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.
“My present happiness is all I see.”
In the present moment, happiness is all there is to see. If I am experiencing anything that is not supreme happiness, it is because I have placed an illusion in the way of my seeing the truth. God’s Will for me is that I be happy, that I share His happiness. Anything less than perfect happiness is not worthy of God’s Son and therefore not worthy of me. If I experience any discomfort, pain, upset, sadness, fear, guilt, resentment or lack and don’t do something about it, then I am settling for what is not worthy of me. I am accepting less than the perfect peace and supreme happiness God wills for me.
I am grateful for the Course, which gives me the means to not settle for less than God’s Will for me. It is very simple. I need only give every thought of lack and loss, pain and suffering, to the Holy Spirit and open my mind to His translation of the mistaken thought in to the vision of perfect Love. He will undo the effects of all my mistaken ideas by deciding for God for me, if I but let Him.
This turning over of my thoughts requires steady vigilance and practice. I have been accustomed to letting my mind run wild in the fields of the ego thought system. Peace cannot be found in those fields. I must train my mind to not seek there for happiness, but rather to turn to the Holy Spirit in my mind.
As I make each recognition of a less than peaceful thought a reminder to turn to Holy Spirit, guilt fades away. Instead of using lack of peace as an excuse to punish myself, I use it instead as a reminder to listen to God’s Voice in my mind. His Voice speaks of my innocence and the innocence of all my brothers. It speaks of our holiness and wholeness. It speaks of the Love we are and share. Today I would listen to His Voice and I will see only my present happiness.
The sentence that stands out to me in this lesson is, “Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer.” I am learning how important it is to recognize when I am allowing my mind to be deceived. I recognize clearly that the dreams I dream at night are not real, but now it is time to recognize that what I experience during the “day” is also a dream. The dream I am making during the “day” is also not real. It, too, is a dream and I need not be deceived. I can learn to recognize the “day” dream as a dream with the help of the Holy Spirit.
I always have the help of the Holy Spirit to show me the difference between what is real and what is not real. The dream I am dreaming during the “day” is also a projection that is made up by me. I understand that this need for projection comes from guilt that has been made unconscious. I now have the opportunity to see this guilt as it shows up in the dream and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, let it go.
In truth, nothing has really happened to change my Reality as an extension of Love. But at some level I am thinking that something has happened to change that truth. The fact is nothing has changed. I have just dreamed a dream and its content is not true. I am still universal Love and everyone is still universal Love. That is my lesson today and every day. “Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer.” (1:5) What I have seen in every dream I dream is not there. As I truly get this, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will stop choosing to project guilt in dreams. As this happens, my present happiness will be all I see.
Because dreams look so real, I need the Holy Spirit to help me see their unreality. I need the Holy Spirit to show me everyone’s oneness in Spirit behind the dream of separation. I need the Holy Spirit to show me the innocence behind the dream of projected guilt. The time is now to hand every dream over to the Holy Spirit to be seen for what it truly is.
Sometimes as I am reading a lesson I feel a momentary sense of panic as I think, “How can I ever do this?” Then I remember that I only need to be willing. I only need to want this and allow Holy Spirit to heal my thinking. Then I relax into certainty again, because I know I can do that.
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