Setting Aside Little Gods: ACIM Lesson 31

I am not the victim of the world I see.

Lesson 31 of A Course in Miracles is a declaration of freedom and spiritual autonomy. We are not captives of lived experience but rather creators. We are not victims because our invulnerability is the absence of attack both internally and externally.

Life is peace and happiness. God is in our mind as peace and happiness. And so we are peace and happiness.

A Course in Miracles is the means by which we remember this in the very context we made to forget it.

Thus, we will probably do this lesson and still retain some degree of connection to the body and the self that appears to reside in it. The world will continue to appear as a cause with many effects, many of which adhere to us, some of which make us feel victimized.

Yet if we do the lesson willingly, that connection will be shaken and then replaced – even if dimly – by our actual identity in truth.

A hint of this lies in the insight that in our feedom, “lies the freedom of the world” (W-pI.31.4:3).

It is an illusion that we are separate from the world. In fact, the world and the body are the same illusion. The body’s eyes (and all its senses, really) reinforce this illusion but vision corrects it. Vision shows us what is real and what is unreal, and in doing so restores to us our actual identity as creators in Creation.

The circle of creation has no end. Its starting and its ending are the same. But in itself it holds the universe of all creation, without beginning and without an end.

T-28.II.1:6-8

Lesson 31 reflects the reversal of traditional conceptions of cause-and-effect. It is a reversal of our confused thought process, which inverts creation and thus does not see creation – let alone create – at all. We are cause and the world is our effect; we are cause and happiness is our effect.

It is tempting to conflate this truth with the body and the world. To say, for example, that “I” created that cardinal in that snow-covered lilac bush. In fact, what “I” created is joy – the cardinal in the snow-covered lilac bush is just an image onto which I project joy’s cause.

What happens to joy when I no longer project its cause? What happens to joy when I no longer force it to be conditional on “right” and “external” circumstances?

The healing to which A Course in Miracles directs us may or may not have effects in the dream we call body, self and world. That is neither its function nor its purpose. It’s not about the cardinal in the lilac at all.

But healing will inevitably have effects in our mind which is where Creation is. That this fact is still confusing or idealistic is okay; we are not asked to be ACIM experts but rather willing and open-minded beginners. Accepting – leaning into – the posture of a beginner humbles us because we remain invested in and attached to the ego’s emphasis on specialness-through-separation. We want to be experts. At a minimum, we want to have our spiritual shit more together than so-and-so.

Note: we all have a so-and-so and we are all somebody’s so-and-so.

But there is – because there is always – another way.

Humility brings peace because it does not claim that you must rule the universe, nor judge all things as you would have them be. All little gods it gladly lays aside, not in resentment, but in honesty and recognition that they do not serve.

S-I.V.1:4-5

Can you see the little gods? Can you hear them? They are the ego’s means of persuading you that you are separate from creation, a detached witness and observer.

Lesson 31 is when we begin at last to set aside those “little gods” and their bland lies in favor of the grandeur that is Love and the peace that is Creation.

Are we taking baby steps? Yes.

Will we always? No.

And that itself is cause for joy.

ACIM and New Beginnings

A small group of friends and I have committed to doing the ACIM workbook this year, a lesson a day, and meeting once a week online to talk about how that experience is going, what we are learning, what is being revealed and so forth.

Today I did lesson one, which is a kind of simple yet elegant introduction to the function of A Course in Miracles.

We have these bodies and they bring forth a world. If we are attentive, we see that another way to say this is that the world brings forth these bodies. The two are in a consensual interplay that generates an apparently endless stream of images, sensations and stories.

All the first lesson asks us to do is consider that the various aspects of this streaming world have no meaning. We are not asked to deny their existence or relabel them as illusions or anything. Let them be.

We are simply being asked to consider that the world – which includes the body – has no meaning.

Of course, this is not strictly true. The world and the body mutually bringing one another forth have the meaning we give them. But who is this “we?”

The meaning given by ego – by the self that believes it is contained in a vulnerable body in an often-dangerous world – is wrong in a way that hurts.

It is this error that A Course in Miracles is given to correct.

When we remember what we are in truth – Creations of a Living God for whom only Love is real – then we will be able to envision the world and the body in clearer gentler ways. In essence, we will see past them to the Light of Creation Itself.

Yet for now – as near as we are still to the beginning – it is sufficient to merely be open-minded about meaninglessness.

When we can accept meaninglessness (which is easier to say than to do), then our openness to actual meaning – to God’s meaning, Love’s meaning, Truth’s meaning, One’s meaning – gently expands and peace and joy intensify accordingly.

This is the other way, upon which we have taken the first steps.

One way to know if ACIM is working in our apparent lives is to simply notice how happy or unhappy we are. All the course wants for us is a natural, serious and sustainable happiness. We bring this forth together as students committed to our own learning in communion with our like-minded brothers and sisters.

Together, we are an oasis of happiness and peace – of learning – welcoming all passers-by, because giving welcome is how we are made welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is Love. Together we are not alone. Together we are the Kingdom.

I wish you a quiet, creative and devoted ACIM practice in 2021, one that brings you as much vision and inner peace as you are ready to accept for this hurt and dying world. I am deeply grateful for your presence, and offer my own in return. If I can be helpful in any way, reach out.

Love,
Sean

Rethinking Separation: ACIM Lesson 30

There is a fun exercise in some contemporary nondual circles that basically revolves around the following: instead of seeing space as what separates you from a distant object (a lamp, a bed, a star), try to see it as what connects you.

This can be a powerful way of reframing one’s sense of separation, basically allowing us to see all of perception as a single image, rather than a bunch of separate ones coming together for a distinct observer.

That is not precisely what Lesson Thirty is inviting ACIM students to do, but it does nod in that general direction. Rather than see in the world what we would disown through projection, the lesson suggests we look for that with which we would join.

. . . we are trying to see in the world what is in our minds, and what we want to recognize is there. Thus, we are trying to join with what we see, rather than keeping it apart from us. That is the fundamental difference between vision and the way you see.

W-pI.30.2:3-5

This works because God is in everything we see because God is in our mind.

. . . the world will open up before you, and you will look upon it and see in it what you have never seen before. Nor will what you saw before be even faintly visible to you.

W-pI.30.1:2-3

We are shifting away from our emphasis on the body’s eyes and considering a new way of seeing whose source is mind rather than body. Thus, it is more akin to knowing an idea than to seeing an image.

You will notice that this lesson mentions God only in the title; after that it says nothing about God. It merely directs us to gaze around us (as well as things which are too far away to see with our eyes) and realize that the Lesson’s premise – our intimate proximity to God – infuses everything we see.

Yet, by not mentioning God again after the title, the lesson downplays the divine drama (and the attendant risk of specialness) in favor of keeping us focused on actual practice. The emphasis is not on grandeur, but on what is practical. We are essentially seeing that our habit of projection can be put to a better use.

Later, the course will refer to this as extension – that is, extending love rather than projecting fear (e.g., T-2.I.1:7).

Thus, we learn in this lesson that our minds can join as well as separate.

This is a critical insight! At no one point are we apart from God because God is in our mind (and note that mind here does not denote the brain’s output). Although we can be deeply confused about our union with God, we cannot be separate from God.

But again, this unity is at the level of mind, which the course establishes as other than the level of the body. It is only mind that is capable of creativity and correction (e.g., T-2.IV.2:10).

Only the mind can create because spirit has already been created, and the body is a learning device for the mind. Learning devices are not lessons in themselves.

T-2.IV.3:1-2

Thus, lesson 30 deepens our relationship with mind, by giving attention to how it functions. How it functions is what it is, and what it is is not affected by the body’s limitations.

Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance, but it does not depend on the body’s eyes at all. The mind is its only source.

W-pI.30.5:1-2

Personally, this has historically a good lesson to linger on, not so much in terms of understanding the ideas but on their application. Nothing can be lost – and a lot gained – by making this a sustainable aspect of our spiritual practice.

Notes in Late December

I sent a newsletter out today which explores the second principle of miracles. Although the early parts of the text can be choppy, the section outlining the fifty principles has always felt clear and helpful to me.

The second principle asks us to look beyond the miracle to its Source, reminding us that what matters is not how the miracles functions in our lives in the world but rather the Source from which that miracle flows, which is always love.

This is an important insight. Healing is not having our problems fixed but rather making contact with our true self which has no problems. This is a simple but powerful way of living that entirely upends our traditional understanding of self, world and other.

It is possible to be deeply and seriously happy, and to know a peace which surpasses understanding.

Feel free to sign up if you like.

Some housekeeping items:

First, it was recently pointed out to me that my contact page was not working and hasn’t for months. If you tried to reach out to me that way and did not receive a reply, please know that it reflects a technical error rather than any deliberate ignorance on my part. I’m really sorry.

Please do feel free to reach out to argue, ask questions and so forth. I am always happy for be in dialogue with fellow students.

Also, lately I’ve been reflecting on a recent dialogue in the comments to this old post, which I keep wanting to rewrite or convert to a post in their own right, but maybe it’s okay to just point to the exchange. I am very grateful for it.

Finally, I scrap a lot of writing when writing here, and recently started a kind of ACIM notebook site where those scraps might find a home. It’s less formal, less polished, less cohesive but perhaps still interesting.

I hope your winter and its various holy days and shifts in light has begun in a quiet and gentle way. I’m so glad you’re here.

Love,
Sean

The First Principle of A Course in Miracles

There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal T-1.I.1:1-4).

Imagine I set four photographs on a table before you: one is of a 1-pound weight, one of a 10-pound weight, one of a 100-pound weight, and one of a 1,000-pound weight.

Which photograph is harder to lift?

It’s a silly question, right? They are all the same. What they depict is different – what they depict would present serious lifting problems – but since they are just images, they are identical. You can lift each one with the same ease.

This is how the Holy Spirit views our many problems, which is another way of saying, this is how miracles are applied in and to our lives. Our lives – because they are comprised of differences, both inner and outer – make this principle seem counter-intuitive, if not outright insane.

For example, when The Sopranos ended and there were no more new episodes to look forward to, I felt sad. But when my father died, I felt waves of grief and confusion that shook the very foundation of my existence. I’ve long since mostly forgotten about The Sopranos. I think about my father every day.

Very different right? And who among us would suggest otherwise?

And yet . . .

. . . and yet to the Holy Spirit, they are symptoms of the same problem: the belief that I am a body in a world, and that all the apparent differences that bring forth that world and body are real, and their effects are real and not all the same.

The whole program of A Course in Miracles comes down to this one error: we are mistaken about what we are. But when we correct this error, all the error’s effects disappear.

In theory, the correction of this error could happen as quickly and simply as throwing a switch. Just see everything as the same! For most of us, however, it is a learning process which evolves in time, which process the Course refers to as Atonement.

That is, in bodies in the world over time, we learn that we are not bodies and there is neither a world nor time.

A miracle is the translation of fear into love, of hate into love, of confusion into love. Miracles are illusions, because they correct mistakes that never happened, yet to the mind that believes mistakes are real, miracles are powerful healing tools. They are as real as we need them to be in order to learn that they are not real at all.

Since “all expressions of love are maximal” (T-1.I.1:4), what the miracle heals is not what matters. What matters is the love that inspires it; it is that love to which our attention need be given, because it is that love that is our true self and home. Love is what we are in truth.

The power of God, and not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but the witness that you have the power of God in you. That is the reason why the miracle gives equal blessing to all who share in it, and also why everyone shares in it. The power of God is limitless . . . it offers everything to every call from anyone (T-14.6:9-13).

We aren’t required to believe this. In bodies, we really can’t believe it anyway. We are simply invited to give attention to the presence of – and the function of – miracles in our life and learn from them what they are given to teach.

In love, there are no differences or distinctions. It is not a question of resolving to love all things the same (for that sustains the premise of separation), but of not seeing the differences at all. When the differences disappear, what problem could possibly remain? What conflict could possibly exist?

Lesson 23: ACIM in a Nutshell

We might reframe ACIM Daily Lesson 23 this way: if you want to know peace, then give up projection. Indeed, in a sense, this lesson encapsulates the whole function and thus our whole practice of A Course in Miracles.

There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effect will change automatically.

W-pI.23.2:2-7

This is one of the clearest statements regarding a fundamental course paradigm: give attention to your thinking rather than to the world. Or, to put it another way, the only problem we really have is that we think we have problems (T-26.II.3:3). Change the way you think, and the self and world you perceive will change as well.

Of course, if giving up projection were easy – or even intuitive – then we wouldn’t need A Course in Miracles. Or therapy or Buddhism. Or hugs. The course is given so that we might begin to work with our thoughts in order to change how we see the world and – through that evolving shift in perception – remember our identity in and as love.

Thus, lesson 23 is a firm step in the direction of reforming our understanding of what we are in truth. It is an invitation to shift our sense of identity from “victim of the world we see” to “the image-maker itself” (W-pI.23.4:1).

It is also a promise that as we do learn that we are making the world, and accept responsibility accordingly, that nothing will actually be lost when we let that world go. This addresses a significant fear for many of us – does awakening mean I won’t see my kids? Or listen to Leonard Cohen songs? Or dip french fries in mayo?

Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.

W-pI.23.4:4-6

As I have pointed out many times, a point comes in our learning where we realize that we are trapped – the self is an illusion that cannot save itself, and the world offers no path that can save us either. So long as we believe in that self and that world, then the “trap” retains its stranglehold on us.

Lesson 23 – again, encapsulating a fundamental principle of A Course in Miracles – makes the case that this “trap” can be escaped by seeing that it is an illusion. It isn’t real. There is nothing to escape. But how do we see this? How do we, you know . . . actually make it happen?

This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process (identification and letting go) require your cooperation. The final one (replacement) does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so (parenthetical emphasis mine).

W-pI.23.5:2-6

Thus, we want to see in a clear and sustainable way how we project attack thoughts outward and thus create a world of scarcity and violence, one in which peace is a fleeting sensation and love never welcome.

We want to see that we are the author of our suffering and – because we not want to suffer – let go of the impulse to project.

That’s it – that’s our whole job.

Lesson 23 is basic. All we are doing is noticing our attack thoughts (so-and-so is always judging me, I should eat healthier, why don’t people stop driving fossil-fuel powered cars, my mother never loved me, why can’t the news be positive et cetera). And then – for each one – we remind ourselves that if we will let this thought go, then we will remember the peace that is already given.

Noticing is hard! It takes practice to see in a consistent way how our minds project and how projection is always an attack.

But the truth is, letting go is even harder. Ego is happy to be noticed; it doesn’t object to that. It will lose that battle in order to keep fighting. And where it really resists is letting go.

Giving up attack thoughts feels like losing our self and our world. It feels like a form of sacrifice. We identify with the world that is made of attack; we are familiar with a self driven by vengeance.

So Lesson 23 is like a first step in mind-training. It’s like being taught how to stretch properly before being taught how to run a marathon. We want to run already, want to cross the finish line already. And the course points out that this not realistic; if we will go slowly, pace ourselves, and train up, then we will surely recall the peace and joy that is our inheritance. Forcing and faking it are not helpful.

In other words, if we are noticing attack thoughts (which include “being attacked” thoughts), then that’s sufficient. The letting go comes with time.

We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of the world you see. When you finally learn that thoughts of attack and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go.

W-pI.23.7:4-5

We learn in time that time is not real. We learn in bodies that we are not bodies. And we learn in the world that there is no world. Don’t wait on light shows and spiritual lottery tickets. In a gentle and quiet way, give attention to your living, ever reminding yourself that you are the author of your pain, and that a better way waits on your decision.