What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is about overlooking the seeming problem entirely. The Holy Spirit doesn’t want us to try to figure out what the problem is, He wants us to release this belief in separation and overlook the problem entirely to the light of the Atonement. That is what the Holy Spirit’s function is, to overlook the error and see only the correction.
Inspiration
How Did the Separation Happen?
How did the separation happen? This is a very common question for students of A Course in Miracles, but it is also a question that has no answer. To ask the question implies the questioner’s belief in the separation from God. The ego is the one asking the question. An experience will come to end all doubting, to end all questions. An experience that separation from God is impossible, and has actually never happened.
ACIM Meditation – These Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything
These thoughts do not mean anything. Today we begin a practice of meditation. The workbook lessons are guiding us, helping us to train our minds to meditate. And the first three lessons are: “Nothing I see means anything,” “I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me,” and “I do not understand anything I see.” These first three lessons are the very beginning of letting go of all meaning of what is perceived, all meaning of the linear perceived world of time and space. It’s like the first three lessons are opening the lid of a can, and then, as we peel that lid off, we are told these thoughts do not mean anything. So today’s lesson is the first lesson from Jesus that is addressing thoughts. The first three lessons’ addressed perception, and now, lesson number four addresses directly the thoughts of a sleeping mind. So, we now make the attempt to stop, and watch, and sink within toward “Be still and know that I am God”, toward the truth of our being. Move away from the temporary, the ephemeral, the fleeting, and inward towards certainty. Focus on this idea for today, “These thoughts do not mean anything.”
This Life Is but a Dream
This world we see can seem very real, but, in fact, it is a dream. We may feel like we have many problems in this life such as money, relationships, jobs, family issues, addictions and all kinds of issues the ego wants us to believe we have. There is only one problem, and that is our perception. By changing our thought and belief system we can wake up from this dream world and change our perception to a happy dream. The ego would have us think that to escape the world as we see it is a very complex mission, whereas the Spirit would have us learn that it is very simple.
From Desperation to Inspiration
To go from desperation to inspiration is allowing yourself to be done through by spirit. In his book “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” This certainly applies to the human condition, which is a projection of the ego, or the belief in separation from God. Everyone who believes they are in this world has a deep, unconscious fear of God, which is experienced as a fear of future consequences. In David’s life, he began to recognize how much his life and his behaviors were motivated by this fear of consequences and how this was leading him nowhere.
The Inevitable End of Fear
You don’t even know what you truly fear because it is so pushed out of awareness that, if you were aware of it, you would not be able to hold on to a personal identity that is separate from this truth. Yet, whether you take this leap now or actively choose not to, makes no difference to the inevitable. It stays shining just like the sun, no matter where it is. The end of fear is always waiting for you. But you can choose to delay it if you want to stay in a fearful thought system. The change of mind that you are asked to make is from fear to love.
How to Become Enlightened?
What if you do entertain the notion of enlightenment? Some symbols and stories are about the possibility that you will become enlightened in a different Earth lifetime, and that it isn’t possible in this one. But deep down, there is a feeling that anything is possible. What if you entertain the notion of the Holy Instant as spoken about in “A Course in Miracles?”
Resistance on the Spiritual Path
Do you think that feeling resistance on the spiritual path is wrong? What if it is really progress? If you truly do not know your advances from your retreats, how could you be sure of what is wrong or right? Jesus teaches that resistance is the ego’s interpretation of progress and growth. Reassess your judgment of any part of the healing and how it appears. Experiencing resistance on the spiritual path is just a misinterpretation of the feeling of being reeled in to truth.
How Can I Know the Christ Mind?
What would it be like to live in a state of grace forever? Someone compliments you, then the next moment curses you, then leaves your life forever. What if none of this had any effect on you? You simply stayed happy no matter what the passing objects did or didn’t do. The Christ Mind does not get offended. It is always content, always peaceful, always still.
Can You Accept Yourself as Innocent?
Accept yourself! What is your true Identity? When you identify with a body, with a past, with a memory, or untrue thought, it seems impossible to see your complete innocence. But you are not a small limited part of an objective time-space world, you are everywhere. Accept yourself as everywhere. You have to take responsibility for sight before you can use the idea in ACIM daily lesson 61, ‘I am the light of the world.’