There are 1,986 instances of the word “world” in Course In Miracles (ACIM) – evidently an important topic! In this video, we explore the third of the “What is…” essays in part 2 of the Workbook: What is the World? as well as the closely related Workbook Lesson 132: “I loose the world from all I thought it was. (ACIM, W-132)” This class was given for the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. (I highly recommend Lyn and Tim’s almost daily zoom classes!)
Our purpose is not to deny the world, but to deny the denial of Truth by being willing to question ego’s isolated misinterpretations of the world:
“The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. ⁹Its abilities can be and frequently are overevaluated. ¹⁰However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. ¹¹Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial.” (ACIM, T-2.IV.3:8-11)
Ego’s (over the top insane) world exposed:
“You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?” – The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz
… and from The Architects Sketch (Monty Python)
Scene: A large posh office. Two clients, well-dressed city gents, sit facing a large table at which stands Mr. Tid, the account manager of the architectural firm. …
Mr. Tid: Well, gentlemen, we have two architectural designs for this new residential block of yours and I thought it best if the architects themselves explained the particular advantages of their designs.
(There is a knock at the door.)
Mr. Tid: Ah! That’s probably the first architect now. Come in.
(Mr. Wiggin enters.)
Mr. Wiggin: Good morning, gentlemen.
Clients: Good morning.
Mr. Wiggin: This is a 12-story block combining classical neo-Georgian features with the efficiency of modern techniques. The tenants arrive here and are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort, past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives. The last twenty feet of the corridor are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these…
Client 1: Excuse me.
Mr. Wiggin: Yes?
Client 1: Did you say ‘knives’?
Mr. Wiggin: Rotating knives, yes.
Client 2: Do I take it that you are proposing to slaughter our tenants?
Mr. Wiggin: …Does that not fit in with your plans?
Client 1: Not really. We asked for a simple block of flats.
Mr. Wiggin: Oh. I hadn’t fully divined your attitude towards the tenants. You see I mainly design slaughter houses.
Clients: Ah.
Mr. Wiggin: Pity.
Clients: Yes.
Mr. Wiggin: (indicating points of the model) Mind you, this is a real beaut. None of your blood caked on the walls and flesh flying out of the windows incommoding the passers-by with this one. (confidentially) My life has been leading up to this.
Client 2: Yes, and well done, but we wanted an apartment block.
Mr. Wiggin: May I ask you to reconsider.
…
More Course quotes that reveal the vast difference between the real world beyond space, time and individuality – and ego’s tyrannical prison world of personhood:
“God is lonely without His Sons, and they are lonely without Him. ¹²They must learn to look upon the world as a means of healing the separation. ¹³The Atonement is the guarantee that they will ultimately succeed.” (ACIM, T-2.III.5:11-13)
The world is in our mind… a misinterpretation of the tiny mad idea!
Questions for self-inquiry:
- What are some examples of when I’ve used ego’s propaganda of its world to keep myself asleep?
- When have I’ve listened to Holy Spirit to choose forgiveness (and the real world)?
Just like Wizard of Oz with two varieties of “witches” (malevolent and benevolent) we have two. thought systems that operate in and support two completely different worlds in our mind:
Glinda (Wizard of Oz) to Dorothy: before she wakes up from her Technicolor dream “You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go (home) back to Kansas.” Scarecrow: “So why didn’t you tell her before?” … to which Glinda replies “Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.” Dorothy: “I never really lost it to begin with.” Scarecrow: “But that’s so easy!”
… and to complete the other pop culture reference polarity bookend, here’s Monty Python’s “real alternative, expressed in the song lyrics from the movie “The Life of Brian”: “… Always look on the bright side of life!” … “Death’s a joke, it’s true.”
… and more insight about why we can use a new purpose for the dream world to help undo our identification with it; to wake up together with help from our Inner Kindness Teacher:
“The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief.” (ACIM, T-1.VI.4:1)
“¹¹God is lonely without His Sons, and they are lonely without Him. ¹²They must learn to look upon the world as a means of healing the separation. ¹³The Atonement is the guarantee that they will ultimately succeed.” (ACIM, T-2.III.5:11-13)
There are 42 instances of the word “world” alone in workbook lesson 132!
Here are the first 3 paragraphs of Lesson 132:
“1. What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? ²And what can save the world except your Self? ³Belief is powerful indeed. ⁴The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. ⁵A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. ⁶Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts’ effects. ⁷It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom comes to him at last.
2. Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it. ²Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think. ³You free the past from what you thought before. ⁴You free the future from all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find.
3. The present now remains the only time. ²Here in the present is the world set free. ³For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world. ⁴You have enslaved the world with all your fears, your doubts and miseries, your pain and tears; and all your sorrows press on it, and keep the world a prisoner to your beliefs. ⁵Death strikes it everywhere because you hold the bitter thoughts of death within your mind.”
The world, as Gary Renard’s teachers suggest, is Just Another Forgiveness Opportunity (JAFO) :-)
This video was recorded on May 21, 2021.
This post uses the new Web Edition of ACIM for all references to the words from ACIM. I encourage everyone who studies or practices the Course to check it out; here’s an article I wrote about it’s introduction to the world a few weeks ago. :-)