Ask: Can you go into more detail about "the script is written"?

“I have a question I hope you will consider answering for me and others.  In your most recent post; “All A Mind Needs Is Willingness,” you speak a little about the meaning of “the script is written,” and mention “it does not mean that every detail of the self’s story in time is pre-ordained.”  As I understand this to be true, being that our choices can alter our course in time, I still have so many questions the rotate around this one statement.  I was wondering if you could go into more detail about what “The Script Is Written,” actually means.

When I think of this I believe it is saying that everything that seems to come our way we have asked for being that we chose to listen to the ego’s voice instead of the Holy Spirit’s—which was the detour into fear.  And from that choice, we set into motion everything we think is happening.  Also, Gods Will is done, meaning that the separation never happened, just the desire to listen to another voice which caused us to sleep rather than wake into God’s Will.  Outside of that, It is at large to me.  Would you care to touch on this?  It would be most helpful.” – BO

            Like “I need do nothing”, “the script is written” is one of those phrases in A Course in Miracles that the ego latches onto, reads totally out of context, and runs wild with. Here’s how that phrase is used in ACIM:

“Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. The script is written. When experience will come to end your doubting has been set. For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.” (W-158.4)

Here is this paragraph in my translation of the Workbook into plain-language, Practicing A Course in Miracles”:

“Time is a trick, a sleight of hand; a vast illusion in which illusory figures seem to come and go as if by magic. Yet, there is a plan behind these appearances that does not change. It is as though there is a script with the ending already written; the Experiences that will end your doubting have been set. There really is no journey, but you imagine that you are taking one, learning what you have really already learned.” (PACIM-158.4)

And here is what I said about this paragraph in my mentor’s notes in PACIM:

“Paragraphs 3, and 4 are referring to the fact that the moment that the idea of not-God occurred it was undone, because God is All-encompassing and cannot have an opposite. But the idea of not-God contains the concept of time, and only in time does it seem that you separated from God in a distant past, and that you will return to God at an indefinite time in the future. Time is the illusion on which all other illusions rest. This is why the Experience of the Holy Instant is so important. In the Holy Instant, you step out of time and into Eternity, and you realize that you have never left God; there is no time, no world, and no journey. And when you return to time from a Holy Instant, it never again has the same hold over you.” (PACIM-158.mn)

            Time is only an idea that is an expression of that instant of the-idea-of-not-God/the-undoing-of-the-idea-of-not-God. So one’s life in the world is an expression of one of these ideas. The idea-of-not-God, which you are born into by default, is expressed by a life that moves away from God. It expresses the concept of “separation from God”. But you can become aware of God and at that point your life becomes an expression of the undoing-of-the-idea-of-not God. You “retrace your steps” back to God. In any case, both are meaningless stories (except to you while you still identify with one of them) because not-God is not possible so the undoing-of-not-God is not necessary. So “the script is written” is a figurative phrase that means that once you’ve chosen God the outcome is inevitable. The “theme” or trajectory of your life has changed and you cannot go back. You cannot unlearn what you have learned.

            Keep in mind that the ego thought system gets caught up in the details of what is or is not occurring in the unfolding story. It cannot see beyond what is right in front of it, or its own desires, so it is always in lack. But the thought system of the Holy Spirit (your awareness of God) in your mind sees the larger unfolding story. It sees the whole picture. Where the ego sees minutiae the Holy Spirit sees the larger unfolding theme. The ego sees what is not yet done in time. The Holy Spirit sees that time is over.

So you can relax and trust your unfolding awareness. You don’t have to nitpick the details of your every thought and mood and choice every moment of the day. The arc of your life has changed. The outcome is inevitable.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace, and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.