A Course In Miracles Lesson 46

A Course In Miracles Lesson 46 states:

God is the Love in which I forgive.

Or

Connecting to the Field of Creation is how I release anger.

A Course in Miracles Lesson 46 uses the word “forgiveness” which can be quite off-putting to a modern mind.  The term “forgiveness” was used by so many people in history who did not understand its meaning that now, the word has been ascribed to a concept that is regarded as a psychological irritation at best and an actual hostile violation of truth at its worst.  

A Course In Miracles makes a distinction between how the word was misused by calling the toxic definition, “Forgiveness-to-destroy.”    A word that was meant to heal and soothe became a tool to continue psychological acts of violence, twisting up the mind into so many knots of frustration that the word has lost almost all of its useful function in modern times.  That which was intended to be an open hand to help became a twisted knife to cut and judge.

Forgiving someone of a wrong they committed against you does not mean they get to get away with their wrong behavior.  It means you will free yourself from that harm and stop carrying the experience around.  The fact is, they did “get away with it.”  It is done.  But that is not a win on their part.  What they have done to you, they have done to themselves times 2.  And what you do to them, you do to yourself times 2.  Give them space.  Step away.  To find the strength to do this, turn to the Field, the Source of all energy.

The dictionary definition of forgiveness states that to forgive is to stop feeling angry or resentful towards someone for an offense, flaw, or mistake they committed.  It also means to cancel a debt and not require payment.

Forgiveness is not a compromise.  Forgiveness does not require you to belittle yourself or feel inferior.  Nor does it ask you to lie about how you feel and pretend to like someone when really you don’t.  Forgiveness in its original form is a release from a dynamic causing pain.  To forgive someone is to stop being angry with them for whatever they did.  Forgiveness means choosing to not live in anger, to free yourself and the other person from the gridlock of grudges and resistance to how circumstances unfolded.

What has happened has happened.  There is certainly a time period involved with the acceptance of what happened but it is also within our power to prolong that natural commute from disappointment and anger about an outcome to accepting what is.  Knowing that there is a commute ( a length of time) and giving ourselves that time to feel the disappointment and anger and rage is part of the releasing process.  The way that the concept of forgiveness is distorted is when people do not allow the commute and who say right away, “Get over it. Forgive it.  If you don’t- you are not behaving rightly. If you don’t forgive, you are in the wrong and, shame on you, if you do not forgive.”

This psychology is at the heart of a great deal of dysfunction between people.  If you have committed an offense against me, it is not possible for me to instantly be resolved of the pain that causes.  There is a commute.  There is a process I must go through to figure out how to release myself from the burning pain gripping me because of another’s actions.  What is that process and how do I do it?

A Course In Miracles Lesson 46 answers this question.  The process needed to release anger (to forgive) is to remember the Field.  Reconnect with the state of inclusion that is the Creative Field.  What does that mean?  

The Field of Creation is the source I need to stop being angry with someone.  I am not the one responsible for figuring out how to force myself to feel differently than I do.  I do not have to strong-arm my perspective into a different perspective against my will in order to be a “good” person.  Remembering the Field is remembering inherent goodness, wellness, peace, and inclusion.  I do not have to understand what happened or why it happened.  I do not need to figure out how to let my anger go.  I need only ask myself, do I want it?  I may still want it.  And so long as I do, my anger will stay.  When I am tired of the anger, today’s lesson explains that The Field is what i give my anger to in order to dissolve it.  This “gesture” is an interest more than a doing.  Your desire to let go of anger happens in an instant and is instantly heard and received by the Creative Field.

The Source Field of Creation is where I will find the love needed to stop being angry with someone.  I do not need to generate that love out of nothing.  It is not in my power to forgive or to release myself from anger.  It is in my power to recognize that I am one limited perspective in an infinitely vast Field of being.  I do not know why what happened happened.  I do not have all the information on any given topic.  My perception is limited to my experiences and expectations based on those experiences.  As a living being, I have no choice but to have a perception.  I have no choice that my perception is limited.  Being in a body is the act of being in a limited perception.

The Creative Field does not have perceptions.  It does not have opinions.  Or rather, it has every opinion possible. The God Field is that which includes all that is.  It is a Unified Field.  It does not hold a negative opinion about any part of itself.  It does hold space for negative opinions to manifest and unmanifest and it always recognizes that such things are temporary and thus ultimately meaningless.

The God Field is the unification of all that is.  The Field does not hold anger towards some part of itself and favor other parts of itself.  Reality from God’s “perspective” is whole, well, and good.  That is why it is a resource for whenever we want to stop being angry.  It is an eternal presence of peace and wholeness.  It is a holding, accepting, and knowing.  God does not have any need to forgive you for anything because God is not angry with how you are.  You are welcome as you are in this Field, from wherever you may be.

If I need to forgive someone, this means I must have anger I want to stop feeling.  The God Field does not have any anger towards me or anyone.  It is a resource to bring my anger to and to ask for guidance and connection.  Whenever you choose, you can give anger over to The God Field.  Whenever you are ready, you can put down trying to document why you have the right to be angry.  God is not saying you do not have the right.  God accepts that you have been brought to anger and also accepts whenever you want to put it down.    

Avenging hurtful behavior often seems like what is needed to release anger, but violent action will never result in peace.  Only a peaceful action will lead to peace.  When I say I want to forgive someone who has caused me great pain, I am really saying, I do not want to feel this way anymore.  I do not want to feel weak and wronged and excluded.  I want to remember the Creative Field I am forever part of.  I want to remember the qualities of strength and peace that are my birthplace.  

People are temporary events.  The life energy that animates people is forever.  We go on and on.  I am not excluded from the eternal fabric.  Whatever has happened is now over and there is no mistake too large for the Field to handle.  The Field is the Source for how to resolve the unbearable.  The Field is real.  It is more real than any physical object because it will be there when all else fades away.

When we withhold forgiveness, when we hold resentment or disdain, we are the ones creating the pain of those feelings for ourselves.  Releasing anger is not a puzzle we need to solve.  It is not complicated math we have to figure out.  Releasing anger is the choice of not wanting to experience anger.  I do not want to be angry.  We ask the Field to take this anger.  When we ask this, we have connected to the resource needed.  The rest is our willingness to let the fire burn out of its own accord and refrain from adding more fuel to it.  

It may take time for the fire to burn out depending on how large the anger has been.  But reconnecting again and again to the decision to release anger will eventually lead to a calming of the flames.  Peace will come.  Peace is there.  Choose it again and again and again in every circumstance.  Why not?  What is the other option?  

A Course In Miracles Lesson 46 teaches us that feeling connected to the Field of all Creation ends anger.  God is the Love in which I forgive.  When I feel anger, I feel disconnected.  When I feel disconnected it is in my very best interest to stop what I am doing and navigate myself back to remembering the truth about reality.  Reality is whole.  I am always in reality, whole and well.  I have not been wronged.  People are free to make choices on how they will behave.  I am also free to decide how I will behave.  How I choose to behave is how I find my way out of pain (or deeper into it, depending on what I choose.)  Choosing peace leads to more peace.

It may feel impractical to do something so lofty and abstract as to connect with the so-called “Field.”  When consumed by the perceptions of the physical world, meta-physical reality seems irrelevant.  What A Course In Miracles Lesson 46 is trying to tell is is that there is nothing more practical to do than to reconnect to the source of all your power.  That source is a mindset, a way of thinking, a spiritual energy, a choice.

God is the Love in which I forgive.

I do not release anger from inside the logic that created the anger.  Instead, I turn to and connect with a logic that holds no anger.

Today’s lesson asks you to practice three 5-minute sessions and as many shorter sessions as you can remember to do.  

Begin the longer practice periods by repeating today’s idea while closing your eyes.  This connects your visual sight with the inner vision of your mind.  Spend two minutes searching your mind for people you feel anger towards.  It does not matter the degree to which you are angry at them.  There is no such thing as a little anger, in the same way, there is no such thing as a little bit of fire.  It is fire regardless of the size and must be seen for what it is.

You will likely find many people you feel angry towards.  Anyone you do not like is a suitable subject for today.  Mention each person by name and say, “God is the Love in which I release my anger towards you, ( name).”

or- Connecting to the Unified Field of wellness is where I find the strength to let go of my anger towards you, (name.)

After applying this idea to people who come to mind, use the phrase on yourself by saying, “God is the Love in which I forgive myself.”

Then find ways to say this concept in your own words, rephrasing it to how it feels right for you.

Here are my examples of paraphrasing:

“The ever-present source of true reality is the way I change the logic in my mind that leads to anger and pain.”

“The Field is a resource for me to give my anger to and the Field will dissolve in the power of all inclusion.”

“I exist inside a Field and because that Field loves me, I know I am whole and strong.  I have not been hurt by anyone.”