Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in chapter 2,
The Separation and the Atonement.
Section 2,
The Atonement as a Defense.
To summarize my takeaways,
In section 2 of chapter 2,
We are reminded that where our heart is,
Our treasure is also.
Because it is our treasure,
We automatically defend it.
The real question then is what do we treasure and by how much?
Any time we are afraid of anything,
We are acknowledging it can hurt us.
Yet in truth,
We cannot be affected by anything that is not of God.
We were given a test in section 6 of chapter 1,
Helping us sort the true from the false.
From this test,
We learned that if we are experiencing fear,
We are in a state of illusion and have given our power away.
Yet if we are experiencing love,
We are in alignment with God and are in a state of empowerment.
When fear arises then,
We can and should deny any belief that it can hurt us.
It's simply an illusion that can be corrected.
True denial is a powerful protective device.
This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction of error into truth.
The atonement offers this correction.
The atonement frees us from our past perceptions,
Opening us to truth and laying open the door to a new beginning.
This is what the Bible refers to as,
Quote,
The peace that passeth understanding,
End quote.
This peace,
Being of God,
Is completely unshakable.
If peace is our treasure,
Peace will be our reality.
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 definitions of terms you will hear within this reading.
Atonement.
The Holy Spirit's plan of correction.
Healing our minds from the earthly world of illusion to God's world of truth.
Holy Spirit.
The communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds.
Christ.
The self that God created by extension of His Spirit.
It represents the potential within each of us.
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.
A Course in Miracles Chapter 2.
The Separation and the Atonement.
Section 2.
The Atonement as Defense.
You can do anything I ask.
I have asked you to perform miracles and have made it clear that miracles are natural,
Corrective,
Healing and universal.
There is nothing they cannot do,
But they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear.
When you are afraid of anything,
You are acknowledging its power to hurt you.
Remember that where your heart is,
There is your treasure also.
You believe in what you value.
If you are afraid,
You are valuing wrongly.
Your understanding will then inevitably value wrongly,
And by endowing all thoughts with equal power,
Will inevitably destroy peace.
That is why the Bible speaks of,
Quote,
The peace of God which passeth understanding,
End quote.
This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind.
It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you.
This is the proper use of denial.
It is not used to hide anything,
But to correct error.
It brings all error into the light,
And since error and darkness are the same,
It corrects error automatically.
True denial is a powerful protective device.
You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you.
This kind of denial is not a concealment,
But a correction.
Your right mind depends on it.
Denial of error is a strong defense of truth,
But denial of truth results in miscreation,
The projections of the ego.
In the service of the right mind,
The denial of error frees the mind and reestablishes the freedom of the will.
When the will is really free,
It cannot miscreate,
Because it recognizes only truth.
You can defend truth as well as error.
The means are easier to understand after the value of the goal is firmly established.
It is a question of what it is for.
Everyone defends his treasure,
And will do so automatically.
The real questions are,
What do you treasure?
And how much do you treasure it?
Once you have learned to consider these questions,
And to bring them into all your actions,
You will have little difficulty in clarifying the means.
The means are available whenever you ask.
You can,
However,
Save time if you do not protract this step unduly.
The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.
The atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively,
Because it is not a device you made.
The atonement principle was in effect long before the atonement began.
The principle was love,
And the atonement was an act of love.
Acts were not necessary before the separation,
Because belief in space and time did not exist.
It was only after the separation that the atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned.
Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused,
Although it could be refused.
Refusal could not,
However,
Turn it into a weapon of attack,
Which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses.
The atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword.
It can only heal.
The atonement was built into the space-time belief to set a limit on the need for the belief itself,
And ultimately to make learning complete.
The atonement is the final lesson.
Learning itself,
Like the classrooms in which it occurs,
Is temporary.
The ability to learn has no value when change is no longer necessary.
The eternally creative have nothing to learn.
You can learn to improve your perceptions,
And can become a better and better learner.
This will bring you into closer and closer accord with the Sonship,
But the Sonship itself is a perfect creation,
And perfection is not a matter of degree.
Only while there is a belief in differences is learning meaningful.
Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to the next.
You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward.
This process is actually incomprehensible in temporal terms,
Because you return as you go forward.
The atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead.
It undoes your past errors,
Thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your return.
In this sense,
The atonement saves time,
But like the miracle it serves,
Does not abolish it.
As long as there is need for atonement,
There is need for time.
But the atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time.
Until the atonement is complete,
Its various phases will proceed in time,
But the whole atonement stands at time's end.
At that point,
The bridge of return has been built.
The atonement is a total commitment.
You may still think that this is associated with loss,
A mistake all the separated Sons of God make in one way or another.
It is hard to believe a defense that cannot attack is the best defense.
This is what is meant by,
Quote,
The meek shall inherit the earth,
End quote.
They will literally take it over because of their strength.
A two way defense is inherently weak precisely because it has two edges and can be turned against you very unexpectedly.
This possibility cannot be controlled except by miracles.
The miracle turns the defense of atonement to your real protection.
And as you become more and more secure,
You assume your natural talent of protecting others,
Knowing yourself as both a brother and a son.
