ACIM T. 3. VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 6, 7. God offers only mercy. Your words should reflect only mercy, because that is what you have received and that is what you should give.
ACIM T. 3. VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 6,
6 VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 6
6 God offers only mercy. Your words should reflect only mercy, because that is what you have received and that is what you should give. Justice is a temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach you the meaning of mercy. It is judgmental only because you are capable of injustice.
I wanted to be sure I understood this simple paragraph. I looked up mercy, and it said compassion, and I looked up justice, and it means fairness. So, I am told that I should have compassion because I receive compassion. It also told me that I am being taught the meaning of compassion through fair treatment. This is a temporary measure involving judgment, but only because I believe in unfairness.
How do I use this in my life? The example that comes to me is not about another person but about compassion and fairness to myself. Here is something I wrote while I was still working. It is a very useful story for our purposes today.
Wasting Time
Yesterday, I had more free time than I normally do. I spent it walking in the park, watching a little TV, and reading a novel. I enjoyed my day for the most part, though I worried a little that I was wasting time.
This morning I am back to being busy, and as soon as I am through with my journaling, I will get dressed for work. The week will have little free time in it to catch up on paperwork, writing, and other things I can only do when I squeeze a little time from the weekend. Watching my thoughts, I notice that I feel guilty and foolish for not using my free time to do those things that really needed doing.
I realize, as I watch my thoughts that I think I am guilty for my behavior and that I will be punished by not having free time because I misused it and proved I don’t deserve it. I am not being compassionate to myself. In fact, I have tried myself in the ego court of law and judged myself guilty and deserving of punishment. This is why I must learn to be merciful and just.
The Holy Spirit is not judging me and berating me for my lack of industry this weekend. Those are thoughts from the ego mind. As I listen to the Voice for God, I am assured that there is no shortage of time and that God does not judge me according to how much I get done. I receive nothing from God except Love, and that love is not conditional on anything I do or fail to do.
Opposing Thoughts
The Holy Spirit looks at my thoughts with me, and He is compassionate to me because he understands why I feel like this. He knows the ego is merciless and unfair and that I believe its judgment of me. But He also knows that none of this is real and that I remain innocent as the day I was created. This is true regardless of my ego beliefs and regardless of my behavior.
I am presented with two entirely opposed thoughts. The ego, which I made, finds me guilty. The Holy Spirit, which is the Voice for God, finds me innocent. This is always the case, and it is always my choice which one I believe. Mercifully, I choose the Holy Spirit as my Guide and put my faith in His judgment.
As I accept the Holy Spirit’s judgment, my mind is healed, and I am at peace. Instead of worrying that I should have written that article and done something with that stack of receipts, I am grateful for my restful day. I could worry that I don’t know when I will get time to do these things. Instead, I wait with curiosity and happy anticipation to see how life will arrange itself to make time for me to do what needs to be done.
7 VI. Judgment and the Authority Problem, P 7
7 I have spoken of different symptoms, and at that level there is almost endless variation. There is, however, only one cause for all of them: the authority problem. This is “the root of all evil.” Every symptom the ego makes involves a contradiction in terms, because the mind is split between the ego and the Holy Spirit, so that whatever the ego makes is incomplete and contradictory. This untenable position is the result of the authority problem which, because it accepts the one inconceivable thought as its premise, can produce only ideas that are inconceivable.
As a Son of God, it is inconceivable that I could be angry, sad, depressed, jealous, fearful, or any of the other symptoms that I have experienced. And yet, I seem to be all of these things at one time or another. It is inconceivable that the Son of God could be sick, could suffer, and then die. And yet, that seems to be the inevitable fate of us all. How can both of these things be true? How can it be that I am experiencing the inconceivable?
They cannot both be true. Either I am still as God created me, or I am something different. I cannot be something different, so I must still be as God created me. If I seem to be different, I must be dreaming. If I am dreaming, then I want to wake up. I keep thinking of the movie, Inception, a movie of dreams, within dreams, within dreams.
Navigating the Dream
This is what is happening to me. I am dreaming and dreaming of dreaming, and now I will dream of waking up. In my dream of waking up, I have discovered not only that I am dreaming but also the source of the dream stories. The thoughts in the sleeping mind, the things that I believe to be true, make the world I dream of. In my dream, I have discovered the way out of the confusion. It seems I have a Guide.
I am learning to watch for those thoughts and let them be changed for me by my Guide. And I am learning to ask for direction and to ask for clarification. I am too confused to make decisions on my own, and I need help, which I receive from my Guide. By following that Guide, which I call the Holy Spirit, I am learning that I can have a better dream, a happier one, and eventually, wake up from the dream.
As it turns out, this is pretty simple. There are signposts that I watch for to know if I am dreaming with my Holy Spirit or if I am trying to dream alone. If I am afraid or guilty, if I feel shame or loss, these are signs that, in my confusion, I have turned away from my Guide and am trying to navigate this dream on my own again.
Compelling Stories
The stories I dream are compelling. They feel so real and are often so urgent, so critical that I dare not turn my back on them. I need to be there, to be doing something. I need to make something happen. The need for action is so fierce, the need for vengeance and retaliation, for defense and attack, so real that I forget I am only dreaming. I forget how inconceivable it is that I, the Son of God, could be attacked, could be endangered.
In the past, I thought that something could be gained from being on my own, finding my way back, and succeeding without help. I was like a child who insisted on doing it alone even though it was beyond my capability. And like a little child, I sometimes stubbornly insist that this is my story and I am in charge of it, and I don’t want to give it up. But I am learning that it is not truly my will that I will be lost in this dream forever and that it is my will that the Holy Spirit guide me out of it.
Waking Up
Technically, waking up from the story is the easy part. I acknowledge that I am 100% responsible for what seems to be happening in my dream. And I decide to choose differently and ask for help. I admit that I don’t know the solution or how to get there, but I am willing to follow. I accept the help given to me. That is all there is to it. I don’t have to do anything or figure anything out. It’s as simple as one, two, three. I did it. I change my mind. And I accept correction. That’s it!
The sleeping mind likes its stories and its dramas, and the part of me still engaged in this dream doesn’t always want to give it up. It will insist that this dream is different than that dream. For instance, dreaming of death is far more serious than dreaming of a new relationship. The mind sees the dream of death as needing a different solution from the solution needed in relationship changes.
It finds the idea that the solution is always the same to be ludicrous. The stories are so different, and some are much bigger deals than other stories. How could it be that the answer is always the same? That the solution to its carefully crafted dramas is so simple the mind finds it insulting and resists it fiercely.
Practice, Practice, Practice
This is why it takes a lot of practice to learn to trust the Holy Spirit implicitly. I made up my own dream, and I believed in it. I loved it and wanted to keep it. Because who I am is not diminished even by my denial of the truth, the power of creation makes the illusion seem so real. But there is the truth in my mind, and it calls to me.
In using each story as an opportunity to remember what the truth wants me to know, I am losing my taste for dreams. And I have learned it really is that easy to wake up. It just isn’t always so easy to want to wake up. But it’s getting easier, and the daily practice makes this so.
Would you like to learn to let go of the “I am bad belief?” CLICK HERE to listen to Regina Dawn Aker talk about this.