A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 110 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 110 Insights

“I am as God created me.”

One of the ideas that the ego resists most vigorously is that this world of pain and punishment, suffering and sorrow is not real. Today’s lesson spells out very clearly how it could not be real if we remain as God created us. And since it clearly states that we do remain as God created us, unchanged, then the world we see is an illusion. Today’s idea offers great relief. It is the basis for forgiveness and release from all guilt. It tells me that because I was created by Love, I remain Love. That is the truth of what I am.

As I seek to recognize that truth, it seems like I must run a gauntlet of voices, clamoring to convince me that I am anything but Love. They are simply illusions. As I learn to disregard them, to pay no attention to them, I am able to move past them and see the Light of my Self radiating the Love that I am. I am not alone in this journey through the voices of separation. I have a mighty Friend, the Holy Spirit, Who’s strength is mine the moment I accept it. He holds my hand and guides me through, reminding me all along the way of what is true and real.

Today I would accept the Holy Spirit’s help. Each time I hear a voice that speaks to me of limitation, of guilt and fear, I will remember that I hold the Holy Spirit’s hand and His strength is mine. I will ask for and accept His vision. As I practice this moment by moment, the voices become dimmer and more distant, for I give them less and less credence. It is only my belief in them that has made them seem real. With the Holy Spirit’s help, I withdraw my belief and I am free. I remember that I remain as God created me.

Sometimes it seems so tempting to believe that I am an individual person that can make decisions on my own. This lesson reminds me that this is not true. This lesson reminds me that I am still an extension of God’s Love, that is still in the Mind of God. I am Spirit, the Spirit of Love. I am not a body with a separate mind. Letting go of this false concept of having a mind that is separate from God’s is what my purpose is now.

Letting go of this false concept of having a separate body that has a separate mind is what Jesus calls forgiveness. This false concept of individuality is the barrier that hides my one Self from my awareness. Today my practice is to honor my true Self. Today my practice is to open to my Self. As I do this, the Light that comes into my mind shines away the mistaken ideas of an individual mind.

I find that this takes repeated practice. It takes a willingness to not close off awareness of the Self again. It takes a dedication to quiet my mind and remember that I rest in God, no matter what illusions may appear to be real to me. I am still as God created me. Everyone is still as God created them. Nothing has changed. No one has left God’s Mind. God’s Mind is inviolate.

I really need these hourly reminders, because the attraction to make the world real still seems to be there. So I practice today remembering that I am still as God created me. I am still the one Self, and so is everyone. Today I practice again and again and again. Nothing has changed God. All is in God and of God. All that is real is safe in God.

I was thinking about my lesson this morning and started wondering about why I have to keep working on the same problems over and over. What got me to thinking along this line is the holidays. Every holiday I go off my diet and have to work like crazy to get back on it. So I was thinking about weight as a pretty common problem for a lot of people and a lifetime struggle for me.

Why should I suffer with this problem? I am God’s Son and His Son cannot suffer. I’ve tried to give it away before, but I always take it back. Thinking about this makes me feel guilty because I keep taking it back.

Since I was feeling bad about myself, I reminded myself that I rest in God. And why should this problem be any different? I allow it to rest in God,too. That’s when it hit me. Being different is my whole reason for keeping this problem. I keep taking back certain problems because they keep me separate and unique and special.

I’ve danced around this idea before, but I’ve never seen it so clearly. Having unsolvable problems keep me separate from those who don’t have those problems. They protect me from accepting my true Identity. How can I be as God created me if I am weak willed? I am using these problems to protect myself from Oneness.

Will recognizing what I am doing finally allow me to stop? I don’t know, but I think taking it out of the dark and looking at it has to help. Now when I give it to Holy Spirit for healing, I know what I am giving and I recognize that I am not asking to be saved from fat, but from my split mind. I don’t want to be afraid of God anymore. I don’t want to be afraid to see myself as God created me. I don’t want to be afraid to give up suffering.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 109 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 109 Insights

“I rest in God.”

This lesson helps me remember What and Where I am in truth. Telling myself consistently, “I rest in God,” helps me step back just enough to look at life’s seeming occurrences a different way. I am so grateful for the peace and stillness of God. I am so grateful to let my mind be still a while. It is so nurturing and filled with peace.

I especially like paragraphs 8 and 9, where Jesus talks about calling all our brothers to rest with us. “Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you.”

In this world, resting seems very unproductive. Jesus shows me here how truly helpful my willingness to join with all my brothers in rest is to both myself and the whole Sonship. He tells me, “We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, “I rest in God.”

This helps me see how important my hourly remembrances are. I think of the thousands and thousands of people doing this lesson today and calling to their brothers to rest with them. What a powerful force our united practice is in this time of world turmoil.

I am so grateful for this daily practice, both for myself and all my brothers in the world who are dreaming this dream of separation. We are ready to remember that we all rest in God. That is the truth, now and forever, no matter what stories we are dreaming about.

The statement, “I rest in God” is the acknowledgment of the truth of my reality, your reality and everyone’s reality. The truth is we all are still as God created us. We are still the Thought of Love in the Mind of Love. We have not made our clashing dreams reality. We truly do rest in God right now, no matter what dreams we may be dreaming.

Accepting the truth that I rest in God all through the day helps the truth return to my awareness. It helps me awaken to the fact that I never left Heaven. Accepting the fact that I rest in God right now helps me change my mind about what I think is true. It helps me detach from the dreams I have been thinking are real. What a blessing!

Jesus tells me, “This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is.” Jesus is letting me know that this is a very powerful thought. It surely is worth my hourly remembrance. In fact, I don’t know what is more important than this.

While I was doing this morning’s lesson several people came to mind and I mentally invited them to join me. Then a situation came to mind and I found my sense of peace dissolving as I focused on it. So I said, “This can rest in God, too,” and I returned to peace.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 108 Insights

“To give and to receive are one in truth.”

I have experienced both sides of this truth. I have experienced guilt and fear when I have judged (attacked) another. And I have experienced great feelings of peace and love when I have offered peace and love to others. In fact it seems that sometimes I feel the love stronger when I offer thoughts and words of love to another than when someone offers loving expression to me. Perhaps that is because there are some aspects in my mind that do not feel worthy of love. Perhaps it is because as I offer love and peace, I identify with it first in order to offer it. Or perhaps it is a combination of both. On thing is sure: It is clear that giving and receiving are the same.

Because of this truth, if I want to experience love, peace and joy, it certainly behooves me to offer them to everyone I meet or think of. Peace does not come through criticism, trying to change others so that their behavior will be to my liking, trying to make others guilty, defensiveness, berating myself for “dumb” mistakes, or any of the myriad other ploys the ego uses to try to make it seem that my lack of peace is the result of some external cause.

Peace comes through connecting with the Source of peace that is always within me, my true Self. This peace is then magnified again and again as I share it with anyone and everyone. It is a blessing to bless. I know that I am blessed when I bless.

Today I will seek to only bless with all my thoughts. Holy Spirit, I ask Your help to guide my thoughts that I might share only loving thoughts throughout the day.

Practicing the process in paragraphs 7-9 today is quite convincing. What I offered, I received. As I offered everyone quietness, I received quietness. As I offered everyone peace of mind, I received peace of mind. As I offered everyone gentleness, I received gentleness.

I am realizing that this truth — that to give is to receive — is happening all the time. What I am accepting into my mind is what I am giving and what I am giving is what I am accepting into my mind.

This is the beginning of understanding the truth of unified thought spoken of in paragraphs 2-3 of this lesson. What particularly stands out to me is, “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.” (2:2-3) and ... “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.” (3:2-3)

When I practiced the process in paragraphs 7-9, I was led to the experience of vision referred to in paragraph 1. This vision reconciled all seeming opposites that I saw before doing the process. As I accepted true perception, I gave true perception. What a powerful practice to use to transform my mind whenever I find myself not at peace! This Course is truly very practical to apply to every part of my daily life.

Thanks for the reminder not to try to change others so their behavior will be more to our liking. I was just about to do that. Now that I think about it, I can see that my Inner Guide was trying to direct me away from that course of action, but my ego wanted to do it so bad, that I wasn’t paying attention. I will offer silent blessings instead and see how that feels.

I, too, have, a million times, experienced both sides of this truth. Unfortunately, if I look back, my ego tells me that I’ve experienced more fear than love, which, in turn, causes guilt. But the Course tells me to hang on to the power of the Holy Spirit and bring from the past with me only those thoughts of love; anything else than that has but given me the strength to seek and find my Heavenly Father.

Many times I just don’t feel like I have it in me to forgive or to love the way I think I should. It is these times that I’ve learned to withdraw from the thoughts of this world for awhile and work on my relationship with my Higher Self until I am able to receive love and forgiveness for myself; at that point I can then give it away and it’s at that point that I see I don’t need to be critical or unforgiving of others. It is only myself I need forgive.

Holy Spirit, help me have the willingness today to offer peace and love to everyone, especially the people my ego tells me have hurt me. Help me know that to give to them is to give to myself. Amen.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 107 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 107 Insights

“Truth will correct all errors in my mind.”

Any time I feel anxious, impatient, hurried, unhappy, guilty or less than peaceful in any way, it is a sign that I am believing in error. I am making an error real in my mind. Truth will correct that error in my mind and return me to the place of calm so deep it cannot be disturbed.

Truth is everywhere, ever present. There is no place I need to go, no place I need to be to find the truth. It is always with me. I only need to stop holding barriers against the truth, stop believing in error. This is the undoing referred to in the Course. I need do nothing to find the truth, but I do need to stop interfering with the awareness of truth. It is the feverish attempt to hold on to illusions and make them real that bars truth from healing my mind. As I stop holding on to error, the truth will enter of its own because truth is what I am in reality.

So today I ask my one Self to walk with me and guide my vision to recognize the illusions I have made that stand in the way of my awareness of truth. I accept His strength as mine and use that strength to let illusions go. It is the strength of the one Self in me through which I forgive the world, forgive myself and let truth correct all illusions in my mind.

I rest in peace and gratitude in the strength of my Self. The weight of the world is lifted from my shoulders, for the errors of the world are corrected as I let truth correct the errors in my mind. God’s peace is mine. I accept it now. With gratitude I offer that peace to all the world.

When I closed my eyes, I was shown a movie theater. The way to see the movie in this theater was to look through the body’s eyes. Through the body’s eyes pictures were seen where everything appeared to be separate and distinct, different and unique.

Many stories arose while looking through the body’s eyes and gradually I found myself becoming more and more engrossed with the stories. They seemed very real. These stories were about individual lives where individual identities lived and died. There were stories of victory and tragedy, competition, life and death. As I became more and more engrossed in the stories, I felt feelings of fear, elation, lack, anxiety, struggle, hanging on and constant ever-changing ups and downs. The stories went on and on, with one problem after another. My anxiety level went up and down with all the constant changes in the stories. The stories are tiring. I ask for a better way.

I am told to step back from the stories by ever so little, to detach my mind from them. I am asked to let my mind be quiet and give the stories a rest. As I do this, I am brought to an inner place of quiet, a place of inner peace. An inner Voice tells me that these stories are not real. These stories are hallucinations brought on by the desire to see individuality, specialness, separation from oneness. I ask, “How do I detach from the stories? They seem so real it seems impossible to detach from them.” The inner Voice says, “You can with help.”

If you don’t want to detach from the stories, you won’t. If you want to detach from the stories, you will. Truth will enter into your mind as it is given welcome. Practice giving welcome to the truth a little at a time every day. The more you practice, the stronger your ‘welcoming the truth muscles’ grow. You want to walk in the truth but you must practice it. At first a little, and then more and more. The more you practice, the stronger your willingness to welcome the truth becomes. The truth is always there waiting on welcome. The truth will always show you that the stories are not real. Individuality could never be real. What you see through the body’s eyes is not real.

You are infinite Spirit, the eternal Spirit of Love, joy and peace. You are changeless. You are Thought in the Mind of Love. Love gives all to all equally. There is no division of any kind. All is One. All is Love. The stories are not real. They are barriers to the truth. As you practice welcoming the truth, the truth will correct all errors in your mind. The veil will be lifted and you will be set free from the self-imposed tyranny of the stories of separation. Take time out to let the truth correct all errors in your mind. Nothing is more important than this.

I agree that nothing is more important. I am more aware of my stories as stories and more determined to let them go. But I notice that many of the stories have the same theme even though the stories are different. I read a couple of articles that talked about the need for struggle as a core belief. We sometimes say something like, “God uses our struggles to help us grow.” The article suggested new core beliefs based on learning through joy and peace.

I think that this is true of me and I am glad for these last several lessons which emphasizes joy and peace. Getting a little distance from my stories I can see that I have been more comfortable with struggle than with peace. I have been believing that I can get more done through struggle and peace is perhaps a reward for struggling. I am excited at the idea of a new, happier way of living.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 106 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 106 Insights

“Let me be still and listen to the truth.”

Let yourself rest a while in oneness. There is no conflict there, only perfect peace and a deep sense of well-being. Here you recognize through experience that giving and receiving are the same: One undivided Whole, giving all of Itself to all, eternal because It is changeless, being filled up completely, giving completely, safe, happy, loving, loved, gentleness, being Spirit.

When I let myself open up to this state of mind, it is there, it is real. The world of separate bodies is nowhere and nothing. On the other hand, as I focus on the world of separate bodies, this world becomes very real and God’s Reality seems very distant. The Course tells us that we can have one or the other, not both at the same time. What an opportunity today to take five minutes of every hour to be still and listen to the truth, open to reality, feel the well-being and safety that comes with opening to God’s peace and love and joy.

I need to ask myself, “What are my priorities? What is truly important to me? Where do I find my salvation? Where do I place my trust? How am I to be of service today?” It is only as I am willing to be still and listen to the truth that I receive Reality instead of illusions. As I am open to receive, so do I give. Today I will nurture myself with the truth. I will allow myself to feel God’s gifts of peace and joy. What is more important than this?

When I allow myself to be still, the truth comes with a deep sense of peace. I experience no conflict as I look upon the world. I feel safe. This is the message I receive and the message I give. The message is, “We are one. There are no differences. There is no distance between us.”

My job is to hold that awareness all through the day for myself and all my brothers. Sometimes I may express these thoughts in words for my brothers to hear with the body’s ears. Sometimes it is best simply to hold those thoughts in my mind as I see with the vision of Christ my unity with my brother.It matters not if my brother seems to be dedicated to ego and heavily defended against the truth. I can still give the message in my mind, joined with his that we are one and the same, still Love, as we were created.

In the giving of that thought, it is returned to me, strengthening it in me. And Holy Spirit holds that thought for my brother in safe keeping until he is ready to receive it, just as He has held that thought for me. Today I will be still and listen to the truth.

When I went into work early this morning, I was told that my supervisor’s mother had passed during the night after a downward struggle with heart disease. The immediate and normal reaction of my ego was sadness; for my supervisor, her mother, and mostly fear for myself, as I, too, have a mother in her mid 80’s who’s health is also progressively declining.

It is times like this that the constant practicing of these lessons, the constant repetition of the same thing over and over, as inconvenient as it can sometimes seem, that I see results and change in myself — results that are truly valuable, results that sustain me, results that give me hope.

I quickly began to steady my mind in an attempt to escape the insanity and the fear, and I turned to the Holy Spirit for guidance. I must say I didn’t “hear” anything, I didn’t get an answer, but I felt peace. I went absolutely no further with the fear; I was actually able to let it go and just feel peace. Sometimes, when I ask for guidance, I don’t know what “the answer” is, but today I know that I don’t always need to know “the answer”; all I need to do is be at peace. When I do that, everything starts falling into place. Life just seems to work.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 105 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 105 Insights

“God’s peace and joy are mine.”

God’s peace and joy extend forever. God’s peace and joy extend to me and through me. If I don’t experience God’s peace and joy, I have put up a barrier to its extending through me.

The Holy Spirit will help me remove the barriers to my extending peace and joy if I let Him. The Holy Spirit shines a light on all my barriers to peace and joy and helps me see that they are not real. The Holy Spirit helps me see that the barrier is not what I want and is meaningless.

I cannot receive God’s peace and joy unless I am willing to extend it or give it away. That is the way God’s gifts work. They increase through extension. Today my practice is to extend God’s peace and joy so that I will remember that they are mine. As I learn to connect with the peace and joy in everyone, I will learn that they are mine. Giving is receiving.

Today’s practice is a practice of accepting God’s gift of happiness. Doing this exercise all through the day is the way to accept happiness as mine. It is a way of seeing a forgiven world. I cannot truly offer peace and joy to my brother if I am holding a grievance. And I cannot accept peace and joy in me while I am holding a grievance.

Forgiveness is a central theme of the Course. Today’s exercise is another way of moving toward seeing a forgiven world. When I look upon a brother I have judged, one I might call ‘enemy,’ and I offer peace and joy to that brother, I am releasing him from that judgment and releasing myself at the same time.

In the beginning of this practice, I may say the words with halfhearted belief. I may understand the truth, but still have reservations about the worthiness of the other to receive those gifts. Yet each time I practice, I open the door a little wider to the acceptance that these gifts in truth do belong to everyone. Everyone deserves them without exception. It is God’s Will and therefore must be mine as well, for I share God’s Will for my happiness and the happiness of all the world. I will practice today. I want to remember that everyone, including me, deserves all of God’s joy and peace.

As I did the lesson, I came up against a barrier with a couple of people and felt guilty that I was having trouble with them. I don’t know why it is that I tend to always think I am the only person to have these problems and that there must be something especially unworthy about me that I can’t do them. (OH, wow! Maybe that’s it. Maybe it is just another way to feel special. I am uniquely unworthy. More unworthy than anyone else. Now how is that for foolish. No wonder Jesus refers to the ego thought system as insane.) I will keep working at it throughout the day and trust that Holy Spirit is working with me.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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ACIM Workbook Lesson 104 Insights

“I seek but what belongs to me in truth.”

As I observe my thoughts during the practice periods, it is clear how conflicted my mind is about what I want. I start by affirming that I seek but what belongs to me in truth and shortly thereafter I realize that my mind has wandered into thoughts about things to do, a conversation I had, various thoughts about my day-to-day experience. Somehow I have given importance to these thoughts, more importance than I give to God’s peace and joy. If I follow those trains of thought, some part of me must think I want those things more than God’s peace and joy. It is simply a demonstration that in the split mind, there are conflicting goals.

The split appeared to occur because of a belief that something other than God’s gifts is more valuable to me. It’s no wonder Jesus calls the split mind insane. What could in truth be more valuable than eternal joy and peace? What could be more valuable than perfect happiness that cannot be shaken? Obviously the ego thinks there are lots of things more valuable. But what the ego offers never lasts.

It does seem to bring periods of happiness, yet because this happiness is based on illusion, there is always an underlying sense that it will not last. There are periods when I seem to feel comfortable and safe, yet my mind is always on alert to defend against the intrusion of some disruptive force. Someone’s actions, a disease, some words I determine are hurtful. This is not really happiness. This is not peace.

To experience God’s joy and peace I must set aside all thoughts, all belief that anything in the world of separation, any form, has any value to me. To the ego this appears to be sacrifice because it means giving up all that the ego values. But because everything the ego values is illusion, it is really giving up nothing. And by letting nothing go, I make room to receive everything. I make room to accept God’s gifts, which is all of Himself, all that Is, all Love.

Peace and joy are the attributes of Love, so when I accept peace and joy, I accept Love. When I accept God’s Love, I accept His peace and joy. These are mine already. I need do nothing to have them. To know that I have them, I simply need to cease denying them. Today I practice accepting my inheritance. God’s peace and joy are mine. Thank you God. I love you God.

In this lesson it talks about clearing a holy place within our minds where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome. One way that works for me is to imagine myself standing underneath a waterfall of Light. As I stand there, the Light dissolves all that is not of God’s Light. After a short while there is nothing but God’s Light left. There is only God’s Light. And in this place, where there is nothing else, I am able to see that in everyone I know, everyone in this whole world, there is only God’s Light. God’s Light is all there is left to see. This is a wonderful experience. There is no conflict because there are no differences. God’s peace and joy are everywhere. God’s Love is all. The veil is lifted.

When I want to see the truth, I will see the truth. When I want to see God’s Light, I will see God’s Light. The ego cannot stop me seeing the truth and feeling the truth. I am the decision maker. I choose what I want to see. In truth I am and everyone is peace, joy and Love. This is what is in the mind of God. This is God. This is all. I can rest in God, in peace and joy and Love, any time I choose. It is eternally present. It never changes.

The stories in the dream have seemed so attractive, but now they are losing their luster. Seeing the Light of God in everyone really does bring joy with it. I realize this is a gradual process and that it toggles back and forth as I am willing to join with the Holy Spirit’s dream of awakening to the truth. As I join with Holy Spirit’s perception, the world seems less complicated. The stories carry less importance. Truth is true and nothing else is true.

When I get wrapped up in dreams again, a very helpful process for me is returning again to standing beneath that shower of Light. I stand there until everything gets washed away but God’s Light. I find this process very helpful when I think something that is not of joy and peace is real. I am grateful to the Holy Spirit for this important handrail, this important pathway, that leads me very gently back to the truth, that leads me back where I belong. It is always there as I am willing to accept it. It is there now. Joy and peace are my inheritance. It is all I have in truth. It is all I am.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 103 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 103 Insights

“God, being Love, is also happiness.”

My goal is to accept the truth. This means that my goal is to accept God. My goal is to accept happiness. My goal is to accept joy. When I think of it that way, the more I accept the truth, the happier I will be, the more joy I will feel in my heart.

The Course tells me that joy is everywhere. Happiness is everywhere, which means God is everywhere. I certainly have more work to do because I do not always feel God’s joy. This means that I am denying that God is everywhere. If I am not joyful, it is not because of something outside me, but my decision to deny God is the true cause.

So I use today as another day of thought reversal. I have been denying that joy is everywhere and now today I practice accepting God’s joy where it is — everywhere. This involves lifting the veil of denial, seeing past belief in sin and being willing to see the Christ beyond the body with everyone I meet or even think of today.

This is an ongoing practice. I see what I decide to see. I see through the ego’s eyes or I see through Holy Spirit’s eyes. This is my choice today. God, Love, joy, peace is everywhere. Am I willing to see it today? Or am I going to deny that it is there? Today is another day of practice in allowing myself to remember the truth that God indeed is everywhere. Am I willing to be happy today? It is my decision.

It’s interesting that happiness seems so tenuous. It seems that we can’t trust happiness to last. A common saying is, “It’s too good to last” or variations of that idea. When things are going badly we don’t hear people say, “it’s too bad to last.” It seems that we have been conditioned to believe that unhappiness is our normal state. We may get fleeting moments of happiness, but they cannot be trusted to last. In fact we are almost certain they won’t. What a sorry world we have made for ourselves.

This lesson is showing us that the world of unhappiness is a lie, an illusion that cannot be true because God, Who is Love, and everywhere, is also happiness. This lesson is a wonderful blessing. I am grateful to learn that I have been wrong in believing that the world must be an unhappy place, with pain and sorrow, devastation and death. Today I am willing to loosen my grip on that belief. I am willing to take each unhappy thought, each disappointment, each thought of impatience, each fear and each thought of guilt to the Holy Spirit. I am willing to let His Light show me that there is no cause for anything but happiness because the only real Cause is Love.

I do not need to walk through life expecting something to go wrong, expecting happiness to be temporary or limited in any way. The truth is I was created happy by Happiness. Experiencing anything less than perfect happiness means I am denying my Self and my Creator. One look at the many excuses I use for experiencing less than perfect happiness tells me that I have been denying my Self most of the time.

I am willing to take another step today towards letting go of that denial. I am willing to accept that God is Love and nothing else, and therefore He is happiness. I am willing to accept that I share His happiness. Thank you Jesus for bringing this happy message.

I was thinking that since God is Joy and God is everywhere, then it should be easy to feel joy. It should be unavoidable! So why am I not experiencing joy? It is not possible that God is failing to be Himself so it must be that I am blocking joy somehow. (I am not even going to get into why I am doing it.)

I imagined myself building a wall all around me with sandbags. This wall seems very solid and is blocking my sight of what is just outside it. The wall has been there for so long I’ve forgotten there is anything out there. I asked Holy Spirit to look at my wall with me.

I took each bag one at a time and examined it closely. Each one is made of some grievance. One is a grudge I am holding against my boss for something he did a while back. Another is a fear of something that hasn’t happened yet, but could. Another is a worry that my son is making a mistake in his life that he will come to regret. There are so many of these bags and they all seem to be about something that happened in the past or that hasn’t happened yet.

The thing about sandbags is that they seem very thick and solid and heavy. Very substantial. But as I give each one to Holy Spirit and ask Him to help me see this in a different way, I visualize them being emptied, the top being loosened and the sand pouring out. Nothing is left but an empty bag. As I give each bag to Holy Spirit and we look at the fear and guilt, the many grievances I used to block my awareness of Love, I start to dismantle the wall that kept me from seeing the joy that is all around me.

Today, I am going to continue this process. Every time I become aware of a grievance that is blocking my awareness of love and joy I am going to remember how insubstantial it really is and, with Holy Spirit, I am going to let it go. Removing those blocks is as easy as pouring the sand from a bag.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 102 Insights

“I share God’s Will for happiness for me.”

I really appreciate Jesus revealing the underlying motive of all suffering. Atoning for sin is purposeless. Pain is purposeless. As I practice quieting my mind and going to that inner place of peace, I do find a quiet, gentle happiness there. I find a sense that all is well and that nothing has ever changed.

I really do appreciate this thought reversal training. My experience of the world changes as I change my mind. I am seeing that these are not just words. It is really true. Beneath the turmoil of the world, there is peace, there is happiness, there is universal Love. There is oneness.

I choose now to practice, hour by hour, to remember the truth behind the images of the world. Suffering is purposeless — just silly ego stories made up in madness. I can loosen my grip on these stories and remember that as part of Love’s extension, happiness is my one function. What a wonderful idea to practice all day today! What a wonderful opportunity to heal my mind.

How helpful it will be to observe and become aware of all the little places where I still believe that suffering will give me something I want. Today is an important day given me to heal my mind. Sin is meaningless. Separation is meaningless. Pain and suffering are meaningless. True happiness is only of God. I happily affirm today, again and again, that I share God’s Will for happiness for me. Happiness is my one function.

I see this lesson as another step in remembering that I am still one with God. I remain as God created me, unchanged. For if I share God’s Will for happiness for me, I must be one with Him. If I don’t think I deserve happiness, then I must believe I am separate from God.

This world was made to make it appear that separation from God is real. With that comes the belief in harm. At its core is the belief that I harmed God by separating from Him. This could only bring guilt. Along with guilt comes the inevitable belief that punishment is justified. In this belief, punishment is seen as payment for the sin of separation. And in its twisted thought system, pain is also seen as the way to return to God. Thus pain is seen as a means to heal separation. Yet it is impossible that what reinforces the belief in separation, making it seem more real, could be the means to heal separation. It is another example of the ego’s motto, “Seek and do not find.” Thus all forms of pain, from mild irritation or disappointment to intense rage and deep depression, from a minor body ache or malfunction to “life” threatening disease. All these symbols of pain and sacrifice serve only to reinforce the illusion of separation — illusions made to make illusions seem real. Being illusions, they accomplish nothing in truth.

Today as I practice remembering that I share God’s Will for happiness for me, I loosen my identification with the body and all of its forms of pain and suffering. I move closer to recognition of the truth about me as God created me. I move closer to the recognition of the one Self that is me and all my brothers. I move closer to the comfort, safety and happiness that God has given me and that is mine to claim. I accept God’s happiness for me now. That is my one function. That is my meaning. I share my meaning with God, for He is the Source of all meaning.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 101 Insights

“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.”

God is eternal Love. You are eternal Love. I am eternal Love. Eternal Love is happiness. Inherent in eternal Love is indescribable peace and joy. As we return to the truth, we recognize that this and only this is reality.

Separate bodies are not God’s Will. With belief in separate bodies comes belief in sin. Belief can make appearances seem real, but it cannot make it the truth.

God wills only happiness for us. Love wills only Love and sees only Love. Death and pain and destruction are not God’s Will. Truth is true and nothing else is true. Salvation or happiness is not found through pain. Salvation or happiness is found only through returning to the truth, returning to Love. Jesus wants us all to return to Love. Jesus wants us to accept the truth. He knows we are one Self, united with our Creator.

Today I am willing to practice opening to the truth. Today I am willing to practice opening to happiness. Today I am willing to practice letting go of all the forms of belief in sin and guilt that may crop up in my mind. It is through practice and willingness to remember the truth that I accept my eternal nature as Love and nothing else.

In this lesson Jesus really spells out the ego thought system. He makes it clear why there is so much resistance to accepting God’s gift of salvation. And it all centers around the conviction that sin is real. The Course tells us point blank that sin is not real. This idea is central to the healing message of the Course and yet to some religions, it is blasphemy. This lesson shows us why we would believe that it is blasphemy to believe that sin is not real.

Just as the recognition of the unreality of sin is central to the Course’s message, the ‘reality’ of sin is central to the ego’s existence. If sin is not real, the separation never happened and the ego does not exist. A separate identity with private thoughts does not exist. This is why the ego resists with all its tricks any idea that points to the unreality of sin.

We are given an opportunity today to loosen our identification with the ego thought system. And we are told the benefit that we will gain by letting it go. We are told that we will receive the perfect happiness that God wills for us.

In one simple lesson we are taught that the core idea that has held the world of pain together for us is not true. At the same time we are given the happy replacement for what we believed was the inevitable consequence of the sin we thought was real. Not only is the effect replaced by its opposite but the cause is recognized as unreal and therefore nonexistent.

Instead of fearing salvation now we can welcome it. We no longer need to fear pain and punishment. We can welcome perfect happiness. God’s will for me is perfect happiness. This is the truth because sin is not real.

I really hold tight to the idea of sin and punishment. I never realized the extent of my resistance to change this belief until today. I brought up some of the things I feel guilty about and reminded myself, one guilty thought at a time, that sin is not real and that I am not punished for it. This was hard to do. I kept feeling like it wasn’t working and was so uncomfortable that I wanted to quit.

When I followed my feelings to a thought I realized that I was holding onto stuff I learned from an early age. Like, “You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.” And, “You did something wrong, now you have to suffer the consequences.” I can see that all of the fears I have stem from this idea of being punished for past actions, a feeling of deserving what I get and taking my punishment as the adult, responsible thing to do.

Today I have an opportunity to turn this thought process around, to see it differently. It is so ingrained in me that it seems impossible and yet, I know that it is not impossible. I remind myself that I am not alone in this. All of you are there with me. We are doing this together. I am reminded also that, “Your newborn purpose is nursed by angels, cherished by the Holy Spirit and protected by God Himself.”

There are so many wonderful passages in the Course that comfort and strengthen and I have written a number of them down in a little notebook. I think today would be a good day to carry that notebook with me and anytime I start to think I can’t do this or I start to feel guilty or afraid, I will remind myself of how supported and protected I am by reading some of those passages.

I get a lump in my throat when I realize that all God wants for me is perfect happiness. To know that the all powerful Creator of the Universe, Ultimate Love is attempting to get a message to us, telling us that no matter what we think we’ve done, it’s all an illusion and He wants us to know that. He wants us to know that there is no need to be sad, or angry, or resentful; He just wants us to be happy and to know that we are one with all that is.

Most Holy Spirit, help me have the willingness to turn to you during this day in my time of need; to know that should I encounter one of the many forms of fear, I just need look to you for guidance and remember that God’s will for me is perfect happiness. Thank you. Amen.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 100 Insights

“My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.”

What I am learning from today’s lesson is that happiness is always within me. Happiness is in the Christ Mind, which is my real Mind. In order to find the Christ Mind, the only real Mind, I need to learn to pass by the little thoughts and foolish goals of the ego mind. I need to practice going deep within with one intent and that intent is to open up to the truth — what is real — the Christ Mind.

The Christ Mind carries the feeling of deep peace, deep joy and deep happiness. It does not fluctuate, but is constant. There is no change and no differences. It steadily radiates happiness. It sees that Love is everywhere, that Love is all that is. This Source of Love within me is my anchor, my support, my source of giving.

This is my part in God’s plan for salvation. The peace and joy I feel and extend is contagious. This is how I can be helpful. Being in this place of peace is my most important goal. I cannot extend peace and happiness unless I receive peace and happiness, and I receive peace and happiness by giving peace and happiness. Giving and receiving are the same.

What is my intent? Do I want to make separate minds with separate bodies real or am I open to be a part of reversing this mad belief? Continuing to practice going to this sacred place in my mind is how my mind is healed. This is the only way I am able to fulfill my part in God’s plan for salvation.

Today I saw images of citizens dancing in the streets of Bagdad, celebrating their freedom from tyranny. That symbolizes what we feel inside when we let go of our allegiance to the tyrannical role of the ego. The ego is the idea of limitation and so it ‘rules’ by limiting. When I shift my allegiance from the ego to my true Self, I shift from the loss and sacrifice and death demanded by the ego to the perfect happiness and perfect peace given me by God.

We do not need to attack the ego to subdue it. In fact, such an attempt simply strengthens the ego’s perception, because the ego becomes strong in strife. We only attack what we think is real.

The ego has no defense against the joy and peace of God, for what is nothing can have no effect on what is everything. My part in God’s plan for salvation is simply to accept His gifts and demonstrate my acceptance by letting His gifts radiate through me to embrace all. It shows by the smile on my face, the happy laughter and the unshakable peace that is mine to give as I accept God’s Will for me, as I accept perfect happiness.

There is a passage in the Bible that says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Today’s lesson is talking about that. I was created as an extension of God’s Love, which magnifies His Love. But if I deny that Love, this magnification is not seen or recognized. As I learn to accept my Self as I was created, Love extends through me. That is how I know the perfect happiness that is His gift to His one Son, the Self I share with everyone. As I open up to and express the joy of God, I magnify His Love. This Love reaches out and touches the Love in the hearts of everyone, whether or not they recognize that the Love is in them.

Today I dedicate to remembering to accept the joy and peace of God and let it shine through me so that I can take my place in God’s plan for salvation.

This lesson says that God’s will for me is perfect happiness. Realizing this gives me a huge amount of willingness to stay focused on this journey to peace, because if God wills happiness for me, it’s just a matter of putting my part in it. My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation. Today I choose to do God’s will for me and be happy. I know that in that happiness I will know peace, know love, know my true Self; the Self that my Heavenly Father created, the Self that is always in my mind if I set myself aside from the insanity of this world and join with the Holy Spirit.

As I prepare myself for today, I surrender myself and ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help keep me focused on today’s lesson. Thank you, Father; thank you, Holy Spirit. Amen.

It all seems so simple. God loves me. He wants me to be happy. Being happy is my only job here. The only thing keeping me from being happy is my decision not to be. The way to change that is to forgive this decision and to open my mind to Holy Spirit so He can show me another way to see.

It is amazing to me how resistant I am to this process. One thing that has changed over the last couple of years is that I am more determined to succeed. I really want this. I may not want it to the exclusion of everything else, but that will come because I want it too much to quit trying.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 99 Insights

“Salvation is my only function here.”

As I read this lesson, I felt an inner softening. This lesson presents an image of God that differs from the world’s image and the image I learned as I was growing up. It peels away all the false ideas that God would do anything that would bring pain, suffering and loss and it brings to the forefront the recognition that God is Love and nothing else. It takes away the fear of God and replaces it with a sense of deep comfort and safety.

God is my refuge, my loving and compassionate Father, Whose only Will for me is perfect happiness and perfect peace. He did not make this world of disease, destruction and death. That is not His Will for me. His Will is that I am His one Son, forever one with His Love. I breathe a sigh of relief as I take in this thought. There is nothing to fear, for only Love is real and I am safe in that Love.

God did not make this world. The acceptance of this idea undoes all guilt, all thoughts of deserving punishment and all thoughts of a punishing God. Even in this world we see a loving parent embrace a child with love and want to protect that child from hurting itself. God, too, embraces us with His Love and gave us His Voice, the Holy Spirit, to lead us out of thoughts of destruction and pain and guide us back Home to the safety of His Love.

The loving parent we see in this world is but a tiny testament to the all encompassing Love of God. His Love is beyond anything we have allowed ourselves to experience in the world of form. It never stops, never changes. It sees us forever as innocent and worthy of all Love.

I see that it is very important to accept that God did not make the world I see through the body’s eyes. For, if I believe He made this world, I will believe that God’s Will includes pain and death. With this belief comes fear of God, which stands as a barrier to the full experience of His Love. As I remember God is still Love and this is not His Will, I release Him from my projections of fear and I release myself to receive His Love.

Here is salvation. Here is happiness. Here is freedom. Today I will practice accepting my only function and remember God is still Love and this world that I experience through the body is not His Will.

This lesson helps me step back from believing in all the stories I see through the body’s eyes. This lesson helps me remember my only function, which is forgiveness, or letting go of illusions. My job now is to let the Light of truth shine away my belief in the ego’s false idea that separation could ever be real. My function is to let go of believing in what my body’s eyes are showing me.

This helps as I watch the images of destruction on TV, the images of body pitted against body, country pitted against country. These are very fearful images of attack and defend. This lesson reminds me that my function is to see past the images to the Light that is true.

This whole world of separation is not God’s Will. This whole world of separation is a call for Love. It comes from thoughts of fear. It comes from rejecting the oneness of God’s Love. Salvation is letting all these false images be seen for what they truly are, just false ideas which mean nothing. God is still Love and this is not His Will.

Today I am willing to practice letting the Holy Spirit shine Its Light in my mind so that I see these images anew. With the Holy Spirit’s Light, I am able to see the truth behind all the images. As I am able to see the truth, I rest in peace. From this vantage point, I am able to extend peace to all my brothers. I am able to connect mind to mind with the whole Sonship and remember we are one Light, there is no distance between us.

In this place of peace, as I watch the images change constantly, it makes no difference. Truth is true and nothing else is true. God is still Love and what is not God’s Will does not exist. I see my job is to extend Love to all parts of my self that are believing in fearful dreams. As I remember that extending Love is my one function, I am helped in awakening to the truth.

Today I practice with the Holy Spirit’s help remembering what is real and what is not real. Making illusions real is not my job. Seeing past all forms of separation to the one Light of God is my function. I am determined to practice this today.

What but a Thought of God could be the plan by which the never done is overlooked and sins forgotten which were never real? I love the way I feel when I think of God; when I take the time to step back from the everyday chaos and rest with the Holy Spirit.

This lesson says that I am entrusted with this plan of salvation for me, but because my ego can’t begin to imagine what this plan is, I need to practice this thought and remove myself from the thoughts of this world and listen to the Holy Spirit as we will accomplish this plan together.

Most Holy Spirit, help me to have the willingness to open my heart, my mind, and hear the words my Heavenly Father sends to me this day, that I may know and remember my function here. Amen.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 98 Insights

“I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”

The sentence that stands out to me the most in this lesson is: “We side with truth and let illusions go.” As I am willing to side with truth, all the silly ego squabbles found in this world of separate identities are seen as just plain silly. I am not as tempted to take them so seriously. As I am willing to side with truth, I am open to seeing the Light that lies beyond the separate images, beyond time and space. When I side with truth, I am siding with eternal reality and letting illusions go.

The illusions of bodies seem so important in this world — the struggle for survival, the desire to be entertained. But here Jesus shows me that God’s way works. God’s way brings me everything I really want. God’s plan brings me happiness and peace and certainty.

The ego’s plan always goes for seek and do not find. The ego always looks for conflict and strife. The ego grows strong in strife. When I am following the ego’s plan I can tell by the level of anxiety I feel. When I follow God’s plan, I can tell by the level of peace and inner joy I feel.

The first five minutes of every hour seems like a lot of time to take out from my busy day. But when I realize that this time is a time dedicated to accepting the truth and opening to God’s peace and Love, I see that it is really very little time to give to this most important practice. I feel like I am being given such a powerful gift, a way Home that is truly beautiful and simple and perfect for me. I give my time to God. I give time to opening to God’s peace. How could time be more well spent?

The ego likes to make it appear that accepting my part in God’s plan for salvation is a burden and a sacrifice. It does not want me to recognize that it is really accepting God’s gift of joy that is beyond anything this ego world has to offer. The only reason I have any doubt or resist this dedication at all is because some part of me believes that I can find happiness in the world of the ego. It is true that I will need to give up everything the world has to offer in order to receive the magnificent gifts God has given me. But what is also true that the ego does not want me to recognize is that everything the world has to offer has no value whatsoever. It is all empty illusions, nothing, meaningless. So what I must give up to experience God’s gift of perfect joy is absolutely nothing. I give up nothing to recognize I have everything.

This world is the effect of believing it is possible to have more than everything, to somehow be special, different, unique. The only way to seem to have this specialness, to seem to have more than everything, is to make up illusions and call them real. But believing illusions are real does not make them real in truth. It is only a self delusion, a deceit that I use to make believe that I have what I want. But beneath this deception is a deep longing to return to the Love that seems to be so distant, yet in truth is what I am.

When I choose to accept my part in God’s plan for salvation, I simply choose to accept His gifts of Love. Nothing more and nothing less, for there is nothing else. I am deeply grateful for this reminder and this practice to strengthen my dedication to accepting God’s gift that is my part in God’s plan for salvation. For when I accept God’s Love, I cannot but offer it to all that Is, for that is Love’s nature.

I am worthy of His Love because I was created worthy of It. It is simply a fact to accept. Nothing need be done to make me worthy. I need merely accept what Is. Today I will practice accepting God’s Love and offering God’s Love. Today I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.

I woke up this morning with some concerns for the coming day. This lesson was a welcome reminder that I am upset because I am looking for salvation in a place where it is not. I went over my worries one at a time and saw that their solutions did not bring me salvation. This helped me to settle into the lesson realizing that I can find salvation if I look in the right place.

I also found it comforting to realize I am not alone in what I am doing today. I loved reading that “They will be with us…” because I surely feel that I need support today.

I wrote my lesson on a sheet of paper today along with a few lines to help me focus on my five minute prayers. This way, even on the road I can easily pull over and do my lesson at each hourly interval. At the bottom of the page I quoted the Course, “Is it not worth five minutes of your time…?” These last several lessons have been reminding us of how important this work is and I’m glad of that reminder.

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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ACIM Workbook Lesson 97 Insights

“I am spirit.”

Each time I say the beginning words of the exercise, I feel uplifted, lighter. Joy and gratitude grow in my heart and a sense of peace envelops me. The truth is I am free of all limits, safe and healed and whole. When I remember this, I see that there is nothing to forgive and I bring that vision of innocence to the world.

That is the salvation of the world. It is the recognition that in truth, nothing was ever lost. What looked like a world of division and harm and loss was just a foolish fantasy that could never be. The world is safe and healed and whole in truth. As I recognize this peace grows stronger in my awareness. Conflict and doubt fade away. There is nothing but Love to give and to receive. The joy of loving fills my being.

I look upon someone that I once held a grievance against and love fills my heart and reaches out, offering it to that dear brother, my Friend, my one Self. No loss ever happened. No harm. All that has ever happened in truth is the extension of Love to Love, forever extending.

In this moment this is what it means to me to say, “I am Spirit.” Thank you Holy Spirit for this loving reminder.

“I am Spirit” returns me to the truth. I am not a body. I am not an individual self with a separate mind. I am Spirit, totally united with all Spirit, one Spirit, one Self. I need to be reminded of this truth often. I need to return to my true Identity as often as possible.

Being lost in dreams leads to nowhere and does nothing. Awakening to the truth is my one goal. There is nothing more important than this. I am Spirit. There is only one Spirit. I rest in the truth of my true nature as God created me. I rest in God. I let illusions go.

It is sometimes so difficult for me to see myself as anything other than this limited body. My goal in committing myself to the teachings of this course is to know my true Self, the Spirit in me this lesson speaks of. I want so desperately to detach myself from this dream of illusions. Even though my ego self can’t imagine what it is like to be Spirit, it is in the quiet minutes of these lessons practiced that I believe I will receive His power, His light, His words.

Help me this day, Holy Spirit, to have the willingness to listen and hear my Heavenly Father’s words for me, the truth about me. Somehow I know this truth is what carries me through these sometimes seemingly difficult days.

I really love this lesson. In fact, I keep the prayer, “Spirit am I…” where I can see it all the time. This morning it is especially appropriate because I am feeling attacked from all sides. What an especially appropriate lesson for me today! One thing I thought about during my meditation this morning has to do with forgiveness. I have a place in my life that I feel needs forgiveness. This morning I was reminded that the only one who needs to forgive this is me. So often I have thought that if only the other person would forgive me, then I could forgive myself.

I realized for the first time that I was, not so much looking for forgiveness, as for someone to project my guilt onto. In other words, I am saying to that other person that I feel so bad because of the way you are seeing me. If you will stop seeing me that way, I can feel forgiven and forgive myself.

Now that I understand my motivation, I think I can let this go and allow Holy Spirit to show me another way to see. I fully accept sole responsibility for my actions and my feelings in this incident. Now that they belong to me, I am free to release them and accept healing.

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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
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Listen to Lesson 96 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 96 Insights

“Salvation comes from my one Self.”

While I was quieting my mind as I worked with today’s exercise, I observed the thoughts that wandered through. I observed that all these thoughts were in some way tied with the image I hold of myself as a body: memories of things the body did, things I plan to do with the body, things people said to me as a body identity. I realize all these thoughts come from a mind perceived split apart from other minds and from God.

While focused on these thoughts I cannot experience or be aware of the thoughts of the mind of my one Self which are shared with God. It is impossible to experience the unity of the one Mind I share with God while my thoughts are focused on a separate identity with private thoughts. With this focus I am not aware of my true Mind that is unified with the Mind of God. These thoughts so fill my awareness that it is only in fleeting moments that I experience a glimpse of the brilliant Light of the Mind of my one Self, which I share with God.

I am grateful to this Course and the exercises of the Workbook, for they have helped open the door to these glimpses. With continued practice, I experience these holy instants more often.

It is important to realize that I cannot reach God through little-self analysis. I reach God by resigning as my own guide and letting the Holy Spirit in my mind guide my thoughts and perceptions. The Holy Spirit will help me recognize the meaninglessness of an image set apart from all and guide me to the recognition of the Light I share with all Creation. Here there can be no conflict, for there is no opposite to conflict with the one Reality of Light. That one Reality is my one Self. Here, in this unity is perfect peace and perfect joy. This is why salvation comes from my one Self. Salvation is perfect happiness and perfect peace.

Holy Spirit lead me to the place in my mind where my one Self resides. Lead me to the Thoughts I share with God. Lead me to the peace of God. You know they are there and how to find them.

It is only my unwillingness that delays the process. Right now I focus on opening my mind to be led to the truth. I open my mind to receive God’s comfort and peace. I open my mind to the certainty of God’s eternal Love, Which is my true Identity. God’s certainty is mine. I only experience conflict when I wander in dreams. These dreams seem so enticing at times, so important to focus on. I am now getting an inkling of how meaningless these dreams are.

As I open to my one Self, I feel a little stream of peace that gradually grows larger. As I follow the stream of peace, it gradually feels fuller and fuller. I keep moving forward into this ever-widening flow of peace. I feel strengthened and encouraged by it. I keep moving forward. I see that my little self identity must fall away as I continue forward. I let it fall away, first a little and then a little more.

The peace of God feels so strong now in my awareness. Nothing else matters. This is my one Self’s gift to all who are willing to be led here. Here and only here is safety. God’s ocean of Love is the one Identity. I am willing to return often today to this ocean of Love That resides in my mind. It is all I want. It is all I need. Here is my happiness and my joy. I am determined to let this be my practice today. “My salvation comes from my one Self.”

I didn’t get much sleep last night and my mind was not working very well, so when I tried to do my lesson, I found my mind wandering a lot. I decided to walk along the boardwalk. Water always calms and the wind is blowing some of the heat and humidity away.

I’ve often found that walking with no distractions seems to help me focus my thinking. I act as if I am talking to someone and so my mind doesn’t wander so much. Immediately my mind settled on a problem that has been ongoing for sometime now, a relationship that needs healing but that I have been unwilling to release.

I went over it in my mind and thought about how it all began and what fuels the problem. I thought about why I am so unwilling to allow healing and wondered what to do about it.

Toward the end of the walk, I stated my intention to allow healing and realized that “allow” was the operative word here. Always before I was saying I wanted healing but I was placing my solution in the hands of ego. This is tantamount to saying I want to pretend to do something about it to assuage my guilt and then go on with everything exactly the same only not so obvious. How can I expect my ego to change something it doesn’t understand? Anyway, my ego likes things just the way they are. It is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house and then feeling surprised at the result.

I am so grateful for today’s lesson. Maybe my self doesn’t have a clue, but my one Self holds the thought of salvation for me and wants me to use it. No longer is salvation just a word, an abstract concept. Salvation is possible. Today I practice reaching thoughts of salvation in my mind. I have a clear goal and my intention is strong. I am surrounded by help. How can I fail?

© 2003, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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