In light of tomorrow’s total solar eclipse across some parts of the USA, we thought it might be helpful to shift our attention to the mind, particularly the decision-making part of our mind that constantly chooses between ego’s obscuring insanity and our Inner Kindness Teacher’s unveiling illumination: we’re talking about the way our egos seemingly “eclipse” our real Selves as dark impostors, obscuring and hiding the light of our unchanging innocence beyond space-time and dualistic dreams. The myriad forms the obscuring bodies appear to take that seem to eclipse our Creator (and our real unending kinship with each other) are merely forgivable projections within our ego-identified minds. Yet, to escape our fearful dreams, we must look at the situations we appear to be in within the light of the Holy Spirit’s steadfast exposure of the sin-guilt-fear-death paradigm propaganda that the ego keeps trying to deflect, avoid, deny, and obscure its sabotage of peace. Ego’s competitive ugliness is undone when we wake up from its nightmare of inequality, differences, and duality by forgiving each specific, special substitute for serenity. Every grave grievance gives way to the light of levity when we utilize these classroom materials for forgiveness.
“Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. ²And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. ³The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. ⁴The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. ⁵Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. ⁶Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.”(ACIM, T-21.I.8:1-6)
“Nothing and no one outside myself can make me hate myself or take my peace away. If I’m feeling anything but love and peace, I’m choosing it.” – Susan Dugan
“You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?” – The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (quoted on page 192 of The Geometry Code: Universal Symbolic Mirrors of Natural Laws Within Us; Friendly Reminders of Inclusion to Forgive the Dreamer of Separation by Bruce Rawles; other great Wizard of Oz quotes are in Jackie Lora Jones excellent book: All Peace, No Pieces)
Here are the first 4 paragraphs from Light in the Dream (ACIM, T-18.III) that we read aloud and commented on:
“1. You who have spent your life in bringing truth to illusion, reality to fantasy, have walked the way of dreams. ²For you have gone from waking to sleeping, and on and on to a yet deeper sleep. ³Each dream has led to other dreams, and every fantasy that seemed to bring a light into the darkness but made the darkness deeper. ⁴Your goal was darkness, in which no ray of light could enter. ⁵And you sought a blackness so complete that you could hide from truth forever, in complete insanity. ⁶What you forgot was simply that God cannot destroy Himself. ⁷The light is in you. ⁸Darkness can cover it, but cannot put it out.
2. As the light comes nearer you will rush to darkness, shrinking from the truth, sometimes retreating to the lesser forms of fear, and sometimes to stark terror. ²But you will advance, because your goal is the advance from fear to truth. ³The goal you accepted is the goal of knowledge, for which you signified your willingness. ⁴Fear seems to live in darkness, and when you are afraid you have stepped back. ⁵Let us then join quickly in an instant of light, and it will be enough to remind you that your goal is light.
3. Truth has rushed to meet you since you called upon it. ²If you knew Who walks beside you on the way that you have chosen, fear would be impossible. ³You do not know because the journey into darkness has been long and cruel, and you have gone deep into it. ⁴A little flicker of your eyelids, closed so long, has not yet been sufficient to give you confidence in yourself, so long despised. ⁵You go toward love still hating it, and terribly afraid of its judgment upon you. ⁶And you do not realize that you are not afraid of love, but only of what you have made of it. ⁷You are advancing to love’s meaning, and away from all illusions in which you have surrounded it. ⁸When you retreat to the illusion your fear increases, for there is little doubt that what you think it means is fearful. ⁹Yet what is that to us who travel surely and very swiftly away from fear?
4. You who hold your brother’s hand also hold mine, for when you joined each other you were not alone. ²Do you believe that I would leave you in the darkness that you agreed to leave with me? ³In your relationship is this world’s light. ⁴And fear must disappear before you now. ⁵Be tempted not to snatch away the gift of faith you offered to your brother. ⁶You will succeed only in frightening yourself. ⁷The gift is given forever, for God Himself received it. ⁸You cannot take it back. ⁹You have accepted God. ¹⁰The holiness of your relationship is established in Heaven. ¹¹You do not understand what you accepted, but remember that your understanding is not necessary. ¹²All that was necessary was merely the wish to understand. ¹³That wish was the desire to be holy. ¹⁴The Will of God is granted you. ¹⁵For you [decision-making mind] desire the only thing you ever had, or ever were.”
Related Course quotes, most of which we referenced in this conversation in one way or another:
“Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light. ²And by projecting it the world seems dark, and shrouded in your guilt. ³You throw a dark veil over it, and cannot see it because you cannot look within. ⁴You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is not there. ⁵The thing you fear is gone. ⁶If you would look within you would see only the Atonement, shining in quiet and in peace upon the altar to your Father.” (ACIM, T-13.IX.7:1-6)
“This world you seem to live in is not home to you. ²And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. ³A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. ⁴Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. ⁵Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. ⁶Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.” (ACIM, W-182.1:1-6)
“You need not fear the Higher Court will condemn you. ²It will merely dismiss the case against you. ³There can be no case against a child of God, and every witness to guilt in God’s creations is bearing false witness to God Himself. ⁴Appeal everything you believe gladly to God’s Own Higher Court, because it speaks for Him and therefore speaks truly. ⁵It will dismiss the case against you, however carefully you have built it up. ⁶The case may be fool-proof, but it is not God-proof. ⁷The Holy Spirit will not hear it, because He can only witness truly. ⁸His verdict will always be “thine is the Kingdom,” because He was given to you to remind you of what you are.” (ACIM, T-5.VI.10:1-8)
“Son of God, you have not sinned, but you have been much mistaken. ²Yet this can be corrected and God will help you, knowing that you could not sin against Him. ³You denied Him because you loved Him, knowing that if you recognized your love for Him, you could not deny Him. ⁴Your denial of Him therefore means that you love Him, and that you know He loves you. ⁵Remember that what you deny you must have once known. ⁶And if you accept denial, you can accept its undoing.” (ACIM, T-10.V.6:1-6)
“Justice, like its opposite, is an interpretation. ²It is, however, the one interpretation that leads to truth. ³This becomes possible because, while it is not true in itself, justice includes nothing that opposes truth. ⁴There is no inherent conflict between justice and truth; one is but the first small step in the direction of the other. ⁵The path becomes quite different as one goes along. ⁶Nor could all the magnificence, the grandeur of the scene and the enormous opening vistas that rise to meet one as the journey continues, be foretold from the outset. ⁷Yet even these, whose splendor reaches indescribable heights as one proceeds, fall short indeed of all that wait when the pathway ceases and time ends with it. ⁸But somewhere one must start. ⁹Justice is the beginning.” (ACIM, M-19.2:1-9)
(This video was recorded on April 6, 2024.)
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!
