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study of Text, Chapter 9, IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan for Forgiveness, P1. 1-30-15

IV. The Holy Spirit’s Plan of Forgiveness
1 Atonement is for all, because it is the way to undo the belief that anything is for you alone. To forgive is to overlook. Look, then, beyond error and do not let your perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds. Accept as true only what your brother is, if you would know yourself. Perceive what he is not and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely. Remember always that your Identity is shared, and that Its sharing is Its reality.

Journal
I am going to begin by reminding myself that the Atonement is the Holy Spirit’s plan to lead us out of the idea of separation. We complete our part through total forgiveness. Someplace in the Text it says that Jesus put the plan into action when he completed his part, but the plan was already there. I wonder if anyone remembers where this is in the Course? I am always reading nifty stuff in the Course and then forgetting where I read it.

Since the Atonement is meant to undo the belief in separation, it naturally is for all. It undoes the belief that anything could be for me alone. I hear the ego in my mind separating out a brother and seeing him as guilty and it is just insane. How could my brother be separate from me? We share the same identity, the same mind.

The idea that I am different from you, separate and apart, is an illusion. If I would remember reality, this is an idea I must release. I cannot believe in the illusion of separation and believe in Reality at the same time. Could you believe that the sky is blue and believe it is red at the same time? One thought would have to be seen as wrong.

It is the same with illusion and reality. Only one is true. I can believe something is not true, but my belief will not change reality. However, if I believe a lie is true I will live as if the lie is true. This is what has happened. We have chosen to believe a lie and it has become true for us. Not true in reality, but true in our mind. This lie is that we are separate from each other and what happens to me does not affect you.

I live my life as if this were truth and I suffer for it; this much is clear to me. I have become convinced that I have made a choice for something that is an illusion, but I have not let go of the illusion. I am trying to live my life as if both Reality and illusion exist. It isn’t working, of course, but it is just a transitional period as I continue to release the illusion and accept the Atonement.

Sometimes I feel like I stand at the veil, with one hand on it, wishing I could just pull it aside, wondering why I don’t. Sometimes releasing the belief in the illusion of separation feels like a lost cause to me. I think about this guy who is attacking me and it just feels so real and he seems so obviously guilty, I just can’t let go of my grievance.

The whole situation seems terribly important and real, and yet, it is just an image I have made. It cannot be real because I cannot be separate from a brother and I cannot have needs that are different and goals that supersede my brother’s needs. He cannot be the cause of what I have made. How can I know this in my little mind and yet, still believe my brother is guilty?

If I believed the sky was red there would be nothing you could do to make me see a blue sky. You might convince me that everyone else sees it differently, and you might convince me that I would be happier if I saw that the sky was blue, but you could not make me see a blue sky. I might want very much to see the sky you see, but if I believe the sky is red, I will never see a blue sky.

There is only one way I will ever see the sky as it truly is. I will have to let go of my belief in red skies. I will have to desire to know the truth, then let go of the belief I currently hold. In that way I can accept the new truth because there will be nothing in my mind to compete with it. This is how the Atonement works.

I have a thought in my mind that my brother is trying to take from me what I want and so he is guilty. This is an image of the belief that we are separate and have separate needs, and that only one of us can win. I have been told that this is false and that believing it is causing me to suffer.

So I ask for the Atonement for this belief. I ask the Holy Spirit to remove this belief from my mind, and then I release it to him. In that empty space where the belief in separation used to be, the truth rises up in my mind. It seems that I need to do this often because I think that there is some value in keeping the old belief so I reclaim it when I think I need it.

Or at least that is how I see it. At any rate, I have had to ask for the Atonement for this mistaken belief often, but each time I am quicker to do it, and it is easier for me to release it. I am learning not to believe that thought in my mind. One day, that thought will not show up anymore because there is no place for it in my mind.

In the mean time, I am looking past my belief about my brother, and not letting my mind dwell on the error, because that will just fix it more firmly in my belief system. If I believe my brother is guilty, I will not be able to see myself as innocent, because whether I consciously accept this as true or not, the fact is that we share the same identity.

If I believe in his guilt, I will believe in mine, so I look past my belief that he is guilty and look toward the truth. I ask the Holy Spirit to remove the thought of guilt from my mind and accept the truth instead. I see his perfection and so I see mine. This Atonement thing is really effective! I notice right away that in forgiveness, I am happy, and in guilt I am not. I choose happiness as I choose the Atonement.

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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P 8. 1-29-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 8

8 The Holy Spirit forgives everything because God created everything. Do not undertake His function, or you will forget yours. Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for. God gave you the function to create in eternity. You do not need to learn that, but you do need to learn to want it. For that all learning was made. This is the Holy Spirit’s use of an ability that you do not need, but that you made. Give it to Him! You do not understand how to use it. He will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation, by learning how to look on everything without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors will be forgiven.

Journal

Oh my goodness, I feel like I need to contemplate every sentence in this paragraph!

“The Holy Spirit forgives everything because God created everything.” This is the reason I forgive everything. I forgive every person involved in every situation in my life, including me, because what we are is a creation of God. That alone is reason enough to forgive. I feel excited to think about this. How simple this makes forgiveness. Nothing to judge or decide; in every case I forgive because God created it.

‘Do not undertake His function, or you will forget yours.” I am not certain what is meant by this sentence, but here is what comes into my mind. My function is to notice when there is a thought in my mind that needs correction and to desire that correction. I then release it to the Holy Spirit and He heals my mind. So correction, healing, and forgiveness (which are all the same thing) is His function, not mine.

My function is to choose to be healed, to allow the healing, and to accept it. This is what the Course means when it says I am to forgive. If I try to take the Holy Spirit’s job, I will forget mine, which is essential to the process. I want healing, so I will notice if I start to think it is my job to correct either my brother or myself, and I will step back and let myself be reminded of my part.

“Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for.” Healing is my only function while I am in time. I often become confused about this as I go about my day. I start to think that getting certain tasks completed is my function and I become anxious if it doesn’t look like I am succeeding.

I think that being on time is function, that winning is my function, that dieting, learning to budget my money better, figuring out how to retire; I start to think that these are all very important and for me to do. But healing is the only function I have in time, and so it is my job to notice these wrong minded choices and ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking.

“God gave you the function to create in eternity.” The function of healing is only in force while we are in time. It is the necessary substitute for our true function. In eternity, where we exist, our function is creating. Oh my! Look at the phenomenal job we have done in making this upside down world, and now imagine what we can do in our natural state. This thought is a powerful motivation for me to open my mind and heart to this awakening process.

“You do not need to learn that, but you do need to learn to want it. For that all learning was made.” I do not need to learn I am a creator or how to create. I was created a creator and thus this cannot be lost to me. I can however, choose to deny it for the purpose of experience that is different than Reality. Because this was my choice, and because it is time to return to reality, I must learn that I want to do so. That is what it means that my function in time is learning. I am learning that I want to be what I am.

“This is the Holy Spirit’s use of an ability that you do not need, but that you made.” In my natural state there is no function of learning because I already have all Knowledge. What could there be to learn? In the upside down world I made, I must learn everything, because the ego knows nothing. Like everything I made, as I give it to the Holy Spirit for His use, He uses it to teach me that I don’t need it. If it sounds insane, that is because it is insane. But in giving what I made to the Holy Spirit, my sanity is restored along with my memory. Whew!

“Give it to Him! You do not understand how to use it. He will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation, by learning how to look on everything without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors will be forgiven.” I gladly give the Holy Spirit my learning and put Him in charge of it. I give Him my crazy thoughts and my belief that I know what to do with them. He is forgiving it all and healing my mind, and I am learning to see myself without condemnation.

This has been slow going for me because the ego mind really treasures the notion it can and should judge. When I start to feel like the holy and Divine Being that I am, the ego rushes in with memories of all my errors. It insists that they make me guilty and unworthy. The purpose is to reinstall fear in my mind and so keep the ego myth going.

What has made this easier for me is that I now understand that to see myself as innocent, it is necessary that I see all aspects of Self as innocent. I am learning that my brother is innocent no matter what his ego does. I am learning that the world is innocent regardless of appearances. In this understanding, I know that I must also be innocent. It is in this denial of guilt as real that all errors are forgiven and we are restored to our true nature. What judgment could be more important or valuable than this?

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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P 7. 1-28-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 7

7 Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth beside you for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you and in your brother. His errors are forgiven with yours. Atonement is no more separate than love. Atonement cannot be separate because it comes from love. Any attempt you make to correct a brother means that you believe correction by you is possible, and this can only be the arrogance of the ego. Correction is of God, Who does not know of arrogance.

All my errors are corrected by the Holy Spirit, as are all my brothers. I become aware of these corrections as I accept the Atonement, but the Atonement is not part of separation. It is whole and is for my brother as it is for me. If I try to accept forgiveness for myself, but deny it of my brother, I don’t understand the Atonement and so I will not understand that I am forgiven.

I cannot correct myself, how is it I think I can correct my brother? What arrogance! This could only be my ego and I gladly set that aside. It seems so clear and simple as I sit here writing about it. But what I have discovered is that there is a strong desire in me to judge and to correct. That I keep in to myself rather than speaking it (usually) does not make any difference.

I sometimes disguise this desire to correct by pretending I just want to help. This satisfies my spiritual ego, but does nothing in reality. It is still a desire to correct. It still shows me that I think I know my brother’s errors and that I should correct them. I can convince myself that it is obvious that I am supposed to steer these unfortunates in the right direction. Oh, arrogant ego, I would let you speak to dead air today! I am not interested.

Holy Spirit, as my day progresses, please help me to be aware of the temptation to correct my brother or even myself. I see the error in this and I truly desire to surrender this to You.

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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P 7. 1-28-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 7

7 Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth beside you for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you and in your brother. His errors are forgiven with yours. Atonement is no more separate than love. Atonement cannot be separate because it comes from love. Any attempt you make to correct a brother means that you believe correction by you is possible, and this can only be the arrogance of the ego. Correction is of God, Who does not know of arrogance.

All my errors are corrected by the Holy Spirit, as are all my brothers. I become aware of these corrections as I accept the Atonement, but the Atonement is not part of separation. It is whole and is for my brother as it is for me. If I try to accept forgiveness for myself, but deny it of my brother, I don’t understand the Atonement and so I will not understand that I am forgiven.

I cannot correct myself, how is it I think I can correct my brother? What arrogance! This could only be my ego and I gladly set that aside. It seems so clear and simple as I sit here writing about it. But what I have discovered is that there is a strong desire in me to judge and to correct. That I keep in to myself rather than speaking it (usually) does not make any difference.

I sometimes disguise this desire to correct by pretending I just want to help. This satisfies my spiritual ego, but does nothing in reality. It is still a desire to correct. It still shows me that I think I know my brother’s errors and that I should correct them. I can convince myself that it is obvious that I am supposed to steer these unfortunates in the right direction. Oh, arrogant ego, I would let you speak to dead air today! I am not interested.

Holy Spirit, as my day progresses, please help me to be aware of the temptation to correct my brother or even myself. I see the error in this and I truly desire to surrender this to You.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P6. 1-27-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 6
6 You cannot correct yourself. Is it possible, then, for you to correct another? Yet you can see him truly, because it is possible for you to see yourself truly. It is not up to you to change your brother, but merely to accept him as he is. His errors do not come from the truth that is in him, and only this truth is yours. His errors cannot change this, and can have no effect at all on the truth in you. To perceive errors in anyone, and to react to them as if they were real, is to make them real to you. You will not escape paying the price for this, not because you are being punished for it, but because you are following the wrong guide and will therefore lose your way.

I was spending some time with a friend who was upset that she had gained weight. I know how this feels, this gaining weight when you think you shouldn’t, and when you think it means something. I know very well because I still become confused about that. I wanted to commiserate, and to suggest solutions. Mostly I just listened. I talked a little about guilt as the real culprit rather than food, but mostly I just let her talk.

But I kept thinking about it and I noticed my stomach tightening a little as I thought about it. Yep, this is still an issue for me. I wanted to send her a note this morning telling her I know how she feels and talking about it in a positive way. But as I noticed my reaction, this “need” to help, I realized that I can’t help. I am totally identified with the problem and from that place I can only add to the confusion.

I want to help because I love this person, but I think she needs help (correction) because I think she has a real problem. I want to help because it makes me uncomfortable to see her error. I see her error and my stomach tightens because it mirrors a problem in my mind that I don’t want to acknowledge. So this morning, instead of giving advice or commiserating, I did something helpful. I asked that my mind be healed. I remembered that above all else I want to see.

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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P5. 1-26-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 5
5 When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity in him. If you perceive his errors and accept them, you are accepting yours. If you want to give yours over to the Holy Spirit, you must do this with his. Unless this becomes the one way in which you handle all errors, you cannot understand how all errors are undone. How is this different from telling you that what you teach you learn? Your brother is as right as you are, and if you think he is wrong you are condemning yourself.

This paragraph tells me both why I must not accept my perception of my bothers insane behavior, and what to do with that perception. First, if I accept my perception that my bother is acting insanely, I cannot heal him because I heal through my certainty of health, and if I believe what I am trying to heal is real I have no certainty.

This gets worse, because if I believe my brother can be in error, I believe in the error and so in believing in the error, I have now opened the possibility, (no, the probability) that I too am in error or will be in error. I have taught myself that error is real for everyone. The ego mind insists that this is true and anyone can see that it is true.

Here is what I say to the ego “proof” that I can see my brother is in error and that I often am in error, as well. I see the insane behavior for what it is, an ego reaction to fear. It is an ego reaction to an ego emotion. What has that got to do with reality? God did not create ego nor its effect, fear. Neither is real or true. I am seeing an illusion. An illusion can appear very real, but it cannot be real.

Now this is how I get free of both the belief in my own insanity and that of my brother. I stop using this ego behavior to separate myself from my holy Self. Instead, wherever I see insane behavior or when I experience insane thinking in my own mind, I give my perception to the Holy Spirit to heal for me.

I notice my brother’s insane behavior and see it for what it is, but I do not mistake it for reality. If I do, momentarily, believe in it, I recognize what I have done. I have become as insane as I think my brother is. So I give that belief to the Holy Spirit to be corrected. From this healed place, I know the truth. I am as God created me and my brother is as God created him. No matter how confused my brother is about that, I know the truth and the light that is in my mind will extend to his and heal him.

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Study of Text, Chapter 9, III. The Correction of Error, P 4. 1-22-15

III. The Correction of Error, P 4

4 When you react at all to errors, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. He has merely disregarded them, and if you attend to them you are not hearing Him. If you do not hear Him, you are listening to your ego and making as little sense as the brother whose errors you perceive. This cannot be correction. Yet it is more than merely a lack of correction for him. It is the giving up of correction in yourself.

Journal
First I notice that Jesus is telling me that if I react to my brothers errors I am not listening to Holy Spirit. Sometimes my brother is speaking from the ego and I am aware of that, but if I react to it, it means that I am giving it credence. I believe his words have meaning, and they do not. If I were listening to Holy Spirit, I would disregard the ego words of my brother, because that is what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn’t believe my wrong minded words and then forgive them. The Holy Spirit sees them as meaningless and simply disregards them.

I love that this is true. I never have to apologize to God for my errors. He doesn’t give them any meaning and so they have none. He disregards my errors as if they didn’t exist. This is what I want to do, too. I want to learn through the Holy Spirit’s instruction, to disregard my own errors as if they did not exist. This is what it means to be guiltless. I haven’t achieved this yet. I sometimes still experience guilt when I am in error and even when I remember a past error. I do recognize when I do it, and I ask for correction, so I know that I am learning to disregard error.

The other thing Jesus is telling us in this paragraph is that I must disregard my brother’s errors as well, and not just for his sake. I do this because if I correct my brother, I am making as little sense as he is. In my correction I am in error, too, and this is setting up one of those endless cycles that the ego depends on to keep us engaged in the illusion. If I correct my brother I teach myself to believe in error, and so I will believe in my own error as well.

Yes, my ego can be in error, and probably is, but I am not my ego. My brother is not his ego. There is a vast difference between recognizing that I have spoken in error and believing I am guilty of speaking in error. A friend sent me a message recently, and in her words I heard where she got off course. I saw the error in her thinking. My first (ego) response was to point this out to her.

Then sanity prevailed and I heard the Holy Spirit gently remind me that I am the messenger, not the writer of the message. So I waited for instructions and when none came, I did nothing. Later, she saw her own error and wrote about that. It was a more powerful lesson for her to receive instruction from within than it would have been to receive it from me.

I was happy to see that I did not have to argue with myself to resist correcting her. I was simply grateful to have heard the Holy Spirit in my mind. That was not always true, so I see I have grown. There was not the belief in my mind that her error was important or that it in any way defined her. That was growth for me also, because I used to think errors were meaningful, and I might have thought that knowing what she didn’t know meant I was better than or higher than her. It’s a relief to not be burdened with that mistaken thought. I hope it is completely healed and gone forever.

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