In this School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) video conversation, we read and explore the first two sections of Chapter 21 in the Text of A Course In Miracles. We started with the Workbook Lesson (of the day) #236: I rule my mind, which I alone must rule. (ACIM, W-236):
“I have a kingdom I must rule. At times, it does not seem I am its king at all. It seems to triumph over me, and tell me what to think, and what to do and feel. And yet it has been given me to serve whatever purpose I perceive in it. My mind can only serve. Today I give its service to the Holy Spirit to employ as He sees fit. I thus direct my mind, which I alone can rule. And thus I set it free to do the Will of God.
Father, my mind is open to Your Thoughts, and closed today to every thought but Yours. I rule my mind, and offer it to You. Accept my gift, for it is Yours to me.”
The pivotal, crucial aspect of our mind (that we must rule) is the decision maker, which continuously chooses between the ego’s blustering, blundering insanity or the Holy Spirit’s gentle, kind correction. That’s it! From the Course’s perspective, we needn’t concern ourselves with anything else. This doesn’t mean we can ignore our everyday worldly decisions. Still, in terms of what is truly (eternally) important, we merely need tend to how we’re feeling, and if we’re not at peace, we’ve chosen the ego, and in that split second can make the better (other) choice for our Inner Kindness Teacher instead of the cruel, tyrannical despot of duality a.k.a. ego.
The Introduction to Chapter 21 in the text of ACIM (Reason and Perception) is profoundly powerful; each sentence carries a meaningful message and encourages us to examine how we mind our mind, reinforcing our responsibility to choose the sane alternative for our thought system (thereby utilizing the law of Cause and Effect for benefit of all instead of for the detriment of everyone) as does the entire Course. It also emphasizes that our perceptions (either true or false at any given moment) are the effect (result), not the cause (origin), of our state of mind. The cause of our mental state is always our ongoing choice of inner teacher, either the champion of polarizing duality or the mentor of healing forgiveness.
“Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos.
Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness to the choice you made, and learn from this to recognize which one you chose. The world you see but shows you how much joy you have allowed yourself to see in you, and to accept as yours. And, if this is its meaning, then the power to give it joy must lie within you.”
One of the most poetic and inspiring sections in ACIM, “The Forgotten Song,” contains the phrase “Your cues for inference are wrong…” which applies to any and all ego-based decisions. Our cues (prompts, hints, suggestions) for inference (assumption, conclusion, conjecture) are consistently disastrous when we base them on the dark “understanding” of the thought system that incorrectly assumes that “the separation” happened. When we try to generalize using specialness (darkness) to find completeness (light), we are using the ego’s “seek but do not find” maxim. In order to return our minds to wholeness, we must “sacrifice” the idea of incompletion, differences, and any warring self-concepts that make anyone else “wrong” or invalid from the perspective of eternity.
We long for the whole song, but try to satisfy ourselves with isolated “notes” that mean nothing out of context with the whole. We truly want (to return to) the general unchanging solution in the Whole Mind, not the specifics of a fleeting particular (pathetic) body or personality with separate interests and a separate identity. Special specifics are the “consolation prize” – we short-change ourselves by attempting to be satisfied with the finite and temporary. Our sane solution (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) provides the only lasting comfort and serenity; it leads us to experience what works in every circumstance in dreams of space/time because that solution – our Real Identity – is outside of space and time!
Here are the first three paragraphs from “The Forgotten Song”:
“Never forget the world the sightless ‘see’ must be imagined, for what it really looks like is unknown to them. ²They must infer what could be seen from evidence forever indirect; and reconstruct their inferences as they stumble and fall because of what they did not recognize, or walk unharmed through open doorways that they thought were closed. And so it is with you. You do not see. Your cues for inference are wrong, and so you stumble and fall down upon the stones you did not recognize, but fail to be aware you can go through the doors you thought were closed, but which stand open before unseeing eyes, waiting to welcome you.
How foolish is it to attempt to judge what could be seen instead. It is not necessary to imagine what the world must look like. It must be seen before you recognize it for what it is. You can be shown which doors are open, and you can see where safety lies; and which way leads to darkness, which to light. Judgment will always give you false directions, but vision shows you where to go. Why should you guess?
There is no need to learn through pain. And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. What gives you happiness you want to learn and not forget. It is not this you would deny. Your question is whether the means by which this course is learned will bring to you the joy it promises. If you believed it would, the learning of it would be no problem. You are not a happy learner yet because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you more than judgment does, and you have learned that both you cannot have.”
Several classic metaphors relate well to this cautionary advice against trusting our blind-to-truth egos, which provide a horribly constrained and distorted perspective on their microscopic span of misperception:
- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: our (false) perception is distorted because we have divided (or attempted to divide) Perfect Oneness, and this blindness leaves us at a total and needless disadvantage!
- The Blind Men and the Elephant; each of us as “separate selves” has – at best – part of the story, and we’re not wrong; or as Ken Wapnick says, we’re not evil, sinful, or wicked, just silly!
- The toll-gate scene in the movie “Blazing Saddles” is a hilarious reminder that when we limit ourselves to the ego’s chaotic “laws” (sin, guilt, fear, special hate, special love, etc.), we make poor choices … at best!
The latter portion of this section waxes poetic and speaks to the nostalgia of Spirit within every mind, longing to be restored to our birthright and inheritance as not just part of the Totality but inseparable from every aspect of Creation. We can’t leave anyone out of the completely inclusive total acceptance that the Holy Spirit reminds us is the prerequisite for rock-solid peace.
A prior blog post from this website explores the geometric symbolism of an infinite circle (or sphere) of golden light that the later part of this section uses to begin to convey the profound innocence, inclusion, kinship, love, and unshakable serenity that forgiveness leads us back to. If the metaphoric circle is all-encompassing, then no one or no thing is left out; a defining characteristic of pure non-duality. This stable tranquility is the eternal antidote to the ego’s (boring) emotional roller coaster and the essential solution to the false perception of separate interests. When we admit to ourselves that our poor choice for ego instability has terrified us, we can stop pretending that it has made us happy and find the truly lasting happiness that forgiveness provides.
(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Sunday, August 24, 2025.)
