Reflections 211 to 224
211/ Little Selves
24th May 2025
“The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is.” Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Truth is so far beyond time that all of it happens at once. For as it was created one, so its oneness depends not on time at all. (ACIM, T-15.II.1:9-10)
***
Lesson 211. Review of lesson 191 (ACIM, W-211). Yesterday: The theme of this review was to know the Joy of God, having realized that any other feeling is merely a choice. And, as I did ponder this lesson throughout the day, it was always a puzzle as to why I don’t choose the Joy of God. Today: This lesson shows us that we are all the one Son of God, which is the Self and not the body - or anybody. We are, I am, and it is as simple as that.
At no single instant does the body exist at all. It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. Only its past and future make it seem real. Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present. In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. It has no attraction now. (ACIM, T-18.VII.3:1-6)
Now is what we are.
In this present moment, there is no body. The physical does not exist at all.
And the holy instant has no time. The holy instant is always a blessing and never a curse.
A Course in Miracles has to speak to us as an ego - meaning that it speaks to us as someone who is fully invested in the past. It gives us a language that our minds can understand.
Except it’s all symbolic. Minds are not a plural - there is just the one mind.
And the one mind has become split, now appearing to be divided between a past and a future.
But there is only now and, in this nowness, there is just the one Self. We know this Self is singular but it is currently being imagined as different parts and little selves.
25th May 2025
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Edith Wharton.
The light will shine from the true Foundation of life, and your own thought system will stand corrected. (ACIM, T-3.VII.6:3)
***
Lesson 212. Review of lesson 192 (ACIM, W-212). Yesterday: The lesson told us that we are the one Son of God, meaning that we are formless and free. As I practised the lesson during the day, there were times when I was every inch the body and reacted as a body would react - which meant defensively. But then, and when I did stop and remember, my physical presence would dissolve just a little bit, making every effort worthwhile. Today: I have a function that God would have me fill - this is the essence of the review - and, having just read a section of the Text prior to reading the lesson, I feel I can fully appreciate it. Our function is to look at everyone with love - end of story. This is our “very small part” and it is always the Holy Spirit that does the rest.
It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it. Many have spent a lifetime in preparation, and have indeed achieved their instants of success. This course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time, but it does aim at saving time. (ACIM, T-18.VII.4:1-5)
A Course in Miracles tells us that life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and perception are all irreconcilable. One does not recognize the other.
Both light and knowledge equals life, and life is found only in the present moment. Darkness and perception equals death, and death is always imagined in the past or in the future.
The ego, then, can only exist in time while the Holy Spirit lives outside of time. And, in exactly the same way as what has already been expressed, both are mutually incompatible.
Neither the ego nor the Holy Spirit know of each other, meaning we are all lost in this unknowing.
Time, then, can either heal or hurt us. We either live in time or outside of time - and both are always a choice because time has never been forced upon us.
26th May 2025
“As you awaken to your divine nature, you’ll begin to appreciate beauty in everything you see, touch and experience.” Wayne Dyer.
Corrective learning always begins with the awakening of spirit, and the turning away from the belief in physical sight. (ACIM, T-2.V.7:1)
***
Lesson 213. Review of lesson 193 (ACIM, W-213). Yesterday: For the first time since starting the Workbook, I set the timer on my phone so that it would go off just after I finished teaching a class. In the end, it made me remember and, since everything is thought, I was able to keep reminding myself about the theme of the lesson (which was to love) for the rest of the day. Today: This lesson shows us that what God would have us learn is the miracle. It is the miracle that replaces every thought of death, and a thought of death is anything that doesn’t align itself with reality. Therefore, it is only our thinking that makes us suffer.
It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea? Everything you recognize you identify with externals, something outside itself. (ACIM, T-18.VIII.1:1-6)
A Course in Miracles tells us that ideas never leave their source.
The idea of birth and death arose from the ego, a part of the mind that believes it is apart from God. The ego has no foundation in truth at all, apart from its own belief that it is right about everything.
The ego has been split into billions of different parts - each one with a changing belief about itself. Each body’s belief is what shapes the world it sees and its own reality as it perceives it.
And yet, none of it is true. It is all based on the premise that we can somehow be apart from God.
This is impossible - all that we are comes from God. We, who are spirit, have never left our Source.
Within us all is a Fountain of Love. We drink from it constantly - and not as a concept but as a reality.
27th May 2025
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” George Bernard Shaw.
The journey that we undertake together is the exchange of dark for light, of ignorance for understanding. (ACIM, T-14.VI.1:1)
***
Lesson 214. Review of lesson 194 (ACIM, W-214). Yesterday: The lesson stated that only our thoughts can hurt us. This is true. When practising the lesson, I noticed that there was always some sort of craving lurking in the background - even if it wasn’t immediately apparent - and the solution was always to receive God’s miracle. Therefore, just the contemplation of the lesson brought me back to the possibility of a healed mind. Today: This lesson asks us to place the future in the Hands of God - and it does this simply because we are not the body. The body is a puppet of the ego but, when responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, it acts as God would act. Therefore, whatever we use the body for is always a choice.
God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out, and keep you apart from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not. (ACIM, T-18.VIII.2:3-6)
We can touch, clean and feed the body, but it is not what we are.
The body can be pushed, restricted, tortured or worshipped - it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference. The dreaming of the world will always take many different forms.
Therefore, instead of focusing on the body, we need to become aware of the thoughts that control and direct it. The body only responds to what the mind is thinking.
A Course in Miracles therefore guides us to the source that directs the body, which is all about pain.
Beyond that source is another Source, which is all about happiness. We respond to one or the other.
We are either in Heaven or hell. Only hell focuses on the body, making us imprisoned by the mind.
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28th May 2025
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” Albert Einstein.
There is only one way out of the world’s thinking, just as there was only one way into it. Understand totally by understanding totality. (ACIM, T-7.VII.10:9-10)
***
Lesson 215. Review of lesson 195 (ACIM, W-215). Yesterday: I was listening to a podcast and learned that ACIM is not about making the world a better place; it is about accepting everything exactly as it is - and this means in our own minds as well as ‘out there’. Our lives are not meant to be fun and so “placing the future in the Hands of God” (the theme of the lesson) was clearly a very good option. Today: Walking with the Holy Spirit is the theme of today’s review. This means the Holy Spirit is our Guide, as opposed to the ego. Only this can bring us peace while the other option is to be in fear. Already I feel a slight jangle of anxiety in my belly as my wife is having a friend to stay, and the ego is reminding me about my own fragility.
You have been told to bring the darkness to the light, and guilt to holiness. And you have also been told that error must be corrected at its source. Therefore, it is the tiny part of yourself, the little thought that seems split off and separate, the Holy Spirit needs. The rest is fully in God’s keeping, and needs no guide. (ACIM, T-18.IX.1:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we need help. The wild and delusional part of ourselves thinks it is the Son of God.
It is this part that makes the world, with all its insanity and divisions.
The world has become our oyster and yet we are afraid to venture out; another way of putting it is that we are afraid to go into our minds and face all the crap that is arising there.
Bringing the darkness to the light (as mentioned above) simply means looking at all of our nonsense - and this is the smallest and simplest part of the practice. The Holy Spirit does all the rest.
The guilt in our minds is then transformed into holiness, and holiness brings about an inner peace.
And this is forgiveness. We look at all the crap that we prefer to keep hidden and then let it go.
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216/ Questions Begin
29th May 2025
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute; the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” Confucius.
Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is not questionable. You know when you have ceased to ask questions. (ACIM, T-3.III.2:10-11)
***
Lesson 216. Review of lesson 196 (ACIM, W-216). Yesterday: The woman I worked for in the morning thought nothing of seeing a snail and crushing it under her foot; another woman I worked for in the afternoon politely asked a daddy longlegs to move before shushing it off her seat. I noticed how my mind worked in both situations and realised that the lesson being reviewed - “love is the way I walk in gratitude” - had to stand firm. Today: This lesson was easy to grasp as I sat with it earlier. I can fully appreciate that whatever I think about anyone is always what I think about myself. Therefore, as the lesson states, it is only myself that I crucify.
Truth is the absence of illusion; illusion the absence of truth. Both cannot be together, nor perceived in the same place. To dedicate yourself to both is to set up a goal forever impossible to attain, for part of it is sought through the body, thought of as a means for seeking out reality through attack. The other part would heal, and therefore calls upon the mind and not the body. (ACIM, T-19.I.5:8-11)
Where is home? Is it here, in the world, or is it elsewhere, perhaps in the light?
A Course in Miracles would tell us that our home is Heaven, a state of awareness where everything is perfect just as it is. Opposites do not exist - there is only love.
The near-death experience also tends to demonstrate this, except for just one thing. It doesn’t last.
The person who died has to come back into their body, and this is when the new questions begin.
The video below looks at our well-being during the near-death experience. It shows us that we are never alone after our physical death. We might be met by a guide, a friend or a family member - it doesn’t matter. The whole purpose is that we are made to feel welcome and totally at home.
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217/
Peaceful with Noise
30th May 2025
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Steve Jobs.
What profiteth it a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? If you listen to the wrong voice you have lost sight of your soul. (ACIM, T-5.II.7:11-12)
***
Lesson 217. Review of lesson 197 (ACIM, W-217). Yesterday: I was strimming nettles in the morning and cutting grass in the afternoon. As I reflect, I realise I was also making an endless list of judgements - a cup of tea mid-morning felt good even though I was being stung, while not being given a cup of tea in the afternoon felt bad even though I like cutting grass - and so on. The lesson told me that “all that I do, I do unto myself” and this speaks for itself. Today: As I started my first contemplation of this lesson, I noticed that I began with a loud sigh and it suddenly occurred to me that I always start like this. The sigh felt like one of resignation, as if I was saying to myself “here I go again.” Unconsciously, I probably felt that another chance was going to be wasted.
The Holy Spirit cannot punish sin. Mistakes He recognizes, and would correct them all as God entrusted Him to do. But sin He knows not, nor can He recognize mistakes that cannot be corrected. For a mistake that cannot be corrected is meaningless to Him. Mistakes are for correction, and they call for nothing else. What calls for punishment must call for nothing. (ACIM, T-19.III.4:1-6)
Really, then, we are trying to do too much. We are over-analysing everything so that we lose track of the simplicity of what is being taught.
A Course in Miracles is about listening to the Holy Spirit but it has to speak to us as an ego. The Holy Spirit is the peace in our minds and the ego is the noise.
The ego won’t hear what is being taught but we have to be peaceful with that. We don’t fight the ego because, as soon as we do, the separate mind gets very frightened.
Noise, then, results in amnesia and isolation from God. This is the foundation of all our suffering.
And, if we do get closer to our goal (which is peace), the noise always gets louder (which is terror).
Being peaceful with the noise is therefore paramount. One can’t be known if the other is listened to.
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218/ Beneath the Surface
31st May 2025
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” Epictetus.
The Atonement is the final lesson. Learning itself, like the classrooms in which it occurs, is temporary. (ACIM, T-2.II.5:2-3)
***
Lesson 218. Review of lesson 198 (ACIM, W-218). Yesterday: This lesson was about being grateful to the practice we put in and for the salvation that results - and also for all that we do on behalf of the Self. I actually did feel the benefits of my practice, in the sense that I could have felt shame but didn’t. Both my wife and her friend were laughing at me because I had zoned out and wasn’t listening, but I was laughing too. It didn’t occur to me not to, meaning my ego wasn’t enraged and no drama was able to unfold. Today: There is a passage in the Text which begins with “beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars…” and it is about true vision. This lesson also concerns vision and is titled: “Only my condemnation injures me”. This is easy to understand in that we are either fully awake or not awake at all.
The Holy Spirit’s purpose rests in peace within you. Yet you are still unwilling to let it join you wholly. You still oppose the Will of God, just by a little. And that little is a limit you would place upon the whole. God’s Will is One, not many. It has no opposition, for there is none beside it. What you would still contain behind your little barrier and keep separated from your brother seems mightier than the universe, for it would hold back the universe and its Creator. (ACIM, T-19.IV-A.3:1-7)
We don’t like it if we are compared to a little speck of sand. It sounds personally insulting.
It is more encouraging to hear that we have the wings of an eagle and not the wings of a sparrow.
And being compared to a wavelet on the surface of the ocean gives us a taste of what we have lost.
A Course in Miracles states it as it is - we can have everything or nothing. A metaphor is that we are standing on stones and pebbles, but beneath the surface is a cache of gold.
Only vision can take us to the gold and it is only by digging deeply that it can possibly happen.
Hard work pays dividends. As we get beneath the surface, the gold that we find is always shared.
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219/ Lasting Effects
1st June 2025
“There is nothing so confining as the prisons of our own perceptions.” William Shakespeare.
Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is strength. Perception is temporary. (ACIM, T-3.III.1:5-6)
***
Lesson 219. Review of lesson 199 (ACIM, W-219). Yesterday: I’ll admit that the lesson was forgotten for a large part of the morning. I teach two one-hour yoga classes in separate places and so I am quite rushed in getting from a-b. I also was feeling slightly anxious and tired, maybe the residue of having a visitor to stay, and so the lesson did seem highly appropriate - “only my condemnation injures me”. I definitely relate to the sentiment. Today: For the past eighteen days, I have been repeating “I am not a body, I am free…” and it now seems that this lesson concentrates purely on that. It asks us not to be confused about what the Son is and, hence, what we are. We are the holy Son of God and this has nothing to do with a body and everything to do with love.
It is the nature of love to look upon only the truth, for there it sees itself, with which it would unite in holy union and completion. As love must look past fear, so must fear see love not. For love contains the end of guilt, as surely as fear depends on it. Love is attracted only to love. Overlooking guilt completely, it sees no fear. Being wholly without attack, it could not be afraid. (ACIM, T-19.IV-A.10:2-7)
A Course in Miracles tells us that we are responsible for what we see - entirely. We choose everything that happens to us - without exception. And we allow life to rule our minds instead of our minds ruling life.
Our thoughts are the cause of every event in our lives, whether we deem it to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
We are also told that the Holy Spirit is love and the ego is fear, and this has to be understood. One can never see the other because, as stated above, love can only see itself.
Consequently, very little is asked of us - except to be fully aware of the power of thought. This is why we are given the Workbook and this is why we simply need to awaken to the truth of what we are.
Like attracts like and this is the simple truth. Since the ego is the cause of all our suffering, we need to take responsibility for the thoughts of the ego and their (apparent) lasting effects.
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220/ Accept the Purity
2nd June 2025
“The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn’t exist.” Byron Katie.
You who identify with your ego cannot believe God loves you. You do not love what you made, and what you made does not love you. (ACIM, T-4.III.4:1-2)
***
Lesson 220. Review of lesson 200 (ACIM, W-220). Yesterday: I mentioned ACIM to someone as we were chatting after a class. Usually, I wouldn’t do this but the conversation just seemed appropriate and so I felt I should lay a seed which might germinate in the future - either for her or for those close to her. We were just two bodies that had practised some yoga and, within that context, the Holy Spirit seemed present. Today: This is the final lesson of the review and it tells us that there is no peace except the peace of God. During my first meditation, my wife came into the room and I spent some time wondering how long she was going to be. The peace of God was lost for a moment, and maybe for a few more moments after that as well.
Forgive me all the sins you think the Son of God committed. And in the light of your forgiveness he will remember who he is, and forget what never was. I ask for your forgiveness, for if you are guilty, so must I be. But if I surmounted guilt and overcame the world, you were with me. Would you see in me the symbol of guilt or of the end of guilt, remembering that what I signify to you you see within yourself? (ACIM, T-19.IV-B.6:2-6)
A Course in Miracles dismisses sin and guilt and sacrifice. In fact, not only does it dismiss them, it dismantles them so systematically that all reliance on judgement is totally obliterated. For example:
- We do not sin because the mind invented sin to defend its own guilt.
- There is no guilt except in the mind of the dreamer that is dreaming there is.
- It is impossible to sacrifice anything because it is impossible to lose what we don’t have.
A Course in Miracles therefore prepares us for the purity of God’s Love. This is the truth of what we are and any deviation from love’s perfection means that we have a preference for imperfection.
The mind has dug a hole for itself and, from this hole, impurity is refusing to accept that purity exists.
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221/ Stop Opposing
3rd June 2025
“Know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.” Oprah Winfrey.
Turn toward the light, for the little spark in you is part of a light so great that it can sweep you out of all darkness forever. (ACIM, T-11.III.5:6)
***
Lesson 221. Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still (ACIM, W-221). Yesterday: This was the last lesson of the review - “there is no peace except the peace of God”. It was also a sunny day and, as I write this, there are drops of rain on the window and the dimness of morning looks cold and windy. It’s a good metaphor for the split mind - sometimes bright and cheery but with occasional atmospheric changes that bring about anything but joy. Today: The Workbook tells us that we are starting a new phase in our learning - with less words and structure, and more gentle listening - and it begins with a short description of forgiveness. Basically, forgiveness means we let go of all judgment and simply witness what is. No stories are ever attached.
The body can bring you neither peace nor turmoil; neither joy nor pain. It is a means, and not an end. It has no purpose of itself, but only what is given to it. The body will seem to be whatever is the means for reaching the goal that you assign to it. Only the mind can set a purpose, and only the mind can see the means for its accomplishment, and justify its use. (ACIM, T-19.IV-B.10:4-8)
A Course in Miracles knows that both peace and guilt are conditions of the mind. They are attained but only we can set up those conditions.
One comes from an inner stillness and the other comes from a source of fear. The first is known and the second is always learned.
The ego is the heartbeat of fear. It drives it, forces it and actually is it. Without fear, the ego would simply disappear - although it is never going to disappear quietly.
The Holy Spirit is fear’s nemesis. It does not know of fear and therefore looks past it. The Holy Spirit only sees the peace of God and knows that this is exactly what we are.
The Workbook therefore sets up the conditions that bring about our inner peace. Our decision, then, is if we want to stop all opposition to the ego and allow the peace of God to shine our fear away.
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4th June 2025
“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” Wayne Dyer.
Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God. (ACIM, T-27.VII.10:6)
***
Lesson 222. God is with me. I live and move in Him. (ACIM, W-222). Yesterday: Because I have been through the Workbook before, I am aware of the time it takes to write these lessons down and so it occurred to me to take a photo of the lesson. It was a useful bit of spontaneity. My phone is always in my pocket and so I was able to get a better gist of the lesson by reading all of it, as opposed to a part that I had scribbled down onto a piece of paper. Today: The theme of this lesson is the presence of God. It shows me that God is everywhere and in everything - except in my thoughts. It is therefore always my decision whether I want to think or to be.
No one can die unless he chooses death. What seems to be the fear of death is really its attraction. Guilt, too, is feared and fearful. Yet it could have no hold at all except on those who are attracted to it and seek it out. And so it is with death. Made by the ego, its dark shadow falls across all living things, because the ego is the “enemy” of life. (ACIM, T-19.IV-C.1:4-9)
Our greatest fear is death - how could it not be?
Death lurks around every corner. There is probably no news bulletin anywhere in the whole world that does not mention death. Death has to be the only certain thing in life.
A Course in Miracles simply states that there is no death. It says that Christ did not die for our sins because Christ is not a body and sin is of no importance because it is just a self-made concept.
Christ is what we are, and to think anything else is simply a mistake.
We therefore want to change our whole way of thinking. We need to drop below or rise above the level of thought, meaning that all fluctuations end and spaciousness begins.
It is only in spaciousness that life can expand and extend. Nothing dies and shrinks back into itself.
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5th June 2025
“We judge all things according to the divine truth.” Saint Augustine.
It is the only judgment there is, and it is only one: “God’s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist.” (ACIM, M-10.2:9)
***
Lesson 223. God is my life. I have no life but His (ACIM, W-223). Yesterday: For me, a key line in the lesson was the one about God: “He is my home, wherein I live and move”. I was able to imagine being contained within God and this gave me a useful visual image, as well as a sense of security and comfort. Today: It says in the introduction to this part of the Workbook that we should become more spontaneous with these lessons - that time doesn’t matter - but I do like keeping to a routine. The ego (who I think I am) is clearly resistant to change.
When anything seems to you to be a source of fear, when any situation strikes you with terror and makes your body tremble and the cold sweat of fear comes over it, remember it is always for one reason; the ego has perceived it as a symbol of fear, a sign of sin and death. Remember, then, that neither sign nor symbol should be confused with source, for they must stand for something other than themselves. (ACIM, T-19.IV-C.11:1-2)
We are confused as to why we are here. If we weren’t, why would we be reading this?
A Course in Miracles puts all of our fears to bed, although the desire to awaken has to be ours.
This means that, because we are wholly immersed in one reality (which is a dream), it is impossible for another reality (one of absolute truth) to take its place.
Near-death experiences also point to a higher reality, but it’s through the eyes of a sleeping mind.
The video below touches on our purpose in the dream. It shows us that our purpose here is to love - not with a conditional love but with a love that gives without exception. It’s a case of releasing judgement and accepting, and seeing beyond the form to the formless in everything.
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224/ Wrong and Right
6th June 2025
“It is impossible to hold a grudge and have peace of mind at the same time. It would be like trying to have day and night exist at the same moment.” Lee L. Jampolsky.
It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises. (ACIM, W-34.1:4)
***
Lesson 224. God is my Father, and He loves His Son (ACIM, W-224). Yesterday: The lessons now seem to focus on the Love of God. I like this. It is also easy to read a whole lesson just by looking at the screen shot on my phone and I did this a few times during the morning - while pausing in a two-hour dance class and discretely wandering over to the side. Dance and love are so intimately connected. Today: This lesson is both a declaration and an entreaty. It is all about knowing our real Identity as the one Self. During my first meditation, I experienced many identities during the fifteen minutes - both as friend and enemy - and then would startle myself when I realized what I was doing.
What would you see without the fear of death? What would you feel and think if death held no attraction for you? Very simply, you would remember your Father. The Creator of life, the Source of everything that lives, the Father of the universe and of the universe of universes, and of everything that lies even beyond them would you remember. (ACIM, T-19.IV-D.1:1-4)
A Course in Miracles states that peace always replaces the fear of death, truth replaces lies and certainty replaces doubt. There is only one correct way of seeing.
The mind always has a choice and this is because we have freewill. We can do what we want, when we want and how we want, but we also have to suffer the consequences of all of our actions.
Cause always has an effect, and the effect is wholly dependent on which part of the mind is thinking - and this means about anything. Even the most benign thought has an energy, and energy is power.
What we might not realize, though, is that the world is an effect of this power.
The cause of the world always comes from the mind. Only the right mind can project a world of love.
Fear, then, comes from the wrong mind. And only we can decide if what is wrong should be right.
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