Sean Reagan

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→

Let me recognize that my problems have been solved.

Lesson 80 of A Course in Miracles is so entangled with Lesson 79 it feels wrong somehow to take them separately. Yet without the clarity of the prior lesson, this one would lose some of its power. In practice, they merge together in a way that few other ACIM lessons do.

Lesson 79 teaches us that we must recognize the problem as it is in order for it to be solved. Lesson 80 gently extends the teaching: our problems are already solved. This is because we do not have multiple problems but rather a single problem – separation – and that problem has been solved. It was solved before it began.

Your one central problem has been answered, and you have no other. Therefore, you must be at peace. Salvation thus depends on recognizing this one problem, and understanding that i has been solved (W-pI.80.1:2-4).

We are saved if we can accept as fact that we are not separate from God and therefore each and every problem that we appear to have is an illusion that requires no effort, intention or application from us.

Can we do this?

You are entitled to peace today. A problem that has been resolved cannot trouble you. Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the same (W-pI.80.3:1-3).

This, then, is essential: our willingness to see all the problems the world presents to us as symptoms of the only problem we have. War, famine, flat tires, head colds, arguments at work, knotted shoe laces, undercooked fish . . .

Ego suggests that these are separate problems requiring separate solutions. It seems so rational! The solution to undercooked fish – cooking it longer – won’t help our tangled shoelaces. And at least we know how to untangle our shoelaces – we can’t say the same for ending war and famine.

Spirit gently insists that these are merely appearances, each reflecting the only problem we actually have. Mind believes it is fractured into parts, briefly at home in bodies, and constantly under siege. In fact, we remain as God created us: perfectly abstract, perfectly living, and forever free from sacrifice, suffering and death.

To give attention to Spirit is the lesson’s mandate. We need to open our minds to the truth of its teaching.

You have laid deception aside, and seen the light of truth. You have accepted salvation for yourself by bringing the problem to the answer. And you can recognize the answer because the problem has been identified (W-pI.80.2:4-6).

To see that all our problems arise out of the fundamental problem of separation, is to understand which problem needs to be solved. If we can hold the problem clearly in mind, then at the level of mind, we will be given the answer: we remain where – and as – God created us.

Salvation is a gentle shift in thought and nothing more. We take responsibility for how we think, and so our thoughts align with Spirit, who steers them gently back to love, patience, forgiveness, gentleness, wisdom and comfort. We think we are separate, and we suffer accordingly. We are not separated; love is our inheritance; joy and peace are our due, and we gain them by giving them unconditionally to all our brothers and sisters.

←Lesson 79
Lesson 81→

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

Few sentences in A Course in Miracles as neatly sum up the problem the course is given to solve as these from the first paragraph of Lesson 79:

The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized (W-pI.79.1:4-5).

If you do not recognize the problem, then you cannot solve it. Even if it is already solved, you won’t know this. We have to see clearly what the problem is: there is no substitute in healing for this simple fact.

How does this show up in our lives? It shows up largely in the belief that we have many problems, each requiring their own individual solution. And so we hunker down with each apparent problem, diligently “solving” it, only to have a whole other batch of problems arise to take its place.

We consent to this hopeless situation because its underlying function is to keep us unhappy. Tending to many problems means we never look at the one problem – separation – which is the only problem we actually have.

The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate and failure is inevitable (W-pI.79.4:1-3).

Thus, we never experience the peace and happiness that go with being entirely problem-free (W-pI.79.3:5).

The endless tangle and complexity of the world’s problems are a distraction. They can’t be solved. They are designed to keep our attention on the world and away from the mind where the power to create and heal is actually exercised. It doesn’t matter whether they are ignored or embraced, denied or studied, fixed or left undone.

So long as they keep our attention away from separation, they have served the ego’s purpose.

If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means because you recognize the problem (W-pI.79.6:2-4).

A Course in Miracles teaches us that all the world’s problems – the big ones, the little ones, the easy ones and the impossible ones – are all the same. And their sameness is what allows our mind to shift from the specificity of form to the generalizability of love. We can’t find salvation in the world; we have to look where salvation is. And when we do, we will recognize both it because we recognize its function.

The key to success with this lesson is humility. We have to be radically open-minded. It’s easy to say that our only problem is separation. We want to go past the level of words. We want to go past the level of form altogether, and reach the abstraction of what we are in truth.

We want to see separation as we believe it exists – where it exists, how it exists, in all its rotten glory – and, on the basis of that clear seeing, understand the solution as well and allow them to merge.

All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problems are. You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer by recognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be brought together and you can be at peace (W-pI.79.8:3-4).

This is equivalent to bringing light to darkness. Light is the answer to the problem of darkness. Correction can only be accomplished where correction is possible – and this can only be at the level of the error. “Change does not mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work” (T-2.VI.3:7).

Problems appear to be many; they appear to be complex; they appear to be real. Our work now is to question these appearances, and open our minds to the possibility that we have but one problem: separation, and seeing it as and where it is will allow the solution to present itself as well.

←Lesson 78
Lesson 80→