ACIM Chapter 8. IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 8. IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 1, 2

IX. Healing as Corrected Perception

¹ I said before that the Holy Spirit is the Answer. He is the Answer to everything, because He knows what the answer to everything is. The ego does not know what a real question is, although it asks an endless number. Yet you can learn this as you learn to question the value of the ego, and thus establish your ability to evaluate its questions. When the ego tempts you to sickness do not ask the Holy Spirit to heal the body, for this would merely be to accept the ego’s belief that the body is the proper aim of healing. Ask, rather, that the Holy Spirit teach you the right perception of the body, for perception alone can be distorted. Only perception can be sick, because only perception can be wrong.

It seems that I can hardly write this morning, I am so . . . something.

I don’t know how to explain it. I feel peaceful, and happy and something else. And I just want to sit here and stare at these words and feel gratitude. Then I notice the thought that I wonder if I am being judged by someone I know, and the thought that some other person is not what he pretends to be. I know that this is the mind that desires the ego separate self trying to reestablish dominance in my mind through judgment.

Then I notice thoughts about the past and I recognize this is more of the same. The ego mind perpetuates itself through recreating the past in the present and then projecting it into the future. At first I feel afraid because I remember how easy it is to follow these mental paths and I don’t want to lose what I have this morning. But then I remember that I choose, moment to moment, what I will experience. I let go of the fear and everything rights itself.

The questions were not in words this morning.

But if I had expressed them in that way, the question might have been, “How can I sustain the beauty of this perfect moment?” If there were a question at all. The ego doesn’t answer questions, it simply reinforces guilt so as to reinforce itself. When I questioned the ego thoughts, I was asking the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit always answers. It reminded me of what I am and peace was reestablished. All of this without words, but very clear, none the less.

I absolutely understand and fully accept that the body is not the source of illness and so it makes no sense to ask that it be healed. I ask, instead, that my mind be healed of the sick thoughts that have been projected onto the body. That is the same thing as asking that my perception of the body be corrected.

One time when I was getting ready to attend a workshop, I had an opportunity to practice this. I noticed that I had a cyst and that I seemed to be getting congested and I recognized this as resistance. I did not try to figure out what in my environment caused these problems, and what medicines I needed to take. So, I just asked that my mind be healed of the anxiety I was feeling about the upcoming trip. The symptoms vanished overnight.

Here is something that used to confuse for me.

Serious symptoms seemed different to me than mild symptoms. I would let fear of the symptoms cause me to look outward for the cause and for relief. The truth became apparent to me as I continued to work with the idea of suffering, pain and sickness.

Over and over, I proved to myself that the cause was in my mind. Therefore, the solution must also be in my mind. As I have mentioned before, I use magic if I am unable to detach from the fear of the sickness enough to allow healing. I am not guilty of that; it is just where I am at that moment and something to take to Spirit for correction.

IX. Healing as Corrected Perception

² Wrong perception is the wish that things be as they are not. The reality of everything is totally harmless, because total harmlessness is the condition of its reality. It is also the condition of your awareness of its reality. You do not have to seek reality. It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions. Its conditions are part of what it is. And this part only is up to you. The rest is of itself. You need do so little because your little part is so powerful that it will bring the whole to you. Accept, then, your little part, and let the whole be yours.

I used to misunderstand the first sentence that says a wrong perception is the desire for things to be as they are not. I thought that meant I should surrender to my story, but now I see it differently. Now I understand that it was my desire for things to be as they are not, that made the story. If the story of Myron is anything but joyful and peaceful, then it is witness to my desire for separation. It is my wish that things be as they are not.

Without my desire for separation, the world is harmless.

And in its harmlessness, I abide as the Christ. What a wonderful thing that is! I do have periods of time when I am at perfect peace – when joy is my being. As my mind heals, those times are expanding. I would walk this earth as the Awakened Christ, and why shouldn’t I? It is my very nature and will arise in me as soon as I stop repressing it.

My very little and very powerful part is to desire awakening more than I desire the dream until I finally desire it wholly. I, as Christ, chose the separation experience through the power of my holy Self, the power I inherited from my Father in my creation. Now that I have allowed myself to remember I did this, allowing Reality to return to my mind feels effortless. That is, until I run into something in my story that feels valuable to me. ~smile~. But even then, I remain the one who chooses and so I choose to let it go as quickly as I am able.

I love this: You do not have to seek reality. It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions. My part is small but powerful. I only need to notice what is in my mind that prevents reality and give those thoughts and beliefs to the Holy Spirit. I cannot say that this is hard or complicated. It is simple and when it feels hard, it is only that I don’t want to give it over. But as I continue the process with vigilance and consistency, I have seen that I can change my mind.

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