Reflections 211 to 224

 

211/ Always, there Is Life!

24th November 2022

 

Lesson 211: Review 6: Lesson 191.

 

 A Course in Miracles tells us that the Holy Spirit is part of who we are. He is both God and us, as we are both God and Him together.

 

As we go through the Workbook, our minds are finding out that this is true. We are healing the split. On the one side we have the illusions of the ego; on the other side we have the truth of what we are.

 

The lesson reviewed today is a validation of our purpose. It is a statement that we are the holy Son of God. God is in our minds and, if the mind is still enough, God will gently remind us of this too.

 

A Course in Miracles provides the theory to know this and the practice to do it. Putting theory into practice cancels out the mental chatter that drowns out the Voice for God. This is our only goal.

 

You are not two selves in conflict. What is beyond God? If you who hold Him and whom He holds are the universe, all else must be outside, where nothing is. You have taught this, and from far off in the universe, yet not beyond yourself, the witnesses to your teaching have gathered to help you learn. (ACIM, T-16.III.6:1-4)

 

Life is multi-faceted. It is colourful. Life holds so much more than our limited minds can ever know.

 

Life is what we make it. Good or bad, we find that our lives are just the sum total of our thoughts.

 

PMH Atwater is a researcher into the near-death experience and is constantly amazed by life. She has interviewed over 7,000 people and is the author of more than 15 books. Below, she talks to Jannecke Øinæs of Wisdom From North. The interview was recorded ten years ago but is completely relevant to where we are in 2022. She finishes the interview by repeating the phrase she hears the most from those she has interviewed: Always, there is life! 

____________________________________________________________________________

212/ The Light in the Mind

25th November 2022

 

Lesson 212: Review 6: Lesson 192.

 

The lesson reviewed today gives us a function. It is the function given us by God. We are ignorant to what this function is because, if we knew, we would be Home. Heaven would be our reality.

 

 A Course in Miracles has a thousand-plus pages telling us why we need to know this function.

 

Love is not an illusion. It is a fact. (ACIM, T-16.IV.4:1-2)

 

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. (ACIM, T-16.IV.6:1)

 

Every illusion you accept into your mind by judging it to be attainable removes your own sense of completion, and thus denies the Wholeness of your Father. (ACIM, T-16.IV.10:2)

 

Our function is therefore to value truth beyond fantasy. Our function is to learn how the Holy Spirit can show us this. Our function is to know that only truth is our completion.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that Heaven waits silently. Heaven is when we know that we are one.

 

Our function is therefore to have the awareness of oneness. It is to know we are perfect as we are.

 

Jesus gives us the image of a metaphorical bridge. We are on one side and God is on the other. This is the bridge that lifts us from time into eternity. It directs us straight toward the Heart of God.

 

A Course in Miracles is the bridge that links twoness to oneness. It is a path to the awakened state.

 

Our function is to teach this to others. It is only through others that we can find the light in the mind.

____________________________________________________________________________

213/ Complete Opposites

26th November 2022

 

Lesson 213: Review 6: Lesson 193.

 

The lesson reviewed today tells us that any lessons we have in life are miracles. Miracles are given to us in order to replace the thoughts that hurt.

 

Who gives these lessons? They arise from a Source that is beyond the comprehension of the limited mind. The limitless mind, however, knows its Source intimately. It has not one iota of doubt.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that separation is the decision not to know who we are. The separate mind is the ego, and the ego is a thought system that carefully leads us away from truth. The miracle, however, belongs to a thought system that leads us back to immortality.

 

Jesus states that we choose between happiness and sadness, greed and selflessness, joy and pain - in fact between any of the constant stream of opposites that our minds are holding - and we do this every second of the day. These are choices we probably don’t even know we are making.

 

No one considers it bizarre to love and hate together, and even those who believe that hate is sin merely feel guilty, but do not correct it. This is the “natural” condition of the separation, and those who learn that it is not natural at all seem to be the unnatural ones. (ACIM, T-16.V.3:4-5)

 

Regardless of what we do, everyone wants happiness in their lives. Seven billion people are making choices every moment of the day just to make this happen. It comes down to perception. What the world sees as heaven and what A Course in Miracles teaches is Heaven are complete opposites. ACIM tells us that the self does anything it can to make a heaven for itself, but the Self doesn’t have to. It knows it is complete. To the self, heaven is earned; to the Self, Heaven just Is.

 

In Heaven, where the meaning of love is known, love is the same as union. Here, where the illusion of love is accepted in love’s place, love is perceived as separation and exclusion. (ACIM, T-16.V.3:7-8)

 

A Course in Miracles is the merging of complete opposites. ACIM believes there are no variations on love. It tells us the Self cannot live without God and God cannot live without the Self. Love feeds us our reality. However, it is only through the actual experience that we can know that this is true. 

____________________________________________________________________________

214/ Peace and Kindness

27th November 2022

 

Lesson 214: Review 6: Lesson 194.

 

 Love is freedom. To look for it by placing yourself in bondage is to separate yourself from it. (ACIM, T-16.VI.2:1-2)

 

Time is kind, and if you use it on behalf of reality it will keep gentle pace with you in your transition. (ACIM, T-16.VI.8:2)

 

The joy of Heaven, which has no limit, is increased with each light that returns to take its rightful place within it. (ACIM, T-16.VI.11:5)

 

All the above is a summary of the lesson reviewed today. We place our future in the hands of God.

 

If love is freedom, then the past and the future can have no meaning. How can it? Love permeates everything, so everything is love.

 

When time is kind, it allows us to step aside from the ego. Why wouldn’t we? The ego is only kind on its own terms. The ego only loves when it knows that love will be returned.

 

Since Heaven has no limit, we should stop looking to the future and look to the now. Why would we think otherwise? Heaven is not earned and has no conditions. Heaven is just a state of mind.

 

A Course in Miracles is the undoing of a distorted frame of reference. It is the cessation of seeing through the lens of the ego. It is a joining with the flow of limitless love that saturates everything.

 

Jesus asks us not to fear about being lifted up and hurled into reality. Instead, he wants us to know that we will connect with reality in a way that is always peaceful and kind.

 

We have no reason to ever doubt this. After all, peace and kindness is the essence of what we are.

____________________________________________________________________________

215/ A Sleeping Mind

28th November 2022

 

Lesson 215: Review 6: Lesson 195.

 

A Course in Miracles states that our only real relationship is with God. We choose this or nothing.

 

The lesson reviewed today tells us that the Holy Spirit is the means to find this out for ourselves. Love is our connection. We walk with love into the holy instant.

 

The conclusion is that we can only choose between truth and illusions - there is no other choice.

 

Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven. From there the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible. (ACIM, T-16.VII.11:1-2)

 

In the holy instant, then, we know that we are perfect. There is nothing that can change reality.

 

In the holy instant, the past is gone and the ego is left behind. This means there is no trace of fear.

 

In the holy instant, we simply merge with the Holy Spirit. We allow the Peace of God to prevail.

 

Do not underestimate the intensity of the ego’s drive for vengeance on the past. It is completely savage and completely insane. For the ego remembers everything you have done that has offended it, and seeks retribution of you. (ACIM, T-16.VII.3:1-3)

 

Jesus wants us to relinquish control of the ego. He tells us to let go of all relationships that are underpinned by fear. This means that, by letting go of specialness, we come to know that we are holy. We are present and we are here.

 

A Course in Miracles is about repairing hurt and damage. It is about the healing of the mind. This might sound like we make our own suffering, but we don’t.  It is just the product of a sleeping mind. 

_________________________________________________________________________

216/ Waking and Sleeping

29th November 2022

 

Lesson 216: Review 6: Lesson 196.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us we can never bring truth to illusions, only illusions to the truth. We can only understand truth by looking at truth.

 

Forgiveness is the key to understanding this. Through forgiveness, nothing is ever withheld from truth. Only what is real can ever be understood.

 

The lesson reviewed today qualifies all the above. It tells us that we only hurt ourselves. We suffer when we attack anyone or anything, and reality never does this. Forgiveness is always the solution.

 

The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his “sins” are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven but awakened. (ACIM, T-17.I.1:1-3)

 

Jesus tells us it is impossible that we would know any of this without help. Our minds are asleep to the obvious. We need a nudge.  It is only when our minds awaken that the complete irrelevance of our dreams can ever be known.

 

We cannot be faithful to two masters - truth and fantasy - but we can definitely be faithful to one.

 

Jesus reminds us that, if we swear allegiance to truth but try to keep some aspect of untruth in our minds, it will never work. We are still sleeping. He tells us we have to commit fully, or not at all.

 

Very simply, your lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain some aspects of reality for fantasy. If you but realized what this must do to your appreciation of the whole! (ACIM, T-17.I.3:3-4)

 

Very simply, we hurt ourselves or we don’t hurt ourselves; we dream or we don’t dream; we know reality or we don’t know reality. The difference between waking and sleeping is just a thought. It is the thought that we are free. 

____________________________________________________________________________

217/ Keep on Stepping

30th November 2022

 

Lesson 217: Review 6: Lesson 197.

 

The lesson reviewed today puts us straight. It states that the burden of responsibility is ours. It tells us that salvation can only be found when we find our own Self.

 

When we find our Self, we are free. Remain as our little self and we remain asleep.

 

A Course in Miracles is just one path that leads to complete freedom of mind. ACIM is the compass to the Holy Spirit. ACIM becomes the mirror in which we find exactly what we need to do.

 

The world we see on the television screens could never resemble a world of freedom. It is clear that limitations are everywhere. People suffer. There might be some beauty, but it is never consistent.

 

The real world is different. In fact, it is the opposite of the world we see in every way. A Course in Miracles teaches that the real world can only be borne out of forgiveness and a forgiving mind.

 

The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the world you see without forgiveness. The great Transformer of perception will undertake with you the careful searching of the mind that made this world, and uncover to you the seeming reasons for your making it. (ACIM, T-17.II.5:1-2)

 

A Course in Miracles states that loveliness is not a fantasy. When we give everything to the Holy Spirit, our birthright becomes a reality. This is the effect of forgiveness.

 

Jesus keeps reminding us time and time again that our real Self has not gone anywhere. In fact, it is what we are. The real world arises only when all fantasies have simply disappeared. We have this at our fingertips - but only if we want it fully. Apparently, it is just a breath away.

 

The Workbook is one step toward this. We have no idea how many steps it will take but we just need to keep on stepping. Gratitude is ours when we do this. This is the lesson of the day.

____________________________________________________________________________

218/ Shadow Figures

1^st December 2022

 

Lesson 218: Review 6: Lesson 198.

 

The lesson reviewed today states that only condemnation injures us. We see the past in everyone we meet and this is what is reflected back to us. We can’t ever see what Is; we only see what is not.

 

A Course in Miracles is the ending of this condemnation. It is the beginning of the acceptance of reality as it is now, not from times gone by.

 

Jesus teaches us the type of forgiveness we need to get there. However, this is not the forgiveness we do in order that we overlook something; it is a forgiveness that tells us it never happened.

 

A Course in Miracles states that we only judge based on past experiences. We think that all our encounters are real, but they are not. They are just thoughts that arise within the mind of the ego, and there they stay. Each encounter the ego has is just a bunch of thoughts that has no meaning.

 

To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection. (ACIM, T-17.III.1:1-3)

 

A Course in Miracles therefore asks us to forgive ourselves for everything that we have never done.

 

We learn that the ego only sees shadow figures that glue our minds to the past. We see in others our own history of hurts. The fact is, the ego paints the past onto every image it sees in the present.

 

Dianne Sherman is an example of someone who sees the truth in everyone she meets, although this wasn’t always the case. Prior to her near-death experience in 1981, she judged everyone in the same way as is described above. The NDE ended that and she came back a different person. She now sees only spirit, and spirit has become her guiding force. The interview is with the Jeff Mara Podcast.

____________________________________________________________________________

219/ There Can Be no Conflict with What Is Now

2nd December 2022

 

Lesson 219: Review 6: Lesson 199.

 

A Course in Miracles is unequivocal.

 

God’s Son is One. Whom God joined as one, the ego cannot put asunder. (ACIM, T-17.III.7:2-3)

 

The lesson reviewed today is equally so.

 

I am God’s Son. Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon this. (ACIM, W-219.1:3-4)

 

Both require the Atonement. This is when the mind has thought about it and knows that it is healed.

 

That is why Atonement centers on the past, which is the source of separation, and where it must be undone. (ACIM, T-17.III.5:8)

 

We are therefore caught in a catch-22. The way we normally think only enforces all our problems.

 

The ego seeks to “resolve” its problems, not at their source, but where they were not made. And thus it seeks to guarantee there will be no solution. (ACIM, T-17.III.6:1-2)

 

Jesus tells us we have one choice and one choice only.

 

We choose between a thought system that is true and a thought system that is false. We choose between the past and the present. Jesus tells us there can be no conflict with what is now.

 

The spark of beauty or the veil of ugliness, the real world or the world of guilt and fear, truth or illusion, freedom or slavery – it is all the same. For you can never choose except between God and the ego. (ACIM, T-17.III.9:4-5) 

____________________________________________________________________________

220/ Contradiction and Stability

3rd December 2022

 

Lesson 220: Review 6: Lesson 200.

 

The essence of A Course of Miracles might appear to be simple, but we probably feel that it is not. If ACIM was so easy to understand, we wouldn’t have to keep coming back to it time and time again.

 

The final lesson in this review states exactly what our ultimate goal is - to know that there is no peace except the peace of God. Why is it such a struggle to know this as a fact?

 

The theory of A Course in Miracles is both clear and befuddling; the practice is riddled with pitfalls we have placed in our way. Then, just as we think we are mastering it, someone says something that puts us in a spin. In a split second, our practice is forgotten. Our minds are back to being in turmoil.

 

Jesus knows exactly why this is. He repeatedly exposes the contradictory nature of the ego so that we can fully appreciate the stability of the Holy Spirit. It’s our choice to suffer and also to feel safe.

 

The ego is always alert to threat, and the part of your mind into which the ego was accepted is very anxious to preserve its reason, as it sees it. It does not realize that it is totally insane. And you must realize just what this means if you would be restored to sanity. (ACIM, T-17.IV.5:1-3)

 

If we want the peace of God, then, we have to have a relationship with God. This can’t be disputed.

 

If we want lesser forms of peace, we simply continue as we are. This, again, is without doubt.

 

Contradiction and stability are the two fundamental effects of having a mind that is split. On the one hand, we can feel lonely and scared; on the other, we might have periods of feeling secure and loved. Both seem quite real, but one just disappears as we bring the peace of God into our lives.

 

God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing you do that does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God ascribed to anything is its only function. (ACIM, T-17.IV.1:1-2)  

______________________________________________________________________________

221/ A Change of Direction

4th December 2022

 

Lesson 221: Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still. (ACIM, W-221)

 

It is at this point that the lessons in the Workbook take a shift in direction. The emphasis is on being still and listening.

 

We don’t need words to learn how to do this. We just need a peaceful state of mind.

 

Each lesson from now on is more condensed. There is less instruction. Our goal is to get to the experience that lies behind the words.

 

There is a fundamental rule in the universe that, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. There is no interference in anything because God has given us free will. It is entirely our choice what we do with our lives.

 

A Course in Miracles, however, states that God has promised that He will come back to us. All we have to do is simply prepare our minds to receive His Voice. This means we quieten our minds to listen for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is His Voice; the Holy Spirit is God’s Love in action.

 

In essence, then, the lesson today sums up exactly what we need to do. Behind the constant barrage of thought that the ego throws at us is peace and stillness. We need to swop all trace of fear with the caress of Spirit; we need to dig beneath the superficial noise to find the silence that is there.

 

Instead of words, we need but feel His love. Instead of prayers, we need but call His name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. We will accept the way God’s plan will end, as we received the way it started. Now it is complete. This year has brought us to eternity. (ACIM, W-pII.in.10:3-8)

 

The lesson today marks a change of direction. We need to come back to truth time and time again.

 

A change of direction is never easy. We have to let go of everything that kept us trapped in the past.

____________________________________________________________________________

222/ The Two Thought Systems

5th December 2022

 

Lesson 222: God is with me. I live and move in Him. (ACIM, W-222)

 

A Course in Miracles tells us we have two thought systems. One is based on truth; the other arises out of fear.

 

It is clear the thought system of the ego could never understand the title of today’s lesson. In fact, it could never understand any of the lessons in the Workbook, nor could it appreciate one word of the Text. In fact, it can’t accept anything that Jesus teaches us. If it did, it would simply disappear.

 

A Course in Miracles states that the thought system of the ego is a system of delusion. It is insanity. Not one part of it is true. If we were to retain one single shred of what the ego teaches us, then we would have retained the whole of its thought system. This is an unalterable fact.

 

The thought system of the Holy Spirit is where we get our knowledge. It arises out of the Mind of God. It is a thought system that radiates both light and truth, of which there is no opposite. This means it is a thought system that is wholly true. Anything outside of it is wholly false.

 

We find the thought system of the Holy Spirit only in the present moment while the ego’s thought system is found only in the past. The Holy Spirit’s thought system allows us to embrace the holy instant. This is the spontaneous illumination of a mind that has become sound asleep in the dark.

 

The holy instant, then, is a miniature of Heaven. It shows us eternity and gives us absolute truth. Within the holy instant, we find our completion. Time disappears as if time had never existed at all.

 

The thought system of the Holy Spirit holds the memory of God. It is a reality and a truth. The ego’s thought system is just a dream that has no meaning. It is the veil that hides the truth.

 

The whole reality of your relationship with Him lies in our relationship to one another. The holy instant shines alike on all relationships, for in it they are one. For here is only healing, already complete and perfect. For here is God, and where He is only the complete and perfect can be. (ACIM, T-17.IV.16:7-10)

____________________________________________________________________________

223/ Special versus Holy

6th December 2022

 

Lesson 223: God is my life. I have no life but His. (ACIM, W-223)

 

The lesson today is about mistaken identity. It is about guilt establishing we are not God’s Son. It is about acknowledging the one truth that is only true.

 

The terminology that A Course in Miracles uses to bring us to this understanding might not be to everyone’s liking, but it is clear that the ego is judging. When we come down to the nitty-gritty, the ego can find fault with anything.

 

‘Knowing our Self’ does not mean anything to the ego. The ego might see this as self-indulgence.

 

‘Being one’ is an impossible concept for the ego. There is always an opposite, so there has to be two.

 

‘Loving our brother’ will anger the ego. The feminine is never mentioned in A Course in Miracles.

 

A Course in Miracles pushes our buttons - of this, there is no doubt. However, its message is always consistent. We are to love each other, just as God loves us.

 

You and your brother stand together in the holy presence of truth itself. Here is the goal, together with you. (ACIM, T-17.V.14:1-2)

 

If Heaven were outside you, you could not share in its gladness. Yet because it is within, the gladness, too, is yours. (ACIM, T-17.V.14:5-6)

 

We love or we do not love. We are separate or we are joined. We are living or we are dying. We either know peace or we do not know peace.

 

A Course in Miracles makes no distinctions. We are either special or we are holy. Within this context, we either know God, or we do not.

____________________________________________________________________________

224/ A Broader Understanding

7th December 2022

 

Lesson 224: God is my Father, and He loves His Son. (ACIM, W-224)

 

Why would we not doubt today’s lesson? We think we know who we are, but we don’t.

 

For some, science provides the answer. For most, it is their environment. The world dictates we are the product of our parents but the lesson today takes quite the opposite view.

 

A Course in Miracles states that there is truth and there is illusion - in other words, there is the Holy Spirit and there is the ego. This is black and white with no in between. It also means that any situation in which we find ourselves can only be determined by our state of mind.

 

Here are some golden rules that we need to be aware of.

 

• ·         Any situation in which we invite the Holy Spirit to be with us, there is always a broader purpose. The ego only lets us see a situation from a limited perspective.

 

• ·         The Holy Spirit knows we can determine the outcome of any situation just through our thinking. With the ego, the situation determines the outcome.

 

• ·         The Holy Spirit understands that the situation unfolds as a result of how we decide we want to experience it. The ego believes that the situation brings the experience.

 

• ·         The Holy Spirit sees everything as a whole. The ego sees everything through fragmentation.

 

A Course in Miracles teaches that our trust in the Holy Spirit gives us a broader understanding. We are then playing our part in something that is greater than anything we could ever have imagined.

 

The goal of truth requires faith. Faith is implicit in the acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and this faith is all-inclusive. Where the goal of truth is set, there faith must be. (ACIM, T-17.VI.6:1-3)