CIM Lessons 257-263 and Miracles Principle # 38

Miracles Principle # 38: “The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.”  As CIM says later on, the Holy Spirit is “the only part of the Holy Trinity that has a symbolic function” (T-5.I.4:1). His function is an illusion, for it is to correct a problem that’s illusory. As long as the Son of God believes he is separate and vulnerable, the Holy Spirit will serve as the “telecommunications system” between the Creator and His creation. He is referred to as the Healer, the Comforter, and the Guide. He is the Christ Mind which is aware of the knowledge that lies beyond perception.

Lesson 257—“Let me remember what my purpose is.” Over and over CIM tells us our function and purpose, our reason for being here, is forgiveness. Forgiveness of what? Forgiveness of myself for the desire to “rebel” against Oneness. (Remember the story of The Prodigal Son.) The guilt for what I believe I’ve done is so overwhelming, I’ve projected the “sin” outward onto my brother. To awaken from the illusion of separation, I must forgive my brother and myself for what never happened in God’s reality. As long as I hold onto unforgiveness of anyone or anything, I will remain trapped in the belief that I am a victim of the world. If “other people” seem mean or unfair or irresponsible to me, I am still caught up in projecting my own guilt.

Lesson 258—“Let me remember that my goal is God.” We are in a series of “Let me remember” lessons. That’s a major goal of the Workbook practice—remembering. God’s sunlight is always shining, but we don’t always see it; we put up our umbrellas and “go shopping.” Not just in malls for things, but in relationships for specialness, in the marketplace for power and influence and wealth, in the bars for sex, and with our remote controls for entertainment. Do I want the memory of God? Then I must be willing to train my mind to stop crowding that memory out with the pursuit of “treasures” that will all disappoint or fade away.

Lesson 259—“Let me remember there is no sin.” The concept of sin includes the idea that I’ve done something that has irretrievably altered what I am. When Jesus says there is no sin, he’s saying that our ideas are in error. Nothing we’ve done in the illusion has altered what we are in any way. It’s as if we have a layer of Scotchgard protectant.  Underneath the layers of “grime,” we are still the holy Son of God. If my brother looks “grimy,” it’s my own lens I need to clean—or as Jesus directed, “Remove the mote from thine own eye.”

Lesson 260—“Let me remember God created me.” There is an unbreakable connection between acknowledging our true Source and knowing our true Identity. As long as I insist that I am my own creation (or that of my earthly parents or society), I will experience the fear of being vulnerable and corruptible. Just as the nature of a sunbeam is defined by the nature of the sun, so we are defined by our Source. My Source defines what I am. I am not defined by my past. Nor does theirs past define my brothers.

What is the Body? “The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built to separate parts of himself from other parts.” It is an imagined prison; a limit upon what is limitless. We believe we live in a body, and that when it crumbles and decays, we die. Much fear surrounds the death of the body because we fear that when we no longer have the body to “hide” in, we’ll have to face God’s anger and punishment. CIM is leading us to a new awareness of a Self that does not live in a body, a Self that does not crumble and die. It’s leading us to disengage ourselves from our bodily identification and to strengthen our sense of identity with the non-corporeal Self. Why have our egos made bodies as a fence? What is the fence keeping out? Oddly enough, it’s keeping out Love, the very thing we all so desperately seek. Have you ever felt you were about to lose yourself if you gave in to love? That feeling gives you some hint of the abject fear the ego has of love. The ego wants you to keep looking for love and not finding it because Love represents the loss of the ego identity. To the ego, it is death.

Lesson 261—“God is my refuge and security.”  We will identify with what we think makes us safe. That’s what we’ve done with our bodies. The body, we think, protects us from God. As long as we’re in it, we don’t have to face His wrath. My body protects me from “losing myself” in the unity love encourages. I encourage my sense of danger, my sense of vulnerability, to protect my individuality from the infiltration of other “selves.” The same dynamic is reflected in the world in people and in nations who attack others, claiming they are only seeking to preserve their own peace. The stance is self-contradictory. How can we “find security in danger” or “peace in murderous attack”? Our true security is in God. To realize this is true, I have to release my hold on the thoughts that identify me with my body and my ego.  I have to begin to give up attack and self-preservation as a way of life. Attack does not preserve the Self, which is invulnerable; it preserves the ego, which is ephemeral and destined to “die.”

Lesson 262—“Let me perceive no differences today.” To perceive no differences, I must let go of identification with the body, both my own body and the bodies of my brothers and sisters. The body establishes difference; it fairly screams, “I am different!” How can it be that in all the billions of bodies, no two have the same fingerprints or eye prints? This is the ego’s way of saying, “I am completely unlike you.” Which is completely untrue. “We are one. We share one life and that with God.” In each body that comes before us then, let us see the one Son of God. Together we are the holy Son of God.

Lesson 263—“My holy vision sees all things as pure.” This lesson is about seeing all things as God created them—without sin, innocent and pure. God’s mind created all that is, His Spirit entered into that creation, and His Love gave it life. To see things this way, at first, has to be a conscious choice, because we’ve trained our minds for eons to see otherwise. We’ve learned to categorize, evaluate, accept or reject—all based on erroneous constructs. Eventually, the choice to see purity becomes less and less a conscious choice and more and more a habit of thought. Frequent and persistent repetition speeds the process.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #39. Workbook Lessons #264-270. Manual for Teachers—read as you are led by Spirit.

Practical Application: Ponder this:

If God is not aware of the dramas of our illusions, how does it benefit us to pray to Him to assist us with our troubles?