In Chapter 27 of the text comes a very important line. It's right near the beginning of "The
Dreamer of the Dream" section, paragraph 2. And the first paragraph talks about suffering,
and the second paragraph begins with the line that there is a way and there is a way out
of suffering, and the way out of suffering is to, quote: "Look at the problem as it is
and not the way we have set it up." This is one of those lines that is extremely important
because it really goes to the core of what forgiveness is and really is the essence of
the Course's teaching. The way we have set up our problems is to deny their presence
in the mind, which is where the problem is, deny the presence in the mind, which is the
decision maker's choice for the ego as its teacher and therefore chooses to identify
with the ego thought system of sin, separation, sin, guilt, fear, suffering, punishment, ultimately
death; that's the problem. What we do is we take the problem and we project it out and
say, "The problem is not in me. The problem is not in my wrong-minded decisions; the problem
is in someone else; that someone else who has chosen his or her ego and that is the
cause of my distress." This could also extend to the problem is in my body, which is outside
of my mind just as your body is outside of my mind, and so the way I've set up the problem
is to say, My problem is not my decision for guilt; my problem is my diseased body or my
diseased bank account or my diseased relationships, or the problem is what the president or prime
minister have decided, or the problem is the weather, or the problem is the stock market,
or the problem is the problem is the problem. It goes on and on and on unceasingly and therefore
all suffering, all suffering comes from the belief that the problem is where it is not.
Because when we bring the problem back to where it is, look at the problem where it
is in our decision-making mind that has chosen the ego, all suffering ends. All suffering
ends when we recognize that we have chosen incorrectly. Because inherent in that recognition
is if I've chosen incorrectly, if I've chosen the wrong teacher, in principle I could choose
the right Teacher, because if there's an incorrect choice there must be a correct choice, and
that is the purpose of the miracle. Jesus tells us that the miracle establishes that
we dream a dream and its content is not true. The miracle establishes that we are the dreamer,
we are the decision maker; in this case they're synonyms for each other. It's the part of
our mind that has chosen to be asleep, has chosen to listen to the ego and follow its
dreams and identify with its dreams that keep us asleep. After all, as Freud taught us well
over a hundred years ago, sleep are the guardians, excuse me, dreams are the guardians of sleep.
The purpose of dreams are to keep us asleep. The purpose of our dreams of guilt, the purpose
of our dreams of bodies, in fact the section that follows this one in Chapter 27 is called,
"The Hero of the Dream," and the "hero" of the dream is the body. We have chosen to dream
the dreams of separation and guilt and dream the dreams of bodies that are the projections
of those minds' dreams of separation and guilt so that we remain asleep so we forget that
we are truly at home in God yet dreaming of exile, dreaming of being separated, dreaming
of having this individual, special identity that we covet, that we cherish, that we would
kill to preserve and indeed do. So if I'm truly serious about wanting to end my suffering,
I must shift the problem from where I put it through projection in my body, bring it
back to my mind where I chose the teacher of sickness, recognizing that that's my choice
that I dreamt a dream of sickness, that I can now, and that what I dreamt is not true;
a dream I can now correct by teaching, by choosing the teacher of healing, i.e. Jesus
or the Holy Spirit. And their dreams of healing undo the ego's dreams of sickness, and what
are those dreams of sickness? They are dreams of separation, fragmentation, differentiation,
specialness. What are the dreams of healing? What are those dreams of undoing? They are
dreams that say we are not separate from each other. We are not different; we are not special;
we are not fragmented. Indeed, we are all the same. It's that principle of sameness
that returns sanity to our insane minds. It is that understanding that we are the same
on the level of the mind that heals all suffering. Suffering and sickness come directly from
the belief in separation. Healing and peace come directly from the happy dream of recognizing
we are not separate. And by learning that I am not separate from you and then by extending
that and generalizing I'm not separate from anyone, I finally awaken from the, even the
happy dream of sameness and realize I never separated from my Source. I am indeed as God
created me; the idea of God's Son that I am as Christ has never left his Source in Heaven.