This morning we are going to leave some of the
the metaphysical issues that we've discussed other times
in these talks and focus more
on the practical application of what it means
to be a student of A Course in Miracles
and what it means to live our daily life
under the principle of forgiveness.
And each of us is confronted with a myriad number of things,
some we think are major, some we think are minor,
but things throughout the day, not to mention our lives,
that push our buttons as the phrase goes,
or that upset us, that disturb our peace.
And these can go from trivial things
like we're driving on the freeway or the highway
and someone cuts us off,
we're standing on a supermarket line and it's the express lane
express lane which is only supposed to have ten items
and we count somebody has thirteen and a half
and we find ourselves getting upset,
or things that would seem to be more monumental.
We lose our job through no fault of our own.
There's a mortgage payment due.
There's a car payment due.
We have a loved one that's just been told that
that he or she has cancer
or we are told we have cancer.
We turn on the news and we feel that World War III is around the corner
or the collapse of the financial markets
mean financial ruin for our families.
All these kinds of things that we all are confronted with
health issues, health issues in ourselves
whether they are major like cancer that I just mentioned, or
that I don't like the way I look. I don't like this extra wrinkle.
I don't like that I've gained a couple of pounds,
whatever it would be and it doesn't matter.
And when Jesus tells us that a mild twinge of annoyance
is the same as intense fury or rage,
he's telling us that there's no hierarchy of illusions
which counteracts the ego's first law of chaos.
...He's explaining why there is no order of difficulty in miracles
which is the first principle of miracles.
It's because every problem is the same
which means every problem has to be solved the same way.
And what Jesus does in this course, being a master psychologist
and heavily basing his teachings on the Course, especially the ego,
on the tremendous genius of Freud,
is that he helps us understand motivation,
which is another way of talking about purpose.
In other words, there is a reason why we get upset.
Regardless of hearing that I've just been told I have cancer,
or I have a splinter in my finger,
or someone cut me off on the freeway,
that regardless of the seeming magnitude
or littleness of the presenting problem,
there is still a decision in my mind to let it affect me.
That's the key element.
No matter what goes on around me, I do not have to sacrifice
the love and the peace of God that is within my mind.
As Lesson 34 says, I could always see peace instead of this.
I could be at peace regardless of what's going on in my life,
regardless of what's going on in the world,
and this helps me. Once I understand this principle,
which is the core of forgiveness,
once I understand this principle, I could practice it
and apply it each and every time I become upset.
The temptation is to make certain problems
more serious than others, more problematic than others,
more impossible to solve than others.
And indeed when you look at the world
only from the perspective of the world,
that certainly appears to be the case.
But what is that to a mind that has the power to choose—
the power to choose the judgment of the ego
versus the vision of the Holy Spirit.
The Course says vision or judgment
is your choice, but never both of these.
You have to choose one or the other.
So what is this to us who knows that we are a mind,
and that is the key thing.
If I let something in the world upset me,
it is only because my mind has chosen to give that something,
that person, that event power to upset me.
Since the Course teaches us
and here's where the metaphysical foundation
dovetails in with the practical application...the Course teaches us
that there is literally nothing outside of our minds.
Ideas leave not their source,
which will be examined elsewhere in these talks;
and if ideas leave not their source, there is no external world.
The thought of separation
and the thought system that arose from it never leaves the mind,
which means there is nothing outside of my mind to upset me.
But there is a decision-making part of my mind
that can choose to be upset.
And we choose to be upset—here's the question of motivation again—
we choose to be upset because that's what keeps the Love of God away.
That's what keeps the awareness or the memory of God's Love away,
which is in our right mind held there by the Holy Spirit,
and if I'm not aware of that love and do not identify with it,
then my individual, special, unique self is preserved.
So it's the desire to preserve this self,
this individual, special self against the encroachment
the encroachment of God's Love in which there is no
I and there is no separated self, it is that desire
that leads me to do whatever it would be
to keep that love away.
And so I choose, number one, to have the problem of guilt in my mind,
then I project it out, and then I choose to make up a world
both collectively as well as individually,
a world where there is a continual source of problems
that continually affect me and impinge on my peace.
And I believe since I don't know I have a mind at this point,
I believe that that is what makes me upset
or that that's what makes me happy.
So the practical way of dealing with problems is to realize
the problem is that I believe there's a problem.
That is the problem, not the form of the problem
but that I believe, my mind believes there's a problem.
It's in that recognition that salvation comes
and it is that recognition which is the holy instant
that is the purpose of A Course in Miracles.