Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Path from Conflict to Peace

The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the spirit. ²His ability to deal with symbols enables Him to work with the ego’s beliefs in its own language. ³His ability to look beyond symbols into eternity enables Him to understand the laws of God, for which He speaks. ⁴He can therefore perform the function of reinterpreting what the ego makes, not by destruction but by understanding. ⁵Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge. ⁶The Holy Spirit is in light because He is in you who are light, but you yourself do not know this. ⁷It is therefore the task of the Holy Spirit to reinterpret you on behalf of God.

⁷Peace is the ego’s greatest enemy because, according to its interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. ⁸The ego becomes strong in strife. ⁹If you believe there is strife you will react viciously, because the idea of danger has entered your mind. ¹⁰The idea [of danger] itself is an appeal to the ego. ¹¹The Holy Spirit is as vigilant as the ego to the call of danger, opposing it with His strength just as the ego welcomes it. ¹²The Holy Spirit counters this welcome by welcoming peace. ¹³Eternity and peace are as closely related as are time and war. (A Course in Miracles, T-5.III.7;8:7-13. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The appeal of danger and conflict to the ego is evident in the subjects that make news in the media. They are all about danger from weather, disease, fellow humans, the earth itself. Entertainment programs must contain elements of conflict or they will attract very little audience. This is the ego’s bread and butter. It feeds on conflict.

But in the oneness of God’s Love, conflict is impossible. Love is our Home, our safety and peace. Though we may dream of conflict, we remain eternally at rest in God’s peace. In the dream, we forget What we are. The Holy Spirit is the means for us to find our way out of the dream. He dwells in peace within us, ready to reinterpret our misperceptions.

His guidance waits only on our welcome. We welcome the Holy Spirit by welcoming peace instead of conflict. Peace and understanding go together and are never found alone. The practice of stepping back from our involvement in the world to welcome peace frees us to awaken to the Love in which we live and have our being. We can always have peace instead of conflict.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Rise Above to See the Love

Do not remain in conflict, for there is no war without attack. ²The fear of God is fear of life, and not of death. ³Yet He remains the only place of safety. ⁴In Him is no attack, and no illusion in any form stalks Heaven. ⁵Heaven is wholly true. ⁶No difference enters, and what is all the same cannot conflict. …¹⁰What is not love is murder.

God does not share His function with a body. ²He gave the function to create unto His Son because it is His Own. ³It is not sinful to believe the function of the Son is murder, but it is insanity. ⁴What is the same can have no different function. ⁵Creation is the means for God’s extension, and what is His must be His Son’s as well.

³Each form of murder and attack that still attracts you and that you do not recognize for what it is, limits the healing and the miracles you have the power to extend to all. ⁴Yet does the Holy Spirit understand how to increase your little gifts and make them mighty. ⁵Also He understands how your relationship is raised above the battleground, in it no more.

See no one from the battleground, for there you look on him from nowhere.

Those with the strength of God in their awareness could never think of battle. …⁵The senselessness of conquest is quite apparent from the quiet sphere above the battleground. ⁶What can conflict with everything? ⁷And what is there that offers less, yet could be wanted more? ⁸Who with the Love of God upholding him could find the choice of miracles or murder hard to make? (A Course in Miracles, T-23.IV.1:1-7,10;3:1-5;4:3-5;7:1;9:1,5-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

In the world, murder denies a body of life. Belief in separation is murderous because it denies our eternal unity with Life. Yet denial of Love’s unity can only seem to have effect in illusions. Love remains unchanged. Our Identity remains united with God as an extension of His Love. Nothing has changed in truth.

While we choose to believe separation is real, we seem to live in a dream world where Life is denied. To see anyone as different is a murderous thought, for it denies the Love he is. He is part of the one Self we share as our true Identity. He cannot be different.

We cannot ask the body to show us the truth, for it is not real. We must rise above the conflicts of the world by welcoming peace in our minds. In this peace, Christ’s vision sees past appearances of conflict. It sees no sin, but only the innocence of Love shared by all in our Home in God.

Today we practice rising above to see the Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Key to Peace and Understanding

⁴Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone. ⁵Each brings the other with it, for it is the law of God they be not separate. ⁶They are cause and effect, each to the other, so where one is absent the other cannot be.

⁴Whenever you fully realize that you know not, peace will return, for you will have invited Him to do so by abandoning the ego on behalf of Him. ⁵Call not upon the ego for anything; it is only this that you need do. ⁶The Holy Spirit will, of Himself, fill every mind that so makes room for Him.

…He gives the gift of peace to everyone who perceives the need for peace, and who would have it. ⁷Make way for peace, and it will come. ⁸For understanding is in you, and from it peace must come.

The power of God, from which [both peace and understanding] arise, is yours as surely as it is His. …⁵Leave room for Him, and you will find yourself so filled with power that nothing will prevail against your peace. ⁶And this will be the test by which you recognize that you have understood. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.XI.12:4-6;13:4-6;14:6–15:1,5-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.

While we give credence to the ego, the hardest idea for us to accept is that we do not know anything. Yet this idea is the key to peace and understanding. The ego offers a substitute thought system based upon belief, not fact. The central belief of the ego is that separation is real. Yet because this idea is a belief and not a fact, it must be constantly defended. Being unreal, the thought system of separation is unstable. It makes a world built upon shifting sand. Fortunately we are not permanently mired in this shifting sand. God has offered His Hand to lift us out of this unstable world. The key is to accept His Help, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We begin by accepting that we do not know on our own what anything means. We become willing to truly understand that we are Love and nothing else, eternally united with our Creator. Under His Guidance, we learn to sort out the false from the true. Love becomes our guiding Light. It motivates our thoughts and actions. No longer do we look for justification of our specialness. Now we look for confirmation of Love’s oneness through Christ’s vision. Peace is restored to our mind.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Dedication to Awaken to Love

⁵Sit silently and wait upon your Father. ⁶He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.

²Father, we give these holy times to You, in gratitude to Him Who taught us how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for its replacement, given us by You. ³We look not backward now. ⁴We look ahead, and fix our eyes upon the journey’s end. ⁵Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through Christ’s vision we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take that world to be the full replacement of our own.

And now we wait in silence, unafraid and certain of Your coming. ²We have sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. ³We did not know the way, but You did not forget us. ⁴And we know that You will not forget us now. ⁵We ask but that Your ancient promises be kept which are Your Will to keep. ⁶We will with You in asking this. ⁷The Father and the Son, Whose holy Will created all that is, can fail in nothing. ⁸In this certainty, we undertake these last few steps to You, and rest in confidence upon Your Love, which will not fail the Son who calls to You. (A Course in Miracles Part II Introduction, W-pII.in.5:5-6;6:2–7:8)

Here we have a practice that can lead us to freedom from the ego’s tyranny and return us to the limitless Love of our Creator. Unequivocal commitment to this dedication will awaken us from the dream of separation. The 144 lessons of Workbook Part II are training to help us open our minds and hearts to the Will of God. They teach us that we really will the same as God. Our will is His Will.

We have been so enamored with the ego’s offering of specialness that accepting God’s Will seems to be loss. But acceptance of His Will lets all illusions go and returns us to our eternal Home in God. This is all we really want. It is the only Will that will satisfy our need. It is the culmination of our misled search to find happiness in the ego’s dream.

The lessons in Part II are designed to give us practice and understanding that will help us see that the world holds nothing that we want. The Love of God is all we need. This prayer of dedication could be repeated daily as an affirmation of our commitment to awaken from the dream of specialness.

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Choosing Truth Instead of Illusions

Comparison must be an ego device, for love makes none. ²Specialness always makes comparisons. ³It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive. ⁴This does it seek, and this it looks upon. ⁵And always whom it thus diminishes would be your savior, had you not chosen to make of him a tiny measure of your specialness instead. ⁶Against the littleness you see in him you stand as tall and stately, clean and honest, pure and unsullied, by comparison with what you see. ⁷Nor do you understand it is yourself that you diminish thus.

Pursuit of specialness is always at the cost of peace.

⁵The special messages the special hear convince them they are different and apart; each in his special sins and “safe” from love, which does not see his specialness at all. ⁶Christ’s vision is their “enemy,” for it sees not what they would look upon, and it would show them that the specialness they think they see is an illusion.

What would they see instead? ²The shining radiance of the Son of God, so like his Father that the memory of Him springs instantly to mind. …⁵This is the only “cost” of truth: You will no longer see what never was, nor hear what makes no sound. ⁶Is it a sacrifice to give up nothing, and to receive the Love of God forever? (A Course in Miracles, T-24.II.1:1–2:1;5:5–6:2,5-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Every moment in the world we are making comparisons. We identify an object by comparing it with its background to distinguish it as different. We compare the objects colors and shadows to determine its form and identify what it is.

We learn to use comparisons to function in the world starting the day we are born. It is a habitual process that we are rarely conscious of doing. But it is a mechanism of the ego that keeps it front and center in our mind as a barrier against the uniform oneness of Love, the only truth.

The way out of this self-made prison of limitations is to quiet our mind. As we welcome peace, we welcome Christ’s vision as our Source of information. Instead of showing us the differences the ego would have us see, Christ’s vision sees past the illusions to the Love that binds us eternally with every brother and our Creator. With this process we accept God’s gift of all of His Love and dismiss the ego as meaningless, with nothing of value to offer.

We choose truth today instead of illusions.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting God’s Strength and Love as Ours

Let us not fight our function. ²We did not establish it. ³It is not our idea. ⁴The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. ⁵All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. ⁶What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. ⁷Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God’s Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. ²We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. ³We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. ⁴And if He deems us worthy, so we are. ⁵It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.

Do as God’s Voice directs. ²And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. ³Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? ⁴The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? ⁵Let not [ego’s] voice direct you. ⁶Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.

⁴He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. ⁵For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 186, W-186.2;4;12;13:4-5. See also ACIM Lesson 186 Insights.)

A sense of unworthiness and simultaneous arrogance are aspects of the ego thought system. The ego tries to convince us that we are unworthy of fulfilling the function God has given us. But if God has determined we are worthy, then it must be arrogance to believe God is wrong about us.

Our only difficulty in accepting the function God has given us is our belief in the ego as our identity. Being the denial of God, the ego is threatened by God. It feels powerless in His presence, which it is. The ego’s only seeming power comes from our belief. We are not left powerless in our mistaken belief because God has given us the means to undo our mistakes.

When we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, He gives us His strength and Christ’s vision to show us the truth of Love beyond the ego’s deception. The Holy Spirit’s mission is to help us fulfill the function given us by God—to extend His Love as He has given It to us. This is our practice today.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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How to Accept God’s Gifts

No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it. ²For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God’s Will. ³Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? ⁴Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give? ⁵The peace of God is yours.

For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and established as His Own eternal gift. ²How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? ³And how could your request be limited to you alone? ⁴No gift of God can be unshared. ⁵It is this attribute that sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that ever seemed to take the place of truth.

It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it. ²With Help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us? (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 185, W-185.11:1–12:5;14:1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 185 Insights.)

Everyone who believes they walk this world is seeking the peace of God, because this world denies our eternal unity with God. This denial leaves us believing that we do not have God’s Love and peace and joy. Yet it is still there because God Wills it so. We do not have to do anything to be worthy of His gifts. They are already given, never to be withdrawn.

Our task is simple. We need to stop denying the gifts God wills for us. We do this with the Holy Spirit’s help by forgiving our mistaken beliefs, our wish for specialness. In the wish for specialness, the ego has contrived many illusions to offer as a substitute for God’s gifts. But they never satisfy our heart’s desire to remember God’s Son, our true Self.

We forgive these false images one by one. But as we progress with our forgiveness, we begin to recognize the common thread that unites the things we forgive. Our forgiveness generalizes. Fewer circumstances disturb our peace. And when our peace is disturbed, we are less willing to tolerate the disturbance. We more quickly turn to the Holy Spirit and accept His help to heal our fear-based thoughts. Our journey Home accelerates. We are more consistently peaceful and happy.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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