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.
Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 30, Section IV. (pages 633-635)
Jesus reminds us that we cannot attack the truth by making up illusions of separation, even if we think we did. That is why we are still innocent, still safe in God. We are still as God created us. It is important that we remember this because it dissolves the guilt we think belongs to us.
He tells us, “You attack but false ideas, and never truthful ones. All idols are the false ideas you made to fill the gap you think arose between yourself and what is true. And you attack [the false images] for the things you think they represent. What lies beyond them cannot be attacked.” (1:7-10) The false ideas we still cling to are judgments on God’s Son as we try to displace or project the guilt we feel onto the “wearying, dissatisfying gods you made.” (2:1)
He calls them “blown-up children’s toys.” (2:1) The false images (a world of separate bodies that are different and alone) are simply a way to make the thought of separation appear to be real to us. We are seeing that we are simply playing the game of separation and have forgotten it is just a children’s game and not the truth. We made up the rules for separation, thinking that they protected us from the truth that we are still joined in God’s eternal oneness.
Jesus explains how we are released from this childish game that has brought us into a fearful state of mind: “Now must he learn the boxes and the bears did not deceive him, broke no rules, nor mean his world is made chaotic and unsafe. He was mistaken. He misunderstood what made him safe, and thought that [what made him safe] had left.” (2:5-7 italics added)
Once we are willing to see that we simply made a mistake but we remain as God created us, we free our minds to know that our real safety lies not in the world, but in God. We no longer choose to think in terms of separation and are willing to see beyond the foolish toys of separation to the truth of our oneness in God.
Jesus is bringing us to a point where we are willing to see that what could never be cannot hurt us. What we have pretended to be true could never be true. “You can laugh at popping heads and squeaking toys, as does the child who learns they are no threat to him.” (3:6)
Jesus knows that the most lavish and beautiful toys we think we made — special places, special things, special bodies, special food and drink — may still tempt us to reinforce our belief in the dream toys of separation we made. That is why he tells us, “Dwell not on them in any form. They but obscure reality, and they bring fear because they hide the truth. Do not attack what you have made to let you be deceived, for thus you prove that you have been deceived. Attack has power to make illusions real. Yet what it makes is nothing. Who could be made fearful by a power that can have no real effects at all? (5:2-7)
A key here is for us to see that all our toys of separation bring fear with them because they hide the truth. When the truth of our Identity as part of God is hidden, we feel weak and vulnerable. We feel guilty and unworthy. That is why our dreams become filled with stories of sickness and death. The good news is that none of this is true. These childish toys have no real effects at all. We continue eternally as the Love that God created us to be.
Jesus gives us a very precise and important answer to this question in paragraph 6: “Appearances can but deceive the mind that wants to be deceived. And you can make a simple choice that will forever place you far beyond deception. You need not concern yourself with how this will be done, for this you cannot understand. But you will understand that mighty changes have been quickly brought about, when you decide one very simple thing; you do not want whatever you believe an idol gives. For thus the Son of God declares that he is free of idols. And thus is he free.” (6:1-6 italics added)
As long as we want to see differences, that is what we will see. But as soon as we no longer want to see specialness or differences, we let the veil be lifted to see the oneness of God’s Light behind all childish toys of separation.
In paragraph 7 we are told: “It asks you but that you forgive all things that no one ever did; to overlook what is not there, and not to look upon the unreal as reality. You are but asked to let your will be done, and seek no longer for the things you do not want. And you are asked to let yourself be free of all the dreams of what you never were, and seek no more to substitute the strength of idle wishes for the Will of God.” (7:3-5 italics added)
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