A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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Chapter 9: The Acceptance of the Atonement

Section VIII: Grandeur versus Grandiosity

Read ACIM Chapter 9, Section VIII (pages 177-180)

What is the difference between Love’s wholeness and the belief in littleness?

Love is one. Love is all. There are no differences found in Love. Being the same, all Love is equal and alike because Love is one whole. Littleness, on the other hand, tries to break everything up into little separate pieces that are distinguished by their differences. Belief in littleness is depressing and full of despair because it is the opposite of the truth. It is the opposite of Love’s wholeness.

If we have believed in littleness, how to we return to Love’s wholeness?

We can return to Love’s wholeness whenever we are willing because It is what we are. We were created by Love as Love and nothing can ever change that. We can believe in littleness and experience the differences found in littleness, but eventually we will let it go. We will see that trying to be what we are not is a meaningless and futile venture.

How does grandiosity stem from the belief in littleness?

Within the kingdom of littleness, comparing and competition are found. Here is where grandiosity is established as the answer to the despair of littleness. Here we find winners and losers, greater and lesser. In this kingdom of littleness we find constant shifts and constant change and the effort to become king of the mountain. The kingdom of littleness is based on the idea of making separate bodies real, making individuality real. It promises freedom from the equality of Love’s oneness and it hides the fact that it only brings us hell. The shifting sands in the kingdom of littleness make everything unstable and constantly vulnerable to loss. It is a very tiring adventure into nothingness and eventually we are willing to give it up.

What happens as we loosen our hold on the kingdom of littleness?

As we become aware of what the kingdom of littleness really is, it loses its glitter and glamor. It is gradually seen for the emptiness that it has tried to hide behind its grandiosity. As we gradually lay down the kingdom of littleness, we very gently become aware of the grandeur of Love’s wholeness. Its simplicity and constancy are a relief from the constantly changing experiences found in the kingdom of littleness. The constancy of Love’s grandeur is recognized as the only true value. And opening to Love’s constant welcome is the only goal. Love’s path of unity is smooth and does not reverse itself. It is stable and sure. Love’s welcoming presence never changes. Only deep happiness and awareness of Love’s wholeness is there.

What choice are we making every day?

Every day we make the choice between littleness and wholeness, between separation and oneness. In one choice lies despair and constant change. In the other choice lies constant gratitude and appreciation, constant equality, constant union and all lasting happiness. Peace and joy lie within this choice. We have the choice to join either with the ego, which brings us littleness and grandiosity, or choose with the Holy Spirit, Who brings us the grandeur of Love’s unity and wholeness. Which do we want? Which do we choose today?

What causes us to feel weak and little?

We were created to have and be all that God has and is. Since God is all of reality, the only way to believe that we could separate from God is to believe in illusion. And because in our natural state we have and are everything, we will naturally feel little if we believe we have separated from everything.

Believing we are separate is believing in littleness. Having made the choice to believe in littleness, we naturally look for some way to cover the littleness. Believing in the thought system of separation, we look to the ego for the answer. But the thought system of separation is an illusion. So it has nothing to offer but another illusion. All it has to offer is an inflated image, which by comparison, seems to be more than the littleness we are trying to escape. Yet it is still an illusion and is therefore nothing.

The whole world we see through the body’s eyes is an attempt to hide the nothingness of illusion by making it seem real. Yet it never satisfies. As we read earlier, there is one characteristic of all the ego’s answers, and that is that they never satisfy. All the competition, all the comparison, will never bring the comfort we seek. It will never fill the emptiness of the illusion, for all illusions are empty.

How do we become aware of the grandeur of God that is within us?

Yet all the time that we are believing in the idea of separation we still remain safe in Love, sharing in all its beauty, its peace and joy. Our heart calls us to awaken to our Home. The Holy Spirit in our minds remembers the truth about us and is available in every moment to guide us back to the full remembrance of the abundance and wholeness we have in God. The Holy Spirit guides us to forgive our competition and forgive our comparisons. We are invited to open our minds to the Holy Spirit’s Voice and let Him show us the grandeur of God that is in us and is us.

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