A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

Tell a Friend about this article.

Print this page
FirefoxFirefox, Safari or Opera browsers recommended to print these pages.

Click link to go to:
Previous Section • Next Section • Chapter Index

Chapter 7: The Gifts of the Kingdom

Section V: Healing and the Changelessness of Mind

Read ACIM Chapter 7, Section V (pages 119-123)

Why does Jesus tell us the body is a barrier to universal communication?

The essence of this section tells us that healing is remembering the truth, which is remembering the changelessness of the one Mind of Love. The ego thought system has tried to obliterate the truth by blocking the one Mind’s universal communication. It tried to replace the one Mind with the body. “The ego thus tries to teach you that the body can act like the mind, and is therefore self-sufficient.” (2:3)

The ego made the body to give the appearance that it is possible for there to be separate minds with private thoughts, different from God’s Thought. Thus the ego uses the body as a barrier to communication, since only minds communicate. The body is an attempt to change the one Mind of Love and make It seem to be split into separate parts. Separate bodies appear different, behave differently and seem to confirm that separate minds can change. Because bodies can seem to hurt other bodies, it denies the changelessness of Love’s universal Mind. If we believe this, we are learning and teaching falsely.

Why are we being taught to look past bodies?

To truly heal we must look past bodies because bodies come from the false ego mind. In the previous section, we learned that healing is recognizing the truth and forgetting what is false. As we learn to see the Light of truth in our brothers and not believe that the body has anything to do with reality, we heal our brothers and ourselves.

What is the source of all true healing?

All healing is of the mind, not of the body. Healing has nothing to do with the physical. Using physical agents is magic. Magic involves the ego belief that remembering that we are one Mind is harmful. The ego believes this because remembering the truth would be the end of the ego. Relying on physical agents for healing is a denial of the power of our minds. This denial weakens us because it makes us unaware of our real power. We do not believe our minds have the power to heal, yet in truth that is the only place healing can occur. The body is just an effect of what we believe to be true. Healing strengthens because it reminds us of the power of our minds.

Keeping in mind that healing is remembering the truth, to be a healer we must remember the truth. Jesus heals because he consistently remembers the truth without exception. It is his consistent remembering that supports us in our healing and awakening. Because of the power of our minds, we can reject the truth he sees in us and thus not know it. Yet in his consistency, Jesus is unaffected by whether or not we accept his vision of us. He continues to remember the truth for us. This strengthens us because he does not share in the belief in weakness that we hold about ourselves. “You cannot forget the Father because I am with you, and I cannot forget Him.” (10:1)

When we learn to join with Jesus’ perception of our brothers, we join him in healing our brothers as Jesus brings healing to our minds. Jesus knows that everything he has, we have, and nothing else. It is his unequivocal consistency that heals. As we learn to listen more and more to the Holy Spirit’s Voice rather than the ego’s, we become more consistent. This is our job, our vocation in this world. This is what awakens us and will ultimately lead us Home to the Heaven of God’s Kingdom.

Why does the ego teach that the mind is powerless?

Because we have joined with the ego, we believe we have changed our mind. When we joined with the ego, we joined with the idea that the mind is powerless. The ego believes only form has power, which is why harm seems possible. “This places you in a position of needing to learn a lesson;— you must learn to change your mind about your mind. Only by this can you learn that it is changeless.” (7:8-9) As we open to the truth from the Holy Spirit, we learn to see the Holy Spirit, the changeless mind, in every brother. “If you see only the changeless in him you have not really changed him. By changing your mind about his [mind] for him, you help him undo the change his ego thinks it has made in him.” (8:7-8)

The Holy Spirit is the part of our mind that never changes. It is the part of our mind that knows our unity with the Mind of Love. As we learn to pay attention to only that part of our mind, the Light of the Holy Spirit becomes our Guide. We see with this Light, which shows us the same changeless Mind in everyone. We see the Holy Spirit in everyone and recognize It as the one Self we share.

What part of our mind is all powerful?

We heal and are healed as we let the Holy Spirit in our mind be our only Guide. The Holy Spirit in our mind is all powerful because It is one with the power of God. Thus letting the Holy Spirit guide us renews our awareness of our perfect safety, perfect Love and perfect happiness, which is ours because we share It with all our brothers. We cannot know it alone but we do know it as we accept every brother as our Self. This is the vision of the Holy Spirit. It is Christ’s vision.

Jesus is asking to share his mind with us. As we open to his mind, we are learning to share in the one Mind that belongs to everyone. “See only this Mind everywhere, because only this is everywhere and in everything. It is everything because it encompasses all things within itself. Blessed are you who perceive only this, because you perceive only what is true.” (10:10-12)

Jesus is there to help us remember the one Mind that is the truth about everyone. He reminds us that this is true healing. Because our brothers are forgetful, as we remember the one Mind in everyone, we help them become aware of the Light in them, the truth in them. “This Light will shine back upon you and on the whole Sonship, because this is your proper gift to God.” (11:4) This is the way we love God and His creation. This is accepting and appreciating God as God is instead of trying to change God. In truth, God is everywhere because God and the Sonship are one. There is no division of any kind. When we recognize wholly that God’s universal, changeless Mind is all that is real, our mind is healed.

© 2004-2010, Pathways of Light. http://pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a Friend about this article.

Print this page
Firefox, Safari or Opera browsers recommended to print these pages.

Click link to go to:
Previous Section • Next Section • Chapter Index