Reflections 225 to 238
225/ Beyond the Veil
7th March 2024
It is not love for God’s creation and the holiness that is His gift forever. Can His Son condemn himself and still remember Him? (ACIM, S-2.II.3:5-6)
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Ref: No one who has not yet experienced the lifting of the veil, and felt himself drawn irresistibly into the light behind it, can have faith in love without fear. (ACIM, T-15.VI.6:5)
A Course in Miracles gives us faith, but only if we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives.
Without the Holy Spirit, we remain in darkness. Darkness is of ego, and this is precisely where the ego wants us to stay.
As stated above, a simple veil stops us from knowing that we are all God’s light. It prevents us from knowing that God’s love is all there is and that nothing else exists except God’s peace.
If we think there is anything other than love and light, then all it means is that we are deluded.
A simple veil is all that keeps illusions from the truth. A Course in Miracles tells us that it is natural to remove the veil. By giving the veil to the Holy Spirit, our dreams of fear are turned to those of love.
The near-death experience is also proof that only a veil hides the truth. It shows us that we are cherished as God’s creation and as God’s Son. The NDE demonstrates that we are only light.
Dr. Raymond Moody first coined the term ‘near-death experience’ in 1975 when his groundbreaking book Life after Life first came to public awareness. Now, almost 50 years later, he gives a talk to an IANDS audience and ponders the biggest question of our existence. Is there life beyond the veil?
8th March 2024
Here the goal is to separate from God the Son He loves, and keep him from his Source. (ACIM, S-2.II.4:1)
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Ref: Forgive the great Creator of the universe, the Source of life, of love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son, for your illusions of your specialness. (ACIM, T-24.III.6:1)
A Course in Miracles tells us that truth is not frail. Truth is unlimited, pure and wholly peaceful.
Truth’s opposite is how we feel now. It makes us feel vulnerable, afraid and alone. Truth’s opposite is the ego and it is only this that we are asked to correct.
Forgiveness is the tool that allows this correction.
Without forgiveness, we feel apart from God. We are deluded into thinking that we are special little entities with a life of our own.
And it is our specialness that is our frailty. Just a whisper can hurl our lives into chaos; something we don’t like can make us feel awful; a little change of any sort is like a mini death.
Forgiveness is the practical solution that heals our uncertainty, making us feel connected to the whole. Forgiveness replaces the frailty of the ego with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The truth, then, is that we are the living Son of God caught up in a dream that imagines it is apart from the love and peace of our Creator.
Our purpose is to change our dreams of frailty to ones of strength. It is to establish our worth as both holy and whole. And it is also to remember that only forgiveness can bring us back to truth.
227/ An Ancient Memory
9th March 2024
This goal is also sought by those who seek the role of martyr at another’s hand. Here must the aim be clearly seen, for this may pass as meekness and as charity instead of cruelty. (ACIM, S-2.II.4:2-3)
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Ref: The ego’s opposite in every way, – in origin, effect and consequence – we call a miracle. And here we find all that is not the ego in this world. (ACIM, C-2.5:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that it is not hard to find our way to Heaven’s gate. It is much harder to wander off alone, feeling miserable, going down a road that leads to nowhere at all.
We made the ego, and we can just as easily unmake it. All we need to do is recognize that fear is just a perception, and what is real is only love.
Everything is over. Every bit of hurt and suffering has long since passed by.
God made this adjustment the moment that His Son had a thought of war The moment a thought opposed the Peace of God, it’s effect was as quickly gone.
Now we are just reliving that thought. And it was this that made the ego.
All our questions have been answered. Every thought that stands between the Son and truth has been resolved. The past is nothing more than a jumbled dream of fear.
Into this dream comes the Holy Spirit. God placed the Holy Spirit into our minds simply to teach us of what is now. Nothing else matters except this holy instant.
An ancient memory is keeping us from the present. To know this is the miracle, and it is the miracle that makes the subtle shift from a thought of fear to a thought love.
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10th March 2024
Is it not kind to be accepting of another’s spite, and not respond except with silence and a gentle smile? Behold, how good you are who bear with patience and with saintliness the anger and the hurt another gives, and do not show the bitter pain you feel. (ACIM, S-2.II.4:4-5)
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Ref: Belief in sin arouses fear, and like its cause, is looking forward, looking back, but overlooking what is here and now. Yet only here and now its cause must be, if its effects already have been judged as fearful. (ACIM, T-26.VIII.5:5-6)
- Time and space are one illusion.
If we practice forgiveness, it is usually because we are wishing for a happier future, and this is impossible. There is only now.
- Salvation is immediate.
Unless we perceive salvation as such, then it is likely we will be afraid of it. However, fear is an illusory state of mind that does not exist. There is only love.
- Present joining is our dread.
Enlightenment can’t ever happen to a mind that thinks ahead. It can only arise in the present moment. What is two is only imagined. There is only one.
A Course in Miracles asks us to not worry about our future happiness, because this is where we cannot plan. The Holy Spirit is our link to what is present. This is where our focus needs to lie.
We just need to come back to what is happening in this instant. Everything happens only now.
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229/ Constant Companion
11th March 2024
Forgiveness-to-destroy will often hide behind a cloak like this. It shows the face of suffering and pain, in silent proof of guilt and of the ravages of sin. Such is the witness that it offers one who could be savior, not an enemy. (ACIM, S-2.II.5:1-3)
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Ref: Forgiveness is for God and toward God but not of Him. It is impossible to think of anything He created that could need forgiveness. (ACIM, C-3.1:1-2)
Forgiveness leads us away from error and towards the truth.
It is only the forgiveness of the ego that keeps us stuck in the dream of separation. It ‘destroys’ the chance of remembering who we are. Its only purpose is to enforce the belief that bodies are real.
A Course in Miracles tells us that, if we want to know God, then we have to heal the mind. It is impossible to know God with a mind that is divided. God is perfect oneness and has no opposite.
In fact, what is infinite and boundless can know no division. There is no other, just the perfect Son.
And this is Heaven, with no conditions attached. Heaven is just the complete awareness of all that Is.
The split mind is hell, and this is where we meet both endless suffering and constant peace. Our minds can veer in either direction, either towards the source of fear or towards the Source of love.
It is this split that is the great illusion, and it is forgiveness that heals the split. The healed mind shows us that only love can be our constant companion.
The error is to believe that we can be apart from God. Forgiveness simply undoes what’s wrong and allows what’s right to take its place.
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230/ Salvation’s Truth
12th March 2024
But having been made enemy, he must accept the guilt and heavy-laid reproach that thus is put upon him. Is this love? Or is it rather treachery to one who needs salvation from the pain of guilt? (ACIM, S-2.II.5:4-6)
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Ref: My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation. (ACIM, W-100)
There is the ego’s plan for salvation and there is God’s plan.
The ego’s plan centres around holding grievances. It is always about something external. It states that if something or someone changed, then our lives would change too.
God’s plan is about going inwards. It arises as we listen to the Holy Spirit. Salvation in this sense means that we let go of pain and bring in the peace. Really, it is all about the healing of the mind.
A Course in Miracles simply confirms that one is complete confusion and the other is utter truth.
The ego is the thought that we are apart from God, and this is nothing more than just a dream. The dream is over as soon as we awaken, and for this to happen we need to correct the mind.
The correction occurs through the Holy Spirit, which is the silent stillness that knows God’s plan. Silence and stillness undoes the ego, allowing the light of God to dawn on an uncluttered mind.
Having clarity completely depends on the part of the mind we think with. Only by looking inwards with the Holy Spirit can we find the truth; it is by looking outwards with the ego that we see the lie.
Salvation’s truth only dawns on a mind that is clear. It is when the noise of the ego starts to fade that the peace of God begins to appear.
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231/ A Hush in Heaven
13th March 2024
What could the purpose be, except to keep the witnesses of guilt away from love? (ACIM, S-2.II.5:7)
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Ref: The Holy Spirit’s purpose rests in peace within you. Yet you are still unwilling to let it join you wholly. You still oppose the Will of God, just by a little. And that little is a limit you would place upon the whole. (ACIM, T-19.IV-A.3:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that to overcome the world is no more difficult than to cross a tiny bank of sand. It is only our perception that makes it so.
In other words, knowing the truth is as easy as turning on a light or taking a blindfold from our eyes.
To overcome the world simply means dismissing the ego. The ego is a momentary blip that has allowed our minds to temporarily forget that we exist within the Mind of God.
In this context, then, we can see that nothing keeps us from everything. It’s as if a little cloud is covering up the sun or a tiny speck of dust is disturbing what is infinite and pure.
And this is why remembering love instead of guilt is as easy as taking a sip of water, touching the ground with our toes or just removing leaves that cover grass.
A Course in Miracles tells us that there is no order of difficultly in anything, and this is its central teaching. Jesus raised the dead in the same way that he might drink a cup of tea or eat an apple.
The miracle just removes the illusion of separation. Instead of a dream, we see reality as it really is.
Our purpose is to chose forgiveness over guilt and to rid the mind of fear. God’s Will is One, not many, and this means a hush in Heaven arises as our minds begin to heal.
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14th March 2024
Forgiveness-to-destroy can also take the form of bargaining and compromise. “I will forgive you if you meet my needs, for in your slavery is my release.” Say this to anyone and you are slave. And you will seek to rid yourself of guilt in further bargains which can give no hope, but only greater pain and misery. (ACIM, S-2.II.6:1-4)
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Ref: This is an insane world, and do not underestimate the extent of its insanity. There is no area of your perception that it has not touched, and your dream is sacred to you. That is why God placed the Holy Spirit in you, where you placed the dream. (ACIM, T-14.I.2:6-8)
Who am I?
This is a question that had been asked over millennia. Science teaches us that our connection lies through the genes of the body; spirituality says that we are linked by a power that is greater than us.
A Course in Miracles goes right for the jugular. It tells us that we are spirit, whole, pure and innocent. We are the holy Son of God. We are nothing less than the complete awareness of love’s presence.
Nothing can change this and nothing ever will. However, in order to have this realization, A Course in Miracles tells us that we first have to practice forgiveness.
Forgiveness removes the blocks to love’s presence. It means there is no division between God and His Son. It shows us that only a perfect oneness binds us together and this is why we love as one.
Science meets spirituality in the video below. The documentary by Anthony Chene delves into the questions of where we come from, where we go to, the origins of consciousness, and the nature of the body/mind. The video has contributions from leading scientists, meditators and two NDEers.
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233/ Perfect Communication
15th March 2024
How fearful has forgiveness now become, and how distorted is the end it seeks. Have mercy on yourself who bargains thus. (ACIM, S-2.II.6:5-6)
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Ref: They are not perfect, or they would not be here. Yet it is their mission to become perfect here, and so they teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until they have learned it. (ACIM, M-in.5:5-6)
We are all God’s teachers. No one is here by accident.
There is only one of us, although there does appear to be many.
What we are is the holy Son of God. We could also call ourselves the Self, the Christ, the Buddha mind, the love that has not opposite, and probably a thousand other names.
To know God means we simply love. Nothing can oppose God’s joy. And the Son remains in Heaven because Heaven is all there is.
A Course in Miracles is a plural because the ego has so many different forms of identification. It appears that we have a multitude of different problems that need to be overcome.
This is not true. The only problem we need to overcome is our fear of death. It is this that terrifies us in the greatest possible way.
And, if there is no order of difficulty in miracles, then we can have no order of difficulty in the way we live. One problem is always the same as any other.
Life is the song of prayer. It is our perfect communication with God Who is perfect in every way.
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234/ Wholly Responsible
16th March 2024
God gives and does not ask for recompense. There is no giving but to give like Him. All else is mockery. (ACIM, S-2.II.6:7-9)
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Ref: Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one. (ACIM, T-6.II.13:5)
There is projection and extension. The ego projects and the Holy Spirit extends.
The ego projects to exclude. It makes up a world that is divided and hostile. Dreams of suffering are merely keeping our minds from the light of truth.
The Holy Spirit extends by recognizing Himself in every mind. The Holy Spirit knows us as the light of the world. And, even though we do dream of hell, the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to wake us in Heaven.
Heaven and hell begin in the mind of the thinker, regardless of whether it is the ego’s projection or the Holy Spirit’s extension. That is why we need to train the mind to distinguish between the two.
A Course in Miracles therefore teaches us to recognize that there is another option to the thinking of the ego. It tells us that, if we are not at peace, then we are thinking completely incorrectly.
Total peace leaves all the projections of the ego in its wake. To achieve this peace, we are asked to choose the miracle. The miracle is just a natural extension of the Love of God.
The miracle aligns us with the spiritual. It shines a light on the darkness, extending itself through the peace in our minds. Instead of division, the miracle allows us to know only oneness.
By extending love instead of projecting fear, we become wholly responsible for what we see.
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235/ Right or Wrong
17th March 2024
For who would try to strike a bargain with the Son of God, and thank his Father for his holiness? (ACIM, S-2.II.6:10)
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Ref: The world of bodies is the world of sin, for only if there were a body is sin possible. From sin comes guilt as surely as forgiveness takes all guilt away. (ACIM, C-4.5:5-6)
We either see a body or we see the Son of God.
The body is completely unaware of what it is. It thinks it has a life of its own. It thinks it is either rich or poor, male or female, white or dark and every shade that lies between.
The Son of God knows exactly what it is. Its whole Identity is the same as His Creator’s. It is love and light, purity and peace, and it knows that there is nothing that can be anything else.
A Course in Miracles tells us that we only have the option of two states of mind. One knows of love and the other knows of fear.
If we know only love, then there can be no doubt in our minds. In fact, there is no plural. There is only a Cause which could just as easily be called joy and bliss. We are in a state of perfect oneness.
Love has no opposite. It is wholly perfect and complete in every way.
Fear, however, is sometimes absent which means we might be lulled into a false sense of security; or love might take over for a short period, and we feel absolutely blissed out.
We can only be right or wrong. We either know what we are totally or we don’t know it at all. This is our dilemma and it is always forgiveness that provides us with a change of mind.
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236/ What Makes us Sad
18th March 2024
What would you show your brother? Would you try to reinforce his guilt and thus your own? (ACIM, S-2.II.7:1-2)
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Ref: There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. (ACIM, T-18.VI.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us we hold a false belief that something is outside of ourselves. It is this that has cost us the awareness of Heaven and our Identity.
Everything is within us; this means all of the good and all of the bad.
What is within us is the awareness of perfect Oneness as well as the illusion of separation. Heaven is is the light that brightens up the mind.
And hell is the darkness that smothers it. Either Heaven or hell can dominate what we refer to as life.
We all have the one mind. It is either love or fear that directs our bodies, which means that the body is just a puppet of what is going on within the mind.
If the mind is dreaming up fantasies, then it will direct the body to act them out; likewise with love. The body can only be a messenger for the thought system that it adheres to.
The body either responds to a delusional thought system or to a thought system full of light. One makes it look to the past and future; the other only concerns itself with the here and now.
If nothing is outside of ourselves, then what is within us is either the problem or the solution. By bringing the problem to the solution in our internal world, we get to the heart of what makes us sad.
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237/ Silence and Stillness
19th March 2024
Forgiveness is the means for your escape. How pitiful it is to make of it the means for further slavery and pain. (ACIM, S-2.II.7:3-4)
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Ref: His is the Voice for God, and has therefore taken form. This form is not His reality, which God alone knows along with Christ, His real Son, Who is part of Him. (ACIM, C-6.1:4-5)
The Voice for God is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an entity or a someone. It is just the silence and stillness within our minds.
The paradox is that there is just the one mind. What appears to be outside is actually inside. What we see in others, we see in ourselves.
When we see pain and suffering, it is always our split mind that is projecting that pain. Anyone we hate is always a reflection of our own self-hatred.
The ego does this, and the ego is in the one mind because we put it there.
Only forgiveness enables the Holy Spirit to remove the ego from our minds. It is through forgiveness that clarity returns and we come to know our oneness.
A Course in Miracles tells us that it is by projecting peace that we come to perceive the forgiven world. It is also how the face of Christ is seen.
Both peace and Christ symbolise the end of suffering. It means we know our Self. Both demonstrate that silence and stillness is known by a mind that once knew only pain.
And forgiveness means we do absolutely nothing. Peace doesn’t need any help at all. This is because we are that peace and not a body with a brain.
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238/ Forgiveness Is the Work
20th March 2024
Within the world of opposites there is a way to use forgiveness for the goal of God, and find the peace He offers you. (ACIM, S-2.II.7:5)
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Ref: Its whole function, in the end, is to help the patient deal with one fundamental error; the belief that anger brings him something he really wants, and that by justifying attack he is protecting himself. (ACIM, P-2.in.1:5)
Psychotherapy is a process that changes how we feel as a person and an individual, and it is psychotherapy that is being referred to above.
A Course in Miracles sees psychotherapy as the only therapy there is, knowing that thought is the cause of all our suffering. However, if suffering is just an illusion, then where is the Thought of truth?
We can only have two thoughts, but one always has a capital T. When we recognise this Thought, then this is what A Course in Miracles calls our salvation. This Thought is actually what we are.
The whole concept of the body is based on a thought of anger, and it is this that opposes the Thought of God. Psychotherapy just looks at the thought of anger, but only to make it more loving.
Essentially, then, psychotherapy just shifts the goal posts. It looks at the darkness and not the light.
What we are is huge instead of little. We are spirit as opposed to form. The thought of anger plays no part in anything to do with the Thought of Peace.
A Course in Miracles also states that salvation can only be found within relationship. This means that any relationship we have, including with our psychotherapist, has to develop into one of love.
Psychotherapy can be the start in finding that love but it is only forgiveness that does the work.
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