Reflections 295 to 308
16th May 2024
We thank the body, then, for all the service it has given us. But we are thankful, too, the need is done to walk the world of limits, and to reach the Christ in hidden forms and clearly seen at most in lovely flashes. (ACIM, S-3.II.2:2-3)
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Ref: The Christ in you inhabits not a body. Yet He is in you. And thus it must be that you are not within a body. (ACIM, T-25.in.1:1-3)
The ego thinks it is the body. The Holy Spirit knows we are the Christ.
A Course in Miracles says that the son of man is the body and the Son of God is the Christ. The body is thought appearing as form and the Christ is Love manifesting as the formless.
Christ is therefore the light that brings us joy and the ego is the fear that fills us with dread.
The body is a vehicle but the Christ is the destination. A body keeps us in the world but the Christ is what connects us to Heaven.
Christ is totally what we are while the body is a dream of what we are not.
Love holds no boundaries. If we go beyond the body, then we find we are the Christ in every way.
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296/ Eternal Peace
17th May 2024
Now we can behold Him without blinders, in the light that we have learned to look upon again. (ACIM, S-3.II.2:4)
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Ref: Pray for God’s justice, and do not confuse His mercy with your own insanity. Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect. (ACIM, M-19.5:1-4)
The blinders, as mentioned above, are a metaphor for our own insanity (also mentioned above). It is the ego making an interpretation of everything that is in front of our eyes.
A Course in Miracles tells us that we are responsible for what we see. It all comes down to our thoughts. The thought system we use is the thought system from which the world arises.
The ego makes a hell. These are the thoughts that whizz around the mind at all times. They make a blue sky a cloudy day and all they do is block the truth.
The Holy Spirit shows us the real world. Every thought we think is pointing to truth. The Holy Spirit knows that we are perfect and a perfect mind is where only love exists.
The blinders could also be called the veil. We are being veiled from love’s true reality.
Our true reality is a oneness that has no opposite. This means there is no body. There is just the Son of God (the Self that we are) and God Himself.
It’s important not to deny that we see bodies. Instead we want to see a light beyond the body. We want to look for the oneness that is always there.
This means we see reality instead of a falsity. It brings eternal peace in place of a world of despair.
297/ A Gentle Calling
18th May 2024
We call it death, but it is liberty. It does not come in forms that seem to be thrust down in pain upon unwilling flesh, but as a gentle welcome to release. (ACIM, S-3.II.3:1-2)
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Ref: Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. This is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful, and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. (ACIM, T-8.I.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles states that knowledge is the Will of God. No conditions are involved. Knowledge is the oneness and simply lets us be.
Death is not the Will of God. If we are fearful of dying, and most of us are, then it is easy to conclude that we are afraid of God.
Jesus tells us that the ego (this fear) is simply an hallucination. The ego is a thought of fear that distracts us from what we are. However, the ego only has the power if we give it power.
Every response of the ego is a call to war. Jesus says it might be disguised as love but this is just to camouflage its intent. And this is why, within the mind, we also have the Call for Peace.
The Call to Peace is not trying to stifle the ego or to suppress it. It is not an opponent. The Call to Peace is the Holy Spirit and is also a change of perception.
This means we see things as they are and not as we might wish them to be.
The ego always uses judgement and analysis while the Holy Spirit only sees perfection. The ego perceives allies and enemies while the Holy Spirit knows we are the Son of God.
Within us all is a gentle calling. It opens the door to knowledge and leads us back to love.
19th May 2024
If there has been true healing, this can be the form in which death comes when it is time to rest a while from labor gladly done and gladly ended. (ACIM, S-3.II.3:3)
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Ref: In the holy instant, you will see the smile of Heaven shining on both you and your brother. And you will shine upon him, in glad acknowledgment of the grace that has been given you. (ACIM, T-19.III.10:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that all relationships become the temple of healing. They allow us to join as one and to know our Self.
Likewise, peace can never extend unless we keep it. If we want to make peace homeless, we can never see the Son of God.
True healing, then, brings us back to peace. The split mind only means that peace is lacking.
The mind cannot be at peace if it is thinking with the ego. The thought of fear makes this impossible. Every relationship we have can only be based on judgement and past experience.
What we are doing is concealing our fear and grasping for love. We are never allowing ourselves to experience the present moment just as it is.
The death of the body merges us into the holy instant and this is Heaven. However, we don’t have to wait for the body to die for this to happen. We just allow the ego to die in the mind.
We use forgiveness to do this which means all our relationships then become holy. When the thought of fear is gone, peace has no opposite in the mind.
How we see others is how we see ourself. If we know true love, then the mind is a temple of peace.
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299/ One Step at a Time
20th May 2024
Now we go in peace to freer air and gentler climate, where it is not hard to see the gifts we gave were saved for us. For Christ is clearer now; His vision more sustained in us; His Voice, the Word of God, more certainly our own. (ACIM, S-3.II.3:4-5)
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Ref: Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. It becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows and becomes stronger and more all-embracing. (ACIM, M-14.2:1-2)
A Course in Miracles reminds us that the world is an illusion, just as forgiveness is an illusion. There is only Heaven, God and God’s One Son.
The world arose out of guilt and is false perception. The world has no reality at all. It is just a dream of something that we’ve made.
All the thoughts we have about ourselves - all the shame and hidden fears - are just a mask. They are false concepts. They hide us from the truth of what we really are.
This means we are retracing our falsity of thought back to the original Thought of God. We are awakening from a dream of fear to the reality of truth and love.
Forgiveness allows this; this means the world we see reflects the mind that has been forgiven.
A loving world means a loving mind. Without fear, the mind just naturally joins in with the singing of the song of prayer.
And Christ becomes the truth of what we are. We are God’s Son, wholly loved and forever joyful.
It is always one step at a time. We forgive what arises and we forgive ourselves when we forget.
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300/ An Empty Mind
21st May 2024
This gentle passage to a higher prayer, a kind forgiveness of the ways of earth, can only be received with thankfulness. (ACIM, S-3.II.4:1)
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Ref: A world forgiven cannot last. It was the home of bodies. But forgiveness looks past bodies. This is its holiness; this is how it heals. The world of bodies is the world of sin, for only if there were a body is sin possible. (ACIM, C-4.5:1-5)
True prayer is when we join with the song that sings the prayer. We become one with the Love of the Creator. We have no need for anything because God is all there is.
The real world is a world where our vision sees what the eyes cannot see. We see past the body to the light that is forever there. This is the light of Christ and is what we are, the holy Son of God.
True perception arises only when all guilt has been removed from the mind. This is forgiveness. What never was (guilt and sin) just goes away and what always is (the Love of God) takes its place.
The knowledge of what is can only be experienced. Knowledge means that perception and forgiveness have no meaning. God joins with His Son and Heaven is our only Home.
A Course in Miracles therefore gives no instruction on the body, in that it wants us to look past the body. And neither is it concerned with the world because the world is just projected from the mind.
Our work is to be the decision maker as to whether we think with the ego or with the Holy Spirit.
One makes us guilty and the other makes us loving. Only Spirit can show us our own inner peace.
We have to heal the mind to know the Mind of God. We also have to forget the things we think we need. True prayer arises only out of an empty mind.
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301/ Ego’s Utter Nonsense
22nd May 2024
Yet first true healing must have come to bless the mind with loving pardon for the sins it dreamed about and laid upon the world. Now are its dreams dispelled in quiet rest. Now its forgiveness comes to heal the world and it is ready to depart in peace, the journey over and the lessons learned. (ACIM, S-3.II.4:2-4)
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Ref: Decide that God is right and you are wrong about yourself. He created you out of Himself, but still within Him. He knows what you are. Remember that there is no second to Him. There cannot, therefore, be anyone without His Holiness, nor anyone unworthy of His perfect Love. (ACIM, T-14.IV.4:5-9)
The ego teaches guilt instead of love; the Holy Spirit teaches love instead of guilt.
The guiltless and the guilty are totally incapable of knowing each other. Both have to perceive the other exactly like themselves.
A Course in Miracles tells us that, when we awaken to the Truth and the Love of God, all the decisions we make will be as easy and as right as breathing. The guiltless Son knows His Father.
Until then, our decisions will always be reactions or responses. The ego can’t see the bigger picture and the Holy Spirit can. To respond to something means we have an intuitive sense of what is right.
The ego makes random choices to ensure its survival. Whenever we feel tight, angry, fearful or embarrassed, we can be sure that the ego is at work.
The mind has to be the focus of our efforts in terms of our healing. Forgiveness means we are becoming more connected to God. The ego is the disconnection.
The Holy Spirit always acts like a radio receiver, allowing us to hear what God has to to say. Everything else in the mind is utter nonsense. It is up to us to make that nonsense go away.
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23rd May 2024
This is not death according to the world, for death is cruel in its frightened eyes and takes the form of punishment for sin. How could it be a blessing, then? And how could it be welcome when it must be feared? What healing has occurred in such a view of what is merely opening the gate to higher prayer and kindly justice done? (ACIM, S-3.II.5:1-4)
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Ref: The Son whom God created is as free as God created him. He was reborn the instant that he chose to die instead of live. And will you not forgive him now, because he made an error in the past that God remembers not, and is not there? (ACIM, T-26.V.11:1-3)
There is a light we know that draws us from the past to the present. It is with us always and has simply been forgotten.
A Course in Miracles tells us that each day, and every minute of the day, and each instant that the minute holds, we relive the single instant when the time of terror took the place of love.
Each moment that we have is one where we die only to be reborn again. And this goes on and on until, finally, we learn to forgive the past and accept the present.
The near-death experience can also alert us to the mystery of what life is and what death isn’t. We might think that death is the end but in fact it is just another beginning.
We find that what supposedly dies just becomes another step into the present moment. We are being reborn in a single instant. Life suddenly begin to be in this moment and not in the past.
Nanci Danison knows all about the dying process through her near-death and after-life experiences. She says that what happens when we leave our bodies is inevitably just what we need. Love always loves us. God is infinite and absolute, is always with us, and we are forever a part of our only Source.
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303/ The ‘I’ Knows
24th May 2024
Death is reward and not a punishment. But such a viewpoint must be fostered by the healing that the world cannot conceive. (ACIM, S-3.II.5:5-6)
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Ref: Either truth is apparent, or it is not. It cannot be partially recognized. Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions. (ACIM, M-17.4:9-11)
When the mind is healed, it knows the truth. There is no division, no separation, and truth can have no opposite.
As stated above, whoever is unaware of truth must look upon illusions. Truth cannot be partially recognized. We either know truth completely or not at all.
That death is a reward and not a punishment only arises when we see the body for what it is. Bodies have to be seen as something that we are not, meaning the ‘we’ becomes the ‘I’.
A Course in Miracles starts by saying that nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists. The ‘I’ is simply the one thing that can never die.
The ‘I’ becomes our Heaven where only perfect oneness exists. The world then disappears and there is no opposite. God’s One Son knows only the Love of His Father.
If we think of ourselves as separate beings, within the world and of it, then it means that we need to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness brings about the healing of the mind.
The ego cannot tolerate the truth, which is why the ego tries to crucify truth on the cross. This is what is happening in the mind.
The ‘I’ looks past this completely. The ‘I’ just knows that love keeps shining and truth is all there Is.
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304/ Stillness of Being
25th May 2024
There is no partial healing. What but shifts illusions has done nothing. What is false cannot be partly true. If you are healed your healing is complete. (ACIM, S-3.II.5:7-10)
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Ref: Why would you not perceive it as release from suffering to learn that you are free? Why would you not acclaim the truth instead of looking on it as an enemy? Why does an easy path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way, seem thorny, rough and far too difficult for you to follow? (ACIM, T-29.II.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles asks us to look inward. It wants us realize that the Answer is always there.
The question then arises as to whether we go inwards to inner peace or yet more inner turmoil. The mind seems to be split between love and fear.
How we perceive anything arises from our thoughts. However, there are no individual thoughts and there is only one ego. Everyone is just recycling the same old thing.
The one mind is split between illusions and the truth. Illusions show us darkness and the truth shows us light. The two are completely unaware of each other.
Within the light, there is also a beingness. This is our awareness of what state of mind we are in.
If we have a problem, as in the ego is magnifying an issue that we might have, we can allow our beingness to find the solution. This means we tune into the calm and peace beyond the thoughts.
Here, the busy mind has no power. The Holy Spirit can speak to us in a way we can understand.
Our stillness of being is the essence of what we are. It never wavers. By going inwards, we find there is always a perfect Answer to any problem that we think we have.
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305/ The Ocean Itself
26th May 2024
Forgiveness is the only gift you give and would receive. (ACIM, S-3.II.5:11)
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Ref: Sickness is a defense against the truth. I will accept the truth of what I am, and let my mind be wholly healed today. (ACIM, W-136.15:6-7)
A Course in Miracles tells us that what we see in another is what we see in ourselves. We might label it as greed, anger or hatred - it doesn’t matter. We are looking at what we are holding in our minds.
Likewise, sickness is always a decision of the mind. It is a choice we make. Sickness happens for a reason and, as stated above, it is a defence against the truth.
We always have two ways of seeing, or two systems of thought that we can use. One is based on sin and guilt, and the other is based on truth.
The ego is really just a bunch of thoughts arising from a single thought of fear. The thought was: “What if I can be apart from the Father?” This was the beginning of our guilt and fear.
The Holy Spirit was placed into the mind the moment the thought occurred. The thought, however, just multiplied and this began our dream of separation instead.
The split mind dreamt up a world and bodies, and unreality became very real. However, belief in the ego stops the moment we go inwards and find out how the cause of our fear came about.
The one mind only knows truth. Truth arises out of love and peace and joy. The mind that knows the truth sees it everywhere and what is within is always reflected without.
Forgiveness peels away the layers of our guilt and shame until, eventually, there are no layers left. This is when, instead on being a drop in the ocean, we become the whole of the ocean itself.
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27th May 2024
False healing rests upon the body’s cure, leaving the cause of illness still unchanged, ready to strike again until it brings a cruel death in seeming victory. It can be held at bay a little while, and there can be brief respite as it waits to take its vengeance on the Son of God. Yet it cannot be overcome until all faith in it has been laid by, and placed upon God’s substitute for evil dreams; a world in which there is no veil of sin to keep it dark and comfortless. (ACIM, S-3.II.6:1-3)
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Ref: No one in this world escapes fear, but everyone can reconsider its causes and learn to evaluate them correctly. God has given everyone a Teacher Whose wisdom and help far exceed whatever contributions an earthly therapist can provide. (ACIM, P-1.1:3-4)
The ego analyses and the Holy Spirit accepts.
God’s substitute for evil dreams, as mentioned above, is Heaven. This is pure, unconditional oneness with no beginning and no end. Heaven is absolute Love where only perfect harmony exists.
The ego’s substitute for perfect Love is hell, although it might be dressed up as heaven in parts. In hell, separation rules and love is conditional, always depending on the whims of the ego.
The ego is a hard task master. The false healing, also mentioned above, is the ego laughing at us. We can never get to the heart of a problem until we begin to understand what the problem is.
The Teacher we have is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows us that the problem is not the ego. The problem is that we have forgotten our own perfection as the loving Son.
A Course in Miracles asks us to choose the miracle instead of the ego. By recognising the truth instead of the lie, we come to know ourselves as living light.
The ego makes a hell and the Holy Spirit takes that hell away. The ego gives us a love that is fleeting and the Holy Spirit shows us the love that is here to stay.
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307/ Waking to Truth
28th May 2024
At last the gate of Heaven opens and God’s Son is free to enter in the home that stands ready to welcome him, and was prepared before time was and still but waits for him. (ACIM, S-3.II.6:4)
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Ref: I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. (ACIM, T-21.II.2:3-5)
A Course in Miracles tells us that it is impossible for a Son of God to be driven by events that are outside of him. Anything that happens is always a choice.
Our thoughts make our reality. Each individual is the whole and the whole is currently seeing something that is both illusory and painful.
We have given permission to what is not of God to rule our lives. We are not asked to stop this happening All we are asked to do is to make room for truth.
Truth is with us every moment of the day. It never leaves our mind. However, truth is only available if we forgo our belief in separation and choose the miracle instead.
This is how peace enters into our awareness. It arises in the holy instant. Any thought of pain disappears completely the moment that the light comes flooding in.
Here we have the correction of the mistake. When light illumines the mind, then truth is known.
And it also means we wake up to truth. When we really see, we know that we are holy and the perfect Son of God.
We are the light of the world. To think that we are anything else is just part of the illusion.
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308/ Allowing the Cause
29th May 2024
False healing heals the body in a part, but never as a whole. (ACIM, S-3.III.1:1)
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Ref: Healing is not creating; it is reparation. The Holy Spirit promotes healing by looking beyond it to what the children of God were before healing was needed, and will be when they have been healed. (ACIM, T-5.II.1:1-2)
The Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the separation. It is our Call to joy.
A Course in Miracles tells us that the Call to joy was placed into the mind the moment that the ego arose. When we hear the Call to joy, we receive the Atonement.
It is the Atonement that makes the separation disappear. We come back to being whole, complete and immortal spirit. We are love itself and there is nothing that can possibly change this.
The Atonement and the separation began at the same time, which means they end together. It is really just a shift in perception. We are looking at what we are and not at what we are not.
Healing, then, means we hear the Call to joy instead of the call to war. We join with the Holy Spirit and not with the ego. We accept the miracle instead of the separation.
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. We are the shining light. The Kingdom of Heaven is not something we have to search for but it is something we have to accept.
We are part of God, whole and complete, and the Holy Spirit is the Call that reminds us of our birthright. Forgiveness is the process that allows us to remember what we know.
When the cause of the ego is undone, it means that all our pain is gone forever. This allows the Cause of happiness to start to overflow.
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