This concept that ‘ideas do not leave their source’ has always mystified me, although it seems simple at first glance. This concept is covered in A Course in Miracles Ⓒ Chapter 22 ‘Your Brother’s Sinlessness’. Another statement made is that ‘this course will be believed entirely or not at all’, a statement in keeping with the courses concept of absolute non-duality.
But we (yes, us) built our mind for duality, judging and choosing between two polarities, and it is not capable of non-duality. It was built to enforce duality. We could consider the world of man (in the blue inner circle to the left) to be the world of duality, which enslaves us, and which we cannot see beyond with the mind that was engineered to see only that. The outer ring however, God’s mind, (which would extend to infinity if this page wasn’t so small) encompasses man’s world.
I believe we have not left God’s mind, however we have built our own dualistic mind whose existential purpose it to enslave us in the world of thought. Krishnamurti’s life was dedicated to ending thought, claiming that ‘what is’ is obscured by it. He stated that we don’t need to find the ‘truth’, it will find us naturally when the conditions are right. The real world surrounds us while we are entrapped by our own mental constructs which occupy us completely. Could the ego be considered the prototypical Trojan horse? Watch your mind to see if these possibilities meet with a flood of doubt and instant dismissal since they represent heresy to the world of the ego, which exists to ensure that we are consumed in attack and defense to the exclusion of such thoughts.
I don’t know why I had, and continue to have, such massive difficulty in understanding and accepting this concept. We think of mastering an idea as making logical sense of it, based on information and logical connections, and ignore our lack of willingness. But I think with ACIM concepts all that is required is willingness, and the logical connections demanded by the ego, when examined, simply may not exist, or be at a level beyond what our senses can register. The course states that the ‘proof’ comes with the application of the ideas. Faith perhaps means taking an idea which is alien to this world we built…supporting it with belief, and applying it in this world. Is this not thought reversal? Ken Wapnick, the acknowledged greatest teacher of ACIM, provides his explanation of this concept below. It’s better than mine!
“All quotes are from A Course in Miracles, copyright ©1992, 1999, 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, 448 Ignacio Blvd., #306, Novato, CA 94949, www.acim.org, used with permission.”
