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

ACIM T.25.VIII Justice Returned to Love

November 26, 2019

Justice is seeing innocence in another. This is justice in the reality of God’s creation. It is really that simple. We are all innocent. God creates us innocent. And we are incapable of corruption for we are extensions of God. We are One with God. If we believe we are not innocent, then we must believe that God is not innocent, but corrupt. But the truth is God sees our God given innocence and nothing else. Anything we believe about ourselves that is not innocence is a fabrication of our egoic thought system that believes we are separate from God. The Holy Spirit is given us to help remind us of our innocence. When we return to this idea of justice, we return to love and the awareness of who we really are.

To one who merits everything, how can it be that anything be kept from them? For that would be injustice, and unfair indeed to all the holiness that is in them, however much they recognize it not. God knows of no injustice. God would not allow God’s Child be judged by those who seek their death, and could not see their worth at all. What honest witnesses could they call forth to speak on their behalf? And who would come to plead for them, and not against their life? No justice would be given them by you. Yet God ensured that justice would be done unto the Child God loves, and would protect from all unfairness you might seek to offer, believing vengeance is their proper due.   T-25.VIII.10:1-8

Are we willing to be that one witness who sees innocence and sees it fairly? Fairness is seeing ourselves and each other as we truly are. And fairness allows love to be seen where it is and has always been, but was blocked by our unbelief. There is no blame for this unbelief. There is no punishment for this unbelief. We are asked only to look again and look beyond what appeared to be to the innocence beyond. Our innocence has always been within us waiting to be recognized when we choose to look beyond our egoic judgement and let it go. Spirit is also there within us ready to guide us in this transformation as we allow ourselves to be transformed.

You have the right to all the universe; to perfect peace, complete deliverance from all effects of sin, and to the life eternal, joyous and complete in every way, as God appointed for the holy Child. This is the only justice Heaven knows, and all the Holy Spirit brings to earth. Your special function shows you nothing else but perfect justice can prevail for you. And you are safe from vengeance in all forms. The world deceives, but it cannot replace God’s justice with a version of its own. For only love is just, and can perceive what justice must accord the Child of God. Let love decide, and never fear that you, in your unfairness, will deprive yourself of what God’s justice has allotted you.   T-25.VIII.14:1-7

We have come to the point where we want another way. Spirit is waiting for us to be willing to allow Spirit to guide us in that change. It’s a change as far as the world we seem to see is concerned, but it is really a return to the awareness of who we really are. It’s a return to innocence. It’s a return to completeness and wholeness. It’s a return to limitlessness. As we allow Spirit to guide us in this shift, we find peace and love flowing through us again. It never stopped, but we now are aware of its presence again. Be willing then to be a witness to innocence. Allow Spirit to reveal it to you in another and thus find it in yourself. All blame, judgement and guilt fall away at the sight of innocence, for there is nothing else to see. The light of innocence lights up Heaven for us and surrounds us with peace, love and joy. There is nothing more we could ever want for this is everything. In this witness to innocence is justice returned to love. And fairness is returned to all in the abundance of everything.

ACIM T.25.VIII Justice Returned to Love

November 19, 2019

The Course teaches us that love and justice are the same. We all have our own idea of what justice is. However, our perceived idea of justice is probably skewed by our belief in vengeance. We believe we have “sinned” and thus must pay some penance for our “sins.” The Course reminds us again and again that we are created holy and are incapable of “sin.” We have simply made up some fictional world that has taught us we are flawed and thus in trouble beyond any reasonable reconciliation. We have bought into the illusion of separation with all we think we have and thus believe we must be punished. And so we believe that punishment is part of justice.

But how is punishment part of love? Real love is unconditional. Yet we have come up with an idea called “tough love.” God knows nothing of this kind of justice that is not fair and is vengeful. Our mistaken concept of justice in this world is a great distortion of the justice God holds. God’s justice sees all sin vanish. God’s justice sees all punishment gone. God’s justice sees all darkness shifted to light. After all, we are created in the image of God. We are even more than an image. We are extensions of God.

Yet justice cannot punish those who ask for punishment, but have a Judge Who knows that they are wholly innocent in truth. In justice Spirit is bound to set them free, and give them all the honor they deserve and have denied themselves because they are not fair, and cannot understand that they are innocent. Love is not understandable to sinners because they think that justice is split off from love, and stands for something else. And thus is love perceived as weak, and vengeance strong. For love has lost when judgment left its side, and is too weak to save from punishment. But vengeance without love has gained in strength by being separate and apart from love. And what but vengeance now can help and save, while love stands feebly by with helpless hands, bereft of justice and vitality, and powerless to save?   T-25.VIII.8:1-7

Remember, that when we choose vengeance, we have blocked love from our awareness. In a like manner, when we choose love all that is not love fades away into nothingness for that is what it is. The choice is ours. It is not a huge choice. Spirit does not ask us to make this shift alone. When we choose love, all of Creation is supporting us in our new choice. We are asked only to make a little room for a change to take place. A little willingness to open our mind is all Spirit needs to begin to guide us on our path of transformation. Once we begin the return journey, we will find a remembrance of who we really are that showers us in love and peace. We recognize the home in Heaven we never left, but couldn’t see around us.

What can Love ask of you who think that all of this is true? Could Love, in justice and in love, believe in your confusion you have much to give? You are not asked to trust Love far. No more than what you see Love offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself. In God’s Own justice does Love recognize all you deserve, but understands as well that you cannot accept it for yourself. It is Love’s special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to God as well as you. God knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as the One Child receives what loving justice knows to be their due. For love and justice are not different. Because they are the same does mercy stand at God’s right Hand, and gives the Child of God the power to forgive themselves of sin.   T-25.VIII.9:1-11

When all is done, Love returns us to justice and justice returns us to love. Nothing else is real. There is no sin, there is no punishment. There is no pain or suffering. We are holy and free, complete and whole as we are created. We are free to choose to return to that awareness whenever we are ready to choose to return. Love and peace will come flooding back, filling us and the world with great compassion and blessing. Make that choice today and begin the journey back to the awareness of who you really are.

ACIM T.25.VIII Justice Returned to Love

November 12, 2019

We all have differing ideas of what justice is. Most of us believe that we want justice, but perhaps we are not willing to give anything up for justice to be carried out. Perhaps our idea of justice is just a bit conditional. We want justice our way. Perhaps it’s time to look at justice differently. If all that is real is love ad if we share all that is real with all of creation, then justice must be all good and no one can lose anything in the presence of justice. What keeps us from accepting justice in our lives? Usually it’s because we are unwilling to let go of some idea or thing we are afraid to lose and will cause us to be in a state of lack.

The Holy Spirit can use all that you give to Spirit for your salvation. But Spirit cannot use what you withhold, for Spirit cannot take it from you without your willingness. For if Spirit did, you would believe Spirit wrested it from you against your will. And so you would not learn it is your will to be without it. You need not give it to Spirit wholly willingly, for if you could you had no need of Spirit. But this Spirit needs; that you prefer Spirit take it than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no one you would not know. This much is necessary to add to the idea no one can lose for you to gain. And nothing more.   T-25.VIII.1:1-8

Again, the Course tells us we need only a little willingness, just a little willingness for salvation to rise in our minds. Salvation is allowing ourselves to enter into the awareness of Oneness we already are. It involves releasing our attachment to the world we think we see and the beliefs we hold about it. It involves opening our minds just a little to a different interpretation – a different perception – of all we hold dear. We want a different world than we are seeing, yet we cling to the idea of that world so tightly we leave no room for the possibility of anything better.

What does the justice we think we know consist of? It probably is some combination of truth, fairness and vengeance. Yes, vengeance! We believe there is a price to be paid for justice. We believe we must give something up, perhaps even something dear. We believe we must “pay” for our shortcomings. We only hope that we will pay less than others who have also sinned. And there it is. We believe we must sacrifice something for justice. Where is fairness in this brand of justice? Where is love and peace in this view of justice? Is this real justice? This is not the justice the Course is talking about.

Can this be justice? God knows not of this. But justice does God know, and knows it well. For God is wholly fair to everyone. Vengeance is alien to God’s Mind because God knows of justice. To be just is to be fair, and not be vengeful. Fairness and vengeance are impossible, for each one contradicts the other and denies that it is real. It is impossible for you to share the Holy Spirit’s justice with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all. Yet how could God be just if God condemns a sinner for the crimes they did not do, but think they did? And where would justice be if God demanded of the ones obsessed with the idea of punishment that they lay it aside, unaided, and perceive it is not true?   T-25.VIII.5:1-10

Here again we are taught that what we give to Spirit can be reinterpreted for us. This reinterpretation brings us a new perception, a new understanding of whatever ideas we allow Spirit access to. There is no dramatic sacrifice to make. Can we summon a bit of curiosity for a better world? Can we open our minds to the mere possibility that real justice will reconnect us with love and peace? Our holy Self has never been corrupted. We are still as we are created by God. God makes only perfect and so we are still perfect. We have simply blocked our awareness of our holiness. Be willing then, just a little willing, to let Spirit begin to show us a new interpretation of justice. That new interpretation will be the reconnection to the love and peace we truly are. Say yes to this new perception now and see a new, but familiar world.

ACIM T.25.VII The Rock of Salvation

November 5, 2019

How does salvation work in this world? How do we begin to change our minds and see differently? Source has given us assistance, never leaving us alone. A plan has been given to us to guide us on our journey. And everyone and everything we encounter has a special function to help guide our journey.

Your special function is the special form in which the fact that God is not insane appears most sensible and meaningful to you. The content is the same. The form is suited to your special needs, and to the special time and place in which you think you find yourself, and where you can be free of place and time, and all that you believe must limit you. The One Child of God cannot be bound by time nor place nor anything God did not will. Yet if God’s Will is seen as madness, then the form of sanity which makes it most acceptable to those who are insane requires special choice. Nor can this choice be made by the insane, whose problem is their choices are not free, and made with reason in the light of sense.   T-25.VII.7:1-6

The world we think we see appears daunting, confusing and perhaps insane to us as we make our journey in life. What if there were a different way to see the world? We have been perceiving the world from a point of view – a set of beliefs – that are mistaken. Our perception is clouded by our mistaken beliefs about the world, ourselves and even God. We are not really sinners. We are not corruptible. We are not limited and small. These beliefs and others have caused us to misunderstand the world and who we are. The idea that God has a unique plan for us is an amazing and attractive idea. We are that valued. We have the means to begin to see and understand a new meaning of the world we see. We have the means to tap into a new understanding of who we really are. Spirit is waiting for us to be willing to change our minds and be willing to see a new perception of the world, a perception that is just for us, custom designed for our particular needs. What could be more loving than that? Asking Spirit for guidance is the key to open up this new understanding. The time we begin this is our choice. This begins the journey without distance, the return journey to the awareness of who we really are. This journey is salvation.

Salvation is rebirth of the idea no one can lose for anyone to gain. And everyone must gain, if anyone would be a gainer. Here is sanity restored. And on this single rock of truth can faith in God’s eternal saneness rest in perfect confidence and perfect peace. Reason is satisfied, for all insane beliefs can be corrected here. And sin must be impossible, if this is true. This is the rock on which salvation rests, the vantage point from which the Holy Spirit gives meaning and direction to the plan in which your special function has a part. For here your special function is made whole, because it shares the function of the whole.   T-25.VII.12:1-8

Here can we find our peace and joy. Here is perfect love manifest. There is nothing to lose. Anything that can be lost is not real and is not worth having to begin with. The real world is full of abundance. It is limitless. Loss is impossible in the real world. All is shared in its abundance and propels us into the knowledge that we are holy, that we are complete just as we are. We can lose sight of that truth when we adopt the belief that we are otherwise, but we cannot lose the reality of it. Rest in the peace that comes with the acceptance of our special function in this world. It is instrumental in our own salvation, and is necessary in the salvation of all. There is no point in fearing loss, for loss is impossible in salvation. Celebrate Oneness instead.

ACIM T.25.VII The Rock of Salvation

October 29, 2019

The Course asks us again and again what we believe about who we are. The Course also asks us if we are happy with the world we are living in. What if we could make a choice that would change our world dramatically for the better? Would this be a form of salvation? Most of us feel like we have few choices, that we are limited by the world we think we see. We have resigned ourselves to do the best with what we’ve been dealt. It doesn’t even occur to us we may have another choice. We have become so accustomed to accepting the idea that we must conform to the world we see that we’ve given up any hope of something better in thus world. How could it be that we are created to live in a world that seems so insane and can batter us about with its trials? We end up in such a dilemma about what is real and what is not real.

Let us go back to what we said before, and think of it more carefully. It must be so that either God is mad, or is this world a place of madness. Not one Thought of God’s makes any sense at all within this world. And nothing that the world believes as true has any meaning in God’s Mind at all. What makes no sense and has no meaning is insanity. And what is madness cannot be the truth. If one belief so deeply valued here were true, then every Thought God ever had is an illusion. And if but one Thought of God’s is true, then all beliefs the world gives any meaning to are false, and make no sense at all. This is the choice you make. Do not attempt to see it differently, nor twist it into something it is not.  For only this decision can you make. The rest is up to God, and not to you.   T-25.VII.3:1-12

Perhaps what we seek is some salvation from this dilemma. Yet we haven’t a clue where to begin. There is a way. God has not left us alone to work this out. We made a choice to believe something about ourselves and the world. So, we can make another choice. And we need not do it alone. God has provided us with an inner Spirit to guide us, Perhaps we may not have realized we even had a Higher Holy Spirit within us in our creation. This inner guide remains connected with the holy no matter what we may have believed or thought we believed. This Spirit within holds in loving memory the knowing we may have disregarded waiting for us to realize we want to reconnect with something better. This inner Spirit is ready and willing to guide us from a world of madness to a world of holiness, peace and love.

The Holy Spirit has the power to change the whole foundation of the world you see to something else; a basis not insane, on which a sane perception can be based, another world perceived. And one in which nothing is contradicted that would lead the One Child of God to sanity and joy. Nothing attests to death and cruelty; to separation and to differences. For here is everything perceived as one, and no one loses that each one may gain.   T-25.VII.5:1-4

How do we evaluate the world we see? It seems so daunting. Yet, continuing believing the world is the way we have perceived it is also daunting. Contained in the paragraph above is the test. We can put everything we think is true to this test. Can this be perceived as one, joined together? Does no one lose but rather everyone gain? Apply these questions to what you believe and if it passes this test, it is real and true. If not, it is mistaken. If it is mistaken, let it go rather than trying to correct it. Allow the Higher Spirit Self within you to guide your mind in the changing of your belief. As we learn to value Oneness, sharing and loving, freeing and uplifting one another, we find the love and peace we all share in Oneness. As we reconnect with Oneness, we find the world is transformed. We begin to see the world with a different understanding. The real world is the rock of our salvation. It is changeless. It is a world that can be relied on. We find our awareness of it by seeking the guidance of Spirit within.

ACIM T.25.VI The Special Function

October 22, 2019

We have become accustomed to darkness. We have become so accustomed to darkness that our eyes cannot bear the brilliant light of day. Perhaps we have found ourselves avoiding light because it is so brilliant and seems to cause us pain. In a like manner have we become afraid of truth and afraid of who we really are. So we turn away from the light and the clarity it brings to all we look upon. We are simply afraid of this light. We are simply afraid of the beautiful truth it reveals about who we really are. We believe we are unworthy of this gentle truth, even in the face of the peace and joy it brings us. Perhaps we can be willing to look differently at the world and begin to see there is no darkness but only light.

The grace of God rests gently on forgiving eyes, and everything they look on speaks of God to the beholder. The  beholder can see no evil; nothing in the world to fear, and no one who is different from the beholder. And as the beholder loves them, so the beholder looks upon themselves with love and gentleness. They would no more condemn themselves for their mistakes than damn another. They are not an arbiter of vengeance, nor a punisher of sin. The kindness of their sight rests on themselves with all the tenderness it offers others. For they would only heal and only bless. And being in accord with what God wills, they have the power to heal and bless all those they look on with the grace of God upon their sight.   T-25.VI.1:1-8

We really want to see clearly, no matter how much we deny it. Our wish to see calls down the grace of God on our eyes, and brings the gift of light that makes sight possible. How do we perceive each other? God is glad to have us look on each other. We are to recognize this one who is our savior as we fulfill the function we have been given. Do not let them be lonely any longer, for the lonely ones are those who see no function in the world for them to fill; no place where they are needed, and no aim which only they can perfectly fulfill. It is time to leave the darkness behind and step into the light, bringing those we have been given us with us.

Here the Holy Spirit’s kind perception of specialness is revealed to us; Spirit’s use of the specialness we made, to heal instead of harm. Spirit gave each of us a special function in salvation we alone can fill; a part specifically for each of us. Our plan is not complete until we find our special function and fulfill the part assigned to us, to make ourselves complete within a world where incompletion rules.

Salvation is no more than a reminder this world is not your home. Its laws are not imposed on you, its values are not yours. And nothing that you think you see in it is really there at all. This is seen and understood as each one takes their part in its undoing, as they did in making it. They have the means for either, as they always did. The specialness they chose to hurt themselves did God appoint to be the means for their salvation, from the very instant that the choice was made. Their special sin was made their special grace. Their special hate became their special love.   T-25.VI.6:1-8

Thus is our mistaken “specialness” transformed into our special function. Every encounter, every situation, whether or not seen as holy, is an opportunity to heal the situation or the relationship. It is an opportunity to transform what is mistaken to holiness. All that is real in this world is holy. And all that is seen as unholy is merely a distorted perception waiting to be healed and corrected. This is the holy purpose of the world we see. Let it be a catalyst for healing in your life. Spirit walks every step with you and will guide you as you allow. Let this be so and see your world transformed. It truly is Heaven on earth.

ACIM T.25.V The State of Sinlessness

October 15, 2019

We can learn a lot about ourselves and where we are by looking at our state of mind. Be honest with yourself about this. The beliefs we hold about ourselves have a great affect on our state of mind. It has everything to do with our state of mind. We are created whole. We are created sinless. We are created holy and incorruptible. Do any of us really believe any of this about ourselves? We have convinced ourselves we are at the mercy of a world we don’t understand, circumstances and others who would attack us and deprive us. And we are offended when anyone says we might be mistaken.

The state of sinlessness is merely this: The whole desire to attack is gone, and so there is no reason to perceive the One Child of God as other than they are. The need for guilt is gone because it has no purpose, and is meaningless without the goal of sin. Attack and sin are bound as one illusion, each the cause and aim and justifier of the other. Each is meaningless alone, but seems to draw a meaning from the other. Each depends upon the other for whatever sense it seems to have. And no one could believe in one unless the other were the truth, for each attests the other must be true.   T-25.V.1:1-6

 We tend to dwell on our shortcomings and imperfections. And then we compare our own with another’s. Most often we form the opinion and belief that  ours are less momentous than another’s. How convenient for us! Yet, we still experience dissatisfaction, disappointment and unhappiness. Somehow it’s just not enough, so we attack instead. Perhaps we attack another or perhaps ourselves. It becomes a never-ending circle of guilt and blame. Dare we think there could be another way? If we asked ourselves and really listened for an answer, there just might be a better way.

The Course proposes another way. The Course tells us we already know the way but have blocked our awareness of it. This way is already within us and we find it by looking beyond the appearance of the world to a reality beyond. We have made assumptions about what is real and what is not throughout our lives. Our state of mind is the indicator of the health of our beliefs – the health of our state of mind. This is what the Course means by the healing of the mind. No one need do anything for healing except change their own mind.

The One Holy Child asks only one thing of us; that we return to them what is their due, that we may share in it with them. Neither of us has this alone. It remains useless to each of us alone. Together, it will give to each an equal strength to save the other, and save themselves alike. Forgiven by you, your savior offers you salvation. Condemned by you, they offer condemnation to you. In everyone we see the reflection of what we choose to have them be to us. We find what we are looking for walking side by side with each other.

It is no sacrifice that they be saved, for by their freedom will you gain your own. To let their function be fulfilled is but the means to let yours be. And so you walk toward Heaven or toward hell, but not alone. How beautiful their sinlessness will be when you perceive it! And how great will be your joy, when they are free to offer you the gift of sight the One gave to them for you! They have no need but this; that you allow them freedom to complete the task the One gave to them. Remembering but this; that what they do you do, along with them. And as you see them, so do you define the function they will have for you, until you see them differently and let them be what the One appointed that they be to you.   T-25.V.5:1-8

Turn to the one next to you and allow Spirit to show you a new way of seeing them. They are your savior in this moment as you are their savior. There is nothing for us to lose except dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Would it not be worth a change of mind to realize the joy of Heaven that lies within every one of us? Be willing to take the step, and then actually take it. We do not take this step alone, ever, for we truly ate all One.

ACIM T.25.IV The Light You Bring

October 8, 2019

What do we think will ultimately make us happy and joyful? We have devised a way of thinking that tells us happiness and joy are outside of us and we must find it. We will do almost anything to find that which we seek outside ourselves. Yet, we still haven’t found a lasting source for the happiness and joy we are seeking. Perhaps we are looking for something that appears different than we think it should. Or, perhaps we are looking in the wrong place. We are stubborn enough to keep looking in all the wrong places when we’ve decided where we thing it is.

Minds that are joined and recognize they are, can feel no guilt. For they cannot attack, and they rejoice that this is so, seeing their safety in this happy fact. Their joy is in the innocence they see. And thus they seek for it, because it is their purpose to behold it and rejoice. Everyone seeks for what will bring them joy as they define it. It is not the aim, as such, that varies. Yet it is the way in which the aim is seen that makes the choice of means inevitable, and beyond the hope of change unless the aim is changed. And then the means are chosen once again, as what will bring rejoicing is defined another way and sought for differently.   T-25.IV.1:1-8

The Course tells us many times to try seeing differently. We often are looking for less than we have, missing the beauty and fullness of what is already within us. Since we are created whole, unlimited and divine, we have the abundance of Heaven within us for our choosing. It is merely a matter of opening our eyes to what our Creator has provided for us and set for our use. But we must be willing to allow our minds to awaken to what is within us and how to access it. While on this journey we have perception to help us find the way to what we are seeking. Perception’s basic law could be said, “You will rejoice at what you see because you see it to rejoice.” We need to learn how to see to see we already have what we are looking for!

We have another world where rest and peace rule. It is ours for the choosing. And once we choose it, we can bring it to all those who are tired of the world they have grown weary of but refuse to let go of. Let the light of the holy world within you shine brightly as a beacon to others. We need do nothing more than accept it and let it be. The ones we travel with will eventually see its light and then find it within themselves, for it is a shared world of holiness that we find in the realization of our Oneness with all Creation. We bring it with us to all the weary eyes and tired hearts that seem to have been seeking endlessly for peace, happiness and joy. In this light we stand in quiet, in innocence and wholly unafraid. The rest we find will extend from us so our peace can never fall away and leave us homeless again. We who offer peace to everyone have found a home in Heaven the world cannot destroy. For it is large enough to hold the world within its peace.

In you is all of Heaven. Every leaf that falls is given life in you. Each bird that ever sang will sing again in you. And every flower that ever bloomed has saved its perfume and its loveliness for you. What aim can supersede the Will of the One and of Us, that Heaven be restored to them for whom it was created as their only home? Nothing before and nothing after it. No other place; no other state nor time. Nothing beyond nor nearer. Nothing else. In any form. This can you bring to all the world, and all the thoughts that entered it and were mistaken for a little while. How better could your own mistakes be brought to truth than by your willingness to bring the light of Heaven with you, as you walk beyond the world of darkness into light?   T-25.IV.5:1-12

The Course teaches us we are the light of the world. At first this idea may seem daunting. But look within yourself. Look beyond the inadequacy you may feel and allow Spirit within to reveal the truth to you. This truth is already yours. It always has been. Let go of the idea of littleness you have so identified with all this time. Let Oneness reveal the Grandeur of all that is true within you. Return to the awareness of who you really are and find yourself home in Heaven even as you are still a little while in thus world.

ACIM T.25.III Perception and Choice

October 1, 2019

It doesn’t matter where we are, what we may have done or what we have thought. We always have another choice. We have the freedom to choose and the freedom to choose differently. There is no judgment. We simply made a mistake. When we find ourselves in a place we don’t like, we can realize that the choice we made was perhaps the wrong choice for us and choose again. There is no need to blame ourselves or beat ourselves up over any past choice, even when we seem to find ourselves in darkness. Perhaps we realize it did not have the extension of love as its purpose and then ask Spirit for guidance in making a more loving choice.

Everyone here has entered darkness, yet no one has entered it alone. Nor need they stay more than an instant. For they have come with Heaven’s Help within them, ready to lead them out of darkness into light at any time. The time they choose can be any time, for help is there, awaiting but their choice. And when they choose to avail themselves of what is given them, then will they see each situation that they thought before was means to justify their anger turned to an event which justifies their love. They will hear plainly that the calls to war they heard before are really calls to peace. They will perceive that where they gave attack is but another altar where they can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness. And they will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring them joy.   T-25.III.6:1-8

A misperception cannot be a sin. Let all another’s errors be nothing to us except a chance for us to see the workings of the Helper given us so we see the real world instead of the temporal world we made. What is justified? What do we want? These two questions are the same. When we see them as the same, our choice is made. Seeing them as one brings release from the belief there are two ways to see. This world has much to offer to our peace, and many chances to extend our own forgiveness. Its purpose is, to those of us who want to see peace and forgiveness descend on them, to extend peace, love and forgiveness and offer them the light.

Look to the world of gentleness, for the Maker of this gentle world has the power to offset the world of violence and hate we believe stands between us and the gentle world. This gentle world is there in another’s forgiving eyes and so is also in our own forgiving eyes. And when we can’t see it with our body’s eyes, look to Spirit and welcome Spirit’s vision into our perception. This is the chance to change mistaken perception into truth.

The One Child of God could never sin, but they can wish for what would hurt them. And they have the power to think they can be hurt. What could this be except a misperception of themselves? Is this a sin or a mistake, forgivable or not? Do they need help or condemnation? Is it your purpose that they be saved or damned? Forgetting not that what they are to you will make this choice your future? For you make it now, the instant when all time becomes a means to reach a goal. Make, then, your choice. But recognize that in this choice the purpose of the world you see is chosen, and will be justified.   T-25.III.9:1-10

What is your choice? Make the choice to perceive the gentle world our Maker is showing us. Open your Spirit eyes and let the world of gentleness come into your perception. It is right there beyond the world of violence and hate you think you see. Allow Spirit within you to show you this world of gentleness as you look into another’s eyes and see clearly their holiness and the reflection of your own holiness in their eyes. Make your choice today.

ACIM T.25.III Perception and Choice

September 24, 2019

The world we see is determined by our perception. The fundamental law of perception is: “You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there.”  Another way to say this is: “What I believe I will see.” The world we see reflects what we believe about it. We actually believe the opposite of what is true, that the world we see is out of our control and we are, perhaps, its victims, or at least that the world we see somehow dictates our reality. When we reduce this to basics, if we believe we are separate, we appear to be separate. If we believe we are connected and one, we appear to be one. Our egoic thought system is invested in our belief we are separate and that we have no control over how the world appears. This belief sets us up for our victimhood and the belief we are subject to the experiences we seem to have in this world of form.

Perception has no other law than this one stated above. The rest stems from this, to hold it up and offer it support. This is perception’s form, adapted to this world, of Source’s more basic law; that love creates itself, and nothing but itself. The Course teaches us that Love is all there is, that reality is nothing but Love. Whatever we perceive tells us what we actually believe. Are we in alignment with the law that all there is is love and nothing else, or something else? We have spent a lifetime learning to believe we are subject to the world we see and that we have no control over our own life. This belief is so powerful we have given ourselves over to the control of our egoic thought system which is completely invested in this perception of the world. Could our Source ever have let us get this lost? No! Though Source gave us free will to choose for ourselves, Source has protected our mind from our egoic thought system’s insanity. Our mind is always One with Source’s Mind and thus cannot be corrupted. Source is just waiting for us to wake up from the dream of insanity – separation – and choose to recognize our holiness – the nature of who we really are.

Perception rests on choosing; knowledge does not. Knowledge has only one law because it has one Creator. The world we see has two creators who made it, and they do not see it in the same way. To each creator it has a different purpose, and to each creator it is a perfect means to serve the goal for which it is perceived. For the goal of specialness and separation, it is the perfect frame to set it off; the perfect battleground to wage its wars, the perfect shelter for illusions which it would make seem real. Not one thing in this distorted perception can be upheld and nothing of it can be fully justified.

There is another Maker of the world, the simultaneous Corrector of the mad belief that anything could be established and maintained without some link that kept it still within the laws of Source – the One; not as the law itself upholds the universe as Source created it, but in some form adapted to the need the One Child – We believe we have. Corrected error is the error’s end. And thus has the One protected still the One Child – Us, even in error.   T-25.III.4:1-3

There is another choice we can make in this world of perception, the world we seem to see. This world appears to have no room for forgiveness. We tend to blame instead. However, there is another purpose in the world that mistaken perception made, because it has another Maker Who can reconcile its goal with the Creator’s purpose. In the Creator’s perception of the world, nothing is seen that does not justify forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness. Nothing arises that is not met with instant and complete forgiveness. Nothing remains to obscure the sinlessness that shines unchanged beyond the pitiful attempts of specialness to put it out of our mind. The lamps of Heaven are not for mind to choose to see wherever it will. We can only see them where they really are. If our mind elects to see them elsewhere from their home, as if they lit a place where they could never be, then the Maker of the world must correct our error, lest we remain in darkness where the lamps do not exist.

What world do you wish to see? It is the choice of each one of us. We can choose at any moment to allow Spirit to guide and correct our perception, bringing us a more correct appearance of the world we live in. This  returns us closer and closer to the real world, to the reality of our Creation. Allow forgiveness to clear the obstacles to your vision allowing the light of Heaven to reveal your sinlessness – your true Self – to you. Let this allow you to step into the awareness of who you really are in Oneness.