How to Find Peace According to A Course In Miracles Jan Worley November 17, 2018 Questions for our discussion concerning finding peace 1. Does the Course emphasize finding peace and how to do that? Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. T-8.I.1:1 The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home. W-pI.205.1:2-5 Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. T-2.I.5:8-9 If God's Will for you is complete peace and joy, unless you experience only this you must be refusing to acknowledge His Will. T-8.IV.1:1 2. Do you really want to be in a peaceful state? The obstacles to peace: The first obstacle that peace must flow across is your desire to get rid of it. The second obstacle that peace must flow across, and closely related to the first, is the belief that the body is valuable for what it offers. For here is the attraction of guilt made manifest in the body, and seen in it. The Third Obstacle: The Attraction of Death What seems to be the fear of death is really its attraction. Guilt, too, is feared and fearful. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God. T-19.IV.A.1:1, T-19.IV.B.1:3-4, T-19.IV.C.title, T-19.IV.C.15-6, T-19.IV.D.title I could see peace instead of this. Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises. W-pI.34.Title,1:2-4 3. What in reality are the attributes that you and everyone of your brothers have? This is God's Final Judgment: "You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am your Father and you are My Son." W-pII.10.5:1-3 4. Do you and your brothers have sinful thoughts and do sinful deeds? Page 1 of 5
There is no sin. T-26.VII.10:5, W-pI.101.5:4 5. Why does the Course emphasize so strongly that there is no sin? There is no stone in all the ego's embattled citadel more heavily defended than the idea that sin is real;... T-19.II.7:1 It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. Sin calls for punishment as error for correction, and the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane. T-19.II.1:1-3,6 Sin is the proclamation that attack is real and guilt is justified. It assumes the Son of God is guilty, and has thus succeeded in losing his innocence and making himself what God created not. T-19.II.2:3-4 Any attempt to reinterpret sin as error is always indefensible to the ego. T-19.II.5:1 He is at peace because He sees no sin. T-24.V.3.3 And judgment has no value unless the goal is sin. T-20.VII.7:7 While you believe that your reality or your brother's is bounded by a body, you will believe in sin. T-19.III.7:1 Yet reason tells you that you cannot see your brother or yourself as sinful and still perceive the other innocent. T-21.VI.2:3 No one who condemns a brother can see himself as guiltless and in the peace of God. T- 13.X.11:7 6. Do you and your brothers have wrong minded thoughts that lead to wrong deeds, that aren t sins, but are errors or mistakes? Forgiveness recognized as merited will heal. It gives the miracle its strength to overlook illusions. This is how you learn that you must be forgiven too. There can be no appearance that can not be overlooked. For if there were, it would be necessary first there be some sin that stands beyond forgiveness. There would be an error that is more than a mistake; a special form of error that remains unchangeable, eternal, and beyond correction or escape. There would be one mistake that had the power to undo creation, and to make a world that could replace it and destroy the Will of God. Only if this were possible could there be some appearances that could withstand the miracle, and not be healed by it. T-30.VI.5:1-8 The miracle of justice can correct all errors. Every problem is an error. It does injustice to the Son of God, and therefore is not true. The Holy Spirit does not evaluate injustices as great or small, or more or less. They have no properties to Him. They are mistakes from which the Son of God is suffering, but needlessly. T-26.II.4:1-6 Page 2 of 5
When peace is not with you entirely, and when you suffer pain of any kind, you have beheld some sin within your brother, and have rejoiced at what you thought was there. T-24.IV.5:2 7. If there is no sin, what is the purpose of forgiveness? Miracle-minded forgiveness is only correction. It has no element of judgment at all. T- 2.V.A.16.(6):1-2 When you have looked upon your brother with complete forgiveness, from which no error is excluded and nothing kept hidden, what mistake can there be anywhere you cannot overlook? What form of suffering could block your sight, preventing you from seeing past it? And what illusion could there be you will not recognize as a mistake; a shadow through which you walk completely undismayed? T-22/VI.7:1-3 You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. T-1.VI.1:1... as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge. T-21.VIII.2:8 8. How do you know when you and your brothers do things that are wrong, i.e., do things that are errors or mistakes, but not sins? 9. When a brother makes a mistake, does it sometimes irritate you or make you angry, and therefore make you lose our peace of mind? 10. Are the feelings of irritation or anger ever justified? Anger is never justified. T-30.VI.1:1 God s peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peace exists. Who sees anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless, and must believe that it cannot exist. In this condition, peace cannot be found. Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God. M-20.3:3-6 11. Whenever you get angry did you make a decision to get angry and lose your peace of mind? Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding between the crucifixion and the resurrection; between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice for guiltlessness. The power of decision is all that is yours. What you can decide between is fixed, because there are no alternatives except truth and illusion. (T-14.III.4:1-4) It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. (W-pI.68.3:2) 12. How can you get from a state of mind that is angry or irritated to a state of peace? Page 3 of 5
1. Pause and recognize your feelings. 2. Realize where the problem is in your mind. Your peace was not taken away by a situation/event/person, it was taken away by your reaction, by your own choice and decision. 3. Your feelings are your choice decide that you want to feel differently and choose again. 4. Call upon the Holy Spirit and your inner strength to change and get rid of those unwanted feelings. Forgiveness is most likely necessary. 5. Return to a place of inner peace. 13. If your brothers are making a mess of the world, shouldn t you try to fix the mess? Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. T-21.intro.1:1-8 I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. T-21.II.2:3-5 Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness to the choice you made, and learn from this to recognize which one you chose. The world you see but shows you how much joy you have allowed yourself to see in you, and to accept as yours. And, if this is its meaning, then the power to give it joy must lie within you. (T-21.Intro.2:1-8) 14. But don t you have a role (function) in this life to participate in activities to better the lives of others and to make the world a better place? I am here only to be truly helpful. T-2.V.18:2 Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here. W- pi.186.14:5-6 Nothing is asked of you but to accept the changeless and eternal that abide in him (Son of God/brother), for your Identity is there. The peace in you can but be found in him. And every thought of love you offer him but brings you nearer to your wakening to peace eternal and to endless joy. T-29.V.3:3-5 The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. T- 2.V.5:1 Those who have learned to offer only healing, because of the reflection of holiness in them, are ready at last for Heaven. T-14.IX.8:4 Page 4 of 5
15. But aren t there particular roles that you should be engaged in? A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to Wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it. It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. It is secure in certainty that obstacles can not impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone. W-pI.135.11:1-5 There is another advantage, -- and a very important one, -- in referring decisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency.... To follow the Holy spirit's guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt. It is the essence of the Atonement. It is the core of the curriculum. The imagined usurping of functions not your own is the basis of fear. M-29.3:1,3-6 16. What is your special function here in the illusion? Let him no more be lonely, for the lonely ones are those who see no function in the world for them to fill; no place where they are needed, and no aim which only they can perfectly fulfill. Such is the Holy Spirit's kind perception of specialness; His use of what you made, to heal instead of harm. To each He gives a special function in salvation he alone can fill; a part for only him. Nor is the plan complete until he finds his special function, and fulfills the part assigned to him, to make himself complete within a world where incompletion rules. T-25.VI.3:6-4:3 17. Final thoughts How is peace possible in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace. Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God s Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. M-11.3:7-9, 4:1-8 When the peace in you has been extended to encompass everyone, the Holy Spirit's function here will be accomplished. T-19.IV.3:6 When you have looked on what seemed terrifying, and seen it change to sights of loveliness and peace; when you have looked on scenes of violence and death, and watched them change to quiet views of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste away; who need persuade you to accept the gift of vision? And after vision, who is there who could refuse what must come after? Think but an instant just on this; you can behold the holiness God gave His Son. And never need you think that there is something else for you to see. T-20.VIII.11 Page 5 of 5