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Study of Text, Chapter 13: Introduction, P 2. 5-9-16

INTRODUCTION, P2
2 The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.

Journal
I don’t need to be convinced that the world is pretty awful. At its best, the world is still cruel because it always holds the threat of loss. When I love and feel loved, when I am at peace, when I am happy, I know that it will not last. Something will happen to undo this moment of respite from loss. So there is not a single moment of perfect love and perfect peace, when happiness is complete.

This world of uncertainty and loss is the result of guilt. It began when we accepted guilt into our mind, and thus separation began. I notice that Jesus says it began when we accepted guilt. So that means, guilt was not inevitable. We had a tiny mad idea, but was that the cause of our unhappiness? Or was it that the idea of separation brought with it the belief in guilt, and we accepted the belief as real? Isn’t that what we do now each time we choose to believe in guilt?

The world we see cannot be sustained without our moment by moment decision to keep it in place. We are deciding continuously for the world, and we do this by deciding continuously for guilt. When I think that I should not have said or done something, this is me deciding for guilt. Regret is past guilt held onto. Fear is guilt projected into the future. Someone else’s guilt is my guilt projected in an effort to be free of it.

When I read the news and think what a cruel act by someone, or when I judge a politician, or when I think that things should be different than they are, this is me deciding for guilt. What I am implying, even if I don’t use the words, is that the someone who acted cruelly is guilty for doing so, the politician is guilty for his policies, that the circumstances of my life are guilty for making me unhappy, and so they need to change.

Even when I think that it would be so good if my children would accept A Course in Miracles like I did, this is actually me saying they are guilty for not choosing what I think they should choose. I am implying that I would be happy if only they did what I want them to do, and that they do not make that choice makes them guilty for my unhappiness. In my mind, I or someone or even some circumstance is always guilty.

I was looking at a fence I paid to have constructed. I saw a flaw in the work, and I thought that the man who put it up for me should have done better. I thought that he was guilty of doing less than he promised. I felt foolish for hiring him. I thought I was guilty of bad judgment. I wondered if I made a mistake in choosing to spend my money in this way. Am I guilty for making a snap decision that I might come to regret?

And thus, the world I see continues to exist in my mind. As long as I continue to accept guilt as real and meaningful, pain and suffering and death will continue to exist for me. But there is a way out of the prison of guilt that I have designed for myself. My salvation is the Atonement. Just as I was free to accept guilt, I am free to accept the Atonement, and when I do I will have undone the separation.

I seem to accept the Atonement for this guilty thought or that guilty thought. I say to myself, I accept the Atonement in this situation. But there must come a time when all these acceptances lead to transfer of learning. Then I will know that guilt is not real, and I will know that there is only innocence. I will accept the Atonement and the world I see will be undone, and the real world will be revealed to me.

I cannot have the peace of God if I accept guilt into my mind, and I really believe that the peace of God is everything I want. Then the idea of guilt enters my mind, and obviously I think that keeping guilt alive is more important to me than the peace of God. I sometimes despair of this ever occurring for me. When I start to feel discouraged I think of others who have succeeded in awakening from this dream and I feel encouraged to keep making the choice for love.

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