It is written in the Introduction to A Course In Miracles:
“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”
This passage takes us to the teachings of Universalism where we are taught that God not only loves us but loves us all unconditionally because we all are an extension of God’s creative powerful, awesome love. But, as the introduction says we are blinded by our fears which are based on a fear of scarcity or lack and it is this sense of lack that we attempt to address by our grasping and manipulation of others and the world and thus the drama begins.
The sense of lack motivates us to move in multiple directions to fill it in the external world and our grasping and attaining of external objects never seems to quite fulfill us, to satisfy us, and it is not until we ask why we are unfulfilled and unsatisfied that we turn within and slowly become aware of Love’s presence which was there all along.
It is the awareness of Love’s presence which Universalism is about. Universalism is an interpretation of the Jesus story that finally gets to the root of the matter. In this sense of getting to the root of the matter that Universalism is so radical.
The teaching of Universalism is to become aware of Love’s presence by overcoming all the distractions of the ego world and realizing that in the end they don’t matter. As Jesus said, Be in the world but not of the World.
The introduction of the course ends with this saying:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
A noun and a verb were dating. They were happy for a while, but eventually broke up because the noun was too possessive.
Thank you for the series of articles on ACIM. I think ACIM can provide the depth to UU that it has been missing and it fits very well with the Universalism side of the UU merger.
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