A Course in Miracle Workbook for Dummies

A Course In Miracle Workbook For Dummies

Special Theme #13: What Is a Miracle?

What Is a Miracle?

Covers ACIM Workbook Lessons 341-350

13. What Is a Miracle?

W-pII.13.1.A miracle is a correction. 2 A miracle does not create, nor really change at all. 3 A miracle merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what the mind sees is false. 4 A miracle undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. 5 Thus a miracle stays within time's limits. 6 Yet a miracle paves the way for the return of timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy a miracle brings.

W-pII.13.2.A miracle contains the gift of grace, for a miracle is given and received as one. 2 And thus a miracle illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because the world fails entirely to understand the miracle and the laws of truth’s ways. 3 A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus a miracle ends the strange distortions that were manifest. 4 Now is perception open to the truth. 5 Now is forgiveness seen as justified.

W-pII.13.3.Forgiveness is the home of miracles. 2 The eyes of Christ deliver miracles to all they look upon in mercy and in love. 3 Perception stands corrected in the eyes of Christ’s sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. 4 Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. 5 And each lily of forgiveness is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.

W-pII.13.4.The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for a miracle implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what the mind cannot see and does not understand. 2 Yet faith will bring the miracle’s witnesses to show that what faith rested on is really there. 3 And thus the miracle will justify your faith in the miracle, and show the miracle rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.

W-pII.13.5.Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. 2 Now the starved and thirsty creatures have water. 3 Now the world is green. 4 And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality.

Special Theme #13: What Is a Miracle?

Notes to Special Theme # 13: What Is a Miracle?

Covers ACIM Workbook Lessons 341-350

A miracle is a correction. It is a change from misperception to right mindedness. With this change in thinking, forgiveness is now seen as justified. The miracle actually changes nothing that is real but merely reminds the mind that what it perceives is false and thus, undoes erroneous thinking.

Because of the miracle, our egoic thinking now gives way to the truth. A miracle does not go beyond correcting misperception and remains within the realm of time. Although the miracle’s purpose is to restore your mind to right mindedness through forgiveness, it stays within time’s limits. The miracle does not attempt to restore your mind to knowledge but it does pave the way to the return to knowledge and timelessness.

Forgiveness is the home of miracles. Christ vision corrects our ego’s misperception so that you can view your world through the eyes of mercy, forgiveness and love. Forgiveness offers the entire world the miracle of love. No one is excluded from its reach.

Because the miracle is a change in perception, it may appear to have no effect upon the physical world to a third-party observer. The miracle happens within your own mind and does not necessarily change the outside world. This change in your own thinking does have the ability to open other minds to new possible ways of viewing their world and thus, can impact how they, in turn, view their world. Because minds are connected, a miracle that is given to one is given to all.

Because miracles belong to the realm of thought, rather than the physical world, miracles first rest upon your faith. This is because initially the split mind cannot see and understand how the miracle works. Yet, due to the miracle’s result, which is the restoration of your own inner peace, you realize that your faith in miracles has not been misplaced.

When you experience the miracle’s beneficial effects on your state of being, it becomes apparent that your faith in miracles has been properly placed. Miracles rest upon truth and reality, not hope and fantasy. The miracle shows that we are the source of our experiences and that nothing can rob us of our own inner peace unless we choose to allow it. The miracle acknowledges our immortality and unlimited nature as spirit or mind.

The miracle happens within your own mind and cannot be forced upon another. You can hold the truth for another, but you cannot force them to accept the truth. If you could force them to change their mind, this would mean that their mind was subservient to an outside power, in this case your mind which was beyond their control. Such a belief is disempowering and would only increase fear in both parties involved.

If you can force another to accept something against their will, it implies that you too can be manipulated by similar outside forces. A miracle allows and does not judge or condemn another for their decisions to be or imagine anything that they wish to experience. The miracle replaces judgment with forgiveness and offers allowance instead of condemnation.

The miracle changes your perception from fear-based thinking to the thought system that supports love and forgiveness. Fear arises any time we believe that we lack the creative power to handle a given situation. Whenever we fail to answer either of the follow two questions correctly, fear will raise its ugly head.

The first question is,What am I?

The second question is,What do I value and why?

The miracle temporarily corrects your ego’s mistaken answers to either of these two questions. The Holy Spirit uses the miracle to reframe your misperception and move your mind out of its current fear-based thinking.

Since the next special theme will deal with the question of what am I, we will discuss the second question which is,What do you value and why? The miracle corrects your ego’s answer to what you value and why. Typically what you value is not the critical issue. The problem normally revolves around why you value the item in question.

Obviously, if you perceive that you are a limited ego-body with needs, you will value something because you will believe that obtaining that item will make or improve your safety, survival or happiness. When you believe you have needs, even when you possess the item in question, you will still be in fear since the item could be consumed, lost or stolen. As long as an item is perceived to be something outside of your mind, it is not part of your beingness and will not be perceived to be under the total control of your mind’s creative powers.

Although this idea of what you value is typically associated with things, it also applies to non-things like verbs or character traits.

For example, you can value the attribute of peace because your ego believes that peace can make you happy or you can value peace because that is what you are. When you value an attribute like peace because it is part of you, time and space become a playschool that allows you to be or demonstrate that attribute in specific form. You get to be the thing that you are. Being what you are does not engender fear because it is the fulfillment of your function and purpose. Only when you are being what you are, can you truly be happy for only what you are is real. Fantasies that claim you are something you are not only disappoint since they do not last and can never be real.

We could substitute the attribute of peace with love, forgiveness, or any other item in the critical question of why you value something and the answer would always revolve around the same thing. Do you value the attribute because you believe it has some magical force outside of your mind that you need to make you happy or safe?

<Or>,

Do you believe that your mind is the source of that attribute and that the experience allows you to demonstrate what you are and thus, fulfill your function and purpose?

Why do you value a particular relationship? Is it because you understand that each is perfect, whole and complete and therefore, it gives you just another opportunity to be and demonstrate love in form.

<Or?

Do you perceive lack, limitation and separation and therefore, seek a special relationship to make you happy or feel more complete?

On earth, we are here to demonstrate and be the attribute of love we call forgiveness. In heaven, forgiveness, like miracles, has no meaning for there is nothing that warrants forgiveness. On earth, we can value our experiences because they provide an opportunity to know and be ourselves. We can value our earthly experiences because of the learning lessons they provide. On earth, we need the experiences miracles provide to remember what we are.

This is different than valuing the experience because you believe the experience itself has some external magical power to make you happy or more complete. When you believe something outside yourself can make you happy, you have secretly disempowered your mind and accepted the idea that there are outside forces that can steal your inner peace or make you happy or sad. You have moved into fear and made victim consciousness your provisional reality. You have denied the creative power of your own mind.

You can value time because you believe it either keeps you safe from God’s wrath or provides the time that you need to earn your redemption from your imagined sins. If so, your focus will be results oriented and time will be a place of fear.

<Or>

You can value the opportunity time provides because it allows you to demonstrate and be what you really are through specific experiences in the illusion of separation. If so, your focus will be on the process of being what you are and time will be a place of fulfillment, not fear.

<Or>

You can value time because it provides a feedback mechanism that allows you to learn what you currently value and make mid-course corrections as you hone your skills for becoming love in form. If so, your focus will be on the process of rediscovering your true big “S” Self or Christ nature and time will be a fun and exciting place of learning.

We have all come here for the learning experiences that the world of perception provides. Time and space is a means to awakening and not an end. When we value time and space as an end, we become results oriented with a focus on the future which keeps us trapped in fear.

When we value this world as a means, we realize that this is a process, not a destination. We can now enjoy the journey and be in the present moment. Instead of having to get it right and earn our salvation, the journey is a process that becomes our perfect personal path that guarantees our return to sanity. When the journey becomes a means, instead of an end, the fear of earning dissolves and the world becomes your playschool for fun and learning.

The miracle is a change in perception that allows you, at least temporarily, to change what you value and why. You no longer value an illusion; instead, you value what is real. You stop clinging to fears and start valuing forgiveness, mercy and love. You stop valuing your need to be right over your happiness. You drop your judgments and condemnation in exchange for allowance and forgiveness.

The miracle moves you out of your fear-based thought system and facilitates learning and your reawakening to the truth. Through forgiveness, the miracle allows you to change your mind’s perception about itself, you, your brother, your world and your God.