A Course in Miracles Lesson 63

The light of the world brings peace to every mind
through my forgiveness.

Lesson 63 of A Course in Miracles emphasizes the way in which our real identity is intimately involved in the salvation of the world which is the realization of peace-of-mind for all our brothers and sisters.

Buddhist teacher and poet Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote that

Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean,
is the moment the wave realises it is water.

Hanh means that a wave is not separate from the ocean. It is simply the ocean waving (Alan Watts used to talk about the universe “peopling”). When the wave remembers that is merely the ocean in a particular form, then it also remembers that it cannot be separate from its source. Thus, it is filled with light. It is filled with peace.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that we are the Light of the World. When we fully realize this, then we are no longer invested in the apparent form of the body and the world. In a non-trivial and non-metaphorical way we become light. In this way, Lesson 63 emphasizes our holiness and its power to “bring peace to every mind” (W-pI.63.1:1)!

But it also acknowledges that this peace is not an accomplishment of the separated self (which is, remember, merely an image). Rather, it is it is done “through” us – that is, when we no longer insist on separation but rather give ourselves wholly over to our Creator to be used in whatever way best serves Creation. This is our whole function.

Accept no trivial purpose or meaningless desire in its place, or you will forget your function and leave the Son of God in hell. This is no idle request that is being asked of you. You are being asked to accept salvation that it may be yours to give (W-pI.63.2:4-6).

It does not matter whether we believe this or not. It does not matter if we want to argue with it. What we are is beyond the relative nature of belief and disbelief. It is beyond argument. The lesson asks nothing from us but to simply remain teachable with respect to truth.

This lesson also reminds us of the fundamental principle of A Course in Miracles: our relationship with our brothers and sisters. As we awaken them, we are awakened. As they awaken us, they are awakened. In this way, a chain of atonement is forged that excludes nobody.

Hence this law: God’s holy Child looks to us for salvation and we are God’s holy Child! This is not a paradox! Rather, it is a statement of how simple and clear salvation is, and how it rests on a unity that is divine. Salvation is simply a gift we give our own self on behalf of our Creator, from Whom we are not – and never could be – separate.

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4 Comments

  1. I Am You (Source relating to Itself As Creation); in dreaming what it would like to be it’s own source, is given you(s) to relate to. In *using* yous to make a me instead of “because of you I am”, the me expeience will get ever unhappier. As part of the gift to experience what it’s like to be my own source, that simply becomes a gratitude for that as a past aspect of that gift. In knowing I Am is any you, I am remembering that I AM is never but You. In every (one) experience of me/you, I would forgive the past “/” and use it as a “+”. This me then is simply returned to the “first” you experience given to be dreamt: Adam, a body that Source gave I-Am-awareness to play with as a you to create. Eve just popped out because I Am wanted to see how many more yous It could dream up reproducing. Yet in the dreaming depths we never but share the ever present dimensionless lack of depth, that I Still Am I Am. No matter who I dream is a you interested in insisting that I am a you to “them”, that is still just dreaming that I am me (a special body me). And that is never on you, thanks be to Source. I Am (was) ever in/as/for You. [I wonder if that’s how “Thou” developed, to make it easier than a capitalized “you”, lol. Of course, unintended consequences, it also became a very Special you, lol]

    I hoped you liked my creation story, Sean

    The light of the world is ever able to complete the circuit of me/you/them/4th-person (the third person circling back to me through third person communications, like books)/”it”-5th-person. It completes when I choose to close the gap of holding me out from it. And that closing/forgiving is just an opening to unimpeded light, peacefully present which is simply shining (“NOT a paradox!” lol)

    1. I like creation stories and I like you Mike so yeah, I like this creation story.

      I have been reflecting lately (with one of my teachers) on Emily Dickinson, who is possibly my greatest teacher, who in her beautiful poem “wild nights,” took the Garden of Eden and turned it into a Sea.

      Rowing in Eden –
      Ah – the Sea!
      Might I but moor – tonight –
      In thee!

      It’s about sex, of course – that lovely creative union – and it’s also a brilliant mind playing at being a nineteenth century woman rejecting the biblical narrative in favor of a new interpretation but lately – because of this other teacher with whom I am lately annoyed – why I wonder – I have begun to see that I am perhaps missing something essential in E.D.’s poem.

      That is, E.D. isn’t co-opting the biblical narrative in order to slap down patriarchy but is rather noticing that love is deeper and wilder and saltier and orders of magnitude less ordered than a mere garden.

      E.D. is moving our collective dialogue forward, revising the old creation myth with an eye ever on love (as when is an eye (or I, as you, Mike, would say) never not focused on love . . .

      And the thing about seas – as opposed to gardens which grow up and out, full of blossoms and fruits and vegetables – is that *its life is hidden below a boundary surface waaaaay easier to transgress than soil. I mean, I can dive into the sea – can go down and meet beautiful octopuses and terrifying sharks – but if I try diving into my garden I’ll just hurt my head.

      Anyway I say all this because reading your lovely creation story I was reminded of the nihilism I am never quite finished escaping – and was thinking of whatever is beyond creation stories – beyond narrative, teller and audience, observer and observed – and of another poem by E.D., here called to mind perhaps in error, “Heaven – is what I cannot reach . . . “

  2. Thank you for her poems. I love the imagination that our Eden was already a “fallen” one from its earlier creation before even land was separated from primordial waters. Reminds me too of when a friend pointed out how sad the human congregating on beaches must look (and I’d add by-water sites for cities), to alien observers: separated bags of water pining for their very makeup.

    And “what I cannot reach” reminded me of verse 1 of the Isopanishad that has become similarly significant to me.

    “Om. By the Owner infused is all this,
    Whatever moves in the world o motion,
    Enjoy that which is let go of;
    Don’t hold on; Whose property is it?

    I love water. “Water to water” is much more amiable to me than “dust to dust”. And being “moored to the sea” is a lovely image -and “marooned their with thee!”. Thanks for all the playful splashes (and helpful, loving, etc, hues of them)

    1. the “whose property is it” question/pointer has always been one of the bears for me. thanks for reminding me 🙏

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