Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The World Is a Defense Against Remembering Love

Mary:  I really relate to Myron’s posting about resistance to remembering the truth. It seems like I have so many excuses, so many things “happening” in my life that need attention. But the truth is the world is a defense against remembering Love and Love’s oneness.

Separation still seems so real and it only seems real because of my resistance to allowing the truth to return to my mind. In truth there is nothing but Love’s Oneness. There is no form. There is no world, there are no differences. There is no time. It’s all made up as a defense against God’s eternal Love. It seems like I have so many good excuses not to remember that only Love is there.

Forgiveness, or handing over all these thoughts that seem to be a steady flow to the Holy Spirit to be undone, in truth is my only function while I am still believing in dreams. Today is another opportunity for me to forgive or let go of my grip on the “reality” of these dreams. Only by handing all these thoughts over to the Holy Spirit and not deciding what anything means on my own will peace return to my mind.

There will still be things “to do,” but with Holy Spirit I won’t take this world so seriously. I will feel lighthearted and happy instead of heavyhearted and unsafe. I will experience peace instead of worrying about how all the details will be accomplished. As I am willing to go to the Holy Spirit with all things, not reserving some problems to solve on my own, I will be relieved of the heavy burden that comes with joining with the ego thoughts of separation. Again today, I have a choice. Do I want to be right or happy? Am I willing to join with the Holy Spirit all through the day? The level of peace I feel will let me know how much I am joining with Holy Spirit.

Robert:  Every cause has an effect. This is true in the oneness of Heaven as well as in the dream of separation. This week it appeared that the effects of someone else’s choices was affecting me. Immediately the ego interpreted that as me being a victim of someone else, bringing up defensiveness and irritation.

My job as part of the atonement is to follow Holy Spirit’s lead in everything. When I make judgments and interpretations about what a situation or someone’s behavior means on my own, I am not following Holy Spirit. My judgments interfere with my willingness to receive Holy Spirit’s guidance. When I align with the ego thought system, I want to correct someone else’s ways, point out their errors or get them out of my life like I would discard a used tissue. This is not a happy way to be and definitely not peaceful. From the perspective of the dream it seems like a balancing act between seeing past form and behavior to the reality of Love or enabling what appears to be destructive behavior.

In looking back at my life I see that I have made choices that brought me pain, fear or unhappiness. The Holy Spirit did not try to soften the pain, fear or unhappiness. They were simply the effect of my choices. These effects eventually motivated me to find a better way. So while I wallowed in ego driven choices, the Holy Spirit continued to see my innocence and know that in truth I had not changed my reality. The Holy Spirit did not give up on me but remained ever present, ready and willing to offer help when there was a willingness to receive it.

The Holy Spirit gives help that is truly helpful and it doesn’t always look the way I would like the help to look. I may have wanted to be happy while still making choices that denied the Love that I am. Were the Holy Spirit to have softened the unhappy consequences of my choices, I would have thought I could keep making ego driven choices and be happy. In Love, the Holy Spirit let the consequences be as they were so that I could learn that I did not want what I thought I valued. This brought me to willingness to let go of valuing what brought the unhappiness and learn from Holy Spirit where my true happiness lies.

This brings me back to the situation where I perceived someone’s choices being self-destructive. It is not my job to soften the consequences of anyone’s choices. It is my job to follow Holy Spirit’s guidance in every moment. To do this truly, I must clear my mind of all judgments. I must see neither guilt to be punished nor harm to be defended against. In other words, I must remove my barriers to Love and the Holy Spirit will guide me to be truly helpful. To the ego the guidance may appear to not be compassionate. But that is simply because the ego confuses sympathy with empathy. The ego always looks at form and disregards content.

It is not my concern what someone else thinks of my choices and decisions. It is my concern to be vigilant to remove all barriers to Love and let the Holy Spirit express through me in forms in this world that are truly helpful. So today is another day to practice vigilance for all judgments and offer them to the Holy Spirit. I am willing to open my mind to His Light so that the faulty basis for judgment can be illuminated and shined away. Then I can be truly helpful.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Will I Allow Myself to Remember the Truth Today?

Mary:  Will I allow myself to remember the truth today? Or, will I get lost in illusions, deciding what things mean on my own? Today, will I step back and let the Holy Spirit lead me or will I think that I really am a separate person with a separate mind and body and interests of my own?

Today I have a choice. Lesson 152 tells me the power of decision is my own. Either I will open my mind to the truth that I am Love’s extension, or I will think that I am a body that is vulnerable in a world of time and space. Either I will give up self deceptions or keep them. Today I have another opportunity to let go of the insanity of the ego… let go of thinking that a world of separation is real.

In Lesson 152 I am given a helpful way to let my mind be healed today: “In patience wait for Him throughout the day, and hourly invite Him with the words with which the day began, concluding it with this same invitation to your Self. God’s Voice will answer, for He speaks for you and for your Father. He will substitute the peace of God for all your frantic thoughts, the truth of God for self deceptions, and God’s Son for your illusions of yourself. (ACIM W-pI.152.12)

Reading this lesson this morning really helped me with all the concerns I had that were swirling in my mind. I realize now that I have a choice. I can worry about all the things that don’t seem to be going like I think they should. Or I can step back in trust and allow the truth that only Love is real to return to my mind.

I can hand over my current story to the Holy Spirit and let the Light of truth shine away the darkness in my mind. I can allow the peace of God to fill in the empty space as I allow my mind to be cleaned of all false ideas. Today I have a choice. I will know which choice I have made by the level of peace and happiness I feel. The power of decision is my own. Am I willing to be right or happy?

Robert:  With the belief in being separate comes the belief in vulnerability and weakness. The body is the chief instrument for making separation appear real and seems to demonstrate weakness in many ways. It is also the principle target for the projection of guilt. And guilt demands punishment so the body experiences pain in many forms. That is what the belief in separation thinks the body is for.

But the body can be given a new purpose. Given to the Holy Spirit, the body’s purpose becomes to be an instrument of forgiveness and extension of Love in the world of form. Since form has no meaning of its own, we each give forms our own meaning. So I cannot look at a form and think I know what it means for anyone else. That means I cannot decide on my own what form will serve as an expression of Love. But the Holy Spirit knows.

I need only be willing to stay in peace and follow the Holy Spirit’s lead in every moment. The Holy Spirit, my Self, will guide me to use form in the world as a means for healing and forgiveness. This only happens if I make no decisions on my own. When I accept the power of decision as my own it does not mean I decide on my own what everything means. It means I choose my Self instead of the thought of separation. From that choice the extension of Love is inevitable because my Self, our Self, is Love and can only extend Love.

Today I will be vigilant to decide for the one Self that joins us all in perfect happiness.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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In My Defenselessness My Safety Lies

Mary:  This morning we were guided to reread ACIM Lesson 153, “In My Defenselessness My Safety Lies.” It was the perfect lesson to help me see where I am placing defenses that I had not recognized.

The realtor told us that we needed to have the facilities ready for showing by June 1st or at the latest June 15th. I am now recognizing that I have used this “deadline” as a goal instead of Holy Spirit’s goal of making choosing peace prominent in my mind. This property will sell when the time is right. Putting pressure on ourselves to make this deadline is not helpful.

Where am I placing my trust? Am I placing my trust in the Holy Spirit or on a deadline set by the realtor? Once more, I am willing to step back and let all the concerns in my mind be washed away by the Holy Spirit. I am willing to accept Holy Spirit’s gift of peace. I choose to let go of control. I choose to let God be my strength.

This morning I choose to allow the Holy Spirit to gently wash away all the fear thoughts in my mind. I allow my mind to purified of the ego’s insane ideas. I let myself remember that in truth, God is. Love is. There is nothing else.

I am in Heaven with all my brothers. This truth alone is eternal. I will let myself remember the truth today. Deciding anything on my own just brings more fear and guilt. Today is a day of practice. I will practice letting Holy Spirit guide my mind. I will give all those fearful thoughts that there is not enough time and remember that the Holy Spirit knows better than I do. Everything is in perfect order. Today is a day of letting all thoughts that are not of the Holy Spirit go. In my defenselessness my safety lies.

Robert:  This lesson reminded me how engrained my tendency is to plan on my own. I seem to be more willing to listen to Holy Spirit’s guidance for grand plans. But I want to fill in the details. But I see that this is just a subtle way of distracting myself with tangents that lead away from and delay Holy Spirit’s plans. It is a way of not relinquishing control. I tell myself I am following Holy Spirit’s lead while I follow the diversion of the “details” I have overlaid on His lead.

If I truly want to follow Holy Spirit’s lead, I cannot reserve some of the planning for myself. When I plan on my own, I am defending my separateness, diligently trying to make it real. This could never be Holy Spirit’s plan. The total relinquishment of control is terrifying to the ego because it is very clear that this would be its end. But the total relinquishment of control to Holy Spirit’s guidance is actually the means to reach perfect happiness. It is the way Home.

So today I will practice letting Holy Spirit sweat the small stuff, remembering it’s all small stuff.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Refuse to Give the Insanity of Separation a Home

Robert:  The ego loves to classify and categorize and label everything. This is how it maintains the illusion of differences and separation. The Course tells us that sickness is a form of specialness. We can distinguish ourselves from others by appearing to be sick. It does not matter whether the sickness is classified as mental or physical, it is still a badge of distinction that supports belief in separation. As long a we believe in separation, our thoughts will be disordered. For the ego’s world is a world of insanity.

As long as I look upon my brother as different from me, though I appear to be more calm and peaceful, I cannot claim to be sane while calling my brother insane. The very distinction signifies my belief in differences and separation.

My job in every moment is to not believe the thoughts that come through my mind, but offer each one to the Holy Spirit and trust His interpretation of every thought. His classification of every thought is very simple. It is either real or unreal, Love or a call for love. The practice of offering every thought to the Holy Spirit for His interpretation and use is a means for waking up and remembering my Home in the oneness of God’s Love. In that remembrance, with Holy Spirit’s help, I see every brother as one with me. We are one and the same Self.

Today I dedicate to the practice of following the Holy Spirit’s lead in all my thoughts and actions. I am willing to follow. Amen

Holy Spirit through Mary:  Behind every form that you see in this world of separate forms, behind every image of separation, there is Love. Behind every false idea of separate, individual identities, there is only Love. With all the insane thoughts of separation that come through your mind today, instead of believing them, practice handing them over to the Holy Spirit, where they will be undone. Allow the Holy Spirit to show you the difference between the real and the unreal.

Refuse to give insanity a home in your mind today. Continuing to believe in the insanity just brings more insanity. Let today be a practice in allowing the truth to enter your mind. Do you want to be right or happy? Allow time to be used for the purpose of letting go of the dream of separation. Let today be a practice in returning to the truth that there is only Love. Love is. God is. There is nothing else. This alone is sanity.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Getting Off the Ego’s Merry-Go-Round

Mary:  This morning we were led to read the first section of the ACIM Text, chapter 15, “The Two Uses of Time.” The whole chapter is about how to allow the holy instant to return to our awareness. When I get caught up in time, I lose the peace which is always present. It is only when I am willing to get off the ego’s merry-go-round of time a space that I am brought to a place of remembering the changelessness of my true nature. I am in Heaven now and so are you.

Letting this truth return to my mind brings me to that place of perfect calm and quiet. The Holy Spirit helps me remember that this is what is true always. The Holy Spirit helps me remember that all the changes that seem to occur in time are a trick. Belief in time brings fear and anxiety.

Just recently I found myself thinking that we would not have this building ready in time to be sold in a “timely” manner. I see now that this is just part of the ego’s thought system, and I can let it go. In reality I am eternally in Heaven, as is everyone. Heaven is in the present moment. My favorite quote from this section is, “Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely free and wholly without condemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time. Time is inconceivable without change, yet holiness does not change.” (T-15.I.9:5-7,10:1-2)

This is my lesson now. In the dream it appears that much change is occurring. It appears that we are moving from one location to another. In truth, we are all the same Love and Love is changeless. With all the activity that moving engenders, I know that my job is to consistently remember to step back and allow the Holy Spirit to remind me of the truth of what and where I really am right now.

This consistent practice is all important. Without this practice, I can easily get lost in time. Getting lost in time is filled with fear and anxiety. The habit of consistently stepping back and choosing peace is my first step in allowing the Holy Spirit to return me to the truth of where I really am now. So consistently remembering to choose peace is my life line to remembering what is really important. Today I am willing to strengthen that practice.

Robert:  When I step back and let go of trying to make decisions or interpret anything on my own, I feel a sense of calm assurance. There is a sense of confidence that all is in perfect order. I am in peace and I know that I rest in God. I trust that the future in this world of time is in Holy Spirit’s hands and will always bring me closer to full remembrance that I am at Home in Heaven. There is an inner feeling that in truth, I have no cares, no worries, no anxieties. I can be perfectly calm and quiet all the time.

I am grateful for the moments when I am able to accept this experience. The more I practice stepping back and putting Holy Spirit in the lead, the more I will have this blessed feeling. When I have completely relinquished all identification with the ego thought system, this feeling will be a constant state. It is worth the vigilance of mindfulness to recognize when I have tried to take control again and step back. I would step back and let Him lead the way.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Only True Purpose Is to Wake Up from the Dream

Mary:  Things are happening here on many fronts. Yesterday our dear friend, Jim Klapperich, and his son laid new vinyl flooring in the furnace and laundry rooms. What they did was beautiful, but how they did it was a beauty to behold. I believe Jim’s ministry is expressed through his work. His relationship with his son is inspiring. Once in a while we came downstairs to admire their work and join with them in happy laughter. I felt such gratitude for their work and their loving presence. 

We had lunch together and I asked Spirit to help me share my gratitude for them in a way that was helpful for all concerned. It all flowed so easily and without effort. It was wonderful to hear Jim’s son about his experience of trusting in God in a seeming difficult situation of having a flat tire in Chicago. He may be young, but Spirit brought him to me to inspire my level of trust with this move.

Yesterday, we received a very uplifting letter from Brenda Eden who recently went through the passing of her husband, Robert Mills. She and Robert followed Holy Spirit’s guidance all through the transition period and now Robert is helping her from the other side. She is journaling on her experience with him and will be writing an article which we will publish in a future Miracles News magazine.

It strikes me that everywhere I look everyone is doing their hourly work on letting their mind be healed by the Holy Spirit. The many postings to this group demonstrates this. Our only true purpose is to wake up from the dream and we can only do that by accepting the peace of the Holy Spirit no matter what appears to be going on in the dream and letting each circumstance be an opportunity for more mind healing. The Course tells us, “Ask of everything, what is this for?” Is it for reinforcing the illusion of separation? Or is it for forgiving the dream and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring us above the battleground to see the love that is behind every form.

Yesterday, we had a long talk with the Realtor who is selling a property we like in St. Cloud, Florida. We had many questions and she answered the best she could. But what struck me while she was talking is that I needed to see the Christ in her and not just think of her as a salesperson. The Holy Spirit guided me to express my gratitude and appreciation for her and tell her how helpful she was to us. I mentally saw her innocence and the quiet love that she is. I mentally remembered that we are the same Spirit, and that there are no differences between us.

So I am seeing that each day presents quite a variety of opportunities to look at the world differently by joining with the Holy Spirit instead of the ego. Today is another day full of opportunities. I will use this as lab time to remember to choose peace instead of the ego’s trauma drama while we paint the office today.

Robert:  I have before me a day that is clean and pure. What I make of it is up to me. If I align with the ego, I will make it a day of reinforcing a sense of separation. If I align with the Holy Spirit, it will be a day of peace, a day of recognizing love and giving love. It will be a day of seeing past images to the truth that is everywhere. Today I will practice following Holy Spirit’s lead in every moment. I will know that I have succeeded in holding this focus by the peace I feel.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Let Your Heart Be Glad

Holy Spirit through Robert:  Let your heart be glad. Happiness is your natural state. You let your heart be glad by accepting the vision of your true Self. This vision shows you the innocence in all your brothers, so that you recognize it in yourself.

Sadness comes with judgment, for judgment is nonacceptance and can only foster depression. Through forgiveness you learn to recognize that no form has value or any meaning of its own. Thus you learn to disregard form and accept the ever present reality of Love.

Today practice seeing with the eyes of Love. Love will show you your unity with your brothers. And your heart will be glad in the recognition of your oneness, for in it you see your Source. You feel the comfort of Home, where you know you are safe in the strength of eternal Love. Remind yourself today: “I choose to see the face of Christ now.”

Mary:  Yesterday during the quiet time of our Sunday service, the idea came to me that we are all reading a storybook which we authored ourselves, but forgot on purpose so that it would appear to be new to us. In this book we put on virtual reality suits and enter the story in a three dimensional setting, where it appears that there is a world outside of us that we are separate from.

Just like when we watch a movie, we get so engrossed in the story we forget that the story is not real but just a made up story. In this story it seems like we have decisions to make every day. It seems like it is up to us to make these decisions.

Now we are coming to the part of the story where we are learning that the entire story is not true. We could never separate off and be alone in truth. We could never be a victim of something that is outside our own mind in truth. There is no battle; there is no struggle; there is no death in truth. We are coming to a time when we are willingly waking up from the story. We are coming to a time when we are learning the difference between illusions of separation and the truth of oneness. We are willing to give up the struggle to be separate and alone.

And so the story reflects that inner desire. We gradually open to the guidance of our true Source and we are led to circumstances in the story that help us become aware of the story’s falsity. We look at every circumstance differently. With Holy Spirit we see that everything is either love or a call for love. Through the Holy Spirit we learn to respond to either with love, for that is what brings us happiness. Our trust in our inner Teacher grows and we see where our true strength lies.

The world is now given a new purpose. It becomes a place where the one Son wakes up to the truth that he never really left his Father’s Home. He learns that Love is. God is. And there is nothing else. He learns that waking up from the false story of separation is now what the world is for.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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