  |
|
  |
Yes, I would like to purchase this book
|
|
 |
"Nothing real
can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God."
This is how A COURSE IN MIRACLES begins. It makes a fundamental
distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge
and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of
love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous.
It can be unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies
to everything that God created, and only that which He created
is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and
process. It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely
is.
The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of
time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation,
not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on
the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned
rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable
in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought
systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm
of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and
His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however,
is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual
conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees
and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness
only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads
to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense,
precisely because it is not real.
Once an individual has been caught in the world of perception
he is caught in a dream. He cannot escape without help, because
everything his senses show him merely witnesses to the reality
of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out,
the true Helper. It is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit,
to mediate between the two worlds. He can do this because, while
on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also recognizes
our illusions but without believing in them. It is the Holy
Spirit's goal to help us escape from the dream world by teaching
us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn our mistakes. Forgiveness
is the Holy Spirit's great learning aid in bringing this thought
reversal about. However, the Course has its own definition of
what forgiveness really is, just as it defines the world in
its own way.
The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference;
the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. "Projection
makes perception." We look inside first, decide the
kind of world we want to see, and then project that world outside,
making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations
of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify
our own mistakes - our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack
of love in whatever form it may take - we will see a world of
evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must
learn to forgive; not because we are being "good"
and "charitable," but because what we are
seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted
defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we
learn to recognize our perceptual errors we also learn to look
past them or "forgive" them. At the same time we are
forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self concepts
to the Self that God created in us and as us.
Sin is defined as "lack of love." Since love
is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake
to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense
of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong
investment in the "scarcity principle" that
governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view,
each individual seeks in others what he feels is wanting in
himself. He "loves" another in order to get
something from him. That, in fact, is what passes for love in
the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that,
for love is incapable of asking for anything.
Only minds can really join, and "whom God has joined
no man can put asunder." It is, however, only at the
level of the Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has,
in fact never been lost. The "little I" seeks
to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions
and external "love." The Self that God created
needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, and loving. It
seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project.
It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual
awareness of abundance.
The special relationship of the world are destructive, selfish
and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit,
these relation ships can become the holiest things on earth;
the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The
world uses its special relation ships as a final weapon of exclusion
and a demonstration of separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms
them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from
the dream. Each one is a: opportunity to let perceptions be
healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive
oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another
invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God.
Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents
limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body's eyes
and hears through the body's ears. It evokes the limited responses
which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated
and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions
of the mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form,
it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay. If the mind accepts
the Holy Spirit' purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful
way of communicating, with others, invulnerable as long as it
is needed, and to be gently laid, by when its use is over. Of
itself it is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception.
Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit
depends entirely on what the mind wants to use it for.
The opposite of seeing through the body's eyes is the vision
of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity
rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite
of hearing, through the body's ears is communication through
the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of
us. His Voice seems distant and difficult to hear because the
ego, which speaks for the little separated self, seems to be
much louder. This is actually reversed The Holy Spirit speaks
with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming, appeal. No one who
does not choose to identify with the body could, possibly be
deaf to His messages of release and hope, nor could h fail to
accept joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for hi
miserable picture of himself.
Christ's vision is, the Holy Spirit's gift; God's alternative
to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality
of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors
of perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on
which this world is based. Its kindly light shows all things
from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that
arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible
but inevitable. What was regarded as injustices done to one
by someone else now becomes a call for help and for union. Sin,
sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy
through gentleness and love. Defenses are laid down because
where there is no attack there is no need for them. Our brothers'
needs become our own, because they are taking the journey with
us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way. Without
them we could never find our own.
Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where the need for it would
be inconceivable. However in this world forgiveness is a necessary
correction for all the mistakes that we have made. To offer
forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects
the law of Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven
is the natural state of all the Sons of God as He created them.
Such is their reality forever. It has not changed because it
has been forgotten.
Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember. Through
forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven
world becomes the gate to Heaven, because by its mercy we can
at last forgive ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt,
we become free. Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we
recognize His Presence in ourselves. Forgetting all our misperceptions,
and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can remember
God. Beyond this learning cannot go. When we are ready, God
Himself will take the final step in our return to Him.
 Next
Page - Note
|
|
|
Contact
us |
|
|
