ACIM Chapter 11. God or the Ego. Introduction P 3, 4

ACIM Chapter 11. God or the Ego. Introduction P 3, 4

Introduction, P 3

³ You make by projection, but God creates by extension. The cornerstone of God’s creation is you, for His thought system is light. Remember the Rays that are there unseen. The more you approach the center of His thought system, the clearer the light becomes. The closer you come to the foundation of the ego’s thought system, the darker and more obscure becomes the way. Yet even the little spark in your mind is enough to lighten it. Bring this light fearlessly with you, and bravely hold it up to the foundation of the ego’s thought system. Be willing to judge it with perfect honesty. Open the dark cornerstone of terror on which it rests, and bring it out into the light. There you will see that it rested on meaninglessness, and that everything of which you have been afraid was based on nothing.

Jesus tells us that we must look at our dark thoughts with the Holy Spirit before they can be removed, and in this paragraph, he explains it in a different way. He says that the ego thought system is dark, while God’s thought system is light. The closer we get to the center of His thought system, the clearer the light becomes, and the closer we get to the ego system, the darker and more obscure becomes the way.

The Great Rays may be unseen, but we do have a little spark in our minds. and it is enough. We can approach the darkness in our minds with confidence as we hold this light to the ego’s dark foundation. I am reminded of the song that says, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” So, what does this look like in my life?

I woke up in the night with a bad headache.

I lay there watching my thoughts about this. My mind moved toward the ego and I thought about how often this happens and how often I have other pains and misery in my body. I thought about how often I have tried to see this differently, and yet, here it is again. It felt discouraging. I wondered what it all meant and thought I should just get up and take an aspirin. What difference does it make anyway?

Then I shined my little light on these dark thoughts, and I waited for the light to show me what the darkness had hidden. I began to notice A Course in Miracles playing on my iPod. As I listened, I felt soothed and then encouraged by the words I was hearing. The headache receded to the background and no longer felt important. Again, I thought about getting an aspirin, but decided to wait to see if I really needed it. And I fell back to sleep listening to Jesus’ words.

I woke up happy, and the confusion and darkness of the ego thought system shone away. I sit here now, writing about this, and feel waves of peace and joy flowing through me. Last night, I didn’t need a lot of words or explanations. I just needed to experience the Light of God shining in me, and that was enough to know everything else was meaningless.

Introduction, P 4

⁴ My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have at last looked at the ego’s foundation without shrinking you will also have looked upon ours. I come to you from our Father to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for its protection will not save you. I give you the lamp and I will go with you. You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you, as I have. Will you not answer the call of love with joy?

“Oh, Jesus, I love you so much! Thank you, thank you!”

Jesus has given us the lamp and goes with us; we are not alone in this journey. Oh my gosh! I want to walk that path with him and go home. So, I will shine that light on every dark corner of the mind and do so gladly. I ask that I be shone any dark thought that I have been hiding from myself.

I used to be nervous about asking to see my dark thoughts indiscriminately.

because I was afraid I would be overwhelmed. I have come to fully trust the Holy Spirit, though, and so I am not afraid to ask. He will give me exactly what is right for me now and will never lead me to look at something I am not ready for. Also, I have experienced this looking business enough to know that I will come out of it unscathed and, very likely, healed.

There used to be the belief that I must keep my dark thoughts hidden to protect myself. Just as I had thoughts I didn’t want you to see, I had darker thoughts I didn’t want even myself to see, much less God. This is ridiculous, of course, as “my” thoughts are those in the one mind. There are no private thoughts. And could there be something unknown to the Holy Spirit? Really, I hid only from my own self, and that self is only pretending not to know what is there.

Jesus says that we don’t need to be afraid of the thoughts in the mind.

No matter how dark they might be, it is safe to look. My experience has been that looking at them with the Holy Spirit dispels the fear and guilt associated with the thoughts. They often become laughable after my mind is healed; sometimes, I cannot even bring them to mind. It seems that when the thought is removed from the mind, it is truly gone. If I remember the thought at all, it has no meaning to me, no charge. It is like remembering something I read about some character in a book.

So, I encourage us all to take Jesus up on his offer. Let him give us the lamp and walk us through this process of looking with the Holy Spirit at every dark corner of the mind. We all know what happens to darkness when the light comes on. When the light is focused on all that is in the mind, it will reveal to us our Father and our relationship with Him. We will see that, truly, there is only God, and we are in Him. This will no longer be an idea, a lofty concept, but will be our experience. Can you imagine!

A Course in Miracles Practitioner Training courses by Pathways of Light are a great way to apply the Course to your life. To learn more, CLICK HERE.