Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

Subscribe

Click link to go to:

View all articlesArticle index

Our Journey to the Real World

The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. ²Fear is not its goal, for the escape from guilt becomes its aim. ³The value of forgiveness is perceived and takes the place of idols, which are sought no longer, for their “gifts” are not held dear. ⁴No rules are idly set, and no demands are made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear. ⁵Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really are. ⁶And it is recognized that all things must be first forgiven, and then understood.

Here [in this world], it is thought that understanding is acquired by attack. ²There [in the real world], it is clear that by attack is understanding lost. ³The folly of pursuing guilt as goal is fully recognized. ⁴And idols are not wanted there, for guilt is understood as the sole cause of pain in any form. ⁵No one is tempted by its vain appeal, for suffering and death have been perceived as things not wanted and not striven for. ⁶The possibility of freedom has been grasped and welcomed, and the means by which it can be gained can now be understood. ⁷The world becomes a place of hope, because its only purpose is to be a place where hope of happiness can be fulfilled. ⁸And no one stands outside this hope, because the world has been united in belief the purpose of the world is one which all must share, if hope be more than just a dream.

Not yet is Heaven quite remembered, for the purpose of forgiveness still remains. ²Yet everyone is certain he will go beyond forgiveness, and he but remains until it is made perfect in himself. ³He has no wish for anything but this. ⁴And fear has dropped away, because he is united in his purpose with himself. ⁵There is a hope of happiness in him so sure and constant he can barely stay and wait a little longer, with his feet still touching earth. ⁶Yet is he glad to wait till every hand is joined, and every heart made ready to arise and go with him. ⁷For thus is he made ready for the step in which is all forgiveness left behind. (A Course in Miracles, T-30.V.1:1–3:7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The reward for complete forgiveness is awakening to Heaven. Heaven has always been our Home but perception of separation and guilt stand as a barrier to our awareness of our inheritance. Having accepted the idea of a world where separation seems real and guilt justified, the world now has only one meaningful purpose. We need to forgive the world for all we have thought it was. No dark corners can be left unforgiven. Any unforgiving thought, any reservation that there may still be value in this world worth keeping, blocks attainment of the real world.

Achieving complete forgiveness seems like a daunting task. This perception comes from the ego’s need to maintain its dominance of our thoughts. But each unloving thought forgiven and released makes the next forgiveness opportunity easier. As we progress on our forgiving journey, we discover that many issues share a common thread. When that thread is dispelled through forgiveness, many corollary fears and guilts are dispelled. Our life experience is increasingly peaceful and happy. We more frequently answer calls for love with love and we receive the Love we give. The practice of forgiveness is a journey to the joy and peace of the real world.

© 2021, 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

The Joy of Giving and Receiving Love

To give and to receive are one in truth.

Vision depends upon today’s idea. ²The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites. ³And what is light except the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true? ⁴Even that one will disappear, because the Thought behind it will appear instead to take its place. ⁵And now you are at peace forever, for the dream is over then.

True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. ²It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. ³And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there.

This is the light that shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal. ²This is the light that brings your peace of mind to other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with themselves. ³This is the light that heals because it brings single perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning comes.

Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of one Thought whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor which appears to be in second place. ²Here it is understood that both [giving and receiving] occur together, that the Thought remain complete. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 108, W-108.1:1–4:2. See also ACIM Lesson 108 Insights.)

I remember when I first fell in love I was afraid to use the L-word. It seemed that to say “I love you” would mean a loss of freedom. It would require a commitment that entailed some vague loss of freedom. This reservation reflects the ego’s demand for sacrifice.

Thanks to the Course, I now know that Love is unity with All That is. Accepting Love can only mean gaining the awareness of the Reality of unlimited, eternal Love. There can be no loss in what is eternal and unlimited. When we accept Love, we join in Love’s unity. Now to say “I love you” means to accept our innocence and unity in Love. We are accepting the Self that God created as His one Son. There can be no greater joy than to join in the eternal giving and receiving of Love.

© 2021, 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

Our Invincible Identity

My body is a wholly neutral thing.

I am a Son of God. ²And can I be another thing as well? ³Did God create the mortal and corruptible? ⁴What use has God’s beloved Son for what must die? ⁵And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love bestowed upon it. ⁶Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. ⁷And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. ⁸It is not sick nor old nor hurt. ⁹It is but functionless, unneeded and cast off. ¹⁰Let me not see it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.

My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. ²And what is not created cannot be sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. ³Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 294, W-294. See also ACIM Lesson 294 Insights.)

In the world we are so identified with the body as our identity that its difficult to conceive of an existence without a body as real. The thought of separation (ego) made the body as a barrier to prevent our awareness of our Self, the Son of God. We cannot have the specialness separation offers and be awake in the oneness of God’s Love.

The idea of cutting loose from the body as our identity terrifies the ego because it would mean its end. It does not want us to know that it would really mean our awakening to our true Identity which has existed unchanged since before time began. We will remember that we remain as God created us.

The Holy Spirit has a different use for the body. Instead of using it as a barrier against the awareness of Love’s presence, He uses the body as a teaching aid to help us learn where our true Identity lies. Every encounter we perceive with the body is a teaching opportunity for the Holy Spirit to help us see beyond what the body can perceive. Each time we accept His help we take another step on the path to enlightenment, the path to our existence as Love.

The choice to accept the Holy Spirit’s help is the choice to be happy. It is the choice to know of our safety and peace, eternally protected by the power of God. Our true Identity is as invincible as God, for God has shared all of Himself with His Creation. Today we choose the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the body with willingness to accept His help throughout the day.

© 2021, 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

Steps to Awaken to Love

You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. ²Is it your decision to do so [wake up to reality]? ³You recognize from your own experience that what you see in dreams you think is real while you are asleep. ⁴Yet the instant you waken you realize that everything that seemed to happen in the dream did not happen at all. ⁵You do not think this strange, even though all the laws of what you awaken to were violated while you slept. ⁶Is it not possible that you merely shifted from one dream to another, without really waking?

⁷When you remember [wake up], you will know that what you remember is eternal, and therefore is now.

You will remember everything the instant you desire it wholly, for if to desire wholly is to create, you will have willed away the separation, returning your mind simultaneously to your Creator and your creations. ²Knowing Them [your Creator and creations] you will have no wish to sleep, but only the desire to waken and be glad. ³Dreams will be impossible because you will want only truth, and being at last your will, it will be yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-10.I.2;3:7–4:3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Dreaming we are in a world of separation is not a happy dream. Even experiences that seem good in the dream carries with it an underlying sense of uncertainty. As the common saying goes, “We are waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Our experience in the world has taught us that nothing here lasts forever. It is helpful to apply this lesson when things seem to be bad — they won’t last forever. But we also apply the same idea when things seem to be good.

This is not what God wills for us. His Will is eternal and singular. He wills all of His Love to His Creation, eternally. God has not changed His Will. He makes no additions to His Will to change it or limit it in any way. He gives all of His Love with all of Its attributes of perfect peace and limitless joy. What God Wills is already given and lasts forever.

We need only accept His Will to have our inheritance. When we are willing to awaken from the dream that denies His Will, we will know that we have everything need. We lack nothing, for what God wills is everything.

The first step to awakening is willingness to consider that we are dreaming. Next we need to call upon the Holy Spirit to help us awaken. That is His function. Our function is to ask for His help and accept it. This is our focus for today.

© 2021, 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

Willingness to Accept Holy Spirit’s Help

There is no life outside of Heaven. ²Where God created life, there life must be. ³In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. …⁶Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. ⁷Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. ⁸Illusions are but forms. ⁹Their content is never true.

Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. ²For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. ³And they will follow. ⁴Attack in any form has placed your foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven. ⁵Yet any instant it is possible to have all this undone. ⁶How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? ⁷Quite easily. ⁸How do you feel? ⁹Is peace in your awareness? ¹⁰Are you certain which way you go? ¹¹And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? ¹²If not, you walk alone. ¹³Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go. (A Course in Miracles, T-23.II.19:1-3,6-9;22. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Every day there seem to be myriad decisions to make and uncertainty is an underlying feeling. The certainty that comes with remembering we are in Heaven now seems a distant hope. This is because we are not using the Source of certainty as our Guide. Certainty increases as we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our decisions. He knows the way that leads us out of our confusion about what is illusion and what is real.

With our feet caught in the ego’s quicksand of illusions, we need to reach for the Holy Spirit’s hand to pull us out of the quagmire. He is always there for us, a Friend Who can help us with our every need. But we must ask for help because, by asking, we express our willingness to accept His help. The Holy Spirit never imposes guidance, but always offers it. We have to accept it to receive the blessings He offers us 24/7. Today is a great day to practice.

© 2021, 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

The Choice for Happiness

Let me not forget my function.

Today’s idea is merely another way of saying “Let me not wander into temptation.” ²The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. ³[The world] is the temptation to abandon God and His Son by taking on a physical appearance. ⁴It is this the body’s eyes look upon.

Nothing the body’s eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. ²Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. ³To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. ⁴In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.

³The world’s salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does the Son of God escape from all illusions, and thus from all temptation. ⁴The Son of God is you.

…every time you choose whether or not to fulfill your function [forgive], you are really choosing whether or not to be happy. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 64, W-64.1:1–2:4;3:3-4;4:4. See also ACIM Lesson 64 Insights.)

Everyone wants to be happy. But the level of happiness achieved depends upon who is chosen as the guide to happiness. The ego offers illusions that it tempts us to pursue in order to be happy. Yet the achievement of any of the ego’s goals cannot lead to lasting happiness. Illusions are not real and therefore temporary at best. The ego’s goal is always to seek and not find. It knows the true happiness would lead to its dissolution.

Only Love is real and eternal. Forgiving our illusions clears away the ego’s smokescreen of appealing illusions to reveal the presence of eternal Love everywhere. To truly forgive we need to choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide to happiness. If we are willing, He will reinterpret all our perceptions to help us see past the ego’s dark shadows to the Light of Love that surrounds us and is in us. This Light unites us with every brother in the one Self God created as His Son. Here we find happiness beyond words. The choice to follow Holy Spirit is the choice to be happy. Which choice will we make today?

© 2021, 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

Leaning on the Holy Spirit

I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.

Father, Your Son is perfect. ²When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am, and that I am as You created me. ³Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. ⁴If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are. ⁵I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. ⁶The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. ⁷The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.

I will not hurt myself today. ²For I am far beyond all pain. ³My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me. ⁴And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is also mine to love. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 281. See also ACIM Lesson 281 Insights.)

To believe the ego is our identity is to believe in limitation which could only occur if separation were real. Accepting any form, including the body, as real is a choice against our true Self. Our true Self knows no limitation, for It shares God’s limitlessness. Our true Self knows only the reality of God—His peace, His joy, His changeless Love.

We are hurting ourselves when we believe we are a body in a world defined by forms. These are the limiting, meaningless thoughts that we need to let go. The Holy Spirit calls us to lean on Him as our Guide to release ourselves from our self-imposed limitations. He recognizes our mistaken beliefs and provides a bridge for us to walk across from our world of make believe to the reality of our Home in Heaven’s Love.

Today we choose to lean on Him, for we would have a happy, peaceful and loving day.

© 2021, 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 1 of 5 pages  1 2 3 >  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.