Awake in the Dark

"There is nothing you can hold against reality.  All that must be forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers.  Their reality has no past, and only illusions can be forgiven.  God holds nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of any kind.  Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them.  Thus will you learn that you have been forgiven, for it is you who offered them illusions." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 9:1-6

I lay in bed in the dark, in the wee hours, unable to sleep.  Thought upon thought weaves through my awareness, everything murky and uncomfortable.  Nothing awful, mind you... simply the haziness of illusion, weaving itself in a downward spiral into stories and projections of judgment and separation.  None of it true.  How do I know that none of it is true?  Because it is restless, murky, and unclear.  There is no peace.  When a thought arises that is in alignment with the Reality of God, there is an immediate lightening in consciousness.  And that thought leads to another, and then another, on an upward spiral back to peace. 

Remembering that all my judgments are nonsense helps a lot.  "Forgive your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them."  Yes, I'm the perceiver... whenever I see a problem, I'm always the one naming it and weaving a story about it in my mind.  So I'm the only one who can forgive it.  "Thus you will learn that you have been forgiven."  Yes, all the judgments about me were in my mind, too.  They are all my stories. 

Everything is mind... mind asleep, or Mind Awake.  Mind asleep is not really doing anything or creating anything... simply dreaming, even when it seems to be awake.  Our One Mind Awake is the Source of All that is Real.  It is the Mind of God, and it is my real mind.  And yours.  And everyone's.  In Reality, there's only One of Us.

The One Awakened Mind, the Mind that created us and lives us, is joyous and free and at peace.  It has always been.  "The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember." (ACIM; Chapter 16, Section VII, 12:4)

Why do we seem to prefer our dream stories and problems?  Why do we worship them with our time and attention, when only a little sigh of release will return us to sanity and peaces?  Forgiveness offers this and so much more.  "Remember that you always choose between Truth and illusions."  Minute by minute we get to choose.  So every holy instant is a new beginning.  Awake in the dark, I remember.

"Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven.  From here the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible.  There is nothing that will not give place to Him and to His Majesty.  The Truth lies here and nowhere else.  You choose this or nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 11:1-3, 6-7