Reflections 141 to 154

 

141/ Our Two Beliefs

15th September 2022

 

Lesson 141: Review 4: Lessons 121 & 122.

 

The review today starts with a simple statement: My mind holds only what I think with God (ACIM, W-141). Two lessons then follow. They both tell us that forgiveness is the key to knowing this.

 

A Course in Miracles is a course in forgiveness. It is a course in undoing everything that we have never done. It is a course in being something different to what we think we are. Basically, it is a course in forgiving insanity.

 

The ego holds us in a rigid straightjacket.  We are tied to the belief that we made up of opposites, some good and some bad. The Holy Spirit is not deceived by this because the Holy Spirit knows what we are. We are not skin and bone, but joy and love. We are timeless and complete in God.

 

You, then, have two conflicting evaluations of yourself in your mind, and they cannot both be true. You do not yet realize how completely different these evaluations are, because you do not understand how lofty the Holy Spirit’s perception of you really is. (ACIM, T-9.VII.4:1-2)

 

The ego establishes the deep seated guilt that keeps us caught up in the dream of being something that we are not. It is like being immersed in a movie. To remember that we are simply watching this movie requires only one moment of clarity. We can awaken immediately if we want to.

 

Reincarnation is when we go from movie to movie. Forgiveness breaks the cycle and sets us free. Our two beliefs therefore control our destiny. One will shackle us; the other sets us free.

 

Betty Eadie’s near-death experience is about connecting to the oneness that we are. Her NDE is about knowing Jesus and the forgiveness that he teaches. It is also about knowing why we come to earth and understanding the roles that we come here to play. The main interview and the Q&A that follows are with Melissa Denyce and the Love Covered Life Podcast.

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142/ Acceptance and Awareness

16th September 2022

 

Lesson 142: Review 4: Lessons 123 & 124.

 

The two lessons reviewed today basically tell us we need consistency to know God. Without it, we continue as we are. The Workbook, therefore, is a path away from habitual thinking.

 

So, when our minds begin to worry about the future, we can be sure we are off track.

 

If we feel exploited or put upon, we can be certain we are bringing up the past.

 

On the occasion we feel superior or conceited, we can be sure we are in the grip of the ego.

 

Jesus explains it like this: When the ego experiences threat, its only decision is whether to attack now or to withdraw and attack later (ACIM, T-9.VIII.3:4). The ego, then, is relentless. It loves taunting us.

 

The ego craves control. It needs us to be submissive. The study of A Course in Miracles is a complete reversal of the ego’s thinking. ACIM is all about returning to our true Self. It is about having no anxiety, no doubt, and no conceit. We gain the confidence to embrace a new way of thinking.

 

We are asked to remember that we cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God. A Course in Miracles is the means to accept this, to become aware of it, and finally to be it.

 

You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. No one else can fill your part in it, and while you leave your part of it empty your eternal place merely waits for your return. God, through His Voice, reminds you of it, and God Himself keeps your extensions safe within it. (ACIM, T-9.VIII.10:1-3)

 

Understanding even a small part of this is the fundamental truth that Jesus is teaching us.

 

Jesus wants us to listen to the Holy Spirit with acceptance and awareness. Without this, we fall into the trap of the ego. The ego will do everything it can to stop us waking up in the Mind of God.

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143/ What Does not Change

17th September 2022

 

Lesson 143: Review 4: Lessons 125 & 126.

 

Today, we review another two lessons. Both highlight what A Course in Miracles is teaching us. This is that there is nothing out there and no one to give to. Only the ego makes us think that there is.

 

We make our own little worlds. We do our own thing. We move around in a distracted state of mind. However, none of this matters. All we are doing is just thinking a series of isolated, meaningless thoughts.

 

Ultimately, the whole of A Course in Miracles comes down to this.

 

There is just God.

 

We are one.

 

We are purity and light.

 

The Infinite Love of God can never change.

 

This is why the two lessons today are just extensions of the above. By being quiet, we can know who we are and we can understand that we give only to ourselves. Everything is happening in the mind.

 

The ego wants change. The ego arises through our mindless thoughts that take us everywhere except to our Self. Our true nature does not change. This belongs to God, and God is what we are.

 

Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving, because nothing is beyond you. Time and eternity are both in your mind, and will conflict until you perceive time solely as a means to regain eternity. You cannot do this as long as you believe that anything happening to you is caused by factors outside yourself. (ACIM, T-10.in.1:1-3)

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144/ The Extension of Love

18th September 2022

 

Lesson 144: Review 4: Lessons 127 & 128.

 

The two lessons reviewed today indirectly refer to what’s in our minds. The first lesson states that the Love of God is all that exists. The second infers that the world of love just an illusion.

 

It is clear that the ego believes in the world. What the ego believes is rooted in the world of form.

 

All that the Holy Spirit knows is rooted in God’s Love. It is rooted in the nature of formlessness.

 

A Course in Miracles is about tapping into this love: The law of creation is that you love your creations as yourself, because they are part of you (ACIM, T-10.I.1:3). Our creations are everything that emanates from a mind that knows its Creator, just as Love emanates from the Creator Itself.

 

Your creations belong in you, as you belong in God. You are part of God, as your sons are part of His Sons. To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained. (ACIM, T-7.I.3:1-4)

 

The ego is not what we are. A Course in Miracles makes this very clear. It tells us we have no opposite and that the ego is an illusion. The ego is simply a manifestation of thought that has no control over us. The fact is, we are at home in God and to not know this is to be asleep.

 

A Course in Miracles is about awakening to our reality. It is the understanding that God created our one Self - the Christ - and we are that Self or that Christ.

 

You will remember everything the instant you desire it wholly, for if to desire wholly is to create, you will have willed away the separation, returning your mind simultaneously to your Creator and your creations. (ACIM, T-10.I.4:1)

 

The extension of love arises when we want nothing else. It is there always, even as we sleep. To fully experience this is what awakening is. We come to see that there is nothing else. Love is what we are.

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145/ To Forget and to Remember

19th September 2022

 

Lesson 145: Review 4: Lessons 129 & 130.

 

A summary of the two lessons reviewed today is this. We always hope for something better. We don’t realize that only thinking makes it impossible to have.

 

This world appears so real and yet it is not. A Course in Miracles tells us it is just a fictitious narrative running through our minds. We are making the world we see with each thought we think.

 

We do have a memory, though. Our choice is whether to rediscover this memory or to keep in smothered in useless thinking.

 

You are fearful because you have forgotten. And you have replaced your knowledge by an awareness of dreams because you are afraid of your dissociation, not what you have dissociated. When what you have dissociated is accepted, it ceases to be fearful. (ACIM, T-10.II.1:4-6)

 

Fear and love, therefore, are our only options. Fear arises from dissociation. Love arises with association.

 

Jesus, within A Course in Miracles, asks us to give up gladly everything that stands in the way of our remembering. He also says that to remember is merely to restore to our minds what is already there. Fear is blocking this. We suffer through the simple act of not remembering.

 

All attack is Self attack. It cannot be anything else. Arising from your own decision not to be what you are, it is an attack on your identification. Attack is thus the way in which your identification is lost, because when you attack, you must have forgotten what you are. (ACIM, T-10.II.5:1-4)

 

What we are has never gone away. Jesus says it is always here and is closer than our breath.

 

A Course in Miracles is just one way to remember our essential nature. To remember is to be joyful and happy with no opposite. To forget is to remain asleep to the memory of our forgotten joy.rely to restore to our minds what is already there. Fear is blocking this. We suffer through the simple act of not remembering.

 

All attack is Self attack. It cannot be anything else. Arising from your own decision not to be what you are, it is an attack on your identification. Attack is thus the way in which your identification is lost, because when you attack, you must have forgotten what you are. (ACIM, T-10.II.5:1-4)

 

What we are has never gone away. Jesus says it is always here and is closer than our breath.

 

A Course in Miracles is just one way to remember our essential nature. To remember is to be joyful and happy with no opposite. To forget is to remain asleep to the memory of our forgotten joy.

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146/ In Sickness and in Health

20th September 2022

 

Lesson 146: Review 4: Lessons 131 & 132.

 

What is it we are looking for? In the review today, the first lesson states that no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. The second lesson then states the end result. Quite simply, we lose the world from all we thought it was.

 

The world of form encourages variations of fortune and misfortune. This comes by way of sickness and health, and we don’t have to look too far to find this out. Jesus gave us A Course in Miracles to change our perception. By doing this, we can perceive a world of health and wellbeing instead.

 

Jesus tells us that our belief sickness shows we perceive with the ego. We need to look past this belief to the wholeness that is there.

 

Jesus wants us to know that a whole mind does not believe in anything that comes with an opposite. The Holy Spirit has no opposite because an opposite is nothing. Our wholeness is everything.

 

The opposite of love is fear and only the ego knows fear, although Jesus tells us it knows nothing. Sickness arises from fear because we have simply chosen to fear all that is love.

 

You made the god of sickness, and by making him you made yourself able to hear him. Yet you did not create him, because he is not the Will of the Father. He is therefore not eternal and will be unmade for you the instant you signify your willingness to accept only the eternal. (ACIM, T-10.III.9:4-6)

 

Jesus says that nothing is beyond us and, equally, nothing is apart from us. God did not create a sick mind but we did. We can suffer if we want to but we can also be healed. In other words, it is always our choice to be in sickness or in health.

 

Heal your brothers simply by accepting God for them. Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for healing because He has but one Son. God’s remaining Communication Link with all His children joins them together, and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is sick. (ACIM, T-10.III.2:4-7)

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147/ The Whole Light

21st September 2022

 

Lesson 147: Review 4: Lessons 133 & 134.

 

What we can surmise from the review today is that nothing has any meaning except for God and His one Son. Nothing else exists. Even forgiveness means nothing because, between God and His one Son, there is nothing to forgive.

 

We are merely asked to change our perception. We are not asked to change reality which is impossible anyway. Oneness, after all, can have no opposite.

 

If there is only one God then it seems that we have created a lot of little gods. A Course in Miracles is where we lay aside these gods. We put our faith in what is real. We put our trust in a two-inch book because there is something about the words that completely rings true.

 

The words tell us that perfection can have no opposite. Illusions are not reality. The world as we see it is just a smokescreen. It is a projection that arises from an unsteady mind.

 

Our minds make or create. We see only what is going on in our thoughts.

 

Reality can dawn only on an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but its acceptance depends on your willingness to have it. To know reality must involve the willingness to judge unreality for what it is. (ACIM, T-10.IV.2:1-3)

 

Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions, because truth and illusions are irreconcilable. Truth is whole, and cannot be known by part of a mind. (ACIM, T-10.IV.2:5-6)

 

Within us all is a little spark. We can all see this spark, but not when illusions block its sight. Then, as we do see this spark, we begin to see the whole light. The whole light is God because God is Light.

 

The power of one mind can shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere and it is eternal. (ACIM, T-10.IV.7:5-6)

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148/ Being a Piece and the Peace of God

22nd September 2022

 

Lesson 148: Review 4: Lessons 135 & 136.

 

A Course in Miracles is holographic. Every part of it comes down to one thing. We are all equal and come from the Peace of God. In this, ACIM is quite adamant.

 

The Workbook always mirrors the Text. For example, If I defend myself I am attacked (ACIM, W-148) is the first lesson reviewed today. The half page of the Text that I read this morning contained this.

 

You may believe that you judge your brothers by the messages they give you, but you have judged them by the message you give to them. Do not attribute your denial of joy to them, or you cannot see the spark in them that would bring joy to you. (ACIM, T-10.V.2:3-4)

 

Sickness is a defense against the truth (ACIM, W-148) is the other lesson reviewed today. On that same half page, preceding the lines above, this was written.

                                                                                                                                                         

The rituals of the god of sickness are strange and very demanding. Joy is never permitted, for depression is the sign of allegiance to him. Depression means that you have forsworn God. Many are afraid of blasphemy, but they do not understand what it means. They do not realize that to deny God is to deny their own Identity, and in this sense the wages of sin is death. (ACIM, T-10.V.1:1-5)

 

The message is always the same. We are whole and never apart. God is here and with us always.

 

Below, three videos make up the one session where Melissa Denyce, Christian Sundberg and Akerke Muratova tackle questions that they find are most commonly asked about pre-birth memory. Seven questions are covered and their answers always seem to come back to the fact that we are both a piece and the peace of God. They keep reminding us that love is all that matters. Love is all there is.

 

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149/ The Healing of the Mind

23rd September 2022

 

Lesson 149: Review 4: Lessons 137 & 138.

 

Within the context of A Course in Miracles, we are all one. To be healed means the whole is healed. There is no exclusion from eternal peace because we are all eternal peace. As stated, Heaven is the decision I must make (ACIM, W-149).

 

If Heaven is the awareness of perfect oneness then, by definition, we need to be aware of what we are. This is not two legs, two arms, a mouth, teeth and bone. It is singularly greater, so expansive that it is beyond our capacity to imagine.

 

A dog is God spelt backwards. Look at the unconditional love of a dog, and we begin to get close.

 

Look at the way the sun always sets and the moon always rises. The force of nature wakes us up and puts us to sleep.

 

Think of how peaceful it is when a clock stops ticking. Then imagine the silence that occurs when a heart stops beating.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that we have denied God but God has not denied us. He answers us but we do not answer Him. God is within each and every one of us, and yet we cannot even sense this.

 

Only the eternal can be loved, for love does not die. What is of God is His forever, and you are of God. Would He allow Himself to suffer? And would He offer His Son anything that is not acceptable to Him? If you will accept yourself as God created you, you will be incapable of suffering. (ACIM, T-10.V.9:1-5)

 

A Course in Miracles wants us regain our power. It wants us to be what we are. It states this: Arrogance is the denial of love, because love shares and arrogance withholds (ACIM, T-10.V.14:1).

 

All we have to do is to look past the form and see the formless. This is the healing of the mind.

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150/ The Need to Trust

24th September 2022

 

Lesson 150: Review 4: Lessons 139 & 140.

 

The final two lessons of this review mention the Atonement and salvation. Both provide the end of suffering. The Atonement is the complete healing of the mind; salvation establishes the mind with the understanding of God’s Love. Through both, we lose any distinction between what we are and what God Is.

 

What we are now is debatable. We might feel calm and stable, or we might feel a nervous wreck. We might be strong and healthy, or weak and sick. We might feel as if we have a whole combination of strengths and weaknesses, but one thing is doubtful. It is unlikely we feel that we are spirit.

 

A Course in Miracles is a journey to the Holy Spirit. It is a journey made with Jesus. It doesn’t require blind faith or biblical interpretation. This journey just needs a strong determination to follow the instructions carefully and to the best of our ability.

 

Jesus tells us that the ego makes by projection and God creates by extension. He says that there is only darkness and light. The closer, then, that we get to the centre of God’s thought system, the lighter it becomes; and the closer we get to the heart of the ego’s thought system, the darker it becomes. Sometimes it might feel as if we are totally engulfed in darkness.

 

Our journey is from darkness to light. It is a journey from guilt to acceptance, and from fear to love. What do we place our faith in? A Course in Miracles is very clear in this. We either place our faith in the Holy Spirit, or we place it in another spiritual path, but we never place our faith in the ego.

 

Jesus tells us we just need to trust. Jesus tells us that God fathered us and we fathered the ego. Where we put our trust is where we get our guidance. Jesus might sum it up as follows. We either put our trust in darkness or we put our trust in light.

 

My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have at last looked at the ego’s foundation without shrinking you will also have looked upon ours. I come to you from our Father to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for its protection will not save you. I give you the lamp and I will go with you. You will not take this journey alone. (ACIM, T-11.in.4:1-6)

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151/ Terms and Conditions

25th September 2022

 

Lesson 151: All things are echoes of the Voice for God. (ACIM, W-151)

 

The lesson today is referring to the Holy Spirit. It is stating that an echo of the Voice for God always exists within our minds. It means that an echo of eternity is always with us. It never leaves the mind. It is always prompting us to exceed our limitations.

 

God’s Voice is not loud. However, an echo can be mesmeric. The sound of an echo rises and fades, leaving the listener transfixed and speechless. It’s a bit like skimming stones. It’s fun to try again, just to see if we can outdo the first attempt.

 

A Course in Miracles repeatedly states that we have never lost our Identity. We are just asleep to it. It explains that nothing exists outside of the mind and so our complete Identity is within the mind. It tells us that the memory of God requires only that we desire it. ACIM’s whole message is that God wants us and misses us. We have blocked ourselves off from His Love.

 

Jesus had this connection to the Holy Spirit and the Love of God throughout his life. Any spiritual master would have the same. A Course in Miracles is Jesus telling us we are just the same as him. He is telling us we too can hear the Voice for God just like he did.

 

The laws of the universe do not permit contradiction. What holds for God holds for you. If you believe you are absent from God, you will believe that He is absent from you. Infinity is meaningless without you, and you are meaningless without God. There is no end to God and to His Son, for we are the universe. (ACIM, T-11.I.5:1-5)

 

Jesus says that to be alone is to be separate from infinity, stating that infinity has no end. He tells us the limitless is everywhere. There are no beginnings and endings where God is concerned.

 

God has no terms and conditions, but we have made them. The limitless is easily accessible, but we have made barriers. Jesus teaches us how to remove these barriers and to share our mind with his.

 

God’s Will is that His Son be One, and united with Him in His Oneness. That is why healing is the beginning and the recognition that your will is His. (ACIM, T-11.I.11:8-9)

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152/ Perfect Understanding

26th September 2022

 

Lesson 152: The power of decision is my own. (ACIM, W-152)

 

The lesson today tells us that we make our own reality. Everything that happens to us is because we have asked for it.

 

The lesson today tells us that truth cannot have an opposite. Truth can have no exception. Only truth is true and nothing else is true.

 

The lesson today tells us that all suffering is our own decision. Death, pain, grief, fear, the endless headaches - every form of suffering becomes a decision. This is the world in which we find ourselves.

 

This sounds harsh, and it is to the ego. However, the study of A Course in Miracles is a simple choice. It is a choice between truth and illusion, joy and pain. It is between happiness and suffering. Basically, it all comes down to one thing. How much do we really want to know our real Self?

 

A Course in Miracles therefore teaches us the following.

 

To make ourselves whole, we can never attack.

 

To make ourselves complete, we can only love.

 

To make ourselves happy, we must look past all sadness.

 

Perfect understanding comes when we know there are only two choices. The power of decision is always our own. Only we can decide between God and the ego. Only we can decide between love and fear. Only we can make a world that is real or a world that is not real.

 

Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? You will accept only whom you invite. You are free to determine who shall be your guest, and how long he shall remain with you. (ACIM, T-11.II.7:1-3)

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153/ What Is it to Be Holy?

27th September 2022

 

Lesson 153: In my defenselessness my safety lies. (ACIM, W-153)

 

A Course in Miracles wants us to be holy. It wants us to be defenceless. It wants us to rid ourselves of all thoughts that we need to protect ourselves.

 

This means we have to undo the mind from reliance on the ego.

 

•         To be an ego means that our whole world is based on fear.

 

•         To be an ego means we live in the past and dream of the future.

 

•         To be an ego means we judge consistently and live in isolation from each other.

 

To undo the ego, we have to have absolute trust in the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be holy.

 

•         Being holy means we let go of all attachments to the world.

 

•         Being holy means we see complete love and peace in everyone we meet.

 

•         Being holy means we understand that our whole purpose is to be happy.

 

Jesus is our guide on this path to holiness. Each lesson in the Workbook is a lesson in holiness. We are taught that to be holy means to be whole. This means seeing our wholeness in each other. It means seeing God’s peace in everything and in everyone, and this is without exception.

 

Give His peace, that you may enter the temple and find it waiting for you. But be holy in the Presence of God, or you will not know that you are there. For what is unlike God cannot enter His Mind, because it was not His Thought and therefore does not belong to Him. (ACIM, T-11.III.7:3-5)

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154/ Limiting the Limitless

28th September 2022

 

Lesson 154: I am among the ministers of God. (ACIM, W-154)

 

The lesson today asks us a question. It asks us if we would like to receive the messages of God?

 

Our reaction might be to say “thank you” and then decline - and especially so if it involves anything remotely painful. Crucifixion springs to mind.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us we do not have to suffer. When messages come, they arise from a quiet place. They would never involve judgement or attack. The messages of God are meant for the benefit of the whole, and it is impossible for any of us to see the bigger picture.

 

Within this context, nothing is forced. Everything is voluntary. A Course in Miracles is a course in spreading ease and joy. Whatever role we take in doing this, we can be sure it will suit our temperament and personality. ACIM also only comes into our lives when we are ready.

 

A Course in Miracles is about freewill. Freewill is God’s Will. Jesus tells us we are perfectly entitled to do what we want, and we can do it whenever we want. He tells us it is our birthright to be happy. Below, his essential message is that we need to stop hurting both ourselves and others.

 

Only you can deprive yourself of anything. (ACIM, T-11.IV.4:1)

 

You cannot enter God’s Presence if you attack His Son. (ACIM, T-11.IV.5:6)

 

Jesus wants us to know that there is no distinction between within and without. To understand that we are all exactly equal - just one Self with no exception - means we are not limiting the limitless. Jesus tells us that we always have everything within us, and we see each other as we see ourselves.

 

Never forget that the Sonship is your salvation, for the Sonship is your Self. As God’s creation It is yours, and belonging to you It is His. Your Self does not need salvation, but your mind needs to learn what salvation is. (ACIM, T-11.IV.1:1-3)