~NOW is always the moment to see the face of Christ…

Lesson 27:

“Above all else I want to see…”

Above all else

I want to see.

I’m not interested in seeing ahead, only in seeing who’s doing the seeing…in seeing inside my seeing… seeing and having faith simultaneously, trusting that Now is always the moment to see the face of Christ… the sacred reunion of One Son~ the Self that is my ‘true face’ reflected in what you are.

Above all else I want to see..

This is it all right…pure life ~One life ~ the one I share with God.

I’m thinking again about the section in the course, “This Need Not Be” where it says, ‘If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen’… If I cannot see the face of Christ it is because I do not choose to see above all else… then he says, ‘Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not see the face of Christ. The glass in which it ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? …But where you look to find yourself is up to you…’ …above all else I want to see~

A little bit further down in this same section, Jesus says, “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 or not true. Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. You ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.”…Above all else I want to see…

As with Jesus’ appeal this same section, I ask my self to look honestly, so I can see. …Look honestly…’what have I thought that God would not have thought? What have I not thought that God would have me think?’ My thinking makes my seeing; I want only to see the Truth. “I’m willing to see what I denied…because it is the truth.”

‘Awaken and be glad’… ‘Above all else I want to see’…many countless symbols reflect for me the goal to awaken. “Vision is given freely to those who ask to see,” It seems to me that Vision creates its own morality, its own imperatives…

When we are asleep to what we are, and a veil of denial covers our sight, we can so readily give in to the constant harangue of the ego’s voice…

When I think I’m/you are really here, or that ‘this” is really happening,

I cannot know integrity and cannot be a reliable source for interpreting what I think I see because I have, as the Course says here, allowed myself to be ‘deceived by the temptations of the ego due to voluntary dis-spiriting…easily disengaged and risen above through developing the habit of engaging with God and His creations… by actively refusing to let the mind slip away’…

Above all else I want to see… this small expression of willingness is enough. It seemed it would take tremendous courage and tenacious stamina~ yet, it is simply a miracle. And one I am not in charge. I could never do it! But thank God, I don’t have to. That’s not my job. It turns out; I’m not even the one who does the looking…it is my small gift of willingness and the mighty power of God through the Holy Spirit in my mind… see, above all else I want to see~ and…

“Truth is restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else… Vision is given freely to those who ask to see.” ~Above all else I want to see…

~Just that simple and lay wait in trust…

We Are Christ and we are in this together, you and I and we are not alone~

Lesson 20:

“I am determined to see…”

The lesson says, “Your decision to see is all that vision requires… What you want is yours... “So simple, yet…begging the accountability for what ~ I want the Truth and I am determined to see. Coming to experience the reversal of all the thoughts that seem to make life what it is for me~ from the way it was seemingly hard-wired in this ‘person’ called Danét~ has been so critical to my experiencing peace; reversing the upside-down idea that “something out there” is causing me to see what I think I see and realizing that “what I think is causing what I seem to see”. My choice in this world, is a film of sameness – directed by the Holy Spirit ~ or one of differences – directed by the ego. I remember when it clicked for me about the ‘real’ cause and effect relationship…I thought I thought I understood/saw… and that whole idea turned out to a defense against seeing. This awareness showed me the fallacy of my attempts to bring ‘truth to illusion’ instead of the other way around. I began to see that if I do not like how I am feeling about something that seems to be going on in my so-called life, was to see that the solution could only lie in going to the source of my unhappiness: the decision in my mind to choose the ego’s attack instead of the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness. It’s easy enough to see, ~if the screen reflects an unloving film, it can only be that I went to the wrong source and therefore, chose an unloving film. BINGO~ I choose once again…

It is my determination to see that allows me to have the alternative… The ensuing peace from turning to the Holy Spirit is what is then extended, and remains always with me, regardless of what appears to be external… I am so grateful.

I am thinking about that often referred to metaphor, but can’t be too often remembered allegory: The one about sitting in a movie theater, when the picture on the screen suddenly begins to mess up. No one in the theater would, (nor would expect the management) to rush to the screen and try to remedy the problem there. We would go instead to the usually unseen or unnoticed projection booth in the back of the theater, where the fault lies either in the movie projector or the film itself passing through the projector. Only then could the problem of the poor image on the screen be truly solved…In this analogy, the screen, represents our external lives and behavior, the projection booth represents our minds, and the projector itself represents the mind’s capacity to project (or extend) the film, which in turn represents either the thought system of the ego of the Holy Spirit, depending on our choice. …The problem never rests on the form or the behavior of what we perceive or experience (the image on the screen), bur always on the content in our minds, the thoughts with which we choose to identify (the film running through the projector).

“God has one Son, and he is the resurrection and the life. His will is done because all power is given him in Heaven and on earth... In your determination to see is vision given you…You can see them differently, and you will. What you desire you will see. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world.

We are joined together you and I. We are the Son, experiencing ourselves as the Sonship; at home in God, dreaming of exile. So often we find ourselves with an astonishing awareness, as we are coming into a ‘determination to see’, where we want to settle with what the great poet David Whyte says in one of his profound poems about the inner journey: “at least we are all exiled together”. And sometimes we settle here for a while, afraid to really see and loose all identity with who and what we now believe we are. NOTE: This ‘we’ is me, I’m sure you see…. This feeling of recognizing exile yet feeling comforted in ‘not being alone’ is an oxymoron isn’t it. Exile is the very quintessence of aloneness, yes? This is the very fabric of the ego/man-made world… the deep, pervasive, existential background of the dream. This is it! This is the best and only comfort the ‘ego’ has to offer.

It is our ‘determination to see’ that opens us up to noticing, and then to listening~ to the background behind the background; “THE CALL TO JOY”… umm, yummy ~film at eleven…

~Never alone~lesson 18

Lesson 18:

“I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing…”

I look about me, with this body’s eyes and it is impossible, anymore, for me to take for granted what I think I see.. I only see my interpretation~ my “accepted version” of what every particular thing is. I witness that everything I seem to see; every encounter with others, any exchange of any kind has been designed by this “packaged” interpretation. I see only what I expect to see. Furthermore, the body’s eyes were made to see what the blueprint of the separation…
...It turns out ~ I’m blind! Yes! But, finally, simply, gratefully, I accept that…. The thing about accepting that I'm blind is that I also accept that I require assistance to see what things are and where I am going. Turns out, too, perfectly, that right here within me, is this assistance; ‘Holy Spirit spectacles’, so to speak, designed to sharpen the mind for vision, in order to see a new world.

For so many years I relied on the analytical abilities of my mind to take what my eyes seemed to see and to seemingly assess what ‘the reality’ of the situation was. Truly, applying these very lessons from the Course in my life, regardless…. offered the miracle of sight, and the possibility that I was wrong about what I thought, saw and assessed. The script was written; all that the one mind that allowed for the ‘tiny mad idea’ to have a play, dictated every possibility and the Atonement corrected it. Every possibility played out and was answered the instant it was made. The rote interpretation was answered by the re-interpreter placed indelibly within for as long as the regurgitation of the past fancies itself within the mind of God’s Son…

From my wrong mind or ‘packaged sight, I can contribute only to the idea of problems; needing solutions…being the victim or the hero… it’s a merry-go-round I happily let go by now… Like John Lennon’s song…rather “watch the wheels go round”. The course says there is really only one problem ~ we think we are separate from God and therefore, each other…and, there is only One answer ~ we’re NOT~ “forgive and see this differently…forgive and this will disappear…”

How grateful I am to have this curriculum, these lessons, to train my mind, and therefore ours (after all I’m not alone in experience the effects of my seeing)…um yummy…

I ask myself, “How am I seeing this, through the eyes of the ego, or through Christ’s vision?” (Since it can only be one of those options). ~Best to ask my vision guide to show me what I’m seeing… saves time, gives peace…

The part in the text under the heading “The Justice of God” keeps pushing its way to the front of my mind…

“I. The Link to Truth

It cannot be that it is hard to do the task that Christ appointed you to do, since it is He Who does it. And in the doing of it will you learn the body merely seems to be the means to do it. For the Mind is His. And so it must be yours. His Holiness directs the body through the mind at one with Him. And you are manifest unto your holy brother, as he to you. Here is the meeting of the holy Christ unto Himself; nor any differences perceived to stand between the aspects of His Holiness, which meet and join and raise Him to His Father, whole and pure and worthy of His everlasting Love.

How can you manifest the Christ in you except to look on holiness and see Him there? Perception tells you are manifest in what you see. Behold the body, and you will believe that you are there. And every body that you look upon reminds you of yourself; your sinfulness, your evil and, above all, your death. And would you not despise the one who tells you this, and seek his death instead? The message and the messenger are one. And you must see your brother as yourself. Framed in his body you will see your sinfulness, wherein you stand condemned. Set in his holiness, the Christ in him proclaims Himself as you.

Perception is a choice of what you want yourself to be; the world you want to live in, and the state in which you think your mind will be content and satisfied. It chooses where you think your safety lies, at your decision. It reveals yourself to you, as you would have you be. And always is it faithful to your purpose, from which it never separates, nor gives the slightest witness unto anything the purpose in your mind upholdeth not. Perception is a part of what it is your purpose to behold, for means and end are never separate. And thus you learn what seems to have a life apart has none.

are the means for God; not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His life is manifest in you who are His Son. Each aspect of Himself is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto itself. Its radiance shines through each body that it looks upon, and brushes all its darkness into light merely by looking past it the light. The veil is lifted through its gentleness, and nothing hides the face of Christ from its beholders. You and your brother stand before Him now, to let Him draw aside the veil that seems to keep you separate and apart.

Since you believe that you are separate, Heaven presents itself to you as separate, too. Not that it is in truth, but that the link that has been given you to join the truth may reach to you through what you understand. Father and Son and Holy Spirit are as One, as all your brothers join as one in truth. Christ and His Father never have been separate, and Christ abides within your understanding, in the part of you that shares His Father's Will. The Holy Spirit links the other part-the tiny, mad desire to be separate, different and special-to the Christ, to make the oneness clear to what is really one. In this world this is not understood, but can be taught.

The Holy Spirit serves Christ's purpose in your mind, so that the aim of specialness can be corrected where the error lies. Because His purpose still is one with both the Father and the Son, He knows the Will of God and what you really will. But this is understood by mind perceived as one, aware that it is one, and so experienced. It is the Holy Spirit's function to teach you how this oneness is experienced, what you must do that it can be experienced, and where you should go to do it.

All this takes note of time and place as if they were discrete, for while you think that part of you is separate, the concept of a Oneness joined as One is meaningless. It is apparent that a mind so split could never be the Teacher of a Oneness which unites all things within Itself. And so What is within this mind, and does unite all things together, must be its Teacher. Yet must It use the language that this mind can understand, in the condition in which it thinks it is. And It must use all learning to transfer illusions to the truth, taking all false ideas of what you are, and leading you beyond them to the truth that beyond them. All this can very simply be reduced to this:
What is the same can not be different, and what is one can not have separate parts.” (T-25.I.1-7)

I am just sitting here weeping tears of joy… I am so moved by the beauty and profundity of Course…of this passage…this day…this moment…with you…~all gratitude and glory to God… ~amen~

Lesson 349:

Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.

I dearly love these last lessons, because they perfectly articulate the forgiven world from which I truly desire to experience life~ now …

They are succinct, yet open expansive and completion-ideas which not only appeal to the truth in myself, but show me by my responding in love and full acceptance and application, that indeed, it is my own true Self, in the Holy Spirit, from which they come…

It is easy to ‘lean back’ and trust from this place of surrender and acceptance. For I recognize that every aspect of the Atonement is playing out perfectly as God’s plan for salvation… blessing each and every brother, relationship, situation, and circumstance with miracles.

Oh, it is so delicious to taste the glory of God’s Love through just stepping back in mind and allowing Christ’s vision to visit the miracle of love upon the seeming events of the day… How freeing it is to have no agenda of my own that I would keep when clearly miracles bless me with the agenda the Holy Spirit unfolds for me instead…

In accepting the gift of forgiveness, and offering it, I feel my eyes soften into Christ’s sight of Love before me…. Solutions and direction unfolds in the perfect grace of God. I am eternally grateful and join all my brothers today in the hallelujah chorus of gratitude and praise to God the Father and His holy Son…

Lesson 333:

Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here….

I was always one to attempt to avoid conflict. These attempts were ultimately futile. This world is conflict materialized, yes? It was designed by a cunning mad idea that postured a ‘reality’ in opposition to all that is; where Oneness is no more. In its place there reigns a hierarchy of orders and levels. Levels of ‘specialness’ and scarcity determine ones value and survival… where there are beginnings and endings. The end and the king is death; the ultimate proof of defeat.

This of course requires bodies to house this idea and to ‘give life to death’, yes? I know it sounds a bit insane when seen with any reason. But then, that’s precisely why we attempt to avoid looking at all, let alone with the Mind of reason; the Mind we share, untainted, whole, and free. ~ No more shadow boxing!

The Course tells us: “Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation… The Holy Spirit’s function is to take the broken picture of the Son of God and put the pieces into place again. This Holy picture, healed entirely, does He hold out to every separate piece that thinks it is a picture in itself. To each He offers His identity, which the whole picture represents… The willingness to let illusions go is all the Healer of God Son requires….”

This Mind where we are always already united as one through the Holy Spirit is always already present ~we can’t loose it. It is not in conflict and is joyously fulfilling the function of implementing the Atonement, as long as any part of the mind of God’s Son serves itself up to the remedial rumination of the time/space separation idea….

Here’s what I finally saw: the key to all resolution in this world is beyond this world… Forgiveness allows me to look square on at where I seem to experience conflict and to allow the reason that sings deep within, that permeates and resonates till I can feel the truth that is all ways calling me back to point zero. Forgiveness is sort of a mechanism to shake me just enough to see that it isn’t just that I’m choosing to see conflict, but that a thought system that see conflict where there is none could not be real. ‘Only illusions battle; and only with them selves…’ which, now I recognize as simply more of the same original mad idea that one could separate from one’s Source… That idea can’t do anything else… that’s why the dream… It’s not possible in reality, where all is one… This oneness is the healed perception of Christ vision which is ours. It is always available to me I notice, as soon as I am fully willing to hide nothing… Now, this makes for much easier viewing because you’re looking at it exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it.

Illusion is where conflict and all its bedfellows live. ~I do not ~I am above the battleground; forgiving and healing the mind that thought it was here… ~For I am as God created me, still exactly free ~to dream of conflict or not. I accept the Atonement and all my dream of conflict are transformed through forgiveness because their premise now is seen. No compromise is possible. Premise; where one appears, the other disappears. And which you share becomes the only one you have. You have the one that you accept, because it is the only on you wish to have…. Why would I defend against a shadow? Now I let it be…The false is false. Period. And only the truth is true. Period. Accepting the Atonement for yourself means not to give support to someone’s dream of sickness or death. It means that you share not his wish to separate, and let him turn illusion on himself…

The miracle is the premise metamorphosis the Atonement principle insists ... Forgiveness is it’s lamp to access the light of truth and truth shines in its wake and whatever ‘it’ was, disappears…

Lesson 313:

“Now let a new perception come to me”.

Here’s what I notice… It takes but one wholehearted decision for truth to be but the truth got me and for loves presence to take the lead, for everything to change. The decision for truth is made, and the goal is then set to re-open my eyes to a forgiven world. Where even just a minute previously I mistakenly thought my identity was tied up with irritation or fear, just the mere surrender to the possibility, that my interpretation of current events is wrong ~ because I am not at peace~ makes way to receive the miracle… It’s as if, like they say, a veil is lifted and I see the innocence I was looking for all along, simply by unreservedly offering it to that moment’s guests and allowing sinlessness to be reflected back.

So simple it is, really… "Love will come wherever it is asked"… No more significant statement could I make about my learning. I ask that love be present and I recognize it is, always, already, waiting but my decision to only be but what I am and to see that you are but what you are; sinless and wholly innocent of the lies duality portrays that ebb and flow across the dreaming mind; their unreality exposed and passed over for the truth…

Love waits on welcome… It doesn’t come to us, it is us… Forgiveness shows us the only path in this world, in truth; choose once again and awaken; already at home in the arms of love.

This one decision to let truth be itself and love to enter the mind/heart that a minute ago had refusal on its lips, warms and relents to peace’s gentle touch. This is the holy relationship with the ‘real’ world, which forgiveness offers me … identifying with the Christ and recognizing its already present gift within, out-pictured upon the world. The simple lesson which forgiveness brings and the Course restates again and again is: I see my own innocence by seeing the world's innocence… I find my forgiveness through forgiving others… I recognize my own innocence by seeing yours.

Ideas are shared. By allowing the Christ identity in you, I recognize it in myself, already present, now. This is the holy wake-up call, and we have answered… Love forever and ever~

Lesson 304:

Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ…

I love this statement: “Perception is a mirror, not a fact. What I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.” This has totally been my experience… If I have ever wanted to change the conditions that have seemed to appear in my life, try and work as I might, nothing really shifts until I shift my mind… What I have come to at this stage of my life is that the only thing of real value to me is truth, the chance to love and share love, unimpeded by valuing the false. Whenever some ‘particular’ seems to grab my attention significantly, I recognize it for what it is; a belief that there could be a separated piece of the whole, replacing awareness of what is, with fantasies of what is not… I see it as a chance to look within, find the unhealed link to the fear/ scarcity thought system, and to bring it to the Holy Spirit within my mind for forgiveness, and to Christ, for a new/ true way to see… with innocence and wholeness and joy…

Thank you for joining. Here’s today’s prayer:

“You lead us from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, giver us to offer to Your holy Son, that we may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him…”

Lesson 303:

The holy Christ is born in me today…

Of course we talking about giving up the façade here and deciding to see as Christ; the Son which God created as Himself… whose vision replaces our faulty perception… by our decision for it…

This is to say, that while I wish to believe I am a body; identify with being a victim of circumstances, a character pawn in a heartless world, at the mercy of or on the guard for unforeseen enemies, competing for the scarce and limited resources to sustain my form until the inevitable death that will take us all, I can not see the truth about my self…

It’s like trying to look at the world through the opening in a drinking straw. Quite limiting, yes?

Imagine with me and follow my train for a second… So, you’re looking at your life and the world you live in with through this tiny opening… all your senses tell you there is so much more going on than you have access to, you begin to notice how limiting believing the straw-perception feels to your experience of your life. You begin to focus more on the information you are receiving from your intuition as to what the bigger picture must be. This feels freeing. It feels good; loving… So you increase your amount of attention given to the internal, experiencing a more natural and expansive experience of your life… You, simultaneously, are withdrawing attention from the limited little space you once believed to be the only perception… your belief in it, goes with it… the straw drops. For it was only your attention that kept it in place… Now, your eyes open wide… Light floods your sight and what you see is what you had come to believe you would… and oh, how you love what you first placed your faith in, then decided to trust; trusting inspiration toward life, verses preservations for the death script…

And JOY abounds for in trusting, you have found your Self; always, already here, waiting for your trust… shining in the brilliance of your forgiven brother’s eyes and warming your heart with her smile and filling your soul with the belonging that Christ has unified the Son of God, forever whole…

Let’s share in the prayer today’s lesson offers:

Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I made. He is the Self That You have given me. He is but what I really am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created me. it is not Christ that can be crucified. Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son…

Lesson 295:

The Holy Spirit looks through me today…

This is the decision we make when we choose the Atonement for ourselves; we step back and let the Holy Spirit’s vision (interpretation) replace the body’s eye’s program. We no longer value a program for sight that separates out and limits the Son of God, neither in our brothers nor Self…

What once appeared as the world’s horrors; pain and suffering, and terror, loss, and death is seen as falsehood drawn on a flimsy overlay stretched across the light of truth, which now lifts and disappears, as only truth is valued… and the Holy Sprit given reign to see…

In place of hopelessness, we now see salvation, ancient hatred’s have become present loves, and as each pair of eyes is lifted; the seer and the seen, recognize the face of Christ~ which is one…

The peace of God has settled over the mind that sees only for Christ and Love is one… Join me in offering today’s lesson’s prayer in union:

“Our Father, Christ has asked a gift of us, and one we give that it be given us. Help us to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy Spirit’s Love to bless all things which we may look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on me…”

Lesson 272:

How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?...

“Father, the truth belongs to me. My home is set in Heaven by Your Will and mine. Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but Your memory can satisfy Your Son? I will accept no less than You have given me. I am surrounded by Your Love, forever still, forever gentle and forever safe. God’s Son must be as You created him.”

This lesson is one of only two lessons (both under the section: What is the Christ?)which are stated as questions… Only the Son of God can answer them. Only the Christ knows.

Illusions of the self, or the self-concept, in other words the false, which then form what it desires, cannot understand satisfaction. It can want and crave and make itself a slave to craving, engaging the addiction mechanism of obsession and compulsion, adequately distracting one from truth and making the false seem imperative by enacting the death script and instilling the fear of God. But distraction isn’t satisfaction… The self-concept cannot identify with truth and only truth can satisfy what is truth.

We are as God created us… His Will is our own… And, nothing but doing God’s Will ever satisfy Christ, the Son of God. Period… Can we just for once and all, strip down and let go all fancy of illusion’s childish dreams of a life apart from God, and rest in the belly of the truth?

Let’s get off it and quit pretending… How can illusions satisfy God’s Son? We know the answer. We are truth: Christ, the holy Son of God… we are the very meaning of satisfaction; for in our creation is our Father’s completion… And illusions are, well… illusion are really nothing…

What is Christ?

Lesson 271:

Christ’s is the vision I will use today…

Ya know, once you really get rockin’ and rollin’ with forgiveness… looking for the quickest route back to love’s awareness in every given situation. When the transient and flash no longer attract and only what is permanent and that can be shared with all is found to be meaningful. When the mirror of brotherhood is anticipated with wholehearted joy on a daily basis and resistance has lost its appeal, for the brotherhood mirror of one’s mind is seen with pure and innocent and accepting eyes; for what is seen is nothing less than the face of Christ… life really begins to get interesting… wouldn’t you say?... I say…

The appreciation I feel for the full participation of each and every member of the Sonship, doing his part, lifts me into the timeless contentment of the peace of God… is truly beyond what words could express. But, thank God, not beyond what Love can extend and therefore find expressing in the little and the grand… whatever Christ can use…

Each day I make the choice which is no choice in eternity, but the essential choice within the concept dream of days. I decide it is only Christ’s vision I will use to see what He would have me see… And everywhere I look; I can’t help but see love exchanging itself through seeming acts of kindness and gratitude. So too, I see love’s exchange in calls for love in what seem to take the form of ‘problems’; that love might have the chance to answer, whispering “you are not alone, for we are one in Christ, so this ‘problem’ could not be”…

Each day I see personhood melt into Christhood as forgiveness heals my sight and all around me…

The changeless wholeness of the Christ within reaches but unto itself… it’s so obvious…

Lesson 263:

My holiness sees all things as pure…

“Father, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your Love gave life to it. And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made sinful? I would not perceive such dark and fearful images. A madman’s dream is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You bless creation; all its purity, its joy, and its eternal, quiet home in You.”

Holy vision… that’s what we’re talking about here. That feeling we always feel beneath the surface of every encounter, resting in the very belly of life itself; the initial ‘love looking itself in the mirror’ yummy feeling, the first feeling, before fear voice tells us what we see. … The one that says, “This too is me…” It is the soft, beyond the concept of judgment, eyes from which we gaze upon our infant child and see only purity and love’s blessing… We are the seer… the choice is ours… Today we merely see instead of imagine…

Lesson 158:

Today I learn to give as I receive…

Christ’s vision is the gift we give. Today we practice seeing beyond the images of form, bodies and persons, and look beyond to the light in them which we see because we are that same self light. One light, like one mind, the one we share with all creation that is creation, creation and Creator as one…

What I have found helps ease the monkey-mind when requests beyond its scope, such as this, are ask of it, is to give it something to focus on, sort of chew on, mull over, occupy it appropriately. Like for instance, quantum physics has explored, investigated, and theorized what makes up all seeming matter and space. It has scientifically proven that none of it is solid. It is rather a combination of particles and waves given specificity by the intent of the viewer. And if broken down to its minutest particle and examined with extreme magnification, the final core is formless emptiness.

This makes the leap to practicing today’s lesson reasonable to the mind that thinks bodies and objects and space. We are ask only to look lovingly beyond, to the light within; to the very reason it is possible to see what seems to be another, or a brother.

Christ’s vision is the gift we receive by offering all we have perceived to the Holy Spirit for forgiveness, reevaluation and reinterpretation. It is this sight we see in our brother, when love has replaced fear and we recognize we but share a common goal; to unite as one in Him.

We receive it too, because we want only what is real. We have decided for Heaven. We want only the truth. We are learning to value only what is valuable and to recognize that what is not, is but a forgiveness opportunity in which we can leave the world we think we see by an instant’s shift in mind to the light of Love beyond and within. When we look again, we see our Self. This is the vision the text is referring to in that often quoted passage in the text: “The holiest place on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.”

Why do we so love this passage? It connects us with the purpose for our being here. It points to the experience of which we all are connected; we feel a deep sense of honor and surrender just hearing the phrase. It reminds us of what matters. It unites us with the sense of Christ’s vision accomplished…

Again, here’s what the lesson says:

Christ’s vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation: And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees.

This can be taught; and must be taught by all who would achieve it. It requires but the recognition that the world can not give anything that faintly can compare with this in value; nor set up a goal that does not merely disappear when this has been perceived. And this you give today: See no one as a body. Greet him as the Son of God he is, acknowledging that he is one with you in holiness.

Today, let us give and receive as one; looking to the Christ light in every one and situation, in remembrance of the Christ light we all share and the vision we now have received…

Lesson 156:

I walk with God in perfect holiness…

Who walks with me? The lesson suggests that this question should be asked a thousand times a day until certainty has ended doubting and established peace….

I know for sure that this is an effective exercise. One of the earlier rounds of my going through the daily lessons, I was so struck with the simplicity of: ‘ask and ye shall receive’, that I wrote “who walks with me” on the back of both my hands, reminding me constantly throughout the day that I only had one question. And, I wanted only the answer that felt the way reading today’s lesson made me feel: namely Holy; certain, enough, innocent, a marked absence of self-necessity replaced with a sense of oneness so complete…. Love… The feeling was fleeting yet unmistakable. And I knew for sure that it was my true feeling.

I went about my regular day with the ‘who walks with me’, constant question on my lips, in my mind and heart. The body did its thing; tasks and all, but those specific details slipped to the background of my intent. Who walks with me? I ask a thousand times and then a thousand times more and the only thing that seemed certain in my day, was that nothing mattered but allowing myself to receive/remember my oneness in Him.

The certainty that I do not walk alone, but that something much larger walks with me began to carry my question. There came a sense that I was one with that hugeness and that within it was my safety and security and not within the seeming necessities of my so-called life… Peace began to fill my being, beyond the petty details and actions and emotions that seemed to fill the screen, I felt my Self beyond, undisturbed.

Who walks with me?

I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world; I light my mind and all the minds which God created one with me.

That day was so powerful for me; I often referenced this lesson to share with others in hopes that they might taste the experience of holiness that I had received.

What I love now is that I have learned to step back and let the light in me encompass the world in a lightened perspective; where laughing at the ego’s absurdity is always at the ready and as natural now as fear of future used to be. I know who walks with me, and that you and I are one.

We walk with God in perfect holiness….

Seeing with holiness~ lesson 58

Lesson 58:

“My holiness envelops everything I see… blesses the world… There is nothing that holiness cannot do … holiness is salvation … blessed as the Son of God…”

What I am seeing is always what I’m looking with…

Some where along the way, I really began to realize that every where I looked, everything I saw; every tiny little thing that seemed to go on in my so-called life, was coming from me… even if I was reporting the situation as totally blind-siding me, -catching me completely off guard-, as I learned to be honest … I saw I put it there…

This kind of honesty is not for the faint-hearted, by the way. It requires “abundant willingness”, and one has to look dead-on, square-in-the-eye, then pick up and fondle some pretty ugly forms, beliefs, identities, ways of being, in order to see that they are all the same; merely a shadow of guilt.

~A shadow of guilt~ yes, ~yet, so unacceptable that projecting it as far away as possible and forgetting where it came from was apparently, the only viable solution at the time…

The return to honestly, through a just a little willingness to “have been wrong about-everything” feels good~ as excruciating as it is ~ it is good in a very ‘real’ sort of way; ~a way that says, “perhaps there is another way , after all…”

And, then it begins~… the obvious, bearable things first come to the surface…then with consistent willingness with deeper honestly raising and fondling of all the used, abused ideas; the demons once valued in fear such that one felt compelled not only to run from, but if necessary, bury alive rather than own, are raised up… [Incidentally ~dissolving at the very uncovering of then ~ {big, f@#!ing demons, eh?}]

Yet with this willingness, one begins to notice the inevitable awakening of the internal light. Right along side these fears and judgments, a light so unmistakable and compelling that one begins to feel its eternal presence had been present, all along. With also an awareness so profound that the very light illuminating all is but holiness itself, the holiness that is one’s Self…

The thing is, that for me, the recognition of my holiness, began to come through, when I first in placed some faith in the idea of the Holy Spirit… [Since I knew I had no faith in myself, at the time and could not be trusted]

The next step naturally followed… Through trusting that the Holy Spirit was with me and within me, gradually I began to recognize that ‘this was my holiness’ that the Course was talking about! It was like, duh, how could anything be separated out from anything?… So I came to see I was, by trusting the Holy Spirit within my mind, therefore, trusting my holiness, and truly valuing honesty… This leans into increased willingness, and trusting deeper, then into abundant willingness and a knowing that it is only my holiness I can trust and it NEVER fails me… There is nothing my holiness cannot do…

…Another world has developed before my very eyes… From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. My holiness blesses the world…

Having forgiven, guilt is replaced with faith. Faithlessness is healed along with guilt, being saved for me by holiness itself… In accepting my holiness, fear is replaced by love. The peace of God, my one goal, has become my constant companion… Certainty now sits where wishful thinking used to reside…There is no other way for me… how could it be any other way… I have seen/experienced the truth ~it is I~ and I am not afraid…I am blessed as a Son of God…Along with all my brothers, who are one with me… You are the light of Christ that makes it possible for me to see… I am eternally grateful!

Godthought premise~ like magic-eye imagery

Lesson 53:

My thoughts are images that I have made... Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. …This, experience of where and who/what I am the bottom-line for me; the real deal, the premise of purpose…
Who and what do I believe I am? What do I want to be real for me? What do I value? ~ Do I consult the truth or the lie for my identity? ~This is no small premise ~ but the one I operate from none the less… (whether I want to realize to or not!) I do! And this determines everything I see….
Choose carefully, Danét, consult a guide deep within, till the experience of peace and the truth of God’s Son hears One Voice… now choose and trust …
The premise chosen, out-pictures peace or conflict, Love or specialness, brother or enemy, sameness or differences…redundant nothing ness or bright, brilliant “God” in everything I see …
It is this looking within and allowing God to reveal Life to me through giving up the desire for any thing else that gives everything meaning for me.
Every moment of every day, this is the question up for review... Will I cover over this present moment of LIFE with the past/future thoughts and beliefs of the world, or surrender to the Life that I am in Truth.
*God did not create a meaningless world. Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide…. just maybe, I’m not seeing right, eh?
So what is my guide for seeing? From where do I determine what I see?

This world is like one of those ‘magic-eye’ pictures. I could look at a whole gallery of this genre and see many pictures. And think “that’s it ~I saw those pictures… But say a inner gallery guide comes up to me and tells me to “look deeper… past the image I think I see…in fact, forget the image I thought I saw entirely, and look deeper… and look deeper not by focusing or concentrating harder on the one I first automatically seemed to see, but actually relax my focus, and, while still staying present with the image, …let the picture itself, reveal itself to me~ through my releasing the barrier [of preconceived idea judgment] to seeing it as it really is…

I am filled with such gratitude and joy… I see that the belief in illusions was the error that that has already been corrected by the Holy Spirit, and the Mind that thinks with God, has no opposite. This is the gift of the Atonement… and accepting the Atonement for myself, accepting this correction, is for me, really the only decision to make...the only decision worthy of the Son of God. It is indeed a decision for the acceptance of what is REALLY true, to ‘deny the denial of TRUTH. What could be more worthy of my devotion and full attention?
So first off, choose my thinking to think with God…because without fail, my thinking will characterize the world for me. I’m no longer interested in going-with –the –flow of the world’s thoughts ~mine is to observe their nothingness from that still point of Quiet Light that lights up my beliefs and unbelief and swallows the darkness in the Light of forgiveness. And then to look more deeply upon a world of seeming illusions, look deeper still within my mind, until, through forgiveness’s healing light, the REAL WORLD reveals itself to me… this is an experience of unspeakable JOY and eternal gratitude for Who and What I am ~ for You, my brothers, Who are one with me in praising the glory of God! …Forever and ever… amen

~review 1 with love~

Review I~ Lesson 51:

I love the review sections of the workbook ~
The first few years of working with the Course and lessons found taking the review time as an experience of my feeling that if I didn’t get it perfectly the first time around, I was given another chance at integrating the ideas and allowing the miracle perception shift that always results. (As if there is anything but more chances, till all is returned inevitably to Love)Then, inexorably I noticed, there was another purpose as well (less indicative of ‘my’ private thoughts) ~a purpose of purpose. I began to see the cohesiveness of the Course’s thought system~ in practice~ systematic practical reversal~ each idea looping back on the whole …
Not just in theory, in the experience of my life. This awareness deepens as I do and as my willingness allows. It’s so inspiring how utterly thorough the deconstruction of a seeming “REALITY” is systematically approached, exposed and dismantled from a seemingly alien, yet indubitably compelling perspective. I began to feel (and I still do, I notice) that I couldn’t wait for the next one…You know like when you’re taking a class that’s just really interesting, helpful and exciting… or when you just fell in love… how you just can’t wait to experience the next thing and you don’t want the one you’re experiencing to ever end?!!! That’s sorta what developed for me.
I felt that, as excruciating as it was to look at how my petty, loser attempt at making a ‘great me’ was a complete failure, somehow ~ this was turning out to be a ‘good’ thing… go figure…
Also, meanwhile, I could never really shake this feeling that I had something ‘really important’ to get back to when I was out and about doing my so-called life. Even when I was completely ‘whacked’ (and lord knows there’s been a lot of that) ~ I was haunted by the feeling that there was something I knew –something I needed to get back to that would take me out the seeming nightmarish ‘reality’ I'd trapped myself in; to frightened to believe any thing (least of all myself) was worth the devotion beckoning my attention… So, I offered the best I could at the time, every time… IT HAS BEEN ENOUGH.
Turns out, the curriculum of A Course in Miracles was designed for minds just like mine. Matter of fact, that is why it was designed… And the more involvement I have with it; the ‘d e e p e r the rabbit-hole goes’… into the silence from which I came.
Inevitably it dawns… that It really is an inside job; the mistaken thought of take-over, the cover-up, the imagined world, the necessity of ‘belief’ … Also though ~Heaven~ not effected by this dream at all ~ that too is from within and it is nothing like any thing I could have ever imagined. It is the total surrender of ‘thinking we know’ to ‘not knowing’, in order ‘to know’, which is just the natural course of undoing/remembering; of seeing, of thinking, of creating…
Seeming meaning ~no meaning ~ meaning, etc. … and round and round it goes…
I naturally began viewing the dream of “my” so-called life, not as a player (or even the hero) anymore, but as the dreamer of the dream where ‘making’ can seem to replace creating and concoct the impossible, that in a thought system of smoke and mirrors, can actually appear real… Yet, that is what appearance is for, yes? Here’s the merry-go-round:
Nothing I see means anything, since, after all, I see NOTHING, and nothing has no meaning. So apparently I felt l needed to give meaning to my so-called life and I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me. I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. Therefore, I do not understand anything I see. What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. So of course, I do not understand what I see because it’s not understandable. Who can trust thoughts like that ~shifting and changing with the tides of emotions and personal identification? Thank God ~these thoughts do not mean anything. Given that as a character in the dream, my awareness is only of the dream, itself, the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real thoughts. And, thank God, my real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. And they are still in my mind, creating without interruption through my connection with my Creator~
It’s just that when I am identified with the script/dream, I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place …
So my apparent feelings are not the truth either because they are fathered by the thoughts I made to replace creation.
It’s quite spectacular to see this all dispassionately and chuckle in amusement ~being detached from its seeming ‘reality’ …
For instance; all seeming upsets~ really aren’t…since I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. Don’t you hate that! ~ Constantly trying to make the untrue true… impossible task, yet built within the system of the mad idea of separation~
We make all things our enemies, so that anger is justified and attacks are warranted and we find ‘we hurt the ones we “love” and we always attack ourselves in the end’. Funny how lines like this, stick with you and make millions in songs and Hallmark cards…
There is another way of Looking at the world… THIS IS THAT OTHER WAY… at least for one writing this right now… and through the experience rendered from willingness to choose to be shown ‘that other way’… From there the Holy Spirit can guide through the careful study of the Course’ theology, psychology, methodology and the consistent practice of the practical exercises to be implemented for the forgiving all of it…and … wa la… ONE VISION!
The vision of Christ sees us through the ‘journey without distance to the place we never left’, gathering (re-member-ing) mighty companions along the way. All meaning is given us by the One Who Knows ~turns out we are the One… thank you for hangin’ out with me on this seeming journey.
Love and gratitude overflowing ~

“God is my strength. Vision is His gift…”

Lesson 42:

“God is my strength. Vision is His gift…”

I am resting in the One Love~ God-Love ~watching… Watching the attempted busyness the little mind seeks to find its safety and strength in… its attempts at the petty judgments about what to do and where to go ~ looking for the ’right’-ness criteria for evaluation. This is how my ego mind tries to keep itself ‘pumped up’, trying to stay ahead of the inevitable deflation and ignorance.

…I no longer really identify with this personality set of ideas. ~forgiveness has replaced them with my Self ~ God’s Son… Indeed, where they were once ‘me’, I now rest above the battleground where God’s strength has accomplished the seemingly impossible ~and I have done nothing but ask for the truth ~ to ‘see what I denied, because it was the truth’ and then made welcome for whatever may seem to come.

Seeing the impossibility of God’s mind being somehow mistaken or something ‘accidentally’ or ‘wrong’, has allowed me to trust that “we cannot but be in the right place at the right time “...

Resting in the Moment, Now, I see the ego’s antics~ laughable really~ beneath what looks to be just pathetic… ~Yet, beneath it all, beyond it all, within and without~ is the loveliness that vision shines ~
…And there it is …the simple truth. All strength is mine~ all power of God at the ready; all for all ~ all love equally shared, for all, as all, already… Here is a Silence upon Which the world cannot intrude, a serenity so still and gentle that the whisper of the Holy Spirit is the only thing I hear…. Aahhhh, the yummy tranquility of Heaven… ~this is my Home. Home is where the heart is and where the heart is, there is our treasure also, resting in the Heart of God. My strength is in that treasure of which I am a part which sees with the vision of Christ love.

What but this could I have ever wanted, and only this was what I sought, regardless of the convoluted forms it has taken in my so-called life.

God is my strength. Vision is His gift…

And having glimpsed such a Quiet, who would seek for anything else? It turns out all things do work together for good~ and the world of busyness dissolves into Quiet. The world of distractions ends as unified purpose zeros into a single-pointed awareness. The world of pain and sorrow and sadness and grief turn to joy, and unity and happiness and laughter! …What but the Love of God offers eternal Gifts such as these? Finally we come to accept that these are the only gifts we want and give them freely as they were given us…to keep them…

Why wait…even another moment of so-called time…right now, we sink deep into the mind and open to the truth “God is my strength. Vision is His gift.”…the experience waits for our welcome… "Love waits on welcome, not on time"… and with our welcome we bring Love into our constant awareness… to give ~ to keep~ with eternal love and gratitude ~

~blessed, bless, and blessing~

Lesson 37:

“My holiness blesses the world...” My purpose in this world is to see it thru my holiness; no exclusions, no compromise…. It is entire/whole, or not at all… The world is as I am. Period.

This is the leap of faith we take that the truth is true…and nothing else is true. Only my return to True Cause in my mind can render right perception. So, since I made a world that seems to be apart from God, and my Self, it is necessary that, as I look upon it once again, with fresh eyes, recognizing not its separation, but its Oneness. I bless the world and myself along with it.

The Course tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave it to his Son.” I see now that this is not so as an affirmation that what we think is real (this illusory world of separation), is real, it is rather an affirmation of His faith in His Creation. “The creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness. Miracles are affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance”. (T-1.V.4.5)

To give is to receive in truth. And the only way we heal the belief in scarcity is by wholly giving all to all, the blessing of One-mind, the Sonship. The way I learn to re-cognize my holiness is by blessing the world with it. To bless is to trust. I trust the Holy Spirit, and everything I look upon whether within or seemingly without, I see as blessed, all one, and part of myself, which is part of God. Everything… nothing excluded. It’s either all my holiness, or it is nothing at all. “YES MUST MEAN ‘NOT NO”. There really is ultimately no compromise possible between everything and nothing…my holiness blesses the world…

Doing the lesson today, I notice my mind turning in the direction of its source and then smiling out on the world, feeling the perfect creation of a perfect creator…It is good… I guess this is what drew me to reflect on the early part of the text… I feel one with this. It is my curriculum. I am so blessed. Here is the part in the text that is speaking so persistently to my mind… and blessing…

“The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made. In attitude, then, though not in content, you resemble your Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations He created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence. That is why you can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you.” All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:

Perfect love casts out fear.

If fear exists,

Then there is not perfect love.

But:

Only perfect love exists.

If there is fear,

It produces a state that does not exist.

Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith .” (T-1.VI.4-5)

I have faith that beyond my faith, including it, is this 'gift' of God's faith. So really, it is easy for me to have faith in such wholly logical truth, and that little faith has given me the world...a world blessed by my holiness. As I have submitted my beliefs to this criterion, I have seen their unreality… the false is false and only truth is real. And the true is ~ I am as God created me… I am very holy…
With gratitude I accept the reality of my holiness and happily allow holiness to do what it does ~bless the world, which blesses me. ~

...GodMind to lesson 35...

Lesson 35:

“My mind is part of God's. I am very holy…”
“…the emphasis for today is on the perceiver, rather than on what he perceives.”

Hmmm… what does this mean? If I have learned anything, it is that ‘I’ don’t know.
I have a set of ideas from which to interpret and place meaning ~ theses are authored by my concept of my self. And isn’t that the very thing that got me into this, in the first place? I don’t know. The question just begs to be ask… Can I really understand? Isn’t my idea of myself attempting to do the understanding through my ‘self-concept’?
Still, some meaning beyond “myself’ sings its lovely melody to me in this statement “My mind is part of God's. I am very holy” …beckoning me home… I weep in joy at its completeness and tranquil bliss…thank you.

The Course tells us that the ego is incapable of understanding anything. And, that yet, this is where we turn for answers about who and what we are. I mean really… doesn’t this seem insane? It does to me…

As I was reading today’s lesson, a deep sense of peace held me in its belly, while this thought from the Course went through my mind

“ I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.” (T-31.V.17.7)

This single thought has been the key of freedom which unlocks my ‘self-concept’s’ heavy gates of definition and limitation ~ to the possibility of an open mind~ to the possibility of unlearning what I have taught myself and allowing myself to be taught by a teacher who knows… I think I am beginning to see what He means in Chapter 28 of the text where it says:

“Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught. And who would keep a senseless lesson in his mind, when he can learn and can preserve a better one?” (T-28.I.7)

Everyone makes up a ‘self’, well yeah, that’s what this world is ~ the idea of ‘self’ apart from God. But that is certainly not enough, is it? One must design and manufacture a personal self, a unique self, a ‘special’ self ~ better or worse than the ‘others’. Naturally, along with it come the necessary scales of measurement and hierarchies of values with which one must prove ones worth.
I have been the “self-improvement” business all of my life(oxymoron, yes?)… find the problem, fix it, try harder, be better ~ expose another ‘flaw’; hide it or fix it or hide it till I fix it… and then help so-called others do the same…and on and on. All my efforts at becoming ‘better, stronger, faster’ always had been circular in nature. And this is as good as it gets with the self-concept~ the best the world has to offer… and thank God it is so relentlessly unsatisfying ~ so some of us get the feeling we would do anything for a better way. (Like me for one, and Helen and Bill, the scribes for the Course, and you) I love what the Course says about this in Chapter 31 in the section titled, “Self-Concept versus Self".
Happily, I am beginning to see…to see that there could only be One Cause of my Being. That cause is God. And God has not changed his mind about His Son. And I am his Son, “… complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In me is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. I am the holy home of God Himself. I am the Heaven where His Love resides. I am His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in my purity abides His Own.” (W-pII.14.1)

“My mind is part of God’s…I am very holy”… and Now, we trust; trust God ~ His Holy Spirit within our mind… and have faith in our brothers who are One with us and allow God’s mind expression…

I am very holy, as love, one with you and all, in all, in God, forever and ever~amen~