Reflections 323 to 336
13th June 2024
God’s Voice alone can tell you how to heal. (ACIM, S-3.III.6:1)
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Ref: Let reason take another step. If you attack whom God would heal and hate the one He loves, then you and your Creator have a different will. Yet if you are His Will, what you must then believe is that you are not yourself. (ACIM, T-22.I.1:1-3)
We probably feel our lives are complex but they are not. We are just re-living the same old thought every moment of the day.
The thought is one of fear and a complete denial of what we are. We are not this body with all the trappings that it holds. We are outside of time, free of form and forever at home in Heaven.
A Course in Miracles tells us that God has no secrets. The only secret we have is the one we made up. It feels awful and we try to suppress it, but what we really need to do is to find what it hides.
Truth is within us. It’s as if we are sitting on a treasure trove but have no idea that it is there.
All we need to do is to look internally and not externally. Vision arises as the treasure trove opens and riches arise that dismiss all the fear.
Life expands as we feel the treasure within us. We stop being stuck we start being healed.
Cate Grieves knows we are all one with the Song of Prayer. She tells us that we have to overcome both the fear of death and the fear of God to awaken to this. The ego states that all will be chaos but Spirit knows that all will be love. All we need to do is to trust and simply ask the Holy Spirit for help.
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324/ One or Many
14th June 2024
Listen, and you will never fail to bring His kindly remedy to those He sends to you, to let Him heal them, and to bless all those who serve with Him in healing’s name. (ACIM, S-3.III.6:2)
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Ref: I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (ACIM, W-rVI.in.3:3-5)
The line referred to above is one of the most memorable quotes from A Course in Miracles.
It tells us that we are the one Christ and the one Self. Collectively, we are the one Son of God.
This means that we are free. We are free to extend love and be love, as we were meant to do. Instead, it appears that we imprison ourselves because this is what our freedom allows.
We can never not be what God created. We can just pretend to be.
The lines from the Song of Prayer ask us to listen. They imply that we are all in this together. We are one Self split into eight billion little selves and whoever comes towards us is there for us to help.
There is just the one mind and the one mind holds the Voice for God, which is the Holy Spirit.
Heaven arises out of a state of perfect oneness. Only love exists in oneness. There is no opposite because there is no other.
Love creates like itself and this is why we need the Holy Spirit. The Voice for God guides us back to where we never left and returns us to the only state we know.
The mind is free to do whatever it wants. It can choose to be one or it can choose to be many. The choice to be either is always up to us.
325/ Teachers of God
15th June 2024
The body’s healing will occur because its cause has gone. And now without a cause, it cannot come again in different form. Nor will death any more be feared because it has been understood. (ACIM, S-3.III.6:3-5)
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Ref: God’s teachers have learned how to be simple. They have no dreams that need defense against the truth. They do not try to make themselves. Their joy comes from their understanding Who created them. (ACIM, M-4.VI.1:1-4)
We all have a body but, as A Course in Miracles tells us, this is not what we are.
We defend the body, procreate with it, make it strong and attractive, and even die for it, but generally we are looking after a lost cause.
If we were asked to spend ten seconds looking at ourselves, it would never occur to us to look into the mind. Instead, we might glance at our hands or into a mirror.
The mirror shows us what we can never see ourselves. It is impossible to look at our face, which is our most visual identity. The irony, then, is that what we truly are can also never be seen.
Our true Identity, which is oneness with God, is impossible to describe. It can’t be seen or touched. It can only be experienced directly by going inwards.
Silence and stillness may sound boring to the ego, which is the body, but it is the source of fuel for the mind. It is alive with joy and peace, and gives us everything that we could ever need.
It is in this stillness that we hear the song of prayer which is a celebration of our connection to God.
And this is why we are all the teachers of God. The body just mirrors the joy that is contained within.
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16th June 2024
There is no fear in one who has been truly healed, for love has entered now where idols used to stand, and fear has given way at last to God. (ACIM, S-3.III.6:6)
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Ref: Freedom is the only gift you can offer to God’s Sons, being an acknowledgment of what they are and what He is. Freedom is creation, because it is love. (ACIM, T-8.IV.8:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the unified mind is invincible. This means that the Mind of God is established in ours and as ours. There is no separation.
God’s Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness encompasses ours. All miracles that arise do so because of this completion, which means there is nothing to fight against.
The miracle states that there is no death. What we consider death is merely a continuation of life.
And the only thing that stops us knowing this is a belief in separation, which is the ego. However, this belief is all self-made. The mind is split and, because of its division, we feel scared.
How this happened doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that we are dreaming a dream and only awakening from the dream can provide the solution.
Jesus showed us that this is possible. When his mind unified with the Mind of God, all minds became one. Jesus saw only love because there is only love.
Within us all is that memory. We all have the awakened mind within us. This means we don’t worship the body but we do join with the mind that is whole.
Forgiveness allows us to make our way back into the Mind of God. What has never left wakes up to itself. The dream finishes, truth returns and we just forget what never was.
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327/ Spacious Mind
17th June 2024
How holy are the healed! For in their sight their brothers share their healing and their love. (ACIM, S-3.IV.1:1-2)
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Ref: Harm is the outcome of judgment. It is the dishonest act that follows a dishonest thought. It is a verdict of guilt upon a brother, and therefore on oneself. It is the end of peace and the denial of learning. (ACIM, M-4.IV.1:3-6)
We make judgements all the time, even if we don’t realise it. Healing arises only when we stop judging something as good or bad. The only meaning anything has is what we put onto it.
A Course in Miracles might arrive into our lives at a low point, or maybe when we are at the end our our tether. The big, blue book with gold lettering looks inviting but it can also be slightly daunting.
Healing doesn’t come from partial commitment. Total commitment is likely to come only after many reads and much contemplation. It also means facing our fears which can often be utterly terrifying.
The ego does not let go easily. However, the ego can’t function without judgement. When the harsh and critical voice of the ego has no power, then the quiet Voice of the Holy Spirit easily takes over.
Even those involved with A Course in Miracles at its onset had to silence their irritation with each other and sit in silence for solutions to problems. They were listening to their own inner guidance.
And this is how the staff of the Foundation for Inner Peace work today. Any decision that has to be made means they sit quietly and wait for the answer of the Holy Spirit.
The point is, the ego wants to make the decisions but can’t be given any power. It has to be ignored.
It is by letting go of judgement that we achieve clarity. All problems are solved with a spacious mind.
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328/ Being with God
18th June 2024
Bringers of peace, – the Holy Spirit’s voice, through whom He speaks for God, Whose Voice He is, – such are God’s healers. (ACIM, S-3.IV.1:3)
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Ref: Everyone who is sent to you is a patient of yours. This does not mean that you select him, nor that you choose the kind of treatment that is suitable. But it does mean that no one comes to you by mistake. There are no errors in God’s plan. (ACIM, P-3.I.1:1-4)
God’s plan is the Atonement. It is salvation. It is the complete correction of the only error there is - that we are separate from God and that we are this mortal body.
The facts, as we see them, are pretty conclusive. Cut ourselves and we bleed. We are born, live a life and then die. We can’t deny that we are human.
A Course in Miracles tells a different story. We are immortal spirit. We are God’s Son, collectively and without exception. We have never left Heaven and only a dream is telling us that we have.
Not one part of what we see, as a body and as an observer, should ever be considered real. It is all an hallucination. The world is projected from a mind that is dreaming a dream of separation.
There is one ego in this dream and it fear. Collectively, we are all the single dreamer of the dream.
Within this dream, there appears to be many characters but not one of the characters is ever real.
And, despite this dream, we have never left Heaven. We have never stopped being the love that we are. There is only one of us in reality and A Course in Miracles states this as a fact.
This means that whoever we believe we are has no meaning. It has nothing to do with the physical. Our true Identity is outside of time and space and our real Self is only known by being one with God.
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329/ Coming Home
19th June 2024
They but speak for Him and never for themselves. They have no gifts but those they have from God. And these they share because they know that this is what He wills. (ACIM, S-3.IV.1:4-6)
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Ref: The truth is simple. Yet it must be taught to those who think it will endanger them. It must be taught to those who will attack because they feel endangered, and to those who need the lesson of defenselessness above all else, to show them what is strength. (ACIM, P-2.V.2:4-6)
The healed know the truth.
The mind is clear. It is not corrupted by thoughts of sin. It is not the focus of an endless stream of unrelated thoughts. It knows its Source is God.
The healed speak for God because there is nothing else. There is no judgement. The body is there, yes, but it is not the focus. The focus is always on spirit.
Nothing in the world can ever bring us happiness. The world might trick us into believing it can but our happiness is always temporary. Where fear once seemed real, the healed know it is really false.
Fear might be disguised as doubt, restlessness, irritation or inertia. In the end, it is always the ego. It rises from a single thought that we are limited and without hope.
A Course in Miracles is here to change this. It shows us that perfect love casts out fear. A mind without fear means that no one and nothing can ever hurt us.
The healed sing the song of prayer. It’s a celebration of being whole and perfect.
The mind is at peace and certainty is known. There are no expectations because nothing is needed. Sharing love is how those that are healed bring us home.
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330/ Holiness Itself
20th June 2024
They are not special. They are holy. They have chosen holiness, and given up all separate dreams of special attributes through which they can bestow unequal gifts on those less fortunate. (ACIM, S-3.IV.1:7-9)
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Ref: Truth and illusion have no connection. This will remain forever true, however much you seek to connect them. But illusions are always connected, as is truth. Each is united, a complete thought system, but totally disconnected to each other. (ACIM, T-19.I.7:1-4)
The holy, as mentioned at the top of the page, cannot dream. The holy know their connection to God. This means their minds are peaceful in the sense that peace has no opposite.
The body cannot be holy. It might pretend to be holy but it is simply a holy ego expressing holiness. A holy ego only knows illusions as the truth and, as stated above, the two cannot co-exist.
A Course in Miracles is directed towards the ego, in the sense that this is what our minds can understand, but it cannot be practised by the ego. The ego has to be seen for what it is.
The ego is a thought system that makes life hell. It is all based on fear. Fear severs our connection to all that is, meaning our minds are troubled. The ego pretends that all is fine, but it isn’t.
The alternative to the ego is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings us to holiness itself which is a quiet joy that expresses itself as love. The mind is clear, looking past the illusion and knowing only truth.
Cate Grieves continues with the fourth of her nine teachings on the Song of Prayer. She tells us that it is our thoughts that we need to form a relationship with. Letting go of the ego means having no thoughts about our brother as a body. We only see the light of Christ that shines beyond the body.
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331/ Leaf and Tree
21st June 2024
Their healing has restored their wholeness so they can forgive, and join the song of prayer in which the healed sing of their union and their thanks to God. (ACIM, S-3.IV.1:10)
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Ref: The process of psychotherapy, then, can be defined simply as forgiveness, for no healing can be anything else. The unforgiving are sick, believing they are unforgiven. (ACIM, P-2.VI.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that forgiveness is prayer’s ally. Both work together for our salvation, which means knowing our oneness and our connection to God.
Prayer is timeless but forgiveness itself is an illusion. Forgiveness is unneeded in Heaven (our natural home) because, quite simply, there is nothing to forgive.
Forgiveness undoes the blocks to love’s presence and to the awareness of Heaven. Heaven is all there is and it is only a small puff of wind that has carried us willingly to another place.
The small puff of wind is the ego, or a thought of fear. We are like a leaf being carried from the tree. A small puff of wind now means that our memory of Heaven is lost.
Forgiveness returns that memory. We remember what we are. Forgiveness is a finite process that works with prayer, enabling perfect love to arise instead of forgetting that it’s always there.
Prayer then becomes our thanks to God. We know that we are perfect, both as a Self and a Son. Nothing changes except the ego has simply disappeared, just like a puff of wind is also gone.
Everything is bliss when the mind becomes calm. Prayer arises spontaneously and becomes a song of gratitude from the mind that is healed.
We become both the tree and the leaf. Forgiveness just proves that all is right and nothing is wrong.
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332/ Quiet Centre
22nd June 2024
As witness to forgiveness, aid to prayer, and the effect of mercy truly taught, healing is blessing. And the world responds in quickened chorus through the voice of prayer. (ACIM, S-3.IV.2:1-2)
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Ref: Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him. You had already taught yourself wrongly, having believed what was not true. You did not believe in your own perfection. (ACIM, T-6.V.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the Holy Spirit never commands. The Holy Spirit is the quiet centre that we appear to have forgotten.
We believe that only the external will bring us peace, as in houses, cars and lots of money. We never think to look within. It is actually too painful and so we keep it under lock and key.
Just the thought of God brings up fear (perhaps disguised as doubt or denial, or an infinite number of other possibilities). Fear only highlights that we should be doing better.
Fear is the ego and the ego is the only reason that we have left our quiet centre.
A Course in Miracles also reminds us that God does not teach. The Course states that to teach implies a lack and lack is something that God does not know.
Lack arises out of the ego thought system and it this that we have to change.
The whole world revolves around change and God created only the changeless. It appears as if we are surrounded by things that die but A Course in Miracles’ whole message is that there is only life.
The quiet centre is the only place that we need to find and the irony is that we have never left it. All we have done is disguise what is always peaceful and made it appear as if it is a lack of love.
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333/ Perceiving Truly
23rd June 2024
Forgiveness shines its merciful reprieve upon each blade of grass and feathered wing and all the living things upon the earth. (ACIM, S-3.IV.2:3)
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Ref: The body’s eyes will never see except through differences. Yet it is not the messages they bring on which perception rests. Only the mind evaluates their messages, and so only the mind is responsible for seeing. (ACIM, M-8.3:8-10)
A Course in Miracles tells us there is forgiveness-to-destroy and forgiveness-for-salvation. The first makes the error real and the second is the correction of that error.
It is always the mind that decides on what it sees. The mind alone decides whether something is desirable or undesirable, pleasurable or painful, an illusion or the truth.
Forgiveness-to-destroy demands that something be good or bad. It is a forgiveness that the world and the ego relishes. It divides and demands, labelling someone as either the hero or the villain.
It is part of a thought system that is dependent on judgement. Forgiveness-to-destroy acts like an unwelcome visitor. It splits truth into little segments and some we rush to while others we avoid.
Forgiveness-for salvation only knows God. It arises out of the Holy Spirit which is the quiet joy within the mind. Forgiveness-for salvation sees only truth which is another way of saying it sees only love.
The mind only perceives love or fear, which is how we interpret everything that we see around us. Forgiveness therefore arises either through the filter of a peaceful mind or an agitated mind.
The whole purpose, then, of A Course in Miracles is to teach us to perceive reality exactly as it is.
Oneness has no confusion. We forgive our belief in the body and fully accept that we are the Christ.
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334/ Love and Peace
24th June 2024
Fear has no haven here, for love has come in all its holy oneness. (ACIM, S-3.IV.2:4)
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Ref: The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God’s Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. (ACIM, M-11.1:6-8)
A Course in Miracles asks us not to change the world, but to change our minds about the world.
We all choose the world we want through either the lens of love or the lens of fear. Fear arises only from a mind that is split. Only a healed mind can have the awareness of infinite love.
Infinite love really means there is no world. There is only Heaven and there is only peace.
There can also be no bodies when infinite love is truly known. Bodies appear to be real within the world of form but only because we have lost our awareness of the infinite love within.
The real world is a world that arises from our own inner peace. Bodies become the tools of the Holy Spirit. This means there is no war, no poverty and no disease. Quite simply, there is no ego.
The ego loves to project its dissatisfaction through the body. Bodies kill each other every day. Our minds are therefore projecting our inner condition and it is this that we have to change.
A Course in Miracles asks that we practice forgiveness because forgiveness allows us to have a peaceful mind. Only a peaceful mind can change the world that we see.
Forgiveness brings about a happy world with happy bodies. It means that the mind has been healed so that our outer world reflects our own inner sense of love and peace.
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335/ Tears and Fears
25th June 2024
Time remains only to let the last embrace of prayer rest on the earth an instant, as the world is shined away. (ACIM, S-3.IV.2:5)
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Ref: I am in need of nothing but the truth. (ACIM, W-251)
What is the truth? Here are some pointers.
- Truth is real and never unreal.
- Truth is absolute knowledge, not perceived knowledge.
- Truth is eternal, unalterable and unambiguous.
- Truth can never change and neither can it have an opposite.
- Truth applies only to God and His One Son.
- Truth has no beginning and no end. Truth is outside of time completely.
- Truth merely is, not was or will be.
A Course in Miracles is absolute truth. Not one word is ever out of place. It tells us that truth is simple and need not be explained. We just have to undo the blocks to truth’s presence.
It is forgiveness that allows this. Forgiveness wipes away our tears and fears so that love just takes its place. We are what we are, and this is truth.
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336/ The Final Step
26th June 2024
This instant is the goal of all true healers, whom the Christ has taught to see His likeness and to teach like Him. (ACIM, S-3.IV.2:6)
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Ref: Partial Atonement is a meaningless idea, just as special areas of hell in Heaven are inconceivable. Accept Atonement and you are healed. Atonement is the Word of God. (ACIM, M-22.1:4-6)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the Atonement does not make us holy. It states that we are holy. This is how our creation came about.
Atonement means bringing what we made to what we are. All illusions disappear into truth, as in the ego disappears into God, and we find exactly what we have never left.
Perfect oneness is all there is and only the ego makes us believe it’s not. It’s as if a tiny cloud is blotting out the sun or, to put it another way, a few water crystals are hiding the light of God.
The body is the symbol of our aloneness and is an expression of the ego. However, put the body under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and it changes. The body is a puppet of the mind.
The mind seems to be ruled by ego and this is where our suffering arises. All we need to do is to look past the ego and trust in the silence and stillness that is our connection to God.
Healing then becomes the Holy Spirit’s silent function. It is through stillness that we make our way.
We therefore can be either fearful or we can be peaceful. These are our only two choices.
It’s in the acceptance of the Atonement for ourselves that peace replaces fear. When complete peace does become apparent, it is simply God that is taking the final step.
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