Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

Tweet

Subscribe

Click link to go to:

View all articles • Article index

Accepting Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Love

The holy instant is the Holy Spirit’s most useful learning device for teaching you love’s meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge.

The past is the ego’s chief learning device, for it is in the past that you learned to define your own needs and acquired methods for meeting them on your own terms. We have said that to limit love to part of the Sonship is to bring guilt into your relationships, and thus make them unreal. If you seek to separate out certain aspects of the totality and look to them to meet your imagined needs, you are attempting to use separation to save you. How, then, could guilt not enter? For separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvation is to believe you are alone. To be alone is to be guilty. For to experience yourself as alone is to deny the Oneness of the Father and His Son, and thus to attack reality.

In His function as Interpreter of what you made, the Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which you have chosen to support the ego, as learning experiences that point to truth. Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.V.1:1-3;2;4:5-6.. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The holy instant is a moment in time when we have laid aside our memories of the past. We see the present without meaning, free of projections based on the past. This frees us to let the Holy Spirit replace our projections with His interpretation which will point us to truth.

Each time we are able to set aside our past for a moment becomes a lesson in seeing the true Self in another or ourselves. We join, at least momentarily, with the one Self God created as His Son. We join in the oneness of Love. Though we may return to thinking with ego, the memory of that holy instant remains with us to lead us to awakening to the fact that only Love is real.

© 2018, 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 Healing Journey of the Holy Relationship

The Holy Spirit’s purpose rests in peace within you. Yet you are still unwilling to let it join you wholly. You still oppose the Will of God, just by a little. And that little is a limit you would place upon the whole.… This little wall would hide the purpose of Heaven, and [what you would keep behind the wall] from Heaven.

To overcome the world is no more difficult than to surmount your little wall. For in the miracle of your holy relationship, without this barrier, is every miracle contained. There is no order of difficulty in miracles, for they are all the same. Each is a gentle winning over from the appeal of guilt to the appeal of love.… [The appeal of guilt] can raise no real barriers against it. And all that seems to stand between you and your brother must fall away because of the appeal [of Love] you answered.

Every miracle is but the end of an illusion. Such was the journey; such its ending. And in the goal of truth which you accepted must all illusions end. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV.A.3:1-4,8;5:1-4,6-7;6:8-10. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The holy relationship is a relationship dedicated to letting go of guilt. This dedication comes from willingness to let go of guilt and welcome joining in the oneness of Love. The ego always seeks guilt because it makes separation seem real. Guilt maintains the ego in our mind. It maintains the wall behind which the ego’s world of illusions is built.

On the other side of this imagined barrier is the peace of God and the certainty of changeless Love. Because this wall is built on guilt, it is undone by forgiveness. Each illusion of guilt taken to the Holy Spirit and seen with His vision is the miracle of Love. Guilt fades away and the joy of joining in Love replaces it. This is our purpose and our journey in the holy relationship.

© 2018, 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

Love Heals All Fear

“The holy instant is a time in which you receive and give perfect communication. This means, however, that it is a time in which your mind is open, both to receive and give [God’s perfect Love]. It is the recognition that all minds are in communication. It therefore seeks to change nothing, but merely to accept everything [God’s Love].”

“Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off, because you would have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication [extending and receiving God’s perfect Love] while breaking communication holds value to you. Ask yourself honestly, “Would I want to have perfect communication [of Love’s unity], and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?” If the answer is no, then the Holy Spirit’s readiness to give it to you is not enough to make [God’s Love] yours, for you are not ready to share it with Him. And [Love’s unity] cannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy instant is given and received with equal willingness, being the acceptance of the single Will that governs all thought.

“The necessary condition for the holy instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure [Love]. But it does require that you have none that you would keep. Innocence is not of your making. It is given you the instant you would have it.… You will not be able to accept perfect communication as long as you would hide it from yourself. For what you would hide is hidden from you. In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception, and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep to yourself. Let the Holy Spirit’s purity shine them away, and bring all your awareness to the readiness for purity [God’s perfect Love] He offers you. Thus will He make you ready to acknowledge that you are host to God, and hostage to no one and to nothing.” (T-15.IV.7:5-8;8-9)

Communication with God is joining with the eternal giving and receiving of His perfect Love. In this joining, we experience the flow of Love through us by receiving It and giving It. If we try to keep any Love for ourselves alone or try to limit who we give Love to, we are opposing Love and lose awareness of Love’s Presence. We break communication with God and His Creation (all our brothers).

Any time we experience a disturbance of our peace, we are engaged with the ego’s thoughts of denial of God’s Love. We need to be vigilant to bring these thoughts to the Holy Spirit with willingness to accept His vision in place of the ego’s deceptive perception. With His help we will recognize the call for Love and answer it with Love. Love heals all fear and brings peace to our mind.

© 2018, 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

Awakening to the Love We Are

My mind holds only what I think with God.

That is a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your Father is. It is this thought by which the Father gave creation to the Son, establishing the Son as co-creator with Himself. It is this thought that fully guarantees salvation to the Son. For in his mind no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares. Lack of forgiveness blocks this thought from his awareness. Yet it is forever true.

Let us begin our preparation with some understanding of the many forms in which the lack of true forgiveness may be carefully concealed. Because they are illusions, they are not perceived to be but what they are; defenses that protect your unforgiving thoughts from being seen and recognized. Their purpose is to show you something else, and hold correction off through self-deceptions made to take its place.

And yet, your mind holds only what you think with God. Your self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson Review IV, W-pI.RevIV.2:2-4:2. See also ACIM Lesson Review IV Insights.)

Because God is only Love, His Thoughts are only Love. Our true Self is only Love so our right mind holds only thoughts of Love which are shared with God. Only Love creates. (T-25.III.1) We co-create with God by extending only Love as He does.

The split mind is a way of describing the dream of separation. Nothing in a dream really exists, but it seems very real from within the dream. The dream is a judgment against the oneness of Love. From within the dream we are unaware of the loving thoughts we share with God because the dream denies the reality of Love.

Our identification with being an individual in the dream is self-deception. We are believing we are an illusionary self, disconnected from everyone and everything. As we let the Holy Spirit help us let go of this false belief, we become more aware of our right mind and the loving thoughts we share with God. The dream fades and we become aware of the truth that only Love is real.

© 2018, 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

How to Be in the World, But Not of It

Truth has a power far beyond defense, for no illusions can remain where truth has been allowed to enter. And it comes to any mind that would lay down its arms, and cease to play with folly. It is found at any time; today, if you will choose to practice giving welcome to the truth.

We [begin] with a healing prayer, to help us rise above defensiveness, and let truth be as it has always been:

Sickness is a defense against the truth.
I will accept the truth of what I am,
and let my mind be wholly healed today.

Healing will flash across your open mind, as peace and truth arise to take the place of war and vain imaginings. There will be no dark corners sickness can conceal, and keep defended from the light of truth. There will be no dim figures from your dreams, nor their obscure and meaningless pursuits with double purposes insanely sought, remaining in your mind. It will be healed of all the sickly wishes that it tried to authorize the body to obey.”

Give instant remedy, should this occur, by not allowing your defensiveness to hurt you longer. Do not be confused about what must be healed, but tell yourself:

I have forgotten what I really am, for I mistook my body for myself.
Sickness is a defense against the truth. But I am not a body.
And my mind cannot attack. So I can not be sick. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 136, W-pI.136.14;15:5-16:4;20. See also ACIM Lesson 136 Insights.)

Identifying with the body as our identity is a defense against the truth that our Identity is the one Mind of Love. The body is a constructed image made by the ego thought system of separation. It uses the body to set a limit on what we are, separating us from our Reality in Love’s oneness. But the body is wholly neutral with no meaning of its own.

If we accept the ego’s purpose to maintain separation, the body will be sick because we are using it to support the insane mind’s belief that separation is real. If we accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the body, it is no longer seen as our identity. It becomes an instrument of communication in the dream of separation used to bring the message of our true Identity as God’s Son.

If we observe that our mind is harboring attack thoughts, judging or making plans against uncertainties to come, we need to remind ourselves that the body is not our identity. We are Love in the Mind of Love. With this practice we are able to live in the world without being of the world.

© 2018, 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 Way to Heaven

I will not value what is valueless.

You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. …There are no satisfactions in the world.

Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. …it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose, and what alternatives you choose between.

Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.

First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real.

[Test 2] Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because, when you deny his right to everything [God’s changeless Love], you have denied your own.

[Test 3]Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve?

He who would still preserve the ego’s goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes, according to the dictates of [the ego]. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?

[Test 4] If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives. And thus you do not realize there are but two, and the alternative you think you chose seems fearful, and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.

Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything [all of God’s Love] and claim It as their own.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 133, W-pI.133.2:1-2,5;3:1,5:5-6:3;7:1-2;10:3-4;11:2-3;13:1. See also ACIM Lesson 133 Insights.)

Everything in the physical world is constantly changing. The physical universe is considered to be at least billions of years old. Yet astronomers know that the source of light from a distant star may no longer exist. Nothing in the physical universe lasts forever.

Because only the oneness of God’s Love is real, anything that is not His Love is unreal and is therefore nothing. If we attempt to keep some of His Love for ourselves alone or to take Love from a brother (judge him as unworthy), we deny Love from ourselves.

The ego belief in separation denies the oneness of Love. Judgment and guilt are the means to make separation seem real. The ego is always trying to justify guilt. Guilt demands punishment, so the ego perceives Love as a threat of punishment rather than the Source of healing that would end all guilt and return us to the awareness of Love’s eternal presence. As we lay down the nothingness of the ego’s belief in separation and open our minds to the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love, we gain everything. We reach Heaven.

© 2018, 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

Finding Our Invulnerability

Forgiveness is the end of specialness. Only illusions can be forgiven, and then they disappear. Forgiveness is release from all illusions, and that is why it is impossible but partly to forgive. No one who clings to one illusion can see himself as sinless, for he holds one error to himself as lovely still. And so he calls it “unforgivable,” and makes it sin. How can he then give his forgiveness wholly, when he would not receive it for himself? For it is sure he would receive it wholly the instant that he gave it so. And thus his secret guilt would disappear, forgiven by himself.

Whatever form of specialness [separation, differences] you cherish, you have made sin. Inviolate [form] stands, strongly defended with all your puny might against the Will of God. And thus [specialness] stands against yourself; your enemy, not God’s. So does it seem to split you off from God, and make you separate from Him as its defender.

It is not you who are so vulnerable and open to attack that just a word, a little whisper that you do not like, a circumstance that suits you not, or an event that you did not anticipate upsets your world, and hurls it into chaos. Truth is not frail. Illusions leave it perfectly unmoved and undisturbed. But specialness is not the truth in you. It can be thrown off balance by anything. What rests on nothing never can be stable. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.III.1:1-2:4;3:1-6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The perception of a world of form and differences reflects the belief in separation. Form is defined by differences. What is one can have no differences and therefore is formless. Love is one and has no form. It is uniformly the same and given to all equally.

The wish for specialness is the wish for differences. It is therefore a wish to have something other than Love. The only way to “have” special love is to make up illusions of differences. This is the world we experience with the body. Because it is all illusion, we feel vulnerable to change. There is a constant need to protect ourselves from perceived outside forces that would change the special image we have made of ourself. This need for defense is actually a defense against the Will of God. All defenses are an attempt to make separation real and are thus in opposition to the Will of God.

God Wills us all His Love, yet we fear It. We fear God because we believe that He asks us to sacrifice the image we have made of ourself. He does not oppose our wish but simply gives all of His Love without exception. We welcome His gift by forgiving ourselves for making a self-image that opposes God. As we let go of this false image with the Holy Spirit’s help, we experience the joy and peace of God’s Love.

© 2018, 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 320 of 795 pages ‹ First  < 318 319 320 321 322 >  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.