Lesson 332. Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.
(1) The ego makes illusions. Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining them away. Truth never makes attack. It merely is. And by its presence is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the real. Forgiveness bids this presence enter in, and take its rightful place within the mind. Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility. Yet with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of darkness, offering it hope, and giving it the means to realize the freedom that is its inheritance.
(2) We would not bind the world again today. Fear holds it prisoner. And yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. Father, we would release it now. For as we offer freedom, it is given us. And we would not remain as prisoners, while You are holding freedom out to us.
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Commentary on this lesson is by Ken Wapnick, from his books: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles." Book set may be purchased at the following site: ~ M. Street
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Lesson 332. "Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free."
The world is bound by my fear because the world is my thought. If my mind chooses fear, I will look out on a fear-based world, seeing imprisonment all around me. If it chooses forgiveness, I will look out on a world in which everyone is free and unbound. I may see people having the illusion of being imprisoned, but I will no longer participate in their dream by feeling the effects of their pain. As we practice A Course in Miracles, we are not asked to deny what goes on in the world, but simply asked not to participate in its thought system by giving it power over our minds. To others, we may appear to be participating in illusion, but our minds remain at peace. What thus governs our behavior is peace and forgiveness, not conflict or fear.
(1:1-4) "The ego makes illusions. Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining them away. Truth never makes attack. It merely is."
Forgiveness does nothing; it merely is. Love does nothing; it merely is. When Jesus was here, he did nothing; he merely was. One who is in the real world and appears to be here does nothing, too, in the sense of actively correcting the ego's mistakes. The love within simply shines away the mistaken thoughts in the mind of God's one Son.
(1:5) "And by its presence is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the real."
The "mind" here is the decision maker recognizing its mistake. It had identified with fantasies, and now realizes these will not lead to happiness.
(1:6-8) "Forgiveness bids this presence enter in, and take its rightful place within the mind. Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility. Yet with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of darkness, offering it hope, and giving it the means to realize the freedom that is its inheritance."
When we choose to identify with the ego, we choose to be in the imprisoning state of sin, guilt, and fear. When we correct our mistake and choose forgiveness, we undo the ego's thought system by looking at it without judgment. Gone, then is the darkened dream in which we are chained to guilt, its place now taken by freedom's light that is our true inheritance, unaffected by the ego's fantasies of rejection and hate:
"Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. Everyone is free to accept his inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance is." (T-3.VI.10:1-2)
(2) "We would not bind the world again today. Fear holds it prisoner. And yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. Father, we would release it now. For as we offer freedom, it is given us. And we would not remain as prisoners, while You are holding freedom out to us."
We realize that what binds the world is not what goes on externally, but what we make real in our minds. We change our imprisoned state by changing teachers, and our world changes accordingly. Enemies become friends, and prison doors seemingly locked forever swing open wide as we emerge in joyful gratitude from the bonds of guilt and hate. Yet we do not emerge alone, for all our brothers walk with us from darkness to light, imprisonment to freedom, and fear to love.
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12. What Is The Ego?
(1) The ego is idolatry; the sign of limited and separated self, born in a body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the "will" that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which it is denied. The ego is the "proof" that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.
(2) The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has become a victor over God Himself. And in its terrible autonomy it "sees" the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment, and trembles at the figures in its dreams; its enemies, who seek to murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
(3) The Son of God is egoless. What can he know of madness and the death of God, when he abides in Him? What can he know of sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? What can he know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack, when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?
(4) To know reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.
(5) Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light; the altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one with Him.
