We explore how complete is ego’s hatred of anything that is “not self” in this video recording of a class given for the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise, as Bruce Rawles reads related supporting content from various places in the Course. The hatred of anything “other” is merely projected hatred for the imagined self we made up but steadfastly believe is our only identity.
This typically takes the form of our split minds fluctuating between what the Course calls special love for anything or anyone we think might meet our separate needs – and the setup for the upset of the flip side of special hate – when we (in ego mode) revel in our displeasure, ultimately blaming everyone and everything for making our lives miserable … but “it’s not my fault,” we protest!
Fortunately, we have a way out of this seemingly hopeless situation by choosing our Inner Kindness Teacher who reminds us: not only were we (in Truth, in eternity, not necessarily within dreams of form) not victimize by anyone or anything else, but neither did we hurt our Real Selves. No harm, no foul, not one note in Heaven’s Song was missed.
ACIM’s classroom is all about undoing the hatred we have for our selves, projected out as hatred for everyone and everything … in order to reach the real (UNCHANGING) LOVE that is beyond ego’s prison of special love – infatuation – and – when the façade fades and our tolerance and patience for getting our imagined needs wears thin) special hate – in-thin-uation. Holy Spirit asks us to merely look (without condemning or hating our decision-making mind) at ego’s insane use practice of condemning and hating the entire dream it made up … but doing everything possible to avoid admitting any responsibility or complicity in that imagined decision and its subsequent projection.
There are 1594 instances of “love” in ACIM, but only 166 instances of “hate.” However… to get to the love, we must look at what we made up (constantly changing in effect, but never in cause) without identifying with the hateful thought system. This is a gradual process of gently, patiently observing all the subterfuge, deflection, blame-throwing, name-calling, and just good old-fashioned avoidance … and learning to NOT condemn (hate) our decision-making mind, as we realize there IS another setting for the 2-position “switch” in our mind: HS (Holy Spirit) instead of ego’s version – Hateful Spiteful.
Here are some counts of the number of instances of hate-related words in ACIM, revealed by looking up a few pertinent synonyms
hatred: 53
pain: 325
condemn: 154 instances
wrong: 96 (HS: happily incorrect … or … if we let ego abuse it: offense/crime/injury)
grievance: 93
sorrow: 52
upset: 40
cross: 39; (angry or “cruz” cruise-a-fiction)
case (as in courtroom battle): 29
injustice: 26
distress: 23
objection: 12
unhappy: 12
injure: 12
irritation: 9
violence: 9
outrage: 8
spite: 8
grieve: 7
trouble: 6
trial: 6
enmity: 5
bother: 4
hostile: 4
resent/resentment: 4
injury: 3
horror: 3
damage: 3
affliction: 2
roar: 2
tribulation: 2
repelled: 2
malevolence: 1
annoy: 1
loathe: 1
howl: 1
Here are some of these many references:
“Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. ²In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, “My brother, choose again.” ³He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the truth. ⁴He would remove all misery from you whom God created altar unto joy. ⁵He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams of hell, but would release your mind from everything that hides His face from you. ⁶His Holiness is yours because He is the only power that is real in you. ⁷His strength is yours because He is the Self that God created as His only Son.
The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be. ²Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ’s strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. ³For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight. ⁴The saviors of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who choose His strength instead of their own weakness, seen apart from Him. ⁵They will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power of the Will of God. ⁶And what they will is only what He wills.
5. Learn, then, the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:
²I am as God created me. ³His Son can suffer nothing. ⁴And I am His Son.
⁵Thus is Christ’s strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail. ⁶And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. ⁷For in that choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with truth.”
– T-31.VIII.3:1–5:7; p. 666-667
“Injury is impossible. ²And yet illusion makes illusion. ³If you can condemn, you can be injured. ⁴For you have believed that you can injure, and the right you have established for yourself can be now used against you, till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted and unreal. ⁵Then does illusion cease to have effects, and those it seemed to have will be undone. ⁶Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now receive the gift you gave.
Condemn and you are made a prisoner. ²Forgive and you are freed. ³Such is the law that rules perception. ⁴It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. ⁵To condemn is thus impossible in truth. ⁶What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. ⁷Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. ⁸Illusion makes illusion. ⁹Except one. ¹⁰Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.
Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a dream, it breeds no others. ²All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold. ³But this is where illusions end. ⁴Forgiveness is the end of dreams, because it is a dream of waking. ⁵It is not itself the truth. ⁶Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives direction with the certainty of God Himself. ⁷It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one.” – W-198.1:1–3:7; p. 379“In this world you need not have tribulation because I have overcome the world. ¹¹That is why you should be of good cheer.” – T-4.I.13:10-11; p. 56“Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear’s symbol. ²And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. ³Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn. ⁴It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope it can reach to its maker and devour him.” – W-161.8:1-4; p. 305
You cannot resolve the authority problem by depreciating the power of your mind. ²To do so is to deceive yourself, and this will hurt you because you really understand the strength of the mind. ³You also realize that you cannot weaken it, any more than you can weaken God. ⁴The “devil” is a frightening concept because he seems to be extremely powerful and extremely active. ⁵He is perceived as a force in combat with God, battling Him for possession of His creations. ⁶The devil deceives by lies, and builds kingdoms in which everything is in direct opposition to God. ⁷Yet he attracts men rather than repels them, and they are willing to “sell” him their souls in return for gifts of no real worth. ⁸This makes absolutely no sense” – T-3.VII.2:1-8; p 49-50
Lesson 93 Light and joy and peace abide in me.
“You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. ²You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. ³You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.” – W-93.1:1-3 (p. 161)“Is the malevolence of the unholy relationship, so seeming powerful and so bitterly misunderstood and so invested in a false attraction your preference to the holy instant, which offers you peace and understanding?” – T-20.VI.9:4
“You will become increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury.” – W-21.2:5
4th “Law of Chaos”: T, page 491-492
“The ego values only what it takes. ²This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. ³This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. ⁴By this, another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself. ⁵Yet all the other laws must lead to this. ⁶For enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. ⁷And what your enemies would keep from you must be worth having, because they keep it hidden from your sight.
All of the mechanisms of madness are seen emerging here: the “enemy” made strong by keeping hidden the valuable inheritance that should be yours; your justified position and attack for what has been withheld; and the inevitable loss the enemy must suffer to save yourself. ²Thus do the guilty ones protest their “innocence.” ³Were they not forced into this foul attack by the unscrupulous behavior of the enemy, they would respond with only kindness. ⁴But in a savage world the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be taken from.
And now there is a vague unanswered question, not yet “explained.” ²What is this precious thing, this priceless pearl, this hidden secret treasure, to be wrested in righteous wrath from this most treacherous and cunning enemy? ³It must be what you want but never found. ⁴And now you “understand” the reason why you found it not. ⁵For it was taken from you by this enemy, and hidden where you would not think to look. ⁶He hid it in his body, making it the cover for his guilt, the hiding place for what belongs to you. ⁷Now must his body be destroyed and sacrificed, that you may have that which belongs to you. ⁸His treachery demands his death, that you may live. ⁹And you attack only in self-defense.” – T-23.II.9:1–11:9)
You might have seen street signs saying “Call before you dig” with a phone number to call to avoid digging up underground utilities– a crew typically arrives promptly to spraypaint colored lines on your property to avoid excavation blunders. Metaphorically, Holy Spirit guides us to look at our hate: to identify and vaporize the hidden hates and secret sins where those ego currents are running, sometimes just below the surface of our minds; we just need to “dig” a little below the surface of our fragile calm to see where hateful ego misinterpretations are running their utility programs. Thankfully, with HS’s help, we can undo the effect of all these hateful thoughts by seeing them as causeless, and therefore completely forgiveable.
This class was recorded on February 15, 2021.