A Course In Miracles – San Jose Karl J Vidt, ACIM Student/Teacher

Category Archives: Acim Ch. 21 – Reason And Perception

ACIM T-21.VIII The Inner Shift

November 20, 2018

As we close our look at Chapter 21 of the Course, we reflect on the concepts we have been discussing. Some of them are reason, madness, happiness, constancy, faith, belief, vision, responsibility, asking ourselves what we really want, willingness, looking within.

And what about our thoughts? Are they dangerous? As long as we believe we are a body, yes. Our thoughts that seem to kill are those that teach us that we can be killed. And so, we “die” because of what we believed and learned. This is the proof we value the inconstant more than constancy. Surely we thought we wanted happiness. Yet we did not desire it because it was the truth, and therefore must be constant.

The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to your understanding. Yet if you could even imagine what it must be, you would desire it although you understand it not. The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the Love of Source for Source’s creation. Sure in its vision as its Creator is in what its Creator knows, happiness looks on everything and sees it is the same. It sees not the ephemeral, for it desires everything be like itself, and sees it so. Nothing has power to confound its constancy, because its own desire cannot be shaken. It comes as surely unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.   T-21.VIII.2:1-8

When we ask for happiness, or anything at all, do we ask again and again as if it were inconstant? I think it’s safe to say we want happiness or peace or love in constancy. Yet we don’t believe we can get it in constancy. Reason, held within us by Spirit tells us what is constant if we will look to it. We may ask for something that seems inconstant, but Spirit knows what we really want and will guide our thoughts there if we will allow. All that is real is constant and lasts for eternity once we decide to accept our true nature. Have we answered the final question? Are we willing to see what we denied because it was the truth? Think carefully why you have not yet decided how you would answer the final question. Your answer to the others has made it possible to help you be already partly sane. And yet it is the final one that really asks if you are willing to be wholly sane. It’s time to leave all madness behind and step into the awareness of who we really are.

 What is the holy instant but Source’s appeal to you to recognize what Source has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience forever. Here is what denial has denied revealed to you. For here the final question is already answered, and what you ask for given. Here is the future now, for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your awareness of its holiness.   T-21.VIII.5:1-7

Reason tells us our relationships are holy and always have been. We may not have seen them as holy, but Spirit guides us in this holy vision as we allow our mind to be healed of its thoughts of separation. As our mind and thus our relationships are healed, we become aware of the infinite within us. We become aware of the constancy of joy and happiness within us. We become aware of the peace and love that dwell deep within us waiting for us to allow their endless flow in our lives in this world. Through this healing are we brought to the awareness of Heaven on earth, for it, too, is constant. It is time, now, to open our holy eyes and see what is already within us and step into that place of eternal holiness and bliss.

ACIM T-21.VII The Last Unanswered Question

November 13, 2018

We have been discussing and considering the questions the Course says we must ask ourselves. It comes down to whether or not we are happy with all our life and how we see it. Again, it asks us, “Is this what I want to see?” and “Do I want this?” Consider this carefully. Ask yourself, “Do I want to see what I denied because it was the truth?” Whether or not we realize it, we really want to see the truth. We want to see what is really real even if we don’t see it that way right now. We long to be in a state of peace of mind and see a happy and loving world. Perhaps we have been looking at the world through a distorted lens. Perhaps the world is not as it seems to appear. If Source created a world comprised solely of peace and love, could we have been mistaken in our perception of the world? Reason is an unchanged faculty within us that has not nor can be corrupted by our egoic thought system. Spirit has held it in protected reserve waiting for us to be willing to change our minds about how we perceive the world.

This is your one decision; this the condition for what occurs. It is irrelevant to how it happens, but not to why. You have control of this. And if you choose to see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be given you.   T-21.VII.9:1-4

This promise will not be broken. But, it requires us to be even a little willing to allow ourselves to see the world differently – to perceive the world differently through a clear lens held by our higher holy Self. The final question is so vitally important, and Reason within us will tell us why. We have free will, given us in our creation, and we must be willing for this shift in perception to be our will as well. The choice to see correctly will never be forced on us, only given freely when we choose to accept it. We make and unmake the choice to desire a better world – a world where I rule, I am powerful, and I have no enemies – again and again as we move our allegiance back and forth from the egoic thought system to One Mind. It’s no wonder we feel buffeted and beaten. Truth is constant. It never wavers. Unwavering happiness rises from truth. No one of us decides against our own happiness, but we may do so if we do not see that we do it. And if we see our happiness as ever changing, now this, now that, and now an elusive shadow attached to nothing, we do decide against happiness.

Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision. And constant vision can be given only those who wish for constancy. The power of the One Child’s desire remains the proof that they are wrong who see themselves as helpless. Desire what you want, and you will look on it and think it real. No thought but has the power to release or kill. And none can leave the thinker’s mind, or leave the thinker unaffected.   T-21.VII.13:1-8

Have you had enough of the inconstant in your life? Are you ready for constant? Answer the last question, “Do I want to see what I denied because it was the truth?” Are we seeing what we want to see? Do we want what we are currently seeing? We have a choice. We always have a choice. Let Reason within you answer the question and be willing to begin awakening to the truth that you have been denying for so long. Let this choice lead you to a happiness and a peacefulness that last for eternity – that surpasses all egoic mis-understanding. Here we step into the awareness of who we really are.

ACIM T-21.VII The Last Unanswered Question

November 6, 2018

What do you actually believe about who you are? Does it support you? Does it support your happiness, your wholeness, your abundance? The Course asks this at the opening of this section: Do you not see that all your misery comes from the strange belief that you are powerless? Being helpless is the cost of sin. Helplessness is sin’s condition; the one requirement that it demands to be believed. Only the helpless could believe in it. Enormity has no appeal save to the little. And only those who first believe that they are little could see attraction there. T-21.VII.1:1-6 We are as we are created by our Creator. Our Creator created only like Itself – whole, complete, sinless and unchangeable. Yet we have chosen to believe that we are something other than our created essence. We have relinquished our power to what? Some mistaken idea that told us we are separate and incomplete and lacking, and we then believed and reinforced that mistaken idea.

The result of this mistaken belief is that we become afraid. We are afraid of power in any form. We cannot distinguish between real power – which can only be used for good – and false power -that which has no real power. Our belief that something that is powerless has power is what makes it appear powerful. I know, this statement makes no sense. Yet, we believe that this false power is powerful and are afraid to challenge or even test it.

Would we dare believe that we have no enemies and that we are not powerless?

Reason would surely bid them seek no longer what is not there to find. Yet first they must be willing to perceive a world where it is not. It is not necessary that they understand how they can see it. Nor should they try. For if they focus on what they cannot understand, they will but emphasize their helplessness, and let sin tell them that their enemy must be themselves. But let them only ask themselves these questions, which they must decide, to have it done for them:

  • Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me?
  • Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless?
  • Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin?
  • And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth? T-21.VII.5:5-14

We may have already answered the first three questions about the world we desire. Yet it still makes us fearful. This is what the last question is all about. Do we want to see what we denied? Do we want to see the truth we denied? This seems to be facing the fire, perhaps the enemy. Yet it is nothing like that. It is stepping into the presence of the healing power of love. This healing power rises from within us and is a surprise that it has always been there, even when we’ve been told it has always been there. It floods over us bringing such a sense of relief and rest to us. It is the balm we seek. It is the peace we desire. It is all there is and ever was. It is arriving home after a very long journey.

Forget not that the choice of sin or truth, helplessness or power, is the choice of whether to attack or heal. For healing comes of power, and attack of helplessness. Whom you attack you cannot want to heal. And whom you would have healed must be the one you chose to be protected from attack. And what is this decision but the choice whether to see another through the body’s eyes, or let them be revealed to you through vision? How this decision leads to its effects is not your problem. But what you want to see must be your choice. This is a course in cause and not effect.   T-21.VII.7:1-8

It is our choice. Reason within us will guide this right choice. Make this choice today, for there is no rational reason to delay it any longer. It’s a matter of choosing insanity or sanity. Today let’s choose sanity and return to the awareness of who we really are. Step into the power and peace that are yours eternally.

ACIM T-21.VI Reason Versus Madness

October 30, 2018

Nothing happens in this world in isolation. Nothing ever happens in isolation. We are all part of everything. We may think that some things happen either to us alone or don’t affect us alone, but we are a part of everything. Isolation is an illusion as is separation. What we seem to see happening is a result of how we perceive the world. This is a difficult concept to grasp, especially as we ponder recent events in the world around us. We each perceive them differently and thus understand them differently. The Course tells us we are not attacked alone, but neither can we accept a miracle alone, for we are all blessed equally by the miracle’s healing of pain. Reason, like love, reassures us, and seeks not to frighten us. The power to heal is given all of us because we must be one with each other. Because we are all One, it is our responsibility how others see themselves. This responsibility may seem overwhelming in this world until we begin to see with our spirit Vision that is deep within our true being.

Does this feel like an immense burden? The instant that we choose to let ourselves be healed, in that same instant is another’s whole salvation seen as complete with ours. We are given reason to understand that this is so. For reason, kind as is the purpose for which it is the means, leads steadily away from madness toward truth. Here we will lay down the burden of denying truth. This is the burden that is terrible, and not the “burden” of truth. The reality that we are all joined in Oneness and responsible for recognizing just that is the truth and therefore not any kind of burden.

You are another’s savior. They are yours. Reason speaks happily indeed of this. This gracious plan was given love by Love. And what Love plans is like Itself in this: Being united, It would have you learn what you must be. And being one with It, it must be given you to give what It has given, and gives still. Spend but an instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give another, and learn with them what has been given both of you. To give is no more blessed than to receive. But neither is it less.   T-21.VI.9:1-9

The release of our burdens frees us from all the limitations of the world we think we see. The world we think we see is a major distortion of reality. Our belief in separation, long fortified in our split mind, shows a world full of attack, hate, fear and isolation that cannot be real in a reality where only wholeness, limitlessness, love and peace are real. We have made up this distorted world and then believed it was thrust upon us making us miserable. Perhaps we do feel miserable right now as we ponder this distorted world. However, we can see this world differently by following and living the principles of the Course.

The One Child of God [Us as One] is always blessed as one. And as another’s gratitude goes out to you who blessed them, reason will tell you that it cannot be you stand apart from blessing. The gratitude another offers you reminds you of the thanks your Source gives you for completing Oneness. And here alone does reason tell you that you can understand what you must be. Your Source is as close to you as is any other one. Yet what is there that could be nearer you than is your Self?   T-21.VI.10:1-6

Allow yourself to join in Oneness with each other. Allow yourself to join again and again. We begin to glimpse our true nature in this way. We begin to understand the difference between illusion and reality. We begin to realize that our efforts to remain isolated and build walls between us does not serve our happiness and joining together in Oneness does. Rejoice in this awakening. Allow reason within your holy mind to come forward and guide you to the realization and awareness of who you really are in Oneness with all creation. Blessings and gratitude are abundant in this state of mind. Be here in holiness and Oneness now.

ACIM T-21.VI Reason Versus Madness

October 23, 2018

We have learned that reason is within the part of our mind that remains untouched, unchanged and holy. Reason cannot be corrupted. There is great power in reason and thus within us if we will recognize it. Reason has the power to correct errors if we will allow it to do so. But to deny reason the permission to correct our errors, we deny it both to ourselves and each other. When we deny ourselves correction, we allow misery to occur in everyone. Reason cannot make way for correction in you or me alone, but in all of us together. Reason does not recognize separation, only Oneness. The Course asks us how the belief in separation could possibly make any sense and so separation must be insane.

Correction cannot be accepted or refused by you without your friend. Sin would maintain it can. Yet reason tells you that you cannot see your friend or yourself as sinful and still perceive the other innocent. Who looks upon themselves as guilty and sees a sinless world? And who can see a sinful world and look upon themselves apart from it? Sin would maintain you and your friend must be separate. But reason tells you that this must be wrong. If you and your friend are joined, how could it be that you have private thoughts? And how could thoughts that enter into what but seems like yours alone have no effect at all on what is yours? If minds are joined, this is impossible.   T-21.VI.2:1-10

The Reason in our right mind holds our Oneness for us when we deny it to ourselves by believing in separation. Sin is really nothing more than the belief in separation – an idea that is mistaken and cannot possibly be true. So, reason remembers it for us and gently reminds us when we allow ourselves to revisit our true nature. This place in our mind dedicated to holding our sanity and undoing our insanity is joined with all “other minds” in the One Mind, remembering our wholeness and our wholeness and divine nature. Allowing ourselves to go within and reconnect with this right mind is all we need ask for. The Spirit within us is waiting for our willingness to guide us to this reconnection we never lost, yet blocked form our awareness. All we need is within us and so why continue seeking outside us for what is already within us? There is no sane answer to that question. It is nothing more than a mad attack on reason which cannot succeed.

If you teach another that they are separate from you and from their Source forever, without a hope of safe return, you will learn of them exactly what you taught. For you can teach them only that they are as you would have them, and what you choose they be is but your choice for you. Yet think not this is fearful. That you are joined to them is but a fact, not an interpretation. How can a fact be fearful unless it disagrees with what you hold more dear than truth? Reason will tell you that this fact is your release.   T-21.VI.6:3-8

What do you hold dear in your mind – separation or Oneness? It’s your choice. And your choice determines the world you see. Your belief in separation will show you a world that appears to be full of attack and limitation. Reason will show you the real world of peace, love and joy. It’s the same world viewed through the lens of insanity or sanity. Make your choice but know that your mind holds a place of reason and sanity you can return to at any time you choose. Choose to return there now and return to the awareness of Oneness that has always been within you.

ACIM T-21.V The Function of Reason

October 16, 2018

We are created inseparable from the One and our true nature. We are whole and complete, divine and limitless. Yet, we have chosen to see ourselves differently. We have chosen to forgo all reason and believe we are separate from the One and each other – that we are separate from our own divine nature and identity. Does this sound insane? Yes it does, but we believe it anyway. There is no reason in this way of thinking, for who would abandon and deny their own wholeness. Yet, we choose to align our thinking with the insane idea of separateness our egoic thought system presents us. There is no reason in this. It is completely mistaken ad leads us only to loneliness and frustration. Our holiness is within us. Our sanity is within us. Reason is within us. If only we will turn our thoughts to the higher holy Self within us and allow it to show us who we really are. The answer we are seeking is waiting for us. Are you willing to ask the question you need to ask?

Where would the answer be but in the Source? And where are you but there, where this same answer is? Your Identity, as much a true Effect of this same Source as is the answer, must therefore be together and the same. O yes, you know this, and more than this alone. Yet any part of knowledge threatens dissociation as much as all of it. And all of it will come with any part. Here is the part you can accept. What reason points to you can see, because the witnesses on its behalf are clear. Only the totally insane can disregard them, and you have gone past this. Reason is a means that serves the Holy Spirit’s purpose in its own right. It is not reinterpreted and redirected from the goal of sin, as are the others. For reason is beyond the ego’s range of means.   T-21.V.7:1-12

We need not suffer this insanity. There is a place in our mind that remains untouched, unchanged and holy. This place in our mind is dedicated to hold our sanity and the remembrance of our true nature. This part of our mind is joined in its own and its Source’s Will to the undoing of insanity. In this mind is Spirit’s purpose accepted and accomplished, both at once. Reason resides here, too. It is untouched by the insane thoughts our egoic thought system bombards us with. This reason serves to open doors we closed against it in our mistaken faith and belief in separation.

You have come very close to this. Faith and belief have shifted, and you have asked the question the ego will never ask. Does not your reason tell you now the question must have come from something that you do not know, but must belong to you? Faith and belief, upheld by reason, cannot fail to lead to changed perception. And in this change is room made way for vision. Vision extends beyond itself, as does the purpose that it serves, and all the means for its accomplishment.   T-21.V.10:1-6

Our belief in the separation idea presented us by our egoic thought system occupies only a part of our mind. It is impossible to make all of our mind insane – although sometimes it feels like we have done just that. We could only accomplish making a split mind, choosing to block the portion of our mind that is whole and retains reason and the remembrance of who we really are. Is this insanity working for us? Is it bringing us the peace, love and joy we desire? The plan of salvation from this insane thought system willed together by our higher Self and Source is in that part of our mind dedicated to the undoing of the insanity we chose by aligning our split mind with the egoic thought system. We are free to choose again. We are free to allow the Higher Spirit Self within us to guide us in this plan of salvation that frees us from the limitations of the egoic thought system. What will you choose? Will you choose the wrongmindedness of the split mind or the rightmindedness of the One Mind? There’s nothing to lose except misery and everything to gain through the awareness of peace within you.

ACIM T-21.V The Function of Reason

October 9, 2018

What governs the world we see? Does it make sense? Do we have any involvement in what we see? We always have a choice. We make choices at every turn and we make them with the information we are aware of at that moment. How do we know the information we have at any given moment is reliable? This is the question we must consider. Is the information coming forward in our mind reliable and how do we discern whether or not it is reliable?

Perception selects, and makes the world you see. It literally picks it out as the mind directs. The laws of size and shape and brightness would hold, perhaps, if other things were equal. They are not equal. For what you look for you are far more likely to discover than what you would prefer to overlook. The still, small Voice for Source is not drowned out by all the ego’s raucous screams and senseless ravings to those who want to hear It. Perception is a choice and not a fact. But on this choice depends far more than you may realize as yet. For on the voice you choose to hear, and on the sights you choose to see, depends entirely your whole belief in what you are. Perception is a witness but to this, and never to reality. Yet it can show you the conditions in which awareness of reality is possible, or those where it could never be.   T-21.V.1:1-11

Reality needs no cooperation from us to be. Reality just is. Our awareness of reality, however, is another matter. Our awareness of reality needs our cooperation in the sense that it needs our choice. We must choose to want to see reality – to be just a little willing to be shown reality. When we listen to what the ego says, and see what it directs us see, it is sure that we will see ourselves as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. We will experience a sense of worthlessness and feelings of impermanence and unreality. We believe that forces far beyond our own control, and far more powerful than us control almost every aspect of our lives. And we think the world we made directs our destiny. This is our faith. Never believe, however, because we have faith it is real, that makes it reality. What we believe we will see – whether reality or illusion.

There is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. And if you place your faith in Them, you will perceive another self in you. This other self sees miracles as natural. They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the body. They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one it makes. Miracles seem unnatural to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can influence each other. Nor could they do so. But minds cannot be separate. This other self is perfectly aware of this. And thus, it recognizes that miracles do not affect another’s mind, only its own. They always change your mind. There is no other.   T-21.V.3:1-11

The idea of separation has interfered in our mind with all reason. We do not realize the extent this has compromised the awareness of reason in our minds. Our belief in separation has blocked all awareness of reason from the mind we have so thoroughly believed we are. Our whole mind – our right mind – is capable of reason but is relegated to unawareness by our allegiance to our belief in separation and our desire to blame the world for the world we made that we don’t like. The question we must ask stems form reason, so as long as we have pledged our allegiance to separation, we will not ask the basic question that will free us from our own limitation.

If we listened to our reason – to the part of our mind still aligned wit reality and grace – we would recognize our true Self. We would recognize our holiness, limitlessness and divine nature. We would recognize there is no separation and that there has never been separation. We remain One as we are created with Source, never wavering from Oneness except in the dream of our misperception that we are separate. It is time to set aside our mistaken belief in separation and step into the full awareness of Oneness. This is our reality ad our divine nature. Let it rise within us now.

ACIM T-21.IV The Fear To Look Within

October 2, 2018

I think there are many things about ourselves we are afraid of. We may be afraid of failure, success, getting hurt, getting what we want. No matter what we are afraid of, it often paralyzes us and forfeits any benefit we might gain just because we are afraid of something that may or may not happen. We often settle for that which is familiar just because it’s familiar. We are more content to stay with what we know rather than take any risks. What if there were no risks? What if what we really want is guaranteed? We’re also afraid of that, too.

The Course tells us we have everything we need within us. Yet, we refuse to accept this fact we have denied. We have convinced ourselves we are inadequate. We have convinced ourselves we are limited, lacking and even sinful. We are created in the image of the Holy One! The Course teaches this. The Course teaches us we are sinless and could never really sin as we are one with the Holy One. The Course teaches us that each and every one of us is One with the Holy One – no exceptions. The only mistake we ever made was to believe we are separate from each other and the Holy One. We believe that if we look within we will see something sinful, something awful and perhaps evil. Our faith that sin is there witnesses to our desire that it be there to see. This merely seems to be the source of fear. What if there is an even deeper fear?

What if you looked within and saw no sin? This “fearful” question is one the ego never asks. And you who ask it now are threatening the ego’s whole defensive system too seriously for it to bother to pretend it is your friend. Those who have joined their sisters and brothers have detached themselves from their belief that their identity lies in the ego. A holy relationship is one in which you join with what is part of you in truth. And your belief in sin has been already shaken, nor are you now entirely unwilling to look within and see it not.   T-21.IV.3:1-6

Perhaps we have suffered enough to allow Spirit to take our hand as we turn to look within at what just might be there hidden beyond the egoic identity we thought we were.

To be willing – even just a little – to open our eyes and see what lies beyond in truth and reality allows Spirit – also within us – to guide us to a new understanding of who we are. We find that understanding as we allow Spirit to join in our relationships and heal them into holy relationships. We will see them healed in a holy instant even as we tend to look away again. But once we have seen the healing we will want to return again and again. Spirit will guide us there as we desire and allow. Realize that this holy Self has always been within us. This holy Self is who we really are in Oneness with each and every other One we encounter.

The Holy Self within us – awakened in our healed relationship – recognizes the sweetest song that echoes through the ages. The song of freedom, which sings the praises of another world, brings to it hope of peace. For it remembers and now sees that Heaven has come to earth. Heaven has come because it found a home in our relationship on earth. And earth can hold no longer what has been given Heaven as its own.

Look gently on each other, and remember the ego’s weakness is revealed in both your sight. What it would keep apart has met and joined, and looks upon the ego unafraid. Little child, innocent of sin, follow in gladness the way to certainty. Be not held back by fear’s insane insistence that sureness lies in doubt. This has no meaning. What matters it to you how loudly it is proclaimed? The senseless is not made meaningful by repetition and by clamor. The quiet way is open. Follow it happily, and question not what must be so.   T-21.IV.8:1-9

Look within and allow yourself to see your strength, to see your limitlessness, to see your holiness in unity in all your relationships. We are the holy One in Oneness and nothing less. Be not afraid to look within and find there what you’ve been seeking.

ACIM T-21.III Faith, Belief and Vision

September 25, 2018

Faith and belief are tools that can be used to support separation or healing. We have believed we are limited to support our choice of separation. We can use the same faith and belief – guided by Spirit – to support the return to the awareness of our wholeness and limitlessness and Oneness. The guidance of Spirit is the key that makes the difference. Our journey to separation is taken alone, for it is guided by our egouc thought system, which has no real power. Our journey to joining is taken with all the support and guidance of Oneness and Spirit. Once we choose the journey to Oneness we cannot fail in that journey. We may take some off course junkets, but we will eventually get to our chosen destination as we allow our minds to be guided by Love and Peace.

Those who would free each other from the body can have no fear. They have renounced the means for sin by choosing to let all limitations be removed. As they desire to look upon each other in holiness, the power of their belief and faith sees far beyond the body, supporting vision, not obstructing it. But first they chose to recognize how much their faith had limited their understanding of the world, desiring to place its power elsewhere should another point of view be given them. The miracles that follow this decision are also born of faith. For all who choose to look away from sin are given vision and are led to holiness.   T-21.III.8:1-6

What are you willing to choose? Faith in limitation or faith in limitlessness. It is our choice to make whenever we choose. Though we may think the opposite, there is no sacrifice in aligning with Oneness and limitlessness, where aligning with limitation sacrifices everything real and true. Are you willing to give up sacrifice? We think we want our own little world where no one can touch or affect us. This world is very limited and small. Yet it has no power and cannot protect us from sacrifice. We give up so much for this limited world that results in misery and loneliness. Joining in Oneness with all of Heaven is truly the end of misery and limitation.

Our faith in sacrifice has given us the sight we see from our body’s eyes. It is so limited. The world we see is a distortion of reality. Our egoic thought system is incapable of perceiving what the body’s eyes see correctly. Its sight is forever skewed and distorted. It’s no wonder we are miserable and lonely. We do not see each other as we really are from this perspective. We have blocked the vision of holiness that permeates everything real. Wouldn’t you rather see the light of holiness than suffering and loneliness? We can redirect our faith and belief to align – just a little – with the holiness we are. We can be willing to see through the light of our holy eyes, unclouded by misperception and the belief in separation.

The body was made to be a sacrifice to sin, and in the darkness so it still is seen. Yet in the light of vision it is looked upon quite differently. You can have faith in it to serve the Holy Spirit’s goal, and give it power to serve as means to help the blind to see. But in their seeing they look past it, as do you. The faith and the belief you gave it belongs beyond. You gave perception and belief and faith from mind to body. Let them now be given back to what produced them, and can use them still to save itself from what it made.   T-21.III.12:1-7

Turn to the Spirit and what is holy in you. Look beyond the appearance of the world that is so distorted and allow your light of vision to rise within you. Sprit will guide you in aligning your mind with the light of holiness. Your sight will be transformed, and your vision of the world will be made new. No more need you dwell in darkness, when the light that dispels all darkness is within you as it has always been. Say yes to the light of holy vision.

ACIM T-21.III Faith, Belief and Vision

September 18, 2018

The appearance of our relationships is revealing in that they indicate whether we are attuned to reality or the illusion of separation. While we are aligned with the illusion of separation, our relationships are bargains agreed to for the purpose of limitation of some sort. Though they appear as a union, they are adjusted unions that have some sort of condition set upon them. One or both parties to an adjusted union will have some payment or sacrifice they must make for the union to continue. When one violated the bargain, the union ends or is renegotiated, often with a “payment” for one or both parties. How often have we experienced this kind of bartering in our relationships? We may use the excuse of “fairness” to rationalize these union negotiations. The result is that the union has a cost to us and we pay that cost to preserve the union and its purpose. However, the cost is really truth. When we ask Spirit – the Spirit within us – to heal our relationship, we accept the idea of making room for truth in our relationship. Our egoic relationships have the purpose of separation, where truth’s purpose is joining – Oneness. Whether we recognize it or not, we have faith in the purpose we have chosen. And where we place our faith our power is given.

It has been said that faith can move mountains. Our faith has the power to keep us limited, captive to our own beliefs, in chains and enslaved to our own convictions. Yet, our faith ca also free us from our self-imposed captivity, from our own self-enslavement and limitations. In Oneness we have all the power of our Source. Yet when we place our faith elsewhere, such as separation, we use that power to deny ourselves the awareness of our freedom and divine nature. What faith we give to separateness we take away from holiness. And faith is such that it cannot be divided between two opposite ideals. We choose where we put our faith and the world we see reflects that choice.

Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of holiness is reached. Through them the Holy Spirit leads you to the real world, and away from all illusions where your faith was laid. This is Spirit’s direction; the only one Spirit ever sees. And when you wander, Spirit reminds you there is but one. Spirit’s faith and Its belief and vision are all for you. And when you have accepted them completely instead of yours, you will have need of them no longer. For faith and vision and belief are meaningful only before the state of certainty is reached. In Heaven they are unknown. Yet Heaven is reached through them.   T-21.III.4:1-9

It is impossible that we don’t have faith, but we do choose where or in what ideal we place our faith. Faithlessness is not a lack of faith but faith in nothing or unreality. Faith in separation is simply faith in nothing – unreality, for we are One in reality. Faith given to unreality does not lack power, for by it we believe we are powerless. Thus, we are faithless to ourselves, but strong in faith in our illusions about ourselves. For faith, perception and belief we made, as means for losing certainty and finding separation.

The Holy Spirit has a use for all the means for sin by which you sought to find it. But as Spirit uses them they lead away from sin, because Spirit’s purpose lies in the opposite direction. Spirit sees the means you use, but not the purpose for which you made them. Spirit would not take them from you, for Spirit sees their value as a means for what It wills for you. You made perception that you might choose among your sisters and brothers, and seek for sin with them. The Holy Spirit sees perception as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy relationship is all you want to see. Then will you give your faith to holiness, desiring and believing in it because of your desire.   T-21.III.6:1-7

What do you really want? The reawakening of our awareness of the wholeness, completeness, peace and love that we are in Oneness is the only thing we really want. We want to live in the awareness of the real world and live fully in our divine nature, seeing holiness in all that is around us even when it doesn’t seem to be there. We want the wisdom to look beyond the appearance of the world we see and see holiness there. Our Higher Holy Spirit Self, already within us, is there to guide us as we reset our faith in what we want. Make the choice to allow Spirit to guide our purpose and open our eyes and return to the awareness of the certainty of reality.