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A Course In Miracles 

CHAPTER 16: THE FORGIVENESS OF ILLUSIONS

 

I. True Empathy

 

            “To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand.  That is the ego’s interpretation of empathy, and is always used to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared.”  (1:1-2)

 

            “The clearest proof that empathy as the ego uses it is destructive lies in the fact that it is applied only to certain types of problems and in certain people.”  (2:1)

 

            “Make no mistake about this maneuver; the ego always empathizes to weaken, and to weaken is always to attack.  You do not know what empathizing means.  Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength and not in weakness.”  (2:5-7)

 

            “You do not know what healing is.  All you have learned of empathy is from the past.”  (3:3-4)

 

            “Do not use empathy to make the past real, and so perpetuate it.  Step gently aside, and let healing be done for you.  Keep but one thought in mind and do not lose sight of it, however tempted you may be to judge any situation, and to determine your response by judging it.  Focus your mind only on this:

 

I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon my Guest.

I have invited Him, and He is here.

I need do nothing except not to interfere.”  (3:6-12)

 

            “You cannot know how to respond to what you do not understand.  Be tempted not in this, and yield not to the ego’s triumphant use of empathy for its glory.”  (4:6-7)

 

            “The meaning of love is lost in any relationship that looks to weakness, and hopes to find love there.  The power of love, which is its meaning, lies in the strength of God that hovers over it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings.  Let this be, and do not try to substitute your “miracle” for this.  I have said that if a brother asks a foolish thing of you to do it.  But be certain that this does not mean to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or you, for what would hurt one will hurt the other.  Foolish requests are foolish merely because they conflict, since they always contain some element of specialness.”  (6:1-6)

 

 

In summary, section 1: “True Empathy” is saying:

 

            We are eternal beings, created by God as perfect.  When we look upon a body, and see that it is sick, dying, or in some way suffering, our first response is an ego-based form of empathy.  We want to relate and share in their suffering, thus further diminishing the truth about the divine perfection that we are.  We are thus reinforcing the ego and blocking true healing.  In order to avoid this reaction, we must learn to step aside from what we see and allow the Holy Spirit to look through us.  He will see not a suffering body, but rather, a healed and whole, perfect and complete being of Love.  Do not make any foolish requests to heal the body alone, for this interferes with His Vision.  Merely allow all things to be healed through knowing we are Love’s Perfection.

 

II. The Power of Holiness

 

            “You may still think that holiness is impossible to understand, because you cannot see how it can be extended to include everyone.”  (1:1)

 

            “Why should you worry how the miracle extends to all the Sonship when you do not understand the miracle itself?”  (1:6)

 

            “If miracles are at all, their attributes would have to be miraculous, being part of them.”  (1:8)

 

            “There is a tendency to fragment, and then to be concerned about the truth of just a little part of the whole.  And this is but a way of avoiding, or looking away from the whole, to what you think you might be better able to understand.”  (2:1-2)

 

            “To you the miracle cannot seem natural, because what you have done to hurt you mind has made it so unnatural that it does not remember what is natural to it.  And when you are told what is natural, you cannot understand it.”  (3:1-2)

 

            “You have done miracles, but it is quite apparent that you have not done them alone. You have succeeded whenever you have reached another mind and joined with it.”  (4:1-2)

 

            “When you have made this joining as the Holy Spirit bids you, and have offered it to Him to use as He sees fit, His natural perception of your gift enables Him to understand it, and you to use His understanding on your behalf.”  (4:4)

 

            “Miracles are natural to the One Who speaks for God.”  (5:4)

 

            “This is a year of joy, in which your listening will increase and peace will grow with its increase.  The power of holiness and the weakness of attack are both being brought into your awareness.”  (7:1-2)

 

            “Do not interpret against God’s Love, for you have many witnesses that speak of it so clearly that only the blind and deaf could fail to see and hear them.  This year determine not to deny what has been given you by God.  Awake and share it, for that is the only reason He has called to you.”  (8:1-3)

 

            “For love asks only that you be happy, and will give you everything that makes for happiness.”  (8:8)

 

            “This year invest in truth, and let it work in peace.”  (9:7)

 

In summary, section 2: “The Power of Holiness” is saying:

 

            Our holiness is our wholeness, the unity we have as part of God’s One Son; His One Love.  His Son is One, and we each play our own part in His Total Sonship.  When we extend this thought to everyone we look upon or think of, we are extending a miracle.  It is a miracle to see beyond our separate bodies, to the Oneness we all share in truth.  Do not interpret anyone otherwise, or you interpret against God’s One Love.  This year do not deny our unity.  Awaken to it and share it through your loving thoughts towards others.  You love them, because they complete you, despite whatever ill-begotten thoughts the ego may have towards them.  This year invest in the truth of our peaceful existence as one in God’s Love.

 

III. The Reward of Teaching

 

            “We have already learned that everyone teaches, and teaches all the time.”  (1:1)

 

            “I said earlier, “By their fruits ye shall know them, and they shall know themselves.”  For it is certain that you judge yourself according to your teaching.”  (2:2-3)

 

            “Does not the fact that you have not learned what you have taught show you that you do not perceive the Sonship as one?  And does it not also show you that you do not regard yourself as one?”  (3:1-2)

 

            “This is a course in how to know yourself.”  (4:1)

 

            “Illusions are but beliefs in what is not there.  And the seeming conflict between truth and illusion can only be resolved by separating yourself from the illusion and not from truth.  (4:9-10)

 

            “You are not two selves in conflict.”  (6:1)

 

            “This year you will begin to learn, and make learning commensurate with teaching.  You have chosen this by your own willingness to teach.  Though you seemed to suffer for it, the joy of teaching will yet by yours.”  (7:1-3)

 

            “As you learn, your gratitude to your Self, Who teaches you what He is, will grow and help you honor Him.  And you will learn His power and strength and purity, and love Him as His Father does.  His Kingdom has no limits and no end, and there is nothing in Him that is not perfect and eternal.  All this is you, and nothing outside of this is you.”  (7:5-8)

 

            “Sooner or later must everyone bridge the gap he imagines exists between his selves.”  (8:2)

 

            “Your bridge is builded stronger than you think, and your foot is planted firmly on it.  Have no fear that the attraction of those who stand on the other side and wait for you will not draw you safely across.  For you will come where you would be, and where your Self awaits you.”  (9:1-3)

 

In summary, section 3: “The Reward of Teaching” is saying:

 

            What is it we are always teaching, whether we are aware of it or not?  We are always teaching what we believe we are.  And we will know if we are teaching the truth about who we believe we are, by the “fruits” we yield; the peace we extend to others, knowing everyone is part of our One Self in God.  Our fruits will be self-evident by the response others give to us.  Teach only love and peace, for that is what you are.  Do not believe in the illusion of the body, for it is not your truth.  Though we seem to suffer for being in a bodily experience now, the joy that comes from teaching we are otherwise, is a reward beyond measure.  Sooner or later we each must cross over from the belief in bodies to the belief in our One Self.  Yet have no doubt you will get there, for even now the attraction of our Oneness draws you across the bridge.

 

IV. The Illusion and the Reality of Love

 

            “Be not afraid to look upon the special hate relationship, for freedom lies in looking at it.  It would be impossible to know the meaning of love, except for this.  For the special love relationship, in which the meaning of love is hidden, is undertaken solely to offset the hate, but not to let it go.”  (1:1-3)

 

            “You will go through this last undoing quite unharmed, and will at last emerge as yourself.  This is the last step in the readiness for God.  Be not unwilling now; you are too near, and you will cross the bridge in perfect safety, translated quietly from war to peace.”  (2:3-5)

 

            “The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt.”  (3:1)

 

            “The special love partner is acceptable only as long as he serves this purpose.”  (3:5)

 

            “Love is not an illusion.  It is a fact.  Where disillusionment is possible, there was not love but hate.  For hate is an illusion, and what can change was never love.”  (4:1-4)

 

            “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”  (6:1)

 

            “If you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it.”  (6:5)

 

            “Recognize this, for it is true, and truth must be recognized if it is to be distinguished from illusion: The special love relationship is an attempt to bring love into separation.”  (7:1)

 

            “In fundamental violation of love’s one condition, the special love relationship would accomplish the impossible.  How but in illusion could this be done?”  (7:3-4)

 

            “The special love relationship is but a shabby substitute for what makes you whole in truth, not in illusion.”  (8:4)

 

            “Across the bridge is your completion, for you will be wholly in God, willing for nothing special, but only to be wholly like to Him, completing Him by your completion.”  (9:1)

 

            “Seek not for this in the bleak world of illusion, where nothing is certain and where everything fails to satisfy.”  (9:4)

 

            “In any relationship in which you are wholly willing to accept completion, and only this, there is God completed, and His Son with Him.”  (9:6)

 

            “Every illusion you accept into your mind by judging it to be attainable removes your own sense of completion, and thus denies the Wholeness of your Father.  Every fantasy, be it of love or hate, deprives you of knowledge for fantasies are the veil behind which truth is hidden.  To lift the veil that seems so dark and heavy, it is only needful to value truth beyond all fantasy, and to be entirely unwilling to settle for illusion in place of truth.”  (10:2-4)

 

            “If special relationships of any kind would hinder God’s completion, can they have any value to you?”  (13:1)

 

            “There is no veil the Love of God in us together cannot lift.  The way to truth is open.  Follow it with me.”  (13:9-11)

 

In summary, section 4: “The Illusion and the Reality of Love” is saying:

 

            The special love relationship is the special hate relationship.  Why are they the same?  Because to select a specific person out for a specific form of what the ego calls “love” is actually an attempt to limit this person to an identity they are not.  It is to ask them to serve your ego for a specific purpose, which it calls “love.”  If they fail to fulfill what you have tried to guilt them into being, then such relationships quickly fall apart and turn into special hate relationships.  For the ego knows not how to love.  So, does this mean we can never marry one another, form families or deep abiding friendships?  No indeed, for such relationships are deeply needed, but such relationships are an illusion of separation until we transform them into what God intended them to be: a unified aspect of His One Love.  So, how do we free all whom we love from the bodily identities our ego has assigned to them?  Through one simple thought.  In your mind, say to whomever you are tempted to hold in any special love or hate relationship: 

You are beloved of God Himself, even as I am.  He sees nothing but what is good, true and beautiful in you, even as He does in me.  You complete Him, and therefore you complete me.  And for that I am grateful.  All else is an illusion of love, and I would know only Love’s Reality.  Amen.

 

V. The Choice for Completion

 

            “In looking at the special relationship, it is necessary first to realize that it involves a great amount of pain.  Anxiety, despair, guilt and attack all enter into it, broken into by periods in which they seem to be gone.”  (1:1-2)

 

            “Whatever form they take, they are always an attack on the self to make the other guilty.”  (1:4)

 

            “Very simply, the attempt to make guilty is always directed against God.”  (2:1)

 

            “The special love relationship is the ego’s chief weapon for keeping you from Heaven.  It does not appear to be a weapon, but if you consider how you value it and why, you will realize what it must be.”  (2:3-4)

 

            “It is in the special relationship, born of the hidden wish for special love from God, that the ego’s hatred triumphs.”  (4:1)

            “For the ego would never have you see that separation could only be loss, being the one condition in which Heaven could not be.”  (4:4)

 

            “To everyone Heaven is completion.  There can be no disagreement on this, because both the ego and the Holy Spirit accept it.  They are, however, in complete disagreement on what completion is, and how it is accomplished.  The Holy Spirit knows that completion lies first in union, and then in the extension of union.  To the ego completion lies in triumph, and in the extension of the “victory” even to the final triumph over God.”  (5:1-5)

 

            “The special relationship is the triumph of this confusion.  It is a kind of union from which union is excluded, and the basis for the attempt at union rests on exclusion.”  (6:3-4)

 

            “The “better” self the ego seeks is always one that is more special.  And whoever seems to possess a special self is “loved” for what can be taken from him.  Where both partners see this special self in each other the ego sees “a union made in Heaven.”  For neither one will recognize that he has asked for hell, and so he will not interfere with the ego’s illusion of Heaven, which it offered him to interfere with Heaven.”  (8:1-4)

 

            “The conviction of littleness lies in every special relationship, for only the deprived could value specialness.  The demand for specialness, and the perception of the giving of specialness as an act of love, would make love hateful.”  (9:2-3)

 

            “If you perceived the special relationship as a triumph over God, would you want it?”  (10:1)

 

            “The special relationship is a ritual of form, aimed at raising the form to take the place of God at the expense of content.  There is no meaning in the form, and there will never be.”  (12:2-3)

 

            “See in the special relationship nothing more than a meaningless attempt to raise other gods before Him, and by worshipping them to obscure their tininess and His greatness.  In the name of your completion you do not want this.”  (13:1-2)

 

            “Salvation lies in the simple fact that illusions are not fearful because they are not true.”  (14:1)

 

            “The core of the separation illusion lies simply in the fantasy of destruction of love’s meaning.”  (15:1)

 

            “Separation is only the decision not to know yourself.  This whole thought system is a carefully contrived learning experience, designed to lead away from truth and into fantasy.”  (15:3-4)

 

            “The decision whether or not to listen to this course and follow it is but the choice between truth and illusion.”  (16:1)

 

            “How simple does this choice become when it is perceived as only what it is.”  (16:3)

 

            “This year is thus the time to make the easiest decision that ever confronted you, and also the only one.  You will cross the bridge into reality simply because you will recognize that God is on the other side, and nothing at all is here.  It is impossible not to make the natural decision as this is realized.”  (17:1-3)

 

In summary, section 5: “The Choice for Completion” is saying:

 

The ego is deceptive in its seeking for love.  It would have us seek out others for what the ego thinks they can give us – the unity we so desperately desire.  Those we find who share this goal with us then bind us equally to their own desire for false unity.  Then, we enter a “special relationship” with them; one in which it is understood that the other will pledge their special love only to us and ours to them.  It is a pledge of one body to another.  The ego desires to destroy the unity of love by claiming it can be separated into many and varied body-relationships.  This is a meaningless attempt to use our ego-body relationships to deny our one true relationship in Union with God’s Love.  And so, while we still find ourselves here within our ego-bodies, it is our task to heal all our special relationships through choosing to see beyond the body, understanding that each relationship is actually a love relationship completing God Himself.

 

VI. The Bridge to the Real World

 

            “The search for the special relationship is the sign that you equate yourself with the ego and not with God.”  (1:1)

 

            “Love is freedom.  To look for it by placing yourself in bondage is to separate yourself from it.”  (2:1-2)

 

            “As you release, so will you be released.”  (2:4)

 

            “The special relationship is totally meaningless without a body.”  (4:1)

 

            “The special relationship is a device for limiting your self to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to theirs.  The Great Rays would establish the total lack of value of the special relationship, if they were seen.  For in seeing them the body would disappear, because its value would be lost.”  (4:4-6)

 

            “You see the world you value.  On this side of the bridge you see the world of separate bodies, seeking to join each other in separate unions and to become one by losing.”  (5:1-2)

 

            “Across the bridge it is so different!  For a time the body is still seen, but not exclusively, as it is seen here.  The little spark that holds the Great Rays within it is also visible, and this spark cannot be limited long to littleness.”  (6:1-3)

 

            “The bridge itself is nothing more than a transition in the perspective of reality.”  (7:1)

 

            “Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality.  Time is kind, and if you use it on behalf of reality, it will keep gentle pace with you in your transition.”  (8:1-2)

 

            “The period of disorientation, which precedes the actual transition, is far shorter than the time it took to fix your mind so firmly on illusions.  Delay will hurt you now more than before, only because you realize it isdelay, and that escape from pain is really possible.”  (8:5-6)

 

            “Be glad you have escaped the mockery of salvation the ego offered you, and look not back with longing on the travesty it made of your relationships.”  (10:1)

 

            “And be you thankful that there is a place where truth and beauty wait for you.”  (10:6)

 

            “The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you: Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship which still attracts you, enter with Him into a holy instant, and there let Him release you.  He needs only your willingness to share His perspective to give it to you completely.”  (12:1-2)

 

In summary, section 6: “The Bridge to the Real World” is saying:

 

            The bridge to the real world is merely a shift in your perspective; a change in how you see your worldly relationships.  In order to make this transition, you must learn to see your relationships as the Holy Spirit sees them: Through the eyes of God’s way of loving us.  Therefore, make no demands of anyone, for love makes no demands.  It simply is, and this is freedom.  It neither needs nor takes.  Do not let the ego fool you into thinking that by demanding special love from anyone that you will find satisfaction.  You will only find suffering.  Let all those you love and care for deeply be released from all demands and you will free yourself with them – for a heart not bound by the need for someone else to fulfill it, is a heart that is free to love as God does – without condition.  Know this: The goal of any relationship is peace.  Peace can be found whether bodies are together or not.  In some instances, you may feel called to leave a bodily relationship in order to relate peacefully with them, and in other situations, letting go of your ego demands will be enough to set you both on the path to peace.  It is only through finding peace in our relationships with one another that we can cross the bridge to the real world and our relationship with God.  There we will no longer see bodies, but the Great Rays of love and light shining as the truth of Who We Are.

 

VII. The End of Illusions

 

            “It is impossible to let the past go without relinquishing the special relationship.”  (1:1)

 

            “Imagined slights, remembered pain, past disappointments, perceived injustices and depravations all enter into the special relationship, which becomes a way in which you seek to restore your wounded self-esteem.”  (1:3)

 

            “The special relationship takes vengeance on the past.  By seeking to remove suffering in the past, it overlooks the present in its preoccupation with the past and its total commitment to it.  No special relationship is experienced in the present.”  (2:1-3)

 

            “The past is nothing.  Do not seek to lay the blame for deprivation on it, for the past is gone.  You cannot really not let go what has already gone.  It must be, therefore, that you are maintaining the illusion that it has not gone because you think it serves some purpose that you want fulfilled.”  (2:8-11)

 

            “Do not underestimate the intensity of the ego’s drive for vengeance on the past.  It is completely savage and completely insane.  For the ego remembers everything you have done that has offended it, and seeks retribution of you.  The fantasies it brings to its chosen relationships in which to act out its hate are fantasies of your destruction.”  (3:1-4)

 

            “In the special relationship you are allowing your destruction to be.”  (3:7)

 

            “In the special relationship it does not seem to be an acting out of vengeance that you seek.  And even when the hatred and the savagery break briefly through, the illusion of love is not profoundly shaken.  Yet the one thing the ego never allows to reach awareness is that the special relationship is the acting out of vengeance on yourself.”  (5:1-3)

 

            “Against the ego’s insane notion of salvation the Holy Spirit gently lays the holy instant.”  (6:1)

 

“In the holy instant it is understood that the past is gone, and with its passing the drive for vengeance has been uprooted and has disappeared.  The stillness and the peace of now enfold you in perfect gentleness.  Everything is gone except the truth.”  (6:4-6)

 

            “What God has given you is truly given, and will be truly received.”  (8:1)

 

            “When He willed that His Son be free, His Son was free.  In the holy instant is His reminder that His Son will always be exactly as he was created.”  (8:6-7)

 

            “All that must be forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers.”  (9:2)

 

            “God holds nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of any kind.  Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them.”  (9:4-5)

 

            “Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true relationship with You, in which there are no illusions, and where none can ever enter.  Our holiness is Yours.  What can there be in us that needs forgiveness when Yours is perfect?  The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your forgiveness and Your Love.  Let us not wander into temptation, for the temptation of the Son of God is not Your Will.  And let us receive only what You have given, and accept but this into the minds which You created and which You love.  Amen.”  (12:1-7)

 

In summary, section 7: “The End of Illusions” is saying:

 

The special relationship revolves around our bodies; what we are doing with them and what we are saying with them.  The conflict that inevitably erupts from such interactions, is in truth, representative of the conflict within your own mind.  It is a mind that perceives itself as separate from all other minds.  Therefore, all conflict stems from your own mind.  This is what the ego would never have you know, for once understood, we would strive to make peace our only goal.  The body is ego’s chief illusion it holds against the memory of the truth of Who We Are.  In the holy instant, we forgive this illusion, knowing without seeing that it is not the truth – and this is true forgiveness.  For in the holy instant is everything associated with the body; every word and deed; let go of.  Nothing is held against anyone, for it is seen and known as merely nothing, for it originated from the illusion of our bodily identity, which is nothing.  In the holy instant, we become still, for we are at last living truly in the present moment of the truth of our Identity as One Love.  In this instant, truly, all illusions have been forgiven.

This concludes CHAPTER 16: THE FORGIVENESS OF ILLUSIONS

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