Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Cleansing Our Minds of Fear

Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.

There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of “idle thoughts.” What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.

Besides your recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you recognize [all fear thoughts] as equally destructive, but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really understand it. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 16, W-pI.16.1:2-3:4. See also ACIM Lesson 16 Insights.)

The ego is the idea of being separate from Love. The opposite of Love is fear. Therefore any thought of separation denies Love, so fear is the inevitable effect. This effect comes from belief in a false idea, but the belief makes the effect seem real. We are learning that belief cannot make the false true but it can make the false seem real. This is why we need to ask of everything, “What does this mean, what is this for?”

To get a true answer, we need to ask this question of the Holy Spirit, for He knows what is True. The ego literally makes-believe that it knows what is true. Without belief, the ego is nothing. We need to let the Holy Spirit teach us what is true and what is false, what is real or unreal. His lessons will lead us out of fear and back to our Home in Love. He will help us cleanse our mind of the ego’s fearful thoughts and accept the thoughts of our true Self, which extend only Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Release the Past to Remember Heaven

The holy instant is the opposite of the ego’s fixed belief in salvation through vengeance for the past. In the holy instant it is understood that the past is gone, and with its passing the drive for vengeance has been uprooted and has disappeared. The stillness and the peace of now enfold you in perfect gentleness. Everything is gone except the truth.

There is nothing you can hold against reality. All that must be forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers. Their reality has no past, and only illusions can be forgiven. God holds nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of any kind. Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them. Thus will you learn that you have been forgiven, for it is you who offered [your brothers] illusions. In the holy instant this is done for you in time, to bring you the true condition of Heaven.

Remember that you always choose between truth and illusion; between the real Atonement that would heal and the ego’s “atonement” that would destroy. The power of God and all His Love, without limit, will support you as you seek only your place in the plan of Atonement arising from His Love. Be an ally of God and not the ego in seeking how Atonement can come to you. His help suffices, for His Messenger understands how to restore the Kingdom to you, and to place all your investment in salvation in your relationship with [God]. (A Course in Miracles, T-16.VII.6:3-5;9-10. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

An instant is made holy when we let go of illusions of the past. The eternal present is eternally holy because only Love is real. Only Love is now. Do we see our brother as Love and nothing else, incapable of harm and united in God’s Love? This is the vision the Holy Spirit offers us because illusions of separation and differences have been released.

Our attachment to a bodily identification binds us to the past. Bodies seem to have had effects in the past. We hold on to memories of these effects and use them as the basis for our interpretation of our present experience. Thus we hide the present with a veil built upon the past. We see our brothers as bodies, which reinforces our belief in the reality of separation. To free ourselves from the imprisonment of this belief we need the help of the Holy Spirit to show us how to look past our mistaken beliefs to see the reality of eternal Love now.

Each time we bring a judgment or sense of fear to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive and accept the Holy Spirit’s correction, we welcome the holy instant. We experience a taste of the peace and happiness that are our natural state, free of the past. We may reserve some aspects of the past that we are unwilling to release, which limits the depth of our experience of the holy instant. But as we practice accepting the Holy Spirit’s help to release more and more of the past, our experience of the Love, peace and joy of God becomes stronger. When we have released all illusions, we remember Heaven.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Strength of God in Our Mind

It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself;

The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because [it knows] it cannot give but to itself.

The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One.

Let yourself be brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 92, W-pI.92.3:1-3;8:1;9;10:2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 92 Insights.)

The Course emphasizes that we are not a body. If we believe what we see through the body’s eyes, we are deceiving ourselves. The truth is seen through inner vision — the vision of our true Self. To heal our minds and release ourselves from identification with the limitations of the body, we need to direct our attention to our inner vision.

This inner vision brings the experience that Light and strength are one. It is in the Light of Love that we see our unity with the Self that we share with everyone. This Self has the strength of God, for It is one with God, Its Creator. Any perception of limitation, weakness, guilt or fear is a deception. It comes from identifying with the body instead of the one Self that is God’s Creation.

Today we ask our true Self for help to share Its vision and remember the strength of God in us. With this practice, the seeming weakness and fear we experience in the world will fade as we remember we are one in God’s strength.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Power of Holy Relationships

Beyond the body that you interposed between you and your brother, and shining in the golden light that reaches [the body] from the bright, endless circle that extends forever, is your holy relationship, beloved of God Himself. How still [your holy relationship] rests, in time and yet beyond, immortal yet on earth. How great the power that lies in [your holy relationship]. Time waits upon its will, and earth will be as it would have it be. Here is no separate will, nor the desire that anything be separate. Its will has no exceptions, and what [the holy relationship] wills is true. Every illusion brought to its forgiveness is gently overlooked and disappears. For at its center Christ has been reborn, to light His home with vision that overlooks the world. Would you not have this holy home be yours as well? No misery is here, but only joy.

All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is share His vision. Quickly and gladly is His vision given anyone who is but willing to see his brother sinless. And no one can remain beyond this willingness, if you would be released entirely from all effects of sin [separation]. Would you have partial forgiveness for yourself? Can you reach Heaven while a single sin [belief in separation] still tempts you to remain in misery? Heaven is the home of perfect purity, and God created it for you. Look on your holy brother, sinless as yourself, and let him lead you [to Heaven]. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.II.12-13. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We experience the holy relationship when we share Christ’s vision, which sees only innocence and the oneness of Love. Christ’s vision overlooks appearances of separation, knowing they are not real. With His vision, we welcome the Light of Love. We see the Light of Love in our brother, which reflects back to us the Light we are. Christ’s vision comes when we forgive the past and let the eternal radiance of present Love come forth.

Today we ask to see as Christ sees as we walk the way to Heaven, lit with the Light of Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Holy Instant of Our Release

Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. He needs but very little to restore God’s whole power to you. He Who transcends time for you understands what time is for. Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. There never was an instant in which God’s Son could lose his purity. His changeless state is beyond time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. Time stands still in his holiness, and changes not. And so it is no longer time at all. For caught in the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God’s creation, [time] is transformed into forever. Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining instant of perfect release. Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit, and leave His giving it to you to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.15. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The holy instant is the moment in time when we are willing to forgive the past. When we give this willingness to the Holy Spirit, He shows us clearly that the memory we have been dragging with us from the past is not here and never happened in truth. The past is gone. This is our moment of release from the imprisonment of belief that the past is real and can affect us in the present. This belief keeps us imprisoned in the ego thought system for it denies the holy present in which we dwell in the Love of God.

Our willingness to bring our judgments and guilt to the Holy Spirit to receive His vision in the place of our perceptions is how we receive and give the holy instant. As we accept Holy Spirit’s vision, we see only innocence, for that is all Love sees. As we see the innocence of our brother, it reflects back to us our own innocence. We give and receive release from our denial of Love and remember God, our Home.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice to Accept Inner Peace

Your little part is but to give the Holy Spirit the whole idea of sacrifice. And to accept the peace He gives instead, without the limits that would hold [the extension of peace] back, and so would limit your awareness of [peace]. For what He gives must be extended if you would have its limitless power, and use [peace] for the Son of God’s release.

Faith in the eternal is always justified, for the eternal is forever kind, infinite in its patience and wholly loving. [The eternal] will accept you wholly, and give you peace. Yet it can unite only with what already is at peace in you, immortal as itself. The body can bring you neither peace nor turmoil; neither joy nor pain. It is a means, and not an end. [The body] has no purpose of itself, but only what is given to it. The body will seem to be whatever is the means for reaching the goal that you assign to it. Only the mind can set a purpose, and only the mind can see the means for its accomplishment, and justify its use. Peace and guilt are both conditions of the mind, to be attained. And these conditions are the home of the emotion [Love or fear] that calls them forth, and therefore is compatible with them. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV.B.9:1-3;10. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We always have freedom of choice. We choose between accepting the truth of What we are as created by God or believing that we are a separate identity made by the ego idea of separation. This is the full range of options we are free to choose between. It is the choice between the Reality and illusion. Which choice we make results in the experience of eternal peace and changeless Love or the perception of being alone and vulnerable to attack and pain.

Either choice is mutually exclusive. When we believe we are a unique and separate identity, housed in a body, fear and pain are inevitable. The experience of eternal peace and the innocence of Love is inconceivable when we believe we are separate. But when we choose to accept God’s gift of eternal peace and extend that peace without limit, the perception of loss and pain is inconceivable. We accept God’s gift by sharing It without limit because that is what God’s gift is — eternal sharing of Himself. The Holy Spirit is our Guide to teach us how to share the limitless and let go of our belief in limitation and separation.

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

Love is extension. To withhold the smallest gift is not to know love’s purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back but one belief, one offering, and love is gone, because you asked a substitute to take its place. And now must war, the substitute for peace, come with the one alternative [specialness] that you can choose for love. Your choosing it has given it all the reality it seems to have.

Beliefs will never openly attack each other because conflicting outcomes are impossible. But an unrecognized belief is a decision to war in secret, where the results of conflict are kept unknown and never brought to reason, to be considered sensible or not. And many senseless outcomes have been reached, and meaningless decisions have been made and kept hidden, to become beliefs now given power to direct all subsequent decisions. Mistake you not the power of these hidden warriors to disrupt your peace.

All that is ever cherished as a hidden belief, to be defended though unrecognized, is faith in specialness.

Specialness is the great dictator of the wrong decisions. Here is the grand illusion of what you are and what your brother is. And here is what must make the body dear and worth preserving. Specialness must be defended. Illusions can attack it, and they do. For what your brother must become to keep your specialness is an illusion. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.I.1:1-2:4;3:1;5:1-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Because only Love is real, the extension of Love is the extension of everything. Nothing else is real. But belief in specialness offers an illusion of something else of value other than Love. The illusion of specialness is defended by believing in differences that make all things seem to be different and therefore special. It is this belief in differences that is at the core of every disagreement, conflict, battle and war.

Peace will return to our minds when we are willing to give up our belief in specialness. Without specialness, there is nothing to defend. Without specialness, Love extends freely, without interruption or limit.

Let us practice questioning our beliefs when any form of conflict seems to appear. Let us open our minds to the Light of the Holy Spirit to show us the mistaken beliefs behind the conflict and let them go.

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