Lesson 19: I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
Here’s an unorthodox idea: “cause and effect are never separate”.
It doesn’t matter if it seems we think first or perceive first or see first. If we’re align with fear thoughts, the effect of fear will be its cause: fear.
If we’re aligned with Love thoughts, the effect of Love will be its cause: Love.
Fear causes fear. The effect is fear. Love causes Love. The effect is Love.
Next, Jesus hits us with “minds are joined” and rightly notes that this seems to carry an “enormous sense of responsibility” and possibly a sense of an “invasion of privacy”. We have resistance to the FACT (not just an idea — Jesus states it is a fact) that minds are joined.
As Course students, we are discovering that, unconsciously, we have chosen to know ourselves as individuals, separate from God Mind. This choice went underground the unholy instant we pursued it because the ego distorts our natural function of extension of Love in God Mind to projection of fear whilst in ego mind. There is an ego law that whatever we hurl away from ourself (project) erases our conscious knowing of what came before the projection.
That is why we do not remember how we came to be in our current state, believing we are people in a (mostly threatening and dangerous, but sometimes beautiful) dualistic world.
Jesus also reassures us in Lesson 19 that “salvation must be possible because it is the Will of God”. The salvation that Jesus offers us in the ACIM workbook helps us understand that we are not alone in experiencing the effects of our thoughts because our thoughts determine our seeing. If we see through the Holy Spirit’s Light filter, we experience our brothers as Light-filled because we have joined minds.
The Truth is streamed through us (the miracle promised in A Course in Miracles) and reflected back to us. If we see through the ego’s dark filter, we experience our brothers as separate and every man for himself; that distorted seeing and experiencing is why we have come for salvation.
The radical teaching of A Course in Miracles trains the mind to relax and question every idea and value we have ever held. First, we need to excavate the unconscious dark thinking of which we’ve been unaware. We have resistance to this. Often, we are unaware of our resistance. This is the challenge: to follow Jesus’ instructions in the Introduction to the workbook:
“You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do so. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.”
Also:
“A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.”
If you haven’t read the text, I fill in some of the blanks for you in these commentaries on the lessons. I, myself, did the workbook first. Along the way, during that first year with A Course in Miracles, I dipped into the text and read the Manual for Teachers.
Eventually (and it took years), I worked my way through the text and the supplemental pamphlets (Song of Prayer: Prayer, Forgiveness, Healing, and Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice). The amount of time it takes to move through the workbook and the text does not matter. All that matters is that you are willing to practice and cultivate a relationship with your Inner Teacher (called Holy Spirit in ACIM).
