Skim the Surface
T-9.VI The Acceptance of Your Brother acim.org/acim/en
Accepting your brother means choosing the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, where shared Sonship makes giving and receiving one, and time becomes a classroom for remembering changeless oneness.
Recognize What's Happening Beneath
Underneath the explicit theme of acceptance sits a quieter exposure: the ego’s investment in keeping a private kingdom. The mind tries to accept the brother while still protecting an exception—something to win, to withhold, or to prove. That is why the section keeps returning to shared Identity and shared purpose; exceptions are not moral failures, but signs that the mind is still bargaining for specialness.
The correction is consistently gentle and internal. When the desire to judge or control rises, it is treated as a cue to choose again and let the Holy Spirit reinterpret the purpose of the relationship. As the purpose changes, time loses its use as delay, communication becomes joining, and the memory of what is changeless can be tasted—often first as a small, quiet relief.
Reflect
Who feels easiest to exclude while I still try to think of myself as whole?
Practice
Think of one resisted brother and say, “I cannot accept myself and reject you.” Ask the Holy Spirit to let your acceptance be about shared being, not about behavior or agreement.