Lesson 336: “What is the ego?”  “Forgiveness lets me know our minds are joined.”

Forgiveness ends the dream of sin.  

When we forgive, we realize that our brothers and sisters are blessed as our personal saviors. 

The Course says that our brothers and sisters walk with us hand in hand to get to Heaven.

Our brothers and sisters are always the ones who show us ourselves.

When we see their perceived flaws, this simply reflects what we have projected out into the world in a form we can see it. 

Then, we learn to deal with it, because we have to.  This is why our brothers and sisters are our saviors because they help us get to that place where we must look deep within at what is yet unhealed. 

Then we bring it up for healing because now it is apparent and we can.

The Course reminds us that we must learn how to love them with no reservation.

We can do this when we remember our brothers and sisters are sinless.  When we know they are totally pure and without fault, then we stop making them our enemies and someone we reject when we interact.  When we are rejecting our brothers and sisters, this happens because we can’t get beyond that ego criticism and we can’t believe they are sinless.

The Course reminds us to appreciate that our brothers and sisters are worthy of forgiveness of whatever faults they appear to have. 

We must make it our practice to forgive them because this allows us to join with them in mind and energy. 

We want to join with them in mind because this is the energy that makes us also open to God’s Love. 

The joining energy is what the Course considers inclusion energy.

This means that we hold no grudges against ourselves or other people and then we all can experience this expansiveness of God’s Love. 

This is why the joining energy is the way to Heaven because there is no conflict in it and no attack.

We want God’s version of forgiveness.

We want to feel the feeling of knowing that our brothers and sisters are perfect as they are and have value beyond what we can understand. 

This is why we have a deep and utter respect for them  because God deems them worthy. 

This means we can love them and forgive them if they ever do anything that seems inappropriate for what we would like to have happen.  We want to forgive them while we realize they are always perfect as they are.

This is that fine line where we want to heal our relationship and so we use an ample dose of forgiveness when we think of them. 

This helps us to relieve those inner attack thoughts about them because they cease to exist when we apply forgiveness.

Forgiveness is so strong, that it always carries an element with it that makes the seeming insult actually disappear. 

It leaves our memory clean and clear so we no longer need to suffer over it. 

It is unreal, and so it has no negative effects on us.  This kind of forgiveness is what allows us to truly join with our brothers and sisters because it is the only way to truly forget the problem in the first place.

This is why forgiveness of God’s sort is necessary for a true joining. 

It is the way to make all resentment disappear and attack energy dissipate.