Many Forms; One Correction (SFACIM class conversation)

In this School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) video conversation, we explored how gratitude and generalization go together; both are vital parts of our curriculum for escaping insane dreams of differences and restoring our minds to the saneness of sameness.

We began the class by reading the first four paragraphs of Workbook Lesson 123. I thank my Father for His gifts to me. (ACIM, W-123):

“Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance, but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.

A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation. Give Him thanks today.

Give thanks that He has not abandoned you, and that His Love forever will remain shining on you, forever without change. Give thanks as well that you are changeless, for the Son He loves is changeless as Himself. Be grateful you are saved. Be glad you have a function in salvation to fulfill. Be thankful that your value far transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments of the one whom God established as His Son.

Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him. Today we smile on everyone we see, and walk with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do.”

(ACIM, W-123.1:1–4:3)

The remainder of this session was devoted to seeing the similarity in every problem – I chose (and continue to choose for the most part, to the degree that I’m not at peace) the wrong teacher – ego, instead of our Inner Kindness Teacher, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit or ACIM’s author, Jesus. This aligns nicely with this idea appearing in Workbook Lesson 79:

“Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet they are all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves them all is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is something else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its relevance.” (ACIM, W-79.2:1-4)

We read and discussed Many Forms; One Correction (ACIM, T-26.II), page 544 in the Text of the English edition) Here are the first four paragraphs of that lesson:

“It is not difficult to understand the reasons why you do not ask the Holy Spirit to solve all problems for you. He has not greater difficulty in resolving some than others. Every problem is the same to Him, because each one is solved in just the same respect and through the same approach. The aspects that need solving do not change, whatever form the problem seems to take. A problem can appear in many forms, and it will do so while the problem lasts. It serves no purpose to attempt to solve it in a special form. It will recur and then recur again and yet again, until it has been answered for all time and will not rise again in any form. And only then are you released from it.

The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one, regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone suffer loss and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the situation is worked out so no one loses is the problem gone, because it was an error in perception that now has been corrected. One mistake is not more difficult for Him to bring to truth than is another. For there is but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is possible, and could result in gain for anyone. If this were true, then God would be unfair; sin would be possible, attack be justified and vengeance fair.

This one mistake, in any form, has one correction. There is no loss; to think there is, is a mistake. You have no problems, though you think you have. And yet you could not think so if you saw them vanish one by one, without regard to size, complexity, or place and time, or any attribute which you perceive that makes each one seem different from the rest.⁵Think not the limits you impose on what you see can limit God in any way.”

(ACIM, T-26.II.1:1–3:5)

We read extensively from Ken Wapnick’s coverage of this section on pages 58-60 of volume 4 of  JTTT (Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set).

If you don’t already have the “Journey Through…” series and want to deepen your appreciation, understanding, and application of ACIM’s pure non-dual metaphysics, I highly recommend all 3 sets covering the 3 main volumes of the Course:

• JTTT (Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set)
• JTTW (Journey Through The Workbook of a Course In Miracles 8-volume set)
• JTTM  (Journey Through The Manual of a Course In Miracles single volume)

Unlike JTTW and JTTM, the first set (JTTT) is not a line-by-line explanation of the Course’s text. However, it does cover the majority of the text using a thematic approach, which Ken Wapnick explains is similar to how the Course itself introduces and develops themes, then sets them aside for a while, and then picks them up again in a symphonic, poetic fashion, rather than a linear, scientific approach.

The Importance of Generalization – Seeing the sameness in content, despite differences in form

The Course asks us to generalize the solution (forgiveness) to every problem, since the ego thrives on complexity, confusion, obfuscation, diversion, and countless forms of fragmentation. We are encouraged to keep forgiving an ever-widening variety of problems until we begin to recognize that the solution always involves asking the Holy Spirit for help, gratefully seeing everyone in essence as the same (the reflection of the Oneness of our pure non-dual, eternal, innocent reality), and forgiving whatever appears to concern or confront us in every moment.

We’re learning to generalize, or, looking at it from an “undo” perspective, we are unlearning the ego’s habit of compartmentalizing, dissecting, dividing, polarizing, and mentally separating everything and everyone to the detriment of our recognition of our shared heritage and destiny.

The generalized answer (correction) that our Inner Kindness Teacher offers is that every specific challenge ego throws at us is amenable to the correction that our real forgiveness offers, since forgiveness sees both the sameness of every problem, and the sameness of every seemingly separate self struggling with specific situations. Sameness of content in the mind, but not necessarily (hardly ever) in terms of form, is what guides us to generalize the solution. We can also think of our Inner Kindness Teacher as our Inner Generalization Teacher. When we see the intrinsic (not extrinsic) equality of all, generalization reveals the master key to consistent peace. This reinforces the Simplicity of Salvation in our mind, undoing the chaos of special cases, specialness, and every ego’s use of differences and separation to keep us mindlessly enslaved, uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear.

“The holy instant is the Holy Spirit’s most useful learning device for teaching you love’s meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Judgment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. You would make no attempt to judge, because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not understand what anything means. You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love.” (ACIM, T-15.V.1:1-7)

In addition to generalizing every problem that seems to arise in our individual material lives, we can also benefit greatly from generalizing the process of forgiveness to include numerous ways of describing the same correction. In Kenneth Wapnick‘s Glossary-Index for A Course In Miracles (in the 4th edition, 1993, on page 11), he provides a helpful list of synonyms for forgiveness under the heading of “Right-mindedness“:

“God’s Answer to the separation is the Holy Spirit, and His plan to undo the ego is called the Atonement. A Course in Miracles employs many terms that reflect the Holy Spirit’s plan, and each is a virtual synonym for the other. They include: miracle, forgiveness, salvation, healing, real world, true perception, vision, face of Christ, reason, justice, holy instant, holy relationship, function, happy dream, Second Coming, Word of God, Last (Final) Judgment, resurrection, redemption, correction, awakening, and undoing.”

I would add a few other related terms: innocent perception, gentleness, welcoming, grace, and harmlessness. There are plenty more, just as there are many equivalent phrases and words that epitomize the insane ego thinking. Any ego-free idea (or presence in our mind) that undoes the belief in separation would be a kindred thought, worthy of our inclusion in our vocabulary of correction. As always, it’s not the words that are important, but the ideas behind the words. The theory is important, but even more vital is the application of forgiveness to everything that arises in our dream of space, time, and individuality.

If something “triggers” us, we don’t need to label it, document it, categorize it, analyze it, rhapsodize about it, or demonize it; we just need to forgive it. We do this by recognizing that “it” is an interpretation in my mind, and therefore amenable to my choice to let go of ego interpretation and projection. That’s how we generalize. Everything is either a call for lovingkindness … or an expression of it. In either case, the appropriate response is lovingkindness. This is the simplicity of generalization. It doesn’t deny the countless forms that our problematic “trigger” experiences take, but simply, calmly, clearly, patiently points to the one solution that solves them all.

One participant mentioned how a colleague imagined writing out an invitation card and sending it to the Holy Spirit whenever they were triggered. We can do this with our mind, and save on postage, of course!

Generalization to destroy

The ego can and does use level confusion in an attempt to ascribe causality to a specific form, behavior, or condition in space and time, such as these mind-diverting propaganda thoughts:

• My lack of peace is due to this bodily ailment or sensation, instead of my thoughts about it.
• My anxiety is due to these political figures, rather than my unconscious guilt over projecting onto them…
• These slow drivers in front of me are making me angry, as contrasted with the fact that I am allowing the traffic (and probably my choice of departure time) to upset me.

It’s vital to remember that the generalization we’re talking about refers to the content in our mind, not the form in the world. We can use every specific form (the “trigger”) to see that the ego’s misuse of the form can always be remedied by our Inner Kindness Teacher’s correction.

The Course is brilliant in simplifying the process of generalization. Instead of trying to enumerate an exhaustive list (or even a slightly comprehensive list of categories), it uses placeholders that allow us to use our mathematically perfect classrooms (each individually, horrifically custom-tailored by our ego, and each gently, patiently custom-dismantled by our Inner Kindness Teacher). A perfect example of a generalized placeholder word is “this,” which appears 4612 times in ACIM. Here’s a quintessential example, demonstrating how each moment, each of us has a specific “this” (ego grievance) that may be solved by forgiveness and lead us to generalize the process:

“I could see peace instead of this.” (ACIM, W-34)

Another tremendous boost in my practice of generalization is realizing (as often as possible) that my ego is just as insane (mean, ugly, nasty, vicious) as anyone else’s, any exception that would make differences and comparisons important – big deals –
The Holy Spirit mode of my mind (just like everyone else) is equally sane, brilliant, truly helpful, and kind. Seeing the equality of the ego in everyone I meet or think about … and the Holy Spirit in everyone I meet or think about … and our ability each moment to choose between those two thought systems in everyone I meet or think about, I’m freed to forgive and resolve the one problem that confronts every silly, seemingly separate self every second.

The ego’s shallow root “solution”: not radical enough!

When the ego takes the “journey with us,” its shallow roots can be uprooted by our willingness to trust the Holy Spirit’s correction and forgive whatever seems to be the cause of the upset. – The ego will reveal the real cause in our mind of wanting to identify with the made-up ego thought system of separation. Only the Holy Spirit takes us all the way home by showing us the source of the problem in our minds.

Ken Wapnick reminds us that the etymological root meaning and origin of the word “radical” is root; no pun intended! The word “radical” applies to looking all the way to the source in our mind of the problem, our ongoing decision to want to be separate from our Creator and each other.

We short-change ourselves by buying ego propaganda. When we insist we are fundamentally different from each other in the important dimensions of mind and Spirit (which is beyond dimension), we are blinded by form, encarcerated by ego interpretations, and our peace is ego-embezzled.

“What is the Will of God? ²He wills His Son have everything. ³And this He guaranteed when He created him as everything. ⁴It is impossible that anything be lost, if what you have is what you are. ⁵This is the miracle by which creation became your function, sharing it with God. ⁶It is not understood apart from Him, and therefore has no meaning in this world. ⁷Here does the Son of God ask not too much, but far too little. ⁸He would sacrifice his own identity with everything, to find a little treasure of his own. ⁹And this he cannot do without a sense of isolation, loss and loneliness. ¹⁰This is the treasure he has sought to find. ¹¹And he could only be afraid of it. ¹²Is fear a treasure? ¹³Can uncertainty be what you want? ¹⁴Or is it a mistake about your will, and what you really are?” (ACIM, T-26.VII.11:1-14)

“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little.” (ACIM, W-133.2:1)