A miracle is a correction, a change in perception brought about by God's Grace and my forgiveness of all I seem to see. It looks on devastation and reminds my mind that what it sees is false. The miracle undoes error; it functions only in time for Eternity does not need miracles. The miracle paves the way for the return of Timelessness and Awakening to Heaven. Forgiveness is the home of miracles. Miracles happen as a direct result of forgiveness.
The miracle changes perception, which was upside down before; it ends the strange distortions my mind embraced in the world of illusions. Now my mind is open to Truth and forgiveness is now seen as justified. If murder, hatred, attack, envy, jealousy and anger were Real, then forgiveness would be foolish. But the point is: murder, hatred, attack, envy jealousy and anger are illusions. If they do not exist, then they are easy to forgive or "overlook."
Christ-Vision (perceiving all with forgiveness) looks upon the world in mercy and Love. Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of Love.
Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world where starved and thirsty creatures comes to die. Now they have Life-giving water. Now the world is green. Everywhere signs of Life spring up to show that what is "born" can never die. For what has Life has Immortality.
The miracle is the result of my forgiveness. It is a change in perception. Once I saw darkness, now I see Light. Heaven does not need miracles, but I do because I think I am in a foreign land. The real miracle is Awakening to Heaven and realizing that the world of dreams was only a fantasy.
Revelation. Revelation is the original form of communication between God and I and cannot be translated into words. Any attempt to describe Revelation in words is impossible. Revelation induces only experience and is extremely personal ~ this feeling is sought in physical relationships, but physical closeness cannot come close to achieving it. Revelation unites me directly with God. It is literally unspeakable because It is an experience of Unspeakable Love.
When I read about people who have had near-death experiences, they report great difficulty trying to talk about and describe it. I can somewhat understand Revelation in this way. Yet "near-death" experiences are part of the dream. In the world of dreams there seems to be reincarnation, and there seems to be psychics and mediums who talk to dead people. This is illusion within illusion. It is neither bad nor good. The experience of death in the world of dreams, is an experience without the body, but it is not Heaven. It seems to be a holding place of greater perspective, before entering into another "life." It is part of the illusion. My returning to my Father will not occur by death, but only Awakening brought on by my forgiveness of all my thoughts, and everyone and everything I seem to see.
Atonement. "Atonement" is the process of forgiving the illusion, i.e., my thoughts, situations, people, etc., one by one, and the resulting change in my perspective.
Jesus is supposedly the author of ACIM. Non-Christians may discount the material because of it, Christians may discount the material when they are told they got the message wrong. It does not matter who inspired the material. It could be Tennessee Tuxedo, it is the message that is important, not the "who." Refuse to get hung up on the "who". That is where all the trouble started in the first place. "Is not that the carpenter's son?" Who the heck does he think he is anyway?
Atonement was given me to correct "error, "sin" and illusion. I will be ready and willing. Every thought and every encounter with "another" is an opportunity for forgiveness. I will forgive myself and all my thoughts. This is the plan of Atonement. The resulting change in perspective ~ the miracle ~ will lead to the highly personal experience of Revelation.
Spirit is in a State of Grace Forever. My only Reality is Spirit. Therefore I am in a State of Grace Forever.
The Golden Rule asks me to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. But I cannot behave appropriately unless I perceive correctly. Learning and accepting the process of forgiveness (the Atonement) is what ACIM teaches and it will help me learn to perceive correctly. It will help me easily look at "others" from the perception of "my" Holiness to "their" Holiness. When I feel good about "myself," I will feel good about "others" and the "world" in general.
Escape from Illusion. Illusion, dreams and darkness are the same. In my world of illusion I think I have secrets. Secret thoughts, secret feelings, secret deeds, secret judgments, secret plans. To escape from illusions, I first must realize that everything I think, hear, feel, touch, see and do in the dream-world, is an illusion. This will be fearful at first. Why? Because it shakes the foundation of what I have "known" and believed my entire "life." Nothing is as it seems. Nothing is what I thought it was.
Secondly, there is nothing to hide. What of secret thoughts?.........even those are illusions; they are not my True Thoughts. I exert enormous effort to establish the "reality" of the dream-world. My mind can be possessed by illusions, but they are just illusions. My Spirit - the Reality of me - is Eternally Free.
God's World contains only Abundance. When I perceive and acknowledge that I have Everything, I have no need of any kind. The purpose of Atonement (or the Undoing of Illusions by Forgiveness) is to restore Everything to me. At Creation, I was given Everything, along with "everyone else" (there is only ONE of us).
While I think I am a body, I must choose between fear or Love because I have to express something. I can wait, delay, paralyze myself or reduce my creativity to almost nothing. I can make myself an empty shell. I can destroy my body, go to the holding place and return in another "body." But I cannot destroy my Self. I did not create my Self, God did. And what God created is Eternal.
I can waste time with illusions, substituting one for another, one lifetime after another, but there is no need to exert more effort with worthless dreams, or spend more time than necessary in a world that is not real. The miracle will collapse time.
I will forgive "everyone" and "everything" that comes into my experience. Eventually I will realize that there was nothing at all to forgive. I will remember that I, as Child of the Creator, have Everything. God's World is Consistent, Stable and contains only Love. My True Home is a State of Completion and Abundance. Whatever is True is Eternal and never changes. God's World is mine. The specialness of God's children does not stem from exclusion but inclusion. "We" are ALL special. I am deprived of nothing. If I believe I am "deprived" or even "special" (which I do in a world of dreams) my reality is distorted. The salvation of the "world" depends on me, because the "world" is a thought in my mind.
The mind can serve only one master: God or illusions. Currently, I am putting all my effort into illusions. How do I know this? I can ask myself: Is my world completely Happy with no sadness? Do all those I love, love me back? Is there only Life and no death? Am I Joyful and Happy all of the time? If not, I am in the wrong state of mind. Lack does not exist in God's Creation, it only exists in a world of illusion. "Need" only arises when I feel deprived. I purposely deprive myself of God's World by creating a world of lack. I have seemingly created the "world of illusion." But I will find my way Home.
I will not sow my seeds among the rocks and thorns (illusions), I will sow my seeds in rich soil (Reality). The seeds sown in poor soil will wither away and die (because they do not exist). In the world of illusions my orientation is upside down. As I start to reach for God's World, my equilibrium may feel temporarily unstable.
The only lack I need correct is the sense that I am separated from God. When I realize that I am in Heaven with God, I will again experience complete Love, Joy and Abundance. The original mistake was that I believed it was possible to be in a world without God, fragmented into different "people." I think I exist in space and time, where concepts such as "up" and "down" are meaningful. This is a mistake and I will use "time" to correct my false beliefs. I made fear and I believe in it. I made illusions and I believe in them. My belief produces my "reality."
Only Perfect Love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist! Believe this because it is True. Believe this and know Freedom. My distorted perception hides miracles, making it hard for them to reach my Awareness. Often I will confuse miracle impulses with physical impulses. This is a major perceptual distortion. Physical impulses are misdirected miracle impulses. The only Real and True Happiness and Pleasure comes from doing God's Will. Not doing God's Will denies my Self. Denial of Self results in illusions. Correcting errors (by forgiveness), brings release from illusions.
Child of God, I was created to create the Good, Beautiful, and Holy. Do not forget this!
Right now my Vision is dim. I express "love" from one "body" to "another." The body's only good use is to express forgiveness, which will correct my perception. The physical eye is incapable of seeing Reality. It was made to show me dreams and only that can it do. I can make illusions or I can make miracles through forgiveness, and I will wholly believe in what I make. If I offer miracles through forgiveness, I will believe in them equally as strong.
ACIM is a course in mind-training. All learning is of the world of dreams and involves study at some level. God will use learning to Awaken me. AClM will provide me with a solid foundation to help reverse my perception from illusions, to forgiveness of illusions. Then I will realize there was nothing to forgive, and God Himself will take the final step.
Peace is found only in complete forgiveness. If I want to learn, and believe I need to learn, I WILL learn.
