ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 11, 12

ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 11, 12

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 11

¹¹ Do not accept your brother’s variable perception of himself for his split mind is yours, and you will not accept your healing without his. For you share the real world as you share Heaven, and his healing is yours. To love yourself is to heal yourself, and you cannot perceive part of you as sick and achieve your goal. Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together. Be not deceived in God’s Son, for he is one with himself and one with his Father. Love him who is beloved of his Father, and you will learn of the Father’s Love for you.

I am deceived in my brother if I believe anything about him that is not the truth.

Anything that is not what God created. I can see the ego behavior, but if I believe that he is his behavior, then I am deceived in him and will be deceived in myself and God as well since we are one. I was reading an earlier entry in my journal this morning and came across this.

This is what I want. I want to see each person with the same vision I see my children. No matter what my children do or say, I know they are wonderful. I know they are perfect beneath their behavior. Their behavior is an illusion based on false beliefs and has nothing to do with who they are. It is insignificant next to their reality.

 If they behave badly, I disregard it and continue to see only the love that they are. Now that I have become very good at this, I am learning to see others in the same way. This is one of the ways that I am removing the blocks that keep me from remembering God and remembering my Self.

What I had written about how I see my children is an example of seeing with Christ Vision.

And it is the way I want to see everyone. In seeing others in this way, I am healing them and healing myself. Healing does not require that anything be changed, only that we learn to choose to see what is actually there rather than the illusion we see when we judge.

Jesus tells us this very often throughout the Course. I don’t always do this. Sometimes, I choose to believe my judgments, and when this happens, forgiveness is needed. I need to forgive what I see and what I think so that we might both experience healing. This is the way healing occurs, and it is a miracle.

For this to be successful, I must accept that there are to be no exceptions in my life. Everyone, regardless of their behavior and regardless of my ego interpretations of their behavior, is a perfect and holy Son of God. I must be willing to accept, without compromise, the healing of my mind that the Holy Spirit offers me. I must learn that I want this by asking for it and accepting it.

Jesus says that I must learn to love myself.

I have noticed that it is impossible to love my brother if I don’t love myself. If I feel bad about myself, guilty, or afraid, I project my feelings onto my brother and attack him for them. So, what do I do when I am caught in this cycle?

Actually, it is simple. Just jump in wherever I notice the error. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of whatever error I notice, and I accept His healing as quickly as I can. I trust that all will be undone, my judgment against myself and my judgment against my brother, because they are the same thing, really.

And here is my favorite sentence in this paragraph. “Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together.” I recognize this as both necessary and beautiful. I want this to be my reality all the time, so I am going to use it as a sweet reminder whenever I am tempted to be deceived in my brother.

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 12

¹² If you perceive offense in a brother pluck the offense from your mind, for you are offended by Christ and are deceived in Him. Heal in Christ and be not offended by Him, for there is no offense in Him. If what you perceive offends you, you are offended in yourself and are condemning God’s Son whom God condemneth not. Let the Holy Spirit remove all offenses of God’s Son against himself and perceive no one but through His guidance, for He would save you from all condemnation. Accept His healing power and use it for all He sends you, for He wills to heal the Son of God, in whom He is not deceived

If my brother offends me, it can only be that I believe in the illusion I see rather than in his reality and interpret that illusion according to my own skewed beliefs. My solution is to allow my mind to be healed. Then, I will see differently and interpret according to the Holy Spirit. I will recognize Christ in my brother, and in so doing, I will heal both him and myself.

I am reminded that everything someone says is interpreted by me.

Those words pass through the filter of my beliefs. All I hear are my beliefs seemingly coming from someone else. So, suppose a friend says to me that she thinks I should lose weight. If I believe I am my body and thus am identified with the body, and if I think too much body is bad or shameful, I might hear, “You are too fat and ugly. You should do something about it.” Or if my mind is healed, and I know I am spirit only and the body is a vehicle I use, I might hear, “Your vehicle might work better if you lose weight.” And I would be grateful for the advice.

Even if someone doesn’t like me and speaks harshly, I will interpret it from my split mind or my right mind. My split mind sees the other person as hurtful. I would see her as guilty. In looking for a solution to my hurt feelings, my ego would tell me to stay away from her and get my other friends to join me in isolating her. Or I can look at the situation with my right mind and recognize a call for love and so give love. Instead of trying to make her feel guilty, my unaffected response would show her she was innocent. I learn what I teach, so I always want to teach what we are in truth.

No matter what we do or think or say in this illusory experience, the Holy Spirit knows the truth of our nature.

He knows we were created by God like God and that this cannot be altered, not even by the seemingly endless dreams of separation. We can rack up lifetime after lifetime of unreal experiences, but nothing changes. We are still holy, still perfect innocence.

The Holy Spirit, through His unwavering certainty, saves us from all condemnation. I accept His healing power as He sends it to me, and I offer it to my brothers in place of my offense. As I allow the Holy Spirit to remove all offenses from my mind, I am free to offer this healing to everyone sent to me for that purpose. I am a link in the chain of forgiveness that frees us all.

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