Summaries of Awakening Mind Materials
Contents
Reversing Effect and Cause: Getting to the Bottom of Linear Time
Opening to the Experience of Real Relationship Only One Mind
The Matrix Week Intensive Awakening Mind Materials
Freedom is of the Mind, Not the Body The Script is Written
Relationship David Hoffmeister
Special and Holy Relationship Summary
David Hoffmeister and Kirsten Buxton in Venezuela
David: This morning we will talk about purpose in relationships and try to demystify them. This afternoon we’ll see the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , which shows how the same problems occur again and again. It’s a problem of the memory as used by the ego. A full nine chapters of A Course in Miracles are devoted to relationships. We will focus on the difference between special and holy relationships.
Kirsten: As an example, let me tell you about the start of my relationship with David. I had left my job as a teacher and gone to the South Island of New Zealand to meditate and try to quiet my mind. Then, about a year and a half ago, my mother introduced me to the Course. My mother invited David to come to New Zealand and called to tell me about it. A voice in my mind told me that I needed to be there, but I hesitated because of the cost of the flight to the North Island. Then I noticed that the price of the flight had gone down. As I got ready, it felt for some reason like I was getting ready to go on a date. When I saw David at the event a voice in my mind told me: “You’re watching your future partner.” I didn’t mention it to anyone, but during the event it seemed obvious to everyone that David and I were supposed to be partners. I saw a gold ring on his finger and asked my mother about it. She said there was no ring. I went to the United States in January and by February David and I had wedding rings. Our relationship is based on the present moment and on knowing each other as perfect and whole. We each come from our own sense of peace, wholeness and completion. We see the Christ in each other. And we expose our “private thoughts.” We say what’s on our mind. It is a holy relationship.
David: The basic characteristic of the special relationship is to get something from your partner. You want them to supply something you lack in yourself. This is how they all start out, with the need to be healed. But your partner doesn’t seem to fill the role you expected and the relationship becomes difficult. It is as if you had made a contract or a bargain: “I will meet your needs as long as you meet my needs.” If one partner doesn’t live up to this imaginary contract, there is a lot of hurt and conflict. Your ego mind wants to get something from a special relationship. A holy relationship, however, is based on giving and extending love.
Your relationship actually mirrors your unconscious beliefs; your partner acts out your beliefs. To find happiness you need to become aware of and change those beliefs. The beliefs always involve a sense of privacy and keeping secrets. You are only willing to share some parts of your secrets with your partner.
Kirsten: Special relationships can be family relationships such as mother-daughter or mother-son; and they can also be with co-workers and friends. A relationship is special if you are treating a person differently than you would treat everyone else. There are roles and expectations in special relationships, which always involve some guilt. You may try to avoid negative consequences for your actions and you may feel a sense of coercion. To transform the relationship you have to let go of the role. For example, I have always been friends with my mother. When I was far away I would miss her. My father would tell me on the phone, “We want you here” and I would feel guilty. I had fears of my parents getting old and dying.
After reading the Course I wanted to have a holy relationship with everyone and started with my mother. She understood it, but felt pain at the thought of letting go of her daughter, of me in the daughter role. The Holy Spirit is my guide and I handed it over to Him. I wanted to let go of all the specialness and expectations. I, too, felt sadness come up. I was letting go of the need for a mother. Now our relationship has really changed. It is based on the present moment, so there is no guilt or missing each other. If either of us has the motivation to visit, it comes from a happy, peaceful place inside. I have transferred this peaceful holy relationship quality to my relationships with all the other members of my family.
David: The movie you will see is powerful because it exposes how relationships work. As long as you have the ego at the front of your mind, you see the past in your partner; it may show up as a repeated nagging behavior. To be free of specialness, you need to meet you partner for the very first time. Relationships in this world start with mutual attraction and move to the honeymoon phase. But after that there are hurts, grievances, even repulsion, wanting to leave and wanting to change this partner for a better one. These are judgmental thoughts. You are in the relationship for love. Instead of all this judgment and upset, there is an opportunity to heal. Love is more powerful than these judgmental thoughts. Kirsten and I had a honeymoon in Argentina. She had expectations from her past about what a honeymoon should be that we not being met. She was stiff as an ironing board. Why don’t you tell it?
Kirsten: I had been holding on to a lot of judgments and frustration about David. I had become irritated by his snoring that woke me up, by the noises he made as he brushed his teeth; I didn’t like some of his clothes, and I didn’t like that he walked so slowly. I like to walk fast. I held on to my irritations for two months prior to the honeymoon. We had previously scheduled to do a series of gatherings in Argentina and had nonrefundable tickets. Then the woman organizing everything called to say she had to call it off. Her husband had just left her for another woman. David said to her, “Well, rather than cancel the events and be miserable, why not see them as your rising to a higher state of relationship, look at it as your honeymoon.” This brightened her up but did the opposite for me. Unhappy emotions came up; I was thinking of returning to New Zealand and my old boyfriend.
We did the gatherings in Argentina and then David and I went south of Buenos Aires to Miramar for our honeymoon. I felt like I was sitting on an emotional volcano about to erupt. We went to a restaurant and I finally let out all my thoughts: I feel terrible; I don’t like this at all; I spilled all my judgments. I did it so forcefully the waitresses all stepped back. When I finished I thought this was the end of the relationship. But to my surprise, David said, “This is good.” I thought he was crazy. He said that clearing all the judgments was the beginning of the relationship; that it is essential to express your private ego thoughts. They are all based on the past; they are all judgments. The thoughts must be released in order to trust. I learned to trust. I’m not just trusting David as a person. I’m trusting in God, in Love, and so is David. David never takes it personally. Expressing the ego thoughts took away the fear that I could say something wrong and the fear that I might be embarrassed if someone asked me about them.
My experiences seemed very personal at the time, but they’re really not. I’m not clearing away the private thoughts just for us, but for everyone. I even wrote out my experiences and shared them on the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AwakeningInChrist/ web site. Many readers wrote in to say they felt I spoke to them. Before this I used to hold on to my private thoughts. Now I have nothing to hide.
David: We are all connected. Your relationship is a demonstration of your purpose for the universe. When you choose the purpose of the Holy Spirit instead of the ego, it is about sharing joy and peace with everyone. Every time there is something that is not talked about it is like putting on a mask, putting up a wall between you. You can become depressed. In holy relationship you let the stuff come up, talk about it and move through it to heal.
Kirsten: As I’ve let go of special relationships with my family, with David, it feels like I have gained a huge family, I feel at home with everyone everywhere. I no longer try to save time to spend with special people sometime in the future. I am fully present in the moment and extend love with those I’m with. Where I am is where I want to be.
David: If you don’t share something with your partner you feel isolated. But if you talk about these things the tension eases. Not long ago, Kirsten came in tears to share her feelings with me after she had received a telephone call from her former partner. We experienced a joining and healing. It is important to share anything, then work it through and feel free. My love for Kirsten is unconditional, so it doesn’t matter where she goes. We work things through together. This is about love and happiness.
Kirsten: The Course tells us “to love your brother as yourself” T-18.V.5 and also “When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself.” T-8.III.4 As you trust your brother you will trust yourself. It is also a process of dismantling the ego. Relationships are like mirrors. What I see in someone else has to be coming from myself. For example, at one of our gatherings in the United States I thought people were withholding the donations I expected in the basket. I got upset and asked the Holy Spirit for help with this. He said: You think they are withholding; is there anything you are withholding? Then I remembered that I had a special account, just in case, in New Zealand. I changed my mind about it and decided to make the money available to spirit. At the end of the gathering I saw the donation basket was full.
David: If you feel trapped in a relationship, that is the ego. Kirsten listens to her intuitive voice. A few months ago she said she was not going to make a trip to Europe this year. Then I got an invitation to Sweden; so I will go to Sweden and she will rest. We don’t have to do anything or force anything. We trust that things happen for a reason. We flow along following our hearts and we both stay happy. We wish that for everyone. The Course says, “Only what you have not given can be lacking in any situation.” T-17.VII.4 It is never that the other person is letting you down. To give a relationship to the Holy Spirit is to give it to the purpose of extending love without expectation of getting something in return.
If your partner doesn’t read the Course, no problem; it is a self-study book to help you open your connection to God. The point is to clear your mind. Then the relationship can change. If you feel peacefully guided to leave a relationship because it is time to move on and that will be the best thing for both of you, that is a good motivation. But don’t leave a relationship because you feel trapped and need to escape. You are never trapped by someone; you are just trapping yourself. Open your mind to spirit. Look at your thoughts and beliefs. I spoke with a man recently who had two women in his life and didn’t know which one to marry. For ten years he had told one he would marry her tomorrow, but the next day he couldn’t do it. We talked about his fear of commitment and his thoughts and feelings about each of the women. Talking like that opens the heart to God. He looked at his motives, gained some clarity and decided to talk with them.
Kirsten: It is all in your mind. What is going on in your mind is what is reflected back in the world. When your mind is happy and peaceful, that is what will be reflected back in your life. Then you can perceive anything in the world and be peaceful. In my relationship with David he has played out some of the things that were in my mind. I had an addiction to sleep. I believed I needed eight hours of good, quality sleep. I put myself under pressure to get that sleep. When David and I got together I found myself not getting that sleep. In the morning I blamed David for snoring and moving around as he slept. David’s snoring was disturbing my peace of mind. But the truth is that nothing outside your mind can disturb your peace of mind. I asked the Holy Spirit about this; I wanted healing and was willing to be wrong about my judgment. When I gave it over to Him, the pressure and worry about it disappeared. Now I don’t know if he snores or not; the problem is gone.
David: People warned me about political instability and danger in South America, but I followed my inner guidance and had many miracles. Only ego thinking is dangerous, not the world. I told Kirsten before we left about all the miracles I’d had in South America, but she had also heard some bad stories. On the plane she was afraid; she had this image in her mind of having her head cut off.
Kirsten: So I took it to the Holy Spirit. I told the Holy Spirit I didn’t want my head cut off, that I’d rather just see it on TV. In the airport I happened to see part of a movie on a TV in a waiting area and a girl’s head was cut off. That took care of the fearful thought. Since then I’ve had nothing but a wonderful time in South America.
In the special relationship you hold on to things. You say to yourself, “That’s what he does” and hold on to your irritation. But in the holy relationship you see any irritation as an opportunity to heal. You see what is in your mind and release it. As a result you are no longer emotionally involved.
David: Everything is your own lesson. If someone will not speak with you, go back into your own mind and look at your thoughts. When I went back to my parents to share my joy about miracles, they wouldn’t listen; they changed the subject. I asked the Holy Spirit what I was doing wrong. He told me, “Let me direct how you share your joy; don’t just shoot it out there indiscriminately.” Sometimes just a smile is better than words. Listen to your inner voice. The real communication doesn’t take place between people but between your mind and God. When your attitude is peaceful and happy people approach you. You wait for them to initiate conversation. You are happy whether they come or not. Spirit never wants to force anything on anyone or try to change anyone’s mind. If you are disappointed with someone you had an expectation.
Kirsten: If I’m perceiving unhappiness, there must be unhappiness in my mind. From this perspective the whole dynamic of there being someone outside of myself is removed. I am just open to Spirit coming though me. What would You have me say or do? For example, David and I don’t care if there are empty chairs when we present something. We are here only to be truly helpful in the moment with those who are present.
David: The purpose is to waken from the nightmare of the dream of separation. Before you awaken to the peace of God, you experience the happy dream of the Holy Spirit’s perception. Do not judge things in the nightmare the dream, because judging it will keep you in it. Judging it makes it real for you. All judgments are about the future or the past. Trust in the present moment. Right now is pure stillness. Don’t struggle to plan the future. If you need to make a plan, it will be given to you by your intuition and it will come with a good, warm feeling. Kirsten and I don’t feel trapped by our plans because they are given by spirit, by intuition, for the happiness of everyone. We just take one step at a time. It has been wonderful coming here to Merida. Doors open. We were just invited to Caracas.
Because we travel a lot and meet with many different groups, we do not always use the terminology of A Course in Miracles. Instead of “miracle” we could talk about a shift in perception. I have studied many religions. If I were meeting with Buddhists I would use a parable from the life of Buddha rather than from the life of Jesus. I just stay open and let Spirit speak through me. The point is to connect with people, share love and speak about our commonalities.
Kirsten: Organized religion is not strong in New Zealand. I grew up with ideas like: listen to your heart and do what is right for you. I didn’t have any association with God or Jesus when I started the Course. Then, once when I was meditating, Jesus came to me. The more I’ve learned about his ministry and message the more it has seemed familiar to me and become part of my own personal history.
David: Let’s take a break and then we will watch The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Group discussion with David after viewing The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This movie looks at the themes of relationships, time, memory, releasing private thoughts and forgiveness. It shows how the same issues and struggles come around again and again. You seek love; you are drawn to a certain person, but once you draw close the ego begins to come forward. When judgments of each other come up the hurt is so intense you feel a great temptation to call it off. But if you start another relationship with someone else the same unhappy cycle of issues repeats. The last scene of the movie shows the desire to join, and this is what it takes to heal. You have to let the judgmental thoughts come up, symbolized in the movie by the cassette tape from the past. All of their private thoughts that were hidden during the “honeymoon” phase finally come out.
What the movie shows is that when you don’t hide these thoughts, but bring them into the open, then you have a decision to make: Are these thoughts real or is the love real? This is what forgiveness is all about. When these thoughts come up you need to learn to connect with Spirit and share these thoughts so you can see that they are not real. In truth, everyone is in love with everyone else, but the ego in your mind tries to break this love.
Question: In the movie what is the purpose of the memory deleting procedure?
The movie shows how people become hurt when private judgmental thoughts are exposed. We are touched watching it because we realize it is these private thoughts, which cannot be our real thoughts, that drive us apart. The movie shows that when these thoughts come up, they are what need to be forgiven and released. They are thoughts of envy, jealousy and possession, because in this world love is possession. This is where jealousy arises. Even though relationships involve attraction, they always turn to repulsion, flipping back and forth between love and hate. This love is of the ego, because real love could never turn to hate. The thoughts must be exposed. Opening to forgiveness is being willing to let go of all the old concepts of what love is.
Question: Why do our minds work this way?
It comes down to making associations. The memories you have of love are just scenes and images, as if the love were in the memories and so you don’t want to lose the memories. You try to hold on to them; if they disappear you grab for more. These false memories involving time and space cover over the true love that is deep in your mind. The memories were made up by the ego so you would forget your true love, which is God. God is the only One that gives you unconditional love. You look to your partner to complete you, to be a God substitute. No partner could ever do it. It is a set up. Your memories are an ego trick to keep you from going inside your mind and finding the love that God gave you in your creation.
There is a scene in the movie where all the memories are being deleted; they are on the beach and getting down to the last memory. Clementine turns to Joel and says, “What should we do?” and he says, “Enjoy it.” This is why the spiritual journey involves surrender because it feels like your life is falling apart the deeper you go into your mind. You try to grab on to familiar things from your past but they just dissolve away. They are unreal idols, ghosts.
This is why trust is so important. All of us are having our memories of time and space deleted, and it is Spirit doing the deleting so we can come back to the true love that is not tied into form. True love is in our minds. We have to surrender our old concepts of love to be born again in our divinity.
Question: What purpose do relationships serve?
The ego is the past, an insane moment that repeats over and over. The only way to break the cycle is to let the ego come up. This is the purpose of relationships. People think they are getting into relationships to find love. What they’re really doing is joining together as a way of letting the ego come into consciousness. Your partner mirrors your ego thoughts. What you have denied, kept unconscious in your own mind, gets acted out and mirrored back to you by your partner. So relationships are a great gift, a great opportunity to get in touch with what you still believe. If you believe your partner is lazy, controlling, or manipulative, guess where those concepts are? They are in your own mind. The ego is trying to get rid of them through the trick of projection, making them seem to be qualities of the other person. So you can reject that person because there are many more fish in the sea. [Laughter] And yet when you find another fish the mirroring occurs again.
The movie shows that you have to let these thoughts come up; it’s OK to let them come up because that is how you forgive them. At the end of the movie Joel and Clementine are drawn to each other; they agree to meet again to “get it right this time.” All of us have been through this loop many times. Now is your time to release the past and not be fooled by the ego into projecting the blame on your partner, but to see it as your own thought. It is never someone else’s fault; it is just an error in your own mind. So when you’re meditating and all the judgments come up, and you’re tempted to blame somebody, remember it’s not them. These are you’re your own thoughts that need to be released. [Applause]
Question: Why do we run?
In this world there is nothing more terrifying than love. Love is terrifying because when you give yourself over to it, the self that you believe you are starts to dissolve. Love is so powerful that it will wash away your false identity and show you who you really are. Love is never afraid. There are many workshops that talk about the fear of intimacy as if it’s a fear of sexual intimacy, but that is not the real fear. When you enter into a relationship and start to feel deep love your mask starts to come down and that is where the fear comes. Each of us has lowered the mask with someone whom we loved only to be attacked by them. Then you swear you will never let that happen again; you keep your defenses up in the next relationship. But you are not satisfied. You think that if your partner ever knew the thoughts that are in your mind they would never love you; so you can’t ever let them know these thoughts. But in an intimate relationship the thoughts get forced up to the surface. And then comes the real commitment—do you stand in there and forgive or do you try to escape?
Question: Can you explain your use of the words false and real?
All ego thoughts involve the past, the future and bodies. As long as you hold these thoughts as real you will have the emotions of envy, hatred and guilt. These are not your real thoughts; God did not create them; you have been tricked into believing them. God just wants you to love God and to love everyone. You have to let Spirit wash your mind of these ego thoughts. As long you think these thoughts are your thoughts you will feel guilty. This world was made to cover over love. When you sink deep into meditation you can go below these ego thoughts to a place that is so quiet and full of light that you see they are false.
There are two ways to see these thoughts are false. The first is by meditating in the morning and at night. Just relax and let all of your thoughts of the day come up. Sink beneath them as if you were sliding into a stream and all the ego thoughts were leaves floating on the surface of the stream. You lie peacefully on the bottom and let the stream carry them away. You can’t find peace of mind until you get down with your spirit underneath these thoughts.
The second way to see your false thoughts is through relationships. This movie shows that relationships are your greatest gift. When you are tempted to scream at your spouse remember this movie. Your partner is showing you your thoughts, acting them out so you can’t miss them. The next time your spouse yells at you, give them a hug of gratitude. [Laughter and applause]
In the end you are letting go of all thoughts about yourself and your partner and choosing to look at them as if for the very first time, as if there’s no past. Go home tonight and see your partner for the first time. Nothing of the past that you believed about them was true. Let spirit show this to you and you will feel love and gratitude because they are offering you this great gift for your mind to be healed. You are joined in the purpose of waking up to God.
At the end of the movie Joel and Clementine hear tape recordings of the nasty ego judgments they each made about the other. At first they take the judgments personally and are upset. But after taking a quiet moment they each decide they can handle it and start to laugh.
I got married recently and my wife had a big ego attack—she judged me with such energy that the waitresses in the restaurant stepped back. After she had let it all out I took her hand and said, “This is wonderful, the ego is coming up.” And, after a while, as in the movie, we both started to laugh. When you look at the ego with detachment it is really quite funny. When you laugh like that you know you are getting close to heaven.
Question: How does a relationship become holy?
It becomes holy as soon as you recognize the ego impostor as an impostor. Spirit starts to teach you how the ego thinks and sounds. Spirit teaches you how to reinterpret it as a call for love. So when it comes up it is as if your soul is crying, “Please don’t take the impostor’s bait! It is just love calling out.” When someone is hurting, you are to comfort them, not see them as attacking you. Every time an ego judgment comes up it is a call for love. As soon as you respond from love the ego is gone and you feel the love. It takes practice.
Question: Aren’t there some relationships that are so bad you have to leave?
There are times when you may be guided to remove yourself from the situation. But you should remember your partner is still offering a gift because the situation is always in your own mind. It is never a combination of the two. They are mirroring your mind. It is never your partner’s fault. You must forgive them and forgive yourself. Let it go from your mind and you will not blame anyone. You will love every one. [Applause]
***
Some lines from the movie
Dr. Howard Mierzwiak: “as a dream upon waking”
Joel Barish: “I assume you fucked someone. Isn’t that how you get people to like you?” “Do you really think you could take care of a kid?” “Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.”
Clementine Kruczynski: “Maybe I should end this right now.” “Too many guys see me as a concept that’s gonna save their lives.”
Final scenes after Mary has provided them with their tapes
Clem plays her tape in Joel’s car “He’s boring. He’s changed me,” and Joel makes her get out of the car.
She walks home, feels anguish; goes to his place.
Joel: “I hate what I said about you.” His tape is playing: “The only way she can get people to like her is to fuck them. She’s so desperate and insecure she’ll end up fucking everybody.”
Clem: “Bye. It was nice meeting you and all.” She exits down the hall.
Joel: Runs after her, “Wait.”
Clem: “For what?”
Joel: “I don’t know. Just wait”
They look at each other.
Clem: “OK.”
Joel: “Really?”
Clem: “I’m not a concept, Joel; I’m just a fucked up girl who’s looking for her own peace of mind. I’m not perfect”
Joel: “I can’t see anything I don’t like about you.”
Clem: “But you will. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.”
Joel: Shrugs, “OK.”
Clem: “OK…OK”
Joel: “OK”
Clem and Joel are both really laughing.
Song lyrics: “Change your heart and look around you. Change your heart; it will astound you. I need your lovin like the sunshine. Everybody’s gotta learn sometime.”
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Metaphysical
The past repeats with private thoughts of unworthiness and doubt repeated over and over until a change in purpose in the mind is grasped. Memories of the past are deleted by the Holy Spirit as they are offered willingly, and nothing is deleted without this willingness. Once the process is allowed only the attempt to hide some memories in the belief that they are still valuable delays the clearing. In the end there is a surrender to the Divine Eraser of past associations and meaningless private thoughts, and only a recognition of seeing the Christ anew remains present. Staying present, all relationships reflect the Innocence and purity that transcends the lies of the ego. Freed from specialness, the holy relationship emerges as a testimony to the glory of God and True Love.
Movie Watcher’s Guide to Enlightenment
ACIM on Relationships Jim Carrey on Awakening
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Opening to the Experience of Real Relationship - summary
With the ego/private mind/personhood/body as your self-concept, the deceived mind feels an inner lack and pursues special “love” and friendship relationships in an attempt to meet needs for intimacy and completeness through close association with other persons/bodies, other illusions in form. This is a farce, a futile attempt to change the past rather that to see the lack, the conflict, where it is in the mind. Loss/lack is the belief in separation, which is symbolized by a limited body identity. An illusory fragment cannot join with another illusory fragment and become whole. This attempt is doomed to unhappiness; it must fail, if not sooner then later in “death.”
The correction in the mind comes from questioning everything believed to be true, all of time/space, and seeing the false as false. Thinking that you know is an attachment you have to let go of. You open to the Holy Spirit for a miracle that transcends the self concept. Body and mind are not reconcilable. The only Real Relationship is in God, Divine Mind, Love, this very moment.
Attempting to find completeness in special relationships distracts you from awakening to the Truth of Being with God in the present moment, to the Truth of the Oneness of Love, which is the real experience of completeness. Only minds are joined.
Reversing Effect and Cause –
Getting to the Bottom of the Belief in Linear Time - summary
God created Christ. True Cause is God. True effect is Christ. Ideas leave not their source. Christ never leaves the Mind of God. Cause and effect are together and simultaneous.
The cosmos is the effect of a false cause—the belief that I separated from God. In the unholy instant my mind believed the tiny, mad idea that it was guilty of the sin of separating from God and deserved to be punished. In terror my mind tried to hide from God. It made time and space, dreamed the entire script of the world, adopted the ego thought system, which included believing it was as a person in a body, and fell asleep.
I am left as a dream figure locked in the dream, trying to manage my unconscious guilt. My own mind keeps me imprisoned through perception. The ego, my wrong mind (false cause), projects a scripted image onto the world. In a quick little time gap my mind forgets it projected the image. Then my mind perceives the image as attacking its innocence (effect appearing as cause). I defend myself. Overall, the sequenced projections make it seem as though I move through linear time, with the past creating the present.
I sustain the illusion that I am a sentient mind/body subject viewing an objective world. The world has not left my mind, but I have forgotten I dreamed it up. I think I have choices to make but alternate outcomes are not possible. The script is written, and my perception moves in lockstep behind the projections.
My deceived mind’s thinking is backwards. It believes that there is causation in the world, that the body can be sick apart from the mind, that people and events can have a lasting effect on the mind. My guilty mind calls forth people as witnesses to reinforce guilt. It insists that others are depriving it of happiness and completion so it attempts to guess their motives. It imagines how people and situations could be different and holds a grievance that it isn’t so.
My ego tries to make sense out of chaos by ordering its thoughts, by judging. In this way I write my own meaning on the world, I usurp God. I am calling back the unholy instant and attempting to replay it. Making these judgments makes me think I am responsible for the chaos and I feel guilty. All this is the wrong mind. This is hallucination, a psychotic break with reality. I am denying the present, denying reality, denying the truth that will set me free.
The answer is to exchange the purpose of the ego for the Purpose of the Holy Spirit. I watch my mind from the perspective of the right mind, so I can forgive in the present moment. Whatever seems to happen, the Holy Spirit sees the falsity of the effects of the world, because He sees they all come from a false cause. Forgiveness is seeing the false as false, that I made it up and I have been wrong about everything. A miracle is the effect of looking with the Holy Spirit back at my misperception. This collapses time and I see the falsity of the image. It is nothing; it didn’t happen. I see the world as a valueless, illusory projection.
Misperception is what locks me into the dream. I begin by correcting mistaken perceptions one at a time. Whenever I feel fear or upset, I must be in my wrong mind. I must be thinking that there is something real, something causative, to be afraid of in the world. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see it differently so I can forgive the illusion and let it go.
With practice, I become able to prevent mistaken perceptions. I choose to start each day in my right mind, setting the goal of making all my decisions with the Holy Spirit. I accept the purpose of forgiveness, identifying and letting go of all the false images and false beliefs. I understand that cause and effect are simultaneous, the same, with no gap and no reversal. I recognize that I am the dreamer the dream. I cannot lose anything.
I desire vision. Others are innocent; I am innocent. I cease to order my own thoughts and instead listen to and follow the Voice of the Holy Spirit. Listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit and following His Voice eliminates all conflict; it gives everything the purpose of forgiveness. I flow along in pleasant detachment, observing something that has already happened. I develop willingness and readiness for miracles, which collapse time, show the past is gone, and reveal love’s presence. “In quietness [I] see in the miracle a lesson in allowing Cause to have Its Own effects, and doing nothing that would interfere.” T-28.I.10 I recognize that I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole. I think the thoughts of God.
I continue to perfect mastery through love by watching my mind and by extending miracles until I attain a state of undivided desire for God. In one complete instant of forgiveness I accept the Correction of the Atonement for myself. All minds are healed; there is no time, space or ego. I am the one Son of God, One Mind.
ACIM Time Course in Cause and Effect
