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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

---

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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 5 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 5 Insights

“I am never upset for the reason I think.”

This lesson brings to our attention a central teaching of the entire Course: Form does not matter. If we stop to think about it, everything that upsets us in any way has something to do with form — the words someone says, the way someone behaves, a computer that malfunctions, a friend who doesn’t call — the list could go on and on.

Gratefully the Course recognizes we are nowhere near ready to fully embrace this idea. We do not even need to believe form does not matter as yet. Today’s exercise will help us open our minds to the possibility. It will help us move toward recognizing all our upsets have one cause. We do not even need to know or understand what the cause is at this point. We are not expected to make the Herculean step from the belief in myriad causes of upset we carry now to the recognition that there is only one cause. We will be led to this recognition gently and easily as our willingness opens the door.

It is important not to get wrapped up either in seeing the end goal as so large or so far away that it seems impossible or that we should be able to reach it right now. The ego loves to bring up barriers and it will do it by making goals seem out of reach or impossible. Or it will use the goal as a standard to which you must measure yourself now and then suggest that you are guilty for not being there now. Do not believe it. Clearly the Course doesn’t. If it did, it would not have dedicated 1,200 plus pages and 365 lessons to helping us change our minds.

In the Text it points out the mind can change in an instant, but it takes time to develop the willingness to accept the change. There is no hint of condemnation or guilt associated with recognizing that it takes time to develop willingness. We have spent a billion years building a world of form we believe is real. The Course simply presents itself as a means to collapse time in the letting go of a world of form we think we have made real.

These early lessons introduce some very radical ideas compared to what we have believed is true in the world. It is helpful to be patient with ourselves as we go through the undoing process. We have the strength of the Holy Spirit in our minds to help us reach the goal. Our concern is only to develop our willingness to accept His help. He will do the rest. The peace of God is guaranteed.

Building the habit of telling myself, “I am never upset for the reason I think,” helps me step back from thinking I already know. Thinking I already know is the problem. When I think I already know, I am making forms of separation real. When I look through the body’s eyes and see different forms, different people that seem separate from me, I am trying to make the error of separation real.

When I make the error of separation real, I am thinking from the split mind, the ego mind. The ego mind always wants to see separation. When I join with the ego thought system, I believe what I am seeing as an outside world is separate from me and has nothing to do with my thoughts. As I study the Course, I am learning this is not true. I am learning what I am seeing through the body’s eyes is only a reflection of my thoughts, both conscious and unconscious. The forms I am seeing and trying to make real are the opposite of the truth.

The Course reminds me again and again that only our oneness in the Mind of Love is real. The Course reminds me again and again that all form is not real. The Course reminds me again and again that anything that has to do with time or space is not real. Anything that changes is not real. Only eternal Love in the Mind of God is real. When I try to make something real that is not real, I move into a place of fear. Thinking I am separate from Love is very fearful. This is why thinking form is real is very fearful and upsetting.

Telling me I am never upset for the reason I think is a very important step in helping me heal my mind. I need to practice this again and again with every difference I see. I need practice in refraining from making the error of separation real. It does appear very real. What I am learning in this lesson helps jog my sense of certainty that it could ever be real. This helps me step back and open to the Holy Spirit, Whose job it is to help me discern the real from the unreal.

As I take every upset to the Holy Spirit, I will gradually learn the truth that every form is equally unreal. As I practice this day by day, again and again, there is a growing sense of peace and calm within me. I can learn to laugh with Holy Spirit that all these seeming forms could be real. I learn to not take the world I am seeing so seriously. As I continue to practice with Holy Spirit, I learn to see past form to the one Christ that is always there. I learn to come back again and again to the truth with the gentle help of the Holy Spirit. “I am never upset for the reason I think” is one of those powerful tools to jog my mind out of the know-it-all syndrome. As I use this, I can learn to happily step back one more time and take what I think I know to the Holy Spirit to be undone.

When I get upset it comes in many forms — anger, resentment, disgust, expectations and on and on. Then, of course, here comes the snowball effect in which these feelings turn to depression or despair in wondering, "Why can’t I get this thing called life?" As I read the Course, it amazes me how sneaky the ego is and how it "rents space in our minds," keeping us confined to thoughts like, "don’t get mad, get even" or "don’t worry, try again," only to get the same results. I don’t know why I get upset, but I am willing to let the Holy Spirit guide me today and trust this lesson will fall into place when I’m ready.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 4 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 4 Insights

“These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things
I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].”

This lesson is very powerful in helping me recognize the thoughts that are coming from the split mind for what they are — meaningless. This lesson brings me, through baby steps, to the awareness that all the thoughts that I think with the ego mind are trying to be substitutes for my real Thoughts, my real Identity as Love, which is still in the changeless Mind of Love.

As I learn to practice looking at my thoughts and recognize that they are really meaningless, a tiny opening is made, a crack in the hardened beliefs of separation. Even though it may seem uncomfortable to me to learn what I have been cherishing is really meaningless, I am learning here with this lesson that seeing these thoughts as meaningless helps me let them go. It helps me open my mind to let the Holy Spirit heal these thoughts and gradually bridge me to the awareness that only Love is real.

As I see that these thoughts are really meaningless, I unchain my mind from the ego prison house of separation. It is not a bad thing; it’s a good thing. I am willing to practice with diligence and consistency. I am willing to let my mind be healed today. I am willing to step back and be shown a new way of perceiving the world.

This lesson is bringing to our attention that we don’t know what is meaningful and what is meaningless. In particular, it is showing us that the thoughts we are accustomed to having are meaningless. This seems to be quite a radical thought. It brings to question everything we have thought is important. Once again it is in keeping with the Course’s message that we must learn to question everything we think we know.

In this lesson it says this is a very important step — learning to recognize what is meaningless. This recognition is the release from fear. It is only meaningless thoughts that frighten us, simply because we do not recognize they are meaningless. In the introduction to the Text we are told only Love is real. This being true, Love must be all that is meaningful. Thus any thought that is not the extension of Love is meaningless.

This lesson is an important step in learning that this is true and in freeing us from the ego’s tyranny of fear. Because we have invested so much of our identity in the ego thought system, it is not easy to fully grasp the message of this lesson. We are not expected to do it all at once. The exercise is simply a step in the right direction. Our job is simply to take the step, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us toward the peace and Love that is our heart’s desire.

Some of my thoughts scare me. Some make me feel guilty. Even happy thoughts come with a price tag — if circumstances are making me happy, then changing circumstances can bring a different emotion. I give all these thoughts a lot of weight, allowing them to control my emotions and mold my day, and complicate life until I don’t know what is what and wind up feeling trapped with no way out.

It is hard to believe I cherish these thoughts. Sure I cherish some memories. I cherish thoughts that seem to serve me. But do I cherish the ones that obviously hurt me? I must, because I keep bringing them out to examine over and over.

When I read that my thoughts are meaningless, my first thought was that I’ve just learned my mind is powerful, how can I dismiss my thoughts as meaningless? Then I realized that meaningless thoughts are not without power, they are just without meaning. By acknowledging this, I can feel free to let them go and releasing them does rob them of power. It is like I have emptied a cup of spoiled stuff, and now it is ready to be filled by the good stuff from Holy Spirit.

My most important task is to be mindful of my thoughts — to see them as they are, not as I want them to be — to be aware of their foundation in fear, neediness and fantasy. I have placed so much importance on thoughts. I have treated them with deference and respect, almost like little gods. At times my thoughts run amok with shrieking and demanding voices that exhaust me with their relentless energy. They keep me awake. They keep me anxious. They take on a life of their own. I am aware that I have allowed this to be my “reality.”

I am tired of genuflecting at the altar of thoughts, of accepting them as the truth of my existence. As I watch them and observe how they affect me, and yet they are and mean nothing, I am struck by the beauty and peace in silencing the ego mind to whatever degree is possible in each moment. Silence is not the end of the journey, but the beginning. Being deafened by meaningless thoughts is not happiness. It is not even reasonable or intelligent. It is wearing. It is keeping me upset.

I am willing today to see these thoughts as meaningless. By clinging to the meaningless, I miss the meaningful. I miss the joy of my True Self, the Self Whose thoughts would make all the difference because those thoughts spring only from Love. These True Self thoughts come to me as I await in the silence of the stilled ego mind. I wish to still the ego mind because, in stillness, I become aware that ego thoughts are meaningless. I realize that I can only be at peace in the meaningful.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 3 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 3 Insights

“I do not understand anything I see in this room
[on this street, from this window, in this place].”

This lesson is an important part of my healing process. The more I practice stepping back and remembering I don’t know what anything means, the easier it is for me to move to the next step, which is being willing to open up to receive the true meaning from Holy Spirit. As I continue to practice remembering I do not know the meaning of this, I am allowing my mind to be healed of all my false perceptions. When I think I know and am not open to a change of mind, I will not receive the blessings that come from the Holy Spirit’s perception. I will think what I am seeing is real. I will forget what I am seeing is coming from the false, ego mind. I will forget there is no ‘outside’ that is the cause of what I am seeing, feeling or thinking.

So the practice of this lesson is key to my awakening to my true Nature. I can practice applying this all day, especially in those circumstances that disturb me. If I am not at peace with anything, I can return to this lesson and practice remembering I do not know the meaning of this. I can stop being a know-it-all. I can have an open mind and be receptive to Holy Spirit’s healing Light in regard to anything I think I am experiencing.

This stepping back process of saying, “I don’t know, Holy Spirit. Please heal my perception,” is my pathway to Heaven. I can learn to relax, soften my fixed meanings that I am giving to things. I can practice having an open mind, a beginner’s mind. I can practice opening to the peace of God. It is through the peace of God that true understanding comes. I am grateful for being reminded again that I don’t know what anything means. It is through this process of stepping back from what I think I learned in the past that my mind is healed.

I have spent a lifetime believing I understand everything I see. As an engineer, I was trained to believe I could figure things out and make them work. There is a level of pride in showing understanding. This aspect is personally insulted by this lesson. Yet it is this aspect that, if allowed to go unchecked, stands as a barrier to my healing. It represents a closed mind, unwilling to learn because it believes it understands on its own. This self reliance that comes from the ego mind is a way of keeping God out, like a rebellious teenager saying, “I want to do it my way.” All the while, the Holy Spirit offers another view that brings complete release from limitation and littleness. I am willing to give up the fight to keep my limitations. I am willing to open my mind to the teaching of Holy Spirit. I am willing to remind myself that I do not understand anything I see.

When I assign meaning to anything, I am making a judgment and I have learned that judgment engenders fear. I can accept that I don’t have to see anything outside myself to know that I am Love. I don’t need to see a beautiful flower to extend appreciation. In truth, I am appreciation, I am appreciated. I am loved and I am loving. I can safely and gently release all meaning so the truth of Who I really am can reveal itself.

After working with this lesson, I asked the Holy Spirit for insight. I received the following: Take up your life in new understandings. Let Me be the source of that. Let My understanding wash over you as you acknowledge that you yourself understand nothing. Do not fear to acknowledge that you understand nothing. This is a step to freedom, true freedom. The ego sees this acknowledgment as a sort of death, for the meaning it has given and received back is no longer valid. The ego desires validation. It wants the understanding it has always accepted. It prefers its own dream to reality. My understanding will take you to the reality of resurrection of Spirit in your life — freedom from the false grave of ego. Let My understanding be possible. Let yours go. Let all things be understood from My reflection, not from yours. If you are willing, My understanding will simply come to you. Why not let it come today.

The more I get into the Course, the more I realize how little I understand about anything of this world. It’s actually a relief to know I don’t understand anything. Somehow I always sensed there had to be more to life than the way I was perceiving it. For me this lesson is going back to square one in life, except this time I need to be totally innocent of knowledge, like a child, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me as I move ahead.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 2 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 2 Insights

“I have given everything I see in this room [on this street,
from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.”

The idea for today is very empowering. Because it is we who have given all the meaning everything we perceive has for us, we have the power to change its meaning. Thus, salvation is in our hands. Our release is not dependent upon what anyone else does. Our release comes with changing the meaning we give to anything and everything. Thus this idea is the cornerstone of the foundation for forgiveness and healing.

Much of the Text and the Workbook lessons are there to help us see the truth of this statement. Yet whether or not we accept it as true at this point is not essential. However, doing the exercise as specified is essential, for it is one more step in opening our mind to complete release from bondage and return to the Heaven of our holy mind.

The process of complete reversal of our thinking is done step-by-step. Impatience is of the ego. Disappointment is of the ego. Stress is of the ego. Our mind is yet undisciplined and so there may be some effort required to bring discipline to it. But excessive effort can be used by the ego as a means to discourage us from continuing on with our mind healing. That is why these early lessons appear to be very simple and trivial to us.

They are not trivial. It is helpful not to confuse simplicity with meaninglessness. The ego thrives on complexity. It is the Holy Spirit Who will show us that what appears to be complex always comes down to one single problem and a single solution. For today, our job is to simply practice the exercise with gratitude that we are taking an important step in our healing.

The things that have the most meaning to me now had no meaning to me a decade ago. And these things are sitting in a park, walking in the woods, sunny days, a drive in my car on a beautiful fall day… But there are meanings here too. And I have assigned them. And when I don’t get to enjoy these things that I have placed so much meaning on, I get upset, frustrated, hurt. I feel angry and victimized.

But ten years ago when these things, the sunny days and fall drives — the sitting in the park and walking in the woods — had no meaning to me. I didn’t feel victimized or angry, upset or frustrated. I didn’t care at all. Hmmm? Next time I get upset over something that I have assigned meaning to, I think I will remember a time when that thing had no meaning or a different meaning to me. I’m sure that will change my perception quite a bit, or at least give me food for thought.

After reading the lesson I went to the Holy Spirit for more insight. I received the following:
I sit in silence waiting for your allowing of My meaning. I wait for your recognition that the worldly meanings you chose mean nothing. They do not exist. They are thoughts projected from your mind, nothing more. These meanings came from the past. Choose Me in the now. Let My meaning come to you now. My meaning will bring you joy, happiness and healing. Your meaning ties you to pain, sorrow and judgment. Let Me love you into growing beyond your old attachments, your old meanings. Accept responsibility for your choice, your ability to choose. And then choose Me. See all things for the nothingness they are, for they are not of Me. But I can give meaning anew that will serve you better, that will show you truer perspective of what is. Wait no longer to let go of the old and let Me give you something bright and shiny to replace it.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 1 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 1 Insights

“Nothing I see in this room [on this street,
from this window, in this place] means anything.”

The Text tells us that we must learn to question everything we think we know. This first lesson of the Workbook begins the process of opening our minds to the possibility that we may not know what we think we know, we may not really understand what we think we understand. A closed mind that thinks it already understands is not open to learning.

Early in the Text we are told that this is a course in mind training and will lead to a complete thought reversal. Its not just a little adjustment. It’s a complete 180 degree turn from the direction we thought was true. Because we believe our safety is in what we believe to be true, we are not likely to welcome something that is telling us the opposite. So with today’s lesson, the Workbook gently begins the process of loosening our grip on what we have believed to be true and bringing it to question.

The ego would tell us that these beginning exercises are trivial. But practiced as indicated, these exercises prepare the way for a profound shift in our perception. It is the beginning step on a journey that leads to joy beyond anything we have experienced in this world and peace that cannot be disturbed.

How long this journey is for us depends on one thing: Our willingness to fully practice the exercises and open our mind to the lessons of our inner Teacher. We are not alone on this journey. We have Help in our mind always. And we have the help of all our brothers who are dedicated to awakening from the dream. It is a shared awakening because sharing is waking. We join in the journey of returning to where we never left.

We embark on a journey together today and every day. We are together whether we realize it or not. In truth we are one. A world of separation could never be real. That is why it does not mean anything. It has meaning only to the extent that it can be a useful tool of awakening — a teaching aid. The Holy Spirit can and will use anything in this world as a bridge to bring us from our belief in separation to our recognition that only oneness is real. As we are willing to follow with an open mind, we will be led to true and everlasting happiness, deep peace and joy without reservation.

This world is the opposite of reality. We need mind training in order to let go of what is not true. We need mind training in order to recognize the difference between what is real and what is not real. This mind training will go on day by day as we are willing to practice each lesson as specified in the Workbook. We embark on our journey today recognizing that we do not know what anything means. And we are willing to be led to what is real. We are willing to return Home to Love. We are willing to be happy instead of right.

As I look around me and tell myself that nothing is real, I am overcome by a surreal feeling. Things look different. Things seem different. What is it that gives them meaning? My mind gives them meaning. And why do some things have more meaning than others? Or less meaning than others? The sense of attachment fades away and I suddenly remember a dream I had this morning about a friend who died in October. How real was that? She seemed real in the dream. The interactions with her family seemed real. Yet when I awakened, I realized it was only a dream. Are these things that mean nothing only a dream as well? If they are, then perhaps I should let myself be amused by them as I would by a movie or television show, yet form no real attachment to them because things do come and go rather easily, don’t they?

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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