ACIM Chapter 6. II.The Alternative to Projection P 6, 7

ACIM II. The Alternative to Projection P 6,7. How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realizing that you are not there?

6 II. The Alternative to Projection, P 6

6 How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realizing that you are not there? You cannot be anywhere God did not put you, and God created you as part of Him. That is both where you are and what you are. It is completely unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change it now or ever. It is forever true. It is not a belief, but a Fact. Anything that God created is as true as He is. Its truth lies only in its perfect inclusion in Him Who alone is perfect. To deny this is to deny yourself and Him, since it is impossible to accept one without the other.

I cannot imagine how Jesus could state the truth any more clearly than he has done so here. In the world, there is only temporary happiness, or rather, there are moments when we forget that we are not happy. There is no joy in the world. Our moments that seem the most joyful, falling in love, the birth of a child, seeing a grandchild for the first time, these moments are examples of what we call joy. And yet, they are tinged with fear. We fear falling out of love or losing the one we love. We fear for our children and grandchildren. There is no joy in the world that is pure.

The only way to find joy is to realize we are not in this world.

We are where God put us, and He put us with Him. In God, we are purely joyful, with nothing to tinge that joy. There is no loss or fear in God. And in God is where we are. It is not where we are going or hope to be one day. It is certainly not a place we get to by dying. Jesus is very clear about this. God created us like Him and in Him, and that is unalterable.

Pretending to live in a strange world does not make it happen. We dream of life and death, but we only Live. To stop this absurd dream, we need only to awaken to the simple fact that we cannot be what God created not. It is not possible to undo what God has done. We can, however, undo what we have done simply by desiring it to be undone.

I am noticing those times when I am uncertain or confused about what I want. My desire to abandon my imaginative play must be unqualified. I will keep the illusion when I value anything in the illusion. If I reserve the right to judge, I have chosen the illusion. If I reserve the right to see myself as less than or better than someone else, I have chosen the illusion. So, I watch my mind for the things I still think I want and realize that I do not want them. They are sharp-edged toys that hurt me, and I no longer want to play with them.

The other thing I do is to remind myself of Who I am and What I am.

I do this often. I remember that my mind is healed and Whole now! This is not something I have to earn or a goal I seek. It is the truth right now! I am God’s child, His holy Son, His perfect creation. Everything else is just part of the illusion- nothing, the remnants of a dream I have awakened from. I have lost interest in fixing the dream. What is the point? And when old habits lure me back into the dream, I shake myself awake again. I will not deny myself, and I will not deny God.

II. The Alternative to Projection, P 7

7 The perfect equality of the Holy Spirit’s perception is the reflection of the perfect equality of God’s knowing. The ego’s perception has no counterpart in God, but the Holy Spirit remains the bridge between perception and knowledge. By enabling you to use perception in a way that reflects knowledge, you will ultimately remember it. The ego would prefer to believe that this memory is impossible, yet it is your perception the Holy Spirit guides. Your perception will end where it began. Everything meets in God, because everything was created by Him and in Him.

My perception is my way of seeing things. It is how I interpret what I see and hear and think. Influences from childhood informed my perception, and it varies even now according to my mood and which book I have read lately. At its best, my perception will only be an opinion formed outside of knowledge. There is no perception in God. There is only Knowledge that does not change. God does not perceive; He knows.

There seems to be such a huge gap between this perceiving that I do and the absolute knowledge of God. The ego would have me believe there is no way to bridge that gap, but there is a way. The Holy Spirit is the bridge between perception and knowledge. As I willingly offer the Holy Spirit my thoughts for reinterpretation, He corrects them so they are closer to knowledge.

As I have done this.

My perceptions have shifted to something that more accurately reflects knowledge. While it is not knowledge, it is so much closer to knowledge that an ancient memory has begun to stir within me. As this memory grows and comes more into focus, I begin to remember who I am.

I am meant to recover this memory, and I am meant to do so now! This is the secret that my ego would keep from me. It would have me work toward awakening as long as I kept it a distant possibility. I can even think of it as an inevitability as long as it still seems far away. This is why, as I approach awakening, the ego points out my errors, dredging up long-forgotten sins to show me how unworthy I am.

It distracts and discourages.

But now I remember that the ego has no power over me. It is not my master, but only an idea in my mind, an idea I formulated and, therefore, one I can choose against. The Holy Spirit has corrected my thinking about the ego, so I am closer to aligning with knowledge than before. I am not so easily fooled now, and can even laugh to realize that I was only being fooled by myself.

At one time, I would have been greatly discouraged by the ego thoughts that arise in the mind. I would have thought that their presence meant I was failing to awaken and so far from awakening that it felt hopeless. Now, I see the thoughts and realize that any reaction to them, any feeling of anxiety, indicates that I am experiencing the remnants of a belief I no longer want. I turn to the Holy Spirit for healing.

If you would like to watch snippets from many of Regina Dawn Akers early teachings, CLICK HERE.