A Course In Miracles - Chapter 14, Section VII

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.

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 14,

Teaching for Truth,

Section 7,

Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit.

To summarize my takeaways,

In Section 7 of Chapter 14,

We are reminded that light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness and will not let it go.

We must decide what we want.

Light or darkness,

Knowledge or ignorance are ours,

But not both.

Opposites must be brought together,

Not kept apart,

For their separation is only in our minds and are reconciled by union,

As we are.

In union,

Darkness disappears in light,

And ignorance fades away as knowledge dawns.

The Holy Spirit's task is mighty,

But the power of God is with Him.

We are lovingly reminded that we are not asked to do mighty tasks ourselves,

But are merely asked to do the little that the Holy Spirit suggests we do,

Trusting only to the small extent of believing that what is asked of us we can do.

The Holy Spirit asks only this of us.

Bring to Him every secret we have locked away.

Open every door to Him and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away.

At our request,

He enters gladly and brings the light to darkness if we make the darkness open to Him.

But what we hide He cannot look upon.

He sees for us,

But unless we look with Him,

He cannot see.

We must therefore bring all of our dark and secret thoughts to Him and look upon them with Him.

He holds the light,

And we the darkness.

They cannot coexist when both of us,

Together,

Look upon them.

His judgment will prevail,

And He will give it to us as we join our perception to His.

All honor to us through the Holy Spirit and through Him unto God.

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.

Perception.

What we see inwardly determines what we see outside ourselves.

This then is our perception,

Which we project unto the world around us.

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.

Truth.

Something is either true or false,

Real or illusion,

There can be no compromise.

We are either created by God or made by the ego.

This principle explains why there is no order of difficulty in miracles,

Since all that is needed for healing or the miracle to occur is to shift from the illusions of the ego to the truth of the Holy Spirit.

God.

The creator.

The source of all being,

Or life.

God's essence is spirit,

Which is shared with all creation.

Yet the word God can be limiting,

Since universal energy and life are infinitely vast and cannot be contained in a word.

Salvation.

We are saved from our belief in sin and guilt through the change of mind that forgiveness and the miracle bring about.

And now,

On to the reading.

A Course in Miracles Chapter 14 Teaching for Truth Section 7 Sharing Perception with the Holy Spirit What do you want?

Light or darkness,

Knowledge or ignorance are yours,

But not both.

Opposites must be brought together,

Not kept apart.

For their separation is only in your mind,

And they are reconciled by union,

As you are.

In union,

Everything that is not real must disappear,

For truth is union.

As darkness disappears in light,

So ignorance fades away when knowledge dawns.

Perception is the medium by which ignorance is brought to knowledge.

Yet the perception must be without deceit,

For otherwise it becomes the messenger of ignorance,

Rather than a helper in the search for truth.

The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth.

Truth is.

It can neither be lost,

Nor sought,

Nor found.

It is there,

Wherever you are,

Being within you.

Yet it can be recognized or unrecognized,

Real or false to you.

If you hide it,

It becomes unreal to you because you hid it,

And surrounded it with fear.

Under each cornerstone of fear,

On which you have erected your insane belief system,

The truth lies hidden.

Yet you cannot know this,

For by hiding truth in fear,

You see no reason to believe that the more you look at fear,

The less you see it,

And the clearer what it conceals becomes.

It is not possible to convince the unknowing that they know.

From their point of view,

It is not true.

Yet it is true,

Because God knows it.

These are clearly opposite viewpoints on what the unknowing are.

To God,

Unknowing is impossible.

It is therefore not a point of view at all,

But merely a belief in something that does not exist.

It is only this belief that the unknowing have,

And by it,

They are wrong about themselves.

They have defined themselves as they were not created.

Their creation was not a point of view,

But rather a certainty.

Uncertainty brought to certainty does not retain any conviction of reality.

Our emphasis has been on bringing what is undesirable to the desirable,

What you do not want to what you do.

You will realize that salvation must come to you this way,

If you consider what dissociation is.

Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot coexist are both maintained.

If they are brought together,

Their joint acceptance becomes impossible.

But if one is kept in darkness from the other,

Their separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in their reality.

Their joining thus becomes the source of fear,

For if they meet,

Acceptance must be withdrawn from one of them.

You cannot have them both,

For each denies the other.

Apart,

This fact is lost from sight,

For each in a separate place can be endowed with firm belief.

Bring them together,

And the fact of their complete incompatibility is instantly apparent.

One will go,

Because the other is seen in the same place.

Light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness and will not let it go.

Truth does not struggle against ignorance,

And love does not attack fear.

What needs no protection does not defend itself.

Defense is of your making.

God knows it not.

The Holy Spirit uses defenses on behalf of truth only because you made them against it.

His perception of them,

According to His purpose,

Merely changes them into a call for what you have attacked with them.

Defenses,

Like everything you made,

Must be gently turned to your own good,

Translated by the Holy Spirit from means of self-destruction to means of preservation and release.

His task is mighty,

But the power of God is with Him.

Therefore,

To Him it is so easy that it was accomplished the instant it was given Him for you.

Do not delay in your return to peace by wondering how He can fulfill what God has given Him to do.

Leave that to Him who knows.

You are not asked to do mighty tasks yourself.

You are merely asked to do the little He suggests you do,

Trusting Him,

Only to the small extent of believing that if He asks it,

You can do it.

You will see how easily all that He asks can be accomplished.

The Holy Spirit asks of you but this.

Bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him.

Open every door to Him and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away.

At your request,

He gladly enters.

He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him.

But what you hide,

He cannot look upon.

He sees for you,

And unless you look with Him,

He cannot see.

The vision of Christ is not for Him alone but for Him with you.

Bring therefore all your dark and secret thoughts to Him and look upon them with Him.

He holds the light and you the darkness.

They cannot coexist when both of you together look on them.

His judgment must prevail and He will give it to you as you join your perception to His.

Joining with Him and seeing is the way in which you learn to share with Him the interpretation of perception that leads to knowledge.

You cannot see alone.

Sharing perception with Him,

Whom God has given you,

Teaches you how to recognize what you see.

It is the recognition that nothing you see means anything alone.

Seeing with Him will show you that all meaning,

Including yours,

Comes not from double vision but from the gentle fusing of everything into one meaning,

One emotion,

And one purpose.

God has one purpose which He shares with you.

The single vision which the Holy Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish for all the world not to accept what God would have you have.

Behold your will,

Accepting it as His,

With all His love as yours,

All honor to you through Him and through Him unto God.