Your Innocence is the Child Within You: ACIM Lesson 182

October 30, 2021

Stay Gold

November 13, 2021

Crucifixion Doesn’t Look Good on Any One: ACIM Lesson 196

Lesson 196 in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles is “It can be but myself I crucify”.

I looked up the word “crucify” in the dictionary, and in addition to the one popularized by the death of the body of Jesus I found the following definitions:

Cause anguish
Criticize unrelentingly
Destroy the power of
Treat cruelly
Punish severely

Yep, that sounds about right. These are all the ways in which our ego minds crucify us. By telling us we are guilty – and therefore unlovable, unworthy, not good enough, failing, not measuring up, and that everything is basically our fault.

And the thing is, on a very deep, unconscious level we agree with that assessment. We believe we’re guilty because we think we separated from God and completely rejected Him. And because of that, we also harbor an underlying fear that we will then be punished by Him because our guilt makes us see God as angry and vengeful.

These are also all of the ways that we end up punishing our bros, too, because feeling the pain of that guilt ourselves becomes impossible for us to tolerate. We therefore unconsciously suppress and deny it altogether, and project it outside of ourselves onto other people, so that we can see ourselves as innocent victims and them as guilty.

Problem solved, right? Ummm… well, except that it doesn’t work. Ever. Because other people aren’t really other people – they are us. We are the all the whole Son of God – known in A Course in Miracles as the Sonship.

Therefore, if we are holding any part of the Son of God in guilt and blame, we can’t avoid holding ourselves there too. There is no separation between us, no matter how much it looks like there is.

So, when we project that unconscious guilt onto others with our attack thoughts of judgment, condemnation, blame, seeing ourselves as victimized, etc., that guilt rebounds back onto us and we end up crucifying ourselves in all of the myriad of ways that we do here in the dream of the world as a result. We get sick, have an accident, get into a fight, experience a financial problem, get fired, our house burns down, our partner cheats on us… whatever. There are endless crosses on which we hang ourselves when we attempt to crucify our bros.

As A Course in Miracles puts it,

“The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross.”
W-pI.196.5:1

If you notice things transpiring in your life in such a way that you feel like you’re being crucified or punished – the most helpful thing you can do is ask for a miracle. The “miracle” in A Course in Miracles is a shift in perception, from fear to love. If you’re looking at a brother with love, you’re not going to be able to crucify him – and therefore you won’t nail yourself up there with him, either.

The instrument that the Course provides us with to bring about that miraculous shift is the process of true forgiveness.

As ACIM teaches us,

“Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven.”
W-II.1.1:1-4

This is where remembering that what we are experiencing as the world of form is actually a projection of the mind is really critical. It’s like a movie, right? I mean, we might have judgments about the bad guy in a movie but on some level we also know it’s just an actor playing a part. We also know that it’s not even real – it’s an image being projected on a screen. It’s not like we think Sir Anthony Hopkins is actually Hannibal Lechter… right? Show of hands? (I mean, he narrated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” for God’s sake.)

This is exactly like the world that we project with our collective mind – all people are just characters in the story we are making up. Judging or blaming them is just trying to make a fake image on a screen real – aka insanity.

The transformational tool of true forgiveness that the Course provides us with restores us to our right minds allows us to see what is real.

The steps of true forgiveness are:

Forgiving the person for what they haven’t done – there is nothing to forgive because you are dreaming an illusion made up by your ego mind.
Forgive yourself for dreaming it.
Ask Spirit to help you see it differently and heal your mind.
Release it and trust that it has been resolved.

As you engage in this practice, your perception will shift from fear to love. You will notice as a result of changing your projections that either the situation in the world will appear to change, or how you feel about it will be very different. You will feel much more peaceful and centered, and able to just let go of it as you trust more and more.

So when you next find yourself standing on the ladder of your judgment, instead of forging ahead with nailing your bro and yourself up on that old rugged cross, remember that your willingness to practice forgiveness is the way to freeing you both. Your decision to choose once again is your resurrection as the Son of God.