Confusing Being with Doing is a Mistake-- A Course in Miracles 19.2
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- acim.org/acim/...
There is a line between 'sin' and 'error.' Is it etched in stone?-- scored into sand? Is it so wide that it creates a zone of detente, where all factions are satisfied? Is it so fine that it is no line at all, a mere surface tension like the difference between oil and water. [Give it a good shake...]. Arguably, it is the most contentious boundary in this Course in Miracles, one that separates the New Age from Christianity, fundamentalists from relativists, scientists as opposed to artists, Canon Law versus Pastoral Counsel, 1966 as opposed to 1968, Meet the Beatles set against Magical Mystery Tour. Choose your own baskets of meaning, two places where Law stands clear and obvious for all to bow before--set in contrast to Jesus and the thief, "This day ye shall be with me in paradise."
To the extent I am this body, I am sin itself. The body is the innocent witness--loom above it and point "Thou art flawed!" and the world is the hell I control with laws post-engineered to suit the need. Look through the body as a mist, diaphenous filaments reaching and entwining pasts, futures and all other fluctuating conglomerates and see captured luminescence, "Light catcher--that's what you are, you sly devil!" "Fine for you to say," you might say, "What about that guy with 850 murder raps that Bush let off the hook? Was he just making a lot of mistakes? Was Bush just making a mistake?" The NIMBY [not in my back yard] in us is FINE with simple mistakes, as long as I'm not on the receiving end, in some degree. The words 'sin' and 'error' float in the mind sky like a box-kite and a balloon. It's hard to make a strong determination between a zebra and a small horse. Horses are for riding, zebras are, well, not. Sins and mistakes are not like horses and zebras--sins compare horses and zebras; mistakes allow them both to graze or run in the mind's sky, either way, they are phenomena offered as gifts from whence I know not. Sin imposes a standard against which something is evaluated. Error uses Truth as the standard against which every thing falls short, period. Sin establishes Truth as the standard and them measures the distance from it so it can determine "how much" the thing deviates from Truth. Error notices that Truth is in an ultimate dimension of 'infinity' --- falling short of infinity by an inch is about the same as missing the mark by light years. Measured against the Absolute, all relative values approach zero.
This brings up the enraging parable Jesus tells about the laborers in the vinyard. Some worked a full day, others arrived at noon, and still others showed up when the end whistle was about to blow. The master of the Vinyard paid them all THE SAME AMOUNT! and WHO does not scream inside, "Why didn't you tell the first crew that minor detail!? [Respectfully, oh Lord...]. Place yourself in that parable to see where you fall on the sin/error question. It is easy to sort out.
Is the vinyard work, or is it life? If it is life, the gift of laboring all day is an existential joy. If it is work, even a few minutes is time in hell. Equal payment is the gift of Self--the only currency of any value--there is not 'more' or 'less' of an absolute Value. All portions of Self are the same. Revisit the idea of Faith--while I'm tying up vines, pruning strays, or picking grapes, faithlessness says this is a chore--the money is the real thing. Faith constantly returns to the reality that payment, harvesting, planting, the self that participates in all these, is LIFE more abundantly. When my thumb and forefinger press aginst a curling tendril to place it on a more fruitful, well-supported path I become the vine, I am in the grapes. I begin to see myself in the wine, the drunken man staggered by my presence in his cup. It is mysticism, the creative choice to see God-in -the-world as my actions, whatever they are. But what about punishment? In the vinyard parable, punishment is 'not participating in LIFE,' showing up late is a mistake one has to overlook. If it was a tennis match, basketball game, or picnic, the idea of missing out as punishment would be more obvious.
Let;s say I'm having a hard time, not liking myself or my life, wishing I was elsewhere egaged otherwise. It's all based on measurements, calculations, speculative scenarios--the slavery of time and space. Instead, that 'bitch of a hard life' is latent with potential, it's a stage for strutting or fretting my hour upon--it is my sweaty, claustrophobic little foxhole where I can find Jesus. Face pressed into mud, painful memories of the ones l left behind--the fox-hole is the gate to heaven or hell. "This life has to be in the hands of another," I realize, betrayed by all the usual strategies. I look at my hands clenching the weapon of choice. Life lies naked before me. All is futile ambition, a string of stupid mistakes. This is the beginning of atonement.
Thank you both again for your wonderful clarification. I so look forward to your explanations always alive and helpful. Bless you both for not giving up. Loved your interaction with Leon as well❤❤❤🎉
Thank-you very much--it is great to hear what you think! As far as giving up on doing these--our objective is to do the entire text...the first one I think was chapter 7, sect 5. So there is some distance to cover. AND the Course changes every time I go through it...
Illusion v. reality; a real conundrum. Thank you.
You are welcome!
Thanks for being there and saying so!
Great conversation, thanks as always. I always find myself asking questions in the first half that you answer in the second. :)
Thanks!