Questions and Answers on
Chapter 14, Intro & Section I: The Conditions of Learning

Read ACIM Chapter 14, Intro & Section I (pages 270-271)

Why don't we know that we are blessed?

In the Introduction we are told that we are blessed but we do not know it. We do not know that we are blessed because we have been following the insane logic of the ego, which attempts to make separation and death our only reality. Here Jesus encourages us to turn away from the ego's logic and follow the Holy Spirit's logic, which brings us to the simple truth of our unity in Love. In unity, we recognize that we are blessed. In unity, we give as we receive. We recognize that only Love is real and so we can only receive and give Love. We know that anything else is illusion.

What have we thrown away?

In Section I Jesus explains that we have thrown away the conditions for learning that we are blessed. What we have thrown away is the willingness to offer blessing. The Holy Spirit's logic brings us to the opposite of the ego's teaching. "You can learn to bless, and cannot give what you have not. If, then, you offer blessing, it must have come first to yourself. And you must also have accepted [blessing] as yours, for how else could you give it away? That is why miracles offer you the testimony that you are blessed." (1:3-6)

In the ego's illusionary and insane world, separation is maintained by extending guilt. In the ego's world we see ourselves as different from 'others' by comparing ourselves with them and seeing that 'they' are the guilty ones. Jesus is showing us that the more we focus on the guilt in 'those out there that are separate from us,' the guiltier we will feel. Even if we, instead, label ourselves as the guilty one, the ego's goal is still maintained because separation is its goal and guilt is the means for maintaining the illusion of separation. As long as we would maintain that guilt is justified anywhere, we will not recognize that we are blessed.

Jesus wants us to see the ego for what it is and understand that, with the ego, we will always see darkness and death. We will not recognize that we are blessed and can only bless. We will not recognize just how insane this world is and that it leads us to nothing. He tells us, "If you decide to have and give and be nothing except a dream, you must direct your thoughts unto oblivion. And if you have and give and are everything, and all this has been denied, your thought system is closed off and wholly separated from the truth." (2:4-5)

Why do we resist recognizing that the world is nothing?

Because we love what we have made, we do not want to recognize that it is nothing. We do not recognize that it is insane. "There is no area of your perception that [insanity] has not touched, and your dream is sacred to you. That is why God placed the Holy Spirit in you, where you placed the dream." (2:7-8) It is through the Holy Spirit alone that our insanity will be undone.

What is the key to hearing the Voice of sanity?

The Holy Spirit is the Voice of sanity and as we learn to step back and listen, we will see that what we have made is nothing. We will see that everyone is guiltless. We will let go of denying the truth that we have and give and are everything, which is Love and nothing else.

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