ACIM Lesson 133 I will not value what is valueless.

Lesson 133
“I will not value what is valueless.”

Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone through what seems theoretical and quite remote from what the student has already learned, to bring him back to practical concerns. This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing ideas, but dwell instead on benefits to you.

You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains.

There are no satisfactions in the world. Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but replace what offers more.

The laws which govern choice you cannot make, no more than you can make alternatives from which to choose. The choosing you can do; indeed you must. But it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose, and what alternatives you choose between. We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be.

The range is set, and this we cannot change. It would be most ungenerous to you to let alternatives be limitless, and thus delay your final choice until you had considered all of them in time, and not been brought so clearly to the place where there is but one choice that must be made.

Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.

First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it. He is deceived by nothing in a form he thinks he likes.

Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because when you deny his right to everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize the thing you really have, denying they are there. Who seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss must offer loss and nothing more.

Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived, for what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it
uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see how innocent it is.

Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer which could deceive but those who are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone who cares to look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one who is deceived will not perceive that he has merely failed to gain. He will believe that he has served the ego’s hidden goals. And though
he tries to keep its halo clear within his vision, yet must he perceive its tarnished edges and its rusted core.

His ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him because he looks upon the tarnished as his own; the rust a sign of deep unworthiness within himself. He who would still preserve the ego’s goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes according to the dictates of his guide. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but
mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?

And so we come to the criterion for choice which is the hardest to believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives, and thus you do not realize there are but two. And the alternative you think you chose seems fearful and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.

All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. Choosing is easy just because of this. Complexity is nothing but a screen of smoke which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be difficult.

What is the gain to you in learning this? It is far more than merely letting you make choices easily and without pain. Heaven Itself is reached by empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real.

Our two extended practice periods of fifteen minutes will begin with this:

“I will not value what is valueless,
And only what has value do I seek,
For only that do I desire to find.”

And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unencumbered, to the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. Should you begin to let yourself collect some needless burdens, or believe you see some difficult decisions facing you, be quick to answer with this simple thought:

“I will not value what is valueless,
For what is valuable belongs to me.”

ACIM Lesson 132 I loose the world from all I thought it was.

Lesson 132
“I loose the world from all I thought it was.”

What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. A madman thinks the world he sees is real and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts’ effects. It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom comes to him at last.

Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it. Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think.

You free the past from what you thought before. You free the future from all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find. The present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world.

You have enslaved the world with all your fears, with doubts and miseries, your pain and tears, and all your sorrows press upon it and keep it a prisoner to your beliefs. Death strikes it everywhere because you hold the bitter thought of death within your mind. The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them
and think them real.

Perhaps you think you did not make the world, but came unwillingly to what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you came. There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly.

Ideas leave not their source. This central theme is often stated in the text, and must be borne in mind if you would understand the lesson for today. It is not pride which tells you that you made the world you see, and that it changes as you change your mind. But it is pride that argues you have come into a world quite separate from yourself, impervious to what you think, and quite apart from what you chance
to think it is.

There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again.

But healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is no world, and can accept the lesson now. Their readiness will bring the lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize. Some see it suddenly on point of death, and rise to teach it. Others find it in experience that is not of this world, which shows them that the world does not exist because what they behold must be the truth, and yet it clearly contradicts the world. And some will find it in this course, and in the exercises that we do today. Today’s idea is true because the world does not exist. And if it is indeed your own imagining, then you can loose it from all things you ever thought it was by merely changing all the thoughts that gave it these appearances. The sick are healed as you let go all thoughts of sickness, and the dead arise when you let thoughts of life replace all thoughts you ever held of death.

A lesson earlier repeated once must now be stressed again, for it contains the firm foundation for today’s idea. You are as God created you. There is no place where you can suffer, and no time that can bring change to your eternal state. How can a world of time and place exist if you remain as God created you?

What is the lesson for today except another way of saying that to know your Self is the salvation of the world? To free the world from every kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself. There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought.

Yet if you are as God created you, you cannot think apart from Him, nor make what does not share His timelessness and love. Are these inherent in the world you see? Does it create like Him? Unless it does, it is not real and cannot be at all. If you are real the world you see is false, for God’s creation is unlike the world in every way. And as it was His Thought by which you were created, so it is your thoughts which made it and must set it free, that you may know the Thoughts you share with God.

Release the world! Your real creations wait for this release to give you fatherhood, not of illusions, but as God in truth. God shares His Fatherhood with you who are His Son, for He makes no distinctions in what is Himself and what is still Himself. What He creates is not apart from Him, and nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him.

There is no world because it is a thought apart from God, and made to separate the Father and the Son, and break away a part of God Himself and thus destroy His wholeness. Can a world which comes from this idea be real? Can it be anywhere? Deny illusions, but accept the truth. Deny you are a shadow briefly laid upon a dying world. Release your mind, and you will look upon a world released.

Today our purpose is to free the world from all the idle thoughts we ever held about it, and about all living things we see upon it. They can not be there; no more than we. For we are in the home our Father set for us along with them. And we who are as He created us would loose the world this day from every one of our illusions, that
we may be free.

Begin the fifteen minute periods in which we practice twice today with this:

“I who remain as God created me
Would loose the world from all I thought it was.
For I am real because the world is not,
And I would know my own reality.”

Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed along with you.

You need not realize that healing comes to many brothers far across the world as well as to the ones you see near by, as you send out these thoughts to bless the world. But you will sense your own release, although you may not fully understand as yet that you could never be released alone.

Throughout the day, increase the freedom sent through your ideas to all the world, and say whenever you are tempted to deny the power of your simple change of mind:

“I loose the world from all I thought it was,
And choose my own reality instead.”

May 1, 2010 Raj, ACIM Study Group Transcript www. nwffacim.org.

May 1, 2010 ©NWFFACIM

RAJ. Good evening. … … And welcome to Every One Who’s joining Us on the Internet. … … Tonight will be a … departure from the usual, and I … won’t be reading from the Course.

There are some things I need to … share. … And so, before We do that, let’s still take some … time to be together, quietly. … …
[Quiet Time]

O-kay. Good evening again. … … … It’s really a rather simple … lesson … that We’re all … in the middle of, … and that We’ve been discussing.

We’ve called it different things: the two-step, … … hesitation, … going into the Stillness, … going into the Void, … abandoning thinking. …

One of the things … Paul has become aware of, … more clearly than ever before, … in the last three weeks since We were together, is that … … when He is thinking, … He’s not speaking with Me. … He’s not consciously, let’s say, connected with the Holy Spirit either. … And He’s not reaching out … to the Father. He is self-sufficiently … attending to … … figuring things out, … … attending to … saving His ass, … protecting Himself. … Ensuring Himself that He won’t be vulnerable. … …

Now, here’s the simplicity of it: … … When one is thinking, and is unJoined, in other words, not engaged in … active companionship … with the Holy Spirit, or with Me, or with the Father, … one is … no different from a toaster that’s not plugged in … to the socket. …

It sits there. … It looks like a toaster. … If You put the toast in and push it down, … it looks like it must be toasting … the bread. But nothing is happening, … and nothing can actually happen. … …

There have been things requiring Paul’s attention, … … just as there are things that require … Your attention, and have, let’s say, during the past three weeks. And in many instances Paul immediately began to engage in … figuring out how to cope with … those issues, those things.

And He could come up with different scenarios and different solutions, … and be concerned about whether they would really work and which one was the right one, and so on, … … and He suddenly realized: My God! … I’m thinking. I’m not Joined. I’m not Listening. Therefore, … all that’s going on in My mind … … is meaningless. … …

He came up with a little phrase, … which He would use whenever He realized He was beginning to think, … of had been thinking. He would say, quote: ‘But I still don’t have the answer.’ Unquote … … ‘But I don’t have the answer.’ … …

A fear would come up. He would be attracted to it. He would think it- … He would think about it, and, maybe spend half an hour, seriously … considering it. … And then, … remember and say: … ‘But I don’t have the answer.’

Not only did He realize He didn’t have the answer, … He realized that He couldn’t possibly have the answer … as a result of thinking, and that it was futile … for Him to do this thinking process that His whole life had taught Him to do … rather well. Intelligently. Reasonably.

And, therefore, … the only solution … was to take whatever the question was – whatever the need was – to Me, … or to the Holy Spirit, and ask for the answer.

You know what? … … You all love the mystery. … You all love the not-knowing. … You all love … the process of … discovering. … You all love the anticipation … of the answer that will come to You. … … And … the fact is, You feel it would be utterly dull to immediately have the answer, … and immediately know… exactly what to do, or exactly what the Truth about the situation … is.

Where would the fun of dis- discovery be? Where would the … mysteriousness be. Where would the wondering be. Then, of course, … then You could play on words: the wonder … of the answer. The wonder, the awesomeness of it. … ..

Well, wondering and wonder are two different words, with two- do- two different meanings.

Wondering is not knowing. wondering is being ignorant. And to enjoy wondering because of the mystery of it is to make ignorance valuable, and worth embracing and engaging in. … And all the time, You still don’t have the answer.

And You still don’t have the answer because You haven’t gone to the Place where the answer is available, which is not … in the midst of Your thinking processes.

It’s in the Silence, … when You abandon all of Your best reasoning and judgment, … and You ask: … ‘What’s the Truth here?’ … … … of That Which Knows the Truth. … The Holy Spirit, That Which is nothing more than Your Right Mind. The Father, … … or the Christ,
That Which Knows the answer which has been from the beginning. And … which has … involved no variableness whatsoever. … And … the Knowledge of Which … brings You Peace, … and not … the mystery … of not-knowing, and the supposed pleasure of discovering. … …

All of this goes on in the orphan mindset, which is the unplugged toaster. … … …

So You see, the simplicity of the lesson here … is: … If You’re thinking, … nothing is happening.

If You are reasoning- if You are going through logical deductions, nothing is happening. You still … don’t have the answer.

And I promise You something. If … – suddenly – apparently in the midst of all of Your mystery and wondering, the answer comes to You, it will be because You were momentarily undefended … against the answer. You were momentarily not invested … in Your coming up with the answer. ... You were momentarily innocent … … of trying to be something You cannot be. … And the Holy Spirit … answered.

And You had the answer. And the answer … … was … Peace embodied. And the answer was … Wholeness … experienced. … And the answer was … … the capacity to be … utterly appropriate in whatever the circumstance … was that You were in at that moment.

Now, You want to be plugged in. You want to wake up. … … The simple fact is … that as long as You are thinking and not Joined, … You are unconscious! …

You say: ‘Well how could I be unconscious? I’m driving the car. I’m interacting with people. I’m conscious! … …

Are You conscious of the Truth, though? Are You conscious of … Reality … in which … sickness … is non-existent? And, … which, because You’re in the middle of it, constituted a healing for You. An instantaneous healing, in which illness disappeared! … ...

If that hasn’t happened, You are not yet conscious … of the Truth. … … You are … unconscious and nothing meaningful … is happening, except You enjoying this … fantastic experience of … the mystery of life. Ah sweet mystery of life. A beautiful song. … … You enshrine the mystery of life, and … the concept of … beauty. ... Stop it!

… … Stop enshrining … and embodying … … unconsciousness, … ignorance, … meaninglessness. …

If You don’t have the answer, … and You’re doing a lot of thinking, … remind Yourself: ‘But I don’t- I still don’t have the answer.’ … And in the reminding of Yourself of that fact, … … abandon Your independence and say: ‘Father, what is the Truth here?’ … …

Ask: ‘Holy Spirit, what is the Truth here?’

Say: ‘Jesus, … show Me the Truth. Show Me the way. … … … Share with Me the experience of Truth, not the idea of it. … I want to experience what You’re … experiencing, when You, Jesus, are not holding Yourself separate from Your Father, … … and thus You, in Your full capacity of the Christ, are able … to be Co-Creators with the Father. Help Me have that experience, so that I – in the fullness of the Christ that I am – can Co-Create with My Father, and … … Be in that Place where the Laws of God prevail! … … (And) where the sense of mystery … is no more. … … …

The boredom … of not having … … answers to discover … doesn’t constitute a loss of any kind, because … it puts You … in direct communion with … unseparated … Oneness with God. …

And You therefore, stand with God … in the Movement of Creation that God is Be-ing, so that You discover and experience what God is Be-ing, brand-new in every moment; and are free to acknowledge It as What It Is. And not be confused about It, and not need to go through a- a process of mystery in order to arrive … … at an experience of What It Is.

And so, (small laugh) it’s far from boring. … … …‘

But of course … it doesn’t involve any ego processes of becoming … … which actually constitute an absence of meaning; toast not getting toasted, actually. … … … And You being … unconscious when ... what You want is to be conscious.

So, … … You know You … have situations in Your life, … and … You think: ‘Oh, well a miracle is a sudden shift of perception.’ And You think: ‘Oh! Well it’ll be a shift of perception from this kind of experience to this kind of experience in the world; from a- a lesser situation to a better situation.

No! The shift is from being unconscious to being conscious. … The shift is from … … thinking … to Listening. The shift is from isolation … to … Unity – Joining, … Togetherness. … … The shift is from emptiness … … to Fullness or Wholeness. … …

The Simplicity … escapes Every One … … because there is great faith in the power of thought. The- You have great faith in Your capacity to think. … … You know what? … None of the great discoveries … in history were the result of thought. They were always the result – or presence of insight. Nothing else. … …

Insight is what You need to be valuing, not thought-processes! … … An innocent mind, … … unconditioned … needs to be valued, … more than an educated mind that has taught how to be very specifically orderly in very specific ways; bound, … not free! … Not available for Revelation. And I promise You, Revelation … goes beyond concepts.

The Movement of God goes beyond thoughts! … It goes beyond orderlinesses, … intellectual orderlinesses. … …

It’s utterly … original. It doesn’t fit in anywhere. … … … You see? … …

The lesson is simple. … … The place where We are, … in the process – You might say – of Awakening, is a place of great simplicity now. It’s like being at the last step. There’s only one more thing to do … now. We can read … through the rest of the Course, … and We probably will, or We might not. … …

But the point is … … that You’re at the step of being able to recognize what the issue is, the simplicity of it … … … and doing it. … …

When You learn how to do meditation, … You have … something to give Your attention to: a mantra, the flame of a candle, a mandala, … Your breath. …

And when You find Yourself what? Beginning to think, You remind Yourself to come back to … the breath, … or the flame, … or the mandala, or the mantra.

Well, … You at a point in Life … where Life Itself is this choice, this same … … meditational choice I might say, … … … where You have to notice when You’ve started thinking, so that You might say: ‘No! I still don’t have the answer and never will have it this way. I’m gonna go back to what? Thinking more? Better? No. The Silence and … attentiveness called Listening.’ … … …

And actually … allowing for engagement in Communion, communication, dialogue with the Holy Spirit, or Me, or the Father!

It’s not just a matter of being still. … … It’s not just a matter of not thinking. It’s a matter … of … stopping the thinking, which preoccupies You from … being attentive to Something outside Yourself, beyond Your thinking. And there- And thereby, … positioning You … so that You might … experience … the loss of … independence … and the experience of Brotherhood … … and Communion with That Which can … share the Truth with You, so that You no longer … … indulge in the mystery of life. … …

Every One loves a mystery. … Well stop … loving … a mystery. … … … Be uh … Be willing to be grounded, … and stable enough, to want to know the answer that ends the mystery, ends the wondering, … and which might, therefore, seem … boring to You, … or uninteresting. … … …

You’ve all got to get past the desire for stimulation, … even the stimulation of fear, which is part and parcel … of the mystery.

You want to discover it, but what if You don’t discover it? What if You don’t discover it in time. Oh, You need the mystery to end! It’s fantastic to have the mystery, but, you know, how’re You gonna pay the bill … … on the twenty-second, and it’s only th- and it’s the eighteenth today?

Oh boy! The mystery’s getting really interesting! … … … …

Hey! … Why not listen for the answer on the first? … … … No mystery, but ease and peace, … and the capacity to be joyful. … … because You’re not engaged … in the … details of the mystery.

Remember, if You’re thinking, You’re unconscious. … … You’re unconscious because You’re not Joined with That Which holds the Answer. And ultimately that means that You’re not joined with the Holy Spirit, Which has the answer; Which is nothing more than Your Right Mind. … And so You are disjointed from Your Right Mind. … You’re unjoined with … Your Right Mind You’re therefore, … experiencing some form of insanity.

This is the simplicity … of where We are … in the learning. … … This is the point where We are in … … … the discovery of real meaning, … that means something … significantly enough … to warrant risking the chance that if You stop thinking, … … You might come back into Your Right Mind, … … … and for It to seem practically realistic enough to do it, to do it. … … …

There is a point … You will all come to … … where it will no longer be fun to be engaged in the mystery, … … where the mystery will … feel exhausting, … where the ignorance … will be so depressing … that You’re going to finally say: ‘Uncle!’ and Listen.

Don’t … wait for that. … … There’s no need. … …But You are going to have to … dare to … get up in the morning and … go through … Your day, … as You have for many, many days, year in and year out, let Us say; and all of Your Friends have been doing every day, day in and day out … for years, … and- and Be … in the Flow … from a new vantage point. Not doing it the old way. Not doing it the way Every One else is, because today: now, now, now, now, You are choosing to Listen. … You are choosing to be Joined and in dialogue with Your Guide. In dialogue with the Holy Spirit Whose … whole intent … is to cause You to remember Yourself … in Your Wholeness, as the Holy Son or Daughter of God that You are.

The Holy Spirit is nothing more than Your Right Mind. And Your Right Mind has one intent, and that is to bring You consciously into It, … so that You’re not trying to operate from a fragmented tiny part that You are imagining imaginatively to hold separate … from the Totality of Your Right Mind.

Your Right Mind … is intent upon … breaking down the boundary around this fragmented little part, … that You’re trying to hold in place … because of the mystery of life, … … and how involving … and exciting and interesting … … and beautiful it is! …

You see? … … …

You need to be able to get up every day, … … and as You’re driving … to work, and You see everything, You say: ‘But I still don’t have the answer!’ You see, meaning: ‘But I’m still not seeing ... this movement: … traffic, people, … etc., … as the Movement of Creation. I’m not seeing it … the way God is seeing it. Therefore, I don’t have the answer!

‘Therefore, I’m not … conscious right now, even though I’m quite capable of maneuvering … in and out of this traffic safely, … without injuring Myself or Anyone else. And I can manage to get to work, and punch in on time, … not be late, … … take care of business, and on and on.’

When You … punch in, … are You doing it by Yourself? … … Or … did You and the Holy Spirit do it together, … with maybe a certain Grace and Beauty, because all Movement is the Movement of Life, which is the Movement of Love, which is … Art … in action. … …

When You walk down the stairs, … … is it methodical and mechanical? Is it … strict and careful, or is it there Grace to it, … like a ballet? … … Because it is a Movement of Life. It is a Movement of Be-ing. It is … a Movement of Art, if You are connected, if You are Joined.

And if You’re not having that experience, You’re unconscious … … … of the Truth. You’re unconscious of … the Kingdom of Heaven, right there in the stairwell, right there on the Freeway. … … …

So, … … … let there be this … constant impulse to listen … in the middle of a business conference, … in the middle of a telephone conversation, … whether it’s a business conversation or a personal conversation with a Friend.

Don’t just assume that You know Who You are and You know Who Your Friend is, and therefore, … You don’t have to be conscious, because the two of You can just rattle off together and do the most … marvelous processes of- of friendship without ever being conscious … of the Holy Son or Daughter of God You’re talking to and that You are. … … Where there’s … no consciousness of Glory … in it.

If there isn’t, You’re unconscious of what is there to be experienced. … … … …

‘But I don’t have the answer yet. … … I don’t have the Fullness of the Experience yet. And I want It, so I will not settle for being unconscious. I will not settle for continuing to think this thing through. And I will shut up … and become … curiously … attentive.

And I will ask … for clarity to be provided. … …

And That of You which has the answer will provide it, and bring You, therefore, into … the Wholeness of Your Be-ing, … by reminding You of what You already know, but which You forgot, in the great attraction to the mystery of life, … and the wondering, … and the pleasure … … of figuring out the answers for Yourself. … … … … …

So, this week, watch it. If You find Yourself ... beginning to get flowery ... in Your spiritual concepts and Your language with Your Friends when it comes to talking about the Truth. Or even … the resolving problems; … .. and You’re relying upon past memories and- and ways of presenting ideas, which You have come to the conclusion are excellent ways of stimulating … spiritual discovery, … catch Yourself! Because You are unconscious. You’re not Joined. You’re not Listening. You’re not letting what You’re saying come from Someplace other than … Your conditioning and Your memory.

You’re not letting it come from the Freshness of the Communication of God, or the Freshness of the Communication of the Holy Spirit, Which is revealing to You what God is Be-ing, in that moment, so that what You say is really inspired, because You are plugged in, and the Current is there: the Current of Reality, the Current of Creation. … … … … …

… Now, … … a- as You come close to this … realization … of the Simplicity, and it is simply a matter of stopping this and starting that: becoming still … and stopping thinking, and starting Listening, You will seem to find that there are more occasions to be concerned. There will be more issues.

Now it isn’t because there truly are more issues, … but it will be because – in the process … of, for lack of better words, turning things over to the Holy Spirit – in other words, …turning to the Holy Spirit – asking of the Holy Spirit with the intent of being consciously present Listening in order to hear the Holy Spirit, … … You put Yourself in the position of having many more answers than You ever dreamed of.

You will take more needs, more issues … to the Holy Spirit for answers. And … pretty soon You’ll run out – I mean really quick – … You will run out of little things to want to know the Truth about, and You will want to know the big things; the things You are positive there are not answers to. … Or answers that will be impossible for You.

And so You will find Yourself reluctant to ask … all the questions. … And You will begin to worry about the bigger things that You hadn’t looked at before, because You kept busy with the little tiny ones that it was easy to deal with.

And … … … rather than asking and Listening as though the impossible were possible, You will confirm to Yourself that it is impossible, but since You now see thought it’s on Your plate, You will feel confronted with … serious … problems, … even danger.

And it will seem totally justifiable to You to worry, to become … thoroughly engrossed … in fear, … because You know here is something, but it’s going to be impossible to deal with.

And, … when that happens, You’re in the ugly part of the mystery. And You are completely distracted … from Listening. … And You have emotional justification for staying as far away from Listening as possible, because You are called upon to what? Solve the problem Yourself.

And yet, … We’ve just been talking about the fact … that the solution comes … in the awareness that You can’t solve anything. And it’s not Your responsibility … to solve anything. … … … …

As I’ve said before, … the closer You get to the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven, the ego throws up gargoyles around … the gate, You see, to distract You and scare You off. … The gargoyles aren’t real. … They don’t represent anything valid. … But they would if they could … distract You from simply moving forward … through the gates, or across the bridge. … … Moving forward … … by virtue of the simple step of stopping thinking … … and Listening instead.

Listening with the demand, I’m going to say, for an answer. Listening with … a firm, unyielding … receptivity to and expectation of … dialogue, … communication.

Oh, I know You say: ‘Paul’s in touch with His Guide. I’m not in touch with My Guide. I listen, and I listen, and I don’t hear anything.’

Well, … I’ll tell You something. The time will come when the situation is serious enough, and You don’t feel like You have any alternative. And You will Listen. And You will hear, because You will give permission!

Why? Because when there’s no alternative, it means that You’ve given up faith in Your own capacity … to think Your way through it, successfully and experience the wonder of the mystery!

Now, … again, You don’t have to wait until … You seem to have no choice. You can make that commitment when there isn’t a dire circumstance; when You’re not at the end of Your rope.

If You’re not hearing Your Guide, … You’re simply … … not committed to hearing Your Guide. … You still feel … that You have some capacity to cope with life on the basis of Your own best judgments, and Your own thinking. And You’re going to opt for that, … thank You very much.

And You’ll listen for Your Guide at another time. …

The only thing is that the other time that You will do it is one in which it will be very uncomfortable, because circumstances will be equal to Your stubbornness. … … …

You see? One way or another, correction is going to occur. One way or another, the Holy Son … or Daughter of God that You are is going to … come forth; is going to pop into view! …

Salvation will occur! Because … this illusion … cannot endure. … It’s a fantasy. And Reality will undo it. … … But it’s no fun to be coerced … … because it always involves … a struggle with Your stubbornness; a struggle … between Your stubbornness and the Movement of God, That would have You discover that You do not have a will of Your own, truly, that can stand up against God successfully.

That is bound … to be discovered by You! And My task is to encourage You … to Let that discovery happen … voluntarily now, with curiosity! Bring to the Listening … and the desire to be Joined in everything You do. …

Let that be as interesting to You as the mystery of life, … … … and the attempt to solve it … on Your own. … … …

This week I encourage You to read … from where We left off last time, to the end of this section. … … … …

The things I’ve shared tonight have been very consistent with what’s there. … … What I shared tonight … didn’t come out of … abiding by a string of words in a certain order, ... but out of … the very nature of Life Itself, and the experience Each of You has, and the experiences Each of You will encounter; … … and the way to deal with them in a sober way, rather than … … attempting to do it in a way that constitutes unconscious behavior, which accomplishes nothing, … while at the same time believing that You are accomplishing something. … …

That illusion … has to be abandoned, willingly, gratefully, happily. … …

You know, not a One of You has to- has to read another sentence … out of the Course. I mean, … You can decide … to stop thinking, … and be Joined, and stay that way … NOW.

If You don’t do it now, You’d better read the rest of the pages. … But it’s not required. … Your Salvation … is not … at the end of a process … in time.

It lies in shifting from thinking … to Listening.

And that will always happen in the instant You’re in when it happens! It’s always going to be NOW when it happens! … …

Simplicity Itself. … … …

I Love You. … … … And I look forward to being with You next time. … … … … And value … … the recognition … that You don’t have the answer yet, … when You’re thinking, so that You can immediately … stop the thinking and get back to Listening; and reach out, in Joining, with the intent to be in … Communion. … Comradeship. …

Okay.

ACIM Lesson 131 No one can fail who asks to reach the truth.

Lesson 131
“No-one can fail who asks to reach the truth.”

Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent; for love where there is none; for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is the setting of his searching, and the place to which he comes to find stability?

Goals which are meaningless are not attained. There is no way to reach them, for the means by which you strive for them are meaningless as they are. Who can use such senseless means and hope through them to gain in anything? Where can they lead? And what could they achieve that offers any hope of being real?

Pursuit of the imagined leads to death because it is the search for nothingness, and while you seek for life you ask for death. You look for safety and security while in your heart you pray for danger and protection for the little dream you made.

Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the thing you came for. But the world can not dictate the goal for which you search unless you give it power to do so. Otherwise, you still are free to choose a goal that lies beyond the world and every worldly thought, and one which comes to you from an idea relinquished yet remembered, old yet new; an echo of a heritage forgot, yet holding everything you really want.

Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for Heaven, and must find the goal you really want. No-one can fail to want this goal, and reach it in the end. God’s Son cannot seek vainly, though he try to force delay, deceive himself, and think that it is hell he seeks. When he is wrong he finds correction, when he wanders off he is led back to his appointed task.

No-one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his Creator, nor affect His perfect, timeless and unchanging Love. You will find Heaven. Everything you seek but this will fall away, yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go because you do not want it. You will reach the goal you really want as certainly as God created you in sinlessness.

Why wait for Heaven? It is here today. Time is the great illusion it is past or in the future. Yet this cannot be if it is where God wills His Son to be. How could the Will of God be in the past or yet to happen? What He wills is now, without a past and wholly futureless. It is as far removed from time as is a tiny candle from a distant star, or what you chose from what you really want.

Heaven remains your one alternative to this strange world you made and all its ways; its shifting patterns and uncertain goals, its painful pleasures and its tragic joys. God made no contradictions. What denies its own existence and attacks itself is not of Him. He did not make two minds, with Heaven as the glad effect of one, and earth the other’s sorry outcome which is Heaven’s opposite in every way.

God does not suffer conflict. Nor is His creation split in two. How could it be His Son could be in hell when God Himself established him in Heaven? Could he lose what the Eternal Will has given him to be his home forever? Let us not try longer to impose an alien will upon His single purpose. He is here because He wills to be, and what He wills is present now beyond the reach of time.

Today we will not choose a paradox in place of truth. How could the Son of God make time to take away the Will of God? He thus denies himself, and contradicts what has no opposite. He thinks he made a hell opposing Heaven, and believes that he abides in what does not exist, while Heaven is the place he cannot find. Leave foolish thoughts like these behind today, and turn your mind to true ideas instead.

No-one can fail who asks to reach the truth, and it is truth we ask to reach today. We will devote ten minutes to this goal three times today, and we will ask to see the rising of the real world to replace the foolish images that we held dear, with true ideas arising in the place of thoughts which have no meaning, no effect, and neither
source nor substance in the truth.

This we acknowledge as we start upon our practice periods. Begin with this:

“I ask to see a different world, and think
A different kind of thought from those I made.
The world I seek I did not make alone,
The thoughts I want to think are not my own.”

For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as well which are compatible with such a world, and which you think are true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place where they can enter not. There is a door beneath them in your mind which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond.

Seek for that door and find it. But before you try to open it, remind yourself no-one can fail who asks to reach the truth, and it is this request you make today. Nothing but this has any meaning now; no other goal is valued now nor sought; nothing before this door you really want, and only what lies past it do you seek.

Put out your hand and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see. A tiny moment of surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world
you see before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did not quite forget in wandering away in dreams.

You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit Heaven sent you that you might approach this door some day, and through His aid slip effortlessly past it to the light. Today that day has come. Today God keeps His ancient promise to His holy Son, as does His Son remember his to Him. This is a day of gladness, for we come to the appointed time and place where you will find the goal of all your
searching here and all the seeking of the world, which ends together as you pass beyond the door.

Remember often that today should be a time of special gladness, and refrain from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments. Salvation’s time has come. Today is set by Heaven Itself to be a time of grace for you and for the world. If you forget this happy fact, remind yourself with this:

“Today I seek and find all that I want.
My single purpose offers it to me.
No-one can fail who asks to reach the truth.”

ACIM Lesson 130 It is imposssible to see two worlds.

Lesson 130
“It is impossible to see two worlds.”

Perception is consistent. What you see reflects your thinking. And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. Your values are determiners of this, for what you value you must want to see, believing what you see is really there. No-one can see a world his mind has not accorded value. And no-one can fail to look upon what he believes he wants.

Yet who can really hate and love at once? Who can desire what he does not want to have reality? And who can choose to see a world of which he is afraid? Fear must make blind, for this its weapon is; that which you fear to see you cannot see. Love and perception thus go hand in hand, but fear obscures in darkness what is there.

What, then, can fear project upon the world? What can be seen in darkness that is real? Truth is eclipsed by fear, and what remains is but imagined. Yet what can be real in blind imaginings of panic borne? What would you want that this is shown to you? What would you wish to keep in such a dream?

Fear has made everything you think you see. All separation, all distinctions, and the multitude of differences you believe make up the world. They are not there. Love’s enemy has made them up. Yet love can have no enemy, and so they have no cause, no being and no consequence. They can be valued, but remain unreal. They can be sought, but they can not be found.

Today we will not seek for them, nor waste this day in seeking not what can be found. It is impossible to see two worlds which have no overlap of any kind. Seek for the one; the other disappears. But one remains. They are the range of choice beyond which your decision cannot go. The real and the unreal are all there is to choose between, and nothing more than these.

Today we will attempt no compromise where none is possible. The world you see is proof you have already made a choice as all-embracing as its opposite. What we would learn today is more than just the lesson that you cannot see two worlds. It also teaches that the one you see is quite consistent from the point of view from which you see it. It is all a piece because it stems from one emotion, and reflects its source in everything you see.

Six times today, in thanks and gratitude, we gladly give five minutes to the thought which ends all compromise and doubt, and go beyond them all as one. We will not make a thousand meaningless distinctions, nor attempt to bring with us a little part of unreality as we devote our minds to finding only what is real.

Begin your searching for the other world by asking for a strength beyond your own, and recognize what it is you seek. You do not want illusions. And you come to these five minutes emptying your hands of all the petty treasures of this world. You wait for God to help you, as you say:

“It is impossible to see two worlds.
Let me accept the strength God offers me
And see no value in this world, that I
May find my freedom and deliverance.”

God will be there. For you have called upon the great unfailing Power Who will take this giant step with you in gratitude. Nor will you fail to see His thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth. You will not doubt what you will look upon. For though it is perception, it is not the kind of seeing that your eyes alone have ever seen before. And you will know God’s strength upheld as you made this choice.

Dismiss temptation easily today whenever it arises, merely by remembering the limits on your choice. The unreal or the real, the false or true is what you see, and only what you see. Perception is consistent with your choice, and hell or Heaven come to you as one.

Accept a little part of hell as real, and you have damned your eyes and cursed your sight, and what you will behold is hell indeed. Yet the release of Heaven still remains within your range of choice, to take the place of everything that hell would show to you. All you need say to any part of hell, whatever form it takes, is simply this:

“It is impossible to see two worlds.
I seek my freedom and deliverance,
And this is not a part of what I want.”

ACIM Lesson 129 Beyond this world there is a world I want.

Lesson 129
“Beyond this world there is a world I want.”

This is the thought which follows from the one we practiced yesterday. You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see that there is something else to hope for you will only be depressed. Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you peace. Think you this world can offer that to you?

It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end.

Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible, where love endures forever, hate cannot exist, and vengeance has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want and know they have no ending, and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time?

Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood. Communication, unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. And God Himself speaks to His Son as His Son speaks to Him. Their language has no words, for what they say cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is direct and wholly shared and wholly one.

How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. And yet how near are you when you exchange it for the world you want. Now is the last step certain; now you stand an instant’s space away from timelessness. Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the world you do not want. Here is the world that comes to take its place as you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you prisoner there. Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.

 Such is the choice. What loss can be for you in choosing not to value nothingness? This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits but for your choosing it to take the place of all the things you seek but do not want.

Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning and at night, and once more in between. Begin with this:

“Beyond this world there is a world I want.
I choose to see that world instead of this,
For here is nothing that I really want.”

ACIM Lesson 128 The world I see holds nothings I want.

Lesson 128
“The world I see has nothing that I want.”

The world you see has nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. No-one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave this world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.

Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose you have given it until you see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see has nothing that you want.

Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. For what you value you make part of you, as you perceive yourself. All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.

Let nothing which relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world has anything you want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish. Nothing here is worth one instant of delay and pain; one moment of uncertainty and doubt. The worthless offer nothing. Certainty of worth cannot be found in worthlessness.

Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world. We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams. We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were. Thus do we lift the chains which bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.

Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world when you release your mind from chains, and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while. It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.

Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before. Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little every time you let your mind escape its chains. The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.

Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, and tell yourself with quiet certainty:

“This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see has nothing that I want.”