L e s s o n  350

Miracles mirror God's eternal Love.
To offer them is to remember Him,
And through His memory to save the world.
   

When we offer our brothers forgiveness instead of attack, by being willing to bring our unforgiving thoughts to the right mind where truth resides, then we experience a reflection of God's Love with a brother and recognize that we are the same. All of the differences that we perceive are not the truth. Everyone is a part of us. In our attacks on others we are saying that they are different and sinful and not a part of us. Thus we maintain the separation. But now we can withdraw the projections we placed on the world and see that they all started as thoughts in our own mind. The world is just an outward picture of our inward condition as has been said often. But we don't see it that way because of our preference to see our guilt in the world rather than in our own mind. When the mind is healed, our world is healed as well.

What he is, is unaffected by his thoughts. But what he looks upon is their direct result.(1.4-5) In other words whatever our thoughts are about our brother are not the truth about him. It does not matter what we think about his behavior and how guilty we judge him to be, the truth is that our true identity as the Christ is what we share with everyone and that is always totally serene and unaffected by anything that seems to be going on in our dream. Only in the dream do we see that which is not true. And in this dream we believe that what we see is reality because our senses convince us that our perceptions are true. When we invest in the ego's thought system we believe our thoughts and make them real. And until we question their reality, it is the only thing we know. We have lost awareness of who we are in truth but having lost awareness does not mean that the truth is not in us and in everyone. The only way back to the truth of who we are is to recognize who our brother is and through our shared purpose, we join in a holy encounter and remember our Oneness. And this is the way back to remembering God.

The memory of who we are will only return through the process of forgiveness. And forgiveness in the course is all about letting go of our thought system which is all based on the ego's lies that we have sinned, are guilty and will be punished. Now we need to look at our thoughts and beliefs and let go of the effects of that thought system. What are these effects? They are our projections. So if we want to know what we are thinking and believing we just need to look at what we are projecting on others. Our projections show us wrong minded thinking. When we take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs, and take them back into the mind we can choose to have them released. Thus space is made in our belief system for a new perception. As we join in the oneness of Christ it transcends the sum of its parts into a glorious whole and separation is left behind if only for a brief moment. It is enough for now.

Isn't it a magnificent and joyful thought that we have a way out of this sin, guilt and fear cycle? It may seem so, but we do resist the truth. We fear loss of our specialness. As our fear and resistance is reduced we accept what Jesus offers us more and more and are increasingly willing to experience the miracle. And for that we can be truly grateful. "Only Your memory will set me free.  And only my forgiveness teaches me to let Your memory return to me, and give it to the world in thankfulness". (1.7-8)

Miracles show us that we truly are not bodies. We are eternal minds. We are the love as we were created and we have never changed the truth of our reality. We have only lost awareness of it.  The body and our experience of this world is not what life is. Yet this is not what we currently believe. We still believe that this world is our reality. But as Chapter 7.VI.11.4 reminds us that the world of the ego is nothing. "It has no meaning. It does not exist. Do not try to understand it because, if you do, you are believing that it can be understood and is therefore capable of being appreciated and loved. That would justify its existence which cannot be justified. You cannot make the meaningless meaningful. This can only be an insane attempt."

Our work with the Course is to understand how the ego works by looking honestly at it so that its unreality can be made apparent and the truth beyond it will be revealed.  As we read in T.11.V.1 "No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected."  So we have to look first at the 'dynamics' of the ego before we can see beyond it. Why is that? Because we have made the ego real in our minds by not looking at it. In other words we believe what we think. So our work in the Course must consist of watching our thoughts with courage and honesty. But it is not simply about watching our thoughts  in a cavalier manner, dismissing the ego and the world as just an illusion where what we do does not matter because it is not real.  The truth is that thoughts do have power. That is why Jesus says that there are no idle thoughts. And although "what we are is unaffected by our thoughts" our thoughts nevertheless keep the memory of God from our awareness. Thus the Thought of God that is in our minds is not in our awareness. Therefore we ask for His help in offering miracles through forgiveness so that the memory of who we are will be restored to us. So a miracle and forgiveness are alike in that they both simply remind the mind that what it sees is false.

Offering miracles is thus our function on this earth and best reflects God's Love in this world,  As the lesson title says "Miracles mirror God's eternal love. To offer them is to remember Him. And through His memory to save the world". We need to make space for miracles in order to remember God. He is already in our minds but we need to allow the memory of Him to return by offering forgiveness. This is the process we are given in this Course for relinquishing the ego.  

On a final note, I find it very easy  to get out of the mind training mode and get distracted. While I find that this teaching is very much part of my mind and never leaves me, I am aware of how quickly, without daily investment in the reading, studying and practice, I can get into the events of this world and get off track. In order to stay focused, I find that the discipline of daily practice and daily reading is essential.

Love and blessings, Sarah

^{A Course in Miracles}     

^{MANUAL FOR TEACHERS}

13. What Is the Real Meaning of Sacrifice?