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“Time is an Illusion.” See what this means with your body's eyes!

11/24/2015

The Lessons in recent weeks often remind me that “time” is only a construct we thought up when we made this world, this universe, this dream. The Course tell us it's an idea. Nothing more.

I have believed in time most of my life in the same way almost everyone does. I believed time, as in the old cliché, is like a river. I believed that:

Time passes from the present moment into the past, continuously.
Each future moment flows into the present, continuously.
Eternity is the massive span of time that began in the ancient, unknowable past and will continue on infinitely into the future.

However, as the Course explains, time (and, indeed, even “space-time”) are simply illusions we perceive with the body's senses and our ego minds. But what does it mean that time is only an illusion? How can anyone pin that idea down so it actually makes some kind of sense as we navigate this world of form?

Here's a mental image that works for me. I'll explain it twice.

Quick and Simple Version
Imagine someone spreads a deck of cards out on a table. The table represents all of Creation. The cards represent time.

But then, someone comes along and slides all the cards back into a deck and takes it off the table. That's the end of time. The table didn't change at all.

The Deeper Version
Here's the same metaphor with more detail and more to think about.

Imagine a flat table that has no boundaries. The tabletop extends in every direction without limit. The tabletop represents the infinite thoughts of God and His endless Creation. Like God, the tabletop exists far beyond even what the word “infinite” could possibly suggest. It simply IS forever and forever.

Now, recall that momentary “tiny, mad idea” God's ever-so-powerful Sonship brought to mind for an instant. That idea made this place we call the world. Making this world and this universe also made space and time. So, in your mind's eye, see a magician spreading a deck of cards on the infinite tabletop as in the video below.

That deck of cards spreading across the tabletop represents our making of the world, the universe and time itself, all of which happened when we thought that tiny, mad idea of separating from God and Heaven.

I find several things interesting about this metaphor and those cards.

• The cards have numbers, letters and pictures. Each one is different and has its own identity separate from every other. That's the way ego sees itself and all the seemingly separated bodies walking the earth. Ego believes and viciously defends the idea that we're all separate.

• Notice (during the still frame) how each card has its own position in the spread of cards. Following this metaphor, each card might represent an event that happens in time. In this case, the 2♣ (two of clubs) happens after the event known as A♣ and before the 3♣ event. The cards were already in their specific positions before they were spread, just as events in time seem to follow one another.

The Course explains that everything in time has already happened and everything has already been determined. For example, the Course says “Everything God wills is not only possible but has already happened. And that is why the past has gone. It never happened in reality.” (ACIM Original Edition Chapter 18.V.40).

For me, seeing that everything has already been determined poses no problem to the concept of free will. We certainly have all the free will we could want to do anything and everything in the world of form. But at the end of time, if we were to look back, we'd see that none of that mattered because it was all illusory anyway. Time ended and the wiser version of what we are folded up the cards.

• Notice, too, in the unbounded, never-ending moment that is eternity, those cards simply lie on the tabletop until a hand appears, collects the cards into a deck and folds them up.

Once they're gone, the tabletop continues to be what it always was: God's unlimited creation. That deck of cards? The illusion of time and the universe? They did not (and could not) change the tabletop in any way.

• Finally, what does it mean, within this metaphor, to fold up the cards and take them off the table? That's the best part. It represents the end of time, the end of learning, the triumph of true vision over perception, and the final approach to Knowledge.

It is the Second Coming, the correction of mistakes and the return of sanity.

It is the Last Judgment, the moment when perception ends and all are proclaimed forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as our Creator and completely changeless and forever pure.

It is the happy occasion when the illusory world disappears and we all fully remember, recognize and rejoin our Creator in our true home.

Credit: Thanks to TAGMagic for the video sequence.

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After all this study, I KNOW Nothing! But that's OK. Knowledge isn't the goal.

11/4/2015

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Last spring I went to A Course in Miracles gathering in Boca Raton of about 150 people to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Course. As I met people for the first time, it seemed like the question they most often asked was, “How long have you been studying the Course?”

For a moment ego popped in and I began to think that perhaps the length of time one had studied might be some kind of “badge of honor” where those who had studied for many years might have a deeper understanding of the Course.

But it's not a badge of “honor.” If anything, it's a badge of “learning.” The Course is a curriculum, a mind training program. Its half-million words contain the Text and the Manual for Teachers, which both support the 365 daily Lessons. There can be no doubt: One must study the Course and learn from it. Both of those take time. So, yes! The length of time one has studied and learned might be a good measure of one's understanding of Course principles.

However, there seems to be another part of the story that's not often discussed. Sgt. Schultz from the old Hogan's Heroes TV show proclaimed “I know nothing!” every time he feared punishment from his commanding officer for failing to report the shenanigans Hogan and his heroes foisted upon the prison camp.

But I've got to admit: I, too, know nothing, in spite of all that study and learning.

For knowledge, as Lesson 138 points out “…is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are and what your needs must be.”

The Foreword to the Course says, "Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is.” Chapter 13.II reminds that “Knowledge is far beyond your individual concern. You, who are part of it and all of it, need only realize that it is of the Father, not of you.”

Chapter 3.V repeats the message: “To know is to be certain. Uncertainty merely means that you do not know. Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is strength. Perception is merely temporary. It is an attribute of the space-time belief and is therefore subject to fear or love. Misperceptions produce fear, and true perceptions produce love. Neither produces certainty because all perception varies. That is why it is not knowledge."

"True perception is the basis for knowledge, but knowing is the affirmation of truth. All your difficulties ultimately stem from the fact that you do not recognize or know yourselves, each other, or God. To recognize means to "know again," implying that you knew before. You can see in many ways because perception involves different interpretations, and this means that it is not whole. The miracle is a way of perceiving, not of knowing. It is the right answer to a question, and you do not ask questions at all when you know."

You do not ask questions at all when you know. What could be more clear? Knowledge is absolute certainty. So it's for that reason I say, “I KNOW nothing.” However, as we move into Part II of the Workbook the focus becomes one of gaining direct experience with our Creator rather than learning. There's a wide difference between learning and direct experience.

For anyone working to increase their direct experience with God and the Holy Spirit, Robert Perry at the Circle of Atonement has an excellent article he titled “Open Mind Meditation.” Check it out. It doesn't appear that it will lead us to knowledge, but it can open minds to the more profound direct experience that leads us into true perception and the Happy Dream spoken of in Chapter 18.VI.

What say you? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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