Time and Eternity – Patience: i want it now! Who is running out of time!?

“Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects.” (ACIM, T-5.VI.12:1)

Here are notes from an unrecorded presentation (given on July 25, 2021, via Zoom) for the Rocky Mountain Miracle Center (RMMC) headquartered in Denver, Colorado as part of their ongoing Sunday Gathering series. The Course-related topic: “Time and Eternity – Patience: i want it now! Who is running out of time!?”

“Eternity and peace are as closely related as are time and war.” (ACIM, T-5.III.8:13)

Below are the notes I prepared for this related RMMC talk:

Time and Space are 2 forms of the same “tiny mad idea” illusion in/of this world. We believe that we’re separated from each other and from God in both time and space!

“A sense of separation from God {in both time and space} is the only lack you really need correct. ²This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. ³The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. ⁴As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. ⁵Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.” (ACIM, T-1.VI.2:1-5)

A favorite fun quote about time:

“Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.”

Time

As egos, we all believe we don’t have enough time (anxiety, fear, uneasiness) or sometimes too much time (boredom) and probably lots of other maladaptive adjustments to that belief in time, stemming from the underlying belief in the ego; all of ego’s misuse of time stems from the fundamental correctable error that we believe we exist apart from our Creator and everyone else – a.k.a. “the separation” as the Course defines it.

There are 987 references to time in ACIM; here are a few:

This is a course in miracles. ²It is a required course. ³Only the time you take it is voluntary. ⁴Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. ⁵It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.” (ACIM, T-in.1:1-5)

“Each day should be devoted to miracles. ²The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. ³It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. ⁴Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning.” (ACIM, T-1.I.15:1-4)

“Miracles make minds one in God. ²They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. ³Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.” (ACIM, T-1.I.19:1-3)

“No man cometh unto the Father but by me” does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you except in time, and time does not really exist. (ACIM, T-1.II.4:1)

“The miracle minimizes the need for time. ²In horizontal plane the recognition of the equality of the members of the Sonship appears to involve almost endless time. ³However, the miracle entails a sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception. ⁴This introduces an interval from which the giver and receiver both emerge farther along in time than they would otherwise have been. ⁵The miracle thus has the unique property of abolishing time to the extent that it renders the interval of time it spans unnecessary. ⁶There is no relationship between the time a miracle takes and the time it covers. ⁷The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. ⁸It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of giver and receiver on which the miracle rests. ⁹The miracle shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. ¹⁰It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence.” (ACIM, T-1.II.6:1-10)“

The basic decision of the miracle-minded is not to wait on time any longer than is necessary. ²Time can waste as well as be wasted. ³The miracle worker, therefore, accepts the time-control factor gladly. ⁴He recognizes that every collapse of time brings everyone closer to the ultimate release from time, in which the Son and the Father are One. ⁵Equality does not imply equality now. ⁶When everyone recognizes that he has everything, individual contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary.” (ACIM, T-1.V.2:1-6)

“The idea of orders of need, which follows from the original error that one can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. ²You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels. ³However, while you do, correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up. ⁴This is because you think you live in space, where concepts such as “up” and “down” are meaningful. ⁵Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. ⁶Both are merely beliefs.” (ACIM, T-1.VI.3:1-6) (edited)

Eternity

Our real, eternal being – the one we ALL share – is outside of and beyond the dream of space-time, as well as any form, including any and all specifics such as quarks, quasars, and everything in between we would recognize as bodies, “heavenly” or worldly. Our eternal being has nothing to do with duality, polarity, the belief in separation, suffering substitution, or specialness – a few favorite placeholder words for “sin” that all have the letters s, i, and n in them. There is no individuality or need for it in the perfect Oneness that is our true eternal, all-encompassing Home in the Mind of God. However, because our belief in time – and every “thing” the ego made up is so pervasive and ubiquitous, we are given a slow “undo” curriculum in ACIM that helps us release our erroneous and correctable beliefs at whatever pace each seeming individual is comfortable with, so as not to plunge us deeper into fear.

“Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality. ²Time is kind, and if you use it on behalf of reality, it will keep gentle pace with you in your transition.” (ACIM, T-16.VI.8:1-2)

(Aside: I couldn’t find any graphical symbols for eternity, so an infinity symbol took its place in the graphic for this post; kudos to Plato – and ACIM! – for reminding us that our real nature is beyond symbols or metaphors of any kind, so please excuse the “placeholder” symbol of infinity – also beyond ego comprehension – for eternity. :-)

There are 334 references to eternity in ACIM; here are a few:

“Delay is of the ego, because time is its concept. ²Both time and delay are meaningless in eternity. ³I have said before that the Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the ego. ⁴Everything of which the Holy Spirit reminds you is in direct opposition to the ego’s notions, because true and false perceptions are themselves opposed. ⁵The Holy Spirit has the task of undoing what the ego has made. ⁶He undoes it at the same level on which the ego operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change.
6. I have repeatedly emphasized that one level of the mind is not understandable to another. ²So it is with the ego and the Holy Spirit; with time and eternity. ³Eternity is an idea of God, so the Holy Spirit understands it perfectly. ⁴Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which is the ego’s domain, accepts it without question. ⁵The only aspect of time that is eternal is now.”
(ACIM, T-5.III.5:1–6:5)

“Eternity and peace are as closely related as are time and war.” (ACIM, T-5.III.8:13)

“You who are part of God are not at home except in His peace. ⁸If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity.” (ACIM, T-5.III.10:7-8)

Patient and Patience

The word patient has 94 instances (mainly in the Psychotherapy supplement and others in the Manual) use patient as a noun, rather than an adjective) Wordplay might be helpful: in order to TRUST (be patient while we seem to not experience the desired outcome – because we’re fixated on the dream world of space-time), we need to be a patient of HS’s healing forgiveness classroom.

The word patience has 27 instances in ACIM.
This quote is quintessential both for the word patience, but also for the entire Course itself:

“One child of God is the only teacher sufficiently worthy to teach another. ²One Teacher is in all minds and He teaches the same lesson to all. ³He always teaches you the inestimable worth of every Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the infinite Love for which He speaks. ⁴Every attack is a call for His patience, since His patience can translate attack into blessing. ⁵Those who attack do not know they are blessed. ⁶They attack because they believe they are deprived. ⁷Give, therefore, of your abundance, and teach your brothers theirs. ⁸Do not share their illusions of scarcity, or you will perceive yourself as lacking.” (ACIM, T-7.VII.7:1-8)

For the remainder of this presentation, we took turns reading aloud and discussing a paragraph at a time from Time and Eternity (ACIM, T-5.VI). Here are the first 3 paragraphs of that section which covers these topics in more depth:

2. Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. ²They induce fears of retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future will be like the past. ³This is the ego’s continuity. ⁴It gives the ego a false sense of security by believing that you cannot escape from it. ⁵But you can and must. ⁶God offers you the continuity of eternity in exchange. ⁷When you choose to make this exchange, you will simultaneously exchange guilt for joy, viciousness for love, and pain for peace. ⁸My role is only to unchain your will and set it free. ⁹Your ego cannot accept this freedom, and will oppose it at every possible moment and in every possible way. ¹⁰And as its maker, you recognize what it can do because you gave it the power to do it.

RMMC has an abundance of excellent local (Denver-area) ACIM teachers, including, but not limited to current and prior contributors: Doug Sparks, Lyn Corona, Tim Wise, Susan Dugan, Barnes Knowles, Lillian Paes, Sue Wiggins, Whitney W., and Charles Lang.