Let’s Put the Fun Back in the Function of Time | A Course in Miracles

I recently celebrated my birthday in the illusory world of time and space, and it inspired me to consider the crazy-ass concept of time. 

What is time, anyway? What do the constructs of past and future really mean? What purpose do they serve? How do they keep us stuck? What does “collapsing time” mean in A Course in Miracles and is that a good thing? (Spoiler alert: YES. It’s the best thing in the world. Literally.)

How do we free ourselves from the tyranny of time – managing it, losing it, killing it, wasting it, having it run out? 

Do we beat the clock or allow the clock to beat us?

Most of us do not have the experience of living in the Present moment, which is the only “time” there actually is. Even in the dream of the world, quantum physicists agree that time is a human construct, not a factual concept. 

Yet we act like it is.

All of our conflict, challenges, difficulty, and suffering come from our being in slavery to time by making the past real and believing the future is dictated by it.

We reclaim our joy and peace when we invoke the transformative practice of true forgiveness as the Course teaches it. This process allows our minds to return to the sanity of Now o’clock, where there is no time.

One of THE COOLEST and trippiest concepts taught in A Course in Miracles is that of collapsing time. Basically, Jesus schools us on how to both change the outcome of some of our previously scripted self-punishment forgiveness opportunities in the dream, and how to stop the cycle of reincarnation.

Ummm… so allowing Spirit to collapse time means:

1)  I won’t have to continue to deal with all of the crappy and painful outcomes I’ve set myself up for out of my deeply buried sense of guilt, and 

2) I won’t keep appearing to come back to the world lifetime after lifetime?

Where do I f*cking sign?

In Chapter 13 of A Course in Miracles Jesus Spiritsplains the illogic of the ego’s use of time:

“ ‘Now’ has no meaning to the ego. The present merely reminds it of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it were the past.

The ego cannot tolerate release from the past, and although the past is over, the ego tries to preserve its image by responding as if it were present. It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality.”

T-13.IV.5:1-4.

So in the ego mind the only use for the present is to serve as a bridge on the not-so-freeway from the guilt of the past to the punishment of the future – whether we do that to each other or ourselves. It’s where we hold everybody else responsible for our unhappiness and our struggles, find them and thus ourselves guilty, and repeat the process over and over.

But true forgiveness is an intervention into this endless guilt/punishment loop that offers us an exit ramp.

As we practice this transformational process, it dissolves our unconscious guilt. Without it, we have no need to either project it onto our brothers by seeing them as attacking us and ourselves as their victims. We also then have no need to continue internalizing the guilt we have over blaming our brothers by punishing ourselves in all the countless ways that we do.

The more we dissolve our unconscious guilt, which holds the projection of this world and everyone and everything in it in place as a construct of our minds, the more our ego mind is undone. When it is sufficiently undone to the point where our minds contain nothing but love – which is not only possible but inevitable – we end the cycle of birth and death and stop appearing to come back for another lifetime.

So if all this is true – which if you’re a student of A Course in Miracles, this is what it is teaching – what possible reason for not practicing forgiveness 24/7 could we even have that would make any sense?

Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? Our “reason” doesn’t make any sense because it’s being dictated by the insane ego. But just because it’s crazy doesn’t mean we’re not listening to it as if it’s the Gospel.

We want this world to be real. The ego tells us that here we get to be special. Instead of boring old Oneness, we get to be God in the world of time and space –  we’re the boss of us. (And I have to ask – how’s that working out for us right now?)

The ego thought system is built on the idea that the body is our identity – it’s who we are and all we are – and we begin on our date of birth and end on our date of death. 

We live our lives attempting to suppress the unconscious ego-belief that unless we have absolved ourselves of our guilt through self-inflicted punishment, God is eventually going to visit his wrathful vengeance on us for rejecting Him and separating ourselves, which will be even worse. 

So we live in a state of fear and anxiety, like the whole “Wait til your Father gets home – you’re really gonna get it” except x a bazillion.

Because of this completely false belief, we have an underlying inherent sense that we aren’t good enough and are not deserving of God’s love. (Why do we want this to be real again? Sheesh.)

This results in us playing out all of the myriad of painful experiences we do – with just enough loving, happy and fun ones randomly thrown in before the next problem occurs to lull us into thinking that that’s just life and you have to take the good with the bad. It still can’t be as bad as dying and staring Judgment Day in the face. 

Until our body eventually does die and we continue the same cycle by being born into another serial lifetime where we do the same dance all over again.

We believe this whacked bullsh*t story instead of really asking ourselves, why would a God of Love set us up like that? 

The answer is, He wouldn’t. The entire idea is an ego fake-out, designed to keep itself alive and in control of our minds.

Spirit’s version is actually way easier, simpler, far less painful, and instead of keeping us on the guilt highway to hell, it helps us remember that not only are we completely innocent and perfect as we were created – but so are all of our bros. We are all collectively the light of the world, the one Son of God. And not only that – this was all just a really vivid, virtually realistic dream.

When we really get that, when all of our guilt is dissolved and the ego is completely undone, we fully awaken to the truth of who we really are, and this universe disappears from our awareness. We are once again enveloped in the complete, unchanging, all-encompassing, eternal orgasmic bliss of being One with God – which is Heaven.

Let’s Put the Fun Back in the Function of Time | A Course in Miracles

All that’s being asked of us is the little willingness to see our bros without guilt so we can see ourselves in the light of truth and wake up in the Home we never left. It’s practicing true forgiveness instead of agreeing to keep suffering in all of the ways we do. It’s deciding for love and against fear. 

And regarding that Judgment Day – here is what Jesus has to say about it in the Course: 

“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.”

Let’s do this. Time to wake up. It’s Now o’clock. You’re right on time.

I love you.

Kelly

Kelly Russell, The Rock Your Joy Coach

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