Lesson 38: There is nothing my holiness cannot do.

Feb 7 (edited) in Feed

💡 Welcome to another fundamental lesson among the 50 Mighty (the first 50 😉), dear friends! This is another of these lessons Kenneth urges us not to take on the physical level, even if the language used makes it tempting. We always have to keep in mind that ACIM is a non-dualistic teaching using dualistic language to point us to the truth.

💡 True to this fact, today's idea could have been phrased as "There is nothing my holiness cannot do. And I need do nothing". With Jesus, remember, the emphasis is always on the level of the mind and not on the behavioral level involving the body, as this passage from the textbook reminds us (there is a whole chapter on the 'I need do nothing' subject):

📘 "“I need do nothing” is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. ⁸Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation. To do anything involves the body. ²And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body’s value from your mind. "(ACIM, T-18.VII.6:7–7:2)

🧩 BEYOND TIME: CHOOSING THE HOLY INSTANT

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📘 "Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. ²It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind." (ACIM, W-38.1:1-2)

💡 This first statement of the lesson establishes our holiness outside the restrictions of time and space, beyond separation that is always conditioned by them. In the following passage, Kenneth reminds us how sin, guilt, and fear are always time-related and why holiness overwrites them:

🔎 “This is because your holiness resides in your right mind, accessed by choosing the holy instant in which you are joined with Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This means there is no separation, and so there can be no sin, guilt, or fear. If there is no sin, there is no past; if there is no guilt, there is no present; and if there is no fear, there is no future. In other words, there is no time in the holy instant. Moreover, if there is no thought of separation from God, there is no body. To cite a previously cited statement from the text: “At no single instant [i.e., the holy instant] does the body exist at all” (T-18.VII.3:1). Thus holiness is completely outside time and space. ” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 118.

💡 So when we choose to join Jesus or the Holy Spirit in our minds, we join them in the holy instant, a concept we're going to talk about more and more from now on. We join them in the holy instant each time we correct ourselves during the day and choose another way. This is not to be understood as an esoteric happening that only touches a few chosen unicorns once every blue moon. Choosing the holy instant is simply what we do as students of the workbook when we correct our thoughts and join with Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

🧩 ACCEPTING THE ATONEMENT: A CORRECTING AND A REMEMBERING PROCESS

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💡 The idea of the holy instant is indistinguishable from another new concept hinted at in this first paragraph. Let's have a look at the idea of the atonement:

📘 "Your holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it establishes you as a Son of God, at one with the Mind of his Creator." (ACIM, W-38.1:3)

💡 The idea of being "at one" with the Mind of God is the atonement (at-one-ment) idea. In truth, we are at one with our Creator whether we are aware of it or not. That's why in The Course, the idea is usually referred to as 'accepting the atonement'. It refers to the moment (the holy instant) in our mind when we consciously choose to deny the idea of separation we previously believed in—and the guilt that comes with it—, thus restoring our oneness with Source. The atonement is a correcting and a remembering process. The remembering that the separation isn't real and never happened. It's when we see ourselves as dreamers dreaming a dream but no longer enthralled by it. It is nothing more than the correction of an erroneous thought.

🧩 MORE MISUNDERSTANDING: FORM/CONTENT - BODY/MIND

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📘 "Through your holiness the power of God is made manifest. ²Through your holiness the power of God is made available. ³And there is nothing the power of God cannot do." (ACIM, W-38.2:1-3)

💡 This statement provides us with the opportunity to dispel more of the misunderstandings that, Kenneth says, have plagued our recollection of Jesus's miracles as reported by the gospels:

🔎 “For two thousand years the miracle stories in the gospels have been regarded as testimony of the power of God: Jesus can heal the sick, raise the dead, turn water into wine, and resurrect in the flesh. This represents a total misunderstanding of what Jesus taught. It is interesting to observe students of A Course in Miracles who are trying to get away from their Christian upbringing making the same mistake of confusing form and content, body and mind: the confusion of levels that early in the text Jesus discusses as the cause of all sickness (T-2.IV.2).” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 118.

💡 So when we read a lesson such as today's lesson, we should always keep in mind the difference between the level of 'form' that deals with the body, and the level of 'content' that deals with the mind. When we bear this important distinction, we can understand that the power of God mentioned in the lessons always refers to the holiness found in our minds, not our bodies nor what can be done with them.

🔎 “Jesus is therefore not talking about what your body will do, because when you identify with the power of God and your holiness, you realize that the body is simply a figment in your imagination, a figure in your dream. We are all figures in a dream in which the body literally does nothing, and we can liken it to a puppet that is nothing more than a lifeless piece of wood.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 118.

💡 As we will see in the coming lessons, our attachement to the physical world and our bodies is one of the most persistent illusions this mind training will attempt to cure.

🧩 FOCUSSING ON THE CAUSE, NOT THE EFFECT

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📘 "Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. ⁵It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else. ⁶It is equal in its power to help anyone because it is equal in its power to save anyone." (ACIM, W-38.2:4-6)

💡 Yet again, this kind of statement could be misleading. Anything and anyone can heal, but not by healing the issues at the level they were created, so not physically, but at the level of the mind. Because all illusions—' there is no hierarchy of illusions' —stem from the one illusion of separation, all can be dispelled by the one truth that we were never apart and always one with God. Hence the first principle of miracles:

📘 "There is no order of difficulty in miracles. ²One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. ³They are all the same." (ACIM, T-1.I.1:1-3)

🔎 “It cannot be emphasized too often that A Course in Miracles is concerned only with the cause of the world—the mind—and not the effect—the world. That is why Jesus makes this important statement in the text: “This is a course in cause and not effect” (T-21.VII.7:8). Thus when we ask Jesus to help end our physical or emotional pain, or to solve an external problem, we are bringing his truth into our illusion. Sometimes the problem is resolved and sometimes it is not, but involving Jesus in our external problems only glorifies specialness, the exact opposite of what he is teaching us to correct.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 119.

🧩 DOING THE 'WORK':

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📘 "If you are holy, so is everything God created. ²You are holy because all things He created are holy. ³And all things He created are holy because you are. ⁴In today’s exercises, we will apply the power of your holiness to all problems, difficulties or suffering in any form that you happen to think of, in yourself or in someone else. ⁵We will make no distinctions because there are no distinctions." (ACIM, W-38.3:1-5)

💡 This paragraph and the ones following are concerned with the application of what we've just discussed. It takes us to the nitty-gritty of applying the lessons to every upsetting situation, person, or thought we encounter in our day-to-day lives. With the now familiar recommendation not to make any distinction because, as we've seen, 'there is no hierarchy of illusions'.

💡 The idea is to be mindful of our emotional feedback system. Every time we feel less than perfectly at peace, it means we are living under the ego's rules. This is our clue that we are denying ourselves, our brothers and sisters our innate holiness. And it is then our opportunity to choose again, to shift our perspective, to reclaim what is everyone's birthright—our holiness—as seen yesterday, and to extend it to all— 'minds are joined'—by accepting it for ourselves.

💙🪄 Lots of love your way 🪄💙

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** My comment on this lesson follows my studying of the in-depth comment of the same lesson by Kenneth Wapnick in his published work, Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles". While it may sometimes contain my thoughts on it, it is essentially my humble take and summary of the masterful work of Kenneth. I share them here in the hope that someone might find them helpful.

** I also share, in these ACIM posts, the wallpaper images that I use on my phone and change every day to help me commit to my lesson, in the hope that some might enjoy them as well. Here is the link to a Dropbox folder where you can download the lessons's wallpaper for mobile I have uploaded so far.

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