A Course in Miracles teaches me that I am confused about what I am. I think I am a body in a world. But the course suggest I may not be. Am I willing to consider this?
When I try to solve my problems in worldly terms – impatience, dishonesty, overeating, whatever – all I do is make temporary solutions that eventually beget more problems. Whatever underlies the whole concept of problems goes on unaddressed.
A Course in Miracles invites me to consider that the solution is not to find the right external circumstances (i.e., a different therapist, a new job, a diet) but to change my thinking about the problem. When thinking changes, the problem changes, because its source has shifted. Its source is the mind and that I can work with.
Critically, I do not want to work with thinking in order to have a better life in the world. Rather, I want to work with it in order to remember the deep, natural and sustainable peace that literally shares itself and is our actual identity.
Therefore, when we are lost and forsaken in our bodies in the world, we ask the Holy Spirit what to do and then listen for its answer. Its answer may not be obviously helpful or appropriate. But we will know it is the Holy Spirit because it does not argue. It’s a friend – not a lawyer or a judge. Only ego argues. The Holy Spirit simply gives us the answer and then honors our power of decision.
We are not actually lost in fear. We are not actually mired in conflict. Fear and conflict are illusions. Their only reality is the one we give them through the power of belief. To the extent we believe they are real, then to that extent they are real. And that is the only problem that needs to be solved.
The Holy Spirit’s answers are designed to teach us that this is a dream, and remind us that we have the power to choose otherwise. They are not designed to make the dream better. That may or may not happen; it doesn’t actually matter.
We are not separate from the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is a metaphor for our clear mind and pure heart. The Holy Spirit knows us as Christ and knows God as Love, and unites us in a Holy Trinity that itself dissolves in Oneness. Of Oneness there is nothing to say. Of healing, we can say: there is nothing to do, and only we can do it.
To be Christ is to be endlessly beginning – there are no accomplishments, no experts, no altars or thrones, no royal roads. In Christ, wholeness accedes to the “Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). A Course in Miracles puts it this way: “humility brings peace because it does not claim that you must rule the universe, nor judge all things as you would have them be” (S-I.V.1:4).
There is nothing to judge; therefore, there is no need to judge. Judgment is an illusion of decision-making (really, of power) that hides our brothers and sisters from us. Without our brothers and sisters, we cannot remember our own self. Peace is the quiet way, the gentle way, and the forgiving way in which we remember our shared interests and on that basis join with one another. Our joining is neither mysterious nor mystical but the sweet acceptance of what we are in truth. Our whole being knows this, and yearns to forget everything that would obscure it.
Together we forget in order to remember that together we are Christ.
Please note that a new therapist, a new job and new diet or exercise practices can be very helpful. The point is not to become passive about our living but to understand better just who and what is doing the living. If the goal of our ACIM practice is to be happier in our body in the world, then we are simply using it to reinforce the underlying error – the belief that we ARE bodies in a REAL world. When we are attentive to the course and accept its underlying premise that we are not bodies and there is no world then we begin to experience dramatic shifts in perspective and thought away from fear and towards love. It is true that these shifts are often reflected in so-called improved external circumstances but it is essential to understand that the circumstances are merely reflections of a mind which is healing itself by choosing NOT to see cause outside of it. I know that can seem overly intellectual but if we are practicing ACIM, it’s a nontrivial point. Only minds join and only minds heal. The rest is a dream that we will not even remember upon waking.
Note too that shifts in perspective away from fear and towards love can ALSO be reflected in our living as profoundly destabilizing and even frightening. Things can appear to get worse before getting better! In this sense, ACIM is not for the faint of heart 🙂
Sean, you’ve just written the truth down in such a simple and beautiful and helpful way. I’m saving this one to read again and again. You’ve explained what makes my so-called “life” here bearable in 10 paragraphs. Thank you.
Trying to scale back on my wordiness 🙂 I’m glad it resonated. Hope all is well Claudia!
~ Sean
Nicely done Sean. Gets to the heart of it.
Thanks Amy . . . Hope all is well . . . 🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Sean for you doing this work and posting insights that help us newbies understand ACIM easier. I resonate strongly with your writings and it encourages me to continue. This course can feel hard as I unravel my egoic thoughts. I so appreciate all my brothers and sisters for sharing their thoughts, reminding me I am not separate from you, and Holy Spirit. Peace to all.
Thank you, Debbie. I’m glad it’s helpful, and I’m grateful to everyone who reads and shares and just generally helps make a space to learn together. Practicing ACIM is hard – it really is – and having a sense of friends working with us makes a big difference. I’m glad you’re here 🙏
~ Sean