ACIM Chapter 11. VII. The Condition of Reality, P 3, 4

ACIM Chapter 11. VII. The Condition of Reality, P 3, 4

VII. The Condition of Reality, P 3

3 The ego may see some good, but never only good. That is why its perceptions are so variable. It does not reject goodness entirely, for that you could not accept. But it always adds something that is not real to the real, thus confusing illusion and reality. For perceptions cannot be partly true. If you believe in truth and illusion, you cannot tell which is true. To establish your personal autonomy you tried to create unlike your Father, believing that what you made is capable of being unlike Him. Yet everything true is like Him. Perceiving only the real world will lead you to the real Heaven, because it will make you capable of understanding it.

As I read that the ego always adds something that is not real to the real and thus creates confusion, I am reminded of the ego version of forgiveness. Let’s consider how the ego forgives. It makes the sin real and then tries to forgive it. For instance, when I was holding a grievance against my co-worker, I tried to forgive him. I tried over and over to forgive him and to forgive myself for judging him.

I would think about the words and the behavior that I found threatening.

He was, in my mind, symbolic of the young replacing the old, which in this case happened to be me. He was also symbolic of the victimizer and the proof I was unfairly treated. There, I had defined the problem, labeled it properly and thus made my grievance real. Now all I had to do was forgive it. Well, good luck with that! I have only confused myself by trying to believe in innocence and guilt.

How can I forgive what I really believe is true? I can only offer feeble attempts to explain away the guilt I believe in, make excuses for the behavior I hate, and thus make the reality of it stronger in my mind. This is the ego attempt at forgiveness. The desire to forgive is true, and the belief that there is anything to forgive is not true, so I was at an impasse, and for a long time, nothing happened other than I was frustrated at my failed attempts to experience true forgiveness.

Finally, I chipped away at the problem through my commitment to not give up.

I kept asking for healing until my willingness was strong enough to mean that I wanted healing and only healing. I lost interest in everything except forgiveness. This was the permission the Holy Spirit was waiting for, and He did His part in removing from my mind the belief that I needed someone to be guilty. In other words, he removed what was not real, my belief that my co-worker was truly guilty, and what was left was only the truth, which was forgiveness.

As I continue to allow my mind to be cleansed of all that is not true, I am left with only truth. I do this here in the illusion because it prepares me to accept Heaven. It makes a place in my mind that is free of illusion so that I will understand Heaven. If Heaven is within and I can’t find it, it must be that I don’t understand it. But that is changing as I continue to release what is not true and allow my mind to be healed.

VII. The Condition of Reality, P 4

4 The perception of goodness is not knowledge, but the denial of the opposite of goodness enables you to recognize a condition in which opposites do not exist. And this is the condition of knowledge. Without this awareness you have not met its conditions, and until you do you will not know it is yours already. You have made many ideas that you have placed between yourself and your Creator, and these beliefs are the world as you perceive it. Truth is not absent here, but it is obscure. You do not know the difference between what you have made and what God created, and so you do not know the difference between what you have made and what you have created. To believe that you can perceive the real world is to believe that you can know yourself. You can know God because it is His Will to be known. The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for you out of what you have made, and to perceive only this is salvation, because it is the recognition that reality is only what is true.

It is up to me how I see the world.

I cannot perceive the real world if my attention is focused on the illusory world. To be free of the illusion, I must no longer desire it. I must desire only what is real. From that desire, I am led to release to the Holy Spirit all that is not truth. He remembers the truth for me and will show it to me when that becomes what I want. The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for me out of what I made. Salvation is the willingness to perceive only this.

Here is something I wrote about some years ago.

It is a really good example of how I dealt with some irrational but very strong fear. It also reminds me of how real the fear feels in the moment. The truth is, I can’t remember anything about this situation now that it is over; nothing happened, and time has passed. But I have since had similar experiences, and I am grateful that I have learned to trust what Jesus tells us in his book.

I was reading in the paper this morning some comments people made about the refugees being placed in our towns. I see that some people have so much fear they cannot conceive of allowing these people into their states. It seems insane to them to even consider it. Their fear is all that drives them and so the world they see is a frightening place in need of constant defense. Their fear will not let them see how their Christian values, such as “what you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me” and “do unto your neighbors as you would have them do unto you,” apply here.

Then there are some who seem to know that they should be generous and provide refuge but who are afraid to do so. They justify the fear they feel by saying things like, “We don’t hate the ones that would come, but love those who are here.” It is still fear-driven thoughts and behavior, but there is also a glimmer of truth in their minds. They know on some level that love is important but fear is still too strong in their minds to choose only love.

Then, there were comments from those who spoke from reason.

These people are in need; they have been vetted, and we should open our hearts to them. It is the right thing to do and the American way. I have been looking within my own heart. What do I feel? I know that what is fear is not God and not the real world. Fear is always the ego mind and the ego world. Which one will I choose to perceive? It matters because the choice I make determines my happiness and either pulls us all more deeply into the illusion or lifts us all a little more into the Kingdom.

The words I say about this, knowing how I should feel, are not the same as believing them, so I choose to be honest, and from that, honesty allows healing of all that is not truth. It seems like we should accept these people, give them comfort, and help them to make a new life. I also feel trepidation. I feel afraid. What if one of them is a terrorist plant that evaded the scrutiny of the government, and in inviting them in, I have invited the wolf to take refuge among the sheep?

The fear in my heart is the illusion I made. It is the ego.

It is also the veil that keeps me from seeing the real world and from returning my mind to God. I cannot enter His presence if I attack His Son, and these refugees are His Son. Looking at them in fear is an attack. What do I do with the fear thoughts that are blocking love?

I made fear and so I believe in it, and as Jesus tells us in the Course, what we believe in is true for us. That is why I cannot undo fear in my mind. I can see the fear and recognize the harm it does. I can know that fear blocks all that is true and good and that it keeps me in the dark. And I can know that I cannot have both fear and joy and that I must choose what it is I really want. But I cannot destroy or change what I believe to be true.

The solution is to turn to the Holy Spirit, who is in my mind for that purpose.

It is His function to undo for me what I no longer want to believe. I give Him the fear in my mind. I put it on the altar within all the fearful thoughts, all the justifications, all the judgments about this issue. And I ask for the Atonement as I set it all next to Him. I trust in His power to undo what I have done in making a world unlike Heaven.

There. I have done my part and now I wait in trust for the Holy Spirit to do His. The ego mind argues against this and tries to show that there is no way to see this differently. It argues for common sense. It argues for separation, at least in this case. I am willing to perceive only the truth. It is not necessary that I figure out what that looks like or how it could work. I only need to put my trust in God rather than the ego. The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for me out of what I made. Salvation is the willingness to perceive only this. I am willing.

And as it turned out, there really was nothing to fear. LOL.

To listen to Regina Dawn Akers talk about letting go of fear, CLICK HERE.