Lesson 359:

God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain is healed; all misery replaced with joy. All prison doors are opened. And all sin is understood as merely a mistake.

~PEACE~ Imperturbable peace is the great gift I have been given for merely taking back what I thought about you and me and life and placing it on the alter of the mind of God’s Son, which is my mind, and allowing the Holy Spirit; which is , it turns out, my true Mind, to reinterpret and realign all for good… In other words, by being willing to see that I had been wrong about everything and selfishly releasing what was false; due to it making me unhappy, a grand shift was made in my psyche: from anxiety to Peace ~ from fear, to Love!

When we truly forgive what we thought and perceived about each other and the world, we are instantly and continually left with what is true~ the experience of serene peace, which is also letting all creation be as God created.

This delicious process of mind and feeling watching; forgiving all blocks to Loves awareness, always, and resting in the still peace that accompanies trust… This is accepting God’s answer~ God’s answer, which is always some form of peace~It is really the only way to fly, now~ Don’t you agree?

I know for me, life seems to live me, now… The present, is the present presence of God within all things… Whatever needs to happen or be accomplished somehow gets handled, for I constantly release to forgiveness and healing, any agendas of my own that surface up …

Peace is the still center of the love that I am; one with all creation…

LESSON 357:

Truth answers every call we make to God,
Responding first with miracles, and then
Returning unto us to be itself.

It’s wild how forgiveness, as Jesus demonstrates and devotedly instructs us throughout the Course, turns out to be the best and, surprisingly easiest, experience in the world. We merely let every thing be exactly as it is. In other words, we accept life as it is, as God created us and all that is... and simply quit making stuff up, instead… We’re finally released from the burden on trying to be ‘right’ and trying to have the answers and having to think we know... And we are released into the ‘great knowing’ which is the Word of God!

We are the way, the truth and the life. Forgiveness merely sees past self-concept identification to the truth within ~

~The Self luminous reality~…

In daily practice, it lays out like this;we begin (as if we put on a new set of eyes) to see truth’s reflection in everyone and everything, as we choose forgiveness instead of separation... In other words, we see that our brother’s interests are no different from our own… Immediately we are filled with the love which experiences our brother’s innocence and our own… Sin no longer has a home here, for we are the medium for miracles.

I love the simplicity of forgiveness’s access to truth. As the lesson says:

“Your holy Son is pointed out to me, first in my brother; then in me. Your Voice instructs me patiently to hear Your Word, and give as I receive. And as I look upon Your Son today, I hear Your Voice instructing me to find the way to You, as You appointed that the way shall be:

“Behold his sinlessness, and be you healed”.

Lesson 348:

I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me…

Enough~ always, just exactly enough… A wonderful awareness of my coming home to my Self, which frankly, took me by surprise, was that there is always just enough; I always just right… It takes a bit of peeking beneath the covers of false identity and blaring horn of “more, more, more” which blasts constantly from the ego perception of the world… For the longest time, I felt haunted by ‘not-enough-ness’, feeling weak and unstable; always trying to do more seemingly to get more, always barely paying the price of admission to enoughness with it, yet never being able to add anything through my efforts that would take away the hollow emptiness and fear I ran from… Nothing really sufficed… I was merely caught up in a fantasy of false identity and had forgotten it was not my Self…

Finally, none of it mattered or meant anything to me… It seemed I lost my mind…

Then the miracle came softly and rested gently on my broken sight… What I saw within and beyond the crazy efforting, was what I call the zero-point; the eye of the storm, the empty fullness of potentiality~ Thank God I came to my senses! What characterizes every person, event or circumstance, for me today, is the grace of God which always, already, suffices…

To experience this grace, one need merely be willing to surrender all perceived needs as they steadily rise to awareness through forgiveness, and our tendencies toward defense of anger and fear, and allow trust to handle every problem ~now~ The light always dawns and we see that we have everything because we are everything.

We begin to experience the truth of today’s lesson: We have no cause for anger or for fear, for God surrounds us… And every need that we perceive, God’s grace suffices…

Lesson 335:

I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness….

As with all perception, I see only what I want to be there. This, in itself is a huge hurdle, perhaps the largest. Bottom-line, nothing exists outside my mind. I notice that as long as I endorsed (valued) a private mind, I could not wrap my mind around this idea of ‘you believe what you see, because you see what you believe’…. It was just too small to grasp, I guess…. Somehow my willingness to be wrong, allowed me to see that the same mind that seemingly chooses daily perceptions, with or without forgiveness, with or without love or attack, is the same one-mind that originated the crucial premise; the idea of separation, which instigated and maintains the entire sudo-reality of time and space, and rights and wrongs, and loneliness and bodies, fear and forgiveness, and you and me~ Gosh, if you boil it down to the zero point… all concepts, all seemingly real, all hinge on the self-concept; the idea called 'me'.

~Funny isn’t it, when ya really see that… It’s what I like to call ‘the big cosmic belly laugh’…. Cuz there is no me, or you…

There is only God and His Son; the extension of His Love. Another word for this ‘me’ I am referring to, is of specialness.

Specialness is the me that is always wanting more than everything~ it is the subject. The ‘you’ is anything or one ‘other’. It is the object for subject’s acquisition or enhancement…. That’s the dream… and none of it is real.

It was within the holy instant where ‘reality’/Love/truth, where I first experienced the clarity of oneness, which directed me toward the awareness that I am, indeed, the dreamer of the dream. Within this awareness , too, was the gift of the Atonement : that is my will, as God’s Will for me, to fulfill my function as the dreamer…

That function is to forgive and see this world differently; to see my brother’s sinlessness, to recognize my own.

I simply allow the Holy Spirit within mind to decide for God for me, and show me my forgiveness curriculum. I choose to see my brother sinless because that is the only way I feel loving toward him. And I, simply, can no longer tolerate less than loving feelings. The slightest attachment to outcome, the merest outside-Self referent, puts me on shaky ground. ~For peace is the only state where I know you or myself at all. And from peace I feel our oneness. Forgiveness is the answer: I choose to see the situation through forgiving eyes where you are sinless and so am I.

This is also the choice for freedom; returning me to Mind, because choice for forgiveness is the switch allowing me to listen to the Voice for God. This reminds me that I am the dreamer and whatever I might have originally perceived as an example of ‘sin’, I now choose to see as a chance to forgive, recognize what is my perception, is not really there. That the fear and guilt/ lack of peace is clearly in my mind….

My same Mind, which with the Holy Spirit, can now see beyond and into the heart of love we share. The choice for forgiveness; the choice to see your innocence, gives me back my dignity and changes everything.

It allows Love to rule the day, define the moments… and allow Presence to permeate everything, here and now… It is always enough….

Thank you for your holy light that shines eternal, that I may see my Self through you~ I love you~

Lesson 334:

Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives…

I love this time in the mornings where peace is so pervasive. For me, this space in the wee hours, that many years ago I designated as time I devoted exclusively to my relationship with God has transmuted many times… The changelessness of this state of peace has been invaluable to my recognizing what, indeed, peace is.

It has been a space of reverence for my alter to God; a place of prayer and contemplation, a space of honesty and transformation of the honesty concept, of attempted negotiation till surrender to truth’s obvious value became apparent… And above all it has been a place where I let truth find me and where also, there was my Self, waiting for me to notice…

It was here, first, that I began to recognize my ‘true’ identity, my identity in Christ; and therefore my inseparable relationship with you as Christ, unified in our oneness and our love…

The safety and completeness allowed for this time in the a.m. each day to expand and extend, until it became natural way of the day, as it is now.

So, I continue to rise early and rest in great peace and expectancy.

In the forgiven darkness of the awakening light, now is always; there is no time, but only our forever-ness.

Heavens dawn reveals the obvious; for-give-ness is my only function here, a natural requisite to move about the day in the dream in eternal peace. Ah, how I love the dreamer; self or brother~ it’s all Self. This delicious feeling of peace and oneness is so typical and obvious of the gifts forgiveness brings, making it so easy to behold my brother sinless in mind…

Forgiveness gives us the chance to experience a state where we feel completely unified with all that is, with no known desire but this experience.

All my efforts these recent years have been devoted to the quick restorative to this state of forgiveness. Which boosts my willingness to be vigilant to look squarely on at all that interferes with this state of unadulterated peace. I have learned to be a happy learner and happily I look honestly with the Holy Spirit at what I see and therefore what I believe, so as to forgive the false beliefs that I chose to defile the alter to my Father/ brother/Self. The simple fact that they cannot be true unfolds and allows the Holy Spirit within my mind to show me another way of looking at whatever it is. And finally, I am allowing the shadow of seeming ‘reality’ disperse into the nothingness in which it came…

Ah, the gifts forgiveness brings… this dwelling place is the only home for me now and from which I never stray too far, for I recognize the call for love.

Love’s gentle call is always within range… I hear it through your lips, see it in your eyes, and feel it in your heart ~ they are mine as well. The so-called physical trappings of the world serve only as a backdrop for the magnificent business of re-member-ing our full identity as Christ. Thank you for your gifts to me… without you I am nothing… Forever we are the effect of our Father Cause~ His Love is all that in truth, compels at all, oui?

Today’s lesson’s prayer:

”I seek but the eternal. For Your Son can be content with nothing less than this. What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? Today I would behold my brother sinless. This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness.

Lesson 329:

I have already chosen what You will…

Lately I have been having a bunch of weird, mundane type dreams; some fairly fun to watch and some which have that feeling of doing life with one foot nailed down (a feeling I am well familiar with from the past). The common factor is that none of the scenarios seem to have any particular reason, or matter much. They’re okay. They might, or might not, include someone else currently in my so-called waking experience.

I haven’t really thought much about this until this morning in the contemplative part of my meditation and lesson time. A couple of things occurred to me. First was that they were a good sampling of every-joe’s everyday life, on planet earth. The other was that I couldn’t remember the last time I had dreams such as these.

So I ask myself what it was about my every-joe so-called life that might be affecting a message to me…. Here’s what I came up with. In recent weeks, I have been deliberately trying to make something about my life different; something in form. First uncovering what my belief-system around it has been, as judgment had apparently sneaked in, which is how I got in front of the mirror, so to speak, about it. Next, I started to look for what I have felt were solutions for change. You might ask, as I did during my investigation, where I had perceived a problem, so as to need solution-izing?

The ego is a tenacious thought system; always on the alert to slip in where it can, to redirect the mind away from truth… wouldn’t you agree? Here’s the groovy part, right there, within and beyond the very avenue the ego takes, the Holy Spirit serves up ‘the other way’. Right where I wanted to take this seriously and feel ashamed or think there really could be a problem that needed solving and that I didn’t have the resources within to deal and therefore must seek outside myself, a familiar voice whispers softly, “Relax. All that I have already belongs to you. There is no outside of God’s Son. You are as God created and only the truth is true.” That when my perception flipped and I saw, again, that everything I had been attracting information wise had come easily and I felt inspired to actions I have been taking. I also saw that none of it really mattered in truth, only my peace of mind was imperative… And, that is restored instantaneously by my desire for nothing else… Ahhh….

I love forgiving my mind for its little attempt to reinvent itself~ the transition experience from futility to gratitude, peace and certainty is so delicious…

I have already chosen what You will…

So too, is today’s prayer… Let’s partake together:

“Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.”

Lesson 327:

I need but call and You will answer me...

Holy Thanksgiving, batman! This lesson says it all!

Is there any other thanksgiving message? ~Ultimately, it has been done.

I am as God created me; wholly creative and at one with Him, uniting me as one in Christ, with ya all. Since Creation is the unique and only formula for the Son of God, cause and effect are one in the same. It has been done and all power in Heaven and earth, circle back to this.

We have always been answered. Example number one: When we said we wanted to be ‘we’ and hide-out in separation’s guilty pleasure/pain palace, and pretend we knew Creation not, a deep sleep to dream the impossible fell over Adam(us), so the good book says… This lesson invites us into the Comprehensive awakening that Jesus refers to in chapter 2 of the text.

I need but call and You will answer me... Oh, how I know this to be so... For I called; at first in the irreverence, commonplace to this ego life, “God help me feel more comfortable~ make me a better ‘me’… Then next came the prayer of the desperate, “there has got to be another way”~ and finally, “please, God, let me have been wrong”...

Little by little; incident by incident, belief by belief~ forgiveness by forgiveness~ as I have allowed myself to hear His ever-present call to ‘awaken and be glad’, I have learned, or rather, I remember, the true call within me, which, incidentally, is also ever-present.

It is the true prayer of thanksgiving…

Resting in the stillness of gratitude, I join the chorus of the heavenly host beyond the world of time and space yet always vibrant NOW...

Thank you joining me in the ‘GREAT LEAP OF FAITH’. You have never failed me. Because of you, I know what I am…I am eternally grateful… Today’s lesson’s prayer is like a mantra prayer for our commitment to this year’s round of lessons and their practical application in our so-called lives:

“Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out. Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. Your Word is one with You. You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last”.

~ Forever and always ~

Lesson 322:

I can give up but what was never real….

The ego simply always wants more, more of what doesn’t matter. But giving something up is absolutely out of the question. If I’m ever asking myself if not wanting to ‘give up’ some ‘thing’ is within right-minded thinking, the answer is unequivocally ‘no’.

Spirit has all because spirit is all. And all the escapades of the dream are irrelevant. Period. Completely without hierarchy, value, or relevance. ~Boy, how that irks the ego. Spirit is in a state of grace forever. So, whatever fantasizes the characters of the dream seem to need to dream~ I say, have at it… it matters not.

Dreaming is forgiven by design, always culminating with the Atonement which cancels it out entirely and love continues to flow, without incident. You, like I did for years, might be thinking, “that’s all fine and dandy in theory, and quite appealing to want to believe, but when one is addicted to imprisonment by the dream; feeling hostage to its dictates, rewards and punishments, sufficient enough so as to render this tidbit of critical learning, inaccessible, what is one to do?”

In a statement ~Decide for Miracles. The answer is established as God’s plan for salvation. And we merely allow for miracle-minded perception, which only reflects our natural state of unity and love, to replace otherness… Ok, now, I know it seems that this is a subtle viewpoint, barely visible from within the belief structure of victim-hood, at the mercy of the dream, but here it is: DO NOTHING.

What is called for is constant mind-watching; not just when things get uncomfortable, but a genuine single-minded, one-purpose watching, without judgment… a sort of lucid dream state, if you will. And what is being watched for, or better yet, trained or exercised, is the ability to recognize that what is happening is dreaming…Its content is beside the point~ a dream is a dream. ~ If it seems, in any way, that one is actually in a body, in a world with other bodies, one is dreaming.

The Holy Spirit is our ticket to this kind of lucid dreaming, which allows us to recognize that one indeed is dreaming and as such, can choose a different dream instead. Remember the part in chapter 28 of the text called Reversing Cause and Effect? “Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part of someone else's dream. The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. Do you wish for dreams of healing, or for dreams of death? A dream is like a memory in that it pictures what you wanted shown to you…. An empty storehouse, with an open door, holds all your shreds of memories and dreams. Yet if you are the dreamer, you perceive this much at least: that you have caused the dream, and can accept another dream as well. But for this change in content of the dream, it must be realized that it is you who dreamed the dreaming that you do not like. It is but an effect that have caused, and you would not be cause of this effect. In dreams of murder and attack are you the victim in a dying body slain. But in forgiving dreams is no one asked to be the victim and the sufferer. These are the happy dreams the miracle exchanges for your own. It does not ask you make another; only that you see you made the one you would exchange for this. (T-28.II.4.-5)

Everything is all we’ve got, so there’s no point in hoping or expecting something else to change, or do it for us... The Holy Spirit is indelibly the ‘real’ part of our mind~ Spirit; being what we are in truth. It is here our attention must be placed. We do not need a new script or better role, but rather vision~ seeing as the dreamer instead of as the dream. It’s so much about where attention resides. The ego fixes its attention for acquisition; towards objects and apparitions both inner and outer. It’s just what it does; what it focuses on. It might be deliberate about it at times, but mostly it’s not. Mostly, it is unaware attention. The ego relies on addictive, self-important problematic-oriented thought patterns to demand attentiveness… to create critical diversions so we won’t feel we have time to mind-watch… The course says we are much too tolerant of mind-wandering, and it also guides that, ”The question is not how you respond to the ego, but what you believe you are. Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief you are regarding it form an ego viewpoint… Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable…That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is not the Self”…. So, quite simply, we’ve got our starting place….

Attention placed can also be withdrawn. This is how we dispel illusions. We look with the Holy Spirit at everything and see that it is false. We then withdraw attention from the false. With the Holy Spirit guiding our perception with vision, transfer of learning from situations becomes generalized and we begin to allow our attention to stabilize in Being, the space between thoughts’ object and its Being’s Source. Being becomes primary, and perception secondary. One can feel the ‘right-ness’ of attention, when Being pays attention, it feels like love… like the Self, which arranges a natural order that emerges from Being and simplifies everything to one choice. Today’s lesson reminds us that we can only give up what was never real in the first place, for who we are remains forever as God created. The sacrifice is only of illusions and when we are willing to hide nothing, but look without judgment, and through the miracle, at everything we made, it dissolves back into the nothingness from which it came... talk about perfect… ~

LESSON 316:

All gifts I give my brothers are my own…

You know how sometimes it seems like you finally handled some burdensome circumstance of your life; have offered forgiveness to a particular brother or a particular situation, or perception even~ just to feel blindsided when seemingly the same problem, at least something almost like it, happens all over again? Back in the day, I took this quite personally. I told myself things like, “Something’s deficient in my spiritual program, I’m not doing it right”, etc., etc… This used to really frustrate me! That was until I realized and accepted the reason for it. And just why the similar ‘problematic’ concept serves itself up all over again…

Not only did I not want the problem; including the lack of peace that always characterized the conflicting state called “problem", which in itself offers a direct view into what I believe I am, and where I’m operating from at the time of my judgment… but, and importantly, because I can’t identify with my Self in this state.

It is not who I am in truth and the very act of ‘taking issue’ means I have forgotten and need reminding. There’s no other way home. And we do this until all spit thoughts are forgiven and all is seen with love…This is the condition of the Atonement. My responsibility is 100% accountability, at all times, to choose it for myself.

When I deny the actuality of the state I’m experiencing; when I think there’s a problem, and actually think there is an issue “out there” to resolve, it is simply a tap on the shoulder or slap in the face (whatever’s needed, eh?), which says, “Wake up! You’re dreaming and believe the dream is dreaming you”.

“Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. It is not difficult to change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized”. (T-27.14.1-2) Always, what I’m dealing with boils down to the authority problem. It’s an authorship issue. ‘Taking issue’ is a symptom of the one problem: I think I am separate from God, (and all else): the same authority problem which fathered and characterizes the not-real world. So this is actually a gift to have show up so can look it square in the eyes and see its folly.

The seemingly, ‘previously forgiven issue’, apparently shows back up so I can see that I had my interpretation on what forgiveness was before. I know this because I had an idea of a result from my being forgiving, that would be give me the state of peace not available during ‘the problem’. ‘I’ don’t get to decide… and… There is no future peace! Peace is right here, right now! It is the natural state of my being.

Only from allowing myself to be present with it NOW, can I then let that state, where the Holy Spirit’s voice can be heard, to direct me as to the gifts I give, etc.

How convoluted is the ego’s idea of gift giving, yes? it’s always giving to get~ even if it’s to get spiritual enlightenment, yeah?

All gifts I give my brothers are my own… Due to the holographic nature of the universe, this is going be the case whether I choose littleness; to be hostage to the ego (disguised as ‘The Boss’), or host to God and accept my magnitude. From magnitude I can afford to look at the contradictions in my thought system and not take them personally, as with the littleness character; they’re just beliefs to be forgiven… they are impossible incompatibilities in the flow of peace~ blocks to Loves awareness~ not the truth. “I” don’t know what a gift is, what it’s for or when, how or to whom to give it~ not left to my own devices, that is.

This whole universe of separate special-nesses was the best ego/I could come up with. Here, every gift comes at the price of peace. So, for me, a good guide is to enter the day with the miracle worker’s prayer on my mind-lips:

“I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say of what to do, because He Who sent will direct me. I am content to be wherever He whishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.” (T-2.18)

Now, whatever seems to show up~ peace is merely as close as my willingness. So too, is the reminder from the Holy Spirit to “Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the world, or would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.”… For He has come, and He is asking… (T-VIII.5-6).

Let’s join in the prayer for today’s lesson in communion with all our brothers through the Holy Spirit and God the Father as one:

“Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want”. Thanks for the gift of joining in a unified purpose…

Lesson 312:

I see all things as I would have them be…

This lesson just loops us back around again one of the first ideas presented in the lessons…“I have given everything I see… all the meaning that it has for me”.

As we take another peak this initiation lesson, we can easily notice how differently we feel about our responsibility for sight. Having come this far in the curriculum, we have much gratitude for shift in sight… We are no longer wholly insane and the sense of progress along the way that we must go is palpable… We recognize that what we choose to see with: the Holy Spirit or the ego thought systems; love or fear, is what we end up looking at… And, it makes all the difference.

We recognize also, the readiness of forgiveness to change our mind in any instant in which we seem to have lost our peace. We are aware, too, that we are not alone, and the decision I make for myself, I make for all my brothers as well. Thoughts reveal their source through perception and how perception works never changes: ‘You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there. Perception has no other law than this.’

So, too, I am powerfully aware that what I choose for you, I choose equally for myself: and everywhere I look, I see a world where love is expressing itself in every act. Often, it is revealing a barrier to love’s presence which now, is seen as a necessary forgiveness lesson, served up for release…

Love, it’s everywhere, in the light that gives life to all seeming form… It can easily be seen in the twinkling of each brother’s eye… that twinkle then gives way to innocence and joy, laughter, yes? I have no purpose for today except to look upon a liberated world, set free from all the judgments I have made. Father, this is Your Will for me today, and therefore it must be my goal as well.

Today, we will be host to God and not hostage to the ego… Our will aligned with His, that we be but the Son He created as Himself…

“This is God’s Final Judgment: “You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever love, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am Your Father and you are My Son”.

Lesson 310:

In fearlessness and love I spend today…

“This day, our Father, would we spend with You, as You have chosen all our days should be. And what we will experience is not of time at all. The joy that comes to us is not of days or hours, for it comes from Heaven to Your Son. This day will be Your sweet reminder to remember You, Your gracious calling to Your holy Son, the sign Your grace has come to us, and that it is Your Will we be set free today.”

Thank you for joining with me in this day of freedom… it is by our choice to let Christ’s vision reveal our life to us that today; we can rest in the true essence of our relationship with our Source. This is the second coming and we fearlessly accept Christ as our Self, transforming our so-called world within our mind to the zero-point: LOVE… It is the eternal now; where deep within we feel the expansive wholeness we share with Him…. We always had it and today we are merely attuning through His grace and ours to the love we cannot be without, but can experience in fullness by our single desire for it. And we are no longer afraid, for there is nothing that isn’t resolved by this choice to feel with God, and let His plan for salvation rip. Is anything that wouldn’t cease to bother us if fearlessness and love were at the heart of everything? Is there a chance we wouldn’t feel present with what matters most? I think not… We trust the Holy Spirit to show us what to do with time… and we lean back in peace…

We see that there is nothing we need do, but see that everything is for- giving for all… I join you now in the Heavenly chorus singing thankfulness and joy …

Lesson 266:

My holy self abides in you, God’s Son…

“Father, You gave me all Your Sons, to be my saviors and my counselors in sight; the bearers of Your holy Voice to me. In them are You reflected, and in them does Christ look back upon me from my Self. Let not Your Son forget Your holy Name. Let not Your Son forget his holy Source. Let not Your Son forget his Name is Yours.”

Once the decision for the Atonement is made, healing can’t help but be seen… For everywhere in everyone we see but our Self, shining in the light of Christ love. As our forgiveness becomes the only thing we have to do, the reason for why we are always at the right place at the right time becomes obvious. And we recognize it for what it is and not the seeming circumstances it is wrapped in. Temptation to see what is not there through projection looses its appeal, as the feeling of wholeness and everlasting purpose replace it.

I am interested in you, holy Son of God. For in my relationship with you is the only way I can re-member my Self. Each day I look forward to meeting my Self in the myriad of holy encounters laid out for my arrival home… We are united in the holy Love of God and there is no where and nothing else. How joyous to see and value only this… thank you…

Lesson 257:

Let me remember what my purpose is…

In order to remember something, we must have knowledge of it that has merely been displaced, yet belongs to us none the same. All that we are, and all that God is, is available only in the now.

The Course tells us that memory is a skill developed when Learning began and although we overused it for purposes of recalling the past, in other words, recalling nothing, memory can be use in service of Spirit to recall now… Purpose can only be now, and when we choose to forgive the past, we call the present (His Presence) to mind. My only purpose is to call to present mind, God’s Will for perfect happiness for me… which can only be for all…

The Holy Spirit within our mind sees but one purpose for this world we appear to be in. And that is the attainment of the real world through forgiveness; where all is included in joy, and exclusion has lost its meaning. Through forgiveness we see the face of Christ in our brothers instead of our projections of fear and mistaken identity. The face of Christ is looked upon before the Father is remembered…

To say, “let me remember” is to take a leap of faith that we do indeed know and our effort to remember is a show of appreciation into this place of faith. It is our way of keeping in mind His Mind and placing our attention and consideration in the faith that we are as God created and that we have the power to implement the skill of memory for a single purpose to re-member Love…

Through forgiving all other possibilities that favor parts or past or any differences whatsoever, and culminating all in one glorious tapestry of creation, expressed, we recall our Self to Mind…

Father, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. Let us not forget today that we can have no will but Yours. And thus our purpose must be Yours as well, if we would reach the peace You will for us.

Lesson 249:

Ah, but to look exclusively upon a world freed from the bonds of falsehood, and reflecting but what remains; the pure, radiant, innocence of the ever fresh now… Yes! This is the world seen by the one whom has taken hold of the divining rod of the Holy Spirit and fearlessly (well, at least courageously) looked within; past and through the dark shadows of mistaken beliefs, touching each one to the touchstone of eternity for its authenticity, and accepting the findings. We find that the once solid structure of the world of pain and suffering and loss crumbles in the light the new and single perception of a unified purpose.

Here is the world looked out upon when one recognizes that they are the perceiver and not the perceived; the dreamer and not the dream… FREE!

Surrendering to forgiveness; giving over everything we ever thought was real to the Holy Spirit for translation into the mighty oneness of truth, we have accepted that we, indeed, denied the truth of what we are~ but no more.

Today we will be only as God created us to be and the world that rises up before and around us must reflect this Self we share with God, which is creation itself… and so, render a world where only Love and its reflections can be seen.

We might not have as solid fix on our true identity as yet (a residual desire from believing in the false), but we have a knowing more true to us than the symbols of this world can articulate… We are now present with the one relationship; our relationship with our Creator, allowing us to reflect this relationship in our relationship with all our perceptions….

As the lesson states: Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss becomes impossible and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and madness has an end. What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can be sustained? The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity and endless giving. It is now so like to Heaven that it quickly is transformed into the light that it reflects. And so the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the light from which he came.

How beautiful is that…

Lesson 228:

God has condemned me not. No more do I.

Thank Heavens!, the condemnation game is finally over, yes? Talk about a circular waste of energy. You can’t get anywhere with condemnation as a motivator. The basis of existence is freedom, the true nature of our being, as is perfection and wholeness. Where’s the room for condemnation here? Therefore, what but illusion can condemn and be condemned? It is merely a case of mistaken identity, taken seriously in a tiny tick of time, when the Son of God remembered not to laugh.… The natural self will reject the idea and in this world, that looks like a feeling of defensiveness. Now, looped into this falsehood/personhood, we have used this faulty tool as a means of correcting a problem in our person, which isn’t real and therefore doesn’t need fixing. Correction must take place by bring problem and solution together. In this world there is but one problem: we think we are separate from our Source. And but one solution: realize that we are not. So anything that feels at all like it needs correction (including improvement) in anyway is merely an opportunity to ‘forgive and see it differently’.

We forgive. That is all. And actually, we make the decision to forgive and the Holy Spirit which is within our mind, whether we are currently in awareness of it or not, takes care of the work of forgiveness, giving it back to us as healed perception. What once we saw as noteworthy and in need of guilt as the punishment for our crime of not- enough-ness, we now see merely as a one more re-ally-zing of that which we thought we separated off from our Self. Forgiveness is the correction of the mis-identity; fathered in the silly belief that what is One could have separate parts, each sponsoring itself. Now, we see the false as false; insubstantial and irrelevant to our being, which is beyond. We experience the results of our decision for forgiveness within this world of perception, as a sort of bridge illusion (bridge-across-forever); or vision-spectacles, if you will, ~the healed perspective ~miracle mindedness… The ‘other’ has become our ‘brother’, one in purpose.

Still the Source, the still Source, resides within~ beyond… The power of the correction comes from our One Self; which has never been here at all, but has remained as God created and is like unto Himself…

Lesson 226:

My home awaits me. I will hasten there…

Forgiveness merely allows us to open our eyes to the Self before us, instead of the contracted images of decayed beliefs and nauseating regurgitation of the ancient blinders to the truth. The truth shines so brightly that when we first glimpse it, it seems too bright to even open our eyes to. We don’t, at first, see that it is the light that was beyond, before, within, all along… the light that made seeing possible at all. But gradually, as we feel its warm inviting presence through forgiveness, we feel more and more compelled to open our eyes. Yes? And what we see of course, is the Self we were looking for in all our illusion, right there in our brother-beyond-the-judgment; Christ, in other words…

Whenever we so choose, we can depart this world in favor of the forgiven or ‘real’ world, by merely changing our mind about its purpose. Joy in creation is the eternal purpose we share as One. We don’t need to look for this or wonder how this is. We simply let the false go and truth is revealed already…. Heaven is with in us now, and it is our Home, right Here, right Now… relax the try, soften the eyes… and bingo… there, present/presence~ all along…

Lesson 218:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Only my condemnation injures me.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Without fail, whenever I cannot feel the humility of my glory in God, my birthright and my only status here, it is because I have made someone responsible for my state of mind, through my condemnation of them. Sure, it doesn’t always look like blatant judgment. In fact, it rarely does. The ego is much to slick for that. No, it usually shows up in some form of expectation. An expectation is just a thinly veiled threat, a lack of acceptance, a refusal to let all things be exactly as they are. It is my attempt to win-out over God. When I dream you up to my specifications in any form, I am no longer allowing the Holy Spirit’s vision to shine my brother’s light and reveal my only Self to me. It is like putting on sunglasses. Funny, a song form the nineties keeps playing in the back of my mind right now. It goes: There’s a little black spot on the sun today…”

Ya gotta love it…

So it is only my sight that suffers when I engage the little black spot of condemnation. You’re merrily going about the business of being the perfect Son of God, playing the role of showing me my Self and my condemnation/expectation has not affected who you are, in any way.

Now on the same note, it takes but my recognition of disconnection; which is easily seen since I no longer like the way I feel. My feeling sense has been appropriated to either the past or the future and I feel alone. It takes but this tuning-in to set in motion, the obvious next step. Forgiveness. It is the return inward to the Holy Spirit within my mind and the remembrance of the truth:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

And, you and I are One.

Only my condemnation injury me. only my forgiveness sets me free…

Lesson 217:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

I can be but my gratitude I earn.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Appreciation is the best of all feelings… is it not? Whether you are looking at a sunset or holding your child in your arms, thanking a friend for a favor or a stranger for assistance, or joining together in a common cause for the salvation of the world. Whether that salvation looks like Katrina relief or some other physical coming together, or the commitment to persistent forgiveness of every thought we ever had that hurt, and letting the miracle wash over our vision, clean it up, and cause a new perception. It is the feeling of gratitude in the end that makes us feel unified and identified with those around us. ~ And, aaahhh, the joy…~

You know what I am so grateful for that goes along these lines? I am grateful for a healed perception from one that teaches that the world is somehow outside myself and I am at the mercy of its dictates, to one where all seeming minds are One-Mind, the one we share with God. That Mind thinks only thoughts of Creation; with love at the base, extending and receiving in full appreciation, returning in kind and extending again…. And on and on….

I am grateful too, that because this is the only thing that could be real and it is what I am. (And I know it by the resounding cha-chink that rings the chorus of joy throughout my being as I tune inward to the Oneness that creates or makes-up worlds…) On the same note, I am so grateful to bare witness to the fact that the false is always false; all the pains and frustrations and pettiness and competition and scarcity and sacrifice and worry and guilt ~ well, fear in other words, are but nothing; merely given the semblance of life on illusions screen…

Every single thing you say or do, or not, shows me what I think I am… what the texture of my current belief structure is, and where I am in my forgiveness lessons. If I am experiencing anything but appreciation… its time to offer the situation and all involved, to the Holy Spirit for reinterpretation and healing… It’s so simple and always works, every time to restore my mind to peace…. Thank you, thank you, thank you… for we are the One…

Lesson 215:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Haven’t you noticed that the slightest attention to gratitude opens the floodgates that heretofore (through judgment or some kind of pushing against) were holding love’s awareness at bay? Just the mere notice that you are learning an important lesson that you would not be learning without this exact situation, which you were, just a second ago, pushing against and gratitude seeps into the cracks of your defense… And that feels so much better than resisting, that the next thing you know, powerful, all encompassing love comes flooding through and your entire perception of the situation begins to change.

This is the miracle…

The Course tells us that appreciation is the only proper response to a brother. Well, when you think of it this way, not only does it make sense, you can feel the pull into love’s open arms, which, by the way, we must share, to keep in it in our awareness.

Pretty cool how God has this thing set up. Being completion itself, God’s creations must be one. In the dream of separation, where the Atonement was needed, God placed the key to awakening within relationship.

TRUTH: The meaning of the Son of God lies solely in his relationship with his Creator. If it we elsewhere it would rest on contingency, but there is nothing else. And this is wholly loving and forever.

So, here, in this so-called world/life, we invented what the Course refers to as the Special (or unholy) relationship. The first is being all inclusive, could not be found in bodies, which were made to separate-out. It further points out that any relationship in which the body enters is based not on love, but on idolatry. Love wishes to be known, completely understood and shared. That is its make up, its God DNA so to speak. It can’t be any other way. It has no secrets; nothing that it would keep apart and hide. It walk in sunlight, open-eyed and calm, in smiling welcome and in sincerity so simple and so obvious it cannot be misunderstood. (T-20.v1. 1-3, 2.4-7)

Gratitude is the easy release-button out of the dream of being unfairly treated, all manner of trumped up expectations and faulty planning… It is the built in ready-access button to leave our perception’s world and all we thought it was, and enter the Holy Spirit’s healing realm; where Love’s never-ending relationship with us reminds us what we are and what our brother is as well.

In this dream of otherness, our awakening to oneness lies within our brothers; and we cannot get there without him…. I, for one, cannot express the deep gratitude I have for each of you… Yet, I gladly honor you each day with love so complete as to bridge our path back home to our completion in God... Love is the way I walk in gratitude…

The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love. And I give thanks to Him fro showing me the way to go.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Lesson 210:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

I choose the joy of God instead of pain…

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

Here’s something I have learned. I can not hear the Voice for God from a pain point of reference. As long I am in pain; as long as I am thoroughly immersed in my belief in the state of pain; whether it be seemingly physical pain or emotional pain or mental pain (well, it’ all really mental now, isn’t it), no matter how sincere I ask for help, the answer eludes me. I have already the experience I want to be real for me ~ pain. And pain and the joy of God simply cannot occupy the same place.

I simply must choose again. It requires but an instant of suspended thought that I know what is, and the desire to see things differently. And that is enough. I have place the key in the door of the new perspective and the Holy Spirit within my mind unlocks and swings wide open the floodgates of my true nature of Love and the joy of God.

Now my seeming pain can be seen for what it is: a forgiveness lesson; merely as misperception about who I am and why I am here. And healing can begin.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know it is a constant redirect process sometimes (a lot of times) because the seeming pain has got a sufficient hold, through practiced belief, in my mind. But that is just what it is: a practiced skill; the skill of shutting off the flow of joy that is my true Self. And mastering a skill does not change who one is in truth.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

Period.

The rest is the restoration of the mind of God’s Son to the truth; unearthing every false thought ever believed and re-member-ing the authentic Self within it; re-uniting all the pieces within one holographic instant of prefect peace as the complete whole we are as one…

Today, let us let joy rip and listen to the Voice for God in gratitude and love for all our brother and our Self…