In this YouTube video, Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read portions of the essay “What Is the Peace of God? (ACIM, M-20) from the Manual for Teachers of A Course In Miracles.
“The only real part of perception is the memory of Wholeness.” – Susan Dugan
We vastly underestimate the potential of our mind to completely choose perfect peace and its inestimable benefits to All:
“A tranquil mind is not a little gift.” (ACIM, M-20.4:8)
To recognize, find and retain that profound peace, we need to ask for sane guidance more and more frequently until it becomes (eventually) second nature, and we just gently decline ego’s dubious offers of peace through war, acknowledging that war and peace are mental states and we constantly choose between the two. The insanity of ego’s dubious appeal becomes more evident the more we simply ask what we really want in each moment. Here’s a pertinent quote from the Course quickly made using the new “Create Image” function in the Web Edition of ACIM:
The peace of God is restored to our minds whenever we choose against the hellish belief in separation and ego madness insisting that guilt over an impossible crime is unavoidable. Quietly our Inner Kindness Teacher replies that our Eternal Innocence is ensured by God; we’re dismissed from ego’s cruel and cynical courtroom when we realize it was a mistrial of misinterpretation.
Here are the first three paragraphs we read and reflected upon:
“1. It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world. ²How is it recognized? ³How is it found? ⁴And being found, how can it be retained? ⁵Let us consider each of these questions separately, for each reflects a different step along the way.
2. First, how can the peace of God be recognized? ²God’s peace is recognized at first by just one thing; in every way it is totally unlike all previous experiences. ³It calls to mind nothing that went before. ⁴It brings with it no past associations. ⁵It is a new thing entirely. ⁶There is a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past. ⁷But strangely, it is not a contrast of true differences. ⁸The past just slips away, and in its place is everlasting quiet. ⁹Only that. ¹⁰The contrast first perceived has merely gone. ¹¹Quiet has reached to cover everything.
3. How is this quiet found? ²No one can fail to find it who but seeks out its conditions. ³God’s peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peace exists. ⁴Who sees anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless, and must believe that it cannot exist. ⁵In this condition, peace cannot be found. ⁶Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God. ⁷More than this, given forgiveness there must be peace. ⁸For what except attack will lead to war? ⁹And what but peace is opposite to war? ¹⁰Here the initial contrast stands out clear and apparent. ¹¹Yet when peace is found, the war is meaningless. ¹²And it is conflict now that is perceived as nonexistent and unreal.”
How often do we suddenly realize we’ve chosen the teacher of upset (ego) and have compromised our peace? Each of those seemingly countless moments becomes a golden opportunity to “turn it around” and look at the set-up – the cause of the up-set – which was our choice for the setup-upset curriculum instead of Holy Spirit’s reveal-release-replace forgiveness curriculum; we just have to honestly answer the question when we ask that rhetorical, metaphorical question:
“Who put that sword in my hand?”
(This video was recorded on June 27, 2022.)
We also referred to some amazing developments in the areas of artificial intelligence and real-time 3D animation which – like anything else – we can use either with ego to reinforce its propaganda for the belief in separation (making the dream seem more real by paying homage to the illusion) – or we can let Holy Spirit a.k.a. our Inner Kindness Teacher remind us that every specific thing in space and time can be forgiven and thus released from our projection of the thought system of sin, guilt, fear, cynicism, despair, ephemeral birth, and the nightmare of death.
If you have questions or comments about this video, prior videos in this ACIM-related video series, or other Course-related topics, please email them via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!
Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.