Reflections 43 to 56

 

43/ The Meaning that We Give

9th June 2022 

Lesson 43: God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him. (ACIM, W-43)

This lesson tells us that, although all our perception comes from the mind, we simply perceive incorrectly. Everything we see around us acts like a veil to the truth. If we want to perceive correctly, we have to have our perception changed. Only this will lead to knowledge.

Everything we see, we put a meaning on it. The truth behind it can never be seen because the ego creates the veil that stops us from seeing clearly. We have no idea what it is to have a quiet mind that sees without labelling. We have no idea that a quiet mind even exists.

A Course in Miracles wants us to be aware that we create a million different ways of maintaining our separation. If seven billion people see a tree, how many subtle shades of meaning would they put onto that image? This means that everything we see is just a substitute for reality. Reality never changes. Reality just Is.

All forms of anti-Christ oppose the Christ. And fall before His face like a dark veil that seems to shut you off from Him, alone in darkness. Yet the light is there. A cloud does not put out the sun. No more a veil can banish what it seems to separate, nor darken by one whit the light itself. (ACIM, T-29.VIII.3:5-9)

The ant-Christ simply relates to fear. Fear opposes love. This is the same as imagining our little self opposing our big Self, or the ego opposing the Holy Spirit. The miracle, then, lifts the veil on what is being opposed. This is Atonement. All that has kept the truth hidden is gone. 

Everything not seen with a clear mind is therefore ambiguous and uncertain. We can never be sure about anything. The purpose of the Workbook is to return to a mind that is clear. We then see love with no opposite. The same images are there, they just aren’t seen through the veil of separation.

Cate Grieves talks more about her own experience of a clear mind with her seventh talk on The Obstacles to Peace (ACIM, T-19.IV). The Link for the talk is below.

____________________________________________________________________________

44/ A Willing Slave

10th June 2022 

Lesson 44: God is the light in which I see. (ACIM, W-44)

Here is a little summary of what today’s lesson implies. 

• We cannot see in darkness. We cannot make light.

• The light is found within. The light is not found without.

• The light is with us always. The light never goes out.

All of the above provides food for thought. It suggests both the obvious, as well as telling us that the obvious is probably not what we think it is. 

A dream of judgment came into the mind that God created as perfect as Himself. And in that dream was Heaven changed to hell, and God made enemy unto His Son. How can God’s Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement. So must he judge not, and he will waken. (ACIM, T-29.IX.2:1-5)

A Course in Miracles leads us from the darkness to the light. It tells us that dark thoughts can never disturb us. The light is within us. Dark thoughts mean nothing in the light.

Seven billion people have these dark thoughts and seven billion people understand that the world is completely real. Nothing appears to stop our busy thoughts from telling us what to do. A Course in Miracles is about maintaining the peace of the Holy Spirit in our minds. This is what this lesson tells us. Darkness cannot disturb light. Light shines through the darkness.

A Course in Miracles tells us we are willing slaves to idols. ACIM tells us we are willing slaves to judgement. ACIM tells us we are willing slaves to darkness.  Idols and judgement just arise from the darkness. The alternative is to be willing friends to light.

____________________________________________________________________________

45/ Forgiving Dreams

11th June 2022 

Lesson 45: God is the Mind with which I think. (ACIM, W-45)

Today’s lesson shows us what real thoughts are. Real thoughts show us what the real world is. Both real thoughts and the real world are so completely different to the way we think and the way we look at things. There is no comparison. It is like comparing candy floss to liquid gold, although even this analogy is based on judgement. 

We think compulsively, and yet this has nothing to do with the Mind of God. The world we see has nothing to do with the real world, while both have nothing to do with God. The real world is still part of the dream that A Course in Miracles talks about. However, the real world is seen with real thoughts. The real world has nothing to do with the thoughts the ego likes to think.

A Course in Miracles tells us that the world we see and the real world both arise out of the mind. Both are the result of thinking either with the ego or the Holy Spirit. And both are part of the dream we think we are dreaming. If we contrast violence with wonder, anger with awe, and ignorance with wisdom, we might be close to the contrast between the world we see and the real world.

The real world still is but a dream. Except the figures have been changed. They are not seen as idols which betray. It is a dream in which no one is used to substitute for something else, nor interposed between the thoughts the mind conceives and what it sees. (ACIM, T-29.IX.7:1-4)

A Course in Miracles says we are either having a dream of judgement or a dream of joy. It tells us that the dream of judgement is a children’s game. Like children playing with toys, the nightmares happen when the toys turn against the children. But we are told it all happens in the mind. The Mind of God is therefore like a container. Everything happens within the container, and the container holds the space for it to happen.

Forgiving dreams are our purpose here. Without forgiveness we would judge. Judgement arises from the ego, and the ego provides the narrative for all our pain and suffering. Through forgiveness, we link ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We learn to sense our own needs and the needs of others, and we hold the space for this to arise.

The Workbook is not here to end the dream. The Workbook is here for us to forgive the dream.

____________________________________________________________________________

46/ The Day that We Want

12th June 2022 

Lesson 46: God is the Love in which I forgive. (ACIM, W-46)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the day that we want is in our minds. It comes about with every thought that we think. The day we want is always the ego’s day or the Holy Spirit’s day. To make the right choice, we need to trust, and we gain this trust through the knowledge that we are peaceful.

God probably feels abstract, so the Love that God gives feels abstract too. The lesson today says that God does not forgive, because God does not know what forgiveness is. We, however, as separate individual human beings who do not know what God is, do need to forgive; and we particularly need to forgive ourselves when we forget our purpose.

We tend to accept that things will always happen that are unexpected. We plan the day ahead to stop the unexpected from happening. A Course in Miracles takes us in a different direction. It says that are responsible for what happens to us, and we are responsible for the day we have purely by what we think.

The day you want you offer to the world, for it will be what you have asked for, and will reinforce the rule of your adviser in the world. Whose kingdom is the world for you today? What kind of day will you decide to have? (ACIM, T-30.I.16:7-9)

The lesson today says that fear condemn while love forgives. Sometimes we might wake up in the morning feeling isolated, separate and alone. Fear sets in, and we get up to distract ourselves from that fear. Or we might wake up feeling bouncy, cheerful and happy. We get up excited about the day ahead, and the day passes with a happy momentum. The reality is that the choice is ours, and every moment is the chance to make another choice.

You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. For they are made with idols or with God. And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do. (ACIM, T-30.I.14:7-9)

We decide with the ego or the Holy Spirit.  We are told the day we want is in our minds. All we have to do is just learn to listen quietly. We have to learn who we are thinking with, and what we are thinking.

____________________________________________________________________________

47/ It Needs just Two

13th June 2022 

Lesson 47: God is the strength in which I trust. (ACIM, W-47)

A Course in Miracles tells us that decisions are continuous, and we shouldn’t fight ourselves. ACIM also tells us it always takes two to make a decision. There is me myself and I, and there is one other. This is either the ego or the Holy Spirit.

It is clear that we use the ego to make our decisions. The ego is the loud, dominant voice in our minds. However, if we look closely, we will find that the ego has only brought us temporary happiness at best. What the ego offers us is always the threat of fear, and it is this threat that dominates our minds.

Nothing can be caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of judgement or the Voice for God. Decisions cause results because they are not made in isolation. They are made by you and your advisor, for yourself and for the world as well. (ACIM, T-30.I.16:4-6)

To trust in the ego means that we are constantly judging. Essentially we are making life hell for ourselves - even if life doesn’t appear to be hell on the exterior. Each lesson in the Workbook asks us to step back and look at the mind. It wants us to be aware of when we are not feeling peaceful. This means we have forgotten our quiet guidance. The Holy Spirit guides us to nothing but peace. As the lesson states, the Holy Spirit is the strength of God in which we trust.

A Course in Miracles wants us to make a commitment to the Holy Spirit. It reminds us about this repeatedly throughout the Text and throughout the Workbook. It tells us to always ask the Holy Spirit’s advice on everything. It shows us how to avoid the pitfalls the ego sets for us. All we need is the awareness to do this. This means that, whenever we are reactive, we need to be aware that we are being reactive. Awareness is always our starting point. 

Currently, what we see is duality and we judge what we see accordingly. A Course in Miracles wants us simply to see things differently, and it wants us to know there is nothing frightening about what we are going to see.

It needs just two. We see either the ego or the Holy Spirit in ourselves and each other. The ego’s foundation is fear. Only peace arises through the Holy Spirit. It is one or the other, and this is a fact.

____________________________________________________________________________

48/ Boundless Will

14th June 2022 

Lesson 48: There is nothing to fear. (ACIM, W-48)

A Course in Miracles tells us there is illusion and there is truth. There is the world of duality and there is oneness. There is what is real and there is what is not real. We see only the illusory because we see with a mind that believes in separation. If we saw with a mind that did not know separation, our experience would be completely different. 

This lesson tells us there is nothing to fear, and so it is either right or it is wrong. There can be no in between. The lesson tells us that illusions are not facts. It tells us that we only believe in illusions because we want them to be true.

It all comes down to this. What do we believe our will is? Is it a will that is limited, stuck and endlessly searching? Or is it a will that is free, joyful and endlessly boundless? A Course in Miracles tells us our will is the latter when our minds are free. However, currently our minds are restricted. This means we have no idea what our free will is.

God but ensured that you would never lose your will when He gave you His perfect Answer. Hear It now, that you may be reminded of His Love and learn your will. God would not have His Son made prisoner to what he does not want. He joins with you in willing you be free. (ACIM, T-30.II.2:6-9)

A Course in Miracles tells us that, if we feel we are a prisoner to our thoughts, then God Himself could not be free. It tells us that the prison door is open. We can walk through it any time we want. Nothing is stopping us, and the only thing that is stopping us is our thoughts.

Think not He wills to bind you, Who has made you co-creator of the universe along with Him. He would but keep your will forever and forever limitless. This world awaits the freedom you will give when you have recognised that you are free. (ACIM, T-30.II.4:4-6)

Within us is the answer.  It is the choice of truth, and not illusion. By doing the lesson today, we are basically telling ourselves what we already know. To trust in the self is to believe in the fearful. To trust in the Self is to believe in the limitless. There is nothing to fear because we are not limited. We are limitless and boundless. We have boundless will, and boundless will is our strength.

____________________________________________________________________________

49/ The Two Parts

15th June 2022 

Lesson 49: God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. (ACIM, W-49)

The lesson today is quite specific. It tells us that the mind has two parts. The first is where truth abides, and is in constant communication with God. The other functions in the world, and always obeys the laws of the world. Both never stop talking to us throughout the day.

The two parts ask for completely different things. One is concerned with only what is formless. The other is concerned with only what is form. The formless is as real as life is real; form is not real because, quite simply, it dies. Our senses can’t sense the formless, but can sense what is form. Form makes us feel secure and yet the formless is eternal. One stays and one goes.

A Course in Miracles labels anything that we cling to - anything we believe will bring us happiness and has form - an idol.  It tells us that when we decide for idols, we ask for loss. If we decide for truth, then we ask for everything.  

It is not form you seek. What form can be a substitute for God the Father’s Love? What form can take the place of all the love in the Divinity of God the Son? What idol can make two of what is one? And can the limitless be limited? (ACIM, T-30.III.2:1-5)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the purpose of an idol is to never look beyond it; we never look to the source of the belief that we are incomplete. This means that we are always going to feel limited. We are always going to feel that we have sinned. We are always going to feel that we will be punished. ACIM tells us that none of this is true. In fact, it tells us it is a complete lie. We are limitless, pure, and blameless. The formless state is our true nature. We can’t be anything else.

Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited. (ACIM, T-30.III.3:2)

God knows not form. He cannot answer you in terms that have no meaning. (ACIM, T-30.III.4:5-6)

A Course in Miracles explains that everything exists within the mind. The part that shows us form is very real. However, we should never underestimate a mind that knows only the formless. It belongs to us, and it is us. Reality is ours for the taking.

____________________________________________________________________________

50/ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

16th June 2022 

Lesson 50: I am sustained by the Love of God. (ACIM, W-50)

The lesson today advises that the Love of God is always within us. It is changeless, eternal and completely unfailing. It says that what is illusory is within us as well. The illusory flickers and changes, and is remorseless in its demands. We go one way or the other. Both are completely independent of each other, and neither understands the existence of the other.

It all comes down to the thoughts we think. Who do we think we are? Are we limited by a body, with a mind that is separate? Or are we bigger than that, perhaps vast, maybe even an ocean of love?

It is unlikely we think the latter. Our thoughts are self-limiting. A Course in Miracles is about looking at our thoughts, challenging them, and ultimately going beyond them.

Nothing that God knows not exists. And what He knows exists forever, changelessly. For thoughts endure as long as does the mind that thought of them. And in the Mind of God there is no ending, nor a time in which His Thoughts were absent or could suffer change. (ACIM, T-30.III.6:1-4)

A Course in Miracles is very clear. The solution is within us. Heaven and hell are within us. To really understand this, however, we have to look at everything first. We have to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. Nothing can be out of bounds.  However, we have to look at everything with the Holy Spirit.  Looking at anything with the ego won’t work. It is like pouring fuel on the flames.

Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. (ACIM, W-138.9:1-3)

Cate Grieves gives us more insight into the sharp contrast between what we think we are, and what we really are. Her eighth talk on The Obstacles to Peace (ACIM, T-19.IV) highlights the insanity behind our thinking. We set ourselves a trap and fall into it every time we choose the ego. The Link for the talk is below.

____________________________________________________________________________

51/ The Cause of Suffering

17th June 2022 

Lesson 51: Review 1: Lessons 1-5.

Periodically the Workbook has a review in which the previous lessons are looked at again in small groups. This is to help us understand their meaning, and also to help us look at them in a slightly different way.

 This first review has the lessons in clusters of five, and reviews the first fifty.  The theme of the first group of five is that we place our own meaning on everything we see. This comes through our thoughts. A Course in Miracles simply explains that the meaning behind what we see is arrived at through the interpretation that our thoughts put on it. True reality cannot be seen with the eyes. It has nothing to do with the body.

Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot rise again. (ACIM, T-30.IV.4:1-5)

A Course in Miracles simply says that we attack anything that does not satisfy us as a body. We also need to understand that we made up everything that we are attacking. It all comes from the mind. Everything that we think - all the pain and the suffering - has nothing to do with our greater reality. It is just a mask that hides that reality from us. We are blind to the truth.

The truth could never be attacked. And this you knew when you made idols. They were made that this might be forgotten. You attack but false ideas, but never truthful ones. (ACIM, T-30.IV.1:4-7)

These true and false ideas exist within the mind. For example, fragmented minds think false ideas. Different bodies do different things. Wars are started through ideas that take on a life of their own. A unified mind thinks only thoughts that are true. Bodies then communicate this truth. Peace becomes the flag bearer. 

A Course in Miracles wants us to question what goes on in our minds. The truth is hidden. The truth is buried beneath layers of baggage. We can’t switch our minds off. We can’t just stop all the judgements that pass through our minds at a million miles an hour. But we can be aware of what we are doing. We can be aware that our thoughts are the cause of our suffering.

____________________________________________________________________________

52/ Whose Hand Do We Hold?

18th June 2022 

Lesson 52: Review 1: Lessons 6-10.

This review essentially tells us we see only the past. We see nothing as it is now. Our minds are continually preoccupied with past thoughts, and these thoughts really do not mean anything.

A Course in Miracles gives us an option. We can see the world as we see it now, or we can see the real world. These two options are completely opposing states of mind. One arises from attack; the other arises from forgiveness.

The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. Fear is not its goal, for the escape from guilt becomes its aim. The value of forgiveness is perceived and takes the place of idols, which are sought no longer, for their “gifts” are not held dear. (ACIM, T-30.V.1:1-3)

The real world is therefore not out there but in here. It is a decision to think with the Holy Spirit, and not with the ego. It is the letting go of all desire for worldly success. It is the understanding of what is purposeful and what is purposeless. It is the acceptance that everyone around us - our brothers - is simply a reflection of who we are.

 

A Course in Miracles tells us that what lies beyond the real world is the Love of God. To get beyond the real world is a decision for God. It is God who takes the final step to join with His Son. This experience is beyond words because it is simply an experience. It is like the describable trying to describe the indescribable.

The opposite of this, and what prevents us from seeing the real world, is our belief in guilt and sin. This is where we are now. This is when we see each other as separate - a friend or a foe, essentially to be trusted or to be feared. This experience is very easy to describe. It is written about every day. It is the describable describing what it knows.

A Course in Miracles tells us that when we stand in purpose in the world of fear, we stand at the edge of the real world. The question is, whose hand do we hold?  Is our brother held with love or with fear? Do we continue with the ego, or choose the Holy Spirit? This is important only in the mind. It is in the mind that everything is solved. And it is in the mind where everyone suffers.

____________________________________________________________________________

53/ True Forgiveness

19th June 2022 

Lesson 53: Review 1: Lessons 11-15.

What we review today are our meaningless thoughts. These thoughts create images in our minds which are random, uncontrolled and completely chaotic. They might vary in their degrees of intensity, although ultimately there is no substance to them. These images are merely abstract and illusory. What these images do, however, is create the world that we see. It is a world that fluctuates in its effect. However, it is also a world that is insane, and arises out of fear

A Course in Miracles says that reality has no insanity. Reality has no connection to our meaningless thoughts. Reality is with us, all around us, and is quite simply the polar opposite of what we are thinking. Reality is peace as opposed to fear, love as opposed to hate, and truth as opposed to illusion.

This is the paradox. We have reality and we have unreality. We have a mind that thinks with the ego and we have a mind that thinks with the Holy Spirit. We have a peaceful mind and we have a turbulent mind. We might be confused about who we are and what we are, and yet A Course in Miracles tells us exactly who we are and what we are.

A Course in Miracles teaches that the only way out of suffering is true forgiveness. This means that we forgive what never happened, simply because what happened was merely a series of images in our minds.

There can be no appearance that can not be overlooked. For if there were, it would be necessary first there be some sin that stands beyond forgiveness. There would be an error that is more than a mistake; a special form of error that remains unchangeable, eternal, and beyond correction or escape. (ACIM, T-30.VI.5:4-6)

A Course in Miracles completely reverses the way we think. It completely reverses the way we see the world. It completely reverses how we view each other. True forgiveness arises out of the complete understanding that nothing has happened. Everything that happened arose in the mind. 

This is not how the world sees it. Yet this is how A Course in Miracles sees it. It takes practice and the Workbook to learn to see differently. We have to look deeply to find our natural state of mind.

____________________________________________________________________________

54/ Chance for Change

20th June 2022 

Lesson 54: Review 1: Lessons 16-20.

The review today tells us that no thoughts are neutral, and that every thought means something. It tells us that every thought has an effect, shaping the world and the things that we see. It tells us that we need a real determination to see clearly. We need to be determined to see past the facade of what we think we are, and look to the reality of what we really are.

This is because A Course in Miracles is all about finding our Identity. It is about healing the mind. It is about changing our fear of death into a love of life.

To heal is to make whole. (ACIM, T-30.VI.8:3)

God’s Son is perfect, or he cannot be God’s Son. (ACIM, T-30.VI.9:1)

To be anything less than whole and perfect - to have the slightest twinge of anger in the mind - means that we are thinking with the ego. The ego never lets up. The ego never wants us to see past our imperfections. The ego essentially wants us to suffer. It wants us to believe suffering is normal, and it wants us to believe that everyone else’s suffering is normal too.

A Course in Miracles reminds us that there is only one ego and one Holy Spirit. We are not seven billion separate egos and seven billion separate Holy Spirits. It tells us that the ego has no connection to the Self that we are. The ego is merely the pretence that we are separate, and this is one big lie.

This means that the way we see others is crucial to our awakening: Look on your brother with this hope in you, and you will understand he could not make an error that could change the truth in him (ACIM, T-30.VI.10:1). We have to see others as the Holy Spirit sees all of us. This means forgiving ourselves, and all others, and this is wholly without exception. 

The act of forgiveness, therefore, is multi-faceted. It undoes the ego. It sees our wholeness and not our limitations. It joins and never separates. It reveals the Infinite Love that we are. It reminds us of our perfection. Practicing forgiveness is the whole purpose of A Course in Miracles. It provides a massive chance for change.

____________________________________________________________________________

55/ The Script We Write

21st June 2022 

Lesson 55: Review 1: Lessons 21-25.

A Course in Miracles tells us that we write our own scripts. It tells us our thinking creates our reality. The world does not do anything to us. We do everything to the world.

The review today essentially confirms this. It tells us that what we see in the world is what we have going on in our minds. It tells us that, if we don’t like our external world, we have to change our internal world. We do this by taking responsibility for what we feel we have no control over. This is our minds, our thoughts and our thinking.

When we wake up in the morning, we might have mixed feelings about the day ahead. Our feelings are likely to be dependent on what we think is going to happen. A Course in Miracles simply asks us to visualise a happy day, and to let go of all thoughts of judgement. We let go of attachment. We allow all situations to arise, and try to stay faithful to our inner purpose. This is one of peace and acceptance.

What do your scripts reflect except your plans for what the day should be? And thus you judge disaster and success, advance, retreat, and gain and loss. These judgements all are made according to the roles the script assigns. (ACIM, T-30.VII.2:1-3)

There are probably millions of different scripts the ego can decide on. However, there is just one script according to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s only consideration is that we are all equal. No one loses. No one is separate because we all come from the same Source. The Love of God connects us all. Nothing divides us. A Course in Miracles tells us that our days can be an extension of this.

The mind that is divided can only see division. The mind that has awakened can only see clearly. With a divided mind, we will always wake up in the morning fearing change. To undo this fear, we have to practice. We practice with the Workbook to change our thoughts. We practice with the Holy Spirit to change our perception. And we practice in the mornings to write the script for our day.

Only a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning. But it must accord one meaning to them all. If they are given different meanings, it must be that they reflect but different purposes. And this is all the meaning that they have. (ACIM, T-30.VII.3:1-4)

____________________________________________________________________________

56/ Reality Is what We Make it.

22nd June 2022 

Lesson 56: Review 1: Lessons 26-30.

A Course in Miracles tells us that reality never changes. It is changeless. This is difficult to comprehend since our worlds seem to change from moment to moment. The review today examines our desire to know this reality. It looks at what we think exists, and what really exists.

The review begins by stating that we are invulnerable. The type of thoughts we think, however, make us vulnerable. This means that we are familiar with a fearful self, but not a loving Self.  We are unaware of what reality is because our thoughts block and obscure the wholeness that surrounds us.

This wholeness is our stability. It is the truth that permeates everything.  Forms change and disappear and yet the formless never changes and always stays. This is the paradox that we face. We feel that if it is tangible, solid and dense, then it is really real.

Appearances deceive, but can be changed. Reality is changeless. It does not deceive at all, and if you fail to see beyond appearances you are deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus reduced to form, and capable of change. (ACIM, T-30.VIII.1:1-5)

A Course in Miracles does not deal in delusion. It doesn’t want us to pretend that we know what is real. It wants us to test everything out and discover the truth for ourselves. ACIM is a journey of Self-discovery and not self-justification.

One thing is clear. Our little selves are prone to change and our big Self is changeless.  Everything we see that is solid and dense, that we can see and touch, relates to the little self. It changes and passes, but it is not part of the reality that we are learning to discover. Everything that is invisible and unseen, clear and expansive, relates to the big Self. It emanates joy which is the foundation of our being. This is what we need to discover. It’s a re-discovery of what we have always known.

Reality is changeless. Miracles but show what you have interposed between reality and your awareness is unreal, and does not interfere at all. The cost of the belief there must be some appearances beyond the hope of change is that the miracle cannot come forth from you consistently. For you have asked it be withheld from power to heal all dreams. (ACIM, T-30.VIII.4:1-4)