August 13, 2019

There are many tests the Course suggests for things we encounter in life. They all give us the opportunity to see something differently. They all give us the opportunity to allow Spirit to reinterpret our perception to see things more clearly. And it will never be more than we can handle at the moment. It may stretch our unwillingness to accept change, but never more than we can handle. The ones we encounter on this journey we call life are our own creations They may appear to be out of our control, but we control our perception of them. Our perception is our creation. The test at this point is, “What is this for?” Be perfectly honest with yourself in answering this question. They are in our lives to teach us something. The root lesson is to forgive them and see their holiness, and recognize our own holiness reflected back to us in them. To recognize we are truly One in Oneness.

A co-creator with the Creator must have a Creation. Yet must this Creation have been created like its Creator. A perfect being, all-encompassing and all-encompassed, nothing to add and nothing taken from; not born of size nor place nor time, nor held to limits or uncertainties of any kind. Here do the means and end unite as one, nor does this one have any end at all. All this is true, and yet it has no meaning to anyone who still retains one unlearned lesson in their memory, one thought with purpose still uncertain, or one wish with a divided aim.   T-24.VII.7:1-5

The lessons of the Course are learnable and teachable. In fact, they are not difficult if we are willing to see clearly. It is essential we keep in mind that all perception is upside down until its purpose has been understood. Perception does not seem to be a means. And it is this that makes it hard to grasp the whole extent to which perception must depend on what we see it for. Perception seems to teach us what we see. Yet perception witnesses to what we teach. It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that we want to be true, whether or not it is true. Perception can be used to see separation or see Oneness. Perception is means rather than end. Only when we understand this can we begin to see differently and see reality beyond the appearance of the world we think we see.

A dualistic world is made of the way we perceive through separation. We appear to be separate from each other as we walk this world. We seem to exist here without a meeting place and no encounter. We never join in this world. We dance around each other. We blame and accuse, even attack, but maintain that one is inherently inferior to the other. The purpose we have given our creation is to compare ourselves to and see ourselves “better” than. What if we choose a different purpose?

Yet can perception serve another goal. It is not bound to specialness but by your choice. And it is given you to make a different choice, and use perception for a different purpose. And what you see will serve that purpose well, and prove its own reality to you.   T-24.VII.11:10-13

Have you grown tired of the world you seem to see? Are you ready to make another choice? The reality of Heaven is already within you for it has never left you.  In fact, you have never left Heaven. You are as complete, whole and holy as when you were created. We simply denied the reality of who we are by choosing separation instead of Oneness. We can change our mind now as easily as we changed it before. There is no penalty or price to pay. It is a simple matter of letting go of the separation we believed in and rejoining the Oneness we are. This is the journey we are on back t the awareness of who we really are. When will you make that choice?

August 6, 2019

We have been looking at our misplaced desire for “specialness” in this chapter. We have learned that the desire for “specialness” is an egoic desire to see ourselves better than others, especially those we are walking with right now. We become judgmental. We attack or defend to preserve our “specialness.” We believe we are vulnerable. We believe we are failing and so believe we are in danger of being “less than” or inadequate. Have I said enough “bad” things yet? Have I succeeded in dissing myself and others? These ae the kind of thoughts we think when we align our minds with our egoic thought system – our separated mind. We could even call this our “specialness” mind. All these ideas could not be further from the truth of who and what we are. We are the holy creations of Source, forever holy and changeless. And, therefore, holy and changeless ourselves. How do we really see ourselves? Look at the one you are walking with at this moment. What do you see? Do you see their holiness and changelessness? What you see in them is what you believe about yourself, whether right or mistaken.

The memory of Source shines not alone. What is within the one you walk with still contains all of creation, everything created and creating, born and unborn as yet, still in the future or apparently gone by. What is in them is changeless, and your changelessness is recognized in its acknowledgment. The holiness in you belongs to them. And by your seeing it in them, returns to you. All of the tribute you have given specialness belongs to them, and thus returns to you. All of the love and care, the strong protection, the thought by day and night, the deep concern, the powerful conviction this is you, belong to them. Nothing you gave to specialness but is their due. And nothing due them is not due to you.   T-24.VII.2:1-9

We cannot know who we really are when we have placed our value in “specialness.” Our belief in “specialness” blocks our awareness of our true holiness, our wholeness and our limitlessness. So, the one we walk with right now is in our life to show us our holiness. Not that “they” correct our vision, but we allow ourselves to see our holiness in them reflected back to us. We allow our eyes to be opened to see reality and eternity. Our eternal holiness and wholeness are there where Source created it in us. It had never gone away. It has never been corrupted or banished. We blocked it from our awareness by our own belief in specialness and separation. Do not seek to make your specialness the truth, for if it were you would indeed be lost. Rather, be thankful you can see the holiness of the one you walk with now because it is the truth. And what is true in them must be as true in you because we are all one..

Source keeps what Source created safe. You cannot touch it with the false ideas you made, because it was created not by you. Let not your foolish fancies frighten you. What is immortal cannot be attacked; what is but temporal has no effect. Only the purpose that you see in it has meaning, and if that is true, its safety rests secure. If not, it has no purpose, and is means for nothing. Whatever is perceived as means for truth shares in its holiness, and rests in light as safely as itself. Nor will that light go out when it is gone. Its holy purpose gave it immortality, setting another light in Heaven, where your creations recognize a gift from you, a sign that you have not forgotten them.   T-24.VII.5:1-9

Are you unsure of the reality of what you see? The test of everything we see on earth is simply this; “What is it for?” The answer makes it what it is for you. Look at this answer. Does it ring true? Ask Spirit for guidance if you are unsure. Everything you need is already within you. In Heaven, means and end are one. This is the state of true creation, not found in time, but in eternity. This is not describable to anyone aligned with separation and specialness. This cannot be learned. We must go past learning to the Given and again make a holy home for our creations to make it understood.

Release your attachment to “specialness.” Open your eyes and see the one you walk with now in the light of their holiness and see your holiness reflected there to you. This is all the proof you need of who you really are. This is where you return to the awareness of who you really are – whole, holy, complete and limitless. Step into the awareness of love, peace and freedom which you never ever left behind.

July 30, 2019

In this moment there is another we encounter for a little while or for some time. How do we choose to see this one? Do we see them as their mistakes and shortcomings, or do we see their holiness? Whichever we choose we will see and believe is true. Yet, we must ask ourselves whether or not we are seeing the Christ in them or denying the Christ in them. It is a matter of whether or not we are willing to see with holy Vision or deny holy Vision. Spirit is waiting patiently within us to guide our vision to see clearly. When we ask, Spirit will gladly and gently guide our vision looking beyond the appearance of another in this world to their holiness beyond that which we think we see. By glimpsing the truth in another, we then glimpse the truth in ourselves. Our holiness is revealed in us as another’s holiness is revealed in them to us.

Another’s holiness is sacrament and benediction unto you. Their errors cannot withhold God’s blessing from themselves, nor you who see them truly. Their mistakes can cause delay, which it is given you to take from them, that both may end a journey that has never begun, and needs no end. What never was is not a part of you. Yet you will think it is, until you realize that it is not a part of them who stands beside you. They are the mirror of yourself, wherein you see the judgment you have laid on both of you. The Christ in you beholds their holiness. Your specialness looks on their body and beholds them not.         T-24.VI.8:1-8

See another as what they are, that your deliverance may not be long. A senseless wandering, without a purpose and without accomplishment of any kind, is all the other choice can offer you. Futility of function not fulfilled will haunt you while another lies asleep, till what has been assigned to you is done and they are risen from the past. They who condemned themselves, and you as well, are given you to save from condemnation, along with you. And both shall see God’s glory in God’s Child, whom you mistook as flesh, and bound to laws that have no power over them at all.   T-24.VI.9:1-5

The Course asks us to merely pursue another goal with far less vigilance; with little effort and with little time. The power of God maintains this holy goal and promises success. Of the two goals, it is this holy one you find more difficult. We seem to understand “sacrifice” of self, yet we do not consider the cost too heavy for the little we get. However, a tiny willingness, a nod to God, a greeting to the Christ in you, you find the burden of the unholy goal wearisome and tedious, too heavy to be borne. No sacrifice is asked in the dedication to the truth as God established it, no strain is called forth, and all the power of Heaven and the might of truth itself is given to provide the means, and guarantee the holy goal’s accomplishment.

Which goal will you pursue? Will you continue to believe in your own “specialness” and judge another as less? Choose again! Choose to see another’s holiness as revealed to you by Spirit within you. Let Spirit reveal the truth about another through your holy Vision and hear the song of truth from another’s holy Voice through your holy Ears. When you allow this communication, you sweep you both into the awareness of Heaven on earth and the awareness of the holiness you both are. Celebrate the peace and joy of this awakening, for it is who you both really are in Oneness.

July 9, 2019

What have we aligned our minds with? What thought within us have we pledged allegiance with? The Christ in us is very still. The Christ in us looks on what the Christ in us loves and knows it as our True Self. And thus, does the Christ in us rejoice at what the Christ in us sees, because the Christ in us knows that it is one with the Christ in us and with our Creator. Specialness also takes joy in what it sees, even though it is not true. Yet what we seek for is a source of joy as we conceive it. When we seek joy in specialness, we block our awareness of the Christ in us and the stillness that brings to our minds. Aligning with specialness brings us anything except peace. Which do we seek?

There is no dream of specialness, however much it delicately offers the hope of peace and the escape from pain, in which we do not suffer our condemnation. Effect and cause are interchanged in the dream of specialness. The maker of the dream believes that what they made is happening to them. They do not realize they picked a thread from here, a scrap from there, and wove a picture out of nothing. In other words, we made up the dream of specialness, believed it and aligned our minds with it and, thus, blocked our awareness of the peace and joy already within and around us.

Where could your peace arise but from forgiveness? The Christ in you looks only on the truth, and sees no condemnation that could need forgiveness. The Christ in you is at peace because The Christ in you sees no sin. Identify with the Christ in you, and what has the Christ in you that you have not? The Christ in you is your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet. How gentle are the sights the Christ in you sees, the sounds the Christ in you hears. How beautiful the Hand that holds your friend’s, and how lovingly the Christ in you walks beside them, showing them what can be seen and heard, and where they will see nothing and there is no sound to hear.   T-24.V.3:1-7

Do not be deceived that specialness will treat you kindly. Its purpose is to keep you off balance. Its purpose is to deny you peace of mind and joy. It may offer you dribs and drabs of peace and joy to keep your allegiance, but they will always be fleeting glimpses that do not stay the course. We need not settle for the dribbles and glimpses of peace and joy. We can be resting in the fullness of complete unadulterated peace and joy. The choice is ours if we are willing to make it, or even allow it.

Rejoice you have no eyes with which to see; no ears to listen, and no hands to hold nor feet to guide. Be glad that only Christ can lend you Christ’s, while you have need of them. They are illusions, too, as much as yours. And yet because they serve a different purpose, the strength their purpose holds is given them. And what they see and hear and hold and lead is given light, that you may lead as you were led.   T-24.V.5:1-5

Remember that this world of form is an illusion – it is temporal. Yet, everything we perceive in this world can be used for separation or for joining. The purpose of joining us in Oneness is the world’s holy purpose. Let’s align our minds with each holy purpose in this world as we begin to transcend the specialness of the world to the holiness of all Creation. This is where Heaven on earth truly is.

July 2, 2019

The section we look at this week is titled “Specialness Versus Sinlessness.” It equates specialness with sinfulness. The Course taches us that we are sinless, so what does this imply? It certainly implies that specialness is illusion – that it is not real. It seems the Course keeps coming back to some form of specialness. It talks about special relationships often. It talks about specialness. In all cases the word special and its various forms implies differences and not-the-sameness. The Course teaches us we are all One – with God – the One – and each other. The Course teaches us we all share in everything equally. This doesn’t mean equal parts divided among us, it means we all have everything and share the entirety of everything. Everything seems so finite in this world of form where everything appears to have boundaries. This is a function of perception led by the idea that separation is real. Separation and specialness are concepts we are loathe to let go of as they are so engrained in our egoic thinking.

Our attachment to differences as defining who we are becomes a form of attack. Either we attack each other by believing they are less than us or we attack ourselves by believing we are less than them. What a crazy way to think. We may even try to destroy anything we think keeps us down or less than.

We have transferred purpose to the physical to reinforce our idea of separation. However, purpose is of the mind. When the mind delegates purpose to the body, it is denying its responsibility for the world we see. Purpose is of the mind. And minds can change as they desire. What minds and all their attributes are, they cannot change. But what they hold as purpose can be changed, and body states must shift accordingly. Of itself the body can do nothing. See the body as means to hurt, and it is hurt. See the body as means to heal, and it is healed. It is the mind that gives the body its purpose. Miracles are merely change of purpose from hurt to healing. This shift in purpose does “endanger” specialness, but only in the sense that all illusions are “threatened” by the truth. Illusions will not stand before Truth. Know there is no comfort in illusions. Give your allegiance to Oneness and the universe is yours. Offered to illusions, no gifts can be returned. What you have given specialness leaves you with nothing.

Do not defend this senseless dream, in which Oneness is bereft of what It loves, and you remain beyond salvation. Only this is certain in this shifting world that has no meaning in reality: When peace is not with you entirely, and when you suffer pain of any kind, you have beheld some sin within another, and have rejoiced at what you thought was there. Your specialness seemed safe because of it. And thus you saved what you appointed to be your savior, and crucified the one whom Oneness has given you instead. So are you bound with them, for you are one. And so is specialness their “enemy,” and yours as well.   T-24.IV.5:1-6

Our attachment to the belief in specialness blocks our awareness of peace within us. How do we see each other? Do they appear to suffer because of our belief in specialness? Our belief in specialness and separation always blocks our awareness of who we really are. We have not lost our peace of mind – we have not lost the love within us. We have merely blocked our awareness of all we have and are. Let go of the blocks to love and peace and step into the awareness of Heaven right here on this earth right now. What we want, what we desire is right here now. Let it be so.

June 25, 2019

We have been discussing specialness for the past few weeks and how our attachment to the idea keeps us focused on illusion, blocking our minds from the awareness of the reality of peace and love. Our true nature has no need for specialness. Specialness is the opposite of wholeness and holiness. Delving into specialness is a sure-fire way to keep ourselves in denial of who we really are. It’s tempting to make someone or something “special” and give it the power to dominate our thinking, but it always results in the denial of our true being. The idea of specialness implies degrees of “special”, good, or holy. Reality has no order of any kind. All reality is holy, period. Anything else is not real. How do we relinquish specialness?

Forgiveness is the end of specialness. Only illusions can be forgiven, and then they disappear. Forgiveness is release from all illusions, and that is why it is impossible but partly to forgive. No one who clings to one illusion can see themselves as sinless, for they hold one error to themselves as lovely still. And so they call it “unforgivable,” and make it sin. How can they then give their forgiveness wholly, when they would not receive it for themselves? For it is sure they would receive it wholly the instant that they gave it so. And thus their secret guilt would disappear, forgiven by themselves.   T-24.III.1:1-8

Forgiveness is not stoic. It is really very simple, a matter of releasing our attachment and our judgement. There is no effort involved. Forgiveness is a matter of looking beyond how someone or something appears in our perception. When something upsets us, the Course teaches us we can see it differently by allowing the wisdom of Spirit within us to guide our mind. We can, at any time, choose to refocus our mind on love and peace rather than differences. Perhaps some situations or people seem more difficult to forgive than others. There is no need to beat yourself up over that. Just be a little willing to allow Spirit within you to guide you in forgiveness. Our holiness cannot be denied, only blocked from our awareness temporarily. Rather than getting ourselves upset over our differences, rest in the peace of Spirit within you and allow forgiveness to enter.

Truth is our foundation. Truth is stable. Truth cannot be disturbed. Illusions leave it perfectly unmoved and undisturbed. But specialness is not the truth in us. Specialness can be thrown off balance by anything. What rests on nothing can never be stable. However large and overblown it seems to be, it still must rock and turn and whirl about with every breeze. Yet it cannot ruffle Truth in any way.

Oneness asks for your forgiveness. Oneness would have no separation, like an alien will, rise between what Oneness wills for you and what you will. They are the same, for neither One wills specialness. How could They will the death of love itself? Yet They are powerless to make attack upon illusions. They are not bodies; as one Mind They wait for all illusions to be brought to Them, and left behind. Salvation challenges not even death. And Oneness, Who knows that death is not your will, must say, “Thy will be done” because you think it is.   T-24.III.5:1-8

There is no need to fight illusions. Fighting them will only keep us focused on them when they are not even real. Turn toward the Presence of Spirit within you and within your friend. This is where peace is revealed. This is where love is shared. Relinquish your hold on specialness and it is forgiven. See each other as you truly are in Oneness. Peace and love abide within both of you in abundance. Let yourself rest in the peace and love you find within each other.

June 18, 2019

Look within yourself to the loveliness there, when you have looked on another as on a friend. The One we travel with is our escape from specialness, and our friend to what is real in us. No attack we have made on our friend has taken from them the gift that Source would have them give us. Their need to give it is as great as ours to have it. Let them forgive us all our specialness, and make us whole in mind and one with them. The One we walk with now waits for our forgiveness only that they may return it to us. We are the ones who have condemned each other by saving our specialness and denying our true Self.

You have come far along the way of truth; too far to falter now. Just one step more, and every vestige of the fear of God will melt away in love. Your friend’s specialness and yours are enemies, and bound in hate to kill each other and deny they are the same. Yet it is not illusions that have reached this final obstacle which seems to make God and Heaven so remote that They cannot be reached. Here in this holy place does truth stand waiting to receive you and your friend in silent blessing, and in peace so real and so encompassing that nothing stands outside. Leave all illusions of yourself outside this place, to which you come in hope and honesty.   T-24.II.9:1-6

We are each other’s savior – a savior from the mistaken identity we have given each other through specialness. We may have attacked them and they may have attacked us. Those “attacks” have no real power. Yes, they appear to have injured us physically or emotionally, but that hurt is not real and not lasting. It becomes nothing when we allow ourselves to look at each other through Spirit eyes to the holiness within each and every one of us. Each of us are holy. Each of us are pure. The reality of each of us is love ad peace. We can act hateful when we lose sight of who we really are, but we cannot do any real harm. Our intention to extend love and peace is all that can be real. Anything else is empty. We are each other’s savior from our specialness simply by relinquishing our belief in specialness. Let it go, for when we let it go in our friend, it is no longer in us.

You are your friend’s; part of love was not denied to them. But can it be that you have lost because they are complete? What has been given them makes you complete, as it does them. Source’s Love gave you to them and them to you because Source gave Itself. What is the same as Source is one with Source. And only specialness could make the truth of Source and you as one seem anything but Heaven, with the hope of peace at last in sight.   T-24.II.11:1-6

Specialness – or our belief in specialness – is the means by which we deny ourselves peace and love and the awareness of who we really are. It serves as a block to our awareness, keeping what we want hidden from us even while it is all around us. The Ones in this world we encounter hold the key to love and peace for us and are waiting for us to be ready for the door to peace and love to be opened. There is nothing delaying this transformation for any of us except our unwillingness to let go of our attraction to specialness. All of us are complete. All of us are whole. All of us are limitless. And all of us are holy. Our awareness of our holiness is waiting for us to accept our own holiness and the holiness of each other. There is the door opened to our togetherness in Oneness. Stop a moment, look around you, and reawaken to the fullness of who you really are. This is finding Heaven on earth right now.

June 11, 2019

The act of comparison is our downfall into specialness. It’s really tempting to compare and compare and compare. This is better than that, that is worse than this, etc., etc. It’s easy to fall into this habit. The Course teaches us we are all the same. We are all created equal. In Oneness we have and are all there is and it is all good. Only our belief in littleness, lack and deprivation keeps us stuck in the illusion of comparison. Specialness is the idea that I am better than you. Perhaps I believe I have sinned less than you, so I am better. Believing this I can justify believing I am better than you. On the other hand, I can believe that I am more abused than you. I can believe I’ve had more troubles than you, so I am more deserving of pity or help. Since we all have all of everything, it makes no sense to believe in lack of any kind. There is no order of difficulty and no hierarchy. Anything unequal or lacking is merely a misperception.

Pursuing specialness robs us of our awareness of peace and love, those holy traits that are always within us. How can we possibly recognize our mutual strong support and omnipresent power when we believe each other and ourselves to be less than we actually are? We are created like our Creator, no less and no more. We are full partners in Creation and life. We cannot be less, period. Yet we believe ourselves to be less in varying degrees, conjuring up the ideas of limitedness and lack. We believe ourselves unable to live up to our potential.

You are not special. If you think you are, and would defend your specialness against the truth of what you really are, how can you know the truth? What answer that the Holy Spirit gives can reach you, when it is your specialness to which you listen, and which asks and answers? Its tiny answer, soundless in the melody that pours from God to you eternally in loving praise of what you are, is all you listen to. And that vast song of honor and of love for what you are seems silent and unheard before its “mightiness.” You strain your ears to hear its soundless voice, and yet the Call of God is soundless to you.   T-24.II.4:1-6

When we focus on specialness, our seeming differences, our seeming degrees of littleness and lack, that is what we see. We miss the abundance of our true nature because we have turned away from it. We hear what we choose to hear. We see what we choose to see. What have you chosen to see and hear? That choice is the only thing that keeps us separated from our reality. It is the only thing that keeps us from the awareness of who we really are. Would you really voluntarily deny the peace, love and limitlessness of your whole being?

What would they see instead? The shining radiance of the One Child of God, so like their Creator that the memory of the One springs instantly to mind. And with this memory, the One Child remembers their own creations, as like to them as they are to their Creator. And all the world they made, and all their specialness, and all the sins they held in its defense against themselves, will vanish as their mind accepts the truth about themselves, as it returns to take their place. This is the only “cost” of truth: You will no longer see what never was, nor hear what makes no sound. Is it a sacrifice to give up nothing, and to receive the Love of God forever?   T-24.II.6:1-6

Allow the truth about yourself and who you really are to arise in your awareness. Deny your holiness no longer and forget about any sense of “specialness.” You do not need this illusion. All we encounter in this world are holy and One with us. See beyond their appearance to the Oneness they all are beyond that illusion. This is where peace dwells. This is Heaven on earth wrapped up in Oneness.

June 4, 2019

At some point we have made an incorrect decision. We have made a decision to see ourselves separate from each other and our Creator. It probably looked like some other decision, but whatever it was, its result was that we perceived and believed that we are separate and in competition with each other. This belief thus blocked our awareness of our true Self – our holiness and Oneness, our limitlessness and wholeness. What a thing to forget. What a thing to hide from ourselves. Our true nature, though permanent and incorruptible, cannot be seen as we believe something contrary about ourselves. The belief in specialness and the need to make ourselves special and different from those we journey with is the mistaken purpose we have adopted in this world.

Would it be possible for us to hate the one we travel with if we were like them? Could we attack them if we realized we journey with them, to a goal that is the same? Wouldn’t we help them reach it in every way we could, if their attainment of it were perceived as ours? We are their enemy in specialness; their friend in a shared purpose. Specialness can never share, for it depends on goals that we alone can reach. And they must never reach them, or our goal is jeopardized. 7 Can love have meaning when the goal is triumph?

The one you travel with is your friend because their Creator created them like you. There is no difference. You have been given to this one that love might be extended, not cut off from them. What you keep is lost to you. Your Creator gave you and this one Itself, and to remember this is now the only purpose that you share. And so it is the only one you have. Could you attack this one if you chose to see no specialness of any kind between you and them? Look fairly at whatever makes you give this one only partial welcome, or would let you think that you are better off apart. Is it not always your belief your specialness is limited by your relationship? And is not this the “enemy” that makes you and this one illusions to each other?   T-24.I.7:1-10

Any fear we feel comes from our unrecognized belief in specialness. We have become so accustomed to this illusion that we don’t recognize we are perpetuating it. Specialness has become a habit. The Course asks us to begin a new habit – or to be willing to consider a new habit. It takes time to learn a new habit, but Spirit is within us offering its help if we will just accept it. The real purpose that we share with each other becomes obscured from both of us as we continue this old habit. We would oppose this course because it teaches us we are alike. We have no purpose that is not the same, and none our Creator does not share with us. Our relationship has been made without any special goals. Would you defeat the goal of holiness that Heaven gave us?

Will you not begin a new habit? What if your habit is to extend love rather than divide through specialness? When we begin to realize we are all One and the same in Oneness, we lose the need to attack, or make special, or to create conflict where one must win and another must lose. Set all this aside. We do not love each other while we attack each other. Here is the ground of battle where we wage conflict against each other. We will never find peace among those we see as different. This one we journey with is our friend because we are the same. The miracle is that as we extend love, we see each other as One and the same. Let Oneness begin.