Resting in the Serenity of Wholehearted Love

“I thank you for your strong desire to be saviors of the world and to end her suffering. I thank you for your compassion and for your desire to be of service to the world. But I call to you from peace and ask for you to remain in peace with me and let not the suffering of the world call you from it. When these things of the world threaten to call you from your peace, you must remind yourself that it is only from within the Peace of God that your wholeheartedness and our unity is accomplished.” (ACOL, T3:20.14)

This quotation summarizes much that I have been alluding to in recent posts. This is the drift of this part of A Course of Love. We must stay in the serenity of wholehearted love. If we don’t, we risk falling into the blaming of God for things that go wrong, and this is wrongheaded thinking. Our unity as One—all of us—in relationship one to the other, explains the new world, the new true reality. We are meant to live in union with our Christ-Self, and in union with our brothers and sisters. We must share in order to receive, and giving and receiving in this unity is the same. We have differences, but underlying our diversity, our incredible diversity, is a sameness that we all embody as children of God. And it is in this unity that we find our heaven on earth.

The world is incredibly diverse, and so God must love diversity. We are told in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love that we are creators, that we made the world that we see. This is a tremendous leap for us to consider. Certainly with our limited minds now, we know that we didn’t do anything like this. But the God within did, and we are a part of Him. He dwells within, and in this merging of the human and the divine, much more is seen to be possible than previously. Largely our reluctance to adopt our gifts has been because we projected God outside ourselves, a God in some heaven far away from earth. We know now that this just isn’t true. God lives through us; he is living life through us. His way thus becomes an unseparated union with human beings who all have a spark of the divine within.

Don’t focus on suffering to make it more than what it is. Be careful not to lapse into self-pity, if the suffering is our own. Be careful to let pain just be pain. In this world we are not without limitations, and pain may be our limitation. See what it has to say to us.

Prayer

It is revealing to me to realize how much needed sleep can work to relieve pain. When I relax, emotional turmoil just ceases to exist, and often emotional turmoil is the most debilitating aspect of pain and suffering. Sleep knits up care, as Shakespeare said so eloquently. I thank You for the nap today that gave me the peace of mind and heart that I needed and wanted. There are no needs, for need is answered at the point of its inception. Thank You for this truth from A Course of Love.

Be with me to develop my mind and heart in preparation for a good day. Thank You for the little things that give me solace, the solace of exercise, tasty food, soul-healing sleep. I seek not to escape from life, but to use the simple elements of a good life to give me the peace that You always wish me to have.

Thank You for the good things of today and yesterday. I ask for those good things to continue tomorrow also.

Amen.

Kept Safe & Secure by Miracles

“Miracles are not the end, but merely the means, of living by the truth. Miracles are not meant to be called upon to create specific outcomes in specific circumstances. They are meant to be lived by as the truth is meant to be lived by. Not because you desire an outcome, but because it is who you are and because you realize you can no longer be, live, or think as other than who you are in truth. This is how thorough your learning must be. It is a learning that must not change to fit the circumstances of illusion but be unchanging to fit the circumstances of the truth.” (ACOL, T3:20.11)

In this interpretation, miracles are a way of life. As we move through a day, we see evidence of miracles everywhere we look. This is the idea that everything is a miracle, or nothing is a miracle. I choose to believe that everything is a miracle, and in that I think that I second Jesus’s interpretation as laid out in A Course of Love. So we don’t ask for a miracle of healing; we ask that the day go forward as it is meant to go forward, with our acceptance of whatever transpires. We may speak out against an injustice, we may feel compassion for a pain—but we don’t look for supernatural means to speak to these issues. The supernatural is actually the natural in our House of Truth, God’s Kingdom. But we are “willing to have it so,” in daily life. This gives us the equanimity to accept whatever comes. We stop fighting life and what it brings.

Miracle-minded living is actually the new art of thought, an art taught quite thoroughly in the first treatise of A Course of Love. We seek to be miracle-ready, to keep ourselves in miracle-readiness, and in so doing we are, in turn, kept safe and secure by miracles. Our thinking has been informed by our heart, and so our days have a smoothness that they never had when we were trapped in illusion. Life gets better. And our gratitude helps to make it so, helps the various events and situations of our lives to turn over a new leaf, a new experience that will allow us to live better than ever before.

We learn now by observation of life in this world. We don’t pull out dusty old tomes of rarified knowledge from the past. We leave the past in the past. The guidance that emerges from our depths, the guidance that comes from our Christ-Self, is all that we need to live a rarified existence.

And we thank God that this is so.

Prayer

Thank You for the assurance that I am safe, kept in the security of Your embrace. Jesus also embraces me and all readers of A Course of Love, as well as non-readers. The love is palpable. It is this love that will free all of us of lingering fears that life might turn against us. It is this love to which I turn today.

May the dawning of each new day take me farther away from the fear of the unknown, with its egoic components, and move into the love that is meant to be my inheritance.

Thank You.

Amen.

Love Is the Answer to Pain & Suffering

“You will see it as quite difficult at first to respond to such situations in a new way, but all situations within the house of illusion call for the same response, the response of love to love. Why think you it is loving to believe in suffering? Do you not begin to see that in so doing you but reinforce it? What you might even call the “fact” of it? Can you not instead ask yourself what harm could be done by offering a new kind of observance?” (ACOL, T3:20.8)

If we don’t focus on suffering, it lessens—and this is true for our own suffering as well as the suffering of others. What we emphasize does grow in breadth and depth. What we focus on, expands. While we don’t want to close our eyes to the suffering of others, we are encouraged to believe that we will look on pain differently as time passes and our Christ-consciousness is in place. We will see with new eyes. We won’t commiserate in quite the same way, a way that heretofore has only reinforced suffering. What we will feel, as these blog posts recently have emphasized, is a compassion for those who seem to suffering. The suffering is not real, but it is real for those so involved. Illusion is very real to those caught in the house of illusion.

Our way is to provide an alternative from the House of Truth, or God’s Kingdom. We are not to try to reenter illusion in an attempt to save those caught within. Those there have their saviors. Our way is to provide the difference by living differently ourselves. If we don’t ever let our pain escalate into suffering, we will provide a very real example of a new way of being, a new truth. We will love with all the will that we are capable of mustering, but we won’t reinforce illusions by seeming to believe in it.

Suffering and pain are evidence of illusion. Heaven on earth, true reality, doesn’t contain these negatives. This does not mean that we cannot see suffering and pain from true reality. We often don’t see, though, and that in itself is a blessing. When we have moved beyond, we have moved beyond. And our vision sees a glorious new world that is pain-free. We will never know the “why” of suffering while still on this plane, in this world. But we can learn to view life differently, and in the new viewing, pain and suffering are eclipsed by the love that the Christ-Self has for all human beings. Love truly is the answer.

Prayer

May I live differently today, leaving aside, through my vision, any evidence of pain or suffering. There is a way in which these lamentables disappear. And I would like to find it, and find it today.

Your way suggests that if I focus on love, a new way of being will emerge, and I will leave pain and suffering in the dust behind me. Help me to do just this today.

Thank You for the glorious day that I see when I look outside. Nature seems to speak from You, and that is abundant comfort indeed.

Amen.

Contribute from a Full Heart

“Again, do not let your thoughts stray to benefiting and affecting others. In unity, all others are one with you and thus what you strive for in effectiveness is your own learning. Now, rather than learning the truth, you are learning how to live by the truth. This will benefit you and in so doing benefit all others.” (ACOL, T3:20.3)

We first give to ourselves. And then we reach out to all others, not by proselytizing, but by living the truth that we have come to know. One truth has been laid out in A Course of Love. And it is enough. We don’t need to “know” more; we simply live by what we have come to know, and in that we are abundantly satisfied.

If we focus too much on a contribution to others, we will lose our way. What is within is projected outward, and a focus on the outward means that limited attention is given to the inward. We must first be saved, in other words, before we can save others. The social gospel works only in limited ways. The way of redemption teaches others to live by their own lights, the guidance from deep within the psyche, and it does not press our thoughts and ideas upon a disbelieving world. We will make contributions, but first we must know that we have truly learned how to do so. If we proceed to make contributions from a separated state of mind and heart, we will make abundant mistakes in our charity work. And this we don’t want to do.

In living by the truth, we do first benefit ourselves, and then this better state of mind and heart inevitably reaches out to others. They benefit in ways that we could not predict, ways that we could not imagine. The way back home is not hard, but it does take patience. We can’t put a timetable on the bestowal of Christ-consciousness. And getting downhearted about its lack doesn’t help anybody, most especially ourselves.

Seek first to live well, even though Christ-consciousness may be coming only sparingly. There will be moments of truth, for Jesus promises this in ACOL. Don’t, above all, seek to become an ideal self, for an ideal self is an idol, and idols have been forbidden in all religions. We learned this as children in Sunday school. But previously we didn’t see the ideal self as an idol. Now we know better.

We just accept ourselves as we are. If we have flaws, we can pray for their removal, and realize in our depths that that miracle will happen. Miracles happen all the time to those who keep their eyes open, those whose eyesight is focused with true vision.

Prayer

My heart is full today, the way that I would wish it to be each and every day. I am grateful for a beautiful world, sunshine, green grass—nature in all its glory. Balmy weather completes the picture. Thank You. It is easy to feel loving when the day is so grand.

Help me to develop internally before I try to reach outwardly to my brothers and sisters. I want to help, not hinder, their way. And only when I am together, inside, am I ready to make a good contribution. Thank You for guiding me in this and in all ways.

Amen.

Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives

“While this would seem to leave some without hope, it will leave no one without choice. It will make the one clear and only choice evident. It is a choice to live in truth or in illusion. There are many ways that can still be found to come to the truth. But a way of getting to the truth will become so attractive that few will be able to resist. What will make this choice so attractive will not be martyrs and saintly souls stricken with every calamity and yet remaining to tell those who would listen about the glory of God. What will make this choice so attractive are ordinary people living extraor¬dinary, and miraculous, and observable lives.” (ACOL, T3:19.16)

The final sentence of this quotation is much beloved by readers of A Course of Love. It is also easily memorized and used as a mantra. “Ordinary” people living “extraordinary” lives. And that means us! Just us, ordinary people with the promise of a better tomorrow. Ordinary people who will follow guidance to create a new (and better) world. Ordinary people, living day to day with the inheritance from God our Father of an inner Christ-Self Who will make all things wonderful. This is how outstanding this promise is. This is what awaits us, as soon as we go beyond glimpses of Christ-consciousness, beyond maintenance of Christ-consciousness, to sustainability of Christ-consciousness. God makes the decision of when this is to happen to us (said in A Course in Miracles also), but we can do much to remove the blocks to the awareness of love. And then simply be accepting of who we are. Being who we are, accepting ourselves rather than an “ideal” self, is what is required for this blessing to descend upon us (though nobody awake in the world knows exactly how this miracle happened).

We are drawn by joy—to the truth of who we are. This call to joy, as ACIM calls it, is so attracting that the ego just dissolves in its wake. The call to joy is a call to be God’s children again, and not just in name only, but in service to ourselves, God, and our brothers and sisters in this world.

Make the choice today to be happy, regardless of whether we are one of those who have been visited with “every calamity” (as said in the quotation). Suffering is a choice, made by us, so that we might have a reason to push God aside. Pain is a choice also, but a choice that we don’t always have a way to avoid. We live in a material world that has germs, diseases, growing older, pesticides that damage our health, etc. We do create our own reality, but we simply don’t have the answer to the why of pain. We choose to be compassionate, to ourselves and others, rather than blame anybody. This is the way that Jesus points out in A Course of Love. And this is the way we ought to follow.

Determine today to live an extraordinary life. Just as we are. As Christ-Self personified, showing the world a personal self that has been redeemed from egoic preoccupations and egoic fears.

Prayer

I fall in line with the great promise that You made for today. I know that this will be a great day if I keep this mantra in place. Be with me to ensure that all will go well. Help me to open myself to Your blessings.

Thank You.

Amen.

Compassion for the Sick

“These lessons could not be taught while blame remained within your thought system. No victim is to blame for the violence done to them. No sick person is to blame for the illness within them. But you must be able to look at and see reality for what it is. Just as we are telling you that new beliefs and ideas will lead to a new reality, old beliefs and ideas led to the old reality, a reality that will still exist for some even after it changes completely for you.” (ACOL, T3.19.12)

This is the well-known section of A Course of Love that tells us not to blame the victim. Victims of suffering and pain deserve our compassion and our love, not our condemnation. Sincere followers of New Age thought have misunderstood this dictum, because they have believed that, because we create our own reality, we have brought emotional and physical problems on ourselves. This is why we have been prone, even within our own minds, to blame ourselves when we get sick, and to blame others when they do.

There is much here that is too deep to comprehend with our limited understanding. But it takes very little understanding to know that compassion is called for, and that blaming does no good. When confronted with pain and suffering, we only need to find a way out—for us or for other people. And there are hints in ACOL that suffering and pain will lessen, even to disappear, when we have walked farther along the pathway home to God.

Let us be accepting of our pain, but not of our suffering—for suffering is and will always remain a choice. Pain does not have to escalate into a “poor me” stance.

And pain will never escalate into a “poor me” when we realize that God is for health all the way. We just need to get out of our way to allow health to return. The pain may be teaching us something, and when we have learned that lesson, the path may very well leave of its own accord.

These reflections do not in any way diminish the real problems of real people. There is much that we do not know, but avoiding turning pain into suffering IS within our power, and we would do well to try to heed that.

Prayer

I long for good health all the time. I don’t want the mildest headache. Of course, when I think this, I am thinking along with people everywhere. And many of those people have something that causes them pain. May Your goodness reach each of us in our Self so that we don’t create illness as a learning tool. I think that many of us are not at that point yet—but, with your help, we will become that.

I would learn through painless and benign ways, lessons that come my way through good times rather than bad. May I have compassion for those with a Self Who feels differently. After all, they may get to You before I do. The Self makes this decision of how to learn. I would hope for the Self that we all are would choose a happy way of learning.

Amen.

Much More Lighthearted and Carefree Frame of Mind

“There is no longer any time to waste on such illusions. The thought system of the truth sees no value in suffering and so sees it not in truth. The thought system of the truth is a thought system that is not split by varying goals and desires. It is a thought system of unity. It is a thought system of one thought, one goal. That goal is the original thought that began the expe¬rience in physical form, the thought of expressing the Self in observable form.” (ACOL, T3:19.9)

By not “seeing” suffering, we are entering into a new era. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, in illusion, but we are bent on seeing reality, the real world. And as we progress, we will see far less suffering, and far more need just to express love, to extend love to our brothers and sisters.

We, somewhere early on, decided that we wanted physical form. It became a new choice, a choice in line with God’s Kingdom, and it did not have to involve a presumed separation from Him. In our case on earth, our new choice did become a detour into fear, and the ego, and then fear of God, for we were seeing him in the image of our fearful selves. Now we come home to the Christ-Self deep within, a Self not of insanity, but of truth. A Self Who knows no madness. And a Self Who is part of the God within.

We have been expressing the self in physical form, but we have not been expressing our real Self. This real Self has only recently been known by us as we catch glimpses of Christ-consciousness. When we drop the seriousness that is of the ego, and therefore fearful, we will be in a much more lighthearted and carefree frame of mind. This gentle way will lead to expressing the Self is better ways than was previously possible for us when we were expressing a fearful personal self who knew not of the Christ-Self.

Ask the Christ-Self to come out to play today. Ask the Christ-Self to embody you, telling your personal self, as presented to others, what to do and say, and even what to think.

The Christ-Self will not delude. Our way will be both brighter and happier. Our way will be what God, in His creative wisdom, first intended for us.

Prayer

Too much seriousness of mind is a form of madness, the egoic madness that I once knew. That is over for me, I hope. I pray that I will not form a new ego, lost in insanity and lost to You.

Help me to enjoy a gentle approach of life and living. Help me to let go of any seriousness of mind that is not warranted by the circumstances. Let me be lighthearted as I walk through this day. Help me to know that You are looking out for me, and that this assurance will give me peace of mind rather than a seriousness of purpose. Seriousness of purpose can undermine the purpose. I would approach my life with the realization that You are always in me, living Your life through me.

Amen.

Honor the Physical in the New World

“You must not fear the changes that will occur within your physical form as it begins to be guided by the thought system of the truth rather than the thought system of illusion. You will fear these changes less if you realize that all that has come of love will be kept and that all that has come of fear will fall away. You have no need to fear that the end of the special relationship will separate you from your loved ones. You have no need to fear that the joys you have shared with others will be no more. You have no more need to fear the loss of physical joys than you have to fear the loss of mental and spiritual joys.” (ACOL, T3:19.1)

We will lose nothing of any value when we live in the House of Truth, a House that also means love and peace, and the Kingdom of God. I sometimes like the appellation, “Kingdom of God,” better than the “House of Truth,” because the Kingdom is familiar terminology. It expresses exactly what we need to hear without any need to learn a new term. And Jesus does say in A Course of Love that the Kingdom of God and the House of Truth are the same concept.

We do not need to become celibate in our new embodiment of the elevated Self of form. This is a common misconception, as many very advanced teachers of God choose to forego personal relationships, especially personal relationships of a physical nature.

But Jesus goes to great lengths in ACOL to let us know that this is just a choice, and a different choice can be made. Why would the physical Self be emphasized in ACOL if we were to try to avoid any use of our bodies?

This does not mean that the physical is real. The world, A Course in Miracles tells us, is a projection, and projections are not real. But we experience it as real, and this makes all the difference.

We will probably be freer of sickness when we embody the elevated Self. Our minds will no longer make illness a way of life. And we do create our own reality. Nobody, though, is to be seen as a victim of ill health, nor to be blamed for the state of their health. We need to observe compassion in such examples, always compassion. Our love for our brothers and sisters demands no less.

Prayer

My relationship to the physical is honored. What a great blessing this is! Physical displays of affection and love are to be respected and even to be revered. This means that the physical is never deemphasized, and indeed may even be emphasized in the new world we are creating.

Be with me today if minor aches and pains happen. I am blessed with ease in the physical, and so anything that happens is likely to be transitory. Be with me to focus on the good and the beautiful. Help me not to encourage thoughts about anything less, lest these thoughts create a reality that I don’t want.

Thank You for being with me today and every day. Be with me in the only way that You know how—in warmth and caring, a sense of love that banishes all worry and preoccupation with those things that I don’t desire to have in my life.

Amen.

When We Observe with Love, We Observe Truly

“It will seem at first as if you are asked to deny the facts that you see before you in order to observe something other than what is there. You must constantly remember that your observance is now an act of worship and of devotion and that you are called to observe the truth rather than illusion no matter how real illusion may still seem to be.” (ACOL, T3:18.8)

This passage again refers, first of all, to our observance of our brothers and sisters. If we find people still trapped in illusion, we are not to take seriously whatever they may say, though of course we are still to respect their insanity, because we respect them. But most importantly, we don’t put any credence in their insanity. And when they are speaking from the ego, they are speaking from madness.

When we observe rightly, we are both worshipping and being devoted to the real world, to true reality. Our brothers and sisters, whether they still live in illusion or not, deserve our heartfelt consolation. They need us as much as we need them. And when we observe with love, we will observe truly. Surely our loving observance goes a long way toward meeting them outside the house of illusion, in the House of Truth.

This is the way to go about our day today: Observe our brothers and sister, and observe the events and situations in which we and they are embroiled. This will prompt a miracle that will make all better.

Observation of our world will show us how to live well, if we are attentive to higher truths. And being attentive to higher truths is our great need.

Prayer

I have sought to be attentive to my brothers and sisters today. This will pay off in the long run. Thank You for calling me to this mind slant.

Be with me as the day moves to a close. Help me to learn much from the observance of others that I do. Help me not to be misled by the madness of those still caught in illusion. And keep me from being ensnared by illusion also. Thank You.

Amen.

It Is to the Truth of Our Brothers & Sisters that We Look

“Expressing who you are in physical form will return remembrance to the minds of those who observe your expression. Further, your observance of your brothers and sisters will return remembrance to their minds and hearts. It is, in fact, your observance of the truth of your brothers and sisters that is the miracle we have stated as our new goal.

“I repeat, your observance of the truth of your brothers and sisters is the miracle.” (ACOL, T3:18.4 – 18.5)

We are into observation now, the observing of our brothers and sisters that will provide the insight about how to live that we so need. We are no longer looking to the guidance that was found in ancient treatises; we no longer look to what others have said. Instead, we look within, to our own truth. This truth is embodied in the Christ-Self and in the Christ-consciousness that is our inheritance.

To look to others with whom we are in relationship is a benign way to come to experience the miracle. We are comfortable, most of the time, with the significant others in our lives, because we know them better than anybody else. If we observe what they are saying and doing, we will be following the dictates of this quotation. Our brothers and sisters, in relationship with us, will take us home.

It is to the truth of our brothers and sisters that we look. We do not pay any attention to what their egos are saying to us. This illusion will always perceive inaccurately. But when we know that others are children of God, we will know that we are seeing into their heart. And when we see into their heart, we are encouraged, once again, to see into our own.

We need a miracle today. It is the way back. It is the way in which we will share with our brothers and sisters, and in the sharing we will know that we have understood.

Prayer

I learn best when I am paying close attention to other people, especially significant others, and that is what observation is all about. What better way to learn than to learn from our brothers and sisters with whom we have formed a close bond?

I seek to pay close attention, to be tolerant, and to be sensitive to the emotions and temperament of the significant ones in my life. Help me to walk the extra mile for them. Help me to see that their point of needs is answered right away, for sometimes You choose me as the vehicle.

Amen.

Guidance Points the Way Back to God

“The Holy Spirit, unlike God the Creator, has known the existence of the illusion and the thought system of the ego-self and been able to communicate within that illusion. Without this means of communication with the ego-self the ability to learn the truth could not have returned to you. The “time” of the Holy Spirit has now ended because the time of illusion is now called to an end. What is finite has an end point and this is that end point for the time of illusion. The return of Christ, or your ability and willingness to live as your true Self, to live in the house of truth rather than the house of illusion, is what will end the time of illusion.” (ACOL, T3:17.8)

There are several strains of thought here, some of which pick up on A Course in Miracles. ACIM said that the Holy Spirit could communicate with us as an intermediary between God and us, that God (maybe) did not know about us, because we had retreated into illusion, ego-projected illusion. Now A Course of Love makes the same assertion, that God does not join us in the illusion. I personally find this assertion of Jesus’s hard to comprehend as well as hard to accept. I think there is a Mind to the Godhead Who knows all. But Jesus doesn’t seem to agree with me. And he is in a better position to know.

We are to turn inward, now, to the Self within, a Self who is at once the All and the part of God Whom we embody deep inside. This is the way of life in the age of Christ. We are no longer fearful of God, and though we may have a Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts, we don’t turn to Him any longer, for his time has passed. This, according to ACOL.

It seems to be certain from this quotation that we needed the Holy Spirit in times past because our ego was predominant, and this egoic orientation made us fear God, for we had made of Him a God of fear, because we were making Him in our image, an image that was fear-predominant.

We do not have to know everything to live well. We do not have to know whether or not our God knows all. Certainly ACOL would say that He knows all in reality, and that is enough for us to deal with. We are moving into reality now, far away from illusion, and when this movement is complete, we will know God in a way that has heretofore been veiled from us.

Trust your understanding of God, whatever it may be. The way back will be paved by the divine guidance that we are receiving today. And that divine guidance is lodged deep within.

Prayer

Thank You for this good day. Thank You for all my good days. Your way is best, as I have known for a long time now. Your way works. Mine does not.

Help me to reach out to others I see and talk to during this day. I need to reach out, with You telling me how, in order to be the best sister I can be to others.

Amen.

We Are Safe, and Know Ourselves to Be in the Lap of God Himself

“The Holy Spirit was called upon to return this remembrance to minds and hearts. But again let me remind you that the Holy Spirit is not other than who you are but an aspect of who you are and Who God Is. Let me remind you also that names, such as Holy Spirit, are but word symbols that represent what is. So think now of whatever stories you know of the Holy Spirit, stories that symbolize what is. In these stories, the Holy Spirit is always called upon to return the true Self to the self of illusion. A Holy Spirit is called to return to your mind and heart.” (ACOL, T3:17.6)

This quotation for today gives us a fuller understanding of the Holy Spirit than we have had previously. We may have sometimes not understood at all. But to hear that the Holy Spirit is “a” Holy Spirit is an advance in our understanding. A Holy Spirit came unto Jesus 2,000 years ago, and enthralled him. The Holy Spirit did the same for us in A Course in Miracles. As well as all the times that we were fearful of God and needed an intermediary.

Now we aren’t fearful of God anymore and can reach inward in a more direct fashion. This is why the time of the Holy Spirit has ended and we are now in the time of Christ. The Christ-Self is within, a part of God. Of course, the Holy Spirit has been within as well, but we did not always recognize this. We were still projecting the Trinity as outside ourselves.

We need the true Self now. This is the only thing that will give us peace. The Holy Spirit prepared us for our return to God and Self.

And there is little else needful now. We are safe, and know ourselves to be in the lap of God Himself.

Prayer

I seek a closer walk with You today. I am praying what has been a frequent prayer, but today I invest this prayer with even more meaning. I know that I create my own reality, and the reality that I would have is one in which You walk with me always and forever. No separation, not even an illusory separation.

Thank You for the warmth that I feel when I pray. You warm my heart. You inform my mind of things that I need to know to live well. And the two together—heart and mind—give me a present and future far beyond what I have been able to envision.

Thank You.

Amen.

Expressions of Love, Created & Observed within the Realm of Physicality

“Why would you ever have chosen to obscure the truth? As we have already shown, to have chosen to express the Self in physical form was a choice consistent with the laws of love. There was no need for the Self to be separate in order for this to be so, but there was a need for the Self to have an observable form and to exist in relationship with others with observ¬able forms. This was simply so that expressions of love could be created and observed within the realm of physicality.” (ACOL, T3:17.1)

This is an explanation that we have needed to read. A world of physical bodies was not a rejection of God. Yet we forgot that we were not separate from Him, and this frightened us, and out of this fear, we thought that we rejected our Maker. This, in turn, led to the ego, with all of its frightening consequences. And this was all so unnecessary.

There were things that we needed to learn in a physical world. But we were impatient, and, as part of our evolution, we chose to imagine ourselves alone and lonely in a forsaken world. How foolish we were!

But God did not let us go. He created a plan simultaneous with our need for a plan. He gave us a way back. And finally we are taking that pathway.

Physical form does not negate love. Separation from God tries to negate love, but even that doesn’t succeed for long. There have always been times when we felt close to the Almighty, even when we were atheists or agnostics. And now that we know that God truly is the ground of all Being, we can rest easy. Our way back to Him is happening. Now. Every day.

We were expressing love in a new way when we took form as physical beings. That fear intruded was a mistake that could not happen, but did. This is the paradox. But now we know that God never abandoned us. This may take some faith to believe, but if we are honest, we will recognize that at our lowest point, there has been a sense of solace that overtakes us.

That sense of solace will never leave us. And this, God Himself, will guide us as to how to live well in a physical world, something we have heretofore not known.

Prayer

We have learned to love our bodies. We feel at home in them. And there is nothing wrong with that. Separation from You did not have to happen, and now

I am taking steps to see that that separation, illusory though it was, is
ended. Thank You for the guidance that You are giving me, some in A Course of Love, some internally from my own intuitive sense.

Be with me today as I enjoy reading and reflecting on You. This gives me some of the best feelings that I could ever entertain. Thank You for being here for me. Thank You for being You.

Amen.

Take Time for the Holy

“Special relationships have been replaced by holy relationship.

“By saying that special relationships have been replaced by holy relation¬ship it is being said that your only relationship is with the truth and that you no longer have a relationship with illusion. All of your fears in regards to special relationships are temptations of the human experience.” (ACOL, T3:16.13 – 16.14)

Our special relationships were illusory relationships, lived in an illusory world. Our holy relationships partake of the real world, the world of positive emotions and experiences—love, harmony, peace, joy. If we believe that we are moving into what is truly real, we will not regret that we cease to look upon our significant others in the same way as in the past.

It is imperative that we realize that in making the special, holy, we are giving up nothing. We have actually not been fair to our loved ones by demanding that they give us part of themselves to fill our presumed lacks. This is the unfairness of it all. When we realize that we are fine just as we are, we accept ourselves, and them, and we don’t make impossible demands any longer.

It is just that simple. Know that we are alright in accepting ourselves, that this is the way that things are meant to be. And don’t reach out to others in an attempt to fill lacks in the Self. The Self knows no lacks.

The holy is where the action is going to be in the new world that we are creating. The holy is real rather than illusory. And the holy will sustain us through all changes in our changing world. The future will get brighter, and the holy will have helped this to come about. Indeed, the holy is the way.

Prayer

I needed to realize today that turning to others, rather than You, is not always a viable option, not always a good option. Our brothers and sisters will often help us, but they have their own problems. You, on the other hand, are the infinite, always available for help and counsel. May I turn to You today if the crises of the present become too much.

Be with me for another good day. And thank You for the good day yesterday. My physical form felt well and mellow, and mellowness is an indication of a glimpse of enlightenment. Thank You for that glimpse. May my attitude today reflect what I learned from You yesterday.

Amen.

We Are Always Given Solace

“There is no loss but only gain within the laws of love.

“By saying that there is no loss but only gain within the laws of love, you are being told to have no fear. Fear of loss is a great temptation of the human experience. If it were not for this fear of loss, you would not find it difficult to live by the thought system of the truth. This fear relates very strongly to your ideas of change and as such is the greatest detriment to your new beginning.” (ACOL, T3:16.11 – 16.12)

We have often held onto our treasures because we feared what how we would feel if we lost them. This is as true on intangible treasures as it is of material ones, perhaps even more so. We clung to our special relationships for what they could give us, never realizing that we were doing a disservice by clinging.

We need to be unafraid of change. Change is as true of God as of us, especially as it pertains to our personal selves, which undergo much change as time unfolds. God has been described as the Unmovable, but perhaps this is not quite true. Would God be the only part of Life never to change? How would the universe grow and evolve, for we have learned in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love that God is the All, the Ground of all Being. We are a part of Him. And we change.

God’s individuation created all of us. So, if God is not afraid of change, should we be?

We need have no fear. There is truly no need to have fear. If we become overwrought about something, perhaps our little or personal self has been challenged or threatened. Perhaps there is no reason to feel that a benevolent God has abandoned us. Of course not. So why fear? We are always given solace, even in the worst disasters and challenges which we are called upon to experience.

We only know gain. If we can take this idea unto ourselves, much of our worrying will cease.

Let our worrying cease today.

Prayer

May my fear of any and all changes cease now, today. Life evolves as we live it. I don’t have to give up anything when God is looking out for me. I don’t have to be fearful of loss, for in love there is no loss. And love is my reason for being.

Be with me today. Help me to love greatly. Love much.

Amen.

Genuineness in Our Relationships Leads to Christ-consciousness

“Giving and receiving are one in truth.

“By saying that giving and receiving are one in truth it is being said that you are lacking only in what you do not give. The belief in lack is a temp¬tation of the human experience. This will relate to all situations in which you feel you have something to gain from some “other.” Again, this will be related to old patterns of dissatisfaction with the self.” (ACOL, T3:16.9 – 16.10)

Before reading A Course of Love, we probably never gave any thought that dissatisfaction with the self would be involved with the idea of lack and trying to gain something from another. But if we aren’t dissatisfied with ourselves, we know that we are complete as we are, that we have no need to gain from another unless we are also giving to that other brother or sister as well. And giving and receiving are one. In physical bodies, we must see that we reach out, and then something is reciprocated—and the reverse, someone gives us something, and we respond.

Since we are all One, this dynamic makes sense only when we think of our relationships with others. This is “unity and relationship” in action. Our Self, One with all, nevertheless gives and receives in our physical world, because we are discrete entities occupying separate bodies.

Let us not be dissatisfied with ourselves any longer. We do all have flaws, but we can change these things just by asking the Almighty to clean us up. We do not have to reach to an “ideal” self to know that we are alright just as we are, that we need only to be who we are in interactions with others.

This will allow a genuineness in our relationships that is like nothing else. Others will want to flock around us, not for what we can give them, but purely to be in our company.

Unless the ego rises up again, we have nothing to fear from recognizing this dynamic. And we have some say in whether or not we fall into egotistical thinking once again.

Prayer

So often I wonder how I might be a better person. But this is not the right tack, according to A Course of Love. I would be reaching for an “ideal” self, and this would be an idol. So help me to know that flaws can fall away, actually, just by wishing them away. That simple, and that profound.

Be with me on this day, a day filled with possibility and blessings. May I know that the urges that I feel about what to do and say need to be coming from You, or I will guide my actions wrongly. Get through to me, please.

Thank You.

Amen.

Cease Struggling to be Other than Who We Are in Truth

“You are already accomplished.

“By saying that you are not only accomplished, but The Accomplished, it is being said that you are already what you have sought to be. Thus, in order to live by the truth, you must live in the world as The Accomplished and cease struggling to be other than who you are in truth.” (ACOL, T3:16.7 – 16.8)

We may not like everything about ourselves. We may still think (or know) that we get angry too easily and too often. We may attack, at least verbally. But flaws such as this can be rectified. And when we have someone like Jesus saying that we are already The Accomplished, we are encouraged to think better of ourselves and to leave character flaws behind us.

We need to be who we are. If we don’t like who that is, we still don’t reach toward an ideal self. This is a persona that actually means nothing, for it is made up of bits and pieces from our past—ideas of great people whom we would like to emulate. But we don’t need role models any longer. We need to stop in our tracks and know that we are really alright just as we are. Even with all our flaws.

If our flaws are hurting ourselves and others, we will want to evolve. We will want to make peace with ourselves and with all others. This is how being “accomplished” can help us; we can know that we already know how to make peace in our troubled world. And what we don’t know, we can learn from turning inward to the Christ-Self, part of God Himself.

Get quiet today. Simmer down if overwrought. The best ways of men and women are still available to us. The best future is still ahead of us.

We have much to be thankful for, and our sense that we are who we are, and are not apologetic for it, is a step in the right direction.

Prayer

Help me walk through this day calm and easy. It is so often unavoidable in getting overwrought, but this will avail nothing. Peace is my way. The best way.

May I do nothing today that would go against Your will for me, knowing, as I do, that my ideal will is exactly Yours for me. Thank You for being there for me, always and forever.

Amen.

We Are Born Anew

“You are accomplished.

Giving and receiving are one in truth.
There is no loss but only gain within the laws of love.
Special relationships have been replaced by holy relationship.

“What we are adding now to these beliefs is the idea that these beliefs can be represented in form. These beliefs can, with the help of the new thought system, change the very nature of the self described by the words human being. This calls for still more forgetting as you must consciously let go of all your ideas of the limitations inherent in your concept of what it means to be a human being.” (ACOL, T3:15.15 – 15.16)

If we turn inward, we will realize that we have always felt limitations in living our lives. Some of these limitations were external, from our parents and teachers as we were growing up, and from our significant others when we reached adulthood. But more extreme limitations were felt from within. We felt we were not good enough, bright enough, accomplished enough to succeed at what we wanted to do in life. And these are ideas are what need to come to a close.

What does it mean to say that we are “accomplished.” We have succeeded, even when we think we haven’t. We have taken unto ourselves a gigantic learning feat in leaving behind the ego in favor of the Christ-Self. We are ready for what will transpire in the future (even when we aren’t entirely sure of this).

Giving and receiving are one. This makes sense when we realize that we embody form, physical bodies. And these bodies interact with one another. What we give, we receive; and vice-versus. This behooves us to choose wisely, informed by guidance.

We will not lose anything in this life. This is cause for rejoicing.

And, at the point that we are in ACOL, we have replaced special relationships with the holy. This is a shift that started when reading A Course in Miracles, and continues even now. We have lost nothing by giving up special relationships. We have only gained, for remember, “There is no loss but only gain within the laws of love.”

As we take these wonderful ideas unto ourselves, we are born anew. We leave any sense that we are limited in the dust below our feet. We walk ahead, unburdened by the past.

And all is well.

Prayer

May this day go well. May I enjoy the warm feeling that reading A Course of Love gives me. May I carry this warm feeling, a feeling coming from my heart, into daily life.

Be with me today. Help me to thank You properly for my many blessings. Let me take nothing for granted, especially not You.

Amen.

Let Us Walk into a Better World

“These Treatises are no longer concerned with coursework as the work of this Course has been accomplished in you. These Treatises are simply concerned with assisting you to live what you have learned. Learning was needed in order to return you to your Self. Despite whatever method you feel you used to learn what you have learned, what this Course did was bypass the way of learning of the ego and call upon the Christ in you to learn anew. That learning put an end to the old. Living what you have learned will usher in the new.” (ACOL, T3:15.13)

Jesus is getting ready for us, as strange as it may sound, to leave learning behind—in favor of simple observation of our inner and outer worlds. Previously, we learned through our ego, and what we learned did not help us to have a better world, not at all. Then, after beginning A Course of Love, we learned through our Christ-Self, the inner entity who is one with God, and in doing this, we recognized that we were leaving the ego behind.

The ego got us in such fixes. We were engaged in power struggles, shouting matches, violence of all types. At least now, with the Christ-Self, we know better. And soon we will have learned all that the Christ-Self needs to learn through traditional means of reading learned texts. Then we will observe, directly and simply, and let the Christ-Self continue in its learning by a new method.

We may have some trouble believing that a Christ-Self would even be in need of learning. But Jesus says “yes,” and we can imagine that an inner entity, one with God but hidden from view for eons, might have need of learning anew how to live in our world. This much is clear: Jesus says that the Christ-Self is learning with us now. And that is enough for me. I do trust what Jesus has to say.

Let the Christ-Self teach what It can teach. Let It learn what It needs to learn. Teaching and learning go together, and we have not yet given up both. But we will. Jesus was the example life from 2,000 years ago, and soon he will tell us that his teaching and learning functions are no longer relevant for our thought. We will make observations of our real life in this world. And these observations will take us, ultimately, to an in-forming that will change everything.

These are the final thoughts of ACOL.

Prayer

Thank You for all that You have done for me today. I am learning to say “thank You” more often. It gives me a sense of gratitude, inwardly, and gratefulness leads to a happy day.

Be with me as this day draws to a close. Help my viewers to accept the words of Jesus in A Course of Love. Let us have open hearts, open hearts that will speak to our minds, and then we will be well on our way to a newly created world, a world that is nothing short of heaven on earth.

Amen.

Allow Hope to Transform Our Day

“You must now birth the idea that human beings do indeed change. While you have known instinctively that there is a core, a center to each that is unchangeable, you must now give up the idea that this core or center has been represented by the past. You must forget the idea that the future cannot be different than the past.” (ACOL, T3:15.7)

Our core is the inner Christ-Self, and this Self has not been accurately portrayed by the “little,” or personal self. The personal self has been a persona, and previously it was an egoic persona. Now it is the self only that we present to our brothers and sisters, but it is a self that has been informed by the Christ-Self, the core that does not change. Never presented to others beforehand, of course we didn’t know what people were really like. We had never shown our true face.

Yes, when we allow the Christ-Self to emerge, and when this Christ-Self informs the personal self, we will see that our brothers and sisters will change. We will see that we change. Our misgivings about past misdeeds can be forgotten. The inner core was not represented in deeds of hostility. The Christ-Self is loving and peaceful, and this face will be seen now. The egoic self is no more, in us who are reading A Course of Love. And the personal self that we present to others will be a new face when it is informed by the emergent Christ-Self.

There is much hope in the passage for today. People who have executed deeds that are deplorable can be seen to change, because their core is good. And when they come to understand the Self Who is deep within, they can exhibit good behavior, behavior that has not seen the light of day until now.

The ego needs to die, and this is not the ego of Freud, but the ego presented in ACIM and ACOL, a false version of the self. The ego that needs to die lives in fear, and we know that living in fear is no way to live at all.

Allow hope to transform our day. All people have the potential to become new when a new identity emerges from deep within. This is the transforming hope for our world.

Prayer

I am going to allow hope to transform this day, the first day of the rest of my life. Hope quells illness, among other things. It alleviates any “down” feeling that we have. It is vastly underrated.

Be with me today. Help me to love with an ever-greater love. And may I reach out to those I encounter with genuine love.

Amen.

Genuine Relationships Are the Soul of Love

“Some of you have had more experience with new beginnings than others. For most mature adults, some form of new beginning has taken place or been offered. Often, those within the relationship of marriage have had occasion to choose to forgive the past and begin again to build a new relationship. Others, in a similar relationship, might have chosen to let the past go and enter into new relationships. Parents have welcomed home errant children to give them the chance to begin again. At all stages of life new friendships are formed and the relationship with each new friend provides for a new beginning.” (ACOL, T3:15.1)

We are caught in a new beginning right now, the culmination of the joining of heart and mind into wholeheartedness, and the joining of unity and relationship to form our place in this world. We can be optimistic about the future, or we can let fear overcome us, and drop into depression and self-doubt. All self-doubt, Jesus tells us, is really fear, and he has also in A Course of Love (as in A Course in Miracles) told us that there are only two emotions, love and fear. Of course, he asks us in this new beginning to choose love. And we know from our own new beginnings in our lives that the most successful of new beginnings are those that have been welcomed by love.

Relationship is everything, actually. Our individuated portions of the Self have come together in relationships that will destroy, or will transform, our world. Each of us is an individuated portion of the Self, for the Self, in unity, is One. Understanding this takes a mystical frame of mind. But mystical experiences are known to many of us, and they can be known by all of us if our mind does not close down, lost in skepticism that what we are experiencing is real.

So let us consider our new beginnings from our lives. If we formed a new relationship with our beloved after a rupture, if we formed a new relationship with a new beloved, if we welcomed home a wayward child—then we are easily led to follow Jesus’s thinking, because we know, first hand, what he is comparing real relationship to. Real relationships are the soul of Love. First, we meld together heart and mind to form wholeheartedness, and so we have an inner relationship to truth that serves us in good stead. Then we reach outward with the Self, the Christ-Self Who has been cloaked in the depths of our psyche for eons. This Self, shared with all others, forms relationships with our brothers and sisters in Love. And then we know that we will need never feel alone again.

Our union with our brothers and sisters, in relationships that are full of love, will allow us to proceed peacefully in our world. We will know intuitively and mystically that we are One with everyone, and when we know that, we cannot harm, for we know that we would only be hurting ourselves.

Prayer

I seek to expand my circle of close friends to even more brothers and sisters. This expansion of relationship will give me a broader community and help me to follow more precisely the tenets of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. The way back to God is paved by our relationships, our real relationship honed in love. There is no other answer as to how to live well in this world.

Be with me today, as always. Give me good energy to succeed in making a contribution to this difficult world. May I come to see this world as less difficult as I walk ever closer with You.

The way is not difficult with You hold my hand.

Amen.

Now We Know that We Are Safe

“Atonement, or correction, is not of you but of God. You might think of this in terms of nature and look upon nature’s ability to correct itself. You are a part of nature. Your body can correct or heal itself, and so can your mind and heart…if they are allowed to do so. A time-bound consciousness that hangs onto the past as if it were the truth, allows not correction to take place. The past is no more and neither the present nor the future can be built upon it. This is why we have spent so much time unlearning and why we continue with lessons of forgetting.” (ACOL, T3:14.12)

We all know that the physical body heals itself, though sometimes we do choose healing means to augment the natural. Now Jesus is telling us that the mind and heart will also heal itself, if left to its own devices. And we need to leave it to its own devices, not to egg it on with “remedies” that actually preserve the problem.

A Course in Miracles speaks of our feeling concerned that the contribution that we add to that of the Holy Spirit actually needs to be so little. Very little is actually asked of us. We can even be somewhat passive in accepting the help of the universe.

In this acceptance from God and His universe, we grow emotionally and spiritually. We are no longer bent on finding our own way. We rest in a larger truth, that the things that we know will emerge from the depths, and we will be alright, finally.

Now we listen to the Christ-Self, for the time of the Holy Spirit has passed. He was a intermediary, because we were fearful of approaching God directly. Now we know that we are safe, and now we know that we aren’t fearful of God any longer.

Our progress can and will be faster.

Prayer

Nature, You, can heal our mind and heart. What a great choice this makes—for us to relax and let You do Your lovely work, healing us. The way back to You is paved with good blessings. And when we finally reach You, we are indeed blessed.

May this day be a happy one. May this day show me, once again, that turning to You heals. There is no faster way to healing than the one that You point out.

Amen.

Move toward the Love that Gives Us All True Peace

“You will clearly see all of the choices that throughout your life have been made in love and made of you a person you would not be other than. You will also clearly see all of the choices that throughout your life were caused by fear and how little consequence they had in truth. These fearful choices took nothing from you or from others.” (ACOL, T3:14.9)

We have made many choices out of fear, but this was an untrue reality, an illusion, and the consequences have also been in illusion. And illusion can hurt nothing except our physical bodies, also illusion (from A Course in Miracles). We need to move toward the love that gives us all true peace. When we move toward love, we live in that peace.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see that the choices we made in fear really changed little? Or that we would have made many of those same choices if we made choices out of love? We are coming to the place in our evolution, our spiritual evolution, that all of our choices will be birthed in love. Pray today that this time will be soon, that there will be a celestial speedup that promises much and delivers much.

Fearful choices did nothing because they were made in illusion. And illusion has no consequences of any import. Fearful choices are best left behind now, now and forever. Walk in God’s grace, with head held high, and see if we don’t get a mellow experience of Christ-consciousness.

Once we have experienced enough of these glimpses, we will never turn back into illusion again.

Prayer

Thank you for this day, which has begun with such brightness and happiness for me. As the seasons change, I find much in nature to rejoice about. And viewing nature is a blessing in and of itself.

Thank You for giving me the gentle joy that pervades my living today. I welcome such times as glimpses of Awakening.

Amen.

Living Abundantly in This Troubled World

“What this means is that you will slowly translate all ideas of scarcity into ideas of abundance, all ideas of blame into ideas of benevolence. Thus you might, after this period of translation, rather than cursing your station in life and feeling badly that you do not enjoy the health, wealth or stature of some others, accept your current status and begin to feel more peace and joy within it. If you are not well, you may cope more easily with your discom¬fort. If you are not financially secure, you may congratulate yourself on desiring less and be more content living a simple life. If you have felt a lack of respect you may feel that what others think of you matters not and enjoy a heightened self-concept. While these would all be worthy aims they are not the goal toward which we work. These would be the consequences of new beliefs that are held but not lived. Soon these fragile states would be sure to feel threatened by some situation or person and judgment would return to label what is happening as “bad.” A “god” outside of the self would soon be called upon to intercede. Blame would be placed. A return to equanimity would soon prevail, for those dwelling in the house of truth would not long abide with such illusions, but the pattern of the old would not be broken. Suffering and strife would still seem to be possible.” (ACOL, T3:14.2)

Jesus talks of our fragility today. We move toward new ideas, and we want to believe them, but something holds us back. And then we are mired under by attempts to believe things that we really don’t want to believe.

Jesus talks of an attempt to call upon a god outside of ourselves. This is the way that virtually all of us used to think of God, but A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love give a new truth, a new secret: God is hiding out within us. And it is only when we let the ideas that He births within us, come out, do we live abundantly in this troubled world. This is what the Christ-Self is doing with the external personal self. This is what we are called to do.

We need to get to a place where real suffering is unheard of. We need to get to a place where strife is unheard of. The stakes are high. We know what happens when we are in egoic consciousness. Now the Christ-consciousness toward which we all move is getting the upper hand with us.

And nothing will ever be the same again.

Prayer

I would let drop some aspects of my personality that I don’t like. But I am not trying to make a new “ideal” persona; I am just trying to drop flaws, and doing so in completely in line with Jesus’s words in A Course of Love.

Help me to go through this day without any anxiety. Allow me to change, cognitively, the propensity toward anxious thoughts that have long been a part of me. There is a way to live peacefully, and this way I seek today.

Amen.

Base All Ideas on Love

“If you remember that all of your ideas are to be based on love, you will not fail to birth ideas of consequence.
. . .

“Ideas, in the context in which we are speaking of them here, are thoughts or images originating from the Self and being represented by the personal self. It is only in this way that the personal self will be able to represent the Self in truth.” (ACOL, T3:13.11 and 13.14)

Jesus differentiates ideas from beliefs. True reality does not need our belief; it simply is. But when we take our ideas about true reality, and put them into practice, then we are making real progress. We get our ideas from deep within, from the Self Who is just now coming into its own. And when we put these new ideas into practice, we will know genuine peace for the first time ever.

How do we come to understand what these new ideas are trying to tell us? How they are shaping the personal self whom we present to others?

We commune with our depths in quiet time. There are few other ways that work. Sure, we can have an insight when out in company, talking to people. But the real strides take place in our closet, when we are withdrawn from a world that does not often understand where we are coming from. There, in our closet, we get the motivation to continue on our walk. We learn what to do and say. We learn how to live.

Prayer

I am becoming more settled down with each passing day. By this I mean that my peace of mind and heart is more real to me. And this is a great blessing. I wish the same for anyone reading this.

Be with all of us through this day, the first day of the rest of our lives. May Your love embrace and enfold us. May we know that You care.

Amen.

Inner Peace when Enfolded in the Arms of God

“ ‘I am safe and nothing that I do or do not do will threaten my safety.’

“As you say these words you will realize that you do believe in them. You believe, but you cannot imagine the truth of these words really being repre¬sented in the life you live here. This you must now do. You must represent the truth of these words with your life.

“You are not, however, meant to test these words with foolish acts. To do so would be to act as if this were magic rather than the truth.” (ACOL, T3:13.8 – 13.10)

Our safety has always been of great concern to us. We haven’t really believed that it was possible to be safe in an unsafe world. But when we look upward, and set our sights on something beyond just the mundane, we can and will take our place among those who know themselves to be safe, protected by God.

We are not meant to take dangerous risks with our life. That would be an attempt to prove to ourselves that magic works. The physical can still harm our physical bodies. But not nearly so often as when the material was all we seemed to want. When we look to the intangibles, we are safe, for nothing can take away our emotional peace when we feel ourselves enfolded in the arms of God.

Feel God’s love today. Commune with Him. Know that deep within is a Self Who is united with God, that we don’t have to look externally, somewhere far beyond the universe, for a real world that includes God on a throne. The real world is here and now. True reality is beckoning for us to believe in its justice for all people. True reality needs our contributions.

We are not meant to reach out to those who are not ready. Not everyone is ready for the message of A Course of Love. We hold our peace, live our new beliefs, and see whether or not anybody else is interested.

They will be, in time. Eternity is a positive trend in our lives; time is not. Time is the place of egoic binding to a physical world that holds no relief for us. Eternity allows the elevated Self of form to thrive.

Let us thrive today.

Prayer

This quotation in today’s blog really speaks to me. Thank You. All of us wish to be safe in what is sometimes an unsafe world. I don’t look to magic, but I do look to You. My emotional peace is one of the greatest gifts that You can give to me. Thank You.

Be with me on this lovely day. May I enjoy the benefits of a day well lived. May this be the first of the rest of my life, lived in peace.

All of us want this.

Amen.

Flow through the Day, Moving with the Currents

“Now that we have established the consistency of our former purpose, that of establishing your identity, and our new purpose, that of the miracle that will allow you to exist as who you are in human form, we may proceed unencumbered by any doubt you might have had concerning whether or not you would desire the new goal toward which we work.” (ACOL, T3:13.1)

We have accomplished the first goal of A Course of Love: establishing a new identity. If we doubt that, we need only realize how changed we have become, how much more mellow, how much more caring. We don’t think, in an egoic sense, of “me first” any longer. This is great progress.

The next goal is to move toward miracles, specifically a miracle that will allow us to exist as who we are in physical form. This is not the old egoic self, but a new self, borne of the honing of the Christ-Self from deep within. This Christ-Self has also learned in the course of reading ACOL. And this Christ-Self is ready to move us forward into a new tomorrow.

Wouldn’t we like to live peaceably, unencumbered by the regrets of the past? We can, we are promised. We can.

Our physical self will be elevated in this new world. We will know an assurance that all is well, that we are not oscillating between highs and lows, that we are smoothly running our ship. The way is not hard, but it does take some getting used to. We don’t navigate in water the way that we do on land. We flow more smoothly, going with the currents.

And that is what Jesus is asking us to do today.

Prayer

I seek to be in flow virtually all the time. Even when I am not actively thinking about flow, I do know that it is in the back of my mind. My real Mind. Thank You for leading me to a place of serenity and peace, a place where flow resides.

Be with me today to keep me alert and active, even as I reside in serenity. There is a difference between calm serenity and drowsiness, and I seek to be just in calm serenity. Thank You for guiding me in my prayer life. Thank You for being You.

Amen.

Ever Joyful with the Love Found Within

“What would be a greater step in all of creation than a physical self able to choose to express the Self within the laws of love? A physical self, able to express itself from within the House of Truth in ways consistent with peace and love is the next step in creation, the rebirth of the Son of God known as the resurrection.” (ACOL, T3:12.10)

This physical self, described in this quotation, is the elevated Self of form that Jesus will present to us in the last book of A Course of Love, the Dialogues. This is a new direction for creation, an explored road, a new path. Jesus tells us elsewhere that there is no reason that we couldn’t choose to remain physical in this world of ours, though he also tells us that it is not immortality of which he is speaking. To my way of thinking, he is hinting at reincarnation, though in ACOL he never says this, and specifically in A Course in Miracles, we were warned not to take a stand on reincarnation, lest this hurt our usefulness to Jesus’s message. (The ego, we are told in ACIM, will be enough for us to contend with.)

We are, Jesus tells us in ACOL, living in the time of Christ. And this is the resurrection. Much that has been anticipated for generations is coming forth at this time. We know this, not to be fearful of what will transpire, but to be joyful with the Love that we will find pouring forth from newly joined hearts and minds in wholeheartedness.

Jesus assures us that he will never be predictive, because he is the “I AM” of Christ-consciousness. In the Dialogues, he resigns as our teacher, because our inner Self is meant to be our means of coming to know, now. He remains our companion, though, in that all of us share the same Self, for we are all One.

The personal self will step back and let the Christ-Self come forth. This Christ-Self will be our new identity, an identity that A Course of Love was written to solidify among all of us. As we form a new identity, our old egoic personality has just disappeared. Only certain patterns of egoic consciousness now persist, and this, we can believe, is as much a habit as anything else. But the old ego itself has gone, and we need only be conscious of the need not to make a new ego in its place. Our new identity will prevent that from occurring. A new identity which we all share. The Christ-Self, emerging from deep within, our part of God present and active in the world as we know it today.

Prayer

I appreciate the warm and positive tone to the words that Jesus uses in A Course of Love. He is ever-optimistic, sure that we will do what he so much longs for, for us—new identities in a new world that our elevated Self of form will create. And I don’t have to plan for this! Revelation will show the way. Thank You!

May I remain calm and serene throughout the day, but a day with good energy and good affect. The way to downtrodden ideas can be like a well-worn groove, and I would not go there. Be with me to help me stay positive in every instance.

Amen.

Our Inner Heaven Offers a Joy that Knows No Bounds

“The life of the physical self became a life of suffering and strife only because the physical or personal self forgot that it exists in relationship and believed itself to be separate and alone. In its fear, it made an ego-self which, because it sprang from fear, was not consistent with the laws of Love or of creation. Knowing it existed in a state inconsistent with that of the laws of God, it made of God a being to be feared, thus continuing, and being unable to find release from, the cycle of fear.” (ACOL, T3:12.9)

This quotation is part of the theology of A Course of Love. If we can believe this quotation, we will find an answer to much of our previous questioning. We will know why fear intervened in a paradise that the earth could have been. We will know why we exited, metaphorically, the Garden of Eden. And we will get an inkling of how to find our way to a new Garden, a House of Truth, and with this we will exit the house of illusion, the illusion that has covered our eyes with scales, preventing our vision of something new, different, and better.

Surely when we imagine ourselves all alone in the universe, fear is not far behind. When we destroy relationships that could be an oasis of peace, we suffer. And this suffering prompts fear to arise. We wonder how we could have gone so wrong. And how could God allow us to go so wrong? How could a loving and compassionate Father not rescue us from ourselves?

He does do so, not by intervening and destroying our freedom of will, but by consoling when times are tough. When we feel love for our Creator, we are reaching for the heavens, and in this reach, we find Who we are seeking. He is reaching back down to us as well, coming out from deep within each of us, transforming our psyche so that we will never have to fear fear again. God is not “other than” we are; we are a part of Him. This is a tenet of both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, and when we believe it, we stop looking heavenward for a Deity. We see that heaven is really within each of us, that the elevated Self of form, being formed now, will make us well people. Our fear will be gone, our love will be all-consuming and all-transforming.

Let Love show the way. When fear beckons, know that this is the house of illusion beckoning to us once again. But don’t enter that place. Know that the House of Truth, God’s Kingdom, is our legitimate home and our inheritance. Know that our understanding of God will grow as we reside longer in this House of Truth.

Fear aside, we welcome Love into our hearts and minds. Our way home is assured, finally.

Prayer

I know in my innermost mind and heart that heaven is within me. When I don’t reach inward often enough, I forget, and then the problems start. Help me to reach inward today. Help me to find You.

Heaven is a promise to us of improved conditions. And with this promise comes a joy that knows no bounds.

Thank You.

Amen.

Welcome Wholehearted Healing

“As it dawns upon your once slumbering mind that change on a grand scale awaits you, you will grow fearful if you do not realize that what is being proposed to you here is something completely new, something you have not even dreamed of. This state you have not even dared to dream of is a state in which only God’s laws of love exist even within the realm of physicality. What this means is that all that in this human experience has come of love will be retained. All that will be lost is what has come of fear.” (ACOL, T3:12.7)

What a glorious description of the new world! The world that we will create right on this earth, even as we lament the tragedies of our current world. We are heading into something new, for love has to be experienced if we are to survive, and Jesus is nothing if not optimistic. He does say that he doesn’t predict the future, though. This new world that he so much wants us to create is a world of transformed individuals occupying the elevated Self of form, a Self Whom we all share. We are One, we are in unity when we have walked the whole pathway, but we are still differentiated, or individuated, in separate bodies. So we have something to be in relationship TO.

Unity and relationship will characterize the new world, the newly created world of an elevated Self. This is our hope, this is our destiny. We do not, though, seek to evangelize others to this new world—until they see how different we have become, and they begin to ask questions. As Jesus says, ordinary people living extraordinary lives will be the attraction to this new world that we will create.

This new world offers hope above all else, and hope is healing. First we must change internally, for what is within controls what is without.

When we love, we can and must turn away from fear. Fear is dividing, and of course there is much in our current world to elicit fear. But when we cling to an inner will, the willingness to change ourselves, we will move into peace. Already many of us know a greater peace, even before we have walked the whole pathway back to God and our Christ Self.

Let us continue on the way that has been pointed out to us in A Course of Love. Let the mellowness of love transform our psyches as our mind and heart joins in wholehearted healing. And with this will come the new world.

Prayer

When we give up our fears, we walk a green earth. And giving up our fears is mandatory, must happen before we can create a new world. I will start small, just with myself. And just for one day. I will give up my fears today, and walk into a green earth, our beautiful world. And it is beautiful, despite its many problems. But with a hope that things will and must get better, I will seek to allow transformation to envelop me.

Be with me for a good and better day. I have prayed to You, and You have told me that You will keep me safe—and happy. What more could I ask today?

Amen.

Our New Goal: Changing Consciousness to the Eternal

“Matter or form is bound by time. Spirit is not. The House of Truth cannot be bound by time and be a House of Truth. How then can the personal self begin to realize the human experience outside of time? The answer is thus: by changing the consciousness of the personal self from a time-bound state of consciousness to an eternal state of consciousness. This change, as has been said before, is the miracle. This miracle is the goal toward which we now work.

“Realize that prior to this point, our goal was returning to your aware¬ness the truth of your identity. By changing our goal now, I am assuring you that you have become aware of the truth of your identity. The goal of this Course has been accomplished.” (ACOL, T3:12.4 – 12.5)

The passage for today is a very important turning point in A Course of Love. Jesus tells us that the initial goal of this Course has been effected. We have left the ego behind and by so doing we have formed a new identity. The blocks to the awareness of love have been removed. We are possessors of a new identity, the real Self, a Christ-Self, who will transform the little, or personal, self into something that knows its way around eternity, time-bound no longer.

We are now solidly in the place of miracles. We will recognize miracles when time loses its importance to us, and we realize that we are seeing things found only in eternity. When we live as though we are outside time and space, our vision is recharged, our eyes are cleared, we grasp the eternal. We do not leave our physical bodies behind, though. We are fast moving toward the elevated Self of form that will occupy Jesus’s words in the final book of A Course of Love, the Dialogues.

Our elevated Self of form recognizes that the body may not be real (in my interpretation), but it feels real to us, and therefore we would be unwise to try to discount and especially unwise to reject it. The things of the body occupy us quite a lot in our physical world. But it is the intangible things of the spirit that are most important, and these things transform the physical when it is elevated. This transformation effects great change in our world, either change or recreation. Some of will embody change, and some of us will simply create anew. There is room for both actions in our world. Jesus’s emphasis, though, is on creating the new world, not just in making changes within it. And when we commune with God, deep within us, we get some ideas of how to go about co-creating a new world.

We don’t have to have plans. Indeed, trying to weave plans will slow us down and even lead us wrongly. Instead, follow guidance that comes from within, the Christ-Self Itself. This Self knows in a way that our personal self has never known. And knowledge is our great need now. Commune with the depths, and see if we don’t really “know” for the first time ever.

Prayer

What a blessing this change in goal really is! To see the eternal in everyday life will be a miracle indeed. Thank You.

May I focus on those things which are eternal as I live each day of my future. Your way will succeed in ways that nothing else ever could. I am appreciative that I realize that.

Amen.

Live Zen-Like Lives Filled with Mellowness

“You must not see your brothers and sisters within the house of illusion but must see them where they truly are—within the House of Truth. As soon as you would “see” the house of illusion, you would make it real, and with its reality judgment would be upon you…not any judgment of God, but judgment of your own mind.” (ACOL, T3:11.13)

We must not hold hard feelings against our brothers and sisters who have not yet emerged from the house of illusion. Indeed, in this passage we learn that we must not make real this house at all. We must look past it to the House of Truth which encompasses all things. This House of Truth, the Kingdom of God, is where we really belong. And we have known this throughout our religious upbringing. Jesus does not make new rules so much as he reminds us of the ones that we have always heard and tried to live by. He shows us the new way, though, in that we don’t give any credence to sin anymore, and we realize mistakes for what they are. We move beyond our mistakes to that which will erase them forever. We know that we are innocent of wrongdoing, for we have been living in illusion, and what happens in illusion does not really happen at all.

If we see our brothers and sisters in the house of illusion, we are guilty of judging them. And newly arising fear and judgment will cripple our progress. Our glimpses of Christ-consciousness will stop, and a new egoic consciousness will be in danger of taking us over.

This we cannot let happen. This we do not want. Let us walk toward what we do want, which is a world washed clean of mistakes and the resultant conflict, suffering, and pain. There is a way to see a world like this. Jesus tells us that God sees this world, a world of joy and peace, happiness and contentment, serenity and calm. All of this can be ours when we leave behind fear and judgment. If this seems too much to ask, we might ask instead how we might live Zen-like lives filled with mellowness. Not lives that engage with the suffering and pain, but lives that look beyond to a better horizon.

Our way will smooth out as we let more and more glimpses of enlightenment take us over. The way will clear; life will emerge from the ruins of an ego that has been rejected.

Take time today to ask what we can do to bring this world into being. That is the best question that we could ask. It is the only real question before us now.

Prayer

I ask for a once-and- for- all end to anxieties today. I know that I have not walked the whole pathway as long as I still have fear as part of my emotional makeup. I ask for this fear to end.

And may I not judge my brothers and sisters. This too is forbidden, according to Jesus.

Be with me for a calm and centering day. Thank You.

Amen.

Live as a Mantra: Love, Peace, & Truth

“During the time I spent on earth I did not dwell in the house of illusion but in the house of truth. What this means is that I was aware of the truth and lived by the truth. I was aware of the Peace of God and lived within the Peace of God. I was aware of the Love of God and the Love of God lived within me.

“This is what you are now called to do:

Be aware that the love of God lives within you.
Live within the Peace of God.
Live by the truth.

“This could be restated as you are love, you live in peace, you live by or in accord with the truth.” (ACOL, T3:11.6 – 11.8)

This quotation for today reiterates the three words that Jesus says are interchangeable: love, peace, and truth. We would make much progress in our earthly walk if we took his statement to heart. We cannot love in any way except a special way when we are not in peace. And we cannot love and be in peace without clinging to the truth of who and what we are. Madness or insanity stalks our way otherwise. And we are so left, with cotton before our eyes, that we don’t recognize truth when we see it. And vision becomes our great need.

Such we can have. Vision is the way that love, peace, and truth shower down around us. When we see well and correctly, it doesn’t matter if our eyes are open or shut. True reality is seen without using physical eyes. True reality is where we want to head. There is no other real place, no other real way to live.

If we make a mantra of love, peace, and truth, we will have something to cling to. We will have a way home. And that home will be within sight on a clear day. Our glimpses of enlightenment, Christ-consciousness, will lengthen and lengthen until they merge to become a mystical moment in time that allows Christ-consciousness to descend upon us. We don’t have this blessing by demanding it of God. Our demands get in our way, and He does not listen to demands. We walk humbly and in surrender, and then the blessing happens. Seemingly all by itself. We will know. We will know the precise moment.

Then we must not let the shadows come again. Returning fear and judgment will drop the black curtain again, and our surrender will have become a one-time thing only. If we fall far, our ego will set up shop again, a new egoic consciousness will arise, and we will be back where we were when we started.

We must not let this happen. The world needs something more from us. The world is now drowning in sorrow, and Jesus would have us create this world anew. This is his great desire, along with a concomitant desire to see us come into Awakening, Christ-consciousness, enlightenment. We can’t create that new world until our self has been transformed, until the inner Christ-Self has come out to take its place as our real identity. Then what we will accomplish will become evident for all to see.

But it won’t be ego. It will be true reality, come to encompass this world.

Prayer

Thank You for the emanation of peace that comes to me when I am in spaces where there has been much prayer. I was in such a place this morning, and the sense of harmony and serenity was palpable. Thank You for these experiences. They reassure me that You are always near, that the felt sense of Your Presence is real and close.

Be with me as I seek to live well in this troubled world. May I do nothing to add to its chaos, but only add a sense of peace to my little corner of the world.

Thank You for guiding me toward the best way to live.

Amen.

Living in Perpetual Calm

“These words, truth and peace and love, are interchangeable in the house of truth as their meaning there is the same. These words, like the words House of Truth represent an awareness of a new reality, a new dwelling place.

“The word house as used in the House of Truth does not represent a struc¬ture but a dwelling place. The word house as used in the house of illusion does represent a structure. The house of illusion is a construction meant to shield the personal self from all that it would fear. The house of truth is the dwelling place of those who no longer live in fear and thus have no need for a structure of seeming protection.

“The house of illusion is the stage on which the drama of the human experience has been acted out.

“During the time I spent on earth I did not dwell in the house of illusion but in the house of truth.” (ACOL, T3:11.3 – 11.6)

The House of Truth is elsewhere referred to in A Course of Love as the Kingdom of God, and some of us may understand what is being said more readily with this older term. We often think of being at peace, inwardly, when we are in the Kingdom. And here we hear that truth and peace and love are interchangeable words. Indeed. We have long noted that A Course in Miracles was published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

We have been in illusion, as ACIM and ACOL have pointed out repeatedly. Now we have a way to go into true reality, at least as the “real world” is noted. This reality is a hallmark of both ACIM and ACOL. And to experience it, we need to be at peace inwardly. Half-way measures won’t be enough to give us lasting peace. A strong antidote to stress and discomfort is needed, and ACIM and ACOL provide that antidote.

We are not living in fear when we live in the House of Truth, or the Kingdom of God. We are living in perpetual calm, a calm marred only by patterns of the ego that may still plague us. There is a way out, but it does take patience. The longer we stay on the pathway, the more likely that we will know inner peace. And inner peace is the hallmark of the Kingdom.

Prayer

This oasis of calm that I feel today is very welcome. Thank You. My love for You propels me forward into a better day, a better tomorrow. The solace that I feel when I turn inward is You, pure and simple. You are within me, creating that oasis of calm.

Be with me as this day moves forward. Be with me over the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. Your warmth pervades my soul. And this is a very welcome experience.

Amen.

Listen for What Is Full of Love, What Is Gentle

“Realize that this is how you have learned in the past and that all that is from the past is what you are being called to forget. Thus when uncer¬tainty arises, you need but remind yourself that the time for uncertainty is past. Uncertainty will not now come to teach you lessons you have already learned but will only visit you as an echo from the past. It is a habit, a pattern of the old thought system. All you must do is not listen to it. Its voice will not be gentle or full of love. Its voice will hold the unmistakable edge of fear.” (ACOL, T3:10.11)

This quotation builds upon the quotation from yesterday. When we are uncertain or experiencing self-doubt, we are really living in fear. And this fear can and ought to be avoided. Look to the heart to still the fear, for this fear is only a pattern of the ego that can be overcome. Patterns of the time of the ego may continue to plague us for a while, but listening to the heart quells all such confusion.

Listen for what is full of love, what is gentle. Turn aside from uncertainty by gently opening the heart to what is transpiring in our world. The heart will always guide rightly.

And the self-doubt with which we have been plagued will dissipate as mists before the sun.

If self-doubt seems to linger, then ask a few pointed questions. What is happening in our lives that hasn’t happened until now? Why are we unsure and plagued with uncertainty?

Our minds may be affected by passing illness. We don’t think well when illness is predominant in what we are experiencing. In such cases, we may need simply to wait it out. Lie low for a while. Don’t make decisions from a place of uncertainty. If decisions are necessary, commune with our inner God for long periods of time. He will not mislead.

We may find that the period of uncertainty is a time of testing. Do we know how to distinguish genuine guidance from passing fancy? If not, now is the time to learn. We may not be at our best, but this too can be a way of learning from observation of our world. Maybe our observations tell us that we are not clicking along very well. If so, we need to retreat from the world into our inner sanctuary, and let God take over, ever more.

Uncertainty will pass if we follow God’s direction, and He is present in the Christ-Self, our new Self, the new Self Who will create a new world.

Prayer

I find myself wanting to go in many directions all at once, and this fuels uncertainty—the last thing that I want. Help me with this. Help us with this. Uncertainty is self-doubt, and self-doubt is fear—egoic in nature. I thought that I had left the ego behind, but perhaps its echo is still with me. Please let the ego fall away, once and for all.

Be with me today. Help me to have a good day, now and always. My constant prayer, said every morning.

Help me to discern guidance accurately. Help me to play with You, for You are lighthearted and loving, most of all.

Amen.

Let Gentleness Be Our Guide Today and Every Day

“The Christ-mind and the thoughts that come from the voice of the Christ-mind will be gentle. The thoughts of the ego-mind will come as disguises to certainty. Given just a little practice, these disguises will be easily seen through and the uncertainty behind them revealed. Thoughts of the Christ-mind will hold a certainty that cannot be disguised. Remember that all doubt is doubt about yourself and that you are no longer called to doubt yourself. Your Self is now your Christ-Self.” (ACOL, T3:10.9)

We are encouraged to eliminate self-doubt in this quotation for today. We have long been uncertain about our reactions to others, even when we have been following intuition and guidance. Of course, following guidance is recommended in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. But how do we know when we are accurately assessing what to do? This is where uncertainty rears its ugly head, and we wonder. . . oh, how we do wonder!

The problem previously with following guidance and being unsure if the guidance is accurate has been the ego. It has confused us no end. Now, following the Christ-Self, knowing that the ego is gone, will ease our minds and hearts considerably. We will know we are on the right path. We will feel reassured that all is well.

And the ego is gone. This far into A Course of Love, Jesus has reassured all readers that the ego is gone. Of course, a new ego can be formed, but for now we are safe. And if we truly live love, we will not let the egoic thought return. We will be safe forever.

The thoughts of the Christ-mind are gentle. This is the way that we can tell about its guidance. If the way being shown to us is a gentle path, a path with heart, we will know that we are right on—not being misled in any sense at all.

Let us let gentleness be our guide today and every day. Let us let the Christ-mind take over, as long as this mind is informed by the heart. And the mellowness that we feel from the heart will be unmistakable. We will know when to act and when to refrain from acting. Our way will be sure.

Prayer

When I am uncertain whether or not the guidance I seem to sense is true, I need to go within and ask again. If the same guidance keeps coming up to the surface of my mind, out of my heart, then I can be more assured that this guidance is accurate. Self-doubt is confusing, and it is so unnecessary. I will learn better as I progress farther back to You, leaving self-doubt in the dust below my feet.

Be with me today as I seek to find my way. My way, I have determined, is Your way. And when I am assured that my guidance is coming from deep within me, then I know that You are doing the prompting.

Thank You.

Amen.

In Radical Acceptance We Will Live Peaceful & Harmonious Lives

“Although I offer it not as a replacement, what you will find will come in the place of blame is an idea of acceptance of what is, an idea that is needed now.

“Acceptance of what is, is acceptance that whatever is happening in the present moment as a gift and a lesson. What comes as a lesson may not seem like a gift, but all lessons are gifts.” (ACOL, T3:10.5 – 10.6)

Previous to this passage, Jesus indicates that he will not give us a replacement for blame. He simply, directly, asks us to be done with it. And if we love enough, his solution will be enough. We will simply accept what is, and in this radical acceptance we will live peaceful and harmonious lives.

Of course, our minds long to place blame, for there are many and varied instances of chaos in our world. We aren’t encouraged by Jesus to turn a blind eye to the injustices that we see here, but we can work for change without finding a scapegoat, especially not by making God that scapegoat.

We will see that each thing that confronts us is a lesson and a gift. Even our pain and suffering, the very things that cry out for the placing of blame on a benevolent God Who granted us free will. Our lives are so constructed by ultimate reality that everything that we see, everything that shows up in our lives, is a way to bring us home. This is the reality in which we live, though we cannot, with our finite minds, comprehend the vastness of the lessons/gifts that we are given. Each of our days allows us to take a step closer to home. Backsliding is possible, of course, but far less likely to happen if we commune with our Christ-Self often and well.

So: All lessons are gifts, and sometimes the lessons can seem harsh, though this is not necessary. We truly are our own worst enemy, and when we don’t take life by the smooth handle, we force the lessons to become more harsh than they have to be.

We need to let our hearts lead, just what Jesus has been saying repeatedly in A Course of Love. Our love-filled heart will soften the rough edges of our lessons, and so those lessons will seem ever more like the gifts that they are.

Prayer

Sometimes I have to be passive, which is the same as Jesus saying in A Course of Love to practice non-resistance. This attitude is controversial, for do we not all want to be strong and independent? And this is exactly where I go wrong, for independence is not the way: Cooperation is. We are interdependent beings, able to live life on our own terms only when we reach out to others as well. Our brothers and sisters need us, and we need them. I don’t need to feel that I have to go it all alone.

Let me put these final notions of the ego behind me. I would share with others in a state that Jesus has pointed out in ACOL. This state is one that allows loving interactions at all times. I let my various displays of anger just fall away.

Be with me now as I seek to go Your way, pointed out by Jesus in ACOL. My heart warms as I read; may all who read know this all-embracing wholeheartedness.

Amen.

We Can Live Well with Mystical Insight

“The first thing I ask you to forget is your need to find a place where blame can be placed. You who have been waiting to get to the “hard part” of this Course may find it here. The idea of blame is incongruous with the idea of a benevolent Creator and a benevolent creation and as such is the only blasphemy. To blame yourself is as senseless as blaming others and your inclination to place blame upon yourself must be given up as well. When it is said that you are the cause it is not meant that you are to blame for anything. Although many a child has been blamed for his or her failure to learn, blame of yourself is as uncalled for as is blaming a child for lessons yet to be learned.” (ACOL, T3:10.3)

All of us have, in our history, blamed God for the fix that the world, and ourselves, have been in. We did not see how the loving God whom we had been taught about could have allowed suffering so horrendous to engulf our world. Because we could not see any “why” for suffering of such intense proportions, we turned our anger on God. Even very religious people have harbored anti-religious sentiment by blaming God for the sad state of our world.

We don’t have anyone or anything to blame, or Anyone. A reason for our plight has been given in A Course of Love, and it is that we were just too impatient as a species to learn what had to be learned to live in physical form. We strained at the boundaries of ourselves to push aside a God Who seemed to be holding us back. And He let go, knowing that adolescent rebellion could be handled in no other way. Free will would be respected, for this was His own free will as well, as He lives through us, being the part of Him who we are.

Why would blame be the only blasphemy? It is the way in which we reject ourselves as well as God. It doesn’t allow the Christ-Self to function as the heart center of the self that it represents. We cannot love and hold onto blame, for the blame will pull us back every time. We cannot reject God and hope to live abundant lives. Because He lives through us, we must know that what we are experiencing is what He experiences as well. Maybe. Some believe that God does not know of our plight in this world, that only the Holy Spirit and the Christ-Self can help us now, that the Christ-Self is the true savior. Jesus himself seems to sign onto this belief in A Course of Love, and there are indications of the same in A Course in Miracles.

Whatever ultimate reality may be, we can only live well with mystical insight. We cannot live well by trying to figure everything out, because our minds are finite. The personal self does not know ultimate reality; the Christ-Self comes closer, but even here there are aspects of ultimate reality that go unknown. Do we have to know more to live well? I think not. Our eager minds have been given solace in the new revelations of ACIM and ACOL, and we can live well with the knowledge that mystical insight gives to us. Mystical insight is a knowing that knows but cannot speak of what it knows. But the heart, embedded in love, directs our course. And what more do we really need to know than that?

Prayer
Thank You for the mystical insight that You gave me just this morning. I need time just to “think,” to be grateful, to feel surrounded by love. And I took that time this morning. Thank You for encouraging me to take some time out.

Be with me to curtail my tendency to feel like complaining about every little thing that might go wrong. This does not become me. It does not become any of us. I need to know that this grand world still holds joy for me and joy for others.

The way back to You is assured. Thank You for this understanding.

Amen.

Our Mellowness Alerts Us to the Joining of Heaven and Earth

“You will be tempted, nonetheless, to re-enter the house of illusion, if only to grasp the hands of those you love and gently tug them through its doors. You will be able to take note of the explosions happening within and will want to return to add your own to those going on inside, thinking that with the force of one more, maybe the walls will finally come tumbling down and those inside be held within illusion no more. This was the work of many who came before you but the time of such work, for you, is past. Many remain to shake the walls of illusion. Few stand beyond it to beckon to those within.” (ACOL, T3:9.5)

Here Jesus gives us our motive for living, a motive that for adherents of A Course of Love is somewhat different in scope than what we knew before we learned how to leave illusion. We have learned that leaving illusion and joining with the truth, with reality, is as simple as walking outside the doors of the house of illusion, for when we do this, we are automatically in the House of Truth. The House of Truth has not abandoned all of us who chose to live in illusion for a long while; it has always encompassed the illusory place that we heretofore called reality. Now we know better, for we are the ones who have left our egos behind. We either have experienced Christ-consciousness or have caught glimpses of it, for in peace and harmony, the two worlds of earth and heaven come very close to each other. We are close to knowing a mellowness that will signal the start of something very grand for us, and something very grand for this world as well. Our mellowness alerts us to the joining of heaven with earth.

If we choose to enter illusion again, we will flirt with the ego again, and life is much too important to let the ego ever try to rule again. People with egos are still abundant on this planet, and many of them are doing very good and important work. They are enmeshed in the treasures of art, music, and science that explosions of the Self have wrought. They are leading all within illusion to see the best of what there is to see in illusion. These individuals have their calling.

Our calling is different as we approach Christ-consciousness. This is not egoic nonsense, but an understanding that something fundamental has changed within our mind and heart. We did not effect this change, though we did remove the barriers to the awareness of love, and thereby invite love into our very being. The Christ-Self dominates the new people whom we are rapidly becoming. And many more will join us as revelatory thought takes dominion over our psyches.

We would do ourselves and others a disservice if we thought ourselves unfit for a higher purpose, if we believed that because others are caught in illusion, we ought to be as well. We are harbingers of better growth for our world ahead. We are harbingers of the new. And it is in humbly taking our place in this great commission that we find the purpose for which we were born.

Prayer

Thank You for the mellowness that I am feeling these days. I wish it for all I encounter. Mellowness is another word for inner peace, and long have I associated inner peace with A Course in Miracles. After all, the foundation that first published ACIM was the Foundation for Inner Peace.

I need to discover—and discover is the right word—how to sustain this mellowness, for in doing so my glimpses of Awakening will lengthen into something more. Sustaining Christ-consciousness is the next step in our plan of becoming something more than we were in egoic prison. Sustaining Christ-consciousness will allow all of us to create a new world, something that we don’t even have to plan, but can await as creativity wells up from within us. Something outside the dot of the self, as Jesus says, will engage us in discovery and acceptance of a new world.

I need to take to heart the revelations of A Course of Love. Our world needs all of us to discover a new way of being, a non-egoic way of accomplishment that will embrace all, all with the One Self whom we share.

Amen.

Love Is the True & Real Answer to All Our Troubles

“This idea is an idea of love. It is an idea that makes perfect sense and it is its very sense that makes it seem meaningless in a world gone mad. It is an idea that says only that which comes from love is real. It is an idea that says only that which fits within the laws of love is reality. It is an idea that says all that love would not create does not exist. It is an idea that says that if you live from love and within love’s laws you will create only love. It is an idea that accepts that this can be done and can be done by you in the here and now. To accept these ideas without accepting their ability to be applied is to change your beliefs without changing your ideas. This many have done. This you surely do not want to do.” (ACOL, T3:9.1)

This quotation for today is a primer on love, a primer on love from A Course of Love, even though Jesus has said in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love that love cannot be “learned.” It seems evident, though, that an understanding of love can be intuited, and when we read ACOL, especially, diligently and with focusing on our heart, we feel a mellow sensation that invites us to love wholeheartedly.

Reality means love; this is what Jesus is saying. And with that, we can understand that maybe what I have been saying, that reality is composed of intangibles like harmony, peace, joy, empathy, is true. These intangibles don’t depend on feeling that the physical world is real. We don’t have to go there; we don’t have to debate how many angels dance on the head of a pin, as the medievalists did. We don’t have to imagine that because Jesus in ACOL takes the body seriously, it is a contradiction with the non-dualistic A Course in Miracles. Readers of ACIM and ACOL are both aware of a physical reality, but we are also aware of the non-physical, mystical aspect of reality as well. And true reality is immersed in this non-physical, mystical truth (or so I think).

Love needs no debate. This eternal truth is here for all to see, and if we follow the principles of ACIM and ACOL, others in our world will see a truth about us that has eluded them previously. ACIM speaks of a way that is not of this world, the way in which people walk the earth, seeming to be as they have been, but in actuality being very different. That Workbook lesson is reflected in ACOL as well, when Jesus tells us that others will be attracted to what we have, and will want to be in our company, wanting what we have. This is not a lesson for the reemergence of ego; it is a lesson for the living of love. And we will be living love whenever we realize that being in this world but not of it is the way that we want to walk.

As Jesus said in ACOL, if scientists proclaimed that a mysterious substance had been discovered in the universe that would make everything run smoothly, we would listen. And if this substance were determined to be love, we would wonder why we had not seen it all before. This is where we are in regard to love—a mysterious substance that can heal us, that can give us peace and happiness, that can make our lives worth living, maybe for the first time ever.

Let love direct our walk today. Lead with our heart, for the heart knows of what I speak. The warm and fuzzy feeling that comes over many of us as we read A Course of Love is the intuition that love is the real and true answer to all our troubles. Find that truth today.

Prayer

When I pray to love more deeply, You warm my heart. When I pray to convey my love to my significant others, You show me how and what to do, intuitively. This business of loving is very powerful indeed. No other mysterious substance in the universe can come close.

Be with me as I seek to walk Your way, always in love. Living in love is a grand and great goal, and taking that goal unto myself is what I want to do with this day. With every day.

Amen.

New Treasures in a New World

“As the representations of the true Self within the house of illusion caused explosions and a fallout of treasure, the representation of the true Self within the house of truth will cause the creation of the new.” (ACOL, T3:8.9)

This quotation for today dovetails a thesis of A Course of Love. We have been told that, in illusion, the Self whom we are caused “explosions” within this house. And the fallout became the treasures that we see as art, music, even science. This was the best of what transpired in the house of illusion in which we have seemingly been trapped—these gifts, these treasures.

But the house of illusion, we are also told, was and is totally encompassed, surrounded, by the House of Truth. And as many of us have emerged from the house of illusion, into Truth, we have a chance to do things better now. These same treasures, newly polished, will create the new world that Jesus is desirous for us to create. Some of us, tied to the past, will change the world; but others, ready to let the world as we know it go, will create a new world. This creating anew is what our children and grandchildren long for, born as they are in the time of Christ.

The walk into the new world will lead to a future unlike anything we knew in illusion. Our way is clear; we must take this walk. A “celestial speed-up” has been what Jesus has been about since the days of scribing A Course in Miracles. The world has been at the brink of chaos, indeed often in chaos itself. And we have it within our power to change all of that, and to change it now. How? Accept the new mantle of the Christ-Self, shorn of the ego-mind. Stop giving lip service to love, and ask, in our depths, how we might truly live love—for the first time, ever.

The bitterness in our hearts will fall away when we stop dwelling on imponderables that have no answers. Don’t dwell on the suffering of the past, the impossible suffering that could not happen but did. The thing that has gone wrong in God’s universe.

Our innocence in this suffering has been proclaimed by both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love. We know better now.

Let’s put that “better” into practice.

Prayer

May I take small steps today to assist in creating a new world. May the small steps that I take be supported by small steps that others take, steps that will lead us out of the morass into something much better. Even grand.

The way to new treasure is by living by the truth. There is one truth, and one truth alone. But it is up to each of us to define that truth for ourselves. May we listen to our inner Self as we seek to walk a pathway that only each of us can walk.

Amen.

Glorious New Beginning

“As was said in A Course of Love, the idea of suffering is what has gone so wrong within God’s creation. As was said in “A Treatise on the Art of Thought,” the idea of love can replace the idea of suffering but it is chosen not because of the suffering that seems to make no sense of love. Bitterness is the cause of this inability to make a new choice and what keeps the cycle of suffering in motion.” (ACOL, T3:8.7)

Bitterness is to the heart what fear is to the mind. Jesus tells us this in A Course of Love. And bitterness is harder to sense. We may find the idea foreign to ourselves, but if we look deep within, we will see that we have failed to be tolerant and kind due to the bitterness that saw life as unfair.

And life may seem unfair for a very long time. It is an axiom of modern living, “Life is unfair.”

Can we change this mantra now? Can we really see a way out? If we make sense of love, we will leave suffering behind, suffering of all kinds—including bitterness. Would it not make supreme good sense to finally try love? This elixir has not really been tried, even in the heart, due to the bitterness there that said that life is unfair. If scientists told us that something very grand had been discovered that would cure all of our ills, we would listen. And then if they called this thing “love,” we would turn a blind eye to it once again. But love has never been tried, not really. We have been too caught up in our suffering, suffering that led to the bitterness that I have been describing.

Free our hearts today. Stop trying to imagine why and how suffering has happened. Just simply leave it behind. Suffering is a mistake in a creation that presumably can have no mistakes. But the mistake did happen, because we chose not to thrust off separation. We rejected God in our adolescence as homo sapiens. We knew no other way out.

We do know a way out now. And Jesus is giving us that way in A Course of Love. We are establishing a new identity free of the ego. And everything will be so very different and so very much better.

Depend on it. Stake your life on it. Claim it. And eschew the bitterness that has kept our hearts locked up.

There is no better way to a glorious new beginning, a glorious new future.

Prayer

Thank You for this good day. I am very hopeful that given a new frame of mind, one that does not allow the heart to sense unfairness in our world, that all will be better. Even that suffering will end, for I bring so much of my pain on myself. In that, I am like everybody else. We all choose suffering, when there is a better way. We can open up to hope, and then we will be much more inclined never to let pain escalate into suffering.

Pain that is emotional is particularly easy to fix; thank You for that. Physical pain changes with the degree to which we focus on it. Science has proved that a mind distracted from pain, makes that pain more bearable. Let’s prove that to ourselves today, if we sense pain of any kind threatening to overcome our good attitude.

Be with me as I try to gain the motivation to follow Your way in my world. Thank You.

Amen.

Turning Aside from the Ego Gives Us Serene Contentment

“The only choice that has been made is that of attachment to the human form as the self. The choice that hasn’t been made is the choice to leave this idea behind. The choice that has been made is to believe in a savior who could have, but did not, keep you from this suffering. The choice that has not been made is the choice to believe in the Christ-Self who is the only savior, rather than the ego-self, which is all you have needed saving from.” (ACOL, T3:8.5)

Do we blame Jesus, as a savior who failed to remove suffering? Do we blame him for the “plan of salvation” not working? Well, previously, we have looked to the crucifixion, and he asks us now to look to the resurrection. While he doesn’t tell us how this was came about, he does hint that an ethereal body was present. This doesn’t, therefore, seem to be the resurrection of the physical body that traditional Christianity has told us, has sought to make us believe. If we look to the resurrection of the ethereal body, is there hope that somehow this suffering will ease? Can we see a way out for ourselves, now, some 2000 years later on?

I hope that we can see a way out. Jesus indicates here that the ego-self has been our undoing. And we do know, from common sense, that our clinging to the ego has caused much emotional suffering for ourselves. Could the ego also have caused physical suffering? This seems to be what Jesus is saying in this quotation for today. Our Christ-Self will show us a new person with a new personality, ready to live differently. And in the different living will the suffering that we have known so long just pass into history.

We have not birthed the idea that suffering can end. We have made accommodations to suffering, thinking that only what we know as wishful thinking might end these plagues on our good humor and our good health. Elsewhere Jesus says that failing to birth the idea of suffering is what has kept it in place. We haven’t believed our own religion. We have hoped for change, but we have not effected that change with our holy Mind. Yet we can create our own reality free of the turmoil that has previously engulfed us. We do create our own reality now; this is implied not only in A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, but also stated in a forthright way in New Age thought previously.

What if we believed that we could be free of suffering? What if we let our Christ-Self out from the depths of our being, and therefore found real change, for the first time ever.

This is what we need to do. Let the Christ-Self, in good humor and good health, come out to play, gently and without seriousness, lightheartedly. Seriousness, Jesus tells us, is always of the ego, and we have had enough of the ego. We are, in fact, ready to discard it forever. Hopefully, forever. We can still form a new ego-self if we are not enthralled with the love that Jesus counsels. Fear and judgment will cause us, once again, to fall, though this fall also will be illusory.

Turn to the inner Christ-Self to save us now. Turn and be reassured that turning inward to God and the Christ-Self are all that we really need to do to effect a future unlike anything we have experienced previously.

Prayer

I know that my ego never gave me a contented life. Sure, there were highs, but these highs were followed by lows. Moods kept me from a serene and carefree life, though I had flights of happiness.

Now, trying to live without the ego, is blissful. I have an inner Self to guide me, and contentment steals over my day. The way back to God is not hard, is instead something that is natural.

Be with me, dear God, for a full and productive day.

Amen.

Unveiling of the Christ-Self

“If the Source of Truth is within you, then it is your own revelation toward which we work. Never forget that establishing your identity has been the only aim of this entire course of study. Realize how often you have forgotten this, despite the many repetitions of our aim, and you will be more aware of your resistance and your need to let it go.” (ACOL, T3:8.2)

This quotation gets into the theology of A Course of Love. The Source of Truth is God Himself, and this Source is sourced in the Christ-Self, an all-embracing Self Whom we share with the All, including other people, our brothers and sisters. We are seeking to come to understanding of this Christ-Self, one who has been overshadowed for eons in our own minds by the ego. Our “own revelation” is the unveiling of this Christ-Self, One with God, One with our mind and heart, One with our brothers and sisters in this world and beyond. This revelation will establish our identity, the purpose, we are told to the entire course of study on which we are embarked. The entire ACOL. Later a new purpose will be announced by Jesus, when he is certain that we have established a new identity, free of the ego. But for now our purpose is the establishment of our true identity, which is the Christ-Self hidden deep within each of us.

We haven’t been carrying this purpose in our minds, and Jesus is right about this. We are brought up short by his assertion, here, that we have resistance to the aim of ACOL. How might this resistance play out?

Well, it could be very bad indeed. It is not impossible that we will establish another ego-self when the original one falls away. We might do this if we are not open enough to what our heart is trying to say. If we listen to both mind and heart in wholeheartedness, allow the Self to come out and play, and join with our brothers and sisters—then the fear that we will establish another ego-self will be unfounded. Then and only then will we have given up our resistance to Jesus’s urging that we go on to establish our true identity, the Christ-Self who has learned, yes, learned what it means to be immersed in true reality. We may not immediately remember that the Christ-Self does learn, for our first reaction would be that this Self knows all that is necessary to life in the real world, or true reality. But learn it does, and we are the means.

We are told that the amassed teaching of the past is not going to be how we move into the new world we are going to create. We will observe, and then be in-formed by that world and our own intuitive insight, an insight that is God-driven. This observation is our new way of learning, the way that allows us more say in the matter of what we learn. We won’t want others to choose our lessons for us. We stay in the driver’s seat.

Bid the new revelations to come today. We are ready, and it is not arrogance to claim what is our inheritance and our birthright. We have indeed left the ego-self behind, and life will smooth out tremendously in the wake of the emergence of the real Self.

Prayer

May I turn over all I can’t handle to You alone. May I realize that there is much, very much, that I can’t handle. The world is very much with me today. I would ask to see Your truth in this world.

Be with me as I seek to walk a fresh pathway today. A pathway strewn with flowers, a pathway of true reality. May I be reassured that You hold the world in your hands, and You won’t let me down.

Amen.

Rebirth Heralds a New Ease in Non-Egoic Accomplishment

“You have formerly been capable of representing who you are only within illusion for this was the abode in which you resided. Illusion has been to you like a house with many doors. You have chosen many doors to the same house and but thought them to offer different things, only to find that the house you entered was still the same house, the house of illu¬sion. You took yourself into these many rooms and in some you were even capable of representing your true Self. This representation of the true Self within the house of illusion was like an explosion happening there. For a moment, the floorboards shook, the walls quaked, the lights dimmed. All those within the house became aware of something happening there. All attention turned toward the explosion but its source could not be found.

“In the aftermath of the explosion, the representation of the true Self settled like dust, and all the attention fell upon it. A great scrambling ensued as the recognition dawned on those who looked, that treasures were to be found there. One found art and another religion, one found poetry and another music, one seized upon a single thought and through its extrapola¬tion founded one science or another. In all of the excitement the matter of the source of the explosion was dismissed.

“Thus has been the best of what you call life within the illusion.” (ACOL, T3:7.6 – 7.8)

A beautiful passage from A Course of Love, this quotation for today lets us know that the best features of our culture developed from representations of the true Self, though those representations—art, music, poetry, religion, science—may have developed out of a persona wracked by violence. The process of evolution has indeed caused for human beings a violent rebirth. If we are still allowing ourselves to remain in illusion, we are still wracked by the “explosions” that Jesus says are happening there. This best of all possible worlds, in illusion, for us, does represent the best of our culture—the art, music, and the like.

But is this the way that we want to proceed as time continues to unfold? Aren’t we tired of picking ourselves up off the floor and striving for perfection in our achievements in art, music, science, etc.? Jesus says that life in the “House of Truth” is effortless and means an end to struggle. Would we not all want this? Climbing a new mountain of achievement, never being satisfied with what we have accomplished—at least for very long—means that the ego has been front and center in our motivation. When we accomplish in the House of Truth, we still strive but we do not struggle. Accomplishment is not a personal achievement any longer. We have tried and failed to get satisfaction from personal achievements. Now we try something new and different. Achievement in true reality, which means that we are One with our brothers and sisters, with our Self, and with God. To be that different surely means that we have made many footfalls upon our path back to God.

Have we not cringed, often, from thinking that something more is asked of us, some new achievement that will give us satisfaction in life at last? We shrank from the reality of this, for it was not true reality, but an illusion. Our egoic satisfactions lasted only until the gold wore off. And our accomplishments were not solid gold. They wore, leaving base metal showing. We have had enough of this.

Be glad that in the treasures that fell to the floor we found a glimmering of greater value. Now we can develop these treasures without struggle or pain. We can accomplish, not as a personal achievement, but through the guidance that we receive from the Self Whom we all are. The Self is One, as God is One. And we don’t take personal glorification from what comes beyond us. Not in art, music, poetry, science—you name it.

And we recognize the difference.

Prayer

I often strove for accomplishments in the past, but I am through with that now. Jesus has told me that, like others who are following him, I have accomplished now, and struggle is meant to be no more. What a glorious thought this indeed is! If only we could all believe it! If only we could be at home in the ease of accomplishments that are won for all people. No longer egoic for self, but magnanimous for all.

Be with me today as I seek to walk Your way once again. If I have to pick myself up again, let me know that You are lifting my hand to help me steady. Your way is the only way worth pursuing, and I walk in Your glory when I don’t make any attempt to achieve for myself only. These hollow victories are left behind in the dust.

Thank You.

Amen.

We Are an Idea in the Mind of God

“A belief system is not needed for the truth. Thus you can see that the beliefs put forth in “A Treatise on Unity” are necessary only to return you to the truth. Since there are no beliefs that represent the truth of who you are and who God is, we speak now of ideas or thoughts. If you believe that God created you with a thought or idea, then you can begin to see the power of thought. If you can believe that you created the ego with a thought or an idea, you can see where the power of thought is your power as well as God’s.” (ACOL, T3:7.2)

Idealism, in philosophy, contains the concept that everything that exists is an idea in the mind of God. While neither A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love do make this assertion, as such, the quotation for today comes close to Idealism. If we believe that God created us with an idea, and that we made the ego with an idea, our truth of being made in the image of God takes on new meaning.

But our ego didn’t mean us well, for we had withdrawn into insanity. We couldn’t be separate from God, we couldn’t live separately from Him, and still exist. So we postulated a separation. And then all the trouble began.

The ego has a belief system, and ACOL gives several instances of the beliefs held by ego. But, importantly, the truth has no need for a belief system—for the truth cannot be wrong. People don’t need to “believe” the truth; the truth simply IS. And while we may not fully understand what this truth is, we also know enough now to recognize that the truth will never let us down, as the ego has. This would in and of itself be a powerful incentive to drop the ego. And Jesus tells us by this time in our reading through ACOL, that we have removed the ego. We have let it wither away, not by actively resisting it, but by gently turning aside to the truth, to true reality. This true reality is of peace, love, joy, harmony—the positive emotions that we so long to feel all the time. This true reality is, in my estimation, a reality of intangibles that are eternal. And from these, we go forth to change the world, or, as Jesus hopes for most of us, create a new world. This we do by living extraordinary lives, though remaining ordinary people. And in this example of our being, we draw others to us.

Live life today as your best self. Don’t let it be a new persona, formed of a new ego-self. Recognize equality with all of our brothers and sisters. And walk a green earth again.

Prayer

I first believed that You “thought” me into being when I was a teenager studying philosophy in college. And now A Course of Love seems to say something very similar. This helps me to know that I was primed for believing ACOL a very long time ago. Thank You for the blessing of ACOL.

Be with me today. Help me, as always, to have a good day. And give me motivation to enjoy good times in this world. You mean for us to be happy; you mean for me to be happy. And I am. Struggles can become a thing of the past.

Help me to know that struggle is not Your way. And when I follow You, struggle is not my way, either.

Amen.

May Our Heart Stay Serene & Free

“Bitterness is to your heart what the ego has been to your mind. It is the one false idea that has entered this holiest of places, this abode of Christ, this bridge between the human and the divine. It exists not in some but in all, as the ego has existed not in some but in all. Like the ego, it has not caused you to be unlovable or unrecognizable. But it has become, like the ego, so much a part of your reality that it must, like the ego, be consciously left behind.” (ACOL, T3:6.5)

Moving ahead from what I discussed yesterday, we see in this quotation that bitterness is to our heart what the ego has been to our mind. Bitterness has been less noticed, though; we didn’t know why we felt angry that others seemed to have more than us. And we may very likely not have called this attitude, “bitterness.” Comparisons detract from us. We are better off not making them at all, and this we can recognize from knowing that the ego compares itself to other egos just all the time. What I mean here is not the technique of contrast that the Holy Spirit used so effectively in trying to teach us right from wrong, trying to set us on the road to salvation. Comparisons, in the sense that I mean them, are vicious rejections of the fact that we are all equal. We think that somehow we are better, or at least we try to think this. And this is ego speaking. So I would speculate that the ego’s machinations for the mind and the bitterness that we feel in the heart are very closely tied together.

We need to take steps to drop resentments, something that is almost (but not quite) a synonym for bitterness. We feel our resentments, and this clues us to the fact that we are talking about the heart, for feelings are the realm of the heart. Resentments are also prompted by the ego, though, and so we can see in the very word “resentment” that heart and mind are similarly bound to concepts that are debilitating to us. We have left the ego behind, the ego that bound our mind; now we must leave behind the bitterness, however we describe it, that has bound our heart. Then and only then will we be in a position to reach the wholeheartedness (mind and heart together) that Jesus counsels.

Take the step today to walk away from feeling “put upon” that someone else seems to have something that we don’t. Talents will be equally shared later on; any difference in talents now is temporary and time-bound. Talents are equal in eternity.

And knowing that we live in an eternity is a very freeing concept. “We live in an eternity. Be happy today.” A quotation from Eastern thought.

Prayer

When we feel out of sorts, the best place for us is in our quiet corner, communing with You. Communing with You is the only thing that truly works to take us out of a funk. And I seem to find much to worry me today. Be with me as I seek to find Your guidance, Your way that is best for me.

May bitterness not find a toehold in my heart. May my heart stay serene and free, sure of Your love, sure of my own clinging to Your love.

Thank You.

Amen.

Bitterness Is to the Heart What Ego Is to the Mind

“While many of you who have read this far and learned this much may not be those whose bitterness is mighty and held tightly to themselves, bitterness must still be discussed. While bitterness remains, vengeance will remain. You have been shown that God is not a God of vengeance but that you are still in the process of learning that your Self is not vengeful.” (ACOL, T3:6.4)

We need to remove from our hearts the concept of a vengeful Self. The Self is our part of God, and as such, not vengeful at all. And bitterness, Jesus says elsewhere, is to the heart what the ego is to the mind. And certainly the ego is insanity to the mind. Perhaps we can extend this thought to recognize that bitterness is insanity to the heart, and, as such, will keep our instincts embroiled in fears and speculation about fairness in our world that can only debilitate.

Our bitterness often comes from the sense that we are “have not’s” in a world in which many others have much more. If we have read this far, we are not as concerned with material blessings as with emotional ones—the peace and calm that we long to have in a troubled world and, perhaps, in a troubled self. Jesus says elsewhere that we have come to enjoy much more peace in our inner world than ever before. But he wants us to go further and change, or better still, create a new world. This we won’t do if bitterness wraps its tentacles around our heart. This we can’t do under such circumstances.

Jesus recognizes that we likely have less bitterness, as readers of A Course of Love, then some others in this world. But we need to eliminate the vestiges of bitterness at their root, which is a sense that we still want rewards for being good, for doing God’s will, for following Jesus. The sense that we want reward must, Jesus tells us elsewhere, be “done without.” And we can easily do this when we work to remove bitterness from our hearts. God is not vengeful, and, as our role model, neither is Jesus. We need to realize that our Self has not been out to get us, that this Self—this Christ-Self—has never done anything that would harm us. We have made mistakes in our egoic self, but mistakes that can be rectified, and forgiven, and then we march on.

Our world will never be the same when we do decide to march on, feeling no need for particular rewards, feeling no need for being bitter.

Prayer

I need to realize that the few things that go wrong in my world are not reason to color my day with regret and bitterness. Much more goes right, and this is true for everyone. If we focus on a lack of gratitude for what is before us, we will never be satisfied. And bitterness will have a toehold in our heart.

Let me be at peace today, in Your Arms. This will give me a good day, for nothing will go right if I am dissatisfied, and a ungratefulness makes for dissatisfaction. I would be eminently grateful today for the many blessings that surround me. May others who read these words feel the same way.

Amen.

Gift-Giving in Jesus’s Story

“The gift of redemption was the gift of an end to pain and suffering and a beginning of resurrection and new life. It was a gift meant to empty the world of the ego-self and to allow the personal self to live on as the one true Self, the one true son of God. The gift of redemption was given once and for all. It is the gift of restoration to original purpose. Without there having been an original purpose worthy of God’s son, the crucifixion would have ended life in form and returned the sons of man to the formless. Instead, the sons of man were freed to pursue their original purpose.” (ACOL, T3:5.7)

The gift of redemption is seen to be the resurrection—not the crucifixion. Nowhere does Jesus fully explain what happened in the resurrection, but he does affirm its validity. He does say that he resurrected in another form, and so we can speculate that he means his ethereal body, not his physical. But he is not very specific, and he leaves our interpretations to ourselves. I personally believe that he doesn’t want to disturb our faith, whatever it might be. And, as he suggested in A Course in Miracles, he doesn’t want to be controversial. In ACIM, for example, Jesus recommended that students/teachers of ACIM not take a stand on reincarnation, because this is just controversial and will hinder our effectiveness among others who have dissimilar ideas. The ego will be enough for us to deal with.

The crucifixion is not ignored in A Course of Love, though. He calls it not sacrifice, but evidence of gift-giving. The Father gave his only son to save the world. Jesus does not deviate from this (said here in simpler words). Giving an only son, in Jesus’s day, would have been a gift of great importance, because inheritance was such an important idea in Jesus’s time. The death of an only son would therefore have disrupted the natural inheritance from the earthly father that would have been expected. Jesus does not, however, want us to get lost in ideas about the crucifixion. He said in ACIM not to make the error of “clinging to the rugged cross.” And we do just that when we focus on the sacrifice and not the gift-giving, the gift-giving that is redemption.

There is an intriguing sentence in the quotation for today: “Without there having been an original purpose worthy of God’s son, the crucifixion would have ended life in form and returned the sons of man to the formless.” What does Jesus mean by that? How would this other-worldly incident have happened? He does not say, leaving us to dwell on his words without knowing the context. One context is clear, though: Our purpose in assuming form, physical bodies, was to express ourselves in a new and different way. Our purpose was never separation as such. But when we became impatient, like adolescents we forged ahead, and we made an ego that could only separate from our God.

So we are left with the gift-giving aspect of the crucifixion, and the encouragement to look to the resurrection more so than the crucifixion. Many strands of thought are held within the quotation for today, encouraging us to study it carefully.

We will not be sorry that we did study carefully.

Prayer

I look for gift-giving in the story of redemption, and it sheds a new light on an old story. It allows my mind to wrap around something better than the image of a beloved man crucified. It allows my heart to thank You for your gift-giving, a story that Jesus engineered and one that the world has come to love.

Be with me for a day fresh with optimism. May I follow lightly in the pathway that Jesus pointed out. May my gifts be given, as Yours are, with the spirit of compassion and true love. May I learn, from You, what gift-giving is all about.

This day I seek what only You can give: an oasis of peace and calm in a troubled world. May I do and say that which will lighten the burdens of those of us who occupy space in this world.

Amen.

Empty a Space for Love to Fill

“As with the gentle learning of this Course, not all emptiness has come to you at the hands of suffering. Each time you have “fallen” in love you have emptied a space for love to fill. Each time you have felt true devotion you have emptied a space for love to fill. You have been emptied of the ego-self as creative moments of inspiration filled you and emptied of the ego-self in moments of connection with God.” (ACOL, T3:5.2)

The passage from which today’s quotation comes emphasizes that we need to be “empty” to allow love to come in, to be absorbed. Suffering does empty, making us feel alone and desolate, and primes us to want something more, something to save us. But we don’t have to learn through suffering, through pain. We learn this from A Course in Miracles. Learning through rewards is more lasting, though in ACOL, Jesus cautions us against wanting rewards as an end in themselves.

Three other ways to be “emptied” are pointed out in this quotation—falling in love, feeling true devotion (to another), and experiencing moments of creativity. These moments gave a way for love to enter, and these are much preferred to the way of suffering and pain.

Most of us can identify with these statements. We remember a flow that developed when we were writing or painting, or the like, in creative endeavor. We were temporarily outside of ourselves, and we just moved along in the moment. In the Now, which is how Eckhart Tolle tells us we live best. Living in the Now is also a precursor to enlightenment, to Christ-consciousness, and as such is also a way that we are emptied.

It might be helpful to absorb some creative moments, or some moments of true devotion to another, today. We can’t always predict the “falling in love” phenomenon, but creativity and devotion are more within our power to control. And we will gain much from focusing on these ways to be emptied.

Deep prayer also empties, and this, a form of devotion, a devotion to God. We are encouraged in ACOL not to conceive of God as outside of ourselves, praying for Him to save us as an external Deity. God is not outside us, but a part of us. And so, rather than praying as though He were in the heavens above, sink deep within in communion. A little practice with this new concept will help a great deal. And it will lead to some of the most heartwarming prayers that we have ever prayed. Try it; the benefits are great.

So: We need to be emptied for love to enter in. And this love overwhelms any fears that are still residing in our being. We don’t resist the fears, for resisting makes fears stronger. We just gently turn aside from fear, express the desire to welcome love, and see what transpires.

We will be pleasantly surprised.

Prayer

I am heart-warmed by the close attention that Jesus gives to us in A Course of Love. His love for us shines through all the words. And as we sink into our heart, we take his words to heart. There is no better way to reach downward toward You.

Help me to accept those things that can’t be changed. All of us have them, and we so often rail against our fate, wanting things to be different, and, better, somehow. Things can and do get better when our mind and heart works together to live the words that Jesus gives us in ACOL.

Be with me today as I seek to work with what I have been given, blessings all, for even pain holds blessings for me. All returns me to You.

Amen.