A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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Chapter 29: The Awakening

Section VII. Seek Not Outside Yourself

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section VII. (pages 617-619)

Where is eternal peace found?

In paragraph one, Jesus tells us that peace can only be found in Heaven. Because our true Identity is Heaven, we can only find eternal peace and happiness as we are willing to let ourselves be aware of our true Identity in God’s oneness. “Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no peace excepting there (in Heaven).” (1:3) This means that peace will never be found as long as we choose the illusionary experience of being separated from God’s oneness. This desire to be separate from oneness is the cause of all fear, which is the opposite of peace.

Where does all our pain come from?

Jesus tells us, “For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found.” (1:7, italics added)

When we seek outside our one Self (God’s oneness) to find happiness, we are seeking for empty idols. We are seeking for the ego’s replacement for the peace of God. When we join with the idea that a world of separate bodies is real, we are asking to experience the specialness that God cannot give. What God’s oneness cannot give (specialness and differences) is merely delusions of what could never be. This means we are asking for the experience of being the opposite of our true Identity as part of God’s oneness. In this section we are seeing that when we ask for the experience of being split off from God’s oneness, we are asking for pain and suffering. We are asking for death because we are asking to be separate from the Source of Life.

Why does Jesus ask us, “Do you prefer that you be right or happy?”

In this world we have thought that our happiness is found in being special. We have attempted to achieve this specialness by dreaming up a world of uniqueness, differences and individuality. We do this by making up a world of separate bodies, which we identify with as our separate self. In this world we compete for special attention and have thought that ‘winning’ this specialness will make us happy and give us what we want.

We are now learning that seeking for specialness will only bring us unhappiness, pain and sorrow. “Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.” (1:10-12)

Why does Jesus say that we are seeking to kill God’s Son within?

When we want a world of time and differences, of uniqueness and specialness, we are seeking to destroy awareness of our true eternal Identity as God’s Son (Love’s extension). We can never really leave our true Identity, but we can deny awareness of Love’s presence by replacing It with images of separate bodies. This is the same as trying to sacrifice the truth of oneness in order to experience getting a little for ourselves alone. “To sacrifice is to give up, and thus to be without and to have suffered loss. And by this giving up is [our true Life] renounced. Seek not outside yourself (seek not outside God). The search implies you are not whole within and fear to look upon your devastation, but prefer to seek outside yourself for what you are.” (4:3-6)

Why are all the images in the world of separation simply idols?

In paragraph 6 we are told, “All idols of this world were made to keep the truth within from being known to you, and to maintain allegiance to the dream that you must find what is outside yourself to be complete and happy. It is vain to worship idols in the hope of peace. God dwells within, and your completion lies in Him. No idol takes His place. Look not to idols. Do not seek outside yourself.” (6:1-6)

How do we reverse our plan of seeking for idols outside us?

As we use time for awakening to the truth of our oneness with God instead of searching for specialness, the idols of individuality and specialness we once sought after become meaningless. We have been afraid of losing our unique separate identity and now we welcome the truth that only our oneness in universal Love is real. Jesus tells us, “Let Him remind you of His Love for you, and do not seek to drown His Voice in chants of deep despair to idols of yourself. Seek not outside your Father for your hope. For hope of happiness is not despair.” (10:5-7)

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