An overview of the world we live in
Our physical body and ego live in the world of time. They will eventually cease to exist. Our Spiritual Being lives in the unseen Spiritual world. It is eternal, and has always existed. In the foundation for inner peace version of Course on page 10 of the preface it explains the difference between the two worlds.
“This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. It can be unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that God created, and only what He created is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and process. It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely is.
The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.”
Everything in this world is hard. Birth is hard for children as they are born into it, and it’s not any easier for their mothers. Furthermore, except for a select few of us, it never gets much better. The foundation for inner peace version of A Course in Miracles Chapter 13, page 236, paragraphs 2 and 3, contains the most eloquent statements I’ve seen regarding the state of the world.
“The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.
If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. Love does not kill to save. If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego’s interpretation, not God’s. Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of it. Adam’s “sin” could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who drove him out of Paradise. For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost, since only those who do not understand Him could believe it.”
That’s the world we’re born into. We strive for success according to the world’s standards. We go through school, obtain employment, and start a family. We do these things and more, seeking happiness. But none of them bring happiness because this is not the real world. Without the knowledge of the real world that Course gives its students we will go through this life seeking what cannot be obtained. Here are several paragraphs from Course, which speak eloquently of the choices the world offers us. They are all from the foundation for inner peace version. The first one is from the text, page 653, paragraph 2. The second one is from page 222 of the text, paragraph 9. The last one is from the workbook, lesson 131, page 239, paragraph 1.
“Real choice is no illusion. But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. There is no choice in its alternatives. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped. Be not deceived by all the different names its roads are given. They have but one end. And each is but the means to gain that end, for it is here that all its roads will lead, however differently they seem to start; however differently they seem to go. Their end is certain, for there is no choice among them. All of them will lead to death. On some you travel gaily for a while, before the bleakness enters. And on some the thorns are felt at once. The choice is not what will the ending be, but when it comes.”
“The world you perceive is a world of separation. Perhaps you are willing to accept even death to deny your Father. Yet He would not have it so, and so it is not so. You still cannot will against Him, and that is why you have no control over the world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws,” and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.”
“Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where there is none, for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is the setting of his searching, and the place to which he comes to find stability?”
Now I will give you some Course materials to help you see the world differently. They are all from the foundation for inner peace version. The first one is lesson 129 from the workbook. The others are from the text, pages 448 and 463. As you read the ones from pages 448 and 463 they might seem familiar. That’s because they form the basis for every positive thinking course I’ve read or listened to in the last twenty years.
LESSON 129
Beyond this world there is a world I want
This is the thought that follows from the one we practiced yesterday. You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see that there is something else to hope for, you will only be depressed. Our emphasis is not of giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you peace. Think you this world can offer that to you?
It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end.
Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible; where love endures forever, hate cannot exist and vengeance has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they have no ending and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time? Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood.
Communication, unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. And God Himself speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him. Their language has no words, for what They say cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is direct and wholly shared and wholly one. How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. And yet how near are you, when you exchange it for the world you want.
Now is the last step certain; now you stand an instant’s space away from timelessness. Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the world you do not want. Here is the world that comes to take its place, as you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you prisoner. Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.
Such is the choice. What loss can be for you in choosing not to value nothingness? This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits but for your choosing it, to take the place of all the things you seek but do not want.
Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning and at night, and once more in between. Begin with this:
Beyond this world there is a world I want. I choose
to see that world instead of this, for here is nothing
that I really want.
Then close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness watch the lights that are not of this world light one by one, until where one begins another ends loses all meaning as they blend in one.
Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is light your eyes can not behold. And yet your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. A day of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.
Now do we understand there is no loss. For we have seen its opposite at last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. Remember your decision hourly, and take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by whatever thoughts you have, and dwelling briefly only upon this:
The world I see holds nothing that I want.
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
Before I continue with the lessons from pages 448 and 463 I want to comment on lesson 129 and what I learned from it. I was going through a bad time in my life when I took an interest in Course. I read lesson 129 and for some reason took it upon myself to memorize the second paragraph.
The way I memorized it was to write it from memory on a legal tablet until I could write it correctly, down to the punctuation and the spelling, or recite it. For some reason it was a source of comfort and joy, although when you read the words for the first time it doesn’t seem that way. But I found comfort in it. No longer did I have to worry about the world and all the bad things that were happening to me at the time. The world was just a bad place, and that’s the way it was. No longer did I have to be concerned that I had offended the Christian God of mercy in some unknown way and He was dumping on me. God didn’t dump on anyone, that’s just the way it was.
I had that paragraph committed to memory for over a year and then I was reading it one day when I had a major insight. Before I had the insight I just thought the world was a bad place because it said so. Please note the sentences I highlighted with blue color in the lesson. I read the first sentence and all of a sudden it just flashed into my mind. It doesn’t say the world is, I thought to myself, it says the world you see.
What’s the difference, you might ask? If it said, “The world is,” that would be a statement of fact. But it says “The world you see,” and that’s not a statement of fact, that’s your perception of the world. To illustrate my point let’s take two examples from the world of nature.
Suppose you go to a swamp and bring home a jar of water. If you look at it under a microscope you would see all kinds of life forms feeding on each other. Yet you would not think of this as a harsh and cruel environment, you would realize that’s just the way in is within this microscopic world.
For our next example imagine you could have an overall view of the universe. That’s impossible of course, because the universe is infinite. But if you could have that view you would not see the neat posters they have in bookstores. You would see complete total chaos of worlds being born, and worlds dying. Indeed, you would witness whole galaxies being born and ceasing to exist. It would be more spectacular than any fireworks show you could imagine.
That’s the way it is in our world. What we think of as a harsh cruel world is no such thing. It’s just what exists.
The bottom line is you have no control over it anyway and there’s nothing you can do about the state of the world. But here are some examples of what you can do about how you live in the world.
Example 1. You don’t like our government-sponsored wars. Then just don’t participate. If you have a military aged son or daughter make sure they know the folly of enlisting and participating. Since we haven’t had a draft for a number of years you don’t have to fight in our wars unless you really want to.
Example 2. You’re concerned about the perceived crime rate. That’s understandable. Then make sure you receive a good education, buy a home in a low crime area, and if you’re still worried about crime buy a home alarm, and a gun, and a large dog.
Example 3. You read the headlines, and wonder whatever are we to do about the increase in illegal drug use. If others want to use drugs there’s nothing you can do about it. Just make sure you don’t use them yourself.
Here’s the last thing you can do about it. It’s what I do. I no longer see a world that is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with me, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. I just see a world that is what it is. Those qualities are the ones I would see through the eyes of perception. But now that I’ve been a Course student for a while I see the world in a different way.
The other sentence I’ve highlighted states, “This is the world of time, where all things end.” That’s a statement of fact, as opposed to the sentence, “the world you see,” which is a statement of your perception.
In summation that’s all the world is. It isn’t merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It’s only the world of time, where all things end.
Now we will look at the paragraphs on pages 448 and 463. The chapter appropriately enough is called The Responsibility for Sight. Here’s the paragraph from page 448.
This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you. Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:
I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide
upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.
Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear.
Here’s the second one from page 463.
Yet hate must have a target. There can be no faith in sin without an enemy. Who that believes in sin would dare believe he has no enemy? Could he admit that no one made him powerless? Reason would surely bid him seek no longer what is not there to find. Yet first he must be willing to perceive a world where it is not. It is not necessary that he understand how he can see it. Nor should he try. For if he focuses on what he cannot understand, he will but emphasize his helplessness, and let sin tell him that his enemy must be himself. But let him only ask himself these questions, which he must decide, to have it done for him:
Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me?
Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of
helpless?
Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and
cannot sin?
And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?
The above paragraphs are the short version of every positive thinking course I’ve seen in the last 20 years. The main difference is A Course in Miracles cost about $32. These tape and CD courses cost hundreds. And Course is just as effective.
I will now address the subject of material wealth and our striving for it. To say the United States is the land of conspicuous consumption is an understatement. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it is all coming to an end. As of this date, July 11, 2008, a gallon of gasoline costs almost $5 a gallon. Our lives will change in many ways over the next ten years. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can become familiar with Course teachings and that will lead to a better world. I have a different way of seeing the world and it’s material wealth. I can walk the streets of the most exclusive shopping districts, and they just look like junkyards to me. The stuff they sell is unneeded, overpriced, and in most cases you can buy something that works just as well for a small fraction of the price they charge. As an example you can buy an expensive diamond ring for $25,000 or a fake that you can’t tell from the real thing at a glance for $12 or so. They both serve the same purpose. You can spend $100,000 for a car, or $10,000. They both transport you to where you are going.
I have two quick stories to tell about the absurdity of the amount of material goods we have in this day and age and then we will see what Course has to say.
I have a physical body and an ego and I occupy space in the world of time, as everyone else does. I also have an excess of material possessions. The absurdity of this became apparent when I moved into my Aunt and Uncles home to care-take it after they both passed away. They were over 80 and my Uncle was a pharmacist, so he earned a high salary. It wasn’t a large house by today’s standards, but it was typical for the era it was built in. It had two bedrooms, a dining area, a living room, and a fair size kitchen. It also had a full basement and a two-car garage. They lived in it for over 40 years and it was large enough for them, so it should have been large enough for one person. The house has five closets. They weren’t the bedroom size walk-in closets everyone has these days, but they were typical size closets for the houses of that era. When I moved in I promptly filled all five of them with my stuff. I took a long look at that and asked myself, how is it that 50 years ago whole families lived in these houses and one closet was big enough for each of them, or in many cases a man and wife shared one closet, and I’ve managed to fill all five of these? That’s when the absurdity of my situation struck me, and I realized I just had too much stuff.
The other thing I saw back in the Midwest was the cars were all parked outside, even though everyone had garages. I didn’t really think much about it until one day we had an ice storm. I went outside, and everyone’s car was covered with an inch of ice, which had to be scraped off, before they could be driven anywhere. Then it dawned on me. These people couldn’t park their cars in the garage because the garages were full of stuff. They weren’t garages at all; they were storage areas.
The next lesson about the value of this world is from the foundation for inner peace version paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of the text, page 254.
Chapter 13: THE GUILTLESS WORLD
VII. Attainment of the Real World
Sit quietly and look upon the world you see, and tell yourself: “The real world is not like this. It has no buildings and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim. There is no loss. Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever.”
The world you see must be denied, for sight of it is costing you a different kind of vision. You cannot see both worlds, for each of them involves a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish. The sight of one is possible because you have denied the other. Both are not true, yet either one will seem as real to you as the amount to which you hold it dear. And yet their power is not the same, because their real attraction to you is unequal.
You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed you since time began. The homes you built have never sheltered you. The roads you made have led you nowhere, and no city that you built has withstood the crumbling assault of time. Nothing you made but has the mark of death upon it. Hold it not dear, for it is old and tired and ready to return to dust even as you made it. This aching world has not the power to touch the living world at all. You could not give it that, and so although you turn in sadness from it, you cannot find in it the road that leads away from it into another world.
I will close this chapter with Lesson 128 from the workbook of the foundation for inner peace version.
LESSON 128
The world I see holds nothing that I want.
Paragraph 1. The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. No one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave the world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.
Paragraph 2. Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose you have given it, until you see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see holds nothing that you want.
Paragraph 3. Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. For what you value you make part of you as you perceive yourself. All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.
Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world holds anything you want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish. Nothing here is worth one instant of delay and pain; one moment of uncertainty and doubt. The worthless offer nothing. Certainty of worth cannot be found in worthlessness.
Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world. We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams. We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were. Thus do we lift the chains that bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.
Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while. It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.
Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before. Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little, every time you let your mind escape its chains. The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.
Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, but tell yourself with quiet certainty:
This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see holds nothing that I want.
I will close this chapter on two notes. The first item will be a way to de-clutter your life. I’ve utilized it and found it effective. Set aside fifteen minutes a day and commit either paragraph one or two from lesson 128 to memory. The best way to do this is to write it down as best you can and after a time you will have it committed to memory. You will be able to either write it or recite it. After you have done that you will find you no longer value all of the junk you’ve collected over the years, and it will disappear as if by magic.
The second note I want to close on is that lessons 128 and 129 go together. Lesson 128 tells us not to value the world, but we also need lesson 129 because it tells us there is a better world waiting for us. So do them both together.
RR-ESM