Sean Reagan

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→

The light has come.

I am under no laws but God’s.

A major premise of A Course in Miracles is that the only choice actually available to us is between reality and illusion. All peace lies in choosing reality; all fear in choosing illusion.

Illusion appears multi-faceted. There are many people to choose between. There are many jobs. There are many places to live, meals to eat, hobbies to practice. Just look at all the spiritual paths and healing modalities the world offers! Yoga, tantric sex, cognitive behavioral therapy, tarot, Buddhism, A Course in Miracles . . . 

It feels like choosing between them is real but it’s not. The only actual choice rests on seeing the sameness of all aspects of the illusion and then choosing reality instead. We don’t want the lie, we want the truth.

Thus, salvation is simply recognizing that there is really no alternative to joy and peace – only the illusion that there is. And since we are projecting the illusion in all its apparent variety, we can simply stop doing it.

The light has come. I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the darkness has gone (W-pI.88.1:6-8).

The light is simply clear seeing; it is perceiving the simplicity of the choice between truth and illusion. Darkness is slipping into the illusion and thinking that choosing one aspect over the other is the answer to our problems.

Our practice of A Course in Miracles has brought us to a space of clear seeing, empowering us to make an effective choice for the peace and happiness.

The choice we make is already accomplished (e.g., W-pI.88.1:3). This is what we learn when we “choose” truth. We remember that we are under no laws but God’s law, and therefore only love is real, and what opposes love – no matter how apparently powerful or convincing – is nothing at all.

I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God’s. And His are the laws of freedom (W-pI.88.3:7-8).

Freedom and reality are synonymous. We cannot be bound; we cannot be contained; we cannot be conditioned. Our true self – the self that is an extension of God’s Will in Creation – is beyond both description and explanation.

The radical nature of A Course in Miracles lies not in the way it improves our life in the world, but in the way it liberates us from that life by teaching us it is a horror show and torture chamber that we do not want. No matter how apparently good our lives in the world appear, they are nothing beside the glory of our real identity.

It is that identity to which we turn now, hand-in-hand, ready to be savior unto one another.

←Lesson 87
Lesson 89→

I will there be light.

There is no will but God’s.

Today we make a conscious decision to intentionally apply our will to bringing forth light rather than darkness. Thus, we are insisting on accurate perception; we are refusing the confusion and despair that attend darkness.

“Light” and “dark” are metaphors related to seeing. The latter makes seeing difficult or impossible; the former is the only means by which we can see at all. But we are not talking about the body’s eyes here, and so we are not talking about candles or lanterns or their absence.

Rather, we are talking about a way of perceiving that neither begins nor ends in judgment. It relinquishes projection. Thus, it reflects a mind which is wholly committed to being responsible for what it sees. This commitment is loving rather than fearful. And upon it rests the whole of reality.

What do you see when your eyes are closed and you look within? What does your mother look like? Your first date? Your senator? Your neighbor?

At first you will see their body – their image – but beyond that you will sense a vast ocean of ideas, memories, feelings, resentments, desires, goals and stories. It is that to which we give attention; that which we raise into the light of awareness.

We are turning inward in a gentle sustainable way. We are not afraid of what we will see, because we know we are not turning inward alone. And seeing it this way means owning that is it our projection.

Thus, we can release our brothers and sisters. What are they when they are no longer forced to bear the awful weight of projections born of fear and hate? What do we see?

This is a lot of work and none of it is easy. If it was, we wouldn’t be here studying A Course in Miracles. We succeed – indeed, our success is assured – because in looking at our brothers and sisters in love we are simultaneously recognizing that there is only one Will.

To love – which is simply to reject fear as groundless and unhelpful – is to remember our fundamental alignment with God.

In this simply remembrance, all grounds for conflict end.

I can become afraid only when I believe there is another will. I try to attack only when I am afraid, and only when I try to attack can I believe that my eternal safety is threatened. Today I will recognize that all this has not occurred. I am safe because there is no will but God’s (W-pI.87.3:3-6).

We are merely undoing what never happened, which is to say, we are merely seeing through the illusion of separate selves, separate wills and separate outcomes. We are making a commitment to one another to go together in the direction of love and peace.

It is in our togetherness that we remember that our togetherness is love and peace.

←Lesson 86
Lesson 88→

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→