ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 1, 2

VI. The Vision of Christ

1 The ego is trying to teach you how to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. The Holy Spirit teaches that you cannot lose your soul and there is no gain in the world, for of itself it profits nothing. To invest without profit is surely to impoverish yourself, and the overhead is high. Not only is there no profit in the investment, but the cost to you is enormous. For this investment costs you the world’s reality by denying yours, and gives you nothing in return. You cannot sell your soul, but you can sell your awareness of it. You cannot perceive your soul, but you will not know it while you perceive something else as more valuable.

I was reviewing Section III, The Investment in Reality, which talks about the real world. It says that we made the world we see by projecting ego thoughts from our mind. It also talks about the real world. Here again, Jesus is talking about the real world, or as he says here, “the world’s reality.” If I made the world I see with my ego thoughts, I can make a real world with the thoughts I think with God.

Yesterday I was annoyed with everything.

Because my thoughts have both power and consequences, I made an anxious, unpleasant world. I sold my soul, so to speak, and got nothing good in return. As the day went on and I realized what I was doing, I withdrew my projections and accepted responsibility for my own experience. Peace returned. My powerful, consequential thoughts added to reality rather than to illusion.

Yesterday is just an example of how I have made a world so completely unlike reality and also an example of how I can undo that world. The world we see is a reflection of our thoughts. To change the world, we must change our thoughts. As Jesus tells us elsewhere in the Course, it is a matter of motivation. As I have given my ego thoughts to the Holy Spirit to be healed and thus have seen how different the world can be, I am highly motivated to continue this process.

Another way this can happen is when I try to change the world from within the world.

I used to do this all the time. When my belief in lack was strong, I invested in earning more and more money. But no matter how much I earned, I never felt abundant because my foundation was the belief in lack. I invested my time in doing this and got nothing of value. I had more money but no more peace of mind.

It was the same with investing in this image. No matter how much effort I put into showing the world the image I wanted them to see, it was all a poor investment, yielding nothing. I was building on shifting sand because I was trying to make a better image over the one I didn’t like. It makes me laugh now. It was like I was trying to put lipstick on a pig and call it a success. I might have fooled someone, but I gained nothing from my investment because I didn’t believe in it. The fear I was unworthy was reinforced by my frantic efforts to disguise it.

Right now, the world is unstable for me. The world can occasionally be seen as a frightening, vengeful place. But as my mind has healed, I have also seen a safe world that loves me and supports me. The only thing that changed is my mind. What kind of world do you think we will see when all of us have experienced this change of mind?

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 2

2 The Holy Spirit is your strength because He knows nothing but the spirit as you. He is perfectly aware that you do not know yourself, and perfectly aware of how to teach you to remember what you are. Because He loves you, He will gladly teach you what He loves, for He wills to share it. Remembering you always, He cannot let you forget your worth. For the Father never ceases to remind Him of His Son, and He never ceases to remind His Son of the Father. God is in your memory because of Him. You chose to forget your Father but you do not really want to do so, and therefore you can decide otherwise. As it was my decision, so is it yours.

In Lesson 70 Jesus says we are our own salvation and nothing outside us saves us. The Holy Spirit is not outside us. He is part of us, in our mind, to help us remember the truth of our nature and with us forever to protect our holy mind. He is the memory of God and the memory of us, what we are as part of God. He knows we have forgotten our Self, but He only knows us as we are.

God is the source of the Holy Spirit’s knowing and the Holy Spirit is the source of our knowing.

We chose forgetfulness, but through the Holy Spirit we are choosing awakening to the truth. Jesus has done this already, and so it is done for us as we are all one. All that is left is for us to accept our awakening.

Jesus gave us A Course in Miracles to help us understand that there is nothing in the illusion worth keeping, that we want to wake up from this dream, that it is safe to do so, and that we can do so. All we have to do is follow his simple instructions, and as our mind heals, we naturally change our minds and choose God. There is nothing we need do to be what we are, and we have unlimited help to do what must be undone in order to remember our Divinity.

It seems so simple to do this work and so inevitable that I will awaken. I wonder how it is that I keep returning my mind to my ego story. I see I must still believe it has some value to me. I was reading something I wrote a while back and laughed because it made clear why I think I need the ego. Here is what I said.

All along, I have a true will, the will I share with God.

It sits alongside the small personal will that I have been listening to. I can reclaim my true will by simply desiring to do so. Sometimes, I think that I have done this, and I feel such joy and peace you wouldn’t believe. I cannot imagine why I ever wanted a separate will.

Then I return to my separate made-up self, and again, I am enthralled with the idea that I need it. I think I need to defend myself against a co-worker, and I cannot use God’s Will to attack, so I pick up my little self-will again. Or I think that I need to look different, or I need more money, or I believe I am guilty, and God’s Will does not recognize any of this as true, so I turn to the little will. It brings me proof that I am right to be afraid and offers me lifetimes of advice that has never met a single one of these needs.”

Ha ha! Why do I keep falling for this? Well, today is a new day, a clean slate. I am willing to look at whatever shows up in my mind that I still believe and think I need. “Holy Spirit, I ask for your constant guidance today. Look with me at all these silly thoughts and correct them for me. I want only the truth. With your help today, I will not defend or attack. I will be vigilant for guilt and will release those thoughts to you. I will accept that I am safe and loved. May I be always attuned to your loving and protective presence. Thank you.”

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