Answer: Forgiveness in a Course in Miracles is really correction of the mind. From the metaphysical aspect, you have a split mind. One side of the split mind is the ego (wrong mind). The other side is the Holy Spirit (right mind) which produces correction, also known as forgiveness. In this split mind scenario, you still retain acim your decision maker – observer and this allows you to choose between the split mind portions. You have never lost it. If you choose judgment, you are still choosing. Therefore, it is not hidden, but still being used. The ego does not want you to know this because choosing against the ego’s judgments is death to it.
When we talk about forgiveness, we are not speaking of forgiveness as outlined by the ego world. This is a different way of thinking and can be difficult to initially grasp. Forgiveness, in this sense, is forgiveness for salvation by choosing the correction of the Holy Spirit (right mind) to correct the errors of the ego (wrong mind). How does one do this? The main way is by being willing to give up the ego’s judgments and thought forms in favor of correction (forgiveness).
Why would you do this? At some point in life, everyone has had enough of the way their life is heading and feels the frustration in how this world operates. So what do they do? They begin asking themselves questions and seeking answers for the truth, such as, who they are and why they are here. The answer is simple: Forgiveness, also known as correction of the mind. That is your purpose in life and why you are here.
Answer: First, one has to study what the ego is, understand it, and then be able to look back upon it without fear or guilt. The ego is a thought system based upon a series of judgments whose very foundation is fear. This goes back to the original separation and is characterized by hate, anger, blame, grievances, judgment, self-interest, specialness, depression, projections, war, death, sin, fear, guilt, and “forgiveness-to-destroy”, just to name a few. If you honestly look around, you will observe that this world is based on a kill or be killed thought system. That is the ego. It is always one or the other and never both. What is causing difficulties in life, and in this world, is that you choose to listen to the ego’s judgments about everything and they are fear-based judgments.
A course in Miracles teaches us that according to the mind you choose from, you will see the corresponding effect. If you choose the judgments of the ego as your cause, your effect will be from that side. By choosing the Holy Spirit (right mind) as the cause, the negative effects of the ego are undone and the true effect is received: Correction (forgiveness). By changing your internal Teacher as cause, you will see a different effect for the result. All it takes is a little willingness to learn how to do this and then following up by doing the work of choosing to turn over judgments for correction (forgiveness) from the Holy Spirit (right mind). Make no mistake: This is death to the ego!
Conclusion: The ego is a vindictive and vicious thought system that aims to keep you stuck in this world by increasing your separation from everyone else using judgment. You cannot see Heaven from judgment. If you listen to the judgments of the ego, your life is a reflection of those judgments; however, if you listen with the Holy Spirit (right mind) and choose forgiveness by turning over those judgments, all the consequences of the ego (wrong mind) choices are undone. You do this by willing to completely give up the ego on that subject matter and choose another way. Turn it over! It all comes down to the choice of the internal Teacher. You cannot be a slave to two masters. The decision maker is the mechanism between the two sides of the split mind. It is neutral, an observer and is something you have to employ to watch the mind and the judgments being made by the ego. When you realize you have used something from the ego error of the wrong or right mind, just be willing to hand them to the solution, or the correction, of the Holy Spirit Right Mind. It takes care of the rest as the Atonement or solution is already there. No affirmations are necessary. You are simply giving up that which you no longer want. It is, and certainly can, be that easy.
The last component to know from a Course in Miracles is form and content. Form is this world and everything in it. In ACIM, form does not matter and is part of the “beliefs” to be turned over. However, you use everything in form, along with the judgments in your mind, as the curriculum of what to turn over for correction (forgiveness).
What does matter is content and in ACIM, content is the mind. The mind you are using for interpretation (perception) of people, places, and things, etc., counts for everything. You can only have one master: (1) the Holy Spirit Right Mind (correction); or, (2) the ego wrong mind (error) and that includes both interpretations of the ego mind.