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

ACIM T-21.II The Responsibility for Sight

September 11, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

September 11, 2018

What if we have everything we need within us? What if we lack nothing? What if the world we really want is all there is and the world we see is really a distorted insane perception of the real world we want? Wholeness, completeness, peace and love are within our reach. They are right in front of us waiting for us to recognize them. The light of reality is within us and wanting us to let it shine brightly from our soul. The darkness in which we seem to be surrounded is merely an illusion – an incorrect interpretation of our reality. What will it take for us to be willing to release our attachment to what we think we see and allow something else to rise in its place? Our happiness relies on this willingness. Our peace of mind relies on this willingness. Stepping into the world already within us relies on this willingness. It is ours in an instant if we decide we want it enough to let all else go. The Course tells us:

Be willing, for an instant, to leave your altars free of what you placed upon them, and what is really there you cannot fail to see. The holy instant is not an instant of creation, but of recognition. For recognition comes of vision and suspended judgment. Then only it is possible to look within and see what must be there, plainly in sight, and wholly independent of inference and judgment. Undoing is not your task, but it is up to you to welcome it or not. Faith and desire go hand in hand, for everyone believes in what they want.   T-21.II.8:1-6

In the holy instant we are transformed. Our mind awakes to the reality right before us. It is a holy instant because all unreality disappears for that instant and we have suspended judgement for just that instant. We have allowed vision to surface in our minds, enabling us to see clearly what is already there. No amount of effort, schooling or compromising will get us to this holy instant. Only a complete surrender of all our attachments to our own misperceptions we hold so dear. Do these misperceptions serve us at all? They only serve to keep us locked into a miserable pattern of misperceived judgements that keep us from recognizing the peaceable world within us.

We deny the real world within us by our wishful thinking that there is something outside us that will bring something better to us. This denial is so powerful it hides a peaceful and loving world from our minds. It is so powerful it blocks our holy vision, for we cannot see a false and a real world at the same time. We choose, then, what we see by where and with what we align our minds. Which thought system do you prefer? Rightmindedness – the Mind of Oneness, or wrongmindedness – the egoic thought system rooted in the belief in separation. What we believe we will see, right or wrong.

Yet the truth is you and your friend were both created by a loving Creator, Who created you together and as one. See what “proves” otherwise, and you deny your whole reality. But grant that everything that seems to stand between you and your friend, keeping you from each other and separate from your Creator, you made in secret, and the instant of release has come to you. All its effects are gone, because its source has been uncovered. It is its seeming independence of its source that keeps you prisoner. This is the same mistake as thinking you are independent of the Source by which you were created and have never left.   T-21.II.13:7-6

Look at each other and allow yourself to see each other as the holy and complete Ones you already are. Don’t let their appearance in this world fool you. We are all really holy and we are all really One, joined in Oneness as we are created. Allow your holy vision to rise and be guided by your higher Spirit Self. Truth is within you. Allow your mind to recognize that truth and let it show you the way to the recognition of reality. It is not hard, though it may seem impossible right now. Start with just a little willingness to be shown a different way and see the world transformed before your very eyes. This little willingness is our responsibility. Say “yes” to it now.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 21 – Reason and Perception

ACIM T-21.II The Responsibility for Sight

September 4, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

September 4, 2018

Since we entered this world we have been looking for something, for meaning and for peace and love. Have we found it yet? Where are we looking? Perhaps we are making it much more difficult than we need. Perhaps we are looking in all the wrong places when what we are looking for is right in front of us and we refuse to see it. The Course has repeated how little is asked of us to learn the lessons of this course. It is the same small willingness we need to have our whole relationship transformed to joy; the little gift we offer to Spirit for which we are given everything; the very little on which salvation rests; the tiny change of mind by which our mind is transformed. This transformation is so simple that it cannot fail to be completely understood. We can reject or deny it, but it is not ambiguous. If we choose against these lessons now, it will not be because the message is obscure, but rather that this little cost seemed, in our judgment, to be too much to pay for peace.

This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you. Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:

  •  I am responsible for what I see.
  •  I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
  •  And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.

 Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you. Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear.   T-21.II.2:1-7

The transformation of our mind, and thus our world, is really very simple. Yet, we are the ones who make it difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible. We have become so attached to the world we think we see and our own mistaken perception of it that we resist letting go of it. We believe in our perception of this world so strongly that it blocks all other ideas that conflict with it. It is our fear of the unknown that keeps us clinging to that which is familiar to us, even if it makes us miserable. In reality, it is impossible that we are driven by events outside of us. Yet, we think we are. It is also impossible, in reality, that happenings that come to us are not our choice. Yet, we think it so. Our power of decision is the determiner of every situation in which we seem to find ourselves by chance or accident. There are no accidents, for we are responsible for our view of the world. We are responsible for our sight – how we see the world.

If we suffer, we decided separation was our goal. Be happy, and we give the power of decision to the One Who must decide for Oneness for us. This is the little gift we can offer to the Spirit within us, and even this Spirit gives to us to give ourselves. For by this gift we are given the power to release each other, that they may give salvation to us.

Begrudge not then this little offering. Withhold it, and you keep the world as now you see it. Give it away, and everything you see goes with it. Never was so much given for so little. In the holy instant is this exchange effected and maintained. Here is the world you do not want brought to the one you do. And here the one you do is given you because you want it. Yet for this, the power of your wanting must first be recognized. You must accept its strength, and not its weakness. You must perceive that what is strong enough to make a world can let it go, and can accept correction if it is willing to see that it was wrong.   T-21.II.4:1-10

We all have the power to see. We can see an illusion of the world – a distorted and convoluted perception. Or, we can choose to see with Holy Vision, as Spirit guides us. With this guided vision, the world is transformed before us. It is transformed to a world of peace, love and joy. In this real world we are complete, whole, limitless and free. It is a world we rest in. Which world do you want? We are already in the real world – the transformed world – yet it looks like something else. It is our responsibility how we see the world. It’s our choice. Accept the gift of Vision the Holy offers you. This is your home, and this is your salvation.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 21 – Reason and Perception

ACIM T-21.I The Forgotten Song

August 28, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

August 28, 2018

We have adjusted our minds to the world we made up. We have adjusted our minds to the limits we have placed on this world and, thus think we are limited. We have learned these lessons, believing they came from outside ourselves, from something we have no control over. Yet these lessons we made up, denying we have any control over what seems to affect our happiness and well-being. Some keep this world we think we “see” in our imagination, believing with all our mind that our choice is this world or nothing at all. We hate this world we learned and everything we think it serves appears to remind us we are incomplete and bitterly deprived – hell on earth.

To this seeming “truth” we adjust everything about ourselves. We see this as a necessity to avoid losing what little security we seem to glean from this world. We try and fail, disappointed again and again as we try to connect with each other meaningfully. And so we settle. We settle for loneliness, believing we must retreat to preserve what little we think we have. Stop! Look! Listen for just a moment and try to remember an ancient melody that speaks to you now.

Listen,–perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.   T-21.I.6::1-3

-The notes are nothing. Yet we have kept them with us, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make us weep if we remembered how dear it was to us. We could remember, yet we are afraid, believing we would lose the world we learned since then. Yet we know that nothing in the world we learned is half so dear as this. Let us listen, and see if we remember an ancient song we knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody we taught ourselves to cherish since.

Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.   T-21.I.8:1-6

Here is our Vision reawakened. Here is the gift of the remembrance of who we really are, memory of what is wholly true and still within us and joined to all as surely as it is joined in us. Accept the Vision Spirit offer us. We know this ancient song of joy well. It reminds us of our wholeness. It reminds us of our completeness. It reminds us of the light of holiness that shines from the core of our being. This is the truth we have forgotten. Accept its return to our awareness. Release the limits we have placed on it. Nothing can or will be as dear as this ever present song of joy that lifts us into the present – the now – as we realize the truth that love is all we are and all that surrounds us.

What is a miracle but this reawakening? The light in one of us awakens the light in all. As we see and realize this light in each other, we are reawakening this light for everyone.

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 21 – Reason and Perception

ACIM T-21.Intro & I The Forgotten Song

August 21, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

August 21, 2018

Is the world we see the world we want? If not, there is a simple way to change it. Simply choose another way of looking at the world. It is that simple, and we have the guidance of Spirit at our disposal if we choose to allow Spirit’s guidance. We see the world through our perception, determined by what we believe about ourselves and others and even the world. I remember the prayer response we used at my church years ago. Its words were, “My God hears my prayer. What I believe I will see.” There is incredible power in what we believe. We will see anything distorted by the lens of what we believe. This is how so many of us can witness the same event but see it so differently that some may wonder if we even saw the same event. This is the partnership of belief and perception. We project whatever we believe on the world and thus see it according to what we believe. There is, however, another way to see.

Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos.   T-21.in.1:1-12

Be willing to change your mind about the world. And rather than trying this on your own from the mindset of separation, allow Spirit to guide your mind to the correct perception of the world. This probably will not happen in one fell swoop, but in steps, small or large that are appropriate for your perfect growth. Begin by allowing yourself to entertain the idea that your true nature is loving and whole and that others and the world are as well, even if you can’t see it right now. Spirit will reveal your loving wholeness to you as you are willing to receive it – in perfect time.

Do not forget the world we “see” with the body’s eyes is imagined. What the real world looks like is unknown to the body’s eyes for they are blind to reality. Because we try to see with the body’s eyes, we do not really see. Our cues for interpretation are wrong, and so we stumble and fall down upon the stones we did not recognize, but fail to be aware we can go through the doors we thought were closed, but which stand open before our unseeing eyes, waiting to welcome us. The world we want and that is our real world, is there behind those seemingly closed doors that are really open wide beckoning us to pass through.

It is not necessary for us to imagine what the world must look like. It must be seen before we recognize it for what it is. We can be shown which doors are open, and we can see where safety lies; and which way leads to darkness, which way to light. Our Higher Vision, given us by Spirit, shows us where to go. Why should we guess?

There is no need to learn through pain. And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. What gives you happiness you want to learn and not forget. It is not this you would deny. Your question is whether the means by which this course is learned will bring to you the joy it promises. If you believed it would, the learning of it would be no problem. You are not a happy learner yet because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you more than judgment does, and you have learned that both you cannot have.  T-21.I.3:1-7

The world we seek is already available to us through our Holy Vision. However, we must choose our own Holy Vision guided by Spirit to open our Spirit eyes. Allow Spirit to grant you that guidance, for that allowing makes us a happy learner and brings the awareness of our loving wholeness and the real world to us when we do just that. Be the happy learner today. What else could you be waiting for?

Posted in: ACIM Ch. 21 – Reason and Perception

ACIM T-20.VIII The Vision of Sinlessness

August 14, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

August 14, 2018

Our healing – our return to the awareness of our holiness – is Spirit’s goal for us. It is the return to the awareness of our true Self that has never been touched by any force that can harm us. The mistake we make is that we think we see anything real with our body’s eyes. This perception is clouded and distorted by our egoic though system rooted in the belief that we are what we are not. We believe we are broken, limited, unholy and condemned and so that is what we think we see. What if we were to entertain the thought that none of what we think we see is true, that none of it is real? The Course asks us to consider this question. Do we like what we think we see? Do we want to be a part of that world? I don’t think so. We really want something better if we are honest with ourselves.

We have the choice to accept Spirit’s gift of Vision, a way of seeing that looks beyond the appearance of the world to the truth of reality beyond. Isn’t this what we really want?

Everything looked upon with vision falls gently into place, according to the laws brought to it by Spirit’s calm and certain sight. 2 The end for everything Spirit looks upon is always sure. For it will meet Spirit’s purpose, seen in unadjusted form and suited perfectly to meet it. Destructiveness becomes benign, and sin is turned to blessing under Spirit’s gentle gaze.   T-20.VIII.6:1-4

Our egoic thought system wants none of this. It uses our relationships in ways that support its purpose, keeping us thinking we are limited and broken. Yet, Spirit transforms our relationships through the Vision It offers us – which is already ours – bringing us the reawakening of the awareness of our holiness, our limitlessness and the love and peace that are deeply rooted within us. What if we recognized this world we think we see is a hallucination? What if we really understood we made it up? What if we realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal? Entertain this thought just for a moment.

Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are. This is the healing and the remedy. Believe them not and they are gone. And all you need to do is recognize that you did this. Once you accept this simple fact and take unto yourself the power you gave them, you are released from them. One thing is sure; hallucinations serve a purpose, and when that purpose is no longer held they disappear. Therefore, the question never is whether you want them, but always, do you want the purpose that they serve?   T-20.VIII.8:1-7

There are only two purposes possible. One is separation, the other holiness. Nothing is in between, and which purpose we choose determines what we see. What we see is simply how we elect to meet our goal. Hallucinations serve to meet the goal of madness. They are the means the outside world, projected from within, adjusts to illusion and witness to its seeming reality. It still is true that nothing is without. Yet all projections are made on nothing. It is projection that gives the “nothing” all the meaning that it holds.

When you have looked on what seemed terrifying, and seen it change to sights of loveliness and peace; when you have looked on scenes of violence and death, and watched them change to quiet views of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste away; who need persuade you to accept the gift of vision? And after vision, who is there who could refuse what must come after? Think but an instant just on this; you can behold the holiness the One gave Us. And never need you think that there is something else for you to see.   T-20.VIII.11:1-4

What will you choose now? Choose the Vision Spirit offers you now in this moment. It is the choice that transforms all you see. Your relationships will reveal their true holy purpose, to unite you in Oneness with all others. Let your mind be healed in this moment and realize the holiness of your being. Love and peace are your reward.

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

ACIM T-20.VIII The Vision of Sinlessness

August 7, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

August 7, 2018

My friends, indulge me for just a moment. What if our lives are perfect just as they are? What if our relationships are already holy. What if we already dwell in Heaven? What if we simply need to change how we see the world we live in? I think and believe the Curse is telling us just this. Our world appears to be anything but peaceful. Our relation ships appear to be anything but holy. And, this world appears to be anything but Heaven. When the Course asks us to look beyond the appearance of things to the holy reality beyond, it means for us to do just that. How could this possibly be so? Yet, we are not alone in changing the way we perceive this world. We are given all the help we could possibly need or want to make this so. Are we seeing with our body’s eyes

or our Spirit vision? We must learn to use and trust our Spirit Vision if we want to see clearly.

Do you not want to know your own Identity? Would you not happily exchange your doubts for certainty? Would you not willingly be free of misery, and learn again of joy? Your holy relationship offers all this to you. As it was given you, so will be its effects. And as its holy purpose was not made by you, the means by which its happy end is yours is also not of you. Rejoice in what is yours but for the asking, and think not that you need make either means or end. All this is given you who would but see another sinless. All this is given, waiting on your desire but to receive it. Vision is freely given to those who ask to see.   T-20.VIII.2:1-10

We are given Spirit’s Vision in shining light in which to look upon each other’s sinlessness and rejoice in it along with Spirit. Peace will come to all who ask for vision with real desire and sincerity of purpose. This we share with Spirit and at one with Spirit on what salvation is. Be willing to see each other sinless, so that the One may rise before our vision and give us joy. This merely asks us to be willing to allow Spirit to guide our vision to a more correct perception of our world. Think of the song, “Open my eyes that I may see.” Allow Spirit to open your Spirit eyes so you may see clearly. The world we think we now see around us is transformed by our Spirit vision to show a world full of peace, love and joy. We simply need to trust Spirit to show us this real world and release our attachment to the world we think we see. Reality is there for the seeing beyond the chaos and misery we think is real.

This is our purpose now, and the vision that makes it ours is ready to be realized. We have the vision that enables us to see beyond the body. And as we look upon each other, we will see an altar to our Creator glowing with radiant purity and sparkling with the shining lilies we laid upon it. May we relax into this light. May we allow it to well up within us to shine brightly for all to recognize as a reflection of their own light. We are truly the light of the world.

Everything looked upon with vision falls gently into place, according to the laws brought to it by Spirit’s calm and certain sight. The end for everything Spirit looks upon is always sure. For it will meet Spirit’s purpose, seen in unadjusted form and suited perfectly to meet it. Destructiveness becomes benign, and sin is turned to blessing under Spirit’s gentle gaze.   T-20.VIII.6:1-6

Ask Spirit to reopen your Spirit eyes so you may see clearly. The reward is the return f our awareness of our relationships’ holiness and our own holiness. We also see the world clearly without the distortion our egoic mind places on it. Open you Spirit vision and let the light of the world shine through you to all who wish to see clearly. Allow vision to fall gently into place. This needs merely an allowing rather than any great effort. Allow reality and peace to reveal all that is loving, peaceful and holy to you and let it be so.

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

ACIM T-20.VII The Consistency of Means and End

July 31, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

July 31, 2018

As we journey on our spiritual path, our perception of those we journey with is crucial. How do we see each other? Are we making judgements about each other? As we judge each other we fail to see their reality. If our mind is aligned with the idea of separation, the reality of those we journey with is invisible to us. The eyes of our body show us other bodies. The bodies we think we see are distorted images of the holy ones we journey with. Yet because we see them as separate bodies – or bodies separate from us – we cannot see the realty of who they really are and thus the reflection of who we really are.  We are essentially trying to see light in a darkness from which we have shut light out. We imagine each other as something we are not.

There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining and vision. The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. Both are but means, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed. Neither can serve the purpose of the other, for each one is a choice of purpose, employed on its behalf. Either is meaningless without the end for which it was intended, nor is it valued as a separate thing apart from the intention. The means seem real because the goal is valued. And judgment has no value unless the goal is sin.   T-20.VII.7:1-7

What goal have we chosen for ourselves? What is our chosen end? Is our chosen end the one we really want? If our end is separation, the eyes of our bodies will show us the means to see separation. But, if our goal is healing, the healing of our relationships and thus our minds, our spirit eyes will show us the means. If we keep shifting between the body’s eyes and Spirit eyes, we will remain confused as we are confusing means that lead to two different ends. Is it any wonder we find ourselves conflicted and lost in chaos?

Spirit has given us vision to see clearly the means to the healing of our relationships. Spirit asks that we be consistent in seeking the means Spirit gave us to guide us. Even when we stray from the means Spirit has given us, we can simply stop a moment and return to our holy vision which is always within us and which Spirit will always guide us to. Choosing our Spirit vision guides us to seeing reality. And seeing the ones we journey with in their reality as holy relationships is our release from all limitation. We see the reality of our wholeness and Oneness.

Your question should not be, “How can I see another without the body?” Ask only, “Do I really wish to see them sinless?” And as you ask, forget not that their sinlessness is your escape from fear. Salvation is the Holy Spirit’s goal. The means is vision. For what the seeing look upon is sinless. No one who loves can judge, and what they see is free of condemnation. And what they see they did not make, for it was given them to see, as was the vision that made their seeing possible.   T-20.VII.9:1-8

Set your mind on the goal you seek: Oneness. Allow Spirit to guide you in the means to this goal. Allow your Spirit eyes to see for you. There is no need to not see the body. Rather, look beyond the appearance of the body to the reality beyond. The healing of our relationships is the result of these means. And the return to the awareness of who we really are in Oneness is the end. This is what we really want. Be consistent in seeking to see with your Spirit eyes. When you are unsure, seek Spirit’s guidance. We will all be swept into the realm of Heaven as we allow this practice to transform our lives.

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

ACIM T-20.VII The Consistency of Means and End

July 24, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅

July 24, 2018

The Course requires almost nothing of us. It is impossible to imagine any path that asks so little or could offer more. Yet we make it seem very complicated. Our own egoic thought system prefers to make itself seem indispensable by making happiness, joy and peace seem difficult and complicated.  Peace, love and happiness are our natural state. They are effortless in their true form. The egpic thought system has no place in our natural state of being for it is not real. It is an invention – a mistaken idea that we have believed – that preoccupies our minds with made up “dangers” and “enemies”. These ideas bring uncertainty and insecurity and fear into our minds that tend to dominate our thoughts. Within us, and no stranger to us, is another reality we have forgotten in our preoccupation with our distracted fear. Our minds are so full of discrepancies that we are focused on that we miss the peace, love and joy within us. What happens after we decide to allow our relationships to be healed – to be made holy?

The period of discomfort that follows the sudden change in a relationship from sin to holiness may now be almost over. To the extent you still experience it, you are refusing to leave the means to the One Who changed the purpose. You recognize you want the goal. Are you not also willing to accept the means? If you are not, let us admit that you are inconsistent. A purpose is attained by means, and if you want a purpose you must be willing to want the means as well. How can one be sincere and say, “I want this above all else, and yet I do not want to learn the means to get it?”   T-20.VII.2:1-7

We need to want the end – peace, yet we are often not willing to also be consistent in the means to attain peace. What must we do? The means are second to the end, the goal. And when we hesitate, it is because we fear the purpose, and not the means. Remember this, otherwise we will make the error of believing the means are difficult. The healing of our relationships is the easiest thing if we will simply allow the Spirit within us to take the lead and show us the way. The holiness of our relationships is within us as their true nature needs no healing. We simply must release our attachment to their seeming unholiness and allow our vision of them to be healed. Step back a moment and see with your holy vision what is beyond appearance in this world.

The body is the means by which the egoic thought system tries to make the unholy relationship seem real. The unholy instant is the time of bodies. But the purpose here is sin. It cannot be attained but in illusion, and so the illusion of another as a body is quite in keeping with the purpose of unholiness. Because of this consistency, the means remain unquestioned while the end is cherished. Seeing adapts to wish, for sight is always secondary to desire. And if you see the body, you have chosen judgment and not vision. For vision, like relationships, has no order. You either see or not.   T-20.VII.5.1-9

How can I not see another’s body? This seems impossible. Yet it is very possible and also quite easy if we are willing. The means of healing our relationships is to not see the body. Perhaps we can look at this differently. The Course always asks us to look beyond the appearance of things to the truth beyond. We have learned that we are not bodies, but that we are free. We are Thoughts in the One Mind. So, begin by looking beyond another’s body and allow your Higher Holy Spirit Self to see what is real beyond their body. Their Holy essence will become visible in your holy vision. You will begin to see they are joined with you in Oneness. You will begin to see your Holy Self reflected in hem to you and recognize the peace, love and joy that are there within both of you. Our unholy instant transforms to a holy instant where all judgement falls away and we see what is real and eternal. Rest with that vision for a moment. Even if it falls away, we can return by releasing our attachment to the appearance of the body and looking beyond its appearance. What is real and eternal will never fade. Only our consistency of seeking the means that lead to our desired end will move us into more and more healing. Trust the guidance of your inner Guide and be consistent in following that guidance. We are in this world to be transformed, so be transformed. Be consistent in following the means to your holy purpose. Do not be hard on yourself, for that will only deter you. Be consistent in your means and be led gently into peace, love and joy.

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

ACIM T-20.VI The Temple of the Holy Spirit

July 17, 2018 1:00 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

July 17, 2018

We continue to look at our relationships and ask ourselves how they reflect our relationship with Source – the One or God. Are our relationships healthy? Do they reflect the love we really are? Do they extend unconditional love? If our minds remain aligned with the belief in separation, we find our relationships are rooted in darkness and are not real relationships at all. We may even think that our relationship will save us from loneliness. However, a relationship that is not fully joined – without exception – is no relationship at all, for it leaves most of our mind unjoined. There is no partially joined in reality. We are either joined or not.

There is no order in relationships. They either are or not. An unholy relationship is no relationship. It is a state of isolation, which seems to be what it is not. No more than that. The instant that the mad idea of making your relationship with Source unholy seemed to be possible, all your relationships were made meaningless. In that unholy instant time was born, and bodies made to house the mad idea and give it the illusion of reality. And so it seemed to have a home that held together for a little while in time, and vanished. For what could house this mad idea against reality but for an instant?   T-20.VI.8:1-9

While we are invested in the idea of separation and isolation, we cannot experience real peace or happiness. Real peace and happiness cannot exist in isolation and separation. They can only thrive in sharing and communion with others. Isolation breeds stagnation and death. Joining breeds vitality and life, circulation and refreshing newness. The idea of separation perpetuates itself in our attachment to our identity as a body. How limiting is that? We believe we have walled off a little bit of Oneness with flesh and called it ”me.” Yet we are so much more that that walled off bit of flesh. As we look out from this little bit of flesh, we think we see so much “out there” when there is nothing real “out there” that is anything more than a projection of our misperception. When we redirect our attention within we find a vast eternal reality that shines with light and power. What is within is eternal and what is without is temporal. Put your belief and your faith into that which is eternal and everlasting. What do our relationships tell us about ourselves?

The holy relationship reflects the true relationship We have with Source in reality. The Holy Spirit rests within it in the certainty it will endure forever. Its firm foundation is eternally upheld by truth, and love shines on it with the gentle smile and tender blessing it offers to its own. Here the unholy instant is exchanged in gladness for the holy one of safe return. Here is the way to true relationships held gently open, through which you and another walk together, leaving the body thankfully behind and resting in the Everlasting Arms. Love’s Arms are open to receive you, and give you peace forever.   T-20.VI.10:16

Release yourself from the limiting confines of your belief that the bit of flesh you call “you” defines who you are. It does nothing more than imprison you. Instead, redirect your attention to the limitlessness within you. See the relationships you form healed as they are transformed to holy healed unconditional relationships. See beyond their earthly appearance to their heavenly holiness. They reflect our own relationship with Source. Be honest and allow Spirit to guide your mind in the transformation of all your relationships. Offer the miracle of healing to all your relationships – withholding it from not a one. We – as we are joined – are the temple of the Holy Spirit, for we, in communion, are the Holy Spirit. We are the embodiment of Oneness in this world. Let Heaven be apparent on earth in your extension of Oneness.

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

ACIM T-20.VI The Temple of the Holy Spirit

July 9, 2018 3:54 am ⋅

July 10, 2018

We have been learning about the role our relationships with each other have in our journey back to the awareness of who we really are. This is the role our relationships play in the healing of our mind and the attainment of peace. In a like manner, our relationships with each other reflect our relationship with our Creator, God, the One, Oneness, or Source – whatever we call that force which we inherently are. Our real relationship with our Creator is wholly loving and forever. Yet we have invented an unholy – “special” –  relationship between ourselves and our Creator. Our real relationship is one of perfect union and unbroken continuity. The relationship we made is partial, self-centered, broken into fragments and full of fear. The relationship created by our Creator is wholly Self-encompassing and Self-extending. The one we made in separation is wholly self-destructive and self-limiting.

Nothing can show the contrast better than the experience of both a holy and an unholy relationship. The first is based on love, and rests on it serene and undisturbed. The body does not intrude upon it. Any relationship in which the body enters is based not on love, but on idolatry. Love wishes to be known, completely understood and shared. It has no secrets; nothing that it would keep apart and hide. It walks in sunlight, open-eyed and calm, in smiling welcome and in sincerity so simple and so obvious it cannot be misunderstood.   T-20.VI.2:1-7

Which kind of relationship have we chosen for our own? Is it fearful or loving? Are we or are we not at peace? The relationships we have with others in our life will reflect some aspect of this primary relationship. And, if we are not in Oneness, we will not feel love and peace in our lives. We cannot share when we are aligned with separation. We can be loved, but cannot love. We do not understand what we are offered, and any relationship in which we enter has lost its meaning. The love of an unholy relationship has made love meaningless. We live in secrecy, hating the sunlight and happy in the body’s darkness, where we can hide and keep our secrets hidden along with them. Thus we have no relationships, for no one else is truly welcome there. We smile on no one, and those who smile on us we do not truly see. These unholy relationships are a sham, merely excuses for real relationships. They are relationships that survive only in darkness, fearing the light at all costs.

Love has no darkened temples where mysteries are kept obscure and hidden from the sun. It does not seek for power, but for relationships. The body is the ego’s chosen weapon for seeking power through relationships. And its relationships must be unholy, for what they are it does not even see. It wants them solely for the offerings on which its idols thrive. The rest it merely throws away, for all that it could offer is seen as valueless. Homeless, the ego seeks as many bodies as it can collect to place its idols in, and so establish them as temples to itself.   T-20.VI.4:1-7

Our true temple, filled with Spirit’s wisdom, love and peace, is our relationships. As we allow Spirit to fill and transform our relationships, we are filled with light, love, and peace. We find the power we are given in our creation limitless yet needing no effort. All fear melts away as the light within us shines away any darkness we may have harbored. As our relationships heal, so does our mind heal. We discover, again, the limitlessness of our divine nature. We find that we have never been lost in darkness. We find that love and peace are the all-encompassing qualities we share with each other and our Creator in this holy and complete reality. What seemed unknown and unreachable has always been within us waiting for us to look within and find it there in the holiness of our true Self. Look again at those around you and allow the holiness of your relationships shine forth. Here is Spirit’s temple in you.

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