Rethinking our Function: ACIM Lesson 186

A Course in Miracles revolves around the idea that salvation – ours and the world’s – is found in our ability to recognize and embrace our true identity as extensions of God in Creation, which identity is far beyond the ego’s limited perception.

On this view, the statement “salvation of the world depends on me” becomes a declaration of our function. Our personal salvation is inextricably yoked to our responsibility to save the world. Salvation is not personal but collective. It extends beyond the domain of body-identification. And it calls for humility and acceptance.

Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given to us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are not worthy (W-pI.186.2:1-5).

Thus, the Course is emphasizing that healing and redemption begin with us – they take form with us, they are enacted in and by us – but they are not separate from the salvational work of all our brothers and sisters. The collective state of the world is a reflection of our inner peace, ours and everyone else’s. As we allow ourselves to be healed by the Holy Spirit, surrendering ego-driven thoughts and judgments, the world’s healing is simultaneously accomplished.

It is fair to say that salvation – which, again, is healing, which is simply the recognition of wholeness – depends on our capacity to recognize and give attention only to the Holy Spirit. At first this is difficult and onerous, but in time we learn it is the source of calm productivity.

If God’s Voice assures that you that salvation needs your part, and the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so . . . the humble are free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do (W-pI.186.6:4, 6).

The temptation is to feel belittled. Can salvation truly depend on, you know, giving up grievances? Being a kinder, gentler father and brother? A less-dramatic co-worker? Serving others rather than demanding or expecting that they serve us?

What about the bright lights of spirit? What about ascended masters? What about the razzle-dazzle of this or that guru or teacher?

All those without exception are the fever dreams of ego, the false self with which we identify, whose argument that we are vulnerable sinners has become second nature. Yet even this will be undone, simply because it is not real. Separation is an illusion! This is all the Holy Spirit really teaches us. And as we learn it, we learn how to create the way God in Heaven creates.

. . . your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who knows no error and His Voice is certain of Its messages. They will not change, nor be in conflict (W-pI.186.11:1-4).

This is the clarity that accepting our function provides for us. We remember our true identity as eternal and loving, wholly united with Creator and Creation, and capable only of Love. Forgiveness becomes our practice as naturally as holding grievances once did.

Forgiveness allows us to let go of ego-based beliefs and judgments and allow recognition of our oneness in and with God to become the whole light of awareness. When we forgive, we cultivate a state of mind that is aligned with love, peace, and truth. The inseperability of God’s Will and our will becomes our strength.

Acceptance and obedience are similar. We tend to reject obedience; we may not be the driver of the bus but nobody is going to tell us where to sit. Yet obeying God is the very means by which our joy is completed, because it reflects our total unconditional acceptance of God’s goodness.

His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already (W-pI.186.13:1-2).

Ego’s voice is characterized by fear, judgment, and separation. The Holy Spirit, who is the Voice for God to which this lesson refers, speaks the language of love, unity, and peace. By becoming aware of the ego’s thought system and choosing to align instead with the Voice for God, we naturally perform miracles – shifts in perception by which the salvation of the world is accomplished.

The Twentieth Principle of A Course in Miracles

Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth. This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle (T-1.I.20:1-2).

The confusion that A Course in Miracles is given to correct is our identification with the body rather than spirit, and the various arguments and rationales that we consciously and unconsciously adopt in defense of this position.

Miracles restore to awareness our actual identity. Spirit represents what we are in truth, which cannot be contained in a body. A Course in Miracles does not deny the body or its experiences, it simply invites us to reconsider our conviction that we are the body. It recontextualizes the body away from our familiar understanding, thus allowing us to experience the self in a new way.

This principle effectively invites us to shift our focus from the physical and temporal realm of the body to the spiritual and eternal, which is the level of mind, and to remember that it is the latter level that reflects our actual identity and true nature.

The phrase “altar of truth” is used symbolically here. We are conditioned to think of altars as physical objects, sites capable of channeling divine or spiritual energy and meaning. A Course in Miracles reverses that emphasis. Love and peace are found in non-material domains; healing occurs as we allow the miracle to correct our misperception of body and spirit, and essentially realign them with the truth as God created it. In this sense, the altar is everywhere and all things. It is a way of being, rather than a place in which to be.

It is important to remember that A Course in Miracles is not advocating for conflict between body and spirit. Spirit does not change; the body does. Spirit cannot die; the body must. Perceiving a conflict between these two domains is a confusion both sponsored and egged on by ego. Our work is not fight the body or privilege the spirit; it is simply to give attention as directed by the Holy Spirit, Who is ever devoted to clarifying our perception of reality. There are lessons to learn, confusions to undo, and even problems to solve. None of that is a crisis, so long as we remember it is all given to help us remember – by teaching one another – what we are in truth.

Thus, the fundmenatal clarification – that we are not bodies and there is no world – happens in a body in the world. Again, this is not a problem! It is, rather, a solution. As the Course makes clear, everything that appears to occur to us in the world is a lesson given to help us remember our true home and self (e.g., W-pI.193.h).

Miracles are a means by which the memory of truth dawns in the mind which yet sleeps and remains unaware of what is true. Healing is the process by which the mind that believes it is a body, remembers that it cannot be a body, and thus is free to create as God creates.

The Nineteenth Principle of A Course in Miracles

Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time (T-1.I.19:1-3).

Miracles unify all minds who yet believe they are separate and personal in God Who created all minds as one. In essence, the miracle reminds us who and what we are in truth, undoing the illusion of separation and personal interest upon which all suffering rests.

Miracles are moments of healed perception: they are moments when love, not fear, guides our understanding and interpretation of the data our bodily senses gather. The miracle’s occurrence reminds us of our connection to God and to Creation; they remind us we are not bodies.

In a sense, the miracle gently recontextualizes the body not as the center of experience but as an aspect of it, like how a starry night depends not on one star but on many altogether.

Miracles rely on cooperation, rather than competition. They rely on coordination rather than conflict. They rely on communication. The so-called Sonship, which is the collective identity of all God’s creation – all living beings are our brothers and sisters – is the site of cooperation. It is the site in which we learn to choose cooperation over conflict, in order that we might remember our shared divinity.

Miracles are evidence that we are listening to the Holy Spirit, Who is God’s Teacher, and are committed to action based in love rather than fear. It is not about the end of the body but about the body’s translation into helpfulness. Miracles are about service, not competition. In service to one another, we remember who and what we are in truth.

This principle also suggests that miracles reflect eternal, rather than temporal laws. It is the body which experiences time – time as a flow, time as a means of measuring experience, time as the cause of entropy et cetera. To the body, temporal time is reality. But to spirit, the only laws are the laws of Creation, which are the laws of love, and time is subject to them, not the other way around.

. . . you can only give. And this is love, for this alone is natural under the laws of God. In the holy instant the laws of God prevail, and only they have meaning. The laws of the world cease to hold any meaning at all (T-15.VI.5:6-9).

Love, because it transcends bodies, also transcends time. Cooperation – because it is a reflection of eternal laws – can also transcend time. Or rather, as a miracle, it can shorten time, and even render time unnecessary.

Thus, miracles occur in the context of separation. We experience miracles in these bodies in this world. A dire conflict dissolves in laughter, generations of systemic violence are healed, we wink at a crying child and they smile. The miracle always heals us here and now.

But.

The miracle heals us in this way because it is not subject either to the world’s laws nor to the ego’s interpretation of perception. It is outside of all that and, however briefly, it teaches us that what we are in truth is also outside of all that. In this way, the miracles teaches us that we are free – free to create as God creates and free to be happy in gentle and sustainable ways.

In our recognition of our freedom, we naturally lean yet further into cooperation and collaboration, extending both the frequency and the range of miracle-minded thinking. Thus, miracles are also generative of the very joy and peace that they evoke in us. They always include the other.

A Course in Miracles Lesson 195

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

In the world’s eyes, we are grateful when – comparing ourselves to others – we are thankful because we are not suffering the way they are, we have more than they have, et cetera. We don’t live in a war zone, we aren’t subject to famine. A tornado didn’t just pass through. It’s not that we wish these things on others. It’s that we don’t wish them on us.

But this is incoherent. How can the fact that others suffer more than us make us happy? How we can be thankful at all when suffering is present anywhere to any degree?

Hence the brutal judgment – and the inevitable fragmentation – of “there but for the grace of God go I.”

It is hard to imagine a more unfair characterization of God and Love.

Fortunately, there is – because there is always – another way.

It is insane to offer thanks because of suffering. But it is equally insane to fail in gratitude to One Who offers you the certain means whereby all pain is healed, and suffering replaced with laughter and with happiness (W-pI.195.2:1-2).

In other words, the distorted interpretation of perception offered by the ego forces us into a state of competition with our brothers and sisters – which competition is premised on scarcity – and denies the existence of God, Who is our Salvation.

But the Holy Spirit offers us the alternative – gratitude for the One Who can show us the way out of suffering and into joy and happiness.

When we can effectively discern between these two voices and ways of thinking, then we naturally lean into the one that brings us peace by exposing the other’s tyrranical use of guilt to keep us fearful and alone.

To know the Voice for God is to know the cause for eternal thankfulness.

In essence, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Love is the answer to all our so-called problems and that only Love is real. We can elect to see the world through the eyes of Love – which is the Holy Spirit – or through the eyes of fear, which is the all-too-familiar mode of ego.

Love does not compare, because Love does not recognizes any differences upon which judgment can rest (W-pI.195.4:2). Thus, the very concept of value is foreign to Love. When we commit to learning only from the Teacher of Love, then we accept the undoing of differences that Love entails. The end of differences is not the end of the self, but it is the beginning of the freedom and creativity in which and by which we remember our oneness with God.

Gratitude is yoked to Love because Love undoes the differences upon which our fear of loss, suffering and death are premised. What is not different is the same. This is not merely a statement about our own condition; it is a statement about the collective, about all our brothers and sisters, broadly defined to include whales and tulips and dragonflies. To exclude even a single one is to forget the cause for joy and peace.

. . . let your gratitude make room for all who will escape with you; the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death. All these go with you (W-pI.195.5:2-3).

Perhaps it is easy to imagine a blue whale or a solitary moose sharing salvation with us. Perhaps it is easy to imagine horses or dogs partaking of Love with us. But it is harder to imagine a serial killer or a rapist. It is harder to imagine an arms dealer or a racist.

But A Course in Miracles insists that our gratitude extend even unto those we would exclude – perhaps especially those we would exclude.

Let us not compare ourselves with [our brothers and sisters], or thus we split them off from our awareness of the unity we share them, as they with us . . . We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore one with Him (W-pI.195.5:4, 6:1).

Love holds everything, and we give thanks for all of it – otherwise our thanks is hollow (W-pI.195.6:3).

This lesson is reminsiscent of the eighteenth principle of miracles, which teaches us miracles are the “maximal service” we can render to our brothers and sisters (T-1.I.18:2). The miracle establishes our equality with all life, with all Creation, and we rejoice accordingly.

Tara Singh, who considered Helen Schucman one of his spiritual teachers, often talked about her insistence that he keep a gratitude journal, and remain always in contact with the many reasons to be grateful and thus to truly walk – and not just talk about – “the way of love” (W-pI.195.8:1).

When we are grateful for all things, and when we remember – and act in remembrance of – the fact that Love holds all things equally, because it recognizes only their sameness, then we are gently and naturally restored to our true identity in God, because we no longer fear God. We no longer need to exclude this person or that idea from Love. Our gratitude becomes as close to unconditional as it is possible to get in the human frame and narrative. It has surrendered the personal prerogative of judgment, and walks gently with the Spirit that infuses the Mind we share with Jesus, ever teaching us to become Christ.

Who loves this way, remembers Love. And who loves this way remembers that God loves us all and calls us His Child – what more could we ask for?

Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For gratitude is but an aspect of the Love which is the Source of all Creation. God gives thanks to you . . . (W-pI.195.10:2-4).

Love is the answer to all our so-called problems because only Love is real. When we accept our responsibility to see as Christ sees and to not see as Christ does not see, then the illusion of the separate self and world in which it forges its own survival are undone and we remember our unity in creation. Together we share the one Love that creates us equal.

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The Eighteenth Principle of A Course in Miracles

A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously (T-1.I.18:1-3).

Service is a form of love. It is a way of saying to our brothers and sisters that we love them, that we consider their happiness as important as our own, because it reflects our underlying shared equality, and so we are committed to bringing forth a world in which our shared happiness is paramount.

A Course in Miracles suggests that miracles – the interior transformation of fear to love which transforms our relationships with one another and the world we construct together – are a “maximal form of service” (T-1.I.18:2). This is another way of saying that there is nothing greater we can do for one another than to recognize each other as Creations of the God of Love and to respond to each other from that space.

Indeed, in that recognition and response we recognize our own self in God’s Creation.

This is not service in the sense of volunteering at a soup kitchen or tutoring aspiring GED students. Those actions are positive and if you can do them or something kin to them, by all means do. But the Course is inviting us to another kind of service, which is to become responsible for projection and to accept that the “secret to salvation” is that we are doing all of this to our self (T-27.VIII.10:1). But when we agree to try and stop, and instead do something different, we do it not only for ourselves but for all our brothers and sisters. Salvation is a collaborative, not an individual, healing process.

In A Course in Miracles, our own worth cannot be separate from that of our brothers and sisters. It is not merely that we are equal but that we are, literally, one. Accepting this oneness is the acceptance of Creation, and this acceptance brings forth a sense of unity and interconnectedness. It undoes our confused sense of self as private and personal, and restores to our mind the truth of what we are.

Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear (T-3.V.10:7-9).

When we practice forgiveness and extend love to the world, we create a shared shift in perception that creates healing that transcends the limitations of bodies and the world they bring forth.

In essence, a miracle is an expression of love and service to others that helps individuals recognize their own worth and the worth of others. To serve the other is to be committed to remembering the other as a Child of God, worthy of the same love and acceptance that we long to receive ourselves. When we serve, we teach the other their own worth, which we naturally recognize as an extension of our own.

What we give to the other, we give to our own self: this is the cornerstone of healing as A Course in Miracles frames it. Thus, our remembrance of the other as holy in Creation is also the remembrance of our own holiness. It’s not a problem that we don’t see this at first. We just have to be willing to see it eventually.

We are healed together as we remember that we are the same in Creation. The miracle is always the means by this remembrance takes form; it is the means within separation that the illusion of separate interests is undone.

A Course in Miracles: What is Cause and Effect

Cause and effect refer to the influence X has in contributing to the production of Y. In other words, Y is partially dependent on X for its existence.

In the context of separation, we believe that external forces like weather or other people cause us to behave certain ways and feel certain things. This backwards understanding of cause-and-effect is essential for projection’s effectiveness. However, because fear cannot actually be projected – thoughts do not actually travel – the real cause is our mind’s decision to insist on separation rather than atonement, which is its refusal to recognize its own wholeness which in turn reflects its true creativity and decision-making power.

Thus, in A Course in Miracles, “cause and effect” is understood primarily in the context of the mind and its relationship to the external world. “Cause” are thoughts and beliefs held in mind, and “effect” are the experiences and perceptions that arise as a result of those thoughts and beliefs.

This is fundamental to the ACIM teaching that the outer world is a reflection of the inner world of the mind, which itself underscores that the secret to salvation is that we are doing this to ourselves. When we change our thoughts and beliefs, we naturally change their experiences and perceptions as well.

This understanding of “cause and effect” differs from the concept in physics, which is based on the principle that every action or event in the physical world has a cause, and that cause produces a specific effect. In physics, cause and effect relationships are usually described in terms of interactions between particles, forces, and energy, while in ACIM, the relationships are more about the mind and its influence on perception and experience.

The Course is not the only religious tradition which focuses on the mind’s role in shaping reality. For example, in Buddhism, the concept of karma refers to the principle that our intentional actions produce consequences or effects, either in this life or future lives.

More contemporary new age practices – kin to ACIM but not precisely identical – such as Law of Attraction also make a point of emphasizing the role the mind plays in shaping reality. No suggestion is made that those paths and traditions are more helpful or accurate with respect to reality than A Course in Miracles; rather, it is to notice the way in which the fundamental concept is not alien to human experience.

Our goal with respect to this understanding is to shift our focus on the external world as causing our experiences, and recognizing it instead as a kind of mirror which indicates our internal state.