In this video, Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read and talked briefly about the fourth “law of chaos” from Chapter 23 of the Text of A Course in Miracles – The War Against Yourself:
“The ego values only what it takes. This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. By this, another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself. Yet all the other laws must lead to this. For enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. And what your enemies would keep from you must be worth having, because they keep it hidden from your sight.”
– T-23.II.9
Then we read and conversed about The “Sacrifice” of Oneness in Chapter 26; here are the first two paragraphs:
“In the ‘dynamics’ of attack is sacrifice a key idea. It is the pivot upon which all compromise, all desperate attempts to strike a bargain, and all conflicts achieve a seeming balance. It is the symbol of the central theme that somebody must lose. Its focus on the body is apparent, for it is always an attempt to limit loss. The body is itself a sacrifice; a giving up of power in the name of saving just a little for yourself. To see a brother in another body, separate from yours, is the expression of a wish to see a little part of him and sacrifice the rest. Look at the world, and you will see nothing attached to anything beyond itself. All seeming entities can come a little nearer, or go a little farther off, but cannot join.
The world you see is based on ‘sacrifice’ of oneness. It is a picture of complete disunity and total lack of joining. Around each entity is built a wall so seeming solid that it looks as if what is inside can never reach without, and what is out can never reach and join with what is locked away within the wall. Each part must sacrifice the other part, to keep itself complete. For if they joined each one would lose its own identity, and by their separation are their selves maintained.”
– T.26.I.1-2
Susan writes frequently and eloquently about A Course in Miracles in her very engaging blog, ForaysInForgiveness.
We recommend these websites to all students of ACIM, both of which have newly updated websites with superb resources:
- Foundation for A Course In Miracles (FACIM) which now has new Course-related streaming videos and podcasts including previously unreleased recordings.
- Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) which has numerous new features, including instant “zero-click” access via the ticker tape on each page to today’s calendar Workbook Lesson – available in 7 languages, a new comprehensive FAQs page and a wealth of Course-related news, contextually relevant and historical archival material about ACIM’s origins, reach (study groups) and ongoing products and extensions around the globe, including over two dozen translations. There are numerous video conversations on this site with Dr. Bob Rosenthal, co-President of FIP.
(This video was recorded on March 6, 2019.)
View additional video conversations with Susan Dugan on ACIMblog here.