ACIM is an indirect “Not No” curriculum; we don’t need to say yes to Spirit any more than a water molecule in the ocean needs to say yes to the ocean. However, we do have to drop (pun intended) our molecule (identity) habit!
Because the Course meets us where we think we’re at – a silly seemingly separate self swimming in a sea of specialness and substitutions – much of the practice involves seeing our misinterpretations through HS’s forgiveness; vaporizing the made-up guilt to reveal the innocence that was there all along.
The first paragraph of our beloved Forgotten Song shows the compassion Holy Spirit has for us needing to see that nothing happened to shatter Perfect Oneness. We return in awareness to the Peace we never left by indirectly realizing that leaving was impossible and we no longer want to maintain the barriers to Truth in our minds. With that inspired motivation, we undo our resistance to Love by questioning every treasured grievance, annoyance, and upset, from hangnails to holocausts.
We all took a circuitous dream detour from Perfect Oneness to arrive in a dystopian space-time holographic movie where we seem to be separate from each other, our Creator, and our Right Minds! We evidently took a very indirect, weird, and twisted path away from Peace. To return to Peace, we need to retrace that same indirect path back to Peace – forgiving all the particulars we condemned – using Holy Sprit’s highly individualized curriculum, each of us taking what appears to be a unique and specialized “undo” master class in true forgiveness.
We have to look (with our Inner Kindness Teacher’s custom-tailored restoration process for each seeming individual) at our mind meandering and see that ego’s apparent devastation has had no effect whatsoever on our real eternal Identity – the All-inclusive Identity we ALL share. We don’t directly return to sanity; instead with Holy Spirit’s help, we return to our Right Mind where Peace is not only possible but inevitable by indirect means which is perfect for each silly seemingly separate self. For example, if I’m trying to get back home (like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) to a metaphoric Kansas, I’ll take a different (indirect) route than others who might be in Manitoba, Maine, or Madagascar. The quickest “route” (tapping our ruby slippers to teleport directly home) is possible … but for the vast majority of us, the gradual gentle awakening optimizes our return while minimizing 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. ³The urgency is only in dislodging your mind from its fixed position here. ⁴This will not leave you homeless and without a frame of reference.” (ACIM, T-16.VI.8:1-4)
In this video recording of a class (given for the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum graciously hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise), we start with a review of the 6 instances of the word “indirect” in ACIM – there are 237 instances of the word “direct”! One instance is the opening paragraph to the lovely section in Chapter 21 of the text, “The Forgotten Song” with the word “indirect” bold-faced below for emphasis.
“Never forget the world the sightless “see” must be imagined, for what it really looks like is unknown to them. ²They must infer what could be seen from evidence forever indirect; and reconstruct their inferences as they stumble and fall because of what they did not recognize, or walk unharmed through open doorways that they thought were closed. ³And so it is with you. ⁴You do not see. ⁵Your cues for inference are wrong, and so you stumble and fall down upon the stones you did not recognize, but fail to be aware you can go through the doors you thought were closed, but which stand open before unseeing eyes, waiting to welcome you.” (ACIM, T-21.I.1:1-5)
Another instance is in the section “Revelation, Time and Miracles” (ACIM, T-1.II):
“Revelations are indirectly inspired by me because I am close to the Holy Spirit, and alert to the revelation-readiness of my brothers. ²I can thus bring down to them more than they can draw down to themselves.” (ACIM, T-1.II.5:1-2)
The remaining 4 instances of “indirect” in ACIM are in “The Conditions of Learning” (ACIM, T-14.I)
“2. Indirect proof of truth is needed in a world made of denial and without direction. ²You will perceive the need for this if you realize that to deny is the decision not to know. ³The logic of the world must therefore lead to nothing, for its goal is nothing. ⁴If you decide to have and give and be nothing except a dream, you must direct your thoughts unto oblivion.” (ACIM, T-14.I.2:1-4)
…
“4. Any direction that would lead you where the Holy Spirit leads you not, goes nowhere. ²Anything you deny that He knows to be true you have denied yourself, and He must therefore teach you not to deny it. ³Undoing is indirect, as doing is. ⁴You were created only to create, neither to see nor do. ⁵These are but indirect expressions of the will to live, which has been blocked by the capricious and unholy whim of death and murder that your Father does not share with you. ⁶You have set yourself the task of sharing what cannot be shared. ⁷And while you think it possible to learn to do this, you will not believe all that is possible to learn to do.
5. The Holy Spirit, therefore, must begin His teaching by showing you what you can never learn. ²His message is not indirect, but He must introduce the simple truth into a thought system which has become so twisted and so complex you cannot see that it means nothing. ³He merely looks at its foundation and dismisses it. ⁴But you who cannot undo what you have made, nor escape the heavy burden of its dullness that lies upon your mind, cannot see through it. ⁵It deceives you, because you chose to deceive yourself. ⁶Those who choose to be deceived will merely attack direct approaches, because they seem to encroach upon deception and strike at it.” (ACIM, T-14.I.4:1–5:6)
With this foundation about how the Course emphasizes an indirect solution (forgiveness) to waking from our indirect dream (the belief in separation), we read and discussed 26. Can God Be Reached Directly? (ACIM, M-26) Here is this section in the Manual:
“1. God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son. ²His awareness is in everyone’s memory, and His Word is written on everyone’s heart. ³Yet this awareness and this memory can arise across the threshold of recognition only where all barriers to truth have been removed. ⁴In how many is this the case? ⁵Here, then, is the role of God’s teachers. ⁶They, too, have not attained the necessary understanding as yet, but they have joined with others. ⁷This is what sets them apart from the world. ⁸And it is this that enables others to leave the world with them. ⁹Alone they are nothing. ¹⁰But in their joining is the power of God.
2. There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own Identity perfectly. ²These might be called the Teachers of teachers because, although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. ³And they will appear when and where it is helpful for them to do so. ⁴To those to whom such appearances would be frightening, they give their ideas. ⁵No one can call on them in vain. ⁶Nor is there anyone of whom they are unaware. ⁷All needs are known to them, and all mistakes are recognized and overlooked by them. ⁸The time will come when this is understood. ⁹And meanwhile, they give all their gifts to the teachers of God who look to them for help, asking all things in their name and in no other.
3. Sometimes a teacher of God may have a brief experience of direct union with God. ²In this world, it is almost impossible that this endure. ³It can, perhaps, be won after much devotion and dedication, and then be maintained for much of the time on earth. ⁴But this is so rare that it cannot be considered a realistic goal. ⁵If it happens, so be it. ⁶If it does not happen, so be it as well. ⁷All worldly states must be illusory. ⁸If God were reached directly in sustained awareness, the body would not be long maintained. ⁹Those who have laid the body down merely to extend their helpfulness to those remaining behind are few indeed. ¹⁰And they need helpers who are still in bondage and still asleep, so that by their awakening can God’s Voice be heard.
4. Do not despair, then, because of limitations. ²It is your function to escape from them, but not to be without them. ³If you would be heard by those who suffer, you must speak their language. ⁴If you would be a savior, you must understand what needs to be escaped. ⁵Salvation is not theoretical. ⁶Behold the problem, ask for the answer, and then accept it when it comes. ⁷Nor will its coming be long delayed. ⁸All the help you can accept will be provided, and not one need you have will not be met. ⁹Let us not, then, be too concerned with goals for which you are not ready. ¹⁰God takes you where you are and welcomes you. ¹¹What more could you desire, when this is all you need?” (ACIM, M-26.1:1–4:11)
In case there was any doubt that pure non-dual ACIM’s premise rests in our Creator, there are 4422 instances where the word God can be reached directly … and the word “reach” has 269 instances so we’re encouraged to reach, even if what usually works best is indirect reaching.
This video (highlighting the silliness of the 20-lightyear detour to Guilt-Again’s Island) was recorded on April 4, 2022.
(I highly recommend Lyn and Tim’s almost daily SFACIM zoom classes!)
