Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Seeing Past Illusions to the Truth

Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.

Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold. But this is where illusions end. Forgiveness is the end of dreams, because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are One. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 198, W-pI.198.2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 198 Insights.)

Judgment is the lynchpin that holds the dream of a world of separation together. Remove this one lynchpin fully and the world will crumble, ceasing to seem to be. This is why the Course’s greatest emphasis is on forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the key to release from all pain, suffering, guilt and fear. True forgiveness cannot be accomplished by ourselves alone. The idea that we are alone needs to be forgiven. To do this we need help from outside the belief system of being alone.

The Holy Spirit knows that we remain at one with our Creator and can never be alone in truth. If we are willing to bring all our thoughts of judgment, of being alone, of being vulnerable and capable of harm to the Holy Spirit, we open the door to release from the dream.

Today we are willing to be taught the Holy Spirit’s key lesson in perception: What is not Love is not real. We trust that He will help us see past illusions to this truth. And we give thanks.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Walking in Gratitude

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love.
And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 215, W-pI.215.1. See also ACIM Lesson 215 Insights.)

Do we want to walk with a grateful heart? Do we want to live in a state of peace, free of conflict? Then we must be willing to let Love be our Guide moment by moment. There is no conflict in Love, for Love is one and sees only Itself everywhere.

These conditions do not seem to be our experience in the world. That is because the world was made to be a place where Love cannot enter. It’s all made up images, held in place by the wish to have a kingdom we can call our own, to be special. Because it’s all made up, we can let it go.

If we are willing to let Love be our Guide, we can learn to recognize that the images we have made are illusions. What we know as unreal we easily let go, making way for the reality of Love to enter.

As we go through our day today, we will ask, “How would Love see this? What would Love do?” As we welcome the answer, we will walk in gratitude.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Path to Release from Hell

Forgiveness is this world’s equivalent of Heaven’s justice. It translates the world of sin into a simple world, where justice can be reflected from beyond the gate behind which total lack of limits lies. Nothing in boundless love could need forgiveness. And what is charity within the world gives way to simple justice past the gate that opens into Heaven. No one forgives unless he has believed in sin, and still believes that he has much to be forgiven. Forgiveness thus becomes the means by which he learns he has done nothing to forgive. Forgiveness always rests upon the one who offers it, until he sees himself as needing it no more. And thus is he returned to his real function of creating [extending Love], which his forgiveness offers him again.

Forgiveness turns the world of sin into a world of glory, wonderful to see. (A Course in Miracles, T-26.IV.1:1-2:1). See also ACIM Text Q & A.

What is unforgiveness but a barrier to Love’s extension? Judgment insists that what is judged is separate from the judge. Judgment can only seem to be justified within the ego thought system of separation. When oneness is accepted, there is no external “other” to judge.

This is why forgiveness is the path to release from the hell of separation. Forgiveness, as the Holy Spirit teaches, shows us that we have never really done anything to harm God or His Creation. Thus it acknowledges our innocence and the innocence of everyone.

In the dream it appears that there are others we must forgive. Yet when we forgive others, we discover we are forgiven, along with them. For in truth, the “other” is simply a reflection of our belief about ourselves.

Today we practice bringing all our opinions and judgments to the Holy Spirit with willingness to see that nothing has really occurred to change God’s one Son, our Self.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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God’s Will Is Ours

God did not create a meaningless world. How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create it? He is the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His Mind. It is in my mind too, because He created it with me. Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts, when the perfection of creation is my home? Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide.

The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 53, W-pI.53.4;5:4-7. See also ACIM Lesson 53 Insights.)

The chaos of the world we see demonstrates the insanity of the ego thought system. It confirms the world’s unreality. It seems real only because we have identified with the ego thought system, believing we want what it offers. Yet all we have ever gotten from this world is unreliability, fear and guilt. Sooner or later we all come to a point of thinking there must be a better way. Thankfully there is.

The better way is to turn our back on unreality and accept that we really want God’s gifts of changeless Love, perfect happiness and peace that cannot be disturbed. To claim these gifts, we simply need to give up the value we have given to the world that denies these gifts. The ego would tell us this is a sacrifice. But is it really a sacrifice to give up what is an illusion and has no value in exchange for the reality of God’s changeless Love and peace?

We really do share God’s Will for us. We really do want the joy He offers. We really do want to know the safety of God’s changeless Love. His Will is ours. This is all we really want.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Welcoming God’s Gifts

Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You. And let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me. As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love. And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son.

This is as every day should be. Today, practice the end of fear. Have faith in Him Who is your Father. Trust all things to Him. Let Him reveal all things to you, and be you undismayed because you are His Son. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 232, W-pII.232.1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 232 Insights.)

What do we really want? Do we want a sense of safety, protection, deep peace, joy beyond words and the certainty of changeless love? All this is already given us, it is already ours. We need only accept the gift to have it be our experience.

We experience the world of form only because we want something other than God’s gifts. We have convinced ourselves that things in the world are more valuable and desirable than God’s changeless Love. This belief has blinded us to the gifts that are already ours, leaving us in a constant condition of seeking and not finding Love.

But we can change our belief. We made a choice that made Love unknown to us. But we can make another choice. We need only welcome God’s Love again. It is still there; it never left. We want to remember that God is in our mind, now and forever. We want to remember that we are eternally held safe in our Father, where nothing can change the Love we are; where nothing is ever lost and where our perfect happiness is guaranteed.

Today we invite the memory of God to return.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting a Happy Day

There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are One.

In this world, there appears to be a state that is life’s opposite. You call it death. Yet we have learned that the idea of death takes many forms. It is the one idea which underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy. It is the alarm to which you give response of any kind that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety and suffering and pain, even a little sigh of weariness, a slight discomfort or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny you live.

Death is the thought that you are separate from your Creator. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 167, W-pI.167.1:5-2:7;4:1. See also ACIM Lesson 167 Insights.)

Only if we believe we are separate from Love, our Creator, does it seem possible to experience anything other than perfect Love and joy. Thus anything that seems to disturb our happiness and peace must come from the belief that we are disconnected from God.

Belief makes illusion seem real, but does not make it real in truth. This guarantees that there is an antidote for all pain, suffering, sadness, weariness or discomfort of any kind. We need to let go of the mistaken belief that we are separate from Love. As we let these symptoms of separation remind us that we need to turn to another Interpreter of what we perceive, we can reverse our journey into hell.

Forgiveness is the path to freedom. We forgive only by letting our perceptions be replaced by the Holy Spirit’s vision. His vision looks beyond all appearances in the world. If we are willing, we can let go of the fearful dream and let it be replaced by the happy dream that sees the innocence in every brother and ourselves.

Today we practice being mindful of our thoughts and bringing any disturbance to the Holy Spirit with willingness to see differently as we accept His vision. Our day will become a happy day of Love and peace.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Fast Track to Inner Peace

How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

God would not have you suffer thus. He would help you forgive yourself.

This is the lesson God would have you learn: There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to Him, and to salvation of the world. To all that speaks of terror, answer thus:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame words. …Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him. (W-pI.193.7:1-8:2;13:1-4,7)

We have been given the fast track to inner peace. It’s not complicated. But it does require consistent, moment by moment vigilance and willingness. We need to be vigilant not to let one disturbing thought remain in our mind without forgiveness.

Every apprehension, care and form of suffering needs to be forgiven. That means these thoughts need to be taken to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His loving correction. Every disturbance to our peace is a perception that needs correction by the Holy Spirit. Dedication to this practice will bring us to perfect peace in the Heaven of God’s Love.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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