A Healed Conscious Mind is Free from Guilt

Taken from “A Course in Miracles” we’re told, “To the extent to which you recognize that guilt is meaningless, to that extent will you perceive attack cannot BE justified. This is in strict accord with vision’s FUNDAMENTAL law: You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you WANT it there. If you did not feel guilty, you could not attack. For condemnation is the root of attack.

It is the judgment of one mind by another as UNWORTHY of love and DESERVING of punishment. But herein lies the split. “Your attitudes are obviously conflicted; your feelings have a narrow range on the negative side but are never purely joyous; and your behavior is either strained or unpredictable.   Yet, this IS what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep and what you are vigilant to save. Your minds are filled with schemes to save the face of your egos and you do not seek the Face of God. To the extent to which you value guilt, to that extent will you perceive a world in which attack is justified.

For the mind that judges, perceives itself as SEPARATE from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing ANOTHER, IT will escape punishment. All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself and ESCAPE THE PENALTY OF DENIAL. It is NOT an attempt to RELINQUISH denial, but to HOLD ON TO IT.

For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane. The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. Watch your minds carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one RIGHT use of judgment. Neurotic guilt feelings are a device of the ego for “atoning” without sharing, and for asking for pardon without change. The ego NEVER calls for real atonement, and cannot tolerate real forgiveness, which IS change.

Your concept of “healthy guilt feelings” has great merit, but without the concept of the Atonement it lacked the healing potential it held. YOU make the distinction in terms of feelings which led to a decision not to repeat the error, which is only PART of healing. Your concept therefore lacked the idea of UNDOING it. What you were really advocating, then, was adopting a policy of sharing without a real FOUNDATION.

The function of thought comes FROM God and is IN God. As part of HIS thought, you cannot think APART from Him. Irrational thought is a thought DISORDER. God Himself orders your thought, because your thought was created BY Him. Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe you CAN think apart from God and WANT to. The CONTINUING will to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings.

Minds that are joined, AND RECOGNIZE THEY ARE, can feel no guilt. For they CANNOT attack, and they REJOICE that this is so, seeing their safety in this happy fact. Their joy is in the INNOCENCE they see. And thus they seek for it, because it is their PURPOSE to behold it and rejoice. Everyone seeks for what will bring him joy as he defines it. It is NOT the aim, as such, that varies. Yet it IS the way in which the aim is seen that makes the choice of means inevitable, and beyond the hope of change UNLESS THE AIM IS CHANGED. And THEN the means are chosen once again, as what will bring rejoicing is defined ANOTHER way, and sought for differently.

The power of decision is all that is yours. What you can decide BETWEEN is fixed, because there are no alternatives, EXCEPT truth and illusion. And there is no overlap between them, because they are opposites which CANNOT be reconciled, and CANNOT both be true.

You are guilty OR guiltless, bound OR free, happy OR unhappy. The miracle teaches you that you have chosen guiltlessness, freedom, and joy. It is not a cause, but an EFFECT. It is the natural result of CHOOSING RIGHT, attesting to your happiness that comes from choosing to be FREE of guilt. Learn how to choose right!”