In this third part of the A Course in Miracles (ACIM) series, we will dive deeper at the main goal of the course itself: inner peace.
Now to understand what „inner peace“ really means, we need to look at the obstacles and resistances against this peace.
From inside the Ego’s thought system, everything is upside down and real peace is impossible. The reason for this is, because for the Ego, everything in the world can cause distress and attack, so that it always has to watch out for dangerous sources of attack, that are threatening its version of peace.
So the Ego’s version of „peace“ is one of constant vigilance for threats and building defenses against them.
Guilt - the glue that sticks the Ego’s world together
What holds this system together is the Ego’s concept of guilt.
For a long time, I had problems to really understand this concept, because I wasn’t raised in a religious context and therefore, I didn’t even know, what guilt means. This was even made worse, because I responded in a superficial way to this topic with „There is no guilt!“, overseeing its immensely importance on the world and for the Ego.
So let’s not jump to quick conclusions here…
Another way of looking at guilt is, that we make something in the world (or even beyond it, like the Ego’s „God“ we learn about in religion) the source of our happiness or unhappiness.
So in other words, as long as there is something (or someone) outside of us, responsible for our inner state (of peace, love, pain, suffering etc.), this thing or person can cause us to feel a certain way.
In the end, it doesn’t even matter, how many things or people are perceived as outside, as long as there is only one thing or person out there, there is always the potential of disturbing our inner peace.
So guilt is the belief, that there is something or someone out there, that is the source of our inner state and of course (for the Ego) what he/she/it does, is a mistake or wrong.
Guilt can of course also be projected on ourselves, in the belief, that what we did, is the source of unhappiness in another.
This is only possible - and actually the proof - that what we are, is not the physical body or personality, because we can perceive ourselves as outside of us - while, paradoxically the body and personal mind are inside of us (=the universal mind).
To achieve inner peace, we have to discover our innocence.
Innocence is a very interesting word, if read as „in-no-sense“.
As long as we use our senses as the basis for our judgement of reality („it makes sense“), we have to feel guilt; because these senses tell us, that there obviously is some source outside, that can effect our inner state (of peace) or that we are guilty. Guilt is, what drives the Ego’s dream of the world.
Peeling Onions: „The Secret Dream“
ACIM tells us, that beneath our guilt ridden „world dream“, there is also a „secret dream“. This secret dream (as especially described in Part 2 of this series), believes, that it could separate from God, and now lives a secret life outside of God.
This illusionary and insane idea lies behind every other dream and we feel guilty for „making the impossible possible“ and separating from our one and only true source.
Now, this had many effects in the dream world. One of them being religions and the Egos version of God - a God, that will kill and punish us, for making even a small mistake, like eating an apple.
This insane version of a wrathful God - made up by the Ego - has only one goal in mind: to hide our guilt.
The whole world dream was made as a hiding place for guilt. As long as we can project this guilt on the world and other people, we don’t have to feel it ourselves. This is also the first step of true Forgiveness, as described in Part 1 of this series.
Resistances against inner peace
Our belief in guilt and our unrecognized innocence are the main resistances against true inner peace. There are other ones too, like pain, death and fear, that make the Ego’s thought system fool-proof.
(For an in depth analysis of these obstacles, I recommend the book by Ken Wapnick „The Journey Home. The Obstacles to Peace“ - it’s one of the best books ever written on this topic - but more for the advanced students of the course)
We have to understand, that resistance has to happen, because the very basis of the Ego is guilt and without guilt, there would be no Ego!
So the Ego knows, that if this basic illusionary belief is revealed, it’s extremely dangerous and it will therefore fear its demise.
„Inner Peace“ means death to the concept of guilt and the Ego itself.
That’s why, it came up with its own version of peace as described above - a version of defending against all sorts of attacks.
Now, if you read these things for the first time and understand it’s deep meaning, your Ego has all the right in the world to feel threatened.
It’s perfectly fine, if you feel disgust or even hate for this article, me or the message of the course.
It’s like you are a magician and it's telling everyone, how your magic trick works! This is indeed very threatening and again the proof, how the Ego has built it’s thought system of attack and defense.
True Inner Peace
The inner peace the course is talking about, is a peace that can’t be threatened, because there is no source outside God, that could have an effect on it.
How could Oneness fear something outside itself? How could Oneness make a mistake? How could Oneness commit a sin or be punished and for what?
You now may say, that this kind of peace is only for God and that we, as human beings, can never achieve this peace.
For the Ego this will sound like blasphemy!
Since the whole world and with it, the worlds religions, are made to hide guilt, as the main source of an illusionary separation from God, it will of course seem as the biggest blasphemy possible.
That’s why, ACIM will never be as popular as the Bible or other „holy books“, that were written to hide our guilt away (in ourselves or others).
The very basics of our „secret dream“ are wrong. We never pulled off the impossible. We are not separated from God. God is the only reality and this can’t be threatened. Therein lies the peace (and Love).
Where does this leave us practically in our daily lives?
ACIM tells us, that the way we live our daily lives, is through constant forgiveness. Every time we meet some form of separation (e.g. bodies or any other form of perception) we stop listening to our Ego-teacher interpretation of what’s going on, and start listening to the teacher of our right mind (e.g. the Holy Spirit, Jesus or any other symbol of Truth).
Again, this is described in Part 1 of this series - you may want to review it again, in the light of these new insights.
This is not only what we may do optionally, but it’s also the only thing that we can do (and do anyway).
ACIM is a course in cause and not effect. The cause is always a decision in our Mind for one of the two thought systems - either the Ego’s version of separation and guilt or the Holy Spirits version of Oneness and innocence.
The more we decide for the later, the more inner peace we will experience.
This inner peace is a peace that can’t be threatened - it’s the peace of God.
This peace will then flow freely into the world of illusion as the power of Love - not because you are loving, but because this is the only function you are capable of. This my friends, is the vision of pure peace.
Love and Blessings,
Atmos
P.S: The stunning picture above was taken by a very dear friend, who is at Hawaii at the moment and one of the best photographers I know. She is able to picture the Love and Beauty of this world - as with this volcano above. There are many more amazing pictures to follow and it's my uttermost pleasure, that she allowed me to use them for my articles here! ❤️