Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Blessing of Choosing Holy Spirit’s Guidance

When you react at all to errors, you are not listening to the Holy Spirit. He has merely disregarded them, and if you attend to them you are not hearing Him. If you do not hear Him, you are listening to your ego and making as little sense as the brother whose errors you perceive. This cannot be correction. Yet it is more than merely a lack of correction for him. It is the giving up of correction in yourself.

When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity in him [the Son of God]. If you perceive his errors and accept them, you are accepting yours. If you want to give yours over to the Holy Spirit, you must do this with his [errors]. Unless this becomes the one way in which you handle all errors, you cannot understand how all errors are undone.

To perceive errors in anyone, and to react to them as if they were real, is to make them real to you. You will not escape paying the price for this, not because you are being punished for it, but because you are following the wrong guide and will therefore lose your way.

Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth [of your brother] beside you for you walk together. (A Course in Miracles, T-9.III.4:1-5:4;6:7-7:3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

As pointed out throughout the Course, to heal our minds we must choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide in all things. It seems to be difficult to receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance only because the part of our minds that is identified with the ego is unwilling to give up control. Much of the content of ACIM is designed to help us with our willingness by teaching us that the ego offers nothing we really want.

As we learn that the ego offers us nothing of value, our willingness to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s guidance increases. Each time we accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance and forgive our mistaken perception, we experience the blessing of greater peace and happiness. Our motivation and willingness increases to choose the Holy Spirit’s guidance in all things. We dedicate today to the practice of choosing Holy Spirit’s guidance first.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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From the Quest for Specialness to Acceptance of God’s Love

[Your brother] is your savior from your specialness. He is in need of your acceptance of himself as part of you, as you for his. You are alike to God as God is to Himself. [God] is not special, for He would not keep one part of what He is unto Himself, not given to His Son but kept for Him alone. And it is this you fear, for if He is not special, then He willed His Son to be like Him, and your brother is like you. Not special, but possessed of everything, including you. Give him but what he has, remembering God gave Himself to you and your brother in equal Love, that both might share the universe with Him Who chose that Love could never be divided, and kept separate from what It is and must forever be.

What has been given [your brother] makes you complete, as it does him. God’s Love gave you to him and him to you because He gave Himself. What is the same as God is one with Him.

The key [to Heaven that] you threw away God gave your brother, whose holy hands would offer it to you when you were ready to accept His plan for your salvation in the place of yours. How could this readiness be reached save through the sight of all your misery, and the awareness that your plan has failed, and will forever fail to bring you peace and joy of any kind? Through this despair you travel now, yet it is but illusion of despair. The death of specialness is not your death, but your awaking into life eternal. You but emerge from an illusion of what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God created you. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.II.10;11:3-5;14. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Many talk of an experience of “the dark night of the soul.” It is an experience of realizing that happiness and peace cannot be found in the world of specialness. This is an important turning point and can set us on a happy journey of waking to the truth that we remain eternally at one with the Love of God. As we open the door to our inner Teacher, we are taught to see the Truth beyond the appearances of specialness and separation.

We learn to seek for peace and happiness where it can be found — in the acceptance of God’s plan for our salvation. We learn that our quest for value in forms of specialness leads literally to nothing and will never satisfy. As we accept this lesson, we turn away from the ego as our guide to the Voice for God. We open to His vision in place of the ego’s perceptions. We learn to see our brother as the Love He is, at one with us. We turn from a quest for specialness to acceptance of God’s Love as ours.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Opening Our Mind to True Perception

Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of holiness is reached. Through them the Holy Spirit leads you to the real world, and away from all illusions where your faith was laid. This is His direction; the only one He ever sees. And when you wander, He reminds you there is but one [direction]. His faith and His belief and vision are all for you. And when you have accepted them completely instead of yours, you will have need of them no longer. For faith and vision and belief are meaningful only before the state of certainty is reached. In Heaven they are unknown. Yet Heaven is reached through them.

You made perception that you might choose among your brothers, and seek for sin [separation/guilt] with them. The Holy Spirit sees perception as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy relationship is all you want to see. Then will you give your faith to holiness [oneness], desiring and believing in it because of your desire.

Those who would free their brothers from the body can have no fear. They have renounced the means for sin by choosing to let all limitations be removed. As they desire to look upon their brothers in holiness, the power of their belief and faith sees far beyond the body, supporting vision, not obstructing it. But first they chose to recognize how much their faith had limited their understanding of the world, desiring to place its power elsewhere should another point of view be given them. The miracles that follow this decision are also born of faith. For all who choose to look away from sin [separation/guilt] are given vision, and are led to holiness [oneness]. (A Course in Miracles, T-21 III.4;6:5-7;8. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

To be free of guilt we need to change our mind about the purpose of what we perceive in the world. The ego’s use for perception is to reinforce our faith and belief in the seeming reality of the dream’s images of separation. We must reach the point of recognizing there may be a different purpose for our dream.

This opens our mind consider the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the world. As we accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose, we overlook the body and images of separation in the world. His vision of our oneness with our Source replaces the ego’s perceptions of separation that justify guilt and fear.

As we withdraw our faith and belief in separation and give them to the Holy Spirit’s vision, we move toward the certainty of Heaven for we have accepted the Holy Spirit’s means for healing our minds. We return to accepting the Love of God is ours.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Strength of God in Us

God is your safety in every circumstance. His Voice speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection. There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. And the Voice which speaks for Him thinks as He does.

The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entitled. You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.

…try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

During the day, repeat [God is the strength in which I trust] often. Use it as your answer to any disturbance. Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 47, W-pI.47.3;6-8. See also ACIM Lesson 47 Insights.)

If we want to wake up from the dream of fear and guilt, we need to turn away from the ego as our advisor. The ego is the denial of God’s strength and Love. Believing we know how to correct anything in our lives on our own is the ego’s misdirection. The practice of turning to the strength and peace of God within us is the way out of the ego’s hell of fear and guilt.

Today we acknowledge to ourselves that we do not know what anything means nor what is truly helpful in each present moment. We remind ourselves that trust in the strength of God within us opens our mind to the direction of the Holy Spirit, which will always lead us back to Heaven.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Heaven as Our Home

You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth.

Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.

Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 138, W-pI.138.4;9;12:5-6. See also ACIM Lesson 138 Insights.)

In many places the Course tells us that there are only two categories — real and unreal. By definition, what is unreal does not exist and has no substance or value. We are also told that only Love is real. When we choose to recognize and accept what is real and disregard the unreal, we choose Heaven.

The practice of asking for Holy Spirit’s interpretation of all our perceptions is the way the myriad forms the ego brings up are brought to Light. In the Holy Spirit’s Light the unreality of the ego’s illusions becomes clear. Each time we choose the Holy Spirit’s judgment in place of our own, we take a step toward Heaven. The illusions of the ego are less believable. This practice leads to the final choice for only what is real. When nothing but the real is valued, we have accepted Heaven as our Home.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming God’s Power in Our Self

Forget not that the choice of sin [separation] or truth, helplessness or power, is the choice of whether to attack or heal. For healing comes of power, and attack of helplessness. Whom you attack you cannot want to heal. And whom you would have healed must be the one you chose to be protected from attack. And what is this decision but the choice whether to see him through the body’s eyes, or let him be revealed to you through [spiritual] vision? How this decision leads to its effects is not your problem. But what you want to see must be your choice. This is a course in cause and not effect.

…as you look on the effects of sin [separation] in any form, all you need do is simply ask yourself:

Is this what I would see? Do I want this?

Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision. And constant vision can be given only those who wish for constancy. The power of the Son of God’s desire remains the proof that he is wrong who sees himself as helpless. Desire what you want, and you will look on it and think it real. No thought but has the power to release or kill. And none can leave the thinker’s mind, or leave him unaffected. (A Course in Miracles, T-21.VII.7;8:3-4;13. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The choice to see with the vision of our true Self is the choice for happiness and peace. It is the choice to accept the power of God in us. It is the choice to accept our Self.

Our true Self’s vision sees the oneness we share with God and all our brothers. It sees the Love and innocence in every brother. This vision sees no need to defend because it knows oneness is our only reality. When we accept this vision, we accept our healing. We release ourselves from the belief in powerlessness and vulnerability. We no longer need to defend, but join with the Love in our brothers, ready to accept God’s Love as ours.

Today we choose the vision of our true Self.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Gently Awakening to Love

You are the dreamer of the world of dreams. No other cause it has, nor ever will. Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has terrified God’s Son, and made him think that he has lost his innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself. So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend. God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear.

Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. It is not difficult to change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized. Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the place of those you dreamed in terror and in fear of death. He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death. The dream of guilt is fading from your sight, although your eyes are closed. A smile has come to lighten up your sleeping face. The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams.

Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holy innocence. And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken His beloved Son. Dream of your brother’s kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the helpfulness he gave. And do not brush aside his many gifts because he is not perfect in your dreams. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.13:1-15:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The path of our return to the Heaven of God’s Love is lovingly planned for us. God gave us His Voice in our minds to guide us through His plan. We need only rest in the Holy Spirit and let Him direct us in all our thoughts and doing. The Holy Spirit knows that it would be terrifying to us to be suddenly wakened from our dream of fear, guilt and death.

God’s plan provides the means to let go of our mistaken beliefs step by step. At first it seems to be applied to very specific situations where the fear or judgment that needs to be forgiven is obvious. With practice we begin to see that forgiveness generalizes as we experience greater happiness and peace. We become more willing to choose the Holy Spirit’s guidance instead of our past beliefs that make the dream of a world of fear and death seem real.

Today we choose to rest in the Holy Spirit, letting Him be our Guide through the day.

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