Reflections 127 to 140
127/ Life as a Body
1st March 2025
“The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.” T.S. Eliot.
As you perceive the holy companions who travel with you, you will realize that there is no journey, but only an awakening. (ACIM, T-13.I.7:1)
***
Lesson 127. There is no love but God’s (ACIM, W-127). Yesterday: The lesson was “all that I give is given to myself”. I could understand this theoretically - as in there is just the one Self - but practically it was hard to experience this on a soul level. Travelling a long distance during the day probably didn’t help; I was tired and distracted, and this is a good recipe for forgetting. Today: The fifteen minutes spent on my first practice was nice and straightforward. The lesson states that there is just one love, and this love is totally without an opposite. This means that anything that comes into my mind and is out of alignment with love is always of the ego. I will see how my connection with love goes today.
Ask and it shall be given you, because it has already been given. Ask for light and learn that you are light. If you want understanding and enlightenment you will learn it, because your decision to learn it is the decision to listen to the Teacher Who knows of light, and can therefore teach it to you. (ACIM, T-8.III.1:2-4)
A Course in Miracles states that the ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for anything because there is a complete communication difference between the two.
The ego is all the pain and suffering we have ever gone through in this life. The ego is the horror in which we think our lives will end. The ego is really everything that the Holy Spirit is not.
However, if we look at what has happened to us in the past now, in this very moment, we will see that it is really just a series of images. None of it is concrete. The past has gone and we are just here.
The body is our proof of the past and so, to find absolute truth, we have to go beyond the body and the ego. We have to know that the sun and the stars are contained within us, which means within the mind. And this is why each lesson is just another chance to see past the ego completely.
The Workbook shows us that life as a body is just a dream. The Workbook allows us to awaken and know our reality, which means that we are in the now and know this very moment.
128/ Mind Is Healed
2nd March 2025
“There is no other spiritual teacher than your own soul.” Swami Vivekananda.
The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. (ACIM, T-5.III.10:1-2)
***
Lesson 128. The world I see holds nothing that I want (ACIM, W-128). Yesterday: During the day, the lesson asked us to think of anyone we were holding a grudge against and to bless them with our minds. We were asked to do this three times an hour and it felt impossible for me just because twenty minutes went by so quickly. However, another problem was that there were so many people to forgive. I had no idea so many people had offended me. Today: The instructions for this lesson are so clear; everything we see in the world acts like a chain that binds us. True peace comes only when we know that all our needs are met and this is regardless of where we are and who we are with.
When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. (ACIM, T-8.III.4:1-5)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we can recognize the Holy Spirit only by giving Him to others. What we see in others, we always see in ourselves.
Everything we receive is in direct proportion to what we give: give love and we receive love; give peace with a twist of anger, and that is what we receive.
We are also told that the Holy Spirit denies us nothing because we deny him nothing. Everything is shared because we are all the same mind. The basic premise that giving and receiving are the same is a law of the universe, and the universe exists within the mind.
The mind is everything. The mind just appears to be unholy instead of holy, and in pain when it’s at peace. A divided mind is always ruled by the ego which is another way of saying it is ruled by fear.
The only way out of fear is through forgiveness. A light replaces the darkness and the mind is healed.
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3rd March 2025
“Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.” C.S. Lewis.
God’s laws will keep your mind at peace because peace is His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. (ACIM, T-10.IV.4:1)
***
Lesson 129. Beyond this world there is a world I want (ACIM, W-129). Yesterday: It was about 3.15pm. There was a beautiful clear blue sky and I had spent some time in the garden getting it ready for spring. I was at the recycling centre delivering the green waste when I suddenly remembered I needed to do my second practice for the day. And so I began… until my phone went off. It was my wife telling me she had finished what she was doing a little early. I sped off to pick her up and ended up spending the ten minutes on a bench by the ninth tee of the golf course where we had gone for a walk. The theme was “the world I see holds nothing that I want”. Clearly it does. Today: I have a minor problem - one which the ego has been magnifying for about a week or so - and so it was hard to concentrate on this first ten-minute practice. The real world seemed distant because I was making the false world appear too real.
You can encounter only part of yourself because you are part of God, Who is everything. His power and glory are everywhere, and you cannot be excluded from them. The ego teaches that your strength is in you alone. The Holy Spirit teaches that all strength is in God and therefore in you. (ACIM, T-8.III.7:1-4)
All or nothing.
Win or bust.
Now or never.
Make or break.
Death or glory.
A Course in Miracles in our path back to oneness. The Workbook asks us not to dabble in duality any longer. It’s a leap of faith in that we need to trust what’s always there.
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4th March 2025
“Beyond the belief that something can be lost, there is nothing to lose.” Ramana Maharshi.
Nothing that is good can be lost because it comes from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for creation. (ACIM, T-5.IV.1:7)
***
Lesson 130. It is impossible to see two worlds (ACIM, W-130). Yesterday: The goal of the lesson was to see a world that is totally peaceful, although the lesson didn’t tell us is that it all exists within the mind. I had begun the day feeling quite ragged but, as the day progressed, what was worrying me resolved itself. On reflection, then, it is clear that my mind always needs external verification to know its own happiness. Today: The five-minute practice period (to be done six times in the day) asks us to see no value in this world. I realized half way through my first practice that I had just spent a large part of those five minutes arguing with myself about the need to buy lunch before we go for a walk tomorrow. Absurd and crazy, which is why I am a student of ACIM.
I am come as a light into a world that does deny itself everything. It does this simply by dissociating itself from everything. It is therefore an illusion of isolation, maintained by fear of the same loneliness that is its illusion. (ACIM, T-8.IV.2:1-3)
The lesson today tells us that love and perception go hand in hand, but only fear can obscure in darkness what is always there.
In the passage above, Jesus informs us that he has come as a light into the world - a world that does indeed deny itself everything. A little later on, he also tells us that reality has not gone anywhere and that the Second Coming is merely a reawakening of our reality, as opposed to its return.
A Course in Miracles therefore arises from the part of the mind that knows everything. And while it knows there is no world, it wants us to at least see the real world by giving us the means to become awake.
The Workbook is our chance to look at the world through the lens of the Holy Spirit, and not the ego. This means we can see everything instead of nothing, reality instead of illusion. We are able to look at the world with expansive thoughts of love and not with self-limiting thoughts of fear.
Everything is reality. Everything is all that exists. Everything is what is now as well as what always is.
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131/ Mind of the Thinker
5th March 2025
“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” Buddha.
The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. (ACIM, T-23.I.1:1-2)
***
Lesson 131. No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth (ACIM, W-131). Yesterday: We were asked to apply the lesson for five minutes, six times during the day. I had just enough time to complete my third practice before my tai chi class at 1pm but then dithered and convinced myself I would be late. I arrived at the class as the first person there and had to wait a few minutes for the next person to arrive. The irony was not lost on me. Today: As I did my first ten-minute practice, I was aware how easily my thoughts get caught up in my identity - how much the ‘me’ wants to be heard. The theme is all about opening the door to the real world where the thoughts we think are not ours. This is where our identity gets dissolved and it felt as if I was hovering on the edge, stuck between going in and being drawn away.
Alone we can do nothing, but together our minds fuse into something whose power is far beyond the power of its separate parts. By not being separate, the Mind of God is established in ours and as ours. This Mind is invincible because it is undivided. (ACIM, T-8.V.1:6-8)
Today’s lesson reminds us that God did not make two minds, the implication being that he did not make the world which is the effect of the split part of the mind.
What God created was His Son, which He did as an extension of His Love. However, the Son now appears to be split into billions of different parts and we are all just playing a part in the One.
A Course in Miracles is therefore a way back to knowing that we are collectively sitting within the one Mind of God. In this Mind, we have absolutely no need for anything of any kind.
And, if the mind of the thinker awakens to this fact, it also means that we don’t have to leave our bodies. The only thing that changes is that we use the body differently. We use it to communicate peace instead of war.
It is forgiveness that allows us to know that we have done nothing wrong. All the mind of the thinker has really done is to misuse its power to create and, as a result, has split itself off from Love.
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132/ Find our Awakening
6th March 2025
“There’s no need to rush. What’s meant for you always arrives right on time.” Unknown.
The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. (ACIM, W-188.3:1)
***
Lesson 132. I loose the world from all I thought it was (ACIM, W-132). Yesterday: I did an extra practice (one more than the three ten-minute sessions that were asked to do) and only because I felt that I wasn’t doing the lesson justice. I was working in the morning and then we were out and about in the afternoon. I just had my notes to refer to and always felt I was scrambling around for time. The result was, when I did get to sit, I was thinking too much about the lesson. Today: This lesson contains some absolute gems, not least that there is no world - except in the mind that thinks there is. My practice swung between an intense desire to know my own reality and some internal arguments that were quite ludicrous.
God’s Oneness and ours are not separate, because His Oneness encompasses ours. To join with me is to restore His power to you because we are sharing it. I offer you only the recognition of His power in you, but in that lies all truth. (ACIM, T-8.V.3:1-3)
The near-death experience teaches us about oneness. NDEs are important teachings because, in order to know our own wholeness, we have to let go of the thoughts that show us our fragmentation; in order to heal we have to become undivided.
A Course in Miracles establishes that God created His one Son, and that God’s Son is what we are. Division arises only in the mind of the thinker and, as the lesson today states “ideas leave not their source”. We have to change our minds to know the truth.
The near-death experience can therefore become our catalyst for learning. NDEs prove that we are whole even if we think we aren’t. This then leaves the door open for us to find our awakening.
Tony Cicoria is an orthopaedic surgeon who was struck by lightening and then had his near-death experience. He found that going from the physical to the spiritual was instantaneous; he saw that the body is just a costume; and he learned that it is only through service that we finally go home.
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133/ Infinity Is Now
7th March 2025
“Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good, and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins, I answer, the one I feed the most.” Sitting Bull.
The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. (ACIM, T-5.V.6:8-9)
***
Lesson 133. I will not value what is valueless (ACIM, W-133). Yesterday: This lesson told us that we need to change our minds about the world, and what we need to change can only be achieved in the present moment. It also told us that, in the present moment, there is no world at all because all our ideas about the world have disappeared. And so, during the two practices yesterday, it was a good time to reflect how crazy my mind is. I can literally see a good world and a bad world in just a blink of an eye. Today: The lesson tells us that we ask far too little of life. This became apparent as I did my first meditation; what seemed important belonged to the ‘life’ of the ego - as in my bodily needs and certain chores - and not too much came into my mind from the other ‘life’ that is spirit.
The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. (ACIM, T-8.VI.9:6-9)
The truth is within us; to know truth means we have to stop looking outside.
God has no opposite; to think God has an opposite becomes a choice of the mind.
Our purpose is simply to be; “to be or not to be” is really a question that arises out of fear.
Time has to be used correctly; if we use time correctly, only then is it possible to find out what is.
A Course in Miracles is the simple practice of moving from isolation to infinity. By definition, isolation suggests restriction and infinity has no beginning and no end.
It is only by training our minds to find the present moment that the Love of God can be known directly. God’s Love is infinite and infinity, not isolation, is always now.
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134/ All about Relationship
8th March 2025
“In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm.” Corrie ten Boom.
No storms can come into the hallowed haven of our home. In God we are secure. (ACIM, W-244.2:2-3)
***
Lesson 134. Let me perceive forgiveness as it is (ACIM, W-134). Yesterday: A key line that we were asked to repeat during our two fifteen-minute practices was “only what has value do I seek”. I found this very helpful to sit with (but not always easy to remember) and this was because I tend to seek outside of myself for whatever I think I need. The lesson therefore proved that what is really valuable is the Love of God and this can only be found within. Today: Here we have another key line when practising forgiveness - “would I accuse myself of doing this?” For me, asking this question is absolutely crucial. My mind tends to extend so many judgements and it’s useful to ask myself if I would ever want to accuse myself of those judgements? I don’t think so.
Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be an image of your own perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect your decision to attack. Health is seen as the natural state of everything when interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on anything. (ACIM, T-8.VIII.9:5-8)
We are sick because we have forgotten that all truth belongs to God.
We are stuck because we don’t realise that the forgiveness of the world is always linked to illusions.
We are confused because we don’t understand guilt. It is impossible for guilt to ever be forgiven.
Really, we have wrapped ourselves up in chains so heavy that it is impossible to escape. Jesus calls it our crown of thorns - and this is yet another metaphor for the antics of the ego as it senses danger.
The lesson today reminds us that no one is crucified alone and no one can enter Heaven by himself.
A Course in Miracles is therefore all about relationship. It is the complete reversal all the thinking of the ego. We are taught very quickly that how we see others is how we see ourselves.
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135/ Infinite Love
9th March 2025
“Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest.” Takuan Sōhō.
It is perfectly obvious that if the Holy Spirit looks with love on all He perceives, He looks with love on you. (ACIM, T-9.VII.3:1)
***
Lesson 135. If I defend myself I am attacked (ACIM, W-135). Yesterday: The goal of the lesson was to perceive forgiveness as it is, meaning that my mind would not be blaming myself and others. Clearly, this did not happen as there was quite a lot of self-blame around yesterday. And the ego was relishing it. Self-blame is the food it cherishes. Today: This lesson tells us that we have no need to add illusions to illusions - either in the planning of the future, in the activation of the past or as we try to organise the present. All we need to do is to trust in the One that is the Holy Spirit. Any planning always belongs to the ego and I felt like dissolving with relief when I read this lesson. The truth behind the words felt such a gift.
To deny what is can only seem to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause, and God is the only Cause. God is Love and you do want Him. This is your will. Ask for this and you will be answered, because you will be asking only for what belongs to you. (ACIM, T-9.I.9:5-9)
Fear, then, has to be our greatest illusion. In fact, it is the only illusion.
All of reality is hidden beneath one single thought of fear. This thought of fear is translated into a multitude of different forms, but reality actually stays exactly at it is. Reality can never change.
A Thought of Peace pervades reality. In fact it establishes reality and it does not discriminate. The Thought of Peace embraces all of life and touches everything there is.
It, too, has been translated into billions of different forms but they can only be imagined by the mind that thinks them. The Thought of Peace can have no form and it can have no opposite.
Really, then, just one thing can ever exist and only one statement can ever be made.
It is that infinite love is all there is and what is not love does not exist.
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136/ Illusion to Truth
10th March 2025
“As fear is a close companion to falsehood, so truth follows fearlessness.” Jawaharlal Nehru.
Hear not the call of hate, and see no fantasies. For your completion lies in truth, and nowhere else. (ACIM, T-16.IV.11:4-5)
***
Lesson 136. Sickness is a defense against the truth (ACIM, W-136). Yesterday: A couple of evenings ago, my neighbour and I were laughing because I like to sing in the shower - I take a cold shower around 6pm and I usually sing loudly to take my mind off it. I had no idea that anyone could hear and so, after we had our bit of banter, I thought “oops” and began to feel a bit guilty. The lesson yesterday - “if I defend myself I am attacked” - was perfect to practice. It stated that I have no need to defend myself against the truth of someone else’s opinions. Today: This lesson allows me to accept the truth of what I am. It states that sickness is just a defence against the truth. Waves of thoughts… a slight belly ache... (all of which I experienced during my first sitting) is just a shadow across the sun. If the mind is healed, it means that nothing can hurt me.
Fear of the Will of God is one of the strangest beliefs the human mind has ever made. It could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were already profoundly split, making it possible for it to be afraid of what it really is. (ACIM, T-9.I.1:1-2)
A Course in Miracles tells us that reality can only uphold the truth. It is impossible for reality to threaten anything; if we think it can, then what it threatens has to be an illusion.
We have become afraid of what we are - which is infinitely more than the concept of what we think we are. When A Course in Miracles tells us that we are the holy Son of God, it doesn’t mean something physical. It is talking about the non-physical.
All that prevents us from knowing our true reality is simply a dream. It is a distortion of the truth and a corruption of love. The purpose of A Course in Miracles is therefore to wake up to life.
But first, we have to take responsibility for our thoughts. We need to train our minds to think with the Holy Spirit (as in our own inner peace and light) and we do this through forgiveness.
Nothing happens overnight... except we dream; and nothing happens during the day... except we dream too. Marry the two and we have one big illusion; without the illusion, we have the truth.
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137/ There Is no Second
11th March 2025
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” Rumi.
Our creations are as holy as we are, and we are the Sons of God Himself, as holy as He is. (ACIM, T-8.VI.8:8)
***
Lesson 137. When I am healed I am not healed alone (ACIM, W-137). Yesterday: During the late afternoon, I was just finishing a two-hour stint of applying oil to our decking when I felt a few drops of rain. I was furious - “how could it rain… that wasn’t the forecast…” blah, blah, blah. My wife came out to enquire but I was too frustrated to speak. I should just have repeated that first line of the lesson which was “I have forgotten what I really am…” but I didn’t. I was the ego in action and I was suffering (needlessly). Today: This lesson feels wonderful. It is so encouraging. All our healing is always shared by others. Each mind benefits because there is only the one mind, and I love this.
Your brother may not know who he is, but there is a light in his mind that does know. This light can shine into yours, giving truth to his words and making you able to hear them. His words are the Holy Spirit’s answer to you. Is your faith in him strong enough to let you hear? (ACIM, T-9.II.5:8-11)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we worship the god of sickness. Sickness is God’s replacement and sickness equals isolation.
If we see sickness anywhere, in anyone, then we have replaced God’s Love with our own self-made fear. We are worshipping what we see instead of adoring what we know.
And knowledge is all about love. Knowledge is absolute oneness and can have no opposite.
Within us all is that knowledge and within us all is a Voice that is calling. This is the Holy Spirit (the Voice for God) but it could also be called our intuition. It is always there but we choose to forget it.
And so, as we forgive, we choose to remember and to hear. Forgiveness now becomes our healing.
What is within one mind is within every mind. The Voice for God is calling everyone because there is only the One Mind that can hear, and what is One can have no second at all.
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12th March 2025
“The more you notice the love, the miracles and the beauty around you, the more love comes into your life.” Betty Eadie.
Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this. (ACIM, T-1.VII.2:1-2)
***
Lesson 138. Heaven is the decision I must make (ACIM, W-138). Yesterday: The day started well, with the hourly reminders being observed; but then, as the afternoon progressed, I became more forgetful. The lesson was all about sharing our healing with the world (in the same way that we share our pain with the world). I can categorically say that I shared more happiness than sadness because my thoughts seemed to point that way, and yet I would still have had my dark and greyish moments. Today: The lesson tells us that truth cannot be learned; truth can only be recognized. The lesson also tells us that creation knows no opposite and here we have the fundamental purpose of ACIM. It is to know that there is only oneness, and that oneness can only dawn on an unclouded mind.
Your brother’s errors are not of him, any more than yours are of you. Accept his errors as real, and you have attacked yourself. If you would find your way and keep it, see only truth beside you for you walk together. The Holy Spirit in you forgives all things in you and in your brother. (ACIM, T-9.III.7:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we have descended from greatness to littleness. The body is therefore the symbol of how far we have fallen.
The mind is split and the ego endeavours to cover up our confusion by making the body crucial to our happiness. It might be pictured as a crown of jewels replacing the crown of thorns.
However, within the mind, there is also a tiny spark of light. It acts like a star, pointing us in the direction of the Great Light which is actually our home.
The star means that we are created by the Light but mistakenly believe that we are physical forms. And this is the paradox. We are immensely powerful but have taught ourselves to be tiny and weak.
Therefore, to not know the Light is to be little; to find the spark brings about a state of greatness.
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13th March 2025
“Love is not different from the Self.” Ramana Maharshi.
Denial of Self results in illusions, while correction of the error brings release from it. (ACIM, T-1.VII.1:6)
***
Lesson 139. I will accept Atonement for myself (ACIM, W-139). Yesterday: Spring feels like it’s coming. I saw the first signs of blossom on a small sapling and yet all the grown up trees still look bare and stark. The nights seem cold but the sun has some warmth, and it’s all a good metaphor for a change of mind. The lesson suggested that we see past the wintery-ness to the light and the sunshine that is Heaven. Today: This lesson states that to be alive and to not know what we are is the same as being dead. It is therefore clear that our mind is split. By allowing the question of who we are to be answered, we are healing the mind of its illusions.
The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to do it. The Holy Spirit merely reminds you of the natural use of your abilities. By reinterpreting the ability to attack into the ability to share, He translates what you have made into what God created. (ACIM, T-9.IV.3:1-3)
We are not separate but we are one. Knowing this is the Atonement.
Atoning is the undoing of all our mistakes. It means becoming one with the Holy Spirit. It is the correction of the belief that we could ever have left Heaven and can ever be apart from God.
A Course in Miracles tells us that life is always perfect. Only the mind can shape the imperfections.
The near-death experience therefore highlights the power of the mind. It shows us the absurdity of the limitations of the body. And each NDE gives us a different message - no two are ever the same.
The near-death experience of Nuestro Naṇamoli demonstrates that we are all an integral part of the rich tapestry of life. Like attracts like, which means that having a peaceful mind attracts a peaceful life. We can all heal the world simply by becoming aware of our own internal thoughts and feelings.
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140/ Clarity Is Knowing
14th March 2025
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” Mother Teresa.
Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can heal any of them with equal ease. (ACIM, T-2.I.5:1)
***
Lesson 140. Only salvation can be said to cure (ACIM, W-140). Yesterday: The timer on my phone was crucial, startling me out of forgetfulness and enabling me to keep up with the hourly observation of the lesson. The only problem was the few minutes we were asked to rest in contemplation. If I closed my eyes, my mind would immediately start protesting and it was only because I sensed that other eyes might be on me. Today: The lesson today mentions the Atonement although it is really about salvation, and this made me curious as to the difference between the two. And so, having done some googling, I found that Atonement takes away the guilt that leads to sickness while salvation is given freely by God Who simply gives and gives and gives. It seems that our job is to make the conditions right to receive the Atonement and salvation quite naturally follows.
Forgiveness that is learned of me does not use fear to undo fear. Nor does it make real the unreal and then destroy it. Forgiveness through the Holy Spirit lies simply in looking beyond error from the beginning, and thus keeping it unreal for you. (ACIM, T-9.IV.5:1-3)
A Course in Miracles tells us that words are but symbols of symbols, and are thus twice removed from reality. There is no need to explain anything because nothing has happened.
We are just one Son, at home and at peace in God.
There is just the one Mind which is the Mind of God. We are a Thought within that Mind.
The Thought is purely of Love. There can be no other thoughts apart from this.
And we are stillness and peace. We are the Self that has no opposite and we are the Light of God.
Clarity means knowing all of the above. It is the laying aside of all the words and thoughts. Clarity is like the sun appearing on a distant horizon, giving us the certainty that it’s arising in the mind.
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