Reflections 85 to 98

 

85/ Direct Communication

21^st July 2022

Lesson 85: Review 2: Lessons 69 & 70.

Today’s review tells us that everything is within us and only needless thought obscures this fact. We learn that to search for anything outside of ourselves is futile because it is not where our happiness lies. True joy arises only when we find the Source of happiness within us.

A Course in Miracles tells us that pain occurs only when we chase after the things we think will give us happiness. The ego does this out of a specific lack or need. The only option, then, is to put our trust in the quiet, inner Voice of wisdom and certainty, and relinquish any need to control. The only effort required is the repetition of going within and listening.

We make or create, in the same way as we perceive or we know. The ego endeavours to ‘make’ our lives better, so that we accumulate what we need. When life is perceived as a struggle, the ego reacts accordingly. The Holy Spirit simply creates. It does not perceive because it knows. The Holy Spirit always sees the bigger picture, and so knows exactly what everyone needs, when we need it, and why. 

Forgiveness is therefore the healing of perception, and opens the way to direct communication with the Holy Spirit. Communication arises only when the mind is still. The mind’s calmness allows the miracle to express itself. It allows us to know a higher power is present with us. In other words, the noise in the mind has quietened and peace comes to reveal itself.

Communication, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracle are inseparable. How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear. (ACIM, T-3.V.10:4-9)

Having direct communication with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the theme that Cate Grieves explores in her final talk on The Obstacles to Peace (ACIM, T-19.IV). It is a lifting of the veil that cuts us off from unconditional love. It allows us to hear the guidance that is specific for each one of us. The mind is in its natural state, and this simply means it is communicating with its Creator. 

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86/ The Author of Reality

22nd July 2022

Lesson 86: Review 2: Lessons 71 & 72.

The review today is about God’s plan for salvation. Our response might be that it sounds abstract and unlikely, maybe even insulting. God’s plan for salvation is not music to the ears of the ego.

First of all, God is a term that is loaded with fear. It is much easier to turn from God than to embrace God. Salvation is the same. Salvation is a term that is linked to pain and suffering, and no one wants to be in pain or to suffer.

The ego will always have seven billion different perspectives. There will be seven billion opposing views that involve judgement. The ego loves to theorise about God and salvation, but never to experience the effect. If it did, it would simply disappear. 

The Holy Spirit has another perspective. There is only one mind, one Son, and one solution. The Holy Spirit never uses judgement. It only uses knowledge. God is love, and salvation is to wake up to love. We wake up to the love of the Infinite, and everything else just falls away.

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgement. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realise that judging them in any way is without meaning. (ACIM, T-3.VI.3:1-2)

A Course in Miracles tells us that God offers only mercy. It tells us that we do not need judgement to organize our lives because judgement always imprisons. It tells us that the way to freedom is to use our free will.

We are the authors of our reality. We can decide whether we created ourselves, or whether we were created. We can be separate or we can be joined - it is all in the mind. The mind makes or breaks our reality.

God created nothing beside you and nothing beside you exists, for you are part of Him. What except Him can exist? Nothing beyond Him can happen, because nothing except Him is real. (ACIM, T-10.in.2:1-3)

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87/ The Power of the Mind

23rd July 2022

Lesson 87: Review 2: Lessons 73 & 74.

The review summarizes yet more key points from two earlier lessons. The first lesson tells us we have the option to choose light instead of darkness. The second tells us there is no will but God’s.

It is clear that light and darkness are irreconcilable, just as life and death, or love and hate, are irreconcilable. None have any similarity, and all are opposites. A Course in Miracles tells us we are free to believe in truth, but not when we still have a belief in untruth.

The goal of any spiritual practice is to return us to our core - the state of complete connection with all that is. A Course in Miracles simply asks that we let go of all the belief that holds us back from the love of our Creator. This includes the fear and terror that arises when we believe in an opposite to God. This is something that Christians might label as ‘the devil’.

We assume that the devil is at war with God. The devil frightens us because of his reputed power and control. However, A Course in Miracles tells us that the devil is simply a perception. Our minds have made it up, and we have grown to be terrified of it. 

The devil, then, makes complete sense to the ego but absolutely no sense to the Holy Spirit. 

The ego is keen to let us know that we will be punished for all the terrible things that we have done. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, knows that none of this is true. Our belief in sin and evil has no foundation in truth. We have dreamt it up with a mind that doesn’t know that it is dreaming.

Jesus teaches us the power of the mind. He teaches us that the mind can literally create a heaven or a hell. We learn to direct this power through the practice of the lessons in the Workbook. This allows us to face the manifestations of the ego. In other words, we look our own fears right in the eye.

The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the “devil.” It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. Look at your life and see what the devil has made. But realise that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a lie. (ACIM, T-3.VII.5:1-4)

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88/ The Last Useless Journey

24th July 2022

Lesson 88: Review 2: Lessons 75 & 76.

The review today tells us two separate things. Firstly, that we always choose between illusions and the truth; and secondly, that we always suffer because we bow to laws that don’t come from God.

Ultimately, truth has no division. There is only the Law of God.

A Course in Miracles tells us that we suffer needlessly. Life, according to the ego, inevitably ends with death. Between birth and death, there are infinite possibilities for pain and suffering. Jesus describes our path through life as the journey to the cross.

The journey to the cross should be the last “useless journey.” Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished.  If you can accept it as your own last useless journey, you are also free to join my resurrection. (ACIM, T-4.in.3:1-3)

The Holy Spirit sees life as the way of extending God’s Love. If the Holy Spirit is the Voice for God, then the ego is the voice for separation.  The ego speaks of war and the Holy Spirit speaks of peace. Egos clash, but spirit doesn’t clash at all. When we see with the Holy Spirit, we see love everywhere. When we see with the ego, love turns to hate in the blink of an eye.

A Course in Miracles describes the ego and the Holy Spirit as irreconcilable. It puts it like this. Anything that arises out of spirit can never die. Anything that arises out of the ego can never be eternal. 

The last useless journey is therefore the journey where we move from separation to unity. A Course in Miracles shows us the way to escape the painful prodding of the ego. It shows us the way to awaken from the dream. Our last useless journey therefore becomes a voyage of discovery. The Holy Spirit takes our hand and is gently leads us back to God.

Your ego is never at stake because God did not create it. Your spirit is never at stake because He did. Any confusion on this point is delusional, and no form of devotion is possible as long as this delusion lasts. (ACIM, T-4.I.7:8-10)

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89/ Past and Present

25th July 2022

Lesson 89: Review 2: Lessons 77 & 78.

The two lessons reviewed today tell us that miracles are always with us, but are simply blocked from our awareness by the illusory mind. This is the same as saying that darkness cuts out light. The ego therefore makes the problem while the Holy Spirit creates the solution. The ego prevents the miracle while the Holy Spirit provides the miracle. The ego simply does while the Holy Spirit just is.

A Course in Miracles gives no quarter to the ego. It dismantles the ego in such a complete and systematic manner, it is hard to fathom why we keep it. And yet the ego is our belief. We act, speak, think and dream like we are egos. We therefore might agree with what ACIM teaches us in principle, but not in practice.

The lessons in the Workbook train us to think with the Holy Spirit. However, the ego does not give up easily. The ego can play the submissive role for a while, but will snarl and attack when it needs to. It actually wants us dead, and taunts us by saying it will pursue us after death.  All this is impossible, and Jesus knows that this is so. He says the ego is just a past mistake to be corrected in the present.

It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. In fact, it is the best question you could ask. There is, however, no point in giving an answer in terms of the past because the past does not matter, and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present. (ACIM, T-4.II.1:1-3)

Jesus tells us that the ego is just a dream. Everyone we meet tends to reflect the experiences we have in this dream, and how we feel about it. Our minds focus continually on the nightmares, meaning we miss the truth of what lies in the present. We miss the reality of what we are.

Jesus calls the ego “an idea, and not a fact”. He says the ego is simply a thought of separation and is entirely alterable, while the Holy Spirit is entirely unalterable. With the ego, everything is in a flux. With the Holy Spirit, everything is clear. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what we need right now.

The past and the present are just two thoughts in our minds. The ego thinks one, and the Holy Spirit thinks the other. Our role is to let go of judgement. We then become the passive observer of what the ego is doing, and we just look at it with the Holy Spirit. 

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90/ The Joy that We Are

26th July 2022

Lesson 90: Review 2: Lessons 79 & 80.

The review today mentions that the problem and the answer cannot be separated by time. The problem is a grievance and the answer is a miracle. We chose one or the other, but we can only do it now.

All we need is the awareness to see it.

Love will enter immediately into any mind that truly wants it, but it must want it truly. This means that it wants it without ambivalence, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego’s “drive to get.” (ACIM, T-4.III.4:7-8)

A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality. It calls this “self-esteem”. Self-esteem is fickle at best and is always vulnerable to stress. When we relate to the ego, we are in a precarious state of mind. Everything is dependent on circumstance because the ego knows that any change is a threat to its security.

The alternative is our real Self, the same Self that Jesus knows, and why he asks us this: Who is the “you” who are living in this world? Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be, because it implies no change at all. (ACIM, T-4.II.11:8-10)

Who we are can never be compared to an opposite. Jesus tells us that knowledge involves no comparison. He tells us that salvation involves nothing more than right-mindedness. Salvation is the moment our minds start thinking correctly.

The ego and the Holy Spirit will never be co-creators. It is always one or the other. The ego only knows of separation. It only understands that bodies join with other bodies. The Holy Spirit always co-creates with its Creator. It only sees wholeness because it knows that all minds are joined.

A Course in Miracles states that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. This is the same as saying our inner world is pure joy. The ego doesn’t know this but the Holy Spirit understands it completely. The Holy Spirit knows we are whole and complete. It wants us to know the joy that we are.

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91/ The Second Coming

27th July 2022

Lesson 91: Miracles are seen in light. (ACIM, W-91)

The lesson today tells that miracles are seen in light but not in darkness. We could also add that miracles arise from silence and not from noise. Our two primary senses are therefore helpful aides in supporting the fact that useless chatter and a darkened mind is not conducive to healing.

Jesus also tells us this, from within the framework of A Course in Miracles.

• We can’t change our minds by changing our behaviour, but we can change our minds.

• We need to leave the “sins” of the ego to him. That is what the Atonement is for.

• Our problem is not one of concentration. It is the belief that we are not worth the effort.

• We are a mirror of truth. God is reflected back to us in perfect light.

• Our ego cannot prevent God from shining on us, but it can prevent Him shining through us.

• Jesus works only with our higher mind which is the home of the Holy Spirit. 

• Our lower mind, the home of the ego, ruthlessly banishes any direct experience of God. 

• The Second Coming is a return to the First Coming. It is a re-joining with our Source.

The First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of God. The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule and the healing of the mind. I was created like you in the First, and I have called you to join with me in the Second. (ACIM, T-4.IV.10:1-3)

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92/ Wonder Beyond the Veil

28th July 2022

Lesson 92: Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one. (ACIM, W-92)

A Course in Miracles does not waste words concerning the enlightenment of the body. If we come to ACIM expecting our body to awaken, we can forget it. It tells us that the body is a puppet of the ego, and nothing more than that. We need to go completely beyond the body to know who we are.

The lesson today says that we limit ourselves terribly by identifying as a body. There is nothing the body has that can ever give us lasting joy. To really know what joy is, we have to see that real strength comes from truth.  We have to remove the darkness from our minds, and let the light in.

The body is the ego’s home by its own election. It is the only identification with which the ego feels safe, since the body’s vulnerability is its own best argument that you cannot be of God. This is the belief that the ego sponsors eagerly. (ACIM, T-4.V.4:1-3)

The ego loves to preoccupy us with problems. These problems take over our minds and cause us suffering. A Course in Miracles would say that the mind is like a receiving station. This means we could just as easily attract the solution to these problems. This solution comes through the Holy Spirit, and brings only peace, love and harmony.

The near-death experience gives us a small glimpse of what it is like to be free of the body. Experiencers say that suffering is replaced with love, and this love is so real it bears no relationship to anything we could have experienced here in a body. The love allows the experiencer to feel alive in a way they have never felt before. And yet it is familiar. They feel like they have come home.

Robin Landsong had her near-death experience in 1977, aged eight, having been abducted from her home on the east coast of America and taken to Rhodesia. Her experience highlights the wonder that lies beyond the veil, especially with the imagery that only an eight year old girl can understand. It also demonstrates the kindness and cruelty that human beings can inflict on each other. Included are two videos. The first is about her experience. The second is Robin’s account of a return trip forty years later to the village where the NDE took place. The links are below.

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93/ Dissociation from Truth

29th July 2022

Lesson 93: Light and joy and peace abide in me. (ACIM, W-93)

The lesson today tells us the truth, and it is exactly what the ego won’t let us believe.

The lesson today opposes everything the ego holds dear, including all death and related suffering. 

The lesson today should be a cause for joy, but the ego makes it a cause for pain. 

Everything that A Course in Miracles teaches points to the love, joy and peace within us. To fully accept this is always our choice. We either identify ourselves as separate, or we don’t. We either see the love of God in each other, or we don’t. We either know that we are all one, or we don’t. 

Jesus wants us to fully understand that the ego is nothing more than a part of our belief about ourselves. The ego isn’t real at all. This means that what we really are continues without interruption. The light within us is with us forever, except we just don’t believe it is.

I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. You have taught yourself the opposite. You are still free to choose, but can you really want the rewards of the ego in the presence of the rewards of God? (ACIM, T-4.VI.5:6-8)

Jesus tells us that to know our brothers is to know God. To not do this is to dissociate from the truth.

Separation and wholeness are incompatible. In the same way, the ego and the spirit do not know each other. Jesus teaches that the only way to undo the ego is through forgiveness. It is forgiveness that dissolves all our deep, unconscious guilt, breaks us free, and simply allows our spirit to fly.

As you come closer to a brother you approach me, and as you withdraw from him I become distant to you. Salvation is a collaborative venture. It cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship because they are disengaging themselves from me. (ACIM, T-4.VI.8:1-3)

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94/ A State of Being

30th July 2022

Lesson 94: I am as God created me. (ACIM, W-94)

A Course in Miracles tells us that creation and communication are synonymous.

God created every mind by communicating His Mind to it, thus establishing it forever as a channel for the reception of His Mind and Will. Since only beings of a like order can truly communicate, His creations naturally communicate with Him and like Him. (ACIM, T-4.VII.3:7-8)

The lesson today tells us that this one statement, ‘I am as God created me’, renders the ego silent. 

The ego does not recognize the real source of “threat,” and if you associate yourself with the ego, you do not understand the situation as it is. Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. (ACIM, T-4.VI.1:1-2)

The ego always perceives the threat as outside itself, just as it perceives spirit as a threat. The ego knows of separate bodies and fights to maintain that. The ego dominates us because we allow it to.

 A Course in Miracles tells us that the way the ego thinks arises out of its need to control. Spirit, however, has no need to control anything because it knows exactly what is true. Anything outside of truth has absolutely no reality in truth. The Holy Spirit is very real, very present, and is always ready to help. Our job is to ask. We simply hand over the control of the ego to love of spirit.

Our minds are full of the doings of the ego, while the gentle beingness of the Holy Spirit sits quietly in the background. We know exactly which one dominates by how we feel about ourselves.

A Course in Miracles tells us that we only reflect our Creator’s love when we learn to be wholly helpful and wholly harmless. When we learn this, we also know that to ‘have’ and to ‘be’ are exactly the same. Only the ego engenders fear; the Holy Spirit’s contribution is only peace.

A state of being arises out of spirit. We are either one with it, or we are not.

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95/ Getting and Giving

31st July 2022

Lesson 95: I am one Self, united with my Creator. (ACIM, W-95)

We identify with the self or the Self. Only one is real, and it is probably not the one we think it is. We don’t see the self as restricted and limited. We see ourselves as independent and unique.

The lesson today says that we are one Self - a Self that is unlimited. It connects all of us and makes us one with God. It is a statement of fact, and is our thought-for-the-day.  It is something we have to repeat, because we simply don’t believe that this is true.

A Course in Miracles wants us to heal our minds. It tells us that we oppose truth. We inhibit ourselves. It tells us that knowledge is ready to flow everywhere, but it can’t when it is not wanted. It tells us that our whole concept of the world is just one of ideas. It tells us that each person we meet is just an idea. We identify our brother through the idea we have about ourselves.

Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and lets God go out into them and through them. (ACIM, T-5.I.1:1-2)

To heal our minds, we have to become aware how our thoughts restrict us. The ego is a just a thought that minds are separate. We have enemies. God is nowhere.  Love is something that is rare and needs to be held on to. 

The healed mind knows that we can have no enemies. God is everywhere. The healed mind knows that the world just arises out of the mind. It sees everything in a light that is boundless. It is formless, quiet and completely aware. The mind is healed because there is nothing to obstruct it.

To the ego, getting is meaningful and giving is dubious; to the Holy Spirit, getting is meaningless and giving is all. When it has everything, the ego fears it will lose it. It wants more; spirit has everything and maintains it by giving it. This is exactly what A Course in Miracles tells us our Creator does.

Getting and giving are simply interpreted according to our state of mind. We either suffer or we feel joyful. There is no other way to be.

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96/ The Moment of Separation

1^st August 2022

Lesson 96: Salvation comes from my one Self. (ACIM, W-96)

The lesson today tells us our source of strength is spirit. Spirit fuels the mind, and mind apart from spirit cannot think. We are one Self masquerading as seven billion separate selves. We are one mind that has shut itself off from its Source. Our mind has lost its power, and it needs to find it again.

In many ways, we are not finding anything. We haven’t lost anything. Everything is perfect as it is.

Salvation, according to A Course in Miracles, is the awakening of our minds to this experience. Atonement is the complete healing of the mind. The irony is that nothing really needs to be healed. A dream is not a fact, it is just an imagining. We simply wake up and understand.

A Course in Miracles tells us that healing is reparation. Darkness has been brought to the light. Our contribution is to look at the darkness, but we can only do this with the light of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for the ego to bring illumination to its own darkness.

The Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracle-mindedness; the decision to heal the separation by letting it go. Your will is still in you because God placed it in your mind, and although you can keep it asleep you cannot obliterate it. (ACIM, T-5.II.1:4-5)

A Course in Miracles call the Holy Spirit the spirit of joy (ACIM, T-5.II.2:1). ACIM tells us that the moment the mind thought of an opposite, this spirit of joy was placed in the mind. The ego can only dissolve in front of this joy, just as a snow flake melts in the sun. 

The moment of separation is therefore a moment in the mind. It is not past - it is simply now. The moment of separation disappears the instant we hear the call to joy.

The principle of Atonement and the separation began at the same time. When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the Call to joy. This call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at Its sound. That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. One you made yourself, and that one is not of God. But the other is given you by God, Who asks you only listen to it. (ACIM, T-5.II.3:1-6)

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97/ Remember and Forget

2^nd August 2022

Lesson 97: I am spirit. (ACIM, W-97)

The Holy Spirit is our guide in this lesson. 

The Holy Spirit is always speaking to us in our minds. This is the single and most important point that we should take away with us. It is this that removes our fears, our neuroses, our tensions. Our job is just to trust. It is like being guided down a path blindfold. The Holy Spirit guides us. We follow.

In fact, there is just one Holy Spirit and one mind. The one Self made a conscious choice not to be the one mind, and suddenly become many minds.  The fact is that nothing has really changed. There is only the one thought of separation within that one mind. This means that our fears, our neuroses, our tensions are just a thought.

A Course in Miracles reduces everything to this. We are one Self. To be one Self is to be utterly without opposite. There is nothing else except the love of the Self’s Creator. The Self’s Creator knows us only through love. We absolutely and totally miss that love.

You are the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have let the belief in darkness enter your mind and so you need a new light. The Holy Spirit is the radiance that you must let banish the idea of darkness. (ACIM, T-5.II.4:1-2)

Everything is within us. When someone wakes up to the all that he or she is, it reminds other minds that they too can wake up to the all that they are. When everyone wakes up, there is no more dream of separation. This is the Holy Spirit’s job. That job is to allow us to gently see the light.

The Holy Spirit calls you both to remember and to forget. You have chosen to be in a state of opposition in which opposites are possible. As a result, there are choices you must make. (ACIM, T-5.II.6:1-3)

The choices are simple. We can remember who we are, or we can forget who we are. Really, there is no other way. The Holy Spirit is always there to guide us because God does not guide. God can only share, and since what He shares is always with us, we just have to choose it.

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98/ God’s Answer to the Ego

3rd August 2022

Lesson 98: I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation. (ACIM, W-98)

Our task in the lesson today is to side with truth and to let illusions go. This is what salvation is. It is a term that can also be called awakening, enlightenment or liberation. Basically, salvation means we let go of all suffering.

A Course in Miracles teaches that salvation arises only through the recognition of the Holy Spirit in all our brothers. It tells us that what we see in others, we are seeing in ourselves. What we share with others, we are strengthening in ourselves. Our choice is always to see peace or to see suffering.

The Voice of the Holy Spirit is weak in you. That is why you must share It. It must be increased in strength before you can hear It. It is impossible to hear It in yourself while It is so weak in your mind. (ACIM, T-5.III.4:1-4)

The ego always talks first and tells us what to see. Our view of the world arises out of this. The Holy Spirit sits quietly in the background, patiently waiting for our attention. A Course in Miracles gives us a unique perspective. It tells us that projection makes perception. When our internal projector is the ego, we perceive with a limited mind that fluctuates. When our internal projector is the Holy Spirit, everything changes. The mind becomes whole and perceives only its wholeness. 

Peace is the ego’s greatest enemy because, according to its interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. The ego becomes strong in strife. If you believe there is strife you will react viciously, because the idea of danger has entered your mind. (ACIM, T-5.III.8:7-9)

The Holy Spirit undoes what the ego has made. The Holy Spirit knows eternity; the ego only knows of time. A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego uses time to keep the past in the present. The Holy Spirit knows that the only aspect of time that is eternal is what is happening right now.

When the mind first thought of separation, this became the ego. God gave His answer to the ego and it was very simple. God’s answer was His memory. God gave the mind an echo of His Voice. 

This echo undoes the ego instantly. The memory of God arises, and peace is returned to the mind.