A Course In Miracles

A Course In Miracles lesson 109 states: I rest in Creation.

Today we take sanctuary.  Today we step into the light within that has come.  Today we turn away from all the commotion of the world and we find a temple of peace and stillness.  The turmoil all around us is just layers of different dreams, like mist that vanishes up into the light of a warm, perfect day.  We rest in the perfection of this day.

At the steps of the sanctuary that is today, we ask for safety and joy.  Behind us, the world seems frightening and dangerous but we stand firm at the door to the realm of rest and peace beyond measure.  We ask to be let in and within our own mind, the part we have asked will let us into our own true self.  We rest in God today, God within.

The power of this thought will cut through any struggle and awaken the clarity that always resides in you.  The clarity in you is the living sanctuary where everyone can gather to find the same truth within themselves.  Today is a sacred tent the size of the whole world where, within, all suffering ends.

This lesson is an event in your mind that will bring you forward through the illusion as if being born, to recognize who you’ve always been but have forgotten.  When stress comes today, when a problem overpowers you, say to that situation, “I rest in God now.”

There is no problem God can not solve.  There is no problem larger than the Grace of God.  There is no struggle too dark that the Light can not penetrate it.  Nothing is beyond the reach of the power of the Light to heal and improve.  Rest in that today and what appears to be a challenge will be reviled as no problem at all.

Be peaceful today even in the turmoil and commotion of this crazy world.  The hatred you see all around you in the news and in our cars can not keep you from your ability to rest in the sanctuary of truth.  The sanctuary can not come to you.  Think of it as a building.  A sacred building within yourself that you must go to and enter.  Go within, rest in God, and call from there to all your brothers and sisters to rest with you. Because of the power of where you seek sanctuary, all your brothers and sisters will hear you.  They will come and rest with you in the magnificence that calls to all of us.

When you put aside all self-made thoughts and give your voice to be of service to the Light, through you people will hear the voice of God speaking because you have become a receiver for the Voice and you have stepped aside to let God speak through you.

Do you fear you will become arrogant in thinking God can speak through you?  Do you ask who are you to be the receiver of such important messages?  A Course In Miracles lesson 109 asks, why not you?  Who else but you is better suited to share the teachings of compassion and peace?  Should someone else speak for you?  Remember you qualify for miracles.  You are the perfect person to be a messenger of truth.

As you take five minutes every hour today, close your eyes each time and relax into stillness.  Watch your hectic thoughts like clouds passing across a perfectly clear sky.  Do not rest in the clouds today as they travel by.  Rest in the sky.

Fear can not approach you when you rest in God.  Become resilient to fear and watch how the distress of the world will dissolve away.  Every time you take a moment to rest in God today, you mend a broken wing, you set a river flowing.  You lift the strange veil of confusion that covers the world and bring clarity to earth.

Like taking off a tight jacket, taking off the burden of doing, fixing, and figuring out.  Lean back and rest in the energy net of Light that wants you to trust that what you truly need will come exactly when you need it.  What you need to know will come exactly when you need to know it.  Who you need to meet is on their way to you in perfect timing.  The Grace that orchestrates the movements of life is so much larger than our ability to comprehend.  

Put down the effort of problem-solving. Give them to the light and let them be solved.

A Course In Miracles lesson 108 states: To give and receive are one in truth.

When we read the first sentence of today’s lesson in the original publication of A Course In Miracles, it seems like the author has changed the subject right away.  The lesson title speaks about giving and receiving but the first sentence of the text speaks about vision.  What does vision have to do with giving and receiving?  Let’s have a look.

First, we want to remember that when A Course In Miracles uses the word “vision” it does not mean the activity that occurs with the eyes.  We are not speaking about the light from light bulbs in this context. The word vision in the ACIM context is speaking of an inner sight, a knowing sense of clarity.  To see clearly is to have vision.  

Lesson 108 first teaches us about the nature of giving and receiving and then it dives deeper into this event by explaining that vision (the ability to know truth) depends on the ability to give and receive.  From earlier lessons in the course we learned that:

Miracles are seen in light.

The light has come.

Light and joy and peace are within me.

So we have spent a bit of time contemplating what light is and how light connects with vision.  Now we learn that light and vision (truth and clarity) occur in the process of giving and receiving.  Specifically, we want to understand that when we give we are receiving what we give at the exact same time.  What we give is what we receive, instantly because giving and receiving are one in truth.  When I give, it is received.  When I receive it has been given.  The event of giving and receiving is a simultaneous action.  One does not come first.  There is no linear order of operations in the act of giving and receiving.  

I instantly get what you are giving me.  I can choose to turn away from what I have been given.  But I can not choose to not have received it.  If it is given, my receiving it is instantaneous. This means I know what I’ve received and I choose to either let it into my life or I choose to shut it out and not relate to it.

Why is this concept important?  It is this idea that guides us best toward changing our perception of opposites.  A Course In Miracles wants us to see fewer and fewer opposites in this world so that we see connections rather than divisions.  Giving is not the opposite of receiving.  Giving and receiving are one and the same.  When I give, I am given to.  I get what I give.  I am not left with less.  When you receive, you have not taken anything away from me.  Restructuring how we understand the energy physics of giving and receiving will guide our minds into a deeper state of clarity about the nature of reality.

How does this lesson translate when we are dealing with food, land, or limited resources?  It is challenging to accept the lofty notion of giving gives to me when I clearly see how, in the physical world, when I give, I have fewer of the things I’ve given.  It is not practical to give my money away with the belief that more money will come to me.  

And yet…  the spirit of generosity is deeply powerful, mysterious, and also much more enjoyable to experience than living in a fear of lack.   We are not being asked to suffer or give away the things we ourselves need in order to receive more of what we give.  That mindset is an overt agenda seeking calculated gain.  It suggests there is an unspoken contract that says you will be owed back if you give to others.  This is not the spirit of giving and receiving.  For vision to emerge, giving must feel like a pleasure, not a negotiation.  If you are giving with the expectation of receiving, it is time to realize that what you are actually giving is a negative perception and a stressful arrangement between you and another.  At such times, we will want to remember again that what we give is what we receive- energetically.  If, energetically, I give with an expectation of getting a return, I will receive that same expectation back.

No one owes us anything.  We do not owe anyone anything.  The exchanges that arise between us are gifts.  We can not guarantee we can give what we gave before.  We can only acknowledge what is true and available now.  Our understanding, when aligned with the truth of the nature of giving and receiving, will become a light force awareness that will be given to others, and received by them at once.  When we gain clarity, clarity is shared.  Once received by others, that same light logic is then returned back to us because we get what we give.  And the whole event of clarity and joy grows.  And now there is more joy than there was moments before.  Miracles occur in the act of giving and receiving.

The ability to sort out the confusion about giving and receiving will lead us to a truly generous spirit which leads to a more enjoyable life.  We need not fear we will be short-changed if we give from a place of connection with a higher source.  When we give, we do not lose.  We gain the experience of inner generosity.  We gain a state of fearlessness that believes with certainty that we have what we need when we need it.  We live with fewer opposites in our way of thinking and this brings peace of mind.

If my heart feels love towards you and I let that love be known, I make you and me happy.  Even if you do not feel love back for me, even if my love frightens you, it can not help but also give you some sense of wellness, for that is the nature of love.  You experience my love for you even if you do not reciprocate it.  I give that, and so I get that same love quality for myself by letting myself love you without a need for you to love me back.  I enjoy loving you.  I do not enjoy hiding the truth from myself or you to protect and hide what can not be hidden.  If I give my love to you in the hope that you will give me the same love back, I am not feeling real love for you.  I am experiencing a desire to control.  If I withhold my feelings of love from you or from myself, I am living a lie and I suffer.  

The event between us is as it is.  Love is between us.  I let it in and in doing so, I make it available for you to also let it in.  Withholding love from someone is withholding love from yourself. Even if you never tell the person how you feel, you can still feel safe telling yourself about that love within.  You can let yourself love without needing to get love back.  When you do that, you WILL get that love back, from your own heart.  You can give, and then receive what you give because: To give and to receive are one in truth. You can also know that if the other person is not receptive and is giving you resistance, they are giving themselves the same resistance, living in the pain they give.  What we give is what we receive.

There is no need to concern ourselves with what someone else is giving us.  Focus only on what you give to them.  Know that what they give you is what they get from themselves.  And what you give them is what you get from yourself. 

There is a very practical usefulness in today’s lesson because once you try it out, you will immediately start feeling instant positive results.  This positive reinforcement will begin to build your trust in the logic of these lessons in a stronger way.  The light that is created from the giving and receiving never fails.  The miracle occurs in every situation it is tried in.  This is very motivating to our studies and to our efforts to correct our misperceptions.

Today we are asked to offer peace to everyone and then to notice how quickly peace returns to us.  What we give others is what we give to ourselves.  What I give is what I receive.  I will receive what I give now.  I will give peace in order to gain peace.

Take 5 minutes at the top of every hour to put down what you are doing and ask yourself what you are trying to withhold from another as a way of somehow avenging or punishing them for not giving you what you want.  In your practice sessions today, make note of people you withhold your sense of humor from or your patience, or your respect.

Be sure to begin the day and end the day by contemplating this lesson. Wake up, lie in bed, and bring it to mind. As you fall asleep, let it be the last idea you ponder.  Think of the people you withhold from and say to all of them:

I give laughter

I give patience

I give respect

I give calm

I give encouragement

Expect to receive what you give.  What you give will come to you in the amount that you give it.  What you ask for will be given to you in exact measure of your willingness to receive it.

It may be helpful to think of a specific person you want to give all these qualities to.  This can inspire your heart.  And then remember that giving to this one inspiring person is the same as giving to every person.  There are no distinctions made in the giving of light.  The sun shines on everyone who stands in it.  The sun does not discern who will get light and who won’t.  Step into light and it will be given no matter who you are or what you think you may have done.  Give light to yourself and light will be given to you, instantly.

From this day on, our learning will come to us much faster because we are learning how to receive the teachings with a greater willingness.  As often as you can, call to mind today’s teaching.  Set an alarm each hour, and also let your mind remember the lesson naturally whenever it can.

What I give is what I receive.  Seeing clearly in this world is determined by the willingness in me to give generously and to receive generously.  I will give love, patience, kindness, humor, acceptance, and joy.  These I will receive in equal measure back in the moment I give them.  This willingness is what guides my mind to true vision.

A Course In Miracles lesson 107 states: Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

Only by locating what is true can we clear confusion.  What else could possibly bring clarity other than what is true?  It is very possible for confusion to end and for clarity to be our primary experience.  This would not mean we would stop questioning or evaluating our perceptions in an arrogant or overly “confident” way.  Ego confidence is not clarity.  Living in a state of true clarity about life is a graceful experience that is governed by humility and curiosity.  

When living in clarity we are always asking, “Is that true?”  And when we find the answer to be “no, that is not true,” We do not fight or defend our previous error.  Instead, we bow our heads to the mistake and allow our thoughts to be corrected.  Would you feel shame or guilt if you discovered you made a mathematical error?  Most likely you would just be surprised and then seek to correct the mistake.  We can let the same process be true for all sorts of errors we make in life.  We do not need to feel shame for not knowing better beforehand.  If we keep engaging in a mistake that we know is a mistake, this can only mean we still believe that pain is useful and that pain will correct us.  We are choosing pain, rather than peace.

Once we locate a humble experience of correction, we feel great again!  The process of correcting mistaken beliefs does not feel shameful and it does not inspire a desire for revenge.  The experience of having our perceptions corrected is not an experience of shame.  It is an experience of relief.  While there may be some pain involved, the predominant feeling is relief, because locating what is true is the only thing that ever brings relief.  And so, if we experience shame, guilt, embarrassment, confusion, or remorse during what we think is a correction process, we are not yet completely corrected in how we are thinking.  It may be a necessary process to become aware of long-standing shame or remorse, but once realized, the process of release and relief has begun.  It is up to us to learn how to not get in the way of that process, to step aside and let the true nature of grace lead us out of feeling bad.  In this way, happiness is an act of courage.

God does not want our pain.  If our behavior has led to pain, it is not because we are being punished.  It is only because we are resisting having our perceptions corrected back towards peace.  There is such a thing as “healthy” guilt, also called “primary” guilt.  This is the feeling we feel that indicates an error in our behavior and perception has occurred.  The instant we own the painful feeling and let them teach us how we would rather conduct ourselves, the pain begins to release us back into clarity and peace.  We can, of course, hold ourselves in remorse indefinitely and refuse to return to innocent calm.  But the only reason we would do that is because we believe the ego teachings that pain corrects errors.  This is a wrong way of thinking.  

Pain does not correct errors.  Pain only indicates an error has occurred.  Only truth corrects all errors in our minds.  Since life is an adventure of unknown challenges, there is no way for us to determine ahead of time what will be the right behavior for us in every circumstance.  The have to learn as we go and make a thousand corrections a day to keep ourselves aligned with the relaxed, grounded connection with truth.

Locating truth is hard-earned.  Our ego perceptions do not make it easy for us.  Locating truth takes constant inquiry while we are living in this world of illusions and misperceptions.  But there is nothing more fun, more satisfying, or more rewarding to the human soul than to sort out confusion and set a situation in proper order.  Every story ever told is the story of restoring order.  And so it is that restoring order is our soul story.  We are on a journey to clear away confusion and live in truth.  Aligning with that intention and effort is what Native Lakota cultures call walking the Good Red Road.  Just the act of seeking truth is a relief, even if we are not yet able to locate it fully.  Living in alignment with actions that bring peace is how we release ourselves from the illusion.

Wherever truth arrives, confusion disappears.  Any errors in our perception of a situation vanish at once in the light of truth.  The memory of an error is destined to fade into nothing.  Will you let it fade?  Will you let your mistakes become meaningless?  Will you let the mistakes other people have made become meaningless?  The mistakes we have made in life are of such little importance to the Greater Reality who sees us always connected and good.  Learning will never make us bad.  We can never do anything to get kicked out of Greater Reality.  But we can kick our own selves out.  Whenever we want to return, we are welcome.

Why keep focusing on the errors?  Today you are asked to shift your gaze, shift your focus up and away from the mistakes you think you (or another person) have made toward you.  Give mistakes no more attention once you have identified them as painful.  Dwell not upon them.  If you feel you need punishing for your behavior, or if you feel someone else needs punishing for their behavior, ask yourself how long should that prison sentence be.  How much punishment and suffering do you need until the error is corrected?  You could go days, weeks, or even years believing that you or the other person need to feel more pain in order to right the past error.  

You believe the mistake you have made or that another has made against you is serious and permanent.  It is only your thinking in this way that makes the error serious and permanent.  Without belief in their rightness, our misperceptions have no power over us.  Nothing has power over us.  We decide what we will believe.  A Course In Miracles Lesson 107 wants us to determine our belief system based on the quality of how good a belief feels.  Does a thought empower us or does it engender fear?

Take a moment at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day before sleep to remember a moment when you felt fully at peace.  Remember a moment when you had no fears or concerns.  Now try to imagine what it would be like to have that experience of peace and safety extended beyond a fleeting moment to last an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year.  Imagine the quality of innocence being an experience you wake up with, make coffee with, go to work with, go to sleep with, and wake up again with the next day.

Imagine the sense of quiet, calm, invigorating peace being multiplied in you a hundred times.  Then let it be multiplied a hundred more times.  This magnitude of peace within you is only the faintest hint of how your mind will truly rest when the truth has come.  Illusions are fearful and doubtful experiences.  When illusions are cleared away there is only the peace and joy of eternal reality.

Truth is always there because it is real.  What is real is always real even if it gets obscured.  If confusion comes over us, this does not mean all previous clarity has been lost forever. It only means a cloud has temporarily obscured us from what we know is true.  It is only a matter of time before clarity is restored.  Time is, in fact, the process of restoring clarity.  A cloud may block our view of the sun but that cloud can not ever have any effect whatsoever on the actual sun.  Do not fear that truth has been lost in any situation. Truth remains even when obscured temporarily.  And in time, we will find it again so long as we remain calm and clear about the nature of temporary confusion.

Truth does not evade or hide.  Truth stands in open light and is accessible in a straightforward way.  If you turn your efforts towards seeking truth, you will, without fail, find it.  That is why we will spend today turning towards that ever-present dimension of reality that is found within our own thoughts.  This part of our mind whispers to us about peace, calm, and creativity deeper than we have yet known.

You are not made of skin and organs.  You are made of light.  When you ask Light to help you, you are asking your own Self for help. God did not create you in order to torture you and then “kill” you.  God created you.  Why would s/he then want to turn around and kill you?  God is not insane.  God is eternal joy in the act of more creation of more joy.  You are a joy to God.  Let yourself be a joy to yourself. Allow space.  Allow quiet emptiness to emerge within the jumble of thoughts rolling through your mind. Let truth correct all errors in your mind.

Do not forget to give 5 minutes every hour to remember today’s lesson.  It is not enough to just read these lessons intellectually. Make an effort to bring these ideas to practical situations throughout the day that help you sort out an illusion.  Reach for this thought today as often as you can remember.  It is in this effort that the new logic will be set in place in your mind.  

A Course In Miracles lesson 106 states: Let me be still and listen to the truth.

There are two voices in our heads at all times.  One voice is loud, quick, and always talking.  The other voice is silent.  How, you may ask, can there be a “silent” voice in the head?  This question helps us clarify the difference between communication (talking verbally) and communion (knowing without words.)  There is a voice that “speaks” to us in the form of knowing.  This is the state of our minds before we have language.  And it is the state of our minds when we leave our bodies.  A Course In Miracles wants us to consider that even when we leave our bodies, we can never leave our minds.  Our mind is all we are, forever.

Communion is a state of listening to our forever self and resting in a state of knowing what is true.  When we are able to follow that truth and live in alignment with it regardless of how seemingly strange or counter to social norms it may be, we are following what Asian philosophy calls the Tao.  The Tao is true reality as it moves through the strange illusions of this world which seem to us so very real and permanent.  A Course In Miracles wants us to begin to recognize that this world is upside down and backward.  This world is impermanent and therefore, by definition, not real.  Only that which is eternal is real.  Things that fade away can not be real and everything in the physical world fades away.  

Finding what is real in this world requires us to go against the social concepts of accepted physics.  This course is asking us to find the courage to believe in ideas that can not make sense to a mind that was specifically designed to believe in the illusions as real.  One reason the movie the Matrix was so influential is because it gave expression to this very concept of someone realizing that the world he lives in is virtual and unreal.  Unlike the movie, however, Reality is not a wasteland.  On the contrary, Reality is exquisite beyond words.

The loud voice in our heads is a set of cultural and family rules we are constantly asked to live up to regardless of how personally helpful those rules may be for us.  The ego voice guides us always towards an experience of painful divisions and hopeless conclusions.  If we find the courage in ourselves to question that loud, well-trained ego voice, we will take a step closer to real truth, and a life without the intense happy/sad cycles.

The ego voice is quick to judge and it always advises harsh punishments as a solution to every problem.  Can you hear the hostility in that guidance advising vengeance, ghosting, and disdain?  The loud voice leads us toward the destruction of relationships while the silent voice holds all relationships in deep and sacred connection.  The ego voice has no idea how to fix a problem.  Nor does it ever have any desire to do so.  It offers the illusion of solutions that never really achieve what they promised. The ego voice is not a problem solver, it is a problem maker.

We can not fix any problem from the ego mind.  A Course In Miracles Lesson 106 is asking us to locate the part of our mind that does know how to resolve a problem because that part of the mind, being always connected with the Knowing Field, never has a problem.  How do we access this part of our minds?

Be still, and listen to the truth.  We are not the ones responsible for fixing problems.  We are the ones responsible for allowing problems to be fixed for us by a greater power.  The ego would have me believe it is my job to fix problems in this world.  But A Course In Miracles would like us to instead believe that is my job to listen and let resolutions be done for me and through me.  When we guide ourselves into becoming still, we are able to hear the whispering truth within.  The pain of guessing, hoping, and groping is instantly exchanged for a residing deep sense of purpose and certainty.

It can be very uncomfortable to learn how to experience a state of complete certainty.  The ego voice has offered that same promise to us so many times and every time we have experienced at best embarrassment and at worst devastation.  So often what we felt so certain about dissolves into baffling disappointment.  But that can only be because our hopes were entwined with some external physical (ie impermanent) thing.  In this way, the ego has effectively taught us to fear certainty and to believe it is impossible to rely upon.  This is how the ego keeps us away from carrying true power.

Being certain is not dangerous when we have connected to the source of Reality.  We need not fear we will become self-absorbed narcissists drunk with power when we invite certainty into our character because such qualities are not the qualities of true Certainty.  The Tao is not arrogant.  The Tao does not seek dominance.  Mistakes are not mistakes in the movements of true Grace and there is no shame when something changes.

But how do we know if we have connected with the Source of truth?  How can we be certain we are not hearing the ego voice yet again?  We need to…

Be still and listen to the truth.

That voice will be quiet.  That voice will feel inevitable and undeniable and safe to follow even when it seems to go against social structures.  It is the soul’s voice that whispers, “this way, this is the way…”  There is no sense of deviance, corruption, vengeance, or trickery when we follow the quiet voice.  So if you find yourself wondering if you are being advised by the ego voice or by the voice of God, ask yourself if there is any quality of desire for revenge involved with what you are contemplating doing.  

An impulse to take revenge on someone, no matter how minute the action may be, is an attempt to set the past straight.  We feel wronged and we want to put right how we were disempowered by taking an action that proves we have the power to harm back.  Focusing on history rather than making peace with the blows we have received is the root cause of suffering.  Do not attempt to set the past straight.  There is no getting it back.  To settle a score from the past is to wander in the dream-like terrain of history.  Turn away from thoughts of score-settling.  Let go of who you think you should be or who you think other people should think you are.  You do not get to decide who you are.  You get to discover what you are.

The voices of the world will keep us circling round and round in illusions.  Today’s lesson reminds us there is a still, quiet voice always available for relief when we calm our bodies down and let our minds grow quiet.  Dear seeker, meditate.  Watch your thoughts. Underneath them all is the watcher, the knower, the forever You.  Observe the ego voice and its insane guidance.  Allow your way of thinking to be corrected.  Life is not a game of dominance.  Vengeance does not restore peace.  You have not been diminished by any person in this world.  And you have not diminished anyone either.  You and everyone around you are unassailable as God created you.  The truth of you can not be harmed.  Whatever gets harmed simply is not you.

Correcting the pain of the past begins and ends with a willingness to receive a gift of correction from a higher source of clarity.  A Course In Miracles calls this process the atonement.  But I prefer the word correction.  Like when I calculate a math problem incorrectly, I need to make a correction.  I do not feel waves of guilt, shame, or remorse if I miscalculated something.  I simply feel motivated to put it right.  And what I discover is that I am not the one who puts it right.  I am the one who allows it to be put right for me by the greater movements beyond my limited awareness.  I let a greater power in to fix what I do not understand.  We do not need to fixate on the fact that we do not understand something.  We can let ourselves be moved.

Each hour today, begin a five-minute sitting session with the thoughts:

Now I will sit quietly and listen to the truth.  What does it mean to give?  What does it mean to receive?

When you ask these questions, know that you have asked God.  Know that God WILL answer, so expect that answer to come to you.  Sit quietly and just listen.  Do not be troubled if you do not hear anything.  Let the answer come in its own way.  Make space for the answer by opening up all the possible ways it might reach you.  Put no constraints on how you might be reached.  Quiet your thoughts and listen to the soft, gentle voice of God within you.  Receive that still knowing as often as you can today.

Every minute you sit to listen for the truth will open up hundreds of other minds to the same light and peace.  That is how powerful your actions are.  Be certain of what you are bringing to yourself today and know that you also bring it to the whole world by bringing it to yourself.

Be still and listen to the truth.  Receive that truth and then give what you receive to others.

A Course In Miracles lesson 105 states: The peace and joy of life are also my peace and joy

There is no danger in recognizing God within one’s self.  Doing so will not lead to delusions of grandeur because that is not what God is.  God is not an illusion.  The idea of the Unified Field is not theoretical.  That state of Grace is more real than any situation we may encounter here. We hold the qualities of the Unified Field within ourselves because that is where we come from.  Do not worry that you will become out of touch, arrogant, or unreliable by connecting with the God Field.  Negative qualities are not part of that Field.  There is only clarity and empowerment and humble willingness to listen and follow where Grace leads us.  Wariness or defensiveness are not part of the qualities of God and only indicate we have lost connection.  We need only find our way back to calm inner knowing whenever we forget.

The word “God” is a tiny attempt to address a concept we can never experience while in a physical body.  The concept states that there is some “thing” beyond physical things that never change.  The permanent state of the God Concept is whole and joyful.  

While in this world, we can not experience any sort of permanence.  Without any lasting examples of lasting wellness in our external surroundings, we can only make an effort to choose to believe in the concept of the existence of an eternal state of Grace.  Our choice in what we believe determines our level of inner peace.  Nothing out in the world can secure our inner peace.  We can not scientifically prove that the God Field exists because it is not tangible.  And for some people, a lack of physical proof makes them uncomfortable with the idea of believing in something unseen, unheard, and unfelt.  

And so, what we find at the heart of our human experience is a choice about what we will believe.  To navigate life in a way that minimizes suffering, we need to navigate how we are thinking.  How we think is comprised of what we believe.  We only ever have two options about what to believe.  There are not thousands of different belief choices, even though it may seem like there are.  There is only ever a choice to believe in what is true or to believe in what is not true.

Why would we have to “believe” in what is true if it is true? Why wouldn’t the truth be obvious?  A Course In Miracles explains that we are living in a state of illusion when living in a physical form.  This physical world has been specifically made to seem real when it is not.  That is why everything in this world is strange and confusing.  Clarity and stability are fleeting and require a commitment to belief in what can not always be felt.  This is what is meant by the word faith.  We choose to believe in the God dimension.  We decide to believe in a higher power of grace and compassion even when there is no seeming evidence of such a State. The only way to experience the Grace of Creation is to choose, to decide to believe in it.   The necessity of making a choice is there because we have a split mind.  We have a mind that argues with itself constantly.  

The word God is a tiny attempt to address a concept of unity and peace we can never experience while in a physical body.  The concept states that there is something beyond physical things that never changes.  Taking mind-altering substances is often appealing to people because substances produce sensations descriptive of this state of being: wholeness, joy, and connection.  There is a reality beyond physical life.  There is not nothing after this life ends.  There is Truth.  God is truth and the truth is forever waiting for us to reconnect with it. We can do so at any time. It does not matter how many times you think you may have disconnected from this state of Grace.  You are always and forever welcome to reconnect.

The belief being corrected in today’s lesson speaks about the nature of giving and receiving.  We live in conditions that seem finite so that when we “give” to someone in this world, it feels as if we lose that which we have given.  But in the energy physics of the God dimension, this is not how giving and taking works.  In energy physics when we give, we get back what we give.  We gain when we give and so giving is actually a way of getting.  When I drop my defenses and let myself love another person even when it feels dangerous, I get that love.  I experience what I give.  And when the person I give to lets themselves receive, they give that love back to me and joy is born.

How I give to you is how I experience my life.  If I feel I have lost something through the act of giving, my mood will be low.  I will be bitter and I will want to avenge the person I perceive as having taken from me.  I will want to even the score and reestablish my sense of power.  But the truth is, I have not been diminished.  To think I have is to choose a belief that views me in an untrue way.  I am not weak.  I am as God made me.  I can not be diminished because the peace and joy of God are mine.  This is true beyond the specifics of what might happen to my physical situation because I am not this physical situation.  

And so we say again, what I give out to others is what I give to myself.  I determine the quality of my experiences by placing great importance on my own conduct.  My behavior in this world is my only true, lasting companion.  Cultivating behavior that feels relaxing and empowering is the best use of my time.  My relationship with myself is all I ever have that endures beyond the conditions at hand.

This world is still learning the true nature and true power of giving and receiving.  Most give/take exchanges between people are actually bargaining transactions that have an unstated contract of owing back whatever has been given.  If I give, I must be expecting something in return. This is the dynamic being corrected in today’s lesson.  The spirit of giving does not involve loss or sacrifice.  And nothing is owed in return. The Creative Field is an eternal state of giving.  Giving is the foundation of Creation which creates more joy through more giving of joy.  So look closely at what you give to others today and remember that the joy and peace of Creation are within you and when you give that out, you become that peace and joy.

Finding our way past resentment and a need for vengeance is another process we are being guided through in this course.  Humans find great joy in sharing.  Sharing is, in fact, what gives meaning and purpose to all that we do. But in a world that fixates on lack and limitation, giving and receiving make us nervous.  We feel this wariness not just with other people but with Creation Itself.  We find it hard to believe we could be given peace for “no” reason, for free.  And our strange split mind is constantly creating strange bargains with ourselves about the price we feel we must pay to obtain peace.  We believe that if I do this or that, I will be deserving.  If I don’t, I will need to pay with suffering until I earn the right to be given to again. But God does not punish.  God wants your peace without a sense of sacrifice on your part. 

Suffering does not pay for peace.  It pays for more suffering.  A gift is not earned.  A gift is given freely.  Can you take it?  I can be peaceful and happy if I let myself receive what is truly mine.  The Giver of Life needs nothing from us.  It gives because giving is Its greatest pleasure.  Letting the Universe give to us is the greatest gift we could give back to the Universe.  Being delighted is all that is wanted in return.  There is no catch.  If something painful happens in our life it is not because the Giver is displeased or punishing us.  It is because we are mistaken about some aspects of reality.  It is not dangerous to feel well.  It is not naive to cultivate a positive, enjoyable disposition.  We will not have to pay a price if we give or receive love.

A Course In Miracles Lesson 105 asks us to sit in a slightly different way with today’s lesson.  Begin the day by thinking of the people who you have withheld peace and joy from.  A Course In Miracles calls all people our brothers.  We can also use the term sisters or siblings because, in the eyes of Creation, we are all the children of Creation.  This makes everyone our family members, even when they are our technical “parents.”  

Think of those you gave anger and vengeance to.  See how as you denied them your care and consideration, you felt the same pain you caused them.  Take a moment in your sitting quietly to see them now with more gentleness.  Offer them the peace that God is always offering you.  Meditate for a few minutes upon your “enemies” today and tell each one,

“Dear brother, dear sister, I see we are connected.  I offer you peace now as a way to offer myself peace. What I give to you, I give to myself.  Today I give myself the peace and joy of God, which is my birthright.”

Do not get caught up in all the pathways your thoughts can take that will argue and complain and feel compelled to withhold kindness as a way of correcting a painful situation. Withholding kindness will not lead to connection or repair.  

If you sit in this way today as the Course suggests, you can not fail.  The obstacles to peace and joy will be lifted from your mind.  Know this to be true.  Know that you qualify and deserve to have such pain lifted from you.  It is not only possible, it is wanted by you and by God.  How could success be anything other than inevitable in such circumstances?

Give five minutes as often as you can today to turn your thoughts to the nature of giving and receiving.  If you find you can not give five minutes, give three, or give one, or give just a fleeting remembrance of today’s lesson.  Do not think that giving less is worthless.  Recognize that giving even a second of your attention to this idea changes volumes in your way of thinking.  Aim to say the lesson to yourself hourly.  Step aside and let what God wants for you come into your life.

If someone in your life activates you into the old system of vengeance and defense, see that activation as an opportunity to recall the day’s lesson at the most relevant and needed time.  Remember in the heat of anger,

The peace and joy of life are yours.

A Course In Miracles lesson 104 states: I am always only looking for what is truly mine.

It is not naive to believe that joy and peace could be a constant way of life. Peace on earth is not an idle dream.  Peace is this world’s destiny. We are in a process of realizing (awakening to) the ever-present peace that has never left this world and can not leave this world because it is the source of all that is.  We are in a process of remembering that joy and peace are a state of being we have a right to claim because joy and peace are what we are.  We are not things.  We are states of being.  That state is peaceful, joyful, and creative.

Reality is stronger than any illusion that could ever be made because all things, even illusions come from eternal Reality.  Whatever Reality wants is achieved because there is nothing larger or more powerful than Reality.  We can not fail in our effort to achieve peace and joy because all of creation wants the same for you.

What is the problem then?  Why does peace not reign on earth?  We are not currently able to understand that we do not always want peace and joy because in this world our minds are split.  Sometimes we pursue pain. Sometimes we think conflict and destruction is helpful.  We have an experience here of two conflicting minds at odds with each other in an inner turmoil of want/don’t want, believe/don’t believe.  A split mind is a strange conversation with impossible logic.  It is a conversation with insanity that leads nowhere.

We are in the process of mending that rift now.  By working through these daily statements we are smoothing out the divisions in our thoughts and making our minds ready to receive true peace and joy.  We are renovating the house we live in, setting in a new piping system so that the flow of useful thoughts can occur without interruption.  It is very important that we make space within ourselves.  This will enable us to be ready and willing to receive the joy that is Reality.  We can not entertain hostile thinking and expect to find peace within.  We must replace hostile logic with peaceful logic.  We will never be able to convince our hostile minds about the value of peaceful thinking.  We can only continually choose between the two options of logic.  Today we choose peaceful thinking every hour for five minutes.  We sit and note where our breath is and what our body feels like for just a few moments during the (seemingly) busy day.

Our body is a sacred space.  Our mind is also a sacred space.  We must make a clearing within ourselves where we can sit in restful calm, waiting for the light to come.  If we do not create an empty calm space of reception, we can not be available for the rising light.  It is for this reason we are asked to sit for 5 minutes every hour.  Take a brief moment to let all the self-made interests fall away.  Clear the altar of your mind of all clutter.  Place in your mind for five minutes one single priority, to know peace.

There will be thousands of reasons why it is not possible to become comfortable or calm.  Find a way to be comfortable and calm with how unable you are to sit still.  Hold space for the observation that you do not have the ability to hold much space.  Sit with what your inner condition is.  Seek within that sacred inner space only what truly belongs to you.  Listen.  Wait.  Under all the turbulence of thinking, you will find that which is truly yours.  

You have inherited a wealth of peace and joy before the invention of time and that wealth is always there, it is always you, no matter what sort of seemingly wild and dangerous adventures you may go on.  You can and will be restored to what you truly are. Have peace now.  Unite what you want with what Reality also wants for you.  Recognize that you and Reality are one and the same.  

Begin your 5-minute sitting practices with this idea:

I am only looking for what is truly mine.  Joy and peace are my birthright.

Then sit without doing.  Let your natural desire for peace and calm rise effortlessly up to the surface and reconnect with the desire of the cosmos.  Your desires and the desire of the cosmos are one and the same.  Sit with this idea and lay a foundation for a new flow of logic that helps us see that the will of Creation has already been achieved.  There is no struggle if we do not want one.  What God wants for us has already been given to us.  We are learning how to not lose sight of those gifts of peace, joy, clarity, and love.

Do not worry if the five-minute practice sessions feel challenging to put into place.  It does not matter how you “feel” about the lesson.  And your evaluation of how well you think you are doing is also unimportant.  There is no grade system here.  There is only strengthening your resolve and personal interest in obtaining inner calm.

Bring yourself each day to the next day’s lesson for the period of one year.  Come as you are and place your eyes on the words.  Encounter your mind and just say the statements you see there.

I only search for what is truly mine.

A Course in Miracles lesson 104 asks us to note any opinions or reactions with calm neutrality.  We are encouraged to stay the course.  Do not evaluate if you are doing it right or if you could do it better.  Simply place your eyes on the material and release all notions of evaluation.  Even one minute of release clears a lifetimes of struggle.

A Course In Miracles lesson 103 states: Life is love and love is happiness.

Today’s lesson takes time to deepen our understanding of exactly what the God Field is.  We could also call it the Tao or the Unified Field of Everything, or The Knowing Field, or the Great Mystery, or Nirvana.  We could make words up to describe it.  But what we are referencing whenever we speak of God is a unity of all that exists.  Unity is a difficult concept for a split mind to comprehend. And unity is what this course is guiding our split mind into.

It turns out that unity is an attribute of happiness.  Happiness arises when a sense of unity is present.  Feeling unified and connected feels good.  This may seem like an obvious observation to make, but it is important to study fundamental concepts before trying to learn higher mathematics.  The foundation of addition and subtraction must be in place before attempting trigonometry.  And so today we learn: God is love.  Unity is love.  And love is happiness.  When love is present in a situation, things feel good.  God loves and is love.  Love never gets old for God. God loves loving and just wants to love more and more into eternity forever.   And that is exactly what God is doing because what God wants, God gets.  This means God does not punish or take revenge on us when we displease It.

Suffering is not love. Guilt and shame are not of God. Suffering does not feel good.  Sometimes we convince ourselves that suffering feels good and that pain is something we like because we do not know how to stop the pain.  We feel dominated by it and trapped.  As a way to cope with an unbearable situation, we turn suffering into a strange kind of pleasure.  This usually happens in childhood, the time when we can not get away from our environment.  We cope by any means necessary to get through the impossible times, trusting that once we are free and on our own, we will have the resources to free ourselves of that struggle.

This book is just such a resource.  The daily lessons will guide all your misguided logic shaped in childhood out of that painful way of thinking and into a truly more enjoyable mind.   But the ability to hear what this book is offering can only come when your mind has reached its limit of suffering.  Human’s have an astounding capacity to endure outrageous volumes of suffering.  This takes lots of energy and resources which could, at any time, be used in a more enjoyable way.

No one can bring clarity to another person.  People can only develop an interest in obtaining clarity, recognize that clarity in someone else, and then figure out how to do what they see that person doing.  Clarity is achieved by observing it and then attuning yourself to what you observe.  Locate an example of clarity and then be like that.  If you can’t hold that space yet, just enjoy floating in it, like you would enjoy basking in the sun.  Maybe some of that clarity stays with you, maybe it doesn’t.  But locating it is the first step.

The strange belief that suffering is useful or empowering is not possible to understand.  It is not possible to understand that which is insane.  And we should not waste our time trying to do so.  Identifying insanity and walking away from it is a huge time and energy saver you can employ right now in your life.  What will you do with all the energy you save when you stop trying to reason with the unreasonable?  What else could you be doing with your time if you stopped trying to reach the unreachable?  

Waste no energy on trying to make sense of that which will never have value.  Faulty logic leads us into negative spirals of suffering. True logic leads us upward into excitement, curiosity, creativity, and joy.  These are all attributes of God, of love, of happiness.

In your five-minute practice sessions today, take time to clarify all the qualities of the God Field.  Correct the false logic program currently running in your mind that has convinced you that God is fearful, hateful, vengeful, or dangerous.  God is love.  God loves.  You come from God and so you too are the love of God.  

It is not dangerous to think of yourself as part of God. The only danger would be to think you are the whole of God rather than a part of the much larger whole.  You are one small expression of a tremendous expression of love.  You are learning what you really are.  You will do this your whole life long.  It takes a lifetime to grow up.

As often as you can remember today, call to mind the idea that God is kind, loving, creative, and inclusive.  Be willing to have your understanding of suffering change today.  This is the day a change occurs!  Welcome happiness as a teacher and a new sort of motivator.  There is nothing more important to spend time on than to learn the true nature of what leads to lasting happiness.  Seek what is true and you can not fail.

Be sure to set an alarm every hour and pause for five minutes throughout the day to consider today’s lesson.

A Course In Miracles lesson 102 states: I want my own joy.

After a while, we can not help but observe that suffering is unproductive.  Suffering does not lead to improvement.  It wallows in pain. The only productive response to have with suffering is to turn away, walk away, place attention on a different quality of experience.  Find something colorful in the room that feels like relief. Find observations that lead to relaxation.  Legalize relaxation.  Remove yourself from the suffer cycle.  As soon as you notice that your pain is not going away, say to yourself and to that pain, “That’s enough. I’ve heard enough of that.” And then unplug yourself from that energy field.  You might feel a bit dazed and a bit “dumb” When you unplug yourself from a suffer cycle.  But that’s better than suffering and it won’t last long. 

Pain is not the same thing as suffering. Pain is a response when something has gone wrong.  When something goes wrong, we are inherently motivated to correct and realign into rightness (no pain).  When pain continues on and on without end it becomes suffering.  While pain in life is unavoidable, suffering is very avoidable.  

We may believe that suffering brings a certain meaning or value to our being.  “No pain, no gain.” Is a core belief in Western culture.  What A Course In Miracles Lesson 102 invites us to consider is the idea that we do not need to gain one more single thing.  To seek to gain more is to forget what we really are.  We are complete.  Nothing else need be added to us.  And we certainly do not need to suffer to gain something we do not really need.  No pain, no pain.

This new idea about the futility of pain has already started to take hold in your mind.  You are beginning to recognize that suffering makes no sense and is not needed in order to learn what you desire most to learn.  You want to learn how to return to peace more and more quickly after life’s daily blows.  You want resilience and freedom from suffering.  You want autonomy, self empowerment, and sovereignty.  You want to feel good in your own company.

You want this for yourself and God wants this for you too.  What God wants is wanted by all that God created.  You do not want pain.  When you experience a longing for the opposite of peace, it can only be because a confused logic has led you to believe that pain will bring you peace.  It is this logic this course is correcting.

To grow this newly sprouted awareness about the futility of suffering, we want to understand that a belief exists in our mind in a network of thoughts and memories.  Any belief, (true or false) is made of thoughts and memories and conclusions based on experiences.  Unconscious beliefs are beliefs we formed in childhood and have forgotten how or why we believe them.  They are unexamined and they run our life experience from a forgotten control panel governed by suffering.

We spend five minutes every hour with these ideas because we want their logic to sink down into the bedrock of our understanding of life.  Today’s new thought is the consideration that we want what God wants for us.  God is not angry, God is not vengeful.  God is not toying with us for sadistic pleasure.  We are confused about the nature of reality.  Reality is love.

We have taken a journey through profound darkness and baffling violence.  We believed there would be value found in agony.  We were mistaken and it is time to correct our course of action.  Let it be understood that we no longer need to go on journeys of suffering.  Let what we have gone through be enough.  The story of Christ’s crucifixion is a story asking humanity, “How bad does it need to get? Can this demonstration of outrageous suffering awaken the awareness that agony is not needed?  Can you stop crucifying yourself and let this example be enough to remind you that agony is unhelpful? The message of the crucifixion is a request to release the need for crucifixion all together by showing that pain can be overcome.  

Put down the cross.  The “second coming of Christ” is not the arrival of another person on earth to revere.  It is the realization of peace as a collective, peace within yourself connected to the peace within others.  

The “last judgement” is not the time where we will stand before a judge and be evaluated for our good or bad behavior.  The last judgement is the end of judging all together.  Creation is not judging us.  We are the only ones holding ourselves in condemnation.  Let us hold ourselves in joy. There is so much more we can be doing if we put down the fixation with pain.  Do not seek loving connection in the emptiness of suffering. Be at peace with what you are, where you are, what you achieved and did not achieve.

Today’s hourly practice sessions of five minutes are devoted to locating a sense of wellbeing within today.  Look around or close your eyes and find some small thing that pleases you.  A color, a memory… what in your world, (inside or out) feels like peace?  Set a gentle alarm to remind you at the top of every hour that you want the joy that life wants for you.  Put a small effort into pausing whatever you are doing and remember, “I want my joy.”

A Course In Miracles lesson 101 states: The Universe wants my joy.

Today’s idea can not be said often enough: God wants our joy.  If the concept of God pinches your mind, we can also say: the purpose of life is to feel perfect happiness.

The happiness being spoken of here is not the same emotional event we experience as the rollercoaster ride up and down throughout our day.  Perfect happiness is a constant connection with well-being regardless of what happens or does not happen.  We will be okay.  

The state of wellness this course is aiming to build in us is a foundation of stability that exists outside of the undulating swings of happy/sad, loving/hateful, and clarity/confusion.  The emotional roller coaster ride we think of as normal life is caused by the split in our belief system.  It is not possible to believe two opposing ideas.  It is not possible to be both good and bad.  We are not both.  We are good.

When we believe we are bad and when we believe our character has been broken beyond repair due to an external circumstance, we have swings of polarity occur.  This is because our natural state of true Grace will never allow us to fully believe we are bad or broken when we are not, and can not ever be.  All that is needed to correct feelings of wrongness that may arise within us is to bear witness to that regret, sorrow, and anger.  Do not run from painful feelings.  When we take responsibility for the times when we are disappointed in our behavior, we enable that regret to change us and be released.

Deep down we know we are good because what is true is always known, sooner or later.  Ego logic teaches us that when we make mistakes we need to be punished.  The ego never sets a time limit for how long the punishment should last because ego logic is always pursuing pain.  We often believe we need pain and punishment in order to be alive.  Today’s lesson wants to rewire this belief so that we can see the faulty logic for what it is… in error.

If it were really true that we are bad or that we have been broken beyond repair, then this world would be in a constant state of punishment for something that is worthless.  Why bother punishing that which is beyond repair?  To what end is the punishment administered?  What does it wish to accomplish for something marked as beyond repair?  When will it accomplish that mission if it hasn’t already?  How much punishment would it take to arrive finally at the “truth” of a person’s worthlessness?  

Punishment is a pointless, ineffective method of correction.  To correct an error of any kind, it is only the release from shame and punishment that will ever succeed.  Ego logic has no intention of ever releasing you from your prison sentence and ego logic will never be satisfied until you are killed because ego logic is the logic of violence and destruction.  Which belief system do you want to live in? A creative one or a destructive one?  

Be life-affirming.  Be self-affirming.  Let yourself be a young, inexperienced learner throughout time.  Making mistakes is how we improve.  We are works in progress, forever refining our character.  In true Reality, nothing can be destroyed that is actually real because the nature of reality is eternal.  Ego logic tries to dismantle the eternal state of true reality with elaborate illusions of very persuasive qualities.  But every effort the ego makes is like the tiniest of pebbles tossed at an utterly invincible wall of light.

Nothing can destroy the Grace of true reality.  Such perfection can not even be scratched.  Reality is unassailable.  And you are made from that Reality.  Your body can certainly be harmed, but you will continue on past that.  Why not try to live in this temporary body with such an idea in mind?  How might this relieve the pressures of goals or regrets?  

Pain is not needed.  Punishment can teach you nothing.  Cruelty does not correct any errors.  Punishing a mistake will not correct it.  Listen to another’s pain before condemning the behavior they engaged in.  Returning hurtful words leads to more hurt and isolation.  The impulse to return fire with fire is strong.  Can you sit on your hands and let that fire burn out instead of throwing it and catching someone else on fire?  Let the fire end with you.  Refrain from punishing and step into the beginning of true freedom and happiness.  When I refrain from reciprocating a hurtful action against me, I set myself free.  I can not know if the person who committed the violence will find their own end to suffering but I can put down revenge and let the pain just run its course.  We will have to do this in the end anyway or kill each other out of spite.  End the fight sooner rather than later by acknowledging, “That hurt me deeply.  Hurting back will not take away that hurt.  It will only turn me into something that hurts another person.  This will hurt even more.”

Ego logic will always invite you to compile lists of faults and condemnations about yourself and other people.  This list keeps you in hell.  You were not created by Creation to suffer endlessly in hell.  Creation is not hateful and does not torture you.  You torture yourself by turning away from the care of Creation to engage a logic that only hurts.  You make Creation something to fear, something that banished you, something out to get you.  When something painful happens, you are not being punished for unforgivable sins.  When something painful happens you are shown that what you thought was real was a mistaken belief.

Do not fear what Creation wants for you.  Know that when you feel punished, it is not God or Creation that is punishing you.  It is ego logic, misguided, and hell-bent on suffering.  You do not need to suffer.  Today we are asked to sit for five minutes every hour and make note of the tension in your body.  If your mind wanders, do not punish it.  Simply begin again from where you are.  It is the perfect place from which to begin again.  Release resistance, release punishment logic, and know: The Universe wants your joy.