My holiness blesses the world.
If the world is an illusion, then why are we here? What is the purpose of this illusion?
A Course in Miracles suggests that the answer is: so that we can see the world as and through our holiness, which ends the separation. When we do this, we and the world are blessed together, sacrifice and loss disappear, and all that remains is love.
In essence, that is our role in the illusion. In truth we do nothing; love always “comes of itself.”
In the holy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are joined without the body’s interference, and where there is communication there is peace . . . communication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, love comes of itself (T-15.IX.7:1, 6).
The course further implies that this is a natural and organic experience extending from what we are in truth.
Your holiness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it anything, but merely by your quiet recognition that in your holiness are all things blessed along with you (W-pI.37.3:1-2).
One way to ascertain whether are “seeing” this way is to ask if we are also seeing sacrifice of any kind – is something being demanded of us? Are we making demands of someone or something else?
That is, with respect to our ACIM practice, do we believe we have to give something up in order to experience holiness and its promise of peace? Our family maybe? Our sex life? The joy of eating chocolate? Gazing at cardinals and painted buntings? Bob Dylan songs? Emily Dickinson poems? What?
If you believe that you will lose anything (which will probably show up as the fear of losing something), then you are depriving yourself of the very peace that is your holiness. Its peace is what you are.
Indeed, our holiness is only means by which “the idea of sacrifice can be removed from the world’s thinking” (W-pI.37.2:1).
Any other way of seeing will inevitably demand payment of someone or something. As a result the perceiver will lose. Nor will he have any idea why he is losing. Yet is his wholeness restored to his awareness through your vision. Your holiness blesses him by asking nothing of him. Those who see themselves whole make no demands (W-pI.27.2:2-7).
When we gaze at the world through holiness, we see the reality that is beyond separation. We do not see separate selves with separate interests, but one self in communication remembering its identity as God’s creation. And that self has everything because it is everything.
What we are in truth knows that loss is not possible because it only sees through holiness, which can only bless what it sees.
No one loses; nothing is taken away from anyone; everyone gains through your holy vision. It signifies the end of sacrifice because it offers everyone his full due. And he is entitled to everything because it is his birthright as a Son of God (W-pI.37.1:4-6).
This is a deeply threatening idea to the ego, whose existence depends on your willingness to believe you are a body in the world and thus subject to the limitations of both. But to what you are in truth, nothing else but this idea is true.
Thus, lesson 37 offers us a profound opportunity: by making contact with holiness, we can pass beyond the body and the world to what we are in truth. No suggestion is made here that this has to happen; we are early yet in our study and practice. But the way is clear: and joy and peace are its outcome.
Hi Sean,
Please forgive the daft question.
How do I navigate the site? In order to land on the lesson of the day I Google search: ACIM lesson ____. Sean Reagan.
I can’t seem to find a menu on the site that takes me to the lessons.
It’s not a daft question 🙂
If you are on literally any page of the site other than the home page, you should see a Google custom search bar somewhere on the page. For me it’s in the right sidebar, but obviously this is a function of the screen I use.
This only searches my site, so the results are usually more effective than when Google searches the whole web.
The theme I’m currently using does not allow me to add a search feature to the home page. The fix involves more coding than I’m comfortable with; I’m not sure what to do about this.
The lessons part of this site is the least developed and accessible, and I am really trying to give some attention to it to make it more user-friendly. Also, I haven’t looked at a lot of those posts in years!
So right now, the best bet is to just head to the about page – or the most recent lesson you read – and then use the Google search option.
Thanks again for reading and sharing. Let me know if this helps!
~ Sean
Sean, I so appreciate your sharing these commentaries on the lessons. You have a gift for helping us “perceive through the lens of our own Holiness” — from further “upstream,” as you also say. As often as I find myself still thrashing around downstream, caught up in judgment or drama, I’m noticing that remembering the ever-present buoyancy of Love is becoming easier. I’m grateful. Thank you for sharing with us.
You’re welcome, Margaret. I certainly identify with thrashing around downstream 🙂 Yet knowing I can trek upstream – and having friends and allies with whom to trek – has been a true gift. I’m grateful for you, too.
~ Sean
I love this statement “ In the holy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are joined without the body’s interference, and where there is communication there is peace”. This is my second round of ACIM, and I love it when an early lesson re-ignites something I thought I had already learned! When I read that statement I clearly “felt” my three children with just love. Now, a mother’s love is a force of it’s own, but I really felt I was given this example to see beyond how I love them, to their pure beingness of love. What a lovely way to show me how to apply this to all that I see, and feel that same peace.
That experience of “re-learning” or re-remembering is ongoing for me 🙂 Love for one’s kids is a deep and abiding love, for sure, and a powerful example of the Love that we are talking about when we talk about God as Love . . . A shadow of that love but still, helpful in making clear the selflessness and unconditional nature of it . . . Parenting and ACIM go hand in hand for me, along with my marriage, my kids have been one of the deepest and most enduring sites of learning . . .
Sean, how to understand “make no demand” in ACIM context? is it as in “have no expectations from others”? Or does it mean “don’t ask for any help or mutual support, even to friends”?
And I’m also confused with another part of the course that talks about asking for help from the Holy Spirit, and why sometimes we might not get any answer ( I understood we don’t get answer if we ask for help to resolve something “unreal”, created by our own fear. Since it is “not real” it cannot be solved and remains unanswered.).
Then how to “properly” ask for help? Should we rather ask help to “see” things with the eye of the holy spirit, so we can “choose again”? Instead of asking for the solving of X-Y specific problem? Let me take a concrete example: if we are experiencing professional setbacks leading to personal bankruptcy, should we ask for help to “see our purpose”, or to “choose a new direction wisely” instead of “solving the debt”? I know the course insists on life purpose aspect.
I am listening to ACIM course on Audible at night and quite often I fall asleep listening to it, so maybe I misheard or misunderstood that part.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.
Thank you, Audrey.
Say that I am hungry and have before me a loaf of bread, an apple and a cup of tea. I will not ask for – will not demand – food, because the food is given. Problem and solution are readily brought together.
It is only when lack appears that demands enters the picture – it is only when we perceive ourselves as incomplete and under stress and in need of defense that demands for food, companionship, money, world peace et cetera suddenly seem viable and necessary.
And A Course in Miracles is unconditional: what we are in truth is perfect and whole and thus cannot want for anything – and thus will not demand, even politely – anything from anyone ever. Anything less than this reflects confusion about what we are in truth – which is not a crime against God or nature but there IS a better way.
So in practice then I want to be aware of this – I want to be aware of the feeling that I need more of X or less of Y or something different altogether. I want to notice that sense of “I am risk” or “I am under threat.” I want to notice that interior nudge and I want to question it: what is ACTUALLY missing? What is REALLY lacking? Is there REALLY a threat?
I don’t want to judge – I want to give attention. I want to notice.
Bodies need food and shelter, they need other bodies to relate with and play with. It’s fine to feel hungry and eat. It’s fine to want to go to a museum with a friend. Let the body be a body; bodies being bodies isn’t the crisis.
The invitation the Course makes is to realize that WE are not bodies. The crisis, to to speak, is when we confuse the body’s needs and appetities and circumstances with OURS. What we are in truth does not know lack because it is by definition all of creation. What is one is not partial; what is whole is not incomplete. Only from the perspective of separation can the appearance of lack have any meaning.
So long as we identify as bodies – and we all do in this world, to varying degrees – then our prayers will tend to reflect the body’s interests. A Course in Miracles neither condones nor condemns this. Our needs will be met so long as we believe we have them.
Rather, the Course invites us to investigate the circumstances – the belief system – that gives rise to fear, that makes it seem like we ARE lacking and MUST demand solutions to the whole range of our problems. It is that belief system that causes our confusion, that causes all our experience of conflict, and so that is where correction and healing must occur.
We have these lives and they are not always easy. Businesses fail or we get fired. The doctor comes in with bad news. It rains on the day we planned a picnic. It is not wrong to respond to these things – to work closely with professional to rebuild a business, to apply for a new job, to change our diet or exercise regimen, to picnic under an umbrella. Whatever.
But to the extent those things impair our knowledge of our inner peace and happiness which is given us in creation and cannot be undone in anyway, then we are confused. We think peace and happiness are conditional on how things go in the world. We think what happens out there causes what happens in the self. And the Course is a year-long inquiry into how that belief system is backwards and upside-down, and its goal is to correct that.
So yes. Take action in the world. That’s fine. But also, attend the inner belief that your joy and peace are CAUSED by what is external. That belief is the real problem, and that belief is what ACIM is given to heal.
Thanks always for being such a thoughtful reader, Audrey. I appreciate your helpfulness very much.
Love,
Sean
Thank you for taking the time, Sean. This really helps. I’m deeply grateful to share this ACIM journey with you. At times I feel lost on how to address requests for help from the holy spirit. But with your explanation and examples above, I think from now on I will ask for help to “see”. Because with the correct vision, we can remember that everything is already here and nothing at all is ever missing. Let me ask for help to see the waterfall instead of a glass of water. I understand the key lies in “Seeing” the right way, from the holy spirit eye and not from the ego. This also makes sense with your commentary on day 38 “There is nothing my holiness cannot do”, when you encourage us to connect with the holiness aspect instead of seeing this lesson as a super-power to solve problems created by the ego miraculously. Thank you for your words!
You’re welcome, Audrey. Thank you for reading and sharing. It is a collaborative work 🙏🙏
~ Sean