Below, acimmonk gives an answer to the number one question asked by ACIM students

Q: I know I keep asking this, but if you don't mind, I'll keep asking until I get it. How could we have a

thought other than God?

The Course says, "In time this [the tiny mad idea, the separation] happened very long ago. In reality it

never happened at all." (M-2.2:7-8, parenthesis & italics mine)

So you can see your dilemma: You think you exist as a separate, autonomous individual. That you are

the embodiment of the tiny mad idea, the proof that the tiny mad idea not only entered into the mind

of God's son, but was capable "...of both accomplishment and real effects." (T-27.VIII.6:3) You, then,

become your own answer, which means your question is not a question, but rather a statement of fact. I

exist! Now tell me how I got here!

As the Course says, "A pseudo-question has no answer. It dictates the answer even as it asks. Thus is all

questioning within the world a form of propaganda for itself. Just as the body's witnesses are but the

senses from within itself, so are the answers to the questions of the world contained within the

questions that are asked." (T-27.IV.5:1-4)

And also: "When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream...

everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream."(Preface, p.11)

To you, you are pretty compelling evidence! While you are your own proof, you are also your own

problem. How frustrating is that? To the ego (you)... endlessly!

From the ego's point of view, it becomes a puzzle without an answer, for "...while you think that part of

you is separate, the concept of a Oneness joined as One is meaningless." (T-25.I.7:1)

If you ever find an intellectually satisfactory answer to your question, write it all down on a big sheet of

paper, ball it up, and throw it in the trash. (And maybe send the trash out to sea for good measure.) You

can't get it. And thank God you can't, for that would forever make separation and pain real. Getting it

means understanding how the impossible happened. If you manage to understand how something that

never happened did in fact happen, then you know you've really bamboozled yourself. There is nothing

in the Course that will ever explain the inexplicable; it only points the way to a Home we never left.

"But without an answer I am also bamboozled!", I hear you cry.

The Course reassures us that while the ego's thought system may be fool-proof, "...it is not God-proof."

(T-5.VI.10:6) It is not God-proof because, "God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true

Helper." (Preface, p.11) And because you think you're a you, the Holy Spirit's kind and practical plan for

Atonement "...takes note of time and place as if they were discrete." (T-25.I.7:1)

Thus, the way to peace begins with this awareness: "Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it

arose can be but he who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its illusive nature is

concealed behind the words that seem to make it so." (C-2.2:5)

In our steadfast devotion to understanding that which cannot be understood, we express our devotion

to the ego. We enjoy complexity and unsolvable riddles, especially of the metaphysical variety, for they

proclaim the ego real and offer wonderful opportunities for distraction and delay from the simplicity of

salvation.

Insert the word paradox for controversy in the following passage: "...those who seek controversy will

find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook

[forgive] controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver.

(C-in.2:1-3, parenthesis mine)

Our vexation over our inability to understand this seeming riddle comes from our insistence that "[our]

understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. (T-18.IV.7:5) When we

identify with the ego's thought system, we not only look to, but insist upon, our own worldly brand of

intellectual wisdom, logic, and rationality for answers. We're looking for the crown jewels exactly where

they cannot be found. This is not an accident; it is purposive. When we choose the ego, we're saying we

don't want to find the way home. Our insistence for intellectual understanding, then, is a reflection of

our inner insistence that we maintain our choice for a seemingly individual existence. Concern with

paradox provides a convenient worldly justification for our unwillingness to forgive; in other words,

exactly what the ego wants.

The Atonement principle, which undoes everything our world rests upon, will make absolutely no sense

to us while we are identified with the ego, because the Atonement principle is not found, nor is

understandable, within the ego thought system. It is an idea that resides outside the scope of the

wrong-mind. No matter how ingenious the mental gymnastics the ego performs, no matter how high it

jumps, it won't reach understanding of what lies far beyond its feeble grasp.

It might sound as if all is lost, - and from the ego's perspective it is - "Yet we have emphasized you need

understand nothing. Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot give right now." (T-

18.IV.7:6-7)

Salvation asks not for understanding, but for just a little willingness - and we are capable of that. A little

willingness that we might be wrong. Wrong about what the problem is, wrong about where to look for

the answer, wrong about the teacher we have chosen, wrong about our self-perception, wrong about

our identification with victimhood, wrong about ourselves, everyone and everything. When we look at

the pain of ego-identification we find the beginnings of honest hope... hope that we have been wrong.

And with this hope comes the little willingness to abandon what has for so long brought only suffering.

This invitation is all the Holy Spirit asks, and all He needs.

"How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be. The

impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects. And that is all. Can this be hard to learn by anyone

who wants it to be true? Only unwillingness to learn it could make such an easy lesson difficult." (T-

31.1.1:1-6)

As we forgive our identification with the ego, the answer comes to us from far beyond our little

understanding. It comes as an experience.

When we lay aside our defenses, Love's answer is Itself.