A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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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 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section VII. The Meeting Place

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section VII. (pages 514-517)

How does specialness (our replacement for God) become ‘law’ to us?

Specialness becomes ‘law’ to us when we desire specialness (seeing unique individuals) above being aware of our one, united Spirit of God’s Love. The Holy Spirit’s Voice gets drowned out when specialness is what we want to experience. Jesus tells us, “How bitterly does everyone tied to this world defend the specialness he wants to be the truth! His wish is law to him, and he obeys. Nothing his specialness demands does he withhold. Nothing it needs does he deny to what he loves. And while it calls to him he hears no other Voice.” (1:1-5)

How does the memory of God return to us?

The memory of God returns to us as we are willing to see past our stories of specialness to the constant, changeless Love in every brother. In this section we are told, “What is in him is changeless, and our changelessness is recognized in its acknowledgment. The holiness in you belongs to him. And by your seeing [holiness] in him (every brother), the memory of God returns to you.

How do we see our brother’s holiness?

We see our brother’s holiness when this is all we want to see. As we are willing, the barriers to the truth are removed, and the changeless Light and Love of God is all there is to see. The one Christ Mind is all there is to see. If we continue to focus on the ego story of our brother as a body, we will remain lost in illusions of specialness. We will feel guilty and unworthy for this wish for specialness.

We are now at a turning point — we are now learning to let go of our wish for specialness because we now know that it only brings us pain and sorrow. We see that it is the wish for death. We now practice daily seeing our brother’s holiness because that is all we want to see. We are now in a place of being willing to allow the memory of God’s oneness return to our conflicted minds.

What are we to ask of everything as a test for truth?

Jesus tells us, “The test of everything on earth is simply this; “What is it for?” (6:1) It is helpful to ask of everything, “Am I using this (what I am thinking about what I am seeing) as a means to reinforce illusions of separation or to return to the awareness of God’s oneness?”

How does Jesus describe every brother?

Jesus describes every brother in this way: “A perfect being, all-encompassing and all-encompassed, nothing to add and nothing taken from; not born of size nor place nor time, nor held to limits or uncertainties of any kind. Here do the means and end unite as one, nor does this one have any end at all.” (7:3-4 italics added)

What is the true purpose of all perception?

In answer to this Jesus tells us, “It is essential it be kept in mind that all perception still is upside down until its purpose has been understood. Perception does not seem to be a means. And it is this that makes it hard to grasp the whole extent to which it must depend on what you see it for. Perception seems to teach you what you see. Yet it but witnesses to what you taught. It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you wanted to be true.” (8:5-10 italics added)

Here we see how important it is that we hand over all perception (all that we see through the body’s eyes) to our inner Teacher, Who lifts the veil of specialness to show us the eternal Light that is beyond what the body’s eyes can see and hear and touch. This is how we change all perception to the wish to see only the holiness of God. This is how we give a different purpose to everything we see through the body’s eyes.

Jesus tells us, “Yet can perception serve another goal. It is not bound to specialness but by your choice. And it is given you to make a different choice, and use perception for a different purpose. And what you see will serve that purpose well, and prove its own reality to you.” (11:10-13)

The truth is that behind the veil of specialness, everyone in this world is God’s one, united Son. As we want to see the truth of everyone’s oneness with God, that is all we will see.

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section VI. Salvation from Fear

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section VI. (pages 511-514)

Why does Jesus tell us that our brother is our savior from the dreams of fear?

Our brother is our savior because as we see his holiness, as we see that he is still as God created him, we are letting our mind be healed of the belief in separation. We are not seeing him as a body, but seeing the truth about him.

How we see our brother is how we are seeing ourself. By seeing the Christ in him we find the Christ in ourselves. We are seeing through the Christ Mind. Jesus tells us, “He [your brother] is your savior from the dreams of fear. He is the healing of your sense of sacrifice and fear that what you have will scatter with the wind and turn to dust. In him is your assurance God is here, and with you now.” (1:2-4)

What does your brother’s holiness show you?

Recognizing our brother’s holiness benefits us in that it helps us remember that what God created has not changed. What God gave us (Himself), He gave for all eternity. This means we are still safe in the mind of God, just as every brother is. We have lost nothing, even though it may seem so in our dreams of separation.

In paragraph 2 we are told, “Your brother’s holiness shows you that God is one with him and you; that what he has is yours because you are not separate from him nor from his Father.” (2:5)

To the Holy Spirit, what is the world for?

Jesus tells us, “Forget not that the healing of God’s Son is all the world is for. That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. Until you see the healing of the Son as all you wish to be accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will not know the Father nor yourself. For you will use the world for what is not its purpose, and will not escape its laws of violence and death.” (4:1-4)

As we allow our ‘life’ purpose to be about forgiving the world from all we thought it was, we welcome the Holy Spirit to lift us above the laws of this world and free us from belief in specialness. As we are willing, the Holy Spirit shows us the world of oneness that lies past the world of differences. The Holy Spirit frees us from believing in the fearful images of loss, pain and death.

“Yet it is given you to be beyond its [the world’s] laws in all respects, in every way and every circumstance, in all temptation to perceive what is not there, and all belief God’s Son can suffer pain because he sees himself as he is not.” (4:5) Letting the Holy Spirit’s Light shine on every situation and every thought that reflects belief in differences is now our life purpose. Letting our mind be healed of all false ideas of separation is now what our life is for.

How are we to look upon our brother?

“Look on your brother, and behold in him the whole reversal of the laws that seem to rule this world. See in his freedom yours, for such it is. Let not his specialness obscure the truth in him, for not one law of death you bind him to will you escape. And not one sin you see in him but keeps you both in hell.” (5:1-4)

We are learning that it is our job to look for the Love of God everywhere, because It — the Love of God — is there, behind every barrier to Love (belief in specialness). Jesus tells us, “It is His sinlessness that eyes that see can look upon. It is His loveliness they see in everything. And it is He they look for everywhere, and find no sight nor place nor time where He is not.” (6:1-3)

Jesus wants us to understand that we are free to see past the body of every brother to recognize What he really is. We are free to see that everyone we meet has not really changed from how he was created by God. We are free to see that everyone in this world is one with God. As we practice day-by-day seeing the eternal truth about each and every brother, we are able to see that we are still the Love of God. We are still in the holy Home of God Himself.

We will practice seeing the eternal truth until that is all we want to see. We will get as many opportunities to see the truth as we need. “Yet will you choose in countless situations, and through time that seems to have no end, until the truth be your decision. For eternity is not regained by still one more denial of Christ in him.” (7:2-3)

Who gave us the function of specialness?

We gave ourselves the function of specialness and now we have a new function, a new purpose — to see through the eyes of Christ. To help us with this new dedication, we have so much help: “Yet to the dedication to the truth as God established it no sacrifice is asked, no strain called forth, and all the power of Heaven and the might of truth itself is given to provide the means, and guarantee the goal’s accomplishment.” (12:5)

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section V. The Christ in You

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section V. (pages 509-511)

How does Jesus describe our real Mind — the Christ Mind?

In this section Jesus compares our real Mind — the Christ Mind — with the false mind that believes in specialness. Describing our real Mind he tells us, “The Christ in you is very still. He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself. And thus does He rejoice at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him and with His Father.” (1:1-3) Because our real Mind knows only Love, when we lower our barriers to our real Mind, we experience and witness to the reality of Love’s Presence everywhere. We experience the knowing that there is no separation. And because there is no separation, we know that there can be no conflicting wishes, no differences, no change from oneness.

Our real Mind is very still because it is not trying to change Love into something It is not. Our real Mind quietly and joyfully extends the Love It is to all of Itself. There is no fear here. There are no differences. There is no loss. There is only infinite peace and eternal joy that never changes. Here we see that our real Mind is the same as Heaven.

Why does it appear that the dream is happening to us when we actually made it up?

When we want to experience specialness and uniqueness, we make up scenarios in the false mind, the mind that dreams of separation from the one Christ Mind. Jesus explains it this way: “What you wish is true for you. Nor is it possible that you can wish for something and lack faith that it is so. Wishing makes real (in dreams), as surely as does will create. The power of a wish upholds illusions as strongly as does Love extend Itself. Except that one deludes; the other heals.” (1:8-10)

Because we feel guilt for making up illusions of separation that appear real to us, we try to fool ourselves into believing that God did this to us and we are the innocent victim of God’s wrath for our choice to leave God’s oneness. “In dreams, effect and cause are interchanged, for here the maker of the dream believes that what he made is happening to him. He does not realize he picked a thread from here, a scrap from there, and wove a picture out of nothing.” (2:2)

We push our making up the dream into our unconscious so that the guilt we believe in is hidden from our awareness. This guilt that lies hidden in our ‘special and unique’ mind then shows up in our ‘life’ story of separation, but now it appears that the guilt lies in those we see outside us. This is the way we retain our specialness — we now see ourselves as different from everyone else in the dream. To retain this dream, we now see ourselves as the innocent victim who needs to defend against evil outside forces.

Why is the Christ Mind always at peace?

Here in this dream of separation, we attract a state of anxiety, irritation and conflict because the dream of separation is filled with guilt, victimhood, fear and a need to constantly judge the guilty ones we dream are different from us. It is only when we come to the point of being willing to give up the false dream of separation that peace returns to our conflicted mind.

Jesus tells us, “Where could your peace arise but from forgiveness? The Christ in you looks only on the truth, and sees no condemnation that could need forgiveness. He is at peace because He sees no sin. Identify with Him, and what has He that you have not? He is your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet. How gentle are the sights He sees, the sounds He hears.” (3:1-6)

Here we are encouraged to give up the false mind of seeing specialness or separation and return to our united Mind, the Christ Mind. Forgiveness is simply being willing to let go of the dream of separation and return to our Father. As we daily practice opening up to our real Mind, peace comes easily because the Christ Mind looks past the images of separation to the changeless Love that has always been there but has been hidden behind our wish to project guilt.

“How beautiful His hand that holds His brother’s, and how lovingly He walks beside him, showing him what can be seen and heard, and where he will see nothing and there is no sound to hear.” (3:7) Here we see that as we open up to the Christ Mind, we are shown the difference between the real and the unreal. Here is how we find peace instead of conflict.

How does Jesus describe the mind of specialness?

We have thought that specialness would be exciting and fun. We have looked for and found a constant flow of change and exciting thrills — special places to go, special people to see, special food to eat, special objects to own and special clothes to put on our body to increase our sense of specialness. We have looked to be entertained by special bodies accomplishing amazing feats that makes them deserving of praise and rewards. We have looked to our separate body to give us pleasure through the body’s senses. We have attempted to adorn to our body to attract praise and attention from other special bodies. We have competed to be more special, more unique than the special ones we see around us. This is the story of specialness that we have bought into as a substitute for Love’s Oneness.

Jesus wants us to understand just how treacherous the dream of specialness can be for us. In paragraph four he describes in gory detail the real motive of specialness (the ego thought system) and what it ultimately wants for us: “And both [you and your brother] will walk in danger, each intent, in the dark forest of the sightless, unlit but by the shifting tiny gleams that spark an instant from the fireflies of sin and then go out, to lead the other to a nameless precipice and hurl him over it. For what can specialness delight in but to kill? What does it seek for but the sight of death? Where does it lead to but to destruction?” (4:2-5)

Here we see that inherent within the thought system of specialness is the secret belief in sin and guilt. Secretly hidden within its glittering folds lies hatred and fear of God. Secretly hidden within its glamor lies stories of loss, sickness and death. Jesus wants us to understand that desiring specialness is the same as choosing the experience of loss, fear, pain, anguish and finally death. Here Jesus reveals to us the search for specialness is the same as choosing hell instead of Heaven.

Instead of leaving us there in the sickened soup we have cooked up for ourselves, what does Jesus recommend as the alternative to specialness?

Jesus suggests that we rejoice that we have been wrong about ourselves and that the bodies we think we made are nothing and nowhere. He says, “Rejoice you have no eyes with which to see; no ears to listen, and no hands to hold nor feet to guide. Be glad that only Christ can lend you His, while you have need of them.” (5:1-2)

How does the Christ Mind lead us?

As we are willing to step back and let go of all we think will bring us happiness, we give our real Mind, the Christ Mind a chance to rise above all the barriers we have placed before It. “The Christ in you is very still. He knows where you are going, and He leads you there in gentleness and blessing all the way. His Love for God replaces all the fear you thought you saw within yourself.” (6:1-3)

Because the Christ in you sees past specialness to the Christ everywhere, every time you look through Christ’s eyes, you see holiness. You see the Christ in every brother where once you saw weakness and guilt. You see the truth beyond the illusion of specialness. “His perfect lack of specialness He offers you that you may save all living things from death, receiving from each one the gift of life that your forgiveness offers to your Self. The sight of Christ is all there is to see. The song of Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with Him.” (7:6-10)

What is every doubt about and how does it return to certainty?

Every doubt arises when we choose to forget Who we are. As we do the work of stepping back from insisting that our ‘lives’ as separate bodies are real, the Christ in us comes forward. “He will exchange His certainty for all your doubts if you agree that He is one with you, and that this oneness is endless, timeless, and within your grasp because your hands are His. He is within you, yet He walks beside you and before, leading the way that He must go to find Himself complete. His quietness becomes your certainty. And where is doubt when certainty has come?” (9:4-7)

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section IV. Specialness versus Sinlessness

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section IV. (pages 507-508)

To keep our sense of individuality, why is focusing on guilt such an attraction?

In order to keep the idle dream of specialness or false world of separate bodies going, the ego thought system brings thoughts of everyone’s guilt plus our own guilt to our attention. This is why judgment is the ego’s chosen instrument and why, to the ego, judgment and condemnation is salvation. Jesus reveals how the ego thought system works very well here: “Specialness is a lack of trust in anyone except yourself. Faith is invested in yourself alone. Everything else becomes your enemy; feared and attacked, deadly and dangerous, hated and worthy only of destruction.” (1:1-3)

Jesus brings this (our attraction to guilt) to our attention, not to blame us for judging, but to help us see ego’s true motives at work when thoughts of others or our own guilt shows up in our mind. He knows that we do not understand why we judge others and are attracted to see their faults. He wants us to clearly see how being judgmental is the source of all our pain, anger and depression.

He tells us, “When peace is not with you entirely, and when you suffer pain of any kind, you have beheld some sin within your brother, and have rejoiced at what you thought was there. Your specialness seemed safe because of it. And thus you saved what you appointed to be your savior, [the ego] and crucified the one whom God has given you instead [the one Christ Mind]. So are you bound with him [every brother], for you are one. And so is specialness his ‘enemy,’ and yours as well.” (5:2-6)

Why is focusing on the body the same as making specialness real?

Jesus answers this when he says, “What could the purpose of the body be but specialness? And it is this [the purpose of specialness] that makes it [the body] frail and helpless in its own defense. It was conceived to make you frail and helpless.” (2:1-3) We do not recognize that believing we are bodies and seeing the body as frail and helpless is simply another ploy in the ego’s defense system to keep the fearful dream of separation from God going.

Jesus goes on to tell us that there is hope in what seems like hopeless insanity. He reminds us that we can change our mind about the purpose of our dreaming. We can change our purpose from seeing guilt to that of seeing only innocence.

Why is a miracle called a change of purpose?

In paragraph 3 Jesus calls a change of purpose from hurt (seeing guilt) to healing (seeing innocence) a miracle. (3:9) When we no longer want to see guilt, the ego thought system will fall away and disappear from our minds because it is the focus on projecting guilt that keeps the dream of separation going. The changed perception of seeing innocence that the Holy Spirit brings returns us to the awareness of Reality. “All that is real proclaims his sinlessness. All that is false proclaims his sins as real. If he is sinful, then is your reality not real, but just a dream of specialness that lasts and instant, crumbling into dust.” (4:6-7)

Why does Jesus say that specialness has left us bankrupt?

He says in paragraph 3: “What you have given specialness has left you bankrupt and your treasure house barren and empty, with an open door inviting everything that would disturb your peace to enter and destroy.” (3:15) He knows that if we really understood that believing in specialness is not helpful to us and does not really make us happy, we would not join with the thought system of individuality. We would not choose to believe we are separate and unique, with a mind of our own. We would not choose to believe in separate bodies that have private thoughts. We would not choose to make this dream of specialness real.

The good news is that we are not the dream we are dreaming. The dream of individuality is not real. We can change our mind about what we want to see. We can wake up from the dream by stepping back and letting the Holy Spirit show us our brother’s holiness where we once saw guilt. We can experience a mind shift from specialness to sinlessness.

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section III. The Forgiveness of Specialness

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section III (pages 505-507)

Why is forgiveness the end of specialness?

A helpful definition of forgiveness is to let go of the ego, or our grievance against Love’s oneness. Under the layers of the ego’s defense against the truth of oneness is the secret wish to kill God so that we could be special and different from God’s oneness. With this secret wish for specialness comes guilt for our ‘sin’ against our Source.

Forgiveness is the end of specialness because forgiveness means not holding on to illusions of separation. As we join with the Holy Spirit in our minds, we are able to let go of specialness and see past the ego’s stories of separate bodies to the Light of Love that we really are. When we let go of specialness, we are also letting go of guilt.

Why do we secretly attach guilt to every form of specialness?

Jesus explains this in paragraph 2. Here he tells us, “Whatever form of specialness you cherish, you have made sin. Inviolate it stands, strongly defended with all your puny might against the Will of God. And thus it [every form of specialness] stands against yourself; your enemy, not God’s.” (2:1-3)

Also in paragraph 4 Jesus describes how belief in specialness is an attempt to be at war with God: “It [specialness] will forevermore be unforgiving, for that is what it is; a secret vow that what God wants for you will never be, and that you will oppose His Will forever.” (4:6) We hide from ourselves the fact that believing in specialness is an attack on God, an attack on our true Identity. We may close it off from our conscious awareness, but this belief in our guilt for choosing against oneness has not gone away just because we are denying it.

Why do we feel vulnerable and unsafe when we place our faith in specialness?

When we join with dreams of specialness, it appears that we have taken power from God. Because our dreams appear very real to us, we think we have really usurped God’s Will. Jesus makes it clear that this is not the case: “And yet, this idol [specialness] that seems to give you power has taken it [power] away. For you have given your brother’s birthright to it [specialness], leaving him alone and unforgiven and yourself in sin beside him, both in misery, before the idol that can save you not.” (2:6-7)

When we believe in specialness, we feel vulnerable and unsafe because in order to keep specialness, everyone must become our enemy. To keep our distance we must place our trust in no one but ourself. Jesus tells us, “It [our specialness] can be thrown off balance by anything. What rests on nothing never can be stable. However large and overblown it seems to be, it still must rock and turn and whirl about with every breeze. …It is your specialness that is attacked by everything that walks and breathes, or creeps or crawls, or even lives at all. Nothing is safe from its attack, and it is safe from nothing.” (3:4-7, 4:4-5)

Why does Jesus ask that we forgive God for not giving us specialness?

Jesus knows that we are in pain and feel vulnerable and unsafe when we believe in specialness. Because he wants us to be happy, he asks that we forgive God for not giving us the specialness we wanted. He knows that when we are willing to let it go, we will be eternally at peace. That is why he says, “Forgive the great Creator of the universe, the Source of life, of love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son, for your illusions of your specialness. Here is the hell you chose to be your home. He chose not this for you. Ask not He enter this. The way is barred to love and to salvation. Yet if you would release your brother from the depths of hell, you have forgiven Him Whose Will it is you rest forever in the arms of peace, in perfect safety, and without the heat and malice of one thought of specialness to mar your rest.” (6:1-6)

Why is specialness called the dream of death?

When we dream of specialness, we are dreaming that we are the opposite of Love, our true Self. When we dream of a world of separate bodies with separate minds, our Reality disappears from our awareness. It appears that Love’s oneness has been destroyed. Because we are one with God, we are dreaming of the death of our Self. This is a scary dream indeed.

Jesus is asking us here to awaken from the dream of death when he says, “The special ones are all asleep, surrounded by a world of loveliness they do not see. Freedom and peace and joy stand there, beside the bier on which they sleep, and call them to come forth and waken from their dream of death. Yet they hear nothing. They are lost in dreams of specialness. They hate the call that would awaken them, and they curse God because He did not make their dream reality. [They] curse God and die, but not by Him Who made not death; but only in the dream. Open your eyes a little; see the savior God gave to you that you might look on him, and give him back his birthright. It is yours.” (7:1-8) — God gave His Love to all, so the Love that belongs to our brother also belongs to us.

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Section II. The Treachery of Specialness

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Section II (pages 502-505)

How is specialness established?

The ego device of specialness stimulates us to look for what is different or lacking in everyone. The next step in this ego device is to compare these differences with our current image of our self, making us better, or more special than this ‘other.’ The idea of judging ‘better than’ or ‘lesser than’ is what the ego thought system considers is its job to find happiness. This is its substitute for everyone’s true Identity as one with God.

Jesus tells us, “Specialness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive. This does it seek, and this it looks upon. And always whom it thus diminishes would be your savior, had you not chosen to make of him a tiny measure of your specialness instead. Against the littleness you see in him you stand as tall and stately, clean and honest, pure and unsullied, by comparison with what you see. Nor do you understand it is yourself that you diminish thus.” (1:2-7)

What does belief in specialness cost us?

In paragraph 2 we learn that we will lose our peace and will feel limited and weak instead of more powerful because the truth is that what we see in our brother is what we are reinforcing in ourselves. “But the pursuit of specialness must bring you pain. Here is a goal that would defeat salvation, and thus run counter to the Will of God. to value specialness is to esteem an alien will to which illusions of yourself are dearer than the truth.” (2:7-9)

It is so helpful to understand how the ego thought system works and its effects so that we are less inclined to join with it. The ego doesn’t tell us that we are diminishing ourselves and keeping ourselves in a state of conflict and pain by focusing on what is ‘wrong’ about others. The ego does not tell us that we will experience a loss of peace as we join with the ego false idea of specialness. Thank God we are learning this so that we can choose once again with the Holy Spirit to free ourselves from the pain and depression that specialness would bring us.

What is the enemy of the special ones?

When we want specialness, we do not want to be aware of our innate oneness. Joining with the idea of specialness denies that oneness is the eternal truth. “Nor do they love the Oneness Which created them as one with Him. They chose their specialness instead of Heaven and instead of peace, and wrapped it carefully in sin to keep it ‘safe’ from truth.” (3:6-7)

Here we see how important seeing sin and guilt is to the part of the Sonship that wants specialness to be real. Seeing sin and guilt becomes their savior because it obliterates the awareness that only Love’s oneness and innocence is real. “The special messages the special hear convince them they are different and apart; each in his special sins and ‘safe’ from Love, which does not see his specialness at all. Christ’s vision is their enemy, for it sees not what they would look upon, and it would show them that the specialness they think they see is an illusion.” (5:5-6)

What happens when we allow ourselves to see the truth?

As we allow ourselves to step back from the old game of seeing specialness and instead are willing to receive the truth of oneness, differences disappear and is replaced by “the shining radiance of the Son of God.” (6:2) We experience Love’s extension, where everything is one seamless whole. The limitation and lack of specialness disappears. Jesus tells us, “This is the only ‘cost’ of truth: You will no longer see what never was, nor hear what makes no sound. Is it a sacrifice to give up nothing, and to receive the Love of God forever?” (6:5-6)

How does our brother have the key to Heaven for us?

When we are willing to receive the truth that no one is different or guilty, we will see the rays of Heaven shining from everyone. By seeing the truth instead of specialness, we are freed from the hell of specialness. We are freed from illusions of guilt, suffering and pain. We are freed from illusions of separate, sinful bodies that suffer and finally die. We are freed from believing in the false ideas of the ego.

Jesus tells us, “What has been given him (every brother) makes you complete, as it does him. God’s Love gave you to him and him to you because He gave Himself. What is the same as God is one with Him.” (11:3-5)

As we practice daily seeing every brother as God sees him, we remember that there is nothing but Heaven. We remember that only what God created is true. We lose a separate identity because we no longer feel a need to be special. The fear of God falls away and we rejoice that only this is real.

What comes with the death of specialness?

To answer this Jesus tells us: “The death of specialness is not your death, but your awaking into life eternal. You but emerge from an illusion of what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God created you.” (14:4-5)

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Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness

Introduction & Section I. Specialness as a Substitute for Love

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 24, Introduction and Section I (pages 499-502)

What does Jesus tell us is the motivation for this course?

Jesus tells us, “Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace.” (1:1) When we allow the peace of our true Self to enter, fear disappears because when we are willing to allow in the Light of truth, illusions of differences disappear. The veil of separation is lifted and we see beyond the illusions of separate forms to the Love that is always there.

With letting in the truth that we are still as God created us comes a state of peace. That is why Jesus tells us that peace and understanding come together and are never found alone. In Chapter 14 Section XI, Jesus tells us, “The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will for God’s Son what his Father wills for him.” (T-14.XI.5:4)

Every part of A Course in Miracles teaches us again and again that, despite our belief in differences, we are still the pure Love that God created us to be. We have not succeeded in making ourselves into the special, separate individuals that experience a ‘life’ that ends in sickness and death. A Course in Miracles is a course in receiving and accepting the truth of What we are and Where we are eternally.

What does it take to learn this course?

Jesus is very concise and very clear when he tells us, “To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold.” (2:1) Because we have become lost in dreams of experiencing the specialness we have so desired, we think the dreams are really happening. We feel disconnected from our Creator and feel fearful, weak and vulnerable. We experience unworthiness, guilt and then try to project that onto what we now perceive as outside us.

We are now being taught in A Course in Miracles that none of the ‘lives’ we are experiencing are real — we are just dreaming dreams of specialness and none of it is really happening in reality. That is why he tells us that we have to be willing to question every value that we hold. Our job now is to allow in the truth that none of our dreams of having separate bodies are true. In Chapter 28 Section II Jesus tells us, “The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true. This is a crucial step in dealing with illusions. No one is afraid of them when he perceives he made them up. The fear was held in place because he did not see that he was author of the dream, and not a figure in the dream.” (T-28.II.7:1-4)

How does Jesus describe what Love is and what Love does?

Here Jesus tells us that, “Love is extension. To withhold the smallest gift [of Love] is not to know Love’s purpose. Love offers everything forever.” (1:1-3)

In Chapter 5 Jesus equates Love with joy: “There is no difference between Love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is offered. Every part benefits, and benefits equally.” (T-5.Intro.2:3-7) This helps us understand how Love extends forever and goes to all the Sonship equally. It also helps us understand that Love is not special, but universal and equal, which is the opposite of the substitute of specialness that the ego thought system offers.

What happens when we don’t recognize the ego beliefs that we are holding?

Here Jesus tells us that the unrecognized belief in specialness is a decision to war in secret. What happens when we don’t recognize that we are holding onto the belief in specialness is that we lose our peace. “The secret enemies of peace, your least decision to choose attack (specialness) instead of Love, unrecognized and swift to challenge you to combat and to violence far more inclusive that you think, are there by your election.” (2:6)

This helps us understand that if we are not experiencing God’s peace, we are still substituting the projection of specialness instead of extending Love’s oneness. This is very helpful to us because it is very difficult to let go of specialness when we don’t recognize that we are choosing it. Jesus is helping us to recognize that when we judge another as different from us or think we have enemies, we are simply experiencing the effect of our unrecognized belief in specialness. He is also showing us that this belief in specialness is the reason that we are not experiencing the peace of God.

What is called for in order to believe in specialness or differences?

Jesus tells us, “This [faith in specialness] takes many forms, but always clashes with the reality of God’s creation and with the grandeur that He gave His Son. What else could justify attack? For who could hate someone whose Self is his, and Whom he knows? Only the special could have enemies, for they are different and not the same. And difference of any kind imposes order of reality, and a need to judge that cannot be escaped.” (3:2-6)

In order to keep our specialness intact by setting ourselves apart, we must continue to judge others and have enemies. We must continue to be the judge of what we are and where we are. We must continue to judge and be critical of everyone around us. “But what is different calls for judgment, and this must come from someone ‘better,’ someone incapable of being like what he condemns, ‘above’ it, sinless by comparison with it. And thus does specialness become a means and end at once. For specialness not only sets apart, but serves as grounds from which attack on those who seem “beneath” the special one is ‘natural’ and ‘just.’” (4:2-4)

What does specialness dictate in order to triumph?

In paragraph 5 we see that the ego’s substitute for Love — specialness — demands projection of our belief in our own guilt upon another. Here Jesus makes it clear how the ego’s choice to project guilt works when we choose to join with it. “He who is ‘worse’ than you must be attacked, so that your specialness can live on his defeat. For specialness is triumph, and its victory is his defeat and shame. How can he live, with all your sins upon him? And who must be his conqueror but you?” (5:7-10)

This may be hard to look at and accept as what we are doing when we judge and blame another, but the good news is that when we recognize it, we can then be open to a change of mind. We can be open to joining with our brother in a single purpose of seeing past the dream of specialness to the Holy Spirit’s awareness of oneness and innocence.

What is the only purpose that we share with every brother?

Jesus answers this very simply when he says, “God gave you and your brother Himself, and to remember this is now the only purpose that you share.” (7:5) This means that our only purpose is to remember that every brother is what God made him to be and what we are. Our only purpose is to remember that we are the same and not different. “You have been given to your brother that love might be extended, not cut off from him.” (7:3) It can be helpful to say silently to yourself when you think of anyone: “God gave you Himself and I am willing to see you as God sees you.”

Why do we have trouble accepting this course?

We have trouble accepting this course when we are still attached to specialness — the ego’s substitute for the Love of God. As long as we focus on seeing differences instead of sameness, we are resisting the truth that we are all one holy Self in the Mind of God. We are still intent on making illusions of separate bodies real. We are still intent on seeing guilt in others to protect our ‘specialness.’ We still want to be right instead of happy.

The good news is that as we continue to practice the principles of the Course even though we are still resisting it, the consistent practice of handing over every thought of specialness over to the Holy Spirit to be undone will bring results. We will wake up from the dream of specialness. We will wake up to our one Home in God and realize that in truth, we never left.

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Chapter 23: The War Against Yourself

Section IV. Above the Battleground

Read ACIM Chapter 23, Section IV (pages 496-498)

What does the fear of God really represent?

Fearing God really means fearing oneness. Accepting oneness means accepting that we are not really separate individuals with separate bodies with private thoughts. Jesus tells us, “The fear of God is fear of life, not of death. (1:2) This means that we are not afraid of the ego, or thoughts of separation. What we are really afraid of is accepting the truth that this illusionary world of separate bodies could never be real and is nowhere in truth.

We are afraid that we will lose our “special” unique separate identity that we have substituted for our Identity as Love in the Heart of Love. We think that if we accept that the world is just a dream, we will cease to exist. It is true that the separate identity (symbolized by the body) we made up will cease to seem to be, but this will simply reveal our real eternal Identity That has remained unchanged by dreams of being separate and alone.

Why does Jesus say that what is not Love is murder ?

Jesus refers to our choosing separation over oneness as murder because choosing to believe in separation obliterates or destroys our awareness that we are still Love and nothing else. Choosing to believe that separate bodies are real is the same as attacking the truth of God’s oneness. At unconscious levels we feel guilty for hiding from What we are in truth, so the ego’s answer is to project or hurl that guilt onto separate bodies we see as different from us. Hurling guilt is the same as trying to murder or kill God’s law of oneness.

What does it mean to rise above the battleground?

Rising above the battleground means rising above the wish to see separation from God and our brothers. When we see God’s Son as a body, we are in a battle with our Self because, in truth we are part of God. Rising above the battleground means rising above the belief that we or anyone we see in this world is different, or separate and alone.

What are the signals that we need to see the battle from above?

We need to see the battle from above when we see our brother as a body, separate from ourselves. Our judgment that our brother is separate from God is same as our judgment that we are a little, separate self. The battle with God is the belief in the reality of separate objects, separate things, separate bodies that are all different and distinct from each other. Jesus tells us, “When the temptation to attack rises to make your mind darkened and murderous, remember you can see the battle from above. Even in forms you do not recognize, the signs you know. There is a stab of pain, a twinge of guilt, and above all, a loss of peace. This you know well.” (6:1-4)

What happens when we are willing to choose a miracle instead of murder?

Jesus tells us in paragraph 6: “And God Himself and all the lights of Heaven will gently lean to you, and hold you up. For you have chosen to remain where He would have you, and no illusions can attack the peace of God together with His Son.” (6:6-7)

What stands between the Father and the Heaven He created for His Son?

What stands between the Father and His Son is the false belief that there are separate bodies. Jesus tells us in paragraph 7: “The body has no purpose of itself, and must be solitary. From below, it cannot be surmounted. From above, the limits it exerts on those in battle still are gone, and not perceived. The body stands between the Father and the Heaven He created for His Son because it has no purpose.” (7:5-8)

What is given those who share their Father’s purpose?

When we share our Father’s purpose, we share the purpose of extending only Love’s oneness to all. When we share our Father’s purpose, we remember the truth that all that exists is only Love and that nothing else could be real. This sharing of the truth about everyone gives us a sense of calmness and peace so great that all the fears found in the dream of separation are seen as simply meaningless.

Jesus tells us, “Think what is given those who share their Father’s purpose, and who know that it is theirs. They want for nothing. Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable. Only the Light they love is in awareness, and only Love shines upon them forever. It is their past, their present and their future; always the same, eternally complete and wholly shared. They know it is impossible their happiness could ever suffer change of any kind.” (8:1)

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Chapter 23: The War Against Yourself

Section III. Salvation without Compromise

Read ACIM Chapter 23, Section III (pages 495-496)

What are some of the forms attack can take that we don’t recognize?

Here we learn that seeing our brother as a body (the opposite of the truth about him) and judging him guilty is the same as attack and murder. Jesus tell us, “Withhold forgiveness (seeing past separation to the truth of holiness) from your brother and you attack him. You give him nothing, and receive of him but what you gave.” (2:5-6)

In this world we don’t tend to think of seeing our brother as vulnerable and weak or even thinking of him or her as separate from us is attack. Here we see that when we do this we are attacking ourselves by joining with the ego thought system. We are attacking the truth about ourselves and our brother. We are forgetting that this (attacking the truth) is the source of our pain.

What are ways we compromise the truth and how does this affect our experience of salvation?

We are compromising the truth when we believe that differences have really occurred or that God’s Son has changed from how he was created by God. Jesus tells us that doing this (compromising the truth) does not bring salvation but just the opposite experience. “It [salvation’s purpose] is denied where compromise has been accepted, for compromise is the belief salvation is impossible. It would maintain you can attack [judge as separate] a little, love a little, and know the difference. Thus it would teach a little of the same can still be different, and yet the same remain intact, as one.” (3:6-8)

Here we see that when we fluctuate between the ego thought system of separation and the truth of oneness, we will experience stress and confusion until we accept salvation without compromise. This section reinforces that the way to a lasting experience of peace is to accept the truth and let illusions (images of separation) go. We are either still one Self, still as God created us or we are separate and alone, vulnerable and guilty. We cannot hold on to both and experience peace.

How do we recognize when we are attacking our natural experience of peace?

When we think we have enemies or think that anger, judgment and condemnation of others is justified in any way, we are attacking our experience of peace. When we compromise the truth of our oneness in Love with illusions of separation, we are attacking our peace and forgetting that peace is inherent in what we are.

How are we released from conflict?

Jesus tells us, “To be released from conflict means that it is over. The door is open; you have left the battleground. You have not lingered there in cowering hope that it will not return because the guns are stilled an instant, and the fear that haunts the place of death is not apparent. There is no safety in a battleground. You can look down on it in safety from above and not be touched.” (6:2-6)

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Chapter 23: The War Against Yourself

Section II. The Laws of Chaos

Read ACIM Chapter 23, Section II (pages 489-494)

What is the Course referring to when it speaks of the laws of chaos?

The laws of chaos are the rules the ego makes up in order to “see” an imaginary universe of separate bodies in an illusionary world of time and space. The laws of chaos are simply false (insane) ideas that we join with and agree to believe in in order to experience the opposite of what we are in truth.

The laws of chaos are the opposite of Love’s laws, which knows Its oneness and extends all Its Love to all of Itself. Love’s laws share all of Itself with all equally. Love’s laws see no differences and never change.

What is the first law of chaos and how is it undone?

“The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. Like all these principles, this one maintains that each is separate and has a different set of thoughts that set him off from others.” (2:1-2)

When we accept this ego law as true, we will experience ourselves as separate bodies with separate minds that are different instead of the same. We will experience ourselves as unique and different from what we see as outside of ourselves instead of being one with the united Mind of Love. This chaotic law reinforces that each “individual” has separate thoughts which make them different from the rest. In this chaotic world of individual, private minds, each mind has its own truth, which it experiences through its own set of constantly changing judgments.

“This principle evolves from the belief that there is a hierarchy of illusions; some are more valuable and therefore true. Each one establishes this for himself, and makes it true by his attack on what another values. And this is justified because the values differ, and those who hold them seem to be unlike, and therefore enemies.” (2:3-5) In this world made up by the laws of chaos, we must constantly judge what is true for us; we must be in a constant state of judging what everything means to us in order to hold this illusionary world in place. As we learn that every illusion of separation is equally untrue, this first law of chaos falls apart and is undone.

What is the second law of chaos and what experience does it bring to us?

“The second law of chaos, dear indeed to every worshipper of sin, is that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction.” (4:1-2)

This ego law of chaos decrees that once we have bought into the idea of separation, we are guilty and deserve punishment and death. That is why all our “lives” as separate ego’s are filled with experiences of trial and error, struggle, vulnerability, victimhood, sickness and finally death. We believe we are guilty at an unconscious level and the ego thought system then brings us thoughts of seeing the guilt in “others” to try to alleviate the pain of feeling unworthy and guilty for our rejection of our one Self.

Along with the belief that we are guilty for rejecting our Creator, the second law of chaos insanely believes that our Creator is now our enemy to be defeated by dreaming of our own death. In this insane belief system, the ego tells us that we defeat God by our own destruction and God Himself is powerless to change this.

In the Manual for Teachers we are told, “Sickness is a method, conceived in madness, for placing God’s Son on his Father’s throne. God is seen as outside, fierce and powerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He be conquered by His Son. And what, in this insane conviction, does healing stand for? It symbolizes the defeat of God’s Son and the triumph of his Father over him. It [healing] represents the ultimate defiance in a direct form which the Son of God is forced to recognize. It [healing] stands for all that he would hide from himself to protect his “life.” If he is healed, he is responsible for his thoughts. And if he is responsible for his thoughts, he will be killed to prove to him how weak and pitiful he is. But if he chooses death himself, his weakness is his strength. Now has he given himself what God would give to him, and thus entirely usurped the throne of his Creator.” (M.5.I.1:7-9, 2:1-8)

Here we see just how insane the ego thought system is. We think we separated from God, our Source and we are guilty for it. We decide that God is now our enemy. “Here is a principle that would define what the Creator of reality must be; what He must think and what He must believe; and how He must respond, believing it. It is not seen as even necessary that He be asked about the truth of what has been established for His belief. His son can tell Him this, and He has but the choice whether to take his word for it or be mistaken.” (6:2-4)

What is the third law of chaos and how does this relate to our definition God?

“This leads directly to the third preposterous belief that seems to make chaos eternal. For if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son’s belief in what he is, and hate him for it.” (6:5-6) In this insane thought system, the foundation stone is that we are the deciders of what we are and what God is. (See Chapter 2 Section l. The Origins of Separation, paragraph 1 on page 17 for a further description of the steps we took in our mind to go from extension to projection.)

In this flawed thought system, because we believe we are guilty and hate ourselves for it, we project this belief onto God and now we are the deciders of what God believes about us. And because we believe we are guilty for the sin of separating from our Source, we believe that God believes this too and is now punishing us for our sins. We now believe that God is the enemy and is to be feared for his vengeance for what we have done. Now God becomes the reason for all sickness and death. God becomes the cause of all disasters. (An example of this is that destruction in the form of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and the like are called “acts of God” in insurance contracts and legal documents.)

Now that God is the cause of all our problems, he is now the enemy and we have nowhere to turn. We are now at war with God (oneness). In this insane scenario Jesus reminds us, “Think not the ego will enable you to find escape from what it wants. That is the function of this course, which does not value what the ego cherishes.” (8:6-7)

How does the fourth law of chaos deepen the insanity and what form does it take in the stories made up in this world?

The fourth law of chaos follows from the other three: First we believe that we can have separate thoughts, which set us apart and make us different. Because our values and what we deem important are now different, we are enemies. Second we believe that because we attacked God’s laws, we are sinners and therefore deserve attack and death. Third we believe that God also believes this about us and hates us for rejecting His laws and separating from Him. God now becomes our enemy to be feared.

Jesus tells us: “The ego values only what it takes. This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. By this another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself.” (9:1-4)

This law is the basis for competition in the world — between countries, between ethnic groups, in the work place, in family relationships and sporting events. Competition is seen as a means to take specialness for ourselves to give us more value and devalue the other. It appears to be a necessary “fact of life,” yet it is really the playing out of attack and murder in an acceptable disguise. We also see this law of chaos reflected in the constant warring since time began — battles over land, battles over differences in religions (beliefs), battles over a continuous series of grievances, which stimulate the need to attack and defend.

Here we are seeing that clinging to these laws of chaos only dig us deeper into the hell we made for ourselves. Because the ego values only what it takes and the instrument of the ego is the body, thoughts of ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘kill or be killed’ are born. “But in a savage world the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be taken from.” (10:4) Here we see that all these thoughts of attack and defend are the effect of joining with these flawed laws of chaos, which just stem from joining with thoughts of separation from God’s Love.

What is the fifth law of chaos and what are its effects on us?

The fifth law of chaos tells us that there is a substitute for Love. “The substitute for love, born of your enmity of your brother, must be salvation.” (12:10) The substitute for love, in the ego’s eyes, is separation or uniqueness. In chapter 24, Jesus calls it specialness. (See Section I. Specialness as a Substitute for Love on page 499.)

To the ego, in order to see ourselves as separate and special, everyone must become our enemy because we are in competition with everyone, including God. Here we are seeing that we get the effects of the laws of chaos because we have bought into it and still want to make it appear real to us. Jesus tells us, “These are the laws on which your “sanity” appears to rest. These are the principles which make the ground beneath your feet seem solid. And it is here you look for meaning. These are the laws you made for your salvation. They hold in place the substitute for Heaven which you prefer. …Are you as certain that you realize the goal is madness?” (13:4-9, 13)

We are now seeing that it is only our belief in this insane thought system that keeps us prisoner to it. As we continue to believe we are separate and alone, we will continue to experience fear and vulnerability and death will continue to appear real to us. Jesus encourages us to let the laws of chaos go when he says, “Be not deceived when madness takes a form you think is lovely. What is intent on your destruction is not your friend.” (17:10-11) This means that when we are attracted to competition, to judge or condemn another or to make specialness (seeing differences) real in any way, that we are really attracted to the laws of chaos, which is the same as saying that we are attracted to experiences of fear and death.

Jesus calls us to return Home when he tells us, “There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven, life is illusion. At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere.” (19:1-6)

How do we free ourselves from our belief in these laws?

In the last paragraph Jesus tells us how to free ourselves from following the laws of chaos: “How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go.” (22:6-13)

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Chapter 23: The War Against Yourself

Section I. The Irreconcilable Beliefs

Read ACIM Chapter 23, Section I (pages 486-489)

How do we remember God?

We remember God as we allow our mind to quiet and be still. We are so familiar with the constant chatter of the ego mind that we identify with this false mind and think that it is our real mind. Now we are learning that all these constantly changing thoughts that flow through are coming from the false mind. Now we are learning to laugh at the ego fear thoughts instead of taking them seriously. We stop giving them meaning.

As we see that fear thoughts are meaningless, we do not fight them but merely let them fall away because they mean nothing to us. We no longer see any reason to grab on to them and real-ize them. With the Holy Spirit we learn to laugh at fear thoughts because we see their nothingness.

The Mind of Love is constant and changeless. The Mind of Love is filled with peace and joy. “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. The means of war are not the means of peace, and what the warlike would remember is not Love.” (1:1-3)

What is the ego’s chosen home?

The ego’s chosen home is the body, which the ego thought system tells us is our real identity. When we join with the ego thought system of separation from God and every brother, we are joining with a mistaken idea. We are making up images of something that is not really there in truth. The Course calls this image making. We pretend that the images that we see through the body’s eyes are to be taken seriously because we are pretending they are real.

This is what the Course calls the war upon ourself. “Do you not realize a war against yourself would be a war on God? Is victory conceivable? And if it were, is this a victory that you would want? The death of God, if it were possible, would be your death. is this a victory? The ego always marches to defeat, because it thinks that triumph over you is possible. And God thinks otherwise. This is no war; only the mad belief the Will of God can be attacked and overthrown. You may identify with this belief, but never will it be more than madness. And fear will reign in madness, and will seem to have replaced Love there.” (2:1-10)

Do we really want to replace Love’s oneness by making up images of separate bodies?

If we are really honest with ourselves, we will recognize that this is not what we really want. We really want the peace and eternal happiness of our true Source. We really want to let go of the ego’s belief system of separation. We want to remember that we have never left Heaven and that we are still as God created us. Jesus tells us, “Let all this madness be undone for you, and turn in peace to the remembrance of God, still shining in your quiet mind.” (8:9)

What sweeps away all trace of false ideas of separation?

Forgiveness is the means by which we let go of what is not true. Forgiveness means letting go of the false ideas which make up illusions of separation. Forgiveness means letting go of the war on our one Self, our one Identity as Love. “You who are beloved of Him are no illusion, being as true and holy as Himself. The stillness of your certainty of Him and of yourself is home to both of You, Who dwell as one and not apart. Open the door of His most holy home, and let forgiveness sweep away all trace of the belief in sin that keeps God homeless and His Son with Him. You are not a stranger in the house of God. Welcome your brother to the home where God has set him in serenity and peace, and dwells with him. Illusions have no place where love abides, protecting you from everything that is not true.” (10:1-6)

How do we forgive illusions?

By choosing peace instead of the conflict that comes with believing in separation. When we choose peace we open the door to our right mind, where the Holy Spirit resides. As we let peace into our mind, it gladly replaces all thought of sin and guilt. “Conflict and peace are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. So is the memory of God obscured in minds that have become illusions’ battleground. Yet far beyond this senseless war it [peace] shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.” (12:6-9)

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Chapter 23: The War Against Yourself

Introduction

Read ACIM Chapter 23, Introduction (pages 485-486)

What is the opposite of frailty and weakness?

We will believe in frailty and weakness when we believe in guilt and sin. As we let go of the idea that guilt could be true anywhere, innocence is all there is to see. We are learning that our true inner strength comes with seeing past the ego’s belief in guilt to the inherent innocence in yourself and everyone. With seeing innocence comes fearlessness because we now know that we have no enemies. Fearlessness also comes when we know that our will is the same as God’s Will. We remember that God’s Will is oneness and separation is not His Will.

Why does Jesus say that we are at war with ourselves?

The truth is that we are still as God created us. We are still one with God and we have not separated as we have imagined ourselves to be. We are dreaming that we are what we are not — separated and alone, weak and vulnerable. We are dreaming of a world where everything is separated through our belief in time and space, where in reality, only our eternal oneness is real.

We are now coming to the awareness that our dream of separate bodies is not true. We have just attacked ourselves by believing in separation and if we believe we have enemies, we can know that we are still attacking ourselves because what we are seeing is just a projection of our disordered thoughts. What a relief to know that none of these wild imaginings of a world outside ourselves is just not true. We can lay down our sword and accept the truth that we still are innocent. Nothing has happened to change God’s Son. We are still one in the holy Mind of God.

How do the innocent know that they are safe?

As we accept our innocence, we will just naturally accept the innocence in everyone because we remember that in truth we are one. We remember there is nothing outside the one Mind of God. As we accept our unity, we also know that we are eternally safe in the Mind of God and we accept the strength and eternal power of our Source.

In paragraph 3 we are told, “The innocent are safe because they share their innocence. Nothing they see is harmful, for their awareness of the truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness. And what seemed harmful now stands shining in their innocence, released from sin and fear and happily returned to Love. They share the strength of Love because they looked on innocence.” (3:2-5)

How do we come to understand that all is given us?

As we forgive the world for what we thought it was we are able to see beyond the idea of being separate and alone. As we practice forgiving instead judging, we will see innocence where we once saw guilt. Jesus tells us in paragraph 6: “Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven.” (6:1-4)

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Chapter 22: Salvation and the Holy Relationship

Section VI: The Light of the Holy Relationship

Read ACIM Chapter 22, Section VI. (pages 480-484)

What does everyone yearn for and try to find?

In this section we learn that everyone yearns for either freedom of the body or freedom of the mind. Jesus tells us, “No one but yearns for freedom and tries to find it. Yet he will seek for it [freedom] where he believes it is and can be found. He will believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve his choice as means to find it. (1:8-10)

When we yearn for freedom of the body, we will try to make the mind serve this purpose. (Using the mind to make separate bodies appear to be real) With this choice we want the free will to make the body into what we would have it be. We try to pretend we are a separate individual who makes decisions on our own. We use the power of the mind to make up images that fit with our decision to experience an ‘individual life.’

Jesus cautions us that we can imagine this but we cannot make it real. He says, “Yet freedom of the body has no meaning, and so the mind is dedicated to serve illusions. This is a situation so contradictory and so impossible that anyone who chooses this has no idea of what is valuable. (2:2-3)

What leads to true freedom?

True freedom comes with serving not our individual will, but the Will of the Holy Spirit. Here we are told, “But be you rather grateful that you can be the means to serve His end. This is the only service that leads to freedom. To serve this end the body must be perceived as sinless, because the goal is sinlessness. The lack of contradiction makes the soft transition from means to end as easy as is the shift from hate to gratitude before forgiving eyes. You will be sanctified by your brother, using your body only to serve the sinless. And it will be impossible for you to hate what serves whom you would heal.” (3:2-7)

As we serve the Will of the Holy Spirit, we are led to see past the images of separate bodies to the truth of our eternal oneness in God. We open to the truth that illusions of separation and really nothing and nowhere. There is no guilt because nothing has really happened. Here the mind is brought to true freedom, true peace, true happiness that never ends.

As we learn to serve only the Holy Spirit, who is being served?

Jesus happily tells us: “The gentle service that you give the Holy Spirit is service to yourself. You who are now His means must love all that He loves. And what you bring is your remembrance of everything that is eternal. No trace of anything in time can long remain in a mind that serves the timeless. And no illusion can disturb the peace of a relationship that has become the means of peace. (6:5-9)

When we serve the Holy Spirit, we are serving the gentle remembrance of our oneness in God. We are serving remembrance our true Home, where we are eternally. We are serving the letting go of illusions of separation. We are serving the Holy Spirit’s purpose of helping us wake up from the dream, not reinforcing the continuance of our belief in the dream of separation. As we serve the awakening, we awaken.

What happens when we look upon our brother with complete forgiveness?

We learn to overlook all mistakes in every brother. We learn to see the innocence behind every form of suffering. We learn to see all form as illusion, as a mistake to be forgiven. We are able to look past all form to the truth without fear of loss. We now use all form in the service of awakening from the dream.

Jesus tells us: “You will see your value through your brother’s eyes, and each one is released as he beholds his savior in place of the attacker who he thought was there. Through this releasing is the world released. This is your part in bringing peace.” (8:1-3)

What are we to do about the darkness we see in the world?

Jesus answers this with the following: “Be not concerned with darkness; look away from it and toward [the truth of] your brother. And let the darkness be dispelled by Him Who knows the light, and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith and confidence with which you bless your brother.” (9:10-11)

This answer that Jesus gives us helps us be confident that the Holy Spirit knows the perfect way to help and we do not. As we are willing to remember the truth in every brother instead of focusing on his or her story of being a separate body, we help ourselves and we help the world.

How do we know our true power?

Jesus answers this with the following: “If you were one with God and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours. But you will not remember this while you believe attack of any kind means anything. (12:1-2) “Attack is neither safe nor dangerous. It is impossible. And this is so because the universe is one.” (12:8-9) “Only the different can attack.” (13:1) “Because you and your brother are not different, you cannot attack.” (13:4) “And therefore it is necessary that you have other experiences, more in line with truth, to teach you what is natural and true.” (13:10) “This is the function of your holy relationship. For what one thinks, the other will experience with him.” (14:1-2)

Here we see that our job is to see the holiness of every brother. Our job is to see that there are no differences in reality. As we practice this we help ourselves know our true power and we bring the experience of awakening to the truth to our brother because minds are joined. As we practice this we bring to awareness our union with each other and with God. This is our true power.

Why does Jesus tell us that joy is unlimited?

In paragraph 14 we are told: “Joy is unlimited because each shining thought of Love extends Its being and creates more of Itself. There is no difference anywhere in It, for every thought is like Itself. The Light that joins you and your brother shines throughout the universe, and because It joins you and him, so It makes you and him one with your Creator. And in Him is all creation joined.” (14:8-9, 15:1-2)

We will experience this unlimited joy more and more as we continue to practice seeing only the Christ in every brother and see that we are all the same in Christ’s one universal experience as Love and only Love.

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Chapter 22: Salvation and the Holy Relationship

Section V: Weakness and Defensiveness

Read ACIM Chapter 22, Section V. (pages 478-480)

How do we overcome illusions?

Jesus cautions us that it is a mistake to become angry at illusions or oppose them. Here we are shown that illusions are merely mistaken thoughts that have no reality in truth. We need not oppose what is not real. We only oppose something that we think has really happened and poses some threat to us. He tells us that we are to let reason (the Holy Spirit in our mind) show us the difference between the real and the unreal because at this point we are confused and have forgotten that only Love is real.

When we get caught up in defending against illusions, we are still lost in illusions. We are still lost within the ego thought system. The Love of God merely Is and needs no defense. Jesus tells us: “Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You [your true Self] are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.” (1:6-12)

Why does the ego need such strong defenses?

The ego is always trying to defend its point of view that guilt and sin are real because that is how it keeps us prisoners in the illusion of separation. The ego thought system carries with it the belief that when we are able to project guilt upon another ‘out there’ that we are relieving ourselves of the guilt that we secretly believe is ours. This explains why in the ego’s world the news channels and many television programs focus so strongly on seeing the guilty ones ‘out there’ that need to be caught and punished. It is the ego’s way of trying to relieve the pain of guilt that comes with believing in separation from our Source.

We would not tolerate the ego’s attraction to seeing sin and guilt in others if we knew that when we do this we are only imprisoning ourselves to further pain and suffering. To the ego… “Belief in sin needs great defense, and at enormous cost. All that the Holy Spirit offers must be defended against and sacrificed. For sin is carved into a block out of your peace, and laid between you and its [peace’s] return.” (2:6-8)

Why does the ego embody a state of mind that is full of stress, depression and fear?

The ego wants you to believe that you have separated from God and therefore you are weak and vulnerable. The more you are stressed, depressed and full of fear, the happier the ego is. The ego defends against your joining with the peace of the Holy Spirit because that is how the ego is undone. When you are in a place of peace, you are opening the doors to hear the Holy Spirit’s true perception. The Holy Spirit brings the perception of the ego’s mountains to tiny molehills that are easily passed by. Jesus tells us, “God rests with you in quiet, undefended and wholly undefending, for in this quiet state alone is strength and power. Here can no weakness enter, for here is no attack and therefore no illusions.” (3:8-9)

What is an easy way to tell if we have identified with an illusion?

Jesus tells us, “Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one but rests on the belief that you are separate.” (6:1-4)

If we ever feel a need to argue or defend our position or convince someone they are wrong, we can now know that we have gotten caught up in the ego’s web of making illusions appear to be real. When we observe this happening, we can now step back and choose once again. This time we can choose the peace of the Holy Spirit, which helps us see past the illusions to the truth of our oneness in God. We can let reason move us past the insanity of the ego.

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Chapter 22: Salvation and the Holy Relationship

Section IV: The Branching of the Road

Read ACIM Chapter 22, Section IV (pages 477-478)

What does it mean by the branching of the road?

It is the turning point where we choose to let go of mind wandering into dreams of separation from our Source. We see that wandering in illusions of separation no longer serves us. We make the choice for Heaven and Heaven accepts our choice. “A choice made with the power of Heaven to uphold it cannot be undone. Your way is decided. There will be nothing you will not be told, if you acknowledge this.” (2:3-5)

What does Jesus say happens when we let the veil that separates us from our brother be lifted?

When we allow the veil to be lifted we are told, “The love of Christ will light your face, and shine from it into a darkened world that needs the light. And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you. You will become His messenger, returning Him unto Himself.” (3:7-9)

When we let the veil be lifted, we see the face of Christ in every brother. We behold the loveliness that was always there but was not seen because the projection of guilt replaced the eternal truth that only Love is there to see.

How do we walk the world with Jesus?

We walk the world with Jesus by “…offering Christ’s forgiveness to dispel their faith in sin.” (4:7) We see innocence and loveliness because we no longer choose to be bound by the ego’s belief in guilt. Jesus tells us, “And you will be your brother’s strong protector from everything that seems to rise between you. So shall you walk the world with me, whose message has not yet been given everyone. For you are here to let it be received.” (5:3-4)

What happens when we are willing to receive the miracle of truth?

We offer the miracle to everyone. Sharing the miracle of truth is part of receiving it because what we give, we receive. “For by receiving it, he learned it was not given him alone. Such is the function of a holy relationship; to receive together and give as you received.” (7:3-4)

As we are willing to receive the truth that are still one united Self in God, we no longer believe in the illusion of separation. We know that nothing can really happen to change God’s Son. He still is as God created Him.

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