Accepting the Atonement for yourself

(Segment 1)

Accepting the Atonement for Yourself – Talk 2: Segment 1

San Francisco Miracles Conference, February 2007

Thank you so much for coming. It is really an honor to be here and be

joined with you. The topic we are going to talk about tonight is

accepting the Atonement. Everyone who is familiar with a Course in

Miracles knows that if A Course in Miracles was a symphony, then the

Atonement is the crescendo. If we think of it in terms of notes, you

might say that the Atonement is the keynote. It is what everything is

leading to in your work with A Course in Miracles.

I don't know about you, but for me simplicity is important. Years ago

I thought to myself, if I am going to experience truth, or reality, it

must be very, very simple. This world is very complicated and heaven

is nothing like this world, it is not fragmented. So, it must be the

big "AHA". Almost as though it's been under your nose all along as you

were running along frantically trying to be good enough or to work hard

enough or practice enough. Atonement has been under your nose all the

time. It has always been there and it is just a matter of stopping

instead of running around and seeking and searching so hard: it is to

just relax and behold it.

I would start off this talk by saying that Atonement is a total

commitment. The ego doesn't even know what commitment is. It is so

impulsive. The ego is like a little wild child, it doesn't have a

parent. That is because it really doesn't have a parent. It doesn't

have a source. It is like this wild, frantic fearful thought that has

no parent. It has no sense of stability. It's impulsive, it's complex,

and the Holy Spirit is like the answer in the mind, the bringer of the

Atonement, putting the Atonement principle into action for the mind

that has fallen asleep.

It is so tranquil and quiet and still, that the Atonement and the Holy

Spirit literally do nothing. It just looks and watches and waits, and

judges not. It is just a state of pure stillness. But in order to

open your mind to accept the Atonement you have to be ready and willing

for something completely different than anything you've known in this

world.

A Course in Miracles is a tool for your mind to use. You might say the

first step is that Jesus and the Holy Spirit first have to get your

attention. They have to catch your attention with the desire to see

something differently or to have a change of mind. You might say the

first part of this whole plan of awakening and accepting the plan of

Atonement is to let them get your attention, whatever it takes

You really have to be ready for the Course. I've traveled around the

world many times and I've been in 19 countries and I hear the same

stories. Some people have used it and it sits on their bookshelf, used

it as a doorstop, they used it to put their plants on, and then one day

suddenly, they just go "Hmmm, I think I am supposed to read this

book." And something gets their attention. Sometimes it falls off the

shelf and it hits them in the head, or something very dramatic, but

first Jesus has to get your attention. And once Jesus has your

attention then you have to be willing to open up for miracles. You

need to be convinced that there is another way of looking at the

world. You shouldn't be concerned and feel pressured because it is the

Holy Spirit's job, it's Jesus' job to convince you. You just have to

be willing. You have to have a little bit of willingness.

Through many, many, many miracles, you prepare your mind for the

Atonement. The Atonement has been described in the Course as the first

miracle, and the last miracle, and all the miracles in between.

Atonement is different from miracles per say in the sense that, some of

you have read the section on The Last Unanswered Question [in Chapter

21]. You may have answered the first three but the last one has a

sense of certainty. The last one has a sense of finality where you

cannot go back and vacillate.

When you are practicing the Course you have a miracle, then the ego

seems to come back - but not with the Atonement. The Atonement is a

principle that takes you to a state of certainty of who you are. What

I mean by this is, for example, there is a workbook lesson, titled, "I

will accept Atonement for myself", which is lesson number 139. The

very first sentence of this lesson is "Here is the end of choice." The

end of choice - how relaxing must a state of mind be where there is no

decision to be made? Where you don't have to ponder alternatives, you

just rest and be who you are. Here is the end of choice. That is why

that this Course is really about training your mind to accept the

Atonement. To `accept the correction' is a synonym for it. That is

what I am going to talk to you tonight about.

Just to give you a little background on me, my name is David, I got the

Course delivered to my lap in 1986. When the Course came into my life,

I said "Oh my God, this is my escape from fear and doubt and misery." I

felt an immediate recognition with it. I studied it for an average of

eight hours a day for the first two and a half years. It is like you

were drowning and someone threw you a life raft and said "grab hold!"

That is how I felt when I found the Course. I felt like this was the

answer to an unspoken prayer. I studied it for so many hours a day.

You can imagine immersing your mind so deeply into something, and after

a couple of years instead of just reading the words a Voice started to

speak to me very clearly in my mind and started to guide me very

specifically. "Call so and so." "Go here, go there, you forgot your

keys, go back." Like a little bird on my shoulder chirping away, like

having a little miniature Jesus. I would say that really started to

speed up my Awakening because I was being guided very specifically.

And Jesus saves time. The whole point of this is to save time. Not to

prolong time and to extend time, but to collapse time, that is what

miracles do.

So after about two and a half years of this I went to my first

conference. I was introduced to some who were speakers there as, "a

walking ACIM encyclopedia". There is nothing like getting introduced

as an encyclopedia to spur you on. I don't want to be an

encyclopedia. I could quote verses and tell you what page number and

so on and so forth, like a scholar, but I wanted the experience. That

launched me into an experience of listening to the Holy Spirit and

following the Holy Spirit, and feeling the joy and the inspiration of

being in tune with the Holy Spirit.

What I tell people is that when they do the workbook lessons, you

should do them with such anticipation that every day you expect to wake

up. You expect that lesson to be the One. Instead of thinking in your

mind, well, I've got 365 and if I don't get it I can go back and do it

again, which is only buying into this sense of time. I just expected

to wake up. I would go, "Ah, another day! Another lesson." And I

would give everything I had to the lesson.

To go for an experience that will end your doubting, to go for an

experience that takes you beyond theories and concepts, is what

Atonement is about. It is the sole responsibility. It may seem like

in this world you have many responsibilities, and many duties, and many

roles and many obligations, but I can assure you that as you keep

allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you, you keep coming back to, "Oh.

But I just have one responsibility. Just to accept the Atonement. And

I need to be guided very carefully by the Holy Spirit."

It is not about abdicating on responsibilities and just affirming the

truth and affirming that you are the child of God. It is about letting

Holy Spirit handle what is going on in your mind with integrity.

You will not be asked to lie and break promises and to cut and run.

You are going to be asked to follow so clearly, so intricately, so

loyally, that all things are handled through you by the Holy Spirit.

There are still things that you face every day but Holy Spirit handles

them. Some of you remember in the Bible, Jesus said "Be like the

lilies in the field," and "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven."

In the Course, Jesus is saying that once you have accepted His plan as

the one function you would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy

Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. Holy Spirit will

go before you, making straight your path, and leaving in your way no

stones to trip on, no obstacles to bat your way. When you accept your

function, everything in this world is completely orchestrated for you.

You literally live a life that has no problems. No personal problems,

no societal problems, no health issues, no financial issues, no

relationship issues; that is what salvation is. That is what

Enlightenment is. It is realizing as we study in lesson 80, "Let me

recognize that my problems have been solved." that in the Holy Spirit

they are solved. Not in the ego. So that is why we have to go so

deeply into that.

For me it has been an experience of listening and following, and

listening and following, to the point that you feel a merge taking

place, an integration in your mind. There is no longer a leader and a

follower; there is no longer a guide and one who is being guided. The

personality, the mask of being human, just starts to dissolve away.

You feel yourself as the living presence of God, as the living Christ,

as the I Am presence.

You must be clear that in order to consistently experience this you can

make no exceptions to the miracle. That is what the workbook is about,

making no exceptions. Go through your day willing to make no decisions

by yourself, willing to let every decision be made by Holy Spirit

through you. If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that

will be given me.

It is like lesson 135 where Jesus says, "A healed mind does not plan.

It carries out the plans that it receives through Listening to Wisdom

that is not its own." If there are plans to be made, you will be told

of them. That is the feeling. "Oh, you want me to do this? Okay,

okay…" Where will I be in Feb 2007? It is given. But there is no

sense of pressure in it. You flow in that Divine Flow and you keep

your integrity. If the Holy Spirit gives you a plan or a prompt, you

follow through.

Not only is Atonement a total commitment, it is in the present moment

you start to understand what the Course means when it says, "Atonement

might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of

interest in the future." Isn't that a lovely phrase? You can just let

that wash over you. Total escape from the past and total lack of

interest in the future.

That sounds so relaxing because it takes the stress of trying to figure

things out away from you. It takes the stress of having to work out

your salvation. It sounds a lot like Grace. Total escape from the

past and total escape from the future.

What I want to talk about tonight is how this is very practical. This

is safe. This is sure. You can have confidence in this. Be certain

of this, Instead of being gullible or instead of being `airy-fairy,' or

some of the other words we've heard that people have talked about over

the centuries, such as `Pollyanna,' or "Why don't you get grounded, you

are living up in the clouds." I have a friend in Argentina, and her

whole family says to her, "You and your miracles, you live in the

clouds, you live in the clouds everyday." She just smiles and

says, "Come join me."

It is lightness. There is no sense of trying to convince anybody of

anything. You don't have to proselytize. There is no need to try to

force something; you are not trying to change anyone's mind. You are

trying to let your mind be guided and changed by Holy Spirit. You

aren't trying to change anybody else. And it brings you into a sense

of relaxation and joy when you allow this to occur.

David