ACIM Chapter 12. II. The Way to Remember God, P 1, 2
ACIM Chapter 12. II. The Way to Remember God, P 1, 2
II. The Way to Remember God, P 1
1 Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. If to love oneself is to heal oneself, those who are sick do not love themselves. Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are denying to themselves. If they knew the truth about themselves they could not be sick. The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth. The sick must heal themselves, for the truth is in them. Yet having obscured it, the light in another mind must shine into theirs because that light is theirs.
“Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth.” I think the reason they seem so extraordinary at times is that we are so confused about what is the truth and what is an illusion. So, if someone has cancer and seems to be near death and then they are healed and completely recovered, this seems like something so miraculous we can hardly believe it. In fact, the ego mind will start by being astounded but then often tries to find explanations that make more sense to it.
But here is what really happens.
The mind is so confused it thinks that we are something that can be sick and die. Further, it takes a miracle of science to change that, and often, there is no miracle yet discovered by man, and so sickness leads to death. This mind is in denial of the truth.
It denies that we are the Son of God, that we are invulnerable, that we are spirit, not body. It denies that the mind is the maker of all things experienced in form and, therefore, the maker of the appearance of sickness and death and so can undo that choice. Thus, it now becomes the function of the mind to deny the denial of truth and that appears as a miracle to the confused mind, but it is merely the return to reality.
Why would the mind choose pain and suffering and even death?
It is because, in its confused state, it does not love itself. So, sickness of any kind, of the body, of relationships, of any form within the world that does not reflect perfection, is a call for the love that would heal them. If I am afraid that I will not have enough money, that is a call for the love that would heal my belief in lack.
If I have a grievance against someone, that is a call for love that would heal my mind of the belief that I am a victim of that person. And if I hurt my body in an accident, that is a call for love that would heal my belief that I am guilty and deserving of pain. In each case, I have denied the truth about myself, and I need a miracle that will deny the denial of truth. I need to heal myself, and I can heal myself because the truth is in me.
But what if the truth is obscured by my confusion? What if I cannot see the light in my mind? Then, you can heal me by shining the light of truth into my mind and clearing the darkness so that I will again be aware of the truth. If sickness is just the denial of truth, then healing is simple and easily accomplished. The degree of or type of sickness is irrelevant. It is a denial of truth regardless of the form it takes. All that needs to be done is to deny the denial of truth.
This is how we pray for each other.
We look at the form the denial of truth has taken and know that it is meaningless. We know that poverty, broken relationships, and cancer are just reflections of a mistake in thought, and none of them are true. When I think I am sick, please do this for me. Shine the light of truth from your mind into mine.
Do not feel sorry for me. Do not recommend an alternative healing. And do not fear for me. Just know that I have denied the truth of my being and am now confused to the point of sickness. Know that I have the Solution, the Answer to my problem, and it is in my mind. This is the way I would hope someone would pray for me and this is the way I pray for anyone who needs my prayer.
I see the appearance of a confused thought, and I know that while this is their experience, it isn’t truth. I see the reality of their identity as the Son of God and know that this is the only thing that is true. This is the light of truth coming from my mind, shining away the darkness that has temporarily obscured the light in theirs.
II. The Way to Remember God, P 2
2 The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none. For it has power only if the Son of God gives power to it. He must himself withdraw that power, remembering that all power is of God. You can remember this for all the Sonship. Do not allow your brother not to remember, for his forgetfulness is yours. But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. This is what you have forgotten. To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God. For you forgot your brothers with Him, and God’s Answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember.
We have obscured the light in our mind with our ego beliefs.
But we have done nothing to the light itself. It shines as brightly as ever. The fog that covers the light is of our own making, and we can dispel it simply by changing our minds. The fog has no power other than the power we give it through our desire for it to be there.
As we are trying to wake up now, it seems strange that we would be deliberately obscuring the light, but this is what is happening. The reason it is happening is that the mind is still split. There is still a part of the mind that wants its own special separate self to continue as if it exists, and it wants its own thoughts and it wants to decide for itself the meaning of existence. This part of the mind stands in opposition to awakening and clouds the truth to maintain the illusion.
But this separate part of the mind is not an opponent but simply a choice within the one mind. We made a choice to have an experience, and that choice plays out over and over in many different ways until we decide to make a different choice. So, we are not at war with something outside our mind, nor are we at war with ourselves. We are simply viewing options and deciding what it is we most deeply desire.
Confusing situations occur when we forget who we are.
We become identified with the ego mind and think that ceding power to the God Mind is to lose. In truth, there is no ego mind. It is an illusion. We are part of the God Mind, and to surrender to that choice is to gain everything we gave up to have this crazy little experience.
We gave the fog power to obscure our reality, and now we must withdraw that power. And we are doing that now. We continue the process each time we choose to turn from ego thinking to God-knowing. Separation is the theme of the illusion, and so as we join, we undo the illusion. In other words, we undo separation through joining.
I know the truth for my brother, and this teaches me the truth about myself. See how perfect the plan is for our return to God? We chose the idea of separation as our illusion; now, we choose the idea of unity to return to reality. My brother thinks he is sick, and I shine the light of truth into his mind to heal him.
The very idea of this awakens the memory of unity in my mind.
As Jesus says: “…for his forgetfulness is yours. But your remembering is his, for God cannot be remembered alone. This is what you have forgotten.” And remembering I am healed with my brother and he is healed with me is the way to remember God. Did I ever think that my brother’s awakening had nothing to do with me?
Sometimes, I envision it like this. When we thought about the idea of separation, our mind projected a picture of the Sonship being shattered into billions of pieces and scattering across the landscape of our vast and holy mind. Now that we have decided to awaken from that strange and impossible dream, when we see the many forms those pieces of ourselves took, we are beginning to recognize them for what they really are. In the recognition of our self in them, we are gathering them back into the wholeness that we really are. We do this as we see that each one of the pieces represents a lack of love, and as we supply that love, our scattered piece flows naturally back into the Oneness of the Father and His Son.
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