Thoughts on “What is the Real World?” in the ACIM Workbook
(Full text of “What is the Real World” in the workbook)
The real world is creation: it expresses the qualities that emanate from source. Source and source’s qualities and ideas are highly abstract. Creation, the pure expression of source, is highly symbolic; each and every expression symbolizes source and its qualities. The essence of each temporary expression is the same essence of the quality that gave rise to its appearance. The experience of appearing in a given temporary form is fed back to source as new information, causing source to expand. The dissolution of a given form means that all the information that the appearance in form was able to give has been received and the creative quality, the essence, can move on. (That is why identification with form hurts so much. You are the essence that moves on, you are not the form that temporary arises and dissolves.)
Anything you look on with love is the real world. It is creation in its purity, symbol of a spiritual principle emanating from source temporarily clothed in a form, an appearance. As long as you do not look on everything with love, part of the real world remains veiled or even obscured by the images the mind projects on top of it, in order to alert you to the wayward focus of your attention. As soon as you turn around your focus (repent) the mind is liberated from having to project misunderstandings and can continue building with the building blocks provided by the creative current emanating from source. That extension results in the real world: creation expressing source quality.
You are part of source, enjoying and exploring the various temporary appearances in form. You are not form; you are the essence that gives rise to form and that moves on when the form dissolves.
The real world is source expressed. It is like a kaleidoscope. The various temporal expressions, symbols of source’s qualities, feed information back into source, causing source to expand.