Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Seeing the Dream with Happy Laughter

How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do?… No one asleep and dreaming in the world remembers his attack [thought of being separate] upon himself. No one believes there really was a time when he knew nothing of a body, and could never have conceived this world as real. He would have seen at once that these ideas are one illusion, too ridiculous for anything but to be laughed away. How serious [bodies] now appear to be! And no one can remember when they would have met with laughter and with disbelief. We can remember this, if we but look directly at [the bodies’] cause. And we will see the grounds for laughter, not a cause for fear.

In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the [dream’s] cause, and looks not to effects.… He bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its foolish cause and laugh with Him a while. You judge effects, but He has judged their cause. And by His judgment are effects removed. Perhaps you come in tears. But hear Him say, “My brother, holy Son of God, behold your idle dream, in which this could occur.” And you will leave the holy instant with your laughter and your brother’s joined with His. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VIII.5:1-2,4-10;9:1,3-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The cause of the dream is the choice to believe the “tiny, mad idea” that we have separated from the oneness of God’s Love. The Holy Spirit judges this belief as untrue because only Love is real. Thus the dream of being a separate body in a world of separation is unreal. What is not real can have no real effect. So the Holy Spirit’s judgment removes all the seeming effects of the dream.

We can be released from all of dream-thoughts of fear and guilt by bringing them to Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His vision that will show us only Love is real. He will teach us to see the world through the eyes of innocence and Love. We will learn to see past the images of the dream with happy laughter.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Peace of God

It is not necessary to follow fear through all the circuitous routes by which it burrows underground and hides in darkness, to emerge in forms quite different from what it is. Yet it is necessary to examine each one as long as you would retain the principle that governs all of them. When you are willing to regard [fears], not as separate, but as different manifestations of the same idea, and one you do not want, they go together. The idea is simply this: You believe it is possible to be host to the ego or hostage to God.

You are unwilling to recognize that the ego, which you invited, is treacherous only to those who think they are its host. The ego will never let you perceive this, since this recognition would make it homeless. For when the recognition dawns clearly, you will not be deceived by any form the ego takes to protect itself from your sight. Each form will be recognized as but a cover for the one idea that hides behind them all; that love demands sacrifice, and is therefore inseparable from attack and fear. And that guilt is the price of love, which must be paid by fear.

You will not succeed in being partial hostage to the ego, for it keeps no bargains and would leave you nothing. Nor can you be partial host to it. You must choose between total freedom and total bondage, for there are no alternatives but these. You have tried many compromises in the attempt to avoid recognizing the one decision you must make. And yet it is the recognition of the decision, just as it is, that makes the decision so easy. Salvation is simple, being of God, and therefore very easy to understand. Do not try to project [salvation] from you and see it outside yourself. In you are both the question and the answer; the demand for sacrifice [the question] and the peace of God [the Answer]. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.X.5:1-4;6:4-8;9. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

All the distress, unhappiness and guilt we experience in the world is the effect of a single choice. By choosing to believe we are separate from the Love of God, we have denied the peace, happiness and eternal Love that is our natural state. That choice invites the ego into our mind.

We identify with the ego as our identity because we believe we want to be separate and unique. The price we pay for this choice is fear and guilt. Yet we are always free to choose once again. We are free to choose to accept God’s gift of all of Himself. In this acceptance we remember that we dwell in the peace of God eternally.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning Our True Identity Is Love

There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin [separation] and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. And where [Father and Son] are is Heaven and is peace.

The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within.

Nothing is asked of you but to accept the changeless and eternal that abide in [God’s Son], for your Identity is there. The peace in you can but be found in [God’s Son, every brother]. And every thought of love you offer him but brings you nearer to your wakening to peace eternal and to endless joy.

Forgiving dreams are means to step aside from dreaming of a world outside yourself. And leading finally beyond all dreams, unto the peace of everlasting life. (A Course in Miracles, T-29.V.1;2:3-4;3:3-4;8:5-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We, along with every brother, are united as God’s one Son. To know our true Identity we must not see anyone as separate from us. We must let go of the dream world of separation. Forgiveness, guided by the Holy Spirit, is the means to let go of the dream.

The Holy Spirit’s loving lessons teach us that what we thought could harm us has no substance and has no effect whatsoever. The Truth in us is united with the Truth everywhere. Nothing but the Truth exists, for only Love is real. As we learn to forgive the dream, we see the Love in our brother and we learn of the Love within us. As we accept this Love without reservation, we remember our true Identity in Heaven. We know that we live in Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Practice That Returns Us to the Peace of God

You have probably reacted for years as if you were being crucified. This is a marked tendency of the separated, who always refuse to consider what they have done to themselves. Projection means anger, anger fosters assault, and assault promotes fear. The real meaning of the crucifixion lies in the apparent intensity of the assault of some of the Sons of God upon another. This, of course, is impossible, and must be fully understood as impossible. Otherwise, I cannot serve as a model for learning.

The message the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution, because you cannot be persecuted.

If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution.… Rather, teach your own perfect immunity, which is the truth in you, and realize that it cannot be assailed.… You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them as false justifications for anger. There can be no justification for the unjustifiable. Do not believe there is [justification], and do not teach that there is. Remember always that what you believe you will teach. Believe with me, and we will become equal as teachers. (A Course in Miracles, T-6.I.3;4:6;6:2,4,7-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

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Anger can never be justified because only Love is real. The perception of harm comes from the belief in being separate from Love. Wherever there is perception of lack of Love, there is fear. If we identify with a body, a separate identity, fear is inevitable because we have denied our identity is Love.

Whenever we react with fear to events, situations, ideas or our own thoughts, it is because we believe we are something that we are not. This false identity is the basis for all defenses and attacks. Neither defensiveness nor attack could occur to us if we identity wholeheartedly with the Love we are.

Whenever we react with apprehension to anything, we need to remind ourselves to ask the Holy Spirit for His help to recognize illusions for what they are. Seen as the nothingness they are, illusions will have no effect. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can overlook illusions and see the truth of Love that is everywhere. Behavior of a body that does not appear loving is simply a call for Love that warrants Love’s extension. Practicing this response will heal our minds and return us to the peace of God.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Heart of Our Being Is Love

To heal is to make happy. I have told you to think how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many you have refused. This is the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourself. The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share it, and promotes the mind’s natural impulse to respond as one. Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time, and thus deprive others of the joy of responding wholeheartedly.

To be wholehearted you must be happy. If fear and love cannot coexist, and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, the only possible whole state is that of love. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is offered. Every part benefits, and benefits equally. (A Course in Miracles, T-5.in.1-2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Our true Self shares God’s eternal joy. If we are not supremely happy, we are believing that we are disconnected from our Creator. This is an artificial state made by the ego’s belief that it is separate from God. The apparent absence of wholehearted joy is a sign that we have accepted the ego’s definition of what we are. Because only Love is real, the ego’s limited definition of our identity could never be true. Our mistaken belief in the identity made by the ego thought of separation is what needs healing.

The Holy Spirit will help us see beyond our mistaken belief that we are absent from Love. He will teach us that we are wholly immersed in the oneness of God’s Love and that Love is What we are. This change of thought is what brings us healing.

Let us remind ourselves that we are Love and only Love. Our single desire is to be Love by sharing It. This is how we respond wholeheartedly in every moment. For the heart of our Being is Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering the Love of God Is Our Home

The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. The means of war are not the means of peace, and what the warlike would remember is not love. War is impossible unless belief in victory is cherished. Conflict within you must imply that you believe the ego has the power to be victorious. Why else would you identify with it? Surely you realize the ego is at war with God. [Certainly the ego] has no enemy. Yet just as certain is [the ego’s] fixed belief it has an enemy that it must overcome and will succeed.

Conflict must be between two forces. It cannot exist between one power and nothingness. There is nothing you could attack that is not part of you. And by attacking it you make two illusions of yourself, in conflict with each other. And this occurs whenever you look on anything that God created with anything but love. Conflict is fearful, for it is the birth of fear. Yet what is born of nothing cannot win reality through battle. Why would you fill your world with conflicts with yourself? Let all this madness be undone for you, and turn in peace to the rememberance of God, still shining in your quiet mind.

Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. War is the condition in which fear is born, and grows and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state where love abides, and seeks to share itself. (A Course in Miracles, T-23.I.1;8;12:1-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The Love of God is One and cannot be in conflict with itself. There is no conflict within What is all the same. God’s Son is an extension of Love’s oneness and shares Its freedom from conflict.

All our perceptions of conflict reflect our belief in illusions of differences. This belief is based on our identification with the body, the ego’s chosen home. Release from conflict and fear comes as we learn to recognize illusions are unreal and have no power to do anything. As we let the Holy Spirit help us see past the ego’s false images, we remember the safety and peace of your Home in the Love of God.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting God’s Love as Our Identity

The rituals of the god of sickness [ego] are strange and very demanding. Joy is never permitted, for depression is the sign of allegiance to [the ego]. Depression means that you have forsworn God. Many are afraid of blasphemy, but they do not understand what it means. They do not realize that to deny God is to deny their own Identity, and in this sense the wages of sin is death. The sense is very literal; denial of life perceives its opposite, as all forms of denial replace what is with what is not. No one can really do this [deny their Identity], but that you can think you can and believe you have is beyond dispute.

Do not forget, however, that to deny God will inevitably result in projection, and you will believe that others and not yourself have done this to you. You must receive the message you give because it is the message you want. You may believe that you judge your brothers by the messages they give you, but you have judged them by the message you give to them. Do not attribute your denial of joy to them, or you cannot see the spark [of Love] in them that would bring joy to you. It is the denial of the spark that brings depression, for whenever you see your brothers without [the spark of Love], you are denying God.

The Love of God is in everything He created, for His Son is everywhere. Look with peace upon your brothers, and God will come rushing into your heart in gratitude for your gift to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-10.V.1-2;7:6-7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

When we perceive a brother as offensive, we have judged him as separate from us. What is one with us could not offend us, for it would be Self denial. We can only take offense about something we believe is separate from us.

The world of form is the representation of our decision to be separate and alone, which is the denial of God. To return to the joy of Heaven, we need to let go of our allegiance to the ego (denial of God). We need to let go of our belief that we are separate, a body with its own unique identity.

As we accept God’s gift of His eternal, changeless Love, His joy and His peace, the god of sickness will no longer find a place in our mind. Our acknowledgement of God as our Creator and our Source brings God’s gratitude to our hearts, for the gift we give Him is the acceptance of His Creation.

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