Part I of this article, which appeared in the June 1994 newsletter, discussed the unity of Heaven. This unity, which is A Course in Miracles' definition of Reality, consists of the perfect Oneness of God and His creation Christ, our true Identity. In that article we further described Heaven as a non-dualistic state, meaning that "nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him" (workbook, pp. 237-38; W-pI.132.12:4), because Heaven "is merely an awareness of perfect oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this oneness, and nothing else within" (text, p. 359; T-18.VI.1:6). This fact alone is true, and only this truth is Reality.

But then, as A Course in Miracles states, something seemed to happen: "Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh" (text, p. 544; T-27.VIII.6:2). And yet we say seemed to happen because the "tiny, mad idea" that we could be separate from our Source is only a dream. As the Course says elsewhere of this idea of separation: "In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all" (manual, p. 4; M-2.2:7-8).

In his madness -- in which Reality becomes illusion, and illusion Reality -- the Son of God believed that the impossible had actually occurred. Now he exists in a dualistic state of subject and object, in which he believes that he is separate from, and independent of God, his true Source. This has enabled the Son to think that he is now his own creator and first cause, self-created and autonomous. Indeed, one of the most telling characteristics of this separated state is thinking, which clearly reflects the dualism of thinker and thought, and then of thought and object, even if the object is the Son's own mind. And on such thinking is the ego's world of complexity erected, a world where specifics -- the logical effect of duality -- rule as the only "reality."

In this state, it is indeed almost impossible for a dissociated or split mind to remember the abstract, non-specific Oneness of creation, let alone the instant of separation that "is beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering" (manual, p. 4; M-2.4:1). The unity of God -- our Source and Creator -- with Christ -- His creation -- is almost unfathomable because of the process by which our post-separation, perceptual minds categorize all thinking into perceiver and perceived. This dualism is the nature of all thought in the separated world. For example, if we try to meditate on Oneness, it is always from the position of us as the subject and our Source as the object. This basic dualistic experience, therefore, practically ensures that the non-dualistic reality of our Source and our oneness with It will remain almost unreachable, until we let go of the thinking process and, moreover, thought itself.

However, if we strive in our meditations to let go of all thought, that effort we are expending is already an expression of a thought, and therefore will inevitably be a block to the awareness of our truly experiencing ourselves as a non-dualistic Thought in the Mind of God. As Jesus teaches, in the context of becoming freed from all self-concepts:

Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts [i.e., thoughts]. It does not concern itself with content of the mind, but with the simple statement that it [the mind] thinks (text, p. 613; T-31.V.14:3-4).

Therefore we can conclude that it is our thoughts themselves that are the interference to our awareness of Oneness, since it was the "tiny, mad idea [thought]" which, A Course in Miracles teaches, led us down the ladder of separation. The three following statements from the workbook exemplify the inherent unreality of thought. The first of these comes in the context of the lesson title, "My thoughts do not mean anything.":

This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware.… The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that they are not your real thoughts.… you will have no doubt that what you once believed were your thoughts did not mean anything.… The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think you think.… Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these "thoughts" means that you are not thinking. This is merely another way of repeating our earlier statement that your mind is really a blank (workbook, p. 16; W-pI.10.1:1-2,5; 2:4; 3:2-3).

It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them (workbook, p. 25; W-pI.15.1:1-2). Nothing except your thoughts can attack you.

Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so (workbook, p. 40; W-pI.26.4:2-4).

Let us review how we overcome this literally self-imposed dilemma. We believe that we have actually changed Reality by accepting a thought into our minds that we could separate from our Source. Thus, by the interposition of a split mind and the process identified as thinking, we believed we had changed our true Identity as a Thought at one with God. When the seventeenth century French philosopher Descartes said: "I think, therefore I am," he was really making an ego statement that a being which could think has existence. Now, as students of A Course in Miracles, we can look at that assertion and realize that a right-minded correction would read: "I think, therefore I am not." This is so because, as we have already seen, thought itself is a denial of our true Identity as a unified Thought in the Mind of the Source of all Thought. This is a unity which, again, allows no dualistic distinction between thinker and thought, and even between Creator and created.

Once this realization is fully acknowledged by us, we can then proceed with the Atonement process of undoing, by accepting the Holy Spirit's correction thought for each ego misthought that we had first accepted into our minds. The reluctance if not outright refusal to access the correction thought of the Holy Spirit for our ego misthought comes from the fact that we are not the authors of the correction script, but we are indeed the authors of the ego's wrong-minded script.

The emerging paradigm can thus be summarized as follows:

1) We become aware that we have been identifying with our wrong minds;

2) We actively decide to change our minds and thus we access the correction in our right minds; and

3) We accept the correction, despite the fact that the "I" who have identified with the wrong mind will experience this switch as personally insulting, for this self is not the origin of the right-minded correction thought.

When we finally come to the realization that all of our thinking is image-making, as A Course in Miracles identifies it, we have reached another plateau on our journey home. Next, within this process we must hold somewhere in our minds the idea that time and the entire world are already over (text, p. 547; T-28.I.1:6-7), and that we are simply "reviewing mentally what has gone by" (workbook, p. 291; W-pI.158.4:5). This is important in order for us to realize that all of our thinking is simply a mechanism for accessing a script that is already undone. The end result is that we have an imagined experience that seems real -- through the ego's magic tricks and sleights of hand -- of the inherently unreal world that was over long ago.

Finally, when the right mind's correction has been totally accepted -- the acceptance of the Atonement -- and all guilt over our perceived separation has been let go, the happy dream leads us to the real world, in which we understand at last that everything we have thought or seen has been but a dream of duality and individuality. At this point we accept the truth that we, like Jesus, are the manifestations of the Holy Spirit and thus are "thunk," a made-up word to describe the idea that we are not the origin of our true thoughts, but that Jesus or the Holy Spirit is. We no longer try to interpose what we heretofore have called our thinking, to block this awareness.

It should be noted that intrinsic to this process of undoing, i.e., the essence of forgiveness, is the requirement that we question every value that we hold (text, p. 464; T-24.in.2:1). In the section from the text, "Practicing the Holy Instant," Jesus urges us:

In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception, and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep to yourself. Let the Holy Spirit's purity shine them away, and bring all your awareness to the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He make you ready to acknowledge that you are host to God, and hostage to no one and to nothing (text, p. 290; T-15.IV.9:8-10; italics ours).

An important point of clarification should be noted here as well. Students of A Course in Miracles will come to realize, at some juncture in their journey, that if they practice truly what Jesus asks of them, and raise to question and doubt all concepts about themselves -- including the world and environment they have made for themselves -- it will dawn on them that what they have entertained as thoughts in their minds will of necessity "ultimately fade into the nothingness from which [they] came" (manual, p. 32; M-13.1:2). This realization, which can give rise to the fear of annihilation of one's made-up self, is expressed in this way near the end of the text:

I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself. Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself (text, p. 614; T-31.V.17:7-9; italics omitted).

The impact and importance of the above statement, from the point of view of this article, is the simple fact that entrance to the real world requires the release of all concepts of individuality and the importance we had formerly given to our thoughts. Another very clear statement of this principle is found in the workbook:

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God (workbook, p. 350; W-pI.189.7).

The culmination of this process of undoing is underscored in the final line of the above quotation from the text: "And What you are will tell you of Itself," which directly implies that we have entered the realm of "no thought" and therefore "no self." This allows the dawning in our minds of the memory of our true Self as Thought: a limitless and infinite Idea of Love, eternally at one in the Mind of the Creator of Love.

As we have already discussed, capturing a glimpse of this unified Reality is impossible in a state of wrong-mindedness, because this is the dualistic condition of specifics and specialness, and thus we cannot deal with total abstraction, "the natural condition of the mind" (workbook, p. 297; W-pI.161.2:1). Precisely because of this dilemma, asking for help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit to switch to our right minds would be an appropriate place to start. An "experience will come to end your doubting" (workbook, p. 291; W-pI.158.4:4) is how Jesus assures us in the Course that the Oneness of Creator and created, Source and Effect, will come to every mind when it is ready to receive it; i.e., when the mind no longer fears its own non-specific or abstract nature, and can therefore let go of the belief that it is something specific, unique, and individualized.

The essence of this process -- which again is what A Course in Miracles means by forgiveness -- accomplished by deciding for the miracle, is learning to detach oneself from the identification with the psychological and physical self. Jesus reinforces this important principle to his students: "This is a crucial period in this course, for here the separation of you [the mind] and the ego must be made complete" (text, p. 440; T-22.II.6:1). This ego-self is the figure in the dream we think we are. The miracle allows us to step back, joining with Jesus beside us, so that we can look at our lives -- the dream -- with his non-judgmental, gentle, and forgiving vision as our own. By so doing we learn that the one looking at the figure in the dream cannot be the figure in the dream we call ourselves. As Jesus asks rhetorically in the text: "Who is the "you" who are living in this world?" (text, p. 54; T-4.II.11:8). That "you" of course is the dream's figure, while the actual "you" is the dreamer, the Course's symbol for the power inherent in the mind to make up its world and all the figures in it."

The detachment from this figure in the dream that we experience as ourselves is the beginning of the process of remembering that we are indeed only mind. Furthermore, we realize that it was only our choice to remain in the dream that caused the events of the dream that we have mistakenly called our lives. Thus we learn that the cause of our pain and suffering is our minds' choosing the ego, and our unhappy (or "happy") lives are the effect, not the other way around:

Let us return the dream he [the dreamer] gave away unto the dreamer, who perceives the dream as separate from himself and done to him (text, p. 544; T-27.VIII.6:1).

And this is later amplified in a discussion of the role of the miracle:

The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep.…The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true. This is a crucial step in dealing with illusions. No one is afraid of them when he perceives he made them up. The fear was held in place because he did not see that he was author of the dream, and not a figure in the dream (text, pp. 551-52; T-28.II.4:2-3; 7:1-4; italics ours).

Therefore, the only approach to the living God is to allow the interferences that we have placed to remembering this resplendent Oneness to be removed by Jesus, who knows this Oneness as our only and shared Reality. As A Course in Miracles says of him, and of all who have accepted the Atonement for themselves:

He has recognized himself as God created him, and in so doing he has recognized all living things as part of him. There is now no limit on his power, because it is the Power of God. So has his name become the Name of God, for he no longer sees himself as separate from Him.

What does this mean for you? It means that in remembering Jesus you are remembering God. The whole relationship of the Son to the Father lies in him.… Then turn to one who laid all limits by, and went beyond the farthest reach of learning. He will take you with him, for he did not go alone. And you were with him then, as you are now (manual, pp. 55-56; M-23.2:6-8; 3:1-3; 6:8-10).

In truth, our Identity has always been present in our minds, waiting to be remembered. With the help of Jesus, these interferences to our remembering can be transcended -- if even for a moment -- and our true Reality as Christ, a perfect Thought of Love without limits, can return to our minds' awareness. This bridge to Heaven comes to us through this one who has never accepted any limitation of the Self that God created as pure Thought. That is why "the whole relationship of the Son to the Father" is in and through Jesus. The spiritual path of A Course in Miracles thus cannot be done alone and on one's own, since such an assertion is what caused the belief in separation in the first place. Therefore the "me" that we made up, with its myriad and multitudinous concepts about itself, is the very block to the Self that is God's true creation.

Within the dream, Jesus is for us the reflection of the Reality of the Christ Self that is beyond the dream entirely. Therefore, attempting to ignore him or keep him out of awareness -- subtle expressions of not forgiving him -- are the ways to ensure the non-recognition of the Christ, the perfect Thought of Love as God created it. Look at your life and honestly assess, without deception or guilt, how you have attempted to close the door on this being of Love who is the true bridge to the Self Which is One with Its Source. And then ask his help to accept the Atonement now, for this is the means of undoing the dualistic dream of separation, and restoring to us at last the memory of Who we are as God's one Son.