Reflections 99 to 112
2nd November 2023
It is not easy to realize that prayers for things, for status, for human love, for external “gifts” of any kind, are always made to set up jailers and to hide from guilt. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:1)
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Ref: Abide in peace, where God would have you be. And be the means whereby your brother finds the peace in which your wishes are fulfilled. (ACIM, T-26.VII.19:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that there are no differences among the Sons of God. It is only the ego that likes to make change.
To take from one is to deprive us all; and to bless just one is to send blessings to every one of us.
Nothing, then, can be sick because oneness can never be hurt.
To fully comprehend the verity of these statements is the whole purpose of our learning; it is to know that there is never an external cause for suffering. Everything always arises in the mind.
The world does not influence our condition; instead, we establish the condition of the world. Any disease we have, any misfortune we may see, always occurs in the dream. We make our own reality.
Sickness simply needs two; it means that one person is perceiving their own misfortune in another. Then, as our minds are healed, we come to fully understand that we are just one.
Keith Kavanagh continues with the penultimate instalment of the Song of Prayer. He considers false healing versus true healing, and how our healing is always mediated by the Holy Spirit. Whenever, we consider ourselves to be the healer, then we are just enforcing the error.
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100/ Choose the Miracle
3rd November 2023
These things are used for goals that substitute for God, and therefore distort the purpose of prayer. The desire for them is the prayer. One need not ask explicitly. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:2-4)
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Ref: Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up that hides the face of Christ from those who look with unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind. (ACIM, W-122.3:1-2)
We spend so much of lives in a desperate search for happiness. Really, just a cloud of thoughts prevents us from knowing what we are.
We yearn so much for what our thoughts are thinking. These desires become our prayers.
We constantly look outside of ourselves for fulfilment, but we never quite get what we want. Somehow, the goal posts always seem to change.
It’s also very clear that the past and the future dominate our minds. We never find any peace in the eternal present moment.
A Course in Miracles teaches that only forgiveness can bring us happiness. It tells us that forgiveness establishes a quiet mind and a sense of safety. We actually begin to know who we are.
All this is missing when we have a mind that is clouded by thoughts. The practice, then, is to never fight the ego. Fighting is the ego’s fuel.
We can’t dissect, fix or analyse the ego. The ego actually thrives on being the centre of attention.
Instead, we join with Holy Spirit. We choose the miracle. We bring the memory of love to the mind.
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101/ Belief in Sin
4th November 2023
The goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests for enemies. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:5)
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Ref: Psychotherapy is the only form of therapy there is. Since only the mind can be sick, only the mind can be healed. Only the mind is in need of healing. (ACIM, P-in.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the only therapy is psychotherapy. ACIM’s whole premise is that we need to change our minds about the “reality” of our illusions.
This means that we can never heal the body. The only healing we can ever do is in the mind.
All the above, of course, is absolute drivel to the ego. This is because the ego is the body.
The world sees the body as a major source of income. Pharmaceutical companies love it. To withdraw our attention from the body is to go against everything that the world holds dear.
A Course in Miracles, however, never suggests that we should deny the body. It does not tell us to stop taking medication if we need to, or to stop doing anything that we feel is important.
What A Course in Miracles does ask, though, is that we practice its teachings. We are urged to train our minds by committing ourselves to the Workbook as best we can.
The mind, then, returns to what it is: vast and expansive and as free as the wind.
The ego can be seen for what it is: a tiny puff of air.
And the body can known for what it is: an image wholly reliant on the belief in sin.
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5th November 2023
The power of prayer can be quite clearly recognized even in this. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:6)
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Ref: The meaning of the Son of God lies solely in his relationship with his Creator. If it were elsewhere it would rest on contingency, but there is nothing else. And this is wholly loving and forever. (ACIM, T-20.VI.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we have invented the unholy relationship. An unholy relationship is anything that limits us and makes us feel anxious.
The body sits in the middle of this. The body is the most important part of any unholy relationship.
And it is the ego that calls the shots. The ego establishes what it wants, and it is all based on fear.
The unholy relationship is therefore anything that uses past events and endless judgements to establish itself. And it can never last. Ultimately, all unholy relationships are always going to die.
A Course in Miracles just tells us that this need not be so. We don’t have to suffer.
We learn that our other option is a holy relationship, and this has no fear; it contains no judgement and the past plays no part. The body is wholly irrelevant because love is always at its core.
To establish a holy relationship when we don’t have a connection to the Holy Spirit is unthinkable. It won’t happen. What we have to do is to get beyond what makes our relationships unholy.
This means forgiveness. We forgive the mind that thought it could be apart from its Creator.
We are here to rekindle our Holy Relationship. If we want this, then forgiveness becomes our prayer.
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103/ A Self that Is there
6th November 2023
No one who wants an enemy will fail to find one. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:7)
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Ref: All real pleasure comes from doing God’s Will. This is because not doing it is a denial of Self. Denial of Self results in illusions, while correction of the error brings release from it. Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can relate in peace to God or to your brothers with anything external. (ACIM, T-1.VII.1:4-7)
The enemy is within and so is the Friend. Our minds will tell us that only one of them is there.
Another way of putting it is that we have a self and a Self. One is our assumed identity and the other is our real Identity.
To be selfless is merely to know the truth of who we are. We feel complete connection to our one Creator. The Self has no needs which makes it totally at peace with everything that is.
A Course in Miracles therefore helps us to undo the projection of everything that it knows as false. This is the same as going down into the basement of a house which hasn’t been visited in years.
It means getting to the nuts and bolts of all our guilt. It means looking at all the dirt and the filth, and clearing up the part of the mind that is determined to keep everything at it is.
We need patience to do this and we also need help. The fact is, we are scared of what we are going to find.
The Holy Spirit is our help. He is the light in the darkness. He wipes the dirt from a mind in despair.
And we carry on doing this is until there is no more darkness to shine a light on. There is nothing more within us that needs to be cleared up. The only thing we have is our Friend, a Self that is there.
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104/ Finding Peace
7th November 2023
But just as surely will he lose the only true goal that is given him. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:8)
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Ref: Changes are required in the minds of God’s teachers. This may or may not involve changes in the external situation. Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan. (ACIM, M-9.1:1-3)
The goal of A Course in Miracles is always peace. There is nothing more we need to find because there is nothing else.
We are all the one Son of God. However, we can only know this if we teach peace.
This means that we have to locate the silence and stillness of the Holy Spirit within us, even if the world is appearing to give us problems.
A cashier is having a bad day: we can still be peaceful.
More bad news on the television: peace extends from our minds.
The grass is too long: it is just veiling the thought of peace.
A Course in Miracles allows us to understand that everything is simply an image projected from our minds. The body is just an image; the news is made of images; a patch of land holds further images.
However, we must never impulsively deny all that we see as unreal; we just have to deny its reality.
It is all happening in the mind, and we need to train the mind to experience what peace is. The truth is, if the song of prayer never stops singing, then only a peaceful mind can join with God in prayer.
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105/ A Voiceless Prayer
8th November 2023
Think of the cost, and understand it well. All other goals are at the cost of God. (ACIM, S-1.III.6:9-10)
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Ref: To be a teacher of God, it is not necessary to be religious or even to believe in God to any recognizable extent. It is necessary, however, to teach forgiveness rather than condemnation. (ACIM, P-2.II.1:1-2)
Forgiveness is what sets A Course in Miracles apart from other spiritual practices. It forms the whole foundation of its teaching and makes the Course quite unique in what it does.
We learn to forgive someone for what they haven’t done, and this can’t be achieved without total understanding. The whole point of A Course in Miracles is to demonstrate why no one did anything.
When we initially read that “nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists, herein lies the peace of God” (ACIM, Preface.1:1-3), we are not dealing with everyday small talk. We are actually having the whole of A Course in Miracles summed up into fourteen words.
This means that we might take a whole year of applying ourselves to the lessons in the workbook and still have no inkling of what those words really mean. It is also a possibility that we could have ploughed through the 669 pages of text and still be even more perplexed than when we started.
A Course in Miracles needs perseverance. It helps that it comes from within the ego framework as this is how we make sense of it. However, we also need to get beyond the ego to fully know its truth.
To do this, we dismantle our own self image. We undo all illusory beliefs that we hold in the mind.
This could feel risky; it might even appear terrifying. It feels as if we lose everything that we know.
Truth, however, is always giving. It is forever loving. Forgiveness proves this with its voiceless prayer.
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106/ Complete Healing
9th November 2023
Until the second level at least begins, one cannot share in prayer. For until that point, each one must ask for different things. (ACIM, S-1.IV.1:1-2)
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Ref: Guilt remains the only thing that hides the Father, for guilt is the attack upon His Son. The guilty always condemn, and having done so they will still condemn, linking the future to the past as is the ego’s law. (ACIM, T-13.IX.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles wants us to reach our full potential. It tells us we have no need to suffer.
Prayer then becomes a joining. It is the song we sing to our Creator and it is always one of love.
Forgiveness is the means for doing this. It gently looks past all that is false to all that is true. Forgiveness allows all guilt to disappear simply because there is no darkness to support that guilt.
Healing then arises out of true forgiveness. The mind can see the light that it has never left.
Our job is to choose the correct teacher, and we always have the choice of two. The first one always directs us towards everything that is light; the second one only directs us towards the darkness.
This means that the Holy Spirit wishes us well and the ego wishes us dead. It suggests we either rise up to the song of life or we stay down with the dream of death. Only we can decide what to do.
Keith Kavanagh continues to expand on this in the final instalment of the Song of Prayer. He tells us that the purpose of the world is to be free of guilt. This means that, when guilt is no longer established in the mind, we see a forgiven world with no separation. This is complete healing.
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10th November 2023
But once the need to hold the other as an enemy has been questioned, and the reason for doing so has been recognized if only for an instant, it becomes possible to join in prayer. (ACIM, S-1.IV.1:3)
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Ref: There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you. (ACIM, W-45.1:3-5)
Three o’clock in the morning can be a difficult time; for some, it is late at night. The mind just bombards us with all its negativity and inevitably makes us feel vulnerable and alone.
People, situations, financial worries... it all becomes totally overwhelming. Actually, it feels more like torture (because that is what it is).
And it carries on throughout the day, except then it is easier to distract ourselves with other things.
The line at the top of the page hints as to how we might deal with this. It helps us to recognise that these thoughts are prayers that divide and separate, and that we need to see them for what they are (mindless chatter). The ego will make everyone and everything an ‘enemy’ to any mind that listens.
A Course in Miracles is therefore a process by which we return to a quiet mind. This mind becomes silent and peaceful and totally perfect. It establishes us a human being who knows the wonder of the Holy Spirit. It actually returns us back to the Mind of God.
But until then, the mind needs disciplining. We need to practice deciding against our thoughts.
Our goal is never to fight with the ego; instead, we have to learn how to let go of judgements.
We find that a quiet mind never judges. It never hurts us. All it can ever be is constantly aware.
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108/ Stepping into Oneness
11th November 2023
Enemies do not share a goal. It is in this their enmity is kept. (ACIM, S-1.IV.1:4-5)
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Ref: Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. (ACIM, W-169.5:1-4)
Pure oneness can’t be talked about, nor expressed in words. It cannot even be thought about.
Oneness means that every mind recognises its will is God’s. This understanding is given and received instantly and, with this, there are no exceptions.
Oneness returns the mind to the endless present. Here, past and future cannot even be conceived.
Oneness allows the Son to disappear into the Father, just as the Father merges with His Son.
Oneness is a point in time that A Course in Miracles can only point towards, but it can never be explained. The divided mind can never understand what oneness is.
Oneness disappears as soon as any thought of anger enters the mind; any idea that someone is different, or even if we might view them with slight irritation, then oneness becomes impossible.
We’ve heard that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. A Course in Miracles merely states that only the ego needs to be left behind.
Forgiveness therefore takes us to the edge of oneness, where a mind still feels part of the whole.
Oneness, though, has no division. It is just Love extending, and this is known completely or not at all.
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109/ Mindless Chatter
12th November 2023
Their separate wishes are their arsenals; their fortresses in hate. (ACIM, S-1.IV.1:6)
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Ref: While truth is simple, it must still be taught to those who have already lost their way in endless mazes of complexity. This is the great illusion. In its wake comes the inevitable belief that, to be safe, one must control the unknown. (ACIM, P-2.V.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that true healing is when we look at our brother and know that all his sins have been forgiven.
We always see our inner world in him. If we see his innocence, then this is what we are.
Currently, our belief is that this is not so. We only see separation and we hate it. We try to cover it up, dismiss it or analyse it, but we never fully understand it. This is why we feel so weak and alone.
We also feel that only an unloving Creator could come up with this. If the suffering we see is sanctioned by a force greater than us, it’s no wonder we push the blame onto someone else.
As stated above, we are trying to control the unknown. We have absolutely no idea where the source of our pain has come from, and this is because it has been blotted from our memory.
A Course in Miracles merely states that all hate and fear (in fact, anything that is not love) is one big illusion. There is only a loving Creator and a joyful Son. Everything else is purely misperception.
Only by going within can we know this. It is always within the mind that we find the truth. By tapping into the timelessness within us, we know that this same timelessness applies to everyone.
Truth is simple and yet we make it complicated. The irony is that truth arises only from the silence of the mind, and yet all we do is listen to its mindless chatter.
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110/ Life or Death
13th November 2023
The key to rising further still in prayer lies in this simple thought; this change of mind: We go together, you and I. (ACIM, S-1.IV.1:7-8)
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Ref: If death is real for anything, there is no life. Death denies life. But if there is reality in life, death is denied. No compromise in this is possible. There is either a god of fear or One of Love. (ACIM, M-27.4:2-6)
All of us would probably have prayed at some point in our lives. It seems just part and parcel of everything we have to go through.
But then, if we really understand what A Course in Miracles is teaching us, we would know that there is nothing to worry about. There is no death. It is impossible to ever be hurt.
Instead, we perceive the good and the bad. We see fear and love, the killers and the peace-makers.
A Course in Miracles is a non-dual teaching presented in a dualistic form. It wants us to comprehend how a split mind works. For example, since we have the ego, we need to know what the ego does.
The ego is fear. It is the worry that awful things will happen to us. The ego thinks death is the end.
What we really are is the opposite to the ego in every way. It bears no comparison because our true nature is peaceful and all-encompassing. Our true nature only knows life; its only focus is on love.
Our true nature is the silence and stillness within our minds. It is where we go in order to find the solution to any problems that we may have. It’s the total peace as opposed to all the ego’s chatter.
Only we can decide what we want. We choose life or death, but really there is only life to choose.
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111/ Suspending Judgement
14th November 2023
Now it is possible to help in prayer, and so reach up yourself. (ACIM, S-1.IV.2:1)
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Ref: Only God’s plan for salvation will work. (ACIM, W-71)
The Christian terminology found within A Course in Miracles may not be easy for some to accept, but this is only because the ego lends its own interpretation. The ego needs to keep us worried.
We learn that the ego is wrong about everything, even though the ego believes it is always right. The ego is in total opposition to everything that A Course in Miracles teaches.
Therefore, what we think is right is likely to be wrong; and what we think is wrong is likely to be right. If this were not the case, we wouldn’t need the workbook to change our way of thinking.
The lesson referred to above states that the ego has its own plan for our salvation. The lesson also tells us that the ego’s basic doctrine is “seek, but do not find”. This means our wrong mind is merely trying to express itself as our right mind.
Salvation (according to the ego) simply means that we have to reach outside of ourselves to be forgiven of our sins. It also suggests that we can’t receive anything without judging it first.
The ego thrives on judgement and encourages us to use it. If we don’t judge, then this is not the ego.
We are only able to suspend judgement if we tune into the part of the mind that never judges. As stated at the top of the page, this is how we rise up in prayer; in fact, it is actually what salvation is.
Suspending judgement simply means we find the silence and stillness that is always within us. It always listens. The ego, though, will never allow us to know that any sort of quietness is ever there.
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112/ Help or Hindrance
15th November 2023
This step begins the quicker ascent, but there are still many lessons to learn. (ACIM, S-1.IV.2:2)
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Ref: This is a course in mind training. All learning involves attention and study at some level. (ACIM, T-1.VII.4:1-2)
A Course in Miracles states that all real pleasure comes from doing God’s Will. God’s Will is more important than anything else.
What is God’s Will? It is peace and love, but we have to find this out for ourselves.
A Course in Miracles reminds us that not doing God’s Will is a denial of Self, and this results in illusions. Illusions are really what make us suffer.
How do we know the difference between God’s Will and an illusion? We simply look past anything that we think it might be and open ourselves up to change.
A Course in Miracles informs us that it is only by looking past illusions that we can ever find peace. We have forgotten that we can’t find anything that has lasting peace within a dream of illusions.
How do we move past illusions to the truth? We practice forgiveness and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest. We don’t interfere.
A Course in Miracles tells us that it is only within our minds that all illusions arise, and it is only within our minds that all illusions fade. By undoing the illusory, we find what is timeless and present.
How do we bring ourselves into the timeless presence? We practice as best we can, and we do this from when the day starts to when the day ends. Time, then, is either a help or a hindrance.
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