ACIM Chapter 13. X. Release from Guilt, 5, 6
ACIM Chapter 13. X. Release from Guilt, 5, 6
X. Release from Guilt, P 5
5 Determine, then, to be not as you were. Use no relationship to hold you to the past, but with each one each day be born again. A minute, even less, will be enough to free you from the past, and give your mind in peace over to the Atonement. When everyone is welcome to you as you would have yourself be welcome to your Father, you will see no guilt in you. For you will have accepted the Atonement, which shone within you all the while you dreamed of guilt, and would not look within and see it.
The holidays are a good time to look at these relationships and to notice when and how I am holding myself to the past through holding my family to their past. On Christmas, I will be with my children and their families. I pray to receive help and guidance to see them as they are, not as I thought they were. Jesus is telling us that it is not hard to do this. He says it will take a minute, even less, to be freed from the past. I can do this. Without their history, there would be nothing in my mind to mar their perfection.
We celebrated at my house in the past.
I would be very busy and distracted as I got things prepared and played the hostess. These days, it happens at my daughter’s house, so I am free to observe, decide, and accept the Atonement each time I notice that I am holding onto the past. As often happens when I make a decision for God, all things fall into place so that I can best use the opportunity. Even knowing this, I am in awe at the perfection of this situation and how everything is arranged for my good.
Here is another thing I read in this paragraph that touched me deeply. “When everyone is welcome to you as you would have yourself be welcome to your Father, you will see no guilt in you.” I learned that there is no guilt in me by accepting that there is no guilt in my brothers. I am told by Jesus that God loves me unconditionally. God looks at me, and He sees only what He created, not the dream character I made. I want to do that. I want to see my brother only as he was created. I want to know that the body I see with my body’s eyes is an illusion and meaningless.
“God, please show me what You see.”
When I do this, when I look past the illusory body/personality, I will see innocence and perfection because that is what is within each of us. No matter how deeply we bury it, our true nature, our Self, remains unaffected by the ego thoughts and beliefs. Jesus says, “For you will have accepted the Atonement, which shone within you all the while you dreamed of guilt, and would not look within and see it.” The Atonement has always been in us, just denied. Accepting it, we awaken to our true nature, love, peace, and joy because that is what we are. The way to the Atonement is through our brothers, so I am motivated to ask for the Atonement the next time I think I see a spot of guilt in anyone.
X. Release from Guilt, P 6
6 As long as you believe that guilt is justified in any way, in anyone, whatever he may do, you will not look within, where you would always find Atonement. The end of guilt will never come as long as you believe there is a reason for it. For you must learn that guilt is always totally insane, and has no reason. The Holy Spirit seeks not to dispel reality. If guilt were real, Atonement would not be. The purpose of Atonement is to dispel illusions, not to establish them as real and then forgive them.
“The purpose of Atonement is to dispel illusions, not to establish them as real and then forgive them.”
Every time I hold a grievance, I establish an illusion as real. When I do this, forgiveness becomes impossible. Many years ago, I had a grievance against my in-laws, and I was miserable in my grievance. I tried and tried to let it go, and nothing seemed to work. It took me literally years to get free of that grievance. At that time, I didn’t understand what the problem was. Now, I can see that I had made the grievance real in my mind. I absolutely believed that they were guilty, and then I tried to forgive them. I have since learned that this never works.
Over the years, I have had other opportunities for correction.
I have had many opportunities to look at this ego tendency to judge someone as guilty and then try to forgive them. It is painful every time. I had many learning opportunities when I was working. There were times I saw guilt in my bosses, co-workers, customers, and competitors. Each time, it created uncomfortable situations. Each time I worked with this idea, I gained more clarity about how forgiveness works. I gained more certainty that there was only one way to forgive, and that is through accepting the Atonement.
The Atonement was placed in me to dispel illusions. It is always available to me, and I need only to accept it to take advantage of it. I don’t have to figure out a way to forgive, not myself and not others. I don’t have to do anything about the person or the situation. My only responsibility is to accept the healing of the Atonement. No matter how real the attack seems how certain the guilt appears in the story, the Atonement simply finds the Son of God innocent. It sees everything else as an illusion and, therefore, meaningless. So, what they do doesn’t matter because what they do is an illusion.
Accepting the Atonement clarifies things.
For instance, once I had accepted the Atonement for that situation with my in-laws, it was clear to me why I struggled for so long and why I felt like I was justified in my judgment of them. I felt attacked because hidden in my mind, I believed that they were right in their judgment of me. At that time, I was unable to look within. I was too afraid that they somehow knew the darkness hidden in me and that if I looked, that was what I would find. So, I had to keep my eye on them instead. Making them guilty was my way of avoiding the self-condemnation I felt. I remember slinging guilt onto everyone involved, hoping it would stick to some of them and leave my culpability unexamined.
All of that misery, and for what? As it turned out, guilt isn’t real anyway. There is no guilt in me, and therefore, no need to displace guilt onto someone else. There is no reason for guilt, no value in it. I still see guilt where it does not exist, but now I know that I am mistaken. I know that guilt is only an illusion, as are the stories that represent guilt. Nowadays, when I notice thoughts of guilt, I am pretty quick to accept the atonement instead. I see the belief in my mind that someone is guilty, and then I look with the Holy Spirit and release it. I accept the Atonement and let the belief dissipate as my mind settles into peace.
What I am especially vigilant for is guilt disguised as something else.
For instance, when my son was in trouble, I felt sorry for him, and I felt afraid for him. I called this love, but it was really guilt. That is the tricky part, where the ego tries to slip guilt into the situation by calling it something else. “That poor man” is the same thing as “That guilty man.” And, “What is going to happen to that poor man?” is the same thing as “What is going to happen to that guilty man?”
My son is not guilty of anything. He is simply playing out his illusory story of separation. I am playing my part in his story. It is not a matter of right or wrong. It is simply not true, not real. It can be difficult for us to disengage from the story when it plays on our fear and guilt, but we can do it. I saw that in my own life. I saw that as I was able to distance myself just a little, just enough to remember that there is another way to see, I was able to ask for help. I was then able to ask for the Atonement and to be comforted and brought to peace. Through true forgiveness, my part in our story became more helpful because it came from a peaceful place in my mind.
The question is never going to be, “Can I forgive what the person has done?” It is always going to be, “Can I accept the Atonement in this situation and realize that we are all innocent?”
Check this out to explore all the free resources from Pathways of Light.