Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Freeing Ourselves from the Ego’s Prison

Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace. Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely free and wholly without condemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time.

You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. For the instant of holiness is shared, and cannot be yours alone. Remember, then, when you are tempted to attack a brother, that his instant of release is yours. Miracles are the instants of release you offer, and will receive. They attest to your willingness to be released, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.9:1-7;12. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We offer time to the Holy Spirit by being willing to follow His guidance, making no decisions on our own. It seems like having to include the Holy Spirit in all our decisions is loss of our independence. That is what the ego tells us. But the ego’s thought system is imprisonment, for it is the belief in limitation. The Holy Spirit knows that we are as unlimited as God, for we are one with Him. So being willing to let Holy Spirit guide all our decisions, all our perceptions, is the key to unlock the ego’s prison cell.

Choosing the ego thought system is like choosing solitary confinement, for the ego is the idea of being alone. The Holy Spirit is the key to unlock the door. His gift to us is perfect freedom to be the Love we were created to be. That freedom is accepted as we offer it to every brother. We don’t know we are free unless we offer freedom to all.

Today we practice accepting the Holy Spirit’s lessons that show us the innocence in our brothers and ourselves. With His help, we offer freedom from guilt and receive it.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice for Peace

I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you, and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. This Mind is unequivocal, because it hears only one Voice and answers in only one way. You are the light of the world with me. Rest does not come from sleeping but from waking. The Holy Spirit is the Call to awaken and be glad. The world is very tired, because it is the idea of weariness. Our task is the joyous one of waking it to the Call for God. Everyone will answer the Call of the Holy Spirit, or the Sonship cannot be as One. What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole? Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you.

When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision and making it stronger. As we share this goal, we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and to bring it back into the oneness in which it was created. (A Course in Miracles, T-5.II.10:1-11:2. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

It is reassuring to remember that no matter how much we get wrapped up in the activities of the world, the Voice for God is always available to us. In every moment we have a choice between the ego’s voice of separation, guilt and fear and the Voice for God. If we are not supremely happy, we have chosen the wrong voice. But we always have the option to choose the Guide that will lead us back to the oneness of Love in which we were created.

Today we open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit’s call. We choose this Voice to guide our thoughts, our words and our actions. We know that this choice is the choice for freedom. It is the choice for Heaven’s unity. It is a choice we share with all our brothers, for it brings the recognition that our brothers are one with us. It is the choice for peace.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Path to Perfect Happiness

I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.

Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it. But whenever they trust themselves [alone], they will not learn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already know. Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone. Each brings the other with it, for it is the law of God they be not separate. They are cause and effect, each to the other, so where one is absent the other cannot be.

Only those who recognize they cannot know unless the effects of understanding are with them, can really learn at all. For this it must be peace they want, and nothing else. Whenever you think you know, peace will depart from you, because you have abandoned the Teacher of peace. Whenever you fully realize that you know not, peace will return, for you will have invited Him to do so by abandoning the ego on behalf of Him. Call not upon the ego for anything; it is only this that you need do. The Holy Spirit will, of Himself, fill every mind that so makes room for Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.XI.6:7-9;12:1-13:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The ego is personally insulted and threatened by the idea that it does not know what anything means. It realizes that if we seek only the Holy Spirit’s guidance and understanding in all things, it will have lost its home. The ego will no longer seem to exist.

Whenever we think we know how to solve any problem on our own or understand anything, we are maintaining our identification with the ego. But we are not the ego. This is a central message of the Course. The Holy Spirit’s lessons in forgiveness all help us realize that we are not the ego and let it go. It is through forgiveness that we welcome peace into our minds.

Judgment denies peace. Any effort to allow ourselves to accept peace opens the way to Holy Spirit’s guidance. All He needs is our willingness to accept His help. If we want to be happy, we must let go of needing to be right by the ego’s dictates. The Holy Spirit will always lead us on the path to perfect happiness and peace. It is the way to our true Home.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing the Face of Christ in All

The face of Christ has to be seen before the memory of God can return. The reason is obvious. Seeing the face of Christ involves perception. No one can look on knowledge. But the face of Christ is the great symbol of forgiveness. It is salvation. It is the symbol of the real world. Whoever looks on this no longer sees the world. He is as near to Heaven as is possible outside the gate. Yet from this gate it is no more than just a step inside. It is the final step. And this we leave to God.

[Forgiveness] is the only thing still in the world in part, and yet the bridge to Heaven.

How lovely does the world become in just that single instant when you see the truth about yourself reflected there. Now you are sinless and behold your sinlessness. Now you are holy and perceive it so. And now the mind returns to its Creator; the joining of the Father and the Son, the Unity of unities that stands behind all joining but beyond them all. God is not seen but only understood. His Son is not attacked but recognized. (A Course in Miracles, C-3.4;5:3;8)

Judgment causes conflict. Forgiveness dissolves conflict and welcomes unity. A world in which only unity is seen is conflict free and filled with the peace of God. This vision is symbolized by the real world. It is healed perception brought about through forgiveness. This is why forgiveness is the key to our salvation from the ego’s world of guilt and fear.

Everyone in this world experiences guilt and fear and everyone wants to be free of it. We have been given the means to freedom and a Guide to help us apply forgiveness to all our perceptions. Forgiveness demonstrates that God’s Will for us is perfect happiness. He has given us the means to freedom. We need only accept and use it.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Progressive Healing of False Beliefs

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this course aims at a complete reversal of thought.

The emphasis of this course always remains the same;— it is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you, and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of concern to God’s teachers. All beliefs will point to this if properly interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to progress should be honored. This is the sole criterion this course requires. No more than this is necessary. (A Course in Miracles, M-24.4:1;6)

An attitude of non-judgment is key to our advancement on our journey of awakening. Along with this, a willingness to question everything we believe is facilitated by setting judgment aside. It is upon our fixed beliefs that our world of bodies, time and space is built. Our insistence that this world is real blinds us to our inner Vision, which will show us the reality of Heaven that is ever present now.

We have much to learn if we are to be willing to completely reverse our thinking. We are not asked to accomplish this thought reversal in one, all encompassing decision. This would raise intense fear because it would seem to lead us to oblivion. Instead the Holy Spirit leads us in a kind and loving training curriculum.

As we are willing, He will reinterpret our beliefs to show us the truth that lies beyond them. This progressive reinterpretation of our beliefs will soften our grip on our steadfast insistence on repeating the past. Gradually we will become aware that there is another world, the real world, where the past is forgiven and our true Identity as Love’s extension is recognized. The culmination of this progressive reinterpretation is the whole-hearted acceptance that Heaven is now. There is no other time. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Freedom Through Seeing Innocence

We recognize that we have lost this goal [of seeing only innocence] if anger blocks our way in any form. And if a brother’s sins occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight, and turn our eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our “sins.” So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:

It is not this that I would look upon.
I trust [the truth in] my brothers, who are one with me.

…we seek but for [relief] an instant from the misery the focus upon sin will bring, and uncorrected will remain.

Nor do we ask for fantasies. For what we seek to look upon is really there. And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 181, W-pI.181.6;7:3-8:6. See also ACIM Lesson 181 Insights.)

In every moment we have the opportunity to release ourselves from fear and guilt. Fear and guilt only seem plausible when we believe we are separate from everyone and everything. Yet our true Self is one, united in God. Only This is real.

The truth in everyone is that same Self That is one with us. Each moment we can choose to look past the images made by belief in separation to the innocent Self That we are. The Holy Spirit, Who represents our true Self, is ever present to strengthen our intent to see only innocence. As we focus on seeing innocence, Christ’s vision becomes our own. We experience the unlimited Love of our one Self and fear fades away. We are free to be as God created us.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Realizing Our Oneness with God

Today He speaks to you. His Voice awaits your silence, for His Word can not be heard until your mind is quiet for a while, and meaningless desires have been stilled. Await His Word in quiet. There is peace within you to be called upon today, to help make ready your most holy mind to hear the Voice for its Creator speak.

…He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He.

It is your voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. It is your word He speaks. It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of Father and of Son. In quiet listen to your Self today, and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never left your Self.

Only be quiet. You will need no rule but this, to let your practicing today lift you above the thinking of the world, and free your vision from the body’s eyes. Only be still and listen. You will hear the Word in which the Will of God the Son joins in his Father’s Will, at one with it, with no illusions interposed between the wholly indivisible and true. As every hour passes by today, be still a moment and remind yourself you have a special purpose for this day; in quiet to receive the Word of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 125, W-pI.125.6,7:2-9:5. See also ACIM Lesson 125 Insights.)

This lesson is giving us a practice that, used consistently, will bring us to the full realization of our oneness with God and All That Is. We are reminded that God’s Voice is our Voice, for there is no separation nor distinction between God and His one Son, which we are.

This practice will help us pay attention to the Voice of our Self instead of the ego’s voice that denies our Self. We are assured that God has never left us, nor have we really left God. As we give our attention to our Self, we will feel the assurance of Love’s presence. We will see beyond the body to Love’s presence in everyone. And we will rest in the peace and joy of our Home in God. We are worthy of the practice.

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