ACIM Chapter 14. III. The Decision for Guiltlessness P 4, 5

ACIM Chapter 14. III. The Decision for Guiltlessness P 4, 5

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness P 4

4. Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding between the crucifixion and the resurrection; between the ego and the Holy Spirit. ²The ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice for guiltlessness. ³The power of decision is all that is yours. ⁴What you can decide between is fixed, because there are no alternatives except truth and illusion. ⁵And there is no overlap between them, because they are opposites which cannot be reconciled and cannot both be true. ⁶You are guilty or guiltless, bound or free, unhappy or happy.

I love the simplicity of the Course.

I have only one decision to make. I am guilty or guiltless. Every other person is what I decide I am. If I choose to see myself as guilty, and yes, it is a choice, I will see guilt everywhere because I now believe in guilt. Guilt will be the filter through which all thoughts pass, and that belief will stain each of those thoughts. Seeing guilt outside this personal ego-self, I think of as Myron will, of course, assure that I will see the same guilt in me.

I tell myself that I can’t help but recognize guilt when I see it when it is so obvious. But I know that seeing guilt is a choice I make. I read about a murder and considered how I could see the murderer as innocent. But I was reading about an illusion. Only bodies can murder or be murdered, and bodies are an illusion. I was simply identifying the actors in this drama as bodies when, in reality, they are spirits. Spirits cannot be murdered.

Thus, there was no crime in reality, only in the illusion.

Seeing the actor who played the murderer as guilty was a decision I made for guilt to be true. In the story we are a part of, the murderer needs to be isolated from others, but not as a punishment. It is for the good of all, including the man who committed the crime. But that is just another episode in the ongoing story of the world of thought projected outward. Reality does not change when we watch a movie, no matter how realistic it is. ‘Life’ in the world of our imagination is the same. Innocence is reality, and our judgments cannot change that. They can, however, bind us tighter to the illusion. They can rob us of our happiness.

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness P 5

5. The miracle teaches you that you have chosen guiltlessness, freedom and joy. ²It is not a cause, but an effect. ³It is the natural result of choosing right, attesting to your happiness that comes from choosing to be free of guilt. ⁴Everyone you offer healing to returns it. ⁵Everyone you attack keeps it and cherishes it by holding it against you. ⁶Whether he does this or does it not will make no difference; you will think he does. ⁷It is impossible to offer what you do not want without this penalty. ⁸The cost of giving is receiving. ⁹Either it is a penalty from which you suffer, or the happy purchase of a treasure to hold dear.

The miracle of freedom and joy is the effect of having chosen guiltlessness over guilt. I love this phrase: your happiness that comes from choosing to be free of guilt. It just further emphasizes that we choose to believe in guilt or not to believe in it. Our choice doesn’t change reality, but it does change our experience. This is why I correct myself each time I think guilt is real. I don’t question if the guilt in this case is real. I simply remind myself that it is not real.

Here is another important piece of information.

⁴Everyone you offer healing to returns it. ⁵Everyone you attack keeps it and cherishes it by holding it against you. And it doesn’t matter if the other person actually does or doesn’t hold it against you. You will believe he does. What a distressing situation we put ourselves into with our judgments. No wonder Lesson 22 tells us that what we see is a form of vengeance. It is our attack thoughts that make up this world, and the way out is to give them up. As Jesus tells us, ⁸The cost of giving is receiving. If I give guilt, I receive guilt.

On the other hand, If I give innocence, I receive innocence. Or, to put it differently, if I believe in innocence, I will believe I am innocent. If I think you are guilty, I will believe I am guilty. ⁹Either it is a penalty from which you suffer, or the happy purchase of a treasure to hold dear. The present political climate is the perfect opportunity to practice this. I, for one, plan to choose carefully, and when I fall into old habits, I will forgive myself and start again. I will do this until the idea of guilt is so foreign to me that I seldom or never think of it.

Here is a favorite teaching of mine from Regina Dawn Akers. Letting Go of the ‘I am bad’ Belief.