The theme for today is laughter. Most of you who have been students of the Course are familiar
with the line near the end of Chapter 27, "Into eternity where all is one there crept
a tiny, mad idea at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh," and then the passage continues,
that when we remembered not to laugh (which obviously is a poetic way of saying that we
forgot to laugh) everything then became serious and possible of real accomplishment and real
effects, meaning that the tiny, mad idea of being separate from God actually occurred
and the fact that it occurred means that it was sinful. Because if we indeed separated
from our Creator and Source, separated from perfect Love and perfect Oneness then that
means that something actually happened, that God's perfect Love and perfect Oneness has
been destroyed, because Oneness and separation cannot co-exist anymore than love and hate
can or light and darkness can, and therefore we exist at God's expense. We killed our Father,
we crucified His Son, and we are the effects of that sin. And then the world that arose
from that belief that the tiny, mad idea actually happened and was serious then becomes even
more serious effects, because bodies were made to suffer, deteriorate as they grow older,
and eventually to die; not to mention all the body—all the pain and suffering that
bodies inflict upon each other. So the—what this all means is that the problem was not
the tiny, mad idea of being separate from God; the problem is not the world that arose
from this. We're told in the Course near the beginning of Chapter 13 that the world is
a delusional system of those made mad by guilt; guilt being the taking the tiny, mad idea
seriously and calling it sinful. And once we do that, that guilt becomes so abhorrent
to us and intolerable that we have to project it out. And the original projection of that
thought of guilt, which is the thought of seriousness—that's what guilt is. Guilt is
very serious, as is its kissing cousin, sin; not to mention the fear that inevitably follows
from the belief in sin and guilt; the fear that we will be punished for our sin. All
of this is serious indeed. This is what gets projected out and makes up a world of bodies
that, of course, also becomes very serious. Pain is a serious thing; suffering, cruelty,
very serious; death, very serious. Everything here is very serious, and we take the maximizing
of our pleasure very seriously and the avoidance of our pain very seriously. But all this comes
from that original mistake of remembering not to laugh; not listening to the Holy Spirit
telling us, "Nothing happened," which, of course, is the principle of the Atonement.
Nothing happened; the tiny, mad idea was simply an insane thought that never even occurred.
And if we had listened to the Holy Spirit and looked at Him we would also have seen
His gentle smile that says to us, "What are you so upset about? Nothing happened." Well,
none of us is in touch with that original, ontological instant when the ego threatened
us with its seriousness and the Holy Spirit countered it with His tiny, mad idea. Since
none of us is in touch with this there's no way we could correct it on that ontological
level, but since there is no linear time (as Jesus repeatedly reminds us in the Course)
and everything that seems to be happening now happened then, and it's simply a shadowy
fragment of that original moment, then we could correct that mistake when we remembered
not to laugh at the tiny, mad idea each and every time we are confronted by the ego; either
the ego in ourselves or the ego in others. And laughing does not mean a derisive laughter,
and it doesn't necessarily means a physical expression. We're not asked to walk around
all day with a grin on our faces, but we are asked to not take the ego seriously, and that
translates in an operational way, that I do not give the ego's world in thought or in
deed power to take away the love and the peace of God that is within my mind. That's what
happened in that original instant; we gave the tiny, mad idea power to take away the
Love of God that is in our mind. Now it was in our capital "M" Mind as Christ, but once
we are in the illusion that love and peace is in our right minds as a reflection of God's
Love and God's living and loving and perfect Oneness. So each and every time in my daily
experiences I am tempted to get upset by my ego or get upset by someone else's ego, whether
it's someone in my personal world or someone in the world at large whom I hear about over
the news—anytime I become upset I am giving power to nothing. I am remembering not to
laugh at the illusion, rather seeing it as true and then reacting to it. And again, on
a practical level what this means is recognizing that nothing and no one in the world has power
to take the Love and peace of God away from me. That's what it means to remember to laugh
at the tiny, mad idea in all of its forms, shapes, and sizes that it appears throughout
the world. So if we take Jesus as our teacher we are identifying with his gentle laughter.
As it says also near the end of Chapter 27, we will leave the holy instant with our laughter
joined with our brothers and the Holy Spirit, and the holy instant is that time when we
choose a different teacher—the Teacher of the gentle smile and the soft laughter—as
opposed to the ego's profound and hateful seriousness that makes the error real. The
gentle laughter says whatever it is that has occurred in the world or is occurring now—one
more time—has no power over the love and the peace that is who I am.