Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Understanding True Forgiveness

You do not understand forgiveness. …[Forgiveness as you perceive it] is not what God intended it to be for you.

Salvation is a better gift than this. And true forgiveness, as the means by which it is attained, must heal the mind that gives, for giving is receiving.

Give fifteen minutes twice today to the attempt to understand today’s idea [All that I give is given to myself]. It is the thought by which forgiveness takes its proper place in your priorities. It is the thought that will release your mind from every bar to what forgiveness means, and let you realize its worth to you.

In silence, close your eyes upon the world that does not understand forgiveness, and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where thoughts are changed and false beliefs laid by. Repeat today’s idea, and ask for help in understanding what it really means. Be willing to be taught. Be glad to hear the Voice of truth and healing speak to you, and you will understand the words He speaks, and recognize He speaks your words to you. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 126,W-pI.126.6:1,6;7:4-5;9;10. See also ACIM Lesson 126 Insights.)

The ego’s presence in our mind depends upon our belief that we are separate and alone and that what we give to an “other” no longer remains with us. This can only seem to be true in a dream world of separate forms.

But minds are joined and cannot be separate. They only seem separate in dreams of separation, which can never be true. If minds are joined, what is given remains with the giver, for it has not left the mind of the giver. Only thoughts that accept the reality of Love’s oneness can be joined. It is this fact that becomes clear as we accept the idea that giving and receiving are the same. Because they are, true forgiveness is justified.

This is why it is essential that we understand that all we give is given to ourselves. Because forms are unreal, giving a form has no effect in truth. True forgiveness is a thought in the mind that removes a barrier to Love. It frees our brother and ourselves simultaneously because the thought has not left the mind that gave it.

Today we will go to the quiet place within and ask for help to understand that all we give is given to our Self.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Receiving the Vision of a Forgiven World

Christ’s vision is a miracle. It comes from far beyond itself, for it reflects eternal love and the rebirth of love which never dies, but has been kept obscure. Christ’s vision pictures Heaven, for it sees a world so like to Heaven that what God created perfect can be mirrored there. The darkened glass the world presents can show but twisted images in broken parts. The real world pictures Heaven’s innocence.

Christ’s vision is the miracle in which all miracles are born. It is their source, remaining with each miracle you give, and yet remaining yours. It is the bond by which the giver and receiver are united in extension here on earth, as they are one in Heaven. Christ beholds no sin in anyone. And in His sight the sinless are as one. Their holiness was given by His Father and Himself.

Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. Are you not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth. His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 159,W-pI.159.3;4;10. See also ACIM Lesson 159 Insights.)

Christ’s dream of a forgiven world is a dream that sees only innocence. It is the recognition that only Love is real. All thoughts and images that are not expressions of Love are disregarded as meaningless. We accept Christ’s vision by bringing our perceptions to the Christ within, with willingness to exchange them for Christ’s vision.

This means we are willing to relinquish our judgments. We remember that of ourself alone, we do not know what anything means. We are willing to consider another way of seeing. As we accept Christ’s vision, the dark shadows of separation, guilt and fear fade away. What seemed to be a need for defense is transformed into the recognition of a call for Love. The Love of our true Self answers that call with joy and we learn that we are Love. The vision of a forgiven world becomes clearer. We practice this today.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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From Belief in Death to Acceptance of Life

Death is the symbol of the fear of God. His Love is blotted out in the idea, which holds [Love] from awareness like a shield held up to obscure the sun. The grimness of the symbol is enough to show [death] cannot coexist with God.

The “reality” of death is firmly rooted in the belief that God’s Son is a body. And if God created bodies, death would indeed be real. But God would not be loving.

Without the idea of death there is no world. All dreams will end with this one. This is salvation’s final goal; the end of all illusions. And in death are all illusions born.

Teacher of God, your one assignment could be stated thus: Accept no compromise in which death plays a part. Do not believe in cruelty, nor let attack conceal the truth from you. What seems to die has but been misperceived and carried to illusion. Now it becomes your task to let the illusion be carried to the truth. Be steadfast but in this; be not deceived by the “reality” of any changing form. Truth neither moves nor wavers nor sinks down to death and dissolution. And what is the end of death? Nothing but this; the realization that the Son of God is guiltless now and forever. Nothing but this. But do not let yourself forget it is not less than this. (A Course in Miracles,M-27.3:1-3;5:1-3;6:3-6;7:1-10)

The Course says in many ways that if anything changes, it is not real, for Love is changeless. In the world death is the ultimate indicator of change. So death must be unreal. If we look honestly at all the forms in the world, it is obvious that they all are representations of death. Nothing is changeless in the world. Everything starts to age and decay the moment it is made. Not even the hardest rock is immune to change.

Our belief in this makes the existence of a loving, changeless Creator and His changeless Creation seem farfetched and impossible to believe. This is why the Course’s goal is the complete reversal of our thought system from our belief in death to acceptance that we remain only changeless Love as Love created us. The moment we chose to believe in separation (death) we were given the Teacher to guide us back to the remembrance of our true Self, God’s loving extension of Himself.

The Love we are was never lost. It is only hidden by our belief that separation and death are real. The daily moment-by-moment practice of letting Holy Spirit show us the truth of changeless Love beyond all our perceptions will set us free. The illusion of fear and death fades away as we accept the Light of Love that is eternally present. Today we remember to choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding Our Happiness and Safety

Minds that are joined and recognize they are, can feel no guilt. For they cannot attack, and they rejoice that this is so, seeing their safety in this happy fact. Their joy is in the innocence they see. And thus they seek for it, because it is their purpose to behold it and rejoice. Everyone seeks for what will bring him joy as he defines it.

Perception’s basic law could thus be said, “You will rejoice at what you see because you see it to rejoice.” And while you think that suffering and sin will bring you joy, so long will they be there for you to see. Nothing is harmful or beneficent apart from what you wish.… The Son of God creates to bring him joy, sharing his Father’s purpose in his own creation, that his joy might be increased, and God’s along with his.

You maker of a world that is not so, take rest and comfort in another world where peace abides. This world you bring with you to all the weary eyes and tired hearts that look on sin and beat its sad refrain. From you can come their rest. From you can rise a world they will rejoice to look upon, and where their hearts are glad. In you there is a vision that extends to all of them, and covers them in gentleness and light. (A Course in Miracles,T-25.IV.1:1-5;2:1-3,7;3:1-5.. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Whatever we think will make us happy we believe is our salvation. And we will use whatever means we believe will bring us salvation. If we believe we are separate in a world of separation, we will seek forms that we believe will make us happy and safe.

Yet forms have no power of their own and only seem to have effect because of our belief in them. Thus our sense of happiness and safety is always tenuous and subject to change without notice. That is why our seeming existence in the world of form always carries an underlying sense of fear. The world of form denies the one Source of changeless joy and Love.

The Mind of our true Self knows it is joined with changeless Love everywhere. It sees only this changeless Love beyond the illusions of form. It disregards the illusions, knowing they are nothing and have no effect. As we accept the Self that Love created as our Identity, we recognize that we are joined with all minds, for they are united with us in the One Mind of Love. Our joy overflows as Love extends through us, creating Love in Its own Image. Only Love creates and only like Itself. Here is our joy and our safety.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Path of Return to Love, Our Self

Love cannot judge. As it is one itself, it looks on all as one. Its meaning lies in oneness. And it must elude the mind that thinks of it as partial or in part. There is no love but God’s, and all of love is His. There is no other principle that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one, the link between the Father and the Son which holds Them both forever as the same.

No course whose purpose is to teach you to remember what you really are could fail to emphasize that there can never be a difference in what you really are and what love is. Love’s meaning is your own, and shared by God Himself. For what you are is what He is. There is no love but His, and what He is, is everything there is. There is no limit placed upon Himself, and so are you unlimited as well.

Open your mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the gift of God replace them all.

Call to your Father, certain that His Voice will answer. He Himself has promised this. And He Himself will place a spark of truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach love’s meaning to your clean and open mind. And He will bless the lesson with His Love. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 127,W-pI.127.4-5;8:2-9:6. See also ACIM Lesson 127 Insights.)

There is a clear and simple path of return to our Home in God. We need only let go of the value we give to the world. Though it is simple, it seems hard to do because we believe our identity is defined by the world. To let go of the meaning we give the world seems as though we would lose our identity. But all we would lose is a false identity that hides our true Identity, which is Love and nothing else.

Try to imagine what it would be like to see only Love everywhere. There would be no judgment, no fear and no guilt. There would be no perception of harm nor need to defend. There would be only perfect peace in the certainty that only Love’s oneness is real. This is our inheritance given us in our creation. The acceptance of the certainty of Love’s oneness is what time is for in the world. There is no value in any other endeavor.

Let us join together today in our dedication to set aside the values of the world and accept the oneness of Love that is everyone’s Identity.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Visit to Love’s Peace Spa

“I rest in God.” This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. “I rest in God.” This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is. Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.

“I rest in God.” Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.

You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let [your mind] be still and thankfully accept its healing. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 109,W-pI.109.2-3;5:3-6. See also ACIM Lesson 109 Insights.)

Within us is our Home in the changelessness of God’s Love. It is the truth of What we are as His Creation. The belief that we have separated from our Creator makes us unaware that we are at Home in God. It is this belief that makes a world of different people, different places, the passing of time, perception of loss and harm — a world of constant change — seem real. It makes us unaware that we rest in the certainty of changeless Love.

It is time to pause and step back from the world of dreams. It is time to direct our attention to the center of peace within. Here is our true Home. Here we rest and remember that we have all of God’s Love and we are perfectly safe in Love’s changelessness.

We can relax in this peace… We rest in the spa of Love’s peace… We feel the Love soften our anxiety and stress that come from believing in the dream world… As we feel the calming presence of Love, the dream fades and the certainty of God’s Love steps forward… We know that we are safe and we are Home.

We are rejuvenated and bring the certainty of our safety with us as we return to the world to bring the message of the Love we all are to the world.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming God’s Life as Our Own

There is no death because what God created shares His life.

[Death] 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.

The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. [Mind] cannot change what is its waking state. It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body. What is alien to the mind does not exist, because it has no source. For mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot make the physical. What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep.

It dreams of time; an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere. When the mind awakes, it but continues as it always was.

[God’s] holy home we strive to keep today as He established it, and wills it be forever and forever. He is Lord of what we think today. And in His Thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand there is one life, and that we share with Him…. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 167,W-pI.167.1:5;2:4-7;6;9:3-4;11:1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 167 Insights.)

It is helpful to learn how belief in death, in being separate from God, permeates our experience in the world. We were created to share God’s limitless joy and perfect peace. We can only seem to experience anything less than that in a dream of separation and death.

A dream, by definition, is not forever and it is not real. This is good news because it means we are not stuck in a dream world of conflict, loss and death. We can awaken from the dream.

We have been given the Call to awaken by our Creator. This Call is eternal because It comes from our eternal Source. It calls unceasingly from the mind awake to the mind asleep. We have never been left without Help. Today we call upon this Help to shine Its Light upon all our thoughts in the dream to help us recognize illusions as illusions and let them go. This is our journey of awakening to remembering that we share God’s Life eternally.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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