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

ACIM T-23.I The Irreconcilable Beliefs

February 23, 2010

Over the years we have developed many beliefs about ourselves, others, and God.  How many of these beliefs are true?  And how many of these beliefs are colored by our perception of all of our past experiences?  More than likely, most of our beliefs are based on our perception of our experiences and not rooted in Truth.  And so many of our beliefs don’t work together, or are even irreconcilable with each other.  Our first tendency is to try to reconcile our beliefs with each other and then, when that doesn’t work, we ignore the inconsistencies and slog on through the mire, avoiding the differences we cannot reconcile.

So we go through life embroiled in a war against ourselves.  Each mistaken belief we have is fighting for its rightness.  If any belief is not rooted in truth it will never be reconciled with any other mistaken belief.  And so the war with ourselves goes on and on in our minds.  Any belief based on illusion is a belief in nothing, for illusion is just illusion.  And when illusion fights with illusion, there is nothing that can be reconciled. We end up spinning in circles and going nowhere.  There is no winning or losing in illusion, just ongoing confusion and conflict.

Truth is our true nature.  It always dwells deep within us.  There is nothing that can threaten it, for there is nothing else.  All else is illusion.  Truth has no need to fight our illusory beliefs because they are no more than illusion.  Why would anyone fight nothing?  We would call that madness.  And so God sees that there is nothing to fight.

As we allow ourselves to see that we are One with God, we can begin to let go of our beliefs that we have become so attached to.  We may need to let go of those beliefs many times as we learn to trust the awareness of our Oneness with God.  As we learn to trust what we already know, we will experience the peace of God, and the assurance that we are who we really are will grow within us.  We will find ourselves allowing the love, peace, and joy of God to radiate from us which will return to us from all those we encounter.  Let the war with yourself be over and be the peace of God in this world.

ACIM T-23.Introduction

February 9, 2010

God’s promise to us is; we who walk in peace travel sinlessly along the way love shows us.  For love walks with us there, protecting us from fear.  And we will see only the sinless, which cannot attack.  How beautiful and wonderful!  But do we feel that way?  More times than not the answer is no.  We often feel like we are at war with ourselves and hopelessly caught up in that war.

Innocence and sinlessness are strength.  They cannot be attacked or changed at all.  And Oneness cannot be divided.  But we have gotten some mistaken notion that we are weak and therefore need defense.  We think we must attack that which we think is separate from us.  We think we must attack it because we believe whatever it is will hurt or destroy us.  But we are as we always are, whole, innocent and One with God and all of creation.  So we are attacking and defending ourselves against the illusions we made up.  No wonder we feel like we are at war with ourselves.

Our belief in enemies is our belief in our own weakness and that belief is what separates us from the awareness of who we really are and the Will of God, our own will.  As we let go of our beliefs about ourselves and others and our attachment to those beliefs, we allow the real Self within us to come forth, and recognize the Divine presence that dwells within us.  It is a presence that fills us with peace, love, and joy.  It is a presence that rejoices at all that God offers us.  We celebrate the reuniting of the awareness of the realm of God that was never actually divided.

God gives us a world of freedom.  Let not your little interfering thoughts pull you back to littleness.  We are not little.  We are the grand creation of God and so we are One with all that is.  Nothing can change this.  Nothing can take this away from us.  Only our little thoughts attempt to distract us from the awareness of what is real, what is God.  In the realm of God nothing can separate us from the divinity that dwells within us.  Let it well up, spill over, and shine with all the brilliant light of God’s glory.  This is who we are.  Be at war with yourself no more

ACIM T-22.V The Light of the Holy Relationship

February 2, 2010

The holy relationship is the means for God’s plan.  Our relationships with each other are the place where we either accept or deny God’s plan as our own.  They are the place we demonstrate our willingness to see the divine in each one we encounter in this world.  Whatever our walk, whatever mistakes we have made, whatever misguided thoughts we have believed, we have the opportunity each moment of each day to see each other as God sees us; lovely in our innocence, mighty in our strength, and blazing with light far brighter than the sun that lights the sky.

Think how each of our relationships are transformed when we look for the good in each other.  We see each other in a new light, often realizing something totally new and marvelous that we never allowed ourselves to see before.  This is where we meet the God that we all are so one with.  The divine presence of God is within each and every one of us.  And that presence which we can never be apart from is the presence that makes us One.

And don’t be surprised to find these holy relationships in the most unusual of places, and in the most seemingly insignificant of encounters.  In God, where we are all One, there are no insignificant relationships.  Every relationship is as holy as the next.  It is our choice whether to recognize the holiness of each encounter or not.  And when we choose not to recognize its holiness and the divineness of each one, we do no more than separate ourselves from the awareness of who we really are for that moment.  For in the next moment we will have another opportunity to make that encounter a holy relationship. But why wait?  For this encounter in this moment may be your opportunity to show this one who they really are.  It may be the first time they are shown their divineness.  Go ahead.  Let yourself see with divine vision.  Let the loveliness of innocence, the mightiness of strength, and the blazing light that shines brighter than the sun light up the face and soul of each one you meet.  For they will, in turn, return it to you.  Let each encounter be the holiest of relationships, and let it be so with abandon.

ACIM T-22.V Weakness and Defensiveness

January 26, 2009

We are One with God.  Yes, we are God, inseparable from God and all God is.  This is our true being.  This is the Truth about who we are.  But do we really believe this?  Do we even come close to believing even part of this Truth about us?  God created us in God’s image.  Jesus said we would do greater things than he did on this earth.  We just don’t get this Truth about us.  Or perhaps we are afraid to step into this Truth about us.

If we are as God tells us we are, we have no need of defense.  A belief in the need for defense is a belief in weakness.  And this belief is contrary to everything God tells us we are.  Where does this belief in littleness and weakness come from?  It comes from the mistaken idea that we are or have ever been separate from God.  We have spent a lifetime building this mistaken image of a weak, sinful, lonely creature struggling for acceptance in God’s eyes and others’ eyes.  And all of this struggle has kept us so focused on the illusion of separateness that we have lost sight of who we really are.  We have lost the awareness of God that dwells deep within our own being.

Reason overcomes all illusion and does it effortlessly.  Reason knows that Reality offers no opposition.  Reality just is and has no weakness and therefore needs no defense.  Illusion, mistaken ideas need defense because of their weakness.  It cannot be difficult to walk the way of Truth when the only opposition is weakness.  We have strength within us that is of God and so we are the strong one in this seeming conflict.  A conflict with illusion, or nothing.

Only the idea of weakness and the resulting “need for defense keeps us from our true nature.  It is only this mistaken thought that keeps us from the awareness of God’s nature within us and the quiet power that is our gift.  Allow the gift of reason to rise within you and see the true nature of our being.  In the light of this reason, all illusion will fade away into nothingness and the light of Christ within us will shine brightly to light our way and the way of each one of us together.  Only in the light of reason will we see and be who we really are.  Let is be so.

ACIM T-22.IV The Branching of the Road

January 19, 2010

We encounter many branches in the road on our journey through life.  And every one requires a decision on our part.  The important thing we need to know at each branch in the road is how to see it.  Seeing that branch correctly will give us great insight into which path is the one to take on our journey.  It may actually be even more important how we see those paths rather than which one we decide to take.

We stand there with each other, waiting to make that decision.  Yet we must see clearly in order to make that decision.  As we stand with each other and recognize ourselves as who we really are, the confusion we see begins to fade away.  Allowing ourselves to see with Spirit’s eyes helps us see that what looks solid is only an illusion.  What looks solid is actually a mere veil of thought that easily draws aside and allows us to see reality.

When we see our choices in Spirit’s vision from the awareness of who we really are we see the path that is ours to walk with God.  We see it laid out before us.  The valleys are raised up, the mountains made low, the crooked path is made straight, and the rough places are made smooth.  This is our walk with God.  The great rays of light shine bright along our way.  Peace flows like a mighty river pouring out of us and setting all of creation free.  What a joy comes in being who we really are.

Let the presence of God well up within you and shine the light of love on your path.  Let your path be seen as it really is.  We join together and walk hand in hand along the only way there is.  All other branches in the road have vanished in the light of Spirit’s vision.  Look within.  See God there.  And rejoice in the knowledge that God walks with us every moment of the way.  It’s our choice.  What are we waiting for?

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

January 12, 2010

Our errors take many forms.  There really is only one error, but that error can take any form that we can dream up.  Some are quite creative, some rather ordinary.  But we are always coming up with new forms for our one error.  What is our error?  It is merely an incorrect thought.  It is the mistaken idea that we are anything other than who and what we are.  It is the mistaken idea that we are separate from God.  We have hidden our awareness of our true Self, our true nature.

As we journey through our life which we think we are on alone, we see many blocks and challenges that we encounter along the way.  We may think others place these in our way.  We may think God presents us with challenges along the way.  Or we may think they just happen arbitrarily.  Our understanding of anything we encounter is completely based on every past experience we have had in this “life” separated  from God and each other.  And so we encounter each and deal with it as we are accustomed to doing.

In truth, there is nothing arbitrary about where we are or what we have encountered.  Every decision we have ever made in combination with every decision everyone else has ever made has brought us to where we are and the experience we are having in this moment, now.  There is no judgment in that fact; it just is where we are now.  We see with the perception we understand right now.  But God has given us another way of seeing and understanding.  It has always been available to us and the Holy Spirit has been holding it at the ready for us to let it come to our awareness.

Reason, which is the ability to see and understand with Spirit’s vision is the gift that Spirit holds for us.  It is an ability that is carried within the depths of our being.  It is part of our Divine nature.  Reason can show us the understanding we need to understand that whatever block or challenge we encounter can be seen differently.  It shows us that the many forms of blocks we see are really a mistaken idea that is no more than an error.  Seeing that thought as a correctable error is the understanding that allows it to melt away into nothingness and a new understanding of our own Divine nature to come flooding forward into our awareness.  We understand that we are One with God.  We understand that all of creation operates under Divine principles and laws.  And we see the holiness that is our destiny come forward and carry us through our life experience with a new understanding. Such is the life of the One Holy Child of God.  Allow yourself to be who you really are.  Reason will show you the understanding you need.

ACIM T.26.VII The Laws of Healing

March 17, 2020

Our illusions are what needs healing. Our illusions are our misperceptions. They are mistaken. They do not represent reality. They are ideas, thoughts. And they are changeable. Healing is the changing of our ideas and thoughts from mistaken to correct. One could also say it is changing from the false to the truth – from the fake to the true. Every mistaken idea is simply mistaken. There is no big or small mistake in reality. They are all simply mistaken ideas we believe are true. We may have given one or more of our mistaken ideas more value and thus, find them harder to let go of, but no one illusory idea is more than another. Our preference to any one idea or belief does not make it true. All mistaken ideas must give way to truth with equal ease, for none of them have any power whatsoever. Truth is simply true and illusion is simply nothing.

Nothing gives meaning where no meaning is. And truth needs no defense to make it true. Illusions have no witnesses and no effects. Who looks on them is but deceived. Forgiveness is the only function here, and serves to bring the joy this world denies to every aspect of the One’s Child where sin was thought to rule. Perhaps you do not see the role forgiveness plays in ending death and all beliefs that rise from mists of guilt. Sins are beliefs that you impose between another and yourself. They limit you to time and place, and give a little space to you, another little space to them. This separating off is symbolized, in your perception, by a body which is clearly separate and a thing apart. Yet what this symbol represents is but your wish to be apart and separate.   T-26.VII.8:1-10

In reality we are one with each other, with all creation and Source – the One. However, we have believed the idea that we are separate. This idea is the illusion. This is the idea that keeps us from the awareness of our holiness in Oneness and Unity. And we have believed it so strongly that we find it difficult if not impossible to let go of that belief. Forgiveness’ is the healing of that belief. It is the willingness to be shown a different idea that we are willing to believe at first and then grow to realize its truth. Forgiveness is the healing of our mind – our thoughts. It is a shift, a mind shift. It is a shift that is necessary for us to return to the awareness of who we really are – that which we have blocked from our awareness but never really lost. We are forever holy, whole, complete and limitless. Perhaps it’s time we stop denying the truth about ourselves.

Salvation, perfect and complete, asks but a little wish that what is true be true; a little willingness to overlook what is not there; a little sigh that speaks for Heaven as a preference to this world that death and desolation seem to rule. In joyous answer will creation rise within you, to replace the world you see with Heaven, wholly perfect and complete. What is forgiveness but a willingness that truth be true? What can remain unhealed and broken from a unity which holds all things within itself? There is no sin. And every miracle is possible the instant that the Child of the One perceives their wishes and the Will of the One are one.   T-26.VII.10:1-6

Salvation is the healing of our mind. Salvation is the forgiveness of our mistaken thoughts and beliefs. Salvation is the realization that we are holy, whole, complete and limitless as we are created in Oneness. Embracing another we are encountering this very moment as inseparable from us – that we are One in Spirit – is the healing of our mind. It is our return to being in the One Mind. As we make this shift in thought and belief we step into the awareness of Heaven and see the world completely differently. Nothing in form has changed, but we perceive it differently. Do you want to see differently? Do you want to see the joy all around you? Then take this little step and allow Spirit within you to show you the way. It’s been within you all along waiting for your little willingness. Let it be so now.

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

January 5, 2010

Our misperceptions of what we see are the blocks to vision.  They are the blocks to our awareness of Truth.  These misperceptions take many forms.  They are based on our interpretations of our past experiences.  And when we see something new that we have no experience with we apply our misperceptions about what we have experienced to our new experience.  It’s no wonder we sometimes think we are insane and we often find things confusing.

The Holy Spirit, sent to help us gives us reason.  Reason is the tool that allows us to see beyond the error we have made in our perceptions.  It is the sane voice that tells us that even though something may appear to be something; it is actually not that something and is something else entirely or maybe even nothing at all.  The roadblock to peace may appear as substantial as a huge megalith of stone, yet reason can show us that it is really nothing at all, a figment of our imagination, an illusion.

In our efforts to make sense of something ourselves, we usually see only a small fraction of the picture and mistakenly think that that is all there is.  But reason is there, held for us by Spirit, waiting for us to allow it to expand our sight to allow reason to show us the big picture, or better yet the whole picture.  With the blinders of separation on, we see only a little bit and don’t see how that bit fits into the whole.  But reason melts away the blinders and reinterprets for us, correcting the errors in our perception, correcting our sight to a more correct view.  The judgment we hold so dear is often the defining limit in our perception. So perhaps we are finally ready to let Spirit show us how to see.  Perhaps we can allow the blinders of judgment to fall away and let the whole picture be revealed to us.  Perhaps we are ready to let the solidness of our perception errors melt away and realize there is no solidness to our roadblocks at all and we can happily and peacefully pass through them without effort.  Hold only the peace and love of God in your mind and freely float along the path God has set for you.  It is truly like being carried down a gentle path in a soft summer breeze.  Let go, be, and enjoy.

ACIM T-22.II My Sister’s/Brother’s Sinlessness

December 29, 2009

I extend to you a Christmas wish, a wish of the season, if you will.  I extend to you a will that this moment, we will all take a moment to be still, and let the spirit of Oneness, the Christ Spirit well up within us and spill forth, bringing us the awareness of our true Self.  We experience the knowing, in this quiet moment that we are One with God and that we are One with each other.  There is no separation.  This moment is irrefutable evidence that this is true.  In this moment there is no doubt.

So we enjoy this moment for a time, and return to our usual way of thinking about things.  What if we changed this way of thinking.  What if we kept our awareness we have allowed ourselves to be in this now moment and carry it with us into our daily living?  What if we approached all our interactions and relationships with the knowledge of our Oneness in our thoughts?  Might we see everything differently?  Might we learn valuable lessons from each other?  Might we be at peace with whatever comes our way?

What a great light shines in this way of being.  All we see will be bathed in the radiant light of God’s presence.  We will see holiness shine from all we encounter if only we let ourselves see with the vision of the Christ Spirit.  This vision is given us by God to light our way and all we encounter.  The trying relationships become less trying and so loving in this moment of light.  We are willing to see and this present moment is the time to see what we are willing to see.

Let the Will we share with God be in our mind today.  Beyond the body that we interpose between ourselves and each other, and shining in the golden light that reaches us from the bright, endless circle that extends forever, is our holy relationship, beloved of God.  How still we rest, in time and yet beyond, immortal yet in our human experience.  How great the power that lies in our choice.  Time waits upon our will, and our experience will be as our will would have it be.  Choose the Will we share with God this very moment.  For it is already ours.  Only the time we choose it is our choice.

ACIM T-22.II My Sister’s/Brother’s Sinlessness

December 22, 2009

I wish or you a joyous Christmas season filled with wonder and an awakening of the Christ Spirit, God within you.  Christmas can be a time of new discovery.  We honor the birth of the Christ Child into the world.  But we also allow who we really are to birth again in our awareness about ourselves and each other.  All of us are inextricably and beautifully connected at the core of our being, being One in God’s eye.  We are never apart, we are never separated, even when we make the mistake of thinking we are alone and separate.

Allow the spirit of Christmas to bring peace to you and all you come in contact with.  Allow joy to well up within you and spill over in its abundance.  Allow the boundless love that dwells deep within you to extend to all you encounter as you go about you holiday activities.  That warm smile, that “hello” or “Merry Christmas” will make someone’s day.  It may even make your day.

To borrow a phrase that you have most probably heard:  Today is the first day of the rest of your life.  Allow the awareness of your wholeness to rise up from within and let it shine so others you encounter will see their wholeness reflected back to them in your eyes, you words, and your actions. Our wholeness is unchangeable.  Our unawareness of it is changeable.  Let spirit rise up within you and see the wondrous love that you already are.  Feel the peace you already are.  And share the joy you can’t possible contain as you celebrate who you really are, the One Child of God, rediscovered this season.  Merry Christmas to all of you!  God’s blessing is yours.