A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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 26: The Transition

Section VI. The Appointed Friend

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section VI. (page 553)

How could what we believe is good and valuable and worth striving for hurt us?

Believing in any form of separation hinders us when we make it real. Why? When we make it real, we are denying it is only an illusion. We are choosing against the oneness of our true Self. Jesus tells us, “For no one can make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give? Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is best?” (1:7-9)

In several places in the Course Jesus tells us to ask of everything, “What is this for?” We are reminded throughout the Course that everything in this world can be used for the ego’s purposes or the Holy Spirit’s purposes. The ego uses everything in the dream to continue making the dream of separation from God appear to have really happened. The Holy Spirit uses everything we think we have made to reinforce waking up from the dream of separation.

Forgiveness means letting the idea of separation go. As we forgive the dream of separation, we quit striving for the things of this world as an end in themselves. We want only to be truly helpful to Holy Spirit’s plan of awakening us all from the fearful dream of being separate and alone. It is only the Holy Spirit who knows how to do this and so we practice, moment by moment, stepping back and following Holy Spirit’s plan in everything.

Where does all power in earth and Heaven rest?

In this section we are reminded to make friends with Reality instead of illusions. When we make special bodies and special ‘personalities’ our friend, we are not helping ourselves or our brother. Jesus tells us, “Lead not your little life in solitude, with one illusion as your only friend. This is no friendship worthy of God’s Son, nor one with which he could remain content. Yet God has given him a better Friend, in Whom all power in earth and Heaven rests. The one illusion that you think is friend obscures His grace and majesty from you, and keeps His friendship and forgiveness from your welcoming embrace. Without Him you are friendless. Seek not another friend to take His place.” (2:1-5)

Here we are being trained to see every brother through his holiness instead of his specialness. This fits very closely with what Jesus tells us on page 78 of the Text: “There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind, because you are the perceiver. They must also be in his, because you are perceiving him. See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.” (T-5.III.3:1-5 italics added)

What gifts does our only Friend bring to us?

Jesus tells us, “Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world and only He to Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. He will place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His.” (3:3-6)

When we realize that the Holy Spirit is our only true Guide, we will stop seeking in the world of form for what we will not find. It is only our true Self, the Holy Spirit, Who brings us the awareness that we need to wake up from the dream of separation. This is the only Friend that we really need.

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Chapter 26: The Transition

Section V. The Little Hindrance

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section V. (pages 549-553)

What is the only thing we have to learn?

In paragraph one Jesus tells us, “A little hindrance can seem large indeed to those who do not understand that miracles are all the same. Yet teaching that is what this course is for. This is its only purpose, for only that is all there is to learn.” (1:1-3, italics added)

If miracles are all the same is the only thing we have to learn, it must be pretty important. Let us recall that a miracle is a change in perception which reverses our thoughts which reflect separation from Love to that of remembering that we are joined as one in the one Mind of Love. We receive miracles (this thought reversal) from the Holy Spirit, which is our one true Self.

No matter what our problem seems to be in this dream of separation, the Holy Spirit always returns us to the only solution that applies to everything we think we see. The Holy Spirit returns us to the remembrance that we have not changed from our one Identity as universal Love. This miracle of thought reversal which leads away from separation and towards oneness is why miracles are all the same and applies to every situation. Either we are led to Heaven through accepting miracles or we remain in dreams of separation, which is nothing and nowhere.

What is the little hindrance?

The little hindrance is our belief in time. Time is part of the ego’s story of separation which makes it appear that there is a past and a future that are different and can be seen apart. Time is the ego’s replacement for the eternal Love in God’s changeless eternity.

Jesus tells us in paragraph two: “Nothing is ever lost but time, which in the end is meaningless. For [time] is but a little hindrance to eternity, quite meaningless to the real Teacher of the world. Yet since you do believe in [time], why should you waste it going nowhere, when it can be used to reach a goal as high as learning can achieve?

What is the highest goal that learning can achieve?

The highest goal that the Holy Spirit brings us to is the awareness that time is over and long gone. We are but reviewing an ancient dream of being separate and having a will that is different from our Creator. It is like we are watching an old movie that was imagined long ago. As we open to our true Self, we learn in fact, that this dream movie never really happened. It was just a passing dream that never really occurred.

In paragraph 3 Jesus explains a very important truth to us: “Time lasted but an instant in your mind, with no effect upon eternity. And so is all time past, and everything exactly as it was before the way to nothingness was made. The tiny tick of time in which the first mistake was made, and all of them within that one mistake, held also the Correction for that one, and all of them that came within the first. And in that tiny instant time was gone, for that was all it ever was. What God gave answer to is answered and is gone.” (3:3-7)

The whole Course is here for us to gradually come to the most important awareness that time is over and gone. In fact, it never was. “You think you live in what is past. Each thing you look upon you saw but for an instant, long ago, before its unreality gave way to truth. Not one illusion still remains unanswered in your mind. Uncertainty was brought to certainty so long ago that it is hard indeed to hold it to your heart, as if it were before you still.” (4:2-5 italics added)

Learning that time is over and its unreality gave way to truth is the highest goal that the Holy Spirit is bringing us to. When we let go of this ‘little hindrance of our belief in time,’ we become aware of where we really are right now, which is in Heaven. We know that nothing has ever happened to change God’s one Son.

If time is over, how do we experience it as happening now?

Jesus answers this in the following way: “Yet in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgment and in all belief in sin, is that one instant still called back, as if it could be made again in time. You keep an ancient memory before your eyes. And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is.” (5:5-7)

Here we come to understand that when we experience having a separate will where we make decisions on our own, we are just recalling an ancient memory of separation, which never really happened. In the dream it appears to happen because that is what we want to dream.

Jesus gives us a very helpful metaphor in paragraph 6: “And who can stand upon a distant shore, and dream himself across an ocean, to a place and time that have long since gone by? How real a hindrance can this dream be to where he really is? For this is fact, and does not change whatever dreams he has. Yet can he still imagine he is elsewhere, and in another time. In the extreme, he can delude himself that this is true, and pass from mere imagining into belief and into madness, quite convinced that where he would prefer to be, he is. (6:6-10)

Here we see very clearly that, because of the power of our minds, we will experience what we want to experience, even if it is only in dreams. Now, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are letting ourselves remember that the dream we are experiencing is over and never really happened. We can relax now and let the Holy Spirit guide us “…through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone.” (4:1)

What are we reliving every day in this dream world of separation?

Jesus tells us, “Each day, and every minute in each day, and every instant that each minute holds, you but relive the single instant when the time of terror took the place of Love. And so you die each day to live again, until you cross the gap between the past and present, which is not a gap at all. Such is each life; a seeming interval from birth to death and on to life again, a repetition of an instant gone by long ago that cannot be relived. And all of time is but the mad belief that what is over is still here and now.” (13:1-4 italics added)

The good news is that we do not have to keep reliving this single instant of fearful dreaming that we separated from our oneness in Love. We can forgive the past and let it go with the help of our inner Teacher. We do not have to relive this fearful dream of separation again and again. We can learn to let it go and receive the miracle instead. We can learn from the Holy Spirit to: “Look gently on your brother, and behold the world in which perception of your hate has been transformed into a world of Love.” (14:5) We can open our closed minds to our true Self, Who will return us to the eternal truth.

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Chapter 26: The Transition

Section IV. Where Sin Has Left

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section IV. (pages 548-549)

How do we return to our real function of creating with God?

Our real function is to hold nothing in reserve, but to extend all Love to all of our one Self, which is what creating with God means. God or Love is synonymous with Love’s union. Love’s oneness gives all That Is to all of Itself because It knows that It is totally joined as one. Giving Love (Creation) is how Love Knows Itself.

As we let go of thinking we are unique or separate and forgive this false idea, we realign our mind with Heaven’s justice. We are able to see past the bondage of separation to the boundless Love that is always there to see, as we are willing. As we forgive the illusion of separation, we receive the benefit of freedom from ego’s dreams of guilt, death, fear and loss.

How does Jesus describe the benefits of forgiveness?

When reading paragraph 2, it is helpful to remember that the Course refers to the word ‘sin’ as the same as the belief in separation. As we forgive, or let go of our belief in separation (sin), Jesus tells us that we see a world of union that reflects the joy of Heaven. “There is no sadness and there is no parting here, for everything is totally forgiven. And what has been forgiven must join, for nothing stands between to keep them separate and apart. The sinless must perceive that they are one, for nothing stands between to push the other off.” (2:3-5 italics added)

What happens when we behold the face of Christ in everyone?

Jesus answers this the following way: “Who could behold the face of Christ and not recall His Father as He really is?” (3:3) When we see every brother as he really Is, we are beholding our Father as He really Is. We are seeing past the world of separation and reaching to the joy and unity of Heaven. The blinding fog of the ego thought system is lifted and we return to the experience of our Father’s oneness. What was complex returns to simple, uncomplicated Love. “For here is what was lost restored to them, and all their radiance made whole again.” (3:8)

How do all the little miracles of forgiveness that we are willing to receive help the whole Sonship?

As we are returned to Heaven through our forgiveness of illusions of separation, we help the whole Sonship awaken and be glad. Here we are reminded once again that we don’t go Home alone: “Here the Son of God Himself comes to receive each gift that brings him nearer to his home. Not one is lost, and none is cherished more than any other. Each reminds him of his Father’s Love as surely as the rest. And each one teaches him that what he feared he loves the most. What but a miracle could change his mind, so that he understands that Love cannot be feared?” (4:2-5)

In the daily lessons Jesus reminds us that we are the Light of the world. Each time we forgive, or let go of our belief in illusions of separation, we help every brother return to Heaven, where he belongs. “Where sin once was perceived will rise a world that will be come an altar to the truth, and you will join the lights of Heaven there, and sing their song of gratitude and praise. And as they [your brothers] come to you to be complete, so will you go with them. For no one hears the song of Heaven and remains without a voice that adds its power to the song, and makes it sweeter still.” (5:1-3)

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Chapter 26: The Transition

Section III. The Borderland

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section III. (pages 546-548)

Why is the truth very simple?

God is the truth, and there is nothing else. In dreams we think there is something else, we think there are separate bodies, but we cannot make real what God did not create. There is simplicity in God because in God’s oneness there is no conflict, no differences and no death. There are no separate lives. There is only one changeless, perfect, eternal Love. Because our Reality is only Love, we are simple. We can relax now, and let the memory of What we are in truth return to our conflicted mind.

What is the borderland?

The borderland is the same as what the Course calls the real world. We open to the real world when we are willing to take our made-up illusions of separate bodies to the Holy Spirit to be transformed and undone. In paragraph two we are told: “Here is the meeting place where thoughts are brought together; where conflicting values meet and all illusions are laid down beside the truth, where they are judged to be untrue. This borderland is just beyond the gate of Heaven. Here is every thought made pure and wholly simple. Here is sin [thoughts of separation] denied and everything that is received instead.” (2:3-6)

What is the final judgment upon this world?

As we take every perception of separation to the Holy Spirit to be healed, we come to the realization that a world of separate bodies with separate minds could never be real and does not exist. As we continue on our healing journey of returning to our one Self, we gradually stop wishing for the hell of separation and instead wish to become aware of our oneness in Heaven. And we receive what we wish for in our heart of hearts. When we no longer wish to see separation, it will not be there to see. The final judgement on the world becomes: “It has no meaning, and does not exist.” (4:3)

What is the learning goal that this course has set?

As we continue practicing the principles of A Course in Miracles, we learn that the wish for hell (hallucinating separation from God and our brothers) is not the same as the wish for Heaven (acceptance of our true Identity in God’s oneness). “This difference is the learning goal this course has set. It will not go beyond this aim. Its only purpose is to teach what is the same and what is different, leaving room to make the only choice that can be made.” (5:4-6)

As we surrender all we think we know and let ourselves be brought to the truth, we see that the idea of choice is illusion. We see that all illusions of separation are the same. We relinquish illusions of separation and return to knowing that we are one in God. We let ourselves remember there is nothing else. “Where all reality has been withdrawn from what was never true, can it be hard to give it up, and choose what must be true?” (7:7)

 

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Chapter 26: The Transition

Section II. Many Forms; One Correction

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section II. (pages 544-546)

Why does Jesus say that every problem is the same?

In truth, the only problem is our error in thinking that we could lose or separate from God’s perfect Love. The Love of God created only oneness and so separation from oneness could never be real. This whole world we experience of separate bodies is the effect of thinking that separation could be real. It is the false mind’s image making in an attempt to make differences appear to be reality. Because we have identified with this false separated mind-set that believes in differences, we hallucinate that we really have succeeded in obliterating oneness and have now succeeded in kicking God’s oneness out of our mind.

We now think we are separate and alone with the ability to make decisions on our own. We now think that choice is possible and that we alone are the decision maker in our little “life” that is separate from the oneness of our Source. We have sacrificed the truth so that we can gain autonomy and specialness. We think we have succeeded in losing our Identity as part of God, and to keep a little for ourself alone, we sacrifice the same eternal Identity of every brother we meet in this dream of separation. We now think that the loss of God is possible.

This is why Jesus tells us in paragraph 2: “For there is but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is possible, and could result in gain for anyone. …Think not the limits you impose on what you see can limit God in any way.” (3:2,5)

Why does the miracle of justice correct all errors of the false mind?

Because every perception of a problem just reflects the error in our thinking that separation from the Life we live in God really happened, we need a correction in the way we perceive the illusions we made up to replace God. As we are ready to receive a correction in our thinking from the Holy Spirit, we find that our illusions of loss are not true. The separation we think occurred never really happened. We only dreamed about it for awhile. God’s Son could never suffer and die in truth because His true Identity mercifully remains safe in the eternal Mind of God. God could not let us lose our true Identity.

That is why Jesus tells us that the miracle of Holy Spirit’s justice corrects all our hallucinations of separation. “The miracle of justice can correct all errors. Every problem [belief in separation] is an error. It does injustice to the Son of God, and therefore is not true. The Holy Spirit does not evaluate injustices [belief in separation] as great or small, or more or less. They have no properties to Him. They are mistakes [in thinking] from which the Son of God is suffering, but needlessly. And so He takes the thorns and nails away. He does not pause to judge whether the hurt be large or little. He makes but one judgment; that to hurt God’s Son [by believing in separation] must be unfair and therefore is not so.” (4:1-9)

The Holy Spirit shines a light on our mistaken thoughts of separation. As we let the Light of truth into our mind, hallucinations of separation disappear. This is the Holy Spirit’s miracle of justice. The past and future disappears and only the eternal presence of universal Love remains. We see that, in truth, we have no problems.

What happens when we believe a brother is guilty?

When we become angry or hold onto a thought that anyone is guilty, we are refusing to hand over every mistaken thought to be corrected. We are thinking that our mistaken thoughts are too precious to hand them over for correction, thinking that we already know what is true. “God offers you the means to see his innocence. Would it be fair to punish him because you will not look at what is there to see? Each time you keep a problem for yourself to solve, or judge that it is one that has no resolution, you have made it great, and past the hope of healing. You deny the miracle of justice can be fair.” (5:5-8)

What happens when we are able to receive the miracle of justice in every situation?

Our special function is to see everyone as sinless. As we are willing to refuse to sacrifice anyone’s true Identity, we are saved from our illusions of loss. “The miracle of justice you call forth will rest on you as surely as on him.” (6:8) The pain and suffering that comes with belief in separation mercifully falls away from our tortured mind.

“Think then, how great your own release will be when you are willing to receive correction for all your problems. You will not keep one, for pain in any form you will not want. And you will see each little hurt resolved before the Holy Spirit’s gentle sight. …What seemed to be a special problem, a mistake without a remedy, or an affliction without a cure, has been transformed into a universal blessing. Sacrifice is gone. And in its place the Love of God can be remembered, and will shine away all memory of sacrifice and loss.” (7:1-3, 5-7)

When we receive the miracle of justice, we remember Heaven instead of insisting on the hell of separation from God. We return to Love.

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Chapter 26: The Transition

Section I. The “Sacrifice” of Oneness

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 26, Section I. (pages 542-544)

Why is the sacrifice of oneness central to the ego thought system?

The ego thought system must hide our awareness of our oneness in God in order to make the image of having a separate life for ourselves alone appear real to us. In order to experience this false thought system, we must be willing to set up barriers against remembering God’s oneness through denying our natural awareness of Love’s eternal presence. To experience this thought system of separation, we dream up a world where separate bodies rule the universe. In this dream, we, as separate individuals, are the judge of what is real and what is denied. We build up images of a kingdom that we rule alone and God’s oneness is sacrificed.

In this section Jesus tells us, “The world you see is based on ‘sacrifice’ of oneness. It is a picture of complete disunity and total lack of joining. Around each entity is built a wall so seeming solid that it looks as if what is inside can never reach without, and what is out can never reach and join with what is locked away within the wall. Each part must sacrifice the other part, to keep itself complete. For if they joined, each one would lose its own identity, and by their separation are their selves maintained.” (2:1-5)

So here we see that it is a requirement that we sacrifice awareness of the truth of our oneness in God in order to experience the dream of separation. Once we let go of our desire to see separation, the dream cannot hold together. It falls apart and we see that it is just a dream of separation and not true at all.

What is required to deny the memory of God?

In order to deny the memory of God, we must sacrifice the truth of our Identity. And in this dream, we must sacrifice the truth of the ‘others’ we now see as outside of us. If we were to allow ourselves to see each brother as he/she truly Is, the game would be over. We would lose our separate ‘self’ identity.

This is why the ego’s false judgment of what our brother is becomes so important in order to keep the dream of separation going. When we join with the ego, we join with the idea that our brother is a unique body with a unique mind. We see him/her as in a constant state of change, subject to the winds of time. We see them weak and vulnerable. In order to deny the memory of God, we must refuse to see that they are still changeless Love, as God created them.

What happens as we are willing to see the witnesses to truth instead of illusions?

As we become willing to witness to the truth, the world starts to have a new purpose. Our new purpose is to see the one Christ Mind instead of a separate identity. Our new purpose is to see innocence and unity instead of separation and guilt.

How do we hear the song our brother sings to us?

We hear our brother’s song of Love when we let go of judging anything on our own without first receiving the help of the Holy Spirit. As we consistently step back from what we think is true, we give the Holy Spirit an opening to return us to the truth of our brother’s oneness with God.

Jesus tells us, “Hear, then, the song your brother sings to you, and let the world recede, and take the rest his witness offers on behalf of peace. But judge him not, for you will hear no song of liberation for yourself, nor see what it is given him to witness to, that you may see it and rejoice with him.” (6:3-4)

How are we reborn through the Holy Spirit’s special function?

As we are consistently willing to see our brother’s oneness with God, we are reborn. In paragraph seven we are told, “Yet every instant can you be reborn, and given life again. His holiness gives life to you, who cannot die because his sinlessness is known to God; and can no more be sacrificed by you than can the Light in you be blotted out because he sees it not.” (7:1-2)

It is the Holy Spirit’s function to return us to the truth of our true Identity by showing us the truth of the Identity of everyone we see around us. As we are willing to see as the Holy Spirit sees, we are reborn and return to the awareness of our real Life in the Life of Love.

In paragraph eight we are told, “What is the Holy Spirit’s special function but to release the holy Son of God from the imprisonment he made to keep himself from justice? Could your function be a task apart and separate from His Own?” (8:5-6)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section IX. The Justice of Heaven

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section IX. (pages 538-541)

How are our little errors undone by Heaven’s justice?

Our errors are undone when we let go of thinking we know anything. We become as little children and let the Holy Spirit erase all thoughts of separation from our minds. Our errors are undone when we are willing to “…forego all values of this world in favor of the peace of Heaven.” (1:5) The world values separation and God’s Kingdom holds only oneness. Heaven knows no differences, where all is given all of God and where all of God extends equally to all in Heaven.

That is why in paragraph one Jesus tells us, “You mean that truth has greater value now than all illusions. And you recognize that truth must be revealed to you, because you know not what it is.” (1:8-9)

What happens when we are reluctant to receive Heaven’s justice?

When we are reluctant to receive Heaven’s justice, it will wait until we are ready. Heaven’s justice is not thrust upon us. “God’s justice warrants gratitude, not fear. Nothing you give is lost to you or anyone, but cherished and preserved in Heaven, where all of the treasures given to God’s Son are kept for him, and offered anyone who but holds out his hand in willingness they be received.” (2:3-4)

Why does everyone win when Holy Spirit answers a problem?

The Holy Spirit knows that every problem stems from our belief in separation and every solution stems from forgiveness, or letting go of this false belief in a world of separation. When we are willing to receive the gift of truth that Love is all that is real, we willingly let go of the idea that there could be any loss. Because Love is eternal, Love is safe and cannot be lost.

We are just forgetting that we are hallucinating our replacement for God. We are denying that God is everywhere and nothing else is real. When we place our belief in a world of separation, we are forgetting that we can’t be anywhere but in God’s Heavenly Mind. The Holy Spirit mercifully shows us that the Christ is all there is to see because the one Christ Mind is What we all are. As we are willing to give everyone his full due by seeing the Christ in him, everyone wins.

Why does God see everyone as totally worthy of all of all Love?

God sees no specialness. God sees no differences. That is why Jesus tells us in paragraph 6: “No one deserves to lose. And what would be unjust to him cannot occur. Healing must be for everyone, because he does not merit an attack [seeing him as different from the Love he Is] of any kind. What order can there be in miracles, unless someone deserves to suffer more and others less? And is this justice to the wholly innocent? A miracle is justice. It is not a special gift to some, to be withheld from others as less worthy, more condemned, and thus apart from healing. (6:1-7 italics added)

God sees everyone as the one, united Son of God, wholly pure and innocent, deserving of all His Love. God sees only Himself in everyone. As we awaken from the mistaken belief in being separate from how God sees, we will know only as God knows. We will know that what would be unjust cannot occur.

Why are the miracles of the Holy Spirit given equally to all?

In answer to this, Jesus tells us, “If miracles, the Holy Spirit’s gift, were given specially to an elect and special group, and kept apart from others as less deserving, then is He ally to specialness. What He cannot perceive He bears no witness to. And everyone is equally entitled to His gift of healing and deliverance and peace. To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you want it solved. To keep it for yourself to solve without His help is to decide it should remain unsettled, unresolved and lasting in its power of injustice and attack. No one can be unjust to you, unless you have decided first to be unjust [see as the ego sees]. And then must problems rise to block your way, and peace be scattered by the winds of hate.” (7:2-8)

What does the Course mean by, ‘secret sins’?

‘Secret sins’ are all the places where we want to continue to believe in separation. With belief in separation from our Source always comes the belief that we are guilty for wanting to be different from God. With guilt comes a continuous stream of perceived problems in our dream of separation. In paragraph 9 we are told, “The little problems that you keep and hide become your secret sins, because you did not choose to let them be removed for you. And so they gather dust and grow, until they cover everything that you perceive and leave you fair to no one.” (9:1-2) The guilt we harbor not only makes us unfair to ourselves, but also unfair to others because we project our guilt onto them.

This reminds us that we do not want to hold onto any aspect of the belief in separation. We do not want to solve any perceived ‘problem’ on our own. We want to take every perceived problem to the Holy Spirit and let our mind be changed as to what we think the problem is (which is always in our minds). As we are willing, the Holy Spirit lifts the veil of separation and helps us remember that only Love is real and that we are not bodies in a world that appears to be outside us. The Holy Spirit reminds us that we are safe and we have never left Heaven. No one has ever left Love’s oneness. We remember that, “What is God’s belongs to everyone, and is his due.” (10:10 italics added) We return to seeing that everyone belongs to God.

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section VIII. Justice Returned to Love

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section VIII. (pages 534-538)

What does the Holy Spirit need from us in order to bring us the awareness of Heaven?

The Holy Spirit needs our willingness to hand over all our perceptions of the world of separate bodies we think we see. “But this He needs; that you prefer He take it [the way we think we see things] than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no one you would not know. This much is necessary to add to the idea no one can lose for you to gain.” (1:6-7)

When we were created, God gave us all of Himself. God held nothing back from us. God knows only of oneness because All has All; All is All. When we want uniqueness, specialness and a little for ourselves alone, we lose the awareness that we have all of God; we have all that Love has to share with all. That is why Jesus tells us when we think the world is real: “…what brings loss to no one you would not know.” The Holy Spirit knows that loss is impossible and would bring this awareness to our mind if we are willing to receive this correction in our thinking.

Early in the Workbook for Students we are guided to understand that we give everything we see all the meaning it has for us. As we are willing to hand over all the meanings we give to everything to the Holy Spirit, He has the opening He needs to bring the Light of truth to our awareness, replacing what we thought before. The Holy Spirit does not bring us the truth of our oneness in God against our will. He waits until we are willing to receive His correction of our perception.

How does the world see justice differently from the Holy Spirit?

Jesus tells us, “To the world, justice and vengeance are the same, for sinners see justice only as their punishment, perhaps sustained by someone else, but not escaped. The laws of sin [separation from God] demand a victim. Who it may be makes little difference. But death must be the cost and must be paid.” (3:2-5)

This core belief that justice is punishment is why every story of being an individual in a world of separate bodies demands the death of the dreamer. To the ego, justice always demands the death of anyone who buys into the dream of separation. In the ego’s world, no one can escape death. The Holy Spirit knows that this belief is insanity.

The Holy Spirit’s justice knows that everyone is still the same Love in God and so looks upon everyone as the same Love. Therefore the Holy Spirit teaches us to see past the differences we see in this world and know that no one could ever lose being all of God’s Love. As we join with Holy Spirit’s justice, we forgive or let go of our belief that there could ever be loss or differences of any kind; we forgive our belief in specialness.

How does the Holy Spirit judge us?

The Holy Spirit always judges us as innocent because He knows that nothing has ever really happened. The Holy Spirit remembers for us that we still remain as perfect Love. “In justice He is bound to set them free, and give them all the honor they deserve and have denied themselves because they are not fair, and cannot understand that they are innocent.” (8:2)

When we continue to believe in specialness, which is the opposite of God’s oneness, we do not understand Holy Spirit’s justice. We project that the Holy Spirit believes as we do and we therefore fear the Holy Spirit’s justice. When we still want specialness, we are demonstrating that we are still afraid of Love because our specialness would disappear. “Their world depends on sin’s stability. And they perceive the ‘threat’ of what God knows as justice to be more destructive to themselves and to their world than vengeance, which they understand and love.” (6:7-8)

Why are Love and justice the same?

Jesus explains this in the following way: “In God’s Own justice does He recognize all you deserve, but understands as well that you cannot accept it for yourself. It is His special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to Him as well as you. He knows that Heaven is richer made by each one [gift] you accept. And God rejoices as His son receives what loving justice knows to be his due. For love and justice are not different. Because they are the same does mercy stand at God’s right Hand, and gives the Son of God the power to forgive himself of sin.” (9:5-11)

What is the special function that our one Self gives us?

Our special function is to see everyone equally as sinless. Our special function is to see that God created us all the same and that in truth, there are no differences. We are learning from our one Self to see that we all are the same sinless Son of God. As we extend to everyone equally the special function that our one Self gives us, we give impartial witness to the power of God’s Love and justice. And what we give, we receive because there is but one Self.

What rights has God appointed for His holy Son?

The following is one of the most beautiful passages in the Course: “You have the right to all the universe; to perfect peace, complete deliverance from all effects of sin, and to the life eternal, joyous and complete in every way, as God appointed for His holy Son. This is the only justice Heaven knows, and all the Holy Spirit brings to earth. Your special function shows you nothing else but perfect justice can prevail for you.” (14:1-3)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section VII. The Rock of Salvation

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section VII. (pages 531-534)

What does the magic of the world seem to hide?

Even though our reality is only the pure oneness of Love, our belief in separation from Love’s oneness is what makes the world of separate bodies that are different seem real. This is what the Course calls magic. Our minds are very powerful and we can make up a world that appears to be real but is still just an illusion. Jesus tells us in paragraph one: “The magic (illusion of reality) of the world can seem to hide the pain of sin from sinners, and deceive with glitter and guile. Yet each one knows the cost of sin is death. And so it is.” (1:5-7)

In Chapter 1 Jesus defines sin as “lack of love.” (T-1.IV.3:1) The Holy Spirit helps us understand in this section that even though we may be attracted to the glitter and guile of experiencing the differences of separation and making decisions on our own, the cost of separation from Love is to experience lack of Love (or sin). The magic of the world hides the truth that our Reality is only Love. As we choose magic, Love disappears from our awareness and appears dead to us. Here we see that the magic of the world is really the cause of all our fear and pain and why we feel a haunting sense of unworthiness and lack.

The deceptive “glitter” of the world comes in many forms. It may be a special person who seems to make us happy; a job or title that seems to make us important or valuable; a new car, jewelry or clothing; security based on the size of our income, bank account or retirement plan, to name a few examples. Having these things may seem to make us happy or safe. But because they are forms and not eternal, they bring with them an underlying fear and guilt because unconsciously we know that they are substitutes for God’s Love. These substitutes hide God’s Love from our awareness.

The good news is that even though we are trying to deny Reality, the Holy Spirit is still in our minds, waiting for us to be open to returning to the truth that we are still safe in God because it is just an illusion that we left Love’s oneness.

Why does Jesus tell us that the ego’s world is a world of madness?

In paragraph three Jesus makes it clear that, “It must be so that either God is mad, or is this world a place of madness. Not one Thought of His makes any sense at all within this world. And nothing that the world believes as true has any meaning in His Mind at all. What makes no sense and has no meaning is insanity. And what is madness cannot be the truth.” (3:2-6)

Here we see the viewpoints of being Love and being separate from Love are mutually exclusive and neither can conceive of the other way of seeing. This insane world was made to make lack of Love seem real and possible. Jesus tells us this, not to make us feel guilty, but to help us be willing to give up our belief in being separate from our one Self in God. As we are willing to give up our treasured insane belief in separation, the truth will return to our tortured minds. Peace replaces our insane thinking.

What makes the Son a co-creator with the Mind Whose Thought created him?

What makes God’s Son a co-creator is the knowledge that he shares the attributes of God. God is changeless and so must be His Son. God is eternal Love that extends only Love and so must His Son be changeless Love that extends only Love.

Jesus tells us, “So if he chooses to believe one thought opposed to truth, he has decided he is not his Father’s Son because the Son is mad, and sanity must lie apart from both the Father and the Son. This you believe.” (4:4-5) When we believe we are separate, we believe we are disconnected from God’s Love and have lost It. Believing now that loss is possible, the idea that everyone must gain as Love is extended anywhere seems impossible and insane. From the viewpoint of being separate, it is inconceivable that Love is given equally to all and everyone gains by giving It. But when we identify with Love as What we are, our only thought is to extend Love. The idea of withholding It or losing It is inconceivable.

How does the Holy Spirit bridge us out of our insanity?

To build a bridge from our insane perspective to the truth of the reality of Love, the Holy Spirit offers us the special forms that help us loosen our mad belief in being alone and begin to open to the possibility of the reality of the oneness and completeness of Love. The Holy Spirit reverses our thinking to realize that only God’s Love is dependable in every situation we find ourselves in.

In paragraph 10 we are told, “The One Who speaks for Him can show you this, in the alternative He chose especially for you. It is God’s Will that you remember this, and so emerge from deepest mourning into perfect joy. Accept the function that has been assigned to you in God’s Own plan to show His Son that hell and Heaven are different, not the same. And that in Heaven they are all the same, without the differences which would have made a hell of Heaven and a heaven of hell, had such insanity been possible.” (10:3-6, italics added)

What is the rock on which salvation rests?

Jesus tells us, “Salvation is rebirth of the idea no one can lose for anyone to gain. And everyone must gain, if anyone would be a gainer. Here is sanity restored. And on this single rock of truth can faith in God’s eternal saneness rest in perfect confidence and perfect peace.” (12:1-4, italics added)

When we return to the truth that there is only oneness and only Love is real, as Love is extended It is extended to all equally. Love’s oneness is why everyone must gain if anyone would be a gainer. Love’s oneness is why no one can lose for anyone to gain. Love’s oneness is why extending Love to all equally is the rock on which salvation rests. Love, to be Love, can only be extended to all equally because all is one Love. In oneness, Love can only extend Love to all of It’s one Self.

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section VI. The Special Function

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section VI. (pages 529-530)

What happens when we view the world through forgiving eyes?

When we look on the world with forgiving eyes, we are able to see as Christ sees: We see through kind and gentle eyes that in reality there are no differences; we see only oneness and innocence; we see that everyone is still safe in the Mind of God, just as we are.

Jesus puts it this way in the first paragraph: “He can see no evil; nothing in the world to fear, and no one who is different from himself. And as he loves them, so he looks upon himself with love and gentleness. He would no more condemn himself for his mistakes than damn another. He is not an arbiter of vengeance, nor a punisher of sin. The kindness of his sight rests on himself with all the tenderness it offers others. For he would only heal and only bless. And being in accord with what God wills, he has the power to heal and bless all those he looks on with the grace of God upon his sight.” (1:2-8)

What brings the gift of Light that makes sight possible?

The Course tells us many times in many ways that we see what we want to see. When we want to see through the eyes of Christ, we, in effect are ‘calling down the grace of God upon our eyes.’ (3:1) It is our honest desire to see everyone as God sees him that calls the Light to come forth in our minds. We call on the strength of God as we continue to be vigilant only for God’s Kingdom. The separated world of the ego is not what we want to see. As the gift of Light comes forth in our minds, the veil of separation is lifted and we are able to see the eternal Love behind all the ego’s manufactured stories of differences, time and space.

What does the Holy Spirit use to translate specialness into healing?

Jesus tells us, “Forgiveness is the only function meaningful in time. It is the means the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation. Forgiveness is for all. But when it rests on all it is complete, and every function of this world completed with it. Then is time no more.” (5:3-7)

In many places of the Course forgiveness is described as letting go of the dream, or seeing past separation to the truth of unity and Love. Forgiveness guides us to let go of the dream of separation because it is not true. Forgiveness overlooks the ego’s false ideas of being separate from God and sees only oneness with God’s Love. In the preface of the Course we are told, “As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or ‘forgive.’ At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concept to the Self That God created in us and as us.” (Preface, p. xi)

What is our special function according to the Holy Spirit?

When we chose specialness to be our guide in what we want to see, we damned our self to the ego’s hellish world of unique and separate bodies that made decisions on their own. To maintain this illusion of separation requires that we project guilt onto everyone we now see as outside us. The ego’s little secret is that when we project guilt onto others, we feel more guilty and unworthy than ever. The ego doesn’t tell us that as we see others we will see our self. The ego also doesn’t tell us that when we chose to cut ourselves off from the awareness of God’s oneness, we also, in effect, cut ourselves off from God’s gifts of peace, joy and happiness. We lost our awareness of our eternal safety in Love’s unity and the fact that we are still one with God.

At some point it becomes clear to us that the way we have been going is not the answer. We become more willing to be open to a change of mind. As this openness occurs in our mind, the Holy Spirit reverses the specialness we have believed in. Jesus tells us, “Only in darkness does your specialness appear to be attack. In light, you see it as your special function in the plan to save the Son of God from all attack and let him understand that he is safe, as he has always been, and will remain in time and in eternity alike. This is the function given you for your brother. Take it gently, then, from your brother’s hand, and let salvation be perfectly fulfilled in you. Do this one thing, that everything be given you.” (7:7-10)

What are we reminded of as we take part in the world’s undoing?

As we forgive the world from all we thought it was, we come to the recognition that “…this world is not your home. Its laws are not imposed on you, its values are not yours. And nothing that you think you see in [the world] is really there at all. This is seen and understood as each one takes his part in its (the world’s) undoing, as he did in making it.” (6:1-4)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section V. The State of Sinlessness

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section V. (pages 527-529)

When do we finally see sinlessness?

Sinless means not separated from Love, not separated from God, our Source. Being sinless means that our eternal state of being is not separate from Love. It means that we are still are united with Love and share all of God’s Love with All of our one Self. We see sinlessness everywhere when we are willing to see every Son of God as he truly is — the pure extension of God’s Love and nothing else.

The ego’s (false mind) replacement for what God knows is to see different and unique bodies, separate and alone. We see the ego’s replacement for Love’s oneness when we look through the body’s eyes (the ego’s vehicle to see separation) and believe that what we see is true.

The Course tells us at the beginning this section: The state of sinlessness is merely this: The whole desire to attack (destroy the truth) is gone, and so there is no reason to perceive the Son of God as other than he is. The need for guilt is gone because it has no purpose, and is meaningless without the goal of sin (to separate from Love).” (1:1-2)

Why are attack and sin the same fearful illusion?

Attack means to attempt to kill or destroy. Sin means to be separate from Love, our Source. In our false mind we attack or try to deny Love’s oneness in order to see the illusion of separation (the state of trying to exist as a separate being, different and outside of God’s oneness).

Jesus explains how, in order to experience separation from Love’s oneness, we must attack Love’s oneness and see It as our enemy: “Attack makes Christ your enemy, and God along with Him. Must you not be afraid with ‘enemies’ like these? And must you not be fearful of yourself? For you have hurt yourself, and made our Self your ‘enemy.’ And now you must believe you are not you, but something alien to yourself and ‘something else,’ a ‘something’ to be feared instead of loved. Who would attack whatever he perceives as wholly innocent.” (2:1-6)

How do we let go of making our Self our enemy?

Jesus tells us again and again in the Course that the way to return to God, or the awareness of Love’s Presence, is to see the Christ in every brother. He says, “Christ stands before you each time you look upon your brother. He has not gone because your eyes are closed.” (2:9-10)

He tells us this because seeing the truth — the Christ — dissolves the ego’s premise that separation is real. The ego only holds the idea of separation in our mind by projecting the guilt that comes with believing in separation onto everyone who we perceive as ‘outside’ us. When we are willing to let go of projecting guilt, the ego’s chief weapon against your true Self is disabled. Seeing innocence replaces seeing guilt. As seeing guilt falls away and dissolves, the ego thought system dissolves and falls away. As the ego falls away, our one Self, which has always been there, returns to our awareness. We see that God’s Son is one and not separate. We see that nothing has really happened, but only seemed to happen. We see past the illusion of separation to the eternal truth of Love’s oneness. The peace and joy of our one Self replaces the fearful dream of being separate and alone.

What is every brother really asking for from us?

Every brother is really asking to be seen as the innocent Son of God he is. When we join with the ego’s focus on guilt and limitation instead, we have forgotten our true function. When we do not see the Christ, we are not answering his call. “Nor do you hear his plaintive call, unchanged in content in whatever form the call is made, that you unite with him, and join with him in innocence and peace. And yet, beneath the ego’s senseless shrieks, such is the call that God has given him, that you might hear in him His Call to you, and answer by returning unto God what is His Own.” (3:4-5)

How is Heaven found?

Jesus gives us a very clear answer: “But think not Heaven is lost to him alone. Nor can It be regained unless the way is shown to him through you, that you may find it, walking by his side.” (4:9-10) … “And as you see him, so do you define the function he will have for you, until you see him differently and let him be what God appointed that he be to you.” (5:8) …“In your brother you see the picture of your own belief in what the Will of God must be for you. In your forgiveness will you understand His Love for you; through your attack believe He hates you, thinking Heaven must be hell. Look once again upon your brother, not without the understanding that he is the way to Heaven or to hell, as you perceive him.” (6:3-5)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section IV. The Light You Bring

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section IV. (pages 526-527)

What brings us a sense of safety and joy?

Remembering that minds are joined and are not separate brings us a sense of safety and joy because with this remembering comes the recognition that there is no cause for guilt because we have not attacked God’s creation. We are still innocent because we are still the same Love as God. Remembering that minds are joined is the same as remembering that nothing has happened to change God’s one Son. Because of this there is only innocence to see.

As we celebrate the truth that minds are joined, we have the same purpose as our Father, which is to extend all Love to all of Itself. Beholding innocence, which is all that is true, brings us great joy and peace. We feel safe because we know that we are Love and we are surrounded by Love.

What happens when we think that believing in a world of separate bodies will bring us joy?

In this section we are told that we always seek for what we think will bring us joy as we define it. Jesus tells us in paragraph 2: “And while you think that suffering and sin will bring you joy, so long will they be there for you to see. Nothing is harmful or beneficent apart from what you wish. It is your wish that makes it what it is in its effects on you.” (2:2-3) We most likely do not realize that thinking that minds are separate is the same as the denial of God’s Oneness and therefore the denial of God, which brings guilt. We do not realize that belief in separation is what is causing us the pain, fear, lack and experience of loss. We do not realize that belief in specialness and differences is the cause of our experience of sickness and death. We do not consciously realize that we are asking for hell when we choose to believe in a world of being separate from God and every brother.

How do we help every brother and ourselves as we share our Father’s purpose of extending only Love to All?

In paragraph 3 we are told how sharing our Father’s purpose helps everyone: “You maker of a world that is not so, take rest and comfort in another world where peace abides. This (God’s) world you bring with you to all the weary eyes and tired hearts that look on sin and beat its sad refrain. (Sin is the idea you are alone and separated off from what is whole. T-30.III.3:7) From you can come their rest. From you can rise a world they will rejoice to look upon, and where their hearts are glad. In you there is a vision that extends to all of them, and covers them in gentleness and light. And in this widening world of light the darkness that they thought was there is pushed away, until it is but distant shadows, far away, not long to be remembered as the sun shines them to nothingness. And all their ‘evil’ thoughts and ‘sinful’ hopes, their dreams of guilt and merciless revenge, and every wish to hurt and kill and die, will disappear before the sun you bring.” (3:1-7)

Not only do we help every brother as we are willing to remember that minds are joined in God’s one Mind of Love, but we are healing our own thoughts of being separate from God. “Your ‘evil’ (thoughts of being separate from God) thoughts that haunt you now will seem increasingly remote and far away from you. And they go farther and farther off, because the sun in you has risen that they may be pushed away before the light. They linger for a while, a little while, in twisted forms too far away for recognition, and are gone forever. And in the sunlight you will stand in quiet, in innocence and wholly unafraid. And from you will the rest you found extend, so that your peace can never fall away and leave you homeless. Those who offer peace to everyone have found a home in Heaven the world cannot destroy.” (4: 4-9)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section III. Perception and Choice

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section III. (pages 523-525)

What is perception’s fundamental law?

Jesus tells us, “…perception’s fundamental law: You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there.” (1:3) God’s law, on the other hand says that …“Love creates Itself, and nothing but Itself.” (1:6) Here we are told that we see a world of separate bodies because we want separate bodies to be real. We see what we want to see. As we open to the truth, we see that only God’s eternal Love is real because that is all that has ever been created by God. This is the thought reversal that the Holy Spirit leads us to as we are willing to listen to our true Self. Once we join with the one purpose of the Holy Spirit, we find that there is no choice — only what God creates could ever be real.

Why does Jesus say that there are two who make the world?

Because God could not enter His Son’s insanity with him, He sent the Holy Spirit — the Corrector of all our mistaken thoughts — to help us return to the Truth as we are willing to have our mistaken thoughts corrected. The Holy Spirit came with us into our dream of separation to reverse the purpose of the world from one of seeing specialness (uniqueness and guilt) to a world where we see only innocence and unity.

Jesus explains it this way: “There is another purpose in the world that error made, because it has another Maker Who can reconcile its goal with His Creator’s purpose. In His perception of the world, nothing is seen but justifies forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness.” (5:1-2)

In Lesson 192 Jesus expands on the Holy Spirit’s role in this world: “Yet God created One Who has the power to translate in form the wholly formless. What He makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, and eyes already opening behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.” (W-pI.192.3:5-6)

When does Heaven’s Help come to help us?

Heaven’s Help comes to us when we are willing to choose to accept the help that is always there. It is very encouraging to learn that we are never alone and that we need not stay lost in dreams of specialness. “The time he chooses can be any time, for help is there, awaiting but his choice.” (6:4)

What happens when we choose to avail ourselves of the help given us?

As we accept the help, “…then will he see each situation that he thought before was means to justify his anger turned to an event which justifies his love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he gave attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring him joy.” (6:5-8)

As we accept Holy Spirit’s help, what do our brother’s errors become to us?

Jesus tells us, “Let all your brother’s errors be to you nothing except a chance for you to see the workings of the Helper given you to see the world He made instead of yours.” (7:2) The Holy Spirit always sees past the error’s of the world to the eternal innocence that is always the truth. The Holy Spirit remembers for us that everyone is still perfect Love, as God created them. The Holy Spirit remembers that nothing has really happened to change God’s one Son. When we truly want to see innocence instead of guilt, that is what we will see. When we accept Christ’s vision we will see Christ’s vision. This is what the Holy Spirit brings to us as we are willing to see the real world.

Jesus tells us, “The Maker of the world of gentleness has perfect power to offset the world of violence and hate that seems to stand between you and His gentleness. It (the world of violence and hate) is not there in His forgiving eyes. And therefore it need not be there in yours. Sin is the fixed belief perception cannot change. What has been damned is damned and damned forever, being forever unforgivable. If, then, it is forgiven, sin’s perception must have been wrong. And thus is change made possible.” (8:1-7)

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Section II. The Savior from the Dark

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Section II. (pages 520-523)

What is the only value that the past can hold?

The idea of time, with a past and a future, comes from within the ego thought system. It is founded on the idea that God’s Son could separate from God’s oneness and be separate and alone. The thought system of separation from God made up the false idea of ‘time,’ with a past and future that is constantly changing. This idea was set in place to replace God’s Creation, which is changeless and therefore the eternal now.

Tied with the false idea of time that is constantly changing is the idea that we we can have individual ‘lives’ as separate bodies that are born into a world where everything is different and in a constant state of flux and change. In this false story, our ‘life’ ends with the death of the body.

If we think we are here in a separate body with a lot of other separate bodies, we have bought into the ego idea of being separate and alone and have become lost in nightmares of being born into a constantly changing world that ends in sickness and death. We do not realize that we have just become lost in nightmarish dreams that we have changed from how we were created by God.

Part of the ego plan to displace the guilt that comes from the choice to be separate from God is to project this guilt onto the ‘other’ separate bodies we see around us in this dream. Inherent in the ego identity is self-ishness, or the belief that each individual person needs to look out for his/her own self-interest in order to survive and be happy. This makes for a world where everyone must protect their own self-interest or they will surely lose. This story of separation guarantees defense and attack, with plenty of guilt to go around for everyone caught up in this dream.

The past becomes a storehouse for memories of guilty parties who have done us wrong. To help release us from this guilty spiral, Jesus tells us in Chapter 13, Section VI: “When you have learned to look on everyone with no reference at all to the past, either his or yours as you perceived it, you will be able to learn from what you see now. For the past can cast no shadow to darken the present, unless you are afraid of light. And only if you are would you choose to bring darkness [the past] with you, and by holding it [the past] in your mind, see [the past] as a dark cloud that shrouds your brothers and conceals their reality from your sight.” (T-13.VI.2:3-5)

This is also why Jesus tells us in this section: “The only value that the past can hold is that you learn it gave you no rewards which you would want to keep. For only thus will you be willing to relinquish it, and have it gone forever.” (1:7-8) We have been afraid of the Light of truth in the past, but now we know that our present happiness depends on letting go of that storehouse of guilty memories.

What does Jesus tell us are the only rewards for treasuring the world we see?

Jesus answers this in the following way: “Is it not strange that you should cherish still some hope of satisfaction from the world you see? In no respect, at any time or place, has anything but fear and guilt been your reward. … To place your hopes where no hope lies must make you hopeless. Yet is this hopelessness your choice, while you would seek for hope where none is ever found.” (2:1-2, 5-6)

What is our alternative to treasuring the world we see?

Instead of treasuring separate bodies, we can treasure seeing everyone as the Holy Spirit sees them. We can treasure seeing every person around us as God created them. Here we are told, “However much [your brother] overlooks the masterpiece in him and sees only a frame of darkness, it is still your only function to behold in him what he sees not. And in this seeing is the vision shared that looks on Christ instead of seeing death [the body].” (8:7)

How does God respond to our seeing every brother as God created them?

Jesus tells us of the great joy and gratitude in Heaven as we join our Father in recognizing His masterpiece: “How could the Lord of Heaven not be glad if you appreciate His masterpiece? What could He do but offer thanks to you who love His Son as He does? Would He not make known to you His Love, if you but share His praise of what He loves? God cherishes creation as the perfect Father that He is. And so His joy is made complete when any part of Him joins in His praise, to share His joy. [The Christ in] this brother is His perfect gift to you. And He is glad and thankful when you thank His perfect Son for being what he is. And all His thanks and gladness shine on you who would complete His joy, along with Him.” (9:1-8)

Why are we the same as every brother?

We are the same as every brother because …“God Himself is One, and not divided in His Will.” (11:1) This means we cannot be different and alone. As we are willing to see through the eyes of Christ, we see that we never left God’s Oneness, and neither has our brother. We let go of the past and remember the eternal present because we all are still as God created us, right now.

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Chapter 25: The Justice of God

Introduction & Section I. The Link to Truth

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 25, Introduction and Section I. (pages 518-520)

Why does Jesus tell us that we are not within a body?

Jesus answers this very specifically in the introduction to Chapter 25: “The Christ in you inhabits not a body. Yet He is in you. and thus it must be that you are not within a body. What is within you cannot be outside. And it is certain that you cannot be apart from what is at the very center of your life. What gives you life cannot be housed in death. No more can you.” (Intro.1:1-7)

Here we see that the one Christ Mind lies within each of us. The united Mind of Christ is at the center of our real Life, the Life we live in God. Our real Life has nothing to do with the body or separate identity in our dream of separation. Because we are one with God, we were not ‘born’ as a separate body and we do not ‘die’ when the body dies in the dream. We are all united as eternal Spirit in God’s oneness.

What is our mission the Christ sets forth for us with every brother?

As we are willing to let go of our false belief in separate bodies, the Christ in our mind brings healing to every mind: “To those who know Him not it carries Him in gentleness and love, to heal their minds. Such is the mission that your brother has for you. And such it must be that your mission is for him.” (Intro.3:6-8)

As we are willing to see past the body and separate identity to the Christ in every brother, we are fulfilling the mission Christ sets forth in our real Mind. As we are willing to look on holiness instead of guilt, we are manifesting the Christ. “You are the means for God; not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His Life is manifest in you who are His Son.” (4:1-2)

What is the role the Holy Spirit plays in linking us with the Christ Mind?

“The Holy Spirit links the other part — the tiny, mad desire to be separate, different and special — to the Christ, to make the oneness clear to what is really one. … It is the Holy Spirit’s function to teach you how this oneness is experienced, what you must do that it can be experienced, and where you should go to do it.” (5:5, 6:4)

What is the truth that the Holy Spirit leads us all to?

“What is the same can not be different, and what is one can not have separate parts.” (7:7)

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