Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Seeing the World with Love’s Vision

The idea for today [I have no neutral thoughts] is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.

There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of “idle thoughts.” What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.

Besides your recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salva­tion requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you rec­ognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really under­stand it. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 16, W-pI.16.1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 16 Insights.)

If we perceive our interests as different from anyone’s, we are misperceiving. This misperception starts with identifying with a body which separates us from “others.” This false identity must then perceive an outside world that is also false. The result of this misperception is a recurring experience of conflict, fear and guilt. All this comes from believing separation is real.

Our true Self knows that we are Love and nothing else. It knows only Itself, but this Self is all inclusive. There is no other self that can conflict with our true Self. Our Self remains eternally at peace, in need of nothing. It sees only the extension of the Love It is, for That is all of Reality.

The way to let go of perceiving a world of war and loss is to choose to see with the vision of Love. We make this choice by being willing to question the meaning of everything we see with the body’s eyes and open to the Holy Spirit’s meaning. He sees only Love or a call for Love, which He answers with Love.

This practice is our vocation in this world. It is how we heal our mind of fear and guilt and bring the healing Light of Love to the world.

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The Choice to Be Love

The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing.

What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. What does this recognition “cost”? It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not. He looks on what he chooses to see. No more and no less. The world does nothing to him. He only thought it did. Nor does he do anything to the world, because he was mistaken about what it is. Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea.

With this idea is pain forever gone. But with this idea goes also all confusion about creation. Does not this follow of necessity? Place cause and effect in their true sequence in one respect, and the learning will generalize and transform the world. The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit. The final outcome of this lesson is the remembrance of God.” A Course in Miracles, (A Course in Miracles, M-5.II.2:1;3;4:1-6)

It doesn’t seem that we choose to see a world of disasters, conflict and death. This perception starts with believing we are a body. The body is an instrument of the ego, made to be blind to Love and see only images of separation. As long as we identify with the body, we will believe what we are seeing is real. We are choosing to accept a way of seeing that denies reality. We are responsible for this choice and the world we see is the effect of it. But the fact that it is a choice means there is another option.

This option is to choose to see with the vision of our true Self — to see with Love’s vision. Love sees no differences, no conflict, no loss. It sees only the eternal extension of Itself. When we choose this vision in our mind, we see Love’s reflection everywhere, because Love is everywhere.

As we practice choosing Love as our Guide, the importance of what the body sees and seems to do diminishes. We increasingly accept the fact that we are not a body. We are free to be the Love that is our true Nature. In every moment we are free to choose to accept that we are Love and nothing else as Love’s Creation.

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Being a Teacher of God

A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this; somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else’s. Once he has done that, his road is established and his direction is sure. A light has entered the darkness. It may be a single light, but that is enough. He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in Him. He has become a bringer of salvation. He has become a teacher of God.

There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never changes. Its central theme is always, “God’s Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.” It can be taught by actions or thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the Call. He has become a savior by his answering. He has seen someone else as himself. He has therefore found his own salvation and the salvation of the world. In his rebirth is the world reborn. (A Course in Miracles, M-1.1;3)

Our true Self, the one Son of God, is the Self we share with every brother. It unites us in the oneness of Love. This is our Reality and our birthright. We can never lose this Love because it is God’s Will that It be ours, forever and ever.

Our only meaningful purpose in the world is to awaken to the Love we are. As we awaken to this Love, we see It reflected back to us from our brothers. We respond to our brothers from this place of Love, either by joining with the Love he is or answering his call for Love with Love. With this practice, we serve as teachers of God.

In every moment of every day we have the opportunity to be God’s teacher by letting Love guide our thoughts, words and actions. With this practice we bring Light to the darkness in the world and help to dispel the guilt and fear in our brothers and ourselves.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Eternal Love We Are

I will accept Atonement for myself.

Here is the end of choice. For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? There is no doubt that is not rooted here. There is no question but reflects this one. There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”

Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself?

Thus he becomes uncertain of his life, for what [his life] is has been denied by him. It is for this denial that you need Atonement. Your denial made no change in what you are. But you have split your mind into what knows and does not know the truth.

Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself, and be unsure of what you really are. This is the depth of madness. Yet it is the universal question of the world. What does this mean except the world is mad? Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true?

We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. And in our memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love contains them all. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 139, W-pI.139.1;2:1;5:1-4;6;11:4-6. See also ACIM Lesson 139 Insights.)

The ego’s answer to the question, “What am I?” is that we are a body which seems to live for a brief time until it dies — our life has ended. Yet the Course tells us that we have one life which we share with God. This life must be eternal because God is eternal.

In the Course, Atonement means we have let go of all false beliefs that deny the eternal Love we are. All barriers to Love have been released by forgiving our mistaken perceptions and accepting Love as our Identity instead of a false image of our self.

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Remembering Our Home in God’s Love

I thank You, Father, knowing You will come to close each little gap that lies between the broken pieces of Your holy Son. Your Holiness, complete and perfect, lies in every one of them. And they are joined because what is in one is in them all. How holy is the smallest grain of sand, when it is recognized as being part of the completed picture of God’s Son! The forms the broken pieces seem to take mean nothing. For the whole is in each one. And every aspect of the Son of God is just the same as every other part.

Join not your brother’s dreams but join with him, and where you join His Son the Father is. Who seeks for substitutes when he perceives he has lost nothing? Who would want to have the “benefits” of sickness when he has received the simple happiness of health? What God has given cannot be a loss, and what is not of Him has no effects. What, then, would you perceive within the gap? The seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is joy in separation, and [giving up separation] would be a sacrifice. But miracles are the result when you do not insist on seeing in the gap what is not there. Your willingness to let illusions go is all the Healer of God’s Son requires. He will place the miracle of healing where the seeds of sickness were. And there will be no loss, but only gain. (A Course in Miracles, T-28.IV.9-10. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The Spirit of Love is eternally whole. It has no form nor any distinction within It to separate It from any other part. The ego’s world relies on our belief in the reality of differences to seem to exist. A grain of sand seems different than a hurricane. We can only perceive these differences if we deny the oneness of Love by believing in the ego’s dream. Yet Love is eternally present and complete.

If we look upon a grain of sand with Love’s vision, we see the same presence of Love as It sees in every brother or any form in the world. Only the Love has meaning. As we learn to overlook the meaningless forms in the dream to recognize the eternal Love that unites us with our Creator, peace is restored to our troubled mind. There is no conflict in Love.

Today we give thanks that we rest eternally in the peace of God. We are held safely in His Love and share His joy. We welcome this rest by choosing Love’s vision in place of believing the ego’s images of separation. With this practice we awaken from the dream of separation and remember our Home in Love.

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Finding Our Invulnerability in God’s Love

It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. You see attack as a real threat. That is because you believe that you can really attack. And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you.

Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. They contradict each other.

…you always at­tack yourself first.

…vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. Noth­ing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulner­able. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 26, W-pI.26.1:1-4;2;3:1;4. See also .)

Thoughts about what might happen in the future or about something we experienced or did in the past are attack thoughts. They deny the changelessness and oneness of the Love that is What we are. Love can neither harm nor be harmed.

Our attack thoughts always involve some element of belief in the reality of change, which could never be true about our true Self. The ego feeds us a constant stream of thoughts based upon “memories” of the past to “prepare us” for an imagined future. Yet nothing the ego believes happened or can happen is real and therefore could never occur in truth.

To remember the truth about ourself, we need to bring our thoughts from the past to the Holy Spirit and ask Him for help to heal these misperceptions. He will shine His Light on these dark shadows from the past so we can learn that Love is here now and always. Love is our safety, our refuge, our place of invulnerability, forever protected by Its changelessness.

Today we practice being mindful of thoughts that disturb our peace of mind. We bring these thoughts to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His help. This is how we free our minds from attack thoughts and find peace in Love’s invulnerability.

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Finding Our Real Thoughts of Love

There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.

You think with the Mind of God. Therefore you share your thoughts with Him, as He shares His with you. They are the same thoughts, because they are thought by the same Mind. To share is to make alike, or to make one. Nor do the thoughts you think with the Mind of God leave your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source. Therefore, your [real] thoughts are in the Mind of God, as you are. They are in your mind as well, where He is. As you are part of His Mind, so are your thoughts part of His Mind.

We will not let the thoughts of the world hold us back. We will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that what God would have us do is impossible. Instead, we will try to recognize that only what God would have us do is possible.

…tell yourself gently:

My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.

Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your mind, and reach to the eternal. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 45, W-pI.45.1:4-2:8;4:4-6;6:3-6. See also ACIM Lesson 45 Insights.)

If our real Thoughts are only the Thoughts we share with God, then our real Thoughts must be Thoughts of Love and nothing else. While we believe the world we see is real, we are unaware of the loving Thoughts we share with God.

Because of our true Self’s unbreakable unity with the Mind of Love, we are never without Love. Yet the world seems to be a place where Love is hard to find. Most of us are consciously or unconsciously seeking Love which cannot be found in the ego’s thought system. The ego’s dictates will always direct us to look where Love cannot be found. At best it offers temporary fixes with substitutes for Love that provide only fleeting satisfaction.

The loving Thoughts of our true Self remain with us. To find them, we need to pause and step back from the ego’s chatter. As we let peace come forward, we find the Thoughts of Love which guide us to be Love’s messengers in the world. We reflect Love in the world through kindness, helpfulness, appreciation and forgiveness. We see our brother’s through the inner vision of Love, which reminds us of our unity with the one Self of all our brothers in the Mind of God. Our experience of the world is transformed.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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