Forgiving by Making it All the Same

"Make this year different  by making it all the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 10:11

"This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different and with different values.  Yet they are all the same.  Again there is no order; only a seeming hierarchy of values." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VIII, 8:8-10

"It is impossible that one illusion be less amenable to Truth than are the rest.  But it is possible that some are given greater value, and less willingly offered to Truth for healing and for help.  No illusion has any truth in it.  Yet it appears some are more true than others, although this clearly makes no sense at all.  All that a hierarchy of illusions can show is preference, not reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chpater 26, Section VII, 6:1-5

Happy Boxing Day!  I meant to write this post for Christmas, but am a day late... so Boxing Day it is.  Which is actually perfect for the ACIM quotes I'm writing about.  And for making it all the same.

From infancy we are all carefully conditioned to differentiate and categorize, to establish values for everything we see.  Good, bad, better, best, ugly, beautiful, or just O.K.  Regardless of the placement in a hierarchy of values, everything we come across has this in common.  We judge it to be valuable or valueless, and place it somewhere in our personal hierarchy of illusions. 

Now this is how we seem to make sense of the world, and how we manage to get out of bed in the morning.  The problem with this sort system is that it hides the ever-present Truth... that we have given everything (EVERYTHING) all the meaning that it has... that everything exists in Mind, and Mind alone.  As long as we're categorizing and judging, this simply cannot be seen or known, and true forgiveness is impossible.  It's only when we realize that it's all the same because it's all made up... only then can we begin to glimpse the Truth.

How many of us are willing to see the world without the conditioned judgments of a lifetime?  Without the comfort of our own bias?  As the Mind that is projecting it all, rather than some fictional character it's all happening to?  Forgiveness is impossible without this realization.  Otherwise, we think something really happened that needs our forgiveness.  Whereas true forgiveness is the simple realization that nothing actually happened except our own misplaced categorizations and judgements. 

How liberating this is!  "I will forgive, and this will disappear."  ACIM Workbook 193, 13:3

"It is a dream of judgment.  So must [you] judge not, and [you] will awaken." A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:3-5