In this video about A Course In Miracles, the topic is accusation in all its obvious and insidious forms and how it sabotages our peace. 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.
Here are some synonyms and antonyms (below) for accuse, reminding us there are only two thought systems, even though there are many words that describe both of them:
Accuse Synonyms:
Note that page references after the quotes below refer to the ACIM English (print) edition, 2nd or 3rd edition. I have also added some excellent paraphrased comments from participants in this classroom conversation.
We began with this powerful reminder that we need Holy Spirit’s help to escape from ego’s thought system of sin, guilt and fear – the “unholy trinity” – the pillars of insanity:
“Would 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.” (ACIM, M-29.2:11–3:11) p.70
Including the example above, there are 8 instances of the word “absolve” in the Course.
Crimes typically are claimed through accusations; and accusations imply guilt, or at least it’s possibility. There are countless ways we can accuse each other (and ourselves) of the impossible crime of the belief in separation. All of them maintain the importance of a separate identity and/or differences or “apartness” in space, time, form, appearance, behavior or something our senses convey. to our brains and our egos misinterpret as unfair, unjust or cruel. To escape from sin, guilt and fear, it is essential to look – without condemnation – with Holy Spirit or Jesus at how much we want to accuse the world of our imagined woes and – since ideas don’t leave their source – how much we want to accuse ourselves of inescapable fearful, sinful, guilt. Ego cannot survive without a steady flow of crimes, and these are fed by accusations. … It’s helpful to just watch without condemnation (i.e. with Holy Spirit) at how lightning fast ego snaps from misinterpretation to accusation to projection, always ignoring looking at the underlying sin, guilt, fear, repression, and denial, believing they are real and unpardonable.
To ask our Inner Kindness Teacher for help is to end the belief that we know “better” … or anything, really!
Here is the first of 21 occurrences of the word “accuse” in ACIM:
“Blessed Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you.²Who can condemn whom God has blessed?³There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share His shining innocence.⁴Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity.⁵Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms.⁶To accuse is not to understand.⁷The happy learners of the Atonement become the teachers of the innocence that is the right of all that God created.⁸Deny them not what is their due, for you will not withhold it from them alone.” (ACIM, T-14.V.3:1-8) p.282 (Underlining added for emphasis; from The Circle of Atonement; here is a related post about the symbolism of the circle.)
When we accuse anyone of anything, we don’t understand anyone or ourselves!
“Why should the body be anything to you?²Certainly what it is made of is not precious.³And just as certainly it has no feeling.⁴It transmits to you the feelings that you want.⁵Like any communication medium the body receives and sends the messages that it is given.⁶It has no feeling for them.⁷All of the feeling with which they are invested is given by the sender and the receiver.⁸The ego and the Holy Spirit both recognize this, and both also recognize that here the sender and receiver are the same.⁹The Holy Spirit tells you this with joy.¹⁰The ego hides it, for it would keep you unaware of it.¹¹Who would send messages of hatred and attack if he but understood he sends them to himself?¹²Who would accuse, make guilty and condemn himself?” (ACIM, T-19.IV-B.14:1-12) p.415
A class participant reminded us of (yet another) outstanding (very relevant) program by Kenneth Wapnick: “The Self-Accused: Freedom From Guilt.”
An honest assessment of our thinking would suggest that most of the time, our condemning, guilt-promoting and accusing thoughts keep us mindless, yet we can make perfect use of each of those specific moments to use Holy Spirit’s correction: true forgiveness – always by looking with that Appointed Friend, leading to the peace of knowing nothing real was threatened nor damaged.
“Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated or in need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God’s Son.²You hold a picture of your crucifixion before his eyes, that he may see his sins are writ in Heaven in your blood and death, and go before him, closing off the gate and damning him to hell.³Yet this is writ in hell and not in Heaven, where you are beyond attack and prove his innocence.⁴The picture of yourself you offer him you show yourself, and give it all your faith.⁵The Holy Spirit offers you, to give to him, a picture of yourself in which there is no pain and no reproach at all.⁶And what was martyred to his guilt becomes the perfect witness to his innocence.” (ACIM, T-27.I.3:1-6) p.565
Since everyone else is a mirror of what is in our mind – ideas don’t leave their source – my choice of interpreter for everyone I relate to our think about determines my peace or lack thereof. Our task is to gently look at the enormity of the vast “library” of our catalogued accusations and realize they are all irrelevant, but only after we abandon our investments in all of them.
“Your function is to show your brother sin can have no cause.²How futile must it be to see yourself a picture of the proof that what your function is can never be!³The Holy Spirit’s picture changes not the body into something it is not.⁴It only takes away from it all signs of accusation and of blamefulness.⁵Pictured without a purpose, it is seen as neither sick nor well, nor bad nor good.⁶No grounds are offered that it may be judged in any way at all.⁷It has no life, but neither is it dead.⁸It stands apart from all experience of love or fear.⁹For now it witnesses to nothing yet, its purpose being open, and the mind made free again to choose what it is for.¹⁰Now is it not condemned, but waiting for a purpose to be given, that it may fulfill the function that it will receive.” (ACIM, T-27.I.9:1-10) p.567
Holy Spirit looks at, dismantles and vaporizes all ego accusations as meaningless, purposeless and irrelevant. What need do peaceful, guiltless minds have of dreams of slings and arrows of outrageous fortune!
“Is healing frightening?²To many, yes.³For accusation is a bar to love, and damaged bodies are accusers.⁴They stand firmly in the way of trust and peace, proclaiming that the frail can have no trust and that the damaged have no grounds for peace.⁵Who has been injured by his brother, and could love and trust him still?⁶He has attacked and will attack again.⁷Protect him not, because your damaged body shows that you must be protected from him.⁸To forgive may be an act of charity, but not his due.⁹He may be pitied for his guilt, but not exonerated.¹⁰And if you forgive him his transgressions, you but add to all the guilt that he has really earned.” (ACIM, T-27.II.1:1-10) p.568
The blame thrower (accusation machine) is ego’s insane attempt to actually keep unconscious, unfounded guilt but throw it onto everyone and everything else, claiming that the partial innocence of our shared identity can satisfy us, yet only when we bestow innocence upon all (really just correct our misperception
“To witness sin and yet forgive it is a paradox that reason cannot see.²For it maintains what has been done to you deserves no pardon.³And by giving it, you grant your brother mercy but retain the proof he is not really innocent.⁴The sick remain accusers.⁵They cannot forgive their brothers and themselves as well.⁶For no one in whom true forgiveness rests can suffer.⁷He holds not the proof of sin before his brother’s eyes.⁸And thus he must have overlooked it and removed it from his own.⁹Forgiveness cannot be for one and not the other.¹⁰Who forgives is healed.¹¹And in his healing lies the proof that he has truly pardoned, and retains no trace of condemnation that he still would hold against himself or any living thing.” (ACIM, T-27.II.3:1-11) p.569
We can’t accuse without it boomeranging back to us. Ironically, there’s nothing to forgive, but we need to notice how painful accusation is to our own mind. We need Holy Spirit’s help all the way. The condemning, accusing judgment always comes to ourselves first, although we’re able to redirect our attention outward to our blame targets – seemingly outside our own minds – with astonishing rapidity.
“Correction is not your function.²It belongs to One Who knows of fairness, not of guilt.³If you assume correction’s role, you lose the function of forgiveness.⁴No one can forgive until he learns correction is but to forgive, and never to accuse.⁵Alone, you cannot see they are the same, and therefore is correction not of you.⁶Identity and function are the same, and by your function do you know yourself.⁷And thus, if you confuse your function with the function of Another, you must be confused about yourself and who you are.⁸What is the separation but a wish to take God’s function from Him and deny that it is His?⁹Yet if it is not His it is not yours, for you must lose what you would take away.” (ACIM, T-27.II.10:1-9) p.570-571
We know nothing, therefore we should not assume any function (including accusation) since not only are we clueless about the totality of the world we believe we’re in, but we have mistaken our identity with an impostor, a fraud that has us believing that accusation is possible because the world it fabricated can be isolated into separated parts.
“In this interpretation of correction, your own mistakes you will not even see.²The focus of correction has been placed outside yourself, on one who cannot be a part of you while this perception lasts.³What is condemned can never be returned to its accuser, who had hated it, and hates it still as symbol of his fear.⁴This is your brother, focus of your hate, unworthy to be part of you and thus outside yourself; the other half, which is denied.⁵And only what is left without his presence is perceived as all of you.⁶To this remaining half the Holy Spirit must represent the other half until you recognize it is the other half.⁷And this He does by giving you and him a function that is one, not different.” (ACIM, T-27.II.14:1-7) p.571-572
Forgiveness IS the way out of the (imagined) hell we made up and keep in place by means of persistent and almost incessant accusing, rendering us mindless. Seen properly, the “others” we think about becomes a proxy for the Holy Spirit if we’re willing to see innocence in them, thus restoring that guiltlessness for ourselves.
“Come to the holy instant and be healed, for nothing that is there received is left behind on your returning to the world. ²And being blessed you will bring blessing. ³Life is given you to give the dying world. ⁴And suffering eyes no longer will accuse, but shine in thanks to you who blessing gave. ⁵The holy instant’s radiance will light your eyes, and give them sight to see beyond all suffering and see Christ’s face instead. ⁶Healing replaces suffering. ⁷Who looks on one cannot perceive the other, for they cannot both be there. ⁸And what you see the world will witness, and will witness to. 7. Thus is your healing everything the world requires, that it may be healed. ²It needs one lesson that has perfectly been learned. ³And then, when you forget it, will the world remind you gently of what you have taught. ⁴No reinforcement will its thanks withhold from you who let yourself be healed that it might live. ⁵It will call forth its witnesses to show the face of Christ to you who brought the sight to them, by which they witnessed it. ⁶The world of accusation is replaced by one in which all eyes look lovingly upon the Friend who brought them their release. ⁷And happily your brother will perceive the many friends he thought were enemies.” (ACIM, T-27.V.6:1–7:7) p.577-578
Accepting the Atonement (the idea that the separation belief had no effect on our eternal Self) is how healing is accomplished; this is the essence of forgiveness. Our challenged is to listen ONLY to the voice in our mind that is incapable of accusation, seeing sinlessness in everyone:
“You need offer only undivided attention. ⁵Everything else will be given you.” (ACIM, T-12.V.9:4-5)
Ego’s divided mind can only practice “forgiveness to destroy” which maintains the separation – something (awful) happened – and therefore all accusations go unchallenged and guilt continues to fester, cannibalize and devastate; making peace seem impossible.
We then read “The Self Accused” a potent section from chapter 31 in the text; here are the first 2 paragraphs:
1. Only the self-accused condemn. ²As you prepare to make a choice that will result in different outcomes, there is first one thing that must be overlearned. ³It must become a habit of response so typical of everything you do that it becomes your first response to all temptation, and to every situation that occurs. ⁴Learn this, and learn it well, for it is here delay of happiness is shortened by a span of time you cannot realize. ⁵You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own. ⁶Whatever form his sins appear to take, it but obscures the fact that you believe them to be yours, and therefore meriting a “just” attack.
2. Why should his sins be sins, if you did not believe they could not be forgiven in you? ²Why are they real in him, if you did not believe that they are your reality? ³And why do you attack them everywhere except you hate yourself? ⁴Are you a sin? ⁵You answer “yes” whenever you attack, for by attack do you assert that you are guilty, and must give as you deserve. ⁶And what can you deserve but what you are? ⁷If you did not believe that you deserved attack, it never would occur to you to give attack to anyone at all. ⁸Why should you? ⁹What would be the gain to you? ¹⁰What could the outcome be that you would want? ¹¹And how could murder bring you benefit?(ACIM, T-31.III.1:1–2:11)
Guilt and shame are ego twin monsters: I think I DID something bad (I believe I trashed Perfect Oneness) and therefore I believe I AM something bad.
“3. Sins are in bodies. ²They are not perceived in minds. ³They are not seen as purposes, but actions. ⁴Bodies act, and minds do not. ⁵And therefore must the body be at fault for what it does. ⁶It is not seen to be a passive thing, obeying your commands, and doing nothing of itself at all. ⁷If you are sin you are a body, for the mind acts not. ⁸And purpose must be in the body, not the mind. ⁹The body must act on its own, and motivate itself. ¹⁰If you are sin you lock the mind within the body, and you give its purpose to its prison house, which acts instead of it. ¹¹A jailer does not follow orders, but enforces orders on the prisoner.
4. Yet is the body prisoner, and not the mind. ²The body thinks no thoughts. ³It has no power to learn, to pardon, nor enslave. ⁴It gives no orders that the mind need serve, nor sets conditions that it must obey. ⁵It holds in prison but the willing mind that would abide in it. ⁶It sickens at the bidding of the mind that would become its prisoner. ⁷And it grows old and dies, because that mind is sick within itself. ⁸Learning is all that causes change. ⁹And so the body, where no learning can occur, could never change unless the mind preferred the body change in its appearances, to suit the purpose given by the mind. ¹⁰For mind can learn, and there is all change made.” (ACIM, T-31.III.3:1–4:10)
We are much more powerful than we realize in our ability to believe that we are something that we are not – a separate identity, capable of being “right” (in our stubborn belief in our accusations) but hardly happy.
“5. The mind that thinks it is a sin has but one purpose; that the body be the source of sin, to keep it in the prison house it chose and guards and holds itself at bay, a sleeping prisoner to the snarling dogs of hate and evil, sickness and attack; of pain and age, of grief and suffering. ²Here are the thoughts of sacrifice preserved, for here guilt rules, and orders that the world be like itself; a place where nothing can find mercy, nor survive the ravages of fear except in murder and in death. ³For here are you made sin, and sin cannot abide the joyous and the free, for they are enemies which sin must kill. ⁴In death is sin preserved, and those who think that they are sin must die for what they think they are.
6. Let us be glad that you will see what you believe, and that it has been given you to change what you believe. ²The body will but follow. ³It can never lead you where you would not be. ⁴It does not guard your sleep, nor interfere with your awakening. ⁵Release your body from imprisonment, and you will see no one as prisoner to what you have escaped. ⁶You will not want to hold in guilt your chosen enemies, nor keep in chains, to the illusion of a changing love, the ones you think are friends.
7. The innocent release in gratitude for their release.²And what they see upholds their freedom from imprisonment and death.³Open your mind to change, and there will be no ancient penalty exacted from your brother or yourself.⁴For God has said there is no sacrifice that can be asked; there is no sacrifice that can be made.” (ACIM, T-31.III.5:1–7:4)
When we abandon the (dualistic) fraudulent identity for ourselves, we’re also doing the same (giving the same “undo” gift) for everyone we interact with or think about.
“Here is the central lesson that ensures your brother is condemned eternally.²For what you are has now become his sin.³For this is no forgiveness possible.⁴No longer does it matter what he does, for your accusing finger points to him, unwavering and deadly in its aim.⁵It points to you as well, but this is kept still deeper in the mists below the face of innocence.⁶And in these shrouded vaults are all his sins and yours preserved and kept in darkness, where they cannot be perceived as errors, which the light would surely show.⁷You can be neither blamed for what you are, nor can you change the things it makes you do.⁸Your brother then is symbol of your sins to you who are but silently, and yet with ceaseless urgency, condemning still your brother for the hated thing you are.” (ACIM, T-31.V.6:1-8) p.657
It is so crazy to keep up this malevolent, masochistic game whenever we keep our accusing, blame-throwing ego mind in charge! When we see the extreme parody that the Course makes of ego’s insanity, and realize that we’ve been keeping it untouched in the vaults in our mind, it gives us motivation to open those “sacred” vaults to gentle, thorough scrutiny.
“You will make many concepts of the self as learning goes along.²Each one will show the changes in your own relationships, as your perception of yourself is changed.³There will be some confusion every time there is a shift, but be you thankful that the learning of the world is loosening its grasp upon your mind.⁴And be you sure and happy in the confidence that it will go at last, and leave your mind at peace.⁵The role of the accuser will appear in many places and in many forms.⁶And each will seem to be accusing you.⁷Yet have no fear it will not be undone.” (ACIM, T-31.V.16:1-7) p.659
This loosening grasp (ego’s stranglehold on our mind) reminds us of Leonard Cohen’s lyric: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
“Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world.²It sees their nothingness, and looks straight through the thousand forms in which they may appear.³It looks on lies, but it is not deceived.⁴It does not heed the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with guilt.⁵It looks on them with quiet eyes, and merely says to them, “My brother, what you think is not the truth.” (ACIM, W-134.7:1-5) p.249
This exemplifies the true compassion that is at the heart of the Course’s True Forgiveness: “Son of God, you have not sinned, but you have been much mistaken.” (ACIM, T-10.V.6:1)
“There is a very simple way to find the door to true forgiveness, and perceive it open wide in welcome.²When you feel that you are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind to dwell on what you think he did, for that is self-deception.³Ask instead, “Would I accuse myself of doing this?” (ACIM, W-134.9:1-3)
If anything in this Course triggers us, that’s Just Another Forgiveness Opportunity (JAFO). Every moment we notice the un-peaceful war that accompanies our accusing thoughts, we’re given another opportunity to heal our minds of the bizarre belief in separation.
“Is it not strange that you believe to think you made the world you see is arrogance?²God made it not.³Of this you can be sure.⁴What can He know of the ephemeral, the sinful and the guilty, the afraid, the suffering and lonely, and the mind that lives within a body that must die?⁵You but accuse Him of insanity, to think He made a world where such things seem to have reality.⁶He is not mad.⁷Yet only madness makes a world like this.” (ACIM, W-152.6:1-7) p.281
One of the forms that our accusations take is character assassination, even if we aren’t physically assassinating others of our own species, at least. Our accusations and assassinations, taking place only in the ego dream, have had no effect on reality. No real (eternal) Being was harmed in the making of our space-time duality dream movie. We can take every accusation rolling down ego’s conveyor belt can be redirected to Holy Spirit’s vaporizing forgiveness.
We closed with this workbook lesson: “Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.” (ACIM, W-349)
(This YouTube video recording was made on June 18, 2024.)
