Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

<strong>Notes</strong> on Chapter Sixteen – The Forgiveness of Illusions
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Sharing refers to content, not form. Sharing content
is the extension of love and forgiveness in the mind.
Form is of the body and world. Sharing does not
mean sharing your body or time with everyone in the
world; that is the ego's idea of sharing, not the Holy
Spirit's. Our purpose in the world is Atonement
through forgiveness, and we are to share it equally
with everyone — with no special exceptions.
Special love and special hate relationships are in
essence the same. Special hate relationships provide
us with someone or some group onto whom we can
project our sin, guilt and hate. The special love
relationship is a variation of the special hate
relationship. It is especially obstructive to our
salvation and is a strong ego defense because it
appears to be love but actually is hate in disguise. In
special love you have something that I lack. I have a
need that only you can fill, and when you fulfill my
needs I will love you. Special love is based on
sacrifice — I sacrifice myself to you, and you to me
— which breeds resentment, anger, hostility and
hate. Special love is special hate in disguise. There is
no love in special love. True love is of God.
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In my mind I separated from God and then blame
Him for abandoning me so I can avoid the feeling of
guilt and maintain the face of innocence. Look what
God has done to me! In the world, I blame you for
abandoning me and depriving me of love so you will
feel guilty, and I can continue to maintain the face of
innocence. Look what you have done to me! Our
relationships in the world are a reflection of what we
believe is our relationship with God. The ego loves
guilt because without it the ego dissolves. Guilt is the
witness that separation from God is real. If the
separation from God is real, the ego is real.
•
Hearing the words, "I love you, only you, and no one
else!" is heaven to the ego. In truth it is hell.
•
Love is only in the wholeness of our Identity with
God. There is absolutely no love between people in
the world. The ego disparages and rejects this notion
because it means the death of the ego and its
specialness.
•
Through the death (separation) of our true Self as
Christ, Who is our eternal life, love and wholeness,
we think we can gain love and wholeness in
relationship with someone else.
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Now we will address the "past" as it is used in the
ego thought system. The ego's projection of sin, guilt
and fear makes linear time. Sin is the separation from
God in the past. We feel guilt over our separation in
the present. And we fear God's retribution in the
future.
•
Our special relationships are a reflection of the belief
in the "evil" of our original sin against God, and
serve to reinforce the "reality" that we have actually
separated from Him.
•
Now we will look at how we are to let go of the
illusions of sin, guilt and specialness, and wake up
from the nightmare of ego. Special relationships are
smokescreens which are used by the ego to conceal
the decision making part of our mind and stop us
from choosing the Holy Spirit rather than the ego.
With the help of the Holy Spirit we must look
through the smoke and bring the ego's darkness to
the light of God's love.
•
Our special love relationships veil our special hate
relationships. We love our friends and hate our
rivals. We love our allies and hate our enemies.
Where there is good, there is evil. Where there is
special love, there is special hate. Our special love
relationships are an attempt to maintain the face of
innocence while we murder our enemies. We realize
our true motives in our special relationships by
observing our thoughts and feelings and bringing
them to the light of awareness where they can be
healed, and true love can blossom.
•
We made the world to dump our guilt over a sin that
was never committed. And we live in fear of the
world we made as a place to hide from the wrath of
God Who only loves us.
•
We need our illusions to be true, because we are
illusions. Illusions dissolve when you look closely.
•
Now we will look at true empathy, true forgiveness
and the holy instant. The holy instant is the instant,
out of time, when we choose the love of the Holy
Spirit rather than the fear of the ego.
•
We choose to communicate and heal with the
strength of Christ or the weakness of ego.