Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Choice for Joy and Peace

Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed. We cannot safely let it go at that, however, or you will regard yourself as necessarily conflicted as long as you are here, or as long as you believe that you are here. The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself. Your other [Real] life has continued without interruption, and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate [oneness, your Real life].

The ego and the spirit do not know each other. The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. Having done this, [the separated mind] denies all truly natural impulses [to extend Love], not because the ego is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that you are. The ego is a device for maintaining this belief [that you are separate], but it is still only your decision to use the device that enables it to endure.

How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately thrown away? He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. You can only show him how miserable he is without it, and slowly bring it nearer so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. This teaches him to associate his misery with its absence, and the opposite of misery with its presence. It gradually becomes desirable as he changes his mind about its worth. I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. (A Course in Miracles, T-4.VI.1:2-7;4:1-5:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Giving our allegiance to the ego is the decision to maintain our belief that we are separate from God and on our own. It is the decision to deny Love and be in a loveless world. This decision leaves us feeling lack and loss of Love.

As long as we align with the ego, we will feel a need to search for what we have lost. The ego offers substitutes for Love that never satisfy because they are empty illusions. The frustration of searching and not finding leads, at the very least, to dissatisfaction with our seeming existence. At worst it leads to deep depression and a wish to escape. All this comes from our allegiance to the ego.

But we have another option. We can choose to withdraw our allegiance to the ego and turn to the Holy Spirit in our minds as our Guide. As we accept His vision in place of the ego’s perceptions, we begin to experience joy instead of depression, peace instead of conflict. Choosing the Holy Spirit as our Guide in all things is the choice for happiness. Each time we accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance in place of the ego, we experience greater joy and peace. This motivates us to practice more consistently. God’s rewards of joy and peace expand our willingness, leading us to giving our full allegiance to the Self God created us to be.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to the Life We Share with God

Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. This is how all illusions came about. The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. Whatever cause they have [he believes] is something quite apart from him, and what he sees is separate from his mind. He cannot doubt his dreams’ reality, because he does not see the part he plays in making them and making them seem real.

This is the only picture you can see; the one alternative that you can choose, the other possibility of cause, if you [are] not the dreamer of your dreams. And this is what you choose if you deny the cause of suffering is in your mind. Be glad indeed it is [in your mind], for thus are you the one decider of your destiny in time. The choice is yours to make between a sleeping death and dreams of evil or a happy wakening and joy of life.

What could you choose between but life or death, waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? There is a risk of thinking death is peace, because the world equates the body with the Self which God created. Yet a thing can never be its opposite. And death is opposite to peace, because it is the opposite of life. And life is peace. Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.7:4-9;9:1-10:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

There is one life and that we share with God (W-pI.167). Thoughts of death are thoughts of separation from God, the only Source of Life. The body is an image of separation, defined by being different and separate from other bodies and the world. When we identify with the body, we believe it is our self. Yet this “self” could never be real because it is an image of death, for that is its ultimate end. Because God is eternal Life, He could not create a self that is not eternal. The Self He created is Life and therefore is peace, eternally united with the peace of God.

God has given us the means to transform the dream of fear, guilt and death to a happy dream that sees innocence everywhere, for it has forgiven imagined barriers to Love’s presence. From this happy dream we easily awaken to the reality of the peace-filled Life we share with God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning to Be a Teacher of God

The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances.

The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you [in your mind]. Use it for sin or for attack [to reinforce separation], which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful [unworthy]. Because it is sinful [full of guilt] it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use [the body] to bring the Word of God to those who [think they] have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body’s condition. Yet the teacher of God does not make this decision alone. To do that would be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps it holy. God’s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what his function is. He does not suffer either in going or remaining. Sickness is now impossible to him.

Oneness and sickness [belief in separation] cannot coexist. God’s teachers choose to look on dreams a while. …Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers. They watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. Yet they are not deceived by what they see. They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is no more real than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. Unity alone is not a thing of dreams. And it is this God’s teachers acknowledge as behind the dream, beyond all seeming and yet surely theirs. (A Course in Miracles, M-12.4:6-5:11;6:1-2,6-11)

As we learn that our true Self is not a body but Spirit, united with our Creator, we learn to overlook appearances in the dream of bodies and forms of separation. With the help of the Holy Spirit’s gentle lessons we are able to see as the Holy Spirit sees. The images of forms in the world become less believable and less disturbing of our peace. As we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s lessons, we see past appearances to the reality of Love’s unity.

As teachers of God this is the message we must bring to our brothers. As we teach under Holy Spirit’s guidance, we learn that we are Spirit in the Mind of Love, along with all our brothers. Differences fade in their seeming importance. The certainty of our unity in Love is accepted more and more. This is how we serve God’s plan of salvation as teachers of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Light of True Vision

What is light except the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true?

True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And 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 [of the unified mind] that shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal. This 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. This is the light that heals because it brings single perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning comes. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 108, W-pI.108.1:3;2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 108 Insights.)

One of the Course’s lessons has us declare that we are the light of the world. It is our mind unified in the Thought of Love’s oneness that brings Light to the world. As we let go of the ego thought system of separation, we move toward the one Thought that created us one with Itself. True vision is already ours. We need only let go of mistaken beliefs that makes separation seem plausible.

Forgiveness is the means to let our minds be corrected. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher Who shows us how to see truly and recognize ultimately that there is nothing that needs forgiveness. Nothing has really happened to change what God created as Mind unified with His Mind.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us let go of imagined interference with true vision. We want to see with the unified vision of Love and bring peace to the world. As we offer peace to our brothers, we join with the Love in them and know that we are one.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Recognizing Our Brother as Our Savior

This is the savior’s vision; that he see his innocence in all he looks upon, and see his own salvation everywhere. He holds no concept of himself between his calm and open eyes and what he sees. He brings the light to what he looks upon, that he may see it as it really is.

The savior’s vision is as innocent of what your brother is as it is free of any judgment made upon yourself. It sees no past in anyone at all. And thus it serves a wholly open mind, unclouded by old concepts, and prepared to look on only what the present holds. It cannot judge because it does not know. And recognizing this, it merely asks, “What is the meaning of what I behold?” Then is the answer given. And the door held open for the face of Christ to shine upon the one who asks, in innocence, to see beyond the veil of old ideas and ancient concepts held so long and dear against the vision of the Christ in you. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.VII.11:5-7;13. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The savior’s vision sees with forgiving eyes. The past has been let go and so it perceives only the present. Having let go of the past, it has no basis to judge in the present.

That is why we must ask, “What is the meaning of what I behold?” When we forgive, we no longer look to the past for meaning. There never really was any meaning in the past, for the past is illusion. In the now moment, free of the past, we can accept the answer to this question.

The veil of the past that blinded us to the present Light of Love that is everywhere has been lifted. In each moment we choose between judging based on the past or accepting Christ’s vision of innocence. When we choose Christ’s vision, we choose to be the savior of our brothers and ourselves. We recognize our brother as our savior, for we see Him as our Self. We have accepted Christ’s unifying vision.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning of Our Unity in Love

That you and your brother are joined is your salvation; the gift of Heaven, not the gift of fear. Does Heaven seem to be a burden to you? In madness, yes. And yet what madness sees must be dispelled by reason. Reason assures you Heaven is what you want, and all you want. Listen to Him Who speaks with reason, and brings your reason into line with His. Be willing to let [Holy Spirit’s] reason be the means by which He would direct you how to leave insanity behind. Hide not behind insanity in order to escape from reason. What madness would conceal, the Holy Spirit still holds out for everyone to look upon with gladness.

You are your brother’s savior. He is yours. [Holy Spirit’s reason] speaks happily indeed of this. This gracious plan was given love by Love. And what Love plans is like Itself in this: Being united, It [Love] would have you learn what you must be. And being one with [Love], it must be given you to give what It has given, and gives still. Spend but an instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give your brother, and learn with him what has been given both of you. To give is no more blessed than to receive. But neither is it less. (A Course in Miracles, T-21.VI.8-9. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

When we accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are accepting the Voice of Reason. The Holy Spirit speaks to us as God’s messenger of truth. Thus His reason will always lead us to the truth that we remain united in God’s Love. Separation could never be real.

The ego has its own version of reason but it is based on the insane idea that separation (sin) could be real. Reason based on insanity leads only to insanity. When we choose to accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance we choose God’s plan for our salvation, because we choose reason based on truth. The Voice of Reason is always eternally in our minds, given us by our Creator in answer to the insane thought of separation.

Today we practice opening our mind and heart to the Holy Spirit’s lessons that teach us we are Love, united with the Love of God. With His help we will see this Love everywhere.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Means for Release from the World of Fear

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really solved already you will still have the problem, because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized.

If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem.

…today we will ask what the problem is, and what is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already know. We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of problems we think we have.

Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficulty seems to rise, tell yourself quickly:

Let me recognize this problem [my thought of separation] so it can be solved.

Then try to suspend all judgment about what the problem is. If possible, close your eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will be answered.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 79, W-pI.79.1;6:2-7:3;10. See also ACIM Lesson 79 Insights.)

The myriad forms of problems we experience in the world are the ego’s disguises to hide the real problem. It doesn’t seem that the only problem is believing separation is real. The importance of pausing and stepping back from our perceived problem, and asking what the real problem is, cannot be over emphasized.

As long as we insist on trying to fix the forms, we simply maintain the illusion of separation. We have to be willing to at least question the reality of the problem. This opens the door in our mind to receive the means from the Holy Spirit to solve the problem. We must be willing to ask for help and so we must be willing to question the problem. This willingness is essential for our release from the constant series of ego’s problems. It is the means for release from the world and return to the oneness of God’s Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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