I have been told exactly how to tell false from True and what to do if I become confused. Salvation teaches only the very obvious, going from one lesson to the next in easy steps, with no strain at all. This cannot be confusing. Yet, I am confused.
What I have taught myself in creating a world of separation is such a giant learning feat, it is incredible. But I accomplished it because I wanted to. Anyone who understands what I have learned, how carefully I have learned it, the pains I went to practice and repeat the lessons endlessly, in every form I could conceive.......could ever doubt the power of my learning skill. There is no greater power in my world. My world was made by my learning skills....its very existence depends on it.
The lessons I have taught myself have been so overlearned and fixed, they rise like heavy clouds to obscure what is simple and obvious. My power to learn is strong enough to teach me that my will ~ in the world of separation ~ is not my own. Even the thoughts I think in the dream-world are not my True Thoughts. In addition, I have forgotten I am God's Son and decided I am someone else entirely! Have these odd lessons been easy for me to learn? Not at all. But not only that, I continued taking every step, however difficult ~ without complaint! ~ until a world was built which suited my strange purpose. Finally I choose each second of each day to maintain this world with every choice I make.
Every lesson that makes up the world arises from that first accomplishment of learning. It was an enormity so great, a feat so difficult, that God's Voice seems small and still before its magnitude and Heaven appears as far away as ever.
The world began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God nearly forgotten and His Son a stranger to himself, seemingly exiled from Home. I have taught myself that God's Son is guilty for separating himself from his Father! And after this extensive learning, I still fear that I cannot learn the simple lessons of salvation? Learning is an ability I made and gave myself. It was made to create a world seemingly separated from God, and this I taught myself!
Now.....my ancient overlearning stands rigid before the Voice of Truth. It tells me Truth's lessons are not True; they are too hard to learn; too difficult to see; too opposed to the "real truth" of the world I think I know.
Yet, I will learn the lessons of Truth. Learning Truth is the only purpose Heaven sees for my ability to "learn." As mighty as the power I demonstrated in apparently creating a world without God, Creator's simple lessons in forgiveness have a power Mightier than mine, because God Willed that I not forget Him.
God gave His Answer to my world of pain: His Love for me.
Is it possible that my learning ~ strange in outcome and incredible in difficulty ~ withstand the simple lessons of Truth?
The lesson I taught myself is that God's Son is guilty of creating a world apart from God; a world of terror and despair, with no hope of lasting Happiness for it always ends in death. There is no plan of Safety that will succeed. There is no lasting Joy.
However intensely I may have overlearned my chosen lesson, God's Answer is Stronger still.
Truth will teach me that God's Son is Innocent. It will show me another world....a world without fear, bright with hope and sparkling with gentle friendliness. Everything calls to me in soft appeal to be my friend and to join with me. Never does God's Call remain unheard, misunderstood or left unanswered. I will realize that my world has always reflected God's Call to me, but I chose to not perceive It. Now I see my mistake. I was deceived by forms. I ignored a Friend Who always wanted to be part of me. The Soft, Eternal calling of each part of God's Creation to the Whole is heard throughout my world. It is so Quiet and Still, that I overlooked It in favor of chaos.
The Christ in me remembers God. The Christ in my brother remembers God. I have not understood Who calls to me beyond each form of hate and each call to war. Yet, I will recognize Him. No matter the language a brother speaks, he recognizes without a doubt the Language of God.
I am deceived if I believe I want a world of chaos and pain. Listen, rather, to the Deeper Call beyond hate and war.....the Call that appeals for Peace and Joy. It is always been there....I have heard It. Listen to the Call for Peace and Joy and all my world will give me Peace and Joy. As I listen for It, It will answer me.
Be still an instant. Forget everything I ever learned....all thoughts, all meaning, all purpose. Forget all ideas of what I thought about the world. I do not know anything. Let every image that I ever had of anyone be loosened from my mind and swept away. Let go of judgment and all thoughts of "evil" or "good" that ever crossed my mind of anyone. I have been deceived. I will learn Truth, if I so choose.
Walking with Christ. I see my Self divided into many. In my joining with a "special" few, there appears to be the hope of satisfaction and peace. Then there are those I seem to do battle with. The rest are just figures in the dream who wait for me to give them a task. Sometimes I lead, other times I follow. I hate the one I gave the leaders's role because when he has it, I want it. I also hate it when he does not assume the leadership role when I decide I want to follow. This is what I made my brother for and unless he serves the function I give him, he has no usefulness to me. Yet what of him? What does he want of me? What could it be, but what I want of him?
In salvation I learn that my brother offers me only this: death or Life. I offer the same to him. Hear the call of death and I am separated from him. Hear the call for Life and I Unite with him and find salvation. The voice I hear in my brother is my own, calling to me. What I offer a brother is offered to myself, so be mindful of what I am offering him.
My brother neither leads nor follows. He walks beside me on the same road. He is as near or as far as I will let him be. If he falls back, I fall with him. If I gain, he does too. Do not take his hand in anger but in Love, for in his progress is my own. I will stumble along the way unless I keep him safely by my side.
In God's Love I will be saved from all appearances, answering to the Christ Who calls to me. Be still and listen. Do not think thoughts of the world. Forget the dismal lessons I learned. Christ calls to all with equal tenderness. He sees no leaders or followers, and He gives One Answer to them all.
Be still an instant. Lay aside all thoughts of whatever I learned and put aside all images. The old will fall away before the New without my opposition, interference or plan. There will be no attack upon the world I thought was precious and there will be no assault upon my dreams. Nothing will hurt me in the Holy Place where God calls to me. Come silently and learn Truth.
Forgive my brother all appearances which are only ancient lessons I have taught myself about being separated from God. Hear only my brother's call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of himself. He is afraid to walk with me, so he walks a little behind or a little ahead. Decide to walk with him, so neither leads nor follows. Salvation is the way we go together. Together is our joint Inheritance remembered and accepted by both. If either of us insist on leading or on following, we will walk alone. I may stagger back and forward in the darkness for a while in my confusion and doubt, until I remember that the one next to me has the Light. Heaven walks with me so that every step is made Certain and Sure.
The Self-Accused. Only those who believe they are guilty will condemn others. As I prepare to make a choice for Reality or illusion ~ a choice that will result in a different outcome for me ~ I must overlearn this one thing: I never hate my brother for his "sins," but only for my own. It must become habit to me and my first response to all temptation and to every situation that occurs. Learn this and learn it well. Whatever form his "sins" appear to take, it only hides the fact that I believe them to be my own. If I did not believe that I deserved attack, it would never occur to me to give attack to anyone else.
"Sins" are accomplished by "bodies," and bodies I created to act out my separation-fantasy. So when "sin" is perceived, "bodies" are punished. The body is not seen to be a passive thing, it seems to act and do of its own accord. Yet the body obeys only whatever the mind tells it to. I have seemingly imprisoned the mind within a body and then commanded the body to act out all of my seeming fantasies. Yet the thoughts I think, and the desires and wants I think I have, are only dreams. The body is prisoner of my mind, only doing what the mind tells it to. The mind willingly imprisons itself. The body becomes sick at the command of the mind. It grows old and dies because the mind is sick within itself. So the body could never change unless the mind prefers that it change to suit its purposes.
In the world of separation the body has one purpose: to witness to the separation and provide proof of separation from God. In separation does the mind see all that it believes would exist in a world "separated" from God: sin, guilt, sadness, sickness, grief....and perhaps a little love, joy and happiness, but in a distorted form that never endures. The body seems to be the source of sin and separation, but it is only a sleeping prisoner to ego's snarling dogs of hate, evil, sickness, attack, pain, age, grief and suffering. Guilt rules the body and in guilt, thoughts of sacrifice are preserved. Ego demands the world be like itself.....a place where nothing can find mercy, nor survive the ravages of fear except in murder and death. Those who think they are sinful bodies, must die for what they think they are.
My ancient lessons of the world will not be overcome by opposition, penance or battle. There is no fight, no war, no struggle between "evil" and "good." There is nothing I must plan for. There is an ancient battle being waged against Truth, but only in dreams. Truth does not respond. Who could be hurt in such a war, unless he hurts himself? When a choice for Truth is made.....everything else, except for Truth, disappears.
The world seems to give me many choices and many decisions to make. Yet there is only one decision to make: do I choose Truth or illusion? And this is not really a choice at all because illusion does not exist. But while I dream, I seem to have choices. God never opposes His Son's wish to dream, but the Son cannot be lost forever and the Father rushes to his side when the Son chooses to return to Truth.
When I choose Truth, Truth is given me. Every time there seems to be a choice other than Truth it is not a choice at all, but rather an exchanging of one illusion for another. Only Truth has any meaning at all.
Be glad it has been given me to change what I believe. When the mind changes, the body can only follow. The body cannot guard my sleep nor interfere with my Waking. Release my body from imprisonment and I will see prisoners nowhere. The Innocent release others in gratitude for their own release. Open my mind to change. God asks for no sacrifice. He only asks that I choose Love.
The Real Alternative. I created the world to have an experience "separate from" God. In Reality being "apart from" God is impossible, but I can imagine it is and that is what I am doing....imagining, dreaming.
A world apart from God would have characteristics unlike God and Heaven. I might experience what I call "love," but in the dream-world it will always be ego-centered and imperfect. Even my children exasperate me at times, intruding into my peace of mind, making me anxious and upset. I might have what I call "joy" at times, with the birth of a new baby or a beautiful wedding. But after the newness of a baby wears off, I find myself getting bored. And that beautiful, happy wedding....who has not thought, "will it last?" There is not one moment of Joy, Peace or Happiness in my world that is not tainted by judgment, and judgment is attack.
Again, it is a dream world. While I muck about in it, I think it is my reality. But Reality has no judgment or change, and the dream-world is very much a world of judgment and change. That is how I know I am dreaming. There is a tendency to think the world can offer consolation and escape, yet the world was made specifically to have problems with no solution and happiness that does not last. The world can never offer consolation or escape. The world's purpose is to keep me from escaping problems or finding lasting consolation. My only choices in the world of dreams are between illusions.
I think within the narrow band from birth to death, a little time is given me to use for me alone. Everyone seems to conflict with one another to some degree. This conflict is "normal" I say. To be in separate "bodies" is normal. It is a world I have taught myself is my "reality." I am so grateful it is not.
Real choice is no illusion. I can choose which road will lead me out of conflict and away from difficulties. My world has no Real choice to offer me. I only have a choice between one illusion or another. All of the world's roads lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. Do not look for escape from problems here. The world was made that problems would have no escape. Do not be deceived by all the different names its roads are given.....they have only one end.....all of them will lead to death. On some roads I travel happily for a while, but bleakness eventually enters. On other roads, thorns are felt at once. The choice is not what the ending will be, but when. The ending is always death.
How can there be True choice in the world of dreams where every end is sure? I might want to try all roads, all "possibilities," but I will eventually learn they are all the same. The roads this world offers seem to be quite large in number, but the time will come for me to begin to see they are all the same. People have killed themselves on seeing the futility of the world. Learning the roads lead nowhere, they lost Hope. Yet this was the time when they could have learned their greatest lesson. All will eventually reach this point, and all will go beyond it.
Why seek yet another road, another person, or another place when I have learned the way each lesson starts and same way each lesson ends. Learn now, without despair, there is no Hope of answer in the world. Do not look for Hope where there is none. Understand that I waste time unless I go beyond what I have learned to what is yet to learn. From this lowest point, my learning will lead to heights of Happiness in which I see Heaven Shining Clear and within my grasp.
I would never be willing to turn away from the world's roadways unless I understood their futility. Learning that the world can offer one choice ~ no matter the millions of different forms ~ is the beginning of accepting that there is a Real alternative instead. The search for different pathways in the world is the search for different forms of nothing and this is what keeps me from reaching Truth.
Happiness is not found by following a path that leads away from Happiness. When I find ACIM too difficult, remember that to achieve a goal I must follow in the direction of the goal, not away from it. I am given specific instruction to Happiness. There is a choice that I have the Power to make, when I see Real alternatives.
ACIM attempts to teach this: the Power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of the same thing. I keep choosing illusions, making the same mistake, yet expecting different results.
I am in Heaven dreaming of exile. No pathway in this dream-world can lead to Happiness. Roads that lead away from what I am (Son of God), will always lead to confusion and despair. I am One with the Father and always have been. I can make a journey away from myself only in dreams. How foolish and insane it is to think that I could be something I am not, or travel about in a world far away from God.
Forgive myself my madness and forget all my senseless "journeys" and all my useless "goals." They have no meaning. I cannot escape from what I am: God's Son. There is no path I can take that does not lead to God. God is merciful. He did not let His Son abandon Him. Be thankful.
Self Concept versus Self. The concept I have of myself is adjusted to the world's "reality." In keeping with the purpose of the world (separation from God) it fits well. It is an image that suits a world of shadows and illusions. This is its purpose. I am born into the world without a "self," and I make one as I go along. By the time I reach "maturity," I have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands.
In the dream-world, a concept of the "self" is made by me. It bears no likeness to my Self at all. It is an idol made to take the place of my Reality as God's Son. The "self" the world loves serves two purposes:
- "Innocence." This face smiles, charms and even seems to "love." It searches for companions. It looks at times with pity on suffering and sometimes offers solace. This "self" believes it is "good" within an "evil" world. This aspect can grow angry because the world is "wicked" and unable to provide the love and shelter its "innocent" self deserves. This self is often wet with tears at the injustice in the world to those who are generous and good. The innocent-self never attacks, but every day there are hundreds of small assaults on its "innocence," provoking it to irritation, insult and abuse. I wear the innocent face proudly and submissively tolerate attack.
- Victim. This is the self that ensures my brother is condemned eternally. The victim seems innocent enough but hides his treachery behind a slight smile of smugness. For the victim always points an accusing finger, unwavering and deadly in its aim. It points to me as well, but this is kept deep in the mists below the face of innocence. In shrouded dark vaults are preserved all my brother's sins and my own. Preserved not as "errors" which the Light would plainly show, but as "sins," forever unforgivable, condemned eternally to darkness and death. My brother and I are each the symbol of our "sins" to each other. I condemn my brother, silently and without ceasing, for the hated thing I believe I am.
How can the world's "reality" be demonstrated by things of the world? A concept of the self is meaningless. All learning of the world has the single aim of teaching me that I am "separated" from God, never seeking to question or go beyond these teachings.
I must find a way to undo this concept of myself if I am ever to have any Peace of mind. If Creator would instantaneously exchange the world's "self" for my Real Self, I would be confused and terrified. He does not seek to throw me into a panic, so He merely asks if a little question might be raised. A little question that may raise doubt in my mind about the "reality" of what I see in the world.
I learned how to be in the world and now the Father will use learning to teach me His Kind and Gentle lessons. His lesson plans are arranged in easy steps, though I may feel lack of ease and distress at times because this is ego's way of fighting back. God will not destroy what I have taught myself. He will only re-translate my seeming "evidence." The concept of "self" has always been the world's great preoccupation. Everyone believes he must find the answer to the riddle of himself.
Salvation can be seen as nothing more than escape from the world and my concept of "self." I cannot be a symbol (the body). There is no symbol or concept that can represent the Reality of what I am.
In suffering of any kind is my own desire to maintain a world of separation and death. I actually create many "concepts" of myself as my learning goes along. The concept of my "self" changes in each relationship and every event or situation that happens to me. Yet, this "change" proves that it is not Real. My True Reality never changes.
Allow God to help to loosen the grasp the world's learning has upon my mind. The role of accuser will appear in many places and in many forms. Each will seem to be accusing me, but have no fear, it will be undone.
There will come a time when I let go of all images of the world. I will understand that I do not know what I am. It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns. When every concept has been raised to doubt and question, Truth is Free to enter into a mind clean and free of guilt. In God's learning is my salvation born.
Recognizing Spirit. I either recognize the world I created or I recognize Truth. There is no compromise between the two. Only one can be Real. If one is Real, the other is false. If I choose Spirit, I will see the world of flesh only to offer healing and comfort.
Salvation is "undoing". Undoing of the world of illusions and dreams. If I choose to see the body and all its catastrophes and drama, I will see the world of separation, death, suffering and loss. Who could have trust where so much change is seen? Salvation is the undoing of all this. Salvation does not demand that I behold only Spirit and disregard the body. It merely recommends that this be my choice. I am able to perceive the body without help, for I taught myself to. But I do not know how to see anything apart from the body and the world. It is my perception of dreams that salvation will undo and it will help me perceive a Reality the body's eyes could never find. There is no need for me to be concerned about how this will happen; there is no need for me to understand Heaven's work. Understanding is not my function here. I do not even understand how I arrived at this point. If I did, my "reality" would vanish. The veil of ignorance is drawn across the world of dreams ~ both evil and good ~ and it must be passed by so that all of it will disappear. The world of perception can have no hiding place.
How is this done? It is not "done" at all. All of God's Creation is Complete. What could there be that must still be "done?" The means are given me to see a happy "world" that will replace the one I made. No concept of my "self" will stand against the Truth of what I am. Undoing Truth is impossible, but undoing or changing concepts is not difficult.
What do I choose?
Am I a body? If I am a body then the world will be perceived as treacherous and murderous. There will always be something or someone waiting to devour "life" ~ meteors from out of the sky, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, serial killers, adulterers, etc.
Am I Spirit? If so, I am invulnerable and the world of dreams is harmless in my sight. I forgive and the world in return is forgiving. I am deathless and without corruption or sin. Even the world of dreams is a happy place, stable and worthy of my trust; a gentle place to rest for a while, where nothing is feared, only Loved. Who is unwelcome to the Wholly Kind? What could hurt the Innocent?
The Will of God is done. The Father and Son are One. The Son's will is the same as the Father's. The Son's will is done. My will is done. Thy will be done, Holy Child of God. It does not matter if I think I am in Heaven or on earth. What my Father wills, Is So. The Truth in me remains as Radiant as a star, as Pure as Light, as Innocent as Love Itself.
My will be done!
The Savior's Vision. Learning is change. Learning is only needed in a world of dreams. Reality does not change, but salvation does not seek to use anything too alien to my thinking, nor make the kinds of change I would not be able to recognize. Concepts are needed while perception lasts and changing concepts is salvation's task. Truth has no opposite and does not change, but salvation must deal in contrasts. In the world of dreams, the "guilty" are "bad" and the "good" are "innocent." My brother and I have the capacity for both "good" and "evil," so trust is impossible. I cannot even trust myself while I perceive there is "bad" in me.
As long as I see value of any sort in judgment and attack, I will not recognize my own "evil/bad/negative" thoughts. I perceive them sometimes and they have great significance for me. They come in a fearful form ~ content still hidden ~ and shake my sorry concept of myself and blacken it with yet another "crime." Heaven must tell me of my Innocence, because I am too confused about myself. Should it dawn on me that even one brother is wholly worthy of forgiveness, my concept of myself is wholly changed. As I give my trust to what is good in him, I give it to what is good in me.
The actions of the body are perceived as coming from the inferior part of my brother and I. But, by focusing on the Good in him, the body grows decreasingly persistent in my sight, and with continued practice will be seen as little more than just a shadow. This will also be my own self-concept when I have reached the Real World (the world forgiven and blessed; the state of the world before the Father takes the last step in bringing me Home).
Have faith in the brother who walks with me, so that my own fearful self-concept may change. As I look upon the Good in my brother, I will not be frightened by my own "evil/bad/negative" thoughts because they do not cloud my view of him. All this shift requires is that I be willing that this Happy change occur. When I look upon my brother, I see the mirror of myself in him. In this single vision will I see the face of Christ.
What is temptation except the wish to stay in hell and misery? What could this give rise to but an image of myself that is miserable and tormented? Everyone I meet or look upon are Holy ones in whom God placed my salvation. I may not know them; some I saw an instant then forgot; some I have known a long time; others I have yet to meet. God placed my salvation in everyone and everything.
Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always reflects a desire to be other than God's Son. From that desire a concept rises teaching me that I am the thing I desire to be. It will remain my self-concept until I desire a change. Be vigilant against temptation, think instead upon the thing that I want to be: Innocent and forgiving. In this world I choose illusion or more illusion. Do not be deceived by what appears to be many choices. The only choice is Heaven or hell.
The world is dark indeed and it needs Light. Let Heaven give me Its Vision. Some despair because they have hidden the Light from themselves and all they perceive is death.
Choose Once Again. In all its forms, wherever it occurs, temptation has just one goal: to persuade God's Son that he is in a world separated from God.
Trials are lessons I failed to learn presented once again. Where I made a faulty choice before, I can now make a better one and escape pain. In every difficulty, all distress, all perplexity, Christ calls to me and gently says, "Brother, choose again." Do not be fearful of temptation, but only see it as a chance to chose again.
I am as God created me ~ His Holy Son ~ and so is every "other being" I look upon, regardless of the images I seem to see. What I perceive as sickness, pain, weakness, suffering and loss is only the temptation to continue to perceive myself in a world "apart from" God. Do not yield to it, and pain in every form will disappear.
A miracle has come to heal God's Son and close the door on his dreams of separation, opening the way to salvation and release. Choose once again. Every choice I make establishes my identity as the God's Son or an ego/body. Whichever I choose, I will experience it and believe it is so.
Heaven brings a Vision of a different world to my tired eyes. A world so new, clean, and fresh that I will forget the pain and sorrow that I saw before. Be glad that in every situation, in every person in the world of dreams I have a chance to see differently. The end of hell is near.
Is it possible to fail in what is God's Will?
Amen.
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