ACIM [Manual For Teachers 13]

A Course in Miracles – Manual for Teachers – 13. What Is the Real Meaning of Sacrifice?

M-13.1. Although in truth the term sacrifice is altogether meaningless, it does have meaning in the world. 2 Like all things in the world, its meaning is temporary and will ultimately fade into the nothingness from which it came when there is no more use for it. 3 Now its real meaning is a lesson. 4 Like all lessons it is an illusion, for in reality there is nothing to learn. 5 Yet this illusion must be replaced by a corrective device; another illusion that replaces the first, so both can finally disappear. 6 The first illusion, which must be displaced before another thought system can take hold, is that it is a sacrifice to give up the things of this world. 7 What could this be but an illusion, since this world itself is nothing more than that?

The things of this world belong to the ego-mind. True to the ego but not true in reality. Reality being Perfect Love, which is Home to God, Oneness, sameness and knowledge. This world cannot be denied, for whilst you are still bound to ego thinking (all of us that seem to be here have some aspect of ego-identification) this world is true. It is only a dream to the innocent Mind, the right mind of revelation. 

The right mind has been concealed within the subconscious mind. Just below the belly button. It is not so simply to locate. You must follow the FAITH of God and truly forgive each layer with the 'I Forgive' principle in order for the door from dark to light to open.

When you truly forgive by moving from the wrong mind to the right you give up your grievances, which are nothing, for they all stem from some aspect of the belief in separation. The ego makes true the story in time, but it is simply what is within projected outward. You undo the grievances to move from false perception to true that leads to knowledge. And when you move into right-minded thinking you come to see that it is a gift to give away the story of time for you let go of the little self to know the true Self that is perfect, peaceful and powerful.

In fact, I remember God coming to me and telling me not to defend the story of the separate self, for this takes you out of the right mind of being and back into the wrong mind of body. For you cannot serve two masters at the same time. I was to continue to truly forgive each shadow when presented and not defend the mental story by making the separate self true.

M-13.2. It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. 2 What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? 3 It cannot mean that you have less because of it. 4 There is no sacrifice in the world's terms that does not involve the body. 5 Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice. 6 Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? 7 Could they mean anything except to a body? 8 Yet a body cannot evaluate. 9 By seeking after such things the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what it really is.

There is nothing wrong with power, fame or physical pleasure, when you locate the right mind of Perfect Love within that grants these. For the truth of Oneness cannot be in lack, loss, or limitation. However, when you chase power, fame, physical pleasure from the ego-mind or body, you forget who You are in truth. The being of Perfect Love. Find this truth of Oneness within and you will let go of pain and punishment on the level of form and welcome in the happy dream in time, for you have given up the guilt of sin that seeks the ways of suffering.

Seek first to find the Kingdom of God within means to know the truth of Perfect Love that is inside you, underneath the darkness the ego tells you not to look upon. But you must look upon this darkness in the subconscious, truly forgive it to become free from it. When you look within and see that only love remain, for you have cleaned within, you will see a kind world instead of a cruel one. And you move through the happy dream that precedes spiritual awakening.

M-13.3. Once this confusion has occurred, it becomes impossible for the mind to understand that all the "pleasures" of the world are nothing. 2 But what a sacrifice,—and it is sacrifice indeed!—all this entails. 3 Now has the mind condemned itself to seek without finding; to be forever dissatisfied and discontented; to know not what it really wants to find. 4 Who can escape this self-condemnation? 5 Only through God's Word could this be possible. 6 For self-condemnation is a decision about identity, and no one doubts what he believes he is. 7 He can doubt all things, but never this.

To seek without means to look outside of yourself for the answers. But you will not find them there, for you are chasing more nothingness. As the world of form is nothing but a dream to the right mind. To seek without is to believe yourself to be separate and not whole, and experience the shadows of suffering that belong to the guilt of sin and separation. You must find the right mind of peace and love within that knows the truth of wholeness and you will stop seeing lack, loss, and limitation of the level of form. Remember, what is within is seen without. Personally, when I was moving through illness, everywhere I looked was dark and depressing. When I gave up the ego-mind, by truly forgiving with the process of FAITH, to align with the right mind my seeing was made new. The world transformed before me. It was no longer dark and depressing but light and loving. The cause is always within and if you choose the ego-mind you condemn yourself to prison and pain.

God’s word can be heard from the right mind within, from where Helen scribed the Course. For here the truth of sameness, Perfect Love, holds true. To hear God you must shift your awareness deep within, away from the ego-mind that seeks separation and specialness. 

To change your mind from the wrong to the right is to truly forgive by following the FAITH of God, for it leads you from body to being.

M-13.4. God's teachers can have no regret on giving up the pleasures of the world. 2 Is it a sacrifice to give up pain? 3 Does an adult resent the giving up of children's toys? 4 Does one whose vision has already glimpsed the face of Christ look back with longing on a slaughter house? 5 No one who has escaped the world and all its ills looks back on it with condemnation. 6 Yet he must rejoice that he is free of all the sacrifice its values would demand of him. 7 To them he sacrifices all his peace. 8 To them he sacrifices all his freedom. 9 And to possess them must he sacrifice his hope of Heaven and remembrance of his Father's Love. 10 Who in his sane mind chooses nothing as a substitute for everything?

Teaching of the ego world is to educate another. To teach for God is to withdraw the shadows of darkness you see without. This assists to undo ego-identification and allows the truth of Perfect Love within to extend outward and light up the world that is weary from worry. 

Find the true pleasure of Perfect Love within and you will know true healing and miracles as you welcome in the happy dream in time. What are you are being punished by is what you are asked to truly heal. Which simply means to truly forgive. And you continue to clean within until the doorway from dark to light opens for you. You become vigilant to forgive within until only love remain. By finding the truth of light inside you then extend this outward and you will be happy with whatever story plays for you. This is the upside-down thinking the Course speaks of. As the ego tells you to seek without for joy, happiness, abundance, or whatever it wishes to make. To take from another to gain yourself. The Course tells you that it is the shadows of the sin of separation that keep you stuck in sickness and suffering. So when you undo this in your subconscious mind you remove the barriers to the awareness of love’s presence. This is how miracles are made. This is the mind-correction from fear to love the Course speaks of. Find Oneness within and welcome in the happy dream that is abundant in goodness and grace. And yes in money, power, prestige, etc. For you no longer know yourself as the little guilty self of ego-identification but the Son of God that is innocent, worthy and deserving of the gifts of grace. God does indeed grant incredible gifts. After my years of mental torture He gave me the true way to forgive that He has guided as The Treasure Map of Truforgiveness, FAITH & the 'I Forgive' Principle. I even told Him that the name on this work should he His, not mine. He then told me that this was my gift from Him to share with the world. What is the gift God will grant to you? I promise, His gifts are priceless and more valuable than anything you could buy in time.

To be free is to undo ego-identification and know the right mind hidden within. I have experienced this escape myself and it is incredible. You come to know via revelation, not ego interpretation, that you are not the body born to die but the being of Perfect Love that must wake. And you are only limited by ego thinking. So you seek to correct it. To purify your thinking. It is not egotistical to be great, for in truth You are the Son of God, in the name of Oneness not separateness.

Finally, peace belongs to Perfect Love. So when you seek outside of yourself you make the wrong mind you home. You cannot know peace here, for the ego-mind is separate, it is not the same (Perfect Love).

M-13.5. What is the real meaning of sacrifice? 2 It is the cost of believing in illusions. 3 It is the price that must be paid for the denial of truth. 4 There is no pleasure of the world that does not demand this, for otherwise the pleasure would be seen as pain, and no one asks for pain if he recognizes it. 5 It is the idea of sacrifice that makes him blind. 6 He does not see what he is asking for. 7 And so he seeks it in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time disappointed in the end. 8 "Seek but do not find" remains this world's stern decree, and no one who pursues the world's goals can do otherwise.

When you believe yourself to be the sinful separated, the ego-mind of lack, loss, and limitation, you sacrifice Your true Self: The being of Perfect Love. To believe in the world of form is to give up your perfect, peaceful, powerful Self. It is a great price to pay for the need to be special. 

The ego tells you how lucky you are to be special, yet this is pain, for you are now suffering from lack, loss, and limitation, which is the ego thought system. The belief you are sinful of separating from Source. This great terror sees you continue to run further into the forest of fear. And so, you continue to run, hoping you can escape the darkness, unaware that you carry it inside your mind. And you continue to repeat the same lessons dressed in a different disguise. For example, if you are working through the shadow that you betrayed God by taking all He gave to you and squandering it, then you will move through lessons of betrayal in life. As a small child your parents might get divorced, as your mother runs off with the neighbor. You feel betrayed by her and blame her for what she has done. Years later you find yourself in love. The one that has stolen your heart does the same. They leave you for another. You question why you continue to be betrayed? It is all their fault you say. But blame is merely the outward projection of an inward condition. For it confirms that separation is true. And this is the true cause of every concern in time, some aspect of the belief in sin. If you continue to run through time, you will get different lessons on betrayal, for that is the shadow you are being asked to clean up from within. When you stop following the ego laws and making true the story of suffering, and instead, truly forgive it, you stop this shadow from continuing to project. This might mean that your child does not have to grow up moving through this lesson of betrayal. 

Imagine when we all come together to undo the ego to shift into the right mind, as we stop judging and unite to dissolve the darkness that keeps our true Self hidden. This is the forgiven world that Jesus speaks, and in time coming, this is the way we shall travel through the dream as we head Home to Oneness with Perfect Love. But before we wake, we get to play instead of being punished and live the happy dream that is filled with power, money, prestige, etc. from the place of innocence within that will use this source to heal and not harm.

M-13.6. You may believe this course requires sacrifice of all you really hold dear. 2 In one sense this is true, for you hold dear the things that crucify God's Son, and it is the course's aim to set him free. 3 But do not be mistaken about what sacrifice means. 4 It always means the giving up of what you want. 5 And what, O teacher of God, is it that you want? 6 You have been called by God, and you have answered. 7 Would you now sacrifice that Call? 8 Few have heard it as yet, and they can but turn to you. 9 There is no other hope in all the world that they can trust. 10 There is no other voice in all the world that echoes God's. 11 If you would sacrifice the truth, they stay in hell. 12 And if they stay, you will remain with them.

Truth belongs to wholeness, to Oneness, and it can be found within via the right mind hidden deep within the darkness of the subconscious. Remember, if you are a teacher of God it does not mean that you necessarily stand on a stage to speak. It means you silently dissolve the darkness that maintains ego-identification. There have been many great teachers who have walked this world, that we are not aware of, for they played their part in the Atonement to truly forgive the shadows that keep us bound to hell. The choice to be separate instead of the same. If you seek outward for your answers you teach that you are the ego-mind and body. Go within, undo ego-identification by truly forgiving it all and you will hear God’s voice.

For the past twenty years I have been truly forgiving in my home. I have been a guide for God, unknown, and I continue to do so. This is my true function to unlearn fear to remember love, by truly forgiving every barrier to the awareness of love's perfect presence within.

To the ego sacrifice is true. To truth, you give up nothing, for the ego is nothing to reclaim everything. For you will discover the truth of Perfect Love within that offers the good and kind dream the ego cannot offer you. To be released from hell you must give up those grievances of guilt, not by forgiving the way the ego teaches, but to forgive within, and locate where the choice for separation from Source has been hidden. For behind this idea in the subconscious mind is the truth of Perfect Love. Allow this light to extend outward and lack will disappear from your mind. For you will learn to change your mind from the wrong to the right.

It was twenty years ago when Jesus came to me to tell me that I was smart to learn the Course by 'forgiving within.' At the time I did not know what he meant. I do now. For this is the way I know the Course, via revelation and locating the right mind from where the Course was given.

M-13.7. Do not forget that sacrifice is total. 2 There are no half sacrifices. 3 You cannot give up Heaven partially. 4 You cannot be a little bit in hell. 5 The Word of God has no exceptions. 6 It is this that makes it holy and beyond the world. 7 It is its holiness that points to God. 8 It is its holiness that makes you safe. 9 It is denied if you attack any brother for anything. 10 For it is here the split with God occurs. 11 A split that is impossible. 12 A split that cannot happen. 13 Yet a split in which you surely will believe, because you have set up a situation that is impossible. 14 And in this situation the impossible can seem to happen. 15 It seems to happen at the "sacrifice" of truth.

The sacrifice that Jesus speaks is to not give up your last dollar to a homeless man. For this is the effect it is not the cause. The sacrifice that Jesus speaks of is to undo your allegiance to ego thinking by truly forgiving every grievance you have hidden within that covers the truth of Perfect Love. And you cannot forgive your partner for cheating but refuse to forgive the other one involved. Why? For this reinforces differences. It maintains the belief in separation that there is someone else out there and keeps you identified with the ego. However...You cannot force yourself to forgive and say, “Of course I forgive you, this isn’t even true. I am highly spiritual and it does not bother me.” This thought system is also incorrect. As you must take the shadows of suffering you see in time and withdraw them within to locate the right mind of peace and love. Find this and all the grievances will dissolve. For you have removed every barrier to the awareness of love’s presence within.

This holds true for everything. But it is a process. It might take you 5 minutes to truly forgive being late for a meeting and 5 years to truly forgive the death of your child. We each have our lessons of darkness to truly forgive to free. This is how you take part in the Atonement principle. However, the darker the lesson to greater the chance of inner illumination you have to receive.

M-13.8. Teacher of God, do not forget the meaning of sacrifice, and remember what each decision you make must mean in terms of cost. 2 Decide for God, and everything is given you at no cost at all. 3 Decide against Him, and you choose nothing, at the expense of the awareness of everything. 4 What would you teach? 5 Remember only what you would learn. 6 For it is here that your concern should be. 7 Atonement is for you. 8 Your learning claims it and your learning gives it. 9 The world contains it not. 10 But learn this course and it is yours. 11 God holds out His Word to you, for He has need of teachers. 12 What other way is there to save His Son?

To teach is to learn, and to teach is to truly forgive the darkness within to let go of ego-identification and find the right mind of peace and love that is so whole fear cannot enter. This is what the Atonement principle is. Start to truly forgive each day and you will truly heal. If you are sick in body, truly forgive the darkness that projects onto your body. If you are in lack with money, start to truly forgive the unwellness of your finances. What you suffer through is what you must learn to clean up with the FAITH (Truforgiveness) of God. You will truly heal this way. But you must forgive within not merely without and leave no stone of the sin of separation unturned, for this then maintains the dark shadows of guilt that call forth the punishment in time. Truly forgive the darkness and the light of Perfect Love lifts you above the ego battleground into the happy dream that is here for the innocent Mind. And as I said, it offers the good abundance that is worthy and deserving of the Child of God You are in truth: Perfect, peaceful and powerful.

To be saved is to undo the ego-mind to find the right mind of peace and love that leads to One-mindedness, awakening. Thus, the meaning of sacrifice is to simply undo the ego-mind to find the right mind that welcomes in the happy dream in time, which is no sacrifice for it is salvation. Find the light within and you will see it without and not be denied your good and great dreams in time.

To the ego sacrifice means loss; to the Course sacrifice means salvation.

Much love, peace, and Truforgiveness,