Sean Reagan

Salvation is my only function here.

It is challenging sometimes to remember that salvation in A Course in Miracles is essentially a saving from something that never happened. Indeed, salvation can be said to be the simple remembrance that separation is an illusion, not an actual problem that we are charged with solving. 

[Salvation] reflects the truth because it is the means by which you can escape illusions. Yet it is not yet the truth because it undoes what was never done (W-pI.99.2:4-5).

Hence, salvation reflects a kind of helpful borderland – a liminal space – that, like forgiveness, allows us to “undo” what was never done (W-pI.99.2:3).

We believe what we think, and project a world that confirms our beliefs. Therefore, because we believe that we are separated from God and Creation, and live a life premised on that separation – the separation is effectively real to us. In truth it never happened. In our thoughts, it did. So we need correction, rescue, help.

Salvation rescues us from the mistaken belief that it is possible to forcibly leave God and set up divine shop on our own. It corrects the mistaken belief, and thus realigns the mind with Reality.

Thus, if we are going to be saved, salvation must do two things. First, it has to recognize that what the mind thinks happened, never happened. But second – and in apparent contradiction of the first point – it has to respect the mind’s mistaken belief.

The plan of salvation has to function both in illusion and with illusion in order  to undo illusion. Of this plan, A Course in Miracles is effusive.

What joins the separated mind and thoughts with Mind and Thought which are forever one? What plan could hold the truth inviolate, yet recognize the need illusions bring, and offer means by which they are undone without attack, and with no touch of pain? What but a Thought of God could be this plan, by which the never done is overlooked, and sins forgotten which were never real? (W-pI.99.4:1-3)

This plan resides in our healed mind and is the Holy Spirit’s domain. It is the simple idea that our only function is salvation, that God is still love, and that what we appear to endure in separation is not God’s will but an illusion readily undone.

Practicing Lesson 99 simply involves reminding ourselves of this truth as often as possible. We give five minutes every hour – and as often as practicable and desirable in between – to remembering that God is Love, that suffering and anguish are not God’s will, and that we are not separate from God.

All the world of pain is not his will. Forgive yourself the Thought He wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which He has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were His will (W-pI.99.7:4-6).

Our job in this lesson is to create space. We do this through repetition. Each time we remind ourselves that God is Love, and are open to the truth of it, then the ego’s capacity for disruption and chaos is diminished. Our minds long to dwell in the simple clarity of God. All that is asked of us is willingness.

Importantly, Lesson 99 also asks us to surrender our secrets: to keep nothing from God. This matters! The dark corners of our mind – the secrets that we would keep to ourselves forever – are the means by which the ego keeps the separation active in our minds. They beget shame, guilt, resentment and other forms of fear. Thus we are asked to “[o]pen your secrets to His kindly light, and see how bright this light still shines in you (W-pI.99.8:4).

Salvation is our function because remembering God is our function. And it is not a question of whether we will go, but when.

You cannot lose the gifts your Father gave. You do not want to be another self. You have not function that is not of God (W-pI.99.10:2-4).

Thus, Lesson 99 is simultaneously a call to deepen our practice through repetition of the simple idea that God is Love, but it also reassures us that we cannot fail to remember God. There is a pervasive confidence in this lesson: a sense that we are ready at last to give over to the Holy Spirit all that we would withhold from God and thus be liberated to know again the Love that is our Source and true identity.

←Lesson 98
Lesson 100→

I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.

A nontrivial aspect of awakening as A Course in Miracles anticipates it is realizing that our true Self is free of error, including the error of believing that sin is possible. Accepting this becomes a gateway to realizing that we are not bodies but “thoughts in the mind of God,” for whom only joy and peace are possible.

The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their safety. They do not appeal to magic, nor invent escapes from fancied threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what it is given them to do (W-pI.98.3:1-3).

Our function is to accept atonement for ourselves, which naturally aligns us with our healed mind, which naturally extends a quiet joy and peace unto the world. As the course makes clear, in choosing salvation and bringing forth its effects, we are not alone (e.g., W-pI.98.4:4).

Our acceptance of atonement will assume a worldly form. We might find ourselves taking a new approach to our marriage or to parenting. Perhaps we will find a new job or move to a new city. Go to therapy, do yoga, hike the Appalachian Trail.

The form our function takes is not what matters. What matters is what we extend through that form. And the critical element of this is getting out of our own way. We don’t demand that life do this and that. We don’t become addicted to perfect outcomes as ego would have them. We become passive without quitting. We’re watching, we’re here but we aren’t addicted. We aren’t invested.

This means that we have to be willing to let ego go. Ego is simply the voice that constantly narrates our living, constantly judging and assessing it, forever reinforcing the fundamental separation of a self split from both Creator and Creation.

The Holy Spirit is our alternative to ego. When ego is let go, the Holy Instant reappears. We remember it and in it the Holy Spirit speaks.

He will enable you to understand your special function. He will open up the way to happiness, and peace and trust will be His gifts . . . And you will have conviction then of Him Who knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven (W-pI.98.9:2-3, 5).

In this way, the Holy Spirit becomes our Teacher, gently teaching us how to notice ego and let go of ego, and thus to prefer the creativity and grace of liberation. We meet our own Self, and that Self is not apart from God. When we know this as our reality, it becomes all that we teach in turn.

←Lesson 97
Lesson 99→

I am spirit.

This is a positive declaration of our reality; it is an assertion of truth, according to A Course in Miracles. Do you believe it? Is it your reality?

It is also a negative assertion. That is, by declaring that we are spirit, it simultaneously declares that we are not bodies.

It accepts no split identity, nor tries to weave opposing factors into unity. It simply states the truth (W-pI.97.1:2-3).

When we say that we are spirit – implicitly accepting that we are not bodies – we also leave behind the many conflicts and problems that bodies have in the world. Starving kids, cancer, long day at work – these are not problems. They aren’t even experiences. They are illusions masking the simple truth that we are spirit “in whose mind abides the miracle in which all time stands still” (W-pI.97.4:1).

Is this your truth? If not, why not? Do you want it to be? Where is the resistance? Where is the glad acceptance?

This current sequence of lessons shifts our focus from larger blocks of time at the beginning and end of the day to hourly five-minute intervals given to the Holy Spirit, whose strength and integrity carry us past resistance and into glad acceptance.

Give Him the minutes which He needs today, to help you understand with Him you are the spirit that abides in Him, and calls through His Voice to every living thing; offers His sight to everyone who asks; replaces error with the simple truth (W-pI.97.4:4).

This is kin to giving permission to our right mind – that part of us that knows it remains united with its Creator in Creation – to effectively run the show for a bit. The effects of that release are significant and they are not for us alone.

The Holy Spirit will be glad to take five minutes of each hour from your hands, and carry them around this aching world where pain and misery appear to rule. He will not overlook one open mind that will accept the healing gifts they bring, and he will lay them everywhere He knows they will be welcome (W-pI.97.5:1-2).

Salvation is not singular but relational. When we give attention to the healing of our brothers and sisters, it returns to us as a brilliant and steady light that both leads out of the darkness and forever undoes our habit of getting lost or distracted (W-pI.97.6:2-3).

We are spirit. What does this mean for you? How will you know? Each small step we take today – regardless of how timidly or uncertainly or reluctantly we take it – teaches us what it means. And the effect of that teaching is a certainty about self-identity that yields only peace and quiet joy.

←Lesson 96
Lesson 98→

Salvation comes from my one Self.

The specific invitation that A Course in Miracles makes is always to give attention to what is within rather than what is without. We are not seeking a missing piece in the world which we can find and integrate and thus restore our self to glory but rather undoing our mistaken belief that anything is missing at all.

This is what the course means when it teaches us that salvation comes from the unified Self, the one Self that we are in truth, forever whole and perfect in Creation, as befits the Love that is our Creator.

You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace . . . You are one Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself (W-pI.95.12:1, 3).

Yet we cannot know this about our self if we experience as having degrees, or parts. If we project a dual rather than an nondual nature, we are lost and have deprived ourselves of salvation.

The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you try, what means you use and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you would be saved. Until you have accepted this, you will attempt an endless list of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before, and failing as the next one surely will (W-pI.96.2:1-2).

This is a conflict between a self that we make and project, which has nothing to do with the Self that is united with God. The Self united with God cannot be divided. All our hope rests on accepting this, even if we do not yet believe it, or even see a way towards believing it.

Thus, it is a question of giving our mind and all its power of creation over to Spirit, holding on to not a single shred of egoic will. A mind that believes it is contained by a body will inevitably perceive itself as attacked, and will defend itself in kind.

The solution is simply to deny that the body is the mind’s home, and to allow the mind to remember the Holy Spirit’s gentle presence and sure guidance. This is actual experience that we have; we let go of the egoic narrative. What remains is the quiet confidence of Spirit, who quickly reminds us of our Creator and our place in Creation.

The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was done (W-pI.96.7:2-3).

Thus, our practice becomes one of giving attention to the stillness in which ego is undone because it is seen clearly that it never existed at all. And then, our practice becomes one of listening to the Voice that speaks in that stillness, teaching us that our mind can only “bless all things” (W-pI.96.10:4).

←Lesson 95
Lesson 97→

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

We have but one function in Creation: to remember what we are in truth. This remembrance is for all, and so naturally extends throughout Creation. This is the good news: we are not separate from our Creator and therefore not alien unto Creation.

We can be happy. We can be at peace.

You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and that there will be . . . Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts (W-pI.95.1: 1, 3).

What we are in truth is One with both Creator and Creation: to know God is to know our Self, and to know our Self is know our brother and sister. This is the truth in us, and remembrance of it dispels all doubt and confusion, all sorrow and distress, all guilt, fear and anger.

To remember what we are in truth is not an affirmation of the separated self, with its personal story, its memories and dreams, its hopes for life and fears of death. Rather, it is an affirmation of the Self beyond ego and separation, and thus evokes all the separated ones. It is a shared dream of separation.

Be vigilant . . . Repeat today’s idea as frequently as possible, and understand that each time you do, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of truth within their mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace (W-pI.95.14: 5, 8).

“I am one Self” (W-pI.95.11:4). We are one Self.

To the separated mind which believes in distinctions, and values based on distinctions, and in choosing between distinctions in an attempt to become happy and free, this is idealistic at best and insane at worst.

Our goal is to make contact with the idea not at the level of analysis, but the level of experience. It’s less about what it means and more about how it feels to consider it. Lesson 95 states the simple truth about us. Why won’t we accept it? What have we placed before it?

A Course in Miracles is not complicated but it is challenging. Ego does not relinquish its stranglehold easily. Lesson 95 invites a head-on confrontation, an hourly reminder to us in our separated state that we remain as God created us, wholly united and entirely one.

Thus, our work is simply to show up and be open to the dawning of the only memory that matters: our oneness in and with Creation. We are simply willing to perceive a new way, and our willingness becomes the means by which the new – which is the familiar, the only – is given to us again.

←Lesson 94
Lesson 96→

I am as God created me.

This simple statement is the foundation of the peace that we remember in our practice of A Course in Miracles. We remain as God created us. This is the idea that silences ego, ends temptation and brings “complete salvation” (W-pI.94.1:1). This is the hinge on which all our spiritual learning and practice turns. This is all we have to remember.

And yet . . . we forget it. We deny it. Or we accept it but hide it where we can’t make use of it. Maybe someday, we tell ourselves. Or maybe we find it so terrifying that even to imagine its healing potential feels impossible. How many times do ACIM students – including you, including me – reach this lesson and gloss over it, or promise themselves they’ll get to it tomorrow, or next time, and just continue on in the shadow of hate and fear?

It happens to all of us. If it didn’t, A Course in Miracles wouldn’t exist.

This handful of syllables – just a few words – can function as a beautiful shot in the arm, bucking us up for what seems to be a long and wearisome road. We need that. We need to know that we’re going to be okay and that it’s going to work out.

If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured  your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well . . . Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Creation (W-pI.94.2:2-3, 5).

The heart of this lesson lies in its emphasis on how little we have to do to realize it. What God created does not need to be recreated. It does not need to be spit-polished. It does not need to go through rehearsals to be ready for the limelight. It does not need to be improved upon in any way. It is perfect as it is. In that simple fact, the past and the future are both undone, and only the present moment remains.

Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth (W-pI.94.4:1).

Yes, I know. After that “nothing is required” comes a long list of what we do have to do – and it seems like a nontrivial obligation. We are called to lay aside not just a handful of idols, or the really big and bad idols, but all idols. In other words, we have to see every last projection and own every last denial. We have to give it all up to the light of the Holy Spirit.

This is non-negotiable. And not easy. Nothing is required – except everything.

But here’s the thing. It is not so hard to let all that go. If you are willing to let it go, and if you are able to bring that willingness to bear with the Holy Spirit, then all that egoic baggage will fall away. It will fall away like nothing at all because it’s not real. It has no bearing on what we are in truth. And thus it has no effect. And when at last we see this – truly, when we are even just a little willing to see it – then it disappears like morning mist in at warm sun.

And so in truth not much at all is being asked here except that we consider the possibility that we’ve been wrong about literally everything and, on that basis, become ready and willing now to learn what is right. That’s all. We have made a mess of inner inner peace and joy and now we’re ready to admit that fact and let the One who knows better instruct us.

Our learning will be sweet and total, because we learn the only lesson that matters, from the only Teacher who knows: we remain as God created us. Alleluia!

←Lesson 93
Lesson 95→