A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple, we recommend that
you read the corresponding chapter and section in the Text of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

Chapter 28: the Undoing of Fear

Section III. The Agreement to Join

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 28, Section III. (pages 596-598)

What is our main concern right now?

Jesus tells us, “The miracle alone is your concern at present. Here is where we must begin. And having started, will the way be made serene and simple in the rising up to waking and the ending of the dream.” (1:3-5)

Here we are being encouraged to accept the change in perception the miracle brings us because this is what helps us let go of fearful dreams. We are being asked not to give our support to dreams of separation but receive the miracle from the Holy Spirit, Who lifts the veil of separation so that we can be aware of our oneness beyond the dream of separate bodies. We receive miracles when we are willing to quiet our minds and be still. In quietness is every problem quietly resolved by receiving the awareness that we still are as God created us. We are still safe in Heaven.

What is the effect of minds that join?

“Uniting with a brother’s mind prevents the cause of sickness and perceived effects. Healing is the effect of minds that join, as sickness comes from minds that separate.” (2:5-6)

Earlier in the Course we learned that we are either joining with the ego thought system, where we experience lack, fear, guilt and pain, or we are joining with the Holy Spirit’s miracles of thought reversal, where we are returned to the awareness of our united true Self as one with God. When we refuse to join with thoughts of separation, we aid in removing the glue that holds us to the dream. This helps every brother because as we remove our support from duality thinking, we weaken it.

Jesus tells us, “If you withhold agreement and accept the part you play in making sickness real, the other mind cannot project its guilt without your aid in letting it perceive itself as separate and apart from you.” (2:3) We are being encouraged here not to share our brother’s dream of sickness (separation from our Source) and instead, allow in the awareness that minds are joined in Love now and for eternity and could never be separate and alone.

What holds the seeds of pestilence and every form of ill?

Jesus is bringing us to the awareness that the cause of all pain and suffering is our belief in separation. Once we realize this, we will let our belief in separation go. He tells us, “The gap is little. Yet it holds the seeds of pestilence and every form of ill, because it is a wish to keep apart and not to join.” (4:2-3 italics added)

When we believe in bodies, we think that the gap that appears to be between us is very big. To help us go beyond this false belief in separate bodies, Jesus reminds us that the ocean is one even though the little ripples that appear when a ship passes by makes it briefly look like the waves are separate. It may look like the separation is real for an instant, but the ocean is still one and the waves are not really separate from the ocean, ever.

How does Jesus describe the world?

He tells us, “What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years? And what are you who live within the world except a picture of the Son of God in broken pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay?” (7:4-5)

Here we see our separate bodies are just an image of separate pieces held within an imagined framework of time and space with the purpose of making the gap between us appear to be real. We are trying to fool ourselves into thinking we, like the wave, are separate from God’s one ocean of Love.

What is the feast the miracle brings?

Jesus describes the feast that we experience when we ask that the miracle come to us: “The miracle would leave no proof of guilt to bring you witness to what never was. And in your storehouse [the miracle] will make a place of welcome for your Father and your Self. The door is open that all those may come who would no longer starve, and would enjoy the feast of plenty set before them there. And they will meet with your invited Guests (your Father and your Self) the miracle has asked to come to you.

“This is a feast unlike indeed to those the dreaming of the world has shown. For here, the more that anyone receives, the more is left for all the rest to share. The Guests have brought unlimited supply with Them. And no one is deprived or can deprive. Here is a feast the Father lays before His Son, and shares it equally with him. And in Their sharing there can be no gap in which abundance falters and grows thin.” (8:5-8, 9:1-6)

How can we resist an invitation to a feast such as this? We accept the feast when we accept the miracle. We accept the miracle as we leave our mind open to correction by the Holy Spirit, our one true Self.

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