A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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Chapter 29: The Awakening

Section I. The Closing of the Gap

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section I. (pages 606-608)

What are we believing when we perceive a gap between ourselves and God?

Jesus wants us to understand that a gap between us and God is impossible. For us to experience the impossible we must believe in something that could never be in truth. This leads to fear of God and fear of attack.

He explains how this belief in a little gap leads to fear of God: “For it would mean His Love could harbor just a hint of hate, His gentleness turn sometimes to attack, and His eternal patience sometimes fail. All this do you believe, when you perceive a gap between your brother and yourself. How could you trust Him then? For He must be deceptive in His Love. Be wary, then; let Him not come too close, and leave a gap between you and His Love, through which you can escape if there be need for you to flee.” (1:5-9)

Why are we afraid of God?

In paragraph two we see that hate is the same as being afraid of Love because hate and fear go together. When we believe that we are separate from God, we are denying our Identity as part of God and we keep up this denial by fearing and hating our true Identity.

This is why Jesus tells us, “No one who hates but is afraid of love, and therefore must he be afraid of God. Certain it is he knows not what love means. He fears to love and loves to hate, and so he thinks that love is fearful; hate is love.” (2:3-5)

What happens when we think there is a gap between ourselves and others?

Because we believe we are separate from God, we fear to recognize the Christ Mind in our brother. This is why we are wary of our brother and fear to get too close to him. To keep separation intact, we fear true communion or true joining, for that would be the undoing of “the little gap,” which represents the secret treaty with every brother not to get to close.

Jesus explains: “A cautious friendship, and limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount, became the treaty that you had made with him. Thus you and your brother but shared a qualified entente, in which a clause of separation was a point you both agreed to keep intact. And violating this was thought to be a breach of treaty not to be allowed.” (3:8-10)

What is the vehicle we use to make it look like we have separate minds?

We use the body to make it appear that we have separate minds. This reinforces the secret treaty not to get too close. The body becomes our ‘savior’ in order to keep our beloved separation intact. Jesus explains it this way: “Conditional upon the ‘right’ to separate will you and he agree to meet from time to time, and keep apart in intervals of separation, which do protect you from the ‘sacrifice’ of love. The body saves you, for it gets away from total sacrifice and gives to you the time in which to build again your separate self, which you truly believe diminishes as you and your brother meet.” (4:6-7)

What limits our ability to make communion with your brother’s mind?

We wanted the body to be the cause of separation, not our wish to separate. We did not want to feel the guilt that comes with this wish to separate so we made it look like the body is the cause of separation and not our minds. We try to project the power that is inherent in our minds onto the body. Thus by identifying with the body we now see ourselves as helpless, limited and weak. This is how we make it look like separation is not our fault. Because we make it look like this is true, we reinforce the self-deception that we could never be in communion with our brother’s mind.

Jesus expands on this: “Thus do you endow [the body] with a power that lies not within itself. And herein lies [the body’s] power over you. For now you think that [the body] determines when your brother and you meet, and limits your ability to make communion with your brother’s mind. And now [the body] tells you where to go and how to go there, what is feasible for you to undertake, and what you cannot do. [The body] dictates what its health an tolerate, and what will tire it and make it sick. And [the body’s] inherent weakness set up the limitations on what you would do, and keep your purpose limited and weak.” (5:2-7)

What demands the sacrifice of Love?

Our fear of Love or God demands that we retreat from It. “For hate to be maintained, love must be feared; and only sometimes present, sometimes gone. Thus is love seen as treacherous, because it seems to come and go uncertainly, and offer no stability to you. You do not see how limited and weak is your allegiance, and how frequently you have demanded that love go away, and leave you quietly alone in ‘peace.’ ” (7:3-5)

What are we afraid to know?

Jesus answers this in the following way: “Would you know that nothing stands between you and your brother? Would you know that there is no gap behind which you can hide? There is a shock that comes to those who learn their savior [every brother] is their enemy no more. There is a wariness that is aroused by learning that the body is not real. And there are overtones of seeming fear around the happy message, ‘God is Love.’ ” (8:3-7)

What happens when we let go of the little gap?

When we let go of the little gap we would return to remembering our oneness in God. We would see that every brother is one with God, just like us. Because of this we would find peace instead of conflict and union instead of separation. We would find Love and happiness instead of fear, guilt, limitation, lack and pain.

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