I loose the world from all I thought it was.
A Course in Miracles invites us to investigate not the world – which is an effect of our thoughts – but rather the source of thought, in order that we might realize that salvation is as easy as changing our mind (W-pI.132.2:1).
You free the past from what you thought before. You free the future from all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find (W-pI.132.2:3-4).
The world itself is neutral; it is how we see it that gives it meaning and determines its function. Its value lies in the decision we make to see it as either cause or effect. In separation, we mistake the world as the cause of our beliefs and their effects, those we deem good and those we deem bad.
In salvation, we remember that there is no world apart from what we wish (W-pI.132.5:1). Indeed, remembering this is salvation because it restores to our mind its power of decision and reminds it that projection is an illusion. When we cast “out” what we fear to see within, what we fear remains with us because “ideas leave not their source” (W-pI.132:5:3).
This is one of the foundation of healing in ACIM: an idea can be shared but it does not leave its source. It cannot be disowned or severed. If there is one glass of water and I give it to you, then there is no more pie. But if I share with you the location of the spring, then we both know the location. I have not forgotten it. And when you share it with someone else, it remains with you as well.
The world is not real, and thus our sense of being at risk in it, suffering its assaults and indignities, grieving its many losses, enduring endless sacrifice is also not real.
Healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is no world, and can accept the lesson now. Their readiness will bring the lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize (W-pI.132.7:1-2).
Note that the course does not insist that the form the lesson takes is uniform. Instead, it recognizes that the form of the lesson will vary from student to student. The world is not real, but the way in which you learn this will not be the same as it was for me, and vice-versa.
A Course in Miracles teaches the lesson by reminding us that we remain as God created us and thus exist beyond the reach of suffering that the world – i.e., time and space – would impose on us. We are not bodies and there is no world. To know this is to be saved, and to know it is to will to remember it.
To free the world from every kid of pain is but to change your mind about yourself. There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought (W-pI.132.2-3).
And to change our mind about what we are – to solve our spiritual identity crisis – is simply to remember that we are always God’s Creation, incapable of change or harm. To remember this is to create like our creator, extending only love and freedom. This is what it means to “loose the world” – we stop insisting on seeing it from the perspective of ego, and adopt instead the Holy Spirit’s frame of God’s “timelessness and Love” (W-pI.132.11:1).
Deny illusions, but accept the truth. Deny you are a shadow briefly laid upon a dying world. Release your mind and you will look upon a world released (W-pI.132.13:4-6).
Our healing is not ours alone. This lesson emphasizes that we are healed by our brothers and sisters as they remember who they are in truth, and as we remember as well, we heal them. Together we “bless the world” because we “could never be released alone” (W-pI.132.16:1, 2).
We go together in healing because healing is going together. This sequence of lessons presents a critical and often deeply-challenging concept (there is no world, which is closely linked to “ideas leave not their source). Let us look at these ideas gently, with an open mind, and be grateful for those whose practice and study buttresses our own and makes our shared healing possible.
