Miracles Principle #12: “Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.” This is a very important principle. Miracles are thoughts, so a miracle is a change from the ego’s thought to the Holy Spirit’s thought. Miracles are thought because everything, ultimately, is thought. Nothing has existence outside our minds. The miracle is the thought that corrects the ego’s thought of separation. This is the first time CIM differentiates between the words “make” and “create.” Spirit creates the eternal. The ego makes ephemeral. (For a more detailed description of the difference in “make” and “creating” read Text, page 44—Beyond Perception—paragraphs 2-3.)
Lesson 75—“The light has come.” This lesson speaks of me as though I’ve accepted its message and forgiven the world; as though I’m ready, this very moment, to see the real world. Though I may not feel ready for such confidence, this lesson is the truth about me whether or not I have yet recognized it because any impression I may have that my will differs from God’s is only an illusion. Today is for the celebration of vision. I accept myself as God created me. The light has come!
Lesson 76—“I am under no laws but God’s laws.” This stunning, almost unbelievable statement confronts, head on, all our basic assumptions about life and ourselves. Our subjugation to the laws of the world is a choice we make from moment to moment. To realize this is true, we have to undo the mistake we’ve made in identifying who and what we are. That undoing is what CIM is all about. The following scenario forms the background to this lesson:
1. We are perfect, formless mind, each of us parts of a seamless whole, but have wished to separate off a small piece of mind to call “me.” Our sense of identity has become restricted to this little fragment of mind, and we have felt enormous fear and guilt as a result of this false belief.
2. We have made up a world filled with bodies for two reasons: first, to support our illusion of separateness; and, second, to escape the guilt in our minds by projecting that guilt onto others.
3. Believing we are the body, and that our bodies are endangered by many things, we have devised an endless list of means for protecting and preserving our bodies. These are the “laws” we have agreed will govern the chaos we’ve generated.
Lesson 77—“I am entitled to miracles.” This lesson celebrates our true Identity as beings who are one with God. What we are entitles us to miracles. Nothing we do or say, no rituals we observe, entitles us to miracles. They are the gift of God. We do not try to generate miracles ourselves; we ask Holy Spirit to work miracles through us. We also remember that miracles may or may not always have observable effects. The essential ingredient in a miracle is not anything in the material world, but the freeing of our minds from illusions.
Lesson 78—“Let miracles replace all grievances.” If we did not have grievances, everything would be miraculous. God’s perfect world shimmers all around us, but it is blocked from our awareness by our grievances. The very purpose of a grievance is to hide the miracle behind it. The Son of God is hidden in all of us. Only our grievances prevent us from seeing him everywhere. We have the power to release him in everyone around us simply by looking past our grievances to the Christ within them. Perhaps we’re not ready to let go of our judgments entirely. This lesson is only asking that we try it on for size for fifteen minutes. “Let me behold my savior in this one.” This lesson offers reason to reconsider mindsets such as, “I have to love her from another room.” As we said in our last session, this is a good starting point, but as CIM students, we must be willing to take this a step further, whenever we feel ready. The one we are seeing as “toxic” is our savior, our greatest teacher—if only we are willing to be willing to ask Spirit, sincerely, to help us see that “toxic” person in a different way.
Lesson 79—“Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” This lesson brings us back to the CIM principle—“One problem, one solution.” These lessons merit repeating until the concepts they teach become imbedded in our thought processes. We seem to be faced with myriad problems, overwhelming in their complexity. To break free of this illusory burden, our first step must be to recognize the problem in every problem. As long as I think the problem is anything other than my imaginary separateness from God, which has always been a non-issue with God, I will continue to think I have a sea of problems for which there is no solution. The seeming complexity of the world is nothing more than our minds’ attempts to not recognize the single problem, thus preventing its resolution. If we can see the separation at the root of every problem, we realize we already have the answer. We are already free. All we’re being asked to do at this point is to “suspend all judgment about what the problem is.” So today we’re being called to doubt—to doubt our own version of what our problems are. And then to ask Spirit, “What is the real” problem here?”
Lesson 80—“Let me recognize my problems have been solved.”” An unresolved problem is an excuse for unforgiveness. An unresolved problem generates a grievance that blocks the light or truth from our awareness. Whenever we choose, we can accept the fact that the “problem” is already gone because in God’s mind, which is ALL THERE IS, there never was a problem. We are still as God created us.
Lesson 81—Begins review: ”I am the light of the world.”
Assignment: Miracles Principle # 13; Lessons 82-88. Text Chapter 14, Section III “The Decision for Guiltlessness,” pp. 274-278.
Practical Application: This week, practice applying The Rules for Decision (Text pp.625—629) whenever something or someone disturbs your peace. You may find it helpful to write the steps down on a sticky note or note card that you can keep handy.
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