Miracles
Principle #19: Miracles
make minds one in God. They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the
sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity,
not of time. Miracles don’t make us one in God. They remind
us we are one in God. Separation is the key idea in the ego’s belief system.
The body is an illusion, a means to “prove” we’re separate. If I believe my
body is sick, then I’m making my body real and reinforcing the ego’s purpose.
If I am upset because you are sick, I’m doing the same thing. Because we are
all One on the level of our minds, all people are the same—whole and perfect,
as God created them. Therefore the solution to all so-called problems or
“dis-eases” is the same: ownership of our Reality, the Oneness, which is Perfect
Love.
Lesson
124—“Let me remember I am one with God.” This lesson
tells us enlightenment is not a change but a recognition. To pray, to give
thanks for the Truth about me as God created me is a very profitable exercise.
We spoke in class recently of another CIM quote that basically says, if I but
realized Who walks with me, I’d never have reason for concern. This lesson is a
portrait of a teacher of God. Everywhere he walks, light is left behind to
illuminate the way for others. The teacher walks in constant awareness of God’s
Presence. He feels God within. God’s thoughts fill his mind, and he perceives
only the loving and lovable. This teacher heals people in the past, the
present, and the future—at any distance. The latter part of the lesson reminds
us that Jesus knows very well that most of us are so far from this conscious
awareness that we may spend a half hour trying to get in touch with this Truth
and never get even a glimmer of it. And he tells us not to worry about that.
Even though we may experience nothing in practicing this lesson, he assures us
“no time was ever better spent.”
Lesson
125—“In quiet I receive God’s word today.” All we’re asked
to do today is to be quiet for ten minutes three times during the day and for a
moment each hour. Our ego is a constant noise machine, trying to drown out the
Voice for God. The difficulties I have being quiet are indicators of how much I
need this practice. As soon as I sit down to meditate, the ego reminds me of
something I’ve left undone or takes me on a distracting detour, a “frantic rush
of thoughts.” Clearly, CIM is teaching me that a quiet mind is essential to our
goal. “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind.”
Lesson
126—“All that I give is given to myself.” This lesson
aims at thought reversal. Our false understanding of forgiveness is the reason
we can’t understand how forgiveness brings us peace nor how it restores our
unity with our brothers. The idea that “all that I give is given to myself” is
crucial. Understanding it makes forgiveness effortless. The “cries for love” of
others are my own, and I cannot condemn another without condemning myself and
losing my peace of mind. If I understood this and believed it, forgiveness
would happen naturally. I would realize that how I see another person is how I
see myself. I would learn to perceive that ego actions are not sins but cries
for help and would respond accordingly. I would realize that my judgmental
attitude has an adverse affect on the behavior of others and on myself. I would
see that I’m not separate but that we all share the same fears and doubts, and
we share the same longing for release from them. How wise of my Father to
gently teach me by holding a mirror before my eyes! If I ask for understanding
sincerely, it will come.
Lesson
127—“There is no love but God’s love.” This is an extremely
important lesson. It asks me to “take the largest single step this course
requests in [my] advance towards its established goal.” Contrary to what I
believe, there are no different kinds of love—romantic, maternal, fraternal,
etc. Nor are there different degrees of love. I merely torment myself looking
for these different kinds of love outside myself. They aren’t out there to be
found. God is Love and God is all there is. This Love is truly unconditional
and is not affected by anything outside Itself, outside my Self. I am what God
is. I am unconditional love. The goal of today’s lesson is to catch even the
faintest glimpse that this is my true nature. This is an attempt to free my
mind of all the limits I have placed on myself and all the changes I believe
I’ve made in myself, and to find my true Self, Who is Love. To be able, even in
a very small degree, to perceive myself as this Love is a quantum leap indeed.
To spend a little time for this purpose is well worth it. “There is no better
use for time than this.”
Lesson
128—“The world I see holds nothing that I want.” The
purpose of this lesson is to learn to let go of the value I place on things of
the world so that I may free my mind to experience what is truly valuable—my
home in God. This seems like a harsh and scary teaching, but it’s the key to
our ultimate freedom. It’s similar to the first three of Buddha’s Four Noble
Truths: life is suffering; the cause of suffering is desire for self at the
expense of others; and the way out of suffering is the relinquishment of all
such desires. When I assign value to things of this world, I chain myself to
heartache because everything in the world must have an end. My cravings for
bodily possessions, protection, longevity, etc., only divert my attention from
my purpose here. To the Holy Spirit, this world and everything in it has only
one purpose—to heal my mind, to remember Who and What I am.
Lesson
129—“Beyond this world there is a world I want.” Jesus
realizes that to ask us to release this world without offering something of
more value in return will only cause us to dig in our heels. The statement that
this world is “worthless” is pretty blunt. My ego desperately clings to the
idea that there is something worth preserving and striving for here.
The
emphasis of CIM is not on “giving up the world but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and
capable of offering [me] peace.” This begins to look a tad more enticing when I
take a hard look at the world I’m trying to hang onto. Terrorism, starvation,
disease, apathy . . . In this world, even when I do find peace or love, I know
it can’t last forever. So why wouldn’t I want to consider a world where it is impossible to lose anything? I
drag my feet because this other world is as yet far too vague to me. (What will
I do all day if I don’t have a body?)
Such fears stem from the root fear that God intends to punish us—to bait and
switch, to trick us. CIM tells us we give up “nothing” for “everything” in this
process.
Do I personally know what that “everything” looks like? I do not. One
thing that gives me some glimmer of this “other world” is my dreams at night. I
don’t have a body in these dreams yet my experience is vivid and “palpable.” In
my dreams, I am ageless, limitless, and invincible. The bottom line, however,
is that even though I don’t know exactly what this world will be like I’m
getting in exchange, I do know I can trust Unconditional Love not to “shaft”
me. I can trust Unconditional Love to exceed my wildest dreams for joy.
Lesson
130—“It is impossible to see two worlds.” The first two
paragraphs of this lesson are as clear a statement of CIM’s teaching on the
workings of perception as there is in all three volumes. What I value, I want
to see. What I want to see determines my thinking. And what I see reflects my
thinking. Believing is seeing! Since
I can’t hate and love simultaneously, I can’t project totally opposite worlds
simultaneously. Through my thinking, I project either a world of fear or
a world of love. If I try to exclude part of my projection, thinking“ surely this is good,” I’m trying to “accept a
little part of hell as real.”
At the same time, Course does not try to foster a
rejection of the world. It tells me that only the part of it I look upon with
love is real. Therefore, I’m urged to love
all equally and thereby to “make the world real unto myself.” If I’m
willing to do this, I will see another world with sight that “is not the kind
of seeing that [my] eyes alone have ever seen before.” When I want only love, I
will see nothing else. This is very
literal.
Assignment:
Miracles Principle #20; Workbook lessons 131-137; Text, pp.
227-229, The Vision of Christ. (First words: “The ego is trying to teach you
how to gain the whole world,” etc.)
Practical
Application: This assignment has been made previously, but
you may wish to give it another try. Resolve to go this full week without
watching TV or reading a newspaper. Also avoid “inflammatory” books, music, and
movies. In some of the spare time this frees up for you, journal. You may wish
to use the day’s lesson, or a line or lines from it, as your starting point.
Try to journal at least 5 minutes, preferably 10-15. One technique for really
getting thoughts flowing is to write non-stop, without lifting your pen or
pencil for that period of time. Do not stop to erase or scratch out. Suppress
the urge to self-edit. At the end of the week, re-read and reflect on what
you’ve written.
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