A Course In Miracles Lesson 107

A Course In Miracles lesson 107 states: Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

Only by locating what is true can we clear confusion.  What else could possibly bring clarity other than what is true?  It is very possible for confusion to end and for clarity to be our primary experience.  This would not mean we would stop questioning or evaluating our perceptions in an arrogant or overly “confident” way.  Ego confidence is not clarity.  Living in a state of true clarity about life is a graceful experience that is governed by humility and curiosity.  

When living in clarity we are always asking, “Is that true?”  And when we find the answer to be “no, that is not true,” We do not fight or defend our previous error.  Instead, we bow our heads to the mistake and allow our thoughts to be corrected.  Would you feel shame or guilt if you discovered you made a mathematical error?  Most likely you would just be surprised and then seek to correct the mistake.  We can let the same process be true for all sorts of errors we make in life.  We do not need to feel shame for not knowing better beforehand.  If we keep engaging in a mistake that we know is a mistake, this can only mean we still believe that pain is useful and that pain will correct us.  We are choosing pain, rather than peace.

Once we locate a humble experience of correction, we feel great again!  The process of correcting mistaken beliefs does not feel shameful and it does not inspire a desire for revenge.  The experience of having our perceptions corrected is not an experience of shame.  It is an experience of relief.  While there may be some pain involved, the predominant feeling is relief, because locating what is true is the only thing that ever brings relief.  And so, if we experience shame, guilt, embarrassment, confusion, or remorse during what we think is a correction process, we are not yet completely corrected in how we are thinking.  It may be a necessary process to become aware of long-standing shame or remorse, but once realized, the process of release and relief has begun.  It is up to us to learn how to not get in the way of that process, to step aside and let the true nature of grace lead us out of feeling bad.  In this way, happiness is an act of courage.

God does not want our pain.  If our behavior has led to pain, it is not because we are being punished.  It is only because we are resisting having our perceptions corrected back towards peace.  There is such a thing as “healthy” guilt, also called “primary” guilt.  This is the feeling we feel that indicates an error in our behavior and perception has occurred.  The instant we own the painful feeling and let them teach us how we would rather conduct ourselves, the pain begins to release us back into clarity and peace.  We can, of course, hold ourselves in remorse indefinitely and refuse to return to innocent calm.  But the only reason we would do that is because we believe the ego teachings that pain corrects errors.  This is a wrong way of thinking.  

Pain does not correct errors.  Pain only indicates an error has occurred.  Only truth corrects all errors in our minds.  Since life is an adventure of unknown challenges, there is no way for us to determine ahead of time what will be the right behavior for us in every circumstance.  The have to learn as we go and make a thousand corrections a day to keep ourselves aligned with the relaxed, grounded connection with truth.

Locating truth is hard-earned.  Our ego perceptions do not make it easy for us.  Locating truth takes constant inquiry while we are living in this world of illusions and misperceptions.  But there is nothing more fun, more satisfying, or more rewarding to the human soul than to sort out confusion and set a situation in proper order.  Every story ever told is the story of restoring order.  And so it is that restoring order is our soul story.  We are on a journey to clear away confusion and live in truth.  Aligning with that intention and effort is what Native Lakota cultures call walking the Good Red Road.  Just the act of seeking truth is a relief, even if we are not yet able to locate it fully.  Living in alignment with actions that bring peace is how we release ourselves from the illusion.

Wherever truth arrives, confusion disappears.  Any errors in our perception of a situation vanish at once in the light of truth.  The memory of an error is destined to fade into nothing.  Will you let it fade?  Will you let your mistakes become meaningless?  Will you let the mistakes other people have made become meaningless?  The mistakes we have made in life are of such little importance to the Greater Reality who sees us always connected and good.  Learning will never make us bad.  We can never do anything to get kicked out of Greater Reality.  But we can kick our own selves out.  Whenever we want to return, we are welcome.

Why keep focusing on the errors?  Today you are asked to shift your gaze, shift your focus up and away from the mistakes you think you (or another person) have made toward you.  Give mistakes no more attention once you have identified them as painful.  Dwell not upon them.  If you feel you need punishing for your behavior, or if you feel someone else needs punishing for their behavior, ask yourself how long should that prison sentence be.  How much punishment and suffering do you need until the error is corrected?  You could go days, weeks, or even years believing that you or the other person need to feel more pain in order to right the past error.  

You believe the mistake you have made or that another has made against you is serious and permanent.  It is only your thinking in this way that makes the error serious and permanent.  Without belief in their rightness, our misperceptions have no power over us.  Nothing has power over us.  We decide what we will believe.  A Course In Miracles Lesson 107 wants us to determine our belief system based on the quality of how good a belief feels.  Does a thought empower us or does it engender fear?

Take a moment at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day before sleep to remember a moment when you felt fully at peace.  Remember a moment when you had no fears or concerns.  Now try to imagine what it would be like to have that experience of peace and safety extended beyond a fleeting moment to last an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year.  Imagine the quality of innocence being an experience you wake up with, make coffee with, go to work with, go to sleep with, and wake up again with the next day.

Imagine the sense of quiet, calm, invigorating peace being multiplied in you a hundred times.  Then let it be multiplied a hundred more times.  This magnitude of peace within you is only the faintest hint of how your mind will truly rest when the truth has come.  Illusions are fearful and doubtful experiences.  When illusions are cleared away there is only the peace and joy of eternal reality.

Truth is always there because it is real.  What is real is always real even if it gets obscured.  If confusion comes over us, this does not mean all previous clarity has been lost forever. It only means a cloud has temporarily obscured us from what we know is true.  It is only a matter of time before clarity is restored.  Time is, in fact, the process of restoring clarity.  A cloud may block our view of the sun but that cloud can not ever have any effect whatsoever on the actual sun.  Do not fear that truth has been lost in any situation. Truth remains even when obscured temporarily.  And in time, we will find it again so long as we remain calm and clear about the nature of temporary confusion.

Truth does not evade or hide.  Truth stands in open light and is accessible in a straightforward way.  If you turn your efforts towards seeking truth, you will, without fail, find it.  That is why we will spend today turning towards that ever-present dimension of reality that is found within our own thoughts.  This part of our mind whispers to us about peace, calm, and creativity deeper than we have yet known.

You are not made of skin and organs.  You are made of light.  When you ask Light to help you, you are asking your own Self for help. God did not create you in order to torture you and then “kill” you.  God created you.  Why would s/he then want to turn around and kill you?  God is not insane.  God is eternal joy in the act of more creation of more joy.  You are a joy to God.  Let yourself be a joy to yourself. Allow space.  Allow quiet emptiness to emerge within the jumble of thoughts rolling through your mind. Let truth correct all errors in your mind.

Do not forget to give 5 minutes every hour to remember today’s lesson.  It is not enough to just read these lessons intellectually. Make an effort to bring these ideas to practical situations throughout the day that help you sort out an illusion.  Reach for this thought today as often as you can remember.  It is in this effort that the new logic will be set in place in your mind.