In this YouTube video, Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read and talked about “I need do nothing“ from the Text of A Course In Miracles. We can find helpful insights by looking at each of the four words of this simple sentence:
- I – If we’re identified (as a decision-making mind) with the little “s” self as I (the personal ego self) our peace of mind is guaranteed to be lost and we will flounder around aimlessly.
- need – Need is a tip-off reminder that Holy Spirit is being ignored since our real identity has no needs, being complete, healed and whole in eternity, despite our ephemeral dreams.
- do – This usually implies doing something in the world of form, which typically involves our anxiety over wanting to make our space time dreams better in our estimation.
- nothing – This is actually the sum total of what our silly seemingly separate selves add up to: zero, zip, nada, nuthin! – because in our dream of isolation, our divided identity cancels out the strength of our intrinsic Oneness; fortunately, our real identity is restored as we forgive ourselves for this misconception and our real Shared Identity is restored when we stop actively pushing it away. – Doing anything with ego seems to accomplish this banishment of peace, but we always can gently relaxing into the comfort that Holy Spirit in every troubled mind happily reinstates. That peace was never was lost.
“Needing” to defend anything is another clue that we’re not trusting our Inner Kindness Teacher and the results will not bring us peace. Dropping our obsessions with personal needs (at the expense of our real shared interests) does restore our minds to the quiet center referred to in the last paragraph of the section.
Here are the first 3 paragraphs from this section:
“1. You still have too much faith in the body as a source of strength.²What plans do you make that do not involve its comfort or protection or enjoyment in some way?³This makes the body an end and not a means in your interpretation, and this always means you still find sin attractive.⁴No one accepts Atonement for himself who still accepts sin as his goal.⁵You have thus not met your one responsibility.⁶Atonement is not welcomed by those who prefer pain and destruction.
2. There is one thing that you have never done; you have not utterly forgotten the body.²It has perhaps faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared.³You are not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of Atonement happens.⁴Afterwards you will see the body again, but never quite the same.⁵And every instant that you spend without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.
3. At no single instant does the body exist at all.²It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now.³Only its past and future make it seem real.⁴Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present.⁵In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided.⁶It has no attraction now.⁷Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future.”
Looking at the shoulds, oughts and magic of our “needs” can also give us plenty of material to see where we’ve crossed the line from being normal and attending to the world without making big deals … to invoking the “need” to be unfairly treated and making a federal case about the fleeting trivia of our lives, elevating specialness above peace.
Catching these clues (and asking Holy Spirit for help ASAP) can metaphorically prevent a few rolling snowflakes from becoming an avalanche of drama (or as Ken Wapnick reminds us in one of his programs, sturm und drang.)
We’re all working toward the constant state of undivided loyalty to Truth. Letting go – of our compulsive “need” to continue down the hopeless messy paths we’ve blazed on our own – is so helpful. We just need to – as always – notice how we feel and when we’ve left the quiet center and ask for the mental restorative provided by forgiving ourselves for projecting our non-existent problems onto maladaptive nightmarish solutions. As the Beatles said, paraphrased here from the “Yellow Submarine” song: “Everyone of us (the all-encompassing being that has never separated from it’s source) is all we need.
(This video was recorded on September 23, 2023.)
If you have questions or comments about this video, previous videos in this ACIM-related video series, or other Course-related topics, please email them to us via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!
If you are interested in Susan’s excellent weekly Tuesday evening classes based on the teachings of Kenneth Wapnick, you can contact her here.
Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.
We like to remind those who have enjoyed these conversations to check out the latest releases from FACIM as well as support the work of Susan and Bruce (via PayPal links at the bottom of the sidebars on their respective websites) if you feel inspired to do so. THANKS!