To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Review: “Salvation is my only function here.” and
“My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.”
My function here is to let go of all the guilt I have projected onto the world. With separation comes guilt. With guilt comes projection, or seeing the guilt somewhere else and denying that it is in my own mind. As I let go of guilt, I see innocence. As I see innocence in my brother, I am able to see myself as innocent.
God did not make separation. When I try to make separation real by believing in separate bodies, at deeper levels I feel guilty. At deeper levels I know that this is not of God. Releasing these barriers to Love is my salvation. Letting go of seeing a world outside myself is my salvation. The world I see outside me is still in my mind. As I change my mind, what I see changes. As I forgive others, in other words, let go of my projections, I am doing my part in God’s plan for salvation.
Today I am willing to practice stepping back and remembering that anything I perceive as outside myself is a projection. This projection is coming from my own mind. Today I am willing to step back and hand these projections over to the Holy Spirit to receive a new perception, a healed perception. Today I am willing to practice seeing only innocence. Today I am willing to practice seeing as the Holy Spirit sees. Today I am willing to do my part in God’s plan for salvation.
It feels so good when I forgive. It’s amazing that I don’t do it all the time. I feel deep peace, loving, happy and safe when I forgive. I walk with a lighter step. I smile. I laugh and I enjoy every moment when I forgive. It seems that this ought to be motivation enough to be on constant alert for opportunities to forgive. Yet it seems some days it’s just the opposite. I’m vigilant instead for opportunities to judge and criticize, to be dissatisfied in one way or another. It gives me the “satisfaction” of being right, but it certainly does not give me the peace and fulfillment of being happy. The fear of not being right seems to be a greater motivator than the attraction of happiness and peace.
On the surface it seems unbelievable that this could be true. But beneath the surface is the fear that if I’m not right, I do not exist. I need to be right to defend the image of myself that I have made, that I think I am. Having identified with this image, the loss of it would be perceived as death. It is the terror of death that makes being right more appealing than being happy. From this place I would rather defend a false and empty image out of fear of death than accept the calm, peace, serenity and perfect happiness that is mine by God’s Will. It is this false image of myself as alone and separate from God that I must let go of or forgive.
All the seeming circumstances, situations, events and people that seem to need forgiveness merely are stepping stones to the core forgiveness that must be done. They simply symbolize the core belief in the false image of separation. It is this I must forgive and this forgiveness is the salvation of the world. Here is my true and lasting happiness. Here is Love allowed to be Itself, and I accept my Self. The world is saved along with me because I recognize that all the world is part of my one Self. I breathe a sigh of deep relief as I sink into the serenity of God’s loving arms.
Today I will practice being vigilant for every judgment, every unforgiveness, in whatever form it may appear. I will practice turning each one over to the Holy Spirit to receive His reinterpretation, His perception, His Light. And with each one I move a step closer to the ultimate forgiveness in which I fully accept my place in God’s plan for salvation and I see the world as healed and whole. Here I will find joy unspeakable and full of glory.
“But beneath the surface is the fear that if I’m not right, I do not exist.” This just took my breath away. This is so the illusion, or maybe just one of them, that is in my way. It must be in my brother’s way as well.
Dear brother please forgive my unforgiveness. I can’t tell you how often I have recently asked (both silently and out loud) myself, and my brother, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Never once did I ask guidance from Holy Spirit. Funny thing is, I didn’t ask because I thought I was so right in asking the question.
How often the Course reminds us that it is Spirit Who Knows the place, and attitude, and the questions that would be helpful (rather than scary) to the student He brings to us. Again Spirit has taken The Leap ...
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