Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

<strong>Notes</strong> on Chapter Seventeen – Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship
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Forgiveness is not between two people. Forgiveness
is in your mind only. Forgiveness facilitates the
Atonement which is the realization that the
separation from God never happened. Forgiveness is
of the mistaken choice you made in your mind to
believe in the separation, identify with the ego, and
reject your true Identity with the wholeness of Christ.
Forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with people
or their actions in the world. No one can betray me
except my self by denying the truth of who I am.
Therefore no one in the world needs to be forgiven.
•
What you did against your brother was to see him as
an ego. You see him as a selfish ego because you
believe you are a selfish ego, and you want to blame
him for your selfishness. Whatever you are guilty
and shameful of in your self, you project onto others.
What you see in the world as evil, you believe is the
evil in you. The value of others and the world is that
they serve as a mirror for your hidden guilt, shame
and fear. Seeing it in others gives you the
opportunity to forgive it in yourself as you forgive it
in others. You know when all guilt and shame are
completely removed from your unconscious mind
when you look out and see a bright, clean, beautiful
and innocent world. For your world is yourself.
There is no separation. This is why it takes only one
person to save the whole world — you.
•
Once we choose the Holy Spirit's goal of Atonement
through forgiveness, every situation in our lives
becomes a vehicle for helping us accomplish our
purpose of realizing the truth of who we are.
•
The Holy Spirit's picture is the holy instant
symbolized by Light, framed in the holy relationship.
When we focus on the picture it becomes the real
world, then the picture and frame disappear, and
what is left is God.
•
Through forgiveness we realize the common goal we
share in purpose with our brothers, which becomes a
reflection of our oneness in Christ. The one purpose
of our relationships with others in the world is to get
us back to the only real relationship — our
relationship with God in Spirit — which is the
purpose of the holy relationship. The purpose of our
special relationships is to keep us identified with the
ego, the body and the world.
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The "two pictures" metaphor is inspired by
Shakespeare's Hamlet. Throughout the Course, Jesus
is presenting two thought systems, the ego's and the
Holy Spirit's, and is asking us to look closely at them
so we can make an enlightened decision.
•
The ego's picture of death and guilt framed in special
relationships, and the Holy Spirit's picture of the holy
instant and Light framed in the holy relationship are
mutually exclusive and cannot be combined. The
Light of the holy instant shines away the darkness of
the ego. It is common for people, however, to try to
bring the Light into the ego's darkness while
maintaining the ego's existence. This happens when
we try to make the holy relationship a special,
exclusive relationship. We will address this dynamic
later in the chapter.
The holy relationship is referred to as if it is with a
person or an entity. The holy relationship is a process
that happens over time as we go back and forth from
the special relationship to the holy relationship, until
our fear abates enough that we can stay in the holy
relationship or holy instant. The holy relationship is
the process of looking at the ego and choosing the
Holy Spirit instead. The holy relationship is not a
relationship you have with someone in a body in the
world. The holy relationship happens at the decision
making part of your mind in the process of looking at
the ego with the Holy Spirit, and choosing for Christ
instead of the ego.
•
As we begin to question the value of our special
relationships, and see the tremendous pain and
suffering they are causing us, we may feel a sense of
disillusionment, distress and pending loss. This
feeling is temporary.
•
When we ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit for help with
our body or situations in our world, we are
attempting to bring Their Light into our darkness for
our personal benefit while maintaining our darkness.
Attempting to use Jesus for our personal gain is
trying to turn the holy relationship into an unholy,
special relationship. Jesus and the Holy Spirit serve
as our guides who lead us out of the world of illusion
to the real world of spirit. When we ask Jesus or the
Holy Spirit for help with our body and our world, we
are doing exactly what the ego wants us to do by
staying identified with the body and distracted by the
world. This is what most religions do with their