CIM Lessons 222-228 and Miracles Principle #33

Miracles Principle #33: “Miracles honor you because you are lovable. They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.” The experience of a miracle dispels illusions about our being separate, being “worms of the dust.” A shift in perception, miracles help us “see”—if only for an instant—we are all the same, all “in this boat together” and that our joint truth is that we are all eternal, whole, and perfect expressions of God.

Review of Routine for Part II:

1)  Spending time with God in the morning and at night.

2)  Hourly remembrance of the lesson for the day.

3)  Frequent reminders in between the hours.

4)   Response to “temptation” (judgment) with a call to Spirit. (“Help me see this in a different way.”)

What is Forgiveness?” Unforgiveness “makes a judgment it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true.” According to CIM, forgiveness does not make sin real and then pardon it, as we believe and practice in the physical world. It sees there was no sin to forgive. “Sin” is simply a false idea about God’s Son. It is a false self-appraisal projected onto others. Forgiveness here is seen in three steps: First, we choose to see the falsity of the idea of sin. What God created perfect and whole is still perfect and whole; second, with the help of Spirit, we let the idea of sin go. The third step is God’s. When we choose to see things differently and ask Spirit for help, the will of God is free to flow through us unhindered by our judgments and illusions. The mental state in which forgiveness occurs is one in which we simply allow all of reality to be as it is, without judging any of it. Forgiveness doesn’t deny what we see, it simply puts no interpretation on it. The most effective thing we can do when an upsetting event occurs is nothing; to simply let our minds become still and quiet and to open ourselves to the interpretation of Spirit, which will always be one of love. What we see and experience on the physical level is always a manifestation of one of two things: love or fear (a call for love). We can label what we see as self-centeredness, belligerence, arrogance, cruelty or kindness—but no matter what we label it, it’s always either love or a cry for love.

To a mind habituated to seeing itself as a separate ego, abandoning all judgment is frightening. It feels like the rug is being pulled out from under our feet. We don’t know where to stand. How can we live in the world without judgment? Without judgment, we fear chaos. CIM assures us this will not happen:

“You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love.”(T-15.V.1: 6-7)

Lesson 222—“God is with me. I live and move in Him.” This lesson speaks of the omnipresence of God and mirrors the words of the Apostle Paul to the Athenians (Acts 17:16-28). We are reminded that God is “closer than breathing,” and “nearer than hands and feet.” This is speaking of our spiritual reality. We think our body contains our life, that our body is our home. But God is our life and our home. As drops of water or waves in the ocean, we have no existence apart from the Whole, apart from God.

Lesson 223—“God is my life. I have no life but His.” Our mistake is thinking we have some sort of life apart from God. We don’t. God is life. Let that fully sink in. He (or She, if you choose) is being. He is existence. He created all that is and there is nothing apart from Him. Ironically, our striving is to get back to God, as if He were distant from us. But He is not distant. He isn’t something separate from my Self. There is a blessed relief when we make this realization. The entire bitter struggle, all the fruitless longing, all the aching sense of being on the outside looking in—all of it ends, and a sense of pure joy dawns in its place.

Lesson 224—“God is my Father, and He loves His Son.” In addition to being shorter from this point on, the remainder of our lessons are like “love songs” from God. They remind us that not only is the “prodigal” welcome back Home, a banquet of jubilation awaits our return. Here we read God’s estimation of us: that we are “lofty, sinless, glorious and great, wholly beneficent and free from guilt.” Do we require a plainer statement?

Lesson 225—“God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.” Holy love is wholly reciprocal. We receive God’s love by returning it to Him. There is no other way to receive it because “giving and receiving are the same.” This exact same phrase occurs six times in CIM, and there are many others very much like it. There’s a reason for the repetition! This is very literally the key to the Kingdom! All that I give is given unto myself! I will never experience the unconditional love I seek until I give it.

Lesson 226—“My home awaits me. I will hasten there.” “ET phone home!” Are you old enough to remember that enchanting movie? We are quite literally “aliens” in this environment. So how do we get back home? CIM is quite clear on this, saying, “It is not death which makes this possible, but it is a change of mind about the purpose of the world.” And what is the purpose of the world? As long as we think the purpose of the world lies within the world—that somehow freedom, happiness, love and contentment are to be found here, we’ll never leave it. Not even when we *“die.” Our “home” is not under construction. It’s ready and waiting, the red carpet rolled out to welcome us. My home is available right here and now. There is nowhere to go. I must simply recognize and joyfully accept that I “swim” in God, in His love and abundance, just as the fish swims in the ocean.

*A special note on suicide here: “Death” does not end one’s pain. Because we are not a body, but rather our “consciousness,” that consciousness—peaceful or pain-filled—continues to be our experience whether we are “in” the body or “out” of it.

Lesson 227—“This is my holy instant of release.” This lesson is another reminder that these practice times are meant to be holy instants for us. Not every one will be a dramatic experience of wordless bliss, of course. Remember that simply being willing to turn your mind to God can be considered a holy instant, whether or not you experience anything dramatic. Consider the effect today’s idea has on the mind. I am already free; now, today. My thought of separation had no effect on my reality, so the imprisonment I’ve imagined never happened. “Nothing I thought apart from You exists.” How comforting to know my “nightmares” do not exist. How healing it is to give them up to the Truth and to have them “forever removed from my mind.” This is the healing process of CIM; to take each thought that seems to express a will separate from God’s and bring it to Spirit to be removed from our minds. This is how my awareness of my Identity is returned to me.

Lesson 228—“God has condemned me not. No more do I.” We’re afraid if we stop judging ourselves, the evil in us will be unchecked and will break out in some terrible disaster. But what if there is no evil in us? What if God is right? What God knows, the lesson says, makes sin in us impossible. Who knows what something or someone is like better than its Creator? And what does God know about me? “The Father knows my holiness.” “I was mistaken about myself” is all that has happened. I forgot my source, and what I must be, coming from that Source. My Source is God and not my dark illusions. My mistakes about myself are dreams—and I am not my dreams. I am the dreamer, still holy, still One with God.

Assignment: Lessons 229-235. Miracles Principle #34. Also, please remember to bring in your questions and segments of CIM you’d like to read and discuss together.

Practical Application: Keep a pad and pen nearby this week and jot down your negative self-talk as it occurs.  For each negative, write a positive affirmation, a truth about your Self as God created you. From time to time during the week, repeat the affirmations you’ve written.

Examples:

I just don’t have any discipline. I don’t follow through on anything.

I am the strength of God. (The strength of God is mine.)

I just can’t forgive her.

God is the love in which I forgive.

I’m so judgmental!

I am the unconditional love of God.