What is Sin?

Our new special theme needs to be read with understanding that comes from clarity. If one reads this special theme with the judgmental mind of the ego, one might perceive that s/he is a sinner because s/he experiences a body. That is not what this lesson intends to teach.

Let’s look at the first paragraph through the lens of clarity.

The paragraph begins with three important words. “Sin is insanity.” The mind might interpret those words to mean something like, “It is insane to be evil” or “It is insane to be as bad as you are.” However, that is not what the sentence says. The sentence is defining what sin is by placing it side-by-side with a synonymn.

Pretend like you had never heard the word “sin” before. This is the first time the sound of s—i—n has ever reached your ears. Someone uses that word, and you ask, “What is ‘sin’?” The answer is, “Sin is insanity.”

“Oh,” you say, because you know what insanity is. And as the person continues to talk using the word “sin,” your mind naturally substitutes “insanity” every time “sin” is heard.

Therefore, you hear, “Insanity is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is. Insanity gave the body eyes, for what is there the lucid would behold? …”

Or said another way, the perceived world is not true. Those who choose to believe it without questioning it are deluded. Anyone who has awakened to truth, and therefore knows the unreality of the world, has no interest in it. They are drawn only to reality.

Here’s how NTI says the same thing:

You experience the ego as a stream of thoughts within the mind that seem to interpret, counsel, identify, judge and spring forth as ideas. In themselves, these thoughts seem to be nothing to you, although you listen to them and act on all that they say. These thoughts rule your mind and your interpretation of the world, because you believe what they say. Yet, they are based on a foundation of separateness, which is not what is true. And so what is true is not in what they say.

To listen to these thoughts and believe them is ignorance, for you are listening to what is not true, but believing what you hear. Any action you take based on these thoughts is ignorant action, for it is action based on untruth in an unreal world.

Ignorance is not guilt. It is a call for knowledge. It is the Holy Spirit that leads you through corrected perception to the right-knowledge that you seek. Right-knowledge is true knowledge, and true knowledge is the knowledge of truth.

Do not worry about the mistakes you have made. They are based on ignorance, which is illusion and affects only that which is not reality. Be happy that you have been mistaken! Be joyous that there is another way to see! This is what it means to repent. To repent is to choose again. To repent is to decide to turn from the ways of ignorance and turn to the Voice of Knowledge. This is a joyous decision, for this is the decision that changes all things. This decision that you have made is a decision to listen to another Voice. It is the decision to let go of the thoughts you have listened to until now and to listen to another Voice, the one that comes from God. This decision is a decision to change the habits you have had until now. It is a decision to see yourself through new eyes, eyes that are based on a foundation of truth. ~ NTI Acts, Chapter 4

Set aside your thoughts of division. When you see them in your mind or in the playing out of thought within the world, rejoice! What you see is not true. Be happy that you have found willingness to deny that which is false, for inherent in its denial is the willingness to accept only that which is true. …

One who knows wholeness after experiencing the lack of wholeness knows illusion is no substitute for truth. He shall not choose illusion again. ~ NTI 1 Corinthians, Chapter 16

I am in need of nothing but the truth.

Today is a day to give willingness to know truth. Stay in the heart today. Review the teachings above from A Course in Miracles and NTI throughout the day. Ask yourself questions like, “If this is not reality—if I am deluded in everything I see and believe—do I want to know truth?”

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Subtle Looking

What is the World?

This is our last day with our special theme, “What is the World?” It is good to read it slowly and contemplatively today. Notice the main themes in this special theme, all of which we have covered in our daily tips.

Let me not see myself as limited.

In two of our recent recommended meditations, the instructions have asked us to keep an open mind.

Tip 11 with AWA Description O said, “Be open minded to the possibility that you can let go of whatever obstacle appears.”

Tip 12 with AWA Description P said, “Be open minded to the possibility that you can let go of all that is limited and finite.”

Today’s workbook lesson asks us to be open minded in the same way. Today is a day to let go of any doubt that we find in our thinking.

Remember, doubt is an ego preservation strategy. If we believe doubt, we are less likely to apply ourselves to the spiritual practice that ends the ego and leads to Self-realization. Therefore, taking time to let go of doubt is extremely useful.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend that you practice one of the following meditations:

AWA Description O

AWA Description P

If you have time, practice both meditations today. I recommend practicing one early in the day and the other later in day.

What is the World?

Our special theme says, “Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. … what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.”

With these words, our special theme encourages us to stay with our spiritual practice until the final end of the ego.

How do we know when the ego has reached its final end?

Our special theme says that in truth “all the world must disappear.”

Here are a few quotes to consider:

Only when the world-illusion goes does the blissful light of Self arrive. Life lived in this bright, blissful light is our true, natural life. Other ways of life are full of trouble and fear. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Self, revealed as our true nature within the heart through the power of Self-inquiry, is none other than the peerless reality of the Supreme, which alone remains after this worldly illusion has faded into nothingness. ~ Muruganar

He who knows the state in which there is neither the world nor the thought of it, he is the Supreme Teacher. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

When the mind abandons the movement of thought, the appearance of the world ceases. ~ Vasistha

The world no longer is, whether past, present or to come, after awakening to the supreme reality in the real Self, the Eternal, from all wavering free. ~ Adi Sankara

There are many, many more quotes that point to the disappearance of the world as the sign of true awakening. However, I will end with just one more quote:

There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again. ~ A Course in Miracles, Lesson 132

The end of ego and the disappearance of the world are both only concepts for me. I have not experienced either. However, it feels both gentle and right to commit myself to spiritual practice for as long as I look in the mirror (referring to yesterday’s analogy) and see a world.

Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.

NTI 1 Corinthians speaks of a stage of enlightenment in which existence in the world is pure joy. It says:

The fourth phase is a glorious phase, upon which your feet shall barely touch the ground. As you walk the earth, you know where you walk, so that the earth is merely a symbol within the mind. You shall not know brothers, but you shall talk to them. You will not need food, but you will eat with joy. Music shall accompany you in your every moment, and yet, you will have no need for your ears. Your sight will be changed from earthly sight to sight that is provided from Heaven. All things shall be new, and you shall have no need for any of them. In this, your joy shall be complete.

From there, NTI 1 Corinthians goes on to say:

The purpose of your life in the fourth phase of living on earth shall not be different than the purpose at any other time. Only now, in the fourth phase, the distractions have been erased. In letting yourself become an empty shell, you freed yourself from the desire for distraction. Now, in the fourth stage, your focus is complete. Now you know what you want, and you want it wholly. …

The one that seems to be in the fourth stage is but a symbol of the truth that is. So this one must pass away also. But in its passing, you pass from a final illusion of beauty to Beauty that cannot be contained in illusion. You pass from form, which reflects Light, to Light, which shines into form.

You shall not know death in your passing from the fourth phase to Light, for this passing is recognition of Life. This passing is acceptance of all that is true and all that has always been true. This passing is the final release of illusion, so that no illusion may appear to you. And death is an illusion. So you shall not know death, because you have accepted that illusion does not exist.

Therefore, be willing to become an empty shell. And be willing for this completely. For it is through emptiness that illusion is released, and it is through releasing it, that illusion is taken away.

Letting go of I-thought thinking takes us from a dream of suffering to a dream of joy, but that is not yet the end of the I-thought. If we stop our spiritual practice upon reaching this threshold, we can experience a reemergence of the ego thought system.

It is in our best interest to welcome the happy dream as an opportunity to continue our spiritual practice without distraction until we find ourselves ushered across the threshold, through the experience of the ego’s final end, to “Beauty that cannot be contained in illusion.”

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

AWA Description T