Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Remembering the Peace of God

Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace. Given this state the mind is quiet, and the condition in which God is remembered is attained. It is not necessary to tell Him what to do. He will not fail. Where He can enter, there He is already. And can it be He cannot enter where He wills to be? Peace will be yours because it is His Will. Can you believe a shadow can hold back the Will that holds the universe secure? God does not wait upon illusions to let Him be Himself. No more His Son. They are. And what illusion that idly seems to drift between Them has the power to defeat what is Their Will?

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. [Decision] is the outcome of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. There is no substitute for peace. What God creates has no alternative. The truth arises from what He knows. And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as all creation rose in His Mind because of what He knows. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.in.1-2. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

What God knows is changeless, being all that is real. What we believe constantly changes. Our beliefs are formed based on our perceptions of our experiences. But our perceptions are severely limited, allowing awareness of a tiny fraction of everything that is.

So we base our beliefs on incomplete information, thus leaving us in a constant state of uncertainty. With uncertainty comes conflict. Someone introduces information that conflicts with our beliefs. Do we change our beliefs to incorporate the new information or do we defend against the information to protect our beliefs? This constant conflict leaves our belief system on shaky ground. Doubt is inevitable and peace impossible.

This is why we must question everything we believe. But our questions must be brought not to the ego but to the Holy Spirit, the only Source of a certain answer. It is the Holy Spirit’s vision that will lead us to the certainty of God and the peace that comes with His certainty. We have another joyous day ahead of us in which to practice opening our mind to the Holy Spirit’s perception in place of our own and remember the peace of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Releasing All Our Opinions to Holy Spirit

You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you. This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. As a result, you are bound to misuse it. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world, instead of attempting to reinforce them.

Another way of describing the goals you now perceive is to say that they are all concerned with “personal” interests. Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing.”

It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything. The recognition that they are meaningless, rather than “good” or “bad,” is the only way to accomplish this. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 25, W-pI.25.2:1-3:2;5:1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 25 Insights.)

As long as we believe in the ego thought system of separation, it is impossible for us to understand what anything means. The ego is not us. Identifying with the ego is identifying with an illusion of our self. Illusions are meaningless in reality. They only seem meaningful and real because we believe in them. It is only our belief that makes our body and the world we perceive through the body seem real.

While we insist on judging everything as good or bad, right or wrong, we cannot know what anything is truly for. We must be willing to give up our opinions about everything. It is in this relinquishment that we can welcome the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love. Because only Love is real, the only meaningful purpose in any moment is to join in Love and extend It.

Because Love joins, we cannot know true purpose by trying to figure it out on our own. Believing we are alone blocks us from true purpose. Letting the Holy Spirit show us the unity we share with all that Is reveals the meaning in all things. The Holy Spirit will use whatever life experience we seem to be having to lead us to our true purpose of being and extending Love.

Today we offer all our opinions to the Holy Spirit with willingness to let Him show us true purpose.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Holy Spirit Guide Our Thoughts

“Resistance to the Holy Spirit, in the form of refusing to turn over decision making to the One Who knows, is why the transformation of mind seems to take forever. The mind is split. It contains conflicting and contradictory desires that literally obstruct and make impossible a return to Wholeness. Integration precedes Wholeness and makes it possible for the mind to recover its natural state. Integration of the mind replaces the conflicting desires and cross purposes with a single purpose, one that is true and capable of accomplishment. For those who seriously want to realize the Wholeness of Mind, the process starts with the practice of integration.

“To become aware of desire in all its forms that drive the mind is the first step you could take. Without being aware of how and why the mind is as it is, you cannot begin to correct it. Present awareness, moment by moment, is the way to see your mind in action, to directly experience and become aware of the dynamics and movement of mind in your day to day life. Mind must be understood as it is, in its activity. It cannot be reduced to theory or description. Mind is alive and always active.

“Through becoming aware of your mind in action, you can choose where you want it to go. You can direct it towards truth, towards liberation, or you can continue to let the past play out its stale repetition of nothingness until you tire of it or death intervenes. As you become more and more aware of the activity of your mind, you will begin to understand how your thinking and your reactions, which are determined by your thinking, are responsible for the conditions and circumstances of your life. You will see how you are choosing happiness or conflict, love or fear, with every decision you are making.” (From the Christ Mind Book II, pp. 61-62)

The attempt to serve two masters, our Self or the ego, has split our minds because of conflicting goals. When we choose the ego as our master, we choose guilt, fear, pain and lack of love. This master always leads us away from happiness and peace of mind.

But we can choose another Master, our true Self, represented by the Holy Spirit in our minds. The practice of bringing all our thoughts, our wishes, our fears and guilt to the Holy Spirit to let Him reinterpret the errors of thought and show us the truth will set us free. In every moment we have the option to choose truth, to choose our one Self. This is our practice for today.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Never Walk Alone

Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.

Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.

You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness because its Source goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer because the Source of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing can destroy your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 41, W-pI.41.1;3-4. See also ACIM Lesson 41 Insights.)

We have a clear reference that tells us if we are believing that we are a separate identity, disconnected from our Source. If we feel lonely, depressed, in pain, suffering and afraid of loss, we can be sure that we are believing in a false, separate identity. Our belief makes it seem real, but beliefs can be changed. This is the key to release from the bondage of belief in being separate.

God has not left His Creation, floundering around in a struggle to find peace and Love. Only a mistaken belief hides from our awareness the Love and peace that is God’s eternal gift to us. This belief has no more substance than a cloud. It cannot interfere with our being joined with God’s eternal Love.

Today let us remind ourselves many times an hour that God goes with us wherever we go. His Love and peace are ours. His companionship is ever present. We never walk alone.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reuniting with Our One Self

A dream of judgment came into the mind that God created perfect as Himself. And in that dream was Heaven changed to hell, and God made enemy unto His Son. How can God’s Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgment. So must he judge not, and he will waken. For the dream will seem to last while he is part of it. Judge not, for he who judges will have need of idols, which will hold the judgment off from resting on himself. Nor can he know the Self he has condemned. Judge not, because you make yourself a part of evil dreams, where idols are your “true” identity, and your salvation from the judgment laid in terror and in guilt upon yourself.

Forgiving dreams remind you that you live in safety and have not attacked yourself. So do your childish terrors melt away, and dreams become a sign that you have made a new beginning, not another try to worship idols and to keep attack. Forgiving dreams are kind to everyone who figures in the dream. And so they bring the dreamer full release from dreams of fear. He does not fear his judgment for he has judged no one, nor has sought to be released through judgment from what judgment must impose. And all the while he is remembering what he forgot, when judgment seemed to be the way to save him from its penalty. (A Course in Miracles, T-29.IX.2;3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We judge what seems to be outside ourselves (idols). But because we were created as One Self as God’s Son, when we seem to judge another, we are really judging our One Self. This brings with it fear and guilt. To hide from this fear and guilt, we make up a dream world of forms that can be the target of our judgments. But this does not really free us from guilt because judgment maintains the dream of separation. The key to freedom is letting go of all judgment. One thought of judgment brings with it Self condemnation.

The real world is perceived when forgiveness is complete; when all judgment has been laid down. Today we practice offering all our judgments to the Holy Spirit for His kind and loving correction. He will help us see the truth of the one Self beyond the judgment. With His guidance, we will move to the happy dream of true forgiveness that brings us to the gate of Heaven, reuniting with our one Self.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Joining with the Light in Our Brothers

Be very still an instant. Come without all thought of what you ever learned before, and put aside all images you made. The old will fall away before the new without your opposition or intent. There will be no attack upon the things you thought were precious and in need of care. There will be no assault upon your wish to hear a call that never has been made. Nothing will hurt you in this holy place, to which you come to listen silently and learn the truth of what you really want. No more than this will you be asked to learn. But as you hear it, you will understand you need but come away without the thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.

Forgive your brother all appearances, that are but ancient lessons you have taught yourself about the sinfulness in you. Hear but his call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of what he is and of what you must be. He is afraid to walk with you, and thinks perhaps a bit behind, a bit ahead would be a safer place for him to be. …the journey’s goal… is but to decide to walk with him, so neither leads nor follows. Thus it is a way you go together, not alone. And in this choice is learning’s outcome changed, for Christ has been reborn to both of you. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.II.8:1-9:3,5-7). See also ACIM Text Q & A.

The central theme in the Course is that we need to let go of all our thoughts from the past. This is what forgiveness does. It is never the present that needs to be forgiven. Only Love is now. It is our insistence on holding on to the past that keeps guilt in place and makes sin (separation) seem real. The past is over and can be easily let go if we are willing to let go of our insistence on making separation seem real.

Today we choose a new direction. We choose to lay down our thoughts from the past and open our minds to the vision of Christ. Without the shadows of the past, the brilliance of the Light of Christ in our brothers will shine upon us. It is this Light that joins us with our brothers. The Light in our brother is one with us, exactly the same, for this Light is God’s Love, given equally to all.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting God’s Will as Ours

God’s Will is that you are His Son. By denying this you deny your own will, and therefore do not know what it is. You must ask what God’s Will is in everything, because it is yours. You do not know what it is, but the Holy Spirit remembers it for you. Ask Him, therefore, what God’s Will is for you, and He will tell you yours. It cannot be too often repeated that you do not know [your true will]. Whenever what the Holy Spirit tells you appears to be coercive, it is only because you have not recognized your will.

The projection of the ego makes it appear as if God’s Will is outside yourself, and therefore not yours. In this interpretation it seems possible for God’s Will and yours to conflict. God, then, may seem to demand of you what you do not want to give, and thus deprive you of what you want. Would God, Who wants only your will, be capable of this? Your will is His life, which He has given to you. Even in time you cannot live apart from Him. Sleep is not death. What He created can sleep, but cannot die. Immortality is His Will for His Son, and His Son’s will for himself. God’s Son cannot will death for himself because his Father is life, and His Son is like Him. Creation is your will because it is His. (A Course in Miracles, T-11.I.8:3-9:11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The fear of God is the fear of Love. The fear of God is the fear of our Self because our Self is one with God and shares His Will. While we identify with an image of our self that is separate from God, our will is unknown to us. And so we go about mindlessly searching for meaning and fulfillment in a world where it cannot be found.

This is why we must ask of God’s Voice, “What is God’s Will for me?” This is actually asking, “What is my will?” The ego thought system is only an empty wish to be different and therefore in conflict with God. This could only seem to occur in imagination. Thankfully God has given us His Voice to lead us to the recognition of our will which we share with Him.

Today we practice asking the Holy Spirit in everything, “What is God’s Will for me?” This is the path to happiness, peace and eternal life.

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