Chapter 9 ~ Atonement

Accepting Reality.  The mind is profoundly split.  One part of it believes it exists in a world "apart from" God, the other part exists in Heaven, Untouched and Undisturbed.

I am the Son of God in Heaven with my Father. Yet, it is as if I am asleep, dreaming of exile to a world with choices, opposites, judgments, perceptions, and death.  It is a nightmare because it is not Natural for the Son of God to exist in anything but Perfect Love and Perfect Peace.  But here I am, split into many bodies, born only to exist a little while and eventually die.  There are many "others" besides myself. Some of them are enemies.  In fact, there is not even one who can offer me lasting Joy and Happiness.  Am I doomed to wander this world, searching for meaning in the meaningless, searching for signs of Life in death, alone and imprisoned within a body?  How can I be anything but fearful?  How can I move or "be" when death and destruction is around every corner?  It is impossible to learn anything in a state of panic.

I have set up this strange situation so that it is impossible to escape.  I have imprisoned my will beyond my own Awareness.

A Course in Miracles is a self-study curriculum , it helps me remember Who I am.  It introduces me to Love, Which does know my Reality.  An opposing will is not forced upon me.  Love merely makes every effort, within the limits I created, to Awaken me to my True Home; to sort out the True from the false in my mind.  Heaven is my will.  Heaven is what I want.....I have merely forgotten.

My will is the same as God's.  The "separation" is nothing more than a belief that God's Will and mine are different.

The "world" asks for sacrifice, but God will never ask for sacrifice.  I may insist that He does not answer my calls for help, but consider what kind of questions I am asking.  I do not even ask for what I Truly want, because I am afraid I might receive it.....and I would.  If I ask for love, I will get Love; not in the form of a "special" person, but in the only Real way Love Exists.  When I ask for things of the world, I am asking for nothing, because the "world" does not exist.  What does exist?  Eternal, Unending Love, Joy, Peace, Comfort, and Bliss.

Ultimately, I will remember the Will of God.  In the presence of Truth, there are no unbelievers and no sacrifices.  In the Security of Reality, fear is meaningless.  Fear cannot be Real without a cause, and God is the only Cause.  God is Love and I do want Him.  To be with God is my will.  Ask for this and I will be Answered because I am only asking for What Belongs To Me.

When I ask God for what would hurt me, He cannot answer because nothing can hurt me, and so I am asking for nothing.  Any wish that comes from ego desiring anything of the world is a wish for nothing, and to ask for nothing is not a request, it is a denial (denying my Reality as God's Son) in the form of a request.

I do not recognize the enormous amount of energy I waste in looking for answers in the dream-world.  What would I say about someone who persists in pursuing the impossible, believing that to achieve it is to succeed?  The belief that I must have the impossible in order to be happy is at odds with Creation.  God Willed me Happiness and Joy, but I insist on finding it in a world that can never provide It.

The fact that God is Love does not require belief, it requires acceptance.  I can deny the facts, but I cannot change them.  God's World is True and nothing else is True.  I cannot distort Reality (by creating illusions) and still know what Reality is.  By distorting Reality, I will experience anxiety, depression, and panic because I am making myself unreal.  I am the Son of God, not a body.  When I  feel anxious, I will not look to the world for relief, I will look within for Truth.

The Answer to Prayer.   Everyone who has ever tried to use prayer to ask for something has experienced what appears to be failure.  The Bible emphasizes that all prayer is answered, and this is True.  The very fact that God has been asked for something will ensure a response.  It is possible that I have not heard His Answer.  There are many Answers I have already received but have not yet heard.  Be assured, They are waiting for me.

My decision about my "brother" will determine the message I receive.  Is my "brother" the Son of God (as am I) or is he my enemy?  If I feel the slightest bit judgmental or annoyed with another, I can be sure I have decided he is enemy.  I created the world of "others" to experience separation.  God can use everything I created for His Own Holy Purposes and He placed my salvation in my "brother."  Every opportunity and every encounter with "another" is a chance to offer forgiveness, laying aside the negative and restoring Peace to my mind.  What if my brother says something unkind or something hurtful?  I am doing it to myself and projecting it out into the world to be reflected back to me through my "brother."  Ego is speaking to me, and ego is insane. Ego is always wrong no matter what it says or does.

I will find my salvation in forgiving my brother. It is impossible to pray for myself alone, nor can I find Joy alone.  I am One with God and my "brother."  I cannot ask for a blessing without first blessing my brother.  There is a price to pay for judging my brother, because judgment sets a price.   As I set it so will I pay, per the "laws" of my dream-world.

God has given me Everything as His Son.  It is impossible to lack anything, but it is possible to be unaware of what I have.  When I recognize that I have Everything, out of my abundance I am able to give and in giving, I reinforce that I "have."  Everything of God's is Extended and Shared......Always.  This is the Natural State of Heaven, and my Natural State.  Anything negative cannot be shared, because it does not exist.

The Correction of Error.  In the dream-world I am on high alert to the error of "others." To ego, it is kind and right and good to point out and correct errors. When I correct a brother, I am in essence telling him he is wrong.  In Reality there is no error.  Error is of ego and of the world, and neither exist because they are not True.  Ego is always wrong no matter what it says or does.  But the Son of God is always Right and Good.  I must practice seeing my brother as Son of God.  The way I see my brother is the way I will see myself.  If I point out the error of my brother's ego, it is because error fills my own mind.  Ego makes no sense, and Love does not try to understand it.  Nor does Love judge it, because Love knows that nothing ego says or does means anything.

When I react in any way to error ~ mine or my brother's ~ I am not listening to Truth.  Truth will merely disregard error and so should I.  When a brother behaves insanely, the only good response is to perceive the Sanity in him.  If I perceive his errors I only reinforce my own.  If any error bothers me or upsets my peace of mind, I will give it to Truth.  This is the only way to handle error.

My brother is as right as I am and if I think he is wrong, I condemn myself.  I do not even know how to correct myself, how can it be possible to correct a brother?  It is not up to me to worry about or try to change my brother, but merely accept him as he is.  I have only to work on myself.  Errors have no effect on the Truth in me or my brother. To perceive errors in anyone and react to them as if they were Real, is to make them "real" for me.  I will not escape paying a price for this, not because I am being punished, but because I am following the wrong guide (ego) and will therefore lose my way.

Any attempt to correct a brother means that I believe correction by me is possible, and this can only be arrogance of ego.  Correction is of God.  I will not  try to undertake His function, nor I will forget my own (forgiveness).  The only good use of "time" is for forgiveness and healing.  God will show me how to see myself and my brother without condemnation, by learning to look on everyone with Love and forgiveness.

Love's Plan of Forgiveness.   The Atonement was created to Awaken me to Reality.  My function in the Atonement is forgiveness.  To forgive is to overlook, or to look beyond, error.  I will not dwell on error, for if I do it will fill my mind allowing room for nothing else.  My identity as Son of God is shared with my brother.  To know myself as Son of God, I must also see my brother as Son of God, instead of attacking or judging.  Forgive instead.

Ego has a plan of forgiveness as well, but by following its plan I will merely make problems "real."  If a problem is "real" to me, I cannot overlook it.  This is where ego is forced to appeal to "mysteries," insisting that I must accept the meaningless to save myself.  Ego is unpredictable in its responses.  It is a particularly dangerous combination of grandiosity and confusion that makes it likely to attack anyone and anything for no reason at all.

Forgiveness simply looks beyond error.  I do not have to sacrifice, do penance or undo error to be forgiven.  Sin does not exist and has no effect at all.

The Second Coming is merely the return of Awareness to God's Son.  Can this be fearful?  What seems fearful can only be fantasy.  I will never find satisfaction or Reality in fantasy.  Fairy tales can be pleasant or fearful, but no one calls them True.  Children may believe them, so for a while the tales are "true" for them, until they outgrow and lay fantasy aside.  The Second Coming is the Awareness of Reality, not its return.

Miracles result from my forgiveness.  Miracles are natural and when they do not occur something has gone wrong.  Miracles are merely the sign that I am following the plan of Atonement (waking up to Heaven). 

Heaven and Reality are all around me, yet I am unaware.

Accepting My Brother.  God has One Son. There are not "many" sons, but One. Neither God's Light nor mine is dimmed because I do not see Light.  Wholeness is Indivisible but I cannot learn of my Wholeness in the world of dreams, until I see It "outside" myself in "others."  The only "self" that is True is the Self that God knows as His Son.  Anything less does not exist.

Miracles have no place in Eternity because they only help repair my split mind.  Once my mind is Whole, there is no need for miracles.

Giving and Receiving are simultaneous in Eternity.  Eternity is "Now," its only dimension being "Always."

The Two Evaluations.  God Wills that I have salvation and He has made it possible and easy to obtain.  I do not have far to look for forgiveness opportunities which will result in my salvation.  Opportunities for forgiveness are everywhere.  Every minute and every second gives me a chance for salvation.  Do not lose these chances!  NOT because once lost, they are lost forever, only because delay of Joy is not necessary.  God Wills me Perfect Happiness NOW.  I will abide in Peace when I make the decision to do so.

God looks on me with Love.  His evaluation of me is based on His Knowledge of what I am (His Son), so He evaluates Truly.  Ego is also in my mind, but only because I have accepted it there.  Ego is the self I created as part of a world "opposite" God.  It does not know that I am Son of God, because I created ego to convince myself that I am "apart from" God.  Ego is mistrustful of everything it perceives because its perceptions shift from minute to minute.  Ego is capable only of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst.  This is ego's range.

I have two conflicting evaluations of myself in my mind and only One is True.  Love is not deceived by anything I "do," because Love never forgets who I am (Son of God). Ego is particularly likely to attack me when I react Lovingly, because ego distrusts my motives.

If I choose to see myself through the vision of ego (unloving), I will not be Happy.  In seeing myself through ego, I condemn myself as "not of God" and must regard myself as inadequate.  I cannot evaluate an insane belief system from within it.  I can only go beyond it, look back from a Safe, Sane distance and see the contrast.  Only by seeing Sanity can I judge insanity to be insane.  I have the Grandeur of God in me, but I have chosen to be "less-than" and then to lament my "littleness."  If I never question this littleness, I will keep ego's entire thought system intact and will have no access to Knowledge.

Judge every belief I hold in terms of where it comes from.  If it comes from God, It is True.  If it does not, it is meaningless. 

Grandeur versus Grandiosity.  Grandeur is of God and only of Him, therefore It is in me as well.  Self-inflation of ego ~ grandiosity ~ is its alternative to the Grandeur of God.  Grandiosity is always a cover for despair.  It is an attempt to counteract my inadequacy based on the belief that inadequacy is "real."  Otherwise grandiosity is meaningless.  Grandiosity is competitive and always involves attack. Ego's profound sense of vulnerability makes it incapable of judgment except in terms of attack.  When ego experiences threat, its only decision is whether to attack now or later.  Ego will make every effort to oppose my Awakening.  It will tell me that I am insane and argue that I cannot possibly be God's Son because I am so "unworthy."

Remember always, that I cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God.  When I forget this I will despair, and from despair I will attack.  My Grandeur is God's Answer to ego.  Littleness and Grandeur cannot coexist, but littleness and grandiosity can and must alternate, since both are untrue and on the same level, and are experienced as shifting.  Extremes are its essential characteristics in the world of dreams.  Truth does not shift and change, It is always True.  My Grandeur will never deceive me, but my illusions always will.  Grandiosity is delusional and used to replace Grandeur.  But like all illusions it is false and cannot possibly replace what God has Created.  God's Grandeur is Total and I cannot be missing from It.

I am Irreplaceable in the Mind of God.  My value is determined by God, not me.  To accept myself as God created me cannot be arrogance.  To accept my littleness is arrogant because it means I believe my evaluation of myself is truer than God's.  I did not establish my Value and It needs no defense.