ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 6, 7

ACIM Chapter 12. VI. The Vision of Christ, P 6, 7

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 6

6 Every child of God is one in Christ, for his being is in Christ as Christ’s is in God. Christ’s Love for you is His Love for His Father, which He knows because He knows His Father’s Love for Him. When the Holy Spirit has at last led you to Christ at the altar to His Father, perception fuses into knowledge because perception has become so holy that its transfer to holiness is merely its natural extension. Love transfers to love without any interference, for the two are one. As you perceive more and more common elements in all situations, the transfer of training under the Holy Spirit’s guidance increases and becomes generalized. Gradually you learn to apply it to everyone and everything, for its applicability is universal. When this has been accomplished, perception and knowledge have become so similar that they share the unification of the laws of God.

Jesus says that as I perceive more and more common elements in all situations, the transfer of training under the Holy Spirit’s guidance increases and becomes more generalized. This is when I start to apply it to everyone and everything. 

I see this generalization as meaning that all things I see with my eyes are really just symbols of what is going on in my mind. All errors I see in my brother are errors I see in my own mind and then project onto my brother. All fearful situations in my life are manifestations of the fear in my mind. I know this is true all the time and in all situations.

Perception and knowledge are not yet one in my mind because I still resist.

It is a kind of passive resistance as I pretend I don’t understand why and how this is all happening “to” me. Once I see what I am doing, it never fails to make me laugh. “Fell for it again, ego, but now that I see it, I will not so readily succumb to the old ego story again next time.” And this is how the transfer of training increases and becomes more generalized.

Here is an example. Through the Course, I learned that my anger is really fear. As I become open to knowing this and more ready to be taught, the Holy Spirit shows me how this works. I saw that I was angry with my boss, and I asked the Holy Spirit how this was fear. It sure seemed like he was a jerk, and I had every justification for my anger. Then, as I opened my mind, I saw the fear in my boss and understood why he was being a jerk. Then I saw the fear in my mind as I felt helpless in the face of his behavior. So, it’s true, anger in this case, or rather in both of our cases, was just fear.

Another time, I was angry with my ex-husband.

More than ever, I saw his actions and words as the cause of my anger. I felt completely justified in seeing him guilty of making me angry. But I had been shown something different before, and so I was willing to be shown again.

When I asked what the Holy Spirit saw when He looked at this situation, I understood that it was confusion. We were both lost in the darkness of our own thoughts and didn’t know how to get out. We were children who had wandered off to play and stayed out too late. Now, it was night, and we couldn’t find our way home. We blamed each other for this predicament because we were afraid and didn’t know what to do.

Each time in my life when I have brought my anger to the Holy Spirit and asked for a different interpretation, He has shown me the fear. Eventually, looking for the fear became second nature, and now I do it all the time. It is so much easier to forgive frightened children than to face down angry enemies. It was easy to forgive my ex-husband when I realized he was just acting out of his fear because I know how that feels.

I do this with all of the Holy Spirit’s lessons.

I practice what He would have me do until I begin to see His lesson in every circumstance. And I practice the solution until it becomes obvious, and I practice it until it becomes something I want more than the problem. Thus, I learned to trust even in those circumstances that seem obscure because I now believe in the solution, and I believe it always works. I have achieved transfer of learning.

VI. The Vision of Christ, P 7

7 What is one cannot be perceived as separate, and the denial of the separation is the reinstatement of knowledge. At the altar of God, the holy perception of God’s Son becomes so enlightened that light streams into it, and the spirit of God’s Son shines in the Mind of the Father and becomes one with it. Very gently does God shine upon Himself, loving the extension of Himself that is His Son. The world has no purpose as it blends into the purpose of God. For the real world has slipped quietly into Heaven, where everything eternal in it has always been. There the Redeemer and the redeemed join in perfect love of God and of each other. Heaven is your home, and being in God it must also be in you.

Over the last few days, the ego has not found very much in my mind to hold onto because my mind has been very clear. So last night, when it found a guilty thought, it made the most of it, bringing it to my attention first thing this morning and building on it as I went about my business. Very quickly, my ego works to break down all that I have gained, encouraging doubt and uncertainty and inflating the little guilty thought into an unforgivable sin. The ego mind is not my real mind, but it is fully dedicated to separation and never wavers from its intent, and it works diligently to convince me that it is my only self.

But my will is the Will of God and cannot be distorted unless that is my choice.

I am under no laws but God’s and cannot be governed by an alien will. Today’s paragraph is a powerful reminder of my true Self. I bring the guilty thought, this nothing of a thought, to the altar, my gift to God. In the light of God, I easily ignore the ego interpretation of what this thought means and accept that I am, with God, the light of the world. In the story, the character I dream about gets confused, worries, and frets, and acts out of fear and guilt. But I am not that. I am the extension of God, and I am loved by my Creator.

I stand at the altar this morning and surrender myself to Him as I dedicate this day to His Will. And He simply loves me. I am overwhelmed. I am crying. Where is guilt now? What meaning can guilt have in the face of such power and such love? What meaning the world? “Very gently does God shine upon Himself, loving the extension of Himself that is His Son.” And tears turn to laughter as I take this in. I am the extension of God. What influence can the ego mind have over the extension of God?

I had a problem once, for a brief instant of time, and the Father answered that problem.

He placed the solution in my mind next to the problem, where I could always find it when I was ready for it. In my imagination, I had conceived of a plan to experience myself differently from reality.

I saw myself as if I were separate from Love and watched that unfold into an imaginary world of separation. I have remained perfectly safe as I have experienced this strange and impossible world. All the time, the solution remained in my mind, waiting for my acceptance. I accept the solution now. I welcome it gladly, and as I do so, I am awakening from this strange dream. Thank you, God. I love you, God.

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