IAMBIC PENTAMETER 

 Once again we see a lesson that emphasizes our responsibility for what we feel whether it is gratitude or injury. It is a lesson that affirms again that we are not the victim of this world. In fact, the world can have no power over us except that which we give it. No one can take our peace away. If we blame anyone for taking our peace we are actually choosing to throw it away and justify our decision to do so by saying someone else is responsible. Isn't it so very hopeful to know that the decision rests with us? The power is in our own minds to choose heaven or hell. So today, the lesson is again about forgiveness. But we must remember that we are only forgiving illusion meaning that we are forgiving our brother for what he did not do.

The lesson describes when all the blocks to love have been healed and  "we perceive no more" (12.5)  And then God takes the last step to take us home. And then we are in a state of Oneness with our Father and disappear into Him. We wonder, why can't this happen now? I am ready. But the truth is that the only reason we don't experience this now is that we  there is still healing and forgiveness to do. In Chapter 13.VIII.7 Jesus exhorts us to be content with healing by giving miracles to all of our brothers without exception because that is the way that we are "attuned to reality". "The Holy Spirit knows your part in the redemption, and who are seeking you and where to find them. Knowledge is far beyond your individual concern". So we are to be content with our role in the redemption and not be concerned with goals for which we are not yet ready. We still have guilt to heal. We still have judgments to release. We still value our separation because we still value our existence, our specialness, our uniqueness. We still have fears and doubts to release.  Infinite patience brings immediate results.

Our guilt is due to our belief that we have sinned in separating in the first place. Our sin reminds us that we are separate and separation affirms that we exist. There would be no existence without it. But the end of separation does not depend on time. It can come today. The lesson says that the time has come. It is up to us. How far we open the door depends on how much fear we have which shows up as resistance. Remember the first lesson of the Holy Spirit (Chapter 6) which is "to have, give all to all".  It is at this point when we first step on the path and  the door to this new awareness is opened just a crack that conflict is introduced in our lives.  It is the beginning step in reversing perception and turning it right side up. This conflicts with our current way of perceiving. Thus, while we want what He has to offer, there is conflict because now two thought systems occupy our awareness. Our willingness and our desire will determine our journey through the fear and conflict. When we have forgiven it all, time will be no more.

But even though the separation did not actually happen and this is all a dream, we are reminded that we have to deal with the illusion as if it has happened. (2.7) It is true that we are not here. We are only dreaming our existence. We are also not a body, we therefore can't be sick, can't die and in fact there is no world. But even though it is all illusion, our way out of this illusion is through forgiveness which is an illusion as well, but it is the only illusion that ends all illusions.

It is an illusion because "injury is impossible". In effect then, there is nothing to forgive because nothing has happened.  However, we do have the experience of an injury in the dream and it has painful consequences while we believe all of this is real. So we need to forgive what we believe has happened. If we condemn instead of forgiving; if we retaliate and attack then we are demonstrating that the injury was real. Thus he says in paragraph one that "illusion makes illusion". Because we believe that we can be injured we hold the right to injure in return and the "right you have established for yourself can now be used against you, till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted and unreal".(1.4)  That is what forgiveness does. When we have given up our "right" to attack, and see no value in it, we will know our invulnerability...that we can't be hurt. And only then do we become aware that "illusion ceases to have effects". (1.5) Not only that but forgiveness undoes effects that we seemed to have experienced. Our interpretations of past misdeeds are replaced by remembering only the love we gave and what was given us. The story of the past is no longer relevant and we recognize that it is not even true.

So, all of the ways that we try to fix things in the world, all of the ways we justify our good reasons to condemn, all of the ways we even wish injury, punishment and withdrawal of love from those we perceive have injured us, is based on our belief that we are vulnerable, that we can be hurt and that we have the right to retaliate in whatever form. And when we do attack we believe that attack will be used against us. Sin demands punishment and this sets up attack that comes from others. Outside of the dream, injury and death are impossible. What Jesus shows us is the way the ego has set this all up. And when we truly see that injury is always felt by us when we attack, then we will see no value in it.

Forgiveness leads us out. It points to the truth. It helps us to remember the Song of Heaven. Time was made for us to learn that our release is available to us through forgiveness. But remember again, that course-based forgiveness is not about seeing the sin in the other, and forgiving it. It is not about overlooking anything that is real. It is, in fact, about releasing any condemning thought of our self or the other and offering it to the Holy Spirit for healing. When I believe that I have been hurt in any way, I remind myself that I can't be hurt. If what you say has hurt me, then I remind myself that it is my guilt that has taken this in. We will experience injury as long as we justify and believe in our right to condemn. Jesus tells us again and again in the Course that "forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering and finally away from death" (4.1) Yet we "oppose it, quarrel with it, seem to find a thousand ways in which it must be wrong". (4.3)

We believe in this world that we made and justify its existence and argue for the correctness of our perceptions. We would rather be right than happy. "Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words and substitute your own in place of His?". (5.1-3) This is what we do, in fact, every time we invest in the illusion and try to fix things out there in the world. It is a losing proposition. What we do have power to do is to change our minds. We have the Answer. No matter how much we invest in arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, it will still sink. No matter how invested we are in trying to control things in the world, we will still lose.

I just have to look at my life to see how much I have tried to control things in the world, to no avail. It has all unfolded as it will. But we can change our minds about the way we see the world. We can respond to seeming attack by recognizing that we can't be hurt. As Lesson 193 reminds us "forgive and you will see this differently". So while the form changes, the answer is always the same. It is forgiveness. Yet even though we may accept this some of the time, so much of the time we don't apply it, argue with it, avoid it and give ourselves reasons why forgiveness does not apply in this situation. This one, we tell ourselves, is beyond my ability to forgive; this one is different and needs my solutions....and so it goes.

But he goes on to ask "Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand?" (5.1) So why would we not use what we have been given? It is certainly not in our own best interests, nor a kindness to ourselves to "dismiss His words and substitute our own in place of His." Truly we don't forgive all of the time. We resist the lessons and go off on our own thinking we can resolve our own problems in form or holding grievances that we believe are unforgivable where we feel our anger is justified. And this is how we keep ourselves a prisoner. And while the effects of our condemnation have not occurred, because it is all just a dream,  he tells us we have to deal with them as if they had occurred. (2.7) Why? Because "illusion makes illusion" (2.3) and the only end to it all is through forgiveness which is illusion as well but an illusion that ends all illusions. 

There is tremendous power in these words when we apply them to our day. His words will work. "Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven". When we contemplate these words and live by them, they will work to bring us hope, blessing and joy that can never be found "upon this earth".

In paragraph seven we see Jesus speaking of the crucifixion and again reminding us that even this apparent attack on him is not the truth. We have looked with the eyes of the ego  through our own judgments and beheld the blood but he was showing us a miracle instead.  How could a guiltless mind, Jesus, suffer when we are told in the Course that when our own guilt is removed from our mind through forgiveness, that we will no longer feel any kind of pain or experience any kind of suffering because we will know we are outside of the dream, and not a body. It is foolish to believe we have sinned and to carry the ultimate guilt of the suffering and blood of Jesus. We are asked by Jesus to forgive him as well so that we can release the guilt of the crucifixion from our minds.  Our reality as the Son of God  too can't be hurt in any way, except in the illusion. In truth there can be no injury and no penalty of death.

 So no matter how guilty we feel, or how much we think we have hurt others, the Self that we are is untouched. (8.1) We just need to bring awareness to this truth by releasing our thoughts of anger, worry, attack of any kind. Whether I attack you or me, only I can be injured by my condemnation. And even that is an untrue perception as this tells us that who we are, the Self, still remains untouched!! So none of the experiences in this illusion can touch the truth of who we are. Nevertheless, we have the illusion that we can condemn and cause injury and therefore others can do the same against us. Thus illusion does seem to have effects. And this will be the case until we "lay it down as valueless, unwanted and unreal". (1.4) So, even in the illusion, if we cause anyone injury, we will believe that they will bring injury on us. Only by forgiving, do we equally believe that we deserve forgiveness.

Today we practice the idea that "Only my condemnation injures me. Only my forgiveness sets me free". These are the words that have power when we apply them. They are born in God. (6.4)   There is no suffering or pain that forgiveness cannot heal. This lesson asks that we recognize the importance of this to our lives in ending illusions, which means ending the suffering and pain of our lives. Forgive and you will see this differently. (lesson 193) Even when I know that and remind myself of the truth of these words, I recognize that I still hold onto trying to fix and control situations, circumstances and events in my life in my own way. It is such insanity. Forgiveness truly sets us free. "Then are you free for freedom is you gift and you can now receive the gift you gave". (1.6) And thus we are taken to the end of time and space and our deliverance from bondage.  

 Love and blessings, Sarah

^{A Course in Miracles
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