A Course in Miracles Lesson 57

A Course in Miracles suggests that when it comes the illusion of being bodies in a world we are effectively willing prisoners. Our suffering is a decision we make. And because the power of decision is ours, we can make another.

Nothing holds me in this world. Only my wish to stay keeps me a prisoner. I would give up my insane wishes and walk into the sunlight at last (W-pI.57.1:7-9).

This is easy to say but hard to actually believe. We treat it as a passing concept about our being, rather than the truth of our being. But thinking this way is what keeps us imprisoned. A Course in Miracles does not argue with us – it doesn’t try to convince us. It merely offers us another way to see our situation.

Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there must be another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down, and my thoughts are the opposite of truth (W-pI.57.3:2-3).

The question is not whether this statement is true or false; the question is whether we want it to be true or false.

You made the problem God has answered. Ask yourself, therefore, but one simple question:

Do I want the problem or do I want the answer?

Decide for the answer and you will have it, for you will see it as it is, and it is yours already (T-11.VIII.4:4-7).

The choice is not ambiguous. It is not unclear. Do we want God’s peace or the ego’s war (W-pI.57.4:3)?

When we choose peace without reservation peace becomes us because it is us. But our choice must be freely made and reflect our genuine willingness to remember what we are in truth. Half-measures are ineffective.

Our decision to side with God, means that we see the world as God sees it, which means that we begin to see “our” peace is also the peace that “abides in the hearts” of all our brothers and sisters (W-pI.57.4:4).

The world I look upon has taken on the light of my forgiveness, and shines forgiveness back at me. In this light I begin to see what my illusions about myself kept hidden. I begin to understand the holiness of all living things, including myself, and their oneness with me (W-pI.57.5:3-6).

Our healed vision – flowing from the mind we share with God – restores us to holiness as it restores all of life to holiness. Nothing is excluded; indeed, it’s inclusion is what makes it – and us – holy.

In this way, A Course in Miracles makes us happy without taking anything away from us. We give up nothing in exchange for everything.

←Lesson 56
Lesson 58→

3 Comments

  1. Any measures (segmentation) avails us nothing lol. Willingness in character identification is curious in that it can very much seem to fail because of evidence (measures the character has nothing to go by but). The clearest example I experienced was “knowing” I was willing when I first came into 12 Step recovery. After many failures, willingess had to mean something different. First and foremost, clarifying that it wasn’t about the substance use (the measure), was important (just like the other redemptions of words/language ACIM does). But like recovery/relapse, in retrospect the willingness to be sober can be said is what gets one sober (no differently than the willingness to brush your teeth.). In time, the failures that seem to proove Will meaningless, requires the word “willingness”, for when it’s available in the more abstract sense (not to solve behavior/problems). There has to be a redemption of it though, and in retrospect it can even be used to realize there was willingness to “change” (do only one behavior without an – overly – split mind about it). So every decision to be sober could eventually be seen to have been total willingness and not part of the evidentiary failure (the lack of belief in one mindness was the only culprit). But that willingness would have to be relatively insignifcant – meaningless – without use of “willingness” applied to letting go of a confused/split/mis -identity. A willingness that did NOT work to get sober, has to still be available to talk to Us in time about how it is pointing to one Will (not of time). One illustration of this is how even those successful at sobriety and even claiming because it was a willingess to believe in God, might be using that success metric no differently than any other worldy one (including religious adherence). So those that fail for years are ultimately equal with those that do get the message quickly (that’s it’s not about drugs/behavior/success/programs). At the body level those that choose the kinder safer method of abstinence (and for some an actual body level “requirement”), are equal to those that might return to a glass, or just some sips, of wine (because the split-mind culprit was eventually considered to be the culprit and the driver to inebriation – now also BECAUSE of metric failure). [It is a hornet’s nest, because then why not a little drugs, etc, so the discernment is suspect on an outer level, so no amount of outer discussion can answer this for anyone, and it is a body level horror.that drugs can lead to]] But getting back to willingess, if it isn’t made available for the abstract recognition that it is for “salvation”, then just like “forgivness” et al they all don’t work. So I’m glad for this long term trajectory of “willingess”, that ACIM and you have been fundamental too. But like sobriety (and totally unlike it) there is a learning there is only Will(ingness). May all have that time (suffering) shortened. [Excuse me for working out some of my recovery concepts here with you; and thank you for being part and whole to re-covery/demption]

    1. Hey Mike . . . thanks for sharing. You’re conceptual “working out” works for me always. No worries.

      Half-measures avail us nothing because they are illusory because they are half! There are only whole measure anyway, a smorgasbord of them, which apparently we – setting aside what “we” actually are – can partake of. Sobriety, whisky bender, Zen fasts, psilocybin adventures, ACIM scholarship . . .

      Something resonates when we are told that “half-measures” won’t cut it . . . I wonder if because we know – intuit – that ANY segmentation is an error that simply begets more error?

      I’ve always been an “all-in” kind of guy – the hell with measuring! – but lately I have started to see the way measures and measuring remain apparently viable in my thinking. It’s harder to notice though! Like I am hiding a toy I’m scared will be taken away. Or a whisky bottle maybe!

      Like whatever the one is it can’t resist the apparent disorder of the many 🙂

  2. Yes, like one day at a time intuits it is not about time at all (just another measure lol, sneaky toy!). The last video of yours I just watched, I reconsidered a rule(r!) I’ve made where if I’m going to click “like” I can decide so at the half way mark. That’s perfectly reasoanble, and I even knew somewhat that it was about an impatience and unreasonable way to save time (the second after a video it would take to click, lol!). But today the “why” I do something just seemed a little clearer, and I waited until the end of the video. It wasn’t about the saga of me and how pervasive “i” am so impatient is/was, or whatever, just that momentary “why” not wait until the end of the video (I was having to keep track of if I had made it to the halfway point, lol). May all our toys be freed, and spirit contained to whiskey bottles (and then stashed away further!)..

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.