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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 10 "GOD AND THE EGO"
I. INTRODUCTION
1 Either God or the ego is insane. If you will examine the evidence on both sides fairly, you will realize that this must be true. Neither God nor the ego proposes a partial thought system. Each is internally consistent, but they are diametrically opposed in all respects so that partial allegiance is impossible. Remember, too, that their results are as different as their foundations, and their fundamentally irreconcilable natures cannot be reconciled by your vacillations. Nothing alive is fatherless, for life is creation. Therefore, your decision is always an answer to the question, "Who is my father?" And you will be faithful to the father you choose.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I ~ REVIEW III
INTRODUCTION
<AUDIO>
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
*
IAMBIC PENTAMETER BEGINS*
Our third review begins today. We will
review two of the last twenty ideas
each day, until we have reviewed them all.
We will observe a special format for
these practice periods, which you are urged
to follow just as closely as you can.
We understand, of course, that it may be
impossible for you to undertake
what is suggested here as optimal
each day and every hour of the day.
Learning will not be hampered when you miss
a practice period because it is
impossible at the appointed time.
Nor is it necessary that you make
excessive efforts to be sure that you
catch up in terms of numbers. Rituals
are not our aim, and would defeat our goal.
But learning will be hampered when you skip
a practice period because you are
unwilling to devote the time to it
which you are asked to give. Do not deceive
yourself in this. Unwillingness can be
most carefully concealed behind a cloak
of situations you cannot control.
Learn to distinguish situations which
are poorly suited to your practicing
from those which you establish to uphold
the camouflage for your unwillingness.
Those practice periods which you have lost
because you did not want to do them for
whatever reason should be done as soon
as you have changed your mind about your goal.
You are unwilling to cooperate
in practicing salvation only if
it interferes with goals you hold more dear.
When you withdraw the value given them,
allow your practice periods to be
replacements for your litanies to them.
They gave you nothing. But your practicing
can offer everything to you. And so
accept their offering, and be at peace.
The format you should use for these reviews
is this: Devote five minutes twice a day,
or longer if you would prefer, to
considering the thoughts that are assigned.
Read over the ideas and comments which
are written first in each day's exercise.
And then begin to think about them while
letting your mind relate them to your needs,
your seeming problems and all your concerns.
Place the ideas within your mind, and let
it use them as it chooses. Give it faith
that it will use them wisely, being helped
in its decisions by the One Who gave
the thoughts to you. What can you trust but what
is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews,
the means the Holy Spirit uses will
not fail. The wisdom of your mind will come
to your assistance. Give direction at
the start, and then lean back in quiet faith,
and let the mind employ the thoughts you gave
as they were given you for it to use.
You have been given them in perfect trust;
in perfect confidence that you would use
them well; in perfect faith that you would see
their messages, and use them for yourself.
Offer them to your mind in that same trust
and confidence and faith. It will not fail.
It is the Holy Spirit's chosen means
for your salvation. Since it has His trust,
His means must surely merit yours as well.
We emphasize the benefits to you
if you devote the first five minutes of
the day to your review and also give
the last five minutes of your waking day
to it. If this cannot be done, at least
try to divide them so you undertake
one in the morning, and the other in
the hour just before you go to sleep.
The exercises to be done throughout
the day are equally important, and
perhaps of even greater value. You
have been inclined to practice only at
appointed times and then go on your way
to other things, without applying what
you learned to them. As a result, you have
gained little reinforcement, and have not
given it the opportunity to prove
how great are its potential gifts to you.
Here is another chance to use it well.
In these reviews we stress the need to let
your learning not lie idly by between
your longer practice periods. Attempt
to give your daily two ideas a brief
but serious review each hour. Use
one on the hour, and the other one
a half an hour later. You need not
give more than just a moment to each one.
Repeat it, then allow your mind to rest
a little time in silence and in peace.
Then turn to other things, but try to keep
the thought with you, and let it serve to help
you keep your peace throughout the day as well.
If you are shaken, think of it again.
These practice periods are planned to help
you form the habit of applying what
you learn each day to everything you do.
Do not repeat it and then lay it down.
Its usefulness is limitless to you.
And it is meant to serve you in all ways,
all times and places, and whenever you
need help of any kind. Try, then, to take
it with you in the business of the day,
and make it holy, worthy of God's Son,
acceptable to God and to your Self.
Each day's review assignment will conclude
with a restatement of the thought to use
each hour, and the one to be applied
on each half hour as well. Forget them not.
This second chance with each of these ideas
will bring such large advances that we come
from these reviews with learning gains so great
that we begin again on solid ground
with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith.
Do not forget how little you have learned.
Do not forget how much you can learn now.
Do not forget your Father's need of you,
as you review these thoughts He gave to you.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSON
L e s s o n 111 ~ REVIEW III
[Review Lesson 91 and Lesson 92]
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
*
IAMBIC PENTAMETER BEGINS*
1 For morning and evening review:
[91] Miracles are seen in light.
2
I cannot see in darkness. Let the light
Of holiness and truth light up my mind,
And let me see the innocence within.
[92] Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
3
I see through strength, the gift of God to me.
My weakness is the dark His gift dispels
By giving me His strength to take its place.
4
On the hour:
5
Miracles are seen in light
.
6
On the half hour:
7
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are
one
.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 111
Review III ~ Lesson 91 and Lesson 92
Sarah's Commentary:
The introduction makes some suggestions that require our attention. First, the importance of not ritualizing our practice periods is stressed. "Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal." (W. Review III.IN.2.4) They should not be rote activities, "Nor is it necessary that you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of numbers." (W.RIII.IN.2.3) Instead, what is stressed here is willingness. There are many places in the Course that emphasize the importance of being willing. Our learning will not be hampered if we miss a practice because for some reason it is impossible to do what is suggested. However, learning will be hampered if we miss a practice period because we are unwilling to devote the time to it.
This is interesting because Jesus is helping us to see our resistance. "Yet the wish for other experience will block its accomplishment, because God's Will cannot be forced upon you, being an experience of total willingness." (T.8.III.2.3) (ACIM OE T.8.IV.17) How important is this journey to peace for you? How devoted are you to your awakening to the truth of who you are? The answer will be reflected in how willing you are to do this practice. How willing are you to give time to it? "But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period because you are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to give." (W.RIII.IN.3.1)
Jesus talks about how we can hide our unwillingness by telling ourselves that it is just not convenient to practice, and sometimes, this is the case. There are, however, other times when we lie to ourselves to camouflage our unwillingness. (W.RIII.IN.3.4) This is something we must look at, not only with the practice but in other ways, where we lie to ourselves and rationalize our behavior, which is a form of self-betrayal and self-deception. What we are lying about is that there are goals that we "hold more dear" (W.RIII.4.2) when we skip our practice of the Lesson.
Application
is the essential part of these Lessons. To be vigilant and diligently do our Lessons is great, but when things come up during the day and we don't apply the Lesson, he says that you "have not given your learning a fair chance to prove how great are its potential gifts to you." (W.RIII.IN.9.3) Having said this, Jesus never wants us to feel guilty. On the contrary, he is very gentle and patient with us, as he wants us to be equally gentle with ourselves while still maintaining discipline. He knows how much guilt we continually place on ourselves, as well as the mountain of unconscious guilt we hold in our minds. His goal is not to add to that guilt but only to show us how much he loves us and wants us to have the gifts offered us through this practice. He wants us to experience the benefits so we can see how great are the gifts we receive in applying these Lessons. The reinforcement that we receive when we apply the Lessons throughout the day to situations that confront us, results in more peace. The Lessons are not intended as just an intellectual exercise. Every benefit we receive is in the application.
We do get off course regularly, but it is reassuring to remember that we need not beat ourselves up or get discouraged because once on the path, we can't turn back. In Gary Renard's book, Disappearance of the Universe, Pursah says: "You should keep in mind that each of the four major attitudes of learning are long roads in themselves, and you will sometimes bounce around like a ping pong ball between them. The Holy Spirit will correct you along the way and set you back in the right direction. Do not feel bad when you temporarily lose your way. There is no one who has ever walked this earth, including Jesus, who did not give into temptation in some way. The myth of living a perfect life in terms of behavior is self-defeating and unnecessary. All that is necessary is to be willing to receive correction."
Pursah
goes on to say: "Just as a navigator or computer constantly corrects the course of a jet airliner along its route, the Holy Spirit is always correcting you, no matter what you may appear to do or on what level of spiritual awareness you may appear to be. It may be possible to ignore Him, but it is never possible to lose Him. The jet airliner is always going off course, but through constant correction, it arrives at its destination. So will you arrive at your destination? It's a done deal. You couldn't screw up if you tried. The real question is, how long do you want to prolong your suffering?"
Whenever I have been willing to look at a grievance that I am holding and have given it over to the Holy Spirit, the miracle has always been present. When we are willing to be very honest with ourselves and look at our intentions, our needs, our expectations, and our motivations in any situation, we are given the correction. We are not responsible for the error, but we are responsible for choosing the correction. How would we ever learn if we weren't motivated to heal our minds when difficult events show up in our lives? Such events provide us with the perfect classroom where the healing can occur, and we have many opportunities throughout the day. Today, I noticed frustration showing up as I tried to respond to what seemed to me to be a long list of demands. I was feeling some resentment; yet when I looked deeper, I recognized these feelings came from my attempt to make myself worthy. The belief was that I needed to serve everyone's needs if I were to see myself as a good person. This desire to be seen as good comes from a feeling of unworthiness. It was a desire to be the hero of the dream.
Whenever I take this stance, I realize I can never offer anything of value to my brother. Jesus is very firm in this when he says: "Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated or in need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God's Son. You hold a picture of crucifixion before his eyes, that he may see his sins are writ in Heaven in your blood and death, and go before him, closing off the gate and damning him to hell." (T.27.I.3.1-2) (ACIM OE T.27.II.3) It is a stark picture, but as we look at our own behavior when we sigh about all we have to do, we are doing exactly what Jesus describes here. We are the victim and he becomes the victimizer who is seemingly making demands of us. Now he must be made to be guilty and guilt must be punished.
Jesus supports us through all our tribulations, holding our hands and always supporting us on this journey. We will, from time to time, lose faith in the process, especially during turbulent times in our lives; but knowing that we can always bring our thoughts back to truth brings sanity in the midst of the chaos.
I feel deep gratitude in the knowledge that whenever I am open to His presence in my life, miracles abound. I can choose this experience, and I do so by being willing to let go of the obstacles to peace that I hold in my mind. These obstacles show up as judgment, anger, worry, depression, attack, grievances, expectations, feelings of unworthiness, fear, and all manner of self-attack.
Each time I am willing to look at these blocks without judgment from outside the dream (above the battleground), I can smile at the dream figure (the image of Sarah). I have taken all this drama so seriously. Now, grace can flow in, and with each experience, my faith is strengthened. Even in the midst of turmoil, I know I have been given another opportunity to look at the next level coming up for healing. When I accept everything in my life as just a reflection of the thought system I am choosing in my mind, I am motivated to do this work, knowing the power is within me to change how I perceive everything. With willingness and readiness, I can take responsibility for everything that seems to be happening to me, and remind myself that I have chosen it all. I am not the victim of any situation I experience.
Jesus reminds us how to invite the Holy Spirit to use our minds. "Read over the ideas and comments that are written down for each day's exercise. And then begin to think about them, while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming problems and all your concerns." (W.RIII.IN.5.2-3) It is important not to let our egos manage this process because the ego will never undo itself. We need the Holy Spirit for that purpose.
"Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses. Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you. What can you trust but what is in your mind?"
(W.RIII.IN.6.1-3) Today, we are asked to step back from the ego and simply try to give the mind over to the Holy Spirit, letting related thoughts come on their own. These are the healing thoughts now in our minds as a result of our work with the Course. We let these thoughts come to mind to address our needs, problems, and concerns. "The wisdom of your mind will come to your assistance." (W.RIII.IN.6.5)
I am so grateful this Course is in my life and I have a way to get to peace by bringing my needs, my seeming problems, and all my concerns to His healing light, so I can know the truth of my own innocence and the innocence of others.
I am so grateful I don't need to rely on my own puny strength to try to figure a way through this illusion and all its seeming problems. Instead, God's strength and guidance are available to me. I do not need to be strong to come to the light. I simply bring my weakness to Him. I give him all my murderous, angry, bitter, and despairing thoughts, as well as my beliefs in my specialness, and by releasing them, I gain strength by connecting with the light in me. If I don't like what I feel now, I can use these feelings as a motivation to find my way to peace by applying them: "Miracles are seen in light," (W.91) and "Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one." (W.92) All these Lessons will only have value by applying them throughout the day and in every distressful situation.
These Lessons are not meant as pretty, inspirational words to be set aside. I know the only way to happiness is by getting in touch with my Self---the purely loving being I am. This is my motivation for doing the Lessons and applying them as often as I can to every situation in my life. Jesus says that if we consistently remember to do these Review Lessons, it is our second chance with each of these ideas and can bring great advances. Our learning gains will be "so great that we will continue on more solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith." (W.RIII.IN.12.3) We still have much to learn, but we have learned much already. What is important is not to forget that we are needed in God's plan for salvation.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Chapter Ten
God and the Ego
<TEXT AUDIO>
Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio
I. Introduction
1 Either God or the ego is insane. If you will examine the evidence on both sides fairly, you will realize that this must be true. Neither God nor the ego proposes a partial thought system. Each is internally consistent, but they are diametrically opposed in all respects so that partial allegiance is impossible. Remember, too, that their results are as different as their foundations, and their fundamentally irreconcilable natures
cannot be reconciled by your vacillations. Nothing alive is fatherless, for life is creation. Therefore, your decision is always an answer to the question, "Who is my father?" And you will be faithful to the father you choose.
2 Yet what would you say to someone who really believed this question involves conflict? If
you made the ego, how can the ego have made you? The authority problem remains the only source of perceived conflict because the ego was made out of the wish of God's Son to father Him. The ego, then, is nothing more than a delusional system in which you made your own father. Make no mistake about this. It sounds insane when it is stated with perfect honesty, but the ego never looks upon what it does with perfect honesty. Yet that
is its insane premise, which is carefully hidden in the dark cornerstone of its thought system. And either the ego, which you made,
is your father, or its whole thought system will not stand.
II. Projection Versus Extension
3 You have made by projection, but God has created by extension. The cornerstone of God's creation is you, for His thought system is light. Remember the rays that are there unseen. The more you approach the center of His thought system, the clearer the light becomes. The closer you come to [the foundation of] the ego's thought system, the darker and more obscure becomes the way. Yet even the little spark in your mind is enough to lighten it. Bring this light fearlessly with you and hold it up to the foundation of the ego's thought system bravely. Be willing to judge it with perfect honesty. Open the dark cornerstone of terror on which it rests and bring it out into the light. There you will see that it rests on meaninglessness and that everything of which you have been afraid was based on nothing.
4 My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have at last looked at the ego's foundation without shrinking, you will also have looked upon
ours. I come to you from our Father to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for
its protection will not save you. I
give you the lamp and I will go
with you. You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you as I have. Will you not answer the call of love with joy?
5 You have learned your need of healing. Would you bring anything else to the Sonship, recognizing your need of healing for yourself? For in this lies the beginning of knowledge, the foundation on which God will help you build again the thought system which you share with Him. Not one stone you place upon it but will be blessed by Him, for you will be restoring the holy dwelling place of His Son, where He wills His Son to be and where he is. In whatever part of the mind of God's Son you restore this reality, you restore it to yourself. For you dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone.
6 To be alone is to be separated from infinity, but how can this be if infinity has no end? No one can be
beyond the limitless because what has no limits must be everywhere. There are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself. Can you exclude yourself from the universe or from God, Who
is the universe? I and my Father are one with
you, for you are part of
us. Do you really believe that part of God can be missing or lost to Him.
7 If you were not part of God, His Will would not be unified. Is this conceivable? Can part of His Mind contain nothing? If your place in His Mind cannot be filled by anyone
except you, and your filling it
was your creation,
without you there would be an empty place in God's Mind. Extension cannot be blocked, and it
has no voids. It continues forever, however much it is denied. Your denial of its reality arrests it in time but
not in eternity. That is why your creations have not ceased to be extended and why so much is waiting for your return.
8 Waiting is possible
only in time, but time has no meaning. You who made delay can leave time behind simply by recognizing that neither beginnings nor endings were created by the Eternal, Who placed no limits on His creation nor upon those who create like Him. You do not know this simply because you have tried to limit what
He created, and so you believe that
all creation is limited. How, then, could you know your creations, having
denied infinity? The laws of the universe do not permit contradiction. What holds for God holds for
you. If you believe
you are absent from God, you
will believe that He is absent from
you.
9 Infinity is meaningless
without you, and
you are meaningless without God. There
is no end to God and His Son, for we
are the universe. God is not incomplete, and He is not childless. Because He did not will to be alone, He created a Son like Himself. Do not deny Him His Son, for your unwillingness to accept His Fatherhood has denied you
yours. See His creations as
His Son, for yours were created in honor of Him. The universe of love does not stop because you do not see it, and your closed eyes have not lost the ability to see. Look upon the glory of His creation, and you will learn what God has
kept for you.
10 God has given you a place in His Mind which is yours forever. Yet you could keep it only by
giving it, as it was given
you. Could
you be alone there if it was given you because God did not will to be alone? God's Mind cannot
be lessened. It can
only be increased, and everything He creates has the function of creating. Love does not limit, and what it creates is not limited. To give without limit is God's Will for you because only this can bring you the joy which is His and which He wills to
share with you. Your love is as boundless as His because it
is His.
11 Could any part of God be
without His love and could any part of His love be contained? God is your heritage because His one gift is Himself. How can you give except like Him if you would know His gift to
you? Give, then, without limit and without end to learn how much
He has given
you. Your ability to
accept Him depends on your willingness to give as He gives. Your fatherhood and your Father
are one. God willed to create, and your will is His. It follows, then, that
you will to create since your will follows from His. And being an extension of His Will, yours must be the same.
12 Yet what you will you do not know. This is not strange when you realize that to deny is to "
not know." God's Will is that you are His Son. By denying this, you denied your
own will and therefore do
not know what it is. The reason you must ask what God's Will is in everything is merely because it
is yours. You do not know what it is, but the Holy Spirit remembers it
for you. Ask Him, therefore, what God's Will is for you, and He will tell you
yours. It cannot be too often repeated that you do
not know it. Whenever what the Holy Spirit tells you appears to be coercive, it is only because you do not
recognize your own will.
13 The projection of the ego makes it appear as if God's Will is
outside yourself and therefore
not yours. In this interpretation, it
is possible for God's Will and yours to conflict. God then may
seem to demand of you what you do not want to give and thus deprive you of what you want. Would God, who wants
only your will, be capable of this? Your will is His Life, which He has given to you. Even in time you cannot live apart from Him, for sleep is not death. What He created can sleep, but it
cannot die. Immortality is His Will for His Son and His Son's will for
himself. God's Son cannot will death for himself because His Father is Life and His Son is like Him. Creation is your will
because it is His.
14 You cannot be happy unless you do what you will truly, and you cannot change this because it is immutable. It is immutable by God's Will
and yours, for otherwise His Will would not have been extended. You are afraid to know God's Will because you believe it is
not yours. This belief is your whole sickness and your whole fear. Every symptom of sickness and fear arises here because this is the belief that makes you
want not to know. Believing this, you hide in darkness, denying that the light is in you.
15 You are asked to trust the Holy Spirit only because He speaks for
you. He is the Voice for God, but never forget that God did not will to be alone. He
shares His Will with you; He does not thrust it
upon you. Always remember that what He gives, He holds, so that nothing He gives can contradict Him. You who share His Life must share it to know it, for sharing
is knowing. Blessed are you who learn that to hear the Will of your Father is to know your
own. For it is
your will to be like Him, Whose Will it is that it be so. God's Will is that His Son be one, and united with Him in His Oneness. That is why healing is the beginning of the recognition that your will
is His.
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