A Course in Miracles is about application – it is meant to be lived. In these bodies, in this world, we learn that we are not bodies and there is no world. The paradox is not something we solve intellectually. It is more like an optical illusion that we suddenly “get.”

In this review, the course prepares us for application by retroactively applying a theme to the previous twenty lessons: “My mind holds only what I think with God” (r-IV.In.2:2).

Most of us read that and think it means that our minds are going to be cleansed or purified. We think that the egoic self is going to be purged of its bad qualities while holding onto its good ones. In other words, we’re going to have our cake and eat it, too.

But, in fact, this statement about our mind is a statement about what our mind is in truth: and it is not the mind which holds the ego’s lies – both the ones that please us and the ones that displease us. It is another level, one that from our separated perspective, we cannot see. We can barely imagine it.

Guilt stops us from realizing the mind we share with God, and from bringing its creative powers into application. Therefore, we need forgiveness – we need the correction of the underlying error (which is our belief in separation) to be undone for us.

The way that our errors are corrected is that we look at them without flinching. We realize that all illusions are “defenses that protect your unforgiving thoughts from being seen and recognized” (r-IV.In.3:2). The whole purpose of illusions is to “hold correction off through self-deception made to take its place” (r-IV.In.3:3).

Salvation begins with our willingness to see this as true. We don’t have to believe it! We simply have to recognize how our way has not worked and so – Bill Thetford-like – we declare there must be another and – Helen Schucman-like – agree to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in finding it.

Your self-deception cannot take the place of truth. No more than can a child who throws a stick int othe ocean cange the coming and going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night (r-IV.In.4:2-3).

What is true is true: it cannot be made false by wishful thinking. No more can what is false be made true. Our minds hold only what we think with God – are we not curious to find out just what this means?

This review period is designed somewhat differently than those that went before. Before we were reviewing ideas, looking at them in slightly different lights, reinforcing core ACIM concepts. Now we are creating a space in which actual communion with God is possible, each day bringing “the message of His Love to you, returning messages of yours to Him” (r-IV.In.4:2-3).

This communion is more important than being “right” about a given lesson. It is communion that assures us we are on the correct path, that we are not being led astray by the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus remains an elder brother carefully attending our awakening. Our day arranges itself around our devotion to the course and to the awakening it promises. Do we welcome this?

In this review period, sparse as it may appear at first glance, we take real steps into the world as forgiven children of a loving God whose only desire is that all Creation know His Peace and Joy. These are not idle promises! They are not just words.

God offers thanks to you who practice thus the keeping of His Word. And as you give your mid to the ideas for the day again before you sleep, His gratitude surrounds you in the peace wherein He wills you be forever, and learning now to claim against as your inheritance (r-IV.In.10:1-2).

For the next ten days, let us make it so together. Our minds hold only what we think with God – can happiness and peace not be our truth? Can it not become our gift to the world?

Only salvation can be said to cure.

We are either asleep or we are awake. If we are asleep in the dream of separation, then it does not matter what happens in the dream – if our cancer is cured, if we win the lottery, if we marry our true love and live happily ever after. It’s a dream. It doesn’t matter what happens in a dream.

A Course in Miracles is given so that we might wake up from the dream of separation, and remember that our mind is one with God’s Mind in Creation. When we remember this, we are healed. Our mind, which was split between being of God and denying that it was of God, is unified.

In the context of A Course in Miracles, only this can be said to be healing.

This is, or can be – no pun intended – a big pill to swallow. And so in order to help us, the Holy Spirit induces “happy dreams” – forgiveness-based dreams which are “heralds of the dawn of truth upon the mind” (W-pI.140.3:2). These are dreams within the larger dream in which we are dissociated from Creation, but they do not double down on that larger dreaming. On the contrary, they loosen its stranglehold on our mind.

They lead from sleep to gentle waking, so that dreams are gone. And thus they cure for all eternity (W-pI.140.3:4-5).

Thus, Atonement is not a “cure” for sickness. It is not about the body at all. Rather, it removes the cause of guilt from the mind which believes in guilt, which in turn makes sickness of any kind impossible. It removes the cause of guilt by showing with absolute clarity that sin and God cannot coexist, and that there is no place that God is not. Therefore, sin is homeless and we remain as innocent as in the first instant of Creation (forever extending itself).

This is no magic. It is merely an appeal to truth, which cannot fail to heal and heal forever (W-pI.140.6:4-5).

Our work, then, is to bring illusions to truth (e.g., W-pI.140.7:4). In doing so, we demonstrate our willingness to learn that sickness is a decision the mind makes to forget what it is in truth.

What does this look like in practice?

It looks like willingness. It looks calm and patient. It does not rush to judge. It is not so invested in wordly outcomes. It seeks to remember the cause for joy (which is our guiltlessness). Even if we don’t accept the underlying metaphysical premise of A Course in Miracles, and the promise of healing it makes to us, we can still try to understand them and bring them into application. We can remind ourselves over and over that the world is not real and we are not bodies.

In other words, we leave behind the world of form – with its endless variations, all begetting this or that form of conflict – and focus instead on the Love of God, which appears to us as Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and the holy relationships they guide us toward in order to teach us that the separation is not real.

We go beyond appearances today and reach the source of healing, from which nothing is exampt. We will succeed to the extent which we realize that there can never be a meaningful distinction made between what is untrue and equally untrue (W-pI.140.9:2-3).

This world is all the same. The cancer, the war, the poverty, the hunger . . . all of it reflects the mind’s decision to be alien unto its Creator. At home in love, we make a dream of hate and give to it all our attention.

There is – as brother Thetford reminds us – a better way.

This lesson calls us to intentional stillness. It does not ask us to lean on form – tarot cards, aspirin, rosary beads, naikan therapy. It doesn’t say we can’t use these things later. It just asks us in this moment to give attention to the still small voice within which speaks only of God and of God’s Love. No more than this, but not less either.

We will be still and listen for the Voice of healing, which will cure all ills as one, restoring saneness to the Son of God. No voice but this can cure. Today we hear a single Voice which speaks to us of truth, where all illusions end, and peace returns to the eternal, quiet home of God (W-pI.140.10:2-4).

Our willingness to pray this way – for it is a prayer – opens up a space in which we naturally remember that salvation is the only cure, and that only God’s Voice is the word of salvation. So we become still and quiet, listening only for that word, setting aside everything that word is not. That is our calling, and it is met by an ancient promise:

This is the day when healing comes to us. This is the day when separation ends, and we remember Who we really are (W-pI.140.12:7-8).

←Lesson 139
Lesson 141→

I am one Self, united with my Creator (Lesson 95)

Salvation comes from my one Self (Lesson 96)

Conflict arises in separation. Indeed, it is the essence of separation, the means by which it functions. Somebody has something we want – a piece of pie, a dollar bill, a pretty hat – and so we become covetous and greedy. We plot. Or else we are worried that somebody wants what we have, and therefore we have to make a plan for its defense.

Aggression and violence, offense and defense, winning and losing, and sacrifice and suffering all come into play when we believe that separation and its effects are real. When separation is the way we see the world, grief is the only outcome we can depend on.

The antidote to this gri situation – the only truly effective one – is to realize that separation is an illusion because we are “one Self,” united with our Creator (W-pI.113.1:1). We are healed when we remember that “serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at once with all creation and with God” (W-pI.113.1:2).

Our experience of bodies and the world they inhabit – and the cosmos giving birth to both – is that we are separate, and that our joining is always in pursuit of shared interests and can be broken off at any time. We have friends, tribes and peers which necessitate opponents and enemies.

But A Course in Miracles offers us a more radical way of seeing experience: as a unity in which there are no differences but only sameness.

In this light, our brothers and sisters (broadly defined to include salmon, Ginkgo Biloba trees and snowflakes) become reflections of a fundamental equality that can only beget peace.

Think what a holy relationship can teach! Here is a belief in differences undone. Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. And here is sight of differences transformed to vision. Reason can now lead you and your brother to the logical conclusion of your union (T-22.In.4:1-5).

It is this vision – born in the holy relationship, itself born in our willingness to no longer suffer nor contribute to the suffering of others – that allows us to see clearly the fulfillment of God’s perfect plan for our salvation (W-pI.113.2:2). Our “Self” is not the personal individual with its family history, its career, its hobbies and its goals but rather the unified Self extended in Creation. We have no enemies – only brothers and sisters who long for the peace and joy of reunion as intensely as we do.

Thus, today’s review allows us to deepen our willingness to join with one another in bringing about the end of conflict. This is not done through negotiation or compromise. Rather, it is accomplished by giving attention to the underlying unity established by God. There is only one Creation, endlessly extending. Are we ready at last to perceive it? To place nothing before it?

Are we ready now to receive the Gift of God by remembering that Creation cannot be separate from its Creator?

←Lesson 112
Lesson 114→

In general, review periods in A Course in Miracles are opportunities to go more deeply into our practice and more effectively ground our understanding of ACIM principles. These parts of the workbook can feel tedious or extraneous, but we skim them to our detriment.

The Introduction to the second review period in the ACIM workbook is noteworthy in several respects.

First, after reviewing the material for the day, we are invited to sit quietly and listen. We give attention and await a specific directive.

There is a message waiting for you. Be confident that you will receive it. Remember that it belongs to you, and you want it.

W-pI.rII.In.3:2-4

This is enheartening, especially in its clarity and confidence. What is the message? What will you know at the end of the day’s practice that you do not know when you begin?

The promise of being met in such a personal and enlightening way is deeply motivating.

The second aspect that stands out is the insistence on taking our ACIM practice seriously, to effectively regard the review periods as “dedications to the way, the truth and the life” (W-pI.rII.In.5:1).

Refuse to be sidetracked into detours, illusions and thoughts of death. You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled.

W-pI.rII.In.5:2-4

Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled. That is a worthwhile focus to give to our practice. It merits our attention and devotion. But just as critically, we merit an intense and open-minded study.

Finally, although it’s easy to overlook, the Introduction to this review reminds us that showing up devoted to miracle-minded thinking is more important that the “particular words” that we use to describe and explore that practice. A Course in Miracles is not an intellectual exercise, but rather an whole-hearted and open-minded application of transformational ideas in the interest of inner peace, ours and everyone else’s.

Thus, the next ten lessons present as a unique opportunity to strengthen our study and practice – and, by extension, our shared experience of healing.

The review periods in the workbook of A Course in Miracles (six in number) are essential components of the first part of the workbook. They’re also boring – we want to get on with awakening! – and one can easily be tempted to slight them. For reasons I’ll set forth, this is not a good idea.

It’s important to remember that A Course in Miracles is course. To the extent we experience it as a spiritual path or practice, its form still remains that of a class that one takes. Look at the primary material: there’s a text, a workbook full of lesson, and even a Manual for Teachers.

In other words, it’s a curriculum, not a scripture. A classroom, not a congregation. And we are learners, not worshipers.

(Nor, by the way, is there an ordained human instructor, which is different from saying there are no human teachers).

Given that context, review periods are not optional, nor should they be approached in a casual way. They are opportunities to reinforce our learning and ensure that our mind is successfully being trained “in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world” (W-In.4:1).

But more than that, the review periods offer us a chance to perceive gaps in our learning and actively work to redress them.

For example, you might find in a given review period that you are focusing on a certain lesson because you enjoy it. You like its effects; it resonates. You’re good at this particular exercise; it comes naturally.

There’s nothing wrong with this, but it can be as intersting – and often more helpful – to give attention to the lessons we skim in review, the ones we don’t care about or even actively resist. All of these speak to movements of mind that remain undeveloped; ignoring them is how ego retains a foothold in our thinking.

So while I want to be happy and fluid in my practice, and give time and attention to the aspects of my practice that pass with ease and grace, I also want to be sure I am finding out and tending to those spaces where my practice limps and stumbles.

However, it is critical to avoid making the lessons overly burdensome. I don’t want to beat myself up, or become obsessed with a certain lesson or sequence of lessons. My goal is to be serious and thoughtful, but also gentle and forgiving. I want to nurture what expands and deepens my ACIM practice, and turn away from that which does not help.

The workbook is clear that we not have to believe, accept or even welcome the ideas contained in the lessons (e.g., W-In.9:1). We are even allowed to resist them (W-In.9:2)! We should approach the review periods in that spirit as well. We want to show up as committed learners, not perfect learners.

In that light, the review periods become opportunities to remember God’s perfect trust in our learning potential, and offer it yet again on behalf of the salvation of the world.

I am not the victim of the world I see.

Lesson 31 of A Course in Miracles is a declaration of freedom and spiritual autonomy. We are not captives of lived experience but rather creators. We are not victims because our invulnerability is the absence of attack both internally and externally.

Life is peace and happiness. God is in our mind as peace and happiness. And so we are peace and happiness.

A Course in Miracles is the means by which we remember this in the very context we made to forget it.

Thus, we will probably do this lesson and still retain some degree of connection to the body and the self that appears to reside in it. The world will continue to appear as a cause with many effects, many of which adhere to us, some of which make us feel victimized.

Yet if we do the lesson willingly, that connection will be shaken and then replaced – even if dimly – by our actual identity in truth.

A hint of this lies in the insight that in our feedom, “lies the freedom of the world” (W-pI.31.4:3).

It is an illusion that we are separate from the world. In fact, the world and the body are the same illusion. The body’s eyes (and all its senses, really) reinforce this illusion but vision corrects it. Vision shows us what is real and what is unreal, and in doing so restores to us our actual identity as creators in Creation.

The circle of creation has no end. Its starting and its ending are the same. But in itself it holds the universe of all creation, without beginning and without an end.

T-28.II.1:6-8

Lesson 31 reflects the reversal of traditional conceptions of cause-and-effect. It is a reversal of our confused thought process, which inverts creation and thus does not see creation – let alone create – at all. We are cause and the world is our effect; we are cause and happiness is our effect.

It is tempting to conflate this truth with the body and the world. To say, for example, that “I” created that cardinal in that snow-covered lilac bush. In fact, what “I” created is joy – the cardinal in the snow-covered lilac bush is just an image onto which I project joy’s cause.

What happens to joy when I no longer project its cause? What happens to joy when I no longer force it to be conditional on “right” and “external” circumstances?

The healing to which A Course in Miracles directs us may or may not have effects in the dream we call body, self and world. That is neither its function nor its purpose. It’s not about the cardinal in the lilac at all.

But healing will inevitably have effects in our mind which is where Creation is. That this fact is still confusing or idealistic is okay; we are not asked to be ACIM experts but rather willing and open-minded beginners. Accepting – leaning into – the posture of a beginner humbles us because we remain invested in and attached to the ego’s emphasis on specialness-through-separation. We want to be experts. At a minimum, we want to have our spiritual shit more together than so-and-so.

Note: we all have a so-and-so and we are all somebody’s so-and-so.

But there is – because there is always – another 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. All little gods it gladly lays aside, not in resentment, but in honesty and recognition that they do not serve.

S-I.V.1:4-5

Can you see the little gods? Can you hear them? They are the ego’s means of persuading you that you are separate from creation, a detached witness and observer.

Lesson 31 is when we begin at last to set aside those “little gods” and their bland lies in favor of the grandeur that is Love and the peace that is Creation.

Are we taking baby steps? Yes.

Will we always? No.

And that itself is cause for joy.