Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Freedom Comes with Releasing the Past

You consider it “natural” to use your past experience as the reference point from which to judge the present. Yet this is unnatural because it is delusional. When you have learned to look on everyone with no reference at all to the past, either his or yours as you perceived it, you will be able to learn from what you see now. For the past can cast no shadow to darken the present, unless you are afraid of light. And only if you are would you choose to bring darkness with you, and by holding [the past] in your mind, see it as a dark cloud that shrouds your brothers and conceals their reality from your sight.

This darkness is in you [your mind]. The Christ as revealed to you now has no past, for He is changeless, and in His changelessness lies your release. For if He is as He was created, there is no guilt in Him. No cloud of guilt has risen to obscure Him, and He stands revealed in everyone you meet because you see Him through Himself. To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present. The cloud that obscures God’s Son to you is the past, and if you would have it past and gone, you must not see [the past] now. If you see it now in your illusions, it has not gone from you, although it is not there.

The miracle enables you to see your brother without his past, and so perceive him as born again. His errors are all past, and by perceiving him without [his errors] you are releasing him. And since his past is yours, you share in this release. (A Course in Miracles,T-13.VI.2-3;5:1-3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The continuation of guilt and fear in our minds depends upon bringing the past into our present awareness. Yet the past is over and does not exist now. Judging the present based upon perceptions from the past makes us blind to what is real now.

Only Love is real, therefore only Love is now. To perceive anything else is to perceive an illusion that is not really there. To free ourselves from the past, we must relinquish all judgment. Without the unreal past, we have no basis for judgment. To attempt to judge based on illusions from the past is insanity. To return to the sanity that accepts the reality of Love, we must turn all our judgments over to the Holy Spirit and let His Light shine away the dark shadows of the past.

As we see our brothers through the Holy Spirit’s vision, we see him as he is now — Love and nothing else. This vision mirrors back to us the truth of the Self we are. When we see our brothers truly, we see our Self truly. We remember we are Love and nothing else.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgetting the Past; Remembering the Truth

To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection. For the shadow figures you would make immortal are “enemies” of reality. Be willing to forgive the Son of God for what he did not do. The shadow figures are the witnesses you bring with you to demonstrate he did what he did not [in Truth]. Because you bring them, you will hear them [experience them as real]. And you who keep them by your own selection do not understand how they came into your mind, and what their purpose is. [The shadows of the past] represent the evil that you think was done to you. You bring them with you only that you may return evil for evil, hoping that their witness will enable you to think guiltily of another and not harm yourself. They speak so clearly for the separation that no one not obsessed with keeping separation could hear them. They offer you the “reasons” why you should enter into unholy alliances to support the ego’s goals, and make your relationships the witness to [the ego’s] power. (A Course in Miracles,T-17.III.1. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The truth of What we are as God’s one Son is changeless. That is why anything that appears to happen in the dream of separation never really occurred. It is this that makes release from the dream of fear and guilt possible. When we stop bringing memories of past “hurts” to the present in our minds, we will remember God. We will remember that we are the Self God created one with Him.

This is why forgiveness is the lynch pin of the Course’s curriculum to heal our mind. We forget the past by letting the Holy Spirit teach us what to remember. He will teach us to remember the truth of Love and let go of the mistaken beliefs that make illusions seem real. This is our path to release from fear and guilt and return to Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Key to Awakening

It is extremely important to be conscious of the activity of your mind as it takes place in your life in the form of a continuous or near continuous stream of thoughts, images, feelings, emotions and responses to outward conditions. Without this awareness, the willingness to choose truth over illusion cannot be brought into play consistently. Through the consistent choice of Truth, the mind [split mind] is quickly and skillfully undone. In fact, the willingness to be vigilant even every moment, to be constantly present in your mind, is necessary for your willingness to choose Truth to have a chance to do so.

Willingness itself will grow under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage until it includes your entire life and all that you think, feel and do. Willingness is the single requirement you must supply to the undertaking of the process of awakening to and as the Self. The Holy Spirit will provide everything else that is needed, and will supplement your little willingness with His. (From the Christ Mind Book II, p. 125)

When we think we know the answer to a question, we are unwilling to receive an answer that is different from the answer we have decided is true. Our mind is closed and may even defend against a different answer. This is why the Holy Spirit needs our willingness to accept His help. He is the Answer but He cannot force us to accept His inspiration.

Only the ego thinks in terms of coercion. The Holy Spirit knows healing comes through joining. An open mind welcomes the joining. The ego choice for separation closes the mind. This is why one of the early Course lessons teaches us that we do not know what anything means. The acceptance of this fact is the key to willingness and therefore the key to awakening.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Go of Perception of Differences

Inspiration is of the Holy Spirit, and certainty is of God according to His laws. Both, therefore, come from the same Source, since inspiration comes from the Voice for God and certainty comes from the laws of God.

The Holy Spirit must work through you to teach you He is in you. This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge [certainty] that you are in God because you are part of Him.

The ego always seeks to divide and separate. The Holy Spirit always seeks to unify and heal. As you heal you are healed, because the Holy Spirit sees no order of difficulty in healing. Healing is the way to undo the belief in differences, being the only way of perceiving the Sonship as one. This perception is therefore in accord with the laws of God, even in a state of mind that is out of accord with His. The strength of right perception is so great that it brings the mind into accord with His, because it serves His Voice, which is in all of you.

Healing is a way of forgetting the sense of danger the ego has induced in you, by not recognizing [danger’s] existence in your brother. This strengthens the Holy Spirit in both of you, because it is a refusal to acknowledge fear. Love needs only this invitation. It comes freely to all the Sonship, being what the Sonship is. By your awakening to [Love], you are merely forgetting what you are not. This enables you to remember what you are. (A Course in Miracles,T-7.IV.1:2-3;2:1-2;5:2-7;7:7-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Because we, the Son of God, are one, as we extend healing to a brother, we are healed. Healing is undoing the belief in differences by letting go of the ego wish to separate and accepting Love’s oneness as what we are.

If we are willing, the Holy Spirit will inspire us with His perception of Love’s oneness. This is how He teaches us to recognize false perception and turn our attention to the Light of Love. We learn to recognize the truth of What our brother is and recognize it as What we are. Each time we let go of a mistaken perception of differences, we take another step forward to the certainty that we remain Love, as God created us.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Returning to the Love We Are

All learning is a help or hindrance to the gate of Heaven. Nothing in between is possible. There are two teachers only, who point in different ways. And you will go along the way your chosen teacher leads. There are but two directions you can take, while time remains and choice is meaningful. For never will another road be made except the way to Heaven. You but choose whether to go toward Heaven, or away to nowhere. There is nothing else to choose.

To you who still believe you live in time and know not it is gone, the Holy Spirit still guides you through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone. You think you live in what is past.

Forgiveness is the great release from time. It is the key to learning that the past is over.… And who can stand upon a distant shore, and dream himself across an ocean, to a place and time that have long since gone by? How real a hindrance can this dream be to where he really is?

Forgive the past and let it go, for it is gone. You stand no longer on the ground that lies between the worlds. You have gone on, and reached the world that lies at Heaven’s gate. There is no hindrance to the Will of God, nor any need that you repeat again a journey that was over long ago. Look gently on your brother, and behold the world in which perception of your hate has been transformed into a world of love. (A Course in Miracles,T-26.V.1:5-12;4:1-2;6:1-2,6-7;14. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Time is an ego-made mechanism of separation used to hide the changeless now from our awareness. The ego brings memories and beliefs from the past to hide the reality of love in the present. Because only Love is real, the past is nothing more than a dream that could never be true. This dream seems very real because of our belief.

But we have been given the Holy Spirit to help us forgive the past. Guilt, fear, anger and hate are all based on “memories” from the past. As we forgive the past, we open the door to the Light of Heaven that is shining in our mind now. We have let go of the past and the dream is no more. We’ve been there, done that, and learned we never want to do it again. All we really want is to remember we are Love and nothing else.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Blessing of Recognizing Love’s Oneness

The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.… What hatred has released to love becomes the brightest light in Heaven’s radiance. And all the lights in Heaven brighter grow, in gratitude for what has been restored.

Around you angels hover lovingly, to keep away all darkened thoughts of sin, and keep the light where it has entered in. Your footprints lighten up the world, for where you walk forgiveness gladly goes with you.

The world is fair because the Holy Spirit has brought injustice to the light within, and there has all unfairness been resolved and been replaced with justice and with love. If you perceive injustice anywhere, you need but say:

By this do I deny the Presence of the Father and the Son.
And I would rather know of Them than see injustice,
which Their Presence shines away. (A Course in Miracles, T-26.IX.6:1,5-2:2;X.6:4-7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

To see justice is to recognize the oneness of Love. What is one cannot be unjust. Injustice can only be perceived when differences are believed as real. This could only occur in illusions of separation.

When we perceive anything as unfair, it is only because we believe we are separate from the “cause” of injustice. It is this perception of separation that must be undone. Without belief in separation, we are aware of Love’s oneness. Nothing else exists. There is nothing to defend against. The recognition of innocence replaces the perception of sin and guilt.

The Holy Spirit was given us to lead us to the acceptance of the fact that only Love is real. This is how we remember that we are God’s Son, united with our Creator.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Undoing Fear and Guilt

All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation not to believe the idea for today. Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from you. So, too, does the source of guilt. You see neither guilt nor salvation as in your own mind and nowhere else. When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In understanding this you are saved.

The seeming cost of accepting today’s idea is this: It means that nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace. But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb your peace or upset you in any way. Today’s idea places you in charge of the universe [the oneness of Love], where you belong because of what you are. This is not a role that can be partially accepted. And you must surely begin to see that accepting it is salvation. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 70, W-pI.70.1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 70 Insights.)

Guilt is inherent in the ego thought system because it is the denial of Love’s oneness. The ego is simply a part of our mind in a made up dream of separation. Within the dream everything seems real. We seem to lack Love because it is a dream of lovelessness, it is an acting out of the denial of Love.

The underlying belief that comes with this is that we have attacked and hurt Love. Guilt is the inevitable consequence of this belief. We hide from guilt by projecting it on the world outside. We believe that the outside world is determined to punish us for this guilt. So in the dream we are caught in the cycle of attacking through projection and expecting retaliation. Peace is impossible in this thought system.

Our salvation comes by recognizing all this is only a dream in our mind. Nothing in the dream is true. Nothing that seems to happen in a dream has ever occurred in truth. It is possible to wake up from a dream. We have a loving Companion Who constantly calls us to awaken. He represents our Father, Whose limitless Love for us has never changed. He will help us undo the belief that made the dream. When the belief is undone, the dream is gone. We remember that we are safe and loved in the Heart of Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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