ACIM Chapter 13. VIII. From Perception to Knowledge, P 3-5

ACIM Chapter 13. VIII. From Perception to Knowledge, P 3-5

VIII. From Perception to Knowledge, P 3

3 Perfect perception, then, has many elements in common with knowledge, making transfer to it possible. Yet the last step must be taken by God, because the last step in your redemption, which seems to be in the future, was accomplished by God in your creation. The separation has not interrupted it. Creation cannot be interrupted. The separation is merely a faulty formulation of reality, with no effect at all. The miracle, without a function in Heaven, is needful here. Aspects of reality can still be seen, and they will replace aspects of unreality. Aspects of reality can be seen in everything and everywhere. Yet only God can gather them together, by crowning them as one with the final gift of eternity.

My mind is stuck in time right now.

Thus, it is impossible to have more than a vague idea of what Jesus is telling me in this paragraph. How can I understand eternity while I believe in time? But I do understand that God takes the last step in bringing me home. I understand that creation cannot be interrupted despite my dream of doing so. I accept that separation is a faulty formulation of reality, and it has no real effects.

Also, I know that aspects of reality can still be seen. And that they will replace aspects of unreality. There were moments of universal and unconditional love. And I have experienced miracles in which the laws of time and space were completely undone. I have had miracles in which my mind was suddenly and inexplicably healed in an instant of an idea that was not true. I have felt some aspect of God’s love and been so overwhelmed I could only sit and cry in joy. So, I believe in those aspects of reality.

God takes the last step.

This is because it was done in our creation, and nothing has changed since. We are still in God. That we seem not to be so is just an appearance, not reality. There is no need for me to do anything to accomplish what has been accomplished. The Holy Spirit does His part in healing the mind, and I am grateful this is true. So, I will just focus on my part. I continue to watch my mind and continue to cultivate my willingness, and more and more, I have come in touch with my purpose and my truest heart’s desire. I am learning patience and to be gentle with myself and everyone else.

Even when I stumble along the way, as I have done with my response to my son’s challenges, I know that the peace of God is everything I want, both for me and my son. The situation the world is in can be a temporary stumbling block, but the answer is the same. I just keep moving forward, accepting help from my brother, Jesus. I know that these situations are not bigger or harder than any other. They just represent an unhealed place in my mind that needs to be seen and released. I know this even when it feels impossibly hard and really big. Not one bit of this word is reality, and I am willing to know this in my heart.

VIII. From Perception to Knowledge, P 4

4 Apart from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit has no function. He is not separate from Either, being in the Mind of Both, and knowing that Mind is One. He is a Thought of God, and God has given Him to you because He has no Thoughts He does not share. His message speaks of timelessness in time, and that is why Christ’s vision looks on everything with love. Yet even Christ’s vision is not His reality. The golden aspects of reality that spring to light under His loving gaze are partial glimpses of the Heaven that lies beyond them.

Ooh, I like this glimpse at the Holy Spirit.

He is part of me (the Son of God) and a part of God in the Mind of Both. And He knows that Mind is One. Here is something else. He is a Thought of God, and God has given Him to me because He has no Thoughts He does not share. Imagine that! God has no Thoughts He does not share with us. And I think that Thought is not the same as the thoughts we think we have. A Thought in God’s Mind is a Creation.

The Holy Spirit brings some of Reality into our illusion. His message speaks of timelessness in time. I was thinking about those times when I needed Him to manipulate time for me so that I could get my writing and my posting done before I absolutely had to stop and go to work, and He did! Once I would finish my writing, make my last post, and look at the clock, I would see that almost no time has passed. I don’t know if this kind of thing is what Jesus means by that sentence, but it sure feels like a miracle to me. It feels like timelessness brought into time.

And he says that Christ vision works the same way.

Through His vision, we see love everywhere we look. I haven’t been able to do this universally and consistently yet, but I have had glimpses, and it is remarkable. It can happen right in the middle of a grievance simply because I want Christ vision more than I want to justify my grievance. I can be very angry or very resentful and ask for another way to see it, and everything changes. Just like that! It is a miracle when it happens.

As wonderful as it is, Jesus says Christ’s Vision is not His Reality. It is just a glimpse of the Heaven that lies just beyond that miraculous change. Can you imagine what it must be like to see only God everywhere you look? Cate says that is what she sees. I long to join her there in that place where she sees with Christ. That is why I never stop looking at the mind for a moment, letting the Holy Spirit heal what I find there that is not God. I really do believe that I can learn that I want to see only with Christ vision, and that this holy vision is meant for me. I believe that all I need is to wholly desire, to desire nothing above that elevated vision, in order to have it.

VIII. From Perception to Knowledge, P 5

5 This is the miracle of creation; that it is one forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until you see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same light and therefore one. Everyone seen without the past thus brings you nearer to the end of time by bringing healed and healing sight into the darkness, and enabling the world to see. For light must come into the darkened world to make Christ’s vision possible even here. Help Him to give His gift of light to all who think they wander in the darkness, and let Him gather them into His quiet sight that makes them one.

Every time I see someone, as if this is the only moment of their existence, I am undoing the separation. I see that one as they are now and without a past, and that is a miracle. It is a miracle of true perception and a miracle of healing brought into the world. If I see my child as if a moment ago doesn’t exist, he is pure in my mind. If I do that for you, you become pure in my mind. Now you are the same. If I have done it for me, then we are all three the same. The miracle has helped me to know that we are all aspects of the One. We are each whole and each part of the Whole.

As I do this in the world, I have accomplished forgiveness in its truest sense.

I have accepted the Atonement. This is my gift to the world, this deliberate choice to use Christ vision to bring light into a darkened world. Every time I do this for anyone, I help the Holy Spirit to light this brother’s way. This is such a lofty goal, that I feel joy as I think of it. It is so easy, so simple, so necessary. Then, I have some meaningless grievance against someone, and I forget my lofty goal. Instead, I nurse my grievance as a way to justify my judgment. It doesn’t make me happy, and it doesn’t gift the world, so I don’t know why I do it. Maybe I will remember to choose differently the next time.

I imagine us all walking around with costumes and acting out our parts on a stage. When we are through with our part, we go backstage and take off our costume, which includes walking away from the body, which is just another part of the costume. As we do so, we all stand there together, and we are all exactly the same. Without the body-costume, there is no way to tell one from another, really. We walk away from the costume and, with it, the play with all its dramas.

Could you imagine being angry with an actor because of the part he played for a brief moment in time?

Without the costume, what would there be to distinguish one aspect from another? Without the past performance to refer to and without a specific person to attach to that performance, how could we hold onto any grievance, anyway?

This visualization is helping me to see everyone as the same and to let go of the past. I just imagine them walking out of the scene they just played and into another. That previous scene simply ceases to exist. There, the past is gone. Then I imagine this longest-running play ending. I imagine us shucking off the bodies and expanding as light that we know as unending. Light blending into never-ending light. There, we really are the same, just aspects of a whole. I don’t know what we are in reality, I guess, but this is a helpful image for me.

Right now, in our country, we have an extraordinary opportunity to bring more light and love into the mind.

What if I were appalled at the outcome of the election? What if it frightened me or angered me? Or if it just confused me because I couldn’t understand, or it saddened me because I thought more of my fellow men and women understood it as I did. If this were so, being angry or fearful and seeing others as foolish or truly awful would just add more darkness to the mind. If this was the response I had, I would be missing this opportunity to enlighten the mind we are all a part of. Thus, to experience an enlightened mind myself. But it would not be too late to change my mind.

On the other hand, if I were thrilled with the outcome, would I be aware of my fellow travelers in the world who are suffering? Would I be feeling kindly toward them, loving and supporting them as they deal with their fear and disappointment? Or would I, instead, feel the rush of adrenalin at winning at the expense of the losers and mistake it for happiness? If so, then I would be missing the extraordinary opportunity to bring more light and love into the mind, but it would not be too late to change my mind.

Both of those responses are the same response.

Neither is awakening the Sonship. If any of us think that we knew what the outcome should have been, then we were mistaken. We don’t know what anything is for, so we cannot know how it should unfold. We see only what is at the end of our noses. Certainly, we cannot see the whole picture and what is needed next to awaken the Sonship. We did not come here to decide the outcome of an election. We came here to awaken from the illusion of separation. And that is the only goal we can embrace with any certainty, the awakening of us all as one.

If we can just shift our focus from trying to improve on the illusion to ending the illusion in the most loving and kind way possible, we will be living our function. In the meantime, we will just do the best we can. When it seems we fail, we can forgive what we cannot do at this time and accept the blessing of Heaven for our desire to help. No matter how we choose to experience this very difficult time, all the angels in Heaven are saying thank you. Thank you for your willingness to be here doing your best. So, I say the same. Thank you. As they say, everyone is fighting a hard battle. Thank you for your willingness to do what you can.

Books about A Course in Miracles available through Pathways of Light.