Relationship is Salvation
The way out of a meaningless world is through relationship with our brothers and sisters
Because I am friends with ACIM and like-minded folks, a lot of spiritually uplifting material shows up on my Facebook: sunsets, rainbows, fields of lavender. Assurances that God and I are one, that Love created me like itself.
I am grateful for these reminders, even though they do not precisely track my experience of A Course in Miracles, which is that if you give attention to it in a serious and sustained way, then it will take you to some very dark places - for example, the "terrifying sights and screaming sounds the ego's purpose brought to your horrified awareness" (T-20.VII.10:6).
Healing - the joy, peace, love and understanding of Christ and Christ's Creator - are the other side of this hellscape. You can't short circuit undoing ego with intellectual references to illusions or hand-waving at "dark nights of the soul." Only when . . .
. . . you have looked on what seemed terrifying, and seen it change to sights of loveliness and peace; when you have looked on scenes of violence and death, and watched them change to quiet views of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste away (T-20.VIII.11:1) . . .
. . . will we know the Love that is our natural inheritance (In.1:7).
It in this vein that A Course in Miracles suggests the final block to our awareness of Love is the realization that the world is meaningless. Indeed, the course teaches us that there is literally nothing in the world that can save us because everything in the world is the same illusion. Rainbows and roses are not different than starving children and mass graves. On the world's terms - which are the ego's terms - there is no way out of the world. There is no way to escape the ego.
The roads this world can offer seem to be quite large in number, but the time must come when everyone begins to see how like they are to one another. Men have died on seeing this, because they saw no way except the pathways offered by the world. And learning they led nowhere, lost their hope (T-31.IV.3:3-5).
Even A Course in Miracles - even the course itself! - is a "road offered by the world" that must ultimately be released and undone (e.g., C-in.3:1).
The course is teaching us that when all roads lead nowhere, then choice has no effect or meaning. It doesn't matter what you choose because all apparent possibilities are the same. They all lead to the same bitter end.
Yet we are not lost because we are not alone. Relationship saves us.
This course attempts to teach no more than that the power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of what is still the same illusion and the same mistake. All choices in the world depend on this; you choose between your brother and yourself, and you will gain as much as he will lose, and what you lose is what is given him. How utterly opposed to truth is this, when all the lesson's purpose is to teach that you what your brother loses you have lost, and what he gains is what is given you (T-31.IV.83-5).
If we read that passage carefully - noting its special emphasis on our brothers and sisters - then we see that what A Course in Miracles offers us is neither a secret method for knowing the Lord, nor a special training program for elite spiritual humans but rather simple relationship.
The way out of meaninglessness - which is to be liberated from ego - is simply to live in the understanding that what we give to our brother and sister becomes ours forever, and what we keep from our brother and sister we lose.
This is a restatement of the Holy Spirit's lesson that "to have, give all to all" (T-6.V.A.5:13), which is "the beginning step in reversing your perception and turning it right-side up" (T-6.V.A.6:4).
That is, we think we are bodies in a world of scarcity pitted against one another in a battle that always ends in death. And then A Course in Miracles comes along and says, Bill Thetford style, "there's another way."
Brother, we heal together as we live together and love together. Be not deceived in God's Son, for he is one with himself and one with his Father. Love him who is beloved of his Father, and you will learn of the Father's Love for you (T-11.VIII.11:4-6).
So we could ask: here in these bodies and this world - which is the horror show ego makes through misunderstanding, denial and projection - and through which we must pass in order to know peace - how can we be in relationship with one another in ways that facilitate our shared salvation?
The answer, I think, is: by giving each other the whole of our attention, and slowing as much as possible the rush to judgment.
What does this mean in practice?
It means listening carefully when others share with us. It means accepting how little we actually know about what's going on so that all our actions can be grounded in humility. It means actively looking for ways to be helpful that are non-dramatic and unobtrusive. It means being aware when we make things about "us," utterly ignoring our brothers and sisters. It means being willing to laugh at our mistakes. It means letting go of our need to be "right" or "better."
If we are honest we can always perceive a simple and direct way to be kind, loving and helpful to those around us and in our thoughts. It's not even hard, once we realize the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting.
Kindness and helpfulness are not the answer. Rather, they are the groundwork that allows the Holy Spirit to be the answer through relationship with our brothers and sisters.
I began this essay with reference to The Vision of Sinlessness, a section of the Text that invites us to replace ego's seeing with Christ's vision (even though what is first revealed in that process can be frightening). Christ's vision looks upon the world ego makes - sees the horror and injustice clearly as illusion - and then restores to mind justice, mercy and peace.
A Course in Miracles is an invitation to be fearless as we face the apparent horror and depravity of ego and its world. We become fearless by being in relationship with our brothers and sisters. In relationship with them, we are in relationship with the Holy Spirit and Christ, which is how those relationship becoming meaningful in a meaningless world. Together we call upon "the being that we both have and are (T-6.V.C.10:7), reflecting the "perfect safety of God," in which "inclusion is total and creation is without limit" (T-6.V.C.10:9-10).
As I write for you, and as you complete the gift by reading what I write, we together manifest the very unity that is the essence of Christ's vision and God's salvation. For in this unity, the separate self is undone, and suffering is no more. Alleluia!
Think but an instant just on this; you can behold the holiness God gave His Son. And never need you think there is something else for you to see (T-20.VIII.11:2-4).
Thus, through and with each other, we allow dark clouds and terrifying images to rise and fall away, to return no more. We heed the gentle instruction of Lesson 14: "God did not create a meaningless world." To all that would interfere with our shared peace we merely say - together, for ourselves and for each other - "this is not real."
And what is real - the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the ongoing understanding of the Holy Spirit - is thereby revealed to us in all of its, and our, glory.
Thank you, as always, for being with me.
Love,
Sean
Hi Sean,
I'm pretty new to ACIM, just over a year. It's been a rough ride and sometimes I'm not sure this is the path for me. I have more than once cursed the blue book. Reading and understanding the course is one thing, practicing the course is quite another. Lectures by Ken Wapnick and Jon Mundy have helped greatly. Especially Ken. In one of his lectures, Ken says whenever a course student says he or she gave someone a copy of the course as a gift he says to the student, "Don't you like that person?" Lol!
I've read enough of the course and the work book, along with lectures, to understand your new essay. I am slowly realizing there is no difference between rainbows and a tornado. Both are illusions.
Thank you for your essay. There is much for me to ponder as a newbie to the course.
Brad