In this video, Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read from and talk about A Course in Miracles, Chapter 15, Section VII: “The Needless Sacrifice” This section reminds us to look at the real intention behind special relationships and how we need to learn a new kind of forgiveness where we look beyond the superficial ‘giving to get’ which is really just bargaining that mirrors the insane relationship we believe we have with our Creator. The idea of sacrifice assumes that we can make some sort of deal that mitigates the unconscious, yet unfounded guilt our egos never want to look at. However, we always have the peaceful option to gently look at ego’s insanity – without condemnation – in the form of our special ‘gimme-gimme’ needy special relationships with everyone and everything and see that our identity investment in them no longer holds the appeal we once thought it had, thereby allowing the serene sanity that has been awaiting us all along to return to our minds. The fact that this idea occurs within the context of the chapter entitled “The Holy Instant” reminds us that we have the opportunity to experience the peace and relief from ego’s impossible dream at every instant, restoring our minds to wholeness.
This section of ACIM’s text concludes with this helpful paragraph:
“It is through the holy instant that what seems impossible is accomplished, making it evident that it is not impossible. In the holy instant guilt holds no attraction, since communication has been restored. And guilt, whose only purpose is to disrupt communication, has no function here. Here there is no concealment, and no private thoughts. The willingness to communicate attracts communication to it, and overcomes loneliness completely. There is complete forgiveness here, for there is no desire to exclude anyone from your completion, in sudden recognition of the value of his part in it. In the protection of your wholeness, all are invited and made welcome. And you understand that your completion is God’s, Whose only need is to have you be complete. For your completion makes you His in your awareness. And here it is that you experience yourself as you were created, and as you are.”
Susan writes frequently and eloquently about A Course in Miracles in her very engaging blog, ForaysInForgiveness