Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Choosing the Path to Heaven

You who were created by love like itself can hold no grievances and know your Self. ²To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. ³To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. ⁴To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death. ⁵Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind. ⁶It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike Him. ⁷It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself.

…he who holds grievances denies he was created by love, and his Creator has become fearful to him in his dream of hate. ⁵Who can dream of hatred and not fear God?

²It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. ³It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.

…think of yourself as completely at peace with everyone and everything, safe in a world that protects you and loves you, and that you love in return. ⁵Try to feel safety surrounding you, hovering over you and holding you up. ⁶Try to believe, however briefly, that nothing can harm you in any way. (A Course in Miracles, W-68.1;2:4-5;3:2-3;6:4-6. See also ACIM Lesson 68 Insights.)

Love does not condemn. Holding grievances is a form of condemnation. When we hold any form of grievance, even a mild irritation or frustration, we are denying the Self God created as His Son. In this denial, peace and happiness are impossible, for we have denied their Source. The road of return to our true Self is paved with forgiveness. Each time we forgive a grievance we smooth the way of return to Love.

In every moment we choose between the quiet path to peace or the rocky road of fear and guilt. What path we choose depends on what we value. If we value specialness and separation, we choose the rocky road that leads to hell. When we choose specialness we condemn ourselves, for it is a grievance against our Creator.

But the other choice is always available to us. We can choose to let the Holy Spirit help us release the grievance and see beyond the appearance in the world to the Love that joins us in the unity of God. It is the path of return to Heaven.

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Awakening to the Self God Created

³I am God’s Son. ⁴Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon [I am not a body]. ⁵And then return to earth, without confusion as to what my Father loves forever as His Son.

²Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads than this. ³But let me follow Him Who leads me home, and peace is certain as the Love of God. (A Course in Miracles, W-219.1:3-5. 220.1:2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 219 Insights.)

In this world our attachment to a body identity makes it is very hard to let go of the belief that we are a body. It seems that without a body we would not exist. The body is not what God loves, for He did not create bodies.

But He did extend His Love to create His Son, Whom He holds forever united with His Love. His Son is an extension of Himself, one and the same, formless and with no differences. This is our true Self, the Son God loves.

When we let go of our identification with a body, we awaken to the Self God loves. We awaken to His peace and joy. This is our natural state. Anything that interferes with our natural state is not of God. It is the effect of mistakenly identifying with the ego. As we train our minds to be alert to any disturbance, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us forgive it and let it go, we awaken to our true Self. This is the purpose of the ACIM curriculum.

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Accepting the Power of God Within

No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. ²There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. ³We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. ⁴Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. ⁵The “dynamics” of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. ⁶We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth.

…the whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. ⁴The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. ⁵Yet the truth is very simple:

⁶All power is of God.
⁷What is not of Him has no power to do anything.

⁴The ego’s goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. ⁵From the beginning, then, its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself and independent of any power except its own. ⁶This is why [the ego] is the symbol of separation.

…the way to undo its results is merely to recognize that their source is not natural, being out of accord with your true nature. …⁵The real conflict you experience, then, is between the ego’s idle wishes and the Will of God, which you share. (A Course in Miracles, T-11.V.1;3:3-7;4:4-6;5:2,5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We see a world of form with separate bodies, places and times because we believe the ego is our identity. This mistaken belief has no effect on our true Self because It shares the changelessness of God’s Love. However this belief makes us unaware of our true Self.

The ego has no power of its own. Its only seeming control over us comes from the belief we have invested in it. Without our belief, the ego fades into the nothingness from which it came. Yet our identification with the ego needs to be dismissed to free us from the ego’s limitations.

A Course in Miracles offers us a mind training program that guides us to look at the ego through the lens of the Holy Spirit’s vision. With His help, we see that what seemed to be frightening is not real and has no effect on What we are in truth. We are still Love as Love created us.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to walk with us as we look at the ego-based fears that trouble us. Joined with His strength, we recognize the fears as baseless because they are based on nothing real. In this recognition, the fear is dismissed and our mind becomes increasingly aware of the Love we are.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Undoing Our Barriers to Love’s Presence

The world you see must be denied, for sight of it is costing you a different kind of vision. ²You cannot see both worlds, for each of them involves a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish.

You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed you since time began.

Yet the real world has the power to touch you even here, because you love it. ²And what you call with love will come to you. ³Love always answers, being unable to deny a call for help, or not to hear the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this strange world you made but do not want. ⁴All that you need to give this world away in glad exchange for what you did not make is willingness to learn the one you made is false.

⁵You who would judge reality cannot see it, for whenever judgment enters reality has slipped away. ⁶The out of mind is out of sight, because what is denied is there but is not recognized. ⁷Christ is still there, although you know Him not. ⁸His Being does not depend upon your recognition. ⁹He lives within you in the quiet present, and waits for you to leave the past behind and enter into the world He holds out to you in love. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.VII.2:1-2;3:1;4;5:5-9. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The Course is teaching us that nothing the body’s eyes show us is real because the body itself is unreal. True vision is in the mind which dwells unchanged in the Mind of its Creator. As long as give priority to our perceptions in the physical world we deny Christ’s vision that sees only the reality of Love.

The world we perceive with the body’s senses is the effect of our wish for specialness, to be unique and have something we can call ours alone. This is the wish that must be undone. We have built a heavy wall of images to “protect” us from the Light of Love that would reveal the unity of Love we share with our Creator.

As we let the Holy Spirit help us forgive these images, the barriers to Love fall away. The dominance of the ego in our mind fades as we release or forgive these barriers to the awareness of Love’s Presence.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming Our True Self

Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression. ²And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. ³Its power comes from spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. ⁴Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. ⁵Without its function then it has no peace, and happiness is alien to its thoughts.

Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think. ²It has denied its Source of strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. ³Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed against itself and hiding in the body’s frail support. ⁴Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.

Your Self retains Its Thoughts [of God’s Love], and they remain within your mind and in the Mind of God. ²The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way to peace. ³Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was done.”

²Salvation comes from my one Self. ³Its Thoughts are mine to use.

⁴Then seek Its Thoughts, and claim them as your own. ⁵These are your own real thoughts you have denied,… (A Course in Miracles, W-96.4:1–5:4;7:1-3;9:2-5. See also ACIM Lesson 96 Insights.)

Our true Self is a Thought in the Mind of God that extends His Love. This Thought of Love is eternally at peace and joyous in Its function of extending Love.

The ego’s wish for specialness denies the changelessness of God’s Love. Specialness can only seem to exist in a dream that could never be real. If we identify with the ego, we accept the dream of specialness as true. We believe we are a separate self, distinct and unique from all others. This misidentification with the ego leaves us feeling unloved, weak, lonely and vulnerable to attack and loss.

We have not lost our unity with God’s Love. But we are unaware of It as our reality. We can reclaim our true Self in the oneness of God’s Love by choosing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help. He is the bridge between the dream of isolation and the certainty of our true Self held safely in the Mind of Love. We are grateful that we have the means to awaken to our true Home in Love.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing My Brother as My Counselor

My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.

Father, You gave me all Your Sons, to be my saviors and my counselors in sight; the bearers of Your holy Voice to me. ²In them are You reflected, and in them does Christ look back upon me from my Self. ³Let not Your Son forget Your holy Name. ⁴Let not Your Son forget his holy Source. ⁵Let not Your Son forget his Name is Yours.

This day we enter into Paradise, calling upon God’s Name and on our own, acknowledging our Self in each of us; united in the holy Love of God. ²How many saviors God has given us! ³How can we lose the way to Him, when He has filled the world with those who point to Him, and given us the sight to look on them? (A Course in Miracles, W-266. See also ACIM Lesson 266 Insights.)

Everyone we meet has the potential of being our counselor as the bearer of God’s Voice, if we see him truly. How we see our brothers depends upon our willingness to see the truth in him. His Self is our Self, for we are one in the Mind of God.

If instead we choose to see our self separate from our brother, we see him reflecting our belief that we are separate, different and in competition for the specialness we seek. Our wish for specialness denies the one Self we share with our brother. That Self is hidden by our projections.

Today we ask ourselves, “Am I seeing the truth in my brother or am I seeing images of my mistaken beliefs reflected back to me?” In either case every brother has the potential of teaching us the truth of What we are. If we see him truly, we see that he is what we are. If we see our projection with willingness to receive Holy Spirit’s interpretation of it, our brother becomes our teacher.

Today I choose to recognize every brother as my counselor, offering me the opportunity to heal my fear-based thoughts with the Holy Spirit’s help.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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