We began the class by reading Workbook Lesson 125: In quiet I receive God’s Word today; here are the first three paragraphs:

2. This world will change through you. ²No other means can save it, for God’s plan is simply this: The Son of God is free to save himself, given the Word of God to be his Guide, forever in his mind and at his side to lead him surely to his Father’s house by his own will, forever free as God’s. ³He is not led by force, but only love. ⁴He is not judged, but only sanctified.

3. In stillness we will hear God’s Voice today without intrusion of our petty thoughts, without our personal desires, and without all judgment of His holy Word. ²We will not judge ourselves today, for what we are can not be judged. ³We stand apart from all the judgments which the world has laid upon the Son of God. ⁴It knows him not. ⁵Today we will not listen to the world, but wait in silence for the Word of God.

(ACIM, W-125.1:1–3:5)

The quiet center is a related metaphor in the Course, reminding us that peace is always possible. We return the interpretation faculty in our mind to the center (the Holy Spirit), denying all of our peripheral projections the status of cause in our mind, but are restored to their rightful place as mere effects of our choice of teachers. When we choose the Holy Spirit (our Inner Peace Teacher) as our source of guidance and perspective, our peace is not subject to our prior dualistic dreams because we have changed the cause from (dualistic) war to (non-dual) tranquility.

We read and shared thoughts about the section in ACIM’s text entitled The Irreconcilable Beliefs (ACIM, T-23.I)

Here are the first three paragraphs of this section:

“The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. ²It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. ³The means of war are not the means of peace, and what the warlike would remember is not love. ⁴War is impossible unless belief in victory is cherished. ⁵Conflict within you must imply that you believe the ego has the power to be victorious. ⁶Why else would you identify with it? ⁷Surely you realize the ego is at war with God. ⁸Certain it is it has no enemy. ⁹Yet just as certain is its fixed belief it has an enemy that it must overcome and will succeed.

2. Do you not realize a war against yourself would be a war on God? ²Is victory conceivable? ³And if it were, is this a victory that you would want? ⁴The death of God, if it were possible, would be your death. ⁵Is this a victory? ⁶The ego always marches to defeat, because it thinks that triumph over you is possible. ⁷And God thinks otherwise. ⁸This is no war; only the mad belief the Will of God can be attacked and overthrown. ⁹You may identify with this belief, but never will it be more than madness. ¹⁰And fear will reign in madness, and will seem to have replaced love there. ¹¹This is the conflict’s purpose. ¹²And to those who think that it is possible, the means seem real.

3. Be certain that it is impossible God and the ego, or yourself and it, will ever meet. ²You seem to meet, and make your strange alliances on grounds that have no meaning. ³For your beliefs converge upon the body, the ego’s chosen home, which you believe is yours. ⁴You meet at a mistake; an error in your self-appraisal. ⁵The ego joins with an illusion of yourself you share with it. ⁶And yet illusions cannot join. ⁷They are the same, and they are nothing. ⁸Their joining lies in nothingness; two are as meaningless as one or as a thousand. ⁹The ego joins with nothing, being nothing. ¹⁰The victory it seeks is meaningless as is itself.”

(ACIM, T-23.I.1:1–3:10)

Our egos make such “big deals” about our specific issues, grievances, worries, and tragedies. Yet from the eternal perspective of the Holy Spirit, these incitements to outrage are all “much ado about nothing.” Like the Cheshire Cat (in Alice in Wonderland), looking down on the chessboard of an insane battle, without condemning, because it is a silly, forgivable dream, a meaningless ego game, we can afford to gently dismiss the ego’s propaganda to take the tiny mad idea of duality seriously.

“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” (ACIM, T-in.2:2-4)

The post Transcending the need to fight (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

We began the class by reading the first four paragraphs of Workbook Lesson 123. I thank my Father for His gifts to me. (ACIM, W-123):

“Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance, but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.

A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have received. Be glad today, in loving thankfulness, your Father has not left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful He has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place of Him and His creation. Give Him thanks today.

Give thanks that He has not abandoned you, and that His Love forever will remain shining on you, forever without change. Give thanks as well that you are changeless, for the Son He loves is changeless as Himself. Be grateful you are saved. Be glad you have a function in salvation to fulfill. Be thankful that your value far transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments of the one whom God established as His Son.

Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. We sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him. Today we smile on everyone we see, and walk with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do.”

(ACIM, W-123.1:1–4:3)

The remainder of this session was devoted to seeing the similarity in every problem – I chose (and continue to choose for the most part, to the degree that I’m not at peace) the wrong teacher – ego, instead of our Inner Kindness Teacher, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit or ACIM’s author, Jesus. This aligns nicely with this idea appearing in Workbook Lesson 79:

“Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet they are all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves them all is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is something else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its relevance.” (ACIM, W-79.2:1-4)

We read and discussed Many Forms; One Correction (ACIM, T-26.II), page 544 in the Text of the English edition) Here are the first four paragraphs of that lesson:

“It is not difficult to understand the reasons why you do not ask the Holy Spirit to solve all problems for you. He has not greater difficulty in resolving some than others. Every problem is the same to Him, because each one is solved in just the same respect and through the same approach. The aspects that need solving do not change, whatever form the problem seems to take. A problem can appear in many forms, and it will do so while the problem lasts. It serves no purpose to attempt to solve it in a special form. It will recur and then recur again and yet again, until it has been answered for all time and will not rise again in any form. And only then are you released from it.

The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one, regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone suffer loss and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the situation is worked out so no one loses is the problem gone, because it was an error in perception that now has been corrected. One mistake is not more difficult for Him to bring to truth than is another. For there is but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is possible, and could result in gain for anyone. If this were true, then God would be unfair; sin would be possible, attack be justified and vengeance fair.

This one mistake, in any form, has one correction. There is no loss; to think there is, is a mistake. You have no problems, though you think you have. And yet you could not think so if you saw them vanish one by one, without regard to size, complexity, or place and time, or any attribute which you perceive that makes each one seem different from the rest.⁵Think not the limits you impose on what you see can limit God in any way.”

(ACIM, T-26.II.1:1–3:5)

We read extensively from Ken Wapnick’s coverage of this section on pages 58-60 of volume 4 of  JTTT (Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set).

If you don’t already have the “Journey Through…” series and want to deepen your appreciation, understanding, and application of ACIM’s pure non-dual metaphysics, I highly recommend all 3 sets covering the 3 main volumes of the Course:

• JTTT (Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set)
• JTTW (Journey Through The Workbook of a Course In Miracles 8-volume set)
• JTTM  (Journey Through The Manual of a Course In Miracles single volume)

Unlike JTTW and JTTM, the first set (JTTT) is not a line-by-line explanation of the Course’s text. However, it does cover the majority of the text using a thematic approach, which Ken Wapnick explains is similar to how the Course itself introduces and develops themes, then sets them aside for a while, and then picks them up again in a symphonic, poetic fashion, rather than a linear, scientific approach.

The Importance of Generalization – Seeing the sameness in content, despite differences in form

The Course asks us to generalize the solution (forgiveness) to every problem, since the ego thrives on complexity, confusion, obfuscation, diversion, and countless forms of fragmentation. We are encouraged to keep forgiving an ever-widening variety of problems until we begin to recognize that the solution always involves asking the Holy Spirit for help, gratefully seeing everyone in essence as the same (the reflection of the Oneness of our pure non-dual, eternal, innocent reality), and forgiving whatever appears to concern or confront us in every moment.

We’re learning to generalize, or, looking at it from an “undo” perspective, we are unlearning the ego’s habit of compartmentalizing, dissecting, dividing, polarizing, and mentally separating everything and everyone to the detriment of our recognition of our shared heritage and destiny.

The generalized answer (correction) that our Inner Kindness Teacher offers is that every specific challenge ego throws at us is amenable to the correction that our real forgiveness offers, since forgiveness sees both the sameness of every problem, and the sameness of every seemingly separate self struggling with specific situations. Sameness of content in the mind, but not necessarily (hardly ever) in terms of form, is what guides us to generalize the solution. We can also think of our Inner Kindness Teacher as our Inner Generalization Teacher. When we see the intrinsic (not extrinsic) equality of all, generalization reveals the master key to consistent peace. This reinforces the Simplicity of Salvation in our mind, undoing the chaos of special cases, specialness, and every ego’s use of differences and separation to keep us mindlessly enslaved, uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear.

“The holy instant is the Holy Spirit’s most useful learning device for teaching you love’s meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Judgment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. You would make no attempt to judge, because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not understand what anything means. 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.” (ACIM, T-15.V.1:1-7)

In addition to generalizing every problem that seems to arise in our individual material lives, we can also benefit greatly from generalizing the process of forgiveness to include numerous ways of describing the same correction. In Kenneth Wapnick‘s Glossary-Index for A Course In Miracles (in the 4th edition, 1993, on page 11), he provides a helpful list of synonyms for forgiveness under the heading of “Right-mindedness“:

“God’s Answer to the separation is the Holy Spirit, and His plan to undo the ego is called the Atonement. A Course in Miracles employs many terms that reflect the Holy Spirit’s plan, and each is a virtual synonym for the other. They include: miracle, forgiveness, salvation, healing, real world, true perception, vision, face of Christ, reason, justice, holy instant, holy relationship, function, happy dream, Second Coming, Word of God, Last (Final) Judgment, resurrection, redemption, correction, awakening, and undoing.”

I would add a few other related terms: innocent perception, gentleness, welcoming, grace, and harmlessness. There are plenty more, just as there are many equivalent phrases and words that epitomize the insane ego thinking. Any ego-free idea (or presence in our mind) that undoes the belief in separation would be a kindred thought, worthy of our inclusion in our vocabulary of correction. As always, it’s not the words that are important, but the ideas behind the words. The theory is important, but even more vital is the application of forgiveness to everything that arises in our dream of space, time, and individuality.

If something “triggers” us, we don’t need to label it, document it, categorize it, analyze it, rhapsodize about it, or demonize it; we just need to forgive it. We do this by recognizing that “it” is an interpretation in my mind, and therefore amenable to my choice to let go of ego interpretation and projection. That’s how we generalize. Everything is either a call for lovingkindness … or an expression of it. In either case, the appropriate response is lovingkindness. This is the simplicity of generalization. It doesn’t deny the countless forms that our problematic “trigger” experiences take, but simply, calmly, clearly, patiently points to the one solution that solves them all.

One participant mentioned how a colleague imagined writing out an invitation card and sending it to the Holy Spirit whenever they were triggered. We can do this with our mind, and save on postage, of course!

Generalization to destroy

The ego can and does use level confusion in an attempt to ascribe causality to a specific form, behavior, or condition in space and time, such as these mind-diverting propaganda thoughts:

• My lack of peace is due to this bodily ailment or sensation, instead of my thoughts about it.
• My anxiety is due to these political figures, rather than my unconscious guilt over projecting onto them…
• These slow drivers in front of me are making me angry, as contrasted with the fact that I am allowing the traffic (and probably my choice of departure time) to upset me.

It’s vital to remember that the generalization we’re talking about refers to the content in our mind, not the form in the world. We can use every specific form (the “trigger”) to see that the ego’s misuse of the form can always be remedied by our Inner Kindness Teacher’s correction.

The Course is brilliant in simplifying the process of generalization. Instead of trying to enumerate an exhaustive list (or even a slightly comprehensive list of categories), it uses placeholders that allow us to use our mathematically perfect classrooms (each individually, horrifically custom-tailored by our ego, and each gently, patiently custom-dismantled by our Inner Kindness Teacher). A perfect example of a generalized placeholder word is “this,” which appears 4612 times in ACIM. Here’s a quintessential example, demonstrating how each moment, each of us has a specific “this” (ego grievance) that may be solved by forgiveness and lead us to generalize the process:

“I could see peace instead of this.” (ACIM, W-34)

Another tremendous boost in my practice of generalization is realizing (as often as possible) that my ego is just as insane (mean, ugly, nasty, vicious) as anyone else’s, any exception that would make differences and comparisons important – big deals –
The Holy Spirit mode of my mind (just like everyone else) is equally sane, brilliant, truly helpful, and kind. Seeing the equality of the ego in everyone I meet or think about … and the Holy Spirit in everyone I meet or think about … and our ability each moment to choose between those two thought systems in everyone I meet or think about, I’m freed to forgive and resolve the one problem that confronts every silly, seemingly separate self every second.

The ego’s shallow root “solution”: not radical enough!

When the ego takes the “journey with us,” its shallow roots can be uprooted by our willingness to trust the Holy Spirit’s correction and forgive whatever seems to be the cause of the upset. – The ego will reveal the real cause in our mind of wanting to identify with the made-up ego thought system of separation. Only the Holy Spirit takes us all the way home by showing us the source of the problem in our minds.

Ken Wapnick reminds us that the etymological root meaning and origin of the word “radical” is root; no pun intended! The word “radical” applies to looking all the way to the source in our mind of the problem, our ongoing decision to want to be separate from our Creator and each other.

We short-change ourselves by buying ego propaganda. When we insist we are fundamentally different from each other in the important dimensions of mind and Spirit (which is beyond dimension), we are blinded by form, encarcerated by ego interpretations, and our peace is ego-embezzled.

“What is the Will of God? ²He wills His Son have everything. ³And this He guaranteed when He created him as everything. ⁴It is impossible that anything be lost, if what you have is what you are. ⁵This is the miracle by which creation became your function, sharing it with God. ⁶It is not understood apart from Him, and therefore has no meaning in this world. ⁷Here does the Son of God ask not too much, but far too little. ⁸He would sacrifice his own identity with everything, to find a little treasure of his own. ⁹And this he cannot do without a sense of isolation, loss and loneliness. ¹⁰This is the treasure he has sought to find. ¹¹And he could only be afraid of it. ¹²Is fear a treasure? ¹³Can uncertainty be what you want? ¹⁴Or is it a mistake about your will, and what you really are?” (ACIM, T-26.VII.11:1-14)

“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little.” (ACIM, W-133.2:1)

The post Many Forms; One Correction (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

“You have carried the burden of unshared ideas that are too weak to increase, but having made them you did not realize how to undo them. ⁹You cannot cancel out your past errors alone. ¹⁰They will not disappear from your mind without the Atonement, a remedy not of your making.” (ACIM, T-5.IV.2:8-10)

“Therefore lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. ²Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it. ³And it was all illusion. ⁴Nothing more.” (ACIM, M-10.5:1-4)

“Behold the Guide your Father gave you, that you might learn you have eternal life. ²For death is not your Father’s Will nor yours, and whatever is true is the Will of the Father. ³You pay no price for life for that was given you, but you do pay a price for death, and a very heavy one. ⁴If death is your treasure, you will sell everything else to purchase it. ⁵And you will believe that you have purchased it, because you have sold everything else. ⁶Yet you cannot sell the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁷Your inheritance can neither be bought nor sold. ⁸There can be no disinherited parts of the Sonship, for God is whole and all His extensions are like Him.” (ACIM, T-12.IV.6:1-8)

Looking for ideas that “tax” our peace, in ACIM, there are (including variations of these words):

• 115 instances of the word “careful”
• 100 instances of the word “demand”
• 99 instances of the word “responsibility”
• 73 instances of the word “punish”
• 53 instances of the word “heavy”
• 40 instances of the word “compromise”
• 32 instances of the word “impose”
• 28 instances of the word “strain”
• 24 instances of the word “burden”
• 18 instances of the word “contribution”
• 15 instances of the word “worry”
• 8 instances of the word “stress”
• 6 instances of the word “tribute”
• 1 instance of the word “pressure”
• 1 instance of the word “drain”

“… lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. ²Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it. ³And it was all illusion. ⁴Nothing more. ⁵Now can the teacher of God rise up unburdened, and walk lightly on. ⁶Yet it is not only this that is his benefit. ⁷His sense of care is gone, for he has none. ⁸He has given it away, along with judgment.” (ACIM, M-10.5:1-8)

We read and discussed Lesson 104: I seek but what belongs to me in truth. (ACIM, W-104; page 186 in the Workbook of the English edition) Here are the first three paragraphs of that lesson:

“Today’s idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idle dreams. ²They are your right, because of what you are. ³They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. ⁴Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. ⁵They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

2. Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God’s gifts belong. ²His are the gifts that are our own in truth. ³His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. ⁴His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless. ⁵And we need not wait to have them. ⁶They belong to us today.

3. Therefore, we choose to have them now, and know, in choosing them in place of what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize the same as being one. ²Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given truth for your salvation, should begin with this:

³I seek but what belongs to me in truth, and joy and peace are my inheritance.

⁴Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goals made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of dreams.”

(ACIM, W-104.1:1–3:4)

We then reviewed “Beyond the Body (ACIM, T-18.VI) page 384 in the Text of the English edition. Here are the first three paragraphs of that section:

“1. There is nothing outside you. ²That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. ³For God created only this, and He did not depart from it nor leave it separate from Himself. ⁴The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, who left not his Father and dwells not apart from Him. ⁵Heaven is not a place nor a condition. ⁶It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within.

2. What could God give but knowledge of Himself?²What else is there to give?³The belief that you could give and get something else, something outside yourself, has cost you the awareness of Heaven and of your Identity.⁴And you have done a stranger thing than you yet realize.⁵You have displaced your guilt to your body from your mind.⁶Yet a body cannot be guilty, for it can do nothing of itself.⁷You who think you hate your body deceive yourself.⁸You hate your mind, for guilt has entered into it, and it would remain separate from your brother’s, which it cannot do.

3. Minds are joined; bodies are not.²Only by assigning to the mind the properties of the body does separation seem to be possible.³And it is mind that seems to be fragmented and private and alone.⁴Its guilt, which keeps it separate, is projected to the body, which suffers and dies because it is attacked to hold the separation in the mind, and let it not know its Identity.⁵Mind cannot attack, but it can make fantasies and direct the body to act them out.⁶Yet it is never what the body does that seems to satisfy.⁷Unless the mind believes the body is actually acting out its fantasies, it will attack the body by increasing the projection of its guilt upon it.”

(ACIM, T-18.VI.1:1–3:7)

We’re all in a “debtor’s prison” of guilt when we buy into the ego’s fraudulent promises – regarding its substitutes of sin, guilt, fear, and oblivion instead of our true inheritance (of completeness, innocence, joy, and gentle, lucid mindfulness) – that tax our sanity, certainty, and serenity.

Our task is to behold (just look at) the ego’s eroding, taxing, diminishing, dividing effect on our peace (with our Inner Kindness Teacher) and see how our choice for that dualistic duel is unnecessary and forgivable. Every “communication” based on the ego’s assumptions that separation happened “garnishes our wages” of peace. Every real (guiltless, blameless, harmless) communication effortlessly reinstates our original, eternal, and unassailable innocence and the serenity, safety, and comfort that all-inclusive shared innocence provides. Every liability the ego has fabricated becomes an asset when given to the Holy Spirit.

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.)

The post Undoing the ego tax on peace (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

1) Dark Mode: Helpful when viewing the Course on your phone, tablet, or computer when the sun is down or in a dimly lit environment. The default matches your computer or device’s system settings, but can be set to light (the prior option) or dark whenever desired.

2) Favorites: HOORAY!!! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this feature for about a decade, ever since I started working on a new version of the ACIM.org website with wonderful collaborators Felix Alcala, Tam Morgan, and others at the Foundation for Inner Peace in 2015, which was launched in 2018. Felix suggested the idea of having the entire Course (not just the Workbook Lessons) online, with the ability to select a portion of text from an online version, copy it, and paste it into an email, a website, social media, or other digital media and have it link to the source where it can be read in context with a single click… together with the correct, unique annotation which allows anyone to quickly find the exact sentence using any media format, from among any of the 27 (and counting) language translations the Course. This wonderful achievement has been available for five years, and (like many others), I have used and enjoyed it immensely; you can see this by trying the links to ACIM quotes on most, if not all, posts on this website for the last 5 years. Here is my announcement of that milestone:

The Web Edition of A Course In Miracles is here! Hooray!!!

The newest major feature addition (which we’ve dreamt of for a decade) is now here, enabling users of the ACIM Web Edition to quickly make and retrieve bookmarks (a.k.a. favorites), adding their own comments (also searchable) to find favorite passages among the three volumes and two supplements of the Course. If you are more than an occasional student of ACIM, you will likely find this new feature invaluable and truly helpful, as I’m already experiencing! When you find a sentence or group of sentences you want to save, highlight it, and from the small pop-up that appears next to your selected text, tap the icon of the heart with the plus symbol labelled “Favorite” (and add your optional comments if desired). To access an existing favorite, just tap the icon of the heart with the plus symbol from the left sidebar and tap the favorite you want to see and/or use elsewhere.

As an example, I added the 13 ego-challenging ACIM quotes from the Recovering Bliss-Ninny Wall Calendar, and you can see how they are easily accessed from within the newly enhanced web edition:

Here’s another example showing that the color-coding of the Text (magenta), Workbook (blue), Manual For Teachers (yellow), Psychotherapy (green), and Song of Prayer (purple) color indicators appear as bullets to quickly identify in which volume the favorite quotes can be found:

Here are detailed instructions on the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) website on using the new Favorites Feature:

Favorites Feature: Save and Organize Your Most Meaningful Passages

… and a prior announcement from FIP before these features were released, with an opportunity to contribute to these developments:

Support our New Features for ACIM Web Edition

Kudos to Felix and everyone at FIP for adding this very useful new feature! You can support FIP here.

The post Favorites! New feature added to the Web Edition of A Course In Miracles! Hooray!!! :-) appeared first on ACIM blog.

“Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two; as both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant conflict, and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this self-perception. You have sought many such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be compatible. But one exists.” (ACIM, W-96.1:1-5)

“What if you could walk each day in this world and interact with people each day in this world and understand the fear and the pain and the innate sense of hopelessness that’s in everyone, feeling that they will never, ever get that love back? And even if love still existed, it certainly would be withheld from them because they’re so terrible and wretched. If you could hear that pain in everyone, you could never be impatient, you could never be angry, you could never be unkind, because you would hear the pain.” – (from Ken Wapnick‘s talk on “Patience”)

When we trust our Inner Kindness Teacher (Holy Spirit or the Jesus of the Course), we begin to realize that relinquishing ego’s use of time is always in our best interests, and of course, the best interests of everyone we meet or think about! The ego uses the past, present, and future for sin, guilt, and fear, respectively. (The Course often poetically uses the word God as a placeholder for Holy Spirit, reminding us that the Holy Spirit is the link in our mind back to our Source, our Creator, which we have never, and can never leave, except in silly forgivable dreams. We call those dreams “reality,” assuming that this material world of space and time is our reality without ever (or at least rarely) questioning the validity of that enormous assumption!) The Holy Spirit corrects the ego’s use of time, using the past, present, and future for Oneness, Innocence, and Love, respectively. Placing our future metaphorically in the hands of God (represented by the Holy Spirit’s gentle guiding correction that reveals the complete eternal innocence of all Creation) leads us up the ladder from the gloomy darkness of the ego’s unredeemable criminality to the lilies of innocence, a metaphor used in the Course to represent the “nothing happened” principle of the Atonement.

Ego’s mindless misuse of the present moment is to deny the (unfounded, unconscious) guilt by projecting it willy-nilly onto everyone and everything in the world, making all the specifics we encounter the scapegoats for our impossible crime, with bodies (those of “others” or our own, it doesn’t matter which) being the “poster children” of ego’s needless abuse. Our bodies are seemingly ever-present; yet, when our minds are trained on other thoughts, notice how they seem to disappear. Common sense (and certainly the Course) suggests that anything that comes and goes – the instability of form – is not a reliable or worthy witness to unchanging reality (not the “reality” of space and time we tend to bank on). Here are a couple of quotes from the Course that remind us of this silly investment in both bodies and ego’s use of time:

“At no single instant does the body exist at all. ²It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. ³Only its past and future make it seem real. ⁴Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present. ⁵In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. ⁶It has no attraction now. ⁷Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future.” (ACIM, T-18.VII.3:1-7)

“In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. ²In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. ³In no one instant can one even die. ⁴And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.” (ACIM, W-194.3:1-4)

Listening to, and trusting our Inner Kindness Teacher, we relinquish and undo ego’s misguided, abysmal use of time (assigning sin to the past, guilt to the present, and fear to the future), freeing the past, present, and future by questioning and releasing ourselves (and everyone else, since minds are joined) from the prison of condemning judgments.

“The ego has a strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that your questioning might well begin. ²The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. ³Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. ⁴By the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future, making them continuous without an intervening present. ⁵For the ego regards the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future by interpreting the present in past terms.” (ACIM, T-13.IV.4:1-5)

“To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make.” (ACIM, T-24.in.2:1-4)

We briefly touched on the “Two Wolves” metaphor, which, summarized below, reflects the simplicity of the answer to our mental dilemmas, regardless of the specific seeming cause. The answer is always which of the two thought systems (the ego or the Holy Spirit) we identify with, empower, believe, and make our guiding principle:

Question: “There are two wolves, and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair, the other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? … Answer: “Whichever one you feed.”

The Course would suggest that (unlike the two wolves story) our true light and hope, which has nothing to do with this world of space, time, individuality, and duality, doesn’t fight against darkness, since the darkness is merely a forgivable dream:

“Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. ⁴Illusions battle only with themselves. ⁵Being fragmented, they fragment. ⁶But truth is indivisible, and far beyond their little reach. ⁷You will remember what you know when you have learned you cannot be in conflict. ⁸One illusion about yourself can battle with another, yet the war of two illusions is a state where nothing happens. ⁹There is no victor and there is no victory. ¹⁰And truth stands radiant, apart from conflict, untouched and quiet in the peace of God.” (ACIM, T-23.I.7:3-10)

We talked about how we only need to trust our Inner Kindness Teacher THIS moment, not (like Atlas bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders) take on the entirety of the ego’s thought system at once. If I give the Holy Spirit access each instant to my “secret dream” (of unforgiveness, uncertainty, loneliness, and fear), then I am unburdened each instant. That’s all I need to do!

Our closing meditation was the last two paragraphs from Lesson 194: I place the future in the Hands of God (ACIM, W-194:

Now are we saved indeed. For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. ⁵And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. ⁶No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.”

(ACIM, W-194.8:1–9:6)

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Monday, April 6, 2026.)

The post I place the future in the Hands of God (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

We don’t need to guess what real (eternal, unchanging, undivided, undifferentiated) Love is; we just need to keep practicing true forgiveness, which reflects that real Love and undoes the silly, maladaptive, fearful thought system we’ve been investing in for so long!

When we truly forgive, we’re using the strength of the Holy Spirit (a.k.a. Jesus of the Course or our Inner Kindness Teacher or any ego-free presence) to guide our mind to the altar of true compassion, true justice, where the separation never happened. Otherwise, we’ll be using “forgiveness-to-destroy”. When I’m sane, I “make no decisions by myself” (ACIM, T-30.I.2:2), in other words, deciding as a blind and blinding ego. We’re given some superb guidelines in the “Rules For Decision.” ACIM is profoundly authoritative (gentle, patient, yet unflinchingly dedicated only to Truth), yet never authoritarian; there is zero coercion in the Course. This is epitomized in the simple 4-word italicized advice: “Do not fight yourself.” (ACIM, T-30.I.1:7)

We then read Perception and Choice (ACIM, T-25.III) from the Text of A Course In Miracles and had a lively discussion, as usual! Here are the first three paragraphs of that section, which Ken Wapnick covers from pages 10-14 in Volume 4 of the Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set.

Ego’s motto: “My terrorizing will continue until morale improves.” The ego always defends projection, attack, and defense by refusing to forgive what is completely illusory and therefore always forgivable. We either refuse to acknowledge Truth if we’re in “ego mode” or we refuse to acknowledge illusion when guided by our Inner Kindness Teacher. In our sane moments, we merely watch the ego drama without condemnation: the silly, forgivable belief in separation, the alleged crime of sin, the imprisonment of guilt, the tyranny of fear, the repression of our experience resulting from our schizophrenic choice, the attempted projection of our internal dislike, and the perception of adversaries “outside” us. In ego mode, we’re like toddlers fighting each other in a playground sandbox, brandishing tiny plastic swords against each other with our petty grievances in an absurd dream of duality.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t acknowledge illusion, since the Holy Spirit’s correction is a reflection of Truth; it is the memory of what we really are as the One Christ Mind, that includes all Creation. Our Inner Kindness Teacher doesn’t fight against illusions; it merely suggests that we can drop our pathetic defenses, and stand up from the metaphoric sandbox in our mind, leaving ego’s dismal battlefield “playground” or put another way, leave the film noir horror flick we call dualistic, polarized, adversarial thinking.

“I will love you and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I will not uphold it unless it is true. ⁸I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I must wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. ⁹Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly. ¹⁰I will come in response to a single unequivocal call.” (ACIM, T-4.III.7:7-10)

During the conversation, I recalled a vivid nocturnal dream, which I wrote about in my second book, The Geometry Code
Universal Symbolic Mirrors of Natural Laws Within Us; Friendly Reminders of Inclusion to Forgive the Dreamer of Separation. I now share that excerpt here, starting on page 64, from the chapter “Mentalism: 1st of the 7 Hermetic Laws”:

“The Projection Room (a nocturnal dream)

A decade or two ago, I had a nocturnal dream (to distinguish from the ordinary, diurnal waking dream I call my life) that had a profound effect on me. In this dream, I found myself in a smaller room slightly above and adjoining a much larger room which was a vast theater. I could tell that the room had been used for countless eons, yet now was – in a peaceful yet almost eerie way – quiet except for faintest echoes of what I could only imagine were innumerable theatrical presentations, movies and dramatic enactments. There was no color or lighting in either room, yet both were bright and completely comfortable; I felt truly peaceful there, standing in what appeared to be the smaller room. I remember looking through the opening (not really a doorway) into the now empty theater and I couldn’t see any seating, yet I sensed from the inward echoes that there had been tremendous activity there covering an unimaginable spectrum of events and variety of vicarious experience.

When I first recalled this dream, I didn’t grok the significance of the smaller adjoining room. Recently, reviewing the dream again, the metaphor of this being the projection room was a huge ‘Aha’ experience! This ‘room’ (the divided mind) is where we choose to project the university of our life’s classroom. I was fixated on the theater and it’s screen rather than realizing that the source of the presentations was in the ‘upper room’ of the mental (causal) realm. The theater was empty, meaning that from the perspective of where I was in the ‘projection room’, nothing was really happening on the big screen; it was all a gigantic past event. If I were to jump back into the theater, all the drama and intensity of fleeting events would appear to be important, yet it would be completely unchangeable from that vantage point. Only from within the projection room would I be able to make any meaningful change, by realizing that my mind was the source of the interpretation; changing which teacher (Infinite Self or personal self) would make all the difference!”

We took our sanity (the correction of the Holy Spirit a.k.a. Jesus of the Course a.k.a. our Inner Kindness Teacher a.k.a. any ego-free presence in our mind) into the dream to restore the harmlessness and neutrality of everything we made to fight us and

“The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. ²No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. ³Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. ⁴Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. ⁵For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. ⁶Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream.” (ACIM, T-27.VIII.10:1-6)

Another metaphor for the Holy Spirit’s generalized correction for our highly complex and specific dreams is something I learned about listening to a Bioneers conference program on community radio KVMR-FM over two decades ago. In this episode, the narrators talked about an innovative solution to the toxins in chain saw oil. Someone figured out how to incorporate microscopic spores that broke down, neutralized, and digested toxins in the oil, so that each droplet, regardless of how tiny, had the “seed” of undoing the harmfulness of the original product. Seems like a great metaphor for how we can (and ultimately will want to) use every tiny ego thought, grievance, annoyance, or out-and-out outrage as the mathematically perfect classroom for undoing ego, one thought at a time. Here’s a possibly related product.

“Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part of someone else’s dream. The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. Do you wish for dreams of healing, or for dreams of death? ⁵A dream is like a memory in that it pictures what you wanted shown to you.” (ACIM, T-28.II.4:1-5)

The simplicity of our perpetual opportunity for peace is that we constantly can … and do … choose between the insanity of special, separate “consolation prize” disappointing interests, of the one truly shared interest of returning home together. We realize that the ego’s propaganda isn’t just mediocre; it never works; it never brings us peace of mind; it always brings only war. Every instant of every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year of our lives, we have the choice for sanity or insanity, peace or war, love or fear.

What is precious is each opportunity – every instant! – to forgive; yet we needn’t feel guilty for “squandering” or missing an opportunity to forgive and be peaceful. We haven’t damaged our eternal inheritance of Truth, sinlessness, holiness, innocence, and completion. We merely (needlessly) missed another opportunity to forgive and experience the deep, profound serenity of disabling ego’s blathering, blundering, blustering projection machine. We just need to metaphorically get up out of our chairs and take ego’s hotline-to-our-mind phone off the hook (or turn the ringer off on newer phones) to stop its automated telemarketing nonsense from disturbing our tranquility!

“The happy learner cannot feel guilty about learning. ²This is so essential to learning that it should never be forgotten. ³The guiltless learner learns easily because his thoughts are free. ⁴Yet this entails the recognition that guilt is interference, not salvation, and serves no useful function at all.” (ACIM, T-14.III.1:1-4)

Our closing meditation was the last 2 review lessons in Lesson 60 of the Workbook of A Course In Miracles:

5. (50) I am sustained by the Love of God.

²As I listen to God’s Voice, I am sustained by His Love. ³As I open my eyes, His Love lights up the world for me to see. ⁴As I forgive, His Love reminds me that His Son is sinless. ⁵And as I look upon the world with the vision He has given me, I remember that I am His Son.”

(ACIM, W-60.4:1–5:5)

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Saturday, March 1, 2026.)

The post Perception and Choice (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

Close your eyes for these exercises, and introduce them by repeating the idea for today quite slowly to yourself. ²Then add:

³This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.

The exercises consist, as before, in searching your mind for all the thoughts that are available to you, without selection or judgment. ⁵Try to avoid classification of any kind. ⁶In fact, if you find it helpful to do so, you might imagine that you are watching an oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you. ⁷As each one crosses your mind, say:

⁸My thought about _________ does not mean anything.
⁹My thought about _________ does not mean anything.”

(ACIM, W-10.3:1–4:9)

As we train our minds to gently, patiently, lucidly, vividly watch for any discomfort, any insanity, any annoyance or distress, it becomes more of a happy habit. We’re learning, slowly but surely, to give time and space to our Inner Kindness Teacher (the Holy Spirit) to restore our sanity, instead of giving these dimensions of our dream to the ego to erode our sanity.

We read primarily from two places, the first (page 79 in the Manual For Teachers) being Mind – Spirit (ACIM, C-1). Here are the first three paragraphs of that essay:

We also read from Ken Wapnick’s (always profound, prolific, and prodigious) commentary on this section in Journey Through the Manual (for Teachers) of A Course In Miracles (JTTM), beginning on page 207. Here’s a portion of what we read, reminding us that ACIM’s inspiration is from the highest (pure non-dual) level of awareness, but since we (who mostly identify ourselves as individuals with human bodies and a material existence, a.k.a. egos) are metaphorically sleeping, we need a gentle voice that meets us where we think we are on the level we think we exist so we can work our way back to reality from the “bottom up”:

“We appear to be different and separate, which is what our bodies were designed to demonstrate. Therefore, because we think we are individuals, Jesus addresses us as if we have individual minds. This is not the truth, he is telling us, but he will use words that are appropriate for our experience.” –  Ken Wapnick, JTTM, page 207

It’s important to remember (as we discussed in the video) that ACIM’s content is consistent, even if the form (the language) is not, so it’s best not to get hung up on the words or technical details, losing sight of the forest for the trees. This practice aligns with the Course’s emphasis on learning to generalize, so that we can apply the message (content) of non-duality (the separation never happened) to everything and everyone that appears to be separate in our seemingly split minds.

“The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world.” (ACIM, T-12.VII.9:1)

“Heaven is the decision I must make. ⁶I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.” (ACIM, W-138.12:5-6)

The next section we read and discussed was from ACIM’s text: The Ego and False Autonomy (ACIM, T-4.II). Here are its first three paragraphs:

2. Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability.²He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable.³Their interaction is a process that alters both, because they were not made by or with the Unalterable.⁴It is important to realize that this alteration can and does occur as readily when the interaction takes place in the mind as when it involves physical proximity.⁵Thinking about another ego is as effective in changing relative perception as is physical interaction.⁶There could be no better example that the ego is only an idea and not a fact.

3. Your own state of mind is a good example of how the ego was made.²When you threw knowledge away it is as if you never had it.³This is so apparent that one need only recognize it to see that it does happen.⁴If this occurs in the present, why is it surprising that it occurred in the past?⁵Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar, though hardly to something that occurs with such persistence.⁶But do not forget that the mind need not work that way, even though it does work that way now.”

(ACIM, T-4.II.1:1–3:6)

Spoiler alert: We briefly discussed a theme in season 1 of the Apple TV series “Pluribus,” where the main character wreaked havoc when she held onto angry thoughts. We often forget that our grievances are devastating to our peace of mind, and since minds are joined, every ego mind partakes of the same insanity. Seeing that the outer and inner are never apart, our state of mind is mirrored in everyone we interact with or bring to awareness. Fortunately, our “universal” (temporary) insanity is limited to our duality-quarantined mind, and has not damaged the reality of our eternal peace and infinitely innocent identity in any way. “… not one note in Heaven’s song was missed.” (ACIM, T-26.V.5:4) When we change our mind and truly forgive, we see that the correction was always in effect; the insanity “… will merely cease to seem to be.” (ACIM, M-14.2:12)

We just need to “hang in there” and learn to trust our Inner Kindness Teacher (Holy Spirit) more and more consistently. We learn that the innocence we thought we lost never existed in form, but always in the Spirit we share, which is forever our real, shared Identity.

“The habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away. ²The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. ³Side with me consistently against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. ⁴The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be disheartened.” (ACIM, T-4.IV.7:1-4)

Fortunately, the Truth (Perfect Oneness) is completely invulnerable to the lie of duality (ego), and Truth never changes, thankfully!

We’ve become normalized to the “neuralizer” effect (ego’s mindless magical madness of obliviating our awareness of the decision maker in our mind that can (and will!) choose against ego, but fortunately, ego’s mind-numbing propaganda “…may be fool-proof, but it is not God-proof.” (ACIM, T-5.VI.10:6)

“Spirit is in a state of grace forever.
⁵Your reality is only spirit.
⁶Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.” (ACIM, T-1.III.5:4-6)

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Saturday, January 10, 2026.)

The post Mind – Spirit, Ego & False Autonomy (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

“It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. ²You think you think them, and so you think you see them.” (ACIM, W-15.1:1-2)

When we try to make both ego (the insanity of separate interests) and Holy Spirit (the sanity of shared interests) work together, we short-circuit our efforts and get nowhere. It is as though we’ve put our vehicle up on blocks, and no matter how much we rev the engine, we get nowhere; we’re just idling. When our minds are split, we get nowhere in our nowhere dreamland of duality.

We read two major consecutive text sections, the first in this section being “The Branching of the Road” (ACIM, T-22.IV) … Here are the first three paragraphs of that section:

It is but the first few steps along the right way that seem hard, for you have chosen, although you still may think you can go back and make the other choice.²This is not so.³A choice made with the power of Heaven to uphold it cannot be undone.⁴Your way is decided.⁵There will be nothing you will not be told, if you acknowledge this.

And so you and your brother stand, here in this holy place, before the veil of sin that hangs between you and the face of Christ.²Let it be lifted!³Raise it together with your brother, for it is but a veil that stands between you.⁴Either you or your brother alone will see it as a solid block, nor realize how thin the drapery that separates you now.⁵Yet it is almost over in your awareness, and peace has reached you even here, before the veil.⁶Think what will happen after.⁷The Love of Christ will light your face, and shine from it into a darkened world that needs the light.⁸And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you.⁹You will become His messenger, returning Him unto Himself.”

(ACIM, T-22.IV.1:1–3:9)

On our own, we can’t see our way out of the ego “forest” of seemingly different choices until we ask the Holy Spirit for help with our perspective and get above the battleground of false choices – “hopiates” that mislead us to keep endlessly searching among illusory, hopeless mind-numbing horizontal dream choices instead of the one vertical choice of forgiving ourselves for seeming to abandon our real identity. We learn to trust our Inner Kindness Teacher (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) to guide us to take the correct branch in the road… the metaphorically vertical one that lifts our mind above the battleground of our petty silliness, without condemning ourselves, of course!

The only real “branch in the road” is learning to question the ego, gradually shift away from it, eventually make the Holy Spirit’s correction the new default, and ultimately choose against the ego altogether, without a single shot being fired. We “fire” the ego without a battle, without confrontation, and without opposition because we see that truly nothing can oppose Truth except a tiny mad idea of separation. We are always at the branch in the road, every second, not just at what seem like major life junctures.

The way we make the “vertical choice” (for forgiveness and against duality) is to see everyone as my “long lost best friend” – my savior; not by anything they do (or don’t do) in terms of behavior, but rather how we see them as parts of ourselves we thought we abandoned, and now recognize all as our holy siblings, no less (or more) important than any others in the entirety of creation. If we look through the eyes of the ego, everyone we meet or think about seems to be a treacherous enemy, robbing us of our peace as we forget that we haven’t been separate, are not now separate, nor ever can be separate. When we accept the Holy Spirit’s correction, everyone we meet or think about is either expressing lovingkindness … or asking for it. The appropriate response to everyone (who is now restored to savior status) is lovingkindness, either because they express and mirror our gratitude and loveliness, or they are actually asking for it, mirroring my own request for help.

Our favorite “button pushers” become gratefully appreciated because they not only show us the unhealed aspects of our unconscious mind, but they also help us “re-wire” the signals from the ego knee-jerk misinterpretation machine to the Holy Spirit’s simple correction processing system that reflects J. Krishnamurti’s wisdom:

“I don’t mind what happens.”

A favorite related aphorism from Ken Wapnick (paraphrased here) is that the way to be a perfect Course student is to be an imperfect Course student and forgive yourself.

There are lots of similar metaphors (like “road”) that describe the process of learning forgiveness and unlearning the devastating dueling duality of silly schizophrenic separation:

• 69 instances of “road” in ACIM
• 32 instances of “path” in ACIM
• 108 instances of “journey” in ACIM
• 23 instances of “travel” in ACIM
• 2 instances of “detour” in ACIM
• 809 instances of “way” in ACIM

We then read Weakness and Defensiveness (ACIM, T-22.V) … Here are its first three paragraphs:

Consider what the ego wants defenses for. ²Always to justify what goes against the truth, flies in the face of reason and makes no sense. ³Can this be justified? ⁴What can this be except an invitation to insanity, to save you from the truth? ⁵And what would you be saved from but what you fear? ⁶Belief in sin needs great defense, and at enormous cost. ⁷All that the Holy Spirit offers must be defended against and sacrificed. ⁸For sin is carved into a block out of your peace, and laid between you and its return.

Yet how can peace be so fragmented? ²It is still whole, and nothing has been taken from it. ³See how the means and the material of evil dreams are nothing. ⁴In truth you and your brother stand together, with nothing in between. ⁵God holds your hands, and what can separate whom He has joined as one with Him? ⁶It is your Father Whom you would defend against. ⁷Yet it remains impossible to keep love out. ⁸God rests with you in quiet, undefended and wholly undefending, for in this quiet state alone is strength and power. ⁹Here can no weakness enter, for here is no attack and therefore no illusions. ¹⁰Love rests in certainty. ¹¹Only uncertainty can be defensive. ¹²And all uncertainty is doubt about yourself.”

(ACIM, T-22.V.1:1–3:12)

Our only seeming weakness is our willingness to be separate, mindlessly compromising our peace to satisfy ego’s demands, to keep the apparent obstacles in place in our mind; our strength (our Inner Kindness Teacher) will ultimately win out over ego’s insanity because we will want to be consistently peaceful.

“Appeal everything you believe gladly to God’s Own Higher Court, because it speaks for Him and therefore speaks truly. ⁵It will dismiss the case against you, however carefully you have built it up. ⁶The case may be fool-proof, but it is not God-proof.” (ACIM, T-5.VI.10:4-6)

“Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers. ⁷They watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. ⁸Yet they are not deceived by what they see. ⁹They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is no more real than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. ¹⁰Unity alone is not a thing of dreams. ¹¹And it is this God’s teachers acknowledge as behind the dream, beyond all seeming and yet surely theirs.” (ACIM, M-12.6:6-11)

We closed with Lesson 313: Now let a new perception come to me. (ACIM, W-313)

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Saturday, November 9, 2025.)

The post Branching of the Road, Weakness and Defensiveness (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

In this School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) video conversation, we began by reading What Is the World? (ACIM, W-pII.3). Here are the first three paragraphs of that section:

2. The world was made as an attack on God. ²It symbolizes fear. ³And what is fear except love’s absence? ⁴Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. ⁵Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. ⁶But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. ⁷Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.

3. The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. ²And now they go to find what has been given them to seek. ³Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real. ⁴They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies. ⁵Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.”

(ACIM, W-pII.3.1:1–3:5)

Lyn Corona appropriately quoted the first verse of the classic “Little Bo-Peep” nursery rhyme, revealing the common practice of imparting wisdom through simple, gentle verse that kids of any age might find relatable:

“Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn’t know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they’ll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.”

We seem to have lost our identities and thoughts of innocence (symbolized by sheep), but they will return to us if we don’t try to leave our home (in our IKT: Inner Kindness Teacher’s thought system). Tails might symbolize effects, and effects follow cause, so when we switch from ego to Holy Spirit, our world shifts from a horrific prison to a gracious classroom.

We save the world by saving our identity from the ego’s fragmented dream of separation by reversing and undoing its catastrophic magical thought

We’re continually shoving our metaphoric Humpty Dumpty off the wall by fueling grievances, specialness (“big deal” differences), and substitutions for what we really want (unalterable peace). This mental malpractice merely seems to fragment Perfect Oneness; it is corrected by seeing what we made with ego thinking, withdrawing our projections onto the world (what we inappropriately taught it to be), and seeing that the sinful, guilty, fearful thought system in our minds is a silly, correctable mistake. Forgiveness is like watching a movie of Humpty Dumpty falling off the proverbial wall (where ego did the malicious shoving from behind) and seeing (in slow-motion) our Inner Kindness Teacher reverse all the effects of that faulty decision: the countless shards miraculously reassemble and wholeness (Perfect Oneness) is restored in our mind. The eternal peace and unity were always there, but we merely dreamt otherwise.

The metaphor of a classic hologram made on a glass plate also applies to this discussion. If one shatters such a hologram, takes one of the pieces of the holographic glass, and reconstitutes it using the same split laser beam, the entire 3D image will be restored, although not with the same brightness or clarity. Metaphorically, each of us (silly) seemingly separate selves contains the entirety of Perfect Oneness in our minds, however deeply buried within the world dream of separation.

Lyn also suggested re-reading Lesson 186: Salvation of the world depends on me. (ACIM, W-186)

Tim Wise quoted an excerpt from Lesson 296: The Holy Spirit speaks through me today. (ACIM, W-296)

“I would be savior to the world I made.⁴For having damned it I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the Word Your holy Voice will speak to me today.” (ACIM, W-296.1:3-4)

The mechanism for undoing the ego (which goes by many synonyms) is forgiveness, a word that appears 697 times in ACIM.

Here are the first three paragraphs of How Will the World End? (ACIM, M-14):

2. Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. ²It becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows and becomes stronger and more all-embracing. ³Here is it nourished, for here it is needed. ⁴A gentle Savior, born where sin was made and guilt seemed real. ⁵Here is His home, for here there is need of Him indeed. ⁶He brings the ending of the world with Him. ⁷It is His Call God’s teachers answer, turning to Him in silence to receive His Word. ⁸The world will end when all things in it have been rightly judged by His judgment. ⁹The world will end with the benediction of holiness upon it. ¹⁰When not one thought of sin remains, the world is over. ¹¹It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. ¹²It will merely cease to seem to be.

3. Certainly this seems to be a long, long while away. ²“When not one thought of sin remains” appears to be a long-range goal indeed. ³But time stands still, and waits on the goal of God’s teachers. ⁴Not one thought of sin will remain the instant any one of them accepts Atonement for himself. ⁵It is not easier to forgive one sin than to forgive all of them. ⁶The illusion of orders of difficulty is an obstacle the teacher of God must learn to pass by and leave behind. ⁷One sin perfectly forgiven by one teacher of God can make salvation complete. ⁸Can you understand this? ⁹No; it is meaningless to anyone here. ¹⁰Yet it is the final lesson in which unity is restored. ¹¹It goes against all the thinking of the world, but so does Heaven.”

(ACIM, M-14.1:1–3:11)

“It will merely cease to seem to be.” (ACIM, M-14.2:12) at the end of the 2nd paragraph above is such a helpful idea, since it reminds us that all our dreams of sin, guilt, fear, death, duality, uncertainty, loneliness, and misery will vanish when we awaken from our ego addiction habit.

We also read and shared thoughts about the next section in ACIM’s text: Is Each One to Be Judged in the End? (ACIM, M-15). Here are its three paragraphs:

2. Is this your judgment on yourself, teacher of God? ²Do you believe that this is wholly true? ³No; not yet, not yet. ⁴But this is still your goal; why you are here. ⁵It is your function to prepare yourself to hear this Judgment and to recognize that it is true. ⁶One instant of complete belief in this, and you will go beyond belief to Certainty. ⁷One instant out of time can bring time’s end. ⁸Judge not, for you but judge yourself, and thus delay this Final Judgment. ⁹What is your judgment of the world, teacher of God? ¹⁰Have you yet learned to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment in yourself? ¹¹Or do you still attempt to take His role from Him? ¹²Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. ¹³And His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening, and wait for Him.

3. You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel your just due is not given you, and your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! ²They are too small and meaningless to occupy your holy mind an instant longer. ³God’s Judgment waits for you to set you free. ⁴What can the world hold out to you, regardless of your judgments on its gifts, that you would rather have? ⁵You will be judged, and judged in fairness and in honesty. ⁶There is no deceit in God. ⁷His promises are sure. ⁸Only remember that. ⁹His promises have guaranteed His Judgment, and His alone, will be accepted in the end. ¹⁰It is your function to make that end be soon. ¹¹It is your function to hold it to your heart, and offer it to all the world to keep it safe.”

(ACIM, M-15.1:1–3:11)

Judgment from the dualistic ego mind always involves separation, condemnation, attack, murder, and death to the dreaming mind. We talked about how perfect the mirror metaphor is for looking at our projections and realizing that everyone and everything in our dream world is a mathematically perfect custom-tailored classroom for looking at and undoing (withdrawing) our uniquely individual projections and then letting our Inner Kindness Teacher perform that same correction on our inner world (unworthy, guilty self-concept) since ideas have never left their source in our mind. The completed correction joyously ends the bogus world of opposition, conflict, war, and destruction, revealing the eternally peaceful non-dual world where judgment is no longer relevant or even possible.

“The world will end in joy, because it is a place of sorrow. ²When joy has come, the purpose of the world has gone. ³The world will end in peace, because it is a place of war. ⁴When peace has come, what is the purpose of the world? ⁵The world will end in laughter, because it is a place of tears. ⁶Where there is laughter, who can longer weep? ⁷And only complete forgiveness brings all this to bless the world.” (ACIM, M-14.5:1-7)

Our judgment of innocence for ALL is the way out of the ego’s hellish world, restoring the Real World to our awareness.

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Saturday, October 25, 2025.)

The post How Will The World End; Is Each One To Be Judged In The End (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

We began looking at a related sentence at the beginning of Workbook Lesson 49, which suggests that we can do the mental equivalent of “chew gum and walk” or “multi-tasking” by doing whatever we need to do in the world of form, while allowing our minds to listen to the guidance of our Inner Kindness Teacher (a.k.a. Holy Spirit, Jesus of the Course, or any ego-free presence we find relatable):

“It is quite possible to listen to God’s Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way.” (ACIM, W-49.1:1)

It’s helpful to set our intention to follow inspired guidance as each day begins, but we can “hit the reset button” so to speak, at any time; a day isn’t wasted if we remember that mindfulness is a constant, gentle, patient, simple practice that requires only that we look at ego unworthiness and guilt without judgment and allow Holy Spirit to restore our peace. Every ego is insane and hateful, but fortunately, we all also have the sane part of our mind that completely corrects that insanity as we practice forgiveness. This forgiveness is the means for the mental clarity that makes room for this peace:

“There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. ²It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it.” (ACIM, M-16.6:1-2)

After we talked and the recording ended abruptly, Susan added, to not misrepresent what this section is saying, since we barely got to the material in the section:

“We got a little carried away talking and didn’t really finish our conversation about the section in the manual; particularly, we didn’t get to the part about ending your day that’s advised in that section.”

Here are the first three paragraphs of the related section in the Manual for Teachers in ACIM:

“To the advanced teacher of God this question is meaningless. ²There is no program, for the lessons change each day. ³Yet the teacher of God is sure of but one thing; they do not change at random. ⁴Seeing this and understanding that it is true, he rests content. ⁵He will be told all that his role should be, this day and every day. ⁶And those who share that role with him will find him, so they can learn the lessons for the day together. ⁷Not one is absent whom he needs; not one is sent without a learning goal already set, and one which can be learned that very day. ⁸For the advanced teacher of God, then, this question is superfluous. ⁹It has been asked and answered, and he keeps in constant contact with the Answer. ¹⁰He is set, and sees the road on which he walks stretch surely and smoothly before him.

2. But what about those who have not reached his certainty? ²They are not yet ready for such lack of structuring on their own part. ³What must they do to learn to give the day to God? ⁴There are some general rules which do apply, although each one must use them as best he can in his own way. ⁵Routines as such are dangerous, because they easily become gods in their own right, threatening the very goals for which they were set up. ⁶Broadly speaking, then, it can be said that it is well to start the day right. ⁷It is always possible to begin again, should the day begin with error. ⁸Yet there are obvious advantages in terms of saving time.

3. At the beginning, it is wise to think in terms of time. ²This is by no means the ultimate criterion, but at the outset it is probably the simplest to observe. ³The saving of time is an essential early emphasis which, although it remains important throughout the learning process, becomes less and less emphasized. ⁴At the outset, we can safely say that time devoted to starting the day right does indeed save time. ⁵How much time should be so spent? ⁶This must depend on the teacher of God himself. ⁷He cannot claim that title until he has gone through the workbook, since we are learning within the framework of our course. ⁸After completion of the more structured practice periods, which the workbook contains, individual need becomes the chief consideration.”

(ACIM, M-16.1:1–3:8)

Here is an abridged, edited transcript of the conversation:

(This video was recorded on February 19, 2026.)

We covered this section previously about a decade ago in this conversation.

If you have questions or comments about this video, previous videos in this ACIM-related video series, or other Course-related topics, please email them to us via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!

If you are interested in Susan’s excellent weekly Tuesday evening classes based on Kenneth Wapnick’s teachings, you can contact her here.

Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.

If you have enjoyed these conversations, here are the latest releases from FACIM. You can also support the work of Susan (ForaysInForgiveness.com) and Bruce (via donation links at the bottom of the sidebars on their respective websites) if you feel so inspired. THANKS!

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