-pI.70.10:7 What you believe is true for you. T-2.VII.5:5 No one but yourself affects you. W-pI.190.5:4 There can be nothing that a change of mind cannot effect, P-2.IV.2:4 Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. T-10.in.2:6 Idols are but substitutes for your reality. T-29.VIII.2:2 No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss. T-29.VIII.2:5 And thus must seek beyond his little self for strength to raise his head, T-29.VIII.2:6 and stand apart from all the misery the world reflects. This is the penalty for looking not within for certainty and quiet calm T-29.VIII.2:7 that liberates you from the world, and lets you stand apart, in quiet and in peace. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. T-21.In.1:7 Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly. W-pI.132.5:2 41 THREE SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES 1. We are all one with God. The Son of God is you. [Everyone] is part of you, as you are part of God. You are holy because your mind is part of God's. I am spirit. I am free. 2. Perfection, Love, Peace and Joy are our natural state. You are a perfect creation, truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth. No body can contain my spirit, nor impose on me a limitation God created not. Teach only love, for that is what you are. For truth is safe, and only love is sure. [God] loves you perfectly, completely and eternally. Joy characterizes peace. Peace is an attribute in you. Joy is eternal. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. Light and joy and peace abide in you. 3. We live in the Now, we abide in eternity. God knows you now. God wills you perfect happiness now. Heaven is now. For a miracle is now. I can see only what is now… ... now is the release from time. Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. Look lovingly upon the present, In it are all things that are eternal, and they are one. TRUTH now we cannot fail. We look not backward Words will mean little now. Sit silently and wait upon your Father. And we are sure His promises are kept. Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. Instead of words, we need but feel [God’s] Love. For now we seek direct experience of truth alone. To perceive the truth is not the same as to know it. A pure mind knows the truth and this is its strength. We have come far along the road, and now we wait for Him. We use [words] but as guides on which we do not now depend. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. through Christ's vision we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take that world to be the full replacement of our own. We look ahead, and fix our eyes upon the journey's end. For we wait in quiet expectation for our God and Father. He has promised He will take the final step Himself. Truth is. It can neither be lost nor sought nor found. It is there, wherever you are, being within you. No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. …truth will dawn upon you of itself. Truth can only be experienced. W-64.3:4 T-7.VII.10:6 W-36.1:2 W-97.Hd. W-pI.rVI.3:4 T-1.II.3:3 W-278.1:5 W-114.1:3 T-6.I.13:2 W-278.2:5 T-23.I.4:6 W-74.6:1 T-2.I.5:8 T-22.II.3:4 T-5.in.2:3,4 W-93.11:3 T-15.V.9:1 T-9.VII.1:8 M-24.6:6 T-26.VIII.5:8 W-52.4.(9):3 T-13.VI.8:1 T-15.I.9:5 T-13.VI.6:2,6 W-pII.int.5:4 W-pII.int.6:3 W-pII.int.1:1 W-pII.int.5:5 W-pII.int.2:4 W-pII.int.10:4 W-pII.int.10:3 W-pII.int.1:3 T-3.III.5:13 T-3.I.5:5 W-pII.int.2:5 W-pII.int.1:2 W-pII.int.10:5 W-pII.int.6:5 W-pII.int.6:4 W-pII.int.2:2,3 T-14.VII.2:2-4 W-131.Hd T-8.VI.9:11,8 42