Reflections 113 to 126
113/ Early Morning Dew
15th February 2025
“What we know is a drop; what we don’t know is an ocean.” Isaac Newton.
The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. (ACIM, T-30.III.8:4)
***
Lesson 113. Review of lessons 95 and 96 (ACIM, W-113). Yesterday: Again, I used an EarPod while working in the morning (as a way of being able to practise the lesson without anyone thinking I was shirking off) and I think I must have had a clean sweep throughout the day. Every half hour I would look at the lesson and try to imbue it. And it also meant that I could earn some money as well as heal the mind. Today: When I woke up earlier this morning - a time when the ego is at its most vicious - I began to question my thoughts and ask them if they were really real. And, of course, they are not. Each thought is a complete fantasy.
Safety is the complete relinquishment of attack. No compromise is possible in this. Teach attack in any form and you have learned it, and it will hurt you. Yet this learning is not immortal, and you can unlearn it by not teaching it. (ACIM, T-6.III.3:7-10)
A Course in Miracles reminds us that attacking someone does not have to be a physical action. Attack means any thought that is out of alignment with peace.
The ego (another term for fear) loves to attack and it does this in the form of judgement. Everything and everyone is judged as being good or bad, to be avoided or to be desired.
Bodies, of course, have been known to slaughter each other because of this judgement. And it is always because the ego is allowed to be dominant in the mind.
Lessen its power, however, and the ego dissolves - just like dew evaporates as the sun reappears.
The Workbook therefore enables us to be more disciplined about at least acknowledging what we are thinking. Instead of allowing hundreds of judgements to pass through our minds every minute of the day, it trains us to observe them with no investment at all.
It is when we observe the mind that the ego becomes anxious. And this is because, like the warmth of the sun on an early morning dew, the light of the mind looks on judgement and shines it all away.
114/ Life Is Joy
16th February 2025
“The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts.” René Descartes.
Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. (ACIM, T-5.I.1:1)
***
Lesson 114. Review of lessons 97 and 98 (ACIM, W-114). Yesterday: The morning was a bit fragmented in terms of practising the lesson, in the sense that I teach a couple of classes which require a certain degree of concentration. Then, as the afternoon arrived, I was back on track. Today: Have just been reading in the text about how seeing others as spirit is absolutely crucial in terms of how we view ourselves. It really is all or nothing. Currently, someone hasn’t paid me for a job I did for them. My mind is occupied with that but I am also trying to send them blessings.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Answer, not the question. The ego always speaks first. It is capricious and does not mean its maker well. It believes, and correctly, that its maker may withdraw his support from it at any moment. (ACIM, T-6.IV.1:1-4)
We always have a choice but what we choose is usually dominated by the voice of the ego.
The ego uses speed to make the decision. It does everything it can to suppress the Voice beneath it.
We are therefore asleep to the world around us. The world that we see arises from the mind of the ego and we have no idea that our thoughts are insane. For example:
- We think we are a body. No, we are not the body.
- We think we are safe and sound. We are, but not in the way the ego presents it.
- We think that suffering is part of life. It isn’t, but the ego makes it so.
A Course in Miracles is our path back to a world without the ego. It shows us the real world where life is life and what life is can only ever be experienced as joy.
17th February 2025
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” George Addair.
Every decision you make is for Heaven or for hell, and brings you the awareness of what you decided for. (ACIM, T-15.III.5:7)
***
Lesson 115. Review of lessons 99 and 100 (ACIM, W-115). Yesterday: The contrast between the ego and the Holy Spirit was apparent throughout the day. Sometimes, I would be oblivious to the Course, behaving as if I was Mark, and then I would be reminded that I am not. The purpose behind any part of the Workbook is to remember that we are spirit. Today: It is clear that, whenever we have a problem, then we should hand it over to the Holy Spirit. This means knowing that it is dealt with and done… hmm. It made complete sense to me as I read this in the text but, as I think about one particular non-payment of money, I am not so sure.
Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life. If we share the same mind, you can overcome death because I did. (ACIM, T-6.V-A.1:3-5)
This is a statement from Jesus. He wants us to know that the crucifixion is symbolic of the ego and the resurrection is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.
One reflects the truth and the other reflects the dream.
A Course in Miracles is therefore an expanded message from Jesus. He tells us that neither the crucifixion nor the resurrection actually happened, because there is only now. The Son never left the Father - it is an impossibility - and the mind is just projecting the guilt that thinks we did.
Jesus, then, is a manifestation of spirit - as we all are. Spirit’s message is to believe in love and to let go of fear. It is only our belief in the separation that banished all of love and manifested every fear.
The only one who can help us is our Self. Our awakening to truth cannot come from anywhere else.
Jesus therefore provides us with the simple message from the Self that is within all of us. It is about forgiveness. It is the reminder that love has never left the mind and we are God’s most holy Son.
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18th February 2025
“The first and the best victory is to conquer self.” Plato.
Love does not conquer all things, but it does set all things right. (ACIM, T-4.VI.7:6)
***
Lesson 116. Review of lessons 101 and 102 (ACIM, W-116). Yesterday: The morning was a bit fragmented - as in I was teaching a class and interacting with people. In the afternoon I was back on track. Even when I was outside at dusk, and was in the middle of a few moves of tai chi, I suddenly remembered the lesson. I stopped to pause and reflect on what we were asked to do. Today: The first part of this review today is pretty conclusive. God’s Will for us is perfect happiness and, if we don’t share it, then we suffer. I have just been contemplating this fact for five minutes and it has become abundantly clear that we either know this fully or we don’t know it at all.
A Course in Miracles tells us that the Holy Spirit sees the body only as a form of communication. If the mind is peaceful, then the body communicates that peace.
The ego always breaks that communication because it promotes attack. The ego is a law unto itself and can never know peace.
The purpose, then, of the Workbook is to train us (as the decision maker) so we don’t react to random thoughts of judgement and, instead, we get to know the peace behind those thoughts.
The peace behind thought is the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God. The Holy Spirit always mediates with spirit, which is really a part of God, and does not know of the ego, which is simply an error. And it is always this error that needs to be corrected.
Therefore, it is with each lesson of the Workbook that we start the process of correcting the error.
And this is when the peace behind thought blazes. We are allowing the truth to heal the mind.
The Holy Spirit, Who leads to God, translates communication into being, just as He ultimately translates perception into knowledge. You do not lose what you communicate. The ego uses the body for attack, for pleasure and for pride. (ACIM, T-6.V-A.5:1-3)
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117/ Stop and Listen
19th February 2025
“The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.” Thomas Aquinas.
What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? (ACIM, T-11.V.2:1)
***
Lesson 117. Review of lessons 103 and 104 (ACIM, W-117). Yesterday: Clearly the ego hates these lessons because, if any one of them was understood fully, then reality would prevail. My own day was one of contrast. I balanced the ego’s fear of loss (I was earning money in the morning) with the ego’s need for change (we set off for the coast in the afternoon). On reflection, I can see that the ego is never satisfied. Today: Love is both happiness and joy - that is what I learned from the first part of the review. Even feeling the slightest twinge of anxiety means that I am immersed in the ego. Peace is always prevalent and doesn’t go anywhere.
The ego’s goal is as unified as the Holy Spirit’s, and it is because of this that their goals can never be reconciled in any way or to any extent. The ego always seeks to divide and separate. The Holy Spirit always seeks to unify and heal. (ACIM, T-7.IV.5:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us there is no order of difficulty in healing. It merely asks us to forget what we are not and to remember what we are.
The mind is always busy - it can never just be. We are taught to do and build and succeed. The world frowns whenever someone stops their doing and simply is.
Undoing sounds odd - it doesn’t seem natural. And yet this is exactly what A Course in Miracles is teaching us. It wants us to unclutter our minds and find out what else takes its place.
The ego becomes wary because the ego is that clutter. The ego can easily turn vicious. Nothing angers it more than questioning its authority.
We, though, continue inwards and don’t look outwards. We stop all doing and learn the art of being.
It’s only by stopping for a moment and listening intently that we come to know that we are love. Love can never leave the mind. Love is with us always and it never goes away.
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118/ Pure and One
20th February 2025
“I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends.” Maimonides.
You have no other “enemy,” and against this strange distortion of the purity of the Son of God the Holy Spirit is your only Friend. (ACIM, T-14.III.13:5)
***
Lesson 118. Review of lessons 105 and 106 (ACIM, W-118). Yesterday: We are in St Ives, a small town on the north coast of Cornwall, as a belated Christmas present from my sister. It’s beautiful and the Atlantic ocean is a source of primal power. On a walk, going west along the headland, we watched a bob of seals out to sea. Nothing reflects the goal of the Workbook more than being able to wait and look and listen. Today: The first part of today’s review states that “God’s peace and joy are mine”. It was clear, though, during my first extended practice, that I have to rise above habitual thinking in order to know this. Thoughts get in the way of reality just as clouds obscure the sun.
As you can hear two voices, so you can see in two ways. One way shows you an image, or an idol that you may worship out of fear, but will never love. The other shows you only truth, which you will love because you will understand it. (ACIM, T-7.V.9:1-3)
Truth is not complex. It doesn’t need to be studied. The only thing truth asks of us is to be known.
Reality is here, now. It hasn’t gone anywhere. It is all around us but we are blind to it. Instead, we have invented something else and this is called fear.
Fear is an illusion. It ensures that we dream of a world that has no foundation in truth.
And A Course in Miracles is the path out of this fear and away from duality. It enables the mind to see past the form to only the formless. It is the voice of Jesus reminding us of what is pure and one.
Erin Michelle Galito channels Jesus in the video below. Jesus asks us to have an open mind about reality. He states that nothing outside of ourselves is occurring and the world simply proves that we are apart. Everything happens in the mind and it is up to us to use forgiveness to know that this is so.
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119/ Safety Is Peace
21st February 2025
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” Lewis B. Smedes.
Forgiveness, truth’s reflection, tells me how to offer miracles, and thus escape the prison house in which I think I live. (ACIM, W-357.1:1)
***
Lesson 119. Review of lessons 107 and 108 (ACIM, W-119). Yesterday: Towards the end of an afternoon walk, and from high on the coastal footpath between the beaches of Porthmeor and Porthgwidden, we witnessed a pod of dolphins moving from east to west. There were maybe thirty or more and it was both magical and surreal. It is not an understatement to say it was probably one of the highlights of my life. Today: Have just been contemplating how truth will correct all errors in my mind and this means the stream of thought that tells the narrative of Mark. However, beneath it is something much bigger, and this is what I am striving for.
Fear and love make or create, depending on whether the ego or the Holy Spirit begets or inspires them, but they will return to the mind of the thinker and they will affect his total perception. That includes his concept of God, of His creations and of his own. (ACIM, T-7.VI.1:5-6)
A Course in Miracles tells us that thoughts are powerful but we can harness that power and use it for our own purpose.
The mind, then, makes or breaks our purpose. We can either think with the ego or we can be with the Holy Spirit. One establishes fear and the other extends love.
Our purpose is to be peaceful. It is to know that peace can have no opposite. We are the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven just Is. There are no conditions.
And nothing reflects the opposite of the Kingdom of Heaven more than suffering. This is the ego in action because the ego is the source of all our pain.
The Workbook therefore halts our journey with the ego. It is as if we have taken a lift with a stranger who doesn’t wish us well. We were on the road to hell and are now being returned back to safety.
Our safety is both the peace and the love of God. We are that peace and God’s love is our home.
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120/ Source of Peace
22nd February 2025
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” Buddha.
And gratitude to God becomes the way in which He is remembered, for love cannot be far behind a grateful heart and thankful mind. (ACIM, M-23.4:6)
***
Lesson 120. Review of lessons 109 and 110 (ACIM, W-120). Yesterday: We returned home from our short two-day break in St Ives and the rain was lashing down. We came to a halt for about forty minutes due to an accident up ahead and I was beginning to feel a bit frustrated. Essentially, I had to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter who I think I am; my real Identity can never change. Today: This is the last day of the review and one of the simplest. It asks that we repeat “I rest in God” and “I am as God created me”. I have just been reading in the text about how everyone and anyone we meet is always a holy encounter - we either find ourselves or lose ourselves. Therefore, in order to know God, I have to look as God looks.
Teach no one that he is what you would not want to be. Your brother is the mirror in which you see the image of yourself as long as perception lasts. And perception will last until the Sonship knows itself as whole. You made perception and it must last as long as you want it. (ACIM, T-7.VII.3:8-11)
Everything that happens is the result of what’s in the mind. We can’t escape this although escaping the mind is what we are constantly trying to do.
We believe that what we think has no effect, but really it is thought that is the cause of all our suffering. What we see ‘out there’ is really happening ‘in here’, in the mind.
It is impossible to fight with the source of pain, which is the ego. The ego always wins. But we can (and must) observe the ego; when we do this, then our source of pain can only disappear.
Within us all is a quiet centre. This is where we bring all of our concerns and all of our fears. It is by bringing these beliefs to the quiet centre that our source of pain gives way to a Source of peace.
The Source of peace is the Holy Spirit. It is the Voice for God. It is an echo of all that is Love and Joy.
And the Source of peace is also our true and only Self. It is a mind that has awakened from its fear.
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121/ Gift of Life
23rd February 2025
“Devotion to Truth is the sole justification for our existence.” Mahatma Gandhi.
Listening to truth is the only way you can hear it now, and finally know it. (ACIM, T-9.II.4:8)
***
Lesson 121. Forgiveness is the key to happiness (ACIM, W-121). Yesterday: Am not sure I did the last part of the review justice. The two lessons we had to look at were easy to remember (“I rest in God” and “I am as God created me”) and I used them interchangeably throughout the day. I didn’t set my timer because I was fed up with it. Basically, I was feeling a bit moody about practising. Today: This lesson is showing us that, as we send our light to others, both to our friends and to our enemies, then we bring that light back to ourselves. This is healing. We either feel completely apart or we know we all are one.
The gift of life is yours to give, because it was given you. You are unaware of your gift because you do not give it. You cannot make nothing live, since nothing cannot be enlivened. Therefore, you are not extending the gift you both have and are, and so you do not know your being. (ACIM, T-7.VII.5:1-4)
A Course in Miracles makes no concessions. Life, as mentioned above, is all there is. Life is both a gift and a joy. If we believe there is anything else to life, then we do not know our Self.
- We are either everything or we are nothing.
- We are either formless or we are form.
- We are either awake or we are asleep.
Nothing, then, exists outside of Heaven. We are the Kingdom of Heaven.
Love is all there is because love can have no opposite.
There is only oneness; there is only life; there is only peace. In fact, nothing needs to awaken at all.
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122/ Awakening Is Truth
24th February 2025
“The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.” Pema Chödrön.
Peace is the ego’s greatest enemy because, according to its interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. (ACIM, T-5.III.8:7)
***
Lesson 122. Forgiveness offers everything I want (ACIM, W-122). Yesterday: The lesson showed me that forgiveness is the key to happiness and that, as I see the light in others, then I will know the light in myself. This was a good practice for me. It felt refreshing. It also proved another thing to me - that I need to forgive more consistently. Today: This morning, when I awoke, I had a thought that I should distance myself from all the mental chatter of the ego - from all its demands and hectic thinking. And this is what this lesson also asks us to do. It wants us to find out what is lying beneath all the mental chatter. Only forgiveness can bring us peace.
You cannot perpetuate an illusion about another without perpetuating it about yourself. There is no way out of this, because it is impossible to fragment the mind. To fragment is to break into pieces, and mind cannot attack or be attacked. (ACIM, T-7.VIII.4:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the ego does not understand what mind is, and therefore does not understand what we are.
The ego only projects. We receive back what we give out and, when this is anger, it becomes a certainty that we will suffer.
True love only extends. It asks for nothing and is always alive within the mind of the thinker. True love embraces everyone and everything, and we only come to know this through forgiveness.
Thought has no meaning - except the meaning that the thinker gives it. It doesn’t need to be forgiven but merely to be witnessed. And, as we observe it, we detach ourselves from that thought.
We become the awareness that is witnessing. And awareness does not think. It is not a concept.
The mind has to go beyond all concepts. Oneness then becomes our reality because awakening is always the truth.
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123/ Wait and Listen
25th February 2025
“God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man.” Ibn ʿArabī.
In the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same loving Will to create. (ACIM, T-2.I.1:2)
***
Lesson 123. I thank my Father for His gifts to me (ACIM, W-123). Yesterday: It was a day where small things tended to send my mind into a frenzy. For example, there was mention of a new breakfast group starting next Monday, and one that could potentially disrupt the class that I teach; and then, later in the afternoon, my sister told me about how worried she was about the money we were spending in order to look after our mother. My thoughts got more anxious and forgiveness - the theme of the lesson - was exactly what I needed to do. Today: The lesson asks us to thank our Father throughout the day. I already do this when I wake up but am likely to forget for the rest of the day. This lesson, then, is perfect for me to practise.
The Holy Spirit is in the part of the mind that lies between the ego and the spirit, mediating between them always in favor of the spirit. To the ego this is partiality, and it responds as if it were being sided against. To spirit this is truth, because it knows its fullness and cannot conceive of any part from which it is excluded. (ACIM, T-7.IX.1:5-7)
We need to be present. Without presence, the ego takes charge.
The ego is all our random thoughts which come and go - sometimes they are peaceful and often they are not. Our thinking is capable of switching from love to hate in the blink of an eye.
It is only when our thoughts becomes too intolerable that we have to act. We need a firm resolve because facing our inner demons is the same as stepping through a ring of fire.
However, within any ring of fire is always an inner silence. It is completely peaceful, but also alive and aware. This is the Holy Spirit and it is to this silence that we need to address this question.
How can we see what is burning us up differently? This is the only question that we need to ask.
A Course in Miracles then states that we wait and listen. The answer is within us and is always there.
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26th February 2025
“Those who look for seashells will find seashells; those who open them will find pearls.” Al-Ghazali.
When you accepted truth as the goal for your relationship, you became a giver of peace as surely as your Father gave peace to you. (ACIM, T-17.VIII.6:1)
***
Lesson 124. Let me remember that I am one with God (ACIM, W-124). Yesterday: We spent the day with two friends, walking to a spot called Golden Cap, situated high on the cliff between Bridport and Charmouth, and then had a late lunch in the charming village of Symondsbury (which I had never heard of, even though I spent a childhood only fourteen miles away). The only time I needed forgiveness during the day was when I became a little over-talked and saw myself as separate and apart from others. Today: It’s in the remembering, isn’t it - that we are one with God? Have just done the half hour practice and it was a constant effort, sometimes taking on different characters and then returning to the thought that I am spirit and not a body.
The Holy Spirit will always guide you truly, because your joy is His. This is His Will for everyone because He speaks for the Kingdom of God, which is joy. Following Him is therefore the easiest thing in the world, and the only thing that is easy, because it is not of the world. (ACIM, T-7.XI.1:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that the world is against our nature because it is out of accord with God’s laws.
The world has an order of difficulty in everything because, quite simply, what is real has no order of difficulty at all.
Only spirit is real because it is alive, eternal and wholly free. There is nothing complicated about this.
Unless we feel trapped and helpless, then our essential beingness lies dormant; and unless we free ourselves from the limits of form, then we won’t be able to experience the wonder of the formless.
The Workbook, then, is a big start in recognizing a more natural state, which is as a spiritual being having a physical experience. The body is responding to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the mind.
But to fully know spirit requires forgiveness. We are the candle that is searching for the light within.
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125/ As Time Stops
27th February 2025
“What worries you masters you.” John Locke.
Why should you worry how the miracle extends to all the Sonship when you do not understand the miracle itself? (ACIM, T-16.II.1:6)
***
Lesson 125. In quiet I receive God’s Word today (ACIM, W-125). Yesterday: Two hands, two feet, a back that sometimes aches - it is indeed hard to remember that I am one with God (the theme of the lesson). My brain also decided not to set the timer convincing me that I would remember the hourly practices, which I didn’t except when I did. The day felt a little erratic. Today: This lesson states that the world will change through us. It sounds profound in the sense that, as we change our minds, then the world changes as well. I loved this when I read it. The work we do always benefits the bigger picture.
There is a rationale for choice. Only one Teacher knows what your reality is. If learning to remove the obstacles to that knowledge is the purpose of the curriculum, you must learn it of Him. (ACIM, T-8.II.1:1-3)
The Holy Spirit comes through in many different ways, and the near-death experience is just one.
Sometimes, we need to be reminded of the truth As we learn there is only mind and one Voice speaking on behalf of God, then the body assumes a new significance.
The lesson today asks us to be quiet and to receive God’s Word. This won’t happen with a mind that has a worldly belief defined by the ego.
And yet, occasionally, extreme suffering does bring us back to a point where time stops and the timeless begins. This is when we learn what we are. We are God’s Joy expressing itself as a form.
JoAnna Oblander’s near-death experience proves this. Constant pain had brought her close to suicide but instead she left her body and met God. She learned how we prepare for life and chose to honour and support each other. Life always changes in the physical when we know that we are love.
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126/ True Success
28th February 2025
“The truth cannot be deceptive, and one who sees it cannot be deceived.” Said-i Nursî.
The laws of truth forever will be true, and cannot be reversed; yet can be seen as upside down. (ACIM, T-26.VII.5:3)
***
Lesson 126. All that I give is given to myself (ACIM, W-126). Yesterday: Setting the timer on my phone for the hourly reminder definitely helped. Quite often, I would be jolted into remembering and the purpose of the lesson was to become quiet and receive God’s Word. I also managed to do the three ten-minute sessions but, as the day progressed, time seemed to disappear like sand out of an hourglass. Today: Am feeling quite sleepy and so my fifteen-minute practice (just completed) was punctuated by moments of having my head drop down towards the table. This is not awakening. I think I need to make myself a cup of coffee.
Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. This is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful, and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. Knowledge can be restored only when you meet its conditions. (ACIM, T-8.I.1:1-4)
There is a thin line between success and failure. Worldly success generally means financial security.
However, can we still be peaceful when our worlds get turned upside down? And what happens when our lives don’t go the way that we want?
A Course in Miracles provides the Workbook for a certain purpose. Its primary purpose is to teach us to be peaceful or, to put it another way, to remove the blocks to love’s presence.
Love and peace are synonymous. They are interchangeable and one always means the other. When we are not peaceful we have forgotten that we are love.
When we meet someone, we are really meeting ourself. There is no one out there. Whatever we feel about someone else, we can always be sure it is a reflection of our own internal world.
Awakening means being truly peaceful. Only a peaceful mind can be the benchmark for true success.
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