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Study of Text, Chapter 13:Guiltlessness and Invulnerability, P 1. 5-13-16

I. GUILTLESSNESS AND INVULNERABILITY, P 1
1 Earlier, I said that the Holy Spirit shares the goal of all good teachers, whose ultimate aim is to make themselves unnecessary by teaching their pupils all they know. The Holy Spirit wants only this, for sharing the Father’s Love for His Son, He seeks to remove all guilt from his mind that he may remember his Father in peace. Peace and guilt are antithetical, and the Father can be remembered only in peace. Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to deny the other. Guilt hides Christ from your sight, for it is the denial of the blamelessness of God’s Son.

Journal
We are told some very important things in this paragraph. The most important to me is that the Holy Spirit wants to remove all guilt from our mind. Thank God that I don’t have to do that by myself. By myself means with ego. No decision made alone has power, so we make all decisions with either ego or Holy Spirit. Those are our only two choices. If I try to rid myself of guilt with the ego’s assistance, I will fail.

When I have asked the ego how to be rid of guilt I am told to deny it or to project it. I see that neither of these two suggestions works. My daughter is pregnant with her first child and she was expressing her fear of not being able to be a good mother to a newborn. She just doesn’t know how. I reassured her, but I noticed fear rising in me. When I looked at that fear I saw that it was really guilt. It was guilt for not doing a better job with my own first child.

I thought that guilt was gone, but it had been merely repressed. I had pushed it down so deeply that I could not see it anymore until now when it was triggered by my daughter’s fear. This is the best the ego has to offer when it comes to fear and guilt, temporary repression. Now I am looking at it again, and this time I am asking the Holy Spirit to look with me and to remove the guilt from my mind.

It is absolutely essential that the guilt be undone, not just for this one situation, but the belief in guilt itself must be undone. I am not just innocent of my errors with my firstborn, but I am innocent. I am innocence itself, and so is everything created by God. If I start trying to justify my behavior, I will find circumstances that cannot be justified. But if I know that guilt is an illusion and that innocence is reality, then no justification is needed. In fact the idea of justification is seen as part of the illusion of guilt, and has no place in the innocent mind of the Son.

The peace of God is everything I want, and I cannot have the peace of God and keep the idea of guilt. I cannot have love and guilt. I must choose. This is the fact that I must accept if I am to be free. Once accepted, the thing I must do is release the belief in guilt to the Holy Spirit so that my innocence will be restored to my awareness. I choose to do that now with the rules for decision.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: Introduction, P 6. 5-12-16

Introduction, P 4

4 This world is a picture of the crucifixion of God’s Son. And until you realize that God’s Son cannot be crucified, this is the world you will see. Yet you will not realize this until you accept the eternal fact that God’s Son is not guilty. He deserves only love because he has given only love. He cannot be condemned because he has never condemned. The Atonement is the final lesson he need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.

Journal
Could it be true that I am guilty for nothing? I say that guilt is not real, and I teach this constantly. I teach the most what I most need to learn. As I accept the Atonement, the great Undoing, I let go of the guilt that has held me in stasis for so long. I accept that I have never sinned and that I am not guilty for anything I seem to have done in this insane dream of life. When I see myself as completely and always innocent, then I will see everyone that way, because I only see in another what is in me.

I also see another way this works. I notice I am judging someone and I remember how destructive this is. I ask for the Atonement and I want it more than I want to keep the other guilty. I feel the knowledge of his innocence settle over me and I know I have forgiven him, and in that forgiveness, I have forgiven myself. How could I experience that miracle and not be aware that it must also apply to me? In forgiving another, I am always forgiving myself. The guilt I saw on the other was just a thought in my mind, so when I forgive it, I am forgiven.

My final lesson, and everyone’s final lesson is that there is nothing to forgive. If it is not God’s Will it is nothing. It does not exist and has never existed. The world we see is nothing. What we do in the world is nothing. We are saved because nothing has happened that is not God’s Will. So what do I do with the judgmental thoughts in my mind? They are meaningless, but if I believe them, then I experience their disturbing effects.

Today, I begin my day, as I have for a couple of weeks now, by deciding what kind of day I want to have. Then I remember that I will be given this day if I make no decisions by myself. Here is what I did this morning. I surrendered this self to God. I decided with Holy Spirit to have the peace of God today. I decided that I will quickly notice any thought that is not true, and realize I must have decided with ego what the situation means. I will notice it makes me unhappy to think this way, and I will accept the Holy Spirit’s interpretation instead.

Today I will not judge myself or anyone else and if I forget my decision, I will choose again by asking the Holy Spirit what He sees in the situation. Today I will accept the Atonement as I realize that the world of injustice is an illusion, and there is another world, one that the Holy Spirit will give me if I will be willing to accept that what I see now is not real, and if I will be willing to let it go. This is the day I will have if I make no decisions with the ego mind.

I have been using the Rules for Decision for about a month now and I can’t emphasize enough how helpful this has been. Every lesson I do, everything I learn in the Text or Manual for Teachers is enhanced as I use the rules for decision to practice them. It is a small section of the Course, a couple of pages, but it is a perfect practice and each sentence is important. So much so, that I am giving an entire weekend to its study and practice in Portland in July. If you are interested in attending and learning with me how Jesus wants us to use this information to wake up, let me know and I will give you the details concerning the workshop.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: Introduction, P 3. 5-10-16

Introduction, P3

3 If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. Love does not kill to save. If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego’s interpretation, not God’s. Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of it. Adam’s “sin” could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who drove him out of paradise. For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost, since only those who do not understand Him could believe it.

Journal
Do I repeat the “sin” of Adam? How about the mistake that Adam made? Do I repeat that? Do I look around and see pain, suffering and death? Do I see a world of guilty people? Even when my mind is fairly clear and I realize the guilt ridden thoughts in the mind are the product of the ego thought system and are not real, there are still subtle forms of guilt that I overlook, or call something else.

I was watching a drama on TV, and noticed that I was rooting for the good guy to overcome the bad guy. This is an example of a more subtle form of guilt. I could see one character as guilty only if I believed in guilt. Does it matter that I root for the good guy and against the bad guy? After all, it is just a movie. But the form of the belief is unimportant. It is still a belief in guilt and guilt is the foundation of separation. The structure will not fall while the foundation is still firmly in place.

Actually, that movie is a perfect example of how we keep the illusion in place. There was a good guy and a bad guy. There was no oneness, no one self. There was separation. The bad that all of us fear is part of us was projected onto one of the characters. It was his job to carry the “badness” so that the hero could be pure. This is what we do every day.

We see ourselves as separate from each other. In this way we can imagine that someone else is the bad one, and so we now believe we have preserved our goodness, at least to some degree. Then we try to “kill” the one who now represents the “bad” and so destroy all evidence that might lead back to us. Mostly we don’t actually kill them. We kill their reputation, or we kill our closeness, divorcing ourselves from that other bad one, distancing ourselves from the bad. Sometimes we do send them to the death chamber if we find them very guilty.

When we find ourselves guilty and cannot project it far enough away to destroy the belief in our guilt, we then suffer for what we did. We become isolated or depressed, or we punish ourselves with sickness or poverty. Mostly it is in smaller, less obvious ways that we punish ourselves, little accidents and little disappointments.

All the time we do these things we deny the one thing that would save us. We refuse to give up guilt as a belief. We continue to use projection and attack to defend our selves, and our belief in guilt. Now is the time to begin a new tactic, if we haven’t already done so, one that will ultimately work. Personally, this is my way of doing this: When I see guilt in any form, directed inwardly or outwardly, I remind myself that guilt is not real. I ask that my mind be healed of this unfortunate belief. I become still in my mind, if only for a moment, so that healing can occur. I will do this until there is no darkness in my mind.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: Introduction, P 2. 5-9-16

INTRODUCTION, P2
2 The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.

Journal
I don’t need to be convinced that the world is pretty awful. At its best, the world is still cruel because it always holds the threat of loss. When I love and feel loved, when I am at peace, when I am happy, I know that it will not last. Something will happen to undo this moment of respite from loss. So there is not a single moment of perfect love and perfect peace, when happiness is complete.

This world of uncertainty and loss is the result of guilt. It began when we accepted guilt into our mind, and thus separation began. I notice that Jesus says it began when we accepted guilt. So that means, guilt was not inevitable. We had a tiny mad idea, but was that the cause of our unhappiness? Or was it that the idea of separation brought with it the belief in guilt, and we accepted the belief as real? Isn’t that what we do now each time we choose to believe in guilt?

The world we see cannot be sustained without our moment by moment decision to keep it in place. We are deciding continuously for the world, and we do this by deciding continuously for guilt. When I think that I should not have said or done something, this is me deciding for guilt. Regret is past guilt held onto. Fear is guilt projected into the future. Someone else’s guilt is my guilt projected in an effort to be free of it.

When I read the news and think what a cruel act by someone, or when I judge a politician, or when I think that things should be different than they are, this is me deciding for guilt. What I am implying, even if I don’t use the words, is that the someone who acted cruelly is guilty for doing so, the politician is guilty for his policies, that the circumstances of my life are guilty for making me unhappy, and so they need to change.

Even when I think that it would be so good if my children would accept A Course in Miracles like I did, this is actually me saying they are guilty for not choosing what I think they should choose. I am implying that I would be happy if only they did what I want them to do, and that they do not make that choice makes them guilty for my unhappiness. In my mind, I or someone or even some circumstance is always guilty.

I was looking at a fence I paid to have constructed. I saw a flaw in the work, and I thought that the man who put it up for me should have done better. I thought that he was guilty of doing less than he promised. I felt foolish for hiring him. I thought I was guilty of bad judgment. I wondered if I made a mistake in choosing to spend my money in this way. Am I guilty for making a snap decision that I might come to regret?

And thus, the world I see continues to exist in my mind. As long as I continue to accept guilt as real and meaningful, pain and suffering and death will continue to exist for me. But there is a way out of the prison of guilt that I have designed for myself. My salvation is the Atonement. Just as I was free to accept guilt, I am free to accept the Atonement, and when I do I will have undone the separation.

I seem to accept the Atonement for this guilty thought or that guilty thought. I say to myself, I accept the Atonement in this situation. But there must come a time when all these acceptances lead to transfer of learning. Then I will know that guilt is not real, and I will know that there is only innocence. I will accept the Atonement and the world I see will be undone, and the real world will be revealed to me.

I cannot have the peace of God if I accept guilt into my mind, and I really believe that the peace of God is everything I want. Then the idea of guilt enters my mind, and obviously I think that keeping guilt alive is more important to me than the peace of God. I sometimes despair of this ever occurring for me. When I start to feel discouraged I think of others who have succeeded in awakening from this dream and I feel encouraged to keep making the choice for love.

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Study of Text, Chapter 13: The Guiltless World, Introduction, P 1. 5-5-16

Chapter 13: THE GUILTLESS WORLD
Introduction, P1

1 If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. But herein lies the split. For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape punishment. All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself, and escape the penalty of denial. It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

Journal
I don’t think that I am the only one that has at some point questioned why it is that I have so thoroughly forgotten who I am and cannot remember my Father at all. When I wonder about that the ego warns that there is probably a good reason, and asserts that I am so evil that I dare not look within to find myself. When I doubt that I am all that evil, the ego quickly points out all my faults and reminds me of past behaviors of which I am not proud. It seems best not to look too deeply.

Then it warns that maybe I am hiding from my Father because I know He will condemn me for my evil. All we have to do is read the Old Testament to see how man has projected his fear onto God and sees God as vengeful, punishing and pretty scary. The ego says it’s best to leave well enough alone. Then it suggests solutions to this problem through projection, pointing the finger at someone else so I go unnoticed in my guilt.

And that is the real problem, guilt. I believe in guilt and from that one belief comes unworthiness, condemnation, punishment, fear, the need to be separate, and insanity. I feel guilty, and this makes me feel unworthy of love, and fearful of punishment. Ego’s solution of projection makes me believe that God is part of all this as I project the belief in guilt onto Him. Then I believe He is the ultimate source of punishment. I made of myself something with little resemblance to creation and then I reimagined God so that He was like me. Insanity.

Guilt has made so much fear in my mind that I see enemies everywhere I look, and thus I attack and defend against everyone and everything. I attack boldly and I attack in secret, sometimes so secret I don’t even tell myself I am attacking. I attack myself and I attack others. I even attack God. I feel like I must be in a constant state of defense because when someone attacks they expect to be attacked in return. There is a solution to this madness, and that is to understand that guilt is not real, and no one is actually guilty. There is no reason to attack and no one we need to

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Study of Text, Chapter 12, VII.The Attraction of Love for Love, P 8. 5-4-16

VIII. The Attraction of Love for Love, P 8
8 The real world was given you by God in loving exchange for the world you made and the world you see. Only take it from the hand of Christ and look upon it. Its reality will make everything else invisible, for beholding it is total perception. And as you look upon it you will remember that it was always so. Nothingness will become invisible, for you will at last have seen truly. Redeemed perception is easily translated into knowledge, for only perception is capable of error and perception has never been. Being corrected it gives place to knowledge, which is forever the only reality. The Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost. Your Father could not cease to love His Son.

Journal
We made the world we see, and when we are ready to let it go, God will give us the real world. All that we believe is real now will become invisible. Pain, suffering, guilt, fear, anger, jealousy, death, all will be invisible to us. The real world becomes visible to us as we accept correction of our perceptions. Our perception will be perfect so we will see perfectly, and redeemed perception is easily translated into knowledge.

As Jesus says in other parts of the Course, while we believe in the world, that is, while we believe in the ego, we strive for corrected perception, true perception. Once that is done, perception gives way to knowledge, and this is the return to God. Jesus wants us to understand that God was never lost to us because god would never cease to love us.

We think we have lost our place in Heaven because we don’t remember it, and we don’t see it. It is invisible to us, not because it is gone or because we are absent to it, but because we have blinded ourselves to it. Through accepting the Atonement we will open our eyes and see what has always been real. When we see reality, the illusion will not be seen.

It is helpful to know this, to be told that nothing is lost to us and that God still loves us. But it is necessary that we do the work that is needed to have our eyes opened. We must accept the Atonement. When I think about this I see it as choosing God over ego. I might use all sorts of processes to get myself to that point, but in the end, I simply decide for God.

This decision must be absolute for the ego to be undone, and so far I am still struggling with that decision. I know, it’s crazy, right? It would seem that the answer is obvious. Who wouldn’t trade in this painful existence for a blissful existence with no pain and suffering, with eternal life, where nothing is ever lost or lacking? Evidently, me. But every time I struggle through a situation, no matter how difficult it seems at the time, I come out of it changed. I have more clarity. My perception is closer to reality. I am closer than before to making that final choice for God.

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Study of Text, Chapter 12: VIII. The Attraction of Love for Love, P 7. 5-3-16

VIII. The Attraction of Love for Love, P 7
7 Yet it does not matter how much distance you have tried to interpose between your awareness and truth. God’s Son can be seen because his vision is shared. The Holy Spirit looks upon him, and sees nothing else in you. What is invisible to you is perfect in His sight, and encompasses all of it. He has remembered you because He forgot not the Father. You looked upon the unreal and found despair. Yet by seeking the unreal, what else could you find? The unreal world is a thing of despair, for it can never be. And you who share God’s Being with Him could never be content without reality. What God did not give you has no power over you, and the attraction of love for love remains irresistible. For it is the function of love to unite all things unto itself, and to hold all things together by extending its wholeness.

Journal
My reality can never be lost to me because the Holy Spirit holds that vision. He looks at me and sees only God’s Son. I want that vision badly. I want to think of myself and know I am only God’s Son and nothing else. I want to look on everyone else and see only God’s Son. The reason I have this desire is that I am, in truth, Love.

I am an extension of Love and Love is all that I am. As Jesus tells us, the attraction of love for love is irresistible. It is my function, as love, to unite all things to itself and to hold all things together. Therefore, I long to know myself and everyone else as love, to know Oneness. This is why A Course in Miracles is so attractive to me, and why it is that when I picked it up I kept reading. I kept reading even as I wondered why it was that I believed every word in it. Certainly there was no logical (ego) reason to do so.

And even though I believed it then, and even though I practice it continuously now, it still feels like it is slow-going, and sometimes it feels impossible to me. When it starts to feel impossible it is because I have endowed the ego with power it does not have. My mind is conflicted as I choose to move toward God and at the same time refuse to relinquish some old belief that is not truth. Conflict causes suffering and so I can get discouraged.

One reason I get discouraged is that I seem to be fighting myself. It’s hard to see a winner in that scenario. Another reason I get discouraged is that the inner conflict is not always apparent. When I don’t acknowledge that my problem is myself, I think it is real. I think that the problem occurs in the world and that I absolutely must do something about it. The problem can take on frightening dimensions when this happens, and seem to overwhelm me.

Sometimes, even when I finally let it go, I still get ego thoughts that I can’t just pretend the problem doesn’t exist. Then I feel a twinge of fear in my gut and I have to decide if I want to follow it to inevitable misery or turn away from it. The ego fear thoughts can be compelling. It seems to make so much more sense that the problem is not just going to go away, that I must do something.

But no matter what is going on in my story, and no matter how often I get pulled into the drama of it, nowadays, I always hear the Voice that tells me that this is not real. It might seem like a faint whisper next to the frantic warnings of the ego, but it is there, and that Voice has its own attraction. It is the attraction of love for love.

That attraction is very compelling, not in the frantic way of the ego, but in the clarity and certainty of its message. God’s Voice calls to the divinity in me, that is me. I may have disowned that divinity, but I have not destroyed it. So I answer. I do this again and again and it gets easier and I answer more confidently and I accept the truth more quickly. This is how I wake up, maybe slowly, but gently and inevitably.

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