A Course In Miracles

CHAPTER 2: THE SEPARATION AND THE ATONEMENT

I. The Origins of Separation

“In the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same loving Will to create.” (1:2)

“Because of your likeness to your Creator you are creative. No child of God can lose this ability because it is inherent in what he is, but he can use it inappropriately by projecting. The inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when you believe that some emptiness of lack exists in you, and that you can fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. This process involves the following steps:

First, you believe that what God created can be changed by your own mind.

Second, you believe that what is perfect can be rendered imperfect or lacking.

Third, you believe that you can distort the creations of God, including yourself.

Fourth, you believe that you can create yourself, and that the direction of your own creation is up to you.” (1:6-12)

“These related distortions represent a picture of what actually occurred in the separation, or the “detour into fear.” None of this existed before the separation, nor does it actually exist now.” (2:1-2)

“You do not have to continue to believe what is not true unless you choose to do so.” (3:3)

“What is seen in dreams seems to be very real. Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up. The world has not yet experienced any comprehensive reawakening or rebirth. Such a rebirth is impossible as long as you continue to project or miscreate.” (3:5-8)

“Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease.” (5:1)

“But remember the first principle in this course; there is no order of difficulty in miracles. In reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love.” (5:5-6)

“Health is inner peace. It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding from lack of love in others.” (5:11-12)

In summary, section 1: “The Origins of Separation” is saying:

We think we can be something other than the Spirit of Love and Light God created us as. We think we can become a physical body, perishable and filled with sin and darkness. This cannot be done, given the eternal nature of our true Self as Spirit. What is eternal cannot be changed. However, we can forget our eternal Identity. We have indeed done this through a four-step process – a process that caused us to change our mind about who we are in truth. We decided to forget the Laws of God and make our own. And yet, we do not have to believe in anything this world shows us. In fact, it can all be easily undone with a miracle, despite how real this dream may appear to be. Who We Are in truth still exists beneath our false identities and health can be restored to our minds through choosing not to believe in the separation our eyes show us. This may sound insane, and yet a healthy mind is one that knows this world is not our real existence, thus forgiving it its falsity, which corrects our perception of everything outside of us. Everyone can agree they feel better once they wake from a nightmare, only to realize none of it was real. Until we do this in our reality here, we will remain asleep and continue to project a fear-filled world that is not real. The miracle corrects and heals all forms offear through us, by our withdrawing our belief in it.

II. The Atonement as Defense

“I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you.” (1:1-3)

“True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction. Your right mind depends on it. Denial of error is a strong defense of truth, but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of the ego.” (2:1-5)

“You can defend truth as well as error.” (3:1)

“Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it?” (3:4-5)

“The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made.” (4:1)

“The Atonement is a total commitment. You may still think this is associated with loss, a mistake all the separated Sons of God make in one way or another.” (7:1)

“The miracle turns the defense of Atonement to your real protection, and as you become more and more secure you assume your natural talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both brother and a Son.” (7:8)

In summary, section 2: “The Atonement as Defense” is saying:

When we deny this world of illusions and separation rather than denying the truth of our reality as One with God, we are “turning the tables” on the ego. We are literally dismantling its whole belief system and thus opening the way for miracles. The question is: how badly do we want this world? Are we willing to give up our belief in it in exchange for a promise of a better world? A world we have nothing with which to compare to in this world.

This requires trust, faith and belief. It is a “total commitment” as the Course puts it. To believe in the Atonement – our Oneness – above all else is to work a miracle. Such belief is not for those who feel to give up belief in this world is a sacrifice. Yet it is merely the exchange of hell for Heaven.

But, if our faith is given over to the Atonement, we are protected from all forms of disappointment and feelings of loss in this world. This point of view will become habit for those who practice it wholeheartedly. Loving all people without thinking will become a natural defense of our Oneness against the false world of separation we see now. It is to know yourself as One with your fellow human beings and to love them as automatically as God does.

III. The Altar of God

“The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner light. Since the separation, defenses have been used almost entirely to defend against the Atonement, and thus maintain the separation. This is generally seen as a need to protect the body. The many body fantasies in which minds engage arise from the distorted belief that the body can be used as a means for attaining “atonement.” Perceiving the body as a temple is only part of it.” (1:1-5)

“The next step, however, is to realize that a temple is not a structure at all. Its true holiness lies at the inner altar around which the structure is built. The emphasis on beautiful structures is a sign of the fear of Atonement, and an unwillingness to reach the altar itself.” (1:7-9)

“The acceptance of the Atonement by everyone is only a matter of time. This may appear to contradict free will because of the inevitability of the final decision, but this is not so. You can temporize and you are capable of enormous procrastination, but you cannot depart entirely from your Creator, Who set the limits on your ability to miscreate.” (3:1-3)

“Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in physical sight.” (3:5-8)

“Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for Atonement. All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected.” (4:1-3)

“This re-establishes the power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing that it only adds unnecessary pain. As a result, the mind becomes increasingly sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of discomfort.” (4:6-7)

“The children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes from perfect trust. Until they achieve this, they waste themselves and their true creative powers on useless attempts to make themselves more comfortable by inappropriate means.” (5:1-2)

In summary, section 3: “The Altar of God” is saying:

Within each of us is an “altar to God.” It can be filled with either thoughts of this world and our separated bodies, or thoughts of our Oneness in God’s Love and Light. Clearing our inner altar of all thoughts associated with the body and this world is only a matter of time. We have only so much tolerance for the pain that comes from this world. Once we realize that by releasing ourselves from such thoughts, we also release ourselves from pain, we become increasingly aware of when we are having such thoughts and seek more quickly to release them. The world then becomes a place where we can consciously heal the separation, and guarantee that the Atonement will ultimately come to us sooner rather than later. We heal the world through ceasing to attempt to search for happiness in what the world has to offer. Our focus then becomes the search for the eternal Light within all living things. In this way, we clear our inner altar to God of all that no longer serves us.

IV. Healing as Release from Fear

"Our emphasis is now on healing. The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result." (1:1)

"The kind of error to which Atonement is applied is irrelevant. All healing is essentially the release from fear. To undertake this you cannot be fearful yourself. You do not understand healing because of your own fear." (1.6-9)

"The body can act wrongly only when it is responding to misthought. The body cannot create, and the belief that it can, a fundamental error, produces all physical symptoms. Physical illness represents a belief in magic. The whole distortion that made magic rests on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control. This error can take two forms; it can be believed that the mind can miscreate in the body, or that the body can miscreate in the mind. When it is understood that the mind, the only level of creation, cannot create beyond itself, neither type of confusion need occur." (2.5-10)

“Only the mind can create because spirit has already been created, and the body is a learning device for the mind.” (3:1)

"All material means that you accept as remedies for bodily ills are restatements of magic principles. This is the first step in believing that the body makes its own illness. It is a second misstep to attempt to heal it through non-creative agents. It does not follow, however, that the use of such agents for corrective purposes is evil. Sometimes the illness has a sufficiently strong hold over the mind to render a person temporarily inaccessible to the Atonement. In this case it may be wise to utilize a compromise approach to mind and body, in which something from the outside is temporarily given healing belief. This is because the last thing that can help the non-right-minded, or the sick, is an increase in fear. They are already in a fear-weakened state." (4.1-8)

“This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear.” (5:3)

In summary, section 4: “Healing as Release from Fear” is saying:

All healing begins with the mind. The body can do nothing in and of itself; it is forever and always simply responding to what our mind tells it. If it is sick, then it is because we have had thoughts that believe it can be sick. This belief is an error. An error, that when corrected, will also heal the body. It is an error to believe you are a body to begin with. If you do not believe you are a body, then there is nothing capable of being sickened by your thoughts. In this way, the body cannot be made sick by your mind, and neither can a sick body affect the purity, health and wholeness of your mind. The body is merely a teaching and learning device; its only function is to be used to communicate the truth of our Oneness. And once the truth is accepted, all fear associated with the body is released, and healing becomes your experience. True healing only comes from the release from fear – primarily the fear of loss of the body. At times, we may still need to resort to worldly means to bring about physical healing, as our fear is still too great for our minds to let go of it all at once. It is not wrong to use a form of worldly medicine in addition to the healing belief in our Oneness – the Atonement – which is the ultimate correction device for all types of healing.

V. The Function of the Miracle Worker

“Before miracle workers are ready to undertake their function in this world, it is essential that they fully understand the fear of release. Otherwise they may unwittingly foster the belief that release is imprisonment, a belief that is already very prevalent. This misperception arises in turn from the belief that harm can be limited to the body. That is because of the underlying fear that the mind can hurt itself. None of these errors is meaningful, because the miscreations of the mind do not really exist.” (1:1-5)

“Magic is the mindless or the miscreative use of mind. Physical medications are forms of “spells,” but if you are afraid to use the mind to heal, you should not attempt to do so. The very fact that you are afraid makes your mind vulnerable to miscreation. You are therefore likely to misunderstand any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. Under these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations.” (2:1-5)

“I have said already that miracles are expressions of miracle-mindedness, and miracle-mindedness means right-mindedness. The right-minded neither exalt nor depreciate the mind of the miracle worker or the miracle receiver. However, as a correction, the miracle need not await the right-mindedness of the receiver. In fact, its purpose is to restore him to his right mind.” (3:1-4)

“The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal.” (5:1-3)

“It should be emphasized that the body does not learn any more than it creates. As a learning device it merely follows the learner, but if it is falsely endowed with self-initiative, it becomes a serious obstruction to he very learning it should facilitate.” (6:1-2)

“Corrective learning always begins with the awakening of spirit, and the turning away from the belief in physical sight. This often entails fear, because you are afraid of what your spiritual sight will show you.” (7:1-2)

“Discomfort is aroused only to bring the need for correction into awareness.” (7:8)

“The fear of healing arises in the end from an unwillingness to accept unequivocally that healing is necessary.” (8:1)

“As long as you believe in what your physical sight tells you, your attempts at correction will be misdirected.” (8:3)

“It must be understood, however, that whenever you offer a miracle to another, you are shortening the suffering of both of you. This corrects retroactively as well as progressively.” (10:7-8)

"You can do much on behalf of your own healing and that of others if, in a situation calling for help, you think of it this way:

I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent Him Who sent me.

I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me.

I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.

I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal." (18:1-6)

In summary, section 5: “The Function of the Miracle Worker” is saying:

As stated previously, all healing begins in the mind. What the mind believes to be true becomes the experience we will have through the body. Therefore, to achieve healing of the body, we must correct our thoughts about it before true healing can be accomplished. The first error we need to correct is that we are separate bodies to begin with. For some, to let go of their identity as a body is a very fearful thing. It appears they have to give up something important to them and this can be greatly distressing. In such cases, it is best to rely on physical forms of healing that the mind is accustomed to, lest the change in mind required causes too much fear.

The right-minded can heal both themselves and others. To be right-minded is to be miracle-minded. The healer need not wait for the recipient to also be in their right-mind. In fact, the healing itself will correct the recipient’s mind. To bring about such correction, the healer is one who has achieved an awakening to the knowledge that the spirit is our true identity and not the body. The healer then sees past the body and all its ailments, faults and problems – seeing only the beauty of the Light of God within. True vision such as this, comes entirely without fear on the part of the healer. It is the total relinquishment in belief in what ones physical sight shows us. It is to love without thought, and to experience the oneness of such love without doing. To be miracle-minded one must remember that they are there only to be truly helpful to God’s Plan for our Atonement – to see only our Oneness in Him. Once miracle-mindedness is achieved, the healer will not need to worry about what to say or do, because such loving thoughts and actions will become automatic. As healers we will be fully directed by Him Who sent us into the world to heal it.

VI. Fear and Conflict

“Being afraid seems to be involuntary; something beyond your own control.” (1:1)

“Fear prevents me from giving you my control. The presence of fear shows that you have raised body thoughts to the level of the mind. This removes them from my control, and makes you feel personally responsible for them.” (1:5-7)

"The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. These conditions always entail a willingness to be separate. At that level you can help it. You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind's miscreations." (4:1-6)

“The correction is always the same. Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear." (4.8-10)

“Fear is always a sign of strain, arising whenever what you want conflicts with what you do.” (5:1)

"There is no strain in doing God's Will as soon as you recognize that it is also your own." (6:4)

"The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. Then the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. These steps may be summarized in this way:

Know first that this is fear.

Fear arises from lack of love.

The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.

Perfect love is the Atonement." (7:1-8)

"Few appreciate the real power of the mind, and no one remains fully aware of it all the time.” (9:3)

“The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them.” (9:5-10).

There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level." (9:13-14)

In summary, section VI: “Fear and Conflict” is saying,

Our thoughts are very powerful. This is why all healing begins in the mind. And yet, we believe we have no control over our thoughts and that they are largely meaningless. When fear strikes we feel helpless against it, however it is important to quickly let go of such thoughts for they block the ability of God to enter into our minds and bring about healing. They block God’s Will, because the presence of fear is the assertion of our own will, and God will not interfere with what we will. Therefore, it is important to correct fear thoughts as soon as you are aware of them, thus restoring God to His rightful place in your mind. Fear exists whenever your ego-will conflicts with God’s Will within you – it is the strain that arises between ego-driven thoughts and spirit-led thoughts. It is not enough to simply behave in spirit-driven ways, if your thoughts rest with the ego. This will only cause you to feel fear and conflict. Your ego-driven thoughts must be corrected and your actions will follow fearlessly accordingly. To correct ego-driven thoughts you must first recognize you are experiencing fear, which arises from thoughts about the ego-driven world in which we all appear separate. Thoughts of separation are without love because love is all-inclusive. The only remedy for such loveless thoughts is Perfect love; which are thoughts about our unity in God’s peace rather than our separation as bodies.

VII. Cause and Effect

“You may still complain about fear, but you nevertheless persist in making yourself fearful. I have already indicated that you cannot ask me to release you from fear. I know it does not exist, but you do not. If I intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would be tampering with a basic law of cause and effect; the most fundamental law there is. I would hardly help you if I depreciated the power of your own thinking.” (1:1-5)

“Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought in order to avoid miscreation. Otherwise a miracle will be necessary to set the mind itself straight, a circular process that would not foster the time collapse for which the miracle was intended. The miracle worker must have genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the miracle to occur.” (2:2-4)

“It has already been said that you believe you cannot control fear because you yourself made it, and your belief in it seems to render it out of your control. Yet any attempt to resolve the error through attempting the mastery of fear is useless. In fact, it asserts the power of fear by the very assumption that it need be mastered. The true resolution rests entirely on mastery through love.” (4:1-4)

“Fear is really nothing and love is everything. Whenever light enters darkness, the darkness is abolished.” (5:3-4)

“However, to concentrate on error is only a further error. The initial corrective procedure is to recognize temporarily that there is a problem, but only as an indication that immediate correction is needed. This establishes a state of mind in which the Atonement can be accepted without delay.” (5:7-9)

“Any part of the Sonship can believe in error or incompleteness if he so chooses. However, if he does so, he is believing in the existence of nothingness. The correction of this error is the Atonement.” (6:7-9)

In summary, section VII: “Cause and Effect” is saying,

As stated before, our thoughts hold great power. Our thoughts literally show us what we believe. If we believe we are bodies, we will experience all that bodies entail: fear, anxiety and a deep sense of lonely separation. God cannot release us from our belief in being a body, for that would violate the law of cause and effect: that what we believe or think is real is what becomes our experience. In order to change what we experience, we must change our thoughts and beliefs about who we are. It is a miracle to reverse our thoughts to the extent we fully accept and believe we are a part of God’s holy Sonship; at one with one another and not the separate bodies our eyes show us. Belief in our separation is the root of all our fears. Such fear cannot be mastered, for this only emphasizes its reality for us. Rather, it must be undone with love, for love is the only remedy for fear. Love reminds us of the truth of the Atonement: we are One Love and therefore no harm can come to us. Harm can be imagined through our bodily experiences, but such experiences can be shifted into joy through remembering the Atonement, despite what our eyes are showing us. We will then automatically react to all forms of lack of love with only Perfect Love. This will heal all forms of fear, which is the purpose of miracles.

VIII. The Meaning of the Last Judgment

“The Last Judgment is one of the most threatening ideas in your thinking. This is because you do not understand it.” (2:1-2)

“The Last Judgment is generally thought of as a procedure undertaken by God. Actually it will be undertaken by my brothers with my help. It is a final healing rather than a meting out of punishment, however much you may think that punishment is deserved.” (3:1-3)

“The Last Judgment might be called a process of right evaluation. It simply means that everyone will finally come to understand what is worthy and what is not.” (3:5-6)

“The term “Last Judgment” is frightening not only because it has been projected onto God, but also because of the association of “last” with death. (5:1)

“If the meaning of the Last Judgment is objectively examined, it is quite apparent that it is really the doorway to life.” (5:4)

“Your own last judgment cannot be directed toward yourself, because you are not your own creation. You can, however, apply it meaningfully and at any time to everything you have made, and retain in your memory only what is creative and good.” (5:5-6)

“When everything you retain is lovable, there is no reason for fear to remain with you. This is your part in the Atonement.” (5:10-11)

In summary, section VIII: “The Meaning of the Last Judgment” is saying,

The Last Judgment is actually to see the world correctly through miracle-minded thinking. Miracle-minded thinking sees the world as being in need of correction of the idea of the error of separation. It is not that God has judged us as unworthy of His love and therefore deserving of His punishment, but rather, it is an evaluation of a situation in need of total unconditional love. This is the key to our release from all false seeing. We must apply true judgment to all that we see – through the knowing of the falsity of the world of separation and understanding our Unity with all living things in truth. In this way, all things are looked upon lovingly. And when the world is seen in this way, there is no reason to fear it – no reason to believe that harm can come to you, you who cannot be harmed, because you are not the body your ego would have you believe you are. You instead believe in your Oneness, and when such belief is accepted wholeheartedly, you fulfill your part in the Atonement – the place you hold in God’s Oneness.

This concludes CHAPTER 2: THE SEPARATION AND THE ATONEMENT

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A Course In Miracles: CHAPTER 2: THE SEPARATION AND THE ATONEMENT (Summary)