THE GIFTS OF GOD — Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

This is a beautiful section that uses the metaphor of a frame and a picture within the frame that we look upon of our brother's ego, past mistakes, failures, and dissatisfactions. We see ourselves in this darkened picture as well. We are asked to see a different frame and a different picture—one our own sinlessness—one of our holiness. The masterpiece that God created is our True Self, one of a Holy Mind in the Mind of our Creator. The innocence, the loveliness, the beauty of the True Self is held out for us to see. But we have to make this shift in our vision. Christ's vision is one of Union and Eternity. It looks “beyond the body” of “specialness.” 

We are as God created us in the Wholeness of our Holiness. We are constantly connected to the Source of Divine Love that created us like Itself. Can we see the our True Self instead of the "parody" of the self that gives us no joy or satisfaction? Only death and darkness was there. But now the Christ steps forth to see the sinlessness of our brother and our own. We can see with these eyes. This is our function to see our innocence, our eternal joy, and ultimately our immortality. 

We start a new CHAPTER #25 today—THE JUSTICE OF GOD. The justice of God is for us to have certainty of our Identity in God. And to do this we must transcend our "identification" with the body, and the body's mode of perception. The Son of God is risen into a dimension "beyond the body."

The Holiness is of Spirit and the Oneness of Spirit. Body "identification" is an error we make that limits us, and this "mistake" is in need of correction. The Holy Spirit is here to help us correct this error, but we have to be willing to "see things differently." The body is a "communication device" for the purpose of seeing the "Light Beyond the Body," and we can use body for that, but we still need this correction in our identification with the Mind of God connected to the Oneness of Spirit.

Can we make this leap of faith in our Identity? We are manifest in Mind of the Christ which is ONE with Spirit. We are sinless in this Unification. All our brothers and sisters join us there.

Where do we meet our true Self? We can try to join in the realm of our specialness of bodies, and make a false self of our egos, bound to the physical limitations of our perceptions; or, we can join with the Mind of God, in which all decisions are already made in the Oneness of all Creation. These are the two places of "Meeting" available to us. In the first is there limitation, conditions of the decay of time, and eventually death and mortality. In the second, there is only expansion, and the unlimited nature of Immortality and Life. It seems like the choice should not be hard to make. Why then are we so drawn to choose the former which ends in suffering, dissolution, and death?

What is held out as the "proof" of existence in terms of physicality is the very indication that we are not seeing the wholeness of that which can never be separate or limited. The Mind of God is beyond all limitations, and cannot be perceived by the body's eyes alone. We need a Meeting Place beyond the Body. The truth of the Mind is the meeting place where we discover our Oneness, and the end of separation.

What would it take for us to be liberated ("saved") from fear? This Section VI in Chapter 24 deals with this question. It may be telling us something we are unwilling to do, but nevertheless is the only real answer to this query. Our "brother" is our "savior" from fear when we are willing to see his "holiness" instead of his "ego personality." But this is a tall order, because we are so used to relating to persons as "egos." And we use our ego to relate to them in a "special relationship" in which contracts and bargains are made to "get what we want" from them, and them from us. This arrangement engenders fear. So how do we escape from the fear? We need a whole "different way" of looking and seeing. 

What is our brother's "holiness?" He may not be in touch with it himself. But it is our job to seek and find this Higher Self in him. Why? you may ask. So we can see it in ourselves as well. Without seeing the Higher Self of our brother's Holiness, we will not be able to make contact with it in ourselves. And why stay outside the gates of Heaven? The doors are open for us to go in. And the Higher Self, the “holiness” of our Brothers and Sisters stands there greeting us, as the “gatekeeper."

"The Christ in You is very still." This is a fact we all must get as students of ACIM. There is a Self God created, call it the Christ, Who is our true Identity. And this awareness of our Source, of our Real Self, is the whole purpose of the miracles we invoke, as devoted students of this Course. Are we allowing the miracles to take shape in our life? Are we making contact with this "stillness of the peace of God" within us? We would know if we are, as this dimension of awareness is undeniable when you have it. If you are not having this encounter with the stillness, then "unwillingness" (of the ego) is getting the better of you. We all have to face this "unwillingness" at some point.

Why is it there? Thought itself, the nature of the mind we are using with all of it's stored memories, is inherently unwilling to let go. It's very "survival" is at stake, and it cannot "see" beyond itself, nor does it want to. Thus our minds do not come to the "stillness." Seeing this fact would stop our thought, if only for an instant, a holy instant. This would be enough to affirm the Christ in us, "Who is very still."

The Specialness that we have built up around ourselves keeps us isolated. We think it is a "protection," but it really pinches us off from the Life Force that we could call our Source. In this Source are all of us merged as One. We can use the body for the purpose of attack and hurt, or for healing and forgiveness. The decision to "hurt" or to "heal" is our only decision we make.

My thoughts are what hurt me. And my thoughts are also the "actions" I take to heal myself and others. I attract hurt or healing according to my thoughts. The salvation is for me to change my thoughts. And projecting "sin" onto others and myself can be a bad habit. This Section is given us to stop this tyranny of attack for the blessing of "sinlessness." We are innocent in our true Self. And this True Self is the only one that has reality in Truth.

Specialness is the theme of this chapter—and how to end it. The goal of specialness is to keep us separated without a notion that we are "harming ourselves." We can even make ourselves "die" and God cannot intervene, because of our Free Will. Yet the goal of death and dissolution is not our True Will that we share with God's Will. This Will is our only reality.

The ego makes choices that lead us to misery and death, which we think are inevitable. Yet, we do not see we made them up. We want to be "special" and unique, unlike any other, more deserving of the good things in life than any other. This Specialness of the ego must come to an end if we are to make contact with our higher, God-created Self. The joy of being our God-Created Self, instead of the self we made up. The forgiveness of Specialness is an action everyone must take who enters into the Dimension of Holiness. Holiness is our true state of being, not "specialness." We can forgive ourselves for this mistake, and be glad!

We are by now not fooled so much by the deceptions of "specialness." Specialness says, "I have a deficiency, and you must fill it." Or, "I see what you lack, and I am here to save you from that." Both approaches focus on the ego's "made up self" that is not whole and complete. Everyone falls into this self-deception at some time in their life. Educational systems are even built on the premise that we are not complete until we "know more" than we do. We are deficient of skills, knowledge, sophistication, etc, and we have to accumulate more "knowledge" to be whole and complete. But the relative knowledge that we accumulate never reaches its fulfillment.

We always seem to need "more." What if we are perfect already? We do not need Specialness. We are like our Brothers, God Given as Co-Creators of this entire Universe. We are joined and whole as One. Can we focus on this Oneness, not on our "differences?" We are asked to give up Specialness in this Chapter 24.

The Special Relationship is based on lack. It's premise is something like this: "I do not have everything I need to be a whole person; I need you to fill my lack, and if you do that I will "love" you, but if you don't I will "hate" you." It is very "treacherous" as this Section II of Chapter 24 points out. We compare and assess with judgments that come only from our perspective. We use others to "save" us, but not in the sense of complete forgiveness, but rather in a self-projected deficiency in ourselves that the "special" person is supposed to fill.

In this "special person," the hole we feel in ourselves is held out as their "responsibility" to correct, never our own actions of self-correction. "Specialness" is a projection of guilt. Both onto ourself, and onto the "special person" who is "guilty" for not fixing us. Specialness is in fact very treacherous. We are not hearing the Holy Spirit is the Great "corrector" inside of us. It is our own responsibility to see our Wholeness, and embrace our Self as God Created us, Who is always unified and connected to everyone and everything. Never is this Self "special."

Specialness is a goal we have to make our ego predominant in our relationships, which keep our unfulfilled needs at the forefront of our demands upon others to meet them. This does not give us peace. Specialness is rooted in problems, anxiety, conflict, and uncertainty. Why would we choose specialness over our Holiness in which all of our needs are met already, and the Joy that is the nature of the Universe is ours at the base of of very Being. We decide for this Holiness or for this "Specialness."

We only have this decision to make. If we belive in sin, fear, guilt and anger and get the results of those...or we believe in our Holiness that creates a heaven of Peace, Joy, Love, Extension, Givingness, etc. Could this decision be hard when we see the inevitable "results" of this decision.