Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Key to True Prayer

Once the need to hold the other as an enemy has been questioned, and the reason for doing so has been recognized if only for an instant, it becomes possible to join in prayer. Enemies do not share a goal. It is in this their enmity is kept. Their separate wishes are their arsenals; their fortresses in hate. The key to rising further still in prayer lies in this simple thought; this change of mind:

We go together, you and I.

Now it is possible to help in prayer, and so reach up yourself. This step begins the quicker ascent, but there are still many lessons to learn. …Even together you may ask for things, and thus set up but an illusion of a goal you share. You may ask together for specifics, and not realize that you are asking for effects without the cause.

Even the joining, then, is not enough, if those who pray together do not ask, before all else, what is the Will of God. From this Cause only [the Will of God] can the answer come in which are all specifics satisfied; all separate wishes unified in one. Prayer for specifics always asks to have the past repeated in some way. What was enjoyed before, or seemed to be; what was another’s and he seemed to love,– all these are but illusions from the past. The aim of prayer is to release the present from its chains of past illusions; to let it be a freely chosen remedy from every choice that stood for a mistake. What prayer can offer now so far exceeds all that you asked before that it is pitiful to be content with less.

You have chosen a newborn chance each time you pray. …Do not restrict your asking. Prayer can bring the peace of God. What time-bound thing can give you more than this…? (A Course in Miracles, S-1.IV.1:3-8;2:1-2,5-6;3;4:1,3-5)

The key to true prayer is to begin by asking, “What is the Will of God?” Because we believe we are in the world of form, we think that the answer we need is a specific form. The form we think would meet our need is based upon our past experience. But this expectation or wish interferes with our openness to accept God’s Will, which is ultimately His peace and Love.

This is why an early lesson in the Workbook asks us to remind ourselves that we do not know what anything means. This practice opens our mind to consider that the answer to our need may not be in the form we think it should be. This openness prepares us to forgive — to let go of the past and welcome a newborn present that reflects God’s peace and Love in the world we perceive.

To ask, “How would my true Self see this? How would Love respond in this situation? How would the Holy Spirit perceive this? What would Jesus do?” is to ask to know the Will of God. These are ways to open our hearts and minds to His Will. It will be reflected in a specific answer in our dream of separation. This answer will always bless everyone involved and extend to every brother everywhere. For this answer comes from joining in the oneness of Love. We have taken a step up the ladder of prayer.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Recognizing Opportunities to Heal Guilt

It is not easy to realize that prayers for things, for status, for human love, for external “gifts” of any kind, are always made to set up jailers and to hide from guilt. These things are used for goals that substitute for God, and therefore distort the purpose of prayer. The desire for them is the prayer. One need not ask explicitly. The goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests for enemies. The power of prayer can be quite clearly recognized even in this. No one who wants an enemy will fail to find one. But just as surely will he lose the only true goal that is given him. Think of the cost, and understand it well. All other goals are at the cost of God. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.III.6)

Yearning to find a special relationship, a special job or status is a prayer to maintain separation. The desire for anything external to our mind is a denial of our oneness with the Love of God. We also have many prayers we are unaware of that come from the unconscious guilt we carry from the belief we did harm some time in the “past.” This unconscious guilt, under the direction of the ego, seeks to find something external on which to project the guilt.

This makes the pain of guilt tolerable and leaves it hidden from our awareness. This is why we perceive enemies in our world, people we dislike, even those who seem to do bodily harm. We look for these images in order to project our hidden guilt upon them. They become our “saviors” because they seem to assuage the pain of our hidden guilt. The problem is our hidden guilt remains. We will continue to be in pain and perceive justification for guilt in others until we recognize, at least to some degree, that what we really want is peace. Judgment, projecting guilt, never brings peace.

The desire of our true Self is always to join with the Love in every brother, which is one with our true Self. This means that we need to learn how to open our mind to our true Self’s desire. We need to learn that the one whom we judge is offering us an opportunity to recognize our hidden guilt.

The Holy Spirit will guide us to a new way of seeing that lets go of the projection of guilt to reveal the presence of Love that is true of everyone and everywhere. This is a prayer for release from guilt. It is a prayer to forgive and see the innocence of Love. This prayer releases us from mistaken guilt and leads us back to the acceptance of the Love we have always been.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Escape from the Prison of Guilt

Guilt must be given up, and not concealed. Nor can this be done without some pain, and a glimpse of the merciful nature of this step may for some time be followed by a deep retreat into fear. For fear’s defenses are fearful in themselves, and when they are recognized they bring their fear with them. Yet what advantage has an illusion of escape ever brought a prisoner? His real escape from guilt can lie only in the recognition that the guilt has gone. And how can this be recognized as long as he hides it in another, and does not see it as his own [belief in guilt]? Fear of escape makes it difficult to welcome freedom, and to make a jailer of an enemy seems to be safety. How, then, can he be released without an insane fear for yourself? You have made of him your salvation and your escape from guilt. Your investment in this escape is heavy, and your fear of letting it go is strong.

Stand still an instant, now, and think what you have done [chose to believe you are separate from Love]. Do not forget that it is you who did it, and who can therefore let it go. Hold out your hand. This enemy [your brother] has come to bless you. Take his blessing, and feel how your heart is lifted and your fear released. Do not hold on to [guilt], nor [project it] onto him. He is a Son of God, along with you. He is no jailer, but a messenger of Christ. Be this to him, that you may see him thus [as Christ’s messenger]. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.III.4-5)

The ego is the belief in being separate from Love. Inherent with this belief is guilt for the perceived attack on Love. The pain of this guilt is intolerable. So the ego made a dream of separate images that could be used to project the guilt onto. This does not release the guilt. It only makes the cause appear to be outside of us. Yet the ego’s guilt is maintained by this scheme because it is impossible to perceive guilt without believing in guilt. This belief is driven into the unconscious, hiding it from our awareness.

Properly perceived, every brother we judge offers us a gift that will release us from guilt’s imprisonment. As we let the Holy Spirit help us see the truth in our brother, he becomes a messenger of Christ. Instead of reflecting guilt back to us through our judgment, this messenger of Christ reflects back to us the Christ that is the truth in us.

This practice replaces the ego’s purpose of the world to maintain guilt through projection with the Holy Spirit’s purpose to recognize the belief in guilt and let it go. As we let guilt go, we join in the oneness of Christ with our brother and together we are freed from the guilt that imprisoned us. This is our journey of awakening to Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Escape from Fear and Guilt

We said that prayer is always for yourself, and this is so. Why, then, should you pray for others at all? And if you should, how should you do it? Praying for others, if rightly understood, becomes a means for lifting your projections of guilt from your brother, and enabling you to recognize it is not he who is hurting you. The poisonous thought that he is your enemy, your evil counterpart, your nemesis, must be relinquished before you can be saved from guilt. For this the means is prayer, of rising power and with ascending goals, until it reaches even up to God.”

The earlier forms of prayer, at the bottom of the ladder, will not be free from envy and malice. They call for vengeance, not for love. Nor do they come from one who understands that they are calls for death, made out of fear by those who cherish guilt. They call upon a vengeful god, and it is he who seems to answer them. Hell cannot be asked for another, and then escaped by him who asks for it. Only those who are in hell can ask for hell. Those who have been forgiven, and who accepted their forgiveness, could never make a prayer like that.

At these levels, then, the learning goal must be to recognize that prayer will bring an answer only in the form in which the prayer was made. This is enough. From here it will be an easy step to the next levels. The next ascent begins with this:

What I have asked for for my brother is not what I would have. Thus have I made of him my enemy.

It is apparent that this step cannot be reached by anyone who sees no value or advantage to himself in setting others free. This may be long delayed, because it may seem to be dangerous instead of merciful. To the guilty there seems indeed to be a real advantage in having enemies, and this imagined gain must go, if enemies are to be set free. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.III.1-3)

Our desires are prayers. A desire for anything in the world is a desire for a substitute for God. If we accept a substitute, we become unaware of God. We become unaware of Love. This is why the Course calls the world a loveless place.

When we wish for a special relationship, someone who will meet our perceived needs in the world, we are really seeking an enemy. For any substitute for God is an “enemy” of Love. Love knows no enemies, for it is one. But the ego is afraid of Love and sees Love as its nemesis. It knows that if we accept Love as it is, the ego would cease to seem to exist.

To become aware of the peace and Love that is already given us, we need to let go of our desires for substitutes. We need to learn that no substitute will ever satisfy us. Any thing, circumstance or relationship that seems to bring us happiness can turn in an instant to pain and fear. This is because nothing in the world is true. Truth alone is changeless Love. Here, in Truth, is our eternal peace and happiness. The relinquishment of our beliefs that anything in the world offers anything we truly want is essential for us to find the peace of God.

The daily practice of asking for the Holy Spirit’s vision to replace our perceptions in the world will lead us up the ladder of prayer to the increasing experience of peace and happiness. The pain of fear and guilt will fade and be replaced by the awareness of the Love and peace that is our inheritance.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Ladder to True Forgiveness

Prayer is a ladder reaching up to Heaven. At the top there is a transformation much like your own, for prayer is part of you. The things of earth are left behind, all unremembered. There is no asking, for there is no lack. Identity in Christ is fully recognized as set forever, beyond all change and incorruptible. The light no longer flickers, and will never go out. Now, without needs of any kind, and clad forever in the pure sinlessness that is the gift of God to you, His Son, prayer can again become what it was meant to be. For now it rises as a song of thanks to your Creator, sung without words, or thoughts, or vain desires, unneedful now of anything at all. So it extends, as it was meant to do. And for this giving God Himself gives thanks.

God is the goal of every prayer, giving it timelessness instead of end. Nor has it a beginning, because the goal has never changed. Prayer in its earlier forms is an illusion, because there is no need for a ladder to reach what one has never left. Yet prayer is part of forgiveness as long as forgiveness, itself an illusion, remains unattained. Prayer is tied up with learning until the goal of learning has been reached. And then all things will be transformed together, and returned unblemished into the Mind of God. Being beyond learning, this state cannot be described. The stages necessary to its attainment, however, need to be understood, if peace is to be restored to God’s Son, who lives now with the illusion of death and the fear of God. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.II.7-8)

The ego is terrified of Love (God). The acceptance of Love’s oneness would drive the ego’s belief in separation from our holy minds. The seeming split caused by the ego’s denial of God’s Love would disappear and our perception of the dream of separation would dissolve into the experience of the peace and joy of God’s unified, eternal Love. This is the replacement of the lies of the ego with the eternal Truth that has never changed. It is our return Home to Love.

While we remain engaged in the dream world, we need a path that leads us out of our mistaken beliefs. Prayer is a means for asking for help to let go of our belief in what could never be true. When we ask for help to see with Christ’s vision, we are asking for forgiveness. We are asking for release from judgment and guilt. Each circumstance, relationship or perception that we bring to our true Self, the Christ in us, with willingness to change our perception, is a step toward true forgiveness. The separate identity we believe we are cannot help us find the way. True prayer expresses our willingness to see beyond our divided perceptions and see the innocent face of Christ instead.

This is a journey of daily practice, for we have spent our lives trying to hide from our guilt and fear. Each time we practice the prayer of joining in Christ, another layer of self-condemnation is released. That release may appear to be forgiveness of what someone else is believed to have done. Or it may be recognized as forgiveness of our own mistaken belief. These two are in fact the same. When we join with the Christ in our brother, we are accepting the one Mind that joins us in Love. This is the Holy Spirit’s use of time.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Freeing Ourselves from the Ego’s Limitations

At this level [asking-out-of-need] also comes that curious contradiction in terms known as “praying for one’s enemies.” The contradiction lies not in the actual words, but rather in the way in which they are usually interpreted. While you believe you have enemies, you have limited prayer to the laws of this world, and have also limited your ability to receive and to accept to the same narrow margins. And yet, if you have enemies you have need of prayer, and great need, too. What does the phrase really mean? Pray for yourself, that you may not seek to imprison Christ and thereby lose the recognition of your own Identity. Be traitor to no one, or you will be treacherous to yourself.

An enemy is the symbol of an imprisoned Christ. And who could [Christ] be except yourself? The prayer for enemies thus becomes a prayer for your own freedom. Now it is no longer a contradiction in terms. It has become a statement of the unity of Christ and a recognition of [Christ’s] sinlessness. And now [prayer for enemies] has become holy, for it acknowledges the Son of God as he was created.

Let it never be forgotten that prayer at any level is always for yourself. If you unite with anyone in prayer, you make him part of you. The enemy is you, as is the Christ. Before it can become holy, then, prayer becomes a choice. You do not choose for another. You can but choose for yourself. Pray truly for your enemies, for herein lies your own salvation. Forgive them for your sins, and you will be forgiven indeed. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.II.4-6)

Despite the appearance that we exist in a world which we have no control over, everything we perceive is a projection from our mind. This is why that to pray for an enemy we must pray for forgiveness of ourselves. The “enemy” is only a projection of our own belief in guilt.

Until we fully accept that we were created as Christ, God’s holy Son, our perceived world will be populated with adversaries. We can continue to do battle with our adversaries and stay bound to the ego thought system. Or we can use these perceptions as reminders to accept the Holy Spirit’s help to let go of our mistaken belief that we are separate and disconnected from God’s Love.

The Holy Spirit will help us join with the Christ in our brother which is eternally united with the Christ in ourselves. It is a joining in the one Self that God created as His Son. This is the prayer that will set us free of the ego’s limitations and return us to our Home in God.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Praying with the Christ Within

Prayer has no beginning and no end. It is a part of life. But it does change in form, and grow with learning until it reaches its formless state, and fuses into total communication with God. In its asking form it need not, and often does not, make appeal to God, or even involve belief in Him. At these levels prayer is merely wanting, out of a sense of scarcity and lack.

These forms of prayer, or asking-out-of-need, always involve feelings of weakness and inadequacy, and could never be made by a Son of God who knows Who he is. No one, then, who is sure of his Identity [as God’s Son] could pray in these forms. Yet it is also true that no one who is uncertain of his Identity can avoid praying in this way. And prayer is as continual as life. Everyone prays without ceasing. Ask and you have received, for you have established what it is you want.

It is also possible to reach a higher form of asking-out-of-need, for in this world prayer is reparative, and so it must entail levels of learning. Here, the asking may be addressed to God in honest belief, though not yet with understanding. A vague and usually unstable sense of identification has generally been reached, but tends to be blurred by a deep-rooted sense of sin. It is possible at this level to continue to ask for things of this world in various forms, and it is also possible to ask for gifts such as honesty or goodness, and particularly for forgiveness for the many sources of guilt that inevitably underlie any prayer of need. Without guilt there is no scarcity. The sinless have no needs. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.II.1-3)

The Course is teaching us that the Son of God is our true Identity. We remain united and whole in the innocence of the Love of God. This is not how we see ourselves. The world we experience is the out picturing of the decision to believe that we are separate from God. Not only do we not experience the peace of God’s Love, we feel guilty for having denied our Father, our Creator.

This guilt influences all our perceptions in the world. The pain of guilt is intolerable. To reduce the pain, we try to project it on other people and the world. But it does not eliminate the guilt, it only hides it in our unconscious. Guilt demands punishment. The unconscious guilt prays for punishment. It finds punishment in physical sickness and many forms of attack on the body, the ego’s chosen home.

The Course is offering us another way to pray. Instead of praying for punishment, we are being taught to see with Christ’s vision. Christ, our true Self, overlooks the forms of the world and sees the Love beyond the forms. Prayer to see the innocence of Christ frees our mind from the self-imposed need for punishment.

As we learn to recognize the truth of our innocence, we no longer need to bring pain and fear into our minds. As we pray through our willingness to receive Christ’s vision, we free ourselves from the bondage of an identity separated from Love. We welcome the Love that joins us with All That is real. Love is no longer feared but accepted as the healing balm that forgives our perceived sins. This brings us to true prayer that leads us Home to the welcoming arms of God’s Love.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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