ACIM Chapter 6. V. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit P 1, 2. Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him.
ACIM Chapter 6. V. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit P 1, 2
V. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit P 1
1 Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him. You had already taught yourself wrongly, having believed what was not true. You did not believe in your own perfection. Would God teach you that you had made a split mind, when He knows your mind only as whole? What God does know is that His communication channels are not open to Him, so that He cannot impart His joy and know that His children are wholly joyous. Giving His joy is an ongoing process, not in time but in eternity. God’s extending outward, though not His completeness, is blocked when the Sonship does not communicate with Him as one. So He thought, “My children sleep and must be awakened.”
When my kids were little, they would play pretend.
I knew their games were not real. They didn’t become the cop because they played that part any more than they would become the robber because it was their turn to take that part. I would not sit them down and tell them something was wrong with them because they were pretending to be something they were not.
After a time, I would call them in, and sometimes one or the other would still be attached to the game she was playing, and when I tried to talk to her, she would stay in her role. It made it impossible to communicate. I would have missed her and wanted to cuddle and ask about her day, but she would try to arrest me for robbing the bank. I would have to break her imagination’s hold on her before we could communicate.
My relationship with God is not a whole lot different.
I’m pretending to be something I’m not, and lost in my role as I am, communication with my Father is blocked. Nothing is harmed, not me or God or our relationship. The blocks are not permanent and are being removed now. It is God’s desire to extend Himself as Joy and Love, and our imaginative play keeps us from receiving as fully as He gives.
We are asleep to our reality and dream of illusions in which a gap exists between us. God communicates oneness and love, but we fail to recognize it because we dream of fear, guilt, and defenses. We have gotten lost in our role, but God knows who we are, and He knows how to awaken us from our dreamy play. We are learning that it is our truest desire to remember. That is our part. So simple.
V. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit, P 2
2 How can you wake children in a more kindly way than by a gentle Voice that will not frighten them, but will merely remind them that the night is over and the light has come? You do not inform them that the nightmares that frightened them so badly are not real, because children believe in magic. You merely reassure them that they are safe now. Then you train them to recognize the difference between sleeping and waking, so they will understand they need not be afraid of dreams. And so, when bad dreams come, they will themselves call on the light to dispel them.
This one makes me smile to read it. My Father is making sure I know that I am only dreaming of bad stuff and that I am safe right now, even while I dream. He is making sure it is done gently. I am learning to recognize the difference between sleeping and waking. I am learning to call on the light to dispel my dreams. Jesus has found many ways to help me see that I am dreaming, that I am safe, and that I can call on the light to wake up.
This is what happened.
I have felt very drawn to the idea of awakening. This is why we are here, and this is what we are to do, so I have to wonder why I resist the idea even as I feel it’s draw. I was talking to Jesus about it and asking him what to do. Asking how to awaken from the dream of separation. I know how to work toward it, removing blocks and changing my mind, but how do I take that step of letting go of the story of separation altogether?
This is the message he gave me. “Here is a tip, Sister. Don’t believe in your story of not being able to wake up. You are waking up. Nothing can change that. If you have a story of not waking up and don’t like that story, you can make up a different one.”
Ha! I didn’t know if he meant that or was just teasing me. But then I realized that he meant me to do it. I saw what I had not embraced before. My life, my thoughts, and the beliefs that generate them are not the deadly serious stuff I had always assumed they were. They are just stories, and I wrote them. Ha! Can I just write new ones? Why not?
I’m trying that.
I’m not consistent yet, but I’m working on forming a new habit. When I think that maybe I’m nuts for thinking I’m waking up and that story begins to spin out in my mind, I start writing the story over from the perspective of someone awakening. I’m trying this now to see how it works.
I’m doing this for other stories, too. One day after I committed to stand with God and surrender self, I experienced an ego backlash. It was subtle initially, and I didn’t realize what was happening until it was out of control. I seldom watch much TV, maybe a show or two at the end of the day. Right in the middle of the day, I watched a show. I thought it was odd even while I did it, and then I watched another. I wound up doing this until bedtime. This never happens. I just didn’t do that.
There was a little voice in my head trying to clue me in on what was happening and another voice trying to encourage me to feel guilty for wasting time. I felt enervated and very lethargic. It was as if my mind was mired in molasses as I tried to ignore both voices. Now, I know it didn’t matter if I watched TV or did the work I had planned to do, but what did matter was the underlying reason I did it and the story I was telling myself about being guilty for doing so.
This is such an old story for me, the one of telling myself that I am guilty.
For a long time, it was difficult to wrench my attention away from my guilt stories. This happened that night. It started as an ego backlash from my strong commitment to be lived, to trust, and to surrender. I couldn’t write another version of the story because I was stuck believing I really was guilty.
Then I remembered something Lisa Natoli said. Undoing is nothing more than the willingness to stand still and let God be God. So that’s what I did. I said, “Here I am, God.” And I stood there expecting that He would do His thing, and He did. “Thank you, God.” At that point, it was easy to weave a new story.
I can always do this. I can ask myself, what would this story look like if I knew guilt was not real? And I started thinking about it from that perspective. Two things are happening. One, it pulls me out of the guilt and reminds me of the truth, and two, it helps me to realize that I have a choice about the stories I tell myself; also, it helps me see they are just stories, not the truth and not to be taken seriously.
When I woke up, I felt invigorated and ready to get busy.
But I also felt concerned that I had wasted so much time the day before. I feared that I could never get everything done and didn’t even know where to start. This is just another way to say I am guilty and am being punished for my sin of wasting time.
As I began to sink into guilt again, I remembered that if I didn’t like my story, I could tell another one. Telling the story from a more healed mind, I remembered that Jesus said he would arrange time for me if I gave it to him. This is what I did. And I asked the Holy Spirit what He would have me do. I would not plan on my own. I was certain that I would have a productive day and what needed to be done would be done. Isn’t that a better story? It is a story from an awakening mind.
From this experience, I gained two very helpful tools. I know what to do if I get stuck in the guilt and can’t see my way out. I can stand in God and allow Him to heal me. And when I tell myself a sad or angry story, any story that is not true, I can write a new one. I can tell this story as if I know who I am, and I am joyful in that remembrance. I’m going to practice telling new, truer stories so that it becomes second nature to do this until there is nothing but peace and joy in my life.
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