ACIM Chapter 14. II. The Happy Learner P 7, 8

ACIM Chapter 14. II. The Happy Learner P 7, 8

Photo by John Gardiner of Whangarei, New Zealand 

II. The Happy Learner P 7

7. The happy learner meets the conditions of learning here, as he meets the conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom. ²All this lies in the Holy Spirit’s plan to free you from the past, and open up the way to freedom for you. ³For truth is true. ⁴What else could ever be, or ever was? ⁵This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that you believe is locked forever. ⁶You made this door of nothing, and behind it is nothing. ⁷The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing. ⁸Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light. ⁹For, like your brothers, you do not realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness.

Oh, gosh, he makes it seem so simple, doesn’t he?

We have made dark images in our desire for separation from God. The Holy Spirit offers us the light that shines away our dark images. All we need to do is accept His light, and we will be free of the world we made. We will know the real world. It is that easy because the world we made is not real, so we made nothing, and we are frightened of the nothing we made.

The whole Course is designed to help us accept who we are and where we are. How hard could this be? And yet, it seems hard. This could only be because we are still not sure we want the light. I asked myself this morning what it was I wanted instead of the light. What darkness am I treasuring above my freedom? It turns out that it was the right to find my family guilty of leaving dirty dishes in the sink for me to clean. Good grief. I think that I will just ask them to clean up after themselves.

I am doing Lesson 15 today.

My thoughts are images I have made. I am reminded that these thoughtless actions of my family are images I have made. I want to see the problem outside myself so that I am not responsible for my own happiness. The ego wants to turn the guilt around to me. The thought is that I should be doing better with this. But it doesn’t matter which direction I direct the belief in guilt; it is not real. Guilt is not real, and I will not make it real in my mind. I see the error, and rather than judging myself, I am happy to forgive it. There! It’s done! And I am at peace again.

I did not ask my family to share in my belief in guilt. I didn’t tell them they were guilty and needed to do better. Instead, I will remind them to clean up behind themselves. No guilt, just a statement. By not using them to carry my belief in guilt, I am offering light instead. This is how we awaken. We help each other by choosing light and letting others see that light so they learn to choose it. The ego was wrong when it insisted I was being unfairly treated, and those people needed to take responsibility for that. By accepting responsibility for my own choices, I became a light this morning. My enlightened thoughts are images of light I have made. Yay for me!

II. The Happy Learner P 8

8. Behold your brothers in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of darkness. ²The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you asleep. ³The vision of Christ is given the very instant that it is perceived. ⁴Where everything is clear, it is all holy. ⁵The quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is impossible to deny the simple truth. ⁶For there is nothing else. ⁷God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything. ⁸Can he sing the dirge of sorrow when this is true?

What an encouraging paragraph this is! We can do this! I know we can. A thought at a time for a while, then a belief at a time until the ego construct falls apart. It truly is this simple. We are Spirit, an extension of God. Nothing can change that. Our imaginative play at being separate and special did nothing to our Self. It remains as it was created. We remain as we were created. Our story of being something else, somewhere else, is just that – a story.

It is a story we can discard as soon as we are ready, and A Course in Miracles is our guidebook out. We just need to follow the simple directions. It is filled with explanations as to what is actually happening. It explains that our thoughts are meaningless and that they have made a meaningless world. But not to worry. God didn’t create a meaningless world, so it cannot exist. There! We are out of it. And Jesus is very gentle as he allows us all the time we need to adjust to the truth. No matter how long it takes us to accept this, we remain as God created us.

As we forgive our foolish beliefs, our minds clear.

And when it is completely clear, it is all holy. Isn’t this worth the small effort we need to make? I think so. God is everything, everywhere, and we are in God, so we are everything, everywhere. God is Love, so we are Love. Really, our only problem is one of identity. Right now, you probably identify as a body in a world of time and space. I know that I do, at least some of the time. But, like me, you are learning to identify as God’s Son, the Christ. It is good to remind myself of this often. I am not body, mind, and spirit. I am spirit only. Regardless of the questionable proof the ego offers, I am of the Sons of God and can be nothing else

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