The Key to Happiness

Coming down with a bit of a bug so the gung-ho  inspiration I had first thing this morning has been somewhat supressed.  :) I had intended to write when I returned from breakfast but knew I could not put off washing the floor for one more day so...I bit the bullet and went at it.  That chore seemed to take away the bit of oomph I had in me. Now I am wanting nothing more than to sleep. 

Still... I want to honor my intention somewhat lol. Lesson 121 ACIM has hit me with a bang.  The words are almost poetic and seductive, and the message cannot be denied. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. Hmm! The transcriber of that message states that our answer to our search for peace lies in forgiveness. Why then do we not leave our unforgiving minds behind, especially when they are so horrid?

The Unforgiving Mind

I want to look at the description of the unforgiving mind in more detail.  Four paragraphs/ stanzas are allotted to this description in A Course and I would like to discuss each one in detail.

The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery, peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking there. (ACIM; Workbook For Students, Lesson 121: 2; 1-3, page 214)

Hmmm! The mind that does not forgive others, the world and itself is fear based. It operates in the realm away from Love.  It therefore does not allow Love to Be, to grow and expand the way it is meant to. We see what I call retraction.  This mind is sad and hopeless about being relieved of its pain. It suffers, living in misery as it looks out on a world it can not see clearly because of the darkness it exists in and thus anticipates danger at every corner.

Wow!  Nice mind, eh?

Most of us are living with unforgiving minds and suffer the way these words describe. We are full of fear, hopeless and sad, living in darkness rather than light.  We are convinced  that danger exists all around us because we cannot see clearly. We experience this in ourselves and we see it in others. 

What Do We Need to Do to Change?

We must learn to forgive others and by so doing we are forgiven for our own "insanity" created by an unforgiving mind. We pass on Love to others so that It shines in us....so that it soars above this version of the world our unforgiving mind has created; so that it allows the light to pour through and so we see, once and for all, just how safe we are and have always been.

It is a process that must be "acquired" according to A Course.  We need to accept that it is a process requiring time and practice to undo all ego has done.  It begins with a willingness to want to forgive.

It is all good.



Foundation For Inner Peace(2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundation For Inner Peace.