ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 3-5

ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 3-5

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 3

3 You do not want the world. The only thing of value in it is whatever part of it you look upon with love. This gives it the only reality it will ever have. Its value is not in itself, but yours is in you. As self-value comes from self-extension, so does the perception of self-value come from the extension of loving thoughts outward. Make the world real unto yourself, for the real world is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so it belongs to you.

Jesus is making a clear distinction between the world as we typically see it and the real world, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When I see someone as an enemy, my difficult neighbor, or the woman who rushed to grab the parking space I was clearly moving toward, I see the world I made. If I am angry at something done to me or to anyone else, if I am afraid of something happening in the world, terrorists or thieves, then I am looking at the world I made with the ego.

As I begin to ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of these ego thoughts, I extend love instead of hate and fear, and I start to see the real world. That is how it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is as He heals my mind that I see the world differently.  What I see of the ego world is not real and not there. It is a picture of my beliefs but not of reality.

Is the real world real? Does it exist outside my mind?

I think I understand that the only value the world has, and its only reality, is the love with which I look upon it. It is the love that I extend that has value, and that is real.  Before I know reality, I will know the real world. It is like a step I take, a stop I make on the way home.

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 4

4 Correction is for all who cannot see. To open the eyes of the blind is the Holy Spirit’s mission, for He knows that they have not lost their vision, but merely sleep. He would awaken them from the sleep of forgetting to the remembering of God. Christ’s eyes are open, and He will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours. The Holy Spirit keeps the vision of Christ for every Son of God who sleeps. In His sight the Son of God is perfect, and He longs to share His vision with you. He will show you the real world because God gave you Heaven. Through Him your Father calls His Son to remember. The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the real world, and by this he will learn to re-invest in himself. For reality is one with the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit blesses the real world in Their Name.

Christ will look at what I see with love; this will be the real world.

My eyes will be opened to the truth and how glorious it will be to see my illusion transformed! This is not hard because nothing needs to change, really. My eyes are closed in sleep, and I dream of conflict, anger, fear, and guilt. I am being awakened ever so gently by one who knows me and loves me.

Christ is awake, and He sees the real world, and He will share that vision with me. But for me to see it, I must become convinced that what I see now is not reality. Then, I must become convinced that I don’t have to see it anymore and that I don’t want to see it. Until I believe this, I will keep my eyes closed and continue to dream.

I am ready to wake up, though. That is why the Course is in my life and why I do the work asked of me. I look at my story and realize it reflects the beliefs I hold in my mind. I ask the Holy Spirit what it all means, and He judges it as all simply not true. It is not true. I am not vulnerable. I am not a victim. Nor am I sad or afraid. The world is not a threat. No people are attacking me, and I don’t want to attack them.

That is the simple truth.

I mostly believe it now because I am no longer in a deep sleep. I am rousing from my long slumber. But I still am not fully awake, so I continue to dream and sometimes become confused about the dreams and believe in them. Some ideas still attract me, and some stories still scare me. But I continue to look with the Holy Spirit, and my sleep becomes lighter, reality closer. God so loves me that through the Holy Spirit He blesses the world I made, and the ego world is transformed right before my eyes.

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 5

5 When you have seen this real world, as you will surely do, you will remember us. Yet you must learn the cost of sleeping, and refuse to pay it. Only then will you decide to awaken. And then the real world will spring to your sight, for Christ has never slept. He is waiting to be seen, for He has never lost sight of you. He looks quietly on the real world, which He would share with you because He knows of the Father’s Love for Him. And knowing this, He would give you what is yours. In perfect peace He waits for you at His Father’s altar, holding out the Father’s Love to you in the quiet light of the Holy Spirit’s blessing. For the Holy Spirit will lead everyone home to his Father, where Christ waits as His Self.

I can wake up and see the real world,

Jesus says, but first, I must learn what it is costing me to remain in the dream and then, as he says, refuse to pay it. I am now fully aware of that cost. It includes sadness, fear, and guilt.  In the dream, instead of being joyful, I am depressed. Instead of being satisfied and complete, I am empty and searching, always searching. Instead of seeing love everywhere I look, I see enemies and the need to defend myself. I am always looking for someone to blame, always trying solutions that never really work.

So, I am fully aware of the cost of sleeping and dreaming of separation. I also know how to back out of this dream and have begun to wake up. When I see an enemy, I ask the Holy Spirit who it is in front of me. I am told that it is Christ, and I ask to see him. According to my willingness to step back from my own personal judgments, I see something holy and am forever changed. Never again is reality as obscured as it was before. I just keep doing this with every false picture. The joy and peace that I experienced are strong motivations to continue.

Sometimes, it feels like it is slow going and that I will never do this.

Knowing what I know, I cannot even imagine why I would still prefer to keep this little ego idea intact. If I don’t understand why I want the little self, how will I ever be free of it? Then I start to think I really do want the self, and maybe this is all a trick by God to get me close enough to punish me and snatch my self away from me. Ha ha. This is the ego mind asking these questions and applying its twisted logic to something it can’t understand. The ego figures, if you can’t beat them, join them, so it studies the Course along with me, “trying” to help. Not interested!

Here is what has helped me get on course and stay there with as few side trips into ego land as possible. I have one purpose, and that is the peace of God. Every time I notice that I have taken up a different goal than the peace of God, I stop myself and remember… one goal, one purpose, one function. I want the peace of God because that is a peace that cannot be undone. Nothing can touch the peace of God.

I know this is true because I have experienced it.

I have experienced great personal loss and remained in perfect peace, untouched by that loss—the same goes for strife. And I have experienced the idea that someone wanted to attack me and knew that the result of this attack would change things, and still, my peace remained untouched. The peace of God is independent of what seems to be happening in the world.

I have also turned my back on that peace and submerged myself in the drama of the moment. This happens as soon as I forget my one goal and take up another. I am doing my job and enjoying my students and the fellowship of my friends, and then I will hear some words or have some thoughts, and suddenly, I am on alert. Is that an attack, I wonder? I mentally begin my preparations for battle.

Now, I have another goal, and that is to defend myself. And just like that, I have sold the peace of God. But hey, I’m back in charge. I’m my “self” again. I know what to do here because I’ve learned a lot about attack and defense in my 75 years of practice. I feel comfortable in that old role as I suit up for the fight. But I also feel anxious and afraid and flooded with memories of past experiences that often turned out badly.

These days, I pretty quickly change my mind.

That peace of God stuff is something else! It is very compelling. I miss it even though I have given it away myself. I miss it right away. Thank God, very literally, for the Holy Spirit, Who waits patiently in my mind for me to come to my senses and ask for His help. The peace of God is mine as soon as that is all I want. It doesn’t take long for me to remember that it really is all I want.

I don’t know how much longer I will fall for the ego’s desire for self-sufficiency and drama, but I know what to do about it, and I will do it. These days, I slip into an ego story only once in a while, and I extricate myself pretty quickly. The peace of God is my only goal, even when I momentarily forget and think I also have another goal.