ACIM II. Miracles As True Perception, P 5, 6. Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his Spirit into the Hands of his Father.
ACIM II. Miracles As True Perception, P 5, 6
5 II. Miracles As True Perception, P 5
5 Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his Spirit into the Hands of his Father. By doing this the mind awakens from its sleep and remembers its Creator. All sense of separation disappears. The Son of God is part of the Holy Trinity, but the Trinity Itself is one. There is no confusion within Its Levels, because They are of one Mind and one Will. This single purpose creates perfect integration and establishes the peace of God. Yet this vision can be perceived only by the truly innocent. Because their hearts are pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves against it. Understanding the lesson of the Atonement they are without the wish to attack, and therefore they see truly. This is what the Bible means when it says, “When he shall appear (or be perceived) we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
The Holy Trinity
It doesn’t really matter if I understand the Holy Trinity, so I won’t dwell on that part. But I did find it interesting that he speaks of it as “They” and “Levels” and perfect integration, which establishes the peace of God. He says it’s their single purpose that does this. This feels different than the idea of One that I have had. It is interesting that the one is a They. Interesting, but not important to me.
I doubt I will ever understand the nature of Reality from this state of mind. What matters to me is that I understand what I need to do to return to Reality. A Course in Miracles has given me what I need to do this. That is where I place my attention.
The Single Purpose
The “single purpose” attracted my attention because the Course also emphasizes that we must join in a single purpose, and I now see why. The Holy Trinity is in perfect agreement within Itself. They share a single purpose. This is the peace of God. When we, you and I, share a single purpose, we experience a holy instant, and the practice brings us to the memory of the peace of God.
I do not consistently experience the peace of God even though it exists uninterrupted by my dream of separation. This is because only the innocent remember peace. As long as I perceive guilt, I am blind to what is in me and all around me. This brings us to the part of this paragraph that is of greatest interest to me because it is something I can understand and use. Guilt is the block that keeps me from the awareness of who and what I am. It keeps me from awakening. Guilt keeps me from remembering my Creator. So, allowing guilt to be undone in my mind is my purpose while I imagine I am here.
Surrender
The first sentence, “Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his Spirit into the Hands of his Father,” brought tears of relief to my eyes. As it echoes Jesus’ final surrender to His Creator, it awakens the desire within me to surrender. It reminds me that surrendering to God is not a sacrifice. Surrendering to my Father is an act of strength. If you think it does not take strength, try it while in the throes of an ego storm, while deeply mired in fear. And you need only do this once to know there is no sacrifice, but quite the opposite. To go from terror to peace in a single moment is not sacrifice.
Jesus says the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves against it. I have a current example of this. Last night my daughter was upset and feeling very hurt. If I were feeling hurt and upset, I would move more easily into surrender, but when it is my kids, I have a harder time with it. I still do the work, but it takes me longer to get past the appearance and to the truth.
Within my mind was a true perception of the situation, but standing before me was my precious daughter, who was apparently in pain. The part of the situation that was encouraging is that I recognized all of the ego thoughts for what they were. I felt bad (guilty) because I could not fix her problem. I felt helpless (guilty) because I did not know what to say, and all of my wisdom was useless because she doesn’t believe in it.
Defending Against True Perception
I saw my mind constantly going to the world, looking for a way to fix this problem. Boy, was there ever the desire to find a way to manipulate the world so that it was kinder to my daughter! I recognized this for what it was; defending against true perception, and so let it go each time. I guess the strongest defense against true perception was my belief that something was wrong and I needed to do something about it.
True perception showed me a daughter who was experiencing her wishes, and from that experience, moving closer to awakening to the peace of God, but instead of defending that perception, I kept defending against it by sinking into her fear and believing in that. I also noticed that her fears triggered the same fears in me, fears I thought I had let go long ago.
All the time this was happening, and later when I got home and sat with it, I was asking for the Atonement in this situation. I said that I accepted it, and yet I stayed in fear and uncertainty. Finally, I just gave in and cried about all the things that this situation brought up for me. I heard myself say, “This is how these thoughts make me feel.” Then I realized my error.
Seeing it Differently
At first, I was asking for the Atonement, which is a change of mind, but what I really wanted was to feel better without changing my mind. I was still defending against true perception and was not interested in letting go of what I believed. Fear was driving my reactions, and I wanted Jesus to take the fear away. He tells us that he cannot do this.
But he also says he can help us with the beliefs that cause fear. Obviously, though, I will have to stop defending against him doing this. That is, I will have to be willing to let go of the beliefs that are causing the fear. This is when I become willing to commend (surrender for safekeeping) my Spirit to God. This is the moment of trust and faith.
The reason crying and telling Jesus how I felt was so helpful to me is that it was the moment I stopped trying to heal myself and really surrendered the problem. The Course says that we need to look at our thoughts with the Holy Spirit and let Him heal us. Before that moment, I was trying to bypass the part where I really looked at them. I was apparently telling myself that I could just jump right to the healing without looking. I had looked in an intellectual way, but I didn’t want to feel the pain. Kind of like looking at a mess from a distance so I didn’t get my hands dirty. ~smile~
A Changed Perspective
That moment of crying and really acknowledging how it feels to believe the ego (and so support the belief in guilt) and then asking for healing was what was required of me to truly receive the healing. I went from saying, “Yuck, this is awful. Take it away,” to saying, “Here is what it feels like to believe this false idea. I see this is not something I want to keep believing. Please heal my mind.” It seems a subtle difference, but it is very different.
From a healed perspective, I lost all desire to attack. I did not see the world as guilty of hurting my child, so I did not want to “attack” the problem in the world. I remembered the simple truth, and now I hold that truth for her. So, I am defending true perception and no longer defending against it. Whew! It feels so freeing. Thank you, God. I love you, God.
6 II. Miracles as True Perception, P 6
6 The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and invest it only in what is true. You cannot make untruth true. If you are willing to accept what is true in everything you perceive, you let it be true for you. Truth overcomes all error, and those who live in error and emptiness can never find lasting solace. If you perceive truly you are canceling out misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Because you see them as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves. This is the healing that the miracle induces.
This is what I understand Jesus to be telling me. Often my eyes will seem to prove that there is something besides God, but this is untrue. In other words, don’t believe my eyes. And don’t bother trying to improve on the untrue, trying to make it true. This won’t work and will just keep me in hell longer. For instance, I know someone who is very depressed. I look at him, and I see all the signs. I like this person very much and want to help.
The Way I Used to Help VS the Way I Help Now
The way I would help in the past is to see the problem, read all I could about it, look for solutions, and then do what is most strongly recommended. Jesus is telling me that this is not going to work, that I cannot find solace by trying to make untruths true. What is untrue is that this person is depressed. He feels like he is depressed and acts like he is depressed, but he is in God, and there is no depression in God, so he cannot be depressed. That is the truth about him.
To really help him, I will know the truth. I will see him as he really is, free of his projections and me free of mine. I accept the truth for him because right now, he cannot. If I hold to that truth, it will help him to accept it for himself. Jesus says this is the healing the miracle induces. This can be very hard for me to do, by the way. I am used to believing what the eyes show me. I am not used to seeing past the illusions to the truth.
It helps me to remember that everything I see with the body’s eyes is a reflection of thought. The mind believes something, then projects that belief and uses the eyes to show them what the belief looks like. What I am trying to do is to remember that the reflection is not the truth. The thought that made the reflection is not the truth. There is only one truth: God created a perfect Son, and that Son remains in His Father, a perfect creation.
The Light in Us
The truth is in all of us, a light that is never extinguished. The stronger my memory of the truth, the brighter that light shines. When my memory is strong, the light shines so brightly that it strengthens the light in other minds and reminds them of who they are. That is how we wake each other up.
Have you ever been in a storm or some circumstance where the electrical power would fade in and out? The light bulb would dim, brighten, and then dim again until the electrical source stabilized. That is the picture I get of the light in my mind. Right now, I go through periods when the light shines brightly, and I know the truth and have no doubts. Then something triggers the untrue thoughts that are still in my mind, and the light dims and flickers.
When my light is strong, I have no trouble realizing the truth about my friend. The depression he experiences seems very real to him, but it is only a thought form. When the depression causes him to do something scary, something self-destructive, I begin to doubt the truth, and my light flickers and fades, and I start thinking there must be something I can do to help him. Something I can say to him that will make it better, some medicine that will cure him.
Keeping My Inner Eye on the Truth
Now I am in the dream with him trying to drag him to safety, but there is no safety in the dream. Truth is the only safety there is, and there is no truth in the untrue. Sometimes when I am in this confused state, I believe that if I try to give him the right spiritual direction, this will help him. But if I am telling him all the right words, but I am doing it because I believe in his illusion, then I am just allowing my ego to borrow the right words. It is still ego.
My depressed friend needs only one thing from me. He needs me to keep my Inner Eye on the truth so that the body’s eyes do not deceive me. And if some action of his triggers my issues and I see that my focus has wavered, then this is an opportunity to heal what is in me that needs healing. This is the dance of awakening. I am grateful for the opportunity to shine a light for my brother and equally grateful for the opportunity this relationship gives me to strengthen that light within myself.
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