Ask: Can you clarify the ego's use of time as hell?
“I just read in ACIM that the ego teaches that ‘Heaven is here
and now because the future is hell.’ Then in the next chapter it says ‘the Holy
Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of
the present.’ It seems to contradict; maybe you could talk about this in one of
your future posts…” – AS
Actually, those quotes are in the same chapter and
subsection (The Two Uses of Time) of
the Text of A Course in Miracles,
just a couple of paragraphs apart. Here is the first quote in context (my
underlining):
“The ego teaches
that Heaven is here and now because the future is hell. Even when it
attacks so savagely that it tries to take the life of someone who thinks its is
the only voice, it speaks of hell even to him. For it tells him hell is here
as well, and bids him leap from hell into oblivion. The only time the ego
allows anyone to look upon with equanimity is the past. And even there, its
only value is that it is no more.” (T-15.I.5)
Notice that this paragraph says that the ego teaches that
both the present and the future are hell. So there is no contradiction to what
it says two paragraphs later:
“The Holy Spirit
teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the
present.” (T-15.I.7)
It also says that the ego will “allow” you to look on the
past with equanimity. This does not mean, though, that when it is convenient
for its purposes it will not also teach you to look on the past as hell. The
ego makes hell of time, period. As it says further in that same paragraph:
“There is no escape
from fear in the ego's use of time. For time, according to its teaching, is
nothing but a teaching device for compounding guilt until it becomes
all-encompassing, demanding vengeance forever.” (T-15.I.7)
But the Holy Spirit uses the Holy Instant to release you
from time:
“The Holy Spirit would
undo all of this now. Fear is not of
the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is no fear in the present when each
instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching
out into the future. Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the
Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends
forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but
happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.
(T-15.I.8)
>>>>
Are there passages in ACIM that do not make sense to you? Some of my clients like to read ACIM with me. Sometimes they bring specific passages that need clarification; sometimes we just read from where they are in ACIM. This is one of the many ways you can use mentoring to deepen your study and understanding. Learn more about mentoring at www.acimmentor.com.
Comments
Only a couple of times have I really seen/felt that even fear isn't real. I had thought in terms of what I feared isn't real. But I finally saw that fear itself is not real. I frankly do not remember when or how I came to those moments.
From someone who spent a lot of years doing and teaching Adult Child work here is the deal. You will almost never see a persons inner child especially in this format. The child comes out to say Hello and invariably someone's critical parent voice will shame the kid. And that is the end of that; the kid isn't coming out anymore. Invariably. I feel honored to see your kid but you may want to let him back in the house before some fool says something:)
yes liz.. i did, thank you. oh.. i just realised. before coming across ACIM i was starting to experience that time isnt real. and i was starting to see that space could be like playdough. and that this meant that nothing was as i thought it was.
i had a dream that i was standing on a short jetty, looking down into the water and there was a shark swimming around, and i was petrified, even though i new i was safe on the jetty. brett (the man i told you about who told me things about myself that made me furious, partly because i didnt know if they were true or not) tapped me on the shoulder and said 'hey han, look again' so i did, and the shark had turned into a stingray. i was fascinated, and dropped to my knees to get a closer look. i suddenly knew, deeply, that for another, the fear situation would be reversed, they might be fascinated by the shark, and terrified of the stingray. (i think steve irwin might have just been killed by a stingray fairly recently). i knew in that moment that the thing itself was not the source of fear, and that the source was in perception, and fear was just about how we were looking, and how we looked at things could change in an instant.
odd how long ive spent since then denying that fear will disappear when im willing to look at what im afraid of. i think half the time i simply didnt want to let go of an idea that would be replaced if i accepted a new perception. scared of the death of a perception of me.
would it maybe be more accurate/rounded-out to say.. you still hear both sides, still hear the ego, but as you dont believe it (as HS is your constant companion) there is no more fear? as in.. no more FULL fear, it cant run with you, as you are steady in your 'choice of voice'?
your last comment is appropriate to me.. liz is also talking with me (but oh boy do i wanna fight it) about how it is not loss to let go of things just because 'they are mine'.. which includes just because i want or enjoy them.. yes, including if they are not mine or not helpful.