Time is one of the ego’s illusory laws. It is a manifestation we made as a defense against God’s Love. Time, along with conflict, sickness, scarcity and death etc., were all made as defenses against the now moment, within which lies the glorious Truth of our Holy Self. Time, like all defenses, was born from fear, from the mistaken belief that we are unworthy to claim God’s Will as our wholly healed state right now in this eternal and Holy Instant. Time is the interval that seems to exist between the past and future. It’s the illusory gap that excludes the eternal now moment, where all miracles exist.
Time is a delaying device designed to induce the fearful belief that healing takes time. If healing takes time, then God’s Love must also take time which is a totally preposterous belief! God’s Love as perfect healing, has already happened. This is all that is happening in Truth. God’s Will is immune to the illusion of time, unless we decide to perceive against it via the ego’s wish. God’s Will, which is our perfect and whole state, is constant, certain, invulnerable and unopposed. Remember that God’s Love, which is Who we are, is all-encompassing Love without opposite.
Only the Holy Instant exists regardless of how much illusory time or suffering we appear to perceive. There is nothing we need do to claim God’s Will as instant healing. However there is much for us to question and undo.
The miracle does not take time. It collapses it. In fact it does not do anything but undo the illusory interference that blocks us from the embodied knowing of our God given state of perfection.
As completely fixed as they seem, both time and matter are illusory projections that exist as thoughts in our mind (not brain), and are never separate from it. There is no hierarchy among illusions because they are all illusions. There can be no truer illusion than any other. It is this fact we must come to recognize if we desire to experience Jesus’ number one miracle principle in the Course: “There is no order of difficulty in miracles.”
We imbued time with the illusion of memory. But what the ego keeps from our awareness is this. That all memory we seem to retain, regardless of its numerously different forms, arises from one disastrous yet illusory moment, the seeming instant we separated, abandoned and betrayed God as our one Holy Self. All ego memory is based in this dreadful guilt and the subsequent fear of punishment it brings. Every emotional or physical pain stems from this one guilt. Every seemingly unfulfilled need comes from this guilt. Disease, aging, accidents and all forms of scarcity, poverty and death are caused by belief in this guilt.
Memory is a skill that we made up to perpetuate our guilt, to continue running away from God in the story of time. The ego’s memory is a constant looping cycle geared toward using the body’s five senses to retrieve evidence of attack and deprivation, evidence that we are eternally guilty and therefore victims of the world we see.
The reason we seem to suffer from so much adversity is that we mistakenly choose to believe the ego’s memory (the past). And each time we do, we must also agree to abide with this memory’s effects as sickness, conflict, pain, loss, scarcity and death in all its forms. These are the effects of trusting the ego’s memory. We cannot value the ego’s memory of fear and expect to be free from its effects. The two go hand in hand. Believe in one (fear) and we have effectively invited the other (suffering).
The Truth is this: that the effects of guilt are over. Every appearance of suffering that we seem to witness is already over. It’s healed. Jesus demonstrated that the single cause of all suffering was healed through His resurrection and Atonement.
“All the effects of guilt are here no more. For guilt is over. In its passing went its consequences, left without a cause. Why would you cling to it in memory if you did not desire its effects?” T-28.I.2:1-4
In the previous quote Jesus asks us an important question: Why would I cling to guilt if I did not still desire its effects? If I still value fear then I desire the adverse effects of a cause (guilt) that has long since gone, and I must believe that I am unworthy to claim God’s True effects of healing. If this is so, it can only be because I choose to believe my own evaluation of my worth and not God’s.
Complete healing is available the instant we wholeheartedly desire only God’s Love and healing, the moment we cease to argue with God’s Knowledge of Who we are and thus, with what we deserve. God’s healing is already given. We just need to recall that only this is real. This is the proper use of memory in the now moment.
“The Holy Spirit can indeed make use of memory, for God Himself is there. Yet this is not a memory of past events, but only of a present state. You are so long accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to realize it is a skill that can remember [now.]” T-28.4:1-3
With our belief in time, we commit to memory exactly what the ego desires in order to keep us in a cycle of suffering. In the following quote, Jesus tells us that all the body’s past is hidden and stored in this memory made to keep us trapped.
“Committed to its vaults, the history of all the body’s past is hidden there. All of the strange associations made to keep the past alive, the present dead, are stored within it, waiting your command that they be brought to you, and lived again. And thus do their effects appear to be increased by time, which took away their cause. “ T-28.I.5:7-9
When we mistakenly believe that healing must take time we invest in an outcome that time cannot fulfill. Only present moment surrender of our perception to God’s unopposed Will is healing. The belief it takes time to heal arises from the fear of healing and that is why it seems to take time. It is our complete and undivided acceptance of God’s certain healing that is delayed because the time it seems to take is an illusory self-imposed gap that protects us from the miracle’s sudden shift from fear to Love.
No real healing transpires if we place the cause of suffering in the past. Doing so makes the cause and its effect real which means it cannot be forgiven. We have erroneously separated cause from effect. The cause of suffering is found now. It’s always here and now and not vaulted in some imaginary past where it cannot be healed. If the past literally does not exist then where is the instantaneous cause and effect of a seeming illness or problem? It must be here and now in our perception. It is certainly not in a body, in another, in the past or in the world!
Time cannot cause or heal. Think about that. Time cannot take away or restore. We think the past has caused the present. In this erroneous belief, we don’t realize we have made our self bereft of immediate healing because we believe the cause has escaped from us into the past. How can we heal something we believe is not caused here and now in this present moment? To believe the cause of any affliction lay in the past is an invitation to helplessness.
“Time neither takes away nor can restore. And yet you make strange use of it, as if the past had caused the present, which is but a consequence in which no change can be made possible because its cause has gone. Yet change must have a cause that will endure, or else it will not last. No change can be made in the present if its cause is past. Only the past is held in memory as you make use of it, and so it is a way to hold the past against the now.” T-28.I.6:3-7
We choose to believe the ego’s evidence that says the cause of suffering lay in the past. When we believe in the appearance of suffering, we perpetuate the past by affirming that what our body’s senses report, is indeed real.
Healing takes place in the Holy Instant as we surrender our perception and we “will with God”. We accept and receive healing of our perception through the Atonement. This heals the cause and its consequences here and now. Jesus tells us that when ancient memories of hate appear (conflict, sickness, pain, scarcity and death, etc.), to remember their cause is long since gone. Instead, we’re asked to see the new effects or consequences of God’s consistent Healing. How can healing take time if it’s already been given us by God?
“Let not the cause that you would give them now be what it was that made them what they were, or seemed to be. Be glad that it is gone, for this is what you would be pardoned from. And see, instead, the new effects of cause accepted [now,] with consequences [here.] They will surprise you with their loveliness.”T-28.I.7:5-8
Which seeming problems do you still believe were caused in the past? If you’re ready to release them, you can take them through the forgiveness/Atonement process here or the full Atonement process here.
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Thank you Nouk.
This is so clear, and so powerful.
You are a bright Star*. 🙂
THKS NOUK
IT HELPS ALTHOUGH HAVE TO READ IT REPEAT IT AND REPEAT IT…
X
Dearest Nouk,
This may appear to be a strange question, but I would greatly appreciate your answer. Is “God” simply love? In other words, is the word “God” just another name for love? I don’t mean to sound flippant, but the phrase “God’s love” honestly confuses me…
Thank you for answering, Nouk.
Love,
Denise
Good question Denise!
God’s Love is Who we are, the Essence of our being. It’s really a constant state of JOY. God’s Love, unlike the special human love we’ve come to know, is without conflict. Therefore there is no guilt, judgment, sacrifice, struggle, effort, fear, distrust, exclusivity, doubt or change in God’s Love as our Holy Self. Consequently, there is no sickness, pain, scarcity, loss or separation in God’s Joyous and changeless Love. So yes, God is another word for changeless Love, innocence and joy; this is the only Truth of Who we are beneath our mistaken belief in fear.
Love,
Nouk
Thank you, Nouk. You never fail to clearly interpret the sometimes-overwhelming concepts of the Course. Naturally, it is our egos mucking things up and making them “hard to understand”, which after all, is it’s job! 🙂
I hope your new book is reaching all of us who so desperately need it and that you and Tomas continue to thrive in your destined roles as Healers and Angels of Light.
All my love,
Denise
I know that reading your books and articles are a blessing and a miracle for me. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Cynthia 🙂
Great post Nouk. So glad you mention that mind has nothing to do with brain. There still seems to be a lot of confusion on that issue. Much Love, Lloyd
Thanks Lloyd, yes…the brain is simply another body “part” lol!
Much Love,
Nouk 😉
Such a game changer, my mind can not yet fully take in the significance of this. IT truly blows our loves ( ha meant to say minds but likes loves better so will keep this Freudian slip) wide open. Thank you!
“The belief it takes time to heal arises from the fear of healing and that is why it seems to take time. It is our complete and undivided acceptance of God’s certain healing that is delayed because the time it seems to take is an illusory self-imposed gap that protects us from the miracle’s sudden shift from fear to Love.” wowowowwow
You GOT it! It certainly blows our Love Heart wide open. <3
Infinite Gratitude