Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Choice for Heaven

Forget not that you came this far together, you and your brother. ²And it was surely not the ego that led you here. ³No obstacle to peace can be surmounted through [the ego’s] help. ⁴It does not open up its secrets, and bid you look on them and go beyond them. ⁵It would not have you see its weakness, and learn it has no power to keep you from the truth. ⁶The Guide Who brought you here remains with you, and when you raise your eyes you will be ready to look on terror with no fear at all. ⁷But first, lift up your eyes and look on your brother in innocence born of complete forgiveness of his illusions, and through the eyes of faith that sees them not.

No one can look upon the fear of God unterrified, unless he has accepted the Atonement and learned illusions are not real. ²No one can stand before this obstacle alone, for he could not have reached this far unless his brother walked beside him. ³And no one would dare to look on [the fear of God] without complete forgiveness of his brother in his heart.

⁴Before complete forgiveness you still stand unforgiving. ⁵You are afraid of God because you fear your brother. ⁶Those you do not forgive you fear. ⁷And no one reaches love with fear beside him.

²Think who your brother is, before you would condemn him. ³And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the gift of holiness for you. ⁴Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. ⁵Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV-D.8:1–9:3;11:4-7;16:2-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The difference between viewing the world under the ego’s spell and seeing it through forgiving eyes is the difference between hell and Heaven. One sees only cause for fear and guilt. The other sees on Love, for the ego’s denial of Love is forgiven. Love is recognized as the only reality.

With forgiveness we join with all in the oneness of Love. Nothing fearful is perceived and we happily join in the continuing extension of God’s gift of all His Love. When we experience Heaven’s peace is not a matter of time. It depends on our willingness to let the Holy Spirit help us forgive our misperceptions and accept His Vision. Let’s support each other with our willingness.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Will We Share with God

⁴The ego has never given you a sensible answer to anything. ⁵Simply on the grounds of your own experience with its teaching, should not this alone disqualify it as your future teacher? ⁶Yet the ego has done more harm to your learning than this alone. ⁷Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path, and facilitates the development of what you have. ⁸When you are taught against your nature, however, you will lose by your learning because your learning will imprison you. ⁹Your will is in your nature, and therefore cannot go against it.

“The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not listen to it. ²It is not your will to be imprisoned because your will is free. ³That is why the ego is the denial of free will. ⁴It is never God Who coerces you, because He shares His Will with you. ⁵His Voice teaches only in accordance with His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit’s lesson because that is what you _are._ ⁶The lesson is that your will and God’s cannot be out of accord because they are one. ⁷This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach. ⁸It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum that must be unconflicted, but also the content.

“The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God’s Will. ²This unnatural lesson cannot be learned, and the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, making you afraid of your will because it is free. ³The Holy Spirit opposes any imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, knowing that the Will of the Son is the Father’s. ⁴The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold you back. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.II.2:4–4:4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

By definition the ego is insane because it denies reality. Insanity cannot make sense. When we identify with the ego, our perceptions reflect the ego’s insanity. A mind dedicated to the denial of reality is insane. From within the insane thought system there seems to be no way out. Intervention is necessary from a Counselor Who recognizes our perceptions but does not believe them. We have this Counselor, the Holy Spirit, 24/7 in our mind. We must be willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s council if we would be free of the ego’s imprisonment in its insanity.

The Holy Spirit guides us gently and lovingly to reconsider our interpretations of our perceptions. The Course offers us many ways to open to His council. E.g. affirm I do not know what anything means; I will step back and let Him lead the way; above all else I want to see differently; I am not a body, I am free, I am still as God created me.

The Workbook lessons are a masterful curriculum to lead us out of our insanity by teaching us what we have believed is not true and showing us the truth to replace our mistaken beliefs. The core message of this curriculum is that God’s Will and ours are one and the same. As we accept this fact, the ego’s influence diminishes in our mind. Love increasingly guides our interpretations, actions and words. Simultaneously we experience greater joy and peace, for we are awakening to our true Nature. Today let us join in the dedication to accepting our true Will along with every brother, for we would be free.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Transformation Through Holy Relationships

The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant in living in this world. ²Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. ³The holy instant never fails. ⁴The experience of it is always felt. ⁵Yet without expression it is not remembered. ⁶The holy relationship is a constant reminder of the experience in which the relationship became what it is. ⁷And as the unholy relationship is a continuing hymn of hate in praise of its maker, so is the holy relationship a happy song of praise to the Redeemer of relationships.

The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. ²It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. ³The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment. ⁴In all its aspects, as it begins, develops and becomes accomplished, it represents the reversal of the unholy relationship. ⁵Be comforted in this; the only difficult phase is the beginning. ⁶For here, the goal of the relationship is abruptly shifted to the exact opposite of what it was. ⁷This is the first result of offering the relationship to the Holy Spirit, to use for His purposes.

²Only a radical shift in purpose could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole relationship is for. ³As this change develops and is finally accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. ⁴But at the beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. (A Course in Miracles, T-17.V.1:1–2:7;5:2-4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Relationships in the world are central to the Course’s lessons for awakening us to our true relationship with God. Our only real relationship is with God. Because all of God’s Sons are one with Him, our relationship with Him is our relationship with everyone. The Holy Spirit uses our relationships in the world as a classroom to lead us to the experience of our oneness in Love.

The ego’s purpose for relationships is completely opposite to the Holy Spirit’s. The ego’s denial of our oneness with God plays out in its relationships in the world. It starts with perceiving everyone as separate. Then it projects guilt on these separate identities. It judges everything and everyone. Some may be judged as good, others as bad, but always distinct and different from the perceiver. This ego practice anchors our ego identification, keeping awareness of Love’s oneness at bay.

The acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose for a relationship makes the ego’s shenanigans disjunctive. They do not fit the Holy Spirit’s goal. It is helpful to be patient with ourselves as we practice following the Holy Spirit’s lead in our relationship. Having firmly established our identification with the ego, it takes time to break away from this misidentification and redirect our attention to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will not let us down, but we need to accept His help. The benefit His lessons offer is a life experience of increasing happiness, a quiet mind and an increasing flow of Love. It is worth the effort.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Gift of True Perception

⁶There is no change in Heaven because there is no change in God. ⁷In the holy instant, in which you see yourself as bright with freedom, you will remember God. ⁸For remembering Him is to remember freedom.

If you are tempted to be dispirited by thinking how long it would take to change your mind so completely, ask yourself, “How long is an instant?” ²Could you not give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for your salvation? ³He asks no more, for He has no need of more. ⁴It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this than for Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of Heaven. ⁵In exchange for this instant He stands ready to give you the remembrance of eternity.

You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. ²For the instant of holiness is shared, and cannot be yours alone. ³Remember, then, when you are tempted to attack [judge] a brother, that his instant of release is yours. ⁴Miracles are the instants of release [forgiveness] you offer, and will receive. ⁵They attest to your willingness to be released, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.10:6–12:5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Imagine how you would feel if you perceived no adversary, no lack nor possibility of loss or harm. With this state of mind, your vision shows you only the reality of Love’s presence everywhere and in everything. What could disturb your peace or frighten you if this is what you perceive?

Forgiveness clears the way for true perception. It is a gift we give ourself when we forgive our mistaken perception of a brother to see him as the Love he is. Every instant offers us the gift of true perception if we are willing to let go of our judgments. This means we let go of the past, the basis for all judgments.

Only Love is now. Nothing else exists. The practice of following Holy Spirit’s lead throughout the day frees us from our illusions of the past. The Holy Spirit sees the reality of Love and guides us with His vision to free us to remember Heaven. The peace and happiness we feel as we accept His gifts increases our willingness to more consistently let Him lead the way.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Are Worthy of Vigilant Practice

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

Today’s idea accurately describes you as God created you. ²You are one within yourself, and one with Him. ³Yours is the unity of all creation. ⁴Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. ⁵You do not accept this, and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already.

You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. ²Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker [ego], to which you pray. ³It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. ⁴It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. ⁵It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.

⁴You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. ⁵It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.

…you have not yet formed the habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation.

…with all the certainty that you can give [affirm]:

²I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 95, W-95.1:1–2:5;4:4-5;5:3;11:1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 95 Insights.)

The source of all temptations in the world is our belief that the body is our identity. Our responses to appearances in the world are founded upon this mistaken belief. Because the body represents our separation from God, it is weak and vulnerable, for it denies the power of God in our true Self. We need to break the habit of responding to the world as if our body and the world were real.

This affirmation provides a practice that we can use to interrupt the trance script that that keeps us entrenched in the ego thought system. It reminds us of the truth of what we are to help us disconnect from our mistaken identification with the body. We are not a body. We are the Self God created one with Himself. Here is our power and safety. Here we remember we are eternal Love and nothing else.

As we awaken to this fact we experience the joy and peace of our Home in God. We are worthy of being vigilant with this practice it frees us from our self-imposed limitations. It returns us Home to Heaven.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Eternal Dwelling Place

⁴Fear not to give redemption over to your Redeemer’s Love. ⁵He will not fail you, for He comes from One Who cannot fail. ⁶Accept your sense of failure as nothing more than a mistake in who you [think you] are. ⁷For the holy host of God is beyond failure, and nothing that he wills can be denied. ⁸You are forever in a relationship so holy that it calls to everyone to escape from loneliness, and join you in your love. ⁹And where you are [in God’s Love] must everyone seek, and find you there.

Think but an instant on this: God gave the Sonship to you, to ensure your perfect creation. ²This was His gift, for as He withheld Himself not from you, He withheld not His creation. ³Nothing that ever was created but is yours. ⁴Your relationships are with the universe [God’s Kingdom]. ⁵And this universe, being of God, is far beyond the petty sum of all the separate bodies you perceive. ⁶For all its parts are joined in God through Christ, where they become like to their Father. ⁷Christ knows of no separation from His Father, Who is His one relationship, in which He gives as His Father gives to Him.

⁴Leave, then, what seems to you to be impossible, to Him Who knows it must be possible because it is the Will of God. ⁵And let Him Whose teaching is only of God teach you the only meaning of relationships. ⁶For God created the only relationship that has meaning, and that is His relationship with you. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.VIII.3:4–4:7;6:4-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

In this world everyone feels incomplete. Our lives seem to be a constant search for what will complete us or make us whole. We search for this through relationships, status, possessions, even the food we eat. None of these searches succeed because they do not address the cause of the problem.

We have denied our Source of completion. Our searching in the world is directed by the ego, who can only offer unreal substitutes for God’s eternal Love. We will only feel complete when we accept, without reservation, God’s gift of all His Love. This means we accept that we are one with Him. Nothing but His Love exists in truth.

We cannot find our way out of the ego’s closed system of search and not find without the help of God’s Teacher, the Holy Spirit. He is God’s Messenger sent to help us see past the ego’s false substitutes to the presence of Love through Christ’s vision. With His vision, we learn that we have all the Love we need. We are not alone. We lack nothing that is real and nothing unreal has any value. We need to be taught to recognize illusions for what they are. This is the Holy Spirit’s function.

We easily let go of what we no longer value. Without the barrier of the ego’s substitutes for Love, God’s Love enlightens our mind. We awaken to the fact that we are God’s one Son, united with Him eternally, forever dwelling in His joy and peace.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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