Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Preparing for Mind Healing

The Holy Spirit can use all that you give to Him for your salvation. ²But He cannot use what you withhold, for He cannot take it from you without your willingness. ³For if He did, you would believe He wrested it from you against your will. ⁴And so you would not learn it _is_ your will to be without it. ⁵You need not give it to Him wholly willingly, for if you could you had no need of Him. ⁶But this He needs; that you prefer He take it than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no one you would not know. ⁷This much is necessary to add to the idea no one can lose for you to gain. ⁸And nothing more.

You who know not of justice still can ask, and learn the answer. ²Justice looks on all in the same way. ³It is not just that one should lack for what another has. ⁴For that is vengeance in whatever form it takes. ⁵Justice demands no sacrifice…

⁸It is impossible for you to share the Holy Spirit’s justice with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all.

⁷Without love is justice prejudiced and weak. ⁸And love without justice is impossible. …¹¹In justice, then, does love correct mistakes, but not in vengeance. ¹²For that would be unjust to innocence. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.VIII.1:1-8;4:1-5;5:8;11:7-8,11-12. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

In preparation for our recent move, we went through a process of letting go of things we had saved but did not perceive as worth moving. Similarly we need to look at our beliefs and evaluate whether we want to keep them. Is a belief helpful? Does it keep us safe or make us happy? Does it strengthen or weaken us? Does it trigger fear or guilt?

This evaluation process needs to be guided by the Holy Spirit. The ego is an inappropriate guide for it will defend beliefs that keep it in place. But the Holy Spirit will always lead us to see beyond the ego’s limited perspective with Christ’s vision. With His help we learn that ego-based beliefs do not serve us. The value we have given them diminishes.

When we reach the point of willingness that the Holy Spirit replace our limiting beliefs with awareness of Love’s presence in our mind, we are open to mind healing. Our mind is progressively healed as we are willing to receive Love’s blessing in place of the ego’s offerings of specialness. Our perceptions are increasingly guided by Love. We are restored to the peace and happiness that is eternally ours as God’s Son.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Healing Our Divided Mind

Take pity on yourself, so long enslaved. ²Rejoice whom God hath joined have come together and need no longer look on sin apart. …⁴Sin is a strictly individual perception, seen in the other yet believed by each to be within himself. ⁵And each one seems to make a different error, and one the other cannot understand.

Who has need for sin? ²Only the lonely and alone, who see their brothers different from themselves. ³It is this difference, seen but not real, that makes the need for sin, not real but seen, seem justified. ⁴And all this would be real if sin were so. ⁵For an unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what he has not.

A holy relationship starts from a different premise. ²Each one has looked within and seen no lack. ³Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. ⁴He sees no difference between these selves, for differences are only of the body.

Think what a holy relationship can teach! ²Here is belief in differences undone. ³Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. ⁴And here is sight of differences transformed to vision. …⁶It must extend, as you extended when you and he joined. ⁷It must reach out beyond itself, as you reached out beyond the body, to let you and your brother be joined. ⁸And now the sameness that you saw extends and finally removes all sense of differences, so that the sameness that lies beneath them all becomes apparent. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.in.1:1-2,4-5;2:1-5;3:1-4;4:1-4,6-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Oneness and changelessness are boring to the ego. It treasures change and differences. If we do not like our present experience, change offers hope that it can improve. But it also offers fear that it could become worse. Differences depend on change, for they cannot be perceived except if oneness has been changed to separation.

The Holy Spirit sees another use for change. He can help us change our mind, change what we believe. The belief that we are a body is the basis for perceiving differences in the world. The Holy Spirit teaches that we are not a body and differences are unreal.

Only the oneness of Love is real. This lesson is taught through the holy relationship. As we learn to see there is no difference between our brother and ourself, we let go of the mistaken belief in our mind. Now we accept our unity with our brother. We are one Love, not different. Separation is not real.

We are blessed as we let the Holy Spirit use change to heal our divided mind. We welcome the Holy Spirit’s lessons today.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice for Heaven

Forget not that you came this far together, you and your brother. ²And it was surely not the ego that led you here. ³No obstacle to peace can be surmounted through [the ego’s] help. ⁴It does not open up its secrets, and bid you look on them and go beyond them. ⁵It would not have you see its weakness, and learn it has no power to keep you from the truth. ⁶The Guide Who brought you here remains with you, and when you raise your eyes you will be ready to look on terror with no fear at all. ⁷But first, lift up your eyes and look on your brother in innocence born of complete forgiveness of his illusions, and through the eyes of faith that sees them not.

No one can look upon the fear of God unterrified, unless he has accepted the Atonement and learned illusions are not real. ²No one can stand before this obstacle alone, for he could not have reached this far unless his brother walked beside him. ³And no one would dare to look on [the fear of God] without complete forgiveness of his brother in his heart.

⁴Before complete forgiveness you still stand unforgiving. ⁵You are afraid of God because you fear your brother. ⁶Those you do not forgive you fear. ⁷And no one reaches love with fear beside him.

²Think who your brother is, before you would condemn him. ³And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the gift of holiness for you. ⁴Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. ⁵Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV-D.8:1–9:3;11:4-7;16:2-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The difference between viewing the world under the ego’s spell and seeing it through forgiving eyes is the difference between hell and Heaven. One sees only cause for fear and guilt. The other sees on Love, for the ego’s denial of Love is forgiven. Love is recognized as the only reality.

With forgiveness we join with all in the oneness of Love. Nothing fearful is perceived and we happily join in the continuing extension of God’s gift of all His Love. When we experience Heaven’s peace is not a matter of time. It depends on our willingness to let the Holy Spirit help us forgive our misperceptions and accept His Vision. Let’s support each other with our willingness.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Will We Share with God

⁴The ego has never given you a sensible answer to anything. ⁵Simply on the grounds of your own experience with its teaching, should not this alone disqualify it as your future teacher? ⁶Yet the ego has done more harm to your learning than this alone. ⁷Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path, and facilitates the development of what you have. ⁸When you are taught against your nature, however, you will lose by your learning because your learning will imprison you. ⁹Your will is in your nature, and therefore cannot go against it.

“The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not listen to it. ²It is not your will to be imprisoned because your will is free. ³That is why the ego is the denial of free will. ⁴It is never God Who coerces you, because He shares His Will with you. ⁵His Voice teaches only in accordance with His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit’s lesson because that is what you _are._ ⁶The lesson is that your will and God’s cannot be out of accord because they are one. ⁷This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach. ⁸It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum that must be unconflicted, but also the content.

“The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God’s Will. ²This unnatural lesson cannot be learned, and the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, making you afraid of your will because it is free. ³The Holy Spirit opposes any imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, knowing that the Will of the Son is the Father’s. ⁴The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold you back. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.II.2:4–4:4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

By definition the ego is insane because it denies reality. Insanity cannot make sense. When we identify with the ego, our perceptions reflect the ego’s insanity. A mind dedicated to the denial of reality is insane. From within the insane thought system there seems to be no way out. Intervention is necessary from a Counselor Who recognizes our perceptions but does not believe them. We have this Counselor, the Holy Spirit, 24/7 in our mind. We must be willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s council if we would be free of the ego’s imprisonment in its insanity.

The Holy Spirit guides us gently and lovingly to reconsider our interpretations of our perceptions. The Course offers us many ways to open to His council. E.g. affirm I do not know what anything means; I will step back and let Him lead the way; above all else I want to see differently; I am not a body, I am free, I am still as God created me.

The Workbook lessons are a masterful curriculum to lead us out of our insanity by teaching us what we have believed is not true and showing us the truth to replace our mistaken beliefs. The core message of this curriculum is that God’s Will and ours are one and the same. As we accept this fact, the ego’s influence diminishes in our mind. Love increasingly guides our interpretations, actions and words. Simultaneously we experience greater joy and peace, for we are awakening to our true Nature. Today let us join in the dedication to accepting our true Will along with every brother, for we would be free.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Transformation Through Holy Relationships

The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant in living in this world. ²Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. ³The holy instant never fails. ⁴The experience of it is always felt. ⁵Yet without expression it is not remembered. ⁶The holy relationship is a constant reminder of the experience in which the relationship became what it is. ⁷And as the unholy relationship is a continuing hymn of hate in praise of its maker, so is the holy relationship a happy song of praise to the Redeemer of relationships.

The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned. ²It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew. ³The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment. ⁴In all its aspects, as it begins, develops and becomes accomplished, it represents the reversal of the unholy relationship. ⁵Be comforted in this; the only difficult phase is the beginning. ⁶For here, the goal of the relationship is abruptly shifted to the exact opposite of what it was. ⁷This is the first result of offering the relationship to the Holy Spirit, to use for His purposes.

²Only a radical shift in purpose could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole relationship is for. ³As this change develops and is finally accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. ⁴But at the beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. (A Course in Miracles, T-17.V.1:1–2:7;5:2-4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Relationships in the world are central to the Course’s lessons for awakening us to our true relationship with God. Our only real relationship is with God. Because all of God’s Sons are one with Him, our relationship with Him is our relationship with everyone. The Holy Spirit uses our relationships in the world as a classroom to lead us to the experience of our oneness in Love.

The ego’s purpose for relationships is completely opposite to the Holy Spirit’s. The ego’s denial of our oneness with God plays out in its relationships in the world. It starts with perceiving everyone as separate. Then it projects guilt on these separate identities. It judges everything and everyone. Some may be judged as good, others as bad, but always distinct and different from the perceiver. This ego practice anchors our ego identification, keeping awareness of Love’s oneness at bay.

The acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose for a relationship makes the ego’s shenanigans disjunctive. They do not fit the Holy Spirit’s goal. It is helpful to be patient with ourselves as we practice following the Holy Spirit’s lead in our relationship. Having firmly established our identification with the ego, it takes time to break away from this misidentification and redirect our attention to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will not let us down, but we need to accept His help. The benefit His lessons offer is a life experience of increasing happiness, a quiet mind and an increasing flow of Love. It is worth the effort.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Gift of True Perception

⁶There is no change in Heaven because there is no change in God. ⁷In the holy instant, in which you see yourself as bright with freedom, you will remember God. ⁸For remembering Him is to remember freedom.

If you are tempted to be dispirited by thinking how long it would take to change your mind so completely, ask yourself, “How long is an instant?” ²Could you not give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for your salvation? ³He asks no more, for He has no need of more. ⁴It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this than for Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of Heaven. ⁵In exchange for this instant He stands ready to give you the remembrance of eternity.

You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. ²For the instant of holiness is shared, and cannot be yours alone. ³Remember, then, when you are tempted to attack [judge] a brother, that his instant of release is yours. ⁴Miracles are the instants of release [forgiveness] you offer, and will receive. ⁵They attest to your willingness to be released, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.10:6–12:5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Imagine how you would feel if you perceived no adversary, no lack nor possibility of loss or harm. With this state of mind, your vision shows you only the reality of Love’s presence everywhere and in everything. What could disturb your peace or frighten you if this is what you perceive?

Forgiveness clears the way for true perception. It is a gift we give ourself when we forgive our mistaken perception of a brother to see him as the Love he is. Every instant offers us the gift of true perception if we are willing to let go of our judgments. This means we let go of the past, the basis for all judgments.

Only Love is now. Nothing else exists. The practice of following Holy Spirit’s lead throughout the day frees us from our illusions of the past. The Holy Spirit sees the reality of Love and guides us with His vision to free us to remember Heaven. The peace and happiness we feel as we accept His gifts increases our willingness to more consistently let Him lead the way.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Are Worthy of Vigilant Practice

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

Today’s idea accurately describes you as God created you. ²You are one within yourself, and one with Him. ³Yours is the unity of all creation. ⁴Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. ⁵You do not accept this, and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already.

You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. ²Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker [ego], to which you pray. ³It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. ⁴It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. ⁵It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.

⁴You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. ⁵It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.

…you have not yet formed the habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation.

…with all the certainty that you can give [affirm]:

²I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 95, W-95.1:1–2:5;4:4-5;5:3;11:1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 95 Insights.)

The source of all temptations in the world is our belief that the body is our identity. Our responses to appearances in the world are founded upon this mistaken belief. Because the body represents our separation from God, it is weak and vulnerable, for it denies the power of God in our true Self. We need to break the habit of responding to the world as if our body and the world were real.

This affirmation provides a practice that we can use to interrupt the trance script that that keeps us entrenched in the ego thought system. It reminds us of the truth of what we are to help us disconnect from our mistaken identification with the body. We are not a body. We are the Self God created one with Himself. Here is our power and safety. Here we remember we are eternal Love and nothing else.

As we awaken to this fact we experience the joy and peace of our Home in God. We are worthy of being vigilant with this practice it frees us from our self-imposed limitations. It returns us Home to Heaven.

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