A Course In Miracles - Chapter 15, Section VI
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 15,
The Holy Instant,
Section 6,
The Holy Instant and the Laws of God.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 6 of Chapter 15,
We are reminded that in the world of scarcity,
Love has no meaning and peace is impossible.
For gain and loss are both accepted,
And so no one is aware that perfect love is within each of us.
We have so little faith in ourself because we are unwilling to accept the fact that love is in us,
And so we seek without for what we cannot find without.
Yet,
In the Holy Instant,
We recognize the idea that love is in us and unite with the mind of God.
We can then share our faith in our brothers because we recognize together they are wholly worthy of it,
And in our appreciation of their worth,
We cannot doubt their holiness,
And so we love them.
All separation vanishes as holiness is shared.
For holiness is power,
And by sharing it,
It gains strength.
This is God's law.
When we accept this,
It is impossible to be bound or limited in any way.
In this instant,
We are free as God would have us be.
For the instant we refuse to be bound,
We are not bound.
It is through us that peace will come.
Herein lies love's meaning.
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.
The 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.
Sons of God,
All of us,
The creations of God.
The Holy Instant.
This is the instant,
Outside of time,
In which we choose forgiveness instead of guilt,
The miracle instead of a grievance,
The Holy Spirit instead of the ego.
The expression of our little willingness to live in the present,
Which opens into eternity,
Rather than holding on to the past and fearing the future.
And now,
On to the reading.
A Course in Miracles,
Chapter 15,
The Holy Instant Section 6,
The Holy Instant and the Laws of God It is impossible to use one relationship at the expense of another and not to suffer guilt.
And it is equally impossible to condemn part of a relationship and find peace within it.
Under the Holy Spirit's teaching,
All relationships are seen as total commitments,
Yet they do not conflict with one another in any way.
Perfect faith in each one,
For its ability to satisfy you completely,
Arises only from perfect faith in yourself,
And this you cannot have while guilt remains.
And there will be guilt,
As long as you accept the possibility and cherish it,
That you can make a brother into what he is not,
Because you would have him so.
You have so little faith in yourself because you are unwilling to accept the fact that perfect love is in you,
And so you seek without for what you cannot find without.
I offer you my perfect faith in you,
In place of all your doubts,
But forget not that my faith must be as perfect in all your brothers as it is in you,
Or it would be a limited gift to you.
In the Holy Instant,
We share our faith in God's Son,
Because we recognize together that He is wholly worthy of it,
And in our appreciation of His worth,
We cannot doubt His holiness,
And so we love Him.
All separation vanishes as holiness is shared,
For holiness is power,
And by sharing it,
It gains in strength.
If you seek for satisfaction in gratifying your needs as you perceive them,
You must believe that strength comes from another,
And what you gain,
He loses.
Someone must always lose if you perceive yourself as weak.
Yet there is another interpretation of relationships that transcends the concept of loss of power completely.
You do not find it difficult to believe that when another calls on God for love,
Your call remains as strong.
Nor do you think that when God answers him,
Your hope of answer is diminished.
On the contrary,
You are more inclined to regard his success as witness to the possibility of yours.
That is because you recognize,
However dimly,
That God is an idea,
And so your faith in Him is strengthened by sharing.
What you find difficult to accept is the fact that like your Father,
You are an idea,
And like Him,
You can give yourself completely,
Wholly without loss and only with gain.
Herein lies peace,
For here there is no conflict.
In the world of scarcity,
Love has no meaning,
And peace is impossible.
For gain and loss are both accepted,
And so no one is aware that perfect love is in him.
In the holy instant,
You recognize the idea of love in you,
And unite this idea with the mind that thought it,
And could not relinquish it.
By holding it within itself,
There is no loss.
The holy instant thus becomes a lesson in how to hold all of your brothers in your mind,
Experiencing not loss,
But completion.
From this it follows you can only give,
And this is love,
For this alone is natural under the laws of God.
In the holy instant,
The laws of God prevail,
And only they have meaning.
The laws of this world cease to hold any meaning at all.
When the Son of God accepts the laws of God as what He gladly wills,
It is impossible that He be bound or limited in any way.
In that instant,
He is as free as God would have Him be,
For the instant He refuses to be bound,
He is not bound.
In the holy instant,
Nothing happens that has not always been.
Only the veil that has been drawn across reality is lifted.
Nothing has changed,
Yet the awareness of changelessness comes swiftly as the veil of time is pushed aside.
No one who has not yet experienced the lifting of the veil,
And felt himself drawn irresistibly into the light behind it,
Can have faith and love without fear.
Yet the Holy Spirit gives you this faith,
Because He offered it to me and I accepted it.
Fear not the holy instant will be denied you,
For I denied it not.
And through me,
The Holy Spirit gives it unto you,
As you will give it.
Let no need you perceive obscure your need of this,
For in the holy instant,
You will recognize the only need the sons of God share equally,
And by this recognition,
You will join with me in offering what is needed.
It is through us that peace will come.
Join me in the idea of peace,
For in ideas,
Minds can communicate.
If you would give yourself as your father gives his self,
You will learn to understand selfhood,
And therein is love's meaning understood.
But remember that understanding is of the mind,
And only of the mind.
Knowledge is therefore of the mind,
And its conditions are in the mind with it.
If you were not an idea,
And nothing but an idea,
You could not be in full communication with all that ever was.
Yet as long as you prefer to be something else,
Or would attempt to be nothing else and something else together,
You will not remember the language of communication,
Which you know perfectly.
In the holy instant,
God is remembered,
And the language of communication with all your brothers is remembered with Him.
For communication is remembered together as is truth.
There is no exclusion in the holy instant,
Because the past is gone,
And with it goes the whole basis for exclusion.
Without its source,
Exclusion vanishes,
And this permits your source,
And that of all your brothers,
To replace it in your awareness.
God and the powers of God will take their rightful place in you,
And you will experience the full communication of ideas with ideas.
Through your ability to do this,
You will learn what you must be,
For you will begin to understand what your Creator is,
And what His creation is,
Along with Him.
