17. The fearful compulsion to save
When a situation presents itself, on a physical level, with signs and symptoms and effects that you can see and touch, it seems to be real to you. If you do not overlook it, they form evidence and proof that...
When a situation presents itself, on a physical level, with signs and symptoms and effects that you can see and touch, it seems to be real to you. If you do not overlook it, they form evidence and proof that...
Salvation is EXTREMELY simple.
"You cannot be hurt unless you hurt yourself."
In this one sentence is the whole course. Just stop hurting yourself!
Let's try to make this extremely clear.
You are an immortal being which cannot be affected by anything. Nothing real...
<3 Let's say that you have totally free will, and I also have totally free will. That means that there you are FREE FROM my will. It literally means I CANNOT do anything to you. There you are, fully causal,...
If someone were to whisper in your ear, the one key secret thing which allows you to overcome the world, overcome death, be happy forever, and experience eternal life with God, you'd take that to be a pretty important secret,...
Time for a little refresher of the central CORE teaching in the course. It does not matter what your situation is. It does not matter how far gone your body is. It does not matter your state of mental health....
All of the problems in the world, every sickness, every war, every argument, every lack and death, all separations, all special relationships, are all symptoms of the absence of God and nothing else.
Here's how Jesus puts it:
"A sense of separation...
Nothing has gone wrong.
There is nothing wrong with you.
You have not sinned.
You are immortal.
You cannot be hurt or suffer or be sick or die.
God created you eternal and holy forever.
You are sustained by the love of God at all times.
You...
I notice in particular that pretty much anything medical, anything scientific, or anything involving proof in the world, always entails this belief that something external causes something to happen.
It also accompanies the belief that, because the external causes stuff to...
This will sound absurd to anyone who is actually upset or offended.
If you are completely clear and certain about what the truth is about yourself, it will be unshakeable and undeniable. You will be so aware of this truth that...
The only reason you blame or judge or project or scapegoat or see yourself as a victim or experience effects from others, is because you do not see how you did this to yourself.
If you could see how you ONLY...
When someone says or does something that you judge and perceive as wrong, you become upset.
In your upset, you claim that you are upset because they said or did something that was wrong - i.e. something incorrect, something that is...
As you become more aware that you are doing everything to yourself, and you gradually learn to take responsibility for everything you are experiencing, at some point you'll start noticing more and more that you keep attacking yourself.
Whereas before you...
As I found myself believing that I was angry with someone, what then came to mind was that both 'that person' and 'me' were two parts contained in my own mind.
It had to be true that I was at war...
We have appointed our own worst enemies, our controllers, our dominators, our victimizers, our haters, and everyone we do not like, to do all of these things TO us, FOR us, because we have a secret agenda.
We do not want...
There are a set of steps by which your own sin comes to find itself inside of your brother.
1) Believe you are sinful (oops, are you sure?)
2) Grab ahold of that sin
3) Hand it over to your brother and shove...
Jesus tells in ACIM things like:
"Only the self-accused condemn."
"You but condemn your brother of your own sins"
"You never hate your brother for his own sins but for your own"
In fact large sections of the Course really go into detail about...
Until you learn that what you do to others you do to yourself, and you can be at least a little convinced about this, you will continue to see no point in forgiving. It will have no value to you...