ACIM Chapter 10. THE IDOLS OF SICKNESS. Introduction. P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 10. THE IDOLS OF SICKNESS. Introduction. P 1, 2

Introduction, P 1

1 Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving, because nothing is beyond you. Time and eternity are both in your mind, and will conflict until you perceive time solely as a means to regain eternity. You cannot do this as long as you believe that anything happening to you is caused by factors outside yourself. You must learn that time is solely at your disposal, and that nothing in the world can take this responsibility from you. You can violate God’s laws in your imagination, but you cannot escape from them. They were established for your protection and are as inviolate as your safety.

It is easy to forget that nothing is beyond me and that I have absolute control over how I experience what is happening because I have absolute control over what I believe. Then I read something like this in the Course, and I am startled into awareness of my true nature. This is what happened when I read that time and eternity are both in my mind.

This means that although I feel like I am always running to stay ahead of time, always running out of or falling behind time, this can be true only if I choose to believe in time. Eternity is in my mind as well. Why not choose to believe in eternity? I must make that choice because I cannot believe in both. I remain in a state of conflict as long as I try to keep them both, choosing to believe in one and then choosing to believe in the other. Conflict is war. War is suffering.

There is a solution to this conflict.

I can choose to use time (which I still believe in) to undo my belief. Jesus says we cannot do this as long as we believe that anything happening to us is caused by factors outside ourselves. I’m getting pretty good at catching that belief in my mind and releasing it. I feel confident that I can soon let go of this belief permanently.

I still have to take care of this problem, but my frame of mind is up to me. Sure, I may still get hooked by an ego thought, but I don’t have to stay hooked. I am using time to undo the ego mind. This is the proper use of time and will bring me closer to allowing even the belief in time to be undone for me. I am more peaceful now and, as a consequence, happier. Today would be a good time to pay attention to the ego insistence that everything is someone else’s fault. I really don’t want that silly thought floating around in my mind anymore.

The ego doesn’t give this up easily, though.

For instance, when I was told that I would have to replace the floor in the sanctuary, I panicked. My panic was the reaction to the belief that the need to replace the floor was my problem, but that can’t be. I am not governed by anything happening outside my mind. So, I spent some “time” allowing the Holy Spirit to clean my mental house, tossing out this absurd belief.

From this place of clarity, I could see that the problem was not the floor but my thoughts about the floor. Looking at those thoughts with the Holy Spirit and releasing them to Him, I was free of the emotional response of earlier. Solutions began to appear, and peace reigned once again. This was so much easier and quicker than before because practice does indeed make perfect.

Introduction P 2

² God created nothing beside you and nothing beside you exists, for you are part of Him. What except Him can exist? Nothing beyond Him can happen, because nothing except Him is real. Your creations add to Him as you do, but nothing is added that is different because everything has always been. What can upset you except the ephemeral, and how can the ephemeral be real if you are God’s only creation and He created you eternal? Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. Every response you make to everything you perceive is up to you, because your mind determines your perception of it.

I am as God created me; I am this eternally without exception. I am like God because God created me like Him. Nothing that is unlike God exists. “Nothing beyond Him can happen because nothing except Him is real.” So, all the things I see, do and believe cannot be real because they are unlike God. This can only mean that I must be dreaming, living an illusion.

After I had prepared this for sharing, I was taking a shower getting ready for the day. I was asking Jesus for help understanding what I needed to do next about pain I have been experiencing. He had already helped me a lot as he pointed me to unforgiven thoughts that I needed to heal. This morning, he showed me something else I needed to forgive.

I had a memory of a friend who is an addict.

The memory was of the first time I saw just how bad things were for him. He was recovering from surgery, and I went by to see about him. Things were pretty bad for him. His drinking was completely out of control. He had people staying with him who were taking advantage of his constant state of inebriation. He was suffering terribly.

As those memories showed up, they were vivid, and it was like I was reliving the time they happened. I felt the fear and sadness again. My stomach clenched, which was the fear, and my jaw tightened from the anger. So, I began to forgive. I forgave myself for the steps I failed to take, realizing that I was doing the best I could with the understanding I had at the time.

I forgave him for getting himself in this position. And I forgave the people who were taking advantage, knowing they, too, were doing the best they could with the understanding they had at the time. Finally, I realized that this entire situation was ephemeral; that is, it was short-lived. It could not have happened because what is not created eternal cannot happen. As I felt myself relax and let the story go, I felt it was forgiven and I thanked Jesus for guiding me to it and through it.

As God’s Son, I can choose to experience even that which is not real.

If I am experiencing something, it is because I chose to do so.  My holy mind establishes everything that happens to me. My responses to what happens to me are determined by my perceptions, and my perceptions are determined by my mind. I am completely responsible in every way for all that I see and how I see it.

Perhaps at one time, this would have felt oppressive. I do remember feeling overwhelmed at times and asking the Holy Spirit to help me. Two things happened that helped me see it all differently and accept the responsibility that is clearly mine. The first was that I realized I am responsible for the world I see, but I am not guilty of it.

This was an essential insight.

The only reason I was running from responsibility and trying to project it onto others was that I thought I was guilty. It was the guilt that was oppressing me, not the responsibility. Once I realized that I could not be guilty and could accept, at least to some degree, that I am the completely free Son of God and can have any experience I want, I felt the burden of guilt lift, and I could breathe again.

Once I was not afraid of my responsibility, I could see that this knowledge was my salvation. If I am responsible for everything, that means I can change my mind and undo what has been done. If my mind established everything I presently see, it can establish that which I now prefer to see. I do this through the Holy Spirit in my mind.

That brings me to the second really important understanding.

I do not heal my mind; the Holy Spirit does that on my behalf. I have an essential role to play, and that is to understand that I need healing and then desire and accept that healing. The rest is accomplished without my help. I think of this as setting aside all thinking and active participation. I sit quietly in God and invite healing to take place. Now I am open to healing, and I allow it to happen.

It sounds so easy, and it is easy. Yet, I still have some resistance. I see the ego mind trying to take a bigger part, but I no longer fall for that. I used to fear that nothing this easy could be valuable, but I have, through practice, come to realize the value of doing my simple part. And I used to see myself choosing to stay in the story, trying to find a solution there, being the one who succeeds. But now, more often than not, I see myself returning, over and over, to that quiet place in my mind, inviting the truth to join me there.

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