“Prayer is the medium of miracles, but the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything.”   –ACIM

The Course presents us with a whole different view of the meaning of forgiveness than does the world. In the world’s version of forgiveness the guilt is there but a decision is made to hold off on punishment for the act committed but still leave the guilt in place. In the Course’s version there is no guilt to forgive only a mistake to be corrected. For God’s Son can never be guilty. Guilt is an attribute of the ego which can never truly forgive, for all it ever sees is guilt. 

As The Course points out: “No penalty is ever asked of God’s Son except by himself and of himself.” In other words, we must learn to forgive ourselves for all that we think we are. We think we are separated from our Creator, and the guilt that accompanies this false view is enormous. It is the cause of all our problems and infirmities, which are the penalties we ask of ourselves. 

“Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to deny the other.”   –ACIM

We see ourselves as being in this physical world of illusions because we have accepted the enormous guilt associated with the belief that we have separated ourselves from our Creator. In our belief of separation we have lost the awareness of our true home. No one who accepts themself as guilty truly believes there was a time when only Love, Happiness, Peace and Joy existed. The truth is, the same state exists now and it will always do so, it exists in the eternal present. Love, Happiness, Peace and Joy are eternal attributes of our true home which we refer to as Heaven. 

And as this blog points out often, Heaven is not some sort of geographical location way off in space somewhere as most people perceive It to be. As The Course explains: “Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness and nothing else within.”

In this perfect Oneness opposites don’t exist. Therefore, sickness, pain, suffering, death, fear, sadness, conflict, depression and all other ego induced negative and fearful conditions don’t exist. These things exist only in illusions which is the whole substance of this world of time and duality.  

“The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace.”   –ACIM

The fateful and impossible decision to impose time upon eternity was the same decision that separated us from our Creator. This separation was the beginning of that which The Course refers to as, the journey into darkness. For time is filled to the brim with negativity and darkness such as old age, sickness and death. This separation also necessitated the birth of the ego, which is as senseless as the idea that necessitated its birth. Therefore, the ego symbolises separation and all that is negative in our lives. 

The Course tells us that God created the Holy Spirit as the Mediator between perception and knowledge. The ego knows nothing and it never will. All it can do is perceive and it perceives wrongly one hundred percent of the time. The Holy Spirit doesn’t perceive, He knows, which is why He is the symbol of peace. The Course also tells us that the power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. Therefore, you have the power to decide which symbol you’re going to follow. 

“There is no peace except the peace of God.”   –ACIM (Lesson 200)

The ego will show you a continuous stream of places, situations, activities and conditions to convince you it knows the way to peace. “Follow me and I will lead you to a peaceful life,” it beckons, as it fills your mind with false ideas of where peace can be found. But any sense of peace it leads you to is as fleeting as a drop of dew under the sun’s rays. The ego knows nothing about peace for its whole mission is to lead you farther and deeper into darkness. 

The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to convince you that you are travelling in the wrong direction. He can only do this through lessons that appear in all things along the journey into darkness that the ego leads you on. There’s a very simple way to know if you’re following the ego deeper into darkness or the Holy Spirit back toward Light. Whenever you’re in doubt, simply answer the following question truthfully: How do I feel? 

Your answer is the road map you’re following, and it contains just one road. You’re either going away from Heaven and peace or toward It. There are no other roads to follow. If you feel true happiness coming closer then you know you’re following the Holy Spirit back toward peace. On the other hand, if true happiness is getting dimmer in your awareness then you have denied the Holy Spirit’s call to follow Him and are still allowing the ego to be your leader. 

“The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it.”   –ACIM 

  No one in this world of illusions really understands the present and what we don’t understand we’re afraid of. The present is what we’re all trying to reach even though we know it not. The Present is timeless and therefore, it’s where God dwells. In the Present there is no past and there is no future. Both of these aspects of time are illusions and don’t exist except in the ego’s teachings. The ego teaches that the past is the present and there is no way to escape the fact that the future will be like it. 

“The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present.”   –ACIM

If, as mentioned above, the present is where God dwells, then it must be asked; how could the ego make hell of it? First, we must accept the fact that God does dwell in the present for He dwells in you as you dwell in Him. You are part of Him; so how could He be anywhere that you are not? And where could you be except in the present? 

But as The Course teaches continually, we believe, and therefore see, ourselves as separate from God. If, in our belief, we’re separate from God then we’re also separated from the present. In the scenario of separation we seem to live in the past as we plan our futures and completely skip over the only “time” there is; the present. The Course clarifies it this way: “For the ego uses the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future by interpreting the present in past terms.”

“This single lesson learned will set you free from suffering, whatever form it takes.”   –ACIM

Wow! Just a single lesson if we learn it will set us free from suffering, no matter what form that suffering takes. Once again I have to resort to something The Course says about itself: “This course will be believed entirely or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false and cannot be but partially believed.” I need to use this as reinforcement of my faith in The Course when I read statements like the one above. I have accepted The Course as the ultimate in spiritual teachings and so have made the decision to accept its teachings as being infallible.

So now the question is; what is this single lesson that contains such awesome power?  Well we must begin at the beginning. When we made the fateful decision to separate from our Creator, we made the decision to attempt the impossible. For time cannot intrude upon eternity nor can any living thing be separated from its Source of life and still live. And so Jesus describes what really happened: “Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself and but a part of someone else’s dream.”  

As the above quote plainly points out to me, I put myself to sleep and dreamed a dream. In other words, I’m the dreamer. But in the dream I see myself as a part of someone else’s dream. In believing that I’m part of someone else’s dream I become the powerless victim thrown about by every wish and whim of someone else. The “someone else” is the world. Therefore I’m susceptible to everything the world has to offer whether it be good or bad. And in the end I’ll face the worst dream the world has to offer, my own death.

The single lesson that has the power to set me free from suffering, whatever form it takes, is to learn and accept the truth that it is myself who is dreaming. I am the dreamer, and not just a character in the world’s dream. If I can fully learn this lesson to the point of embedding it into my being and fully believe and have faith in it, then I become the master of my destiny. No one and no thing but myself has any control over my experience.  

I’m going to close this post with a quote from The Course: “No one can waken from a dream the world is dreaming for him. He becomes a part of someone else’s dream. He cannot choose to waken from a dream he did not make. Helpless he stands, a victim to a dream conceived and cherished by a separate mind.”

Thank You for visiting this site. I am truly grateful. May God Bless you with happiness and perfect health.

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“Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.” –ACIM

“Veganism is believing that an animal’s life is worth more than a sandwich. That’s it! That’s how simple it is.” –The Spiritual Vegan