Reflections 323 to 336
323/ Undoing the Cause
13th September 2025
“Knowledge never springs from faith. It springs from doubt.” Humayun Azad.
You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are a miracle of God. (ACIM, T-3.V.6:7)
***
Lesson 323. I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear (ACIM, W-323). Yesterday: The lesson was about giving up all that is not real. Currently, I am holding a grievance against a gardening client and decided I would enjoy myself at home instead of going to her garden in the afternoon. The problem is, the grievance keeps magnifying in my mind. I am sending her a Christ blessing as I write this. Today: I have noticed how my dreams are so punchy, so draining, that I wake feeling very unrested - and this is at various times during the night. I wonder when this will ever end, although I realise that forgiveness is an ongoing practice.
Atonement corrects illusions, not truth. Therefore, it corrects what never was. Further, the plan for this correction was established and completed simultaneously, for the Will of God is entirely apart from time. So is all reality, being of Him. The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God’s Son, in that same instant was God’s Answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all. (ACIM, M-2.2:2-8)
Everything we see, then, is an illusion. All of it.
When we see ourselves in a mirror - illusion. When we reach for the phone - illusion. When we switch on the news - illusion. All we have to do is to correct the error.
A Course in Miracles tells us that the world of time is simply a mistake. What appeared to have happened long ago has never happened at all.
However, there is no need to deny or to turn our back on what we believe is real. Forgiveness is a process by which we merely ask to see things differently.
It’s a letting go of past associations.
Being present, watching our minds, seeing the judgements that arise one after the other - it all adds to the effect. The final effect is always peace because the cause is being undone.
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324/ Ultimate Reality
14th September 2025
“Whatever our religion, we know that if we really want to love, we must first learn to forgive before anything else.” Mother Teresa.
Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them. (ACIM, T-16.VII.9:5)
***
Lesson 324. I merely follow, for I would not lead (ACIM, W-324). Yesterday: The lesson was about gladly sacrificing fear. It was my cousin’s seventieth birthday party and we were invited out to lunch with further cousins on her mother’s side that I had never met. That meant sitting with strangers and talking. We were also late, due to traffic, and I noticed how the ego would bring back memories of shame and embarrassment in public situations. As it was, it turned out to be a perfect and friendly afternoon, which is what I had asked the Holy Spirit for it to be. Today: As I woke up this morning, I noticed how the ego had begun to glorify itself, repeating how marvellous I was in conversations with certain people etc. It was all bullshit and nonsense, and I asked the Holy Spirit for more help today.
Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world. (ACIM, M-4.I.1:2-7)
We have false perception and true perception. One arises through the ego and the other is through the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit that is in us, but not of us. This is the power that keeps us out of fear and in love. It shows us a forgiven world because an unforgiven world reflects our guilt.
If we hold any fear, it is the ego that is making the choices.
Hell, then, is a state of mind that mirrors itself entirely in the world. This is wrong perception.
What we are searching for is true perception. We are looking with Christ’s vision but what Christ really knows is only oneness. This is the ultimate reality where perception plays no part at all.
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15th September 2025
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. (ACIM, T-17.III.1:1)
***
Lesson 325. All things I think I see reflect ideas (ACIM, W-325). Yesterday: The lesson asked us to follow and not lead, meaning that the Holy Spirit would guide me throughout the day. As I was walking to the yoga class in the morning, an old friend I hadn’t seen for ages called out my name. It was so totally unexpected, so heartfelt as we hugged each other, that it became the closest thing I can think of to seeing the Spirit in another person. Today: This lesson really gets to the heart of the teachings. Basically, it says that a thought becomes an image and is reflected out onto the world. However, it is false because only God’s Thoughts can ever be true. I have just been reading in the Manual for Teachers how the awareness of dreaming is our only function. Lucid dreaming needs to be a daytime practice too, that’s for sure.
Because he has valued what is really valueless, he will not generalize the lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice. It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. It is only to the extent to which they are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded them in the world of illusion. The word “value” can apply to nothing else. (ACIM, M-4.I-A.4:4-7)
According to the passage above, everything that happens to us - regardless of what it is or was - is helpful on our path to awakening.
A Course in Miracles also tells us that what we have judged as failures have been successes and what we have judged as successes have been failures.
The ego, then, will always try to pretend it has some semblance of control but the truth of the matter is, it has no idea about anything.
What we see around us arises out of a false belief, and this means that it doesn’t bring us perfect peace. Change the belief and what we see changes as well.
The belief in love arises only out of a peaceful mind, and what we see is a projection of that love.
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16th September 2025
“Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that.” Ramana Maharshi.
The holy instant is this instant and every instant. The one you want it to be it is. (ACIM, T-15.IV.1:3-4)
***
Lesson 326. I am forever an Effect of God (ACIM, W-326). Yesterday: The lesson told me that anything I see begins with an idea and this is then projected onto an outside world; I was also aware that an awareness of dreaming is essential as I go about my day. My head actually felt a bit foggy, skewed by a problem on my laptop. My brain-fog felt a little better when I got the issue sorted out. Today: It was so apparent, as I sat with this lesson, that my little self enjoys self-glorifying and that this has nothing to do with the Cause - which is always God. If we are God’s Effect, as the lesson states, then my self-glorification must be just the tiniest of blips within the greater Whole.
The peace of mind which the advanced teachers of God experience is largely due to their perfect honesty. It is only the wish to deceive that makes for war. No one at one with himself can even conceive of conflict. (ACIM, M-4.II.2:1-3)
Conflict always has the ego as its cause.
The split mind loves conflict. It sees duality everywhere. Two opposites clash and one comes out as the winner. There is always a war going on somewhere in the world.
Peace is the Holy Spirit and this is therefore the only Cause.
The healed mind sees wholeness everywhere. It is impossible for it to think of war because there is no opposite to be at war with.
Only forgiveness can bring us to this conclusion. And so, as we look at today’s lesson, we will see that we are an Effect of God.
Which means that nothing can matter because everything is perfect. The mind is one with the Cause.
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327/ Open for Change
17th September 2025
“Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass.” Confucius.
Forgiveness cannot be withheld a little. Nor is it possible to attack for this and love for that and understand forgiveness. (ACIM, T-23.III.4:5-6)
***
Lesson 327. I need but call and You will answer me (ACIM, W-327). Yesterday: The lesson stated that I am forever the Effect of God. The Cause, then, is perfect love and perfect Joy. Everything else is just a circus and so, if I believe that the thinking of the ego is important, then it needs forgiveness. Today: When this lesson tells me that God always answers our prayers, the question arises as to who does the praying? Is it my separate self that has no meaning or my true Self that is all that is. I can hear my ego all the time and usually it is pleading for things that the ‘I’ does not want and God wouldn’t recognise.
Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ’s image be extended to him. (ACIM, M-4.X.1:2-5)
The ego is all about being closed-minded. We have shut ourselves off from our reality and have literally pulled down the blinds to shut out God.
A Course in Miracles tells us that only the open-minded can be at peace. This means the open-minded have let go of all things that would prevent forgiveness.
It is the ego’s desire to maintain the world of separation that closes the mind. It sees sin everywhere. The ego wants to attack anything that proves its own delusion.
And so the ego is fighting a lonely battle within the mind and this is why we continue to feel alone, confused and torn.
We cover our feelings up and distract them continually but really we just need to look at them. As we face our fears, we stop being closed-minded and we open the doors to change.
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328/ Relief from Sickness
18th September 2025
“Outside is the joy of the drop. Inside is the joy of the ocean.” Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you. (ACIM, T-18.VIII.6:1)
***
Lesson 328. I choose the second place to gain the first (ACIM, W-328). Yesterday: We have a friend who has come to visit for a few days and so I did my final sitting of the lesson (“I need but call and You will answer me”) late at night. God must have been frustrated with my calls because I’d been practising the lesson and was actually too busy/tired to listen. Today: This lesson made a lot of sense to me as I read through it, and also as I practised it. I like how it says that we have an upside down way of thinking; we just need to correct it by tuning into the Voice for God.
Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. Who would choose suffering unless he thought it brought him something, and something of value to him? He must think it is a small price to pay for something of greater worth. For sickness is an election; a decision. (ACIM, M-5.I.1:1-4)
A Course in Miracles tells us that any form of sickness just enforces the ego’s belief in separation. It doesn’t matter whether it is a sniffling cold or full-blown pneumonia. All sicknesses are the same.
Sickness is an expression of hate. It is the ego having an attack. It is the rising guilt that we haven’t yet dealt with.
The fact is, we hate ourselves and this is the bane of our life. We don’t know what to do with it.
And forgiveness is the solution. Forgiveness brings us relief from the sickness that the ego inflicted.
Suicide is touched on in the video below and it shows us that we are wholly loved and never judged. There are accounts from survivors of suicide who speak of what happened during their near-death experience. Their lives all changed because they knew that they were loved without exception.
329/ Fear’s Grip
19th September 2025
“We are all just walking each other home.” Ram Dass.
Walk with him now rejoicing, for the savior from illusions has come to greet you, and lead you home with him. (ACIM, T-20.II.10:5)
***
Lesson 329. I have already chosen what You will (ACIM, W-329). Yesterday: I had another late-night meditation for the final sitting of the day - “I choose the second place to gain the first”. Fifteen minutes seemed like a long time, to the point where I had to check my timer to see if it had stopped. And there were also a few bare patches during the day, mostly because we were driving from a-b and b-a. But I liked the theme of the lesson and it felt good. Today: Oh, the hilarity of the ego. There has been some ‘apparent’ bad blood between a gardening client and myself. My response was to let it be and to try not to think angry thoughts. Yesterday, I sent her a neutral message but didn’t get a reply, and this just confirmed my feelings. First thing this morning, I looked at my phone and there was a positive response. All seems fine!
The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing. And this is so for healing in all forms. A patient decides that this is so, and he recovers. If he decides against recovery, he will not be healed. Who is the physician? Only the mind of the patient himself. (ACIM, M-5.II.2:1-6)
- It is the mind and not the body.
- There is only life and never death.
- We have the Kingdom of Heaven and not a state of hell.
A Course in Miracles is a complete reversal of all our thinking. It might send us into a state of panic if we really considered what we might find as we awaken, but the reason for this is obvious.
The need to control is locked into the mind so rigidly that to be rid of it feels scary.
We therefore need to hand over all control to the Holy Spirit. This is forgiveness and it requires complete commitment if the grip of fear is going to loosen at all.
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330/ Distortion and Correction
20th September 2025
“When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.” Wayne Dyer.
Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. (ACIM, T-15.V.1:3)
***
Lesson 330. I will not hurt myself again today (ACIM, W-330). Yesterday: The lesson was about choosing the Will of God. If I was asked to explain that Will, I wouldn’t know where to start. I can only assume it comes quietly and that some people define it by quoting scripture. This happened yesterday when I was listening to a near-death experience as a bit of R&R. I had to switch it off to enjoy some silence. Today: The irony that my wife came down as I was meditating on this lesson a short while ago, and we had a brief discussion about a friend who is staying with us and certain aspects of her behaviour, was not lost on me. My thoughts changed as the ego got involved and then I went back to repeating the lesson again.
They recognize illusions can have no effect. The truth in their minds reaches out to the truth in the minds of their brothers, so that illusions are nor reinforced. They are thus brought to truth; truth is not brought to them. So are they dispelled, not by the will of another, but by the union of the one Will with itself. And this is the function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own, nor theirs as separate from God’s. (ACIM, M-5.III.3:5-9)
We have to bring the darkness to the light. It is impossible to bring the light to the darkness.
We also can’t ask Spirit to come to an illusion. The illusion has to be brought to Spirit.
Every ounce of guilt has to be faced so that it can effortlessly dissolve back into the truth.
A Course in Miracles is a simple change in perception. Nothing radical changes. Our thoughts slowly disappear simply because they don’t have an impact any more. They just flitter away.
It is only because so much importance is placed on being right that we forget that we are wrong.
Meanwhile, the awareness that surrounds our thinking bears no judgement at all. And this is God’s Love. We are bringing the distortion into our awareness to that it can be corrected by perfection.
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331/ Subject of Light
21st September 2025
“Since the past is unreal and the future is unreal, all your thoughts are about nothing.” Byron Katie.
To think like God is to share His certainty of what you are, and to create like Him is to share the perfect Love He shares with you. (ACIM, T-7.I.6:1)
***
Lesson 331. There is no conflict, for my will is Yours (ACIM, W-331). Yesterday: The lesson was direct. It told us to stop hurting ourselves with thought. This just seemed so obvious - a thought here and a thought there can set off further waves of thought that then establish a problem. I realised this as I awoke this morning with little scenarios playing out in my mind that had no connection to what had actually happened. Today: I was meditating on the lesson, thinking I was conflict-free and how nice and clear everything was, when suddenly I was having an internal battle in which I was the hero. My timer went off to remind me of the stupidity of such thinking and I actually felt ashamed.
Healing is the change of mind that the Holy Spirit in the patient’s mind is seeking for him. And it is the Holy Spirit in the mind of the giver Who gives the gift to him. How can it be lost? How can it be ineffectual? How can it be wasted. God’s treasure house can never be empty. And if one gift is missing, it would not be full. (ACIM, M-6.4:3-9)
The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God. There is equality in everything the Holy Spirit does.
In fact, within the mind is a beingness. Can we tune into a thisness that has no opposite at all?
Giving and receiving are the same only because the mind is one. Our mind sits within the Mind of God and has forgotten that this is so. The thisness has become a thatness and duality is the result.
We live in a world where it is considered normal to watch murder and destruction everyday on our television screens. This is the ego at its most insane.
We feel lost because we have accepted the ego’s insanity as sanity. Being afraid is now normal.
And yet A Course in Miracles teaches us that there is a solution. It tells us that behind every object of darkness there is always a subject of light. This light is what we are.
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332/ Everything Is
22nd September 2025
“There is no true healing until there is a change in outlook, peace of mind and inner happiness.” Edward Bach.
The Holy Spirit needs a happy learner, in whom His mission can be happily accomplished. (ACIM, T-14.II.1:1)
***
Lesson 332. Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free (ACIM, W-332). Yesterday: We are very lucky to have a 50-metre pool in the town. Yesterday was my third visit of the week and the receptionist greeted me by name. This felt very life-affirming and the lesson did state that life is eternal truth. Spirit is always our real connection. Today: I awoke this morning with a need to call out to my Father. My heart felt wounded and it was so reassuring to know that God was there. And my feeling was that this is what I should do for every moment of the day until the pain disappears and love replaces fear.
One of the most difficult temptations to recognize is that to doubt a healing because of the appearance of continuing symptoms is a mistake in the form of lack of trust. As such it is an attack. Usually it seems to be just the opposite. It does appear unreasonable at first to be told that continued concern is attack. It has all the appearances of love. Yet love without trust is impossible, and doubt and trust cannot coexist. (ACIM, M-7.4:1-6)
The miracle worker cannot doubt. There are fifty principles at the start of A Course in Miracles which proves that this is so.
Doubt demonstrates a concern about the little self, to the exclusion of that which is in need of healing. Doubt equals attack and this is a bitter pill to swallow.
Most of us want to do our best, in whatever form this might take. But we wouldn’t want to think that we are continuing to keep our insanity in tact.
The ego is clever, in the sense that it is subtle and devious. Outside of that, in comparison to the alternative, it is just plain stupid.
Which means that all we have to do is to follow the practical applications of what the Workbook is teaching us. We accept everything as it is and we act accordingly without the slightest fear.
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333/ Biding Time
23rd September 2025
“The first and very best victory is to conquer yourself.” Plato.
Conflict within you must imply that you believe the ego has the power to be victorious. (ACIM, T-23.I.1:5)
***
Lesson 333. Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here (ACIM, W-333). Yesterday: The lesson simply asked for truth to replace the lies of the split mind or, to put it another way, for forgiveness to replace fear. I was on my way to look after my mother for a few days and was listening to the most recent episode of Master Jesus Speaks. Jesus related a story of how a little child was kneeling in a swimming pool with his mother beside him, and the child thought he was drowning. The mother was gently saying “just stand up”, and it is the same with us. Spirit is saying “just wake up!” Today: The lesson shows me that all of my internal conflicts have to be resolved before peace can enter. This means looking at my fears and asking the Holy Spirit to let me see them differently. It is clear that any fear always has a past association and not a present meaning.
The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world’s perception. It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting foreground, on unequal heights and diverse sizes, on varying degrees of darkness and light, and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen competes with each other in order to be recognized. A larger object overshadows a smaller one. A brighter thing draws the attention from another with less intensity of appeal. (ACIM, M-8.1:1-4)
Frankly, whatever we look at with out eyes is not real.
A Course in Miracles allows us a complete change of perception. And we won’t have a clue what that change is until we practise forgiveness.
Forgiveness means we don’t look at things like we used to. It is the giving up of judgement. It is the enabling of a present moment awareness instead of being in the grip of past associations.
And this can happen in the blink of an eye or after a lifetime of study; it either happens now or sometime in the future.
The great illusion is this: we think we have time on our side but time does not exist at all. What we are doing is biding our time before we remember that physical form is not our reality at all.
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24th September 2025
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” William Blake.
Fantasies of any kind are distortions, because they always involve twisting perception into unreality. (ACIM, T-1.VII.3:2)
***
Lesson 334. Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives (ACIM, W-334). Yesterday: For the second night running, having made sure that my mother has her meal, after having a cold bath, and having achieved the whole list of chores that living on a farm entails, I was about to enjoy a cold beer when a thought crossed my mind saying, “oh shit, the lesson!” I then had to decide whether to sit for fifteen minutes, or not. I did and it was worth it. Today: This lesson is all about choice - as is every word of ACIM. Am I able to accept what I am or do I stay with the mindless drivel that I usually think? Earlier, as I was meditating for my first extended practice, my mind went back to a man who had crossed my path over forty years ago and who I barely knew. In that moment, I chose forgiveness instead of fear.
The giving up of judgment, the obvious prerequisite for hearing God’s Voice, is usually a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult, but because it is apt to be perceived as personally insulting. The world’s training is directed toward achieving a goal in direct opposition to that of our curriculum. (ACIM, M-9.2:4-5)
A Course in Miracles has to be adopted wholeheartedly or not at all.
The world teaches reliance on judgement for maturity and strength. What A Course in Miracles asks us to do is to relinquish judgement completely.
This doesn’t means that we should cross a busy street without looking, or put a hand into the fire to see if it is hot. It simply means that we stop allowing the ego to have active control over our minds.
The mind is split between illusions and the truth, and truth is wholly judgement free. It knows only love and, if love is what we decide to go for, then we need to start practising forgiveness.
The metaphysics of A Course in Miracles have to be adopted carefully and without fuss. If we agitate, then the ego remains in control. It is only by using forgiveness that we peak past the ego to what is.
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335/ Free of Fear
25th September 2025
“Things must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller.
I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. (ACIM, T-5.IV.8:10)
***
Lesson 335. I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness (ACIM, W-335). Yesterday: The lesson asked us to claim the gifts that forgiveness gives. Generally, the whole day was a gift - a bright blue autumnal sky and a sense of everything being okay. However, I kept distracting myself by doing things instead of just being. Another way of putting this is that I passed the day by being busy. Today: I awoke in the early hours of the morning, having just had a dream that ended with me being held by the throat by a threatening figure. It was clear that I was in for a beating. I awoke feeling awful, helpless, and inwardly asked why I had to feel like that. The answer was because it was all about bodies. If I change what I see, then I change how I feel - just as this lesson asks us to.
The aim of our curriculum, unlike the goal of the world’s learning, is the recognition that judgment in the usual sense is impossible. This is not an opinion but a fact. In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. (ACIM, M-10.3:1-3)
We come to A Course in Miracles with so many preconceived notions. All of these concepts need to be undone, which really means we have to undo the ego.
Undoing the ego is a complete dissolution of our limited self alongside an immediate awakening to our true Self; we become all and everything instead of dreaming we are something.
It means that past associations just fall away, to be replaced by a present moment awareness.
And love turns into our reality, which means the mind has broken free of its dream of fear.
In the video below, we hear about how it feels to meet God during a near-death experience. This is a spiritual experience, not physical, and words can never do it justice. However, the NDE undoes all our preconceptions and shows us that it is only through an awakening that we find our way home.
336/ Quiet Mind
26th September 2025
“The coming of honour or disgrace must be a reflection of one’s own inner power.” Xunzi.
My strength will never be wanting, and if you choose to share it you will do so. (ACIM, T-8.V.6:9)
***
Lesson 336. Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined (ACIM, W-336). Yesterday: The lesson was about choosing only sinlessness and its description ended by saying this: “In him I find my Self, and in Your Son I find the memory of You as well.” I am thinking of my mother’s dog, who tends to follow me throughout the day with great love and affection, and who is an example of what unconditional love really is. If love is shared between anyone or anything, then we are sharing the essence of what connects us all. Today: This lesson shows me how peace and forgiveness are intertwined, and this reminds me of what I heard yesterday - that ‘listen’ and ‘silent’ are anagrams of each other. Each one is therefore sharing the same qualities as the other.
Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God’s judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. (ACIM, M-11.4:1-8)
This is the quandary that we have. We’ve been taught that God created the world but A Course in Miracles categorically states that God did not create the world.
The world is an illusory dream that is made up in the mind of the beholder. God only created pure, eternal and changeless spirit.
The ego loves definitive statements. It wants to see things in black and white. But A Course in Miracles is also clear. God loves only what He created and God has no idea that the ego exists.
The ego is therefore responsible for all our fear and hurt. An analogy is a speck of dust in the eye.
And so healing the mind becomes our only responsibility as a miracle worker. Without the ego, the mind is quiet and clear as a cloudless sky.
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