Reflections 43 to 56

 

43/ The Decision Maker

7^th September 2023

 

This prayer can be shared because it receives for everyone. (ACIM, S-1.I.7:6)

 

***

 

Ref: If you were one with God and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours. But you will not remember this while you believe attack of any kind means anything. (ACIM, T-22.VI.12:1-2)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that the light is always there. It can never go out.

 

This light is shared by everyone. It is how we find joy and peace and freedom. It makes us see that we are the ocean and not the drop.

 

To enable this, we need to allow one aspect of the mind to merge into the other. What is tiny and little and insignificant just disappears into the wonder of the whole.

 

Light replaces darkness. The unreal dissolves into the real.

 

We are the decision maker in all of this. A Course in Miracles is a constant reminder that we are responsible for how we feel.

 

If the right mind replaces the wrong mind, we know the song. We don’t know limit but the limitless.

 

Keith Kavanagh continues with his look at the Song of Prayer in the video below. In it, he discusses our split from Heaven and continues to emphasise the crucial importance of being the decision maker in the mind. This means either joining with the darkness or with the light.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

44/ Different Levels

8^th September 2023

 

To pray with one who knows that this is true is to be answered. (ACIM, S-1.I.7:7)

 

***

 

Ref: The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made. (ACIM, T-1.VI.4:1-2)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that a sense of separation from God is the only lack that we ever need correct.

 

To get to this level, we need a change of mind.

 

This means coming to see that only perfect love exists. Fear is a state that we have created.

 

Perfect love and fear are always exclusive to the other. The two can never co-exist.

 

To know perfect love, we have to be in our right mind. Here, the song is heard which connects us to our Source.

 

To know fear, we have to be in our wrong mind. Here, the song is forgotten in the world that we see.

 

Anger, violence, despair or attack of any kind - they all originate from just one problem; we are not connected to perfect love. The root of this is the belief that we have murdered God.

 

And we can only correct this in the mind. It is the mind that needs the healing, and nothing else.

 

We operate on different levels. The only level that matters is the one that has no fear. 

____________________________________________________________________________

45/ Sharing the Truth

9^th September 2023

 

Perhaps the specific form of resolution for a specific problem will occur to either of you; it does not matter which. Perhaps it will reach both, if you are genuinely attuned to one another. It will come because you have realized that Christ is in both of you. That is its only truth. (ACIM, S-1.I.7:8-11)

 

***

 

Ref: God does not know of separation. What He knows is only that He has one Son. (ACIM, P-2.VII.1:11-12)

 

A Course in Miracles is completely unapologetic.

 

God has one Son. Whether we want to see one as many, or many as one, is irrelevant.

 

The realisation that Christ is in each one of us arises when light has entered the mind. Division disappears, if only for an instant. We see that only truth is there, and nothing else.

 

The world disappears. Oneness does not know of worlds - there is only Heaven.

 

Oneness also does not know of bodies. This means that, when we see past the body to the Christ that is everywhere, we see the real world.

 

The real world is there because we only see the love.

 

Anything else is a projection from our own unconscious. It arises from unreality and does not exist.

 

A Course in Miracles has just one purpose. It is to emphasise the truth of what we are.

 

We need to share that truth to welcome love. This is how we find our never-ending peace.

____________________________________________________________________________

46/ A Hornets’ Nest

10^th September 2023

 

Prayer has no beginning and no end. It is a part of life. But it does change in form, and grow with learning until it reaches its formless state, and fuses into total communication with God. (ACIM, S-1.II.1:1-3)

 

***

 

Ref: Illusions can be brought to truth to be corrected. But the truth stands far beyond illusions, and can not be brought to them to turn them into truth. (ACIM, W-107.5:3-4)

 

We bring the darkness to the light; we bring the non-peace to the peace.

 

We can’t ever bring the light to the darkness. It is impossible.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that that truth does not hide. It does not shift or change. Truth stays exactly as it is.

 

Equally, prayer has no beginning and no end. It plays continuously. The song of prayer is simply a song of endless love. Gratitude extends outwards and never stops.

 

Our thoughts, therefore, are always simple projections of how we feel. They bubble away and never stop.

 

This means that, if we feel any sort of guilt inside, we try to numb it by distracting ourselves. We do everything we can to trick the mind into believing it is happy.

 

Our minds are simply a hornets’ nest of busy thoughts. A Course in Miracles directs us on how to bring these thoughts to truth.

 

This means leading the ego (kicking and screaming) to the Holy Spirit. Then, as illusions lose their power, truth is able to reveal itself. We see that the truth has never actually gone away.

____________________________________________________________________________

47/ Love Has no Opposite

11^th September 2023

 

In its asking form it need not, and often does not, make appeal to God, of even involve belief in Him. At these levels prayer is merely wanting, out of a sense of scarcity and lack. (ACIM, S-1.II.1:4-5)

 

***

 

Ref: Healing is always certain. It is impossible to let illusions be brought to truth and keep the illusions. Truth demonstrates illusions have no value.  (ACIM, M-6.1:1-3)

 

We need to be aware of what we ask for.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that healing will always stand aside if it is perceived as being a threat. We actually have forgotten what true healing really is.

 

Healing is the silence in the mind; it is perfect love without an opposite; it is knowing there is only now, and nothing else.

 

Suffering, then, is everything that love is not; it is the option that the mind has chosen; it happens when we seek for what we do not need.

 

The song of prayer simply means that healing is complete. The song is the joy in a mind that has no objection to that joy. The mind is open, serene and wonderfully still.

 

But first we have to remove the blocks to love’s presence - and we do this in an ordered way. We never try to put out the sun.

 

All healing is simply the acceptance that only love is important. The song then plays without our fear getting in the way.

 

Love has no opposite. To welcome this requires patience. A mind that knows truth is one that accepts only what is really real.

____________________________________________________________________________

48/ A Space in Time

12^th September 2023

 

These forms of prayer, or asking-out-of-need, always involve feelings of weakness and inadequacy, and could never be made by a Son of God who knows Who he is. (ACIM, S-1.II.2:1)

 

***

 

Ref: Be not content with future happiness. It has no meaning, and is not your just reward. For you have cause for freedom now. What profits freedom in a prisoner’s form? (ACIM, T-26.VIII.9:1-4)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that time is as neutral as the body is, except in terms of what we see it for (ACIM, T-26.VIII.3:7).

 

Everything arises within the mind. Bring the mind to the present and this is where our freedom lies. It is in the present moment that we simply hear the song of prayer.

 

True peace can happen only when we step away from the body. The body holds us prisoner unless the mind informs us that we are free.

 

A space in time is all we are looking for. It is a little gap that is nothing more than a point of light.

 

Within this gap, peace extends far beyond anything that the eyes can see. We are in a moment of bliss where all is one. The mind just knows itself as a formless state and not a form.

 

A Course in Miracles calls this the holy instant. It is here that love and peace truly merge, and only stillness can be found.

 

We can never find the holy instant in time, just within what is timeless. In time, we feel trapped. We can never be completely happy except when we are in the now.

 

A space in time gives us freedom from the body. Time is neutral and the body is neutral. We either understand this completely or not at all.

____________________________________________________________________________

49/ Saints, not Sinners

13^th September 2023

 

No one, then, who is sure of his Identity could pray in these forms. Yet it is also true that no one who is uncertain of his Identity can avoid praying in this way. (ACIM, S-1.II.2:2-3)

 

***

 

Ref: You were lost in the darkness of the world until you asked for the light. And then God sent His Son to give it to you. (ACIM, P-3.III.8:12-13)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that we heal ourselves through those who come our way.

 

No one comes to us by accident. We either have the opportunity to bless or to damn.

 

And everyone, everywhere, has the song within them. The sound of the song never goes out.

 

The passage above tells us that the ways of God are very simple. It asks us to heal ourselves. We are told that God’s Son needs no healing but the mind that has forgotten what it is certainly does.

 

God’s Son is our Identity. He is totally at peace and there is nothing we can do to change this.

 

This means that our Identity doesn’t change. All we have to do is to go inside and find the truth.

 

The truth is in the here and now. Truth is never anywhere else, nor is it anything else. Only the mind can distort what is real.

 

All we need to do is ask and we receive. A Course in Miracles tells us that the Holy Spirit never refuses to enter a relationship, if invited.

 

We are saints, not sinners. It is through our shared Identity that we begin to see that this is true. 

____________________________________________________________________________

50/ Every Mind Is One

14^th September 2023

 

And prayer is as continual as life. Everyone prays without ceasing.  (ACIM, S-1.II.2:4-5)

 

***

 

Ref: Every response you make is determined by what you think you are, and what you want to be is what you think you are. What you want to be, then, must determine every response you make. (ACIM, T-7.VII.2:7-8)

 

We only exercise choice at the level of thought. We are responsible for what we think.

 

Nothing happens by accident. There are no coincidences in reality.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that we get what we ask for. In this, it is unequivocal. Our thoughts determine our reality.

 

This means that the mind should not be left unobserved. We need to look at the ego and witness it. The ego has to be undone - and we have to complete the Workbook even to understand this.

 

What we think, therefore, always has an effect. Being fully aware of this becomes the fuel for our practice. The mind and only the mind is the cause of our suffering.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that every mind is one; one brother is all brothers. Whether we contribute to the whole, or whether we just continue to stay apart, is always up to us.

 

Keith Kavanagh continues with the Song of Prayer in the video below. He begins by explaining how true forgiveness heals the mind, as opposed to forgiveness-to-destroy which makes it suffer. Forgiveness, then, either heals or hurts us. Only our thoughts can determine what form this takes.

____________________________________________________________________________

51/ Like Attracts Like

15^th September 2023

 

Ask and you have received, for you have established what it is you want.  (ACIM, S-1.II.2:6)

 

***

 

Ref: To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. (ACIM, M-in.2:1-3)

 

Ask and we receive. The thought system we use establishes what we want.

 

To teach is to learn. We do this all the time.

 

We are what we think. Our thoughts make our reality.

 

A Course in Miracles teaches that there are only two thought systems. We always express just one or the other. The two can never co-exist at the same time.

 

One worships the body. It establishes what we look at in the mirror. The thought system of the ego is basically a belief in death. We have to live with it until we take our last breath.

 

The other knows only love. It emanates from joy. The thought system of the Holy Spirit gives only life because life has no opposite. It arises from God and it is actually what we are.

 

One sings with gratitude and the other sings a dirge. There is no in between.

 

We either see our real Self or we see an imagined self. One we know and the other we don’t.

 

Like attracts like - there is no middle ground in this. What we send out is what we get back.

____________________________________________________________________________

52/ The Ceaseless Song

16^th September 2023

 

It is also possible to reach a higher form of asking-out-of-need, for in this world prayer is reparative, and so it must entail levels of learning. Here, the asking may be addressed to God in honest belief, though not yet with understanding. (ACIM, S-1.II.3:1-2)

 

***

 

Ref: Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. Yet is the ending sure. (ACIM, C-ep.1:1-3)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that we are strangers here. We are not what we think we are.

 

We are infinitely greater than the miniscule self that beats itself up. If we think small, our prayers will always limit us. It is only fear that makes us be the self that we know.

 

Our job, then, is to establish trust. We need the proof of something greater in order to continue our journey and progress along the path.

 

The memory of God is with us all the time. It was put there immediately - in fact as soon as the thought of separation arose. It is impossible that the memory of God can disappear. The truth of what we are can never go away.

 

We therefore move from needy prayer to true prayer. Instead of wanting, we move to thanking.

 

Reality never changes and true prayer demonstrates that all minds are one. When neediness enters the equation, it becomes fantasy. It is proof that separate minds do not know what they want.

 

The Holy Spirit knows exactly what each one of us needs. All that is required is a little bit of willingness. Our neediness then dissolves and something greater takes its place.

 

And the ceaseless song just keeps on playing. All we need to do is join and sing along.

____________________________________________________________________________

53/ Internal Confusion

17^th September 2023

 

A vague and usually unstable sense of identification has generally been reached, but tends to be blurred by a deep-rooted sense of sin. (ACIM, S-1.II.3:3)

 

***

 

Ref: The abilities you now possess are only shadows of your real strength. All of your present functions are divided and open to question and doubt. This is because you are not certain how you will use them, and are therefore incapable of knowledge. (ACIM, T-3.IV.1:1-3)

 

There is love and there is lack of love. Sin is lack of love.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that God is Love and it was from this Love that His Son was created. Nothing else was created and nothing else exists.

 

The mind became a perceiver rather than a creator after the separation. This means we became confused about our origins. Who are we are where do we come from?

 

The ego was made as opposed to created. With the ego, there is always lack. It perceives and then projects. The world we see arises from the injustice that the ego feels.

 

Spirit was created by God. There is no conflict within spirit. Lack does not occur because spirit just is.

 

Within the mind, then, we have the ego and the Holy Spirit. One believes in sin and the other does not. Suffering can only arise through the ego. Listen to the ego and it is inevitable that we suffer.

 

Yet suffering has nothing to do with the flow of Love within our minds. The Holy Spirit provides that flow. We can elect to reject it if we want but we can also join with it and know real peace.

 

Our internal confusion rests entirely on a choice. Do we join with the Holy Spirit or do we join with the ego? This is the only question that needs to be asked.

____________________________________________________________________________

54/ Removing the Blocks

18^th September 2023

 

It is possible at this level to continue to ask for things of this world in various forms, and it is also possible to ask for gifts such as honesty or goodness, and particularly for forgiveness for the many sources of guilt that inevitably underlie any prayer of need. Without guilt there is no scarcity. The sinless have no needs. (ACIM, S-1.II.3:4-6)

 

***

 

Ref: God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. (ACIM, W-101)

 

We do not want to suffer. Clearly, this is the same for every creature on the planet.

 

Everyone and everything wants to be happy. In this, there are no exceptions.

 

How we go about this, though, is another matter. Fear can be translated into many different ways.

 

A Course in Miracles enables us to remove the blocks to Love’s presence. This means removing fear and being happy. Indeed, as the lesson above implies, happiness is our birthright and our Cause.

 

Forgiveness, then, is the key to knowing this. We need to forgive what never happened.

 

The Source of what we are is Love. This is unalterable and has to be fully accepted and understood.

 

If we observe ourselves closely enough, we should be alarmed at how we suffer. The mind never has a moment off. It is constantly barraged by an endless array of hostile thoughts.

 

Insanity has to be replaced by sanity. It is then that we hear the song of prayer.

 

God’s Will is that we be totally happy. Removing the blocks to Love’s presence means that this is so.

____________________________________________________________________________

55/ Dark Nights

19^th September 2023

 

At this level also comes that curious contradiction in terms known as “praying for one’s enemies.” The contradiction lies not in the actual words, but rather in the way in which they are usually interpreted. (ACIM, S-1.II.4:1-2)

 

***

 

Ref: It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. (ACIM, M-4.I-A.4:5)

 

To get to the light, we have to go through the darkness. This is unavoidable.

 

To find peace, we have to face the pain. It is inevitable.

 

To develop trust, our Cause has to be known. We have to find out how Life works.

 

This is why the mind is our classroom. We eventually graduate as all minds merge.

 

And it is as minds join that the song becomes apparent. It is Love’s melody that is being heard.

 

A Course in Miracles is practicality in action. It is a Course in the healing of the mind. We achieve this by being the witness to our actions.

 

It is not about life being rosy - it is about stepping into the cesspit of our minds. We face our fears (the ego) by joining with the Holy Spirit (the Love), and this is the crux of all that we do.

 

We are going to have good days and bad days, and it is in the bad days that we learn the most.

 

Dark nights lead to light days. Face our fears and we let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

____________________________________________________________________________

56/ Undoing the Enemy

20^th September 2023

 

While you believe you have enemies, you have limited prayer to the laws of this world, and have also limited your ability to receive and to accept to the same narrow margins. And yet, if you have enemies you have need of prayer, and great need, too. What does the phrase really mean? (ACIM, S-1.II.4:3-5)

 

***

 

Ref: The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace. What you perceive in others you are strengthening in yourself. (ACIM, T-5.III.9:4-5)

 

We look and judge. This is an unavoidable trait of the ego.

 

We look and listen. This is the way to the Holy Spirit.

 

Our learning, then, is to know there are no ‘enemies’. The only prayer we need is one of gratitude.

 

Any judgement we make about another is just a projection of guilt. It doesn’t matter what they have done or who they are. The ‘enemy’ is not out there. The ‘enemy’ is the product of a split mind.

 

A Course in Miracles comes down to this. We are simply re-living the moment when terror took the place of love. It is the moment when the Son wondered what it was like to be apart from the Father, and panicked.

 

In that one instant, we were given the remedy.

 

The ‘enemy’ is just a thought of terror; the remedy is just the memory of Love. We can react to one or respond to the other.

 

Heaven never went anywhere. God did not disappear. What we are never dies. The memory of God is with us always and our gratitude for this becomes the song of prayer.