Reflections 85 to 98
85/ A Movie Character
19th October 2023
Guilt must be given up, and not concealed. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:1)
***
Ref: There is no part of Heaven you can take and weave into illusions. Nor is there one illusion you can enter Heaven with. A savior cannot be a judge, nor mercy condemnation. And vision cannot damn, but only bless. (ACIM, T-22.II.8:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that our one function in the world is forgiveness.
We learn that whatever happens has absolutely nothing to do with what we really are.
Healing, then, is the undoing of the perception that we are sick. We stop listening to the insanity in the mind and return to sanity. We allow illusions to be replaced by truth.
It is this insane part our minds that might be likened to a character in a movie. We play a part and act out a role, and it is only guilt that fuels this role.
A Course in Miracles tells us that none of it is true. We are so much bigger than what we think we are. If we could even get a glimpse of our real Self, we would laugh at the little self that we made.
We are an image in a dream. Our little self is not real, and never has been. When we leave the body behind, or when we realise our true Self, we will have complete certainty that this is so.
Keith Kavanagh continues his look at the Song of Prayer. Below, we learn that healing arises as we lose the facade of being a movie character. Our little self is the total opposite of what we actually are. We are completely real, totally whole, and absolutely holy. To be less than this is impossible.
20th October 2023
Nor can this be done without some pain, and a glimpse of the merciful nature of this step may for some time be followed by a deep retreat into fear. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:2)
***
Ref: I am determined to see the witnesses to the truth in me, rather than those which show me an illusion of myself. (ACIM, W-55.1:7)
A Course in Miracles teaches true forgiveness. It is a forgiveness that completely refutes illusion. It is the type of forgiveness that is impossible to learn without help.
True forgiveness has nothing to do with what the world believes forgiveness to be. True forgiveness is the closest thing that we can find to the song of prayer.
To find true forgiveness, we have to undo all guilt. It teaches us that the world is a complete defence against that guilt. We made the world up and, alone, we cannot undo it. We need help.
As stated above, the undoing of guilt is inevitably preceded by a deep retreat into fear. This is the ego’s trump card. It is the single most important reason of why we need to develop trust.
Currently, we trust only what insanity would show us. Guns, bullets, murder and death all seem real. Forgiveness shows us what reality is. It starts the process of knowing God.
God is Love, and Love has given us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was put into the mind at exactly the same time as the mind chose the guns and the bullets, the murder and the death.
The Holy Spirit is therefore the silence and stillness within our minds. We might be unaware of the Holy Spirit, but we can train our minds to know that the silence and stillness is always there.
Developing trust is the practice. True forgiveness always shows us what the world can never know.
____________________________________________________________________________
87/ Only Two Choices
21st October 2023
For fear’s defenses are fearful in themselves, and when they are recognized they bring their fear with them. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:3)
***
Ref: Yet nothing he can do can compare even in the slightest with the glorious surprise of remembering Who he is. Let all his learning and all his efforts be directed toward this one great final surprise, and he will not be content to be delayed by the little ones that may come to him on the way. (ACIM, M-25.1:5-6)
We can assume the following, taking into account the possibility we do not remember Who we are:
- There’s a peace in the mind that surpasses all our limited understanding.
- There’s a light within us that’s far brighter than anything that our eyes can see.
- There’s a joy surrounding us that’s more euphoric than anything we could ever imagine.
- And there’s the Love we came from that’s so blissful that it brings us to our knees.
A Course in Miracles tells us that what is not of God comes with judgment. It has an opposite. If we are defined by the body, then really we are defining ourselves through the lens of fear.
We are believing in what we are not. Our real Self is without an opposite of any kind. It is a formless state that is hidden from our memory. We might think of it often, but it can only be known.
The ego, then, has to be endlessly devious in the ways in which it mimics our real Self.
Really, it only has two choices. One is to kill us through fear; the other is to disguise that fear as love.
____________________________________________________________________________
22nd October 2023
Yet what advantage has an illusion of escape ever brought a prisoner? (ACIM, S-1.III.4:4)
***
Ref: God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son. His awareness is in everyone’s memory, and His Word is written on everyone’s heart. (ACIM, M-26.1:1-2)
Plato’s Cave is an allegory demonstrating how prisoners, bound by heavy chains and with shadows flickering on the walls around them, believe that their prison cell is their reality.
And, even if someone tried to describe what freedom was like, they would still find it impossible to understand. How could it be otherwise? The prison cell is the only reality they know.
We are like those prisoners. We have no idea that there is a truth beyond the limitations of a body.
A Course in Miracles is one solution. It is a self-study option. It allow us to gently awaken to the truth within us, but at our own pace and in our own time.
We all have a spark of light within us. The body can’t contain what is always there.
The Song of Prayer, then, is a condensed version of everything that A Course in Miracles teaches. It is a crash course in how to undo an illusory prison cell in the mind.
The prison cell is the ego. We are all prisoners of the ego and we are all bound by heavy chains of guilt. We are reluctant to be free.
Plato’s Cave is a portrayal of a living hell. It is a dream. It is a figment of our imagination.
Currently, we are in that cave. As we awaken, we stop seeing shadows and start seeing light.
____________________________________________________________________________
89/ The Calm Light of Truth
23rd October 2023
His real escape from guilt can lie only in the recognition that the guilt has gone. And how can this be recognized as long as he hides it in another, and does not see it as his own? (ACIM, S-1.III.4:5-6)
***
Ref: Yet consider how strange a solution the ego’s arrangement is. You project guilt to get rid of it, but you are actually merely concealing it. You do experience the guilt, but you have no idea why. (ACIM, T-13.II.2:1-3)
A Course in Miracles explicitly states that its goal for us is happiness and peace. ACIM is also quite adamant that we are afraid of it.
Atonement becomes our release from guilt, and yet we reject it as quickly as we hear of it.
We are told that only the harmless can be trusted, and yet we insult them (even if it’s with our thoughts). If we look deeply enough, we will know this as a fact.
All around us, we find the signs and symbols of the ego’s grip on our minds. Watch the news and we see endless reports on war and mindless acts of violence.
We are fixated on other people’s problems. We find a vicarious pleasure in the horror and in the suffering. However, what we can’t see is that we are projecting only what is in our minds.
A Course in Miracles is here to provide the healing.
If we really want to understand what A Course in Miracles is teaching us, we have to get to the absolute core of the ego’s thought system. This means facing our most terrifying fears.
Everything ‘out there’ is ‘in here’. It arises in the mind and stays in the mind. In a nutshell, all we have to do is to look at our guilt and bring it to the calm light of truth.
____________________________________________________________________________
90/ There Is only Life
24th October 2023
Fear of escape makes it difficult to welcome freedom, and to make a jailer of an enemy seems to be safety. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:7)
***
Ref: The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the “devil.” It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. (ACIM, T-3.VII.5:1-2)
We either see love or we see fear; we either see sunshine or we see darkness; we either see the Self or we see our self.
A Course in Miracles reveals the guilt we project onto others. It wants us to look directly at why we are mistaken. It shows us that, by undoing the error, we can fully understand what is outlined below.
1/ Everything dissolves in the clear light of truth.
2/ All that we make is based on a lie.
3/ Our creation by God can never be shaken.
4/ We are pure light and can be nothing else.
5/ Instead of ending, we just return to the Beginning.
6/ The Self is at peace and has no conflict at all.
A Course in Miracles tells us that, by undoing the ego, we are given two absolute truths. Firstly, there is no death except the belief in death. And, secondly, all there can ever be is only life.
91/ A Silent Solution
25th October 2023
How, then, can he be released without an insane fear for yourself? (ACIM, S-1.III.4:8)
***
Ref: To believe that a Son of God can be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love cannot suffer, because it cannot attack. (ACIM, T-10.III.3:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we are all the Will of God. If we see ourselves as anything else, we are denying what we are.
When we feel small and insignificant, we are listening to a voice that doesn’t know anything. We are giving the ego power, and yet it is just a thought.
We are investing in self-belief, which means we are investing in something that is not there.
Everyone wants to be strong, vital and invincible, but we are full of opposites and prone to disease.
What we really need, then, is complete Self-belief. We want to see our wholeness everywhere and in everything. This has nothing to do with the physical.
The Self is always one, which means we are formless, invulnerable and completely at peace.
Our goal, then, as students of A Course in Miracles, is to know our invulnerability. We see absolute truth everywhere. To deny even the tiniest fragment of truth is to deny the whole.
And, even if we slip back into our limited self-belief (when we believe we are a body with an uncertain life), we can always remind ourselves that within us all is the Answer.
As we quieten the mind and listen to guidance, there is a silent solution for every prayer.
____________________________________________________________________________
92/ An Unalterable Fact
26th October 2023
You have made of him your salvation and your escape from guilt. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:9)
***
Ref: As God created you, you have all power. The image you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the truth about you. The image you made does not. (ACIM, M-29.4:4-7)
We are not the body. We are not even within the body.
Sickness is simply the belief that we are apart and separate from the truth.
A healthy body is no more real than an unhealthy body. This is because there are no bodies. The body is an image in the mind and arises through a terrifying sense of guilt.
A Course in Miracles is very clear about all of the above. This is why it tells us that the body shouldn’t be given any importance. The mind needs to be where our focus lies.
However, it’s not that we should deny the body. Denying what we see just brings more pain.
This is why we go to the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to heal the mind.
The Holy Spirit knows all our needs, but never needs to heal the body. This is an unalterable fact.
Below, Keith Kavanagh continues with his analysis of the Song of Prayer. He reminds us that healing the body is the same as attempting to fix the ego (impossible). We learn that the death of a body is the same as discarding a coat. And we see that we are always God’s Son, with or without the body.
____________________________________________________________________________
93/ Perfect Love
27th October 2023
Your investment in this escape is heavy, and your fear of letting it go is strong. (ACIM, S-1.III.4:10)
***
Ref: Only love is strong because it is undivided. The strong do not attack because they see no need to do so. Before the idea of attack can enter your mind, you must have perceived yourself as weak. (ACIM, T-12.V.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles teaches that we can only attack ourselves. It tells us that it is impossible to attack anything else.
And even attacking ourselves has no effect. The personal self that we are attacking does not exist. It is just a jumble of mixed up thoughts within the mind.
The mind is split. It is split between an image of what we perceive as real, and another that we perceive as false. One stares at us in the mirror, and the other does not.
This means that we can never be in harmony. The personal self (which we see in the mirror) is loud and utterly ruthless; the real Self (which we don’t see) is completely peaceful and entirely loving.
One tries to control; the other never reciprocates. Only the controlling mind needs to be healed.
A Course in Miracles teaches that we can never find peace with a split mind. What we have to do is to heal that split.
This means disengaging from our false self so that we stop attacking and start accepting. We have to give all our doubts to the One that knows.
We are starting the journey to becoming completely peaceful and wholly loving. Complete peace is perfect love, and the two combined means that joy must flow.
____________________________________________________________________________
94/ Stilling the Mind
28th October 2023
Stand still an instant, now, and think what you have done. Do not forget that it is you who did it, and who can therefore let it go. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:1-2)
***
Ref: A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course in directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends. (ACIM, C-in.2:5-7)
Who did what? No one did anything.
What is the ego? Nothing but pain.
How did we get here? We didn’t. We are not here.
A Course in Miracles states that we have to heal the split in the mind if we want to connect the dots. It points us in the direction of truth and encourages us to make the journey, if we want to.
It is impossible, though, to describe a direct experience of God. Nothing can do justice to what eternal Love feels like because it is beyond words. Nothing is comparable.
The process, then, is to allow various shapes on the page to come to life, and to awaken what has been put to sleep.
Who becomes awake? The presence that is.
What is the truth? A peace with no opposite.
How do we find it? By stilling the mind.
____________________________________________________________________________
95/ Complete Restitution
29th October 2023
Hold out your hand. This enemy has come to bless you. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:3-4)
***
Ref: Those who believe that peace can be defended, and that attack is justified on its behalf, cannot perceive it lies within them. How could they know? Could they accept forgiveness side by side with the belief that murder takes some forms by which their peace is saved? (ACIM, T-23.III.5:1-3)
A Course in Miracles makes absolutely no compromises. We either have peace or we have war, and we are told that it all happens in the mind.
The ‘enemy’ is therefore any thought that is not fuelled by love; ‘attack’ is any thought that does not accept; ‘murder’ is any thought that makes the body real and thinks that we can suffer.
However, if we thought that we had to control our thoughts in order to be free, we might as well give up now. We cannot fight the ego. It is impossible.
We just need to join with the light and bring the ego to the Holy Spirit. This requires stillness of mind, and allows our thoughts to lose their power as quickly as drops disappear in water.
It also means practising an active form of forgiveness where, really, we are forgiving ourselves. We are forgiving everything that we haven’t done.
We feel imprisoned but it is impossible to be imprisoned. This is because the ‘Self’ has no boundaries and we have no limits to what we are.
It’s as if we have been given a life sentence for a crime that we have never committed. We have been locked in a cell that isn’t there.
The Holy Spirit just pardons us with complete restitution. And this is how we hear the song of prayer.
____________________________________________________________________________
96/ Forgive the Guilt
30th October 2023
Take his blessing, and feel how your heart is lifted and your fear released. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:5)
***
Ref: When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In understanding this you are saved. (ACIM, W-70.1:5-6)
Salvation means not making the error real. There is no gap between illusions and the truth.
Guilt prevents us from knowing this. Undo the guilt and we can only know peace.
Our brother is always the measure of how much guilt we hold. Our brother is simply the spouse sleeping beside us or the dictator who sanctions war. It doesn’t matter who or what it is. Every thought arises out of love or out of fear.
A Course in Miracles tells us that everything we see arises in this way. This means we hold both our release from guilt and our collapse into guilt within the mind.
It also means that we can decide whether to keep it or let it go. It’s as simple as that.
Salvation is therefore the return to where we never left. It means returning to a condition that was forgotten the instant we thought we could ever be apart from the Whole.
Guilt only arose because we imagined that we had sinned. And now the guilt is so bad that it feels like we have murdered God.
Our brother is the bearer of that guilt. It means the guilt in our mind is just too painful to look at.
That is why we project it out. Forgive the guilt and we are free. It is the only solution to our prayers.
____________________________________________________________________________
97/ Our Holy Grail
31st October 2023
Do not hold on to it, nor onto him. He is a Son of God, along with you. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:6-7)
***
Ref: How lovely does the world become in just that single instant when you see the truth about yourself reflected there. Now you are sinless and behold your sinlessness. Now you are holy and perceive it so. And now the mind returns to its Creator; the joining of the Father and the Son, the Unity of unities that stands behind all joining but beyond them all. (ACIM, C-3.8:1-4)
Healing occurs only in this very moment.
Deep underlying guilt is what prevents it.
Forgiveness is the key that brings us home.
A Course in Miracles asks us not to dwell on the past; it doesn’t want us to consider the future; it is only concerned with what is now, and this it labels as the holy instant.
We therefore have a right mind and a wrong mind; we see the real world or we see the false. A Course in Miracles reminds us that it is only by stilling the mind that the past just falls away.
All sense of loss just goes because there is no loss.
Fear disappears because it never was.
And wonder simply reveals itself because truth can never be hidden.
Our holy grail is always the holy instant. It is only in this moment that we forget what we thought we were, and everything becomes exactly as it is.
____________________________________________________________________________
98/ Let Truth Be
1st November 2023
He is no jailer, but a messenger of Christ. Be this to him, that you may see him thus. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:8-9)
***
Ref: Let truth be what it is. Do not intrude upon it, do not attack it, do not interrupt its coming. Let it encompass every situation and bring you peace. Not even faith is asked of you, for truth asks nothing. (ACIM, T-17.VIII.2:2-5)
A Course in Miracles states that what is written above is all that is asked of us. Let truth be what it is.
We therefore see someone as a jailer or as a messenger of Christ. We either hate or we love; we crucify or we resurrect.
The use of language in A Course in Miracles can appear challenging at times, and yet the Course is unequivocal. It is all or nothing. Truth is either seen either completely or not at all.
The ego prevents truth. It crushes us into submission and forces us to suffer. If we just observed what our thoughts are telling us, then we would be shocked at how distorted they make truth seem.
The Holy Spirit is truth’s advocate. It supports us and only offers peace. If we really listened to what the Holy Spirit is offering us, then we would never stop at learning what is being taught.
If we ever feel restricted, lacking, or even slightly out of sorts, it simply means that we are obeying the whims of the ego. Only by stilling the mind can we ever hope to see the face of truth.
A Course in Miracles only points to where truth is. It acts like a light, shining in the mind.
It is only by tuning into this light that we can we ever know peace. Truth then undoes the ego, and our separate self just disappears into what is whole.
Comments
Post a Comment