July 19, 2016

We are always One. We are indivisible. We are One with our Creator, God, the One, and we are One with each other. Nothing can ever change this. If we don’t know this about ourselves, we have simply blocked our awareness of our Oneness with a belief that we are separate. This mistaken belief cannot harm us, but it can make our life in this world seem miserable. This mistaken belief also blocks our awareness of the deep peace and understanding within us. The Course tells us:

We – our true Self – will always be indivisible. As we are held as one in Oneness, so do we learn as one in our Creator. The One’s Teacher is as like to the Creator as is the One Child – Us, and through the Teacher does the One proclaim the Teacher’s Oneness and Ours. Listen in silence, and do not raise your voice against the Teacher’s. For the Teacher teaches the miracle of oneness, and before the Teacher’s lesson division disappears. Teach like the Teacher here, and you will remember that you have always created like your Creator. The miracle of creation has never ceased, having the holy stamp of immortality upon it. This is the Will of the One for all creation, and all creation joins in willing this.   T-14.XI.11.1-8

Those who remember always that they know nothing in separation, and have become willing to learn everything, will learn everything. But those that remain believing in separation will not learn. We have convinced ourselves, believing we are separate, that we know through our past perceptions rooted in separation. Release your mind from your past and come with an open receptive mind to Spirit, the Teacher, until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and can never be found alone. Recall the test of peace from paragraph 5 of this section:

If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned the One’s lesson, and not your own.

Let go of fear. What fear? Any and all fear. Release all you hold as true so that the Teacher may undo all that is mistaken and leave remaining all that we have created that is of Oneness. We needn’t fear we will lose anything for what is real and true and holy will remain while what is mistaken will fade from our mind as the illusion it is. In this perfect peace will we find that our creations are much more in our right healed mind than they ever seemed in our separated mind. Allow the Teacher – Spirit – to undo our misperceptions and see perfect peace and understanding rise in our One Mind.

If you want peace you must abandon the teacher of attack. The Teacher of peace will never abandon you. You can desert the Teacher of peace but that Teacher will never reciprocate, for your Teacher’s faith in you is your Teacher’s understanding. It is as firm as is your Teacher’s faith in the Creator, and your Teacher knows that faith in the Creator must encompass faith in all creation. In this consistency lies the Teacher’s Holiness which the Teacher cannot abandon, for it is not the Teacher’s Will to do so. 6 With your perfection ever in your Teacher’s sight, your Teacher gives the gift of peace to everyone who perceives the need for peace, and who would have it. Make way for peace, and it will come. For understanding is in you, and from it peace must come.   T-14.XI.14.1-8

The power of our Oneness is within us. It remains hidden as long as we harbor any hidden thoughts of separation. Each miracle of forgiveness lets go of another block to our awareness of who we really are. Release all the attachments held so dear about our past experiences and what we think they mean. Do not fear the miracle of freedom each transcendence brings. Leave room for your Teacher, and you will find yourself so filled with power that nothing will prevail against your peace. And this will be the test by which you recognize that you have understood. Release yourself from the limitations of separation and find perfect peace and understanding right where it’s always been – within you. Peace be unto you.

July 12, 2016

Last week we discussed the test of Truth:

You have one test, as sure as the One, by which to recognize if what you learned is true. If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned the One’s lesson, and not your own.   T-14.XI.5.1-2

Freedom from fear and freedom from the perception of fear. Sharing in perfect peace. These are the indications of our awareness of our Oneness – who we really are. It is possible while we remain in this world. However, we don’t do it alone. It is shared will all of Oneness we all are. Our willingness to release our attachment to all past experiences is the key to our transcendence. Our problem that needs solving is that we rely on the lessons we learned in separation to join in Oneness. Separation has no role in Oneness for it is contradictory to Oneness.

When our peace seems threatened, the Course offers us a prayer to help us turn our minds from its attachment to the lessons we have taught ourselves from our past experiences.

I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.   T-14.XI.6.7-9

We must look to the Guide within us – our Higher Holy Spirit Self – that knows our true Self and the truth about who we really are. We have never lost who we are, just ignored our true Self within us as we tried to make sense of our past experiences on our own without benefit of true Vision. Thus have we separated ourselves from the awareness of our perfect peace also within us.

We have a Teacher within us waiting for us to allow ourselves to be taught and guided. This Teacher, whether we call it Teacher, Spirit or our Higher Self, is within our Divine Self. It is Oneness. It is the Unity of all that is. It is eternal where all else is temporary and illusion. As we allow this Divine essence within us to guide us, our eyes are opened to the reality of who we are and our perception of the world is reinterpreted for us. We begin to understand that peace lies within us. We begin to understand that love and compassion are within the core of our being. All else fades away in the light of the truth within us. This is our salvation. This is the remembrance of who we really are and our return to the awareness of who we really are.

The Guide Who has freed you from the past would teach you are free of it. The Guide would but have you accept Its accomplishments as yours, because It did them for you. And because It did, they are yours. The Guide has made you free of what you made. 5 You can deny Him, but you cannot call on Him in vain. Thank the One that this Guide is there and works through you. And all Its works are yours. This Guide offers you a miracle with every one you let be done through you.  T-14.XI.10.1-5, 8-10

Release your mind from the lessons you have made. Freedom lies in the awareness of who you really are. Perfect peace and love are within you waiting to rise to your awareness. Step aside and allow the Divine essence within you to rise and overflow. There is a never-ending supply that will reach all of creation as we allow our self-taught lessons to be undone. The One transcends the seeming limitations of our self-taught lessons and teaches us Truth. Let it be done.

July 5, 2016

The truth is that we are powerful. Yet because we have tried to keep power for ourselves we have “lost” it. We have denied the truth about who we really are and thus limited everything about ourselves. We interposed so much between our power and our awareness of it that we cannot use it. All that we have taught ourselves through our egouc thought system – the belief we are separate – have caused who we really are to become more and more obscure to us. We have made a semblance of power and a show of strength so pitiful that it can only fail us. Yet, all that stands between us and the power of the One within us is our learning the false and our attempts to undo what is true about us.

Be willing, then, for all of it to be undone, and be glad that you are not bound to it forever. For you have taught yourself how to imprison the One Self, a lesson so unthinkable that only the insane, in deepest sleep, could even dream of it. Can the One learn how not to be the One? And can You, given all power by the One, learn to be powerless? What have you taught yourself that you can possibly prefer to keep, in place of what you have and what you are?   T-14.XI.2.1-5

Surrender all, then, to Spirit who will strip away the false notions we have attached our minds to and correct our seeing – our perception – opening our minds to the awareness of who we really are and the truth within us. At-One-ment teaches us everything we need to escape forever from the limitation of everything we have ever learned in the past by showing us only what we truly are now. The past disappears in the light of truth whenever we allow our eyes to be opened. Let everything go. Do not even try to attempt to choose or judge what is true or false. Release it all to the light of Spirit. Truth is revealed in light and all that is false fades to nothing. But be sure to bring it all to the light. What we hide from the light will continue to limit us. Complete release of darkness is necessary to the disappearance of all darkness. This lesson shines with the One’s glory, for in it lies true power which the One gladly shares with us.

You have one test, as sure as the One, by which to recognize if what you learned is true. If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned the One’s lesson, and not your own. Unless all this is true, there are dark lessons in your mind that hurt and hinder you, and everyone around you. The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will for each other what their Creator wills for them. Every dark lesson teaches this, in one form or another. And each bright lesson with which the Holy Spirit will replace the dark ones you do not accept, teaches you that you will with the One and Oneness.   T-14.XI.5.1-6

Release all to Spirit so all darkness may vanish from your minds. Leave no dark corner of your mind hidden for there is no darkness at all. Allow perfect peace to fill your mind. Allow it to banish any false ideas from you mind. Be wholly free of fear and know you have recognized the truth about who you really are. Step into this awareness and remember your true One Self.

June 28, 2016

Today’s lesson in the Workbook for Students is a review lesson. The reviews are framed with this idea: God is but love and therefore so am I. We are created One with God. How could we be anything else but love? Every miracle at its core is the shift in our mind from the idea that we are whatever we have made as our identity to the idea and truth that we are indeed Love. We spend a lifetime convincing ourselves that we are not whole, not complete, unlovable and lacking when the opposite is true. We have always been whole, complete, lovable and limitless. At the core of every miracle is the shift in our mind to the awareness of our divine Identity – Love. In this essence all miracles are equal and thus there is no order of difficulty in miracles as all are the same no matter what their form in the world of form and perception – the temporal world.

Left to the egoic thought system, ideas will seem perfectly logical as long as they are perceived alone. Yet, when we bring all those separate ideas together they make no sense when joined as they conflict with each other in a myriad of ways and appear irrational. So what do we do? Rather than questioning their rationality, we separate them from each other and only view them separately. All true thoughts must coexist in harmony if they are all true. So perhaps if thoughts are in conflict we should take a look at them and see what gives. Spirit is within us to aid in this process. In fact, Spirit will make it perfectly clear to us what is true and what is mistaken if we will simply allow Spirit to guide our mind. Spirit is one with us, so is within us as God is. And it is impossible to keep any idea hidden or in secret, for we are all One – God, Spirit, brother and sister and us. There is no possibility of hidden or secret in Oneness. This becomes evident in our remembrance of who we really are.

Communication is constant in Oneness.

As God communicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the Holy Spirit translate God’s communications through you, so you can understand them. God has no secret communications, for everything of God is perfectly open and freely accessible to all, being for all. Nothing lives in secret, and what you would hide from the Holy Spirit is nothing. Every interpretation you would lay upon another is senseless. Let the Holy Spirit show another to you, and teach you both another’s love and their call for love. Neither their mind nor yours holds more than these two orders of thought.  T-14.X.11.1-6\

The miracle is the recognition of love and the recognition that what is not love is a call for love. All love and all calls for love are the same – equal. Spirit uses perception to bring each miracle to us in a form that will help us in whatever state of awareness we are currently in. Some may appear larger or smaller, but they are all the same.

The miracle is the recognition that this is true. Where there is love, your friend must give it to you because of what it is. But where there is a call for love, you must give it because of what you are. Earlier I said this course will teach you how to remember what you are, restoring to you your Identity. We have already learned that this Identity is shared. The miracle becomes the means of sharing It. By supplying your Identity wherever It is not recognized, you will recognize It. And God, Who wills to be with Us forever, will bless each recognition of Us with all the Love God holds for us. Nor will the power of all God’s Love be absent from any miracle you offer to any of Us. How, then, can there be any order of difficulty among them?   T-14.X.12.1-10

Love is the One constant, period. All else is merely a dream that may appear to be real but cannot be real for it is not of love. Fear not any miracle for they are all equal. They are simply love and their outcome is simply love.

June 21, 2016

Miracles take many forms in this world of perception. Some may appear grander than others and some may appear very small or insignificant. Yet all miracles achieve the same thing – a change in thought and perception to a more correct thought or perception. And they are always guided by our Higher Holy Self or Spirit. The Course tells us many times there is no order of difficulty in miracles. This is very true as all miracles are equal in their basic function – the correction of our misperception. When we strip the particulars of our temporal condition from each miracle, they are all equal and move toward our recognition of our true Self and who we really are.

Each miracle functions in time, yet moves us out of time to eternity. As we journey in this world of perception, the reflections we accept into our minds bring eternity closer or farther. Eternity is reflected in our minds as we journey in this temporal world. Yet eternity is beyond all time. Reach out of time and touch it with the help of its reflection in you. You will surely turn from time to holiness as surely as the reflection of holiness calls all to lay aside guilt. Reflect the peace of Heaven here, and bring this world to Heaven. The reflection of truth draws everyone to truth who by entering into truth leave all reflections behind.

In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected. By sharing its reflection here [in this temporal world], its truth becomes the only perception We accept. And thus, remembrance of our Creator Source dawns on us, and we can no longer be satisfied with anything but our own reality. You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you seem to live in is a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that anything without order of difficulty can occur. The miracle, therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality.   T-14.X.2.1-7

We determine what we allow to be reflected in the mirror of our mind and our consciousness. It is our choice. Left to our egoic thought system, we will see only the cloudy shadows of misperception behind the veil of separation we cling to. As we decide to and allow Spirit to guide the unveiling of the mirror of our mind, we begin to see reality reflected there. As reality and eternity call to us reflected there, we find we no longer need the mirror, turn around and find ourselves smack dab in the middle of Heaven. We see the world around us in a new light. We see with the peace and light in our mind the peace and light in each other and around us. This is the unique function of every miracle. They are all equal in this transcendence of the temporal world. Let the miracles of your perception carry you to the eternity of Heaven right now.

June 14, 2016

We are Holy. We are created holy and unchangeable. We live in the eternal Oneness of our Creator. No shadow can diminish this truth about us. Only our own choice to believe something less about ourselves draws us into the seeming darkness that hides our true essence form our awareness.

In this world you can become a spotless mirror, in which the Holiness of your Creator shines forth from you to all around you. You can reflect Heaven here.  T-14.IX.5.1-2

Nothing else can be reflected in that mirror. If we place barriers on the mirror, cover the mirror with veils, or cloud the mirror with fog, we dim the mirror that reflects the light of our soul, our true essence. The temporal world can reflect Heaven or hell, Holiness or unholiness, Love or hate, Peace or upset. When we simply leave the mirror clean and clear of all images of hidden darkness we have drawn upon it, we will see the light of holiness within us shine clearly in our own mind and for all the world to see.

Clear reflections can only be seen in light. When we make darkness by hiding our own light behind the obstacles of our mistaken beliefs about who we are, the reality of our true nature is obscured and appears to shift from one perception to another, making the world we see confusing and insecure. The reflection of our holiness needs no interpretation. It is clear. Clean the mirror, and the message that shines forth from what the mirror holds out for everyone to see, no one can fail to understand. It is the message that Spirit is holding to the mirror that is in each one. Each one recognizes it because they have been taught their need for it, but know not where to look to find it. Let each one, then, see it in you and share it with you. In this are we all healed.

Could you but realize for a single instant the power of healing that the reflection of the One, shining in you, can bring to all the world, you could not wait to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive the image of the holiness that heals the world. The image of holiness that shines in your mind is not obscure, and will not change. The meaning to those who look upon the image of the holiness that shines in your mind is not obscure, for everyone perceives it as the same. All bring their different problems to the healing light of the holiness you allow to shine in your mind, and all their problems find but healing there.   T-14.IX.7.1-4

The Course tells us we are the light of the world. The song tells us to let our light shine. Our holiness is this light. It is our true nature and our true essence. Holiness’ one response is healing, without regard to what is brought to its light. We are ready at last for Heaven where holiness is not a reflection, but rather the actual condition of the reality that was reflected here. We journey back to the awareness of who we really are by reflecting the truth that we really are. This is the salvation the Course offers us. It is our choice when we choose what we will inevitably choose. Allow the mirror of your soul to reflect the real – the holiness – within you that you are.

May 31, 2016

We are truly whole. We are truly complete. We are innocent and sinless. We are truly the divine beings we are created to be. Nothing of that has changed. The only thing that has changed is that we have shrouded our awareness of our innocence in a dark denial of who we really are. We believed the mistaken idea that we are limited and powerless. We closed the doors to the awareness of our true essence and shrouded our minds in darkness. The closed doors shut out nothing. Neither do the shrouds of darkness hide anything. They merely seem to hide something that is not really there. All it succeeds in doing is interfering with the power and light that shine within us. Yet, we can choose to let all that would hide who and what we really are be brought to Spirit to be undone and released. Spirit is capable of guiding us through this process, for Spirit holds the memory of our true essence for us in our right mind. Our right mind, One with the Mind of the One, is within us waiting for us to allow the doors of separation to be flung open allowing our own light and power to flood into that little corner of our mind we had closed off.

The holy altar within us stands strong. It stands shared by our Source and our true Self, never having split. Yet we cluttered this holy place within us with all the dark hidden ideas that made the barriers to our awareness of our true being. None of these ideas altered who we are but they did succeed in blocking our awareness of who we are. We have so engrained these ideas in our minds that we can’t see beyond them anymore to the truth about ourselves. We have essentially hidden ourselves from ourselves in full view of ourselves! It’s time we opened our eyes to the divine truth about ourselves. And though we have lost sight of how to do this, Spirit is within us waiting to guide us to the awareness of the divine essence we are. The holy meeting place is within us. We are that holy place. We are that divine essence.

Let your mind wander not through darkened corridors, away from light’s center. You and your another may choose to lead yourselves astray, but you can be brought together only by the Guide appointed for you. This Guide will surely lead you to where God and the real You await your recognition. They are joined in giving you the gift of oneness, before which all separation vanishes. Unite with what you are. You cannot join with anything except reality. God’s glory and Yours belong to you in truth. They have no opposite, and nothing else can you bestow upon yourself.   T-14.VIII.3.1-8

Awaken. Open your eyes to the reality of the divine You. There is no substitution for this truth. Allow yourself to be brought with gentle understanding out of the place of unknowingness to knowingness. This is the place you meet with truth. In this holy meeting place, we are joined – God, Us and our Creations – all of Them together as One. This is the one link that holds us in the awareness of our Oneness.

The link with which the One joins to those the One gives the power to create can never be dissolved. Heaven itself is union with all of creation, and with its one Creator. And Heaven remains the Will of the One for you. Lay no gifts other than this upon your altars, for nothing can coexist with it. Here your little offerings are brought together with the gift of the One, and only what is worthy of the One will be accepted by the real You, for whom it is intended.         T-14.VIII.5.1-5

The ultimate gift we will find on the altar is the awareness of who we really are – Divine Oneness. Accept this gift in the holy meeting place within you.

May 24, 2016

What do we really want for our experience in this world? Do we really want the experience we have now? We content ourselves with limitation and fear. We content ourselves with darkness or at least shadows lurking in dark corners around the existence we have made for ourselves. We believe this is our lot and we are doomed to live that lot waiting for the next difficulty to fall on us. We are oblivious to the light, peace, and knowledge that are within us. We have hidden our wholeness, completeness and limitlessness behind the fear we hold of the darkness we believe we are in. Yet, by hiding our essence behind our fear, we block our divine identity from our awareness. Fear is the only thing that deters us from bringing the darkness we think we see to the light; the ignorance we think we feel to knowledge and truth. These opposites cannot be kept apart. They must be brought together.   Their separation is only in our minds and they are reconciled by union, as are we. Let the darkness come into the light and ignorance into knowledge. Darkness and ignorance simply fade away as they cannot exist in light and truth.

The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth. Truth is. It can neither be lost nor sought nor found. It is there, wherever you are, being within you. Yet it can be recognized or unrecognized, real or false to you. If you hide it, it becomes unreal to you because you hid it and surrounded it with fear. Under each cornerstone of fear on which you have erected your insane system of belief, the truth lies hidden. Yet you cannot know this, for by hiding truth in fear, you see no reason to believe that the more you look at fear the less you see it, and the clearer what it conceals becomes.   T-14.VII.2.1- 8

It is not possible to convince those who believe they are separate that they are whole and need not fear. They have spent a lifetime convincing themselves that what they believe about themselves is true. Bringing darkness and light together can be challenging. They cannot exist together. However, if we can release our attachment to darkness – our need to believe we are in darkness – the light within us shines darkness away. It is very difficult to accomplish this in separation for we are convinced of our separation. So, Spirit is within us waiting for us to allow It to guide a change in our perception. Beginning to allow ourselves to consider that we may actually be as we truly are – whole, complete and divine – is the change in perception Spirit is offering us. It is the opening Spirit needs to bring to our awareness the truth about who we really are – our divine identity in Oneness. Will we be willing to allow?

Spirit asks of us just this; bring to Spirit every secret you have locked away. Open every door to Spirit, and bid Spirit enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request Spirit enters gladly and brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Spirit. We must choose to be open to Spirit’s guidance. Spirit will never force anything upon us, for we are created with free will. If we choose to be in darkness, there is not anything Spirit can do but wait for us to be open to our own healing. Once we allow Spirit within us to guide our minds, we will then rise in our awareness of who we really are and experience the divine nature of our true being.

Joining with Spirit in seeing is the way in which you learn to share with Spirit the interpretation of perception that leads to knowledge. You cannot see alone. Sharing perception with Spirit Whom Source has given you teaches you how to recognize what you see. It is the recognition that nothing you see means anything alone. Seeing with Spirit will show you that all meaning, including yours, comes not from double vision, but from the gentle fusing of everything into one meaning, one emotion and one purpose. Source has one purpose which Source shares with you. The single vision which Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish, for all the world, not to accept what Source would have you have. Behold your will, accepting it as Source’s, with all Source’s Love as yours.     T-14.VII.7.1-8

Choose now to let go of any attachment to any darkness, ignorance or fear you may be holding. Allow Spirit to guide your perception of who you are. Be happy to share perception with Spirit and see the world clearly through the Divine Eyes of your Divine Essence within. Spirit is in that divine essence within us. Let it rise in your mind and darkness will vanish to light and ignorance to truth. Let it be so.

May 17, 2016

The journey we undertake in this temporal world is the exchange of darkness for light, ignorance for understanding. We will all make this exchange, yet it is our choice when to allow it to take place. First we must decide to let go of our attachment to darkness and ignorance. Once we surrender that attachment the shift can take place in our minds. We find the world we seem to be surrounded by frightening. So we shrink away from it to further darkness. Yet it is only the hidden that can terrify, not for what it is – for it is nothing – but for its hiddenness. What is hidden cannot be understood for there is nothing in it to be understood. Only what is real can be understood. When we allow light to shine in our mind, darkness fades away and reveals that there was nothing hidden at all. What we hide cannot be shared, for by hiding it we keep it separate. Therefore, we remain apart from light because we have placed value in hiding. By releasing our attachment to darkness we allow light to shine within our minds and love to radiate from us. What is concealed cannot be loved, so it must be feared.

The quiet light in which the Holy Spirit dwells within you is merely perfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is fearful. Attack will always yield to love if it is brought to love, not hidden from it. There is no darkness that the light of love will not dispel, unless it is concealed from love’s beneficence. What is kept apart from love cannot share its healing power, because it has been separated off and kept in darkness. The sentinels of darkness watch over it carefully, and you who made these guardians of illusion out of nothing are now afraid of them.   T-14.VI.2.1-5

Do we give our power to these imagined “sentinels of safety?” They guard nothing for they are imagined as are the obscure ideas we think they guard us from. Let them go. What appeared fearful will be so no longer. Without our attachment to darkness, the light of love shines freely in our minds. All else must fade away.

The light of guiltlessness shines guilt away because, when they are brought together, the truth of one must make the falsity of its opposite perfectly clear. Keep not guilt and guiltlessness apart, for your belief that you can have them both is meaningless. All you have done by keeping them apart is lose their meaning by confusing them with each other. And so you do not realize that only one means anything. The other is wholly without sense of any kind.   T-14.VI.4.2-6

Turn to the quiet light within you where Spirit dwells. It has always been within you waiting for you to allow it to rise to your awareness. The light of wholeness and love within you is rooted in understanding. It holds the remembrance of who you really are. It knows that your light and love have no limits and are eternal. It knows you are complete and cannot be harmed. The Spirit within that knows your wholeness will guide you in releasing your attachment to darkness and ignorance, exchanging them for light and understanding already present in your mind. Awaken to the light of Oneness and Communication will fill your mind. Communication will be.