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

Monthly Archives: January 2010

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ACIM T-22.V Weakness and Defensiveness

January 26, 2009

We are One with God.  Yes, we are God, inseparable from God and all God is.  This is our true being.  This is the Truth about who we are.  But do we really believe this?  Do we even come close to believing even part of this Truth about us?  God created us in God’s image.  Jesus said we would do greater things than he did on this earth.  We just don’t get this Truth about us.  Or perhaps we are afraid to step into this Truth about us.

If we are as God tells us we are, we have no need of defense.  A belief in the need for defense is a belief in weakness.  And this belief is contrary to everything God tells us we are.  Where does this belief in littleness and weakness come from?  It comes from the mistaken idea that we are or have ever been separate from God.  We have spent a lifetime building this mistaken image of a weak, sinful, lonely creature struggling for acceptance in God’s eyes and others’ eyes.  And all of this struggle has kept us so focused on the illusion of separateness that we have lost sight of who we really are.  We have lost the awareness of God that dwells deep within our own being.

Reason overcomes all illusion and does it effortlessly.  Reason knows that Reality offers no opposition.  Reality just is and has no weakness and therefore needs no defense.  Illusion, mistaken ideas need defense because of their weakness.  It cannot be difficult to walk the way of Truth when the only opposition is weakness.  We have strength within us that is of God and so we are the strong one in this seeming conflict.  A conflict with illusion, or nothing.

Only the idea of weakness and the resulting “need for defense keeps us from our true nature.  It is only this mistaken thought that keeps us from the awareness of God’s nature within us and the quiet power that is our gift.  Allow the gift of reason to rise within you and see the true nature of our being.  In the light of this reason, all illusion will fade away into nothingness and the light of Christ within us will shine brightly to light our way and the way of each one of us together.  Only in the light of reason will we see and be who we really are.  Let is be so.

ACIM T-22.IV The Branching of the Road

January 19, 2010

We encounter many branches in the road on our journey through life.  And every one requires a decision on our part.  The important thing we need to know at each branch in the road is how to see it.  Seeing that branch correctly will give us great insight into which path is the one to take on our journey.  It may actually be even more important how we see those paths rather than which one we decide to take.

We stand there with each other, waiting to make that decision.  Yet we must see clearly in order to make that decision.  As we stand with each other and recognize ourselves as who we really are, the confusion we see begins to fade away.  Allowing ourselves to see with Spirit’s eyes helps us see that what looks solid is only an illusion.  What looks solid is actually a mere veil of thought that easily draws aside and allows us to see reality.

When we see our choices in Spirit’s vision from the awareness of who we really are we see the path that is ours to walk with God.  We see it laid out before us.  The valleys are raised up, the mountains made low, the crooked path is made straight, and the rough places are made smooth.  This is our walk with God.  The great rays of light shine bright along our way.  Peace flows like a mighty river pouring out of us and setting all of creation free.  What a joy comes in being who we really are.

Let the presence of God well up within you and shine the light of love on your path.  Let your path be seen as it really is.  We join together and walk hand in hand along the only way there is.  All other branches in the road have vanished in the light of Spirit’s vision.  Look within.  See God there.  And rejoice in the knowledge that God walks with us every moment of the way.  It’s our choice.  What are we waiting for?

ACIM T-22.III Reason and the Forms of Error

January 12, 2010

Our errors take many forms.  There really is only one error, but that error can take any form that we can dream up.  Some are quite creative, some rather ordinary.  But we are always coming up with new forms for our one error.  What is our error?  It is merely an incorrect thought.  It is the mistaken idea that we are anything other than who and what we are.  It is the mistaken idea that we are separate from God.  We have hidden our awareness of our true Self, our true nature.

As we journey through our life which we think we are on alone, we see many blocks and challenges that we encounter along the way.  We may think others place these in our way.  We may think God presents us with challenges along the way.  Or we may think they just happen arbitrarily.  Our understanding of anything we encounter is completely based on every past experience we have had in this “life” separated  from God and each other.  And so we encounter each and deal with it as we are accustomed to doing.

In truth, there is nothing arbitrary about where we are or what we have encountered.  Every decision we have ever made in combination with every decision everyone else has ever made has brought us to where we are and the experience we are having in this moment, now.  There is no judgment in that fact; it just is where we are now.  We see with the perception we understand right now.  But God has given us another way of seeing and understanding.  It has always been available to us and the Holy Spirit has been holding it at the ready for us to let it come to our awareness.

Reason, which is the ability to see and understand with Spirit’s vision is the gift that Spirit holds for us.  It is an ability that is carried within the depths of our being.  It is part of our Divine nature.  Reason can show us the understanding we need to understand that whatever block or challenge we encounter can be seen differently.  It shows us that the many forms of blocks we see are really a mistaken idea that is no more than an error.  Seeing that thought as a correctable error is the understanding that allows it to melt away into nothingness and a new understanding of our own Divine nature to come flooding forward into our awareness.  We understand that we are One with God.  We understand that all of creation operates under Divine principles and laws.  And we see the holiness that is our destiny come forward and carry us through our life experience with a new understanding. Such is the life of the One Holy Child of God.  Allow yourself to be who you really are.  Reason will show you the understanding you need.

ACIM T.26.VII The Laws of Healing

March 17, 2020

Our illusions are what needs healing. Our illusions are our misperceptions. They are mistaken. They do not represent reality. They are ideas, thoughts. And they are changeable. Healing is the changing of our ideas and thoughts from mistaken to correct. One could also say it is changing from the false to the truth – from the fake to the true. Every mistaken idea is simply mistaken. There is no big or small mistake in reality. They are all simply mistaken ideas we believe are true. We may have given one or more of our mistaken ideas more value and thus, find them harder to let go of, but no one illusory idea is more than another. Our preference to any one idea or belief does not make it true. All mistaken ideas must give way to truth with equal ease, for none of them have any power whatsoever. Truth is simply true and illusion is simply nothing.

Nothing gives meaning where no meaning is. And truth needs no defense to make it true. Illusions have no witnesses and no effects. Who looks on them is but deceived. Forgiveness is the only function here, and serves to bring the joy this world denies to every aspect of the One’s Child where sin was thought to rule. Perhaps you do not see the role forgiveness plays in ending death and all beliefs that rise from mists of guilt. Sins are beliefs that you impose between another and yourself. They limit you to time and place, and give a little space to you, another little space to them. This separating off is symbolized, in your perception, by a body which is clearly separate and a thing apart. Yet what this symbol represents is but your wish to be apart and separate.   T-26.VII.8:1-10

In reality we are one with each other, with all creation and Source – the One. However, we have believed the idea that we are separate. This idea is the illusion. This is the idea that keeps us from the awareness of our holiness in Oneness and Unity. And we have believed it so strongly that we find it difficult if not impossible to let go of that belief. Forgiveness’ is the healing of that belief. It is the willingness to be shown a different idea that we are willing to believe at first and then grow to realize its truth. Forgiveness is the healing of our mind – our thoughts. It is a shift, a mind shift. It is a shift that is necessary for us to return to the awareness of who we really are – that which we have blocked from our awareness but never really lost. We are forever holy, whole, complete and limitless. Perhaps it’s time we stop denying the truth about ourselves.

Salvation, perfect and complete, asks but a little wish that what is true be true; a little willingness to overlook what is not there; a little sigh that speaks for Heaven as a preference to this world that death and desolation seem to rule. In joyous answer will creation rise within you, to replace the world you see with Heaven, wholly perfect and complete. What is forgiveness but a willingness that truth be true? What can remain unhealed and broken from a unity which holds all things within itself? There is no sin. And every miracle is possible the instant that the Child of the One perceives their wishes and the Will of the One are one.   T-26.VII.10:1-6

Salvation is the healing of our mind. Salvation is the forgiveness of our mistaken thoughts and beliefs. Salvation is the realization that we are holy, whole, complete and limitless as we are created in Oneness. Embracing another we are encountering this very moment as inseparable from us – that we are One in Spirit – is the healing of our mind. It is our return to being in the One Mind. As we make this shift in thought and belief we step into the awareness of Heaven and see the world completely differently. Nothing in form has changed, but we perceive it differently. Do you want to see differently? Do you want to see the joy all around you? Then take this little step and allow Spirit within you to show you the way. It’s been within you all along waiting for your little willingness. Let it be so now.

ACIM T-22.III Reason and the Forms of Error

January 5, 2010

Our misperceptions of what we see are the blocks to vision.  They are the blocks to our awareness of Truth.  These misperceptions take many forms.  They are based on our interpretations of our past experiences.  And when we see something new that we have no experience with we apply our misperceptions about what we have experienced to our new experience.  It’s no wonder we sometimes think we are insane and we often find things confusing.

The Holy Spirit, sent to help us gives us reason.  Reason is the tool that allows us to see beyond the error we have made in our perceptions.  It is the sane voice that tells us that even though something may appear to be something; it is actually not that something and is something else entirely or maybe even nothing at all.  The roadblock to peace may appear as substantial as a huge megalith of stone, yet reason can show us that it is really nothing at all, a figment of our imagination, an illusion.

In our efforts to make sense of something ourselves, we usually see only a small fraction of the picture and mistakenly think that that is all there is.  But reason is there, held for us by Spirit, waiting for us to allow it to expand our sight to allow reason to show us the big picture, or better yet the whole picture.  With the blinders of separation on, we see only a little bit and don’t see how that bit fits into the whole.  But reason melts away the blinders and reinterprets for us, correcting the errors in our perception, correcting our sight to a more correct view.  The judgment we hold so dear is often the defining limit in our perception. So perhaps we are finally ready to let Spirit show us how to see.  Perhaps we can allow the blinders of judgment to fall away and let the whole picture be revealed to us.  Perhaps we are ready to let the solidness of our perception errors melt away and realize there is no solidness to our roadblocks at all and we can happily and peacefully pass through them without effort.  Hold only the peace and love of God in your mind and freely float along the path God has set for you.  It is truly like being carried down a gentle path in a soft summer breeze.  Let go, be, and enjoy.