Sean Reagan

Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.

To the extent we actually have problems, one of them might be that we insist on looking for salvation where it cannot be found, and thus go on in anguish and suffering when peace and happiness are literally at hand.

What does this mean in practice? It means that we look for salvation in the other – a better partner say. A new spiritual teacher. A job with more money or less responsibility. A body that looks like this rather than that. Running instead of yoga, yoga instead of watching sitcoms. We buy into the body and the world as causes and we start looking for the right one. And then we are lost. 

Because there is no “right one” in the world. Salvation is an inside job and it never fails. But we have to remember to look for it. We have to insist on “no more idle seeking” (W-pI.86.2:6).

What we are in truth – which is to say, in Creation – is not separate from God. That is why God’s plan for salvation is in our mind – because our mind is an extension of God’s mind, and “ideas leave not their source” (T-26.VII.4:7).

Yet has God given answer to the world of sickness, which applies to all its forms. God’s answer is eternal, though it works in time, where it is needed. Yet because it is of God, the laws of time do not affect its workings. It is in this world, but not a part of it. For it is real, and dwells where all reality must be (T-26.VII.4:2-6).

That is a lovely description of salvation: and remember, it describes the contents of our mind, because it is the mind we share with God.

Today’s review distinguishes between what we are in truth – the light of the world, blessed Creations of a wholly perfect and loving Creator – and what ego is. Ego has its own agenda, its own plan. Its plan revolves in part around grievances. It’s a grievance collector.

Grievances are attacks on the Holy Instant, on the present, because they cherish the past. Not only are they focused on the past, but they are a perception of the past that insists on seeing only a brother or sister’s errors. Grievances are deeply invested in the self as contained by – forever bound to – a body, struggling and stumbling through a world of pain and confusion, forever in conflict with other bodies.

It is not possible to clear a space for the calm light of grace when we are torn by fear and hatred like this. 

Lesson 86 reminds us of that we are called to a form of forgiveness that transcends the limitations of the body and the world. It aims to make the stakes clear. We cannot remember peace and experience joy if we are not vigilant against ego’s habit of getting us to focus on its agenda instead of God’s. And the way it does this is by utilizing grievances. To grieve is to overlook the radiant present in which harm is not possible at all. 

Salvation – as our Creator extends it, and as we know it in our shared mind – is present the moment we choose it. Time and space end in that choice. We are not earning anything, or making anything, or traveling to far lands to reclaim something. We aren’t actually on a journey. Salvation is simple because it’s here now. The miracle always returns us to this moment, allowing us to choose again in favor of Love. 

←Lesson 85
Lesson 87→

My grievances hide the light of the world in me.

My salvation comes from me.

A Course in Miracles suggests that to hold a grievance is to condemn both our own self and other selves to a body and a world in which those bodies can only suffer and die.

When we insist on our right to hold others responsible for our unhappiness, we effectively insist on unhappiness because our brothers and sisters are not the cause of our unhappiness. We are.

That is, joy reflects a decision we make at the level of mind to be either happy or unhappy. Our brothers and sisters are merely reflections of the decision made. Pretending they’re the cause of our emotional state is like holding a mirror responsible for our decision to wear mis-matched clothing.

To see, I must lay grievances aside. I want to see, and this will be the means by which I will succeed (W-pI.85.1:6-7).

That is, if we are going to partake of Christ’s vision and the light in which that vision functions, then we are going to have to work to let go of grievances. This means we are going to notice when grievances occur and then intentionally release them.

What is it that we will see with this new vision? This seeing that is not impaired by grievances?

We will see that our salvation comes from us; it is an inside job.

[Salvation] is in me because its Source is there. It has not left its Source, and so cannot have left my mind. I will not look for it outside myself (W-pI.85.3:3-5).

Just as we refuse to hold our brothers and sisters responsible for pain, we are also not going to hold them responsible for our salvation. We are not going to make idols of them. We are going to commit to seeing them exactly as they are in truth, free of all the projections that we would impose on them in the interest of not accepting responsibility for our own healing.

When we accept responsibility for salvation, then salvation extends beyond us and everything that we behold reflects the love that we both are and extend (e.g., W-pI.85.3:7). Seeing its extension is how we remember that we both have and are it.

Remembering that we both have and are it, is how we are saved.

←Lesson 84
Lesson 86→

Love created me like itself.

Love holds no grievances.

The question is what are we. The suggestion A Course in Miracles makes is that we are answering that question incorrectly, but can be taught to answer it correctly.

We are not bodies – subject to the myriad woes forever visited on bodies – but rather Love Itself. That is, our very existence is “in the likeness” of our Creator (W-pI.84.1:2).

That which is made by Love cannot also be perishable or subject to suffering.

What in you – what aspect of you – will not die? Never suffers?

To answer that question we have to look away from the body, and from a thought system that insists we are bodies. We have to declare – whether we believe it yet or not – that we are Creations of Love.

I am not a body. I would recognize my reality today. I will worship no idols, nor raise my own self-concept to replace my Self (W-pI.84.1:4-6).

When we hold these declarations in mind, our relationship with the world shifts. When we are frustrated or frightened or grieved, we simply ask if there is a way to see this that is consistent with the truth of “Love created me like itself” (W-pI.84.1:8).

The answer is yes, there is always another way to see this, and it is always related to letting go of grievances. Grievances are the way we insist that our brothers and sisters are bodies which, in turn, reinforces the illusion that we are bodies.

Grievances are completely alien to love. Grievances attack love and keep its light obscure. If I hold grievances I am attacking love, and therefore attacking my Self (W-pI.84.3:2-4).

We remember that we are love by refusing to do what love would not do: love does not hold grievances, no more do we.

This becomes a way of acting in the world. It is a decision to think in a way that shifts our behavior in ways that remind us – and our brothers and sisters, indeed, the world – that we all share in the likeness of love.

Thus, by remembering love we move away from our addiction to grievances, bring forth more loving and equitable relationships which actually do heal the world and thus remember what we are in truth (e.g., W-pI.84.3:6).

Which is the only question we need to answer . . .

←Lesson 83
Lesson 85→

My only function is the one God gave me.

My happiness and my function are one.

The end of conflict – which is the remembrance of peace – is our objective. In worldly terms – which includes our bodies – this seems impossible. And, in those terms, it is! Our lives, and the world in which those lives play out, are premised on conflict, the idea that one wins at another’s expense. Survival is the real goal.

Into that depressing situation come the lessons of A Course in Miracles. Lessons 65 and 66 respectively make clear that the end of conflict is not only possible but necessary. And they sweeten the pot, so to speak, by reminding us that our happiness depends on becoming responsible for bringing conflict to an end. There is no other way to know the joy and peace of God.

When we bring our lives into accord with God’s will, we are essentially laying aside all our personal plans and ambitions. Effectively, we are laying down the self. Do with me what you will, God. I’m ready. And God instructs us to extend forgiveness – to see the world as it really is, and our brothers and sisters, too, and from that space of true seeing, to offer only blessing by knowing blessing is all we can offer.

Forgiveness reveals the truth simply by refusing to relate to anyone or anything at the level of error. Given by and informed by the Vision of Christ, it does not acknowledge differences or degrees at all.

It’s not that remembering and realizing the Vision of Christ and the self in which it appears is easy – for a long time, lifetimes perhaps – it is not. But when we begin, even a little, to align our will with God’s, to the best of our limited finite ability, we take enormous strides in ending the illusion of separation.

A Course in Miracles makes clear that happiness as the ego understands it is really sadness. It is a form of death and attack. It is premised on loss – ours or somebody else’s – but loss nonetheless. The pursuit of this ersatz happiness – which is literally the foundation of the illusion of self and world – eventually leads to despair, misery and hatred.

We have to revise and rethink our understanding of happiness.

We have to learn that true happiness – happiness that does not shift with the emotional winds, happiness that is not contingent on external conditions and circumstances – can only come from doing what God wills. When we are in the place of peace – when we attain the condition of truth – then we are happy. It surpasses what we think we know. It is not of the body.

Seeing the lessons again in the review periods allows us to appreciate the intensity of the learning they can bring forward in our living. We are guided along a path of radical undoing and healing. It is not just another approach to the same old problems. It is the end of problems altogether.

Often, in that space of seeing just how radical the course is, we become discouraged. We decide it’s for spiritual giants or geniuses. But it is for us – it is literally for us. That’s why it came into the world and that’s why it is on our plate. It is given so that we might use it to wake up and remember that we are truly home.

←Lesson 82
Lesson 84→

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

Let me not forget my function.

Healing is specific. We heal the world not from far away but from the heart of it – right here in the very bodies and circumstances that are given. There is no world but this! And when we see that, then we can see more clearly that there is no world.

Forgiveness – which, reflecting the Vision of Christ, does not perceive wrongs but rather wholeness in which wrongness does not exist as even a possibility – is a gift to us. We learn it is our gift by using it; indeed, we learn it is a gift by using it.

Its use confirms our function. We are here to make happy and, in happiness, to remember the abstract perfection that is reality.

I would not forget my function, because I would remember my self . . . And unless I fulfill my function, I will not experience the joy that God intends for me (W-pI.82.3:2, 4).

What does this mean in practice? The ACIM workbook lessons are a clue. They urge us into direct relationship with our brothers and sisters; they move us away from abstraction and into practice.

Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name].
I share the light of the world with you, [name] (W-pI.82.2:2-3).

In this way, we effectively lean into the illusion we appear to be living in order to fully present to it as learners and sharers. We aren’t here to solve big metaphysical problems, fun and interesting as they can be. We are here to give attention to our brothers and sisters, and to be as kind and patient and loving as we can be.

Forgiveness is the means by which we do this. Of our own self, our capacity for kindness and patience (and gentleness and generosity and . . . ) are always compromises, always conditional. But forgiveness allows us to settle into depths of love, the extension of which amazes us – because it defies the ego’s limited and limiting definitions of self – and thus teaches us what we are in truth.

My forgiveness is the means by which I become aware of the light of the world in me. My forgiveness is the mans by which the world is healed, together with myself (W-pI.82.1:3-4).

This, then, is the essence of our ACIM practice: we become willing and open-minded to learn that we are love itself. And – to the very extent of our readiness – that is precisely the lesson we learn.

←Lesson 81
Lesson 83→

I am the light of the world.

Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

Our function as the light of the world is related to truthfulness. Light reveals what is true – light shines on reality. It undoes what obscures – what darkens – reality. When we accept that our function is “lighting up the world” (W-pI.81.1:2) we are really declaring our intention to let only truth be true (T-14.II.2:1).

Like you, the Holy Spirit did not make truth. Like God, He knows it to be true. He brings the light of truth into the darkness, and lets it shine on you. And as it shines your brothers and sisters see it, and realizing that this light is not what you have made, they see in you more than you see (T-14.II.4:1-4).

This is the understanding that turns us into “happy learners” (e.g. T-14.II.7:1). Nor is our learning for us alone.

Behold your brothers and sisters in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of darkness. The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you here asleep (T-14.II.7:1-2).

This insistence on truth is related to our insistence that we will no longer be what we are not. We are going to live from the light of holiness and love, rather than fear.

This obligates us to practice forgiveness – which is not the perception of wrongs and a decision to overlook them (which is simply the ego’s transactional version of charity) but rather not seeing wrongdoing at all, which is the vision of Christ.

Christ’s eyes are open, and he will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours . . . The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the real world, and by this he will learn to re-invest in himself (T-12.VI.4:4, 9).

This is not a question of doing but of accepting (e.g., W-pI.81.3:4). It is a question of trust (e.g., W-pI.81.3:5), specifically, trust and accepting that what we are in truth cannot now nor ever be excluded from the accomplishment of God’s perfect kingdom.

It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me. And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly unambiguous before my sight (W-pI.81.3:2-3).

Thus, Lesson 81 reinforces our fundamental commitment to an ACIM practice grounded on remembering what we are in truth, and knowing that our identity is not actually in doubt. Only our own light can teach us this.

←Lesson 80
Lesson 82→