Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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How to Change Our Life Experience

In everyone and everything His Voice would speak to you of nothing but your Self and your Creator, Who is One with Him.

…we watch our thoughts, appealing silently to Him Who sees the elements of truth in them. Let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind, remove the elements of dreams, and give them back again as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.

Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills His Son, as proof of His eternal Love. And as each thought is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind which saw the truth in it, and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added. All the threads of fantasy are gone. And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 151, W-pI.151.12:3;13:3-14:4. See also ACIM Lesson 151 Insights.)

We have a job to do if we would free ourselves from the fear and guilt the world engenders. It’s not complicated, but it does require that we train our mind with a new habit that will change the course of our life experience.

We need to train our mind to watch our thoughts and offer all thoughts that disturb our peace of mind to the Holy Spirit. He will remove the mistaken perceptions that hide the face of Christ from our awareness.

As we accept His vision, we will see a world where Love shines forth. Where we saw cause for fear we see instead a brother asking for Love. Where we saw guilt we will see the innocence of the one Self we share. Where we saw conflict we will see that we all share the desire to be and extend Love. And our happiness will grow as Love is recognized more and more. It’s a habit worth developing.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Greatest Gift We Can Give the World

Be very still an instant. Come without all thought of what you ever learned before, and put aside all images you made. The old will fall away before the new without your opposition or intent. There will be no attack upon the things you thought were precious and in need of care. There will be no assault upon your wish to hear a call that never has been made. Nothing will hurt you in this holy place, to which you come to listen silently and learn the truth of what you really want. No more than this will you be asked to learn. But as you hear it, you will understand you need but come away without the thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.

Forgive your brother all appearances, that are but ancient lessons you have taught yourself about the sinfulness in you. Hear but his call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of what he is and of what you must be.

For next to you is One [Christ] Who holds the light before you, so that every step is made in certainty and sureness of the road. A blindfold can indeed obscure your sight, but cannot make the way itself grow dark. And He Who travels with you has the light. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.II.8:1-9:2;11:7-9. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

When we perceive anyone as a body, a separate identity, we are trying to see while blindfolded. The images of form hide the Light of Love that is everywhere to see. It is impossible to see this Light with the body’s eyes, for they were made to deny the Light.

Christ’s vision is seen only in the mind. It sees beyond form to the Light that shows us only Love is real. With Christ’s vision we know our brothers are one with us. Christ’s vision sees with forgiving “eyes.” Forgiveness removes the blindfolds that has hidden the Light of Love from our awareness.

We cannot look to the world for help with Christ’s vision. We must offer all our perceptions to the Holy Spirit without the wish to keep our judgments. The reward for this practice is deep peace, freedom from guilt and joy unbound. There is no greater gift we can give ourselves or the world.

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

You can be perfect witness to the power of love and justice, if you understand it is impossible the Son of God could merit vengeance. You need not perceive, in every circumstance, that this is true. Nor need you look to your experience within the world, which is but shadows of all that is really happening within yourself. The understanding that you need comes not of you, but from a larger Self, so great and holy that He could not doubt His innocence. Your special function is a call to Him, that He may smile on you whose sinlessness He shares. His understanding will be yours. And so the Holy Spirit’s special function has been fulfilled. God’s Son has found a witness unto his sinlessness and not his sins. How little need you give the Holy Spirit that simple justice may be given you.

You have the right to all the universe; to perfect peace, complete deliverance from all effects of sin, and to the life eternal, joyous and complete in every way, as God appointed for His holy Son. This is the only justice Heaven knows, and all the Holy Spirit brings to earth.… For only love is just, and can perceive what justice must accord the Son of God. Let love decide, and never fear that you, in your unfairness, will deprive yourself of what God’s justice has allotted you. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.VIII.12;14:1-2,6-7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Our true Self is nothing but Love. Being wholly unified, our true Self sees only Love. Love cannot conceive of separation or specialness, for that would be the denial of Love’s unity. In this world unity cannot be seen because of the myriad forms made to hide it. To truly be fair to our brother, we must look beyond the laws of separation in the world to the vision of Love, which shows us our brothers as they truly are.

To let Love decide is to let our true Self be our Guide. Our true Self will look on all situations in the world as either Love or a call for Love. When we let Love decide, we will always be led to extend Love.

We dedicate this day to the practice of letting Love decide, to guide our thoughts, our words, our hands and feet, that we may be witnesses to God’s holy Son.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Welcoming Holy Spirit’s Happy Dreams

Dreams are perceptual temper tantrums, in which you literally scream, “I want it thus!” And thus it seems to be.

Dreams [at night] show you that you have the power to make a world as you would have it be, and that because you want it you see it. And while you see it you do not doubt that it is real. Yet here is a world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be outside. You do not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the emotions the dream produces must come from you. It is the figures in the dream and what they do that seem to make the dream. You do not realize that you are making them act out for you, for if you did the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusion of satisfaction would be gone. In dreams these features are not obscure. You seem to waken, and the [night] dream is gone. Yet what you fail to recognize is that what caused the dream has not gone with it. Your [ego] wish to make another world that is not real remains with you. And what you seem to waken to is but another form of this same world you see in dreams. All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same. They are your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change [Reality].

The Holy Spirit, ever practical in His wisdom, accepts your dreams and uses them as means for waking.

He uses everyone who calls on Him as means for the salvation of everyone.… For we are joined as in one purpose, being of one mind with Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-18.II.4:1-2;5:1-15;6:1;7:6,10. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

This passage makes it clear that the world we experience through bodies is just a dream, though it seems very real. Because the dreams are made based on the belief that separation is real, the dreams block out the reality of oneness. The moment we wholly accept oneness as real, the images of separation would disappear.

If someone having a nightmare is suddenly wakened, they may feel disoriented and fearful. Instead, the Holy Spirit offers us a gentle waking. He can redirect our night or daytime dreams into dreams that lead to awakening. The dreams He brings are happy dreams of forgiveness and extending Love. The happy dreams He brings are peaceful and bring us close to Heaven’s state of peace, Love and joy. From His happy dreams we waken naturally without fear to the oneness and Love of Heaven. Today we welcome Holy Spirit’s happy dream of forgiveness.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering We Are as God Created Us

[I am as God created me is] the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God created you. The sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here is salvation accomplished. Here is sanity restored.

True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you.

I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.

Now try to reach the Son of God in you. This is the Self that never sinned [or experienced separation or lack of Love], nor made an image to replace reality. This is the Self that never left Its home in God to walk the world uncertainly. This is the Self that knows no fear, nor could conceive of loss or suffering or death.

Each [time you practice] will be a giant stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 94, W-pI.94.1:1-2:2;3:3-8;5:8-9. See also ACIM Lesson 94 Insights.)

God’s Son remains united with his Creator and shares all His attributes. This means the Son of God is eternal and unchangeable. The choice to believe in separation from God could only seem to be real in a dream. Separation could not really occur because separating from God would change God, an impossibility.

The choice to believe in separation induced a sleep with a dream that made separation seem real. The physics theory of the big bang is the world’s explanation for the choice to believe in separation. But that choice led to a dream of separation layered upon separation. All seeming life in the dream is built upon the thought of separation. Cells reproduce by splitting; DNA mutate by splitting off; bodies reproduce by making another body. All the change that appears in the dream comes from the belief in separation. Death is the dream’s ultimate “proof” that separation is real. Yet its seeming reality is only held together by belief.

As we withdraw our belief in separation, the dream unravels. The Teacher of the lesson that only Love is real calls to us in every moment. As we hear the call, we begin to see past the veil woven by belief to the light and strength that is the Son of God. The forms and structures of the world diminish in their importance and the Love that is truly everywhere becomes more and more evident. Guilt and fear fade and the recognition of innocence and experience of changeless Love come forward. When we have let go of all the false images, we awaken from the dream and remember we are Home in the Heart of Love. We remember we are as God created us.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Holy Relationship in Practice

The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant [seeing as Holy Spirit sees] in living in this world. Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. The holy instant never fails. The experience of it is always felt. Yet without expression it is not remembered. The holy relationship is a constant reminder of the experience in which the relationship became what it is. And as the unholy relationship is a continuing hymn of hate in praise of its maker, so is the holy relationship a happy song of praise to the Redeemer of relationships.

The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment. In all its aspects, as it begins, develops and becomes accomplished, it represents the reversal of the unholy relationship. Be comforted in this; the only difficult phase is the beginning. For here, the goal of the relationship is abruptly shifted to the exact opposite of what it was. This is the first result of offering the relationship to the Holy Spirit, to use for His purposes. (A Course in Miracles, T-17.V.1-2. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

When we offer our relationship to the Holy Spirit to use for His purposes, it becomes a holy relationship. Its goal is holiness — full acceptance of our oneness in Love. This acceptance has to be learned. All the guilt that we carry consciously and unconsciously must be forgiven.

Each belief in guilt harbored in our mind blocks awareness of our holiness. A relationship dedicated to learning of our holiness is holy in its purpose, but does not start as holy in its day to day experience. But as we continue to practice learning Holy Spirit’s lessons, the holy relationship becomes our classroom to learn to look past the barriers to Love’s presence through forgiveness.

For a special relationship built on fear and guilt, the change to the Holy Spirit’s purpose can be disorienting. What seemed to hold the relationship together no longer fits the new purpose. So we need to learn how to see the relationship through Holy Spirit’s vision. It is the dedication to this practice that makes the relationship holy in its intent, even though old habits may spring up as lessons to learn to let them go. We dedicate today to learning Holy Spirit’s lessons in true vision.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Brothers Offer the Gift of Release Now

“Now” has no meaning to the ego. The present merely reminds [the ego] of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it were the past. The ego cannot tolerate release from the past, and although the past is over, the ego tries to preserve its image by responding as if it were present. It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality. In effect, if you follow the ego’s dictates you will react to your brother as though he were someone else, and this will surely prevent you from recognizing him as he is. And you will receive messages from him out of your own past because, by making it real in the present, you are forbidding yourself to let it go. You thus deny yourself the message of release that every brother offers you now.

Unless you learn that past pain is an illusion, you are choosing a future of illusions and losing the many opportunities you could find for release in the present. The ego would preserve your nightmares, and prevent you from awakening and understanding they are past. Would you recognize a holy encounter if you are merely perceiving it as a meeting with your own past? For you would be meeting no one, and the sharing of salvation, which makes the encounter holy, would be excluded from your sight. The Holy Spirit teaches that you always meet yourself, and the encounter is holy because you are. The ego teaches that you always encounter your past, and because your dreams were not holy, the future cannot be, and the present is without meaning. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.IV.5;6:5-10. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The ego has a clever scheme to keep us hooked in its thought system of separation. By teaching us that the past is real and with us now, it makes the present moment invisible to us because we’ve covered it with past memories. We then interpret everything we perceive in terms of the past. This means we see nothing as it is now as long as we subscribe to the ego’s scheme.

It’s time to unsubscribe. The ego does not offer us an unsubscribe link. But the Holy Spirit offers us an alternative that renders the ego scheme inoperative. By letting ourselves open to the Holy Spirit’s vision, we learn that the past is not with us. The past is over and cannot affect us at all unless we choose the ego’s scheme.

As we accept the Holy Spirit’s vision, we see our brothers truly. We freely join with them, for they are part of our one Self. In the joining, we receive our brothers’ gift of release from the separation scheme to remember that we are one in God’s Love.

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