ACIM Chapter 9. III. The Correction of Error P 7, 8

ACIM Chapter 9. III. The Correction of Error P 7, 8

7 III. The Correction of Error, P 7

7 Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth beside you for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you and in your brother. His errors are forgiven with yours. Atonement is no more separate than love. Atonement cannot be separate because it comes from love. Any attempt you make to correct a brother means that you believe correction by you is possible, and this can only be the arrogance of the ego. Correction is of God, Who does not know of arrogance.

All my errors are corrected by the Holy Spirit, as are all my brothers. I become aware of these corrections as I accept the Atonement, but the Atonement is not part of separation. It is whole and is for my brother as it is for me. If I try to accept forgiveness for myself but deny it of my brother, I don’t understand the Atonement, and so I will not understand that I am forgiven.

I cannot correct myself. How do I think I can correct my brother?

What arrogance! This could only be my ego, and I gladly set that aside. It seems so clear and simple as I sit here writing about it. But what I have discovered is that I have a strong desire to judge and to correct. That I keep it to myself rather than speaking it (usually) does not make any difference.

I sometimes disguise this desire to correct by pretending I just want to help. This satisfies my spiritual ego but does nothing in reality. It is still a desire to correct. It still shows me that I think I know my brother’s errors and that I should correct them. I can convince myself that it is obvious that I am supposed to steer these unfortunates in the right direction. Oh, arrogant ego, I would let you speak to dead air today! I am not interested.

Holy Spirit, as my day progresses, please help me to be aware of the temptation to correct my brother or even myself. I see the error in this and I truly desire to surrender this to You.

8 III. The Correction of Error, P 8

8 The Holy Spirit forgives everything because God created everything. Do not undertake His function, or you will forget yours. Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for. God gave you the function to create in eternity. You do not need to learn that, but you do need to learn to want it. For that all learning was made. This is the Holy Spirit’s use of an ability that you do not need, but that you made. Give it to Him! You do not understand how to use it. He will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation, by learning how to look on everything without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors will be forgiven.

Oh, my goodness, I feel like I need to contemplate every sentence in this paragraph!

“The Holy Spirit forgives everything because God created everything.”

This is the reason I forgive everything. I forgive every person involved in every situation in my life, including me, because what we are is a creation of God. That alone is reason enough to forgive. I feel excited to think about this. How simple this makes forgiveness. There is nothing to judge or decide; in every case, I forgive because God created it.

“Do not undertake His function, or you will forget yours.”

Something that made forgiveness hard for me at first, is that I didn’t know what was my part and what was the Holy Spirit’s part. And when I tried to do His part, I would fail. Now I understand that my function is to notice when there is a thought in my mind that needs correction and to desire that correction. I then release it to the Holy Spirit and He heals my mind. I accept the healing. So, correction, healing, and forgiveness (which are all the same thing) are His function, not mine.

My function is to choose to be healed, to allow the healing, and to accept it. This is what the Course means when it says I am to forgive. If I try to take the Holy Spirit’s job, I will forget mine, which is essential to the process. I want healing, so I will notice if I start to think it is my job to correct either my brother or myself, and I will step back and let myself be reminded of my part.

“Accept only the function of healing in time, because that is what time is for.”

Healing is my only function while I am in time. I often become confused about this as I go about my day. I started to think that getting certain tasks completed was my function, and I became anxious if it didn’t look like I was succeeding. It would seem that being on time is my function, that winning is my function, and so many other of the necessary minutia of the day were my functions. But they are just things I do, not my function.

Healing is the only function I have in time, so it is my job to notice these wrong-minded choices and ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking. When I remember my function, I will use all these things I do to achieve it. This gives them a higher function, not because they are important in themselves but because of the use I have put them to.

“God gave you the function to create in eternity.”

The function of healing is only in force while we are in time. It is the necessary substitute for our true function. In eternity, where we exist, our function is creating. Oh my! Look at the phenomenal job we have done in making this upside-down world, and now imagine what we can do in our natural state. This thought is a powerful motivation for me to open my mind and heart to this awakening process.

“You do not need to learn that, but you do need to learn to want it.”

“For that all learning was made.” I do not need to learn I am a creator or how to create. I was created a creator, and thus, this cannot be lost to me. I can, however, choose to deny it for the purpose of an experience that is different than Reality. Because this was my choice, and because it is time to return to reality, I must learn that I want to do so. That is what it means that my function in time is learning. I am learning that I want to be what I am.

“This is the Holy Spirit’s use of an ability that you do not need, but that you made.”

In my natural state there is no function of learning because I already have all Knowledge. What could there be to learn? In the upside-down world I made, I must learn everything because the ego knows nothing. Like everything I made, as I give it to the Holy Spirit for His use, He uses it to teach me that I don’t need it. If it sounds insane, that is because it is insane. But in giving what I made to the Holy Spirit, my sanity is restored along with my memory. Whew!

“Give it to Him! You do not understand how to use it.”

He will teach you how to see yourself without condemnation, by learning how to look on everything without it. Condemnation will then not be real to you, and all your errors will be forgiven.” I gladly give the Holy Spirit my learning and put Him in charge. I give Him my crazy thoughts and my belief that I know what to do with them. He forgives it all and heals my mind, and I am learning to see myself without condemnation.

This has been slow going for me because the ego mind treasures the notion that it can and should judge. When I feel like the holy and Divine Being that I am, the ego rushes in with memories of all my errors. It insists that they make me guilty and unworthy. The purpose is to reinstall fear in my mind and keep the ego myth going.

What has made this easier for me is that I now understand that to see myself as innocent, I must see all aspects of Self as innocent. I am learning that my brother is innocent no matter what his ego does. I am learning that the world is innocent regardless of appearances. In this understanding, I know that I must also be innocent. It is in this denial of guilt as real that all errors are forgiven and we are restored to our true nature. What judgment could be more important or valuable than this?

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