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, 2025.)

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!

The post How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day? – Susan Dugan & Bruce Rawles appeared first on ACIM blog.

Ego’s use of death is akin to “I told you so!” There seems to be overwhelming evidence (all provided by our egos) that life is trumped by death. However, we rarely stop to challenge the ideas of what we assume to be life. If life is merely bodily existence (devoid of mind and spirit) and nothing else, then we have every justification for being miserable, angry, depressed, bored, and the victim of any other unpleasant thought or emotion that crosses our path. If we’re actually more than flesh and bones and the ideas that seemed to make them necessary, then the ego’s bluff is called, and we can walk through its holographic prison doors unscathed.

“I knew that truth was love, unconditional love.” – Dr. Adam Rizvi

Death is the ultimate “condition” imposed upon the body. Fortunately, our mind can be restored by retraining ourselves to identify with an eternal, unconditional sanity that is loving, innocent, and all-inclusive Self instead of the finite, ephemeral, and mortal self. The part of our mind that can look at the “micro-endings” that represent the death thought system (ego), without identifying with those thoughts, is the truth of our being.

“Thus, I began engaging with patients differently, and noticed a transformation within I still find difficult to describe. I was becoming kinder. The innocence I saw in my patients, I saw in myself. Growing up with the idea of a judging God had fostered in me a sense of guilt and regret. From this new viewpoint, the years of guilt and regret about past mistakes melted away. I felt like I had entered a new world. All the events around me now clearly mirrored my internal state. The way I perceived others caused direct, tangible effects on how I felt about myself. To put it simply,it felt like the world was coming from me instead of at me. Life itself was emerging from within; it was wild and shocking. I could see how we we’re all connected. Our minds were expressions of one mind. Insights perceived by the mystics in all the books I’d read now became my lived experience.” – Dr. Adam Rizvi

Looking without judgment – not running away from the pain and upset of the ego’s propaganda for death (a.k.a. oblivion or mindlessnes) that cruelly suggests that form is reality and mind is superfluous – is how we learn to dis-identify with insanity, and restore our minds to the sanity that has always been waiting patiently in our minds for our acceptance of the remedy; the corrective therapy we call forgiveness.

“That way (ego) madness lies.” – William Shakespeare, King Lear

Dr. Rizvi’s book opens with this famous and profound Shakespeare quote in Chapter 1 (Becoming Mindful):

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Macbeth, Act V, Scene V — William Shakespeare

That imprisoning way (ego’s insistence on death, duality, and dissociation) madness lies! The liberating way of forgiveness undoes that madness when we look at the many “micro-deaths” of every unpleasant, insane experience without self-condemnation, repression, or projection.

“The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. Let 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)

The seed of correction to the death-as-reality thought system, which we call the ego, resides in seeing that, in essence, we’re all the same. The form of apparently external abuse, trauma, and upset may be unique for everyone, but when we mindlessly adhere to death’s dirge in our mind (ego), we are slaves of the same erroneous investment in sin, guilt, fear, punishment, and death instead of steadfastly holding the illuminating thoughts of true forgiveness in mind.

“It pays to be kind. … Be kind to yourself.” – Dr. Adam Rizvi

Of course, if our definition of “self” is limited to a specific body personality complex, and doesn’t include everyone and everything (all creation), then it isn’t true kindness. Kindness is only true when it is unchanging; only pure non-duality (a Self that includes All) is changeless and beyond space and time.

The Hippocratic Oath: “First do no harm,” if fully applied with a non-dual context, would mean that any thought that forces (or reinforces) the idea that we are separate from each other (and from our Source) is harmful to our peace of mind. Since minds are joined, we see that polarized, separating thoughts harm all minds. ACIM further reminds us that these harmful thoughts are quarantined to our dreams of separate identities and separate interests: “… not one note in Heaven’s song was missed.” (ACIM, T-26.V.5:4)

Perfect love casts out fear.
If fear exists, then there is not perfect love.

But:

Only perfect love exists.
If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist.

(ACIM, T-1.VI.5:4-8)

Adam reminds us that it takes courageous forgiveness to let go. Levity epitomizes the Holy Spirit’s thought system; gravity epitomizes the ego’s thought system. Forgiveness is the letting go of the gravity of unconscious, unfounded guilt to experience the lucid loving levity of mind and heart.

Looking at the two thought systems objectively: the ego is the thought system of the impossible crime of separation, leading to the (mostly unconscious) belief in guilt, which necessitates identification with form. Yet this obsession with form (specifically our bodies and those of others) blinds us to our essence which would lift us out of egregious gravity if we let it.

Here is Dr. Rizvi’s forgiveness protocol and prescription for peace, inspired by Gary Renard:

1. “Stop: Stop listening to the ego’s voice. Catch yourself when you are going down the ego’s rabbit hole and stop. Become mindful. Recognize that you’ve chosen the wrong teacher whenever you’ve chosen fear over love.
2. Switch: Switch teachers. Choose Love as your teacher. Listen to that gentle voice within. Listen to your Inner Guide. It will remind you of your innocence and the innocence of those around you. It will remind you that you’ve never left your true home of pure Love.
3. See: See things through Love’s eyes, otherwise known as vision or spiritual sight. With spiritual sight, you see truly. See yourself and those around you as wholly worthy of love without exception. See everyone as the same without exception. You see all as either expressions of love or calls for love. Now, give everything over to your Inner Guide and let go. Let go and let Love.”

These 3 steps are analogous to the “3 R’s of forgiveness“:

1. STOP (projecting guilt onto everyone and everything); by realizing we’re fundamentally all the same, we can REVEAL the source of our upset is in our split mind, not outside.
2. SWITCH teachers: We also need the Holy Spirit for this step, to not only question external guilt, but internal guilt as well. We RELEASE ourselves from the needless suffering of self-inflicted incrimination for the impossible crime of dualistic dreaming.
3. SEE through the Holy Spirit’s vision, and we allow our guilt to be disintegrated by the innocence we all share. We allow the correction, and the REPLACE process heals our split mind.

(This conversation, facilitated by Bruce Rawles, is part of the ongoing series of dialogues on A Course In Miracles offered by ACIMblog.com. This YouTube video recording was made on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.)

Here is the description of Adam’s book Love Does Not Know Death: Stories of Death, Dying, and the Miracles of True Forgiveness from the Amazon listing:

“A powerful exploration of mortality drawn from the lived experience of an intensive care physician

Blending the stories of patients and families with spiritual insights from A Course in Miracles, this book faces the fears
of death and illness while showing how forgiveness transforms grief and anxiety into peace. Death is not the end but an invitation to awakening, a chance to release the illusion of separation and rediscover the permanence of love.

With clarity and compassion, Dr. Rizvi guides readers through the illusions of suffering and fear, offering practical exercises in forgiveness alongside deep metaphysical insight. Written for those facing illness, caregivers, spiritual seekers, and anyone grieving a loved one, it offers not just comfort but a path to inner freedom. Love Does Not Know Death is a roadmap for turning life’s hardest moments into portals of healing, awakening, and love’s enduring truth.”

Adam was featured on the Miracle Voices podcast episode 156.

For more information about Dr. Adam Rizvi’s work and his book, visit:

LoveDoesNotKnowDeath.com
AdamRizvi.substack.com (Adventures in Kindness)

More on the way…

The post Love Does Not Know Death – a conversation with Adam Rizvi, MD appeared first on ACIM blog.

(ACIM, W-285.1:1–2:5)

We’re always choosing between the total ego wackiness of insane masochism (where any degree of guilt condemns all) or the sane, pristine peace of abundant eternal innocence shared equally and fully by all.

Here are the first three paragraphs of The Inner Shift (ACIM, T-21.VIII):

“Are thoughts, then, dangerous?To bodies, yes!The thoughts that seem to kill are those that teach the thinker that he can be killed.And so he “dies” because of what he learned.He goes from life to death, the final proof he valued the inconstant more than constancy.Surely he thought he wanted happiness.Yet he did not desire it because it was the truth, and therefore must be constant.

The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to your understanding.Yet if you could even imagine what it must be, you would desire it although you understand it not.The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind.It is unshakable as is the Love of God for His creation.Sure in its vision as its Creator is in what He knows, happiness looks on everything and sees it is the same.It sees not the ephemeral, for it desires everything be like itself, and sees it so.Nothing has power to confound its constancy, because its own desire cannot be shaken.It comes as surely unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.

Reason will tell you that you cannot ask for happiness inconstantly.For if what you desire you receive, and happiness is constant, then you need ask for it but once to have it always.And if you do not have it always, being what it is, you did not ask for it.For no one fails to ask for his desire of something he believes holds out some promise of the power of giving it.He may be wrong in what he asks, where, and of what.Yet he will ask because desire is a request, an asking for, and made by one whom God Himself will never fail to answer.God has already given all that he really wants.Yet what he is uncertain of, God cannot give.For he does not desire it while he remains uncertain, and God’s giving must be incomplete unless it is received.”

(ACIM, T-21.VIII.1:1–3:9)

We went through much of Ken Wapnick’s always brilliant, highly recommended, commentary on this section, starting on page 162 of volume 3 of  JTTT (Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles 4-volume set),

Any condemning judgments or separating comparisons reinforce the belief in separation and, therefore, are dangerous to our peace of mind; these dualistic thoughts declare war on our real, undifferentiated Identity, which we all enjoy beyond time and space, even if we seem oblivious to it most of the time. Each desire for being right and getting what we think we need is a request for battle, for conflict, for disappointment, and misery.

“In the holy instant we finally say and mean: ‘I do not want the world’s offering, but want instead to learn the lesson that not only is the world not hurting me, I have not hurt it.’ “ – Ken Wapnick, Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles, volume 3, page 163, last paragraph in column 2.

This is the full forgiveness that truly is every heart’s real need.

“It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it.” (ACIM, W-185.14:1)

It’s OK to be afraid of forgiveness; it isn’t a crime, but it is (as Ken frequently reminds us) quite silly.

We also read and shared thoughts about the next section in ACIM’s text: Salvation and the Holy Relationship (ACIM, T-22.in). Here are the first three paragraphs of that section:

“Take pity on yourself, so long enslaved. Rejoice whom God hath joined have come together and need no longer look on sin apart. No two can look on sin together, for they could never see it in the same place and time. Sin is a strictly individual perception, seen in the other yet believed by each to be within himself. And each one seems to make a different error, and one the other cannot understand. Brother, it is the same, made by the same, and forgiven for its maker in the same way. The holiness of your relationship forgives you and your brother, undoing the effects of what you both believed and saw. And with their going is the need for sin gone with them.

Who has need for sin? Only the lonely and alone, who see their brothers different from themselves. It is this difference, seen but not real, that makes the need for sin, not real but seen, seem justified. And all this would be real if sin were so. For an unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what he has not. They come together, each to complete himself and rob the other. They stay until they think that there is nothing left to steal, and then move on. And so they wander through a world of strangers, unlike themselves, living with their bodies perhaps under a common roof that shelters neither; in the same room and yet a world apart.

A holy relationship starts from a different premise. Each one has looked within and seen no lack. Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. He sees no difference between these selves, for differences are only of the body. Therefore, he looks on nothing he would take. He denies not his own reality because it is the truth. Just under Heaven does he stand, but close enough not to return to earth. For this relationship has Heaven’s Holiness. ⁹How far from home can a relationship so like to Heaven be?”

(ACIM, T-22.in.1:1–3:9)

We choose against freedom with each insistence on demanding attention for our separate interests, our separate, special selves, each with its separate, special seeming needs at the expense of everyone else’s separate, special seeming needs. If we notice that everyone is in the “same boat” playing the same miserable, pathetic, and unsatisfying dream game, we shift our perception from individual to shared, which provides the basis for true compassion and awakening from the nightmare of competition, warfare, polarization, and divisiveness. All of these are cornerstones of the ego’s gloomy, guilty identity made of nothing and defended to the death against the salvation of forgiving kindness.

Our Inner Kindness Teacher (Holy Spirit) undoes the “asunder blunder” – the silly belief in separation. It shows us that we’re the dreamer, not the dream figure, and that our dreams have had no impact on our eternal reality.

“We do want to see, for we no longer desire the guilt-driven gifts of specialness that led us into lives grasping for crumbs that could never satisfy our longing for the love we had foresworn.” – Ken Wapnick, Journey Through The Text of A Course In Miracles, volume 3, page 192, last paragraph in column 2.

An easy-to-identify “red flag” when we’ve sabotaged our salvation (compromised our peace) is when we notice the upset of holding grievances of any magnitude. We realize that “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.” (ACIM, W-72)

Salvation is equivalent to forgiveness. From the non-dual perspective of the Course, these are essentially equivalent, in that they all lead to the undoing of the belief in separation, with capitalized words indicating the Holy Spirit’s use of mind:

• Answer
• Atonement
• awakening
• correction
• face of Christ
• forgiveness
• function
• happy dream
• healing
• holy instant
• holy relationship
• justice
• Last (Final) Judgment
• miracle
• real world
• reason
• redemption
• resurrection
• salvation
• Second Coming
• true perception
• undoing
• vision
• Word of God

(Reference: page 11, first paragraph under “Right-mindedness”, Glossary Index for A Course In Miracles by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. You might also find related terms in the ACIM online glossary helpful.

Learning to see the sameness of equivalent ideas aligns with the importance of learning to see everyone is the same; we all have the same mind:

• ego (split mind)
• Holy Spirit (correction for the split mind)
• decision maker (which is either identified with ego or Holy Spirit at any instant)
• One Mind (the non-dual Christ Mind which transcends all differences; the awareness of Perfect Oneness)

It’s helpful to remember that words (as Plato suggested) are “symbols of symbols” (ACIM, M-21.1:9). Their significance is the meaning behind the words, so it’s a good reminded to not become preoccupied with symbols, but always let our Inner Kindness Teacher lead our mind to the Source of meaning.

We concluded with a selection from “The Forgotten Song”:

“Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity, forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it, everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.” (ACIM, T-21.I.8:1-6)

(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 Sunday, October 12, 2025.)

The post The Inner Shift & Salvation and the Holy Relationship (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

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“Your Son is free, my Father. Let me not imagine I have bound him with the laws I made to rule the body. He is not subject to any laws I made by which I try to make the body more secure. He is not changed by what is changeable. He is not slave to any laws of time. He is as You created him, because he knows no law except the law of love.

Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any law idolatry would make to hide the freedom of the Son of God. He is not bound except by his beliefs. Yet what he is, is far beyond his faith in slavery or freedom. He is free because he is his Father’s Son. And he cannot be bound unless God’s truth can lie, and God can will that He deceive Himself.”

(ACIM, W-277.1:1–2:5)

One of the primary mechanisms of this self-limiting and self-tyrannizing thought system is judgment. Ego insanity is kept alive in our dreams of duality by denying the intrinsic eternal sameness (and ultimately our Oneness) by making ephemeral, frivolous (from the perspective of our eternal nature) and condemning assessments of everyone and everything. This takes countless forms, and aligns with the ego’s pillars of sin, guilt, fear, reflected in innumerable special hate and special love relationships.

This doesn’t mean we stop making “common sense” judgments like stopping at traffic intersections when the light changes, or paying taxes, or brushing teeth, but rather noticing the debilitating ego practice of ceaselessly condemning others (and therefore ourselves) to a limited hopeless separate identity that is “uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear” (ACIM, T-31.VIII.7:1).

Eventually, as we notice more and more how exhausting this horrid and insidious ego default is, we will choose against it altogether. Meanwhile, our task is to simply look – without condemnation – at every (condemning) ego thought and forgive ourselves for resisting the peace that is possible if/when we drop the proverbial judge’s gavel.

The only way we can do this without feeling deprived is to realize (usually gradually over many years) how awful we feel when we make judgments that seem to keep us apart from the real Love that is our essence and that of everyone else. True forgiveness and the relinquishment of separating, isolating judgment are are really synonymous.

We read the classic “The Chinese Farmer Story” which illustrates who clueless we are when we assume we understand anything from our tiny finite individual perspective:

“Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.”

— Alan Watts

Maybe … we’re all clueless when relying on ego’s infinitesimal perspective! I often think that when we have even a slightly revelatory experience, it’s probably like an amoeba at the bottom of a dark, murky pond crawling along the underside of a leaf who suddenly has an “illumination” experience when it crawls around to the top of the leaf and suddenly sees the dim, heavily filtered light coming from above the pond and thinks it now comprehends the cosmos!

“… there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet, William Shakespeare

We then read and mused about How Is Judgment Relinquished? (ACIM, M-10). Here are the first three paragraphs of that section of the Manual for Teachers in ACIM:

“Judgment, like other devices by which the world of illusions is maintained, is totally misunderstood by the world. ²It is actually confused with wisdom, and substitutes for truth. ³As the world uses the term, an individual is capable of “good” and “bad” judgment, and his education aims at strengthening the former and minimizing the latter. ⁴There is, however, considerable confusion about what these categories mean. What is ‘good’ judgment to one is ‘bad’ judgment to another. Further, even the same person classifies the same action as showing ‘good’ judgment at one time and ‘bad’ judgment at another time. Nor can any consistent criteria for determining what these categories are be really taught. At any time the student may disagree with what his would-be teacher says about them, and the teacher himself may well be inconsistent in what he believes. ‘Good’ judgment, in these terms, does not mean anything. No more does ‘bad.’

It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge, but that he cannot. In giving up judgment, he is merely giving up what he did not have. He gives up an illusion; or better, he has an illusion of giving up. He has actually merely become more honest. Recognizing that judgment was always impossible for him, he no longer attempts it. This is no sacrifice. ⁷On the contrary, he puts himself in a position where judgment through him rather than by him can occur. And this judgment is neither “good” nor “bad.” It is the only judgment there is, and it is only one: ‘God’s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist.’

The aim of our curriculum, unlike the goal of the world’s learning, is the recognition that judgment in the usual sense is impossible. This is not an opinion but a fact. In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. Who is in a position to do this? Who except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?”

(ACIM, M-10.1:1–3:7)

That last paragraph is a doozy! It is just one of countless ways the Course gently lampoons our investment, obsession and attachment to ego interpretations, ideals, and outcomes. Here’s another favorite lampooning:

“The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished.” (ACIM, T-3.VI.5:6-7)

Holy Spirit’s certainty is our birthright, but first we have to let go of our dogged, damning determination to be “right” about everything.

Another Course “cliche” is the “right or happy” question which is closely tied to denying we’re clueless in a cosmic sense and we don’t even notice much of what we identify with in our “own minds.”

“Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Do you prefer that you be right or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself.” (ACIM, T-29.VII.1:6-12)

When I got a pilot’s license a few decades ago, I was authorized to fly under “Visual Flight Rules” (VFR), but didn’t continue this expensive hobby long enough to get an “Instrument Flight Rules” (IFR) rating. IFR pilots (using navigation instruments on the plane connected with a variety of systems) guide the plane safely so that an IFR pilot can take off, fly and land at another location without ever looking outside the cockpit, regardless of the weather and poor external visibility. Metaphorically, we’re all learning to trust Holy Spirit’s vision which sees through the fog and clouds of our limited (ego) projected perceptions, so that we can safely navigate home to where we never left.

In terms of our physical senses, we see about one octave of electromagnetic energy (visible light) and hear – at best – about 10 octaves of acoustic energy (sound). We occupy about a meter or two of space in what our science tells us is many billions of light years across, and if we take care of our fragile bodies – with a bit of luck? – we might have about 8 decades (give or take a few) of the dimension of time that supposedly spans about 13 billion years. and in this space time cosmos science estimates there are between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Check out this YouTube video of Images from the 3.2 Trillion Pixel Camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on a large monitor or high resolution/large format TV if you need further evidence for the insignificance of our ego perspective!

We have the unmitigated gall to presume we understand our personal world, let alone anyone else’s experience, and especially the rest of this planet, let alone the greater cosmos! On our own, we feel unsafe: lonely, uncertain, and in constant fear. With our Inner Kindness Teacher’s unyielding help, we learn by experience to trust the safety of the All-inclusive Mind and we learn we are eternally together, unshakably certain, and in the constant peace of unchanging lovingkindness.

Our passion for judging is usually very challenging to release, since our very (silly, seemingly separate self) identity is inextricably tied to our “sacred” opinions about pretty much everything! To make this decision of “to judge or not to judge” more practical, we have to continually ask ourselves if we want to stay in the hell of condemning, accusing judgment (of others and indirectly of ourselves) … or do we want to learn to forgive more and more consistently with the correction of innocence for all which is the Holy Spirit’s only curriculum.

Our judgments are thoughts of impurity (duality) that make our inclusive identity seem limited, fragmented, and irreconcilably, hopelessly broken. When we notice these contaminating thoughts, our task is to more and more quickly look at them without blame, shame or incrimination.

“The necessary condition for the holy instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure. But it does require that you have none that you would keep.” (ACIM, T-15.IV.9:1-2)

We also quickly read and discussed the next section in the Manual: How Is Peace Possible in This World? (ACIM, M-11) Here are the first three paragraphs of that section of the Manual for Teachers in ACIM:

“This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be impossible here. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man’s inheritance. The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God’s Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this.

Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It must be so.

The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. How is peace possible in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.”

(ACIM, M-11.1:1–3:9)

In response to our after class conversation, I updated some links to classical music that Ken Wapnick found inspirational.

(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 Sunday, October 4, 2025.)

A fellow Course student pointed out that this graphic could be interpreted in two ways: The gavel being relinquished by the mouse … or the gavel being given to the mouse. I would suggest that Holy Spirit (in the first interpretation) relieves us clueless critters of the burden of judgment, which we can’t really even do in truth:

“… judgment in the usual sense is impossible.” (ACIM, M-10.3:1)

When we try to judge on our own, we’re really attempting to conceal, bend and distort the data about the purpose of our mind so as to conceal the truth or mislead ourselves; we’re fudging the facts instead of forgiving falsehoods. It’s so much simpler and effective to allow the correction that our Inner Kindness Teacher holds out to us when we let go of the gavel of judgment believing our separate selves have the answers to consistent peace.

“Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace.” (ACIM, M-11.4:2)

We closed the session with this inspiring quote from Chapter 16:

“The new perspective you will gain from crossing over will be the understanding of where Heaven is. From this side, it seems to be outside and across the bridge. Yet as you cross to join it, it will join with you and become one with you. And you will think, in glad astonishment, that for all this you gave up nothing! The joy of Heaven, which has no limit, is increased with each light that returns to take its rightful place within it. Wait no longer, for the Love of God and you. And may the holy instant speed you on the way, as it will surely do if you but let it come to you.” (ACIM, T-16.VI.11:1-7)

The post How is judgment (and fudgement) relinquished? (SFACIM class conversation) appeared first on ACIM blog.

As any student of the non-dual metaphysics of the Course probably realizes, inner peace and true perception come from a shift in the mind rather than changes in external circumstances. The world we see is a projection of the mind, so if we have given control of our mind to the ego thought system, made from a false, conflicted and polarized assumption, peace in the world we made up is always impossible. However, the correction in everyone’s mind for that insane, guilty self-concept (which we call Holy Spirit, Jesus, or any ego-free presence in our mind) restores the peace that is not only possible but inevitable.

What we commonly think of as “the world” and “our circumstances” are not the fundamental reality, but rather reflections of erroneous, incomplete, and condemning inner beliefs, fears, and judgments. Peace is therefore not a matter of altering the external world, but of transforming our minds by forgiving ourselves for wanting to have a separate identity at the expense of peace for our selves, and also everyone we mistakingly perceive as separate from our selves.

Peace becomes possible when we recognize that separation is an illusion. What appears as conflict, fear, guilt, or separation comes from believing in a separate self. By seeing that this sense of separation has no real, eternal foundation — that it exists only in perception — we begin to open to the possibility of peace. The more we forgive our projections onto ourselves, our bodies and everything else in the material world, the more we progress from the possibility to the recognition of the ultimate certainty of all-inclusive peace. The inner transformation of forgiving thoughts are the means by which the mind returns to clarity and unity.

Forgiveness is not just a moral (behavioral) gesture, but a radical reorientation of perception; from exclusion, isolation, abandonment, and uncertain, fearful loneliness, to the genuine comfort of the recognition that we can never be apart in eternity from each other or our Creator. The inner shift of seeing through the ego’s façade of form to the content in the mind is foundational to experiencing lasting peace. If we continue operating under illusions of guilt, sin, or separation, our so-called peace (based on temporary conditions) will remain fragile — because it’s built on illusions, with fear of the recurrence of war or conflict in the mind always lurking close by. Holding onto grievances or judgments keeps the fear alive. Letting go via forgiveness dissolves that fear.

It’s important to practice consistently applying forgiveness in “normal” life — day-to-day interactions, relationships, habitual thoughts. Forgiveness need not be reserved for dramatic betrayals or big moral transgressions. The usefulness of forgiveness is severely limited if we don’t make a long-term steady commitment to apply a truly forgiving attitude (that lets everyone “off the hook” for impossible crimes) to both subtle and not-so-subtle disruptions in our peace. Peace isn’t an idealistic, distant, “spiritual only” aim — it becomes accessible when the mind begins to shift, even amidst everyday mundaneness.

Peace is always possible here and now, even if at first we only apply it sporadically. Eventually we will generalize and apply the healing balm of release from the tyranny of ego’s sin, guilt and fear plague to all situations without exception. Peace is never dependent on external conditions, but it typically takes a lot of practice to convince ourselves of its real efficacy. Un-forgiven grievances keep fear alive; as long as we refuse to forgive, the internal fear structure remains intact; the cause of our internal strife, confusion, chaos, and mental battles must be addressed by looking with our Inner Kindness Teacher at the source our erroneous belief in inadequacy; separation from our Source.

Our Creator knows only peace. Our self-fabricated ego minds experience only the agony of war, being made from the insane dream of wanting to abandon peace. Peace isn’t something “out there” to be earned or obtained — it’s the restoration of the mind’s true state. The world appears chaotic only because the mind believes in separation. Change the mind, and the world — our experience of it — changes. Forgiveness is the tool for that restoration — not as a favor to someone else, but as a form of awakening to our own innate light and unity.

Daily application is essential: by consistently choosing to forgive ourselves (usually triggered by the impulse to forgive “others”) in everyday situations, the mind gradually reorients from fear to love, from fragmentation to wholeness. True forgiveness allows the miracle to occur — the healing shift in perception, the awakening to love, and reconciliation of our crazy (forgivable) choice for a split mind. Peace isn’t a passive calm, but an active transformation of how we see ourselves, others, and the world. When the mind releases its false assumptions of separation and guilt, miracles — inner peace, clarity, love — naturally emerge.

Rather than reacting out of fear, guilt, or judgment, one can pause — bring awareness to what’s really going on internally — and choose forgiveness, thereby releasing the grip of ego-based thinking. Over time, this rewiring of perception can lead to sustained inner peace regardless of external circumstances. We re-program our minds to replace the self-sabotaging habit of unconscious, unfounded guilt with the healing habit of seeing our restored inner world with kindly kinship and universal appreciation.

Forgiveness is not about changing anything on the level of form; it’s not about condoning behavioral wrongdoing, pretending nothing happened physically, or burying pain with denial of our experience of the world we call space and time. Rather it is the process of re-routing the neutral data of the world from ego mis-interpretation to Holy Spirit’s correction, seeing our projections within dualistic dreams as ultimately irrelevant to our constant All-inclusive innocence, but essential to reveal what is in our unconscious mind, needing healing. Thus, it’s vital that we not withhold, repress, or deny our experiences in the world we made up, but rather bring those experiences from ego’s darkness to the luminous healing world of Holy Spirit’s correction through forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not a superficial “letting go to feel better” exercise, but a deep reorientation of perception away from fear and toward love. Peace is not a superficial calm achieved by ignoring problems, but a deep inner shift. Only by embracing that deeper change can we reclaim our minds and restore their natural state: restful, healed, aligned with Unchanging Love.

Peace is possible because our minds are capable of recognizing truth — that separation was never real, that guilt and sin are illusions, that love and unity are our natural state. Peace is happily inevitable because we all will eventually grow weary of the intolerable warfare that ego wages against our the awareness of mind’s capacity to choose against insanity; it is the essential means by which the mind lets go of illusion and reawakens to truth. Peace is not a future goal to be obtained (postponed and procrastinated), but a present possibility to be realized — here, now, in the mind.

By practicing forgiveness continuously, by shifting perception from fear to love, we align ourselves with the innate peace of God (or Spirit), and thus experience true peace in this world.

Here is the glossary entry for peace from the newly updated ACIM Online Glossary:

Peace is the result of total non-resistance to graciously accepting the being God created us to be. This tranquility is achieved through forgiveness, bringing our dreamt darknesses to the Holy Spirit’s light for healing.

Ego’s (pseudo) “peace” is just a seeming cease-fire in its ceaseless war. Holy Spirit returns us to genuine peace “above the battleground” of the duality of separate interests.

“Stop for a moment now and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God’s peace the better choice? Which gives you more? A tranquil mind is not a little gift. Would you not rather live than choose to die?” (ACIM, M-20.4:6-9)

“When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy.” (ACIM, T-1.IV.1:5)

“You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness.” (ACIM, T-1.VI.1:1)

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.” (ACIM, T-3.VI.3:1)

“To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It” (ACIM, T-6.V-B)

“If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God’s lesson, and not your own.” (ACIM, T-14.XI.5:2)

There are 950 instances of “peace” (or variations of that word) in ACIM.

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

“1. This is a question everyone must ask. ²Certainly peace seems to be impossible here. ³Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. ⁴His Word has promised peace. ⁵It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man’s inheritance. ⁶The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. ⁷God’s Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. ⁸But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. ⁹What the world is, is but a fact. ¹⁰You cannot choose what this should be. ¹¹But you can choose how you would see it. ¹²Indeed, you must choose this.

2. Again we come to the question of judgment. ²This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. ³For they say different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. ⁴God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. ⁵God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. ⁶God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. ⁷Who is right? ⁸For one of you is wrong. ⁹It must be so.

3. The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. ²These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. ³And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. ⁴Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. ⁵Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. ⁶And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. ⁷How is peace possible in this world? ⁸In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. ⁹But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.”

(ACIM, M-11.1:1–3:9)

(This video was recorded on November 29, 2025.)

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, check out the latest releases from FACIM and 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!

The post How Is Peace Possible In This World? – Susan Dugan & Bruce Rawles appeared first on ACIM blog.

Starting Saturday morning, November 22, 2025, Lyn Johnson and Bruce Rawles will share weekly 1-hour conversations (7:30 am Pacific Time) on ACIM Gather online radio. We’ll read and discuss the book A Symphony of Love: Selections of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s Writings: Autobiographies, Poetry, Short Stories, and Articles by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D., and Gloria Wapnick. Here’s the writeup from the Amazon listing for this book (which is available in both Kindle and Paperback versions, and also directly from the Foundation for A Course In Miracles)

“The purpose of this book is to present some of the unpublished writings and published professional journal writings of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick in all their diversity. I use the word diversity because his poetry and his short stories are so exquisitely different, his poetry especially being a dedication to God and Jesus, while his short stories explore different themes. (From the Preface by Gloria Wapnick) The book begins with two very powerful unpublished autobiographies, My Life with God and My Life with Jesus. The first, My Life with God, Kenneth wrote at the request of Helen Schucman, who urged him to do that project in 1973. The second, My Life with Jesus, was done mostly after we moved to Temecula in 2001, since people kept asking for one. One of the reasons My Life with Jesus is short compared to My Life with God is that I had asked Kenneth not to write about our relationship.” (From the Introduction by Gloria Wapnick)

If you’ve watched and listened to Ken’s profound, prodigious, and prolific videos on YouTube or listened to his audios or read his writing, especially interacting and joking with students during his Academy classes and workshops, you can appreciate his marvelous sense of humor. From the last sentence in the writeup, you can tell that Gloria (in addition to having a wonderful command of the Course’s metaphysics) also had a wonderful sense of humor!

As with our prior book readings, the conversation will be live (and archived) on ACIM Gather online radio,; here are more details and streaming/archive locations for both past and future recordings:

ACIM Gather YouTube Channel

ACIM Gather Facebook Group

ACIM Gather for “A Course in Miracles” Students & Teachers

ACIM Gather references on ACIMblog.com

Our conversation history on ACIM Gather

Preliminary monologues

Initially starting March 20, 2012, encouraged by David “Dov” Fishman via a short conversation at a CMC (Community Miracles Center) Course conference in San Francisco, I began a solo (monologue) “online radio” show on ACIMgather.us which streamed on PalTalk. I enjoyed sharing Course-related ideas. As I became familiar with the platform and the process, I realized that a 1-person program was fine, but I knew there must be a better way.

This lasted until about April 17, 2016, when Lyn Johnson and I decided to have a regular weekly dialogue, replacing my monologues. Our first topic was “Not No: Turning up the volume on our Inner Kindness Teacher’s Gentle Mindfulness”

We quickly realized that the principle of shared interests greatly enhanced both our experience and enjoyment of the sharing, as well as the depth of our understanding and appreciation of what we were reading and commenting on, as well as each other and everyone participating, either live or via the archive recordings.

Initially, we were somewhat spontaneous with our topics, always centered on deepening our experience of A Course In Miracles.  After a number of weeks os these random-ish topics, we then (for many weeks) read and discussed many of the questions and answers from the  Q&A (nearly 1400 questions and answers, supervised and edited by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.) from Foundation for A Course In Miracles. Here’s the writeup for the Q&A which is available in ePub, pdf and Kindle formats; a superb resource of 1388 every day questions with practical answers informed by the very usable wisdom in ACIM and the impeccable insights of Ken Wapnick and his staff.

In 2002 the Foundation began its Question and Answer Service to help students of A Course in Miracles with their understanding of its theory and practice. Nearly 1,400 questions were submitted at the Foundation’s website through 2008, when it seemed that the range of topics covered was more than sufficient. Some questions were answered by Kenneth but most were assigned by him to staff members and one other person he selected. Kenneth reviewed all answers and made revisions accordingly before they were posted.

Over the years many people asked the Foundation to publish the document in book or pamphlet form to make it easier to use. In response to these requests and also in light of the expense of hosting the service for 16 years, the Foundation decided to produce this searchable digital file and make it available for sale. Before his death in December 2013, Kenneth had already set in motion the process of preparing the Questions and Answers for publication. This PDF file can be read on almost any device, does not require an internet connection once downloaded, and can be printed if desired.

Further dialogues: Gary Renard’s 4th book (Jesus, Buddha, Mary Magdalen and more)

After reading selected portions of the FACIM Q&A, from about November 2017 through October 2019 we read and conversed about Gary Renard’s 4th book, The Lifetimes When Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other: A History of Mighty Companions. Here’s a post with more details about that book and our conversations about it.

Here’s the write-up of the book on Amazon:

“These stories about the multiple shared lifetimes of Jesus and the Buddha’s reincarnations offer startling revelations about the universe, A Course in Miracles, and the path to enlightenment

Two and a half decades ago, Ascended Master Teachers Arten and Pursah appeared to Gary Renard and held a series of conversations with him that elaborated on the teachings of two spiritual classics, The Gospel of Thomas and A Course in Miracles. Gary immortalized what he learned in the books of his best-selling series: The Disappearance of the Universe, Your Immortal Reality, and Love Has Forgotten No One. This fourth book is a companion to the original trilogy, yet written to stand alone—an invitation for new readers into this fascinating work.

This book explores six of the lifetimes in which the incarnations of Jesus and Buddha lived together, beginning in 700 B.C. when they were known as Saka and Hiroji. Through the spiritual lessons that Jesus and Buddha learn on their path, Arten and Pursah clarify the difference between duality and nonduality. When you are able to internalize these lessons, you will be saved countless years in your spiritual development.”

Our first “Ken book” dialogues: The Journey Home

Here is a post about our prior conversations between November 2, 2019, through June 10, 2023, and another of Ken’s masterpiece books: The Journey Home on ACIM Gather.

Here’s a post with more details about “The Journey Home” book and our dialogues about it.

Here is the description from the Amazon page:

“This book consists of a substantial expansion of the discussion in The Obstacles to Peace, first published in 1987. In revising his earlier work, Kenneth has added an extensive introduction and epilogue, and tripled the discussion, including many more references to other passages in the Course. In addition, the old question-and-answer format has been changed to enhance the flow of the material.”The Obstacles to Peace” sections present the important themes in “A Course in Miracles,” stated in powerful and beautiful language as well. These range from the metaphysical theme of how God did not create the world and the body—and indeed knows absolutely nothing about them—to the specific teachings on the projection of guilt, and its undoing through the practice of forgiveness in our special relationships. There are also some incisive passages where Jesus speaks of himself and the projections that have been put upon him, emphasizing the important role the ego has given him in its thought system. This distortion is corrected by Jesus making clear the nature of the role he has in his thought system, undoing the ego through helping us to change our minds about what we think and perceive.”

Our most recent “Ken book” dialogues: Absence from Felicity

From June 17, 2023 through November 15, 2025, Lyn Johnson and Bruce Rawles shared weekly Saturday morning conversations (7:30 am Pacific Time) on ACIM Gather online radio. We read from and talked about Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles by by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. Unlike most of the brilliant books by Ken Wapnick, this book is primarily a biography, yet intersperses her personal (fascinating) account with countless insights about ACIM’s metaphysics.

Helen’s story is really everyone’s story in the sense that we all have enormous resistance to accepting the Truth of our real, inclusive Identity. Helen once said (about the Course that came through her) “I know it’s true, I just don’t believe it.” Judy Skutch Whitson (the original publisher of the Course) eivdently responded to Helen upon hearing this remark that perhaps the remark should have been “I know it’s true, I just won’t believe it.” This resistance is what we’re all working through with help from our Inner Kindness Teacher.

Here is the Amazon description of the book:

“This biography of Helen Schucman—the scribe of A Course in Miracles, dictated by Jesus—focuses on the lifetime conflict between her spiritual nature and her ego, and the relationship of this conflict to her scribing of the Course. The book includes extensive excerpts from Helen’s own recollections, the personal messages she received from Jesus, and her dreams and letters—all never before in print. Presented here as well is some of the personal instructional material from Jesus. This material constituted an integral part of the original dictation of the Course, which was later removed as directed by Jesus.Absence from Felicity highlights the process of the Course’s scribing, Helen’s personal experiences of Jesus, and her relationship with William Thetford, her close friend and psychologist-colleague at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, as well as her collaborator in the scribing of A Course in Miracles. The last part of the book contains reminiscences of Helen by Kenneth Wapnick, the author, which draw upon his intimate relationship with the scribe that spanned the last eight years of her life. Finally, in the context of Helen’s experiences, there is a discussion of Jesus which focuses on the appearance and the reality of our relationship with him.”

Here are the audio archives of our conversations on “Absence from Felicity”

You can listen live to our conversations on Saturday mornings here on ACIM Gather online radio. Here is the ACIM Gather YouTube Streaming channel. Enjoy! :-)

That’s brings us up to the present day, eager to embark on the book A Symphony of Love: Selections of Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s Writings: Autobiographies, Poetry, Short Stories, and Articles by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D., and Gloria Wapnick. starting Saturday, November 22, 2025!

Here’s a sample of our “Absence From Felicity” conversations:

The post A Symphony of Love: ACIM Gather conversations with Lyn Johnson and Bruce Rawles appeared first on ACIM blog.