A Course In Miracles - Chapter 13, Section IX
ACIM is read one section at a time. It is a guidebook leading us back to our true natures, as we open to the awareness of love's presence. All quoted material is from A Course in Miracles, copyright ©1992, 1999, 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, publisher, and the copyright holder. This material is used with permission. Glossary-Index for a Course In Miracles, 8th edition, Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. Music: Bensound.
Transcript
Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 13,
The Guiltless World,
Section 9,
The Cloud of Guilt.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 9 of Chapter 13,
We learn that guilt is the only thing that hides the Father from us,
Because it is the attack upon God's Son.
The guilty always condemn by linking the future to the past,
Letting no light in,
And forbidding our awakening.
The ego tells us to look at ourselves and our brothers through the lens of guilt.
But the Holy Spirit invites us to look within,
For we must understand that the world can only give us what we gave it.
For being nothing but our own projection,
It has no meaning apart from what we found in it and placed our faith in.
Faith makes the power of belief,
And where it is invested determines its reward.
If we place our faith in the past,
The future will be like it.
Yet atonement brings a re-evaluation of everything we cherish,
For it is the means by which the Holy Spirit separates the false from the true.
We therefore must not be afraid to look within,
For within lies the perfect faith that the Father has in us.
He knows Himself and therefore knows the truth within us.
Although we can deny His knowledge,
We cannot change it.
We must look upon the light placed within us and learn that what we feared is not there and has been replaced with love.
I invite you to keep a few things in mind as you listen to the reading.
The course uses male pronouns,
Yet this is simply a way of pointing to the spiritual being,
Having no gender.
The course is written in first person,
And although not introduced directly to the reader,
It becomes clear that the words are from Jesus,
Often quoting from the Bible.
The course uses traditional Christian terms in a non-traditional manner.
These words are simply pointers to truth,
Nothing more.
A few terms you will hear within this reading.
Guilt.
The feeling we experience in relation to sin.
Guilt's reflection from our minds is seen in all the negative feelings and beliefs we have about ourselves,
Mostly unconscious,
Resting on a sense of inherent unworthiness,
Seemingly beyond even the forgiving power of God,
Who we erroneously believe demands punishment.
Following the ego's counsel that to look on guilt would destroy us,
We deny its presence in our minds and then project it outward in the form of attack,
Either onto others as anger,
Or onto ourselves as sickness,
Whether it be physical or emotional sickness.
Ego.
Our belief in the separated or false self that we made as a substitute for the self that God created.
Holy Spirit.
The communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds,
The voice for God.
Atonement.
The Holy Spirit's plan of correction,
Healing our minds from the earthly world of illusion to God's world of truth.
Now,
Onto the reading.
A Course in Miracles,
Chapter 13,
The Guiltless World.
Section 9,
The Cloud of Guilt.
Guilt remains the only thing that hides the Father,
For guilt is the attack upon His Son.
The guilty always condemn,
And having done so,
They will still condemn,
Linking the future to the past,
As is the ego's law.
Fidelity to this law lets no light in,
For it demands fidelity to darkness and forbids awakening.
The ego's laws are strict,
And breaches are severely punished.
Therefore give no obedience to the ego's laws,
For they are laws of punishment,
And those who follow them believe that they are guilty,
And so they must condemn.
In the future and the past,
The laws of God must intervene,
If you would free yourself.
Atonement stands between them,
Like a lamp shining so brightly that the chain of darkness in which you bound yourself will disappear.
Release from guilt is the ego's whole undoing.
Make no one fearful,
For his guilt is yours,
And by obeying the ego's harsh commandments,
You bring its condemnation on yourself,
And you will not escape the punishment it offers those who obey it.
The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain,
For faith in it is pain,
And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed.
Faith makes the power of belief,
And where it is invested determines its reward.
For faith is always given what is treasured,
And what is treasured is returned to you.
The world can give you only what you gave it,
For being nothing but your own projection,
It has no meaning apart from what you found in it and placed your faith in.
Be faithful unto darkness,
And you will not see,
Because your faith will be rewarded as you gave it.
You will accept your treasure,
And if you place your faith in the past,
The future will be like it.
Whatever you hold dear you think is yours,
The power of your valuing will make it so.
Atonement brings a re-evaluation of everything you cherish,
For it is the means by which the Holy Spirit can separate the false and the true,
Which you have accepted into your mind without distinction.
Therefore you cannot value one without the other,
And guilt has become as true for you as innocence.
You do not believe the Son of God is guiltless,
Because you see the past,
And see him not.
When you condemn a brother,
You are saying,
I who was guilty choose to remain so.
You have denied his freedom,
And by so doing you have denied the witness unto yours.
You could as easily have freed him from the past,
And lifted from his mind the cloud of guilt that binds him to it,
And in his freedom would have been your own.
Lay not his guilt upon him,
For his guilt lies in his secret thought that he has done this unto you.
Would you then teach him he is right in his delusion?
The idea that the guiltless Son of God can attack himself and make himself guilty is insane.
In any form,
In any one,
Believe this not,
For sin and condemnation are the same,
And the belief in one is faith in the other,
Calling for punishment instead of love.
Nothing can justify insanity,
And to call for punishment upon yourself must be insane.
See no one then is guilty,
And you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself.
In every condemnation that you offer the Son of God lies the conviction of your own guilt.
If you would have the Holy Spirit make you free of it,
Accept his offer of atonement for all your brothers,
For so you learn that it is true for you.
Remember always that it is impossible to condemn the Son of God in part.
Those whom you see as guilty become the witnesses to guilt in you,
And you will see it there,
For it is there until it is undone.
Guilt is always in your mind,
Which has condemned itself.
Project it not,
For while you do,
It cannot be undone.
With everyone whom you release from guilt great is the joy in heaven,
Where the witnesses to your fatherhood rejoice.
Guilt makes you blind,
For while you see one spot of guilt within you,
You will not see the light,
And by projecting it the world seems dark and shrouded in your guilt.
You throw a dark veil over it,
And cannot see it,
Because you cannot look within.
You are afraid of what you would see there,
But it is not there.
The thing you fear is gone.
If you would look within,
You would see only the atonement,
Shining in quiet and in peace upon the altar to your father.
Do not be afraid to look within.
The ego tells you all is black with guilt within you,
And bids you not to look.
Instead,
It bids you look upon your brothers,
And see the guilt in them.
Yet this you cannot do without remaining blind.
For those who see their brothers in the dark,
And guilty in the dark in which they shroud them,
Are too afraid to look upon the light within.
Within you is not what you believe is there,
And what you put your faith in.
Within you is the holy sign of perfect faith your father has in you.
He does not value you as you do.
He knows himself,
And knows the truth in you.
He knows there is no difference,
For he knows not of differences.
Can you see guilt,
Where God knows there is perfect innocence?
You can deny his knowledge,
But you cannot change it.
Look then upon the light he placed within you,
And learn that what you feared was there has been replaced with love.
