ACIM Daily Lesson 201 I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
Lesson 201
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (181) I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
²No one but is my brother. ³I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free.
⁶For I am still as God created me.
Oh, my! This is just so lovely. Everyone is my brother, and every brother is one with all of the Sonship. I choose to trust my brothers, and this is not because their egos are reliable. It is because within every brother is the same Self that is within me. I trust this Self and simply disregard everything that is not reflective of that Self. God created us as One Self, forever one with Him.
How Exceptions Interfere
It is very easy to make exceptions to this. Sometimes it is by leaving someone out. Or by trusting some things about a person, but not other things about him. But the lesson does not say I trust some of my brothers some of the time. If I make exceptions, then I have undone this lesson. It is very clear that my brothers are one with me. An exception would infer that there is some separation, some small gap between us that would allow one to be different from another. The peace of God is complete, and so there cannot be a part of us that is out of accord with another part. By the same logic, if I am trustworthy in most cases, but in one case I am not, then there is no peace.
Past Confusion Undone
This used to confuse me. Here is what that was like and how Jesus helped me.
When someone says something that seems ego-based and is clearly not in accord with the Course, I notice and I think to myself that my brother is wrong. I do not trust them because I have decided they don’t know what they are talking about. But I am undoing the ego, so how can I not notice what they are saying? Am I supposed to agree with them when I clearly hear the ego? It feels confusing to me, so I asked Jesus about this. He helped me to look at one specific incident which would stand for the rest.
A friend and I were discussing an idea in the Course on which we had what seemed like opposing beliefs. When I asked Jesus how I could see this differently, he told me to notice what I had been doing. All day I had been thinking up defenses to my point of view. I kept discarding each defense because I would notice that no matter how I couched the words, they felt like an attack to me. He reminded me that defense is an attack and a spiritual defense is still an attack.
Jesus Helps Me See Differently
Jesus also reminded me that I could trust my brother just as he could trust me. I could trust to allow the correction of errors in perfect timing.. He does not need my help. Jesus also helped me to see that my need to defend myself pointed to an error in my own mind that needed correction. My dear brother was helping me to see that I was afraid to see opposing views. Clearly, I felt my own thought system was threatened by the opposition.
I quickly brought this thought to the Holy Spirit for correction. He gently placed in my mind the reminder that I do not know anything, and this is good. The emptiness of not knowing provides a place for the truth to come. Not knowing is not threatening, rather it is inviting. I feel so grateful for all the help I receive. I am grateful to my brother for helping me to bring up this fear. Now that it is seen, I could bring it to the truth for correction. I am grateful for the peace which settles into my mind as I remember to trust my brother, who is one with me. I am as God created me.
And Now
Here is what I know now. My brother is simply as God created Him, pure and perfect, holy and whole. Everything else is my own dream. I am confused when I see something in my brother that is not congruent with the truth of our nature as God’s Son. Now I need to look within with the Holy Spirit. I can then allow the Holy Spirit to untangle my thoughts and remove what is not true. It makes me laugh at how I used to think that my brother’s seeming faults had anything to do with him.
This doesn’t mean the ego will not try to interest me in differences. As I was getting ready for the day this morning, my mind was wandering. I started thinking about something I had read about. It concerned a change in the law that seemed to me to be harmful. Suddenly I noticed that I felt tense. I was so quickly deeply into judgment of those involved that I had to stop thinking altogether. Going into the silent stillness allowed the space for the Holy Spirit to bring me back to sanity.
Two Things
It reminded me of two things. First, I cannot be as God created me if I lose trust in a brother and see him as guilty. My brothers are all as God created them, no matter what seems to be happening in their story. And the second thing I remembered is that I cannot be at peace if I allow the mind to engage in idle thoughts. This is just an invitation to the ego to judge and form opinions that separate me from others. Consistent practice is helping me move quickly from ego to Spirit and so from confusion to peace.
Contemplation 2026
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