FRIDAY FEBRUARY 19, 2016
Two Minds Are ONE
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 5 "HEALING AND WHOLENESS"
II. HEALING AS JOINING      
 
Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God Himself go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot have what it does not choose to be. Remember that the Soul knows no difference between "being" and "having." The higher mind thinks according to the laws which the Soul obeys and therefore honors only the laws of God. To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, the Soul holds everything by giving it and thus creates as the Father created.

A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I
INTRODUCTION
WorkBook Intro
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1 A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make these exercises meaningful. Yet it is the exercises which will make the goal possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines which the course sets forth.
 
2 The exercises are very simple. They do not require more than a few minutes, and it does not matter where or when you do them. They need no preparation. They are numbered, running from 1 to 365. The training period is one year. Do not undertake more than one exercise a day.
 
3 The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world. The workbook is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the undoing of what you see now and the second with the restoration of sight. It is recommended that each exercise be repeated several times a day, preferably in a different place each time and, if possible, in every situation in which you spend any long period of time. The purpose is to train the mind to generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as applicable to one situation as it is to another.
 
4 Unless specified to the contrary, the exercise should be practiced with the eyes open, since the aim is to learn how to see. The only rule that should be followed throughout is to practice the exercises with great specificity. Each one applies to every situation in which you find yourself and to everything you see in it. Each day's exercises are planned around one central idea, the exercises themselves consisting of applying that idea to as many specifics as possible. Be sure that you do not decide that there are some things you see to which the idea for the day is inapplicable. The aim of the exercises will always be to increase the application of the idea to everything. This will not require effort. Only be sure that you make no exceptions in applying the idea.
 
5 Some of the ideas you will find hard to believe, and others will seem quite startling. It does not matter. You are merely asked to apply them to what you see. You are not asked to judge them, nor even to believe them. You are asked only to use them. It is their use which will give them meaning to you, and show you they are true. Remember only this-you need not believe them, you need not accept them, and you need not welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter nor decrease their efficacy. But allow yourself to make no exceptions in applying the ideas the exercises contain. Whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is required.
 
  ~ Original Hand Script of ACIM    

  
CIRCLE OF ATONEMENT ~ COMMENTARY
          
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DAILY LESSON
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 L e s s o n 50
I am sustained by the Love of God.
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1 Here is the answer to every problem that confronts you today and tomorrow and throughout time. In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols-pills, money, "protective" clothing, "influence," "prestige," being liked, knowing the "right" people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness which you endow with magical powers. All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego. 
 
2 Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you. Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you out of every trial and raise you high above all the perceived dangers of this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. It will transport you into a state of mind which nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God. 
 
3 Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you, eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through the Love of God in you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a declaration of release from the belief in idols. It is your acknowledgment of the truth about yourself. 
 
4 For ten minutes twice today, morning and evening, let the idea for today sink deep into your consciousness. Repeat it, think about it, let related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth, and allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever.
   
          ~ Original Hand Script of ACIM   
  
  
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
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Lesson 50
I am sustained by the Love of God. 
 
Sarah's Commentary: 
  
I am reminded today of the words we had inscribed for my father's funeral from Jeremiah 17.8: "For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit when he trusts the Lord and places his hope and confidence in Him."
 
This passage was selected for my father, because not only was he a tree farmer and planter, but also he had overcome an amazing amount of adversity, escaping with his family from a war-torn country and thriving in spite of great odds.
 
This verse is very relevant to this Lesson. We are sustained like the tree by the water. We are constantly renewed, constantly supplied and nourished, and in truth never in need of anything. This kind of inner stability and calm is available all the time when we turn to the truth within. With practice and commitment to our healing and awakening, we come to accept the truth of who we are as we were created. Of course, this requires we stop listening to the voice of the ego, which never has our best interests at heart.
 
Jesus tells us what we already see for ourselves. There are many things we turn to in the world to sustain us other than God. What do I turn to when I am feeling needy, sad, alone, and empty? Do I turn to God's Love or to food, money, pills, status, power, prestige, special relationships, control, attention, sleep, distraction, and all of those things I give priority to in my life, because I think that is where my happiness lies? They are all things the Course calls idols. Are they bad? Of course not. What we need to realize is they are not the answer for our unhappiness
 
"Let not their form deceive you. Idols are but substitutes for your reality. In some way, you believe they will complete your little self, for safety in a world perceived as dangerous, with forces massed against your confidence and peace of mind. They have the power to supply your lacks, and add the value that you do not have. No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss. And thus must seek beyond his little self for strength to raise his head, and stand apart from all the misery the world reflects. This is the penalty for looking not within for certainty and quiet calm that liberates you from the world, and lets you stand apart, in quiet and in peace." (T.29.VIII.2)(ACIM OE T.29.IX.53)
 
We believe these idols are the source of nourishment and support for us. We think if we found the right partner, we would not be lonely, or if we found the right job, we would be happy. We have a long list of things in this world to which we have given power and value. Jesus tells us they are mere symbols. They are trivial forms of nothingness we endow with meaning. Clearly, we are not to feel guilty about currently needing our special relationships, taking pills, or any other form of bodily or psychological sustenance. Neither are we being asked to give anything up. That would be a confusion of levels, as the Course calls them, where we confuse the level of the body and behavior with the level of the mind. Jesus is not asking us to let go of our bodily concerns, only to look at the thought system on which they are based and to recognize that when we put our faith in illusions, they will fail us. (W.50.4.1-2) In other words, we will not find our peace and happiness in them. Through the healing of the mind, we come to a recognition of our true identity, not as a body and individual unique self, but as the dreamer of this dream. We come to recognize peace is an inner condition that has nothing to do with how things go in the world.
 
I was listening to a program about the beliefs held by Mormons and learned they wear sacred underwear they believe protects them. Looking at this from the outside, it seemed trivial to me, yet we all have idols we have given magical powers. They may be pills, food, knowing the right people, cars, clothes, careers, various icons, crystals, and all the things we consider important to our safety, well-being and sustenance. Yet Jesus calls them all "an endless list of forms of nothingness that we endow with magical powers." (W.50.1.3) They are all "cherished to ensure a body identification," (W.50.2.2) and "songs of praise to the ego." (W.50.2.3)
 
They are all replacements for the Love of God, which does sustain us. Developing the habit of turning to God's Love by bringing all of our dark thoughts to the light of His truth assures us of something totally reliable. The special love we know in the world is tenuous and does not make us feel safe. It is a false substitute for the Love of God and is based on guilt and tinged with fear. Our worldly love is unreliable, changing, takes a lot of effort to maintain, and does not bring the kind of safety and support reflected in this Lesson.
 
When this earthly love is expressed as forgiveness, while not even close to how God loves us, it does give us a reflection of that Love. Miracles are the closest we come to experiencing His Love in our lives. Miracles are the effect of letting go of the blocks to love, through forgiveness. Forgiveness is all about letting go of our demands, expectations, grievances, and all the dark thoughts that take up the space where Love resides in us. When we experience this kind of healing in ourselves, we know we are valued and supported. Idols can never fill us up. All they do is distract us from the pain of our lives, and the biggest distraction of all, which Jesus calls the ego's most boasted gift, is the special relationship. That is why we all constantly look for love outside ourselves. Yet God's Love is infinitely greater than anything we can imagine as being even close to the most powerful human love.
 
This reminds me of a recent interview I heard, of a woman's near death experience. She had the experience of being out of her body, going through the tunnel to the light, and into the presence of God. She was told she must go back, but she begged to stay, basking in the love. She said she had been a good mother and wife and was currently caring for cancer patients and had given a lot in life and did not want to return. The question put to her, by the Being she called God, was, "Yes, but have you loved the way you feel loved here?" She acknowledged she had not and agreed she had not really understood this kind of love in the roles she had played in the world prior to this experience. She then returned willingly to her body to learn more about how she could experience this kind of love in the world. It is a powerful lesson for all of us. I have seen in my life how I have been very responsible in trying to be a good wife, mother, friend and so on. But roles do not allow true giving. The role can never truly receive. So while I might be a good person, there is no true joy or real love shared through any role we play.
 
The only way we can offer love in the world is by removing the blocks we put in its way, such as the roles we take on and our efforts at being loving, which are often based on fear, worry, and guilt on behalf of our special loved ones. Removing the blocks to love is what the practice of the Lessons is all about. This is how forgiveness is defined in the Course. Forgiveness is all about the healing of our own minds by bringing our perceived ego needs to awareness and asking for help in letting them go.
 
We are confronted with many difficulties in this world. The ego's purpose of all our problems is to keep us invested in them, so all our attention will go into trying to solve problems in form. Jesus encourages us to see, "Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence." (W.50.4.5) When our attention is focused on solving problems in our own way, we are trusting in our own strength. When we recognize the power of God's Love in us, we bring our interpretations of what we see as a problem to the light of His healing power. This is the only answer to every problem. When we try to solve problems in the world through the ego's guidance, we keep the problems, since they just show up again in a different form. The only true answer comes when the problem is brought to the truth within and peace reigns.
 
Jesus is gently guiding us not to put our faith in illusions by focusing on idols for our happiness. Illusions will always fail us. Most of us get that. Yet so often we still make the choice to rely on our own resources instead of asking to hear God's Voice and His guidance. Whatever confronts us today, let us remember the power of the Holy Spirit is in our mind. We can be released from the tyranny of the ego built on guilt, fear, feelings of worthlessness, and doubt thoughts about ourselves. If we keep telling ourselves our story of how we are victims of the world, we will continue to buy into wrong-minded perceptions. Today, we are asked to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and declare our release from the investment in the idols we have made to take the place of His Love, so we may recognize how idols work to substitute for our reality. He is asking us today to withdraw the faith we have invested in the illusion. Illusions will always fail us. (W.50.4.1-4) To put our faith in illusions is to put it in nothing.
 
Today, we look beyond our limitations and needs and recognize our only real sustenance is the Love of God. "For ten minutes, twice today, morning and evening, let the idea for today sink deep into your consciousness. Repeat it, think about it, let related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth, and allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God." (W.50.5.1-3)
 
Try to take this idea deep into your mind today. Let it sink into your consciousness, so you can experience the truth of this thought. Know that anything we focus on today where we think our happiness lies in the world is false. True happiness can never come from these things. Be willing to look at your idle and foolish thoughts. When seen from above the battleground, we stand aside from the ego and can smile at their unreality. When they are taken seriously, they do not seem foolish, for they hurt us and keep us in pain.
 
Today is a much longer practice, and it is a new kind of practice, where we really "allow peace to flow over us like a blanket of protection and surety," (W.50.5.2) by releasing the "idle and foolish thoughts" (W.50.5.5) that disturb the mind, so we might know the beautiful "resting place where your Father has placed you forever." (W.50.5.5) This is the experience of the "Kingdom of Heaven." (W.50.5.4) It comes about as a result of our "declaration of release from the belief in idols." (W.50.4.7)
 
Finally, use this Lesson whenever you are confronted by any problem, issue or difficult situation during the day, reminding yourself God is with you in this situation and His Love is the Answer to whatever confronts you. "Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence." (W.50.4.5) Our seeming difficulties are always about the forms of this world, but the content of love never leaves our minds. If we don't feel it, it is only because we are blocking it from our awareness. Any event or situation we give the power to take from us our peace is actually neutral. The interpretations we give to such events is what brings distress. Now we ask the Holy Spirit to reinterpret these events, so we can see them through His loving eyes instead of through our own.

Love and blessings, Sarah

I. Introduction   

1
To heal is to make happy. I have told you before to think how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves and how many you have refused. This is exactly the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourselves. The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Depression is often contagious but, although it may affect those who come in contact with it, they do not yield to the influence whole-heartedly. But joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share in it and thus promotes the mind's natural impulse to respond as one.
 
2 Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time and thus deprive others of the joy of responding whole-heartedly. To be whole-hearted, you must be happy. If fear and love cannot coexist and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, then the only possible whole state is that of love. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is done. Every part benefits and benefits equally.
 
3 You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return out of gratitude. You do not have to know them individually or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God's holy Children are worthy to be channels of His beautiful joy because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a Child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer's prayer is:
 
4 Let me know this brother as I know myself.

II. Healing as Joining    

5 Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God Himself go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot have what it does not choose to be. Remember that the Soul knows no difference between "being" and "having." The higher mind thinks according to the laws which the Soul obeys and therefore honors only the laws of God. To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, the Soul holds everything by giving it and thus creates as the Father created.
 
6 If you think about it, you will see that, while this kind of thinking is totally alien to having things, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with ideas. If you share a physical possession, you do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours, although all of it has been given away. Further, if the person to whom you give it accepts it as his, he reinforces it in your mind, and thus increases it. If you can accept the concept that the world is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association which the ego makes between giving and losing is gone.
 
7 Let us start our process of reawakening with just a few simple concepts:
 
8 Thoughts increase by being given away.
  The more who believe in them, the stronger they become.
  Everything is an idea.
  How, then, is it possible that giving and losing can be
  meaningfully associated?
 
9 This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit. I told you that I could reach up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you only at your own invitation. The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your own right mind. He was also mine. The Bible says, "May the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus," and uses this as a blessing. It is the blessing of miracle-mindedness. It asks that you may think as I thought, joining with me in Christ-thinking.
 
10 The Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity which is symbolic. He is referred to in the Bible as the Healer, the Comforter, and the Guide. He is also described as something "separate," apart from the Father and from the Son. I myself said, "If I go I will send you another comforter, and He will abide with you." The Holy Spirit is a difficult concept to grasp precisely because it is symbolic and therefore open to many different interpretations. As a man and as one of God's creations, my right thinking, which came from the Universal Inspiration which is the Holy Spirit, taught me first and foremost that this Inspiration is for all. I could not have It myself without knowing this.
 
11 The word "know" is proper in this context because the Holy Inspiration is so close to knowledge that it calls it forth; or better, allows it to come. We have spoken before of the higher or the "true" perception, which is so close to truth that God Himself can flow across the little gap. Knowledge is always ready to flow everywhere, but it cannot oppose. Therefore, you can obstruct it, although you can never lose it. The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind, which senses the knowledge that lies beyond perception. It came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the beginning of the Atonement at the same time. Before that, there was no need for healing and no one was comfortless.

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 Lesson 108
  
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