School for A Course In Miracles

"The universe of learning will open up before you."

School for A Course In Miracles

“The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity.” T-14. II. 6:4
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On a lighter side: Excerpts from The Ego’s Workbook for A Day in Hell…

Excerpts from The Ego’s Workbook

for A Day in Hell…

(by Tom D.)

Lesson 5  ~  I am never upset for the reason I think, but I know it has something to do with you.
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Lesson 10 ~ My thoughts do not mean anything, but neither do yours. Na, na, na, na, na, na.
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Lesson 14 ~ God did not create a meaningless world, so, sensing a wonderful opportunity, my friends and I created one for Him.
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Lesson 24 ~ I don’t know what anything is for, particularly most of the apps on my phone.
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Lesson 32 ~ I have invented the world I see, but a lot of other people already have a patent on it.
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Lesson 34 ~ I could see peace instead of this, but I kind of like being depressed and angry.
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Lesson 65 ~ My only function is the one God gave me, but I’ve also thought up a lot of other really neat stuff.
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Lesson 71  ~ Only God’s plan for salvation will work, but let me just try this one other little thing.
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Lesson 129 ~ Beyond this world, there is a world I want, but a new Mercedes would work for now.
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Lesson 135 ~ If I defend myself I am attacked, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time.
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Lesson 151 ~ All things are echoes for the voice of God, therefore God must be into yodeling.
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Lesson 130 ~ It is impossible to see two worlds, unless you get banged on the head real hard.
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Lesson 328 ~ I choose the second place to gain the first, but who’s on first now anyway?
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Lesson 335 ~ I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness when I’m damn well good and ready.
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more on the ‘lite’ side…

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On… Jesus (Jim Gaffigan):

https://youtu.be/ReBWsf8CWxA

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On… It just doesn’t matter… (Bill Murray)

https://youtu.be/e9mf3Bypyk8

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On…. “Stop it!” (Bob Newhart)

https://youtu.be/jvujypVVBAY

 

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On…. “Queen for a day”… the ego loves to be a victim. (Mont Python)

Our Ego Need to Believe That Innocence is Slain…

With the recent shootings in the States, and the killing and displacement of families in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and Iran,

and all the seeming horrendous death and destruction happening now in the world everywhere… how do we approach this apparent senselessness from a Course point of view, and how do we deal with that and any worldly turmoil… internally in each of us ?

Here are  a couple SFACIM video replays on what our invulnerable true innocence looks and feels like as One Son of God…. and the ego’s bottom line need to believe we crucified our own true innocent Identity.

We then discuss… how that plays out in the world, and how do we recognize and then let go of our belief in our ego need for enemies, murder and judgment? (Ch. 23, Sec. III & IV, in the Text)

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Happy Thanksgiving: Be grateful! Our sinlessness is an… “Already-Done-Deal !”

 

Our own redemption is already at hand, and unless you give all that you have received you will not know that you have awakened with him, your brother… already.        

(Text p.209, par. 9)

One of the striking differences between ACIM and traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and most New Age spiritualities is that…  A Course in Miracles takes an ‘already-done-deal’ approach.

Most western religious and spiritual paths assume something is really wrong to begin with, and then go about trying to fix it or evolve beyond it. To them, sin and separation are devastatingly real. The Course specifically sets up its version of the Atonement (that nothing happened), right in its Introduction to the Text on page 1.

This Intro immediately spells out that this is not a course about love, loving, or evolving somehow towards love, or even making the world a better place in which to live… but on letting go of our own judgements of others and ourselves which block our awareness that we are still beings of Love:

 

“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim however at removing the blocks to the (our) awareness of love’s presence, which is our natural inheritance.” (Text, p.1)

So then, this is simply a course about undoing those blocks, in our minds, to realizing that love is already a done deal, and our true Identity is still part of that Love… period. We are God’s children, always have been, always will be. The Course shows us how to stop pretending that we’re not eternally part of God’s Love… insisting in our criticizing, fixing, and sometimes even ‘helping,’ that we are not ‘still’ as God created us.

“But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.” (Les.#317)

So what’s my Father’s plan? In the Course’s 1300 plus pages, Jesus is always encouraging us to look at each other differently by asking the Holy Spirit for help ‘to see beyond the veil,’ see beyond the differences we think we see and even cherish. Early on in the Course he also states that this course is not about behavior (Text p.29, par.2-3). It is not about what we do or don’t do, but about how we “see” each other.

And more to the point: with whom are we seeing or perceiving… our ego or the Holy Spirit? Jesus tells us we have this internal place called the mind, where we are constantly choosing between one of these two teachers or inner guides. (NB: This internal place is not what the world calls our brain, but a deep place within us the Course describes as the ‘mind.’) When we choose the ego as our teacher, we see separation and blame. When we choose the Holy Spirit, we experience the Atonement, that nothing happened and our true Identity is still intact.

Problem is, when we are choosing the ego, we’re not really conscious of that choice… but we do feel its effects. We are irritable, judgmental, and certainly not peaceful. We are quick to point out that our discontent is not our responsibility, but we easily finger-point the culprit as something or somebody else. It’s amazing when we go thru the course of our day, and begin to realize… how many times each and every day we are blaming, and how much we are on high alert to find a new drama where we can find and accuse others of robbing us of our peace.

However, choosing to ask the Holy Spirit to perceive and experience people and things differently is a very conscious and vigilant effort. We first honestly look at how hateful our thinking and seeing is, and even tho we believe we are right, we admit how painful it is to hold onto that righteousness. (Would I rather be right or happy?) This becomes the motivation to hope that ‘there must be a better way,’ and I begin to be a little more willing to find and try that ‘better way’. The better way for Course students is the Course’s process of forgiveness, ie. learning to ‘see’ differently. We forgive, or let go, of our way of viewing the world full of victims and victimizers. Then we allow, or let, the Holy Spirit’s vision, of what we truly are, take its place.

(Lesson Titles #31-35)

Forgiveness in the Course is a return to the awareness of the “Done Deal.” Whatever our eyes might be telling us, we ask for the Holy Spirit’s gift of vision to see/experience that our brother’s innocence (and ultimately our own) is still intact… already there and present, no matter what they are doing or not. This doesn’t mean, in terms of behavior, that we don’t do the next appropriate and helpful thing. But it does mean that while we are doing whatever our chosen behavior is, in our heart of hearts, we come to know we are each already ok, already saved, and already God’s one Son.

This is not some pie-in-the-sky made up fantasy. For those of us who have practiced the Course’s forgiveness, we experience that this is the reality behind all the seeming facades that ’cause’ us to blame and condemn. We actually begin to feel and know, about ourselves and others, what Jesus consistently tells us in Lessons #201 thru 220:

“I am not a body. I am free. I am still (already) as God created me.”

Thank you Jesus!

and Happy Thanksgiving!

Replay of video from SFACIM on a discussion of “gratitude”:

click here

Also a five minute youtube clip on Ken Wapnick speaking about our gratitude to Jesus for giving us his Course in Miracles:

Click here

 

 

Coming soon…

Five Month Online

The Immersion 2026

click here for info

 

Rosemary Stevens: Our True Friend… always and in all ways!

….and dearly beloved sister of Jesus, made her transition into Jesus’ loving arms on Tuesday Nov. 4th, 2025.

 

 

 

 

Abby Steven’s (her blessed sister) comments:

Hi Tim,

Dropping you a line to let you know that yesterday, Rosemary passed peacefully and with lotsa love surrounding her.
She had had a diagnosis in 2020, of pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease, for which there is no cure.

As a 30+ year student of the Course, she had ALMOST all of Ken’s CDs, cassettes and many of his books…
Actually that was all she read, and that constituted her entire “library”.

Hugs 🫂 & Blessings 🙌🏻 as always, Abby❣️

Almost a year ago now, and highlighting Rosemary’s lovely dedication to Jesus and his Course, and Ken and his teachings, and also her wonderful sense of humor…

Rosemary lead this class on WB lessons 343-349 on Dec. 4, 2024:

https://tinyurl.com/28m4j3mt

 

 

Musings… The Atonement: What’s that?

ATONEMENT ?

In traditional Christian terms, atonement is the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ (usually perceived as needed because… due to Adam & Eve’s sin, mankind was forced out of Heaven).

But Atonement in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is something totally different. Atonement in the Course is ‘waking up’ and realizing that sin (separation from God) couldn’t happen, and never happened, and God’s Son never separated from His Father.

Early on in the ACIM Text, Atonement is first mentioned and described in Chap. One Sec. I, in the fifty Miracle Principles (#25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 44).

Jesus says this in principle #25…  Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. (Text, p.4) Forgiveness in the Course is always referred to as an opportunity to let go of our belief that someone is guilty or sinful, including ourselves.

Jesus then goes on to talk about and use the word Atonement more than 250 times in the Course.

Ken Wapnick, in his Glossary-Index for ACIM, calls the Atonement… the Holy Spirit’s plan of correction to undo the ego and heal the belief in separation. The idea of Atonement came into being after our seeming separation from Oneness, and will be completed when every separated Son has fulfilled his part in the Atonement thru total forgiveness. Its principle is that the separation never occurred.

Emphasis then is on the last sentence. Since the separation from God never happened, the Atonement becomes a series of wake-up experiences (the Course calls them miracles) to the inevitable understanding that this is true. We never disconnected from our Father in Heaven or separated from each other. The tiny mad idea of separation was just that… It was tiny and made-up, not to mention crazy, but ultimately just silly.

Another way of defining Atonement is that ‘nothing happened,’ i.e. there was no separation.  Jesus uses that phrase a number of times throughout the Course:

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Nothing happened!

“Nothing unreal exists.” (Text Intro, p.1)

11 “The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can so easily make the idea seem difficult. Yet the Holy Spirit tells you that even return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be difficult. However, you can make the idea of return both necessary and difficult. ” (Ch. 6, sec II, par.11. p.98)

“Such evident inconsistencies account for why no one has really explained what happens in psychotherapy. Nothing really does. Nothing real has happened to the unhealed healer, and he must learn from his own teaching. His ego will always seek to get something from the situation.” (Ch.9, sec V, par.5, p.172)

“… recognize that what has no effects does not exist. Laws do not operate in a vacuum, and what leads to nothing has not happened. If reality is recognized by its extension, what leads to nothing could not be real.” (Ch.11, sec V, par.2, p.203)

“For if you accept your invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack has no effect. Although you have attacked yourself, you will be demonstrating that nothing really happened. Therefore, by attacking you have not done anything. Once you realize this you will no longer see any sense in attack, for it manifestly does not work and cannot protect you.” (Ch. 12, sec V, par. 2, p.203)

4 “Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part of someone else’s dream. The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is… The miracle does nothing but to show him that he has done nothing. What he fears is cause without the consequences that would make it cause. And so it never was.” (Ch.28, sec II, par. 4 & 7, p.593-594)

1 Today we will anticipate the time when dreams of sin and guilt are gone, and we have reached the holy peace we never left. Merely a tiny instant has elapsed between eternity and timelessness. So brief the interval there was no lapse in continuity, nor break in thoughts which are forever unified as one. Nothing has ever happened to disturb the peace of God the Father and the Son. This we accept as wholly true today.” (Les. #234. p.409)

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Jesus also repeatedly tell us…

 The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. (Ch.2, sec V, par.5, p.25)

The teacher of God takes accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function.  (Man. #22 par.1, p.55)

 

If thats true , then how do each of us go about accepting and implementing  in our own lives this plan of Atonement? Two key elements of the process are pointed out here in sec IV of Ch.9… The first is our willingness to let go of our judgements of each other and ourselves, and the second is to ask the Holy Spirit for help to see beyond those judgements and have a different experience of all our brothers and ourselves…

 The Holy Spirit’s (Atonement) Plan of Forgiveness…

in Chapter 9:

1 Atonement is for all, because it is the way to undo the belief that anything is for you alone. To forgive is to overlook. Look, then, beyond error (judgment and condemnation) and do not let your perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds (sees). Accept as true only what your brother is (a guiltless Son of God), if you would know yourself. Perceive what he is not (a sinner) and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely. Remember always that your (True) Identity is shared, and that Its sharing is Its reality.

2 You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you. You do not understand how to overlook errors (your judgments), or you would not make them. It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct them without a Guide to correction (Jesus or the Holy Spirit). And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. This sense of limitation (the tiny mad idea of separation) is where all errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you. (sec IV of Ch.9, par.1-2, p.168)

 

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 Atonement in the Course is not the atonement definition for many new age thinkers, where atonement means at-one-ment. The Atonement in the Course however is a process of waking up. It is realizing that we can and will forgive our brothers and ourselves… not because our sins are real and need to be forgiven. But we begin to see and experience the unreality of those sins and let go of our need for retribution. (At-one-ment in the Course would be the experience of our Oneness in Heaven that is our True Identity… which is what we return to when we complete the Atonement process of forgiveness in the Course.)

This profound process of moving through the three steps of forgiveness outlined in the Course is the way to fulfill God’s Plan of Atonement in our lives. We atone for our own seeming sins and the sins of others, not through martyrdom or sacrifice, but by having the very real experience that all our innocence as One Son of God is still intact, no matter what we or others seem to have done… this is not a whitewashing of sins, but simply a realization that ‘nothing happened. Our true AT-ONE-MENT is still who and what we are in Heaven. Our ‘job,’ our only function, is to stop insisting that that is not our true reality…

 

Check out Lyn’s Video on

“Whispering to The Atonement”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRza8PlK4dc&t=15s

 

Ken Wapnick’s 5 min. description of  “Atonement:”

 

 

Ken’s Seminar on “Atonement without Sacrifice:”

Atonement without Sacrifice [MP3]

click here for Mp3 download

Six Month Course Immersion One Program

(especially designed for both beginning and ongoing Course students)

Online… using free Zoom app

January- June 2023

(click here)