Reflections 267 to 280
18th April 2024
Prayer is His Own right Hand, made free to save as true forgiveness is allowed to come from His eternal vigilance and Love. (ACIM, S-2.III.6:8)
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Ref: The ego is trying to teach you how to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. The Holy Spirit teaches that you cannot lose your soul and there is no gain in the world, for of itself it profits nothing. (ACIM, T-12.VI.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that sickness and separation can only be healed by love and union. Nothing else is possible.
We learn that we are so much more than what we think we are. It is impossible for fear to exist when we are truly healed. In fact, A Course in Miracles states that fear has never existed at all.
We limit ourselves if we think we are a body. The ego makes us believe its will is all there is. The ego wants us to cram as much as we can into a life before our bodies inevitably crumble and die.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that none of it is true.
The Holy Spirit reminds us of our worth. We are joy and bliss and infinite love. We are life. If we look beyond the body, the vision of Christ is always there for us to see.
We are the light of God pretending to be darkness. As the body dies, only our light can ever remain.
Aaron Green’s near-death experience showed him that his reality is as an orb of light and not as this physical form. He was six-years-old at the time and still feels like it was waking up from a dream. In the video below, he describes his pre-birth memories and how he was given help in planning this life.
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268/ Dissolving the Ego
19th April 2024
Listen and learn, and do not judge. It is to God you turn to hear what you should do. His answer will be clear as morning, nor is His forgiveness what you think it is. (ACIM, S-2.III.6:9-11)
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Ref: If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behavior. (ACIM, T-4.IV.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that our sane mind is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind that the ego rules.
It is like a two-way mirror. The ego is aware of the Holy Spirit but not vice versa. The Holy Spirit is unaware of the ego because the ego does not exist.
The Holy Spirit reflects God’s Love, which is all there is. The ego is just a dream of separation, made up by one single thought that is all based on fear.
A Course in Miracles also tells us that we are more concerned about saving the face of the ego than we are about seeing the face of Christ. This has to change if we are to change our minds.
The mind is split between the loud voice of the ego and the quiet Voice for God. Even the tiniest twinge of anxiety means we are thinking with the ego.
The ego therefore needs to be seen for what it is. It is insanity. We want to observe our madness as we join with the healing power of the Holy Spirit’s love.
We bring our darkness to the light, meaning we bring the ego to the part of the mind that it hates.
The ego can’t survive complete non-judgement. All it does is dissolve and disappear into the light.
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269/ Seeing Is Believing
20th April 2024
Still does He know, and that should be enough. Forgiveness has a Teacher Who will fail in nothing. Rest a while in this; do not attempt to judge forgiveness, nor to set it in an earthly frame. Let it arise to Christ, Who welcomes it as a gift to Him. (ACIM, S-2.III.7:1-4)
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Ref: There can be nothing that a change of mind cannot effect, for all external things are only shadows of a decision already made. (ACIM, P-2.IV.2:4)
Change the mind and we change the world. We always have the opportunity to see what is real instead of what is false.
The workbook starts by saying that nothing we see has any meaning. We, however, will look at a tree and label it; a face is ugly or beautiful. Everything we see becomes a judgement of the mind.
A Course in Miracles asks us not to change the world, but to change our minds about the world. We do this by looking at the world with the Holy Spirit and not the ego.
We see the real world instead of the false world. For example, the presence of the tree is seen and not its history; the person before us has our full attention and not some memory that is haunting us.
Every thought we have arises out of a memory or as an appreciation of exactly what we see. When the past is not involved, all we have is present moment awareness.
Present moment awareness arises out of the Christ mind. There is no opposite. Love is all there is and love is all we see.
We make no comparisons and we have no need to forgive. Life does not need to be dissected at all.
Seeing is believing and it is up to us. Truth never changes except in the mind that thinks it does.
21st April 2024
He will not leave you comfortless, nor fail to send His angels down to answer you in His Own Name. He stands beside the door to which forgiveness is the only key. (ACIM, S-2.III.7:5-6)
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Ref: There is nothing to fear. (ACIM, W-48)
God is made up of three letters. It’s a simple word that explains all there Is.
The Song of Prayer takes us through the process of prayer, forgiveness and healing. Really, though, it’s only prayer that is needed because nothing needs to be forgiven and nothing needs to be healed.
The Holy Spirit is our inner Voice. It is the connection to what we have never left. The Holy Spirit is like a life raft in the ocean. When we find it, we never want to let it go.
The Son of God is what we are. It is the Christ. The Son of God is actually the only thing that God created. We were made out of Love and this is where we return.
God did not create the world. The world is just a projection from the mind. However, if we fully understood that the world does not exist, then we wouldn’t need A Course in Miracles.
It is fear that made us this. And we can’t deny that our thoughts on God are very fearful indeed.
The goal of A Course in Miracles, is to fully understand the reality in which we live. We have to see that there is no book and there is no hand that turns the page.
We have to realize that we are just hallucinating all that we see.
As we wake up from the dream, everything becomes clear. Life reflects to us exactly what we are.
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271/ The Loving Miracle
22nd April 2024
Give it to Him to use instead of you, and you will see the door swing silently open upon the shining face of Christ. Behold your brother there beyond the door; the Son of God as He created him. (ACIM, S-2.III.7:7-8)
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Ref: The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world’s perception. It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting foreground, on unequal heights and diverse sizes, on varying degrees of darkness and light, and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen competes with every other in order to be recognized. (ACIM, M-8.1:1-2)
Ultimately, there are only two choices. We can see our total unity or we can see our complete division. One shows us light and the other darkness.
The face or Christ, as mentioned above, is that light. It is what we are. We are the one single Son of God which is the Self that the one mind shares.
The world, as seen through the eyes of the ego, represents our inner division. We feel apart from holiness and, most likely, don’t know it at all. Happiness fluctuates, sometime good, sometimes bad.
However, if we know our true Self, then the world we see is one of love and perfection. This is how we feel within. We feel abundant and know that there’s nothing that we cannot have.
A Course in Miracles begins by stating there is no order of difficultly in miracles. This is its theme. Only the ego (our fear of God) can think that there is an order of difficulty in anything.
The fear of God, then, is what makes our lives difficult. We feel that God hates us, life is against us and only hard work will ever give us what we want.
We have to forgive ourselves for our belief in scarcity. It’s a struggle to get what we need. However, if we pray for abundance through a miracle, it’s good to know that the loving miracle is on our side.
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272/ Call of the Father
23rd April 2024
Prayer has both aids and witnesses which make the steep ascent more gentle and more sure, easing the pain of fear and offering the comfort and the promises of hope. (ACIM, S-3.in.1:1)
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Ref: You are more afraid of God than of the ego, and love cannot enter where it is not welcome. But hatred can, for it enters of its own volition and cares not for yours. (ACIM, T-13.III.5:4-5)
Jesus tells us that the deep and intense burning love for God is the only thing we are really scared of. Our fear of death is nothing compared to our fear of love.
We associate love with weakness and hatred with strength. We are totally confused about the two.
And this is the crux of A Course in Miracles. There is not a two; there is just a one. Healing the mind is the only way to know what we are, which is complete oneness.
We are told that it is imperative to look at all our fears, seeing them for what they are. This is how our love of darkness slowly diminishes and our fear of light gets stronger and stronger.
Beneath all the fear is a loving mind. It is pure and alive and knows only total stillness. A useful metaphor is that the clouds have gone and the sky has appeared.
We then hear the song. It is the Call of the Father for the Son, and the Son for the Father. This is how our true Self sings as opposed to a self that is in pain.
Jesus asks us to bring all our illusions to the truth, and this means every single one of them. We have to look at every ounce of our own self-loathing and not to judge it. This is true forgiveness.
The Call of the Father has to be recognized. It is only our guilt that prevents this happening and it is as we undo guilt’s presence that our wholeness can be seen.
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273/ Brilliance that Blazes
24th April 2024
Forgiveness’ witness and an aid to prayer, a giver of assurance of success in ultimate attainment of the goal, is healing. (ACIM, S-3.in.1:2)
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Ref: You were lost in the darkness of the world until you asked for light. And then God sent His Son to give it to you. (ACIM, P-3.III.8:12-13)
A Course in Miracles states quite clearly that our freedom is found only through our brother. This means anyone that we are in relationship with.
The person who is shouting at us is just calling for help. Everyone should have a label on their forehead with the words “please love me”.
There is an unwritten law in the universe decreeing that, if we don’t ask, we don’t get. When we ask, all the help comes flooding in and we just have to step aside to let it happen.
The problem is in the stepping aside. We always want to be in control. The ego (who we think we are) demands complete respect. It has to be fully in control of what it is doing.
The Holy Spirit (our real Identity) is more subtle. It knows exactly what is happening. There is just one problem and one solution. The problem is that we have forgotten what we really are.
The solution is to heal the divided mind of what it thinks it is. The divided mind either sees the form or it knows itself as formless; we either see the body or we look beyond the body.
To see the body means we see our guilt. This is the block that hides the truth.
Forgiveness removes all the blocks that hide the truth and what results is only light. Nothing else exists outside of that light. We then become the brilliance that blazes everywhere.
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274/ Removing the Veil
25th April 2024
Its importance should not be too strongly emphasized, for healing is a sign or symbol of forgiveness’ strength, and only an effect or shadow of a change of mind about the goal of prayer. (ACIM, S-3.in.1:3)
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Ref: The Holy Spirit must work through you to teach you He is in you. This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge that you are in God because you are part of Him. (ACIM, T-7.IV.2:1-2)
What happens when we die? This is a question that has haunted mankind since time first began.
And this is why the near-death experience is so helpful. It shows that life does go on, not as a body but with a thousand times more expansive joy than we ever could have imagined.
It is only while we’re in the human form that the truth is hidden from us. We have no clue as to why we are here or what we are doing.
A Course in Miracles provides the answer. It shows us why we suffer and what we need to do about it. It tells us that the solution can only be found in the mind.
The ego judges death as painful; it wants to keep us blind to what we are. The Holy Spirit knows there is simply life; only a veil shrouds us from the truth that is literally right in front of our eyes.
It seems that dying removes the veil in a way that is perfect for us. Life is putting us at our ease.
Kat Dunkle was an atheist until her near-death experience over fifty years ago. Her life was difficult and unforgiving. And then, after finding herself in the light, everything changed. She knew there was a God and she knew there was a Heaven. And she knew that God always honours our state of mind.
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275/ A Continuous Practice
26th April 2024
Do not mistake effect for cause, nor think that sickness is apart and separate from what its cause must be. It is a sign, a shadow of an evil thought that seems to have reality and to be just, according to the usage of the world. It is external proof of inner “sins,” and witnesses to unforgiving thoughts that injure and would hurt the Son of God. (ACIM, S-3.I.1:1-3)
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Ref: God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? (ACIM, M-11.2:4-7)
We are the Son of God. Salvation happens when we know this.
The cause of any suffering is the ego. The ego is the fear that makes the body. It is the terror that we have lost all contact with our Creator.
Judgement according to the world is valued and we bow down to those who know better. According to A Course in Miracles, judgement arises only from the ego and the ego is an illusion.
A Course in Miracles tells us to seek only peace because peace is all there is. We have to want peace so badly that all judgement has to end. It means seeking only for the Holy Spirit and for nothing else
The fact is, we are the one mind appearing to be broken up into eight billion different minds.
There is just the one ego that appears in the form of eight billion different bodies.
We have the one Self and the one Holy Spirit, appearing as the vastness that we are.
Forgiveness is the answer to all apparent separation. Forgiveness releases every judgement. Forgiveness is a continuous practice that dissolves every restriction that is in the mind.
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276/ Looking into the Mirror
27th April 2024
Healing the body is impossible, and this is shown by the brief nature of the “cure.” (ACIM, S-3.I.1:4)
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Ref: How lovely does the world become in just that single instant when you see you truth about yourself reflected there. Now you are sinless and behold your sinlessness. (ACIM, C-3.8:1-2)
What we see acts as a mirror. It reflects back to us what is going on inside the mind.
A helpful analogy might be if we are wearing a black shirt and see our reflection. We definitely know we aren’t wearing a white shirt. It is a black shirt and we cannot dispute this.
Therefore, we can’t be surprised if we have angry thoughts and someone is angry towards us; or if we have peaceful thoughts and someone is kind to us. Life is a mirror and we reap what we sow.
A Course in Miracles tells us that everybody and everything is an outward representation of an inner condition. The truth is, as we heal the mind, the outer picture is healed as well.
The ego (our fear) hates this. It feels threatened, and so taunts and cajoles us. However, it is the decision maker (who we are) that decides on the way we see.
The decision maker that loves can only see the real world. The body is “cured” of its sense of fear.
The decision maker that fears can only see the false world. The body is killed in the name of love.
True forgiveness, then, changes the black shirt into a white shirt. Love fills the mirror instead of hate.
We don’t make any deals with the ego. We never make the error real. True forgiveness simply looks into the mirror and knows what it sees can never deceive.
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277/ A State of Mind
28th April 2024
The body yet must die, and so its healing but delays its turning back to dust, where it was born and will return. (ACIM, S-3.I.1:5)
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Ref: In your relationship you have joined with me in bringing Heaven to the Son of God, who hid in darkness. You have been willing to bring the darkness to light, and this willingness has given strength to everyone who would remain in darkness. (ACIM, T-18.III.6:1-2)
The relationship between two bodies is the only opportunity for the split mind to heal. Instead of seeing form, we begin to see our formlessness.
Because we feel so alone, the truth has been rushing to meet us ever since we first called upon it. Jesus tells us that, if we only knew Who walks beside us, then fear would be impossible.
That ‘Who’ is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is available to us in any relationship. Everyone we meet can either be viewed as a separate entity or as a symbol of the Voice for Peace.
The Holy Spirit is our light and the ego our darkness. The ego arises from a thought of terror and the Holy Spirit arises from a Thought of Love.
Jesus also reminds us that, as we move towards the light, we will feel terrified of the consequences. He says it is not the light that we are afraid of but what we have made of it.
The ego likes to remind us that the darkness is more powerful than anything that the light can offer.
The Holy Spirit just tells us that, as the light begins to fill our minds, all darkness has to disappear.
A Course in Miracles states that Heaven goes with us in our advance to Heaven. This simply means that we don’t go anywhere. Only our thinking changes because Heaven is just a state of mind.
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278/ Denial and Acceptance
29th April 2024
The body’s cause is unforgiveness of the Son of God. (ACIM, S-3.I.2:1)
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Ref: Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother you will feel deprived, because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. (ACIM, T-7.VII.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that reality cannot be partly appreciated. If we deny any part of it, then we have lost the awareness of all of reality.
What we deny we lack, not because it is lacking but because we have denied it. Truth is always true.
The ego is the denial of our true Identity and our true Identity is one with God. This is what we are here to learn - that the ego is just a concept, a series of thoughts that have no reality at all.
The Holy Spirit is the aspect of reality that we need to recognize, and it is by recognizing this that our minds can change. We become clearer and more purposeful.
What the ego accepts as real is only what we see; this means divisive thoughts and erratic actions. The Holy Spirit know that’s God’s Love is everywhere; not one cloud can ever hide the sky.
Our purpose is to accept the reality of the Holy Spirit and not to deny God’s existence.
We need to look at our brother and see no change or fault in any way.
Reality stays just as it is. If the body’s cause is unforgiveness, then forgiveness lets it go.
As we progress with A Course in Miracles, our experience of life changes slowly and peacefully. Denial turns to acceptance as we tune into the reality that is always there and we have never left.
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279/ Instant Salvation
30th April 2024
It has not left its source, and in its pain and aging and the mark of death upon it this is clearly shown. (ACIM, S-3.I.2:2)
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Ref: You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. (ACIM, W-93.9:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that our own salvation requires the acceptance of one single thought. It is that we are the Self that God created and not the self that we have made up for ourselves.
What God created is eternal and full of life. The body (the ‘it’, as mentioned at the start) has nothing to do with God. The body has its source in sin, and sin is the outcome of being apart from God.
Separation and sin do not exist. The thought of being apart from God is only an error in the mind.
And the error is the ego. The ego is the only thing that needs to be corrected.
All our pain arises out of the ego and our limited sense of self. We hold the belief that we are a body, with all the struggles that being a body has to entail.
And how we correct the error is through forgiveness. We forgive the thought that was never true.
The Self has no limitation and its Source arises from the Thought of God. If we perceive the world from a mind free of the ego, the lens of error would instantly be replaced by a lens of love.
It is therefore not the world that is the problem. The source of the problem is always in the mind.
To know the Self is our instant salvation. The error goes as we forgive the self we thought was real.
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280/ All Is One
1st May 2024
Fearful and frail it seems to be to those who think their life is tied to its command and linked to its unstable, tiny breath. (ACIM, S-3.I.2:3)
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Ref: Where two have joined for healing, God is there. And He has guaranteed that He will hear and answer them in truth. They can be sure that healing is a process He directs, because it is according to His Will. (ACIM, P-2.V.4:4-6)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the body is a puppet of the mind, and not vice versa.
When we talk about two bodies joining for healing, it can only work at the level of the mind. If the ego is saying “please heal me, I need to be saved,” then this will never work.
However, the ego does not need to be healed. It simply needs to be seen for what it is.
The ego is the split in the mind that causes suffering. When the split is healed, we can only hear the Voice for God, which is the Holy Spirit. To know this is our goal, as students of A Course in Miracles.
But firstly, all judgement has to be dropped because the ego loves to make judgements.
Secondly, we have to learn how to be quiet because the ego enjoys making a lot of noise.
And thirdly, the light needs to be seen instead of the darkness, because the ego is the darkness.
The Holy Spirit arises only through the light that is in the mind. The fact is, when any two people form a relationship, it is only the light of the Holy Spirit that can make it One.
Healing isn't really needed. Heaven is here and it is now. All is One, even if we think it isn’t.
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