Lesson 5 “I am never upset for the reason I think”
The instructions contained in this lesson advise us to “Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you.”
Note that the central theme of the lesson is contained within this sentence. We do believe that something outside of us has control over our emotions. By keeping the locus of control outside of ourselves, we keep ourselves trapped within the illusion we are effect rather than cause. This victim stance thus not only keeps us helpless, but perpetuates the very illusion of separateness we would transcend on this journey to truth.
I was so excited to see that the portion of NTI I was led to focus on today was about forgiveness. What a misunderstood term! Those of us who have studied ACIM for any time at all have likely been confused by the Course’s description of forgiveness (if not, good for you!). ACIM tells us we forgive our brother for what he did not do. This can be quite confusing. I mean, can’t you see that he/she did …. (say something mean, steal my wallet, cut in front of me).
The key to understanding forgiveness is to see that it actually has nothing to do with my brother! As NTI Luke says:
So what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is simply an acknowledgment of the truth of how the offense or hurt has come about. It has not come from your brother. It has come from the meaning you have applied to thoughts within your mind. Without this meaning, you could not be hurt.
And then, forgiveness is taking this realization one step further by acknowledging you do not want to be hurt anymore. You acknowledge that the meaning that has hurt you is within the mind. You are the owner or believer in that meaning, and so you are also the one that can let go of any meaning you have applied. And when the meaning is let go, the offense or hurt must disappear also, for there is no longer a power to influence an effect. What was made has been undone. This is the process of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is taking back the power we attempt to give away by projecting the cause of our upset onto others. Ultimately, forgiveness is the allowance of all things, without the need for them to be different. Thus, it is the understanding that “All is well, all the time.”
Forgiveness is giving yourself permission to relate to all the world through your heart. As we saw in the Way of Mastery,
The heart is that which feels all things, embraces all things, trusts all things, and allows all things. The heart is that in which the soul rests eternally. The heart is that which is beyond space and time and is that spark of light in the Mind of God, which is called Christ. Only in that will you find the peace that you seek.
We are not being called on to overlook what our brother has done (or not done). Rather, we are being called to see that it is meaningless and that it only has the power to upset us if we give some meaning to it. We only assign meaning in accordance with our belief that things should be a certain way. Allowing things to be as they are allows us to rest within the peace of the heart regardless of what seems to be occurring “outside” of us.
Finally, we also will come to learn that, just as there are no big or small miracles, there are no big or small upsets. They are all the same in that upset indicates that we are continuing to believe that we are separate beings in a world of form and, as such, we need to protect ourselves from one another and from the world at large:
The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are all the same.
