ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 13-15

ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 13-15

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 13

¹³ Children perceive frightening ghosts and monsters and dragons, and they are terrified. Yet if they ask someone they trust for the meaning of what they perceive, and are willing to let their own interpretations go in favor of reality, their fear goes with them. When a child is helped to translate his “ghost” into a curtain, his “monster” into a shadow, and his “dragon” into a dream he is no longer afraid, and laughs happily at his own fear.

I would become as a child and allow my frightening dreams to be re-interpreted for me by the Holy Spirit. Nor would I argue with His interpretation or doubt it. I would but accept it in complete trust that He knows what I have forgotten. It seems too often that I hear the ego first, and sometimes still believe what I hear. For a long time, I tried to follow my ego’s instructions as a solution to my problem, and this only kept me in the problem. Now, I practice listening to the Holy Spirit daily so that my first choice becomes the Holy Spirit rather than the ego.

I still believe in fear and guilt, but I am willing to let those beliefs be healed.

I do this through practice. All day, every day, I practice vigilance, and I practice choosing again. I ask for the Atonement, and I accept it as best as I can. Each effort on my part increases my willingness. This is the best use of time until finally we release the idea of time. The best use of the stories is to let them be seen differently until the mind is healed of guilt and fear. And then the stories change to stories of love, until they are finally released completely.

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 14

¹⁴ You, my child, are afraid of your brothers and of your Father and of yourself. But you are merely deceived in them. Ask what they are of the Teacher of Reality, and hearing His answer, you too will laugh at your fears and replace them with peace. For fear lies not in reality, but in the minds of children who do not understand reality. It is only their lack of understanding that frightens them, and when they learn to perceive truly they are not afraid. And because of this they will ask for truth again when they are frightened. It is not the reality of your brothers or your Father or yourself that frightens you. You do not know what they are, and so you perceive them as ghosts and monsters and dragons. Ask what their reality is from the One Who knows it, and He will tell you what they are. For you do not understand them, and because you are deceived by what you see you need reality to dispel your fears.

Jesus says I am afraid of my brothers, of my Father, and myself.

I am afraid because I don’t know who we are. As I remember that there are only two emotions, love and fear, I know that my anger, jealousy, guilt, and other negative emotions are really the only different forms that fear takes. I am not afraid of my brothers because of what they are but because I misunderstand what they are. I am wrong about them if I feel anything but joy when I think of them, but that can be corrected.

The problem lies in who I ask for clarity. If I ask the ego, I will get a fearful answer. If I ask the Teacher of Reality, I will remember who they are, and I will rejoice in that knowledge. My experience of this is that I receive the truth about our identity and I am so happy. Then I back away from that truth and ask the ego; I find I am again judging and so suffering. But as I continue this practice, I lose interest in the ego judgment, and I find it easier to ignore it when I hear it.

My guidance right now is to ask, “Who am I?”

I am to do this regardless of where I see the error. If I think my brother is wrong, I ask the Holy Spirit, “Who am I?” As I remember who I am, I know my brother’s true identity. The idea that there is some “other” to want, need, resent, hate, fear, or onto whom I could project guilt is burnt away in the light of purpose. Everyone is my brother/myself. Everything is in me. How can I be angry, fearful, or guilty when I realize that everyone and everything is me? 

This is why I need only heal my mind. I am the world, my brother, and I am what my Father is. As I know that I am innocent, I know that all else is innocent. This is what the Holy Spirit is teaching me. The ego is pushing hard against this, and while I hear the ego, I refuse to believe it.

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 15

¹⁵ Would you not exchange your fears for truth, if the exchange is yours for the asking? For if God is not deceived in you, you can be deceived only in yourself. Yet you can learn the truth about yourself from the Holy Spirit, Who will teach you that, as part of God, deceit in you is impossible. When you perceive yourself without deceit, you will accept the real world in place of the false one you have made. And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself.

I have an image I have made that I think of as “me.” It is described by all the words I use after “I am.” I am a woman, a mother, a minister. I am the very many concepts that are part of that description. The one who has fought depression many years of her life, one who has been scarred by events in her past, one who is not good with money and so has certain experiences and can expect more of the same.

This image is many-layered and very complex and seems to be the “me” I present to the world and the image I think of as myself, so I seem to feel a need to defend it. The only reason I still cling to any of these ideas of self is that I defend them against change, as if defending this image is my salvation.

What Jesus wants me to know is that I defend nothing. 

These are just thoughts; they are not what I am. When I believe any of them, even the very nice ones, the thoughtful and kind image, the loving and generous image, I am deceived in myself. None of it is me. I can stop defending this image because I am something else, and when I stop defending the false idea of “me,” the Holy Spirit will reveal my true self to me.

I need to know my true self before I can return to God. If God were to lean down toward me now, I cannot imagine my reaction. “I am unworthy” is such a strong belief in my mind that the idea of being raised unto God is more frightening than appealing. So, I practice what I am learning in A Course in Miracles. I open my mind and heart to the Holy Spirit and invite Him to teach me my true nature. I am being prepared for that last step. And every day, I feel the idea of unworthiness falling away.

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