A Course in Miracles Lesson 184 The name of God is my inheritance.
You live by symbols.
You have made up names for everything you see.
Each one becomes a separate entity identified by its own name.
By doing this,
You carve it out of unity.
By doing this,
You designate its special attributes and set it off from other things by emphasizing the space around it.
This space you lay between all things.
This space to which you give a different name to all happenings in terms of place and time.
This space to which you give a different name to all bodies which are greeted by a name.
This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world's perception is achieved.
You see something where nothing is.
You see nothing where there is unity.
You see a space between all things.
Between all things and you,
Us,
Do you think that you have given life in separation?
With this split,
You think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will.
What are these names by which the world becomes a series of discrete events,
Of things ununified,
A world of bodies kept apart,
Of bodies holding bits of mind as separate awarenesses.
You gave these names to them,
Establishing perception as you wished to have perception be.
The nameless things were given names.
Reality was given names as well.
For what is named is given meaning.
What is named will then be seen as meaningful,
As cause of true effect,
With consequence inherent in itself.
This is the way reality is made by partial vision,
Purposely set against the given truth.
The enemy of partial vision,
Of naming things,
Is wholeness.
Partial vision conceives of little things and looks upon them.
The lack of space,
A sense of unity or vision that sees differently,
Become the threats which partial vision must overcome,
Which it must conflict with,
Which it must deny.
This partial vision still remains a natural direction for the mind to channel its perception.
It is hard to teach the mind a thousand alien names and thousands more.
Yet,
You believe this is what learning means.
You believe this is the essential goal by which communication is achieved and concepts can be meaningfully shared.
Let's practice.
Think about how we live by symbols.
We have made up names for everything we see.
Each one becomes a separate entity,
Identified by its own name.
When we do this,
We move it out of unity.
When we do this,
We designate special attributes.
We set it off from other things.
We emphasize the space surrounding it,
The space we lay between everything,
Between all happenings in terms of place and time,
Between all bodies,
Which we greet by a name.
This space we see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which we perceive the world.
We see something where nothing is.
We see nothing where there is unity.
We see a space between all things,
Between all things and each of us.
Ponder on this.
We see something where nothing is.
We see nothing where there is unity.
We see a space between all things.
We see a space between all things and each of us.
Everyone who learns to think that it is so accepts the signs and the symbols that assert the world is real.
It is for this they stand.
They have no doubt that what is named is really there.
They think that what denies that this is true is only illusion,
For they think separation is the ultimate reality,
And to question separation is madness.
They think that to accept the presence of separation is the proof of sanity.
Such is the teaching of the world.
This teaching is a phase of learning.
Everyone who comes to this world must go through it.
The sooner you perceive on what this teaching rests,
The sooner you recognize how questionable are its premises,
The sooner you realize how doubtful its results,
The sooner do you question its effects.
Learning that stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning.
In its proper place,
This,
The teaching of the world,
Serves as a starting point from which another kind of learning can begin,
From which a new perception can be gained,
From which all the arbitrary names the world bestows can be withdrawn,
And all these names are raised to doubt.
Think not,
You made the world.
Illusions,
Yes,
But what is true in earth and heaven is beyond your naming.
When you call upon a brother or when you call upon a sister,
It is to their body that you make appeal.
Their true identity is hidden from you by what you believe they really are.
Their body makes response to what you call them,
For their mind consents to take the name you give them as their own,
And thus their unity is twice denied.
You perceive them as separate from you,
And they accept this separate name as theirs.
Let's practice again.
When you think of another person,
Are you thinking of them as a body,
Or as a child of God,
Who they really are?
When this person responds to you,
Responds to their name,
Are they responding to who they really are,
Or as their body?
When we respond,
Our unity is twice denied,
For we are perceived as separate from them,
And we accept our name as separate.
Ponder on this.
It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of the world,
Forgetting them forever.
Yet we're asked to take a teaching function.
You would need to use the symbols of the world for a while,
But do not be deceived by them.
They do not stand for anything.
In your practicing,
It is this thought that will release you from all the symbols of the world.
They become simply a means by which you can communicate in ways the world can understand,
But which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found.
Thus,
What you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the world becomes a transitory phase,
Intervals where the world becomes a prison house from which you go into the sunlight and forget the darkness.
Here,
In this short interval,
You understand the Word,
The name which God has given you,
The one identity which all things share,
The one acknowledgement of what is true.
Then,
You step back to darkness,
Not because you think it's real,
But only to proclaim its unreality in terms which still have meaning in the world darkness rules.
Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of darkness,
Yet do not accept them as your reality.
The Holy Spirit uses all names and symbols,
But does not forget creation has one name.
Creation has one meaning.
Creation has a single source which unifies all things within itself.
Use all the names the world bestows on them for convenience,
Yet do not forget they share the name of God along with you.
God has no name,
And yet God's name becomes the final lesson that all things are one,
And at this lesson does all learning end.
All names are unified.
All space is filled with truth's reflection.
Every gap is closed.
Separation is healed.
The name of God is the inheritance that God gave to those who chose the teaching of the world to take the place of heaven.
In our practicing,
Our purpose is to let our minds accept what God has given us as the answer to the pitiful inheritance we made,
What God has given us as the fitting tribute to the child he loves.
No one can fail who seeks the meaning of the name of God.
Experience must come to supplement the word,
But first you must accept the name for all reality and realize the many names you gave its aspects have distorted what you see,
But all these names have not interfered with truth at all.
One name we bring into our practicing,
One name we use to unify our sight.
Though we use a different name for each awareness of an aspect of God's child,
We understand that they really only have one name,
Which God has given them.
It is this name we use in practicing,
And,
Through its use,
All foolish separations,
Which kept us blind,
Disappear.
We are given strength to see beyond the separations.
Now our sight is blessed with blessings we can give as we receive.
The name of God is my inheritance.
Father,
My name is yours.
In your name we are united with all living things,
And I am united with you,
Who are their one creator.
What I made,
And call by many different names,
Is only a shadow,
A shadow I have tried to cast across your own reality.
I am glad and thankful I am wrong.
All of my mistakes I give to you that I may be absolved from all the effects my errors seemed to have.
Father,
I accept the truth you give in place of every one of my errors.
Father,
Your name is my salvation and is my escape from what I made.
Father,
Your name unites us in the oneness which is my inheritance,
In the oneness which is my peace.
The name of God is my inheritance.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace.
