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Listen to Lesson 230 Insights
“Now will I seek and find the peace of God.”
This lesson promises that if I call on God, I will find the peace He gave. The implication is that if I am not experiencing peace, I must be calling on the ego. The ego judges everything because that is how it maintains the appearance of separation. As it says in “What is Forgiveness?” an unforgiving thought must judge and to hold unforgiveness in place, the judgment must not be raised to question. But if I would experience forgiveness, I must be willing to accept truth as it is rather than judge against it and reject it.
This world was made as a place where truth is rejected. So it is not surprising that judgment is part of our habit of thinking. It is a habit to be undone if we would experience peace. With every judgment we call upon the ego. Each time we release judgment, each time we recognize there is nothing to judge, we call upon God and open our awareness to the peace that has always been ours.
Finding the peace of God is not complicated. It need not be a long drawn out process. It is only our lack of willingness to give up our identification with the ego thought system that delays the experience of God’s peace.
Some part of our mind believes that judgment has some value greater than the Love of God. Who in their right mind would value anything more than the Love of God? No one. This world is a world of insanity, of belief in what could never be real or true. The good news is insanity is not permanent because illusions could never be permanent.
There remains within our mind the Link that forever reminds us of our Source, our Creator. It is to this Link that we must turn to receive the correction that shows us what is real and what is unreal. We have had a mistaken perception of reality, but it is correctable. Each time we turn to the Means for correction, we move a step closer to experiencing the peace given us in our creation.
Today I dedicate again to practicing bringing all my thoughts of fear and guilt, whatever their form, to the Holy Spirit in my mind for His gentle correction.
Because our minds are powerful, what we seek for we find. The thoughts we hold in our minds are then reflected in the world. As we believe, so we see. The Course tells us that the way to find peace is to truly desire peace. As we truly seek for peace, we will find it. Peace is right there in our minds, waiting for our acceptance. So it is our willingness to accept the peace of God that we are working with.
The Course tells us we need just a little willingness. The Holy Spirit will take that willingness gladly and lead us to the peace of God. Peace is ours eternally. We cannot lose what is part of our Identity. As we are willing to quiet our minds of all the ego’s raucous thoughts, we will be led to peace.
Holy Spirit, I am willing to quiet my mind today and be led to the experience of God’s peace. Peace is all I want.
I was asking for peace this morning but I was having a hard time accepting. As I allowed my thoughts to flow through, I saw some of the things that I was choosing instead of peace. I gave those to Holy Spirit and asked for another way to see them.
Then I went back and reread the lesson. I could see clearly that peace had been in me all along. But like a weed-choked garden with a perfect (but hidden) flower at it’s center, I couldn’t see my bloom of perfect peace for all the “weeds.” As soon as I started pulling the weeds from my mind and giving them to Holy Spirit, I was able to recognize and enjoy the peace God placed in my heart when He created me. I can cover up what God created and refuse to acknowledge it, but thankfully, I can’t change it or destroy it.
© 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.
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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Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 229 Insights
“Love, Which created me, is what I am.”
This world was made to make it look as if separation is real. Along with separation appearing real, sin appears real because harm appears to be possible. The images seen through the body’s eyes are pretty convincing. Yet today’s lesson is telling me it’s all made up, a distortion of my mind.
More importantly, God has not let these wild imaginings affect my true Identity at all. He has held me sinless in His Mind, shielding me from any effect that I might believe the illusions I have made up might have. This is God’s grace. Being Love, God does not condemn. I am held forever safe in His Love. His only “judgment” is that I remain Love, as He created me. Love cannot sin, for Love is one and only gives of Itself. Thus I remain innocent.
The images of the world my body’s eyes show me are lies and deceptions. They are not the truth about me or anyone or anything. It is my job now to loosen and let go of my beliefs in the images of this world. That is forgiveness. As I forgive, with the Holy Spirit’s help, I am able to look past the images to the face of Christ, which is ever present.
Holy Spirit, hold my hand today and shine Your Light, that I may see the face of Christ wherever I look. Thus will I learn to recognize my Self as Love created It. I give thanks.
Love waits in quiet. My true Identity waits in quiet for my return. I return to Love by going to that quiet place in my mind where Love resides. It is always there because Love is eternal and cannot leave my mind. In that quiet place I know I am safe. In that quiet place is the face of Christ.
My job now is to let go of duality. There is only one real world and in that world lies the face of Christ. The Course tells us, “The face of Christ is all there is to see. The song of Christ is all there is to hear. The Hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with Him.” Today I will practice seeing the face of Christ and remembering that Love is What I am.
Something happened yesterday which brought to mind an incident that happened years ago. In this incident someone who loved me acted in an unloving way. The details are not important. Could have been one of any number of incidents. This particular incident just happened to come to mind in a vivid way and so offered an excellent opportunity for forgiveness.
I didn’t recognize it as such, yesterday. When I thought about it, I marveled at how unloving this person acted and how foolish I was to accept his behavior and how I would never do that again and how glad I was he was no longer in my life. Well, you get the picture.
The memory popped up again as I was doing the lesson, so I took it as a signal to take a closer look at this errant thought, as often these seemingly “stray” thoughts during meditation are trying to tell me something. Sure enough, this one was trying to get my attention for a reason.
As I thought about it, I realized his actions were governed by what he thought was right at the moment. He had a reason for doing what he did. At that moment in his life, what he did made perfect sense to him. Don’t I often act out what I believe to be true and later realize it was just ego, after all? Do I deserve to be condemned because I made a mistake? Does he?
If it was ego instead of the truth we had mistaken it for, it wasn’t even real. Should we be condemned for something that wasn’t real? So, once again, I see that what I thought my brother did to me, didn’t happen. It was a distortion of the mind and Holy Spirit is happy to help me see clearly.
© 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.
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 228 Insights
“God has condemned me not. No more do I.”
Any time I perceive myself as vulnerable or limited in any way, I am condemning myself. I have judged myself as less than God created me. And since I am the creation of my Creator, I must also be judging my Creator. Either my Creator is limited and vulnerable like me or my Creator takes sadistic satisfaction in creating an offspring subject to pain and limited, unlike Itself.
This could not be the reality of God. But it is the ego’s view of what God is. That is why to the ego, God is the enemy, not to be trusted and to be defended against, at all costs. The ego’s perception of God is simply a projection of what it believes it is. No wonder God is portrayed as angry, judgmental, capable of a wrath that produces punishment that lasts for eternity. Yet this is the ego’s wish, not God’s Will.
God, being perfect Love, does not condemn. His love for us remains unwavering and total. He sees nothing in us to condemn, for He sees only Himself in us. Should we believe the ego’s twisted, distorted, limited and fearful view of us? Or shall we believe God’s Knowledge of us that knows we are exactly like Him, perfect Love and nothing else?
The ego has raised many religions that sing its songs of condemnation and guilt. They glorify the ego, not God. If we would give glory to God, we need only accept His knowledge of us as holy, innocent and sharing all that He is. We need to forgive ourselves for believing in false images of ourselves. In that forgiveness, we welcome the truth of our one Self as our Identity. And in this way we remember our Creator, our Source, our Love. I am grateful for the Course, which teaches me how to open my mind to the recognition of What I am.
In the Text Jesus asks us to deny the denial of the truth. The ego thought system is the denial of the truth. We remain as God created us, as He gave all of Himself to us. We cannot change from how we were created. The ego denies this. The ego professes that we truly did split off from God and made God cease to exist.
The ego thought system carries with it an innate guilt for having attacked God’s Oneness. This guilt and sense of sinfulness pervades all the stories the ego writes. Unworthiness, vulnerability and lack are at the core of its thought system.
In today’s lesson, Jesus reinforces the truth and returns us to the awareness that what the ego professes has happened has never happened in truth. We are still one in God. We have dreamed dreams of separation, but they are not true.
The process of waking up involves learning to deny the ego’s denial of the truth. Jesus encourages us to receive God’s Word for What we are.
All our behavior stems from the answer to the question, “What am I?” As we learn to accept God’s answer to that question, all our actions will reflect that answer and we will share God’s answer with all our brothers and remember we are one. We are eternally one with God. There is nothing else to see or be. And we give thanks that only this is true.
© 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.
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
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Listen to Lesson 227 Insights
“This is my holy instant of release.”
Every moment is my holy instant of release. I don’t have to wait to be released from the tyranny of the ego. In every moment I have a choice. I choose either illusion or reality. Though choosing illusions blinds me to reality, reality remains ever present, unchanged by my choice to believe illusions are real.
If I experience a world of separation, it is because I have chosen it. It doesn’t seem like I have anything to do with its seeming existence. Yet in every moment that I am perceiving separation, it is because I am choosing to see it.
Hidden deep below conscious awareness is the desire for specialness that chooses separation over unity and wholeness. From that desire and choice I get everything that comes with the belief that separation is real: Conflict, loss, lack, loneliness, fear and guilt. These are but a few of the symptoms of having made the choice for illusion rather than truth. Gratefully the choice for illusion can never be permanent, for my mind remains eternally united with God. The memory of my Source remains with me forever, even though it may seem to be forgotten beneath layer upon layer of illusions. I may believe I have left God and experience it as so, but God has never left me. His Love still embraces me and supports me and calls me to return to the Home where I belong. I feel that call in my heart. It is the cause of all my searching.
While the ego directs me to search where I cannot find the Love and peace I want, the Holy Spirit is ever present, ready to guide me where I will find the release I seek. I am grateful for the Course, which teaches me how to recognize the false images offered by the ego. I am grateful it teaches me how to bring these images to the Holy Spirit, Who shows me they have no substance and no effect on the truth of What I am. With His help I lay them down, recognizing that what has no effect must not exist.
Every instant is my moment of opportunity. Today I am dedicated to practicing recognizing false images and taking them to the Holy Spirit, where He helps me release them in gentle laughter and joy. And thus I am released.
I quiet my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to bring me my holy instant of release. The Holy Spirit responds by bringing the Light of peace and a sense of well being into my mind. I feel washed in peace. I relax in its gentle presence. I rest from the busyness of the world.
I am reminded that there is nothing my holiness cannot do. And bringing me the holy instant is easy as my willingness grows to accept the truth. The truth is always in my mind, waiting for my acceptance. I open to it now. Behind every illusion, there God is. Behind every form there is wholeness. Behind every false idea lies the truth. Only God exists.
Today I would accept my holy instant of release. Today I would let illusions be released. Today I would be free of the limiting ideas of the ego. I would learn to laugh at them, for they could never be true. I would learn to accept God’s peace and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, which always brings me my holy instant of release when I am ready to accept it.
And the more I practice this, the easier and more natural it becomes. That release, even in the temporary and incomplete way I allow it in my mind, is such an incredible blessing. I am left feeling as if God Himself has just given me a gentle kiss on the cheek and a warm hug. Wow! What will my life be like when I completely surrender to God’s Love and His Will?
© 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.
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 226 Insights
“My home awaits me. I will hasten there.”
If I am unhappy, depressed, resentful or angry, it is because in some way I am dissatisfied with what I believe about the circumstances I am in. The key word here is believe. What I believe determines what I perceive. Being unhappy with my circumstances means that at some level I believe that if what I perceive as outside me were to change in some way to my liking, I would be happy. To believe this, I must believe that I am separate from what appears to be outer circumstances.
Attempting to change the outer circumstances to make me happy is a way to avoid making the one change that will truly bring me happiness. To experience the happiness given me by God, I must let go of the belief that I am separate.
Trying to change what appears to be an outer world simply reinforces my belief in separation. The outer world seems real to me because at some level I value separation. Most of the time I do not recognize it as valuing separation. It may show up disguised to look like something else. I might want someone to show respect for me so that I will feel more valuable. I might want nice clothing so that I will look good and be acceptable to others.
There are myriad ways of looking outside for specialness to give us a sense of worth because we have rejected the value given us by God when we decided to separate from Him. Someone who is so depressed that they are suicidal might say, “I see no value in this world. I want to end it all.” But they are really saying, “I see no hope in getting the outer circumstances the way I want them and so I want to escape.” The ego loves this reasoning because it avoids looking at the core belief that is the source of the problem.
To find the happiness that is our inheritance, we must let go of valuing the belief in separation from Love. We must let go of valuing specialness. When we cease to value thinking we are separated from Love, we escape the world entirely because the whole world we see is just the effect of valuing separation.
As we give up the ego’s use for the body, we open to the Holy Spirit’s use for the body. What we value then is the Love we see in all our brothers and likewise in ourselves. Here is where we welcome God’s open arms. Here is where we recognize our unity with all. Here is where we experience the joy of Love flowing without end or limitation. We can make that choice in any moment and experience the peace and joy of God. We can walk the world in peace and joy, knowing we are at home in Love.
Jesus reminds me in this lesson that I return Home as I change my mind about the purpose of the world. The world was created to reinforce separation. My change of mind involves letting go of believing in separation and returning to my Home, which is oneness. In oneness, there is no division anywhere. Oneness is total joining and sharing of all with all. Oneness is being united in Love.
Returning to oneness in my mind is how I leave the world of separation. The Course tells me not to believe in what the body’s senses show me, for the body was made to be the instrument for perceiving separation. The lessons of the Course help me practice looking past separated bodies to the one Light of God that is everyone’s true Essence. The Course reminds me that nothing has changed since we were created by God. God created us all as Love and we remain Love eternally. What God did not create does not exist and so separation does not exist.
My opportunity now is to reinforce the truth and not the false belief in separation. My opportunity now is to return Home to oneness. My Home awaits. I will hasten there. What need have I to continue to believe in separation when I know it is not true? Separation is an attack on the truth of oneness and it does not bring me happiness.
My opportunity now is to lay this unhappy dream down and open my mind to the awareness of Love’s Presence, Which is always everywhere. What a happy opportunity I have today. And it has nothing to do with changing something in the outside world. It all happens in my mind. Today, do I choose to join with the ego or with the Holy Spirit? As I choose so I will receive. As I receive, so I will give.
A couple of months ago I went to my regular Monday night Course study and it was so fulfilling that when I left the building, I felt like I’d been literally lifted up; I actually felt light on my feet. I was able to sustain that feeling into the next morning when I woke up and I greeted the day with joy and happiness, feeling very connected to my Source. It wasn’t until I was driving home later that day that I realized that sometime during the day I’d lost that uplifted feeling. I remember feeling a sense of sadness when I realized I was back in this world, back in the insanity, my feet firmly planted on the worldly ground.
I think this is what the lesson means when it says “I can depart this world entirely.” Sometimes I think we have resistance when the Course uses words like “departing” because we think of dying or leaving our loved ones. I can’t describe what it was I felt for that (unfortunately) short amount of time and I haven’t been able to get it back since, but it’s the very thing that gives me hope and makes me realize it is possible to be in this world but not of it.
That day the “shift” back to this world snuck up on me because, when I look back, I don’t know when I lost it. Sometimes I wonder if maybe my ego self wasn’t comfortable with that alien feeling and I intentionally let it go. Whatever the case, I believe the constant practice of these lessons strengthens my willingness to open myself to go home and hasten there.
Today’s lesson reminds me of a message by Ghandi. “Be the change you wish to see.” It is not what’s outside that needs changing but my thoughts within. Then my journey home need not be so hastened. Thank you, Holy Spirit.
© 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.
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
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Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 225 Insights
“God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.”
There is no greater joy than that which comes with extending Love. When I am in the awareness of Love, my heart is filled with gratitude and overflows. As I extend Love to another, I experience It growing in me and I want to give more. That is the nature of Love. It cannot be contained. It must continuously extend to be Itself.
This is why I must Love my Source in order to know the Love He has given me. The more I am able to extend Love, the more my heart is filled with gratitude and joy and the more I want to extend Love. It is an eternal crescendo that can only grow, because that is Love’s nature.
If I am not experiencing this, it is because I have a false idea that in some way I am separate from Love. It is not true, but if I believe there is separation, I will experience it as true. That experience is one of loss, loneliness, limitation and lack of Love. It is the opposite of Love because Love cannot be separate or divided. When I am aware of Love, I experience Its unity. When I am believing in separation, Love is blocked from my awareness, though it remains ever present. All that is needed to remove the block is to forgive or let go of the thought of separation.
The thought of separation takes myriad forms in this world because it is the world that belief in separation made. These many diverse forms were made to disguise the one thought that underlies them all. There is in truth only one problem — belief in separation. While we believe that separation takes many forms, we need to let go of those many forms until we recognize they are all the same.
The Holy Spirit was given us to teach us to recognize these false images for what they are so we can let them go. Our only job is to take each false image that blocks us from the awareness of Love to the Holy Spirit. He will shine His loving Light on it and as we share the clarity of His vision, it disappears. We return to the awareness of Love where, once again, we join in the crescendo of ever expanding giving and receiving of Love.
Today I let myself be carried. The Spirit of Love is my Identity and I would open to It now. Now I let my mind be washed of all the false ideas that stem from the idea of being separated from God. God is my Source and I would not be separate from Love.
Today I would follow, I would not lead. I will let myself be carried by the powerful Source of Love that is my true Identity. Who do I think I am? I let that question be answered by the only One Who has the real Answer. There is only one Love and that Love is all inclusive. I am not alone. I am not separate. Nothing exists but God. I am willing to practice seeing this and feeling this and being this today.
© 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.
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
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Listen to Lesson 224 Insights
“God is my Father, and He loves His Son.”
Since God is Love and He is my Father, my true Identity must be Love. Love is God’s gift to me. By Its nature, Love must be extended to be Itself. That is why my true Identity (Love) is the gift I give to the world. Only Love is real. So Love is, in truth, all there is to give. Love is the Light of Heaven and the Light of the world. My job is to see that Light of Love in everyone, everywhere, all the time. The Light of Love is all there really is to see. If I think I see something else, I am hallucinating, or projecting something that is not there.
The moment I recognize I am seeing anything other than Love, it is time for me to turn to the Holy Spirit and give this false perception to Him. That is the essence of daily practice that leads me Home to Heaven, where I am perfectly safe, at peace and in joy.
If I am seeing anyone as threatening to me or disturbing to me in any way, I need to remind myself that I must be seeing wrongly, for Love does not attack by seeing separation. Love only blesses by knowing Oneness. The true Identity of everyone is Love, so the truth of everyone only gives the blessing of Love.
In this dream, it appears there are alternatives to Love, but this cannot be in truth. As it says in the introduction to the Course, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” Only Love is real. That is my true Identity, along with everyone’s.
Holy Spirit, help me today to look past the false masks to the true Identity in everyone, that I may recognize my Own.
In this lesson, Jesus reminds me of my true Identity, Which I have forgotten. He encourages me to accept my true Identity and let the false identity go. Today is a practice in accepting my true Identity. Today is a practice in remembering I am still Love, as God created me. Today is a day of practice in not making the false identity — a body with a separate mind — real. Today is a day of practice in being willing to watch the thoughts I am believing in and, if it does not reflect my true Identity, to take it to the Holy Spirit to be undone.
Today is a day of accepting my Source instead of rejecting It. God is my Source. God is Love and therefore Love is my Source. I am an extension of Love and so I cannot be anything other than Love. Anything else is an hallucination. Holy Spirit, help me rest today in the remembrance that I am only Love. Let me be willing to remember the truth. Let me be willing to remember Love and that only Love is real.
This is a good lesson for me today. Yesterday someone offered me some guilt and I accepted it. The guilt made me feel like a bad person. If I feel guilty, obviously it is because I did something wrong. Since there is nothing I can do to fix the situation, I started feeling anxious and frustrated. This is such a typical ego maneuver — putting me in a box where there seems to be no way out.
Thank God I know now that I can take this to Holy Spirit and ask Him for a different way to see it. When I allow my mind to get so cluttered with these ego thoughts of guilt, fear and blame that I can’t see past them, I completely lose sight of the fact that there could be another way to see it.
If, instead, I can focus on Truth, like today’s lesson, “God is my Father and He loves His Son, ” then I can relax and let Holy Spirit guide me out of the scary place I put myself. I look back at it from the safety of God’s Love and I laugh that I was frightened by something so insubstantial.
© 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.
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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Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 223 Insights
“God is my life. I have no life but His.”
Today’s lesson is leading us to a new definition of life. In this world, human life is defined as a body that can breathe, its heart is beating and brain is functioning. But this lesson says that our real Life is only the Life we have in God. Our Life is God’s Life. We have no thoughts apart from Him. And His Thoughts are ours. There is nothing here about a physical body.
To fully grasp this meaning of Life requires a radical shift in perception. We must recognize that only God’s Thoughts are real and our only real Thoughts are the Thoughts we think with Him. The thoughts I seem to think as I look through the body’s eyes and label images as trees and water and sky are really only hallucinations. They are not real thoughts. They are image making. God is not an image that can be defined by form. God is Thought, which cannot be limited by an image.
Perhaps most radical of all to our ego-based thought system is the idea that we are Thought, not form. In this world all our thoughts are tied in one way or another to images. To recognize what we are in truth, we must learn to disregard the images and give them no meaning. This is very difficult for us if we believe our identity is defined by our form, which is the case for most of the people in the world. A vast portion of our resources is invested in clothing and painting the body to make it more appealing and to protect it from harm. But the body is not what we are. We are God’s Thought.
As I practice this idea, I become more and more aware of the many ways I put time and thought and effort into maintaining body identification. This is not limited to just the things I do to keep the body healthy, clothe it and house it. It is also about how I think of others and what others do. If I think one person is more successful than another, or I feel sad because I see someone who is having difficulty in their worldly experience, these are ways of keeping my belief in individual identities in place.
The truth is there is no difference between me and everyone, for we are all the same Thought in God’s Mind. We are one as God’s Thought. As I move my awareness more in this direction, my life becomes simpler. Less effort is put into having special things or looking a special way. More and more my attention is on seeing the Light in every brother, to seeing the face of Christ in him. There is less and less of a sense of difference and more and more of a sense of unity. As I remember that God is my Life and I have no Life but His, I am able to rest in His peace.
Part of the process of my waking up is to recognize my mistaken thoughts. This lesson reminds me that when I think I am living a life apart from God, it is not true. I have no life apart from God. This life I think I am living as a separate person is just a mistaken idea.
Unless I come to realize that my thoughts are mistaken, I will not lay them down. And it is only when I lay them down that I become aware of the real Thoughts I think with God. I cannot have both my mistaken thoughts and real Thoughts at the same time, for they are opposite in every way.
Jesus is there for all of us to help us recognize the mistaken ideas and let them go. He remembers our true Identity for us while we are forgetting and is there to remind us of the truth as soon as we will let him.
There is only one Life and that is the Life I live in God. My practice today is to remember this and extend the Love I feel from my true Home to everyone I see or even think of. Today is truly a happy day.
Today is my first real day back to work after vacation and after my ordination. I started wishing this weekend that I didn’t have to go back. I wished I could stay home and write and pray and distribute my fliers and be a full time minister. I wished this even though I knew I wasn’t ready for that. If I did that full time at this point, I would be through in about two days. I am still learning and growing and allowing time for things to fall into place.
As I read today’s lesson, I remembered it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing. Every minute, everywhere, is an opportunity to practice my ministry. It makes me happy to think of bringing love and comfort to all of my customers and each person I drive past and every clerk in every store I stop to buy gas from along the way. I don’t have to do or say anything special to do this. As I use this time to practice setting aside my false thoughts and recognizing, instead, the thoughts I think with God, then I am serving the awakening. My attitude and my words will reflect these new thoughts and I will be serving the awakening. This is my ministry and it goes where I go.
© 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
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Listen to Lesson 222 Insights
“God is with me. I live and move in Him.”
If I live in God, I must be perfectly safe. God is Love and nothing else. There can be no harm in Him. I live in Love and harmlessness. To experience this I must forgive God for not meeting my demand that He give me the specialness He could not give. And I must forgive myself for rejecting God because He could not meet my demand.
The ego made the body in order to make it appear that specialness is possible. But it is an illusion and could never be real. If I am offended in any way, it is because I believe it is possible I could be hurt. I could only believe this if I believe I am the image the ego has made. But I live and move in God. The Self that lives in God could never be an image, for what is one could never contain distinct and different images. What is one must be all the same by definition.
If I live and move in God, I must be an extension of God. All God’s attributes are mine. All His gifts are mine. Because it is God’s Will that I am one with Him, it is impossible that I could ever be harmed.
Each time I perceive a threat of any kind and take it to the Holy Spirit for Him to shine His healing Light upon it, I come closer to full remembrance of the life I live in God. I come closer to the experience of His peace. I remember that what I thought my brother did to me never occurred.
Forgiveness is the means by which I awaken to my Home in God. I am grateful I have the means through which I can remember God is with me.
There is only one real life and that is the life I live in God. There is only one Love and that is the Love of God. God’s Love is changeless and eternal. This means my life is changeless and eternal.
The only usefulness the body has is its use as an instrument of the Holy Spirit for awakening from the dream of separation. Beyond every form is Love. If I look for Love I will find Love. I give thanks that this is the truth.
© 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
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Listen to Lesson 221 Insights
“Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.”
As I affirm today’s lesson title, it seems my thoughts are anything but still. That is why I need this practice. Just because my mind seems to be flitting from one meaningless thought to another, it is not justification for me to give up. It is simply an indication that I need to continue practicing my mind training.
Yesterday a group of us here created a new song. We sang phrases over and over until we liked the way they sounded. Then we would add to those phrases until we were practicing an entire verse. Over and over we repeated it, gradually expanding our repetition until it encompassed the entire song. Sometimes we would adjust the length of the note to make it flow better, and repeat it again. Over and over we practiced. We wanted to reach the point where the song flowed easily and freely. If we missed a word or note, we just took it as a signal to keep practicing until we reached our goal.
The same applies to letting peace enter my mind and letting all my thoughts be still. I just need to keep practicing until I reach the goal. I have been letting my mind be cluttered with the meaningless thoughts of the ego for a long time. Now I want to build a new habit so I need to keep practicing. Each time an ego thought tempts me, it simply means I need to practice releasing it, to give up the meanings I have given to ego thoughts.
With each practice, awareness of peace grows stronger. With each practice, the song of Love that has been eternally in my heart grows stronger and more clear. The song of Love gains more and more of my attention as I reduce the attention I have given to the ego. In truth, the song of Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with Him.
The purpose of ego thoughts is to drown out God’s Thoughts. God’s Thoughts are always there as we are willing to quiet the ego thoughts in our minds. Holy Spirit is there to build a bridge from the loud and raucous ego thought system to the quiet peace, joy and Love of our true eternal Home. Our true Home is the Mind of God. God created us as one and that cannot change. God’s eternal Love never changes. God’s peace never changes. God’s joy never changes.
On the other hand, the ego’s thoughts are in a constant state of flux. There is no safety there. There is no peace there. There is no joining there. It is always looking for something more, something different, something more exciting, some new way to be special and unique. It is always looking for its replacement for God’s Love in all the wrong places. It is a hopeless journey. Its dreams are filled with the illusion of separation, suffering and death.
It is only when we are willing to let all these thoughts be laid aside that we receive the help of the Holy Spirit as our Guide out of this hell of separation from our true Nature. There Holy Spirit knows it is a gradual process. The Holy Spirit knows we are so familiar with the constant chatter of the ego that it seems difficult to lay it down. That is why the Holy Spirit invites us to practice retraining our mind. The Holy Spirit is gentle and kind with our process of awakening. As we are ready, the Holy Spirit always brings us the next step in the undoing of the ego’s insanity of separation. The Holy Spirit remembers the truth and brings our illusions gently to a conclusion.
Today’s lesson is of great help in enhancing this process of laying the ego’s thoughts of separation down. The ego’s insane thoughts of separation have seemed very plausible and real to us. We have believed it and experienced its chaotic repertoire. We now know this dream of separation is a useless journey and are gradually learning to lay it down. We understand very clearly that we need the consistent help of the Holy Spirit to undo the grip we have had on the ego.
As we lay the ego down, fears come up that there will be nothing to replace it. Fears come up that we are losing the only thing we know. We have become so familiar with the ego thought system that our identity seems to be falling away with it. And this is true. The good news is the Holy Spirit knows how to bring us safely across this bridge of return. The Holy Spirit knows how to deal with our fears as they come up. The Holy Spirit is the great Comforter as we gradually leave behind the old stories of deception and conflict.
As we hold Holy Spirit’s hand, we are led to a quiet inner world, an inner life that is calm and peaceful, sure and strong. As we learn to live in the world the Holy Spirit leads us to, we feel the touch of Christ, our true Nature. It is always gentle and consistent. We gradually realize that it does not come and go. It is always there. It is just we who have pulled away from Its healing Light.
Step-by-step, we are gradually led to the deeper waters of God’s peace. Our pulling away gradually subsides as we grow more secure with the deeper layers of peace. We feel the truth that God is our strength and vision is His gift. We open our mind to see past the ego’s silly ideas of separation. We practice opening to the Holy Spirit’s gentle guidance more and more each day. We know deep inside that we are on the strong and surefooted path of return to accepting our true Identity as Love and nothing else.
© 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.
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
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Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 220 Insights
Review: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
“There is no peace except the peace of God.”
Peace does not seem certain because the Love of God does not seem certain. The ego does not trust God because it projects its own capriciousness on God. Just as the ego withholds appreciation from those it judges, it believes God would do the same. The ego cannot conceive of an existence without condemnation and projection because the ego is the idea of rejection.
The Course tells us that Love does not condemn. Therefore God, being Love, must not condemn. Total lack of condemnation is inconceivable to the ego because judgment is the means by which the ego holds separation in place. Likewise, condemnation is inconceivable to Love because Love is unity and unity is held together by Love.
To the ego, the Love of God cannot be relied upon. What it hides is that the only reason God’s Love cannot be relied upon is because the ego has rejected it. Lay down the rejection and the certainty of God’s Love is instantly revealed.
That is why the way Home is to follow the One given me by God in my mind, Who knows the way. He is not fooled by the ego’s lies, deceptions and insanity. He knows the truth that I remain safe at Home in Love. His job in my mind is to help me release the false ideas so the reality of the peace of God can return to my awareness. In truth there is no certainty except the peace of God. There is no opposite.
I am grateful for the grace of God that would not accept insane ideas of separation and specialness as real. I am grateful for the grace of God that gave me the Means in my mind to find my way out of insane dreams and return Home to His loving Arms.
If I am not experiencing peace, it is because I have wandered away from peace. Peace has not left me. I left peace. Peace is always there, waiting from my return. As I am willing, I have a Guide Who will return me to the peace of God. What I experience, I am choosing. If I am not happy with my choice, then I can open my mind to the One Who knows a better way.
Thinking I am independent of God has not brought me happiness. Now I would be willing to follow in the gentle ways of peace. Right now I am willing to open my mind to the experience of God’s peace. To do this I must follow the gentle Guide Who is always in my mind waiting to return me Home. For this I give thanks.
© 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.
To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
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Lesson Index
Listen to Lesson 219 Insights
Review: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
“I am not a body. I am free.”
The statement “I am not a body. I am free” implies that if I were a body, I would not be free. The body is limited to a few cubic feet of space in this world. It is disconnected from everything else. This is an extreme limitation compared to the universal unity that is the reality of what God created. What God created is forever joined with Him and all creation. God loves what He created because He created it out of Love. That Love is eternal, unchanging and unchangeable.
The Self He created is Love and that is What He loves as His Son. It is What I am in truth. Nothing the body does can affect in the slightest God’s Love for the Self I am. I am not a body. Believing I am a body is just a mistake to be undone. Because I am not a body, my innocence remains untainted. If I believe I am guilty for anything, it is because I have accepted a false image of myself as what I think I am.
The commandment that says, “You shall have no other God’s before Me” is a path to freedom. It is the mistaken images I have made of myself that are false idols which keep me bound to an experience of limitation and lack of Love. As I let them go, I open my heart and mind to the Love of God that has never ceased. Remembering “I am not a body. I am free. I am God’s Son” is an affirmation of my innocence and my wholeness. It reminds me I am still as God created me.
God is formless, changeless, eternal Love. God, or Love, is universal. This means Love is everywhere. There is nothing but Love. Love shares all of Itself with all. Love extends. Love is giving. Love’s extension is God’s Son. The one Son that we are is eternally united and eternally Love.
Dreaming of bodies with separate minds is just a mistake to be undone. No matter what we dream, we all still remain Love as we were created. We are still an extension of Love, which is continuous and united.
It is only as I am willing to quiet my mind of all the false ideas of separation that I can remember this truth. I have been confused about what I am and what my brother is, but I can lay this confusion down. I can remember what my Father loves forever as His Son. I can remember that nothing has really changed. Love remains Love as one forever. I need not be bound by dreams of false ideas.
Today my practice is to remember I am not a body. All still remains Love as God’s extension. I have reinforced false ideas and now it is my opportunity to reinforce the truth.
I woke up this morning thinking about my errors and berating myself for not being perfect. I sat down to do my lesson and started doing the “wrong” one. I read, “Only my condemnation injures me.” I felt a sense of relief, as if God were answering the question my mind was asking, “Am I condemned because of my mistakes?” For that is really what I fear when I do something that doesn’t feel right or have thoughts that don’t feel right.
I realized this was yesterday’s lesson and laughed out loud at how perfectly the Universe works to support my growth and my happiness. Then I read the comments from Staff and thought you must be speaking directly to me this morning. Especially the line that says, “Nothing the body does can affect in the slightest God’s Love for the Self I am.” Thanks for the help!
© 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
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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
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Listen to Lesson 218 Insights
Review: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
“Only my condemnation injures me.”
In order to believe that I can condemn, I must believe that I am separate from what I would judge. Thus judgment becomes a way to reinforce the seeming reality of separation. This is self-injury because it cuts me off from my unity with Love, my Source.
It is impossible to know Love and perceive myself as separate. Love does not condemn, for Love is one and cannot conceive of an “other.” That is why condemnation puts me in the dark. It is impossible to perceive the Light of Love while I believe I am separate from it.
The good news in this lesson is that I can change my mind about this today, now. I can open my mind to vision and see the glory of Love that is my one true Self, in me and all my brothers. The body’s eyes cannot see this glory because they were made as instruments for image making. These images stand as barriers against the vision that shows the light and glory that is the truth in everyone.
As long as I seem to be in a body in this world, the body’s eyes will show me these made up images that are not real. But that does not mean the vision of glory is out of reach. It simply means I need to learn that nothing my body’s eyes show me has any meaning of its own. I must learn to give priority to the vision of Christ in my mind instead of the images the body’s eyes show me. It means I need to give value to the perception offered by the Holy Spirit rather than the perceptions offered me by the ego through the body’s image making.
The Holy Spirit will always show me what is pure and true. He will always show me Love and nothing else. As I learn to give this priority, He will show me how to use the images of this world as a means of returning to Love instead of using them as barriers against Love. I cannot make this shift in perception on my own because believing I am on my own is the error that must be corrected. It is in the joining with Holy Spirit that the shift in perception occurs.
Today I will continue my practice of putting Holy Spirit in charge of my thoughts to guide my seeing, to guide my words and hands and feet. He will lead me to the glory that is already mine and everyone’s. And I give thanks.
This world is not my home. I do not need to give it credence. I do not need to judge it or condemn it. To judge it would be to make it real. I awaken only as I cease to make it real. Judging anything in the world only serves to bind me tighter to the false ideas of the ego. The Holy Spirit is gradually teaching me that there is nothing in this world I want because the world is truly nothing. This means there is nothing in this world I need to judge.
If I see something other than the reality that there is nothing but Love, I am seeing hallucinations. And these hallucinations only come when I join with the false ideas of the ego. This joining with the ego only brings me pain and unhappiness.
The best use of my time now is to become aware of when I am joining with the ego and allow the Holy Spirit to open my eyes from this blindness. I really do not want to reinforce separation. My practice today is to step back and be open to Holy Spirit’s perception, again and again. I would let my mind be healed today.
© 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
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To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
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Listen to Lesson 217 Insights
Review: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
“It can be but my gratitude I earn.”
Gratitude and appreciation go hand in hand. If you appreciate something, you have gratitude for it. You will not have gratitude for something you do not appreciate. We truly recognize our brothers when we have full appreciation for them. To have this, we must see our brothers with the vision of Christ.
It is only the Love in our brothers to which our appreciation is due. And the Love in our brothers is the Love within us. As we learn to fully appreciate our brothers, we learn to appreciate the truth in ourselves. We learn to appreciate our unity with our Source and the gifts we receive from our Source.
This world was made because of lack of appreciation for God’s gifts. Lack of appreciation is rejection. Having rejected God’s gifts, we believe ourselves to be deprived. And so everyone who comes to this world is searching to fill the emptiness made by rejecting God’s gifts. As we learn to see the treasure house of Love in our brothers and fully appreciate it, we find what we have been looking for. We find our Self. Once again our hearts are filled with gratitude for the reality of Love has returned to our awareness.
Salvation is simply the release from the belief that it is possible to be without Love. Gratitude is inevitable as we learn to accept the Love we are.
Salvation comes through a willingness to let go of separation. The miracle, or true perception, is given to us by the Holy Spirit as we are willing to receive it. My true Self is always present in my mind, waiting to be recognized. It is my willingness to have an open mind and be open to a change in perception that brings me the experience of deep peace, Love and joy that my true Self has to offer.
My thanks are to the Self Who has the gifts to give. My thanks are also to my willingness to be open to receive these gifts. I must be open to the truth to receive the truth. As my willingness to open to the truth grows, my gratitude grows. I value the truth more and more as I am willing to open to it more and more. My focus now is on being willing to receive God’s gifts. God does the rest.
I left Pathways after my ordination with such gratitude. I am grateful for my fellow ministers who shared those incredible nine days with me. These women will forever be sisters of my heart. I feel gratitude toward my facilitators and Robert and Mary and will always love them.
I spent nearly the whole day at Chicago Midway Airport and watched an awesome display of kindness, calmness, courtesy, and helpfulness by employees coping with passengers who are frustrated with new security measures. I was inspired by, and grateful to these angels.
I was grateful to fellow passengers who helped pass those long hours waiting by sharing warm stories of travel and family. I am grateful to the hotel clerk and the waitress who served me supper and made me feel welcomed home.
I am grateful to Spirit Who is like a light dancing in my mind. The more gratitude I feel the more I am aware of Spirit’s presence. The more I say yes to Spirit and allow Him to guide me, the more accessible He seems. My gratitude fills me with joy. I am grateful to myself for this joy. It is but my gratitude I earn!
© 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
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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
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Listen to Lesson 216 Insights
Review: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
“It can be but myself I crucify.”
If I see other people as bodies, I am crucifying myself. If I make what their bodies do real, I am crucifying myself. What I make real in others is what I am making real in myself. Making anyone’s ego real is denying their true Identity and my true Identity and I will suffer for it. When I do not remember I am connected with God, at some level I feel lost and alone.
As I do these lessons, I realize this need not be. I can let my mind be changed. I can learn to consistently see the Spark of God in my brother. This helps me recognize the same Spark of God is in me. We all have one real life and that is the life we live in God. If I deny this, I am attacking myself and attacking my brother. Letting go of the denial of the truth is forgiveness. It is my one purpose. As I practice forgiveness daily, I am learning how to be truly happy, how to be truly free. “I am not a body, I am free. I am still as God created me.”
There is great empowerment in the statement, “All that I do I do unto myself.” It puts me fully in charge of my life experience. If I experience suffering, it is because I have attacked. If I experience freedom from judgment, it is because I have forgiven. It is all going on in my own mind and my thoughts are entirely in my control.
At times it doesn’t seem that I have control over my thoughts. This is only because I have put the ego thought system in charge and then forgotten I put it in charge. The entire ego thought system is a system of illusions. It has no power of its own. Illusions can be frightening, but only if I believe they are real. When I remove the belief in its reality, the illusion is simply disregarded.
In my mind it is always my decision what I will believe is real. No one can make that decision for me nor can anyone change my decision for me. But I always have the power to change my mind. My salvation comes with withdrawing belief in illusion. The moment I do that, reality returns to my awareness.
As I practice remembering the body is not me and I am still Love as I was created, I open the door to the experience of Heaven — the peace and joy of the Love of God. So today, with hope and eager anticipation, I practice: “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.” With every repetition I move a step closer to accepting the truth of these statements. I move a step closer to freedom.
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How to Read References for Quotes from A Course in Miracles
Below are example references to specific sentences using the notation of the Second & Third Editions of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace:
T-26.IV.4:7 = Text, Chapt. 26, Section IV, paragraph 4, sentence 7.
W-pI.169.5:2 = Workbook, Part I, Lesson 169, paragraph 5, sentence 2.
M-13.3:2 = Manual for Teachers, Question 13, paragraph 3, sentence 2.
C-6.4:6 = Clarification of Terms, Term 6, paragraph 4, sentence 6
The above numbering system
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