This video recording is from a classroom conversation in the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) program with Bruce Rawles about “What is a Miracle?” – the 13th “What is…” essay in part II of the WorkBook of A Course in Miracles. In this session – led by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise – Bruce Rawles and other students read and discuss the profound difference between ego’s hopeless and desperate attempt to make sin real and unforgivable and the Holy Spirit’s gentle, soothing correcting relief – letting go of our need to condemn, imprison or punish ourselves or anyone else.
Egos don’t like being corrected; whereas we become happy decision-makers when we gladly accept the gentle reminders when HS shows us we were wrong – not evil, sinful, or wicked, just silly:
“…it is very hard for you to realize it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit’s are so extremely disproportionate. ⁵You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. ⁶Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. ⁷Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot give right now.” (ACIM, T-18.IV.7:4-7)
“The giving up of judgment, the obvious prerequisite for hearing God’s Voice, is usually a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult, but because it is apt to be perceived as personally insulting. ⁵The world’s training is directed toward achieving a goal in direct opposition to that of our curriculum. ⁶The world trains for reliance on one’s judgment as the criterion for maturity and strength. ⁷Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment as the necessary condition of salvation.” (ACIM, M-9.2:4-7)
“Undermining the ego’s thought system must be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. ²Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not. ³In this sense you are still a baby. ⁴You have no sense of real self-preservation, and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. ⁵Yet whether or not you recognize it now, you have agreed to cooperate in the effort to become both harmless and helpful, attributes that must go together. ⁶Your attitudes even toward this are necessarily conflicted, because all attitudes are ego-based. ⁷This will not last. ⁸Be patient a while and remember that the outcome is as certain as God.” (ACIM, T-4.II.5:1-8)
One antonym for miraculous is boring. Sin, guilt and fear are boring. The eternal ecstasy of loving is not boring. There are no instances of boring in ACIM, but another antonym – dull – has 3 instances. The first reminds us that ACIM’s curriculum is indirect, since we made ourselves afraid of Truth and must be gradually and patiently be re-introduced to HS’s peace by showing us the contrast with ego’s dull, boring and tormenting turmoil:
“The Holy Spirit, therefore, must begin His teaching by showing you what you can never learn. ²His message is not indirect, but He must introduce the simple truth into a thought system which has become so twisted and so complex you cannot see that it means nothing. ³He merely looks at its foundation and dismisses it. ⁴But you who cannot undo what you have made, nor escape the heavy burden of its dullness that lies upon your mind, cannot see through it. ⁵It deceives you, because you chose to deceive yourself. ⁶Those who choose to be deceived will merely attack direct approaches, because they seem to encroach upon deception and strike at it.” (ACIM, T-14.I.5:1-6)
“You who have tried so hard, and are still trying, to fit the better picture into the wrong frame and so combine what cannot be combined, accept this and be glad: These pictures are each framed perfectly for what they represent. ²One is framed to be out of focus and not seen. ³The other is framed for perfect clarity. ⁴The picture of darkness and of death grows less convincing as you search it out amid its wrappings. ⁵As each senseless stone that seems to shine from the frame in darkness is exposed to light, it becomes dull and lifeless, and ceases to distract you from the picture. ⁶And finally you look upon the picture itself, seeing at last that, unprotected by the frame, it has no meaning.” (ACIM, T-17.IV.13:1-6)
“How do the open-minded forgive? ²They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. ³They have in truth abandoned the world, and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. ⁴Nothing is now as it was formerly. ⁵Nothing but sparkles now which seemed so dull and lifeless before. ⁶And above all are all things welcoming, for threat is gone. ⁷No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. ⁸Now is the goal achieved. ⁹Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. ¹⁰It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. ¹¹The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. ¹²Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. ¹³It is indeed enough.” (ACIM, M-4.X.2:1-13)
ACIM’s entire emphasis – its goal – is to UNDO – to correct – the silly, erroneous (not sinful, evil, or wicked) belief in separation. The Sin versus Error (ACIM, T-19.II) section in ACIM’s text proffers such profound peace for a pittance of forgiveness! :-) Here is the first paragraph of that section, which is a beacon of relief to minds that have tormented themselves with the crazy notion that anything erroneously perceived (projected) as troubling in this dream of a world will persist after we awaken:
“It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. ²For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. ³But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. ⁴The belief in sin is necessarily based on the firm conviction that minds, not bodies, can attack. ⁵And thus the mind is guilty, and will forever so remain unless a mind not part of it can give it absolution. ⁶Sin calls for punishment as error for correction, and the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane.” (ACIM, T-19.II.1:1-6)
The joyous release from the burden of unconscious, unfounded guilt – from the correctable, erroneous, projected belief in sin, and needless, groundless fears – is the happy inevitability of following Holy Spirit’s curriculum of true forgiveness:
“11. The new perspective you will gain from crossing over will be the understanding of where Heaven is. ²From this side, it seems to be outside and across the bridge. ³Yet as you cross to join it, it will join with you and become one with you. ⁴And you will think, in glad astonishment, that for all this you gave up nothing! ⁵The joy of Heaven, which has no limit, is increased with each light that returns to take its rightful place within it. ⁶Wait no longer, for the Love of God and you. ⁷And may the holy instant speed you on the way, as it will surely do if you but let it come to you.
12. The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you: Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship which still attracts you, enter with Him into a holy instant, and there let Him release you. ²He needs only your willingness to share His perspective to give it to you completely. ³And your willingness need not be complete because His is perfect. ⁴It is His task to atone for your unwillingness by His perfect faith, and it is His faith you share with Him there. ⁵Out of your recognition of your unwillingness for your release, His perfect willingness is given you. ⁶Call upon Him, for Heaven is at His Call. ⁷And let Him call on Heaven for you.” (ACIM, T-16.VI.11:1–12:7)
Here are the first three paragraphs of “What is A Miracle?”
“1. A miracle is a correction. ²It does not create, nor really change at all. ³It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. ⁴It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. ⁵Thus it stays within time’s limits. ⁶Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.
2. A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. ²And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. ³A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. ⁴Now is perception open to the truth. ⁵Now is forgiveness seen as justified.
3. Forgiveness is the home of miracles. ²The eyes of Christ deliver them to all they look upon in mercy and in love. ³Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. ⁴Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. ⁵And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.” (ACIM, W-pII.13.1:1–3:5)
So how do we experience consistent miracles (corrections) in our forgiveness classroom? I think. this classic joke sums it up nicely:
“A pedestrian on 57th Street sees a musician getting out of a cab and asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without pause, the artist replies wearily, “Practice.'”
In a recent Miracle Voices podcast with Matt McCabe, Judy Skutch Whitson called ACIM “Olympic Mind Training” which seems so appropriate! (I’m going to paraphrase her comments here.) She recounted a conversation with an athlete who was also a Course Student who was wondering how long it would take to experience the consistent peace the Course promises. Judy asked her how many hours a day she practiced her athletics and how many hours a day practicing the Course… at which point her friend “Got it!” :-) So we’re all in the “same boat” needing to do nothing (with ego) but gently, patiently, but persistently practice our forgiveness lessons (with Holy Spirit) more and more and more consistently.
PRACKTUSS -> PRACTUS -> PRACTICE! :-)
This class was given on August 7, 2021.