ACIM Chapter 9. I. The Acceptance of Reality, P 13, 14

ACIM Chapter 9. I. The Acceptance of Reality, P 13, 14

I. The Acceptance of Reality, P 13

13 God in His devotion to you created you devoted to everything, and gave you what you are devoted to. Otherwise you would not have been created perfect. Reality is everything, and you have everything because you are real. You cannot make the unreal because the absence of reality is fearful, and fear cannot be created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, you will not create. Opposing orders of reality make reality meaningless, and reality is meaning.

God created me devoted to everything, then gave me what I am devoted to so that I would be created perfect. Reality is everything; I have everything, and so I am real. I made up things outside of reality, but the absence of reality was not possible, and I became afraid. Fear is not reality, and so in making something outside of reality, I was no longer creating. I have no trouble believing this even though I am not able to envision creation. It is, however, a certainty that the reality I made must be in opposition to God.

Fear is not possible.

And as long as I believe fear is possible, I am trying to believe in opposing orders of reality and that is clearly not possible. Either one is true, or the other is true. They cannot both be true. Would I choose to believe in something other than God and remain bound, trading Reality for the illusion of pain, suffering, and death as if they were reality? It is necessary that I look at what I have done without flinching so that I can see how impossible it is and be glad it is so.

To return my mind to Reality, it is clear that I must stop trying to believe in what is not real. It is insanity to devote myself to the impossible job of giving meaning to the meaningless. As I devote myself to only what is real, to Love, to God, what I have done outside of Reality is undone, and I return my mind to sanity. Every time I notice meaningless thoughts in my mind, I ask the Holy Spirit to remove them because I want only what God gave me in my creation. The illusion is unraveling.

I. The Acceptance of Reality, P 14

14 Remember, then, that God’s Will is already possible, and nothing else will ever be. This is the simple acceptance of reality, because only that is real. You cannot distort reality and know what it is. And if you do distort reality you will experience anxiety, depression and ultimately panic, because you are trying to make yourself unreal, When you feel these things, do not try to look beyond yourself for truth, for truth can only be within you. Say, therefore:

Christ is in me, and where He is God must be, for Christ is part of Him.

The first sentence sums up the section perfectly. God’s Will is already possible. We don’t have to do anything to make that true; it simply is. All we have to do to experience reality is to accept it. We accept reality when we stop trying to make it something else. We distort reality when we believe the ego thoughts in our mind. When we forgive those thoughts, we reveal the truth and know reality.

When we believe the ego thoughts we suffer because when we distort reality, we feel like we are trying to make ourselves unreal. This sense of unreality leads to depression, anxiety, and, ultimately, panic. Jesus says when this happens, we should not look beyond ourselves for truth but to look within. He doesn’t mean to look within at the ego thoughts to make sense of things but to look within for the Christ, for God. That is where we find reality.

We are confused.

And in our confusion, it is hard to believe that Christ is in us and that if Christ is in us, God must also be in us. But this is what Jesus is telling us. Our true nature, our reality, is that we are in God, and God is in us. We cannot lose ourselves, but can only lose the awareness of our Self. This reality can go nowhere and cannot be changed. It remains as it was created. But to not know it is to suffer.

This is why we are here, studying A Course in Miracles, following our path Home. We are awakening to this truth, to reality. Every day, when I pick up the Course and read my paragraph, I ask for guidance and clarity and that I be led Home through these words and through the experience of these words.

I am looking at a book, but it is a book we wrote with Jesus, and as I read it, I am not asking anyone else what it means. I am looking within to the Truth that is in my mind, the Truth that was placed there for this purpose. As I hear the Voice for God, the memory of my Self returns to me.

Sometimes, I find a dark, unexplored corner in my mind, and briefly, I am afraid.

I wonder if the truth is true or if I am crazy to believe this stuff I read in the Course, but I cannot deny that what is indisputable is the Voice that speaks to me. That Voice is always there, gentle but convincing.

It gives me Its thoughts, thoughts I cannot find in the ego thinking mind. I hear that Voice, and I hear it within me, and I know I am not the ego self. I know I am part of the Christ Mind. And if Christ is in me, then God, which is in Christ, is also in me. I can rest in that knowledge and be at peace. That is the reality, the only reality.

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