The Rule of Law

"You will attack what does not satisfy, and thus will not see you made it up.  You always fight illusions.  For the Truth behind them is so lovely and so still in Loving gentleness, were you aware of it you would forget defensiveness entirely, and rush to its embrace." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 1:2-3

Only One.  One Love, One Life, One Mind, One Self.  There are multiple workbook lessons in a Course in Miracles dedicated to this thought, and it is repeated over and over again in the Course, in different ways. There are no laws but Gods.  There is no will but Gods.  There is no love but Gods.  My mind is part of Gods Mind, and I am very holy.  Only One.  Always One.

Our suffering all comes from the belief in other.  We believe there is God, good, certainly... but then there is that which is other than God, other than good, the human creations of sin and suffering and lack and limitation. In our arrogance, we dream of a life other than God. And we suffer from those beliefs, from the dream of a separate life with the rule of law that seems to support man made values and roles that are always selfish and self-serving, and always shifting and changing to hide their nothingness. The rule of law in the world as we dream it has no meaning and no consistency. It is all made up, and based on nothing.

"Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety.  All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws.  They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them.  But then they fall and cannot rise again.  They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them.  Their dancing never brought you joy.  But neither were they things to frighten you, nor make you safe if they obeyed your rules.  They must be neither cherished nor attacked, but merely looked upon as children's toys without a single meaning of their own.  See one in them, and you will see meaning in them all.  See none in them, and they will touch you not." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4

So whenever I look out on a world that seems to have gone mad... whenever I seem to see beliefs and laws that are so selfish and unfair it boggles the mind... whenever I am tempted to despair at the bluster and noise and rampant fear... I need only remember that there is only One Creation, and that is Gods.  In it all things are held in perfect Love, in perfect Oneness that is eternally safe and secure, right where the insanity seems to be.  The real meaning of it all is God, the All-Good.  When I project other, I have given this meaning based on false human assumptions, rather than resting in the One Self, the One Loving meaning that all creation shares.

"Salvation is a paradox indeed!  What could it be except a happy dream?  It asks you but that you forgive all things that no one ever did; to overlook what is not there, and not to look upon the unreal as reality.  Such is the only rule for the happy dream." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 7:1-3 and 8:7

The real rule of law is this:  "I am One Self, united with my Creator, at One with every aspect of Creation, and limitless in Power and in Peace." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 95)  

In this awareness all lesser laws are revealed to be nothing at all. 

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Undivided

"Only Love is strong, because it is undivided." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section V, 1:1

The current atmosphere in the world can only be described as fragmented, divisive, and competitive.  How can we even conceive of a world where there is One Mind, One Purpose, where Love and Joy and Peace are our shared and constant state of Being?

A Course in Miracles tells us that our purpose becomes unified when we share a common goal.  And when the goal is undivided, the means and end are in complete accord.  "You need offer only  undivided attention" to that goal, it reminds us.  There's that word again... 'undivided.'  The Course points out over and over again that this unification of purpose, regardless of seeming circumstances, is what allows our mind to return to sanity, to awareness of Oneness. Undivided. 

So everything is returned to holiness and Wholeness by this simple unification of Purpose.  No longer is the purpose of fixing dinner to feed a body.  It is to remember that our true Self is pure, undivided Love, eternally Whole and Complete, and we participate in this world to joyously remember the Love that we are.  This is our only Purpose.  No longer do we interact with others to get something.  Our holy Purpose is always to see the One Love that we are in all things and all Beings.  Our holy Purpose is to let the Love that we are be the guiding Force in our lives, because only Love is strong in Oneness.  Only Love is undivided.

In a world where unity has different meanings to different people in vastly differing cultures, Unity is still possible.  But not out there.  Only in the heart of each of us can Love be Love.  Only by making this return to Oneness our only Purpose can we experience Oneness in the  midst of seeming insanity.

So every time we are tempted to judge the world as it appears, let's remember to ask, "What is it for?"  This reminds us that, in Truth, everything shares one purpose, without exception.  This returns our undivided attention to the One Goal that all things share, and lets the undivided strength of Love be reflected in the most unlikely of places.  Every time we remember to ask, "What is it for?" we always receive the same answer.  Our unified Purpose is to remember that God, Love, is All. There is only God, only Love, no matter how it appears. Which means that right where I seem to be, as a separate self with separate agendas and purposes, there is only the One Self that we share in God.  One Self, One Light, One Love, reflected everywhere.  Undivided.

"You need offer only undivided attention.  Everything else will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section V, 9:4-5

The Guilty Identity

"Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs.  It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 1:1-2

Do you regularly find things about yourself or your surroundings that are lacking, or should be different?  Are you ashamed of things you have done or even are doing?  Are you judgmental of what others are doing, mentally shaming them?  All of these mental attitudes and actions are part and parcel of the guilty identity we learn as part of a separate self, living in a separate body in this world.  Do you know anyone who is free of this?

Even very happy people react and become apologetic if someone else is upset.  This is the conditioned guilty response.  "I am so sorry," we say, as if we could do something about it.  Or as if we should. 

A Course in Miracles helps us understand that guilt is how a sense of body awareness and a separate self is maintained.  Without the judgment and guilt, there is only the unified Mind, where all things exist in the Light of Awareness and Love, pure transparencies for God.  Without judgment and guilt, there is an Awareness of Oneness, which is All Good and only Good.  Perfect Oneness is our natural state, which is always and only God, reflecting and radiating the Light of Goodness and Love.

It's interesting, don't you think, that a small upset or affront to our egoic identity can send us into a seeming tail spin, can make us so agitated and fearful that it seems as if a huge thing has really occurred.  When in such a state, it's impossible to conceive of a unified Mind that radiates peace and joy.  And yet we are always and only reacting to our own judgments and guilty verdicts, the story of a separate body-self and the fearful 'others'.  And even in the midst of this story of separation and loss, all we have to do is forgive our judgments and let them go.  Right where all seems hopeless or angry or sad or lost or any other version of guilt, there is pure joy and perfect love.  Right where the problem seems to be, there is only Love, which is the only Law of God.  

"There are no laws but God's... there is no loss under the laws of God.  Payment is neither given nor received.  Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else.  God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 76, 9:1, 3-6

The story of the crucifixion and resurrection of God's Son is the story of everyone's life.  The guilty identity that we have carefully protected for so long is not real.  It can only seem fearful and shameful and wrong when we hang on to our 'laws' of judgment and refuse to forgive. A Course in Miracles gives us many ways to approach forgiveness, and all of them involve letting go of human laws of judgment and thus realizing what has always been true. The guilty identify was all made up, and has never been at all.  This realization is the resurrection of the Son of God.

"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:  I am as God created me.  His Son can suffer nothing.  And I am His Son.  You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see.  What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell.  Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, VIII, 5:1-4, and 6:1-3

The Thing That I Seek

First, I want to send everyone infinite love and blessings for the New Year.  This is Who We Are!  May all Being remember this!

"I am the goal the world is searching for." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 318

"I am that I am." -- The Bible

"I am That." -- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Reading the above quotations, the natural response of the conditioned self is, "No, I'm not."  Or if you are a bit more open to the possibility, it may lead naturally into self-inquiry... "Who am I?" Or maybe even "What am I?" Am I what I seem to be, or am I beyond the seeming?  Am I what is experiencing the seeming, or what is noticing the seeming?  And if there is both, then are there two of me?  What is the truth of all of this???

For those of us that have been reading and studying and even teaching A Course in Miracles for a while, it is apparent that every sentence and even every word is pointing to this Truth.  "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy."  I am.  I already am.  So who or what is it that is constantly trying to fix up an unholy, flawed self?  And who or what is that flawed self?  Who, what, and why?

This morning I turned in the Workbook to Lesson 47: "God is the strength in which I trusts." To the split mind, this is a dualistic statement of God and me, self and other.  But it is actually referring to God as our True Self.  

To trust in a false sense of self is to suffer, and to live in the constant fear that is the world we see every day.  But when we remember our shared God Self there is only Love, Goodness, Infinite Strength and Power and Security and Joy.  And there is no limit to the miracles that are revealed when this is truly known.  "I am the goal the world is searching for."  Try contemplating this statement between now and the new year.  Try remembering Who You Really Are throughout the new year, and always. 

"Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is a place in you where there is perfect peace.  There is a place in you where nothing is impossible.  There is a place in you where the strength of God abides." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 47:7:3-6

Stories and Laws

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"Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set.  It is His laws that guarantee your safety.  All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4:1-3

"I am under no laws but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76

Every day seems to be an endless round of things to be done, people to please, and stories to tell and listen to.  Such are the laws of work, of friendship, of being a good person.  Such are the laws of survival of the body and its relative bodies, be they persons, animals, or structures.  We like to tell the story that we want more 'free' time to meditate, to read, to write, to listen to God.  Such are the laws of being spiritual, of being dedicated to a spiritual path, of being enlightened.  Such rubbish!  There are no laws but God's, and God's laws are unchanging and perfectly complete!  There is no need to search for what is effortlessly true. And there is no need to look for laws in the world, where there simply aren't any!  It's all made up!

Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering.  But he might have said  that the desire to tell stories about what binds us is the source of all suffering.  Because every imagined desire, every imagined problem, every imagined pleasure, every imagined encounter... all of it... has absolutely no substance and no power but the story we tell of it.  That's all there is to it.  And stories can be forgiven and dropped.  We can allow the laws of God to tell the true story of All that Is. In the unified vision of God (our true Eye), there is only Love, the story of Everything.

The conditioned mind is quick to defend its stories.  There is an existential fear of having nothing to say and nothing to do, of being nothing.  The irony is that as the stories are forgiven and relinquished, we experience the expanded Awareness of Self, our true Being, which has always been and will eternally be all there Is.  And the only laws in this expansive, eternal Life we share are laws of Love, Joy, Abundance, Peace, and Ever-New Joy.

When we forgive and cease believing our own stories, with new-born senses we see and hear a new story of Everything: "No matter how this appears, this is Good.  No matter what story you have been told, there is only Love in you and around you and AS you.  No matter what laws you think you must obey, you are always in the arms of Love, and need only follow Love's promptings."  As we listen to the Truth that Divine Love whispers to us, the old stories and fears fall away, and the world is reborn in our experience.  This isn't a fictional story.  This is experiential Truth.  Beyond all stories and earthly laws, the Truth of Being remains and longs to remind us that we are under no laws but God's.

"God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76, 9:6

Questions from a Reader

Dearest Friend:

I just wanted to share some thoughts about your questions yesterday, which are very similar to the ones you had last week.  The gist of it is (if I am hearing you correctly), there are thoughts you are having that you don’t like.  Last week you were having thoughts of judgment that you didn’t like.  So both of these are really the same seeming problem.

Forgiveness is key here, but not as you seem to be using it.  The thing is, forgiveness isn’t a tool to be used to make the human self feel better.  It is an act of completely surrendering judgment and being clueless, empty of judgment, unknowing and not needing to know.  As the Course teaches it, we give our thoughts to the Holy Spirit, which is our True Self, the communicative part of the Christ Mind we share.  None of this is true, but it is what the course calls a ‘happy fiction’ that moves us toward completely relinquishing the imagined separate self. The Absolute Truth is that we never left our right Mind.  But while seeming to live and move in the relative and dualistic dream world, the Holy Spirit will ‘translate’ all our thoughts into Truth (“Truth will correct all errors in my mind.” WB 107).  Translate actually doesn’t mean to change at all, but to make clear.  For example, if I say ‘hola’ to you and you don’t know Spanish, you don’t know what I mean.  But if I then say, ‘that means hello’ to you, I have made the true meaning clear to you.  I haven’t changed anything… I have simply made it clear.  

In the same way, the Course reminds us that if we give every thought to the Holy Spirit, all of it will be used to make clear and obvious what has always been.  The translation of every thought and every situation is the same:  the meaning is always Perfect Goodness, Happiness, Joy, and Infinite Love.  Our True Self has not been affected by any of our misperceptions, just as ‘hola’ means hello whether you know it or not.  

Forgiveness means letting go, not analyzing, worrying, getting angry, or any other form of judging thoughts and situations.  Judging your judgments is just another way of holding onto them, instead of giving them completely to Holy Spirit.  And thinking that you have to ‘do’ something, or to forgive them somehow differently, is another delaying strategy of the personal self.  The personal self will always see personal problems.  That is what holds the illusion of a personal self in place, so of course we are constantly judging.  We fear the loss of self.  Ironically, Our Real Self has no problems.  And from the standpoint of the Real Self, all problems not only disappear, but their relative reflection will either go away or be transformed somehow.  That’s the way projection works.  Either way, you will be happy, safe, and blissfully content resting in Truth.  

Happiness is the only Reality of all things. It’s not like we need to get rid of or change anything (what in the Allness of God could be deleted or changed?).  We simply need to let go of (forgive) our judgments and meanings and thinking we know.  Once that is given, we see that right where we thought there was a negative thought, there is only happiness.  Right where we thought we saw tragedy or disaster, there is only comfort, joy, and laughter.  This is what the Course means when it says our perceptions are upside down and backwards.  “To give up (forgive) all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely.” (Manual for Teachers 4:IX:1:6)

God’s Will for us is perfect Happiness, and there is no will but God’s.  (WB Lessons 74 and 101)  So you see, even the belief in outcomes has to be translated, because Happiness and Goodness and Love are what has always been and all that can ever BE.  The belief in laws of behavior and reciprocity have to be translated, because we are in Truth under no laws but God’s… which is another way of saying that the Love of God, which includes Perfect Joy and Peace, is ALL THERE IS. (WB Lesson 76)  So nothing else is ever going on but this Love, this Joy, this Happiness.  Nothing!

“Forgiveness is the key to Happiness,” the Course reminds us.  “Forgiveness is my only function here.” “Forgiveness offers everything I want.”  “I will forgive and this will disappear.”  Obviously, this is all we need to wake up.  Not a tool, but the only practice in the dream that can never lead to suffering.  Just give every thought to the Holy Spirit, and allow the Beauty and Joy of each moment, each action, each thought to be translated.  Heaven is here and now.  This Oneness of Being must include everyone, everything, and yes, every thought! 

"Beloved Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you.  Who can condemn whom God has blessed?  There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share his shining innocence.  Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity.  Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section V, 3: 1-5

Blessings...
Mary

The Beauty of Holiness

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness." -- Psalm 29

"Your purpose is to see the world through your own Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 1:2

We are taught at a very early age to see differences.  These differences are quickly sorted into good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable.  And as we get older,, the compulsion to avoid the so-called bad and seek the imagined good is the only thing that motivates us (and the entire world!).

Ironically, this endless seeking to avoid pain and seek pleasure doesn't work.  It may appear to work for short periods of time, but all you have to do is look around.  We continue to pretend it works because the alternative is too fearful to the mind.  We avoid looking at the Truth, because we have carefully and methodically been living in the thought system we inherited from our parents or from our social peers.  And all of it is made up.  We make it up daily, as we obey the so-called rules and judgments we have so carefully constructed.

The first glimmers of hope come when we realize that everything is Mind.  What you are aware of is what you experience, even when it is all made up.  Who is experiencing this pain, or this pleasure?  Certainly it seems to be a body, but Who is aware of this body?  And certainly this awareness seems to come and go, but whenever you check, it is always here.  Whenever you become aware of Awareness, it is always here.  Mind Awake is pure Awareness.  And the only Awareness is that of Wholeness, which is what Holiness is.  And it is pure Beauty, pure Love, and pure Joy.

One of the first Bible verses I learned as a child was the famous Shema: "Hear, O Israel:  The Lord your God is One.  And you shall the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."  To be in alignment with the world of differences, this is interpreted as being something we have to do.  We have to work at being good, work at loving God.  But after studying A Course in Miracles for many years I have gradually come to know that it is a statement of fact.  God is One Mind, and that Mind is Who We Really Are.  This Mind is Whole, Holy, and wholly Loving.  It can only be known when the need to pretend that everything is separate and different falls away.  And this need falls away when we want to know the Truth more than we want to hang on to the carefully constructed ideas and judgements of the world around us.

As the earlier quote reminds us, our purpose here is to finally see the world through our own Holiness.  As we begin to see that there is only Mind, we begin to accept that this One Mind is our true vision.  This begins the process of mental housecleaning that The Course calls forgiveness.  And as the mirror of the mind is swept clean of the compulsion to judge and see differences, all that remains is the Beauty of Holiness. 

The Truth About You

"The Truth about You is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you.  Choose then what you want in these terms, and accept nothing that you would not offer to God as wholly fitting for Him/Her.  You do not want anything else." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VII, p.8:4-6 

Well, it has been exactly six months since my last blog... that is the longest I have gone without posting since this blog began over 7 years ago.  And yes, since time is illusion, I know that the Voice speaks to all of us daily, with or without symbols like this blog.  However, we all seem to have a story of being less than good, other than God.  Thank Goodness for the Truth about you (and me), which is beyond measure, beyond all judgement.  The story of 'me' fears this Infinite Glory, because it fears everything.  It judges and measures and compares because, "The ego cannot survive without judgement, and is laid aside accordingly." (ACIM; Ch.4, II, 10:3).  To help understand this, remember that the ego is story.  And what is a story without protagonists and antagonists, after all?

In this world of stories, a dream world of continual judgment and conflict, how can we know the Truth?  A Course in Miracles puts it so very simply:  "How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement.  So must he judge not, and He will awaken." (ACIM; Ch.29, IX, 2:3-5)

I urge you to try releasing all judgement in every situation, in all circumstances.  Since God is All, and we live and move and have our Being in and as that All, then there can be nothing but God, nothing but Good.  So the only thing we are ever letting go of, or releasing (another word for forgiveness), is a false sense of things, a story that is the projection of a sleeping mind.  What remains, and is ever-present behind every projection, is the Truth.  The Truth of a villain or a hero or a rock or a tree is the same, because there is only the One Self, only God.  It is always the Truth About You.

"You are surrounded only by Him.  What limits can there be on You Whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, p.10:6-7

Please join us for ACIM Teleclass to study A Course in Miracles, every Sunday evening at 7:30 pm CT. 

The Miracle

"Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 347

The miracle.  How often are those two words repeated in ACIM, always pointing to the wholeness and perfection that exist without an opposite.  It isn't really anything, doesn't really do anything, never changes and never opposes.  The miracle is what is revealed with a shift in awareness from physical sight (projection) to Spiritual Sight (extension).  It reveals the Spiritual Reality that is all there is, or ever will be. Only the perceptual mechanism of judgment made a world other than perfect and whole appear to exist.  When judgment is forgiven and released, only the innocence of Spiritual Perfection is here.  Only One, only God, only pure Spirit, Mind Awake and Aware of Its Infinite Beauty.

So why would any aspect of mind judge?  Why would any aspect of this Infinite I Am attempt to hide from Self-Awareness?  What part of One Self imagines that there is another to defend against or hide from?  How foolish this all sounds, and yet how familiar.

The great reversal, as ACIM calls the process of mind awakening to Itself, can seem long indeed.  Judgment is used in many forms, in many disguises, always to justify our addiction to the contracted mental state we call a self.  But no matter what we call this upside down perception, these inverted and projected images have no relationship to Reality.  They don't need to be changed or understood.  They simply need to be forgiven and released.

When all judgment is finally put aside, projected images fall away and reveal the miracle of One Spiritual Self abiding and unchanging, All-Loving and All-Whole, Encompassing all that appears to be with pure and radiant Joy.  This is the miracle, the coming of the Christ Child... your own Beloved Self.

"And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." -- Luke 2:10

The Great I Am

"Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized.  It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness, and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you.  All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 163, 1:1-3

When I read this passage before my morning meditation it was like a cartoon light bulb lit up over my head!  When Jesus said the last thing we'll overcome is death, he wasn't talking about bodies!  He was talking about the wish to be something else... the desire for change.  How often have we heard that change is the only constant?  How often have we thought, "I just need a change."  Maybe it's a change of mates, a change of jobs, a change of scenery.  Maybe it's a diet or exercise plan, yoga, meditation, or a commitment to read the Course every day.  "But wait!" I can hear you all saying... "those are all good things!  It's good to focus on health, on awakening, on self-improvement!" But the one thing all of these good intentions have in common is the wish to be as you are not.

Think carefully about this... the only reason to improve something is if it is somehow lacking.  It is this that is impossible.  God created only God, everywhere and always.  There can be no other substance or existence.  What would it be made of?  Where would it be?  And the continual search for improvement is the same as saying, "I am not" instead of "I Am."

While we dream of a world that seems imperfect and in constant flux, we have great need of forgiving the desire to be as we are not.  As we let go of wanting things to be different, as we let go of wanting ourselves or them or it to change, we discover the unchanging I Am as the very Ground of Being. When Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering, he was pointing out that it is the desire or wish for change that spins the wheel of samsara, the dream of life as change and suffering and death.  Awakening from the dream is simply recovering our Awareness of Self, of I Am without a fluctuating object.

Ironically, there can never be a change in Reality.  As Jesus pointed out, "Before Abraham was, I Am."  Before and after are dream-concepts, meaningless to the radiating Bliss that I Am.  What we call the Christ, the birth of the Awareness of Changeless Oneness we celebrate as Christmas, is "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."  We are perfect ideas, extensions in pure Spirit, forever in the Mind of God.  Emmanuel, God with Us, is the Great I Am. 

"God Wills you learn what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their Source.  Such is Creation's Law; that each idea the mind conceives but adds to its abundance, never takes away." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section VII, 13:2-3

This or That

"Peace is impossible to those who look on war.  Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 11:4, 1-2

How then do we offer peace?  In our Wednesday night ACIM Tele-class we were talking about judgment.  We discovered that we even judge our spiritual experiences, those moments of Revelation that seem all too rare. This one was amazing, that one wasn't real, etc. Interestingly, it's the very judging and labeling of our experiences that makes peace seem fleeting and impossible.  To the mind asleep and dreaming, every person, place, thing, or phenomenon is either/or.  Everything is either this or that to the mind dreaming in duality.  The categories of this or that are irrelevant.  It's the categorization of every aspect of life that makes peace impossible... because where there is either/or, there is war.

Into this impossible situation comes the Teacher of God, the Voice that speaks in each and every seemingly separate mind.  The Voice is One, and has One judgment that is Its' function: "We are One, not many.  We are Whole, not parts.  We are Peace.  We are Joy.  We are Love Itself.  There is nothing else... There is no either/or..."  Over and over the Voice echoes in our minds, behind every image of incompleteness, every image of conflict, every competitive or ambitious urge, behind every call to struggle and war with the images or people and situations we project and then think we see: "Nothing Real can be threatened.  Nothing unreal exists.  Herein lies the Peace of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Introduction, 2:2-4

This Peace extends infinitely and eternally.  This means It isn't subject to our imagined concepts of time or space or circumstance.  This means that when we remember our only function is forgiveness, we can forgive and release every imaginary obstacle to the awareness of this eternal Peace, Whose other name is Love.  We are literally swimming, floating, flowing, Being as this Peace, this Love.  We have no other existence.

Thank God we are neither this nor that.  We are the All, the Everything... the All-Loving, All-Encompassing, Infinitely Joyous Peace that we mentally tried to distance ourselves from by calling it 'that'.  Such machinations have never, and will never succeed.  We offer Peace because we ARE the Peace of God, forever One and forever extending the Light of Love that shines from the heart of Peace. 

This Holy Christmas Season, please don't get caught up in judging the world and its inhabitants as this or that.  Let's forgive this madness, and see every Radiant aspect of Life as the Peace and Joy and Love that is its Reality.  Whether it appears as big or little, cheap or expensive, good or bad, old or young, cold or hot, enjoyable or miserable, even alive or dead... these are just illusory judgment-veils, instigators of war.  Peace remains untouched and radiant throughout Creation. 

"Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you.  It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the Whole be whole without it.  It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest.  Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping it apart from its Creator.  This little aspect is no different from the Whole, being continuous with It and at One with It.  It leads no separate life, because its life IS the Oneness in which its being was created.  Do not accept a little, fenced-off aspect as yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VIII, 6:1-6

Nothing Else at All

"Mind reaches to itself.  It is not made up of different parts, which reach each other.  It does not go out.  Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it.  It encompasses everything.  It encompasses you entirely; you within it and it within you.  There is nothing else, anywhere or ever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 8:5-11

I've been undergoing a lot seeming outer change.  Travel, work, new friends, many holy encounters that are very much outside the box.  But the one constant is the reassurance of the Holy Spirit, the still, small Voice of Self that always says there are no real differences.  There's nothing any different now than before, nothing any different here from there, nothing any different anywhere at all.  In fact, it becomes more apparent there is only Mind Awake, and there is never (and never has been) anything else, anywhere, ever.

Mind Awake reveals the complete illusory nature of time and space and all the differences that masquerade as the material world.  Each seeming challenge resolves and melts into nothingness.  Each seeming judgement reveals itself as nothing, which is what forgiveness is.  Each person, place, and thing reveals the Love that shines within Mind Awake, the only Reality.  And all that was ever needed was my full attention.

Ironically, my full attention has nothing to do with the seeming individual human mind.  It has nothing to do with busyness or thinking or any seeming distractions.  No matter what the human mind is immersed in, Mind Awake remains eternally Present and unchanged.  I don't have to do anything at all.  Because Mind is not made up of different parts that need to wake up.  Mind encompasses me and all that I seem to think or do or be.  Each Holy Instant reveals full Presence and the Light of Self.  Nothing to do, nothing to change, and nothing else at all.

"When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the Light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; "I need do nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VII, 5:7

All Loving and All Worthy

I have a human pattern of judging a situation and then feeling wrong, or then concluding that I'm not good enough for whatever.  I know this is a familiar story for some of you, too.  Human beings are always feeling bad about something, and either blaming self or someone else for the feelings.  But the Atonement reveals that even these feelings bear unexpected spiritual fruit.  When we're willing to suspend judgment through forgiveness, the still, small Voice of Truth is heard in the midst of the sadness, the anxiety, the hopelessness.  And it always returns the Mind to the Awareness of ever-present Joy.  It always reveals that the images of judgment are simply false.  The feelings the ego conjures have no meaning, because they have no substance.  They are simply not there.

"When you are sad, know this need not be.  Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have.  Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.  When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know that this need not be.  You can be as vigilant against the ego's dictates as for them.  When you have given up this voluntary dis-spiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal.  Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against the demands of the ego.  This need not be.  The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort.  You are a mirror of Truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect Light.  To the ego's dark glass you need but say, "I will not look there because I know these images are not true."  Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this, and only this, must be." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section IV

So am I worth the time and attention it takes to reverse these human patterns?  Certainly not as I imagined myself, nor is anyone else that I've imagined worth the effort.  But Who AM I?  Christ appearing as me is far beyond any human measure of worth.  I AM worth consistent attention and effort, because I AM is the Truth about me and thus about all that Is.  I AM a mirror of Truth, where God shines in Perfect Light and Joy.  Only this IS.  As the Course says, "This, and only this, must be."

I was reading a transcript of a workshop given three decades ago by Herb Fitch, and this passage transported me: “Whenever you are reverting to the opinion that you are a human being, you’re blocking the Light, you’re blocking the Voice.  The Voice does not come except where there is purity.  And purity means not a divided concept of matter and Spirit.  So please examine your deeper feelings and know that you are not both Christ and a human being.  You are not both Spirit and a human being.  You are pure Spirit, Christ and no other. The greatest thing I have is the assurance that I and the Father are One. If I and the Father are One that means I am not human.  I must learn how to accept this in the quietness of my own Being, resting there, waiting for the inner impulse that tells me Who I AM, feeling the nature of my true Being and trusting what I feel and hear enough to LIVE it, and act upon it. ” – Herb Fitch

So purity means not having a split mind, not seeing the projected concepts of separate bodies and separate things we call matter as if they were the truth.  Because we cannot see two worlds.  We are unable to know Self as Infinite, as Pure and Perfect Spirit, as long as we believe in the limited forms we call matter.  Knowing Who I AM means knowing I am not both Christ and a human being.  And if I and the Father are One, there is nothing but Spirit.  Consistent effort is needed only to return my attention to this Awareness in my own Being.  I must remember Who I really AM, and that I AM worth it.  There are no human beings here.  Only the Christ We Are and Our Infinite Expressions.  All Loving and All Worthy.

Hallucinations

"What if you recognized this world is an hallucination?  What if you really understood you made it up?  What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal?  Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this?  And would you see it?  Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are.  This is the healing and the remedy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VIII, 7:3-7, and 8:1-2

Like all spiritual scriptures, A Course in Miracles can be read on multiple levels, which results in what the Course calls level confusion.  Just like church, any spiritual teaching can be used to make the user more comfortable in their own illusions.  They just seem shinier and holier than other illusions.  In Truth, they are all made up.  All hallucinations' only value (including the Bible and the Course!) is whether they assist the mind in waking up to its own hallucinations and letting them go. I love A Course in Miracles because it reminds us of this repeatedly.  But it's so easy to gloss over those passages and latch on to the comfortable ones, isn't it?

In The Bible Jesus told us that we have to lose our lives to find Life.  He wasn't talking about the cross, although that was an extreme example and symbol of the teaching.  He was talking about losing the little self, the identification with a separate self with separate ideas and separate agendas.  He was talking about the compulsion to identify that self with a body that needs special care and special protection.  He was talking about the little self with its constant planning and schemes for pleasure and self-reliance.  He was talking about life as usual.

Nobody wants to hear this.  What little self, with its vested interest in an identity, wants to hear that it is an hallucination?  Who wants to hear that all our cherished values and ideas about how life works are all made up, and simply not even there?  Who wants to hear that we are the mentally ill, every last one of us?  This seems like a no-brainer to the little self... just focus on what you believe to be true, and live as if it is true, and ignore the fact that it keeps not being true. This is the nature of the world, where every hallucination comes to pass. 

But we have another choice!  When we change our mind about the purpose of the world, it isn't about perpetuating the hallucinations, but about letting them go.  And when the only purpose of the world becomes the healing of the mind, then every single hallucination dissolves, and the Light of the Self that is always here is revealed. 

"Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one?  Will he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than to that of a softer one?  Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill than a shout?  And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying affect their credibility in his perception?  His mind has categorized them all as real, and so they are all real to him.  When he realizes they are all illusions they will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 8, 5:2-7

In the Light of Self that remains, there is only God, only One Self.  All hallucinations are simply the opportunity to awaken from the insanity of self-preservation.  And this is not death, but Life!

"Give up this frantic and insane attempt that cheats you of the joy of living with your God and Father [Unified Self], and of waking gladly to His Love and Holiness that join together as the Truth in You, making you One with Him.  When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing.  There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.  Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard.  The Holy Spirit [the Voice of Self] will not delay in answering your every question what to do.  He knows.  And He will tell you, and then do it for you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section IV, 5:6, and 6:1-6

Who in their right mind would let hallucinations run their life?  Who would let an hallucination decide for them?  That's what we do every day, every hour, and every minute that we live as if we were a separate self with separate desires and separate needs.  But as we forgive the fictions and let them go, we find the One Self is ever-present, and All that has ever been.  This One Self, this Infinite Love, is all we ever need to dispel the dreams and Awaken to Joy.

THIS is the Glory

"You are not saved from anything [there is nothing but God], but you are saved for glory [the extending of the Light of God that we are].  Glory is your inheritance, given you by your Creator that you might extend it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section IV, 1:4-5 (brackets hold the whispers of Holy Spirit about this quote)

Last night I dreamed about a trio of friends, a girl and two boys.  They were part of some much larger community, a typical hierarchical organization of some sort, which was transitioning from an old building and format to a much newer building and organization.  It was a big deal, with a new head administrator and gala celebration in the works.  And as in all group situations, everybody wanted to be in charge, everybody had personal ideas and preferences, and everybody had an agenda.  Somehow (in the way of dreams) my characters decided to kill off the new administrator and take his place, since no one really knew him yet.  The ringleader took on that appearance and persona, with the other two going along and making sure everyone believed it.  Then ensued a series of such ‘take-overs’, where one of them would kill someone else off and morph into that appearance and persona to take their place.  I kept wanting to wake up, but felt powerless to do so until the impostors were somehow ‘safe’.  I kept hoping they would just be happy with what they had done, but they kept it up until they started killing each other off to be in charge.  I only woke up when my dog-alarms woke me, and I felt hung-over and desperately bad and guilty, as if ‘I’ had been the one doing all the killing, posturing, and deception.  And of course, I had been the one.  What other one could there be? Whose mind dreamed this? 

The Course says in the Manual for Teachers that it takes great learning to understand that ALL things, events, encounters, and circumstances are helpful.  Our nightmares are gifts that bring the buried guilt to the Light to be forgiven.  What is the source of this guilt?  Nothing real, but a lifetime (or lifetimes) of believing the impossible… that we are separate and in competition with many others and with God.  Who knows how many dreams we have projected onto the screen of the sleeping mind, with casts of thousands of players, some seemingly innocent and some obviously guilty.  But all simply perpetuate this insane desire to kill off what gets in the way of our seeming preferences, and to cast as innocent our desire to do so.  All the while we are generating the smoke screen of many separate and sleeping parts, when there is only the One, and that One forever Awake and Aware.

This compulsion to create multiple forms and meanings and needs and versions is hell.  Heaven is the unified Awareness of our Eternal Self, the Oneness of Perfect Wholeness and Love without limits.  This is not boring sameness, but Infinite Creation, Infinite Bliss.  The extension of Love is Our only Purpose, and this Love has no object and no agenda.  It is eternally free and isn’t limited to or by imagined forms.  It doesn’t need to get rid of anything, or change anything, or keep anything. 

Every Sunday in my little church, we sing these words:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: World without end, AMEN, AMEN.”

Glory is the sheer joy of reveling in the Truth, the Source, the One, that shines and extends and includes ALL.

The Son is ALL that extends in and as the Awareness of that One.

The Holy Spirit is the extension of this Glory even within the dream, as the Awakening and Quickening of this Awareness.

This Glory, this ALLNESS, this Quickening of Awareness of Self is the only Purpose of every dream, whether by night or by day (because make no mistake, everything sensed with the body is a dream).  How is this Purpose lived?  By shedding every judgment, every preference, every personal agenda, every belief in limits and limitations of form.  THIS is true forgiveness and the Atonement.  THIS is the Glory.

This World of Light

"This world of Light, this circle of brightness is the real world, where guilt meets with forgiveness.  Here the world outside is seen anew, without the shadow of guilt upon it.  Here are you forgiven, for here you have forgiven everyone.  Here is the new perception, where everything is bright and shining with innocence, washed in the waters of forgiveness, and cleansed of every evil thought you laid upon it.  Here is your innocence waiting to clothe you and protect you, and make you ready for the final step in the journey inward.  Here are the dark and heavy garments of guilt laid by, and gently replaced by purity and love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section IX, 9:1-7

"Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself.  The body is a limit.  Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found.  The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever is asked... It has been given to the Source of Love... It rests in God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 199

Love, Light, Limitless Awareness... all of these are words, symbols twice removed, that have been used to describe the experience of our unified Self, the Field of Light and Love and Intelligent Awareness that is called God.  The Christ is the Light of this Awareness, and the Holy Spirit is Its Voice.  But it is the Christ Light that we speak of here.

This Light is the only Body we have.  It is formless, but includes everything.  It has no boundaries or limits, and is the only Reality behind every appearance in the world of projection.  It is the only Reality wherever we appear to be, wherever we appear to go, whatever we appear to do.  It is the only Reality of ALL, because it is literally ALL.  There is no other Cause, and no other Effect. 

The Christ Light is our only Mind.  It's not a physical light, since all seeming physicality is ephemeral projection.  This Light is pure Awareness, boundless Love, and limitless Mind.  It is Mind Awake.

A Course in Miracles repeatedly reminds us that "I am not a body.  I am free." (Workbook Lesson 199) And what in the collective delusion we call form is ever free?  The illusion of time seems to hold everything in form in bondage, as does the very nature of everything that comes and goes.  The fixation of the so-called egoic mind cannot even conceive of Freedom.  It is always trying to be free from.  Awakening occurs when the fixation loosens through constant forgiveness and release, when the mind opens and finds no boundaries at all.  True Freedom is not subject/object.  True Freedom is One, and is limitless and boundless, without a beginning and without an end.  It shines, and shines forever.  It is the Real World of endless Light and Love.

"This world of Light, this circle of brightness is the REAL WORLD."  Yes, where guilt meets with forgiveness all seeming boundaries and limits are released, and our eternal, unified nature of pure Innocence and Freedom is remembered.

"You are God's Son.  In Immortality you live forever.  Would you not return your mind to this?" -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 199, 8:1-3

Do Not Reconsider

"In everything be led by Him, and do not reconsider.  Trust Him to answer quickly, surely, and with Love for everyone who will be touched in any way by the decision.  And everyone will be.  Would you take unto yourself the sole responsibility for deciding what can bring only good to everyone?  Would you know this?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section III, 17:4-8

A friend asked why, when forgiveness is practiced, it sometimes seems to not be working... in other words, why there is still no peace with the situation, or why there is still fear, etc. The answer lies in the passage above... "In everything be led by Him, and do not reconsider."  All of us have the experience of going through the motions of forgiveness, of completely giving over the situation to Holy Spirit, and then continuing to think about it and what we will do.  This is reconsidering. 

This habit of reconsidering is so ingrained that it's easy to forget that you are choosing to do it.  Like all habits, it is a choice that has been relegated to the subconscious so it's automatic.  But like all choices, it can be brought to awareness, so you can change your mind.  It simply involves the choice to stay present with your own mind.

"You do not guard your thoughts carefully enough.  You are not used to miracle-minded thinking, but you can be trained to think that way.  All miracle workers need that kind of training.  Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought in order to avoid miscreation.  The miracle worker must have genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the miracle to occur." -- ACIM; Chapter 2, Section VII

Open your mind and heart to the Holy Spirit, the part of your Self that has never gone unconscious.  Give everything over to the Holy Spirit, which is your very own sane Christ Mind.  Let this Presence of pure Divine Love decide for you.  Let this Divine Love care for you.  Let this Divine Love take care of all the details.  And because it is your true Self, you will always know if there are actions to take or words to be spoken.  You can absolutely trust this Self, which is all-loving because it is pure Love.  This Love is You, the Holy Son of God. 

Reconsidering is a deliberate decision to forget Who You Are, in an attempt to maintain autonomy, to stay separate.   Never doubt the power of your own holy mind to choose... and it is really good at hiding.  When the Son of God chooses to hide, he convinces even himself that he is lost.  It reminds me of small children when they first learn to cover their face and play peek-a-boo.  When their face is covered, they are convinced no one can see them either!  Such is the power of the mind!

Only when we insist on reconsidering can we not experience the ever-present Peace and Joy forgiveness reveals.  Which really means we have still not made the decision to stop hiding.  Our Reality remains ever-present, simply awaiting our decision to Awaken.

"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 the effects of your mistakes will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 23, Section II, 2:1-7

Accept and Give Miracles

"You are entitled to miracles because of what you are.  You will receive miracles because of what God is.  And you will offer miracles because you are One with God. Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself.  It does not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself, nor on any of the rituals you have devised.  It is inherent in the Truth of what you are.  It was ensured in your creation, and guaranteed by the laws of God." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 77

"I am under no laws but God's.  There are no laws but God's." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 76

I am inspired to offer this as a day of miracles.  Instead of the world we think we see, we are entitled to the miracle of healed perception.  This is my only prayer for each and every one of us. 

"Hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the Truth to you.  You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of God.  Payment is neither given nor received.  Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes, and nothing is replaced by something else.  God's laws forever give and never take." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 76

We claim miracles for ourselves whenever and wherever we find ourselves forgetting Who We Are.  And we give and share miracles as the Voice directs... always in overflowing Love and Gratitude for the Allness and Oneness we share. 

"Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for.  You will recognize these situations.  And since you are not relying on yourself to find the miracle, you are fully entitled to receive it whenever you ask." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 77

Accept miracles today.  And give them freely.  This is your natural vocation.

"Let us today open God's channels to Him, and let His Will extend through us." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76

The Blessed Residue

"Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal.  The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:1-2

"In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create.  The word 'create' is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation.  What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section V, 2:1-3

I woke up in the wee hours last night, inspired to search my mind for unforgiveness.  I woke up with a new understanding of hidden places and grievances.  I realized that every expectation of person, place, or thing is only in my mind, is all made up, and is a grievance.  Every person or organization that I want or expect something from, every animate or inanimate form I look to for anything at all is a fictional mental veil across the face of Christ.  I experienced a flood of gratitude for each insight, and pure joy at letting it all go.  And then I heard the Voice speak the words "blessed residue."  I knew that I was to write about these words, and remembered reading them in the Course, so I asked if I should write them down or look them up.  I was told to go back to sleep, that I would remember.  And I did.

Love is the blessed residue.  When everything is forgiven, there is only the innocence of pure Love.  When everything is forgiven, even the things you thought were problems are revealed as pure, innocent Joy.  This is a spiritual alchemy that has been written about by mystics throughout time.  The irony is that we already know this, but pretend that we don't.  If we open our minds even slightly, the floodgates open and we can no longer pretend that the minutiae of our world is true or even really there.  So we practice tunnel vision on worldly problems and details, and even spiritual questions, clinging to them as if they were our safety and survival.  This is their only reality.  "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 2)

An utter dependence on Love and the Holy Spirit is our true safety and security.  We can safely give our every question and care to the Holy Spirit and know that Love can only give and expand and increase in joyous intensity.  This is true creation.  "Love created me like ItSelf," we are reminded in ACIM Workbook Lesson 67.  We have only to give over (forgive) each thought, each judgment, each expectation to the Holy Spirit to be undone.  And the blessed residue, which is pure Love and our true Self, is restored to creative awareness.  It was here all along. 

"You have not lost your innocence.  It is for this you yearn.  This is your heart's desire.  This is the Voice you hear, and this the Call which cannot be denied." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 182, 12:1-4

Daily, Effortless, and Natural...

"Each day should be devoted to miracles." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 15:1

Brushing my teeth is a daily, effortless and seemingly natural activity.  But it is actually a learned behavior, and it is obviously a bodily activity.  Nearly everything that is considered natural in our conditioned state is learned behavior associated with protecting or defending the body or a personal identity.  When A Course in Miracles tells us that miracles should be daily, effortless, and natural, it is not referring to learned or bodily activity.  The miracle is a state of mind that has always been here, unseen by the conditioned, sleeping mind.  It is the state of One-mindedness.  The recognition that there is only One that includes All, in perfect Love and perfect Security and Fulfillment. 

"Every loving thought the Son of God ever had is eternal.  The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:1-2

Just as each day should be devoted to miracles, we're told that they are the natural, effortless expressions of the Love that we are.  It is because Love is really All there is, that all miracles are all the same.  All expressions of Love are maximal.  So there is no ordering or ranking in Love, only the outpouring, extending, embracing qualities that are so far beyond our conditioned notions of love.  The fact that we don't perceive or experience this daily is why forgiveness is our only purpose and function here within the dream we call life.  We forgive each dual meaning, each limiting perception, every limitation we have placed on any aspect of creation, and allow the miracle to be revealed.  It is always here, waiting only for our attention and willingness to let go of the mental obstacles we have cherished instead.

"The real world can actually be perceived.  All that is necessary is a willingness to perceive nothing else.  For if you perceive both good and evil, you are accepting both the false and the true and making no distinction between them.  The ego may see some good, but never only Good." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:6-8 & 3:1

Everything we see in our supposedly normal and natural state is divided.  There is always a flip side, a duality.  Even the good that we do, we do because we want to avoid what we believe is not good.  We equate protection and defense with love, though it is not.  If we are protecting and defending anything, it is because we think there is something 'other' to defend it from.  And there can never be two in perfect Love.  Only through unified vision, through the Awareness of the Oneness of Self can Love be known.

"The perception of Goodness is not knowledge, but the denial of the opposite of Goodness enables you to recognize a condition in which opposites do not exist.  And this is the condition of Knowledge. Without this awareness you have not met its conditions, and until you do, you will not know it is yours already." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 4:1-3

We are always forgiving duality.  Whenever we perceive something in opposition to something else, we forgive.  We bring to Awareness the compulsion or belief that is the origin of the duality we are perceiving.  And it dissolves in the Light of Awareness.  It was never there.  Only the miracle of Love remains.  This is our only purpose, regardless of the scripts our lives seem to follow.  The Real world is the forgiven world, seen through the unified eyes of Love.  Daily, effortless, and blessedly natural.

"The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section V, 5:1