Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Finding Our True Identity

Everything the ego tells you that you need will hurt you. For although the ego urges you again and again to get, it leaves you nothing, for what you get it will demand of you.”

Therefore ask not of yourself what you need, for you do not know, and your advice to yourself will hurt you. For what you think you need will merely serve to tighten up your world against the light, and render you unwilling to question the value that this world can really hold for you.

Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. For He will give you all things that do not block the way to light.

Leave, then, your needs to Him.

…remember what you really want, and say:

The Holy Spirit leads me unto Christ, and where else would I go? What need have I but to awake in Him?

Then follow Him in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely through all dangers to your peace of mind this world may set before you. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.VIII.11:1-2,5-6;12:1-2;13:1;14:1-15:1. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ultimate goal of A Course in Miracles is to lead us to the peace of mind that is our natural state as the Son of God. It has a two part strategy to achieve this goal. One part is to help us realize that the world we experience has no value. It holds nothing that we truly want, for it can only offer meaningless illusions. By itself, this would not be enough, for it would leave us frightened with no sense if identity.

So the Holy Spirit must also teach us the truth that we really want: We remain the changeless, eternal Love that God created us to be. This is our true Identity. This process leads us to recognize there is no value in the world. But all value is in the Self that God created one with Him. Here we find the safety, certainty and peace of mind that everyone seeks. As we let go of values we have placed in the world, the Light of our true Self shines forth and we remember Who we are. We rest in the peace and Love of God.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Exchanging Misery for Joy and Peace

Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up that hides the face of Christ from those who look with unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind.

Here is the answer! Do not turn away in aimless wandering again. Accept salvation now. It is the gift of God, and not the world. The world can give no gifts of any value to a mind that has received what God has given as its own. God wills salvation be received today, and that the intricacies of your dreams no longer hide their nothingness from you.

Open your eyes today and look upon a happy world of safety and of peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the place of hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes, and fill your heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly born, arise in your awareness. What you will remember then can never be described. Yet your forgiveness offers it to you.

Remind yourself how precious are these gifts with this reminder, which has power to hold your gifts in your awareness through the day:

Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 122, W-pI.122.3:1-2;7-8;14:2-5. See also ACIM Lesson 122 Insights.)

Forgiveness seems difficult in the world. Some things are even perceived as unforgivable. But we pay a steep price for our unforgiveness. Unforgiveness brings with it pain, sadness, fear, guilt, resentment, all effects of unforgiveness.

We are free to choose another option. We can exchange the “benefits” of unforgiveness for the benefits of true forgiveness — joy, peace of mind and changeless Love. We are so embedded in the world that we cannot make this choice without help. We think we need to hold others responsible for our misery.

Without this projected blame, we recognize that our thoughts are the cause of our misery. Without a way out of this responsibility, it seems intolerable. But we have been given the means to find the peace and happiness that will replace our misery through Holy Spirit’s help to truly forgive.

Today, with every thought that disturbs our peace and happiness, we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to heal our mind and see past the disturbing perception. He will cleanse our beliefs which justify unforgiveness so that we can see the reality of Love’s presence always.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Let Holy Spirit Lead Us to Truth

The Holy Spirit needs a happy learner, in whom His mission can be happily accomplished.

To those unhappy learners who would teach themselves nothing, and delude themselves into believing that it is not nothing, the Holy Spirit says, with steadfast quietness:

The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, and I will place it gently in the holy place where [your faith] belongs. You will find no deception there, but only the simple truth. And you will love it because you will understand it.

If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything you have learned to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you. And then begin to learn the joyous lessons that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true.

All this lies in the Holy Spirit’s plan to free you from the past, and open up the way to freedom for you. For truth is true. What else could ever be, or ever was? This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that you believe is locked forever. You made this door of nothing, and behind it is nothing. The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing. Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.II.1:1;3:2-9;6:1-2;7:2-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

While we believe the world is real, we cannot distinguish truth from illusion because the world is a dream that denies truth. This denial blocks truth from our mind and seems to lock us into a world of fear, guilt and lack of Love. Were it not for God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to teach us how to distinguish truth from illusion, we would be locked into this dark world.

The way Home to the Light of Love is in our mind. We need only turn over all our beliefs to the Holy Spirit for His gentle correction. He will purify our beliefs, retaining only what is in alignment with God’s Love. The rest He dismisses for the nothingness it is.

Holy Spirit, guide our thoughts today. Heal our fearful beliefs and teach us to see the Love that is everywhere to be seen.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Changing Our Values Heals Our Mind

I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seri­ously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And I would go beyond these words today, and past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.

Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be impossible. Let me not fail to trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 284, W-pII.284. See also ACIM Lesson 284 Insights.)

The body and a separate mind are illusions, so physical and emotional pain are also illusions.

Our experience in the world is that these illusions are real. But true perception would see past these false ideas to the changeless Love beyond the forms of the world. This is why loss is not loss if properly perceived. God’s gift of His eternal Love can never be lost. Accepting this truth feels like a big leap that seems frightening and perhaps even impossible.

The Course acknowledges our resistance and fear. We are not expected to fully accept that only Love is real with a single decision. We have built many barriers in our minds against the truth. This lesson describes the process most of us go through to let go of our barriers to Love’s Presence. mistaken beliefs and perceptions.

Our first step is to affirm the truth, even if we don’t believe it. It’s the beginning of our willingness to accept the healing of our false beliefs. This leads to a progression of greater and greater acceptance. We are able to accept changes in some beliefs, yet still tenaciously hang on to others for fear of losing everything we value.

As we progress in our acceptance, we learn that we were mistaken in placing value in false images and erroneous beliefs. More and more we are willing to let them go. Finally we reach the point where all we value is joining in the oneness of Love. All other thoughts are disregarded as valueless; we are no longer interested in hanging on to them. Now we are ready to accept our place in Heaven, which God has saved for us. We remember the Home we never left in truth.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forget the Past to Remember Eternal Love

The past is over. It can touch me not.

Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This [real world] the past was made to hide, for this [is] the world that can be looked on only now. It has no past. For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.

Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt. And here am I made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain? (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 289, W-pII.289. See also ACIM Lesson 289 Insights.)

The ego teaches that the lessons of the past are essential for our “survival” in the present. Thus all our interpretations are projections of our past learning. These projections hide the presence of Love’s oneness in the eternal now.

As we learn to forgive, to let go of the past, the Light of Love is revealed now. The sense of potential threat that memories of the past engender fades away, making way for the experience of God’s perfect peace and joy.

All our attempts to project the past on the present have no effect on the presence of Love. They only hide it from our awareness. As we accept our unity in this Love, we know we are perfectly safe. We are loved and join in Love’s extension. Fear of death is replaced by the joy of living in Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Forgiveness

Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away.

Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone. Now do you know him not. But you are free to learn of him, and learn of him anew. Now is he born again to you, and you are born again to him, without the past that sentenced him to die, and you with him. Now is he free to live as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away, and left a place for truth to be reborn. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.I.12-13. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego has its own curriculum. Its lesson plan has one goal — to teach us that we are separate from God, alone and destined to die. Death is the ultimate image that seems to confirm that separation is real. This lesson ultimately brings with it guilt, for it teaches that we have been successful in denying God, His Creation, His one Son. This is perceived as an attack on God and projects on God the fearful retribution with which the ego would respond to attack. Thus the effect of the ego’s lesson is guilt.

Yet only the oneness of God’s Love is real. The ego’s lessons could never be true. The instant the ego’s curriculum was accepted, God responded with the Holy Spirit, Whose curriculum teaches the opposite lesson. The Holy Spirit’s lesson plan teaches us to see the reality of Love’s oneness. It teaches us to look beyond the appearances of the ego-made world to the changeless oneness of Love. Every perception of separation is a call to remember Love.

The Holy Spirit helps us answer this call with Love. What the ego used to reinforce guilt, the Holy Spirit uses to heal our misperception and remember we live in Love. When we accept the Holy Spirit’s curriculum, the goal of our learning is shifted from guilt to innocence, from death to the Life we live in Love, from limitation to the all encompassing oneness of our true Self as God’s one Son. In each moment we choose which curriculum we want to learn.

We choose the Holy Spirit’s curriculum by offering all our perceptions to the Holy Spirit with willingness to learn the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love. We choose this curriculum today.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing Right-Minded Perception

Spirit is the Thought of God which He created like Himself. The unified spirit is God’s one Son, or Christ.

In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In this illusory state, the concept of an “individual mind” seems to be meaningful. [Mind] is therefore described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit and ego.

Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well.

The other [ego] part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions.

Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place.”

Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. (A Course in Miracles, C-1.1:3-3:1;4:1;5:2;6:1)

If we align with the ego, we are in the wrong mind; we believe we have separated ourselves from our Creator and Source. Our belief makes this separated world seem real to us. The ego’s filters block the unity of Love from our awareness by only accepting what aligns with our beliefs.

Yet denial cannot make real. Though we may be wholly engaged in the illusions made by the ego’s denial, the unity of Love continues on unabated and eternally. Our right mind remembers this. The Holy Spirit is in our right mind to guide us out of wrong-mindedness and back to the recognition of reality of unified Love. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we learn to forgive the misperceptions and false beliefs and accept the Life we live in Love.

Today we choose right mindedness by stepping back from our perceptions and welcoming the Holy Spirit’s vision of Love’s oneness.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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