Reflections 1 to 14
1/ The Sun Shines on Itself
27th July 2023
Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation. (ACIM, S-1.in.1:1)
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Ref: It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. (ACIM, M-13.2:1)
A Course in Miracles states that it requires almost nothing of us. All we have to do is to simply pay attention.
We become aware of two aspects of the mind - the one that hurts us and the one that heals us. We also become aware that the world is just a projection of the mind. There is nothing out there, it is all in here.
We actually tend to pray for what hurts us, and the only thing that hurts us is that we keep looking to the world for the solution. This is our hell. Our healing is what takes us back to our Source. This is our origin. It is the beginning and the end of all that we are.
What we really are, then, is the Song. It is true joining but is drowned out by constant chatter. A Course in Miracles tells us that we have to sacrifice nothing to find this. All we have to do is to just be aware of how much we hurt ourselves with our thoughts. We look at them and they just fade away.
Just like the sun shining on itself, God always extends His Love. Nothing we do will ever change this. However, we do need to be aware of the stillness in the mind in order to accept its truth.
To illustrate this, Keith Kavanagh - the host of a weekly discussion group on A Course in Miracles - presents the first of a series of talks on the Song of Prayer. We learn that oneness is indivisible. What is one is always one. Nothing can change the truth of this except a state of mind.
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2/ Stillness Cannot Be Offended
28th July 2023
It was then what it is to become: the single voice Creator and creation share; the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. (ACIM, S-1.in.1:2)
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Ref: These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]. (ACIM, W-4)
The Song of Prayer shows us exactly what we are. We are God’s Son, the Self, the Christ - it doesn’t matter what we call it. However, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the body.
Our thoughts tell us another thing. We are a doctor, a street sweeper, rich or poor, male or female...
A Course in Miracles is a course in healing the mind of the illusory. It provides us with the theory and the practice to enable change. It brings us back to the core of what we are.
The Workbook therefore focuses on the only option we have. It allows us to be aware of the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is not some entity. It is actually the Love that exists within our minds.
The Holy Spirit is the light that dispels the darkness; it is the stillness that quietens the noise; it is the joy that dissolves a sense of loss.
The ego is the darkness in our minds. Our job is to bring the darkness to the light.
We do not have to fight the ego - which is actually our deepest fear that God will punish us. We only need to join with the Holy Spirit and observe the ego as it dictates our thoughts and feelings.
Innate stillness cannot be offended. It just observes and does nothing. And therein is everything that is the Peace of God.
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3/ Mind like the Sky
29th July 2023
Endless the harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each Other. And in this, creation is extended. (ACIM, S-1.in.1:3-4)
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Ref: The belief in sin is an adjustment. And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception, or a belief that what was so before has been made different. (ACIM, T-20.III.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that God did NOT create the world. God has nothing to do with sin and grief and suffering. God is just endless Love.
It is the mind that creates the suffering and this arises only because we feel disconnected from that Love.
Sin is to do with form - the body - and is merely an error in the mind.
The world is merely a projection of the mind so it is up to us to change that projection.
Truth cannot change. It is impossible. The mind holds that truth and that truth is ours if we are still enough to find it.
The deluded mind is therefore conned into thinking what it is not. This is death, instability and pain.
The peaceful mind arises when that mind is returned to its natural state. Love and peace and joy are our natural inheritance. This is what the Song of Prayer calls healing.
The only thing that confirms that we are on the right track is a mind at peace. To get there, the decision maker in the mind needs to observe our lack of peace without judging it. And then we realise we are like the sky - vast and spacious and open.
30th July 2023
God gives thanks to His extension in His Son. His Son gives thanks for his creation, in the song of his creating in his Father’s Name. (ACIM, S-1.in.1:5-6)
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Ref: There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is nothing to be feared. There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His. (ACIM, T-29.I.1:1-3)
The gap between our Self and what we think of as our self is where our suffering lies.
We see the self as a body but in fact it is an illusion. The body is just a projection of the mind, just like any other image that has form.
This, of course, is always impossible to believe. However, anything that A Course in Miracles teaches us is impossible to believe for the ego.
The ego is our identity within the gap. It is the terrifying thought that we are isolated and alone. We cover it up with all sorts of clothes and careers, and fill it with food and drink. The ego is only pacified when it gets what it needs.
Spirit is our true Identity that has no gap. It is joyful and eternal, full and complete. It has no needs or aspirations, and has no concept of the false. Love is what Spirit is and there is really nothing else.
We - as the little self - might think there is fear and love, but there is only love. Fear is an illusion.
We might believe we have to forgive what really happened, except that nothing ever happened.
Just the tiniest little thought caused the tiniest misbelief. The Son of God thought that he could be separate but nothing can ever be separate. We are complete and whole and perfect as we are.
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5/ A Message of Love
31st July 2023
The Love They share is what all prayer will be throughout eternity, when time is done. For such it was before time seemed to be. (ACIM, S-1.in.1:7-8)
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Ref: Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. He is the Thought which still abides within the Mind that is His Source. (ACIM, W-pII.6.1:1-3)
We are all the one Christ - of this, A Course in Miracles is quite clear.
A Course in Miracles also mentions that Jesus saw that Christ in everyone, just as he remembered God before anything else (ACIM, C-5.2:1-2). Whether he had this transformation during his lifetime is unclear, but one thing is certain. His message has been misinterpreted in multiple different ways.
In addition, we are reminded that there are many different teachers with the same message, but Jesus was simply the one who became identified with the Christ.
Meanwhile, the preface tells us that A Course in Miracles is just one spiritual path among thousands.
We therefore learn that everything leads to God because really there is only God.
We see that we are all the same because there is only the one Identity.
And we are told that all our sins have been forgiven because the cause of sin simply does not exist.
A Course in Miracles guides us towards re-aligning our minds with our Identity. It allows us to become aware of what a song of prayer really is. It acknowledges the Christ within us and within everything else. It is really a message of love that asks us to be the best image of love that we can.
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6/ Faith Makes no Requests
1st August 2023
To you who are in time a little while, prayer takes the form that best will suit your need. You have but one. (ACIM, S-1.in.2:1-2)
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Ref: There is no problem in any situation that faith will not solve. There is no shift in any aspect of the problem but will make solution impossible. (ACIM, T-17.VII.2:1-2)
The lines above are taken from a passage in which we find that minds cannot attack; however, our belief in the body means that they can.
The passage also states that we hold judgements against our brother because of what we think he did to us - except it is actually what we did to him. This arises due to the mind’s fixation on the past.
A Course in Miracles is clear that the past never happened. It is just a dream. It tells us that we cling to the past so tightly that it crucifies us. The trick, it seems, is to be aware of only what is present.
A Course in Miracles is about having faith and trust. Its purpose is to place our suffering into a context where we can look at it without judgement, and then dismiss it.
Judgement is of the ego; non-judgement is of the Holy Spirit. One crucifies and the other does not.
Ultimately it is all or nothing. We have total faith in the ego or we have total faith in the Holy Spirit.
It is therefore up to us to understand that the world will never solve our problems. The world just shifts them around a little and probably makes things worse.
A Course in Miracles is a light in the darkness. It always provides just one solution to every problem (and that is love). To fully understand love requires faith. Faith, then, really makes no requests.
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7/ Nothing to Hide
2nd August 2023
What God created one must recognise its oneness, and rejoice that what illusions seemed to separate is one forever in the Mind of God. (ACIM, S-1.in.2:3)
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Ref: Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgement. As judgement shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. (ACIM, M-4.X.1:2-4)
Leaves on the grass, waves on the ocean, clouds in the sky - all are useful metaphors for the thoughts that colour the clarity of the mind.
A Course in Miracles states on every page that we are not our thoughts. Anything that is a catalyst for fear is illusory. It has no substance at all. It is not what we are.
We are not our perceived identity. We are the ocean and not the drop - the sky and not the cloud.
We are the song of the song of prayer because there is nothing else. Anything else is just an illusion that dissolves and disappears.
Seeing past the identity of this personal self called ‘me’ might seem scary but it has to be done to find true peace. It is the identity of the ego that feeds all the thoughts that cause our endless pain.
And we don’t have to go anywhere to find our real Self. What is one stays as one, with no division.
The Song of Prayer is always with us. It is just drowned out by all the fear germinating in the mind.
Our job is to observe the ego with the Holy Spirit. Slowly, as we do, we find there’s nothing to hide.
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8/ There Is only the Song
3rd August 2023
Prayer now must be the means by which God’s Son leaves separate goals and separate interests by, and turns in holy gladness to the truth of union in his Father and himself. (ACIM, S-1.in.2:4)
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Ref: Miracles are seen in light.
(ACIM,
W-91)
The lesson above states that we have two thought systems. Only one can only be seen in darkness and the other can only be seen in light.
It tells us that the light is always there just as the miracle is always there. The only reason that we don’t perceive this is because we are looking with the wrong thought system.
The thought system of the ego is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It pretends to wish us well but in fact it wishes us dead. It is a nasty piece of work masquerading as a friend and an ally.
The thought system of the Holy Spirit - our only alternative - is gentle and honest. It is light with no opposite. It is like a perfect friend that will never let us down. It is life instead of death.
A thought system of light means we don’t die. The body stays as it is, except its purpose changes.
The mind only knows the truth - that it is light and love - and the body just responds in kind.
Keith Kavanagh throws more light on this as he takes a second look at the Song of Prayer. We learn more about the song and discover that anything that arises as a result of the Holy Spirit is the echo - a rebound of that song. The song is always a prayer of thanks and love.
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4th August 2023
Lay down your dreams, you holy Son of God, and rising up as God created you, dispense with idols and remember Him. (ACIM, S-1.in.3:1)
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Ref: Correction of a lasting nature, – and only this is true correction, – cannot be made until the teacher of God has ceased to confuse interpretation with fact, or illusion with truth. (ACIM, M-18.1:1)
A Course in Miracles tells us that our sole responsibility is to accept the Atonement for ourselves. This means the undoing of all our errors.
Reality is changeless - reality does not contain one single error. The mind only knows itself.
An ‘idol’ is therefore a substitute for reality. We make one up to cover all our guilt and it could be as simple as picking up a newspaper to read instead of doing our daily lesson.
However, we have to be kind to ourselves. It’s impossible - and even dangerous - to try to do this quickly.
Being a decision maker and stepping aside from the narrative in the mind requires practice. This is why A Course in Miracles calls itself a course in mind training.
To step aside means watching the ego in all its forms. It means rising above the battleground to join with Jesus or the Holy Spirit - or any symbol of perfection - and letting that symbol heal the mind. In other words, we join with the love and peace that is always in our minds. This is the practice.
We can’t do this by ourselves. Our guilt is too resistant and too deep.
To be the witness means being still as the ego rages. This is not easy but it undoes the illusion.
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10/ One of Us
5th August 2023
Prayer will sustain you now, and bless you as you lift your heart to Him in rising song that reaches higher and then higher still, until both high and low have disappeared. (ACIM, S-1.in.3:2)
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Ref: The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. And They come quickly to the living temple, where a home for Them has been set up. (ACIM, T-26.IX.6:1-2)
Why are we here?
This is a question that we all would have asked at some stage in our lives. For many of us, it’s the question that leads us to our spiritual path.
And we could never have imagined that we are actually not here - that we have never left Heaven.
A Course in Miracles tells us that one thought was all it took. The Son of God simply wondered what it would be like to be separate from His Father. And, as instantly as it was thought, it was corrected.
The dream, however, began. And we still have no concept that we are dreaming what we are doing.
The fact is there is no ‘us’. The song of prayer is undisturbed. There is only pure, undiluted love.
And so, when ‘Them’ and ‘They’ are mentioned in the lines above, it refers to a simple truth.
There is only God and there is only Christ; there is just the one Creator and the Son that was created.
There is just the one of us. And it is our oneness that we need to see in each other.
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11/ Core of Our Being
6th August 2023
Faith in your goal will grow and hold you up as you ascend the shining stairway to the lawns of Heaven and the gate of peace. (ACIM, S-1.in.3:3)
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Ref: Accept your Father’s gift. It is a Call from Love to Love, that It be but Itself. The Holy Spirit is His gift, by which the quietness of Heaven is restored to God’s beloved Son. (ACIM, W-pII.7.5:1-3)
A Course in Miracles offers us the solution to all our problems.
The ego (our only problem) is never going to accept this. This is because, if the ego was seen for what it is, it would not exist. It would simply disappear like a drop in the ocean.
Meanwhile, as the ego learns of our mutiny, it will inevitably become vicious. It is going to turn all our dreams into a nightmare. Any squalls increase to a storm.
Within the storm, however, there is always a quiet centre. Whatever is going on around that quiet centre can never touch it. The eye of the storm is always calm and peaceful.
To reach this quiet centre is always our goal. It is the purpose of A Course in Miracles. The core of our being is always whole and complete, and never changes - even as the storm rages around it.
The core of our being does not judge the periphery turbulence that is foreign to its nature; or, to put it this way, how can light know of darkness? Light is love and love is peace. It just is.
So our job, as A Course in Miracles’ students, is to learn to join with the light that is in our minds. This is the Holy Spirit. Together, we quietly observe the craziness of the ego and we don’t judge it.
We are simply aware of being awareness. And it is our awareness that shows us we are the light.
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12/ Temptation Is not This
7th August 2023
For this is prayer, and here salvation is. This is the way. It is God’s gift to you. (ACIM, S-1.in.3:4-6)
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Ref: My salvation comes from me. (ACIM, W-70)
Salvation is a promise made by God that we can never be separate. The promise is guaranteed and, actually, is already done.
Salvation is the process of waking up from the dream that we are separate; it is the deleting of all our shared belief in guilt and sin; it is the understanding that the only enemy we have is within ourselves; it is an undoing of everything that we thought was real, so that reality can reveal itself.
A Course in Miracles states that both salvation and guilt are in the mind. Nothing is ‘out there’ and everything lies within. When the mind is healed of guilt, we see the world as it is - as in the real world - and we function in a way that only arises out of peace, love and happiness.
The Workbook lesson referred to above states that nothing outside of ourselves can ever help us. Equally, nothing outside of ourselves can ever disturb our peace of mind.
It also states that it is only us who are in charge of the universe. Anything we think totally affects everything we experience in so many different ways.
This means we always have to go back to the cause - which is in the mind.
There is nothing that we can’t achieve and everything that we can.
We either heal ourselves or hurt ourselves. The remedy is in the mind just as the cause of pain is in the mind. We either are or we are not, and temptation merely means that we are what we are not.
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13/ A Leap of Faith
8th August 2023
Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. (ACIM, S-1.I.1:1)
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Ref: The practical application of the Holy Spirit’s purpose is extremely simple, but it is unequivocal. In fact, in order to be simple it must be unequivocal. The simple is merely what is easily understood, and for this it is apparent that it must be clear. (ACIM, T-17.VI.1:1-3)
The ego is the narrative in our minds. It endlessly dictates how we should feel, what we should do and who we should be. When we pray, it is usually through the ego.
And, as thought is prayer, our prayers can be pretty bleak in the early hours or late at night when it is not so easy to distract ourselves. If our minds run riot, we are actually praying.
But then, as we look back over our lives, we might also be able to observe that the miraculous has happened at various times when we have least expected it. We might not be able to quite put our finger on it, but something somewhere has put us in a certain place at a certain time.
The Holy Spirit is the light within our minds. Light illuminates the darkness and makes the miracle. A Course in Miracles wants us to leave the darkness (the ego) and join with the light (pure love).
When we join with the Holy Spirit, it means we step back from the ego’s narrative and just observe what is happening without judgement. All prayer then arises naturally and without fear. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what we need at any given time.
Trusting in the Holy Spirit simply means that we don’t need to let any situation determine the outcome - we just let the outcome determine the situation. Everyone wins and no one loses.
True prayer, then, is really just the song. It is sung as a song of thanks. To get to this mindset requires a huge leap of faith because we have to trust in the formless and not the form.
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14/ Truth Is
9th August 2023
It is not merely a question or an entreaty. It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. How else could it serve its purpose? (ACIM, S-1.I.1:2-4)
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Ref: 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. (ACIM, M-1.1:1-2)
One of Jesus’ last prayers was to ask for the forgiveness of his torturers.
In the words that are written above, he tells us we can all be teachers of God.
Was Jesus unique or can we become just like him?
It is likely we will never know the real truth about Jesus, except his legacy is in every village and in every town. And whether or not we want to believe that Jesus is the Voice of A Course in Miracles, it is hard to dispute that the Voice has authority and each word is a symbol that only points to truth.
A Course in Miracles states that it is not exclusive to anyone or anything; indeed, very early on in the preface, it says it is just one path amongst thousands. This means it either draws us in or it does not.
A Course in Miracles also states that all paths inevitably lead us towards the same goal. In other words, we all go back to God because there is only God, His Son, and nothing else.
A teacher of God is therefore someone who is more internally certain of his Source. It suggests that a light has been switched on inside his mind and that his prayers are now being answered.
Truth just Is and so is prayer. If we think there is anything else, then we are tragically deceived.
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