A Course In Miracles - Chapter 15, Section I
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 begin today in Chapter 15,
The Holy Instant,
Section 1,
The Two Uses of Time.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 1 of Chapter 15,
We are asked if we can imagine what it means to have no cares,
No worries,
And to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time.
Then we are taught that this outcome is what time is for.
To learn just this and nothing more.
We are told that God's Teacher,
The Holy Spirit,
Has not fulfilled His teaching function until we have become such consistent learners that we learn only of Him.
When this has happened,
We will no longer need a teacher or time in which to learn.
We learn here that the ego,
Like the Holy Spirit,
Uses time to convince us of the inevitability of the goal and end of teaching.
To the ego,
The goal is death,
Which is its end.
But to the Holy Spirit,
The goal is life,
Which has no end.
The ego teaches that death is the end as far as hope of heaven goes,
And our belief in guilt leads to the belief in hell.
How bleak and despairing is the ego's use of time,
And how terrifying!
Yet the Holy Spirit teaches there is no hell.
Hell is only what the ego has made of the present,
And our belief in hell is what prevents us from understanding the present,
Because we are afraid of it.
The Holy Spirit will undo all of this for us,
Now.
Fear is not of the present,
But only the past and future,
Which do not exist.
There is no fear in the present,
Where each instant stands clear and separated from the past,
Without its shadow reaching out into the future.
Each instant is a clean,
Untarnished birth,
In which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present,
And the present extends forever.
No darkness is remembered,
And immortality and joy are now.
We are invited to take this very instant,
Now,
And think of it as all there is of time.
Nothing can reach us here out of the past,
And it is here that we are completely absolved,
Completely free,
And holy without condemnation.
Miracles are the instants of release we offer and will receive.
Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit,
And leave His giving it to us,
To Him.
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.
The two teachers are the ego and the Holy Spirit.
The ego is our belief in the separated or false self that we made as a substitute for the self that God created.
Holy Spirit is the communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds,
The voice for God.
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.
Time,
A learning device,
A means of undoing the ego by choosing love and forgiveness of ourselves and others.
When forgiveness is complete,
The world of time,
Which is simply an illusion,
Has served the Holy Spirit's purpose and will simply disappear.
Sin,
An illusion,
Whereby we believe in the reality of our separation from God.
This stems from our egoic sense of our unworthiness of forgiveness,
Which leads to guilt.
Such guilt is projected onto ourselves and others.
Hell,
The ego's illusory picture of a world beyond death that would punish us for our sins.
Hell thus becomes the guilt of the past projected onto the future,
Bypassing the present.
Heaven,
The infinite present,
The now,
The moment when we recognize our oneness with the creator.
Nothing can reach us here out of the past,
For we are completely absolved,
Completely free,
And wholly without condemnation.
Heaven is where God and his creations dwell in perfect unity.
Miracle,
The change in mind that shifts our perception,
Transcending the laws of this world to reflect the laws of God.
The miracle provides the means to heal our own minds and the minds of others.
And now,
On to the reading.
Can you imagine what it means to have no cares,
No worries,
No anxieties,
But merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time?
If that is what time is for,
To learn just that and nothing more.
God's teacher cannot be satisfied with his teaching until it constitutes all your learning.
He has not fulfilled his teaching function until you have become such a consistent learner that you learn only of him.
When this has happened,
You will no longer need a teacher or time in which to learn.
One source of perceived discouragement from which you may suffer is your belief that this takes time,
And that the results of the Holy Spirit's teaching are far in the future.
This is not so.
For the Holy Spirit uses time in his own way,
And is not bound by it.
Time is his friend in teaching.
It does not waste him as it does you.
And all the waste that time seems to bring with it is due but to your identification with the ego,
Which uses time to support its belief in destruction.
The ego,
Like the Holy Spirit,
Uses time to convince you of the inevitability of the goal and end of teaching.
To the ego,
The goal is death,
Which is its end.
But to the Holy Spirit,
The goal is life,
Which has no end.
The ego is an ally of time,
But not a friend.
For it is as mistrustful of death as it is of life.
And what it wants for you,
It cannot tolerate.
The ego wants you dead,
But not itself.
The outcome of its strange religion must therefore be the conviction that it can pursue you beyond the grave.
And out of its unwillingness for you to find peace,
Even in death,
It offers you immortality in hell.
It speaks to you of heaven,
But assures you that heaven is not for you.
How can the guilty hope for heaven?
The belief in hell is inescapable to those who identify with the ego.
Their nightmares and their fears are all associated with it.
The ego teaches that hell is in the future,
For this is what all its teaching is directed to.
Hell is its goal.
For although the ego aims at death and disillusion as an end,
It does not believe it.
The goal of death,
Which it craves for you,
Leaves it unsatisfied.
No one who follows the ego's teaching is without the fear of death.
Yet,
If death were thought of merely as an end to pain,
Would it be feared?
We have seen this strange paradox in the ego's thought system before,
But never so clearly as here.
For the ego must seem to keep fear from you to hold your allegiance.
Yet it must engender fear in order to maintain itself.
Again,
The ego tries,
And all too frequently succeeds,
In doing both,
By using dissociation for holding its contradictory aims together,
So that they seem to be reconciled.
The ego teaches thus,
Death is the end as far as hope of heaven goes.
Yet because you and the ego cannot be separated,
And because it cannot conceive of its own death,
It will pursue you still,
Because guilt is eternal.
Such is the ego's version of immortality,
And it is this the ego's version of time supports.
The ego teaches that heaven is here and now,
Because the future is hell.
Even when it attacks so savagely that it tries to take the life of someone who thinks its is the only voice,
It speaks of hell even to him.
For it tells him hell is here as well,
And bids him leap from hell into oblivion.
The only time the ego allows anyone to look upon with equanimity is the past,
And even there,
Its only value is that it is no more.
How bleak and despairing is the ego's use of time,
And how terrifying,
For underneath its fanatical insistence that the past and future be the same,
Is hidden a far more insidious threat to peace.
The ego does not advertise its final threat,
For it would have its worshippers still believe that it can offer them escape.
But the belief in guilt must lead to the belief in hell,
And always does.
The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hell to be experienced is to bring hell here,
But always as a foretaste of the future.
For no one who considers himself as deserving of hell can believe that punishment will end in peace.
The Holy Spirit teaches thus,
There is no hell.
Hell is only what the ego has made of the present.
The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present,
Because you are afraid of it.
The Holy Spirit leads us steadily to heaven as the ego drives to hell.
For the Holy Spirit,
Who knows only the present,
Uses it to undo the fear by which the ego would make the present useless.
There is no escape from fear in the egoís use of time,
For time,
According to its teaching,
Is nothing but a teaching device for compounding guilt,
Until it becomes all-encompassing,
Demanding vengeance forever.
The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now.
Fear is not of the present,
But only of the past and future,
Which do not exist.
There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past,
Without its shadow reaching out into the future.
Each instant is a clean,
Untarnished birth in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present,
And the present extends forever.
It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there.
No darkness is remembered,
And immortality and joy are now.
This lesson takes no time.
For what is time without a past and future?
It has taken time to misguide you so completely,
But it takes no time at all to be what you are.
Begin to practice the Holy Spiritís use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace.
Take this very instant,
Now,
And think of it as all there is of time.
Nothing can reach you here out of the past,
And it is here that you are completely absolved,
Completely free,
And holy without condemnation.
From this holy instant,
Wherein holiness was born again,
You will go forth in time without fear,
And with no sense of change with time.
Time is inconceivable without change,
Yet holiness does not change.
Learn from this instant more than merely that hell does not exist.
In this redeeming instant lies heaven,
And heaven will not change.
For the birth into the holy present is salvation from change.
Change is an illusion,
Taught by those who cannot see themselves as guiltless.
There is no change in heaven,
Because there is no change in God.
In the holy instant,
In which you see yourself as bright with freedom,
You will remember God.
For remembering Him is to remember freedom.
If you are tempted to be dispirited by thinking how long it would take to change your mind so completely,
Ask yourself,
ÌHow long is an instant?
Î Could you not give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for your salvation?
He asks no more,
For He has no need of more.
It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this than for Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of heaven.
In exchange for this instant,
He stands ready to give you the remembrance of eternity.
You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release,
While you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs.
For the instant of holiness is shared,
And cannot be yours alone.
Remember then,
When you are tempted to attack a brother,
That his instant of release is yours.
Miracles are the instants of release you offer,
And will receive.
They attest to your willingness to be released,
And to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it.
How long is an instant?
It is as short for your brother as it is for you.
Practice giving this blessed instant of freedom to all who are enslaved by time,
And thus make time their friend for them.
The Holy Spirit gives their blessed instant to you through your giving it.
As you give it,
He offers it to you.
Be not unwilling to give what you would receive of Him,
For you join with Him in your giving.
In the crystal cleanness of the release you give,
Is your instantaneous escape from guilt.
You must be holy if you offer holiness.
How long is an instant?
As long as it takes to reestablish perfect sanity,
Perfect peace,
And perfect love for everyone,
For God,
And for yourself.
As long as it takes to remember immortality,
And your immortal creations who share it with you.
As long as it takes to exchange hell for heaven.
Long enough to transcend all of the ego's making,
And ascend unto your Father.
Time is your friend,
If you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use.
He needs but very little to restore God's whole power to you.
He who transcends time for you,
Understands what time is for.
Holiness lies not in time,
But in eternity.
There never was an instant in which God's Son could lose His purity.
His changeless state is beyond time,
But His purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability.
Time stands still in His holiness,
And changes not,
And so it is no longer time at all.
For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God's creation,
It is transformed into forever.
Give the eternal instant,
That eternity may be remembered for you,
In that shining instant of perfect release.
Offer the miracle of the Holy Instant through the Holy Spirit,
And leave His giving it to you,
To Him.
