Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Letting Go of Mistaken Values

Perception is consistent. ²What you see reflects your thinking. ³And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. ⁴Your values are determiners of this, for what you value you must want to see, believing what you see is really there. ⁵No one can see a world his mind has not accorded value. ⁶And no one can fail to look upon what he believes he wants.

Fear has made everything you think you see. ²All separation, all distinctions, and the multitude of differences you believe make up the world. ³They are not there. ⁴Love’s enemy has made them up. ⁵Yet love can have no enemy, and so they have no cause, no being and no consequence. ⁶They can be valued, but remain unreal.

It is impossible to see two worlds which have no overlap of any kind. ²Seek for the one; the other disappears. ³But one remains. ⁴They are the range of choice beyond which your decision cannot go. ⁵The real and the unreal are all there are to choose between, and nothing more than these.

⁵It is impossible to see two worlds. ⁶Let me accept the strength God offers me and see no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance. (A Course in Miracles, W-130.1;4:1-6;5;8:5-6. See also ACIM Lesson 130 Insights.)

It doesn’t seem that we would want to see a world in which everything that seems to live dies. It seems only insanity would want to see an uncertain world where fear and hate, anger and depression dominate everyone’s experience with occasional periods of “happy” relief that do not last. Only an insane mind that is out of touch with reality can believe in this world.

We can reconnect with reality, our sane mind, with the Holy Spirit’s help. His mission is to show us that the world of fear is not real and help us see the real world of Love’s oneness. The oneness of Love means that there are no differences nor distinctions between any part of Love. Love remains the same in its timelessness and eternal extension.

With the Holy Spirit’s help we learn to let go of the wish for specialness and separation. We learn that they have no value. Our real treasure is in the oneness of Love we share with our Creator. In this Love we recognize everyone as part of our one Self, worthy of God’s Love without limit. Today we choose to accept the blessing of God’s Love as our own.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering Our Unbreakable Connection

God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.

Perception is not an attribute of God. ²His is the realm of knowledge. ³Yet He has created the Holy Spirit as the Mediator between perception and knowledge. ⁴Without this link with God, perception would have replaced knowledge forever in your mind. ⁵With this link with God, perception will become so changed and purified that it will lead to knowledge. ⁶That is its function as the Holy Spirit sees it. ⁷Therefore, that is its function in truth.

In God you cannot see. ²Perception has no function in God, and does not exist. ³Yet in salvation, which is the undoing of what never was, perception has a mighty purpose. ⁴Made by the Son of God for an unholy purpose, [perception] must become the means for the restoration of his holiness to his awareness. ⁵Perception has no meaning. ⁶Yet does the Holy Spirit give it a meaning very close to God’s. ⁷Healed perception becomes the means by which the Son of God forgives his brother, and thus forgives himself.

You cannot see apart from God because you cannot be apart from God. ²Whatever you do you do in Him, because whatever you think, you think with His Mind. ³If vision is real, and it is real to the extent to which it shares the Holy Spirit’s purpose, then you cannot see apart from God. (A Course in Miracles, W-43.1–3. See also ACIM Lesson 43 Insights.)

The world we experience is a perception based upon our belief that we are a separate entity. This belief leads to perceiving everything as separate and distinct from our own identity. Were it not for the unbreakable link of the Holy Spirit which keeps us connected to our Creator, we would be lost forever in the world of perception. This projected world is not real because only the oneness of God’s Love is real. It only seems real in a dream.

We can wake up from this dream by being willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s gift of Christ’s vision. His vision shows us the presence of Love beyond the barrier of perception. Christ’s vision is holy perception. It dismisses the barriers of belief in separation and helps us see the Light of Love that is always there to be seen. Christ’s vision bridges our perception from seeing separation to seeing the oneness of Love that joins us forever with our Source and every brother.

Today we practice asking the Holy Spirit for Christ’s vision. We want to remember the joy and peace that is our natural state as Love’s extension. We want to remember our unbreakable connection with our Source. We want to awaken to Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning to See Everyone’s Innocence

If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. ²It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. ³But herein lies the split. ⁴For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape punishment. ⁵All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself, and escape the penalty of denial. ⁶It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. ⁷For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. ²The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt.

[The Holy Spirit] seeks to remove all guilt from his mind that he may remember his Father in peace. ³Peace and guilt are antithetical, and the Father can be remembered only in peace. ⁴Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to deny the other. ⁵Guilt hides Christ from your sight, for it is the denial of the blamelessness of God’s Son.

In the strange world that you have made the Son of God has sinned. ²How could you see him, then? ³By making [God’s Son] invisible, the world of retribution rose in the black cloud of guilt that you accepted, and you hold it dear. ⁴For the blamelessness of Christ is the proof that the ego never was, and can never be. ⁵Without guilt the ego has no life, and God’s Son is without guilt. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.in.1:1–2:2;I.1:2–2:5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We have taught ourselves that we are separate and alone in a dream where the oneness of Love is absent. In this dream, harm and guilt appear real and God’s Love is unknown. We have imprisoned ourselves behind a wall of denial. We have become accustomed to this prison. It feels familiar and we believe it is our home. Yet the key to open the prison door is in our hand.

We have taught ourselves to believe in what could never be real in truth. Now we need to be taught that our belief is mistaken. We have a Teacher in our mind Who recognizes we dream but does not believe in our fantasies. We can call on Him in any moment for help to see beyond our mistaken beliefs to the truth of Love’s presence beyond our prison door.

The key we hold in our hand is the willingness to be taught the truth of Love’s changeless presence. With our willingness, our mind is open to Christ’s vision, which overlooks what bodies seem to do to see the radiant innocence of God’s Love shining everywhere and in everyone. As we accept this vision, we learn of the innocence of Love in us.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us open our prison door and see the guiltless real world in which we dwell in peace.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Commitment to See Only Love

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. ²As you see him you will see yourself. ³As you treat him you will treat yourself. ⁴As you think of him you will think of yourself. ⁵Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. ⁶Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. ⁷Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. ⁸For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you [God’s Son].

The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is “Know thyself.” ²There is nothing else to seek. ³Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost. ⁴Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. ⁵Your power and glory are in him because they are yours. ⁶The ego tries to find [power and glory] in yourself alone, because it does not know where to look. ⁷The Holy Spirit teaches you that if you look only at yourself you cannot find yourself, because that is not what you are. ⁸Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are teaching what you are. ⁹He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher you are following. ¹⁰He will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, and so will you. ¹¹Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your responsibility to yourself. ¹²Give him his place in the Kingdom and you will have yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.III.4:1–5:12. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego denies our unity with our Creator and our brothers. This denial results in a sense of powerlessness because it denies the source of all power. It cannot acknowledge our unity with the Love in every brother and God because it would end its seeming existence. Our engagement with the ego’s thought system leaves us feeling lonely, unhappy, fearful and powerless. All this comes with choosing specialness instead of the universal Love that we are.

Everything that we perceive in the world is a reflection of what we believe we are. The ego shows us division and lack of Love. The Holy Spirit shows us unity and the limitless power and glory of God’s Love that we share and are. Today let’s support each other with our willingness and commitment to see only Love by accepting Christ’s vision. This is how we bring salvation to ourselves and the world.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Undoing the Wish for Specialness

Yet the essential thing is learning that you do not know. ²Knowledge is power, and all power is of God. ³You who have tried to keep power for yourself have “lost” it. ⁴You still have the power, but you have interposed so much between it and your awareness of it that you cannot use it. ⁵Everything you have taught yourself has made your power more and more obscure to you. …⁹Yet all that stands between you and the power of God in you is but your learning of the false, and of your attempts to undo the true.

⁵Learn of [God’s] happiness, which is yours. ⁶But to accomplish this, all your dark lessons must be brought willingly to truth, and joyously laid down by hands open to receive, not closed to take. ⁷Every dark lesson that you bring to Him Who teaches light He will accept from you, because you do not want it. ⁸And He will gladly exchange each one for the bright lesson He has learned for you. ⁹Never believe that any lesson you have learned apart from Him means anything.

You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned is true. ²If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God’s lesson, and not your own. ³Unless all this is true, there are dark lessons in your mind that hurt and hinder you, and everyone around you. ⁴The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will for God’s Son what his Father wills for him. ⁵Every dark lesson teaches this, in one form or another. ⁶And each bright lesson with which the Holy Spirit will replace the dark ones you do not accept, teaches you that you will with the Father and His Son. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.XI.1:1-5,9;4:5–5:6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego is our answer to our wish for specialness. It provides a dream that blocks out awareness of the reality of God’s Love. In Its place, the ego offers a dream that seems to provide the specialness we seek. But only at the cost of Heaven. The condition of Heaven is the oneness of God’s Love. Separation and oneness are mutually exclusive; we cannot have both.

The ego’s offerings require constant defense because they oppose our true Will, which we share with God. The ego defends itself by offering myriad forms to convince us that its dream is real. These forms appeal to us because they seem to offer what we want. But they are meaningless illusions which offer only temporary satisfaction.

The Holy Spirit’s lessons start with showing us the price we pay for wanting specialness. The price is loss of peace and lasting happiness. As we learn the Holy Spirit’s lessons, the ego’s defenses of separation become less willingly accepted. Each Holy Spirit lesson, learned and accepted, brings increasing peace of mind and happiness. Our willingness to accept God’s Will as ours increases.

Let us dedicate today to welcoming Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love, for we would return to the peace and joy of Heaven.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning from the Guide to Truth

²To forgive is to overlook. ³Look, then, beyond error and do not let your perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds. ⁴Accept as true only what your brother is, if you would know yourself. ⁵Perceive what he is not and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely. ⁶Remember always that your Identity [Love] is shared, and that Its sharing is Its reality.

²You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them. ³It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct [errors] without a Guide to correction. ⁴And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. ⁵The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. ⁶This sense of limitation is where all errors arise. ⁷The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you.

The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to do it [share]. ²The Holy Spirit merely reminds you of the natural use of your abilities. ³By reinterpreting the ability to attack into the ability to share [Love], He translates what you have made into what God created. (A Course in Miracles, T-9.IV.1:2-6;2:2–3:3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

While we believe we are a body, we are believing in a false identity. This has no effect on our true Identity as Love, but it does make us unaware of It. We have taught ourselves to believe a lie is true. Because we have embraced this insane thought system, we need help from a Guide Who can lead us out of our insanity. This is the Holy Spirit’s purpose.

We need to be willing to follow our Guide to truth to regain awareness of our true Self as Love, united with all in that Love. When we are willing to question our interpretations and ask for the Holy Spirit’s re-interpretation of our perceptions, we open the door to return to Love. Love is always there, ready to be seen and shared. It waits only on our willingness. Love cannot go where It is not welcome.

In every moment of every day we choose between the ego’s “gifts” of specialness or God’s gift of all His Love eternally. Today we practice stepping back from our perceptions to receive the Holy Spirit’s interpretations which will always lead us to sharing Love. This practice will bring us joy and peace as we join in Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Love

The ego does not recognize the real source of “threat,” and if you associate yourself with the ego, you do not understand the situation as it is. ²Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. ³I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. ⁴This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed. ⁵We cannot safely let it go at that, however, or you will regard yourself as necessarily conflicted as long as you are here, or as long as you believe that you are here. ⁶The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself. ⁷Your other [real] life has continued without interruption, and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate it.

The ego and the spirit do not know each other. ²The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. ³Having done this, it denies all truly natural impulses [to extend Love], not because the ego is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that you are [separate]. ⁴The ego is a device for maintaining this belief, but it is still only your decision to use the device that enables it to endure.

How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately thrown away? ²He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. ³You can only show him how miserable he is without it, and slowly bring it nearer so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. …⁶I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. (A Course in Miracles, T-4.VI.1:1-7;4:1–5:3,6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

God created His Son as an extension of His Love, sharing It equally with all without limit. Love’s nature is to extend Itself. It is natural that our true Self maintains the eternal extension of Love that is God’s Will for His Son.

By our choice to be separate from God’s Love, we have chosen to throw away the only thing in the universe that has value. This choice leaves us with feeling empty and alone. In our hearts, we miss the Love that God has given us. We long to recover the experience of unity in God’s Love. But while we associate ourselves with the ego, we will search for Love where It cannot be found. This futile search leaves us miserable, depressed, angry and guilty. All this comes from throwing away our awareness of Love’s presence.

Out of His Love for His Son, God gave us the Holy Spirit to gently and lovingly teach us we are not separate. We still have and are all of His Love. We still share His joy and peace. This is the reward we receive when we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love. Each time we accept a lesson, our willingness to be taught increases. Our journey of return is lightened by the Love we accept. Today we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, for we would remember the peace and joy of our Home in Love.

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