A Course in Miracles is meant to be used to help you get in touch with the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit can help undo your belief in specifics. ACIM is not meant to be used as an intellectual understanding to metaphysically gloss over specific problems that are still believed in.
From Darkness to Light
I See Only the Past – ACIM Meditation
I see only the past and I can relax now, knowing that all I need to do while I seem to be in this world is to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow His guidance. I don’t have to strive for anything or to set any goals, because I see only the past. I don’t have to think about what to do in the future, because I see only the past. I have no control over the world I made, and never did, because I see only the past. “This world was over long ago” (T-28.I.1:6) and I rest in this Holy Instant, now. “I see only the past. This idea will be very important in our awakening, because this idea must be first acknowledged before an experience can come that is beyond it. This idea is so important that the first six Lessons of the Workbook are all based on it. You might say it is a very fundamental step on the seeming ladder of awakening. There will be ideas that will come along that may seem very radical like, “the script is written”, an idea that seems very perplexing to students of this Course, but actually, is just another form of this lesson number 7, “I see only the past.” So, when we say “I see”, it means “I perceive.” I perceive a world of images, a world of sequenced images that seem to come one after another in what seems to be called daily life, in what seems to be a linear cosmos, moving from past to future in that direction, and yet all that, all those perceptions are based on the past. The meanings that are seen, experienced, are based solely on the past. If everything I perceive is the past, it can show at once how delusional are the thoughts and images that pass the mind. I say delusional, because if you think of this in terms of making a series of choices that all seem to be different throughout the day, choosing this over that, choosing to stay or to go, preferring one thing over the next, watching your eyes be drawn to one thing instead of another thing, planning the day, having a schedule, following a calendar, you are presuming that there is something going on other than the past. There seems to be something actively present and actively unfolding in the direction of the future. Presumptions of seemingly different locations in time and space, different increments of time, some much shorter and tinier, some much, much longer, all rest on the belief that this world is somehow dynamic and unfolding.”
ACIM Meditation – I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There
ACIM Meditation – I am upset because I see something that is not there. Nothing of this world resembles reality because the ego made up the world and the ego knows not of God. The ego is a hallucination and is only capable of making more hallucinations. That is why you cannot expect this world to tell you who you are. You can only be supremely happy if you know who you are and the Holy Spirit is the means to do so. The Holy Spirit is the bridge given us to escape from time and enter into eternity. Sink deep and allow this ACIM meditation to strengthen your connection with the Holy Spirit. “Today’s Workbook Lesson is giving us the chance to unpin, to unwind from the belief in being trapped in appearances. When our very identity of love of the living Christ, a perfect idea in the Mind of God, has been forgotten and completely pushed out of awareness, appearances seem to have come to take the place of love and light. This condition could be called hallucination. It is like when a thirsty traveler walking through a desert, feeling scorched, hot, parched and dry may hallucinate an oasis of shade and water. The sleeping Son of God has believed himself to be bereft of his holy Father, his creator. He finds himself lost and wandering in a desert of images, a desert of perception that God did not create: a fantasy world, a fictitious, linear stream of images that have nothing to do with reality, nothing to do with eternity, divine love and happiness. And so, the first step in healing from this apparent condition of separation is to realize that all upsets experienced are coming from a perception which is not there.”
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.”
Thy Will Be Done
“Thy Will be done” is the ultimate prayer for realigning the mind to the Will of God. It is the remembering that we have one Will in which we share with God. All deep spiritual practices emphasize emptying the mind of all concepts of who we think we are, and coming to the realization of Who we truly are. As we let go of the personality self we transcend into the recognition of our Christ Self, our true Identity. This journey is not about seeking to change the form for a better worldly outcome, but changing the very way we look upon the world. The goal is a pristine state of mind beyond all judgement of good and bad. There is an experience to be beheld where we already have everything, and are everything.
A Witness for Divine Love
The mind that is lost in darkness needs an experience of divine Love to know that there is hope. “A Course in Miracles” is a powerful tool used to witness the light that Jesus brings to the world. We can shine our way out of hell, if we let Spirit make the rescue. It’s a journey of letting go of everything that seems to be interpreted through our five senses, because they are extremely unreliable witnesses, and choosing instead to see our brothers and sisters as innocent. Spirit sees only the truth of our innocence.
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.
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.’
Metaphysical Talk
David Hoffmeister talks about the metaphysics of “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) in reference to the movie “Dark City.” Fear and guilt make this world go around and this is why forgiveness is necessary first before the reality of God’s Love can be remembered.
Know Thyself
To know thyself you have to let all scraps of duality (darkness) come up into awareness, so that they can be given over to the light in the mind. The temptation on the spiritual journey is to try to bring the light to the darkness, which is not possible.