"Separated from God"

A Course in Miracles says that your one problem is that you feel “separated from God” and that you feel guilty for this. But it’s fairly common for students to tell me that they have a hard time getting their minds around this concept. They don’t go around thinking “I’ve separated from God and I’m bad for this” and they even believe in God. The concept is too abstract for them to grasp.

The belief in separation from God is largely unconscious and it is the source of all guilt. It is actually the consciousness into which you think that you are born into in your identification with a self. The concept is there at the core of the ego (personal thought system) in your mind. It is the idea that “proves” that the ego is real and that also protects the ego by keeping you from looking inward. You are not meant to see it consciously because then you’d be motivated to undo it and therefore undo the ego. Because the belief in guilt is the consciousness of the world, the world reinforces guilt, overtly and covertly. Rather than question this experience of inherent guilt the world’s (ego’s) religions try to explain it with concepts like “original sin”. They reinforce guilt as valid and true. (All of this I go into in depth in my book “Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace”).

So, practically, what is really meant by feeling “separated from God” and how does this lead to guilt? Since God is your True Being then to think that you are “separated from God” means that you are not aware of your True Being. You are not in your natural state. Perhaps it is easier to understand that you are unhappy and conflicted and just uncomfortable in general because you are not in your natural state rather than “separate” from some abstract concept of a god.

If you think of “separated from God” as “not in my natural state” then where does guilt come into it? Since you are not in your natural state you feel that something is “off” or “wrong”. And, to preserve itself, the ego (personal thought system) tells you that this feeling is because you are inherently “wrong”; you have done something “wrong”. And if you did something wrong there must be something against which you did something wrong. In your unnatural state of identification with the ego your True Being seems outside of you. The ego tells you this Being outside of you – this “god” – is that against which you did something wrong. In your identification with the ego you fear your True Being as though It is something else: a god outside of you with power over you and which sits in judgment on you. No wonder you do not want to approach your True Being!


So guilt is the ego’s distortion of your discomfort when you identify with the ego. And the ego makes a god out of your Reality but telling you that It is outside of you and sits in judgment on you. This distortion is to protect the ego from your looking inward into your mind and looking past the ego. It tells you that if you look inward at all you are not to look too far or you will find out how truly “wrong” you are. But, of course, if you do look inward, after you get past your belief in guilt, you realize that you are uncomfortable not because you are guilty but just because you are not in your natural state. And that’s easy to remedy by welcoming your True Being back into your awareness. This is the “one solution” to your one problem. This is the “Atonement” or correction of your perception that you are separate from God, which A Course in Miracles teaches. 

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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.

Comments

hannah said…
so, belief in rejection is simply an offshoot of the belief in separation? i guess its unlikely that we can completely free ourselves of feelings of rejection until this basic belief has been healed? i will continue to feel guilt to some degree unless im doing everything i think i should do to be a 'good' person, while i still identify with ego as real? as then my empathy will not be true, but egoic empathy?

i read this passage pearler from PLACIM,first paragraph in chapter 16 'the forgiveness of illusions'

'from the holy spirits perspective, to empathise does not mean to join in suffering, because suffering is is what you must refuse to understand. empathising to share pain is the personal minds interpretation of empathy, and it always uses it to form a special relationship. but the capacity to empathise is very useful when used in the holy spirits way. the holy spirit does not understand suffering, and it wants you to teach yourself that suffering is not understandable. when the holy spirit relates to another through you, it does not relate from personal mind to personal mind. the holy spirit does not join in pain, because healing pain is not accomplished by entering into a delusion and attempting to lighten it by sharing it.'

in one of your earlier blogs 'correct use of denial' i read the line today 'But she clearly demonstrated that she did believe error could hurt her.' as a way of recognising that identification is with the ego. it was if id read that phrase for the first time! so i wont heal this rejection stuff by changing my behaviour in the world, by being my idea of a better person, cos that is actually strengthening my identification with ego?

also, ive been practising lesson 80 for weeks now, so thank you for this awesome timing ;) its wonderful how holy spirit can error to strengthen trust in love. hmm. ive started feeling guilty and unworthy of divine timing. the words 'like ive stolen something' just popped into my head.

ACIM Mentor said…
Hannah, yes, when you feel whole in Truth the concept of rejection will have no meaning for you. You won't need others to make you feel whole. And you will accept that others are operating out of their own stories and their behavior really has nothing to do with you.

You will feel guilt in the ego no matter how "good" you are as a person. When you are in ego you never feel that you measure up. So, yes, you just reinforce the ego by trying to be a good person to appease guilt.
nicci said…
oh my. so this discomfort behind the discovery of buried guilt is the result of identifying with an unnatural state which is simply relieved by . . .simply . . .

i feel HS telling me that no effort is required to be what I Naturally Am. and yet it seems to be my experience that much effort is being required to not be be what i am not.

i am honing the part of this remembering that calls for vigilance and inner attention, but accepting the Love that is given continues to challenge. this seems to be where my discomfort lies. is it the identifying with the unnatural state that i need to forgive and turn over to my Inner Teacher for undoing and healing?

i will study your sharing here more and forgive. thank you ever for deepening my commitment.
ACIM Mentor said…
Yes, Nicci, what you have to forgive, or release, is identifying with what is not Reality. Getting in touch with the Holy Spirit (the awareness of Truth in your mind) is how you do that.
nicci said…
thank you.
jerryo said…
There is no reason to feel bad
Unknown said…
I have a long Christian background and in my recent start with ACIM I'm finding that a lot I've found puzzling is being explained.For example,Job says:"In my flesh shall I see God."How are we able to see the incorporeal Infinite with our eyes of flesh ? I'm learning to take every problem to the HS where I find all the answers.
Sage Starfield said…
Great post and comments!

Liz, for me "original sin" is synonymous with separation from God - that's how i've redefined the term to make sense to me. Would you agree?

George - I believe that everything in Creation is a manifestation of the incorporeal Infinite and so when we can look at our flesh as pure energy (which we are!) as opposed to something "other" which we call physical, then we see our True Nature as part of that incorporeal infinite as opposed to something separate from it. So in this context "In my flesh I see God" makes perfect sense. (: ...My humble opinion... :)
Christine said…
Also, George, Dr. Ken Wapnick said on numerous accounts to not try to mix 'form' and 'content'.ie., that form means something - he said to always ask, "What is this for?" I tend to ask now, "Is this for the awakening of my mind to the Awareness of My Oneness? Or does this mire me deeper in the belief of separation?"
Liz would say that "only Truth is True"...Maybe what Job was intimating was that even if we are or seem to be separated - in body, having an experience of the world - we still are Not separate from God, Our Source...though oh boy, it really seems that way!
ACIM Mentor said…
I don't know the context of that quote so I have no idea what Job meant. Just reading the line on its own perhaps he meant that even at the level of consciousness of form he could also be aware of Formless Truth.

I'm not sure what Job meant by "God". Historically, and presently actually, most people mean by "God" the maker of the universe of form (what ACIM calls the "Son of God") not Formless Being. So for him God and form could perhaps blend. He says "shall", as in the future, so perhaps it was his expectation that God would appear to him in form.
Anonymous said…
George, please correct me if I'm wrong: Job (the man) wanted to see God in human form, thousands of years before the man Jesus would appear. You might say it was his wish. Job (a character in the story that continues as I type) was imagining or experiencing a conversation between God and Satan. Carl Jung analyzed this bible chapter before Liz was born. I read it shortly after becoming an ACIM student. My current interpretation is that in my flesh, this body, this lifetime, I shall see God in you and in myself. Much love, Jo
Desert Dreams said…
Liz, you wrote:

"I'm not sure what Job meant by "God". Historically, and presently actually, most people mean by "God" the maker of the universe of form (what ACIM calls the "Son of God") not Formless Being."

I think I might know what you're saying.

Many people over life times, have written and spoken of 'God' as the maker of the Universe of form (our world and everything and everyone in it)
Did you add, parenthetically,... '(what ACIM calls the 'Son of God)' to mean that God made Jesus in the world of form but that He was actually, as we all are, formless Being?
ACIM Mentor said…
Desert Dreams, the Christ Mind (awareness of Truth) is the extension of God's Mind (Truth). Jesus was a man who was aware of the Christ Mind. So, no, God did not make Jesus. He was the result of cause and effect at the level of form, as all selves are. The Christ Mind simply is and all minds have access to It.

There is no relationship at all between God and the universe of form. Understanding this is understanding the true forgiveness that ACIM talks about.
Sage Starfield said…
I still have a problem with: "There is no relationship at all between God and the universe of form." If nothing can be separate from God, the formless Creator of All That Is, then mustn't this include the universe of form? Can anything exist which is not in relationship to God, It's Creator?
ACIM Mentor said…
Sage, the universe of form does not exist. This is why ACIM calls it an "illusion" and likens it to a "dream". And this is why it teaches that true forgiveness is recognizing that nothing real has occurred. Only God is Real. Recognizing this is blissful release!
Sage Starfield said…
Thanks Liz. I'll try to wrap my brain around it! :)

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