Sean Reagan

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→

Light and joy and peace abide in me.

I think this lesson is important at two levels. First, it bolsters our confidence here and now by reminding us that we are perfect as God created us. We are not lacking in any way, however much we believe otherwise. Second, at a deeper level, it reminds us that what we are trying to accomplish is already done. We are not on a search for something distant or hidden. Rather, we are clearing interior space the better to love what we already are in truth. There is a lot of practical value in realizing this because it reduces our focus on externals. It is hard to make inner progress towards peace when we are obsessed with what appears to be happening outside of us.

I say often that A Course in Miracles will batter a serious student.  It will challenge you, pressure you, even frighten you. When you really look at the ego’s handiwork, then you are going to feel repulsed. You are going to feel terrified. The course suggests you might even feel suicidal (e.g., W-pI.93.1:3). We are not to take a warning like this lightly! You are going to feel sad and guilty and scared and angry. These feelings pass but while we’re in the midst of them it sucks. It really sucks. And that midst can last a long time! Or you think you’re past it and then you peel off another layer and the tears and suffering start all over again.

It’s a process that unfolds in a body in time. Anybody who says it’s all bliss all the time is not being honest. Here in the world we are learners, and our learning is challenging.

So we need sometimes to be reminded that it’s all okay. Right now it’s all okay. We forget that when we’re doing the work. We get so serious about being diligent students that we slip away from the natural joy and peace that is our inheritance, and which we are allowed to taste right now. And that’s why a lesson like Lesson 93 is so beautiful. It’s like a drink of water in the desert, a bed when we need to crash, a light in the darkness that threatens our soul. 

It is so refreshing to spend a day reminding ourselves that we contain light and peace and beauty and joy. It is a gift to be allowed to discard the self we made for the creation of God that we are. We may not believe that yet; we may push against it for a while longer – it’s early in the workbook, relatively speaking. But still: we are creations of Love and our remembrance of this fact is not being withheld from us.

Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its holiness and the love from which it was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace it. Let It come into Its Own (W-pI.93.9:3-6).

For me, Lesson 93 is a reminder that it’s okay to smile. It’s okay to be happy – to be nice to people, to have fun while teaching, to drink two cups of coffee, to linger watching the sun set or deer graze in a far field. Lesson 93 – essentially functioning as a microcosm of A Course in Miracles – gives us permission to be content, to be joyful even. “Here you are; this is You” (W-pI.93.9:7). 

So enjoy this lesson at that level. You’re perfect. You are exactly as God created you and whatever else appears to obscure that truth can be set gently aside. You do not need to give attention to images of sin and regret, hate and evil, depression and suffering. It is okay – it is more than okay – to feel the quiet joy of your Creator. 

A cynic – or a real hardcore student – might say, “okay fine. But you’re not really practicing A Course in Miracles when you walk around pretending your physical self in the physical world is real – even if you are being happy and kind and gentle. You’re just doubling down on the original error.”

Well, sure. I get that. And sometimes the lessons drive us in the direction of grappling with the underlying metaphysics of the course. That’s a good space to be in, too! But Lesson 93 – with its emphasis on joy, its encouragement and inspiration – is not a mere wade through the shallow end of the divine pool. If we want, it can also help us deepen at the level of Spirit – and for the very reason it is so liberating at the level of the body and the world.

That is, it is a tangible reminder that we are as God created us. And if that is so, then whatever we are seeking – whatever union we imagine the atonement will bring – is already inside of us. Right now we are capable of waking up. Right now we can go straight through the many illusions of self and world and other selves all the way to Heaven. This is what the lesson promises when it teaches us that “you  are and will forever be exactly as you were created” (W-pI.93.7:6).

We aren’t chasing something that is outside of us. We aren’t inventing anything. We aren’t earning anything. We’ve already got everything there is. All A Course in Miracles does is remind us of this fact. It brings us into contact with this fact. It lets us ease into our real identity, our real self.

It lets us taste the peace and joy of our Creator in Heaven.

And the truth of this practice is that the more we are able to manifest happiness at the physical level, the more space we clear at the spiritual level. There is a correspondence here which the course invites us to notice and accept. It’s not so hard, you know? Or it doesn’t have to be. And that is perhaps the biggest lesson Lesson 93: waking up is easier than we think.

←Lesson 92
Lesson 94→

Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.

A Course in Miracles urges us to learn how to look beyond appearances (W-pI.92.4:1), which is simultaneously an invitation. It is weakness to rely on the body’s eyes and other sense to perceive reality. Rely instead on the strength of God to keep a “steady gaze on the light that lies beyond [appearances]” (W-pI.92.4:2).

God’s strength – which is our strength – “unites with light, of which it is a part” (W-pI.92.4:3).

It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears . . Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshiped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light (W-pI.92.4:4-5, 7).

The self is not a body; it is an abstraction. The truth of it is beyond denial. We know that we are. The course is asking us to make contact with the light in which we know that we are.

The suggestion is that this light – which establishes the self – is God, and thus is not separate from what it establishes.

It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be lack in all. And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one (W-pI.92.5:4-6).

Absent our remembrance of that light, we live in darkness, and in darkness we perceive ourselves as weak. Our weakness brings forth differences rather than sameness, and emphasizes isolation over unity. It “judges and condemns, but does not love” (W-pI.92.6:3).

Thus, our goal is to perceive the light that arises in us as God’s gift to us in Creation, and which serves as our strength, reminding us only of love.

Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the Peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as one (W-pI.92.9:2-3).

To remember love is to remember what we are in truth. It is to have something to offer the world: which is the peace of knowing that we are not separate from either our Creator or Creation, and that this oneness is our identity. It is our strength.

Here, A Course in Miracles is asking us to focus less on what we are and more on how we are going about our spiritual inquiry. It asks us to find the light of Christ and the strength of God, and make use of them as we deepen into our ongoing remembrance of truth.

←Lesson 91
Lesson 93→

Miracles are seen in light.

Miracles are not dependent on us for their existence. Not seeing them does not mean they are not there any more than perceiving them causes them to exist. However, our awareness of miracles does shift according to whether we perceive them as available or not.

Therefore, because miracles are the means by which perception is healed and brought finally to truth, we need a light in which to fully see miracles. Yet it is this light which we deny because of our insistence on “being” a body.

You do not doubt that the body’s eyes can see. You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light (W-pI.91.3:3-5).

Lesson 91 of A Course in Miracles aims to shift our focus away from the darkness imposed by mis-identification of self and towards a light in which salvation is clear and simple. It poses a simple question and suggests that we are strong enough to answer it clearly and correctly.

Miracles are seen in light.
The body’s eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body. What am I (W-pI.91.6:2-5)?

This is the question A Course in Miracles is given us to answer.

What you think you are is a belief to be undone. But what you really are must be revealed to you. The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake conceals (W-pI.91.6:7-10).

The lesson does not answer the question of what we are in truth. Rather, it asks us to note the many ways we have described ourselves in the past, identify their opposite, and – even if only briefly – accept the opposite as the Holy Spirit’s indication of our real identity.

Thus, we are not weak, but strong (W-pI.91.8:4). We aren’t limited, but unlimited (W-pI.91.8:6). We aren’t an illusion, but a reality (W-pI.91.8:8).

All of these descriptions, as well as their corrections, are related to the fundamental question of whether we are bodies. Weakness, limitations and illusions are attributes of embodied experience.

Thus, A Course in Miracles asks us to give attention in a new way – and in a new direction. It is a way premised on strength and a singularly-directed will. Although this level of attentiveness feels new, it’s not. It reflects our fundamental unity with God and God’s Thoughts.

It is from Them that our strength will come. It is through Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you . . . Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles, because Their strength is yours (W-pI.91.10:2-3, 5).

In this way, lesson 91 becomes a means by which we reestablish our foundation both our commitment to healing and our ability to access the means – miracles – by which healing is brought forth in our lives.

←Lesson 90
Lesson 92→

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

We are saved, according to A Course in Miracles, when we realize that suffering is an illusion we force on ourselves, and that we can simply choose to set it aside and remember our origin and being in love.

For most of us this realization and subsequent shift in thinking occurs over time and with practice. Lessons 79 and 80 outline – in tandem and microcosm – the whole function of the course as it gently guides us from fear to love.

Lesson 79 asks us to get clear on what the problem is. This is important. We have to see the problem in order to see the solution. Nothing happens if we can’t muster the willingness to look at what’s going on. We need that clarity and that certainty. We need to be able to say, okay, this is the problem.

Our real problem – our only problem – is our belief that we are separate from God.  Every other apparent problem – be it a cash shortage, a fight with a friend, estrangement from siblings, dying parents, migraines and spotty cable signals – is a grievance, a symptom of our belief that we are separate from God. We only have many apparent problems because we’ve given this one problem credence. 

The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its place (W-pI.90.1:5-6).

In this way, A Course in Miracles comes along and asks us to give attention to our many problems in order that we might finally see – and give attention to – our belief that we are something that can be separated from God. This means doing the work of psychotherapy. It means we don’t hide our problems under a glossy happy dream. We don’t waltz through our lives singing about how beautiful life is and how happy we are.

When we do the real work of looking within – which is to say, when we practice forgiveness – then we are going to be wading through the psychic muck and that muck’s going to stink and there’s no guarantee it’s going to stop at the level of our knees. 

Say that I have a problem: I’m confused about political activism and A Course in Miracles. Should I or should I not be politically active? 

Can I see the confusion? That’s what I really want to do. I want to see the confusion. I don’t want to rush into choosing this or that response to the problem. I just want to notice how confusion functions. 

One thing I notice is that it doesn’t feel good. It feels like failure. And, because it doesn’t feel good, I don’t want to look at it. I want to deny it or minimize it. Or maybe concede that I’m confused but I’m not as confused as this person is. I displace the fear of failure by judging another as being the bigger failure. 

But then one day – maybe practicing the daily lesson – I don’t do that. Instead of judging the confusion, I just let it be. I say yes, I am confused about what it means to be separated. I let it be. I don’t fight it. Then it’s just there. I’m not trying to fix it or hide it. I’m owning it by not projecting it.

Doing this is really just seeing the problem where it is: in my mind. It’s not your problem. It’s not the world’s problem. It’s here in my thoughts. It can’t be solved by a choice in the world because that’s not where it is.

Cool fact: when we no longer judge our confusion, then it is no longer confusion. It just is. Does that make sense? It can only be confusion if we compare it to some standard of clarity. It’s only confusion when we bring some other idea in to compare it to. But if we don’t get into judgment and comparison, then there is no problem. The confusion is no longer good or bad. It’s no longer a state we have to fix in order to ensure a safe and happy and prosperous future. 

There is real freedom in seeing this because when we let go of judgment-through-comparison, which is separation, we see that we do not have a problem. There is no problem – the problem was we thought we had a problem. And we thought we had a problem because we were behaving as if separation were real. We thought there really were grounds for comparison. When we realize there aren’t, and when we bring our apparent problem into the light of this realization, then we realize – as per lesson 80 – that our many problems are indeed solved. They just aren’t there.

When we have no problems, we become naturally and seriously happy. In a state of happiness, all we can offer our brothers and sisters – and the world itself – is happiness. 

←Lesson 89
Lesson 91→

 

I am entitled to miracles.

Let miracles replace all grievances.

One way to think of a miracle is that it interrupts familiar patterns of thinking. We are going along in our life, more or less on autopilot, and the miracle appears and brings everything to a halt. Our mind stops wandering. Suddenly we are fully present and giving attention.

The miracle is kin to the Holy Instant. Time lets up its stranglehold on our world view, and we are briefly able to see clearly. “See” here is about an interior perception, not an exterior one. What do we see? That we have been listening to ego and buying into its argument that salvation lies outside of us and thus we must recommit to a form of seeking that never ever looks within.

The miracle looks within. And in doing so, reveals that listening to ego is a choice. We are choosing illusion over truth. Yet because we are the chooser, we can choose again and differently. We can give attention to the Holy Spirit, whose still quiet voice speaks on behalf of unity and oneness. It sees our brothers and sisters as allies and partners in the creative work of healing.

It does not buy into separation.

Can we see how desirable, then, a miracle is? It is literally the means by which we are brought to inner peace and joy. Then how grateful are we for the reminder that we are entitled to miracles?

And are we ready to accept that miracles are everyone’s right because they are a reflection in the world of God’s law: that we are utterly free and given only to Love?

[God’s] laws release me from all grievances, and replace them with miracles. And I would accept the miracles in place of the grievances, which are but illusions that hide the miracles beyond (W-pI.89.1:3-4).

Grievances are ego’s lifeblood and thus maintain separation because they literally fragment the world. This appears in our living as finding fault with people, institutions, belief systems ranging from political to religious to psychological. To grieve is to smash the whole and then arrange the pieces into an image we pretend is whole. At a minimum it’s an improvement on what came before.

Grievances can only beget more grievances and so our loneliness, sadness, fear, guilt and anger also multiply and spread out through our being and world. This is the belief system of ego, and its effects are grim to the point of murder.

There is another way. To accept a miracle in place of a grievance is to love against all apparent reason, and to open unto everything without qualification or condition.

I would make no exceptions and no substitutes. I want all of Heaven and only Heaven, as God wills me to have (W-pI.89.3:5-6).

Miracles bring light, and in the light we glimpse joy and peace. And so we begin to insist on miracles rather than grievances. We turn away from the body’s emphasis on appearance, accomplishment and performance. We reject the ideal that only what is external can complete us. We consent to look within, forgiving all that appears there.

In this way, our thinking changes. We become miracle-minded. We perceive the world as a site of learning and healing rather than suffering. Our familiar thinking patterns dissolve and in their place we remember God’s love and law. And we become willing to accept that God’s Will is our will, and our will is happiness for all.

←Lesson 88
Lesson 90→