The Foundation
Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. - A Course in Miracles
Since belief systems provide a framework within which we interpret our experiences, a common framework or perspective is necessary for a coherent communication. For instance, from a flat world perspective it would be insane to suggest that one could start and end a journey at the same place and never change directions; from the point of view of a caterpillar, a butterfly’s existence is unimaginable and scientists who want to venture into the sub-atomic or galactic domains, must abandon the Newtonian perspective and embrace the quantum and relativistic perspectives.
The Current Perspective (topics 1 through 4) demonstrate the need for a new perspective consistent with the idea that "I am cause, the world is my effect." What I am about to share is a new way of thinking about our experience of our selves and the world. Please be willing to have an open mind as you read the following presentation.
In its attempt to explain our experiences to us, all belief systems tell a story, which generally includes the origin of our selves and world. I would, therefore, like to share this story with you. Since you are perceiving what is written here, language will be used in an attempt to engage your minds such that a deep, rich meaning, present in your mind, will rise to your awareness. The words should be used as a springboard to evoke this experience. Your attention and intention should be on getting the spirit of what is being presented here. Let’s not get lost in words, thereby missing the essential meaning. I will be using words or names that are familiar. Please let past meanings go and allow yourself to hear the meaning behind the words. Keep in mind that this foundation or story is not something for you to analyze, but to use. The purpose is to look at your experiences from the ideas put forth here. It is their use, and subsequent experiences generated through such use, that will demonstrate their effectiveness.
Story behind belief system #2: I am Cause, the World is my effect
There is A Reality, A Truth. It has no name and cannot be symbolically represented. It cannot be perceived. However, perception can move in Its direction. The word I will use to represent Reality/Truth is God (changeless, formless, eternal). God creates all that is Real (changeless, formless, eternal). GOD IS PURE LOVE. Our Reality is a creation of God, a Thought in the Mind of God. I will call God’s Creation, our reality: Spirit (changeless, formless, eternal). Obviously this always has been, is now and always will be our reality. We did not create God. However, we share in all creation and are co-creators with God. (Refer to Characteristics of Truth Chart).
An aspect of mind entertains the idea of separation from the Mind of its Creator. Desiring to experience a separate existence, the thought becomes a belief. While this is, of course, impossible to accomplish in reality, the thought has produced consequences, resulting in experiences of enormous and continuous pain and suffering in this aspect of mind. This aspect of mind has chosen to dissociate from its Self, its Creator, its Reality. In other words, it merely chooses to forget or deny Reality and make up and identify with an alternate system of thinking. I will call this thought system the ego. This produces unimaginable guilt in this aspect of mind and unbearable conflict, because the minds Real Thoughts are also in its mind. This situation is intolerable, so the insane ego thoughts are projected from the minds real thoughts. All thoughts in this dissociated aspect of mind are images made by the mind which are then projected "outward." These projected images make an illusory world, which appears to be outside the mind as in a dream. By continually experiencing this dream-world and perceiving its images, the belief in the dream-world becomes fixed in the mind. Most important of all is that we no longer believe there is a mind and now believe thoughts come from the brain housed in a body. In other words the belief in separation cannot be reversed because the aspect of mind that made the ego is unaware of what and where it is. Initially there is one dissociated aspect of mind. However, this one dissociated aspect continually "splits" off or dissociates. There now appears to be not one mind, but seemingly infinite aspects of mind, separate from one another and their source. Each seeming "individual" (which is who we believe we are) can be thought of as follows: (See model-of-mind chart). An aspect of mind (observer) chooses to identify with one of two fundamental belief systems: the ego thought system or Spirits corrected thought system. Images consistent with this chosen belief about our selves are projected from our mind (onto dream-world/screen of mind). The experiences our (observer/dreamer) mind has of these images (figures in the dream-world) will reflect the premise of belief #1: The world is cause and I am its effect (innocent victim) or belief #2: I am cause (dreamer) and the world is my effect.
Using myself as an example, this means that I am identified with an aspect of mind dissociated from my Self. In truth I am resting in God dreaming and/or believing that I have separated from God. All of my thoughts are images reflecting this idea, projected from my mind. Because of the dissociation, I am no longer identified with the Mind of God and, therefore, my mind is reduced to the modality of perception, a distorted way of thinking whereby illusions masquerade as reality. I (observer/dreamer) become conscious of my projected image (dream). I then perceive the figures in the dream-world as if they were separate from my mind. I actually believe I am one of the figures. My aspect of the mind dissociated from itSelf and God, keeps perceiving my projected images, teaching my mind over and over again the world and figures are my reality. This has become so firmly fixed in my mind that my Reality (Spirit) now seems non-existent. If my Real Thoughts were not also in my mind, it would be impossible to let go of the ego thoughts and heal my mind. The problem is that I have chosen to dissociate from or forget my Real Thoughts . This is very important because these thoughts are available to me. The experience I used to call intuition, I now realize is the experience of my Real Thoughts breaking into my conscious awareness. In ACIM this is referred to as the Holy Spirit or Right-Minded Thoughts. These thoughts are my connection to my reality. The Holy Spirit knows my reality and understands the dream. Spirits purpose is to help me correct my delusional thoughts. Since the error is maintained through denial and projection, the Holy Spirits plan is to reverse these dynamics. Through forgiveness I am able to identify the "problem" as not in the world but in my mind. I now can let the "problem," as interpreted by the ego, go, and allow the Holy Spirit or my Real Thoughts to correct my interpretation. (See The Gift or Forgiveness)
The world, viewed from the foregoing perspective, is experienced very differently. One of the most powerful and shocking realizations, was the discovery that my purpose of the world has been as a defense against the Truth of Who I am, not to experience peace, love, joy and happiness or realize my "individual" potential.. This purpose is fulfilled through experiences of pain, suffering and death because they are the ego’s best argument that the world is real. Tantamount to the idea that the world is real, is the idea that I killed God and my Self. In other words the separation is real not an error in thinking. And the guilt resulting from this belief produces the dream of a world with a history of pain, suffering and death, symbolizing this belief—As stated in ACIM "The world was made so that problems could not be escaped."
The world as I perceive it is clearly insane. However, it is extremely difficult to let go of something so long believed. I have long denied my Self and I thank God that Reality could never be affected by my Self denial. I am grateful to now be aware of God’s Answer to the "separation." The Holy Spirit’s thoughts, representing my real thoughts, are in my mind awaiting my acceptance. The miracles I continually experience are a validation of this fact. No longer using the world to deny the Truth of Who I Am, it no longer is experienced as antagonistic to me. I am truly empowered by my experiences and am at peace "in the world."
Before ending I would like to invite you to participate in a process. One of the key ideas noted above is the idea that our Reality right now is Spirit and we are one with God. I noted that it is a function of perception to deceive. The perception is: "I am this body and what I cannot image or perceive does not exist." I would now like you to recall an experience you had of dreaming. Notice that the images in the dream seem to taste, touch, smell, see and hear. The figures are the reality within the dream and you (the dreamer) would appear to be non-existent to the figures in the dream. In fact just the opposite is so. That is, what appears as reality (the figures in the dream who seem to taste, touch, feel, see and hear) are what is unreal and what appears as non-existent or not perceived (the dreamer), is real. While your ego will surely argue that reality is only that which can be perceived, you have an experience which demonstrates the opposite is true. There is another experience you are aware of and that is the capacity of the mind to dissociate (deny reality). The experience of people we call "multiple personalities." This is a demonstration of the minds capacity to deny one identity and make up another identity. While, in fact, a person cannot really separate from himself, he can believe he has, and while he does he seems to experience this other identity as himself. The key idea is that in fact one cannot separate, but can have the illusion he has. As long as the belief is maintained, so to is the illusion, and he will believe he is what he is not.
When first looked at, the foregoing ideas seem truly shocking. I experienced fear and loss. However, this is only because the self I made and have long believed to be myself, feels threatened. The process for healing, is not to let go of the body and dream-world, but to think of them as means to heal the mind and not something to fear. My Self, now welcomed in my mind, is my source of strength and peace of mind. I now experience real meaning and purpose as I perceive the world. Far from feeling insignificant, I realize that I, like "you," play a key role in the healing "of the world" and mind which made the world. WE ARE TRULY EMBARKING ON A NEW BEGINNING: TO BE IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD!
What follows are quotes from A Course in Miracles that address the following questions:
- What is the world?
- How did the world come about?
- What is the purpose of the world?
- Who am I and what is the structure of the dissociated mind experiencing the world?
What is the world?
M-26.3; Pg. 64.3 All worldly states must be illusory.
TM-2. The world of time is the world of illusion. 2 What happened long ago seems to be happening now. 3 Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. 4 What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. 5 Because your will is free you can accept what has already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there. 6 As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. 7 You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. 8 And as you accept it, it is already learned. M-2.
Preface. Pg. xi The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference–the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. "Projection makes perception" (Text, p. 445). We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes–our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take–we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being "good" and "charitable," but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or "forgive." At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self That God created in us and as us.
W-pII.3 (pg. 413) The world is false perception. 2 It is born of error, and it has not left its source. 3 It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. 4 When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish. 5 Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
How did the world come about?
T-12.III.7 pg. 222.7 If only the loving thoughts of God's Son are the world's reality, the real world must be in his mind. 2 His insane thoughts, too, must be in his mind, but an internal conflict of this magnitude he cannot tolerate. 3 A split mind is endangered, and the recognition that it encompasses completely opposed thoughts within itself is intolerable. 4 Therefore the mind projects the split, not the reality. 5 Everything you perceive as the outside world is merely your attempt to maintain your ego identification, for everyone believes that identification is salvation. 6 Yet consider what has happened, for thoughts do have consequences to the thinker. 7 You have become at odds with the world as you perceive it, because you think it is antagonistic to you. 8 This is a necessary consequence of what you have done. 9 You have projected outward what is antagonistic to what is inward, and therefore you would have to perceive it this way. 10 That is why you must realize that your hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it; and why you must get rid of it before you can perceive the world as it really is.
W-325.I (pg.464) This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. 2 From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. 3 These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's own. 4 From insane wishes comes an insane world. 5 From judgment comes a world condemned. 6 And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.
W-167.9 (pg.319) What seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping. 2 When the mind elects to be what it is not, and to assume an alien power which it does not have, a foreign state it cannot enter, or a false condition not within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a while. 3 It dreams of time; an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere. 4 When the mind awakes, it but continues as it always was.
W-53.5 (pg.86) My thoughts are images that I have made.2 Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. 3 It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. 4 The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. 5 Yet God's way is sure. 6 The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. 7 My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.
W-23.2 (pg.34) If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn that it is these thoughts which you do not want. 2 There is no point in lamenting the world. 3 There is no point in trying to change the world. 4 It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. 5 But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. 6 Here you are changing the cause. 7 The effect will change automatically.
W-23.3. The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol of vengeance. 2 Each of your perceptions of "external reality" is a pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. 3 One can well ask if this can be called seeing. 4 Is not fantasy a better word for such a process, and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result?
W-23.4. You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. 2 You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. 3 This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone? 4 Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. 5 Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. 6 For you will not be making them alone.
W-23.5. The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. 2 This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. 3 The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. 4 The final one does not. 5 Your images have already been replaced. 6 By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.
T-18.1.4. (pg. 372.4) You who believe that God is fear made but one substitution. 2 It has taken many forms, because it was the substitution of illusion for truth; of fragmentation for wholeness. 3 It has become so splintered and subdivided and divided again, over and over, that it is now almost impossible to perceive it once was one, and still is what it was. 4 That one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life to death, was all you ever made. 5 Your whole world rests upon it. 6 Everything you see reflects it, and every special relationship that you have ever made is part of it.
T-18.I.5. You may be surprised to hear how very different is reality from what you see. 2 You do not realize the magnitude of that one error. 3 It was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a world of total unreality <had> to emerge. What else could come of it? 5 Its fragmented aspects are fearful enough, as you begin to look at them. 6 But nothing you have seen begins to show you the enormity of the original error, which seemed to cast you out of Heaven, to shatter knowledge into meaningless bits of disunited perceptions, and to force you to make further substitutions.
T-18.I.6. That was the first projection of error outward. 2 The world arose to hide it, and became the screen on which it was projected and drawn between you and the truth. 3 For truth extends inward, where the idea of loss is meaningless and only increase is conceivable. 4 Do you really think it strange that a world in which everything is backwards and upside down arose from this projection of error? 5 It was inevitable. 6 For truth brought to this could only remain within in quiet, and take no part in all the mad projection by which this world was made. 7 Call it not sin but madness, for such it was and so it still remains. 8 Invest it not with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality. 9 And above all, <be not afraid of it>.
What is the purpose of the world?
T-8.IX.6. (pg.159.6) The ego, which always wants to weaken the mind, tries to separate it from the body in an attempt to destroy it. 2 Yet the ego actually believes that it is protecting it. 3 This is because the ego believes that mind is dangerous, and that to make mindless is to heal. 4 But to make mindless is impossible, since it would mean to make nothing out of what God created. 5 The ego despises weakness, even though it makes every effort to induce it. 6 The ego wants only what it hates. 7 To the ego this is perfectly sensible. 8 Believing in the power of attack, the ego wants attack.
T-27.VIII.3 (pg. 586.3) The body's serial adventures, from the time of birth to dying are the theme of every dream the world has ever had. 2 The "hero" of this dream will never change, nor will its purpose. 3 Though the dream itself takes many forms, and seems to show a great variety of places and events wherein its "hero" finds itself, the dream has but one purpose, taught in many ways. 4 This single lesson does it try to teach again, and still again, and yet once more; that it is cause and not effect. 5 And you are its effect, and cannot be its cause.
T-27.VIII.4. Thus are you not the dreamer, but the dream. 2 And so you wander idly in and out of places and events that it contrives. 3 That this is all the body does is true, for it is but a figure in a dream. 4 But who reacts to figures in a dream unless he sees them as if they were real? 5 The instant that he sees them as they are they have no more effects on him, because he understands he gave them their effects by causing them and making them seem real.
M-in.4. (pg.1.4) Everyone who follows the world's curriculum, and everyone here does follow it until he changes his mind, teaches solely to convince himself that he is what he is not. 5 Herein is the purpose of the world. 6 What else, then, would its curriculum be? 7 Into this hopeless and closed learning situation, which teaches nothing but despair and death, God sends His teachers. 8 And as they teach His lessons of joy and hope, their learning finally becomes complete.
W-155.2 (pg.291.2) The world is an illusion. 2 Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be illusions, and avoid their own reality. 3 Yet when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and let it lead the way. 4 What other choice is really theirs to make? 5 To let illusions walk ahead of truth is madness. 6 But to let illusion sink behind the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is merely sanity.
W-pII.2 (pg. 413.2) The world was made as an attack on God. 2 It symbolizes fear. 3 And what is fear except love's absence? 4 Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. 5 Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. 6 But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. 7 Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.
W-pII.3 The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. 2 And now they go to find what has been given them to seek. 3 Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real. 4 They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies. 5 Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
Who am I and what is the structure of the dissociated mind experiencing the world?
W-91 (pg.157.6) "Miracles are seen in light. The body's eyes do not perceive the light. But I am not a body. What am I?" What you think you are is a belief to be undone. But what you really are must be revealed to you. The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. The truth of what you are called on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake conceals.
T-31.VI.1 You see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. There is no choice in vision but this one. What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true. On this one choice does all your world depend, for here you have established what you are, as flesh or spirit in your own belief. If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so. But choose the spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless.
C-1.2 (pg.79 TM) In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. 2 Nor do their minds seem to be joined. 3 In this illusory state, the concept of an "individual mind" seems to be meaningful. 4 It is therefore described in the course <as if> it has two parts; spirit and ego.
C-1.3. Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well.
C-1.4. The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions. 2 Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God's, seems to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. 3 Creation continues unabated because that is the Will of God. 4 This Will is always unified and therefore has no meaning in this world. 5 It has no opposite and no degrees.
C-1.5. The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens. 2 <Right-mindedness> listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ's vision sees the real world in its place. 3 This is the final vision, the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step Himself. 4 Here time and illusions end together.
C-1.6. <Wrong-mindedness> listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. 2 Both this world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. 3 Therefore it is not the <One-mindedness> of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is One with God's.
C-1.7. In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between two choices or two voices. 2 Will is not involved in perception at any level, and has nothing to do with choice. 3 <Consciousness> is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. 4 Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. 5 At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. 6 Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it cannot reach knowledge.
T-12.VII.7. (pg.230.7) I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. 2 As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. 3 And then you look out and behold his witnesses. 4 This is why you find what you seek. 5 What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. 6 When you think you are projecting what you do not want, it is still because you <do> want it. 7 This leads directly to dissociation, for it represents the acceptance of two goals, each perceived in a different place; separated from each other because you made them different. 8 The mind then sees a divided world outside itself, but not within. 9 This gives it an illusion of integrity, and enables it to believe that it is pursuing one goal. 10 Yet as long as you perceive the world as split, you are not healed. 11 For to be healed is to pursue one goal, because you have accepted only one and want but one.
T-4.in.4 (pg.52) You can speak from the spirit or from the ego, as you choose. 2 If you speak from spirit you have chosen to "Be still and know that I am God." 3 These words are inspired because they reflect knowledge. 4 If you speak from the ego you are disclaiming knowledge instead of affirming it, and are thus dis-spiriting yourself. 5 Do not embark on useless journeys, because they are indeed in vain. 6 The ego may desire them, but spirit cannot embark on them because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation.
T-21.V.2 (pg.456.2) Reality needs no cooperation from you to be itself. 2 But your awareness of it needs your help, because it is your choice. 3 Listen to what the ego says, and see what it directs you see, and it is sure that you will see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. 4 You will experience depression, a sense of worthlessness, and feelings of impermanence and unreality. 5 You will believe that you are helpless prey to forces far beyond your own control, and far more powerful than you. 6 And you will think the world you made directs your destiny. 7 For this will be your faith. 8 But never believe because it is your faith it makes reality.
T-21.V.3. There is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. 2 And if you place your faith in Them, you will perceive another self in you. 3 This other self sees miracles as natural. 4 They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the body. 5 They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one it makes. p456 6 Miracles seem unnatural to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can influence each other. 7 Nor <could> they do so. 8 But minds cannot be separate. 9 This other self is perfectly aware of this. 10 And thus it recognizes that miracles do not affect another's mind, only its own. 11 They always change <your> mind. 12 There <is> no other.
T-25.III.2 (pg.523.2) God's laws do not obtain directly to a world perception rules, for such a world could not have been created by the Mind to which perception has no meaning. 2 Yet are His laws reflected everywhere. 3 Not that the world where this reflection is, is real at all. 4 Only because His Son believes it is, and from His Son's belief He could not let Himself be separate entirely. p523 5 He could not enter His Son's insanity with him, but He could be sure His sanity went there with him, so he could not be lost forever in the madness of his wish.
T-25.III.3. Perception rests on choosing; knowledge does not. 2 Knowledge has but one law because it has but one Creator. 3 But this world has two who made it, and they do not see it as the same. 4 To each it has a different purpose, and to each it is a perfect means to serve the goal for which it is perceived. 5 For specialness, it is the perfect frame to set it off; the perfect battleground to wage its wars, the perfect shelter for illusions which it would make real. 6 Not one but it upholds in its perception; not one but can be fully justified.
T-25.III.4. There is another Maker of the world, the simultaneous Corrector of the mad belief that anything could be established and maintained without some link that kept it still within the laws of God; not as the law itself upholds the universe as God created it, but in some form adapted to the need the Son of God believes he has. 2 Corrected error is the error's end. 3 And thus has God protected still His Son, even in error.
T-25.III.5. There is another purpose in the world that error made, because it has another Maker Who can reconcile its goal with His Creator's purpose. 2 In His perception of the world, nothing is seen but justifies forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness. 3 Nothing arises but is met with instant and complete forgiveness.