Day 9
2 In order to understand the teaching-learning plan of salvation, it is necessary to grasp the concept of time that the course sets forth. Atonement corrects illusions, not truth. Therefore, it corrects what never was. Further, the plan for this correction was established and completed simultaneously, for the Will of God is entirely apart from time. So is all reality, being of Him. The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God’s Son, in that same instant was God’s Answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all.
3 The world of time is the world of illusion. What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. Because your will is free you can accept what has already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there. As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned.
Yikes! What am I supposed to do with this? When the Course messes with my idea of time, my mind wants to shut down. I have trouble with the idea that my friend from Singapore is calling me, not only from a place thousands of miles away, but from the next day! Its too weird for my mind to deal with. What Jesus is telling us in the Course about time is stranger than strange to my ego mind. I want to say time does not exist and leave it alone. But it is important that I grasp the effect of time being a made up concept, at least important that I understand how this affects the teaching-learning plan.
Ok, here is what I understand, though my understanding is incomplete. I think I came into this classroom to learn something I don’t know and need to know. I think that I made all sorts of decisions during my life, choices that brought me from one understanding to the next. I think that I have met all these interesting people and that sometimes we clicked and became friends or enemies (sometimes first one then the other) and that I get to choose whether or not to continue in the relationship.
None of that is true.
To keep it simple, and not too get too bogged down in the metaphysics (which I only think I understand anyway), what is actually happening here is that I am witnessing a script long ago completed. All that other stuff from the first paragraph only seems to be happening now. Its over. A done deal. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. And by the way, it never really happened. Its an illusion, a dream, a story on an amazingly broad screen appearing in the real deal 3D.
Well jeez, am I so enamored of this story that I just can’t quit? Maybe. This is where it gets fuzzy for me. But what I do understand is that I can step out of this fairy tale at any time because while I can’t change the script, I can decide when.
To get back on ground that doesn’t move under my feet, I will turn my attention to something I can do. I can choose to see what is happening in any way I want. I can choose to see the illusion as if it is real. That’s pretty painful, but it is my choice. I can choose to see the illusion with the Holy Spirit, my Right Mind, and this interpretation is not painful. In fact it ends all suffering, and turns the story from a tragedy into a comedy.
While this would seem to be the obvious choice, I notice that it takes a lot of my made up time and all my attention just to notice when I am making poor choices, and to choose again. Still, what else have I got to do here in la la land? And what has this got to do with being a teacher of God? I am not choosing the learning/teaching situations or the teacher/students. So I can relax, sit back and enjoy the show. And, oh yeah, keep my eye on my runaway mind so that when I notice a lot of drama in the script, I can choose to listen to a different interpretation.
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