The Invitation to Healing (ACIM, T-11.II) and From Darkness to Light (ACIM, T-11.III) are the two sections covered in this video recording of a class facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise.
Here are some notes from the class conversation:
The process of the Course – what we all need to do with Holy Spirit’s help – is to juxtapose the two thought systems side-by-side so that we can see the zero track record of ego’s insanity contrasted with Holy Spirit’s perfect 100% track record of successfully bringing peace to our mind, aligning ourselves with the true (eternal) logic of our Inner Kindness Teacher’s sanity rather than the chaotic insanity of separate interests and dualistic dreams. This is how we free ourselves from unconscious masochism (and since minds are joined) apparent sadism as well.
We have to want to see the contrast; how important it is to have that cognitive dissonance loosen our investment in self-inflicted suffering! Ego, being the only thought system of pathological lying, tries to co-opt Holy Spirit’s success in bringing us peace. However, when we honestly look at the ego’s abysmal failure to deliver anything of value – only by bringing our imagined monsters out from the dark corners of our mind – we can see how our silly seemingly separate selves just aren’t going to bring us happiness. This function of forgiveness – looking at ego insanity without condemnation – is the only practice that will ultimately work.
At every moment, we’re either inviting – as the guest in our mind each moment – sanity or insanity, healing or dis-ease, darkness or light, comfort or weariness, sameness or separation, forgiveness or attack, belonging or homelessness, connection or dissociation, certainty or anxiety, trust or condemnation, love or fear.
The only place we can really choose is between these two diametrically opposed thought systems – although Holy Spirit just looks and never opposes, since nothing real can be threatened.
The impossible crime of separation seems possible only because we have suspended disbelief in ego’s astonishingly photorealistic 3D holographic movie of space-time and seemingly disparate vile selves seemingly trapped in the little “need machine” “engine of destruction” vials of bodily identification.
We started with paragraph 7 of the first section as a prelude to a brief meditation:
“Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? ²You will accept only whom you invite. ³You are free to determine who shall be your guest, and how long he shall remain with you. ⁴Yet this is not real freedom, for it still depends on how you see it. ⁵The Holy Spirit is there, although He cannot help you without your invitation. ⁶And the ego is nothing, whether you invite it in or not. ⁷Real freedom depends on welcoming reality, and of your guests only the Holy Spirit is real. ⁸Know, then, Who abides with you merely by recognizing what is there already, and do not be satisfied with imaginary comforters, for the Comforter of God is in you.” (ACIM, T-11.II.7:1-8)
Here are the first three paragraphs of the first section we read and discussed from ACIM:
II. The Invitation to Healing
“1. If sickness is separation, the decision to heal and to be healed is the first step toward recognizing what you truly want. ²Every attack is a step away from this, and every healing thought brings it closer. ³The Son of God has both Father and Son, because he is both Father and Son. ⁴To unite having and being is to unite your will with His, for He wills you Himself. ⁵And you will yourself to Him because, in your perfect understanding of Him, you know there is but one Will. ⁶Yet when you attack any part of God and His Kingdom your understanding is not perfect, and what you really want is therefore lost to you.
2. Healing thus becomes a lesson in understanding, and the more you practice it the better teacher and learner you become. ²If you have denied truth, what better witnesses to its reality could you have than those who have been healed by it? ³But be sure to count yourself among them, for in your willingness to join them is your healing accomplished. ⁴Every miracle that you accomplish speaks to you of the Fatherhood of God. ⁵Every healing thought that you accept, either from your brother or in your own mind, teaches you that you are God’s Son. ⁶In every hurtful thought you hold, wherever you perceive it, lies the denial of God’s Fatherhood and of your Sonship.
3. And denial is as total as love. ²You cannot deny part of yourself, because the rest will seem to be separate and therefore without meaning. ³And being without meaning to you, you will not understand it. ⁴To deny meaning is to fail to understand. ⁵You can heal only yourself, for only God’s Son needs healing. ⁶You need it because you do not understand yourself, and therefore know not what you do. ⁷Having forgotten your will, you do not know what you really want.”
Here are the first three paragraphs of the second section we read and discussed from ACIM:
III. From Darkness to Light
“1. When you are weary, remember you have hurt yourself. ²Your Comforter will rest you, but you cannot. ³You do not know how, for if you did you could never have grown weary. ⁴Unless you hurt yourself you could never suffer in any way, for that is not God’s Will for His Son. ⁵Pain is not of Him, for He knows no attack and His peace surrounds you silently. ⁶God is very quiet, for there is no conflict in Him. ⁷Conflict is the root of all evil, for being blind it does not see whom it attacks. ⁸Yet it always attacks the Son of God, and the Son of God is you.
2. God’s Son is indeed in need of comfort, for he knows not what he does, believing his will is not his own. ²The Kingdom is his, and yet he wanders homeless. ³At home in God he is lonely, and amid all his brothers he is friendless. ⁴Would God let this be real, when He did not will to be alone Himself? ⁵And if your will is His it cannot be true of you, because it is not true of Him.
3. O my child, if you knew what God wills for you, your joy would be complete! ²And what He wills has happened, for it was always true. ³When the light comes and you have said, “God’s Will is mine,” you will see such beauty that you will know it is not of you. ⁴Out of your joy you will create beauty in His Name, for your joy could no more be contained than His. ⁵The bleak little world will vanish into nothingness, and your heart will be so filled with joy that it will leap into Heaven, and into the Presence of God. ⁶I cannot tell you what this will be like, for your heart is not ready. ⁷Yet I can tell you, and remind you often, that what God wills for Himself He wills for you, and what He wills for you is yours.”
Here are some Course quotes that relate to the “if you but knew” and “if you knew” and “if you only knew” … Ken Wapnick did a workshop on this inspiring theme that hints at how profoundly peaceful our minds will be when we learn to consistently look at our obstacles to peace with our appointed friend instead of inviting the dark fiend of separate interests:
Jesus’ Promise: “If You But Knew…”
We also talked about Ken’s biography of Helen: Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles by by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. If you want to hear this read aloud, tune into ACIMGather.us on Saturday mornings as Lyn Johnson and I read and discuss this fascinating story about Helen and everyone’s seemingly implacable resistance to Truth; a real exercise in compassion!
The Course emphasizes the importance of trusting Holy Spirit implicitly:
“…The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance. ⁷Ask and He will answer. ⁸The responsibility is His, and He alone is fit to assume it. ⁹To do so is His function. ¹⁰To refer the questions to Him is yours. ¹¹Would you want to be responsible for decisions about which you understand so little? ¹²Be glad you have a Teacher Who cannot make a mistake. ¹³His answers are always right. ¹⁴Would you say that of yours?
3. There is another advantage,—and a very important one,—in referring decisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency.²Perhaps you have not thought of this aspect, but its centrality is obvious.³To follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt.⁴It is the essence of the Atonement.⁵It is the core of the curriculum.⁶The imagined usurping of functions not your own is the basis of fear.⁷The whole world you see reflects the illusion that you have done so, making fear inevitable.⁸To return the function to the One to Whom it belongs is thus the escape from fear.⁹And it is this that lets the memory of love return to you.¹⁰Do not, then, think that following the Holy Spirit’s guidance is necessary merely because of your own inadequacies.¹¹It is the way out of hell for you.”
(I was going to read some excerpts from Ken Wapnick’s always brilliant commentary on these sections in Journey Through The Text … but ran out of time.)
(This YouTube video recording was made on November 12, 2023.)
The graphic below (in the background of the YouTube video) was inspired by the metaphysical chart that Ken Wapnick used for many years in his profound classes.
Here are the Simon and Garfunkle songs we mentioned in this class: