Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Welcoming the Holy Spirit’s Gifts of Love

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. And it is real to you. It is not nothing. And through its perceived reality has entered all the world of sick illusions. All belief in sin, in power of attack, in hurt and harm, in sacrifice and death, has come to you. For no one can make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give? Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is best?

Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is not the Will of God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God appointed for your Friend, if you but realized its emptiness has left yours empty and unoccupied? Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only He to Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. He will place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His. (A Course in Miracles, T-26.VI.1,3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We have a Friend Who offers us everything we really want: changless Love, indescribable peace and joy without limit. This Friend knows only truth and offers only truth. When we choose to value anything the world seems to offer, we are denying the truth. We are giving value to the valueless, making it seem real. This blinds us to the truth that is offered us in every instant.

We claim the gifts our Friend offers by being willing to question the value of everything we perceive in the world. We must follow this questioning with willingness to receive the vision of our Friend. His vision will show us the truth of Love that is everywhere to be seen. The certainty of this Love will bring us peace. And joining in this Love will bring us joy.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s gifts.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Rise Above the Battle to See the Love

Each form of murder [belief in separation] and attack that still attracts you and that you do not recognize for what it is, limits the healing and the miracles you have the power to extend to all. Yet does the Holy Spirit understand how to increase your little gifts and make them mighty. Also He understands how your relationship is raised above the battleground, in it no more. This is your part; to realize that murder in any form is not your will. The overlooking of the battleground is now your purpose.

Be lifted up, and from a higher place look down upon it. From there will your perspective be quite different. Here in the midst of it, it does seem real. Here you have chosen to be part of it. Here murder [separation] is your choice. Yet from above, the choice is miracles [extensions of love] instead of murder. And the perspective coming from this choice shows you the battle is not real, and easily escaped. Bodies may battle, but the clash of forms is meaningless. And it is over when you realize it never was begun. How can a battle be perceived as nothingness when you engage in it? How can the truth of miracles be recognized if murder is your choice?

When the temptation to attack rises to make your mind darkened and murderous, remember you can see the battle from above. Even in forms you do not recognize, the signs you know. There is a stab of pain, a twinge of guilt, and above all, a loss of peace. This you know well. When they occur leave not your place on high, but quickly choose a miracle instead of murder. And God Himself and all the lights of Heaven will gently lean to you, and hold you up. For you have chosen to remain where He would have you, and no illusion can attack the peace of God together with His Son. (A Course in Miracles, T-23.IV.4:3-6:7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Belief in separation causes perception of differences, and differences conflict. Thus the ego’s world is a battleground. As we look at the world through the body’s eyes, conflict is everywhere: between countries, cultures, religions, political parties, families and individuals. The ego is indeed a battleground.

We can rise above the battleground with Holy Spirit’s help. As we are willing to let the Holy Spirit show us His vision, we see that all the seeming conflicts in the world are meaningless. It is only our identification with a body that seems to make conflicts capable of having an impact on us. From that perspective, fear and guilt are inevitable. But from above the battleground, we see that the conflict is meaningless, for the body is not what we are. We remain safe in the Heart of God’s Love.

Today we practice being vigilant for the temptation to engage in conflict. We will remind ourselves to stay above the battleground and remember that we share God’s purpose to extend Love and nothing else. This is how we will experience the peace of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Fast Route to Love’s Oneness

Everyone has experienced what he would call a sense of being transported beyond himself. This feeling of liberation far exceeds the dream of freedom sometimes hoped for in special relationships. It is a sense of actual escape from limitations. If you will consider what this “transportation” really entails, you will realize that it is a sudden unawareness of the body, and a joining of yourself and something else in which your mind enlarges to encompass it. It becomes part of you, as you unite with it. And both become whole, as neither is perceived as separate. What really happens is that you have given up the illusion of a limited awareness, and lost your fear of union. The love that instantly replaces it extends to what has freed you, and unites with it. And while this lasts you are not uncertain of your Identity, and would not limit It. You have escaped from fear to peace, asking no questions of reality, but merely accepting it. You have accepted this instead of the body, and have let yourself be one with something beyond it, simply by not letting your mind be limited by [the body]. (A Course in Miracles, T-18.VI.11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The one Mind that we all share is the Mind of Love (God). The body was made to limit Mind and thus is an attempt to limit or deny Love. The ego thought system of separation is the denial of the oneness of Love. The way to accelerate our awakening to Love is to let go of the barriers to Love’s presence.

Forgiveness is the means to let go of perceptions that appear to separate us and make guilt and fear seem real. As we practice forgiveness and let go of divisive beliefs, we open the door to the experience of holy instants. The practice of applying the lessons of A Course in Miracles is the accelerated path for the return to Love’s Oneness.

The presence of guilt or lack of peace is simply an indicator that we are believing in a false image of our self. It is a reminder to ask the Holy Spirit for help to correct this mistaken belief. Today we dedicate to joining with the Holy Spirit, our true Self, to let Its Light shine upon our mistaken beliefs to show us the truth of our unity with Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Gift of Love’s Vision

Christ’s vision is the bridge between the worlds. And in its power can you safely trust to carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that shines beyond them. Holiness has been restored to vision, and the blind can see.

This is the Holy Spirit’s single gift; the treasure house to which you can appeal with perfect certainty for all the things that can contribute to your happiness.

Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. Are you not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth. His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 159, W-pI.159.5:1-6:1;10. See also ACIM Lesson 159 Insights.)

Christ’s vision sees past appearances of sin and guilt to the holiness of God’s Son in everyone. Christ’s vision sees what Love sees. It sees only innocence. This is the vision that heals our minds and all our perceptions. It is the vision of forgiveness because Love does not condemn and sees only Itself.

We open our minds to Christ’s vision by asking, “How would Love see this? How would Love respond to this perception?” As we accept Love’s answer to these questions, the guilt that used to be our companion fades away. Hopelessness and sadness are replaced by joy and peace. The world we experience is transformed into the perception of the real world, the forgiven world. This practice is a gift we give ourselves.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Releasing Ourselves from the Ego’s Hell

What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? Where truth has entered errors disappear. They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by which to be remembered. [Illusions] are gone because, without belief, they have no life. And so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.

Try to remember when there was a time… when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you were certain you were loved and safe.

Without illusions there could be no fear, no doubt and no attack. When truth has come all pain is over, for there is no room for transitory thoughts and dead ideas to linger in your mind. Truth occupies your mind completely, liberating you from all beliefs in the ephemeral [illusions]. They have no place because the truth has come, and they are nowhere. They can not be found, for truth is everywhere forever, now.

Begin by asking Him [your Self] Who goes with you upon this undertaking that He be in your awareness as you go with Him.

You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to let His function be fulfilled through you. To share His function is to share His joy. His confidence is with you, as you say:

Truth will correct all errors in my mind,
And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.

Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar world reluctantly.

And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For you will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes with you will carry to the world. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 107, W-pI.107.1;2:3;3:2-7;8:1;9:2-10:2. See also ACIM Lesson 107 Insights.)

The transition from the fear, doubt and pain we experience in the world to a life of peace, joy and certain safety happens entirely in our mind where our true Self abides. If we make the unequivocal commitment to identify with our true Self, the appearances of the world will fade away. Illusions disappear in the presence of Truth.

Today we commit to following the lead of our true Self, for we would be released from the ego thought system of separation and return to the truth of Love’s Oneness.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Day of Profound Fulfillment

Let the invisible unity of which you are a part be the guiding influence in your life. Life lived as the Whole rather than as a separate part, is perfectly fulfilling. You are the Whole; you contain and are contained by everything. There is nothing that is not your Mind.

Apparently separate existence is but a dream you are dreaming. While you continue to sleep, the dream seems real, much as your nightly dreams seem real until you awake. Then you see clearly that you were dreaming and you do not mistake those dreams for reality. When you awake from the sleep of ignorance, you will know that the world you see and everything in it was nothing more than a passing dream that is now over. The spiritual sun is rising, and its Light shines away the darkness of the long night’s sleep. Step forward into the Light and take your rightful place as the Christ, God’s holy Creation. Even now you are the Christ as you have always been. The dream cannot affect your Reality, only your awareness of It. (From the Christ Mind Book II, p. 173)

The Whole of Reality is Love and nothing else. When we identify with Love, we are identifying with all that is Real. When we accept that we are united with the Whole, containing and contained by It, we see the truth in everyone as one with us in the unity of the Whole. We join with the Love that unifies us as Christ in the Mind of God. We see past the appearances in the dream of separation. The Love that we are joins freely and without limit with the Love that is everyone.

Our hearts are filled with joy, for we are fulfilling our sole purpose to extend Love. We dedicate today to letting Love guide our vision, our thoughts, our words and our actions. With Love as our Guide, it will be a day of blessing and profound fulfillment.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Pillars That Uphold the Ego

[It] is [the purpose of the laws of chaos] to make meaningless, and to attack the truth. Here are the laws that rule the world you made. And yet they govern nothing, and need not be broken; merely looked upon and gone beyond.

The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. Like all these principles, this one maintains that each is separate and has a different set of thoughts that set him off from others.

The second law of chaos, dear indeed to every worshipper of sin, is that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction.”

[T]he third preposterous belief… seems to make chaos eternal. For if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son’s belief in what he is, and hate him for it.

See how the fear of God is reinforced by this third principle.

The ego values only what it takes. This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. By this, another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself.

[A] final principle… holds there is a substitute for love [fear]. This is the magic that will cure all of your pain; the missing factor in your madness that makes it “sane.”

[Fear]… is lifted to the throne of love…

Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.

How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go. (A Course in Miracles, T-23.II. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

It is helpful to know that the seeming stability and permanence of the ego is based on chaos. It makes it clear that the ego cannot be trusted, for it is as safe as quicksand. Do we really want to build the foundation of our “life” on quicksand? To do so is insanity.

We need to learn the hidden pillars of the ego thought system we have been using as the basis for all our perceptions. As we learn that our perceptions are based on insane beliefs, we take an important step to release ourselves from the ego’s illusions.

Knowing that our uncertainty, unhappiness, fear and guilt come from interpretations based on insane beliefs helps us know the symptoms that are flags warning us to turn to the Holy Spirit for help. We have a Friend Whose purpose is to guide us up the stairs to Heaven. We take His Hand today.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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