Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

Subscribe

Click link to go to:

View all articlesArticle index

Reclaiming Our True Identity

The search for the special relationship is the sign that you equate yourself with the ego and not with God. For the special relationship has value only to the ego. To the ego, unless a relationship has special value it has no meaning, for it perceives all love as special.

The special relationship is totally meaningless without a body. If you value it, you must also value the body. And what you value you will keep. The special relationship is a device for limiting your self to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to theirs.

…the only value the body has is to enable you to bring your brothers to the bridge with you, and to be released together there.

Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship which still attracts you, enter with [the Holy Spirit] into a holy instant, and there let Him release you. He needs only your willingness to share His perspective to give it to you completely. And your willingness need not be complete because His is perfect. It is His task to atone for your unwillingness by His perfect faith, and it is His faith you share with Him there. Out of your recognition of your unwillingness for your release, His perfect willingness is given you. Call upon Him, for Heaven is at His Call. And let Him call on Heaven for you. (A Course in Miracles, T-16.VI.1:1-3;4:1-4;6:6;12. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Bodies cannot truly join; only minds can. This is why the Course puts so much emphasis on teaching us that we are not a body. This is a radical reversal of what we have taught ourselves we are. We need not be afraid of this reversal. The Holy Spirit will guide us gently and lovingly to learn that we don’t really want the body as our identity. Because it is an illusion, the body offers us nothing of value. It only seems to have value because we have taught ourselves the body is our identity.

The Holy Spirit teaches us how to let go of this mistaken identity by teaching us that it limits us and brings us pain and guilt. We learn that what we thought we valued, we don’t really want. Once we realize it has no value, it is easier to dismiss it. This is a process guided by the Holy Spirit that gently leads us to focus on the Light of Love in everyone, including ourselves, instead of the body. This lesson frees us from the limitations of the ego to join the unlimited Love of Heaven. It is a journey that leads us Home.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Exchanging Ego’s Seeing for Holy Spirit’s Vision

What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.

What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to let it go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I can exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is not this a better choice than the one I made before?

The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything be­cause I am trying to think without God. What I call “my” thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 51, W-pI.51.1:3-5;3:3-8;4:2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 51 Insights.)

When we chose to accept the idea of separation from God, we could no longer share our thoughts with God. This left us unaware of the constant, changeless, eternal flow of God’s Love for His Son. It left us with an empty feeling and a sense of guilt for having damaged our relationship with God. We dealt with this by burying this decision in an unconscious part of our mind. The only thoughts that remained conscious in our mind are thoughts not shared with God and therefore thoughts with no meaning, no reality. We feel adrift, with nothing stable in a world of chaos.

The thought system of separation (ego) made up a way to deal with this dilemma. By projecting a world of external images, we perceive a world that happens to us for which we have no recognized responsibility. We do not see that we are the cause of what we perceive because we made the decision unconscious. This protects the ego by excluding God’s Creation and all the thoughts we share with God.

We can reverse our mistaken choice to accept separation by being willing to let the Holy Spirit guide our thoughts. His choices are always for truth so He guides our thoughts to the truth of our oneness with our Creator. The reality of the Love in our brother and ourselves will have greater acceptance in our mind. As we accept this more and more, the images of the ego fade in their importance. The Light of Love that is everywhere to be seen with the Holy Spirit’s vision predominates until we accept only the Thoughts we share with God. We remember our Home is Heaven.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Remembering Christ Is Within

…give the Holy Spirit everything that would hurt you. Let yourself be healed completely that you may join with Him in healing, and let us celebrate our release together by releasing everyone with us. Leave nothing behind, for release is total, and when you have accepted it with me you will give it with me. All pain and sacrifice and littleness will disappear in our relationship, which is as innocent as our relationship with our Father, and as powerful. Pain will be brought to us and disappear in our presence, and without pain there can be no sacrifice. And without sacrifice there love must be.

You who believe that sacrifice is love must learn that sacrifice is separation from love. For sacrifice brings guilt as surely as love brings peace. Guilt is the condition of sacrifice, as peace is the condition for the awareness of your relationship with God.

As long as you perceive the body as your reality, so long will you perceive yourself as lonely and deprived.

Say to your brother:

I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself.
I know that you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself.
In the name of my freedom I choose your release, because I recognize that we will be released together.
(T-15.XI.3;4:1-3;5:1;10:4-7)

When we believe the body is our identity, we have chosen limitation and lack and denied the eternal, infinite and unlimited Love that we are. We sacrifice reality and choose illusionary substitutes instead. This choice leaves us feeling incomplete and searching for our completion. But the truth in us is already complete. We only need to let go of our belief that we have separated from the Love that created us and that remains our Reality.

When we look upon a brother as a body, we are demanding of him the same sacrifice we have demanded of ourselves. We are using this image of our brother to confirm the image we believe about ourselves to make separation appear real.

The truth is that in the oneness of Love, every brother is part of us. As we practice giving all our perceptions of our brother and the world to the Holy Spirit, He will teach us to see with Christ’s vision. The awareness of the innocence of Christ will be reborn and we will be set free from the mistaken belief that we are limited and separate. Our relationship with our brother and our Father will be restored to the Reality of Heaven.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Bringing Fearful Unconscious Choices to Be Healed

Heaven is the decision I must make.

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.

The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives when only one is seen as valuable; the other as a wholly worthless thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a choice like this?

We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a fool­ish, trivial mistake. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 138, W-pI.138.9;10:1-4;11:2-5. See also ACIM Lesson 138 Insights.)

The decision to believe separation is real is hidden in part of our mind that we made unconscious. The world seems real to us only because we are unaware of our decision to believe illusions are real. Thus we don’t question all the things we experience in the world — conflict, uncertainty, vulnerability, guilt and fear. There seems to be no resolution to any of the problems we experience. Sometimes we manage to find a substitute illusion that seems more acceptable or even desirable. But the underlying cause remains unresolved because we have made it unconscious.

The first step in making the decision for Heaven is to bring the decision for separation and opposition into our conscious awareness. We cannot make another choice when we do not recognize the choice we already made and hid in our unconscious mind. As we let the Holy Spirit teach us His healing lessons by raising our unconscious choices to conscious awareness, we free ourselves to choose Heaven in place of the hell of separation. A “life” of conflict is replaced by deep peace that cannot be disturbed.

Today we choose the Holy Spirit’s lessons by letting Him judge all our perceptions on our behalf. He will help us recognize what is false and nothing, with no value. Heaven becomes the obvious choice because it is everything we want. We become willing to accept the Truth of What we are.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Christ’s Vision Reveals Our True Self

What could be secret from God’s Will? Yet you believe that you have secrets. What could your secrets be except another “will” that is your own, apart from His? Reason would tell you that this is no secret that need be hidden as a sin. But a mistake indeed! Let not your fear of sin [separation] protect it from correction, for the attraction of guilt is only fear. [Fear] is the one emotion that you made, whatever it may seem to be. This is the emotion of secrecy, of private thoughts and of the body. This is the one emotion that opposes love, and always leads to sight of differences and loss of sameness. [Fear] is the one emotion that keeps you blind, dependent on the self you think you made to lead you through the world it [ego] made for you.

Your sight [Christ’s vision] was given you, along with everything that you can understand. You will perceive no difficulty in understanding what this vision tells you, for everyone sees only what he thinks he is. And what your sight would show you, you will understand because it is the truth. Only your [true] vision can convey to you what you can see. It reaches you directly, without a need to be interpreted to you.

…no two brothers can unite except through Christ, Whose vision sees them one.

Where Christ has entered no one is alone, for never could He find a home in separate ones. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.I.4:1-5:5;7:6;8:6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The sight of differences — different times, different places, different shapes and personalities — is a sure sign that we are believing in a false image of ourselves, made by the ego to make separation seem real. This belief has made a secret world, hidden from God. For if God’s Love were to enter this world it would disappear into the nothingness from which it came. The ego’s world of separation cannot exist in the oneness of Love.

The ego’s image of a body offers a substitute for vision. But like everything else the ego makes, it can only “see” within the limits of the world of separation. The body’s vision excludes awareness of our true Self. Though we chose the ego’s seeing, Christ’s vision remains in our mind, ever present and ready to show us our true Self, united with our brother. In the holy relationship, we choose Christ’s vision as our interpreter, which shows us our brother and our Self are one and the same.

Today we remind ourselves frequently to ask, “How would the vision of Christ perceive this situation?”

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Awakening to Love

Goals that are meaningless are not attained.

Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely do the thing you came for. But the world can not dictate the goal for which you search, unless you give it power to do so.

Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for Heaven, and must find the goal you really want. No one can fail to want this goal and reach it in the end. God’s Son can not seek vainly, though he try to force delay, deceive himself and think that it is hell he seeks. When he is wrong, he finds correction. When he wanders off, he is led back to his ap­pointed task.

No one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his Creator, nor affect His perfect, timeless and unchanging Love. You will find Heaven. Everything you seek but this will fall away. Yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go because you do not want it. You will reach the goal you really want as certainly as God created you in sinlessness. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 131, W-pI.131.2:1;3:1-3;4-5. See also ACIM Lesson 131 Insights.)

Everyone in the world is searching to fill a perceived emptiness. This emptiness is not clearly defined in our thinking because there is nothing in the world that will fill it. We feel this emptiness because the world was made to hide from what we truly want to find. It was made to deny Love, which is our Source and our Creator. While we follow the ego’s direction, our search will always be futile because what we truly want cannot be found in a world that denies it.

The urge to search comes from the recognition that we are in an alien world we do not truly want. We want to be the Love we were created to be. We want the peace that comes with the oneness of Love. We want the joy that comes with joining with the eternal extension of Love.

Though the world is the denial of Love, we have the Holy Spirit in our mind to guide us back to the full remembrance of the Love we are. As we learn to turn away from the ego and turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance, we learn that there is nothing in the world we really want. As the value we give the world recedes in our mind, Love draws us to Itself. It is inevitable that we remember we are Love because it is the remembrance of changeless Truth. The dream world no longer interests us and we awaken to Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Learning to See from the Right Perspective

Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception. It is not a fact at all. There is no form it takes that will not disappear if seen aright.

Pain is but witness to the Son’s mistakes in what he thinks he is. It is a dream of fierce retaliation for a crime that could not be committed; for attack on what is wholly unassail­able. It is a nightmare of abandonment by an Eternal Love, which could not leave the Son whom It created out of love.

It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harm­lessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness. (W-pI.190.1:1-4;2:3-5;5)A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 190

Pain is always associated with belief in being a separate identity, disconnected from our Creator. The ego’s principle image for our separate identity is the body. When we identify with the body, we perceive from the wrong perspective of being separate. This perspective could only be believable in a dream of separation. This perspective must be undone for us to be pain free and at Home in the joy of God. 

Whether we experience emotional or physical pain, healing comes by changing our perspective from being a separate identity to being Love in the oneness of Love. From within the dream, we cannot find this perspective. This is why we must practice letting the Holy Spirit direct all our perceptions. As we are willing to turn them over, the Holy Spirit will give us His perspective from the point of view that knows only Love is real. There is nothing else to see, nothing else to know. This practice leads us out of the pain of separation back to the joy of being part of the continuous extension of Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.
Printable Page

Page 2 of 5 pages  < 1 2 3 4 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Daily Inspiration.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.

Free Online Resources

Electronic "Magazine"Sign up to receive periodic emails with thoughts to ponder, inspirational articles and the latest news.

Subscribe to daily emails of Workbook Lesson Insights.

ACIM Text Made Simple — answers to hundreds of questions about the Text. Click here.

Daily Inspiration Blog — Thoughts to inspire your day. Click here.

Inspiring journals by Pathways of Light ministers applying the principles of ACIM. Click here.

Miracles News — hundreds of inspiring miracle stories. Click here.
 

We'd Like to Hear from You

Request Free Printed Program & Product Catalog

Or call 1-800-323-7284 (US & Canada) or 386-615-7284.

Click here to email your questions.

United Kingdom: Click here to email your questions about Pathways of Light in the UK or call +44 (0) 207 7262 0209.

Give us your feedback or report site problems.
 

Pathways Ministers Audio/Videos

ACIM Spiritual Counselor Training

Inspired by the principles presented in A Course in Miracles, this ministry training focuses on accepting the mind healing that is guided by the Teacher within, the Holy Spirit. As our minds are healed, we become Holy Spirit’s instruments of healing. For more information click here.
 

ACIM Practitioner Courses

If you would like a deeper understanding of key principles of A Course in Miracles, the 24 Pathways of Light ACIM Practitioner courses provide a complete, multimedia package to help you make ACIM principles a ready resource to call upon in your mind throughout your day. Click here for more information.
 

Featured Items

Minister training based on A Course in Miracles Spiritual Counselor Training — based on principles of A Course in Miracles, including ordination. More….

Hey, Holy Spirit,
It's Me Again Hey, Holy Spirit, It's Me Again by Rev. Myron Jones. An indispensable guide for anyone on the path of ACIM with insights on the 1st 90 lessons. More….

Tru Eternal Life and A Course in Miracles by Jon Mundy, Phd. A Path to Eternity in the Essential Text. Learn more.

True Forgiveness True Forgiveness by Rev. Jennifer McSween. The Proven Path from Pain to Power in 5 Simple Steps. Learn more.

Listen & Receive 30-Day Home Study Listen & Receive 30-Day Home Study Learn to receive insight for your life in a form that is perfect for you …heal fears, find joy & peace. Learn more.

Minister training based on A Course in Miracles Spiritual Counselor Training — based on principles of A Course in Miracles, including ordination. More….

Miracles Practitioner courses24 ACIM Practitioner courses including 50-page study guide, CD's with facilitator. More….

Tru Live Your Happy by Rev. Maria Felipe. A real-world approach to living happily, based on A Course in Miracles. Learn more.

From the Christ Mind From the Christ Mind scribed by Darrell Morley Price. A simple, yet profound message that you can immediately apply to current circumstances. More….

Forgiving KevinForgiving Kevin Audio book by Rev. Larry Glenz. A moving and inspiring true story of a father/son relationship that withstood seven years of addiction, recovery, and relapse. More….

Healing Family
RelationshipsHealing Family Relationships Applying the Principles of A Course in Miracles 6 CD audio book by Rev. Myron Jones. Learn how family relationships offer fertile grounds for forgiveness and healing your judgments of the world. More.