A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 365 Insights

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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.
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Listen to Lesson 65 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 65 Insights

“My only function is the one God gave me.”

This mindfulness practice today is one of the most important practices for me to continue. It helps me step out of automatic mode and pay attention to the thoughts that I am allowing into my mind. These thoughts are not forced upon me. They come by invitation, whether I recognize it or not. Dwelling on these thoughts or sitting in these thoughts only reinforces them. If I truly want to be aware of the function God has given me, I must recognize other goals as the barriers they are and be willing to hand them over to the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit shines the light of truth on them, they are seen as empty, meaningless thoughts. As these thoughts disappear, peace replaces them. Quiet replaces them. Awareness that Love is all That is replaces them. Happiness that comes from the deepest place within me replaces them.

Practicing the exercise in today’s lesson brings to my attention how much I still need continued mind training. Thoughts of meaningless stories which replace my awareness of the function God gave me come up again and again. The practice of taking each of these thoughts to the Holy Spirit to be undone is a very important practice. My untrained mind still wants to make the stories real. Thoughts repeating the past come up and I am still attracted to believe in them.

This practice is so powerful. I have deep gratitude that I have such a beautiful and simple means to awaken right here in my mind. There is nothing in the outside world that can give this to me or take it away. I am willing to stick with this practice and gradually my willingness will expand day by day so that the function God gave me will be the only one I want and the only one I need.

Mind training that heals my mind is, as Jesus suggests today, to sink deeply, deeply into the silence of my true being. The healing is beyond thoughts, beyond worries. In this place of deep quiet and deep peace, there I Am. In this place I am renewed. And, as I return to the world of perception, I bring that deep quiet, that deep calm, that deep peace with me. I am so blessed when I am willing to quiet my mind and enter into the stillness of my Being. I know that as I follow the suggestion Jesus makes to state the lesson and move beyond all words, Jesus guides me as I sink deeply into the deep well of my true Being. This deep peace and deep sense of calm, nurturing Love feels more whole and more real to me each time I remember Who I am. In the One Mind there is no need for healing or for doing. There is only my Being, and I am whole.

As I relate to today’s idea, I clearly see in this life experience that all the goals I have invented for myself have one thing in common. They serve or attempt to serve to fill or fulfill anything I think is lacking within myself. Planning for my own salvation through a limited perspective can call for lots of struggle and pain. In the whirlwind of this illusionary experience, I forget what each moment is for. And as I forget, I slip back into the bizarre idea that I am alone and need to save myself. I need to make plans for my future. I need to punish myself for my past. And I always need to make sure that I am not at peace in the present.

Forgiveness is the doorway to happiness, the happiness which we are all trying to achieve. There is nothing unholy about wanting happiness and joy. It’s just if we realize that we are not sustaining it in every moment, it might be helpful to accept that this is a result of setting goals about a business we don’t understand. It’s at this point that I can say I’m grateful for a Friend, One the Course refers to as the Holy Spirit — the expert Adviser, Whose only goal is to share happiness with us, One who remembers in every moment that happiness is now and that we are happiness. The only thing that keeps us from sharing it is holding on to the limited ideas about ourselves.

If we can accept this as true, then it’s a relief and celebration that forgiveness is our only function. It’s a relief to know that every moment or any moment need not be dedicated to planning my own salvation. So this means I’m free each moment I allow myself to live in this truth. My experiences aren’t spent seeking that which fulfills me, but instead, all my moments are filled with joy simply because I am assured that joy is mine and mine to share. I can’t make it happen because it is already happening. The question is, am I willing to be with it and trust it, to know it, to love it and be certain that this way of life can be far more exciting than any of us together can possibly imagine. Yes I am willing.

As I watched my mind and the thoughts that paraded through it, I was struck by the sense that pervades this world that the body is innately sinful and unacceptable as it is. The fashion, cosmetic and toiletries industries represent a huge part of our economy. Great effort is spent to cover up, paint, decorate, reshape and hide the body. Much of our time is either spent investing in these things, using them or earning the money to get them. These are some of the goals that interfere with accepting the goal God gave us.

The body is believed to be sinful only because we believe ourselves to be sinful and we identify with the body. It is the underlying belief that we have harmed God by separating from Him that manifests as embarrassment about the body and its image. It’s not the body that is the problem or needs to be fixed or covered up. It is the belief that we really separated from God that needs healing.

That is why the function given us by God in this world is to forgive ourselves for what we did not do in truth, but believe we have done. This is how we save ourselves and save the world. This is how we accept our unity with God and receive His joy and His peace. This is how we give joy and peace to the world. I put myself in the hands of Holy Spirit today to let Him guide my mind to see what is truly valuable and what is valueless because it is meaningless. He will guide me to the joy of fulfilling my only function.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 64 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 64 Insights

“Let me not forget my function.”

The physical world is the ego’s attempt to replace God. When I make the physical world real, I am joining with the ego’s thought system and making separation real. As I am willing to let the Holy Spirit move my focus from the physical to the spiritual, I am led to see the Love that lies beyond the physical. The Holy Spirit helps me open to my true nature as Love. As Love, my only function is to extend the Love I am. Love sees past illusions, to Love. It is always my choice to focus on the physical, which is the barrier to love, or let the Holy Spirit help me see the truth.

Love is universal. Love is all. When I remember Love, I am happy. When I forget about Love, I am forgetting about my Self, and this brings unhappiness. Let me remember my function here and be happy. I am willing to practice today.

As a creation of Love, my function is to extend Love. In this world, forgiveness removes the barriers to Love’s extension. Love does not need encouragement to extend itself. Love extends naturally because that’s what Love is. But the forms of this world were made to stand as a barrier to Love’s extension, to make separation appear to be real. Thus the equivalent in this world to Creation in Heaven is forgiveness. Forgiveness removes the barrier so that Love can extend naturally.

Because I was created as Love, the only thing that will make me happy is to extend Love. This is why forgiveness brings me happiness. Forgiveness removes the barrier to happiness. Every time I insist that my perception, based on what my body’s eyes show me is correct, I am resisting my happiness. Since salvation is happiness, forgiveness lets me save the world. Forgiveness lets me bring happiness to the world.

I need the Holy Spirit to help me shift from the physical perception of the body’s eyes to the spiritual perception that shows me my unity with all things. I dedicate this day to receiving Holy Spirit’s vision that I may see and accept my unity with all. This is where I will find lasting happiness.

I’ve come to understand that in any moment that I am unhappy, it is because I am placing blame outside myself or inside myself, which are truly the same. Blame is judgment. It is a statement that implies I don’t have a choice to be free and consequently happy. It is a statement that says someone or something else dictates whether or not I can be in joy. It is so challenging with limited vision to sincerely know that I am invulnerable. But the important key to happiness is that, until I allow myself to accept that it’s my choices that render me happy or unhappy, and not someone else’s, will I actually know the Holy Spirit and the joy that comes in that relationship.

The illusion is a maze, and the walls within it stand tall. I want a loving Guide. I don’t want to be alone, struggling to find my way out. It’s impossible for me to do so alone, simply because that’s not my job. I delight in the joy of sharing my journey Home with Holy Spirit. I delight in the joy of each moment that I come to know more of Who and What I really am.

My function is ever present in my mind. I cannot be without it for it was given me by God. My function is to forgive. I must start with me. I make the world I see. This is the world I am to save. I give meanings to all I see that I often think are real. When I am thinking separation thoughts, I am in the world of insanity. In my insanity, I attack myself mercilessly for imagined faults and slights, for imagined unworthiness and harms, for imagining myself human with human imperfections. When I cannot practice my spiritual perfection in humanly perfect ways, my ego in its insanity attacks me. There are no human perfect ways. I remember to say this, but often the ego obscures the function of forgiveness by setting standards that are insanely impossible. Why? To bring on guilt, fear, shame — the ego’s game.

Today, I take this body image to the Light. I take this ego mind to the Light. I rest in the awareness that I am doing the best I can. Everyone is doing the best they can. I forgive myself for being afraid as God forgives me for being afraid in the insanity I have made. With Holy Spirit’s help, I come to see fear as the trick it is to keep me from experiencing my glory.

I am willing to be gentle with myself today. I am willing God’s gentle grace be present to heal my wounds of insane attack. Holy Spirit pours healing balm of love and comfort that restores me to my Self. Let me not forget today that my function is to allow this return to Love to happen in each moment of my existence. In this I find salvation, as does the world I see.

Holy Spirit, help me have the willingness to not forget my function or to not wander into temptation today. This lesson tells me that my body or physical appearance is a way of obscuring this function and provides justification for doing so. My Heavenly Father did not abandon me and has found another purpose for these illusions I’ve made and this lesson is an attempt to remind me not to substitute my function for God’s.

When I truly dedicate myself to these lessons, my world starts gradually coming together exactly the way the Course dictates and my trust in God increases. I, too, pray for guidance out of this insane maze I’ve created and my concentration on these lessons do just that. Of course, the time I put into them is the results I get out of them.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 63 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 63 Insights

“The light of the world brings peace to every mind
through my forgiveness.”

I have a mighty function here and that is to accept salvation, that I might extend it to the world. This is my function — to accept salvation. This means accepting a correction in my perception. This means being willing to hand over every illusion that I think is real, every problem that I think is real, to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows how to correct my perception, I do not. If I believe that a world of separation is real, I have placed myself in hell — not in reality, but I am dreaming of being in hell. The only way out of hell is to accept salvation.

The undoing of dreams is done by the Holy Spirit. To do this, I must be willing to quiet my mind and listen. I must be willing to be led. I need to practice this with every situation that I appear to be in. This is accepting salvation for myself and the world, because there is no separation. God has only one Son. In the illusion it may look like many, but there is only one Mind. Today I practice again opening up to let my perceptions be healed. There is nothing more important. Today I am willing to quiet my mind and listen. Today I am willing to follow.

I notice that I still sometimes catch on the word salvation. Old meanings from the past that I was not comfortable with still seem to have a residual presence. When that happens it is helpful for me to remind myself that the Course equates salvation with happiness. In fact it says that whatever I think will bring me happiness is what I think my salvation is. As long as I think any form in this world will bring me happiness, will save me, I remain stuck. I am looking for happiness where it cannot be found. Yet God gave us all of His joy when He created us as an extension of Himself. His joy is there for me to receive in every instant, but as long as I look for happiness where it cannot be found, I won’t know I already have it.

Recently I looked in a dresser drawer that I seldom look in. I discovered a sweater that I forgot I had. I just hadn’t looked where it could be found. With our focus on the forms of this world, we have put God’s joy in a drawer that we don’t look in. Its always there, ready for us. We just need to look where it can be found.

For guidance to look in the right place, we need to turn to the Holy Spirit. He will help us let go of the illusions where we have looked for happiness. He will help us forgive them so that we can receive the joy of God that is ever present. That is how I uncover my Light and become an example of God’s joy in the world. That is how I bring salvation to the world. As I let the peace and joy of God shine through me, I see the world filled with joy and peace. Hell is gone. Only Love remains. Today I dedicate myself to the practice of forgiveness that I may shine the peace and joy of God upon the world.

I found out last night that someone at work that I like was fired. At one time I would have been very upset about this and looked for someone to be angry with. Now I realize that being fired from a job she was not good at frees her to move on to something she was meant to do. This is true even if she doesn’t realize it yet. This job is not her salvation and not her happiness and so I have no reason to feel sorry for her or to be mad at anyone.

Another reason I wasn’t upset was because I didn’t immediately go into fear thinking that if she could be fired, so could I. Just that quick I could find myself without a job. I don’t want to be fired and if I were, I would go through a certain amount of fear, perhaps, but I just don’t entirely believe in the illusion that my salvation lies in this job. I look forward to this lesson reinforcing what I have learned about salvation.

I want the joy of forgiveness and so I am willing to receive the joy of forgiveness. I am willing to see the loveliness of forgiveness.

Holy Spirit, I ask for this alone. In the asking, there is trust in the certainty of receiving. I am willing to let go of my illusion of hurt and pain. I am willing to see others in the Light with me. I hold them in the Light with You. Holy Spirit, take it all and show me heaven where we are all One in Love, where there is no lack, where we are all healed and whole. Help me let go of attachments to earthly things that lead to the illusion of loss once taken. Help me see they are as nothing and that forgiveness is everything.

I long for the joy and beauty of forgiveness. It is mine already, I know, but I cannot get there without Your help. I trust in Your help. I trust in Your guidance. I trust in Love. I trust in Oneness. Grant me the blessing of healing my mind today. Let me see anew peace and joy everywhere, in all persons and circumstances. Let it be mine today. Amen

This is a reply I received to my prayer:

You will see the joy of forgiveness. It is yours for the asking. It is everyone’s for the asking. There is no lovelier sight than the beauty of the Oneness, where all are God’s Child, pure, sweet, innocent, whole, needing nothing but the Oneness.

Focus on receiving this sight. Allow it to flow into your beingness. I will help you. It is My joy to help you see joy. I love you. I love your willingness. In that you will find all that you seek. Rest in the comfort of knowing that I attend you, I complete your journey. I see to it that all is well, nothing is lost, all is gained. I give you rest. I give you healing. I give you love and joy. I give you all you need. You are whole again. Share your wholeness. Share my gift to you. This is all I ask in return. This is the peace that heals all minds.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 62 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 62 Insights

“Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.”

It is helpful to remember that in the Course, forgiveness means letting go of illusions. It can be interesting to read this lesson substituting “letting go of illusions” for forgiveness. It is an illusion that I am separate and different from my Creator and all my brothers. It is an illusion that I could experience harm or loss. It is an illusion that I could suffer loss of any kind.

As I let go of these illusions, I remember my unity with my Creator and my brothers. I once again experience the strength of God as mine. The thought of vulnerability fades away as I recognize there is no ‘other’ who could bring me harm, nor anyone or anything that I could harm. Guilt disappears, for I remember the changeless Love that is my Source and my Self.

All this comes with letting go of illusions, with forgiveness. When I am identified with the ego thought system, this seems impossible. Harm really does seem to occur and loss seems real. But when I take these perceptions to the Holy Spirit with an open mind, a willingness to be taught, I receive a new vision. This vision shows me that no loss occurred. Nothing could harm the truth about me or anyone. I breathe a sigh of relief as I let illusion go.

It may appear again in another form until I learn all illusions are the same. But each time I remember to take the illusion to the Holy Spirit for His gentle correction, I am one step closer to recognizing the sameness of all illusions.

Today I would remember that forgiveness is my function as the Light of the world. I would let go of the dark illusions and receive the Light for myself and all my brothers. I would receive the happiness God has given me.

In earlier lessons, Jesus helps us understand that we made this world to be in competition with God. (See lesson 13.) He helps us understand that this world is really a meaningless projection that now appears to us as a world that is outside us. He helps us understand that we made up this world by the thoughts we hold in our mind, and we can let it go in the same way. He helps us understand that as we are willing to let go of the meaning we have given it, True Meaning will be able to dawn upon our minds. This letting go of all the meaning I have given the world is what the Course calls forgiveness.

As I am able to forgive, or let go of illusions, I am able to open to the idea that God, or Love, is behind every form of separation I see. I am able to see that separate bodies are not the Truth. As I am willing to practice seeing illusions for what they are — projections coming from my own mind — my mind becomes open enough to let these thoughts of separation be corrected by the Holy Spirit. This is my function. Jesus tells me that this willingness to forgive, or let go of the meaning I have given to everything I see, will “remove all sense of weakness, strain and fatigue from my mind. It will take away all fear and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness.” (3:3-4)

This means that as I forgive, or have a willingness to let my false ideas be corrected by the Holy Spirit, I will be fulfilling my function and I will be happy. Every time I practice this, I get a reinforcement that this is really true. It does bring happiness to see that my projections are just illusions. It does bring peace of mind. Thank goodness that I could not really make separation real.

As I become aware more and more that my ideas of separation are just a reflection of dreaming, I am open to more and more help from the Holy Spirit. I am learning how important it is to let Holy Spirit drive the bus in every situation. It is not my job to decide what anything means on my own. I do not know. I have bought into illusions and they appear real to me. As I practice taking every illusion to the Holy Spirit, He reminds me again that only the Love that is hidden behind the illusion of separation is real. This helps me return to peace. This helps me fulfill my function as the light of the world. This helps me open to true and lasting happiness.

As I went into mediation with this lesson I received the following message:

Trust in the Light to show you the true meaning of forgiveness. The Light is always present and will show you the way. The ego does not understand forgiveness and sees no point to it, except when the ego needs it for itself, and even then it is suspicious of its truth.

We all share in forgiveness — giving and receiving — as a function of the Light in living in this world. Place those for whom forgiveness is an issue in the Light. Hold them in the Light with you. Ask Holy Spirit to show you the meaning of forgiveness for this person. There will be an answer. Trust the Light to show it to you. Trust the Light to do the work of forgiveness. If you are willing to do this, forgiveness will be yours to receive and to give. You will share in forgiveness. It shall become as a sweet bouquet of joy and happiness whose fragrance shall permeate your life and extend to those around you. How sweet is the perfume of innocence. Let it be your signature fragrance.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 61 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 61 Insights

“I am the light of the world.”

The Light of the world is God’s one Son. The truth in everyone is the Light of the world. We are all the same Light. The separate identities are nothing. They are only there as barriers to remembering our one true Identity. There is only one Son, and it includes everyone. God’s extension of Love has not changed by dreaming dreams of separation. My job now is to remember the truth about everyone and myself. There is only one Son and that Son is the Light of the world.

By focusing my mind on that one Son, I loosen the bonds of false ideas that blind me and my brother to the truth of our oneness. My only true function is to remember the truth. That is why I am here. There is nothing more important than this. There is no individual “I.” This Light is all inclusive. In remembering our unity, in remembering that everyone is still as God created them, in remembering the truth, I accept my real function on earth.

To me Light and Love are synonymous. If I am to be the Light of the world that God created me to be, then I must be an expression of Love. My function is to extend Love. That is why I am here. That is why all of us are here. The form and context in which we express Love may be unique. One may look like a carpet layer who uses his opportunity to go into people’s homes and extend Love and compassion, to remind people that they are innocent, perhaps only in his thoughts. Another may be a business executive who remembers that everyone he meets is still Love, as God created him. No matter what the form, the content is Love. That is how we are the Light of the world.

To do this, to be expressions of Love, we have to let go of barriers to Love. Because Love is what we are in truth, anything that is not Love is a false image. It is an attempt to be not as we were created. These are the images we must let go of. This is another way of saying that to fulfill our function as the Light of the world, we must let go of the false functions we have made up, the goals to be something other than we were created to be.
The strength of God remains in us and it is through His strength that we fulfill our true function. It is through His strength that we are able to let go of our belief in any other functions. Today let me be open to every opportunity to offer Love and nothing else, to see innocence and nothing else, to see my brother as one with me, sharing the Light of the world.

Sometimes when I read some of these lessons I feel overwhelmed by the task. How do I go from being a person who is often frightened, guilty, and self-centered, to being the light of the world? I feel like giving up before I get started. How do I do this?

I appreciate the message that said, “I loosen the bonds of false ideas that blind me and my brother to the truth of our oneness.” My first thought as I read that was,“Oh yeah, I don’t have to invent this new me. This is who I really am. I just have to shed some false ideas that are covering up my identity.” That doesn’t seem so impossible. It will take some consistent effort, but that’s doable.

It helps me to remember that Light and Love are the same. I can substitute “I am the Love of the world” meaning my job, my mission, my purpose, as a matter of fact, my only function here is to be an expression of Love. Since Love is who I truly am, how can I help not expressing and extending Love? I have momentary glimpses of what this is like: When I am fulfilling my function — being who I really am and then naturally expressing and extending Love — and I am not excluding anyone or anything in the now moment. That’s when I have some awareness of being inexplicably happy. And thus, I know I must have been fulfilling my function as being the light of the world.

It seems so simple and it is, yet when my ego gets caught up in the form and not the content (all the things that go on at my “job” for example), I notice that in these moments I seem to be unhappy, and can become disillusioned so easily with feelings of discontent. Thus, my feelings are a major clue for me to know which thought system I am choosing to align with. I am making progress when it takes me less time to become of aware of my upsets.

This lesson helps me to remember my true function — that I am the Love of the world. It helps me remember not to get caught up in form because form does not matter. It helps me remember that to fulfill my true function doesn’t have to be hard as my ego would have me think — resistance to the truth is what is hard. It also helps me remember that fulfilling my true and only function is what will bring me happiness and God’s will for me is perfect happiness.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 60 Insights

Review of Lessons 46 - 50

This lesson has several very reassuring messages. One that I have come back to many times and use to help me through times of distress is that it is the strength of God in me through which I forgive. I don’t have to try to do it alone. In fact, thinking I am alone is part of what needs to be forgiven. And if I think I am alone, forgiveness is impossible. But through the strength of God in me, all forgiveness of all is not only possible but inevitable.

It is helpful here to remember that the Course defines “forgive” differently than most of us have learned in this world. In the Course, forgiveness means letting go of illusions, or letting go of the past. With the strength of God in me, I can learn to see that whatever I thought happened had absolutely no effect. Through his resurrection, Jesus demonstrated this in the most extreme example. Gratefully we do not need to go to this seeming extreme. Yet any time we perceive ourselves as harmed it is a form of crucifixion. But as I remember that the strength of God is in me, is me, then harm is impossible and so in truth, there is nothing to forgive. So in those times when I feel hurt, my job is to take that perception to the Voice for God and ask for His help to see that in truth, no harm has occurred. This is not possible within the ego thought system, but it is possible with Christ Vision.

Another comforting statement in this lesson is that God speaks to me all through the day. When I allow myself to listen, God’s Voice teaches me that there is only innocence to see and thus nothing to fear. What a marvelous gift God has given us, the gift of joy and perfect peace. It is ours to claim in every moment. We need only accept His Vision. Today I call upon God’s strength to forgive myself and forgive the world. In this alone will I find peace.

This review lesson reminds me of my true strength. There are times when I still think that I can solve “problems” on my own. Sometimes I think I know the answer. This lesson is reminding me to let God solve every concern, every “problem.” This lesson is reminding me to return to my Source and let go making illusions real. Many times this seems very challenging. But it is only through the strength of God in me that I can see that these illusions are not real. The only life I have that is real is the life I live in God. If I am experiencing problems, it is only telling me that I am trying to go off into the wilderness again. When I am in my right mind, I know that there are no problems. Only Love is real. If it is not Love, it is a lesson in Love.

The way to walk through each lesson is to remember that I walk with God. The Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, is there to walk with me through every fearful false idea. As I practice daily stepping back, it gets easier and easier to let the Holy Spirit guide me. The Holy Spirit brings me Christ Vision. The Holy Spirit brings me infinite patience. The Holy Spirit reminds me that everyone is in Heaven now, including me. The Holy Spirit helps me discern between the real and the unreal. The Holy Spirit returns me to Love, my Source, and reminds me that this is what I am. With the Holy Spirit, I can give up making illusions real. I am willing to practice again today.

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. It’s always there, a light and warm feeling of joy and happiness. How my day goes depends on how often I follow the path He opens for me, where truly everyone is Friend. Around each turn there is a new Friend, a new communion of joy and laughter, a new miracle of relating, so much more joyous than ever before.

There is a wonderful freedom of knowing that joy is possible, that it is my birthright. That is Who I am. I know that the joy will continue to expand as I continue to listen to that Voice of God that speaks to me all through the day. I feel the forgiveness becoming a part of my experience more and more because I know that the dark path isn’t really there. It’s gone! It doesn’t exist. I know that as I continue this practice of forgiveness the day will come when I can truly look down both paths and see only Light and hear only God’s Voice.

Before I began today’s lesson my mind was focused on two incidents which needed forgiveness. They were there in the back of my mind, bothering me, bringing me down. I realized that one of them centered around my belief that I needed other people to affirm my specialness and they weren’t doing so. The other was all about my need to see someone as less than so that I could see myself as more.

Even understanding what was happening, why I was feeling this way, didn’t help me to forgive. I said the words, but resisted letting it go. What a wonderful gift today’s lessons are to me! I really needed to be reminded that it is God’s Strength which allows me to forgive.

Now it is like I opened my eyes and the world has changed. It is brighter and more beautiful. I feel relieved of an onerous burden. I feel a sense of gratitude that makes me want to laugh out loud.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 59 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 59 Insights

Review of Lessons 41 - 45

My whole life is a process by which the thoughts that are not of God gently get washed away. I have tried to add other thoughts to God’s thoughts. They are not true. They are mistaken ideas. These mistaken ideas have created a story of having an individual life where I made decisions on my own. I am learning now that my only true happiness comes as I am willing to let go of deciding on my own. It has not worked and never will work. It’s high time to give it up.

The peace of God comes into my awareness as I am willing to let go of a bodily identity, of an individual identity. The peace of God is the greatest gift I could ever receive. And as I am willing to receive it, I am receiving it for the whole Sonship. As every part of the Sonship is willing to receive the peace of God, they are also receiving it for me, for we are one. Anyone receiving the peace of God is helping me wake up.

I can experience peace as a very strong connection, like a “super broadband” inner-net. All I have to do is connect and I receive the peace of God and extend it. And it doesn’t cost $20 a month! It’s like the whole Sonship belongs to one inner-net, God’s inner-net. As a member of God’s inner-net, all I have to do is connect and I am filled with the peace of God.

This presence of peace is always there for me to connect with. I can “e-mail” anyone, mind to mind, and extend the peace of God and recognize the peace of God in them. There is no fear here. It is constant, unwavering. It’s consistent. So all I need do is improve my consistency with opening to the peace of God and I will feel it always. As I am willing to receive it, I will naturally extend it. This is the meaning of, “God goes with me wherever I go.” It is only my willingness to experience God’s peace that turns the connection on and keeps it on. I am willing to practice this today.

Hallucinating is just seeing something that is not there. What is seeing in this way is just an image in the mind of the beholder. I am becoming more and more clear that the entire world I think I see is just image making in my mind. The whole world is one big hallucination.

When someone is hallucinating, they believe what they see and it blocks their awareness of anything else. This process was powerfully portrayed in the movie “A Beautiful Mind.” Because he believed in what he saw, he could not distinguish between the images that he alone saw from the images that were shared by the world around him. Likewise, when I believe in the images I have made, they are real to me, more real than the reality I share with God. The reality I give these images does not make them real in truth, but does cause me to experience them as real.

Just as the character in A Beautiful Mind needed someone outside his thought system who recognized what was going on to help him begin to sort out the real from the unreal, we need help from outside of our thought system. By the grace of God we have this Help right within our minds, our inner Teacher, given us by God.

This inner Teacher helps us recognize what is not true and what could never be true. It helps us learn not to pay attention to the false images. While we are in this world, the bodies eyes will still show us false images. Our inner Teacher offers us His vision and our practice is to pay attention to that vision and let that be our guide for interpretation rather than the messages of the body’s senses. This is how we free ourselves from the limitations of image making and open ourselves to the Light of God.

I acknowledge that I am a child of God. I no longer desire to pretend I am orphaned, that I must figure out my life or the life of another. I belong to the family of God and God is my living guardian. Just as a child runs to its parent for comfort, advice, knowledge, and joy, I remain with God, the perfect parent, the One who holds the book of Life we so eagerly desire.

God goes with me wherever I go. I take responsibility to access that Love, to receive It that I may share It, the ultimate joy. I look forward to waking up more and more each moment. It isn’t a chore or a painful journey, except in the ego’s eyes. I’m carried in the arms of Love. And I choose to demonstrate that I cannot be hurt. No one is guilty and until we allow ourselves to access the truth about how deeply loved we really are, we could never know our innocence. We are never alone. Our Companion always watches over us and longs to share Life with us. I celebrate the opportunity to be guided in Love like this in every moment.

I am surrounded by the Love of God. As I slip into deep meditation, the stillness and peace of Love surrounds me. In this gentle place, I understand I am completely loved and I am completely safe. There is nothing to fear, ever. This Love is of joy and peace and experiencing the extension of Love from my Father to me and then outward to bless all the Sonship in the one mind of Christ. It is a joyful and loving experience, for which I am truly grateful. Amen.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 58 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 58 Insights

Review of Lessons 36 - 40

Accepting my holiness is accepting my wholeness. It is accepting that all is one whole in God. This means I can not accept only part of the whole and have it be true. Wholeness means all. All is whole as one Love, one Light. As I see my brother’s Light, I am seeing my Light. One Light is the same as every Light. Like a hologram, the whole is in every part. When I am blessed as a Son of God, everyone is blessed as a Son of God. This makes things very simple and uncomplicated. This means everyone is the same.

Holy Spirit, help me see this sameness. Help me see the unity today. Help me play my part in the undoing of dreams. I am open to Your Word today. I am open to letting You change my perceptions to be in alignment with seeing only wholeness. When I remember wholeness, there is nothing to fear. There is no lack, no guilt, only joy, only appreciation, only gratitude that only wholeness is true and nothing else is true. The stories of differences are not true. They never were and never will be. I am willing to soak in remembering wholeness today. Remembering wholeness blesses the world.

This lesson is helping me to see a new image of myself. It is certainly not the image I have carried with me from infancy or perhaps even before. That image has shown me only pain and fear. The image this lesson presents is wholly free of pain and fear and guilt. The part of me that still believes in the old image feels unworthy of this new image and fights against it, even though it yearns to believe it is true. It seems insane to resist release from pain, doubt, guilt and loss, and it is. It is just the insane part of my mind that believes in what could never be that resists accepting the beautiful, peaceful and loving image that is presented in this lesson. By definition, insanity is simply believing in what is not true.

I am grateful that belief can be changed. I am grateful that I have in my mind the Master Therapist Who can guide me to let go of mistaken beliefs and accept the truth of Who I am. These lessons offer a new image that is older than time. They hold before me a reflection of what I have not believed I could see. They show me my innocence, given me by my Creator, still mine, unaffected by mistaken beliefs.

I am deeply grateful for God’s grace, which holds my holiness safe for me while I wander in the wilderness of false ideas. I am grateful for God’s grace in giving me a Teacher in my mind Who is always with me no matter where I wander, offering me a new vision, a vision of the Truth. I am grateful for these lessons that help open my mind to this new vision. And most of all I am thankful for my loving Creator, Who has not changed His mind about me.

This morning, just as I was waking up, I had a thought that I hoped I would have a successful day today. I thought that because the day before had not been very successful in the sense that I had felt somewhat depressed and felt like I was not progressing spiritually as quickly as I thought I should be. However, as I was driving to work I realized that my definition of “success” was that of having a peaceful day. I realized my values have changed and that what I am grateful for is my serenity and peace of mind. This course and these lessons have changed my life, regardless of my resistance; for this I am truly grateful.

Thank you Father, thank you Holy Spirit, for not abandoning me, for loving me, and for giving meaning to my life. Amen.

From today’s lesson I feel such joy as I bask in the idea that God wants me Home, that God wants all of us Home. It’s just that simple to be wanted and to be loved. There is no quota I have to meet. Nothing I have to do. Just to accept the invitation. It’s so easy to get caught up in ego thought patterns such as when I do this perfectly or be that perfectly, then I can be at peace and I can be wanted and loved and share joy. I am more deeply inspired than ever with this lesson to remember to accept this invitation to come Home where I can be me, loved equally and loving equally.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 57 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 57 Insights

Review of Lessons 31 - 35

This review lesson for me comes back to “What am I allowing into my awareness? Which thought system am I choosing to be in?” The thought system I choose will bring me what I see. This is how I invent the world I see. Ideas leave not their source. What I see is coming from my own mind. There is no outside. That is why I invent the world I see.

If I am not happy, if I am not in peace, I can change it. I can choose peace instead of what I am seeing. I can choose to recognize my right mind. I can choose to recognize the holiness that resides right in my mind, always. From this place I will feel peace, I will be aware of peace, I will extend peace. I will be aware of Love, both in myself and others. It is always my choice. It is all up to my level of willingness to chose to identify with my one Self instead of the ego thought system.

To me this lesson’s principal emphasis is my freedom of choice. It shows me how I have misused it to limit and imprison myself, but in reminding me that my mind is part of God’s and it is very holy, it is also showing me that I can use my choice to let go of the limitations and walk out the prison door. What a relief it is to know the power of my choice. The ego would have me believe that I do not have the choice, that I am the victim of the world I see.

Here I am learning that I have the choice not to buy the ego’s lies. This does not mean that I simply say the world is an illusion and deny what I am experiencing. It does mean that if I experience anything other than peace, that I am believing in something that is untrue. It is a clear indication that I need to turn to the Holy Spirit in my mind and ask His guidance. If I am not experiencing peace, I am following the wrong guide.

Every time i recognize that I am not in peace, it is simply a reminder that I need to ask for help that comes from outside the world that I see. By exercising the choice to listen to a different Guide, I have the help and strength and clarity I need to walk out the prison door and accept the peace of God. I don’t deny that I have believed I am in prison. I simply ask for help to let it go. And I wait with a quiet mind to receive the comfort that God is forever holding out to me.

There is one Life and that I share with Him. As I choose to lift the veil of separated thoughts from my mind, I feel and experience Love, laughter and peace within. This is the freedom of experiencing my true Self. In this freedom I am aware of my oneness with all God’s creations. This is the world I choose to see, shining brightly through the eyes of Love. Peace to my brother who is one with me.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 56 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 56 Insights

Review of Lessons 26-30

I choose to remember that behind every conflict, behind every doubt, every fear, behind every thought of lack or vulnerability of any kind, is God. And all the power of God lies beyond every barrier to God. I choose to go through the barrier, through the clouds, to God. With every apprehension, every concern, every worry that ever comes into my mind, I choose to go beyond it to God because I know that God is there. God is there because God is everywhere. It is only my crazy ideas founded on being separate from God that could give me that illusion. Now I know that the illusion is not true. God is true. Love is true. Oneness is true.

This is my life’s work. This does not mean avoiding the worries or saying the worries are not there. It means walking through it and letting the door be opened to what is true. When I let the door be opened, the Light that is always there brings clarity to my mistaken thoughts. The worry dissolves in the Light of God. I let myself see clearly the difference between what is not real and what is real.

I do not have to worry about what is not real. I do not have to be concerned about crazy delusions of limitation and lack because they simply are not true. I refuse to encourage belief in delusions, limitation and lack when I know that they are not worthy of me or anyone. The grandeur that is the truth about the whole Sonship is worthy of my remembering. I choose to add my support to that. I choose to add to the happiness of the world, not the false ideas of depression and belief in death. I choose to remember that freedom is for all.

Above all else I do want to see things differently, to see God in everything. I can do this, because God is in my mind. Because God is in my mind, I am in Heaven right now. If it doesn’t seem like I am, then it is because I am believing in a false image of myself. I am grateful that I am always free to change what I believe. Because God is in my mind, His strength is with me. It is with His strength that I am able to change the world by changing what I believe is true. I am willing to let a new awareness into my mind, to open the door to the Light of God.

I am willing to let His Light shine in all the dark corners of my mind, the fears, the guilt, the unworthiness. His Light will show me that there is no cause for any of these dark shadows and in that recognition, the shadows disappear. Light always dispels darkness. Light casts no shadows. Only barriers to Light cast shadows. As I practice bringing each barrier, each fear, each thought of guilt or unworthiness to the Light, I am shown they are not justified, for they have no cause. The barriers disappear and the shadows with them. This is how I return to the awareness that I am in Heaven now. it is truly my will to remember this.

And so I dedicate this day to paying attention to my thoughts and looking at what I am allowing into my awareness in the moment. If it is not joy and peace and the Love of God, then I bring it to the Light so that I can see it clearly for what it is. And with the strength of God, let it go. This is how I will see differently. This is how I will see God in everything I see. This is how I will recognize that God is in my mind.

I’m seeing a picture of myself standing on a bridge overlooking the sea of oneness. I’ve been guided by Spirit to cast the marriage ring with the ego into the glowing waters. I used to think that this ring was so beautiful and now, with the help of Spirit, I’ve been able to see with cleared vision what was inscribed on that ring. The words there are fear, loss, envy, hate.

I’m grateful that the veil of confusion has been lifted. In that false marriage I agreed to play the ego’s game where no one wins and giving is losing. And if I dared to open to my reality, much complaining was heard by me.

Real Love, my true state of Being has no conditions. I tried to dim my light so I would fit with the ego That took great effort that was senseless and brought me a meaningless experience. In my real world in Heaven with God, I’m not asked to change or rearrange. I’m invited to be my Self, to be only Love. And so today I move into the true marriage with the help of Holy Spirit. I hold out my hand and see another hand in mine, a Friend, Who makes no demands, helps me to remember and stands with me forever in Love. And so it is.

Do you remember those pictures that used to be so popular, the ones that showed a pattern but when you squinted just right you saw a picture within the pattern? That is how I feel about my life. If I focus on my true Self I see one picture. I like this picture and it makes me feel good. I can start by focusing on just one small part of myself and once I bring that happy image into focus, suddenly I see more and more images to bring me joy.

If my focus shifts, I go back to the more familiar but unpleasant pattern I have been seeing all my life. It has images of pain, fear and guilt. Though it makes me very unhappy, it is so familiar that I go there out of habit. I see this one image of remembered guilt and that leads my eye to the next and the next and soon I am absorbed in this pattern and have lost my happier focus altogether.

When I remember to shift my focus back it can take awhile to regain it. The fearful images can be compelling and it is hard to take my eyes off them. The thing is, once you gain the happier focus, that is all you see. It is like the other pattern doesn’t exist anymore. I think that the more I focus on the happy images the Holy Spirit shows me, the easier it will be to control my focus. I don’t think it is hard, it just requires consistent practice.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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• • Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 55 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 55 Insights

Review of Lessons 21-25

I still must be believing in separation because I still see separate bodies. This tells me that I do not perceive my own best interests and that I do not know what anything is for. Thank goodness there is a Guide in my mind That will help me out of this insanity. I need this Guide to lead me out of insanity and guide toward true meaning. All the ego’s fearful thoughts mean nothing.

There is only one way to return Home and that is to be willing to let go of thinking in terms of individuality. I do this with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows me that the dream is over. All are healed in the eternal now. Love’s Presence is all there is to see and feel and know in the eternal now. As I am willing to see things differently, I will see things differently. This is true about myself and everyone.

Thank goodness all these dreams of separation are not real and mean nothing. No one has really left the Mind of God and everyone is safe at Home in Heaven now. As I am led to remember this, the peace of God gently surrounds me and enfolds me in its loving embrace. All is very well. “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” (Intro.)

One of the main themes in this review is that everything I think I see is a projection of my own thoughts. And everything I see is a picture of individuality that opposes the Thoughts of God, so my thoughts must be attack thoughts. The world I see could not have been created by a loving God for His beloved Son. There is great hope in this review because what I see is the projection of my own thoughts and I can change my thoughts. I have the power to change what I see.

I cannot do this on my own, but God has given me a Guide to lead me out of the quagmire of insane thinking. Since this Guide was given by God, It is guaranteed to work. This Guide comes with an eternal guarantee from the Eternal. My only job is to allow myself to be led. This Guide will lead me back Home to the Heaven of God’s peace. This is my heart’s desire. This is what I want above all else, despite the seeming conflict in my mind between goals that seem to represent different interests.

This conflict in my mind simply demonstrates the need to let God’s Voice guide me and to resign as my own adviser. As I turn over all my problems, my questions, my uncertainty to that inner Guide, I become more and more peaceful. No longer do I have to effort and strain to figure out how to be happy and what might make me happy. I do not know. But the Guide given me by God knows truly what will give me perfect happiness that lasts forever. I am willing to step back and let Him lead the way. I accept His help with relief and great gratitude.

All that I see comes from inside myself. I can see Love no matter what is present because Love is present. Love is present because Love is me. I am Love. I can be Love and loving no matter what the place or condition or time or person. These are not limitations on Love. There are no limitations on Love. There are no limitations on Me, my Self.

The ego sees limitations everywhere. The ego feeds on boundaries and crossed boundaries, these artificial lines drawn in the sand that make up our human lives and relationships. They shift with the winds like desert dunes, once here, then there. What do they mean but shifting demarcations, almost indistinguishable from one another except for their impermanence, their ceaseless change.

What then is my Life, the one I desire to see, the one of ceaseless joy? This is the Life I choose to realize. I do not know how to manifest this Life, for this is not of ego. I give to Holy Spirit the burden of sorting out the false from the true in my life. This burdens me for I don’t know my best interest and would worry what it is.

This is no burden for Holy Spirit. This is Holy Spirit’s joy. I rest in the peace that Holy Spirit has everything in order, sees that the Divine Plan is at work in my Life. I trust in this. I would follow where this leads. I am thankful that I feel peaceful and joyful in this moment. Today I follow peace and joy. Today I follow what I Am to where I ought to go.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 54 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 54 Insights

Review of Lessons 16 - 20

A central idea in this review to me is the power of thought. All thoughts have effects and the entire world I see is the effect of my thoughts. Life is thought. Its also worth noting that there are two levels of thought. One is nothing and the other is everything. Thoughts of separation cannot be real and thus are nothing. But thoughts of separation can be shared. And although they share nothing, the effect is to make the entire world we think we see. But for these thoughts of separation to manifest, this lesson is saying thoughts of separation must be shared. “Even the mad idea of separation had to be shared before it could form the basis of the world I see. Yet that sharing was a sharing of nothing.” (3:3-4)

This world is certainly a grand demonstration that there is no such thing as idle thoughts. Although thoughts of separation seem to have manifested an incredibly complex world, it is really nothing. This seems hard to believe only because we believe our identity is defined by this world. This is the result of trying to create ourselves. Gratefully, this world of fear, pain and suffering is not real, even though we experience it as it is.

The real thoughts that we share with God, the thoughts of Love’s extension, can be exchanged for this world of separation simply by choosing to recognize our true identity, our Identity as Love. This is what I want to teach today in my thoughts and in my doing. I ask the Holy Spirit’s help to guide my vision to see Love in all things and to offer only Love, no matter what the appearance may be in form. This lesson tells me that as I do this, all minds are taught the lesson of Love, including my own. Today I move closer to recognizing that my mind is part of God’s, along with everyone and we are very holy, for we are one in God. Let me carry this message in my heart today.

What stands out to me as I read this review lesson is “... as I let my errors in thinking be corrected.” (1:5) Because life is thought and all thought has effects, the most important thing I can do is to pay attention to my thoughts. What am I making real? What am I extending to others? My thoughts create the world I experience. If I am not in peace, it is because of my thoughts. My one responsibility as I live this so called ‘life’ is to pay attention to my thoughts and let all my errors in thinking be corrected.

Because minds are joined, as I let my thoughts be corrected, I am doing this for the Sonship. All power lies in thought. In reality, I have no other goal than to let my mind be corrected. All other goals are meaningless. The power of God is in my mind. As I let myself accept it, I see that there are no problems that cannot be remedied by a change of mind or a change in thinking. The false ideas of separation do not belong in my mind and I do not need to hold on to them. They only bring images of constant change, the need to defend and lack of love.

I practice paying attention to the power of my thoughts. Today I practice letting all my errors in thinking be healed. Today I decide to accept the Love that I am and reflect the Love that I am. As I let my mind be healed, because there are no private thoughts, I affect every mind. I am so grateful for all the help I have in letting my mind be healed today.

One thing that stands out for me is the line in review lesson 16 that says “...as I let my errors be corrected.” If I let my ego have it’s way, it starts trying to do the corrections. Then I find myself bogged down in confusion and a sense of futility. So I quit trying, and I guess this is the ego’s goal all along.

Another line that caught my attention this morning was in review lesson 20. “I would look upon the witnesses that show me the thinking of the world has been changed.” Even my ego cannot pretend that I haven’t changed a lot since I started doing the Course, but it can avoid looking at those happy changes by concentrating on the stuff I haven’t given up yet. When that happens I become depressed, frightened and often, guilty. I appreciate the reminder that there is much for me to rejoice in and I am free to look at that if I choose.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 53 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 53 Insights

Review of Lessons 11-15

In reading this review today what stood out to me is the statement that God did not create a meaningless world. I see it as the central foundation of the Course. As I say it to myself, I have a feeling of relief. Because God did not create a meaningless world, I am not stuck for eternity in a world of fear and guilt and pain and suffering. The world I see is only a temporary effect that comes from believing in a world that cannot be real. All the seeming injustices I see in the world have no meaning because God did not create them. All the conflict and the suffering that seems to be in this world is not real because God did not create them.

An effect of recognizing this is that God no longer seems to be my enemy or something to be feared. Instead, He is a benevolent place of comfort, a refuge to which I can go for relief from the conflicts I experience in this world. He offers me only peace and Love and happiness. That is what He created and that is what has meaning. He gives this with total consistency, because that is what He is and God does not change.

The moment I let go of my investment in a meaningless world, I free myself to return Home to the safety and comfort of God. This is what I truly want. This is why I want to learn to forgive all my perceptions in this world, to let them go. This is why I want to practice again and again, many times a day, turning all my thoughts over to the Holy Spirit to receive His interpretation and let go of mine. This is how I will learn to recognize and release the meaningless and accept Love, the Source of all meaning.

I am so grateful for the freedom to exchange my beliefs for what is real and meaningful for the freedom to remember both Who and What we all really are. I am so grateful for my relationship with the Holy Spirit, to know and trust that I am not alone, to wake up and joy and not struggle. I am so grateful for the gentle touch of compassion and the inspiration with which the Holy Spirit touches me and shares with all that surrounds me. I cherish this freedom, unity and joy and fulfillment. And I commit to celebrating it as often as I can.

The power of decision is strengthened in me today as I allow what this review is saying to wash my mind with real thoughts. My willingness to open to the awareness of what is real is very high today. I am being told by Jesus that the Love I am is real, I am God’s creation, and this will never change. I am welcomed in the Mind of God. I am not seen as an intruder, for the Mind of God is my real Home.

During the day, I will remember this review and hold it close to my heart and offer it to my mind repeatedly. Should I be tempted to give value to the meaningless, Holy Spirit will help me if I ask to go Home again.

I have never really left the Home of God’s heavenly Mind. It is just a story, a habit, that I am willing to let go. This story does not serve me. The story of confusion, of fear is meaningless. I want to remember my real life with God and so today’s review assures me that this is what I will be given upon my request. And It’s all I’ve ever really had. I fell asleep for a while and dreamed a dream of confusion, of separation, and now I am waking up.

Today’s review lesson helps me detach from all the stories. There are millions of stories, and none of them are real. I still need the practice of recognizing that every story held within the belief system of time and space is really just a story. It is not real. The Course tells me that the tiny tick of time was over long ago. It never really happened. All is still safe in God. The stories make no difference in what is real.

Often the stories do appear very real to me and I do get wrapped up in them. Made up stories that are the opposite of God’s universal Love are indeed fearful and limiting. When I take the opportunity to step back and detach from them, I am able to see how silly and foolish they are. No one could ever be limited by a body. They are just foolish ideas.

One of the things that stood out to me today is that I am the decision maker. I choose between illusions and the truth. Today I am willing to practice opening to the truth. Only Love’s Thoughts are real. Love sees only Love. Love knows that stories of lack of Love are not real. Love knows that all is safe and that all that could ever be real is eternal, changeless Love. This review lesson is a wonderful mind wash. I can soak in it. It will help loosen up all the false ideas I am still clinging to. With the Holy Spirit’s help, I am willing to return to the truth that only formless Love is real.

As I was doing the lesson I started thinking about the line, “I do not value what is totally insane and has no meaning.” I started thinking about what this means in my everyday life and what does it mean to value something.

I like my house. It is perfect for my needs and is pleasant to be in. I haven’t seen another house I would prefer to live in. Does that mean I have placed value on my house and that I should give it up? I have to live someplace. Would it be better to live in a house I don’t like and so wouldn’t value?

Or would value it mean that I would be devastated if I lost it? That I think I have to have this house in order to be happy? I think this must be what value is. The house is a symbol of fulfillment and by becoming attached to that particular symbol, I have forgotten that my happiness does not come from this house, but from God. That truly is insane thinking.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Listen to Lesson 52 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 52 Insights

Review of Lessons 6-10

This lesson review is helpful in jarring my notions about what is real. I need to recognize that the thoughts that I am thinking that make this world seem real are insane. These thoughts about a world of separate, individual forms mean nothing because they are nothing. When I try to make them something, I need to realize that this is trying to put up a barrier against God, trying to make something other than God real.

Jesus is helping me recognize these illusions, this image making for what it is. I need this reminder many times a day because I have done a good job in making these images seem very real. It is like I am in a virtual reality suit and have forgotten that it is just a fantasy story that I made up. The fantasy story is still just a fantasy. It is not real. I am not the dream I am experiencing. In Reality, the whole Sonship is still one extension of God’s eternal Love. Everyone that seems separate in the dream in truth is the same Love.Today I am willing to take time out from being involved with my fantasy dream of separation to remember that it is just a dream. Only the Love I extend means anything. This Love is eternal and changeless.

The sentence that stood out to me today that hasn’t before was that I am trying to use time against God. That doesn’t seem obvious. But realizing that I see only the past, which is unreal, means I am using the past to obscure my vision of reality, which is God. Without time there would be no past. Time is a mechanism for breaking eternity into little pieces. It makes it seem as though eternity can have a past and a future. Yet neither the past nor the future are here, so they cannot be real. Thus the idea of time is a way of keeping me unaware of the eternal present and unaware of Love, of God.

Hanging on to images from the past is what unforgiveness is. That is why I must forgive all the images from the past that I carry in my mind. It is through this forgiveness that I clear my vision so that I can see the Love that is ever present.

Forgiveness is the means to see God. Today I ask Holy Spirit to help me see all things anew without shadows from the past and with His shining Light. In this seeing I will see my brother as one with me. I will see God in my brother. In this vision I find peace, for there is no conflict in what is one with me. The barriers to Love are gone and I know the peace of God is mine.

What perfect timing for these lessons. I went to bed last night unhappy with my actions that evening. I woke up feeling burdened by the past. It took some effort, but with the help of today’s lessons I was able to put aside the past and I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from me.

When I woke up I felt depressed and hopeless as I faced a long unwelcome day. Now I feel light and joyous and look forward to another opportunity to think with God. I gladly give up my private, meaningless thoughts. If I forget, then I’ll just try again. I will do my best not to use time against God. If He can be patient with me, then I can be patient with myself.

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 51 Insights

Review of lessons 1-5

The part of the lesson that particularly stood out to me today was how we are constantly trying to justify our thoughts. I thought of the statement in the Course, “Beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated.” Sometimes it seems quite easy to see others doing this. I see how these judgments bring pain and unhappiness, a sense of hopelessness and resentment. I can see how great effort is put into defending limitations, insisting that they are real.

If the particular form of this defense is not one that I identify with, its easy for me to see how meaningless it is. It is not so easy for me to see myself trying to justify my thoughts because I want them to be real. I’m identifying with the mistaken thought system.

This is when I am grateful that God gave me the Holy Spirit, Who does not mistake illusions for reality. In any moment I can reach to Him and accept His help to lay down those defenses, let go of those judgments and set aside the attempts to justify my thoughts. I need His help moment by moment. With His help, I return to peace. With His help, I accept the joy, the happiness that God wants for me and has given me.

Holy Spirit, I dedicate this day to following your lead so that I may be truly happy.

I need a lot of reminding that what I see through the body’s eyes is nothing and that it does not meaning anything. Giving meaning to what I see through the body’s eyes is the barrier to vision. I need a lot of reminding that what I see is the projection of my own mistaken thoughts. “Ideas leave not their source.” What I am seeing are the ideas that are coming from my own split mind. There is nothing to do with these ideas but to hand them over to the Holy Spirit so we will see their nothingness and let them go.

I am finding that this takes diligent practice. It still seems so easy to make the world real again. It still seems so easy to see something ‘wrong’ out there in the world. I need reminding that there is no ‘world out there.’ I am dreaming a dream that is not real. All the meaning I am giving this dream is coming from my own thoughts. I can let it go.

I am willing to practice today recognizing that the forms I see as ‘outside me’ are not real. I am willing to practice asking for God’s Thoughts and quieting my mind enough to accept God’s Thoughts. When I forget that I am the one that is giving the world all the meaning it has for me, I am the one that is writing this script, I am willing to return to this practice without guilt.

Jesus gives me the benefits of this practice in the Introduction to the Review Lessons. What particularly stood out to me is that the reason I am practicing these lessons so diligently is so that I can bring the peace that comes from my true Nature to every situation I find myself. I need to practice and apply these lessons to heal every place where I still get upset, or feel vulnerable or helpless. I need to practice remembering that I am peace in every situation. I am determined to practice moving through the clouds of ego perception with the Holy Spirit, helping me see everything with new eyes.

The happy hearted are those who see with the eyes of Love. They seek not to hold on to shame, sorrow, guilt or judgment. The happy hearted let go of all ego thoughts. They carry them with an open hand; they look at ego thoughts but do not hold on to them. They are carried lightly so that Holy Spirit can blow them away with a single soft breath. The happy hearted continually ask for this soft breath of Love and see only the Light in the open hand. The happy hearted know and trust Holy Spirit to take away every ego thought and replace the illusion with true vision.

Today I desire to be happy hearted. Today I desire only the meaning of the soft breath. Today I desire to see only the meaning of Love.

Today I started the day with a heavy heart, but hoped that my prayers would be heard. Yes, Spirit has “blown them away with a single soft breath.” I feel lighter now, trusting that God’s love is all-powerful and the yoke can be lightened.

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A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 65 Insights

“My only function is the one God gave me.”

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 64 Insights

“Let me not forget my function.”

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 63 Insights

“The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.”

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 62 Insights

“Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.”

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 61 Insights

“I am the light of the world.”

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 60 Insights

Review of Lessons 46 - 50

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 59 Insights

Review of Lessons 41 - 45

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 58 Insights

Review of Lessons 36 - 40

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 57 Insights

Review of Lessons 31 - 35

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 56 Insights

Review of Lessons 26-30

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 55 Insights

Review of Lessons 21-25

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 54 Insights

Review of Lessons 16 - 20

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 53 Insights

Review of Lessons 11-15

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 52 Insights

Review of Lessons 6-10

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 51 Insights

Review of lessons 1-5

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“The light of the world brings peace to every mind
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