This is my second talk on A Course in Miracles and as an introduction to the metaphysics of the course it includes a short forgiveness exercise at the end.
Metaphysics is concerned with what is truth and what is illusion.
Our true reality is eternal changeless perfect formless spirit in complete oneness with God or the source.
What God did not create does not exist apart from in a dream.
In contrast our world is one of form bound by time is always changing and is far from perfect.
Thus God could not have made this physical universe or know of its existence.
What we take as reality this time-space world is really a dream in which forgiveness will awaken us.
Its only value is as a classroom of forgiveness.
Of course the world does not seem like a dream to most of us but then our dreams last night also seemed real when we were dreaming them.
Why does the course refer to the universe as a dream?
The symbology of the Adam and Eve story in the Old Testament can be of help here.
Adam and Eve were happy in the garden,
Heaven,
Until an idea came that perhaps things could be even better if they ate the forbidden fruit.
This fruit is described in the course as the thought of separation and is referred to as the ego.
To be separate from God and do our own thing is impossible but to dream of it is not.
In our desire for autonomy and individuality the course says we fell asleep so our wishes would come true in our dreams.
Into this dream we bring fearful thoughts of what we have done to our creator.
Believing we have knocked God off his throne and stolen his power has left us with a strong thought that we have sinned.
This thought must leave us feeling very guilty and we expect there will be a just punishment forthcoming from God.
This is depicted in Genesis as God storming into the garden of Eden looking for the two transgressors who are trying to hide from his retribution behind a bush.
On being caught they turn to the egos for advice on how to handle this situation.
The ego's advice is always to deny and project.
It's not my fault,
Protests Adam.
It was Eve who tempted me.
But I was persuaded by the snake,
Protests Eve.
It's love that makes heaven go around but in our dream world it has become guilt.
Now as the course says we travel but in dreams forgetting we are safe at home.
We seem to have got what we wanted,
Separation in exchange for the wonders of God and his creation which the course calls the Christ.
Jesus describes himself in the course as a man who remembered he was the Christ as we all are.
The Christ shares in the love and majesty of God for there is only perfect oneness in heaven.
Heaven cannot be understood by us who only know time and space.
It has to be experienced.
The course describes it as a place of perfect oneness.
In this dream we strive to be happy believing that with enough time and opportunity the world will provide us with what we want.
We say to ourselves if only I can find the right partner,
Earn enough money,
Maintain my health,
Live long,
Become successful in my job and so on.
Then I will be happy.
Even if all the conditions are met there will always be a lurking fear in the back of our minds that any of these conditions could so easily change.
The stock market could crash,
Our partner may get sick,
War could be declared and so forth.
We seem to prefer all this uncertainty to honestly saying to ourselves I have been wrong.
There's a line in the course that says would you rather be right or happy.
There could never be any lasting peace here.
Perhaps there is another way and like the prodigal son in the end all living things will decide to return to the loving father in heaven and at this point the dream will end.
The world we have appeared to make is based on murder.
We believe in our unconscious that we had to kill God and take his power to make our world.
This thought now manifests here in our dream as every living thing needs to kill something else to continue living and spend much of its time protecting itself or its young from being killed in turn.
In the last century over 100 million people died in wars and many more were maimed,
Raped and tortured.
We might say that we are vegetarians but still another life form must always die for us to continue.
In contrast to heaven where need does not exist,
Ours is a world of scarcity where we fight over the resources.
We need to ask ourselves the question could a loving God have created such a world?
I would like to end with a short forgiveness exercise which only takes a couple of minutes.
Just begin by getting yourself relaxed,
Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths.
In lesson 108 in the course we read today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone and see how quickly peace returns to us.
Now bring to mind someone you need to forgive,
Someone who you're losing peace with.
It could be alive or dead,
Someone you know well or perhaps some person on television.
See them standing before you and now see a light,
A healing light coming down and shining upon them.
The person begins to feel this light and you see her or him smiling.
This person may start to laugh and feel happy as the light is experienced in themselves.
As you look at this person say I have no right to say you must be different.
This is a step of acceptance.
I have no right to say you must be different.
Now send out a short prayer for this person's healing and peace.
When a person upsets us it's because they're mirroring to us something similar that is unhealed and unforgiven in us.
So really this person becomes our teacher.
This may be hard to accept at this moment and the form of the behavior may be different.
Say to this person thank you for being a mirror and showing me I have behavior similar to yours.
Lastly if you can go over to the person and give them a hug.
This was a progressive forgiveness exercise and the steps get harder as you go along.
Just accept as far as you can go with the exercise knowing you can always repeat it another time.
When you feel ready,
When you feel complete as far as you can go in this exercise,
Bring yourself back to the room and open your eyes.
