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.
Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section II. (pages 608-610)
We need to come to the understanding that what we are letting go of (a separate identity) is really nothing instead of something we want. When we think we are sacrificing something to return to our true Home in God, we will resist the message that this world is just a dream, about nothing and of no importance. We will resist the understanding that, like the prodigal son story, we have simply tried to replace God with a separate identity, and that this effort is hopeless, because in truth we can never leave our Home in God.
Jesus tells us, “Is it not because you see it [awakening to your true Identity] as the road to hell instead of looking on it as a simple way, without a sacrifice or any loss, to find yourself in Heaven and in God? Until you realize you give up nothing, until you understand there is no loss, you will have some regrets about the way that you have chosen. And you will not see the many gains your choice [to remember you have never left God] has offered you.” (1:4-6)
The awareness of Love returns when we let go of holding on to our belief in a world of sin, hate, fear, guilt, pain and attack. We are learning the meaninglessness of holding on to the hurtful thoughts of separation from our Source.
Jesus tells us, “It has been hopeless to attempt to find the hope of peace upon a battleground. It has been futile to demand escape from sin and pain of what we made to serve the function of retaining sin and pain. For pain and sin are one illusion, as are hate and fear, attack and guilt but one. Where they are causeless their effects are gone, and love must come wherever they are not.” (3:1-4)
In this section Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as our Guest, Who came with us in this dream story of individuality to bring us the gift of awakening to our true Identity. In order to give us His gifts, the Holy Spirit needs us to welcome Him in instead of barring the door. As we accept His gifts, we see the truth of every brother and see the Christ in them. As we willingly see the Christ in every brother, we heal and are healed.
Jesus tells us, “He has laid [His gifts of truth] at your feet, and ask you now that you will look on them and take them for your own. He needs your help in giving [these gifts] to all who walk apart, believing they are separate and alone. They will be healed when you accept your gifts, because your Guest will welcome everyone whose feet have touched the holy ground whereon you stand, and where His gifts for them are laid.” (4:5-7)
The Holy Spirit brings His Presence — the Presence of peace, joy and happiness. “You cannot see your Guest, but you can see the gifts He brought. And when you look on them (peace, joy and happiness), you will believe His Presence must be there. For what you now can do could not be done without the love and grace His Presence holds.” (5:6-8)
We are coming to understand that there is no life outside of the Life we live in God. God is changeless Love and therefore we are changeless Love. This means that whatever changes is not of God and is not life. It is just a dream of confusion about what we are and where we are.
Jesus tells us, “What you have given ‘life’ is not alive, and symbolizes but your wish to be alive apart from life, alive in death, with death perceived as life, and living, death. Confusion follows on confusion there, for on confusion has this world been based, and there is nothing else it rests upon.” (6:2-3)
In paragraphs 7-10 Jesus discusses how our salvation lies in recognizing that all dreams of bodies that change are really nothing and could never be our real Life, which is changeless and eternal. We learn here that as we see our brother’s body as not what he is, we are releasing our mind from the false belief in sickness and death. We are letting our mind be healed.
Jesus answers this question in the following way: “Sickness is a demand the body be a thing that it is not. Its nothingness is guarantee that it can not be sick. In your demand that [the body] be more than [nothing] lies the idea of sickness. For [the belief in the reality of the body] asks that God be less than all He really is.” (8:1-4)
Jesus explains how important it is to see past our brother’s body to the truth in him in paragraph 10: “As ‘something’ is the body asked to be God’s enemy; replacing what He is with littleness and limit and despair. It is His loss you celebrate when you behold the body as a thing you love, or look upon it as a thing you hate. For if He be the Sum of everything, then what is not in Him does not exist, and His completion is [the body’s] nothingness. Your savior [your brother] is not dead, nor does he dwell in what was built as temple unto death. He lives in God, and it is this that makes him savior unto you, and only this. His body’s nothingness releases your [mind] from sickness and from death. For what is yours cannot be more or less than what is his.” (10:1-7)
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