Fear of Awakening

When I thought about our fear of awakening, I thought about a comedian, who when asked at gunpoint: “your money or your life?” After thinking for a while replied: Well——-

Faced with a similar choice: our reality or an illusory dream figure? ——

We sadly chose the latter.

Unlike the aforementioned comedian, —

— was not an option.  ⁸There is no compromise. ⁹You are your Self or an illusion. ¹⁰What can be between illusion and the truth? ¹¹A middle ground, where you can be a thing that is not you, must be a dream and cannot be the truth. (T-28.V.3:8-11) The world-dream is a projection of the guilt in the dreamer’s mind. The purpose of all dreams is to keep guilt, the cause of our fearful condemning thoughts, from our awareness. We are never upset for the reasons we think because the problem is not in the dream, it is in the mind of the dreamer where it must be corrected. As long as we are identified with our dream figure we will continue to “act” in the dream-world, but our purpose and therefore our experience will be very different.  By using the dream as a mirror into our mind, we can identify the form our guilt has taken and forgive. First the figure in the dream and then the guilt in the dreamers mind which was the cause. The Course is not saying you should have no condemning thoughts, just none that you would keep because they are never justified. Peace comes from knowing we are the dreamer of the dream, not a figure in the dream. The dream figure is an avatar, an interface for interacting with the dream, not our reality. This fact does not deny that you experience a body but it does deny that you are a body.

Everyone identifies himself with his thought system, and every thought system centers on what you believe you are. ¹⁰If the center of the thought system is true, only truth extends from it. ¹¹But if a lie is at its center, only deception proceeds from it (T-6.V-B.1:9-11) It is only when you have questioned the validity of your current thought system, that you are free to discover the lie at its center. You will finally understand all the contradictions within your world view and its inability to provide meaningful answers to so many seeming  problems. Problems cannot be resolved by using the same framework that produced them. Since we all identify as a figure in the dream, the Course remains within the ego’s framework where correction is needed. It’s goal, however, is complete thought  reversal.

The dreamer, who decides which voice to listen to, is “outside” the dream. (See chart)  Although we have blocked the voice for truth from our awareness, it is still there and can be accessed. If you, the dreamer, have not decided to join with Spirit, you have joined with your wrong-mind ego, there is no other choice.  ²The ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice for guiltlessness. ³The power of decision is all that is yours. ⁴What you can decide between is fixed, because there are no alternatives except truth and illusion.  (T-14.III.4:2-5) As mentioned above, what we experience in the dream will be in accord with the purpose of our choice. Since we originally chose the wrong-mind that is the default. In the wrong-mind thought system, your perceptions will lead to experiences of pain, suffering, loss and death in accord with its purpose of making the body seem real.  ⁴Unless you are sick you cannot keep the gods you made, for only in sickness could you possibly want them. ⁵Blasphemy, then, is _self_-destructive, not God-destructive. ⁶It means that you are willing not to know yourself in order to be sick. (T-10.V.3:4-6) In Spirit’s right-mind thought system, your perceptions will lead to correction and healing in accord with its purpose.

We cannot change our reality, but in the world of perception or dreams our reality has been denied and replaced by images of what we want to be. If you are willing to hear the voice for truth within you, the Course will teach you how to access your real thoughts through what is called the Holy Spirit or right-mind thoughts. Our right-mind is our only connection to the truth. Without it the fear of awakening would be too great because awakening from the dream is tantamount to destroying the self we identify with: our “own beloved son.” Until this is  recognized we will fail to understand the cause of all experiences of pain and suffering: the guilt of denying our Self, our Reality!

As we work with the Course we will learn to discern what voice we are listening to by carefully monitoring our thoughts. The Holy Spirit or right-mind is fully aware of our fear of awakening and by following Its Guidance we are following the Guidance of One who knows our reality and the dream. ⁵He seems to be a Voice, for in that form He speaks God’s Word to you. ⁶He seems to be a Guide through a far country, for you need that form of help. ⁷He seems to be whatever meets the needs you think you have. ⁸But He is not deceived when you perceive your self entrapped in needs you do not have. ⁹It is from these He would deliver you. ¹⁰It is from these that He would make you safe. (C-6.4:5-10)

The Course is easy: one problem (belief in the separation); one solution (forgive and let go of this belief.) That’s like saying if you are addicted to narcotics just stop taking drugs. Admitting you are an addict is a very important first step in healing your addiction. But it is only a first step. The addictions we are familiar with are within the dream, however,  the strongest addiction is to the dream itself. The Course is teaching us that in the world of perception healing is a process and if you follow its lessons in forgiveness your fears will give way to peace, your nightmares transformed to happy dreams. Your inner Guide has infinite patience and will keep pace with what you can accept. Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality. (T-16.VI.8:1-2)

In principle, awakening could occur in one instant. But, due to our guilt which keeps us glued to the dream, awakening, for most of us, is a process. Process implies time, however, miracles, being a shift in perspective, saves time. What appears as a miracle from the ego’s wrong-mind perspective is very natural from the right-mind perspective. That is just one of the many amazing experiences the Course affords. The Course has given us a framework showing how everyone we see or think about, gives us the opportunity to heal our mind. The dream- world is the perfect classroom for practicing forgiveness, ultimately of our self. It teaches there are only two ways of interpreting all communications: someone is either extending love or calling for love. We therefore accept love or supply love when called for. From our right-mind perspective this is very obvious.

When I first became a student of the Course, I clearly knew the world I perceived could not be the Truth. What I did not realize was that the world of perception was an illusion, a dream, and I was the dreamer.  As I sincerely worked with the Course and experienced the right-mind or Spirit’s voice within me, peace replaced my fears and my resistance lessened. The fear of awakening is really the fear of our Self, our Reality. The Course does not talk about reality, however it calls to our attention the fact that, although we do not know what reality is, we behave as though it is fearful.

If you do not know what your reality is, why would you be so sure that it is fearful? ²The association of truth and fear, which would be highly artificial at most, is particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what truth is. ³All this could mean is that you are arbitrarily associating something beyond your awareness with something you do not want. ⁴It is evident, then, that you are judging something of which you are totally unaware. ⁵You have set up this strange situation so that it is impossible to escape from it without a Guide Who _does_ know what your reality is. ⁶The purpose of this Guide is merely to remind you of what you want. ⁷He is not attempting to force an alien will upon you. ⁸He is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you impose on Him, to re-establish your own will in your awareness. (T-9.I.3:1-8)

You cannot wake yourself. ³Yet you can let yourself be wakened. (T-29.III.3:1-3)