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The Three Steps of Forgiveness in ACIM:

1) “The world I see… is an outward picture of an inward condition.”

[from Ch.21, p. 445, par.1]

 

I start with my judgements of others:

 What if the real source of my own pain/discomfort/anxiety is not coming from the world? What if it’s coming from somewhere deep inside me… a place the Course calls my mind?

What if it is coming from internally pushing away the Holy Spirit (the Course calls this the Voice for God)  and choosing the ego instead (the voice for separation from God)? And now I somehow forget I even have a mind, much less that I’m choosing this wrong inner teacher, the ego. What if that’s why I’m really in a state of conflict, whether it’s anger, fear, depression, or whatever I’m feeling that’s not peace? What if it has nothing to do with anything external, even though I’m sure it is?

If it were possible to see past others’ sins and my judgements of them as the seeming source of my lack of peace, and realize that the origin of my conflicted feelings might just be coming from inside myself  (and not anyone else)… would I be willing to ask the Holy Spirit’s help to see and realize that?

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Workbook Lesson #5 says ” I’m never upset for the reason I think.” What if that’s true?

The Course reminds us: the seeming “outward” source of pain is simply my projection of my own inner guilt for pushing God out of my own awareness. The real source of all pain and guilt is always in my mind.

The ego has been described as… edging God out (e-g-o).

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2) The Made-up Inner Condition of Separation, Inside in My Mind

I ‘shift’ in my awareness to my inner judgment of myself…

(not my ‘self ‘ in the world, but my seeming identity as a separated Son of God):

What if I could not really push Jesus or the Holy Spirit away and choose to be a make-believe separated self, even if I thought I wanted to?

What if in spite of all the bad I think I have done to others, to myself, to Jesus… all my hateful judgements, all ‘my stuff’… what if Jesus is in my mind right here, right now, smiling at me… telling me in his smile he still loves me and my innocence is still intact?

If it were possible to see past my own “sins” and my judgements of  myself, and experience my true innocence as a son of God, would I be willing to ask the Holy Spirit’s help to do that?

When I’m willing to “go there” in my mind, and feel Jesus presence, I begin to realize that nothing I thought or did … has ever affected my true essence, or kept Jesus away.

See Lesson # 34… “I could see peace (ie, experience peace in my mind), instead of this (choosing the ego and its belief in separation).“

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3) The State of Peace

 I (the internal decision maker in my mind) then experience true peace.

 True peace of mind then is experienced after the first 2 steps in which I ask and let the Holy Spirit to help me to recognize and remove my own made-up blocks to my awareness of peace  …

• the 1st block: my external blame and condemnation of others and…
• the 2nd block:  my own internal blame, guilt and self loathing.

I now begin to realize that God not only loves the other person’s true reality… but God also still loves my own true innocent self  too!

And then, even tho I’m still seeing the images of seeming separation… I  begin to experience an awareness that our seeming separated selves were not our true selves at all, and that we are actually still the same one Self, God’s innocent Son forever intact.

This recognition is the real miracle.

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In the first two steps we need to willingly and actively ask Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit for help in the process of letting go of blame (first of others, then ourselves). In the third step we simply experience peace through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit clears us of all our made-up pain from our belief in sin, guilt, and fear in the first two steps. These were our own make-believe “blocks to the awareness of love’s presence” (mentioned in the Course’s opening Introduction to the Text on page one).

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 awareness of love’s presence… (Text p. 1)

The Holy Spirit helps us to recognize and let go of our own blocks to knowing peace and love, which were simply our judgements of others and ourselves… then what’s left is our experience of true peace.

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Course References to The Three Steps of Forgiveness:

 Here are some Course places that mention the three steps…

 1) WB Les. 23 p.34  

I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts (my judgments of others and myself).

The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified (Step One), and then let go (Step Two), so that it can be replaced (Step Three). The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.

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2) WB les. 52 p.84 par.2

I see only the past.

As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this seeing. [I realize] I hold the past against everyone and everything, making them my enemies (Step One).  When I have forgiven myself [by letting  Jesus tell me he still loves me] (Step Two) and remembered Who I am, I will bless everyone and everything I see. There will be no past, and therefore no enemies. And I will look with love on all that I failed to see before. (Step Three)

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 3) WB les. 56 p. 92 par.2

Above all else I want to see. 

Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am (Step One), I realize that vision is my greatest need. The world I see attests [reflects] the fearful nature of the self-image I have made [a separated self in my mind] . If I would remember who I am, it is essential that I let this image of myself go (Step Two). As it is replaced by truth, vision will surely be given me. And with this vision, I will look upon the world and on myself with charity and love. (Step Three)

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 4) Text p.90 par.6

I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace. (Step One)
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.(Step Two)
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me. (Step Three)

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 5) Text p.131 par.5

⁵ Do not be afraid of the ego. It depends on your mind, and as you made it [the ego] by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief from it. Do not project the responsibility for your belief in it [the ego] onto anyone else, or you will preserve the belief. When you are willing to accept sole responsibility for the ego’s existence you will have laid aside all anger and all attack, because they come from an attempt to project responsibility for your own errors (Step One).  But having accepted the errors as yours, do not keep them. Give them (our beliefs in sin, guilt and fear, and that we are a separated self) over quickly to the Holy Spirit to be undone  completely (Step Two), so that all their effects will vanish from your mind and from the Sonship as a whole (Step Three).

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***  6) Manual p.86 par.6 (Lyn Corona’s favorite on 3 steps) 

This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out (Step One) is seen within (Step Two), and there forgiveness lets it disappear (Step Three). For there the altar to the Son is set, and there his Father is remembered. Here are all illusions brought to truth and laid upon the altar. What is seen outside must lie beyond forgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful. Where is hope while sin is seen as outside (Step One)? What remedy can guilt expect? But seen within your mind, guilt and forgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one altar (Step Two). There at last are sickness and its single remedy joined in one healing brightness (Step Three). God has come to claim His Own. Forgiveness is complete.

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There are other references that we may find that will stand out to each of us… and when in doubt, ask Jesus for help to lead us somewhere in the Course he may want us to look.

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One, Two, Three…

Another way of briefly describing the three steps of forgiveness is the following…

1. What if the real source of my not feeling peaceful or happy… is not something external in your behavior or even my own behavior… no matter how bad that behavior may seem.
2. What if the real problem is internal in my mind… where I simply have chosen to believe I could push Jesus and peace away… and that’s why I’m unhappy.
3. When I allow myself to hear Jesus tell me your innocence and real identity as God’s Son is still intact, and so is my own, then I truly feel his love and presence and I know what he’s telling me is true. And from this happy and safe place, I will intuitively know what to do next, in any given situation.

 

 

² Real choice (in the mind) is no illusion. But the world has none to offer. All its roads but lead to disappointment, nothingness and death. There is no choice in its (the world’s) alternatives. Seek not escape from problems here. The world was made that problems could not be escaped. Be not deceived by all the different names its roads are given. They have but one end. And each is but the means to gain that end, for it is here that all its roads will lead, however differently they seem to start; however differently they seem to go. Their end is certain, for there is no choice among them. All of them will lead to death. On some you travel gaily for a while, before the bleakness enters. And on some the thorns are felt at once. The choice is not what will the ending be, but when it comes. (Ch. 31, p. 653, par. 2)

Ken Wapnick used to say that projecting our internal made-up guilt onto the world and our bodies…  was “a maladaptive solution to a non-existent problem.”

The solution that didn’t work (maladaptive) was projecting our guilt onto others to try to get rid of it. All that did was reinforce our inner unrecognized belief that guilt was alive and well inside us…

The real problem was always our own belief in sin and guilt in our own mind (which was actually made-up, ie. ‘non-existent’ in the first place).

I can actually ask Jesus to help me see and experience that he didn’t go anywhere. He is still right here, right now, loving the real me (meaning all of us joined as one)… loving us in spite of all our seeming ‘sins’ and differences. We are forgiven for what we didn’t do, and could never do… that is, separate from him and God.

This is the Course’s uniquely non-traditional, yet practical process of forgiveness.

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 For further discussion on the three forgiveness steps,

check out Ken Wapnick’s CD set or MP3 download on

“The Meaning of Forgiveness”

 (click here)

 

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SFACIM Video: on “What forgiveness is / what forgiveness isn’t…”

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