ACIM Chapter 8. IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 7-9

IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 7

⁷ The Bible enjoins you to be perfect, to heal all errors, to take no thought of the body as separate and to accomplish all things in my name. This is not my name alone, for ours is a shared identification. The Name of God’s Son is one, and you are enjoined to do the works of love because we share this Oneness. Our minds are whole because they are one. If you are sick you are withdrawing from me. Yet you cannot withdraw from me alone. You can only withdraw from yourself and me.

This is a compelling paragraph as it reminds me that I and Jesus are one. We share the same identification, and that identification is God’s Son. We are so much one that when I withdraw from him, I withdraw from myself. There is only one Son of God dreaming that It is many. Myron is a dream in the mind of the Son. All the other characters in this strange play are part of the One Sonship. I cannot imagine the vastness of the mind that can do this, and yet it is my Mind. Thus, when I, as Myron, withdraw from Jesus or from anyone else, I withdraw from my Self.

This withdrawal is no small thing.

I have been given the function of saving the world. When I identify with Myron as myself, this seems like an impossible job. It seems absurd. How can I save the world when I cannot even save myself? That is why I must accept the truth of my being. I must accept that I am an eternal, Divine Being, that I am Christ, playing at being Myron.

This seems mildly ridiculous to me when I am in my confused state of believing in Myron, and it looks downright scary when I am in fear. But Jesus is telling me here, right now, that this is so. He and I are one whole, and he needs me to accept this because we have a lot of work to do.

As I sit here as this body I think of as Myron, I accept that this is an illusion. I accept that I am actually Christ and that I am the light of the world. I accept that I am perfect and that today, I will heal all errors of which I am aware. And I accept that I am one with Jesus and that our true Self must accomplish all that we are asked to do. When I get up from this writing, and I go about my day, I ask that my mind be healed of the doubt that already wants to creep into the mind. I ask that the Holy Spirit, the truth in my mind, choose for God for me.

IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 8

⁸ You have surely begun to realize that this is a very practical course, and one that means exactly what it says. I would not ask you to do things you cannot do, and it is impossible that I could do things you cannot do. Given this, and given this quite literally, nothing can prevent you from doing exactly what I ask, and everything argues for your doing it. I give you no limits because God lays none upon you. When you limit yourself we are not of one mind, and that is sickness. Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the mind. All forms of sickness are signs that the mind is split, and does not accept a unified purpose.

I have to admit that sometimes, it feels like I am being asked to do more than I can do. But when I think about it, I know that can’t be true. Jesus asks me to do only what he has done, and if he can do it, so can I. He is looking at it from the other side, from a point of completion, so he knows far better than I what it is that I need to do and I do trust that. Common sense, if nothing else, tells me that this is true.

When I think I cannot do something he asks of me, I limit myself. That limit is a sickness, and that sickness expresses itself through the body, my relationships, my finances, and all facets of this story of mine. It is the result of a mind split. It is the reason we waste our time when we try to heal the body, repair the relationship, or earn more money. The sickness is not in the world; it is in the mind.

Heal the mind of the belief that it has a dual purpose, and all else is healed.

I have one purpose, and that is to awaken from the dream of separation and return my full mind to God. Everything that happens in my life is for that purpose. I become confused when I think it has another purpose. For instance, if I have a grievance against someone, I have a choice about how I see that grievance, that is, what purpose I give it.

If I think that the purpose of the grievance is to defend myself against this person, that is one purpose. It is not in alignment with God and with my good. I also want to wake up and know only what I think with God. So, my mind is split. I want two completely opposed results from this situation. I want to be free while holding this one imprisoned in the guilt I imagine is true for him. And I want to be one with God while holding this guilty one outside God. But we are told: ⁶You cannot enter God’s Presence if you attack His Son. (ACIM, T-11.IV.5:6)

This split in the mind, the attempt to hold two opposing purposes at the same time, creates enormous conflict or sickness. This sickness is then projected outward onto my world. To heal the sickness in whatever form it takes requires that I hold only one purpose. I cannot be without my true purpose because that is fixed in my mind by God. The other purposes must go if I am to be healed. I must do this, and I can do this. That is a fact. I give my faith and my trust to this fact. I am asked to do it and therefore I can do it.

IX. Healing as Corrected Perception, P 9

⁹ The unification of purpose, then, is the Holy Spirit’s only way of healing. This is because it is the only level at which healing means anything. The re-establishing of meaning in a chaotic thought system is the way to heal it. Your task is only to meet the conditions for meaning, since meaning itself is of God. Yet your return to meaning is essential to His, because your meaning is part of His. Your healing, then, is part of His health, since it is part of His Wholeness. He cannot lose this, but you can not know it. Yet it is still His Will for you, and His Will must stand forever and in all things.

I have a chaotic thought system because my thoughts are always conflicted. There is very little that I want wholly. I want to wake up, but I also want to dream. I want to be happy, but I also want my drama. And I want to be right more than I want to be happy. Now, I am moving toward a single purpose, but I have not fully accepted that this is what I want, and it is essential that I do so. I cannot have a healed mind unless I choose a single purpose.

There really is no question about the purpose I choose.

No one can choose only ego because reality is in the mind. In fact, the only thing in the mind that is real is God, and in spite of our desire to experience something else, we have never lost what is true. We remain as we were created, part of His Wholeness.

The healing that occurs is the release of all that we dreamed and the acceptance of all that is Reality. I am beginning to dream of a mind without conflict. Can you imagine? I know this is possible because it is what God created, and it is His Will for me. Thus, it is my will, too. Over and over, I choose peace over conflict. I choose a single purpose.

How do I do this? Here is an example that happened one time. I spent the weekend with my brother and his wife. Mike had surgery, and Rebecca has MS. He didn’t want Rebecca to be alone at night while he was in the hospital, so I stayed with them. Being at the hospital with him during the day offered many opportunities to examine my belief in the body and my belief that something outside the body could actually be a cause.

This environment is built around just that concept.

And as we sat there and watched the nurses and doctors and as our own stories of pain and suffering were triggered, I saw that my mind was conflicted and I had more than one purpose. At one time, my mind would have looked like a pin ball machine, with the ball bouncing all over the place leaving me confused and anxious. But through the healing of the mind, I was able to do this differently.

I simply watched. I watched my desire to join in the one-up-man-ship as each person told their story. There were old stories in my mind that seemed to prove sickness comes from something in the world. I watched the memories of feeling frail and vulnerable. I watched all this, and I was not altogether surprised at what came up. But I was pleased to see that I also saw the truth. I gave the dark thoughts to the light. I remembered that I had one purpose, and I was able to let everything else go.

To review Pathways of Light insights of this section, CLICK HERE.