“I’ve Never Had Even One Truly Loving Thought” – A Question About ACIM

Recently, Linda (one of our “Co-Creator” tier supporters) wrote the following question:

Thank you for al that you do…

I could really use some advice about sickness and sinless and how to deal with those illusions…the funny thing is that in so many ways I do not believe in sin but my “life” would probably say something contrary to that…

How can I undo the belief about it?

I know so many things but when it comes right down to it, I still see “people, bodies, sickness” and a whole lot of other things that I know are not real or true.

It's obvious that in all these 40 years, I still have not had even one truly loving thought about anything…how is that possible?

I am open to everything that will help me understand the issues of sickness and sin and how to see everyone as healthy and sinless.

These are some important questions, and in many ways, come about because of misunderstandings about A Course In Miracles.

The Course works in two levels. On one level, it speaks to our belief in the illusion. At this level, it talks about how we mis-perceive and mis-believe things and think them as real. It speaks to our pain, our relationships, our challenges, and our humanity.

At the next level, it speaks to our Divine mind, or as I call it, our True Nature. At this level, it speaks to our essence, our soul or spirit, a mind free of judgment and prejudice.

The challenge we have is that we see “sickness” and “sin” as real because we view them from that first level. However, ACIM in this context is speaking to our True Nature.

We hear the word “sickness” and immediately wish our body were healed. We read words from ACIM that say we can be healed of sickness if we stop seeing ourselves as bodies. (note: “Sickness” actually refers to a state of mind, not body)

All of these words are just ideas. They're ideas that we collect in our minds. Over time, our minds believes these ideas to be true representations of reality.

Our mind even goes to far as to suggest, as your question asks, that we don't even know what a “truly loving thought” is.

These are the trappings of the mind which tries to keep collecting ideas. These questions just feed the mind's hope that if it collects enough ideas, eventually, the ideas will make it happy and peaceful.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

There is only one way to stop collecting these ideas…

There is only one way to see ourselves as sinless…

There is only one way to see ourselves free of sickness…

And there is only one way to have truly loving thoughts…

And that way is to return to the present moment.

Any and every practice that helps you return to the present moment is something that will support you in answering your questions with truth and reality, instead of just collecting more ideas.

In the present moment is the only place where the mind stops collecting, it calms down, and our True Nature can then be the means by which we directly perceive the world and our experience of life.

ACIM is just one of many teachings whose primary goal is to return us to the present moment. Eckhart Tolle's “Power of Now” or the Diamond Approach are other ones. Ram Dass “Be Here Now” speaks to this.

The mind would even have us believe that if we read all those books and teachings, then eventually we will “learn how to be present.” Again, that's just the mind wanting to collect more ideas from more sources. All of those sources are still just many different ways of saying the same thing: return to the present moment.

To truly be present only requires a sincere effort to return to the present moment, and some practices / habits / tools to help support you in remembering throughout your day.