A Course in Miracles Text Q&A on Preface & Introduction, How It Came

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple, we recommend that
you read the corresponding chapter and section in the Text of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section VII: Looking Within

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section VII (pages 229-233)

What are the only two options we have for seeing?

In this section Jesus is helping us understand that there are only two ways of seeing — through the ego’s eyes or the Holy Spirit’s eyes. We are always choosing between these two perceptions, whether we realize it or not. And the guide we choose determines what we see. He tells us, “I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek.” (7:1-4) Note: Jesus expands on this decision making process in Chapter 30, Section I. Rules for Decision.

Our true Self remains united with God as It was created. Our one true Self knows our oneness with all and sees no separation. No matter what dreams we may dream, our Self does not change. As long as we believe in the ego’s thought system of separation, we are trying to hold two ways of looking at the world in our mind. When we identify with our Self, we see only unity. When we identify with the ego, we see only separation.

Why is our decision in what we want to see so important?

When we have it clear in our minds that the world we see through the body’s eyes is coming from our own decision of what we want to see, we will stop blaming the world for what we experience. When we choose the ego, we are choosing to see differences, individuality and unique bodies. Guilt always comes with this decision to see separation. We hate the guilt that comes with wanting specialness. That is why we try to dissociate or project what we have chosen so that it looks like it is not coming from our mind. In this way we think we have hurled the guilt away from of us onto an outside world. That is why we are attracted to see guilt in others. That is why we write scripts of being mistreated — being a victim of others who are the guilty ones. “If you are afraid, it is because you saw something that is not there.” (10:4)

Jesus is helping us understand very clearly that when we don’t like what we see in the ‘outer’ world, it is just a reflection of the dissociation that is happening in our minds. He is helping us understand that the outer world is just a projection of what we are trying to dissociate from in our mind to make it seem like it is outside us. (Review paragraph 7 on page 231.)

What happens to our sight as we practice seeing with the Holy Spirit?

The good news is when we want to see as the Holy Spirit sees, we receive miracles. A miracle as defined in the Course is a change in perception given to us by the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we will see only wholeness or holiness. We see only innocence because wholeness and innocence are in our minds and we extend oneness rather than project separation. As we accept the Holy Spirit’s correction of our perception in more and more situations, we learn that there is no order of difficulty in miracles because the Holy Spirit is there to help us in every situation we think we are encountering. “There is no situation to which miracles do not apply, and by applying them to all situations you will gain the real world. For in this holy perception you will be made whole, and the Atonement will radiate from your acceptance of it for yourself to everyone the Holy Spirit sends you for your blessing.” (1:4-5)

When we accept the Holy Spirit as our Guide, we see through the eyes of the Holy Spirit as Jesus did. Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit because he completely renounced the ego and followed only the Holy Spirit’s guidance. “I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me it will be because you have invited Him. For he will send you His witnesses if you will but look upon them.” (6:1-2) The Holy Spirit only witnesses to the truth. The Holy Spirit knows that only Love is real and anything else is an illusion. “When you want only love you will see nothing else. The contradictory nature of the witnesses you perceive is merely the reflection of your conflicting invitations.” (8:1-2)

Why is it our job to do the Holy Spirit’s work?

Jesus tells us many times throughout the Course that we share the Holy Spirit’s function. “Do the Holy Spirit’s work, for you share in His function. As your function in Heaven is creation, so your function on earth is healing.” (4:6-7) We share the Holy Spirit’s function when we choose the Holy Spirit to be our Guide in seeing rather than the ego. When the Holy Spirit is our Guide, He shows us the real world that is beyond this world. He shows us the Love that is behind every illusion. “If you make love manifest, its messengers will come to you because you invited them.” (8:6) When we invite Love’s messengers, we will be shown only the Love that lies behind illusions of separation.

Why does Jesus say it is impossible to give anything but Love to anyone?

Jesus reminds us that it is always our decision. We can remember that only Love is real. We can become aware of the Holy Spirit’s witnesses, which speak for the presence of Love behind every false image of separate bodies. We will experience the truth in the statement, “You cannot really give anything but love to anyone or anything, nor can you really receive anything but love from them.” (9:4) What we seek for we will find. “When you have accepted your mission to extend peace you will find peace, for by making it manifest you will see it. Its holy witnesses will surround you because you called upon them, and they will come to you.” (11:1-2)

Why does Jesus say that what we think we are is what we think we see?

What we think we are is what we will think we see. If we think we are the ego, we will see the ego in the form of separate bodies and think it real. If we believe we are separate and capable of harming, we will see a world capable of harm. “Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within.” (12:4) Jesus reminds us that this image of ourselves is not true and consequently what we see in the world is not true. When we let the Holy Spirit guide our seeing, He will judge truly on our behalf, for that is His function. Our job is to reserve no judgment for ourselves alone, but let the Holy Spirit judge for us.

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section VI: The Vision of Christ

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section VI (pages 227-229)

What does Jesus mean when he refers to the term ‘soul’?

The reference to soul in the first paragraph refers to a passage in the Bible. The Clarification of Terms states that, “The term ‘soul’... would be an equivalent of ‘spirit,’ with the understanding that, being of God, it is eternal and was never born.” (C-1.3:2-3)

What is the high price we pay for specialness?

Believing that the forms of this world are real is an investment in nothing because the forms of the world are illusion. Thus when we believe the world of form is real, we lose awareness of our Self, Which is Christ. Loss of awareness of our Self is an enormous price to pay to “gain” the illusion of specialness in this world. Specialness is the ego’s substitute for God’s Love. Jesus tells us, “You do not want the world.” (3:1) The world is a poor substitute for our one Self, the Christ Mind.

How do we make the real world of Love real to ourselves?

To look upon anything with Love means to look upon it with Christ’s vision. This disregards form and sees only the extension of the Love we are. We know the Love we are by extending Thoughts of Love, which come from our true Self. Since only Love is real, the only reality in the world is the Love we extend and has nothing to do with form. “As self-value comes from self-extension, so does the perception of self-value come from the extension of loving thoughts outward.” (3:5) Because the Self we all are is Love, this could be restated as, “As the value of Love comes from Love’s extension, so does the perception of Love’s value come from the extension of loving thoughts outward.” This is how we make the real world of Love real to ourselves and become aware that It belongs to us.

Does the real world have anything to do with the world we see through the body’s eyes?

The real world has nothing to do with the world we see through the body’s eyes. For an explanation of what the Course means by the term “real world,” see Workbook Part II, 8. What is the Real World? on page 443. In this section it tells us, “The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle which your world contains. The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace.” (W-pII.8.2:1-2) This is what Christ’s vision shows us. We awaken by accepting and extending Christ’s vision. “Christ’s eyes are open, and He will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours.” (4:4)

What happens as we truly want to see the real world?

We awaken as we truly want to see the real world. (See Lesson 185) This comes by withdrawing our belief in the world of separation and letting the Holy Spirit show us Christ’s vision. Our mind becomes quiet and at peace as we recognize that nothing in the world of form is real; nothing can change the Love we are nor separate us from our Source.

An important part of what the Course is teaching us is to recognize the tremendous cost of believing that we want independence from God and that separation could be real. In this section Jesus reminds us, “... you must learn the cost of sleeping, and refuse to pay it. Only then will you decide to awaken. And then the real world will spring to your sight, for Christ has never slept.” (5:2-4) The Holy Spirit is ever present to help us awaken the moment we are ready and willing.

What does it mean to ‘awaken’?

Awakening means ceasing to defend against the Love that we are and our Father is. The Holy Spirit guides us to recognize that there is either Love or a call for Love in all situations. Whenever we believe we are separate, we will call for Love in some way because we innately want to return to our natural state. The ego thought system of separation has divided and divided, again and again, so that the problems we seem to face appear to be unique and different. The Holy Spirit teaches us the one thing we all have in common — they are all illusion. We learn to generalize and see all problems as the same. As we let all belief in separation go, awareness of Love returns and we awaken. Jesus tells us, “Heaven is your home, and being in God it must also be in you.” (7:7)

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section V: The Sane Curriculum

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section V (pages 225-227)

Why do we feel weak and vulnerable?

This section shows us why we feel weak and vulnerable. It also reminds us that we are invulnerable, because, in truth, we are not separate from Love. Since Love is our strength, the decision to separate from Love (God) leaves us feeling separate from our source of strength, and therefore weak.

Believing that separation (attack) really happened and weakened us, we believe that attacking others will weaken them. This cycle of attack and defend begins with the self-attack of believing we have separated from God. That is why we are again being reminded that the only place to heal is in our own mind because that is where the problem lies.

Why is it so important to learn that attack has no effect?

The Course doesn’t tell us not to attack. It helps us learn that attack has no effect. As we learn this we do not have to “discipline” ourselves not to attack; we simply don’t do it because we see no benefit from it. As always the Course leads us to the root of the problem, which is the belief that we have separated from the Source of our real strength — the Holy Spirit’s Love.

What is the goal of any ego curriculum?

We chose the ego’s curriculum when we chose to believe in a world of form and separate bodies with private thoughts and unique personalities. This curriculum teaches that separation is real and the oneness of Love is not. So the goal of any ego curriculum is to maintain separation and not know Love. Since this is completely contrary to our true nature, this curriculum introduces a split in our mind, which must be maintained in order to make the ego’s curriculum believable. The ego will always avoid any learning that might open our minds to a curriculum that leads us back to our unity with our Creator.

Why are we to resign as our own teacher?

Yet because Love is our true nature, we still do truly want to learn to recognize What we are. Beneath the insane choices of the split mind, it is still our choice to learn the truth. But we will not learn as long as we insist in teaching ourselves that separation is real. We are told, “Resign now as your own teacher. This recognition will not lead to depression. It is merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught yourself, and of the learning outcomes that have resulted.” (8:3-5)

We can only learn truly when we follow the guidance of our inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit, Who provides us with constant, clear-cut direction if we let Him. “You need offer only undivided attention. Everything else will be given you.” (9:4-5)

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section IV: Seeking and Finding

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section IV (pages 223-25)

Why is the ego afraid of Love?

The ego is afraid of Love because Love is oneness. If we accept the oneness of Love, we will give up belief in separation, which is the end of the ego. So of course the ego would not want to find what would bring its end. Yet because Love is what we are, the perception of the absence of Love that comes with belief in separation inevitably stimulates a search to fill the lack.

What does the ego offer as substitutes for Love?

Since the ego cannot tolerate successfully finding Love, it offers myriad substitutes. These substitutes can be very appealing. If we accept the ego’s substitute for Love, which is really just specialness, we become confused about what Love is and do not recognize It. The ego’s substitute may be an adoring partner or a fancy car, high status in the community or simply someone’s acceptance of something we do. Yet because these are substitutes for Love and not the real thing, the satisfaction we experience when we receive them is always temporary and insufficient.

The good news is that we can change our mind. Jesus tells us, “Yet it is also your mind that has the power to deny the ego’s existence, and you will surely do so when you realize exactly what the journey is on which the ego sets you.” (2:6) The ego’s journey is hopeless and will always lead to “futility and depression.” Yet the Holy Spirit offers us a different journey that is guaranteed to lead to real and eternal joy. Sooner or later we all will become dissatisfied with the ego’s offering because it leads away from our real Home in the oneness of universal Love. The Holy Spirit guides us to find that universal Love where it can be found, which is within. “...He will guide you to your home because that is His mission.” (5:5)

Why is our mission the same as the Holy Spirit’s mission?

It is significant to understand that our mission is the same as the Holy Spirit’s mission. The Holy Spirit teaches us our mission. “By guiding your brothers home you are but following Him.” (5:7) When we remember that every brother is like our Father, we help him and ourselves remember the truth and return Home. But to do this we must be willing to relinquish our investment in death, which is our desire to be separate and unique. Oneness is all around us but we will not see it until we accept that only oneness is true.

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section III: The Investment in Reality

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section III (pages 220-223)

What happens as we relinquish our investment in the world?

In the overall view of this section, Jesus is asking us to relinquish our investment in the world. He is asking us to take our investment in the world to the altar of God, which is where the truth resides in our mind. When we do this we will receive a new vision of the world from the Holy Spirit. This vision shows us the reality of Love and the unreality of everything else.

What are the consequences of holding on to our belief in the world?

He also shows us the consequences of holding on to our belief in the world. “To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. What he experiences then is depression or anger, because what he did was to exchange Self-love with self-hate, making him afraid of himself.” (6:1-3) Investment in this world brings anxiety because it is identifying with the ego as what we are. Identifying with the ego is an investment in self-hatred and death. This is is a very poor investment indeed.

What happens when we insist on having things be a certain way in this world?

If we insist on having anything a certain way in the world of form, it is a sign that we are invested in the ego. If we believe we are the ego, we believe that salvation means protecting and maintaining the ego. Since the ego is the idea of separation, the ego’s idea of salvation always involves some form, which is separation. Thus the ego always insists on having the form it thinks will make it safe. “Insistence means investment, and what you invest in is always related to your notion of salvation.” (2:5)

When we invest in the ego’s forms of salvation, the only way out of this mistaken thinking is to recognize that it does not matter. If we think that we have to have specific forms in specific ways in order to be happy, we are attacking ourselves and making ourselves poor. If we don’t have what we think we need in a certain way, we feel lack. We are poor because we are investing in illusions which have no value because, in reality, they are nothing and nowhere.

In paragraph four Jesus says, “Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something ‘outrageous,’ do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you.” (4:1-2) Course students who read this may ask something like, “If someone asks me to jump off a bridge, does this mean I shoud do it?” This is clarified in the Text on page 331 where it says, “I have said that if a brother asks a foolish thing of you to do it. But be certain that this does not mean to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or you, for what would hurt one will hurt the other. Foolish requests are foolish merely because they conflict, since they always contain some element of specialness.” (T-16.I.6:4-6)

When someone makes a foolish request, why do we need the help of the Holy Spirit?

To recognize a foolish request, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. “Only the Holy Spirit recognizes foolish needs as well as real ones. No needs will long be left unmet if you leave them all to Him Whose function is to meet them. That is His function, and not yours.” (T-16.I.6:7, 7:4-5) To be receptive to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we need to let go of our insistence (investment) that the forms of the world be a certain way for us to be happy or feel safe.

Why is it so important to realize that what we are experiencing is coming from our own minds?

It is very helpful to remember that what we are experiencing in this world is coming from our own minds. “He does not realize that he makes this world, for there is no world outside of him.” (6:7) Our right mind knows only the oneness of Love. The ego thought system of separation is completely opposite to the reality of the oneness. Love is what we are and It cannot be changed. If we want to identify with the ego, we are trying to hold on to a thought system that is completely opposed to what we are. This causes immense conflict.

If we want to maintain our identification with the ego we need to reduce this sense of conflict, so we project the thought system of separation and make it appear to be external to us. Being a projection, it still remains in our mind. But when we look at the projection of hate reflected back to us, we forget that the source of this reflection is in our own minds. Thus we think that our reflected projections are happening to us and have nothing to do with our thoughts. So when something or someone in the world seems to disturb us or be the cause of our unhappiness, we try to change something in the outside world to make us happy. This is what Jesus means when he says “...he always tries to handle [conflict] by making some sort of insane ‘arrangement’ with the world.” (6:5) This insane “arrangement” is to project the thoughts that are in conflict with our true Self onto a world that is outside of us.

Why do we experience so many problems in this world?

Jesus goes on to explain why we experience so many problems in this world. He helps us understand what is happening in our minds so we can do something about it. Inside our minds is all that is loving and true. Because we have joined with the ego thought system, we are holding something in our mind that is totally alien to our true thoughts. These completely opposite thoughts cannot mix. Therefore we unconsciously project the alien, antagonistic thoughts and see these thoughts as outside of us. That is why we see the world as full of conflict, suffering and pain. What we are seeing is just the projection of the conflict that is in our own minds.

The projected conflict produces a constant supply of problems that seem to come from the outside world. We are told, “Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.” (9:9-10) We will continue to have problems with the world that we see as outside us until we learn to hand over every perceived problem to the Holy Spirit and receive His healing perception. “Yet to find this place [of peace], you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of God.” (10:9) As we receive the Holy Spirit’s vision of oneness, the conflict of separation fades away. We move into an experience of simplicity and ease, because we remember that only Love is real.

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section II: The Way to Remember God

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section II (pages 218-20)

How do we remember God?

The way to remember God is to accept the miracle, which is a change of mind received from the Holy Spirit. This change of mind helps us let go of the denial of truth. The truth is in us, but we must be willing to accept the Light — the Holy Spirit — that is residing in our own mind. “The sick must heal themselves, for the truth is in them.” (1:6) Sickness is the denial of our true reality, which is Love.

Why is making the body sick one of the ego’s favorite dream scripts?

When we deny ourselves the Love we are, our mind is sick and we need help. When our mind is sick, one of the ways it shows up in our stories of separation is in sickness of the body. In this world of separation, sickness of the body is one of the illusions that seems to be most effective in making the world seem real. Pain seems to make the body real. It commands our attention, distracting us from the peace we need in order to be aware of the changeless Love we are. Sickness can only come within the belief system of separation. When we believe in separation, we cannot know Love because Love is one. Just as we need to learn to recognize fear as a symptom of the belief in separation, and therefore a call for Love, we must learn to recognize sickness as a symptom that is really a call for Love.

How do we withdraw the power we have given to illusions?

In paragraph two Jesus compares our belief in illusions of separation as being like a dense fog that hides the Light that shines within our own mind. The Light we are shines just as brightly as ever, but the fog obscures the Light. Here Jesus gives us a very helpful answer to heal our sick minds that are lost in the fog of our illusions. He says, “If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none. For [the fog] has power only if the Son of God gives power to it. He must himself withdraw that power, remembering that all power is of God.” (2:2-4)

So here we are learning that we must be willing to withdraw the power we have given to our illusions of separation. This means being willing to change our minds about what anything means in this world. The Light in our mind is the Holy Spirit — the Spirit that remembers our oneness for us while we are dreaming of stories of separation. When we open up to the Holy Spirit, we are opening up to letting the fog of separation be shined away. Because in reality we are united as one mind, when we remember that all true power lies only in God, we are remembering for the whole Sonship.

Why does Jesus say that Love is the Answer in every situation?

In paragraph three we see that Love is the Answer to every situation. “Whatever the sickness, there is but one remedy.” (3:2) Because we are of one mind, when we extend Love to every brother who is calling for Love, we are giving Love to ourselves because our brother is our Self. “Answer his call for love and yours is answered. Healing is the Love of Christ for His Father and for Himself.” (3:5-6) This is a central theme that we will return to again and again, because it is the way out of illusions. When we give power to the fog — making separate images real — we are hiding What is real and causing our mind to be sick. In truth we are mind and only mind. Making the body real is just a sign of sickness.

How do we keep our minds open and receptive to Holy Spirit’s way of seeing?

Believing we know on our own what anything means keeps us locked in the nightmare of the world of separation. This is why one of the early Workbook lessons has us repeat, “I do not know what anything means.” Elsewhere in the Text it tells us we need to learn to question everything we perceive. This is how we open our minds to be receptive to another way of seeing. This receptivity is essential for us to receive the healing perception of the Holy Spirit. When we ask for and accept the Holy Spirit’s perception, our fears vanish. Otherwise our “certainty” blinds us to everything that does not agree with our view and we remain locked in our nightmare.

Why does Jesus say, “Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil.”?

Whenever we are disturbed by anything, Jesus gives us a specific answer for how to deal with it. “Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. Look straight of every image that rises to delay you, for the goal is inevitable because it is eternal. The goal of love is but your right, and it belongs to you despite your dreams.” (5:5-7) When we quiet our minds and open to the Holy Spirit’s perspective, we learn that in every situation, Love is the answer because only Love is real. Our only purpose, given to us by God, is to extend Love.

Why does Jesus ask us so frequently to trust in his help?

We are not alone in our journey of awakening from our nightmare of believing in separation from Love. Jesus tells us, “Trust in my help, for I did not walk alone, and I will walk with you as our Father walked with me.” (7:5) Jesus has complete trust in the truth about us. As we learn to trust him, we join with him in accepting perfect Love as the only true reality. When we join with Jesus we remember that the goal of Love is already accomplished. Only Love is true and nothing else is true. As we are willing to look at every fear with the Holy Spirit, we will receive true vision. Our fears will be shined away. We will see our nightmares for what they are.

Why is it so important to let the Holy Spirit be the judge of everything in this world?

This section is telling us that A Course in Miracles is offering us “an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want.” (10:1) The way out of the illusion of separation that is this world is to learn to recognize that we don’t want it and give it to the Holy Spirit. This is forgiveness. We don’t have to know what to do with the illusions of the world. We just have to diligently practice, day by day, moment by moment, thought by thought, giving everything of this world to the Holy Spirit and let Him judge it truly. With this practice we will learn to distinguish reality from illusion.

In our identification with the ego we have tried to make illusion real and thus cannot tell the difference between illusion and reality. That is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help. The key for our release is our willingness to look at all our fears and guilt and bring them to the Holy Spirit. He will not fail to help us because that is His job.

We cannot be relieved of our fears by hiding them. Neither does it help us to just recognize the fears. If we stop with just that, the fears will seem more real to us. We must give our fears to the Holy Spirit. He will replace them with His vision, which looks past the form and recognizes Love is the only reality. Here we find peace.

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section I: The Judgment of the Holy Spirit

Read ACIM Chapter 12, Section I (pages 215-18)

What happens when we rely on the body’s senses?

This is a world of perception. We rely on the body’s senses to give us information and then we interpret based on that information. Believing we have all the ‘facts,’ we act on our interpretation as if it were true. What we don’t realize is that none of the information the body’s senses provides is true because the body itself is an illusion. An illusion cannot be true itself nor can it recognize truth. Relying on the body’s senses literally blinds us to the truth.

When we accept the ego thought system and believe it is true, we will believe what the body tells us because the body is a construct of the ego thought system. It was made to make separation appear to be real. Thus all interpretations based on the ego thought system must be in error. But if we believe in the ego thought system, we make the error real and will not recognize that our interpretations are mistaken. They will always be mistaken as long as we subscribe to the ego thought system.

What is the alternative to believing in what the body’s eyes see?

The way out is to relinquish our predisposition to interpret on our own and turn all interpretation duties over to the Holy Spirit. If we let the Holy Spirit interpret everything on our behalf, He will teach us to disregard illusion so that we can see the truth of Love that is the only reality in all things. Jesus tells us, “Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes.” (3:3-4)

In paragraph four Jesus is helping us see how we are refusing to accept reality as it is. Reality is oneness. When he says, “There is nothing to prevent you from recognizing all calls for help as exactly what they are except your own imagined need to attack” (4:1), he is referring to our desire to be separate or unique and different. He is referring to our unwillingness to accept oneness as it is. If we do not see the Love in our brother, we will not see the Love in ourselves.

What happens when we fail to see a call for help?

We see what we want to see. “If you are unwilling to see an appeal for help as what it is, it is because you are unwilling to give help and to receive it. To fail to recognize a call for help is to refuse help.” (5:3-4) Jesus is really giving us the key to our salvation here. As we open to seeing in a new way — seeing that there is only Love or a call for Love — we learn to give Love in all situations. By giving Love, we receive it for ourselves. “Only appreciation is an appropriate response to your brother. Gratitude is due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of bringing love into your awareness if you perceive them truly.” (6:1-2)

Because only Love is real, our only response to Reality must be Love. This brings what seems very complicated down to very simple terms. In every situation our job is to maintain Love and gratitude as a consistent state of mind. As we learn the happy habit of seeing all calls for Love as what they truly are, we are returned to right-mindedness and our minds are healed.

Does fear have many disguises?

In paragraph eight Jesus is encouraging us to apply the Holy Spirit’s interpretation to everything. As we apply the Holy Spirit’s interpretation to the fear we see in others, it helps us with our own fears. The Holy Spirit translates all fear, seen in others or ourselves, to the truth. Fear has many disguises. Many times we have been fooled into thinking that the error was real and that we had to fix it on the outside rather than changing our mind. We are now learning that everything we see is coming from our own mind and that it is only the Holy Spirit That brings our minds to the truth. “Having taught you to accept only loving thoughts in others and to regard everything else as an appeal for help, He has taught you that fear itself is an appeal for help. This is what recognizing fear really means.” (8:7-8)

Who’s job is it to interpret fear?

We are seeing very clearly here that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to reinterpret fear, not ours. When we believe we are separate from God, we feel the loss of His Love, which brings fear. Thus the antidote to fear is always Love. Defense always reinforces the seeming reality of fear. Offering Love instead neutralizes the perceived lack of Love and fear disappears. “If when you perceive [fear] in others you learn to supply the loss [of love], the basic cause of fear is removed. Thereby you teach yourself that fear does not exist in you. The means for removing [fear] is in yourself, and you have demonstrated this by giving [Love].” (9:2-4)

Since only Love is real, Love is the only reality in the world. None of the images we see are real. As we learn to let the Holy Spirit interpret everything on our behalf, we will learn to see past the images, which are symbols of the denial of Love, to the Love that is everywhere. We learn that only Love is real by responding with Love to every call for Love. Just as light dispels darkness, truth dispels the denial of truth because it brings to light the underlying belief in truth. Truth is our oneness in Love. As the truth is brought to light, the dream of separation is seen as untrue.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section VIII: The Problem and the Answer

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section VIII (pages 211-14)

What does Jesus say is the cause of all our problems?

In the last section we learned that the world is not as we see it now. We learned that only the loving thoughts in this world are real. We learned that we have tried to replace God’s universal Thought of Love with differences, uniqueness and specialness. We are now seeing that this is the cause of all our “problems.” In this section, Jesus reminds us that no matter what we may think, only reality is true and that, as we awaken to the truth, everything that we have made will be forgotten.

What is our beginning step to see the difference between illusion and reality?

We are learning that we are in dire need of Holy Spirit’s instructions in how to perceive truly because it is only the Holy Spirit That holds the Light for us when we forget and we can’t tell the difference between illusion and reality. Jesus tells us, “You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning.” (3:1-3)

In order to awaken we must learn to question everything we have taught ourselves. As along as we continue to hold on to our current thinking, that is how long we will be held in ego’s prison house. “Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you learned of yourself, for you who learned amiss should not be your own teacher.” (3:8)

To learn the Holy Spirit’s answer, what must we put aside?

We are told to ask, “Do I want the problem or do I want the answer?” (4:6) To receive Holy Spirit’s answer, we must put aside our past learning. Accepting Holy Spirit’s Help is what the Course is leading us to. It is the practical application of what the Course is teaching us. As we practice asking and listening for the answer, we will be given very specific guidance that will teach us to distinguish between the real and the unreal. “The Holy Spirit will answer every specific problem as long as you believe that problems are specific. His answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the One is many.” (5:5-6)

We will be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance if we think that the Holy Spirit’s Will is not our will. Jesus explains that subconsciously we believe that if we listen to the Holy Spirit we will be losing something that is precious to us. He quells that fear when he reminds us, “God gives; He does not take. When you refuse to ask, it is because you believe that asking is taking rather than sharing.” (5:9-10) The world of separation is the effect of the wish to have something we could take and have for ourselves alone. Everything real is shared. Anything we think we can keep for ourselves alone is not real.

The Holy Spirit only shares with us what is already ours. He reminds, He does not demand. Because we don’t remember the difference between what is real and not real, we need a Guide to help us remember what reality is. “You believe in a world that takes, because you believe you can get by taking. And by that perception you have lost sight of the real world.” (7:2-3)

Why have we made a world of taking and not sharing?

The world of separation we have made is a frightening world of taking and not sharing all with all because we believe that giving brings loss. Yet in the real world, giving is how we keep what is eternally ours. We are the Kingdom of Heaven, but we are dreaming of a different world. It is this world of differences that we are now learning to undo with the help of the Holy Spirit.

What happens when we take offense in our brother?

Paragraph 12 reminds us that our brother is Christ and if we take offense in our brother, we are misperceiving Christ. If we are offended by Christ it is because we have rejected Christ in ourselves and are judging against God’s Son as He created him. “Let the Holy Spirit remove all offenses of God’s Son against himself and perceive no one but through His guidance, for he would save you from all condemnation.” (12:4) If we perceive our brother as a body, we cannot be perceiving him as Christ. Bodies can appear to be malicious or benevolent, but the truth of our brother is Love and nothing else.

Perceiving our brother as a body is no more than a child’s dream of ghosts, monsters and dragons. As we practice letting the Holy Spirit, the Teacher of Reality, be our interpreter, we will learn that the images we fear have no substance. When we learn to perceive truly, we are not afraid. When we see the reality of our brothers we will know our safety and our Love.

What happens when we ask the Holy Spirit for the truth when we are afraid?

As we develop the habit of asking the Holy Spirit for the truth when we are afraid, we strengthen the awareness of truth in ourselves. Truth is ours for the asking. Reality will always dispel our fears. When fear is gone, we see the real world instead of the false world we have made. And we are ready to accept the oneness of God’s Love.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section VII: The Condition of Reality

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section VII (pages 210-11)

How do we tell the difference between what is real and what is unreal?

This section begins with a simple, quick test to help us determine what is real and what is unreal. If it is perishable or changeable, it cannot be real. Only what is eternal is real. Thus everything that the body can see or sense is unreal because it changes, even if it changes over millions of years. Only Love is true because God is Love and “everything true is like Him.” (3:8)

What does Jesus tell us is the world’s only reality?

To perceive the real world, which is a world of Love and nothing else, we must be willing to perceive only Love and nothing else. Only our loving thoughts are real and are therefore eternal. Just as God’s loving Thoughts are His creations, our loving thoughts are our creations. Jesus tells us, “The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world’s only reality. They are still perceptions, because he still believes that he is separate. Yet they are eternal because they are loving.” (2: 2-4)

Belief in illusions makes them seem real to us. This makes it impossible for us to distinguish between illusion and reality, since both appear real to us. “If you believe in truth and illusion, you cannot tell which is true.” (3:6) Choosing to believe that separation is real automatically leads to judgment and guilt because it brings with it the perception of differences and harm. It is these ideas that stand between us and our awareness of our Creator.

How is the real world perceived?

The real world is perceived by giving up all judgment, all thoughts of guilt, all thoughts of good and bad. That is why forgiveness is the means of reaching true perception in which the real world is seen. In order to forgive we must recognize illusion for what it is. If it is not like the Father, then it is not real. When we remember it is not real, we realize nothing really happened so there is nothing to forgive. We easily let it go. We remember the real world, which is a world in which only Love is perceived. We remember our Self, which is Love and nothing else. This is salvation.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section VI: Waking to Redemption

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section VI (pages 207-209)

How do we join the resurrection?

With A Course in Miracles, Jesus is leading us to a new kind of experience. Because our beliefs are built upon our experience, new experiences will lead to new beliefs. These new beliefs will change our perceptions because belief determines perception. The exercises in the Workbook are designed to give us new experiences that will open our minds to new beliefs which change our limited perceptions. He is really guiding us to transcend our self-made prison of limitation and ascend to the Father. This is our resurrection, our return to our natural state of oneness with our Creator.

He is encouraging us to join the resurrection. As we join the resurrection we free our brothers. We transcend the ego and ascend to the Father. We join the resurrection by accepting Christ’s vision. Jesus tells us, “Let the Christ in you interpret for you, and do not try to limit what you see by narrow little beliefs that are unworthy of God’s Son.” (3:9) This is the means by which we wake to redemption. This is means by which we free ourselves from the limitations of the ego thought system.

What is the new way to think and therefore the new way to see?

Jesus is teaching us a new way to think and therefore a new way to see. This new way to see is, “You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in you as you live in everyone.” (4:2-3) When we think this way, we see this way. We realize that we are all one and there is no way for anyone to be different from us nor for us to be different from God. This is our resurrection because it is our acknowledgment of our oneness in God. As we acknowledge the truth, the false stories that have led to the ego’s prison house will fall away.

As we believe in the resurrection — our oneness with God — our perception changes. We see our brothers as part of us. We transcend the ego when we see our brothers as Christ does. We are told that what we perceive is our interpretation. As our beliefs move into alignment with the Christ Mind, we see ourselves as we truly are and we see our brothers as they truly are.

In order to think differently, what do we need to realize?

We need to realize that the ego is the god of crucifixion. It demands that we see all things as separate from God and ourselves. This is crucifixion. The ego thought system believes that power comes from sacrifice and pain. That is why the ego loves judgment and condemnation of our brothers and ourselves. When we believe in the ego, this is all we know. We are slaves to it and become like ego robots, blindly judging and separating ourselves from everything.

Jesus reminds us that there is hope and a way out of this crucifixion. “The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot be thrust upon you, but it can be offered you through the grace of God. And you can accept it by His grace, for God is gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His Own.” (6:3-4)

We are either joining with the crucifixion or joining with the resurrection. Jesus encourages us to join with the resurrection by remembering that our brother is still one with God, no matter what our brother thinks or appears to do. We guard our brother by remembering our oneness with him in God. By doing this we also remember our oneness and safety in God. When we do this we are also remembering our oneness with Jesus. He tells us, “Teach rather that I did not die by that demonstrating that I live in you. For the undoing of the crucifixion of God’s Son is the work of the redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value.” (7:4-5)

This is significant because it is telling us that the undoing of the crucifixion of God’s Son is everyone’s function equally. The part we play is essential in the undoing of the ego. Christ’s vision teaches us to see past the ego in every brother to the truth. This is how we heal. This is how we join the resurrection.

As we join the resurrection, what is our new job?

Our job is to see as Jesus sees, or to see with Christ’s vision. That means we need to see our brothers as innocent and part of us in God. As we are able to see our brothers in this Light, we recognize the Light in ourselves. The Light shines away the nightmares. “The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ come with the awakening of others to share your redemption.” (8:8)

As we forget our dreams of crucifixion, we recognize God’s Son is saved because he remains as God created him. It is this awareness we need to hold in our minds about everyone we perceive. We are all part of God’s Son and we are in Heaven now.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section V: The “Dynamics” of the Ego

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section V (pages 202-207)

Does a delusion have any real power of its own?

One of the central teachings of the Course is that the entire ego thought system is a delusion. A delusion cannot be real and what is not real has no power and cannot have effects. The body and the entire physical universe is simply an effect of the ego’s delusional thought system. Learning and accepting the truth of this is the release from the hell we have made in our minds.

What is the ego’s intent?

In this section Jesus wants us to see clearly the ego’s intent. “The ego’s goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. From the beginning, then, its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself and independent of any power except its own. This is why it is the symbol of separation.” (4:4-6)

How do the ego’s illusions disappear?

Because we made the ego and believe in it, its effects do seem real. It does seem to have power. But we need to look at these effects with the Holy Spirit with an open mind. We must be willing to be taught that these “effects” are actually coming from our own mind and the world we see as ‘outside us’ is unreal. As long as we are unwilling to question our beliefs, we protect illusions by maintaining our belief in them. These illusions stand in the way of knowing our oneness with all Creation. Illusions disappear the moment we withdraw belief in them. “What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them?” (2:1-2)

Are we rebelling against God when we believe in separation?

Teenage rebellion against authority is an acting out of the ego’s rebellion against the Father. It is an attempt to establish independence and autonomy, to break free from the control of the parent. The ego views God as controlling because the ego itself is the idea of trying to control its separate identity. So we may think that rebellion is limited to teenagers when it is actually something we are all doing when we believe in the reality of a world of separation.

This world is an attempt to make independence from God real. We think this independence will bring us happiness because we think it gives us control and the ability to make a world to our liking. Yet we ignore or hide from the fact that to have this independence we must deny Love and therefore feel that we are without Love. Being a place where Love is denied, this world is a fearful place because it is an attempt to be the opposite of God’s universal Love. It is alien to our true Nature. Because the ego is delusionary, it cannot truly will anything. It is merely the ineffectual wish to be contrary to God. “The real conflict you experience, then, is between the ego’s idle wishes and the Will of God, which you share.” (5:5)

The ego places high value on independence because its ‘existence’ depends on it. Yet because the ego is the idea of separation, it is the idea of limitation. Can limitation truly be independence? God is limitless and eternal. When we accept our dependence on God, we accept His limitlessness and changelessness. We are free to be the Love we were created to be. We are free to be our natural Self.

Why is believing in this world of separation the same as aligning ourselves with fear?

When we align ourselves with the ego we are aligning ourselves with fear because we believe we have successfully attacked Love’s oneness and thus believe attack has power. This fear is kept largely unconscious by ego mechanisms of denial and projection because otherwise we would not maintain our allegiance to fear. To maintain our allegiance to fear, we must deny Love because fear is the absence of Love. We are thus denying our Self because our Self is Love. “Your recognition that whatever seems to separate you from God is only fear, regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the ego wants you to experience it, is therefore the basic ego threat. Its dream of autonomy is shaken to its foundation by this awareness.” (10:1-2)

When we identify with the ego we are believing we are a unique, separate, independent identity. Because we believe our identity is different from other “identities,” we believe that our identity is always subject to threat from others. Yet this threat is a mask for the real perceived threat to our separate identity. This threat is the recognition of our true Identity, our one Self. For the recognition of our true Identity can only come with the release of our attachment to individuality and thus the end of our separate, unique identity. Because we believe we are this separate identity, this end is interpreted as death. “Very simply, then, you have become afraid of yourself. And no one wants to find what he believes would destroy him.” (10:7-8)

The dictionary defines autonomy as self-governing or self-determining. God has determined that His Son is part of Him and there is nothing that can change His determination. Since we (God’s Son) were created to be one with God, our true self-determination is to be in God and one with Him. We could never truly establish a separate autonomy, independent from God. God’s Autonomy is inviolate because He is all that is real. “...His Autonomy encompasses yours, and is therefore incomplete without it. You can only establish your autonomy by identifying with Him, and fulfilling your function as it exists in truth.” (12:1-2) We establish our autonomy from the limitations of the ego by accepting the Will we share with God.

What is the core of the ego’s thought system?

In paragraphs 13-16 Jesus very carefully explains that the core of the ego thought system is the belief in separation. It uses separation in its interpretation of everything. “The ego believes that power, understanding and truth lie in separation, and to establish this belief it must attack. Unaware that the belief cannot be established, and obsessed with the conviction that separation is salvation, the ego attacks everything it perceives by breaking it into small, disconnected parts, without meaningful relationships and therefore without meaning.” (13:4-5)

Think about this world we perceive. Everything is seen as separated into disconnected units. We only see this world of disconnected units when we have joined with the ego’s thought system and believe separation is real. This belief is the exact opposite of the truth. Because separation could never be real, to maintain its thought system, the ego must focus on error and ignore the truth. Thus to the ego, error becomes real and truth becomes error.

In understanding the dynamics of the ego, it is very helpful to understand that the ego “...makes real every mistake it perceives, and ...concludes that because of the mistake, consistent truth must be meaningless. The next step, then, is obvious. If consistent truth is meaningless, inconsistency must be true. Holding error clearly in mind, and protecting what it has made real, the ego proceeds to the next step in its thought system: Error is real and truth is error.” (14:3-6)

Jesus’ explanation of how the ego works makes it easier for us to recognize when we are joining with the ego’s thought system. To awaken from the dream we must learn to watch for how the ego thought system shows up in our minds. When are we perceiving mistakes and holding error in our minds and making them real? When we think that error is real, we are also saying that truth is error.

An example of this is when we focus on a brother’s mistake and think that the mistake is real. The truth about him is that he is not a separate person. He is formless, perfect Love, just as God created him. The error is illusion stemming from the ego’s thought system. Making mistakes in a world of separation is not real. With the Holy Spirit’s help we learn that the whole world is mistaken perception. The world is not real and the only thing that is real is the totality of God’s universal Love.

Do we want to see the ego’s witnesses or do we want to remember our Father?

The appeal of the ego’s selective perception can be very strong as long as we want individuality, independence and specialness. We return to the Father through seeing the truth in His Son. “Would you remember the Father? Accept His Son and you will remember Him. Nothing can demonstrate that His Son is unworthy for nothing can prove that a lie is true.” (17:1-3) Remembering this helps us when we are tempted to condemn a brother for his insane behavior. When we perceive a brother as a body, we are using selective perception. We are choosing to see form and deny the formless perfect Love that he truly is. We judge our brother based on what the body appears to do while ignoring the Love that his true Self is eternally extending.

We see our brother as a body because we want to maintain the illusion that we are a body. We want this because the body seems to confirm our uniqueness and keep our thoughts private, giving us something we can call our own. “Everything you perceive is a witness to the thought system you want to be true.” (18:3)

But we can make another choice. If we choose to be free and not limited to a body, we will see our brother as not limited to a body. Then he will be a demonstration of our freedom. “Every brother has the power to release you, if you choose to be free.” (18:4) If we truly want to remember our Father, we will accept His Son as he truly is and not as the ego would make of him. In our identification with the ego, we have been vigilant for the ego’s witnesses. It is time to be vigilant for the Holy Spirit’s thought system, which always shows us the truth in our brother. Thus will we remember our Father.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section IV: The Inheritance of God’s Son

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section IV (pages 200-202)

Why does Jesus say that the Sonship is our salvation?

God is Love and Love extends. Love’s extension is the Sonship, which is our one Self. Being Love’s extension, our Self (the Sonship) remains one with Love. If we judge against any part of the Sonship, we lose awareness of Love’s oneness, because Love cannot be divided. “Yet if you hate part of your Self all your understanding is lost, because you are looking on what God created as yourself without love. And since what He [Love] created is part of Him, you are denying Him His place in His Own altar.” (1:6-7)

Love is one. If we deny any part of Love’s extension, we are denying what Love is and are denying our Father. When we deny our Father, we are trying to make God homeless. When we try to make Love homeless, it leaves us feeling homeless too, because God is our Home. When we forget about God we lose awareness of the Love and power God gave us. We feel lost in our dreams of separation from Love and wonder why God does not intervene to save us from emptiness and scarcity we experience.

Why does God not intervene in our dream of separation from Him?

Paragraph two explains why. In our creation God gave us all of Himself. That means the power we have is equal to His power; the Love we have is equal to His Love. We can dream of denying that power and denying that Love, but that does not change God’s gift. It only makes us unaware of It. If God were to interfere with our dream of denial of His power and Love, it would mean He no longer considers us to be one with His power and Love. He would have to see us as a lesser order of power. Then with His “greater power” He could reach into our dream and save us from our hallucination. He cannot do this because if He did, it would mean He has changed His mind about His gift to His Son and reserved a little “extra power” for Himself. But God held nothing back and He has not changed His Mind about us, for He is eternal and changeless.

So the way out of the dream is not to ask God to intervene and do for us what we must do for ourselves. The way out is to stop denying our inheritance, to stop denying the power and Love of God that we are. This means we need to learn to recognize the unreality of the dream. The Course is here to help us learn that and also to teach us how to hear the Voice of our inner Teacher, Who will always help us recognize the real and the unreal, if we but turn to Him. As we choose reality instead of illusion, we reclaim our inheritance, not by God’s intervention but by our acceptance of the Will we share with God. This Will we share with God is to be His power and Love. “Therefore, look only to the power that God gave to save you, remembering that it is yours because it is His, and join with your brothers in His peace.” (2:5)

What is really going on when we blame our brother for our deprivation?

Jesus is helping us see that if we judge and blame our brother for our deprivation, it is really ourselves that we are judging and blaming. Conversely, if we blame ourselves we are also blaming our brother because we are one. “That is why blame must be undone, not seen elsewhere. Lay [blame] to yourself and you cannot know yourself, for only the ego blames at all. Self-blame is therefore ego identification, and as much an ego defense as blaming others.” (5:3-5)

What is the world we see showing us?

Everything we see in an outside world is a reflection of what is in our own mind. The ego uses projection to hide the guilt that is in our own unconscious mind. To keep the guilt in place, the ego’s has us conveniently forget that everything we see in an outside world is really still in our minds. Projecting the guilt has not gotten rid of it. Jesus helps us understand that it is not “out there.” There is no difference between what appears to be without (our projections) and what is within. When we deny the Light in our brother, we are denying our own Light. The antidote is to learn to recognize the Light in our brothers and thereby recognize our own Light. We do this through forgiveness, or letting go of denying the Love of God in our brother.

What holds us back from going Home?

God welcomes us Home, but we cannot enter as long as we hold judgments against anyone. Condemnation is not of God because Love does not condemn. The Love of God is all inclusive, excluding no one. Likewise our love must be all inclusive if we would share the Home God holds open for us. “Sharing the perfect Love of the Father, the Son must share what belongs to Him, for otherwise he will not know the Father or the Son.” (8:3) As we awaken, our one goal is to share the perfect Love of the Father. That is how we accept the inheritance of God’s Son, the inheritance that is ours.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section III: From Darkness to Light

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section III (pages 198-200)

What are the benefits that come to us as we choose peace?

This morning before I got up, I asked the Holy Spirit about how I could best be of service for the day ahead. The Holy Spirit said, “Let this be a quiet day.” I thought of all the things that needed to be done today and I wondered how quiet it would be with all the activity I anticipated. In response, the Holy Spirit referred to the lake we look out on from our bedroom window. He said, “The surface of the lake is constantly changing. It is never the same. The winds ruffle its surface and it is not always peaceful. But you can go down to the still waters where the quietness is constant. What happens on the surface does not affect the quiet still waters below.”

The Holy Spirit told me to go to the still waters of peace in my mind. It reminded me that the Holy Spirit’s quietness and peace are always available to me if I am willing to go to the quiet place in my mind where peace resides. He reminded me that the quiet waters of peace do not come and go, but are constant. I can go there any time I choose because it is always present right in my mind. Wherever I may go and whatever I may do, God’s quietness and peace go with me because they are still in my mind. The Holy Spirit reminded me that I will still do what needs to be done in this world, but that I can do it from a place of quiet, a place of inner peace.

When I read this section of the Text this morning, right in the first paragraph I found, “God is very quiet, for there is no conflict in Him.” (1:6) From this place of quiet I find comfort. I find rest. From this inner place of quiet I cannot suffer.

As I looked out on the lake this morning, a fish came to the surface and I observed ripples going out gently from that point in every direction. The Holy Spirit told me, “As you come from that quiet place of peace in your mind, it, too, sends out quiet ripples of peace in every direction. This can be your day, no matter what activities you may engage in on the surface.

When I do not remember that constant place of peace that always resides in my mind I can feel like I have lost my bearings. I can feel vulnerable to circumstances that seem to be in a world outside me. I am reminded, “God’s Son is indeed in need of comfort, for he knows not what he does, believing his will is not his own. The Kingdom is his, and yet he wanders homeless.” (2:1-2) Feeling homeless is feeling insecure, unprotected and without roots. This can only come by denying my roots in God. When I am willing to go to that quiet place of peace in my mind, I am returning Home. I am returning to the peace and happiness my Source Wills for me.

In this section Jesus is encouraging us all to go to that quiet place in our minds, where we are at Home in our true state of peace and Love. He reminds us of the benefits that can come to us as we are willing to choose peace. “The bleak little world will vanish into nothingness, and your heart will be so filled with joy that it will leap into Heaven, and into the Presence of God.” (3:5)

When we choose to be in the quiet place of peace in our minds, we are able to see the world differently. Our minds are open to the Light within us and we are able to see with that Light. Fear and grief are shined away as the Light shows us the truth in our brothers. We recognize our oneness with our brothers and the great Light that always surrounds us and shines out from us.

Being willing to go to the still waters of peace in my mind is the same as turning toward the Light. When I turn toward the Light, I am turning away from darkness; I am turning away from separation toward the peace of oneness. Jesus us tells us, “Only God’s Comforter can comfort you. In the quiet of His temple, He waits to give you the peace that is yours.” (7:1-2)

How does peace come to us?

To know that we are in the safety and peace of God’s Mind, we have to let go of the belief in separation. We have to recognize that our brothers are one with us. We must accept that they are Love and nothing else, just as we are. This awareness comes through forgiveness. As we practice taking all our thoughts of separation, fear and guilt to the Holy Spirit for healing, we learn of our Wholeness. We accept the whole Sonship as one with us and know that together we are worthy to dwell in the temple with God. “Time cannot separate you from God if you use it on behalf of the eternal.” (8:5)

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section II: The Invitation to Healing

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section II (pages 197-198)

What is included in the decision to heal?

Since sickness is separation, the decision to heal must be the decision to accept our oneness with all. This means we accept our oneness with our Source and with all Its creations — our brothers. Acceptance of oneness means we are not judging against it. Thus the decision to heal is the decision to forgive, to let go of all judgment. The willingness to relinquish judgment opens our minds to the recognition that Love gave all of Itself to us so that we not only have all Love, we are all Love.

Forgiveness, letting go of the wish to be separate, unites having and being in our awareness so that we return to the full knowing of our Self as Love created It. This is perfect understanding of What we are in truth. When we know our Self, we know our purpose and our will. Our only desire is to extend Love for That is what we are.

Our willingness to see only wholeness instead of separation is the same as our willingness to allow our sick minds to be healed by the Holy Spirit. “And this willingness opens your ears to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, Whose message is wholeness.” (4:2) As we practice inviting the Holy Spirit in to heal our minds each day, we become more relaxed. We learn to trust in the Holy Spirit’s perspective and not the ego’s.

What does the Holy Spirit enable you to do?

The Holy Spirit will bring our minds to wholeness if we will let Him. “He will enable you to go far beyond the healing you would undertake, for beside your small willingness to make whole he will lay His Own complete Will and make yours whole. What can the Son of God not accomplish with the Fatherhood of God in Him? And yet the invitation must come from you, for you have surely learned that whom you invite as your guest will abide with you.” (4:3-5, italics added)

How do we invite the Holy Spirit in?

We invite the Holy Spirit through the practice of forgiveness. We practice forgiveness by taking each thought of judgment or conflict to Him and opening our minds to His correction of our perception. Our function in this world is to forgive, which is the reflection of Love in the world. It heals our perceived separation from our brothers.

When God gave us all of Himself, He gave us His function. That is why our only function is to extend Love as He does. Because extending Love is our will, it is only this that will bring us true happiness. Workbook Lesson 66 says that our function and happiness are one. Because forgiveness is the reflection of Love in this world, it is forgiveness that brings us happiness here. Forgiveness releases us from the limitations of the ego and sets us free. Through forgiveness we recognize that our only Home is in God. Through forgiveness we welcome Reality and know the Comfortor of God is in us. “Real freedom depends on welcoming reality, and of your guests only the Holy Spirit is real.” (7:7) Welcoming Reality is the invitation to healing. As we heal, we welcome the truth and give the truth.

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section I: The Gifts of Fatherhood

Read ACIM Chapter 11, Section I (pages 194-196)

Why is it so important that we recognize our need of healing?

Jesus begins this section by reminding us of our need for healing and the need to bring healing to the Sonship in order to return to knowledge. Healing comes with being willing to recognize the truth of What we are and Where we are. “You dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone.” (1:6) How could we be alone when it is not God’s Will? How could we have a mind that is separate from His, when it is not God’s Will? How could we have made a world where there is limitation, suffering and death, when it is not God’s Will? God is the Universe and so denial of His Will is what we need to learn to let go of. Letting go of another will that is separate from God’s Will is our healing.

Why are we afraid to know God’s Will for us?

Accepting that God’s Will is our will is what we are learning to remember in order to have our minds be healed. But the Course says, “You are afraid to know God’s Will, because you believe it is not yours. This belief is your whole sickness and your whole fear. Every symptom of sickness and fear arises here, because this is the belief that makes you want not to know. Believing this you hide in darkness, denying that the light is in you.” (10:3-6) To return to the memory that our will is God’s Will, we must recognize that we do not know because we are so entrenched in denying God’s Will.

Only the Holy Spirit can show us our true will, which is God’s Will. Because our will is God’s Will, we share His Life. We may not remember His Life because of our denial, but it continues without end or limit. “[The extension of God’s Mind] continues forever, however much it is denied. Your denial of its reality may arrest it in time, but not in eternity. That is why your creations have not ceased to be extended and why so much is waiting for your return.” (3:7-8)

Why is what we call ‘life’ in this world not created by God?

What we call “life” in this world was not created by the eternal because everything in this world has a beginning and an end. Thus it cannot be real. That is why we can leave it all behind by recognizing that anything in time, anything that changes, has no meaning. Only what is timeless is of God so only the eternal is real.

What do we need to share in order to know God?

Since God is Love, His Will is only to extend Love. God’s one gift to us in our creation is Himself. Creation is extension of Love. Since God’s extension cannot be blocked, Love cannot be blocked. Even though we hide in dreams, our extension of Love remains unabated in eternity. As we learn to accept Love as Love is, we will unite with God’s gift of Himself to us. We will give Love universally, as God does. This is our true will. This is what we are returning to with the help of the Holy Spirit. With Holy Spirit’s guidance we open to sharing God’s Life with all equally. “You who share His Life must share it to know it, for sharing is knowing.” (11:5) Sharing God’s Life, God’s Love, is knowing His Will.

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Below are example references to specific sentences using the notation of the Second & Third Editions of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace:

T-26.IV.4:7 = Text, Chapt. 26, Section IV, paragraph 4, sentence 7.

W-pI.169.5:2 = Workbook, Part I, Lesson 169, paragraph 5, sentence 2.

M-13.3:2 = Manual for Teachers, Question 13, paragraph 3, sentence 2.

C-6.4:6 = Clarification of Terms, Term 6, paragraph 4, sentence 6

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section VII: Looking Within

What are the only two options we have for seeing?

Why is our decision in what we want to see so important?

What happens to our sight as we practice seeing with the Holy Spirit?

Why is it our job to do the Holy Spirit’s work?

Why does Jesus say it is impossible to give anything but Love to anyone?

Why does Jesus say that what we think we are is what we think we see?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section VI: The Vision of Christ

What does Jesus mean when he refers to the term ‘soul’?

What is the high price we pay for specialness?

How do we make the real world of Love real to ourselves?

Does the real world have anything to do with the world we see through the body’s eyes?

What happens as we truly want to see the real world?

What does it mean to ‘awaken’?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section V: The Sane Curriculum

Why do we feel weak and vulnerable?

Why is it so important to learn that attack has no effect?

What is the goal of any ego curriculum?

Why are we to resign as our own teacher?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section IV: Seeking and Finding

Why is the ego afraid of Love?

What does the ego offer as substitutes for Love?

Why is our mission the same as the Holy Spirit’s mission?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section III: The Investment in Reality

What happens as we relinquish our investment in the world?

What are the consequences of holding on to our belief in the world?

What happens when we insist on having things be a certain way in this world?

When someone makes a foolish request, why do we need the help of the Holy Spirit?

Why is it so important to realize that what we are experiencing is coming from our own minds?

Why do we experience so many problems in this world?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section II: The Way to Remember God

How do we remember God?

Why is making the body sick one of the ego’s favorite dream scripts?

How do we withdraw the power we have given to illusions?

Why does Jesus say that Love is the Answer in every situation?

How do we keep our minds open and receptive to Holy Spirit’s way of seeing?

Why does Jesus say, “Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil.”?

Why does Jesus ask us so frequently to trust in his help?

Why is it so important to let the Holy Spirit be the judge of everything in this world?

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Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Curriculum

Section I: The Judgment of the Holy Spirit

What happens when we rely on the body’s senses?

What is the alternative to believing in what the body’s eyes see?

What happens when we fail to see a call for help?

Does fear have many disguises?

Who’s job is it to interpret fear?

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section VIII: The Problem and the Answer

What does Jesus say is the cause of all our problems?

What is our beginning step to see the difference between illusion and reality?

To learn the Holy Spirit’s answer, what must we put aside?

Why have we made a world of taking and not sharing?

What happens when we take offense in our brother?

What happens when we ask the Holy Spirit for the truth when we are afraid?

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Chapter 11: God or the Ego

Section VII: The Condition of Reality