What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is about overlooking the seeming problem entirely. The Holy Spirit doesn’t want us to try to figure out what the problem is, He wants us to release this belief in separation and overlook the problem entirely to the light of the Atonement. That is what the Holy Spirit’s function is, to overlook the error and see only the correction.
Atonement
How Did the Separation Happen?
How did the separation happen? This is a very common question for students of A Course in Miracles, but it is also a question that has no answer. To ask the question implies the questioner’s belief in the separation from God. The ego is the one asking the question. An experience will come to end all doubting, to end all questions. An experience that separation from God is impossible, and has actually never happened.
Follow Your Internal Teacher
Be willing to listen to and follow your Internal Teacher, the Holy Spirit, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer. Jesus, who was a devoted follower of the Holy Spirit, accepted the Atonement for himself and then became the leader in charge of the Atonement. He tells us, “if you will be a miracle worker for me, I will organize time and space for you.” That means you don’t have to do “this and that” first. If you are willing and ready, you are being called now.
Trust the Holy Spirit’s Voice
The Course goes far beyond an intellectual endeavor. It is a course in relinquishing every concept that we have ever held and opening to a deep trust that Spirit will guide and lead us. We can’t trust our past learning, our opinions, or our past experience, for these were made by the ego. Nor can we trust Newtonian empirical research, which is also an egoic projection based on the belief in an external world. Yet we can trust the Holy Spirit, Who will lovingly unwind our mind from every self-concept and limiting belief we ever held. By choosing to hear and follow His Voice alone, we will gradually awaken to Love’s Presence and be happy.
Our Divine Life Insurance Policy
Accepting the Atonement for ourselves is the ultimate insurance policy. The Atonement is the perfect solution to the belief in separation. It will always bring us to safety. It will always bless us and lead us towards God’s Will for us, which is perfect happiness. Whenever the ego appears to tempt or threaten us, we don’t need to try to change or fix anything in the world. All we can do is change our mind about the world.
Letting Go of Situational Thinking
You have what seem to be mounds of memories of past situations. You try to use these memory fragments to gain understanding. For example, if you have a conversation with a family member that you find upsetting, you might think back on it later and wonder: What was going on there? Why did I feel so upset? When you use this kind of situational thinking to try to understand a feeling, you are using the ego’s framework of linear time. Through the ACIM daily lessons you are trained to remember that time is already over. You do not have to believe that one thing happens after another in your experience. There is a different way to experience being.
ACIM and Raising Children
Every symbol and image that you see with the body’s eyes is a reflection. When you look at a child, you can see the child as a mirror of your mind. Any grievances and limits you see in the child are within your own mind. If you are practicing ACIM and raising children, you see what is taking place in your thoughts. As children go through grade school and into high school, you can look at your own beliefs about authority, normalcy, education and success.
How to Be Free of People-Pleasing
The ego’s identity is very shaky! It is constantly searching for approval from the world. Notice when you are tempted to use people-pleasing in order to feel liked, or feel good about yourself. The only way that you can be free of people-pleasing is to get down to your underlying beliefs and assumptions. These beliefs are underneath the stream of thoughts that happen on the surface of your everyday life. You get a lot of opportunities on a daily basis to let the Spirit help you navigate your mind and the world that is projected from your mind!
The Last Unanswered Question
The Atonement as referred to in “A Course in Miracles:” There is no hierarchy of illusions just as there is no order of difficulty in miracles. The power of God transcends any kind of belief in error or sickness. The Atonement is a different breed. Jesus speaks of it as being an unequivocal choice. The section in ACIM called “The Last Unanswered Question”gives four questions and points out that the fourth is different from the others. In order to experience who you really are, you have to be able to answer the last unanswered question.
“Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?” Spiritual vision was denied in order for this world to seem to arise. A shadow world, a world of images. The graven images referred to in the bible is the cosmos. God is Spirit, he creates in Spirit. The ego made all the images. The Vision of Christ is always available. It can seem to be a matter of time or a matter of readiness but what it comes down to is the willingness to see what has been denied to see with spiritual vision, which is what revelation is about.