Reflections 1 to 14

 

1/ Starting from where We Are

28^th April 2022

Lesson 1: Nothing I see in this room {on this street, from this window, in this place} means anything. (ACIM, W-1)

Yesterday, I noticed three people on the high street asking for change. One gave me a beautiful smile.  Later, a man came up to me outside a bank, looking rough. He told me his name and said he was schizophrenic. He didn’t remember that he had said this to me a month earlier. Thirty minutes later, just outside a supermarket, there was another homeless man by the steps. Just up the ramp, and around the corner, a woman was being held by two policemen. A shopping bag lay on the ground beside them. There was a smell which made me walk quicker. When I came out, she was screaming and being handcuffed. Then my phone went off. It was a good friend I hadn’t heard from for ages. I walked away to find some silence. Suddenly, I was happy.

This is all a small dose of reality as we know it. We can be happy, scared, curious, repulsed, and irritated all within minutes. We don’t know any different. And usually our minds replay these images over and over again just so we can make sense of them.

The spiritual text, A Course in Miracles, is very clear. It is how we perceive what is happening in front of us that is important. Do we approach it with a mind that is peaceful or do we approach it with a mind that is reactive? What we see witnesses to my own state of mind. 

The Workbook of A Course in Miracles is about re-training our minds. It takes one year at the very minimum to finish it. There are 365 exercises and only one rule. You can’t do more than one lesson in a day. Otherwise you can take as long as you want. So it could take one lifetime, or even several lifetimes, to master what ACIM teaches us. 

 Every journey starts with the first step, and today is the first lesson that ACIM gives us. How do we look at things? Ultimately all comes down to two ways. We either look at life with the ego or we look at life with the Holy Spirit.

A Course in Miracles is about seeing truly. It has no other purpose. We either see what is real or we see what is not real. We either see with love or we don’t see with love. 

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2/ Willingness and Reluctance

29^th April 2022

Lesson 2: I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me. (ACIM, W-2)

A Course in Miracles is Christian in its terminology, so much so that it can easily put people off. Many of the terms used have associations with religious dogma. Salvation is just one example. However, all salvation really means, within the context of ACIM, is that we have a mind that perceives correctly. We see things exactly as they are.

If we look at things with a mind that perceives as we do now, that is with the ego as opposed to the Holy Spirit, there is always a history that is personal. To one person, a table might remind them of happy memories. To another, a table could be what they hid under. We never approach anything or anyone without a whole list of judgments.

There’s a section in the Text which starts with this: What can it be but arrogance to think your little errors cannot be undone by Heaven’s justice? (ACIM, T-25.IX.1:1) Here’s another enigma. A Course in Miracles tells us that Heaven is right here with us now. We don’t have to do anything to earn it. Hell is anything our minds make up which causes us pain.

The point of doing the exercises in the Workbook is to slowly re-educate our minds into thinking with the Holy Spirit. This will almost certainly induce fear. It sounds scary. It sounds like we have to be nailed to a cross. If it didn’t sound like this, we wouldn’t need A Course in Miracles.

Our reluctance and our willingness to go beyond our preconceptions, to begin to allow ourselves not to mistranslate words and things because of our beliefs, is all in the mind. It can’t be anywhere else. This is the purpose of the second lesson, just to get a handle on this.

A better way to understand this is to listen to the video below. Cate Grieves is a teacher of A Course in Miracles. The link below is her first in a series of teachings that explains a section in the Text entitled: The Obstacles to Peace (ACIM, T-19.IV). In other words, the obstacles have to be removed before peace can flow.

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3/ Attack and Sacrifice

30^th April 2022

Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]. (ACIM, W-3)

We might feel that science gives us the answers we are looking for. We might find that religion provides us with our comfort. Ultimately, though, nothing the world gives us has anything to do with what A Course in Miracles teaches us. ACIM is about complete non-duality. It teaches that there is nothing out there. Everything is within us. And all ‘everything’ means is anything that does not have form.

The world you see is based on “sacrifice” of oneness. It is a picture of complete disunity and total lack of joining. (ACIM, T-26.I.2:1-2). In other words, A Course in Miracles is telling us we may have lost sight of oneness but, in doing so, we are only denying its reality. ACIM teaches us it is impossible to know our reality when we identify as a body, and see only bodies.

Ultimately, A Course in Miracles says we have forgotten who we are and what we are. We have a mind that is divided. The ego in the mind will always try to make sense of what it sees, and what wants to see. The Holy Spirit in the mind doesn’t need to do this because it just knows.

The memory of God must be denied if any sacrifice is asked of anyone. What witness to the Wholeness of God’s Son is seen within a world of separate bodies, however much he witnesses to truth? (ACIM, T-26.I.4:6-7)

A Course in Miracles is about uncovering the beauty of who we are. It is impossible to do this when our minds function with the ego. It’s not that we deny that the body, or bodies, are there. It’s just that we see past the form to the formless nature of our reality. This doesn’t need any attack or sacrifice. It just needs some common sense.

We are so caught up in the belief that suffering is natural. A Course in Miracles tells us that it is not. Attack and sacrifice arise out of fear. We need to let go of all our preconceptions about that, about love, about anything and everything, and allow ourselves to be gently led to the truth of who we are. Doing the exercises in the Workbook is a good first step. It is all about changing our perception.

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4/ A Problem Solved

1^st May 2022

Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]. (ACIM, W-4)

This is the first lesson in which we turn our attention to our thoughts. The lesson states that we have no “good” or “bad” thoughts. None of them represent our real thoughts. Our real thoughts are ones that are given us through the Holy Spirit. When they arise, we just know that they are real. 

The simple truth is that we think all the time. We all wake up in the morning with thoughts.  Some of them are happy thoughts and some are disturbing. None of our thoughts remain consistent. It is unlikely that we stay wholly joyous or wholly depressed throughout the day.

Equally, there is probably a closed door in our minds that we do not want to open. In fact, there are probably several closed doors that we keep firmly shut. These are our secrets. They come through to us in our dreams and, sometimes, we breathe a huge sigh of relief when we awake.

A Course in Miracles tells us that a problem shared with the Holy Spirit is a problem solved. Nothing is too great or too small. ACIM tells us that the Holy Spirit can solve all problems because He knows they are all equal. The Holy Spirit knows that each problem, no matter how big it seems, is just a mistake that is easily corrected: Each time you keep a problem for yourself to solve, or judge that it is one that has no resolution, you have made it great, and past the hope of healing. (ACIM, T-26.II.5:7)

We have to open the doors to our mind. We have to pay attention to our thinking. Our thoughts can lead us into a cataclysmic spiral of depression, or they can lead us into a state of rapture. Either way, they cover up the true reality of who we really are.

This lesson tunes us into our thinking and shows us the inconsistency behind the thoughts of the ego. A Course in Miracles teaches us that only the thoughts of the Holy Spirit are consistent. The Holy Spirit is our quiet Voice. It is the one we hear when we are peaceful.

Your special function opens wide the door beyond which is the memory of His Love kept perfectly intact and undefiled. And all you need to do is but to wish that Heaven be given you instead of hell, and every bolt and barrier that seems to hold the door securely barred and locked will merely fall away and disappear. (ACIM, T-26.II.8:4-5)

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5/ The Undoing of Complexity

2nd May 2022

Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think. (ACIM, W-5)

Complexity is not of God. How could it be, when all He knows is one? He knows of one creation, one reality, one truth and but one Son. Nothing conflicts with oneness. How, then, could there be complexity in Him? What is there to decide? For it is conflict that makes choice possible. (ACIM, T-26.III.1:1-7)

A Course in Miracles is telling us that all the issues we have, all the problems, all the wars and the suffering, all the momentary annoyances, they are all to do with us. They have nothing to do with God.

Regardless of whether we think that God exists, the most important thing is to start from where we are. We always begin again. Something happens and we goof up; we start again. Something happens that completely disproves anything that A Course in Miracles teaches us; we just keep on going. We just do the best we can by setting an intention to observe the mind.

This lesson begins by saying that, regardless of the person, situation or event that we think is causing us pain, it is never for the reason we think. It all comes down to just this one thing. Whatever is happening in front of us is really happening inside of us. It’s all a smokescreen that is blocking out the truth. Truth never changes. Only illusions change. And illusions take many different forms, which is exactly what we see in the world today.

Whatever our lives are like, whatever we are going through, everything and anything can be used for change. A Course in Miracles tells us it all comes down to this: What is everything leaves room for nothing else (ACIM, T-26.III.1:12). So, while today’s lesson tells us that we are never upset for the reason we think, it also tells us that this is because we are thinking with a mind that fears. When we learn to think with the Holy Spirit, everything changes.

The undoing of complexity is the beginning of simplicity.  Everything becomes so simple when we look into our minds deeply. We find that we are love, born out of love, created by love. This is the essence of who we are. The fear that we have merely masks it, which is only the ego masking the Holy Spirit.  We are never upset for the reason we think.  A Course in Miracles tells us every upset is just an illusion masking the truth.

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6/ A Single Voice

3rd May 2022

Lesson 6: I am upset because I see something that is not there. (ACIM, W-6)

In this lesson, we are told that there are no small upsets. Every upset is equally disturbing to our peace of mind.

We may think that coping with upset, being upset, or just avoiding upset is all part of life. A day without upset is a day without pain. A Course in Miracles tells us that this is an unnatural way of living. We are seeing something that is not there.

Every upset is created by a single voice in our minds. This voice is an expert at sounding like many voices. It might manifest itself in different ways. It is subtle, sly and an expert at manufacturing all sorts of situations. Quite often, it might be about another person or other people. The voice never stops. It is relentless.

A Course in Miracles wants us to listen to another single Voice. This Voice only knows peace. There is no opposite. It speaks to us, reassures us, and just needs to be heard. It is there in all of us. We just have to listen.

How do we find this Voice? A Course in Miracles teaches us that, as long as we believe in opposites, it is through forgiveness: Forgiveness is this world’s equivalent of Heaven’s justice. It translates the world of sin into a simple world, where justice can be reflected from beyond the gate behind which total lack of limits lies (ACIM, T-26.IV.1:1-2). ACIM is teaching us that Heaven is right here with us now. It is like a doorway through which we pass. But it is impossible to know Heaven if we have a mind that believes in upset.

A Course in Miracles continues by saying: Nothing in boundless love could need forgiveness (ACIM, T-26.IV.1:3). This single Voice is all about boundless love. It is as real as the other voice is unreal. Essentially, one is a lie that manifests as a truth, and the other is truth that undoes the lie.

We are seeing something that is not there. It sounds delusional. The goal of the Workbook is to cut through delusion and to see with clarity.  What is clear needs no contrast.

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7/ The Way to Nowhere

4th May 2022

Lesson 7: I see only the past. (ACIM, W-7)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the past is the way to nowhere. It says that this course will teach you only what is now (ACIM, T-26.V.10:2). ACIM is therefore concerned only with the present moment. The present moment is all there is.

A Course in Miracles tells us we always have two choices about anything we do. One is based on past experiences and one is not. The origin of this arises from a momentary blip, long ago, when the oneness that we were momentarily wondered what it would be like to be separate from God. At the same moment as this thought arose, God placed the Holy Spirit in our minds. A Course in Miracles tells us that it is this moment that we have been repeating ever since.

To you who still believe you live in time and know not it is gone, the Holy Spirit still guides you through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone. (ACIM, T-26.V.4:1)

The past isn’t a bad thing. One could say the past brought us to the present. A Course in Miracles asks us just to be as present as possible, observing the judgements that we make, and understanding that our suffering only arises from these judgements.

 Yet in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgement and in all belief in sin, is that one instant still called back, as if it could be made again in time. (ACIM, T-26.V.5:5)

A Course in Miracles tells us that nothing has really happened. We only see the past through the eyes of the ego. The ego is not who we are. It is the character we play. It is a summary of past events brought into the now.

Witnessing this character that we play is our real Self. Witnessing this character with our real Self is the Holy Spirit, and all this is happening within the mind. The character that we play sees only the past. Our real Self sees only the present. We can observe one and be the other. The way to nowhere is when we only identify as the character we play.

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8/ An Appeal for Help

5th May 2022

Lesson 8: My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts (ACIM, W-8)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the mind’s preoccupation with time is where all our suffering arises. It tells us that we can never grasp anything exactly as it is. ACIM tells us that every thought is just an illusion based on past events. Every thought is actually a belief in something that is not there. And it is these thoughts that form the world in which we live.

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. And it is real to you. It is not nothing. (ACIM, T-26.VI.1:1-4)

This is the key. The world is very real to us. It is both terrifying and compelling at the same time. And when the terror surrounds us, it is hell in the extreme. So to be told that the world is not real is unhelpful. However, to learn why the world is unreal is very helpful.

A Course in Miracles is all about relationship. It tells us our thoughts establish our relationships. We judge someone to be worthy of our friendship, or not. None of this is based on present moment experience. It is all based on the past. To see someone as they really are is impossible when our minds are preoccupied with past thoughts.

The aim of the Workbook is to retrain our minds so the Holy Spirit can work through us. We can then be in any situation, no matter how terrible or ghastly, and we can see it differently. No matter who is in front of us, no matter who we are thinking of, A Course in Miracles tells us this: Look gently on your brother, and behold the world in which perception of your hate has been transformed into a world of love. (ACIM, T-26.V.14:5)

Cate Grieves’ second talk on The Obstacles to Peace (ACIM, T-19.IV) is a helpful way to understand relationship. To truly understand the truth of what we are, no one can be excluded. Everyone has the same need - we just want to be loved. It is all just an appeal for help. There are no exceptions to this. The link for this talk is below.

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9/ The Projector of the Mind

6th May 2022

Lesson 9: I see nothing as it is now. (ACIM, W-9)

We do not understand. A Course in Miracles tells us that, if we did, there would be no need to practice. ACIM tells us quite clearly that our goal is to understand everything that we cannot see.

We do not understand why our health deteriorates. A Course in Miracles tells us that our health only suffers through the mind.  All the unconscious guilt about our separation from God is in our minds, and this becomes the cause. We simply bury our guilt and push it to one side. The solution, then, is to acknowledge this and see through it. When we see our guilt for what it is, it becomes laughable.

 All sickness comes from separation. When the separation is denied, it goes. For it is gone as soon as the idea that brought it has been healed, and been replaced by sanity. (ACIM, T-26.VII.2:1-3)

A Course in Miracles tells us that we see nothing as it is because we have a mind that is insane. It tells us that our real mind is clarity. If we spent just a moment observing our thoughts, we would probably agree that a lot of our thinking is clearly insane. Then, when we learn that these are the same thoughts that we project out onto the world, we come to understand that the world we see is the world we make.

The source of our thoughts is therefore crucial and key to our mental and physical health. Everything happens in the mind: What is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not outside at all, but an effect of what is in, and has not left its source (ACIM, T-26.VII.4:9).

This Workbook, then, allows us to be aware of the power of the mind. We learn to change the mind. A Course in Miracles tells us to find the cause of our suffering, and the cause is the ego. The ego is the projector in our minds that determines our perception. ACIM is about changing the projector so we see clearly. Projection makes perception. What we see is what we want we see. 

Perception’s laws must be reversed, because they are reversals of the laws of truth. The laws of truth forever will be true, and cannot be reversed; yet can be seen as upside down. And this must be corrected where the illusion of reversal lies. (ACIM, T-26.VII.5:2-4)

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10/ The Dark Side

7th May 2022

Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything. (ACIM, W-10)

A Course in Miracles tells us we have nothing to compare our thoughts to. We just assume they are our thoughts. Our world is shaped around our thoughts. We live, we die. This is our life.

We are a body. A body is clearly separate. The mind sees this separation. Yet A Course in Miracles tells us that the body simply symbolises our wish to be apart and separate. The mind loves doing this. It perpetuates it all the time. It will find hundreds of reasons why this is true. And yet the goal of ACIM is to learn that this is not true. We learn that our true reality is completely different.

We are a mind. We think highly original and perceptive thoughts. Our thinking makes us who we are. It’s us and them. We are either the good guys looking at the bad, or the bad guys looking at the good.  The mind loves doing this. And yet A Course in Miracles tells us there is no separation. There are no original thoughts. It’s all an illusion. We are thinking about nothing.

A Course in Miracles is here to tell us that our reality is so much bigger than what we think it is. It has nothing to do with the narrative of our thoughts. This might be why ACIM uses terminology that our minds actively resist. Take ‘sin’ for example. We might believe that our sins will take us to hell. ACIM tells us that it is only our belief in sin that allows our minds to create a hell.

Sins are beliefs that you impose between your brother and yourself. They limit you to time and place, and give a little space to you, another little space to him. This separating off is symbolised, in your perception, by a body which is clearly separate and a thing apart. Yet what this symbol represents is but your wish to be apart and separate. (ACIM, T-26.VII.8:7-10)

The dark side is therefore what we make it. The dark side really doesn’t exist. A Course in Miracles tells us that everything happens in the mind. We can think we are a body, with all the heaviness and darkness that this entails; or we can understand that we are spirit, with all the light and wonder that this brings. Our thoughts make or break us. The fact is, our thoughts never leave their source.

Cause and effect are one, not separate. God wills you learn what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their source. (ACIM, T-26.VII.13:1-2)

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11/ Closing the Gap

8th May 2022

Lesson 11: My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. (ACIM, W-11)

This lesson is telling us that it is impossible for the world to determine how we feel. It is how we feel that determines the world. This is a complete reversal of what we know.

Something happens and our lives change; A Course in Miracles tells us it is happening in the mind. A major earth-shattering event comes at us through the television screens; again, it is happening in the mind. ACIM is a course in seeing things differently. It has nothing to do with changing the world. It is all about changing our minds.

A Course in Miracles is all about what is happening now, not what will happen in the future, nor what has happened in the past. ACIM is a course in forgiveness. It tells us that forgiveness is immediate and does not involve time. ACIM is about getting rid of the imagined space that we think exists between all of us. We feel that we are separate and alone, but we are not.

The one remaining problem that you have is that you see an interval between the time when you forgive, and will receive the benefits of trusting in your brother. This but reflects the little you would keep between you and your brother, that you and he might be a little separate. (ACIM, T-26.VIII.1:1-2)

Everything is unfolding in just this one moment. We can have a miracle or we can have nothing. Present moment awareness is immediate.  Its cause is in the mind. Everything else is meaningless because it arises from meaningless thoughts about the past or the future.

This way of thinking keeps us closed off from each other. We make up stories about ourselves and each other. This creates a gap, and it is this gap which needs to be crossed. The decision is in the mind. It is the ego or the Holy Spirit. One joins and one separates. It is always just one choice, and that choice can only happen now.

But present joining is your dread. Who can feel desolation except now? A future cause as yet has no effects. And therefore must it be that if you fear, there is a present cause. And it is this that needs correction, not a future state. (ACIM, T-26.VIII.4:4-8)

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12/ The Importance of Relationship

9th May 2022

Lesson 12: I am upset because I see a meaningless world (ACIM, W-12)

If A Course in Miracles is telling us we see a meaningless world, then either ACIM is wrong or we are wrong. ACIM tells us that we give the world all the meaning it has, regardless of the form it takes. It tells us that, when we understand that this is so, there is no reason to be upset.

We have the opposite view. We do see a world that is upsetting, and we probably see that every day. We don’t even have to look far - in fact, we could just look about us now and find something to be upset about. There is always something that will trigger a memory. The cause of the upset is irrelevant. We are conditioned into becoming upset.

A Course in Miracles is about seeing the face of Christ in everyone and everything. It is about having the memory of God within us all the time without exception. The face of Christ is not the face of Jesus, dead on the cross, but of the Self we share. It is what connects us within the Mind of God. God is our Source, and the memory of God is the memory we share.

God never made the world. We did. This is a key message that A Course in Miracles teaches us. The way out of suffering is in our relationship with each other. The ego condemns, the Holy Spirit connects. ACIM tells us it is all within our minds. We make or break ourselves by our thoughts. 

The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. (ACIM, T-26.IX.6:1)

The key here is forgiveness. We chose the Holy Spirit over the ego, and allow everything that never happened to simply fade away. Forgiveness is a silent practice. It is a simple appreciation of knowing that what is in me is in you, and what is in you is in me. This has absolutely nothing to do with the ego. It has everything to do with the memory of God and the face of Christ.

However much you wish he be condemned, God is in him. And never will you know He is in you as well while you attack His chosen home, and battle with His host. Regard him gently. Look with loving eyes on him who carries Christ within him, that you may behold his glory and rejoice that Heaven is not separate from you. (ACIM, T-26.IX.1:3-6)

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13/ Seeing the Same as Different

10th May 2022

Lesson 13: A meaningless world engenders fear. (ACIM, W-13)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the thought of a meaningless word induces fear. This might manifest itself through anger, anxiety, laughter, suspicion, or just stony-faced silence. Ultimately, though, it is always fear.

Today’s lesson does state that a meaningless world is actually impossible. It says that nothing without meaning exists. It is just our interpretation of what is in front of us that needs changing. Whether we are seeing things clearly, or seeing them wrongly, it all comes down to this. We see with fear, or we see with the absence of fear. We see with the ego, or we see with the Holy Spirit.

Confusion is not limited. If it occurs at all it will be total. And its presence, in whatever form, will hide Their Presence. They are known with clarity or not at all. Confused perception will block knowledge. It is not a question of the size of the confusion, or how much it interferes. Its simple presence shuts the door to Theirs, and keeps Them there unknown. (ACIM, T-26.X.1:5-11)

A Course in Miracles is a course in all or nothing. It is a course in Them or us. We either know God, or we don’t know God. We either know our Self, or we don’t know our Self. We either believe in the ego, or we believe in the Holy Spirit. We either see separation, or we see wholeness. The point is not to force a change. It is merely a slow dissolving of everything that annoys us. It is the removal of the covers so that we see what lies below. It is about getting to the heart of what we are so that we can enjoy life fully without baggage.

Perceptions laws are opposite to truth, and what is true of knowledge is not true of anything that is apart from it. (ACIM, T-26.VII.4:1)

A Course in Miracles tells us that all forms of attack are unfair. Truth does not involve attack in any form. Regardless of whether we are thinking an unloving thought, or whether it is a more obvious attack, the action has no basis in truth. And, if it has no basis in truth, ACIM tells us it does not exist.

Understanding the principles takes time. It takes patience to do the Workbook. All the blocks can’t be removed in one go. But they can slowly disappear and, when they do, then clarity returns.

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14/ Combining the Incompatible

11th May 2022

Lesson 14: God did not create a meaningless world. (ACIM, W-14)

A Course in Miracles tells us that, collectively, we know God. We are all one. Individually, it is our purpose to help each other back to this knowledge. No one is independent of each other. No one is alone, regardless of the form that the aloneness takes. ACIM tells us that, what we do to ourselves, we do to each other.

You cannot crucify yourself alone. (ACIM, T-27.I.1:5)

You cannot sacrifice yourself alone. (ACIM, T-27.I.1:7)

Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated or in need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God’s Son. (ACIM, T-27.I.3:1)

A Course in Miracles wants us to perceive the body as neutral. It wants us to put the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit. When this happens, it means that nothing can hurt us. We are using the body in a way that promotes peace. It is what all the great spiritual teachers have done. It is what Jesus did in his lifetime.

Jesus tells us through A Course in Miracles that we see Heaven or hell in each other. We see the ego or the Holy Spirit. We see fear or love. These opposites are quite independent of each other. For example, Heaven does not know hell, and hell does not know Heaven. The Holy Spirit does not know the ego, and the ego does not know the Holy Spirit. It is always our choice to know one or the other. ACIM tells us we need to bring the darkness to the light. We need to bring fear to love. The two do not know of each other, but it seems that we do.

We cannot combine the incompatible. The lesson today states that God did not create a meaningless world. This means that God did not create fear. God did not create hell. It is us, as individual human beings, who created the fear and the hell. 

A Course in Miracles tells us fear and hell are illusory. This means it is our responsibility to help each other back to what we know.

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