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

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ACIM T.25.introduction & I The Link to Truth

August 20, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

August 20, 2019

This chapter brings us right back to the idea of the Christ in you. Whether we think of this as the Christ Spirit or Higher Consciousness or Higher Power, This brings us back to the fact that we are not a body. The Christ in us is eternal and thus cannot be in something temporal that dies. Real life is everlasting – eternal. This is to what the Course tells us:

The Christ in you inhabits not a body. Yet the Christ is in you. And thus, it must be that you are not within a body. What is within you cannot be outside. And it is certain that you cannot be apart from what is at the very center of your life. What gives you life cannot be housed in death. No more can you. Christ is within a frame of Holiness whose only purpose is that the Christ may be made manifest to those who know the Christ not, that the Christ may call to them to come to the Christ and see the Christ where they thought their bodies were. Then will their bodies melt away, that they may frame Holiness in them.   T-25.in.1:1-9

The Christ in us is the Holiness in us. It is the Holiness we are, always have been and always will be. Our Holiness is eternal and unchangeable. It can never be undone. We may block our awareness of it for a time, but it will always be shining below and above the surface. Our Holiness is the essence of who we are.

Section I begins teaching about the link to truth. In previous chapters, the Course has taught that the one we travel with at this very moment is our savior. They are where we look to see the truth about them and also about ourselves. Do we use the temporal to see each other framed there? That would be like faming ourselves in death. Perhaps a death mask. There is no life there. On the other hand, we can choose to frame another in holiness and see the infinite there in that holiness. Choosing to look through the frame of holiness gives us a clearer picture. When we allow Spirit to guide our vision and our perception. In this manner, we see our holiness shining brightly and reflecting our own holiness to us. The perfection of our true nature as we are created is there waiting to be seen. It is indestructible and eternal. It is who we really are.

You are the means for the One; not separate, nor with a life apart from the One’s. The One’s life is manifest in you who are It’s Creation. Each aspect of the Created is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto itself. Its radiance shines through each body that it looks upon, and brushes all its darkness into light merely by looking past it to the light. The veil is lifted through its gentleness, and nothing hides the face of Christ from its beholders. You and your friend stand before the Christ in you  now, to let the Christ in you draw aside the veil that seems to keep you separate and apart.   T-25.I.4:1-10

The one we journey with – our brother, our sister, our friend – are each our link to truth. When we allow ourselves to look on them in holiness, we see them differently. They may appear a bit strange at first, but we are beginning to see them for who and what they really are. They are the ones who will reflect our holiness back to us when we look upon them through holiness. This is the correction we need. This is the correction we want. We can join together and continue our journey joined together as One. We are on our way to the awareness of our Oneness with each other and all Creation. This is what we have been seeking all this time but didn’t look within ourselves where it has been all along. Take the hand of the One you are with and allow yourself to be led into the awareness of who you really are. Here is the peace and love you have been seeking all along.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 25 – The Justice of God, Uncategorized

ACIM T.24.VI Salvation from Fear

July 23, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

July 23, 2019

We are essential. We are essential to Heaven. We are essential to the awareness of love and peace. We are essential to wholeness and completion. We are essential as is the one we journey with at any given moment. We are both essential together. Reality is not complete without both of us. We are essential for the One – Source – to be complete. Be assured, we are there in Oneness. Reality is complete for we are an integral part of reality. Yet, we are unaware of reality when we deny our part in it. When we deny our Oneness and thus our reality, the world appears as chaos. It appears hateful, lacking love and lacking peace. The test is whether or not we recognize each other as One with us or separate from us. In reality we are joined, forever inseparable. There is limitless blessing in that realization.

Before your friend’s holiness the world is still, and peace descends on it in gentleness and blessing so complete that not one trace of conflict still remains to haunt you in the darkness of the night. Your friend is your savior from the dreams of fear. Your friend is the healing of your sense of sacrifice and fear that what you have will scatter with the wind and turn to dust. In them is your assurance Source is here, and with you now. While they are what they are, you can be sure that Source is knowable and will be known to you. For the One could never leave Its Own creation. And the sign that this is so lies in your friend, offered you that all your doubts about yourself may disappear before their holiness. See in them the One’s creation. For in them their Creator waits for your acknowledgment that your Creator created you as part of Oneness.   T-24.VI.1:1-9

Our Creator – Source – has given us all that is and ever was or ever will be, no exceptions. Nothing is withheld from us for we are all One with Source. The whole universe is ours in Oneness and love. All Creation is laid before us lovingly, and is ours forever. Every Thought within the One’s Mind is also in our own mind. The One shares perfect Love for us and looks upon us as lovingly as we were conceived of before the world began, and as we are still. No condition in this world can change the reality of who we are and how the One loves us. And our friend is as our Creator created them. This is what saves us from a world that is not real.

Look on your friend, and behold in them the whole reversal of the laws that seem to rule this world. See in their freedom yours, for such it is. Let not their specialness obscure the truth in them, for not one law of death you bind them to will you escape. And not one sin you see in them but keeps you both in hell. Yet will their perfect sinlessness release you both, for holiness is quite impartial, with one judgment made for all it looks upon. And that is made, not of itself, but through the Voice that speaks for Oneness in everything that lives and shares Oneness’ Being.    T-24.VI.5:1-6

The ones we encounter on this journey – back to the awareness of who we really are – are our saviors. They are showing us the way, pointing our misperceptions simply to allow us to recognize and correct them. Let the light and love in them speak to you. Look beyond the appearance of their shortcomings to the reality beyond that communicates love and peace. We are One with them. They are our teachers. And, we are their teachers. The Course teaches us to teach only love. Do so, but learn only love, too. Love is all there is. Peace comes from sharing love, for giving and receiving love are the same. Rest in the infinite Source of Love that can only increase. Be that infinite unconditional love for all the world, for that is what we are.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 24 – The Goal of Specialness, Uncategorized

ACIM T.24.V The Christ in You

July 16, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

July 16, 2019

We are holy. We are whole. There is nothing wrong with us. And we have a tendency to  believe there is something wrong about ourselves. We are created in the holiness of the One Source many call God. And we are created One with that holy Source. There is no separation. There is no division. The Course tells us we have adopted a belief that we are separate from Source and so are less than who and what we really are. This belief does not make us less than we really are. It only blocks our awareness of who we really are. We are pure and perfect love, we are peace.

The Christ in you is very still. The Christ in you knows where you are going, and leads you there in gentleness and blessing all the way. This Love for the One replaces all the fear you thought you saw within yourself. This Holiness shows you the same Christ in the friend whose hand you hold, and whom you lead to the Christ in them. And what you see is like yourself. For what but Christ is there to see and hear and love and follow home? The Christ in you looked upon you first, but recognized that you were not complete. And so the Christ in you sought for your completion in each living thing that the Christ in you beholds and loves. And seeks it still, that each might offer you the Love of Oneness.         T-24.V.6:1-9

The Christ in you is your higher holy Self. It is the true essence of ourselves we have denied through our belief in specialness. How could any one of us be “special” if we are all One? Specialness implies that one is more or less than another and thus hides Oneness from our awareness. Though Oneness and holiness can be denied and hidden, it is impossible to destroy it. The Christ in us holds it in reverence and quietness until we allow it to rise in our awareness again. Our true essence will never be forced upon us, but waits in gentleness and quiet for us to allow it to return to our awareness.

Yet is the Christ in you quiet, for It knows that love is in you now, and safely held in you by that same hand that holds your friend’s in your own. The Christ’s hand holds all of Us in Itself. The Christ gives them vision for their sightless eyes, and sings to them of Heaven, that their ears may hear no more the sound of battle and of death. The Christ reaches through them, holding out Its hand, that everyone may bless all living things, and see their holiness. And the Christ rejoices that these sights are yours, to look upon with Oneness and share Oneness’ joy. The Christ’s perfect lack of specialness is offered you, that you may save all living things from death, receiving from each one the gift of life that your forgiveness offers to your Self. The sight of the Christ is all there is to see. The song of the Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of the Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with the Christ in you.   T-24.V.7:1-1

Do not be content with specialness. Do not seek wholeness and Oneness in a war with Love. And do not attempt to find wholeness alone, for the ones we encounter in this journey are truly one with us and have been brought to us to join together in rediscovering our Oneness. Do not doubt the holy purpose of each one brought into our presence showing us the path to the awareness of our real Self, One with all creation. Open your mind and heart to the holiness offered.

The Christ in you has no doubt, and from this certainty quiet comes. The Christ in you will exchange certainty for all your doubts, if you agree that the Christ in you is One with you, and that this Oneness is endless, timeless, and within your grasp because your hands are One. Onen3ss is within you, yet Oneness walks beside you and before, leading the way that Oneness must go to find Oneness complete. This quietness becomes your certainty. And where is doubt when certainty has come?   T-24.V.9:3-7

Welcome the Christ in you. Recognize it is Oneness and that this is what you really are. Welcome your holiness, completeness and limitlessness. Our journey is to return to the awareness of who we really are and to rest there in its gentle quietness. Accept this for yourself and those you journey with. And find Heaven on earth as we leave specialness behind.

Posted in: Uncategorized

ACIM T.24.in & I Specialness as a Substitute for Love

May 28, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

May 28, 2019

The purpose of the Course is the attainment and maintaining the state of peace in our minds. The state of peace is attained through the remembrance of who we really are and recognizing we are all joined in Oneness.  We are truly whole, complete, sinless, limitless and free. In this state of peace the mind is quiet, and the condition in which our Source is remembered is attained. It is not necessary to tell Source what to do, for Source will not fail. Source already is wherever Source can enter. There is nothing we need to do but simply recognize what already is.

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. It is the outcome of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. There is no substitute for peace. What the One creates has no alternative. The truth arises from what the One knows. And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as all creation rose in the One’s Mind because of what the One knows.   T-24.in.2:1-10

Be willing to hold nothing back from questioning. Set every belief, every conviction on the holy altar. What is real and true will remain. And what is not real or true will fade into nothingness. Remember, “What I believe I will see.”

Section I

The Course tells us Love is all there is. Nothing else is real. To love is to extend, to connect, to share, and all this completely. Love has no reservation. Love is unconditional. Love is peaceful. Love is joyful. One cannot partially love. One either loves wholly or doesn’t love at all. There is no middle ground.  When we love wholly, we find peace. Yet, when we love partially or conditionally, we find conflict.

Love is extension. To withhold the smallest gift is not to know love’s purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back but one belief, one offering, and love is gone, because you asked a substitute to take its place. And now must war, the substitute for peace, come with the one alternative that you can choose for love. Your choosing it has given it all the reality it seems to have.   T-24.I.1:1-6

The alternative to love is specialness. Once we make someone or something “special”, we have chosen the alternative to love. This choice then opts also for the alternative to peace – conflict. No one in their right mind would choose other than love or peace, but our choice of specialness betrays our right mind. Choosing specialness opts for differences and division. It opts for judgement and degrees of specialness. Our true nature is divine and is about loving wholly and being wholly at peace. Leave behind specialness. It holds no power other than the power to distract us from love and peace. At any moment we can relinquish our attraction to and belief in specialness – separation. Turn your eyes and ears to Spirit, where the awareness or love and peace are offered. This is Heaven. This is Home. Join with each other in Oneness.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 24 – The Goal of Specialness, Uncategorized

ACIM T.23.IV Above the Battleground

May 14, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

May 14, 2019

No one wants to be on a battlefield during a battle. Yet, we often choose to remain in the midst of battle by our refusal to relinquish attack and defense. Conflict is the tempter. We tend to prefer to see differences rather than sameness or equality. Even competition is a form of attack, which reinforces our belief in difference. If we are all One, how can there be any differences? If all that is real is shared completely, how can we lack anything that means anything? We can rise above the battleground any time we choose to do so. It is simple. It is instantaneous. However, we must be willing to be raised above the battleground. We must be willing to leave conflict behind. Haven’t we had enough already? Perhaps we can desire love and peace rather than conflict.

Love and conflict are incompatible. One is real, the other is not. They cannot coexist. If we believe conflict is real and therefore possible, we will see conflict and it will block our awareness of love and peace already within us. If we believe love is real, it outshines all that is nothing, making nothing nothing. It may sound unbelievably simple, and it is. Truth and reality have all the power of the universe behind them. And thus, nothing cannot exist in the presence of everything. Our Creation has just one function; to recognize its Oneness, its Unity, and hold that for each and every part of Creation that has believed it is not a part of Itself. Our function is to recognize the love and peace within us and extend and share it with all the universe. This is the highest purpose. The lovely light of our relationship is like the Love of Oneness. Spirit understands how to increase our little gifts and make them mighty. Spirit also understands how our relationship is raised above the battleground. This is our part; to realize that conflict in any form is not our will. The overlooking of the battleground is now our purpose.

Be lifted up, and from a higher place look down upon it. From there will your perspective be quite different. Here in the midst of it, it does seem real. Here you have chosen to be part of it. Here murder is your choice. Yet from above, the choice is miracles instead of murder. And the perspective coming from this choice shows you the battle is not real, and easily escaped. Bodies may battle, but the clash of forms is meaningless. And it is over when you realize it never was begun. How can a battle be perceived as nothingness when you engage in it? How can the truth of miracles be recognized if murder is your choice?   T-23.IV.5:1-11

How do we know if we are on the battlefield or risen above it? There is a stab of pain, a twinge of guilt, and above all, a loss of peace. This we know well. When they occur, we do not leave our place on high, but quickly choose a miracle instead of conflict. Oneness and all the lights of Heaven will gently lean to us and hold us up. For we have chosen to remain where the One would have us be, and no illusion can attack the peace and love of Oneness.

Think what is given those who share their Creator’s purpose, and who know that it is theirs. They want for nothing. Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable. Only the light they love is in awareness, and only love shines upon them forever. It is their past, their present and their future; always the same, eternally complete and wholly shared. They know it is impossible their happiness could ever suffer change of any kind. Perhaps you think the battleground can offer something you can win. Can it be anything that offers you a perfect calmness, and a sense of love so deep and quiet that no touch of doubt can ever mar your certainty? And that will last forever?   T-23.IV.8:1-9

Happiness and peace will never be found on the battlefield. Allow yourself to rise above the battlefield and see it differently. See there is no point in conflict when all we could possibly get out of it is nothing. We sacrifice our peace by staying on the battlefield. We regain the awareness of the peace and love within us as we rise above the battlefield. Leave conflict behind. It cannot give us anything we really want. Step into the awareness of the Heaven within us and rise above that battleground. Let go and never return, for it is not real and has nothing to offer.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 23 – The War Against Yourself, Uncategorized

ACIM T.23.III Salvation Without Compromise

May 7, 2019 1:00 pm ⋅

May 7, 2019

Are we fully aware of our state of mind as we journey through this world? This goes to our intent in all we do. Our purpose in this world is to learn to see ourselves and each other clearly. We are truly without sin. We are truly without any lack whatsoever. We are whole and complete. We are the manifestation of holiness and Oneness in this world. Most of us, through our belief that we are separate, have compromised how we see and perceive each other. Yet, there is nothing un-whole, incomplete or unholy about anything real. This mistaken perception is merely not true. We can allow ourselves to let go of our conviction any time we choose. Truth is all powerful. Mistaken truth has no power at all except to block our awareness of Truth. What have we offered each other? Truth or a mistaken truth that is really nothing?

Is death in any form, however lovely and charitable it may seem to be, a blessing and a sign the Voice for God speaks through you to another? The wrapping does not make the gift you give. An empty box, however beautiful and gently given, still contains nothing. And neither the receiver nor the giver is long deceived. Withhold forgiveness from another and you attack them. You give them nothing, and receive of them but what you gave.   T-23.III.2:1-6

Offering salvation to each other is our purpose. What is salvation? It is forgiveness. It is the recognition of their holiness, their wholeness, their Oneness. Salvation is recognizing we are all whole and complete, holy and One in Oneness. Nothing else matters. Once we recognize that all that is real is holy, all that is not real fades away to nothing. We spend much effort trying to right the “wrong”, fix the “broken” and clean the “soiled.” The wrong, broken and soiled are no more that illusion, no more than appearances. The Course asks us to look beyond appearances to what is real. This is the gift we offer each other. We offer each other the awareness of their wholeness and their holiness. We are created holy and we remain holy. This cannot be changed no matter how much we think we have erred.

Perhaps, then we might think we must defend our holiness, our divine nature. Perhaps we think our Oneness needs protection. Truth cannot be changed. Nothing can alter Truth. There is no real power against Truth. Remember, the most we ca do is block our awareness of Truth. We have the choice to change our mind and let go of the block we have made. Wouldn’t you want to recognize any assault on peace within you in any form? Wouldn’t you rather it be impossible to lose sight of the peace within you? Peace can be kept shining before your vision, forever clear and never out of sight, if you do not defend it. Defense is a form of attack, and thus distracts us from the awareness of what cannot be attacked and what needs no defense. Peace, like salvation needs no compromise.

Mistake not truce for peace, nor compromise for the escape from conflict. To be released from conflict means that it is over. The door is open; you have left the battleground. You have not lingered there in cowering hope that it will not return because the guns are stilled an instant, and the fear that haunts the place of death is not apparent. There is no safety in a battleground. You can look down on it in safety from above and not be touched. But from within it you can find no safety. Not one tree left still standing will shelter you. Not one illusion of protection stands against the faith in murder. Here stands the body, torn between the natural desire to communicate and the unnatural intent to murder and to die. Think you the form that murder takes can offer safety? Can guilt be absent from a battlefield?   T-23.III.6:1-12

We have no need to ever again grace the battlefield with our presence. Rise above it to the awareness of holiness, peace and love. This state of awareness is Heaven on earth. This is our home. Love without compromise.  Live in peace without compromise.  Let the light of Oneness shine from within you without compromise.  Let go of all you ever thought without compromise.  This is our purpose.  It is the freedom of living the spirit filled life within that shines its offer to all we encounter.  Give it freely and discover it in abundance within.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 23 – The War Against Yourself, Uncategorized

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

February 5, 2019 2:00 pm ⋅

February 5, 2019

We are called to examine the basis of our relationships. Not just the relationships we like and are comfortable in, but we must examine the relationships that we see as problematic or challenging. Yes, we can get the pleasant relationships wrong, but the challenging relationships are calling us to really look at them and see them beyond the form they seem to take. Our relationships with everyone are holy in their true nature when we see them clearly by looking beyond their form to the truth that lies beyond their form. We are all One, joined, unified in our real nature. We are pure love and peace in our real nature. When we seem to see anything less in our relationships, we have chosen to separate ourselves from truth and the true nature of each other and even our Self. We have chosen to project the misperceptions we believe about ourselves onto another rather than admitting we believe those same misperceptions about ourselves.

It is time to offer healing from those misperceptions to each other and thus to ourselves. Healing is letting go of those misperceptions. Healing is looking beyond the appearance of each other’s perceived wrongdoing to the wholeness they really are. Healing is being willing to see clearly with our holy vision rather than the appearance we see with the body’s eyes. The Course teaches us that we can see differently. It teaches us we can see peace instead of this – whatever form this tales. Reason, remaining within us and held holy by Spirit within us, guides us to the holy vision we need to look beyond the appearance – form – of anything and see the true nature of all that is real beyond. All we need is a little willingness to begin this shift in our perception. It is simply a return to the awareness of our true nature that we have blocked from our awareness. Let go of the misplaced judgment and let forgiveness change your mind.

Let not the form of another’s mistakes keep you from them whose holiness is yours. Let not the vision of their holiness, the sight of which would show you your forgiveness, be kept from you by what the body’s eyes can see. Let your awareness of your friend not be blocked by your perception of their sins and of their body. What is there in them that you would attack except what you associate with their body, which you believe can sin? Beyond their errors is their holiness and your salvation. You gave them not their holiness, but tried to see your sins in them to save yourself. And yet, their holiness is your forgiveness. Can you be saved by making sinful the one whose holiness is your salvation?   T-22.III.8:1-8

Do not look on the form of anything and believe that its form is real. Use your Vision and look beyond the form of everything to the truth and reality that lies there waiting for your acceptance. Truth will never fail you. Reality will never deceive you. Truth and reality will always speak with gentleness, with love and with peace and joy. It will always contain a deep resonance that cannot be thwarted. It will always ring with the peals of truth and glow with the radiance of the Great Rays of light within all of us. Do not deny yourself of the truth of who you and your friend are any longer. Open your eyes to the truth of your divine nature and suffer no longer.

Remember; your holy relationship – no matter how newly born – must value holiness above all else. Yet reason sees each holy relationship as what it is; a common state of mind, where both give errors gladly to correction, that both may happily be healed as one. Let your relationships be transformed to their natural state of holiness and step into the awareness of Oneness. We are now all home.


Posted in: ACIM Ch. 22 – Salvation and the Holy Relationship, Uncategorized

ACIM T-22.II Your Brother’s/Sister’s Sinlesness

December 18, 2018 2:00 pm ⋅

December 18, 2018 & January 8, 2019

Do we seek illusions or truth about each other? It is assured that we will see what we desire to see. However, it is not assured that what we see is truth unless we are willing to see truth. As we judge our brothers and sisters, we may be choosing between illusion and disillusionment,but this choice is really between two kinds of illusions. They may appear different,but they bring us the same qualities of illusion and they will alwaysdisappoint us. Hidden in both are some form of pain or misery hidden in the foldsof the heavy garments of unreality they are shrouded in. The heavy garments of illusion maintain the appearance of darkness we are not willing to expose to the light of truth and see the light, love and beauty that is really there in each other.

Truth is the opposite of illusions because it offers joy. What else but joy could be the opposite of misery? To leave one kind of misery and seek another is hardly an escape. To change illusions is to make no change. The search for joy in misery is senseless, for how could joy be found in misery? All that is possible in the dark world of misery is to select some aspects out of it, see them as different, and define the difference as joy. Yet to perceive a difference where none exists will surely fail to make a difference.   T-22.II.2:1-7

What do we believe about ourselves and what we are seeing?Does it serve us well? Anything can appear real – or as truth – if we believeit is real. We have become so accustomed to the illusions or disillusions wethink we see because of our solemn belief in them as truth. The adage is, “WhatI believe I will see.” This is the case for all illusions. Illusions arefleeting and change at the whim of our beliefs. Truth needs our allegiance tobe seen, but truth will always be truth. It is consistent and will always bringus a deep lasting joy. Truth is reality and reality is eternal. Joyfulness isour natural state of being. Joy will always be within us waiting to berecognized until we choose to recognize it is there within us. Taking a stepback and opening our mind to a different view or understanding is the gateway forour recognition of this deep joy within.

Reason will tell you that the only way to escape from misery is torecognize it and go the other way. Truth is the same and misery the same, but they are different from each other in every way, in every instance and without exception. To believe that one exception can exist is to confuse what is the same with what is different. One illusion cherished and defended against the truth makes all truth meaningless,and all illusions real. Such is the power of belief. It cannot compromise. Andfaith in innocence is faith in sin, if the belief excludes one living thing andholds it out, apart from its forgiveness.   T-22.II.4:1-7

Apply this concept to what we believe about each other. Do we believe they are separate from us – sinful? If this is what we believe, this is what we will see. However, if we can begin by accepting that they are one with us and sinless – which is the truth – we will begin to see the truth of creation. We will begin to see joy in our relationships with each other. This recognition is the recognition of truth and leads to the healing of our relationships. Thus, are our relationships transformed from “special” relationships to holy relationships reflecting their holy purpose. Our purpose in this world is to allow ourselves to return to the awareness of who we truly are. Becoming aware of each other’s sinlessness is the realization of just that.


Posted in: ACIM Ch. 22 – Salvation and the Holy Relationship, Uncategorized

ACIM T-21.V The Function of Reason

October 9, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

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.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 21 – Reason and Perception, Uncategorized

ACIM T-20.II The Gift of Lilies

May 15, 2018 7:00 pm ⋅

May 15, 2018

Have we yet allowed ourselves to see with our spirit vision? Have we allowed Spirit to clear our sight? We may still be trying to see with our body’s eyes. We cannot see clearly with our body’s eyes, for they cannot see reality. Reality is beyond appearance. To see reality is to see clearly through the mind’s eye. To see and join with reality, we must be willing to allow Spirit to open our minds and correct our perception. Each One we encounter and interact with in this world is in our life at this time to help us with this lesson. Welcome them.

What is the gift we offer this One who is now in our life, whether for a moment or an age? Do we offer them – as this passage asks – thorns or lilies? Do we offer them attack or love? We have the choice to allow their Holy Self to shine in our vision or see only their body –separation. We can offer them separation and thorns or we can simply choose to offer them what Spirit offers us. We can look beyond the appearance of what we see as their body and thus separation to what joins us in Oneness. We are bound together in the light of love in reality. This is ultimate freedom. We will ourselves to see with Spirit eyes the holiness that reveals our Oneness. When we choose to offer this One lilies we reveal our holiness to this One and reveal their holiness to ourselves. The thorns we would otherwise offer do nothing but reinforce our belief in separation and deny both of us our holiness – our Divine essence.

Each gift is an evaluation of the receiver and the giver. No one but sees their chosen home as an altar to themselves. No one but seeks to draw to it the worshippers of what they placed upon it, making it worthy of their devotion. And each has set a light upon their altar, that they may see what they have placed upon it and take it for their own. Here is the value that you lay upon another and on yourself. Here is your gift to both; your judgment on the One Child of God for what they are. Forget not that it is your savior to whom the gift is offered. Offer them thorns and you are crucified. Offer them lilies and it is yourself you free.   T-20.II.3:1-9

Those of us who accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose as our own also share Spirit’s vision. And the Vision that enables Spirit to see It’s purpose shining from every altar now enables us to see our holy purpose shining as well. We now see no strangers; only dearly loved and loving friends. We now see no thorns but only lilies, gleaming in the gentle glow of peace that shines on everything we look on and love. Our holy light shines brightly lighting the truth about each and every one of us. Will we allow ourselves to see with this Vision?

This Easter, look with different eyes upon each other. You have forgiven me. And yet I cannot use your gift of lilies while you see them not. Nor can you use what I have given unless you share it. The Holy Spirit’s vision is no idle gift, no plaything to be tossed about a while and laid aside. Listen and hear this carefully, nor think it but a dream, a careless thought to play with, or a toy you would pick up from time to time and then put by. For if you do, so will it be to you.   T-20.II.6:1-7

Open your Spirit Eyes and see again reality. See again the truth about yourself and your friend. Allow Spirit again to fill your mind, for it has never left you. Your holy uncompromised Self remains within you waiting to be recognized so it may shine its light again brightly. Set yourself and your friend free, for this is why they have come into your life. The lilies of salvation you offer them frees them as they also free you. Choose to step into this freedom and find the peace, love and joy you have been seeking. This is yours to choose.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 20 – The Vision of Holiness, Uncategorized