It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. (ACIM, Text, pg 150)
Why would we bother to embark upon a journey which goes nowhere, to a goal which isn't even new? The reason is simple. We have forgotten truth. We have quite literally forgotten Who and Where we really are. We move about in our lives, behaving as if we have no real choice about how we feel, when in fact that is our one and only choice! The fear which now rules our lives and seems to determine our every move, from some threat "out there" in the world, is so deeply embedded as our idea of reality that what is real and true is completely covered.
A Course In Miracles offers us a systematic, reason-based, carefully planned program, given to us with perfect love and gentleness, to ease us out of our fear-induced fog, back to the truth of God. Jesus (we call him "J") refers to this "journey" as having no distance because we have never left our true, one and only home with God. We are merely dreaming of an existence in which we believe we have somehow (???) separated ourselves from God! Now, if we really stop and think about it, precisely where is this place we would go that could possibly be "away" from God? The Course tells us that the Mind of God encompasses the Everywhere, outside of space and time. The idea that we somehow had the power to set up shop beyond the Everywhere starts to sound pretty silly.. As I like to say, even though we are dreaming fearful nightmares of being separated from God, we can never actually be outside of the "play pen" of God's Mind. God is forever the Creator, and we are forever the Christ, extensions of God, and there's just nowhere for us to go outside of Him!
The Course makes it very clear, as well, that God is all love and perfect peace. Given that quite literally everything and everyone in the "Everywhere" is encompassed within God, then it easily follows that there is nothing which is God's opposite. Nothing.
However, it cannot be disputed that we BELIEVE we are having experiences which are certainly less than perfect peace! How can that be? The Course explains that we are dreaming of these experiences, and hence, anything which SEEMS to be God's opposite is nothing more than illusion. Therefore, the "journey" home to God is simply a matter of clearing away illusion, or as Jesus describes it, "the blocks to the awareness of love's presence".. (See ACIM Introduction). He teaches us to do so by utilizing forgiveness as well as the miracle. Neither of these devices for healing the mind of illusions are utilized in what one may think of them as the typical way. We are not being taught, necessarily, to walk on water. Nor are we taught to forgive a brother for an act which we believe they DID. We are instead taught to perceive the perfect innocence in a brother by way of recognizing our oneness and unity with God. Forgiveness in this light is one form of miracle, which is any act of love extended to a brother. Forgiveness and the miracle are described extensively in the Course.
We learn to remember God through the miracle. Jesus teaches us to listen for his Voice, as he Guides us to actively and consciously choose to respond to his call to perform miracles (or automatic, non-planned loving actions for one another). As we learn to hear his Voice, He Guides us to release all of our thoughts which are in some way or another forms of attack. He helps us see our fear differently, within the context of the ever-present truth of love, reminding us that all emotion is either love or a call for love. It is by keeping this in mind that we are better able to feel our unity and complete lack of separation with our brothers.
The Course teaches us that only minds communicate. However, while we still believe in this illusionary dream, of which the body is a part, we use the body to communicate in ways we can understand. Our fear has led us to erect blocks to the perfect flow of communication with our brothers in the mind, and the body is like a fence, or a barricade to prevent (seemingly) this communication. J teaches us, however, that this supposed barricade is merely illusion, and as we learn of J's reality and hear his communication with us, we begin to accept increasingly that we are not bodies and are instead in the mind with J. Through this acceptance, understanding, faith, and trust, J leads us to what he calls an "experience beyond words", and it is through this experience we begin to remember God, finding our way Home to where we never left. The Course tells us Who we really are can NEVER die. J is here, teaching us that he certainly did not die, and neither will we.
