A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

“Only salvation can be said to cure.”

This lesson is expanding on the first miracle principle: There is no order of difficulty in miracles. Accepting a miracle is recognizing that there is no difference between being disturbed by a story of someone hitting a child or being bothered because I tripped over a piece of loose carpet. There is no difference between intense terror and a mild irritation. They are all equally illusions.

The world has set up elaborate schemes to try to bring a sense of safety in this world of illusions. We jail people who we believe will harm us. We take pills to protect ourselves from damaging microorganisms. We take other pills to destroy those threatening organisms when the first pills didn’t work and we believe we are sick. This lesson is saying false perception is the same — they are all illusions. When we make up one illusion to try to fix another, we are not dealing with the real source of the problem.

It is essential that we learn to recognize illusions for what they are. Otherwise we will continue mindlessly trying to cure what is merely an effect without changing the cause. And this cannot be a cure. All the myriad forms in this world are there to justify our belief that separation is real. But they are merely the effect of a confused mind that believes that what could never be real is real.

This lesson is telling me that if I want to be free of the conflict of this world, the fear and deprivation, the guilt and isolation, I need to change my mind about what I think is real. Then real healing happens. Each time I bring a fear or guilt to the Holy Spirit, ask for His healing perception and receive it, I move a step closer to my salvation. When I can see that what I thought harmed me had no real effect on my true Reality as Love, I can let go of the fear or anger and free myself with Holy Spirit’s help.

The recognition that this world is an illusion is how I wake up from the dream. Each time I forgive or let go of dreaming I am separate from Love with the Holy Spirit’s help, my dream is a little happier, a little more peaceful, a little more loving. Gradually I begin to see that what seemed to be different circumstances, different problems, have more and more in common in my perception. As I see the sameness of all problems, my letting go of the world of illusions accelerates. I move from baby steps to recognizing more and more that all problems are the same.

Today, with the Holy Spirit’s help, I will move closer to the full recognition that nothing but the full unity of my mind with God is real. Here is my salvation, my freedom. I am grateful that the Holy Spirit is ever present in my mind. All His strength He shares with me as I walk this journey with Him. It is through His strength that my mind is healed. I am grateful.


In this lesson Jesus is telling me that there is only one solution to every problem. He is telling me that the Holy Spirit abides in my mind and can bring a happy solution to every perception that I hold as I am willing to open to the healing perceptions that the Holy Spirit brings. But in order for me to hear His Voice, I must be willing to be still with an open mind. I must be willing to quiet my mind of all the mental chatter that goes on there. I must be willing to open my mind to receiving the truth. From this comes true healing. Only from this comes salvation from every problem I think is real.

Every problem comes from belief in separation. Every solution comes from being open to the truth and receiving Holy Spirit’s true perception. That is why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. All false ideas stemming from belief in separation are equally unreal. All false ideas stemming from belief in time and space and separate bodies that are born into a brief “life” and then die are equally unreal.

Only salvation can be said to cure these false ideas. The false ideas are the cause and the effect is the world of separation I seem to see. As the cause is changed, the effect must change. Only the Holy Spirit, Which is always in my mind ready to give me a correction in perception, can heal these false ideas. That is why having a mind open to the Holy Spirit is so important. Salvation does not happen without openness to the Holy Spirit.

Today I practice opening my mind to the Holy Spirit hourly. Today I practice returning my mind to the truth which helps me recognize the false ideas for what they are and let them go because they are not true. Today I practice letting the Holy Spirit guide my life in every way.


I have a few transgressions in my life that have caused me much guilt. I cling to that guilt with great tenacity. Do I think the pain of guilt will ward off a worse punishment? Is it just another way of making myself special — my guilt is a greater burden than your guilt, certainly different from your guilt?

I bring it to Holy Spirit, but I won’t leave it there. I really need this hourly practice today. It is so hard for my mind to grasp the idea of no order of difficulty in miracles.

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