Reflections 169 to 182
169/ A Ripple Effect
11th January 2024
Dear to its heart is error, and mistakes loom large and grow and swell within its sight. (ACIM, S-2.I.2:3)
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Ref: Sickness takes many forms, and so does unforgiveness. The forms of one but reproduce the forms of the other, for they are the same illusion. (ACIM, P-2.VI.5:1-2)
Thoughts have energy. Our words and actions arise from our thoughts.
What we think matters. If we think kind, loving thoughts, our words and actions spread to others; likewise, the same happens with negative and destructive thoughts.
The results of our actions are everywhere. A Course in Miracles shows us that we create our own little world, and yet we have no idea that this is so.
This means that everything we see arises from the thinking mind. We either see our right-minded thoughts in action or we see our wrong-minded thoughts taking shape.
And yet nothing means anything. We label what we see, and what we see is neither good nor bad.
Our thoughts are energy, and energy can’t be created or destroyed. All that happens when we die is that our energy continues onwards, but in a different form.
Penny Wittbrodt learned this from her maternal grandmother during her near-death experience. She was shown that her own life had been spent trying to shut out the world, and understood that our thoughts do matter. Each thought we have has a ripple effect, and our actions define the whole.
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170/ Infinity Is Now
12th January 2024
It carefully picks out all evil things, and overlooks the loving as a plague; a hateful thing of danger and of death. (ACIM, S-2.I.2:4)
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Ref: Who, then, is the therapist, and who is the patient? In the end, everyone is both. He who needs healing must heal. Physician, heal thyself. Who else is there to heal? And who else is in need of healing? (ACIM, P-2.VII.1:1-6)
The mind is either healed or it is not healed. When it is healed, we don’t have a care in the world.
This is because the world, quite literally, exists within the mind. If we see only peace, we know it as the real world; if we see anything related to fear, it becomes the false world.
Beware, then, the great unhealed healer. If we believe in the illusory, we can never know the truth.
A Course in Miracles states that God does not know of separation. God only has one Son. This is what we have to recognize in order for our minds to be healed.
The unhealed mind relates only to the body. It stores up all past experiences and refers to them as good and bad. It does everything it can to prevent sickness and to prolong its life.
The healed mind sees only the Christ. This doesn’t mean that it completely ignores the body. It simply means that the healed mind has no confusion as to what is false and what is real.
What is false always relates to our own mortality; what is real relates only to an expansion of peace.
The present moment, then, is God’s gift to us. Healing can only arise when we establish that infinity is with us always, and is always now.
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171/ Inner Guidance
13th January 2024
Forgiveness-to-destroy is death, and this it sees in all it looks upon and hates. (ACIM, S-2.I.2:5)
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Ref: Who, then, decides what each brother needs? Surely not you, who do not yet recognize who he is who asks. There is Something in him that will tell you, if you listen. And that is the answer; listen. (ACIM, P-3.I.2:1-4)
We can react or we can respond.
Our minds either hate or love.
We drop in or we look out.
The world always expects us to ‘do’ something with our lives. It wants us to be ‘out there’, getting on and achieving. Rarely are we ever expected to sit quietly and just be.
But this is exactly what A Course in Miracles teaches. It constantly reminds us that being peaceful and open are the two pre-requisites for being aware of a greater reality.
The Holy Spirit confirms this through the medium of silence and stillness. The ego (our identity as a body) dismisses it through its noise and bustle.
The song of prayer, then, is drowned out by the busy mind and is only heard by a mind that is quiet.
And so, even if our lives do feel stable and content, it is still good training to learn the art of listening.
We want to respond to our inner guidance. If doing nothing is our prompt, then we happily do that.
14th January 2024
God’s mercy has become a twisted knife that would destroy the holy Son He loves. (ACIM, S-2.I.2:6)
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Ref: In time there can be a great lag between the offering and the acceptance of healing. This is the veil across the face of Christ. Yet it can be but an illusion, because time does not exist and the Will of God has always been exactly as it is. (ACIM, P-3.II.10:9-11)
Nothing can change, except a thought of who we are.
Fire cannot burn the truth; nor can cold freeze it, wind blow it or water drown it.
The thought of who we are is limited. It is born as a body, does a few things, then dies. Its problems come and go. However, the Thought of what we are has no limitations. It is eternal and perfect.
The Thought of what we are is a flawless oneness that has no opposite.
The Christ, the Self and the Son; these are all the same expression of that very Thought.
God, or Infinite Love, created that Thought. It arose from the Mind of God.
A Course in Miracles therefore allows us to understand that the thinking mind arose from a momentary blip. A thought arose that separated itself from the Mind of God.
However, even as this thought arose, it was reversed. Time never occurred, but a dream did.
Now, eight billion of these thoughts seem to be having the same dream. There is, however, just one Thought. This Thought tells us that nothing happened. What we really are can never change.
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173/ A Constant Communion
15th January 2024
Would you forgive yourself for doing this? Then learn that God has given you the means by which you can return to Him in peace. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:1-2)
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Ref: My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. (ACIM, W-56.1:1)
We do demand a lot of ourselves. Mostly, it seems we are trying to be happy.
We respond to a mindset that is either fearful or loving. That we only have two states of mind is a fundamental law that we need to understand.
Attack thoughts, then, are never motivated by a mind that knows only love. A mind that loves means that our inner world is infinite and all-knowing.
As such, we are invulnerable. We need no forgiveness and there is no little self. All minds are joined and this is the miracle.
Our real Self, then, can only be known by a mind that is peaceful. God put the Holy Spirit into our minds for just this purpose. This means that, within us all, there is the certainty that we are safe.
Attack thoughts only imply a danger. They show us an opposite. Where we once knew only joy, there is now a terror.
It is this terror that manifests itself in so many different ways. Our job, as students of A Course in Miracles, is to bring that terror to the Holy Spirit. We don’t really have to do anything else.
A Course in Miracles starts us on the path back to oneness. Ultimately, by having a constant communion with our Creator, we can join once more with the song of prayer.
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174/ A Steep Learning Curve
16th January 2024
Do not see error. Do not make it real. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:3-4)
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Ref: Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real. But it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach. (ACIM, M-in.3:7-10)
A Course in Miracles tells us there is only one error and this is our total disconnection from our Source. Collectively, we have forgotten that we are the one Son of God.
To see ourselves as anything else is an illusion. It is a fundamental mistake. It is also false thinking.
It establishes a world of separation. However, being the Son, we are always one with God. We are a reality with no opposite. We have no beginning and no end.
Instead, the Son has become embodied. A wall has been built. We now look out onto a world that is terrifying and, even if we feel it’s not, we still have the thought that reminds us of that terror.
A Course in Miracles therefore leads us back to the real world. This is a place where the attributes of the Son only exist. It is a heaven on earth, and the only way to find it is by sharing it with others.
Sharing means teaching. We teach each other either fear or love. These are the only two options that our minds are capable of. We either see the Son or we see the ego.
For all of us, then, we teach what we know. We are the creators of our own reality.
The attainment of the real world might feel like a steep learning curve. However, it’s fair to say that if we teach only truth then we find only peace.
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175/ The Memory of God
17th January 2024
Select the loving and forgive the sin by choosing in its place the face of Christ. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:5)
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Ref: In honesty, is it not harder for you to say “I love” than “I hate”? You associate love with weakness and hatred with strength, and your own real power seems to you as your real weakness. (ACIM, T-13.III.3:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we are not afraid of fear. What we are afraid of is love.
Underneath all the terror, all the heartache, all the self-sabotage and abuse, is the memory of God. This is the Love that really terrifies us.
A distinction, then, should be made between love and Love.
The first is transient, fleeting, demanding and ultimately unrewarding; the second is eternal, unconditional, infinite and completely all-encompassing.
One has been made by the ego and the other has been given us by God.
Transient love, then, is illusory because the ego is an illusion in itself. The Love of God is what created us, and it is this Love that is remembered by joining with the Holy Spirit.
The mind has therefore become divided. One half is sleeping and the other is awake.
We relate to one or the other. Either we fear completely or we love totally. There is no in between.
The memory of God is held in darkness. By illuminating the darkness, our fear turns to light.
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176/ Part of This
18th January 2024
How otherwise can prayer return to God? He loves His Son. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:6-7)
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Ref: 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.” (ACIM, M-1.3:4-5)
We can’t deny what we see in front of us, but we can learn to look at it differently.
Oneness is never apparent when we are frazzled, hungry, disappointed or depressed.
Prayer is often an appeal for help, except it isn’t. The body feels isolated and alone, because it is. A mind that is dominated by the ego will always suffer. It’s inevitable and can’t be otherwise.
It is from this perception that we can learn a new paradigm. This is a world of truth and love.
A Course in Miracles returns us to our authenticity. It shows us that we are all connected and complete. We need do just a little to regain everything.
This means that, by showing love, we are love. By looking at peace, we become peace.
Our learning is really quite simple. Nothing can ever die because we are all a part of God’s Love.
Deborah King’s near-death experience showed her that we are all part of this. She saw how we all connect to the whole, and it is all happening now. She says she was still herself but wasn’t limited by a body. And there was no fear, which is the complete opposite of how we feel in the world today.
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19th January 2024
Can you remember Him and hate what He created? (ACIM, S-2.I.3:8)
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Ref: You cannot wake yourself. Yet you can let yourself be wakened. You can overlook your brother’s dreams. (ACIM, T-29.III.3:2-4)
A Course in Miracles is the reminder that our reality is beyond all dreams. This applies to everything - the good, the bad and the ugly.
Our whole purpose is to know reality through relationship. We come to see our own inner truth through each other. Hate and we remain asleep; love and we wake up.
It also allows us to understand that giving is having. When love is given, it increases in the giver.
A Course in Miracles tells us that God created only out of love. This means that we, as the created Son, can only extend that love. And, since God is light, it also means that we are light.
All darkness (the body) disappears before that light, just as the night is gone when the sun comes up.
Therefore, as we spread our light to others, we come to see it in ourselves.
Really, then, we give only what we are. And this is the cryptic nature of our existence.
The key to finding truth is to look past the false. No one is without a tiny spark of light.
To see what we are in each other is to know it in ourselves. As we light up the mind, it begins our awakening to a greater reality.
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178/ The End is Now
20th January 2024
You will hate his Father if you hate the Son He loves. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:9)
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Ref: Only my condemnation injures me. (ACIM, W-198)
Condemnation and hate are both illusions. Nothing can ever hurt what we really are.
Both arise out of a dream of fear.
Forgiveness and love are the only remedies. Forgiveness is also an illusion, healing what we are not.
Both establish a mind at peace.
If A Course in Miracles is a journey from fear to love, then below are some insights that might help with the following question: how do we get to where we need to go?
- Firstly, we apply ourselves to the workbook, and do it again and again and again.
- Secondly, we never give up. Apparently, nothing can remain asleep forever.
- Thirdly, we try not to take the journey too seriously. We have to remember to laugh.
It is clear that we have two thought systems. One is based on fear and the other is based on love.
The ego beats us up and the Holy Spirit calms us down. It is the ego that began our journey and the Holy Spirit that finishes it. All we need to do is establish that the end is always now.
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179/ Wrong Becomes Right
21st January 2024
For as you see the Son you see yourself, and as you see yourself is God to you. (ACIM, S-2.I.3:10)
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Ref: Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. (ACIM, M-4.I.1:2-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we have two different thought systems. One is full of fear and one is full of love.
Fear is ruled by perception and love by knowledge.
Perception means that we see the world according to the thought system that we use. Knowledge understands that there is no world. We are just one Self, who is the Son of God.
The world, then, is a projection. We either project a world of light or a world of darkness. We either see the real world or the false.
The ego - our identity as a body born into this false world - denies this completely. This is because, by choosing against the ego, we heal the body’s cause. All our pain just goes and there is only peace.
The Holy Spirit - our real Identity - accepts that we do know this. The Holy Spirit knows that we are the holy Son of God. This means that we are forever peaceful and there is no opposite to that peace.
How we perceive, then, depends on the thought system that we use. A Course in Miracles is just one way of leading us from the painful way of seeing to the peaceful.
Changing our mindset can feel scary but only because the ego makes it so. All that happens is that a light replaces the darkness, and what was a wrong before simply becomes a right.
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180/ From War to Peace
22nd January 2024
As prayer is always for yourself, so is forgiveness always given you. (ACIM, S-2.I.4:1)
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Ref: It is only the wish to deceive that makes for war. No one at one with himself can even conceive of conflict. (ACIM, M-4.II.2:2-3)
There is no one out there. Everything is happening in the mind.
We are veiled from our true reality. We are just dreaming a dream.
Thoughts make up the storyline in front of us. It is our thoughts that we see in the world.
A Course in Miracles is radical - at least this is how it seems to a split mind. It is uncompromising - in the sense that we are told that there is just one God, one Son, and nothing else. And it is plain-speaking - it says that we are at war, and not at peace, with our own Self.
However, by sticking to the teachings, we find that fear can’t hurt us. Fear is just part of the dream.
The past and the future then begin to lose their importance. All that we need is with us, right now.
And we also learn that who we are doesn’t exist anyway. This means there is nothing to forgive.
A Course in Miracles is the complete package in one big, blue book. It gives us all that is required in order to transform us back into the holy Son. It allows truth to be established in a mind that is torn.
We are simply led from war to peace. It is a journey that leads us from fear to happiness. The mind is then at one with love because all division has come to an end.
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181/ A World View
23rd January 2024
It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him. (ACIM, S-2.I.4:2)
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Ref: To judge is to be dishonest, for to judge is to assume a position you do not have. Judgment without self-deception is impossible. Judgment implies that you have been deceived in your brothers. (ACIM, M-4.III.1:2-4)
Behold, the great illusion that we judge as being real!
The world believes that what happens to us is totally unrelated to the thoughts we think. It is always a virus that causes the disease or a boss who is the bully.
Equally, we feel that events in the past have great relevance to our lives in the present. The world is the proof that, even though its cause was long ago, the effects are still around today.
We come into the world at birth and we leave at death. This is how the world defines a life. During our own lifetime, we do the best we can to avoid the suffering that is inevitable as a body.
The world endorses judgement. It tells us that good judgement is highly prized and poor judgement sets us back. Being without any judgement at all is a trait that demands a slap.
Meanwhile, the term ‘forgiveness’ is hardly encouraged. The world tells us that, if we have been wronged, then punishment is the only remedy. This makes someone better and someone worse.
A Course in Miracles simply undoes all the worldly thinking that veils the truth from our minds. It doesn’t ask us to deny what we see in the world, but it does want us to change our minds about it.
The world states one thing but a peaceful mind says another. It is up to us which way we go.
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182/ Getting the Lot
24th January 2024
You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion. (ACIM, S-2.I.4:3-4)
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Ref: Who chooses hell when he perceives a way to Heaven? And who would choose the weakness that must come from harm in place of the unfailing, all-encompassing and limitless strength of gentleness? (ACIM, M-4.IV.2:6-7)
All solutions arise when we admit that we are wrong.
Everything we think of as real is reversed. Being wrong is a product of the ego thought system.
The ego means that we think in a linear fashion. It makes us believe that this leads to that, and life ends with death. The ego thought system is black and while. Things are either good or bad.
A Course in Miracles is about changing our thinking. It is the right teaching for the wrong mind.
We go from being unforgiving to becoming forgiving. We change from seeing the illusory to knowing the truth. We start by looking at fear and finding love.
The ego thought system can only hurt us, and the proof is always in the hurting. However, it can’t hide a greater reality. This is because we are that reality and the truth can never be hidden away.
The mind is really blank and doesn’t need to think. The ego just peppers it with thought which stops all clarity. What we really are is a great, amazing alertness that has no barriers and no boundaries.
A Course in Miracles wants us to regain our clarity by stopping all judgement. Judgement means we are the ego. The ego tells us that we will lose everything but clarity shows us that we can get the lot.
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