Lesson 186 ~ The Salvation of the world depends on ME

This seems to be an arrogant statement.  Yet if God gives me the function to save the world, who am I to judge?   Is it not extremely arrogant to tell God, "You are wrong?" 

The salvation of the world is the function given to me by God.  I did not come up with the idea on my own.  The world I created teaches me false humility and arrogance.  True humility is listening to God's Voice, accepting my function and being certain that He gives me the Strength to do it.

If God says I am worthy to perform this function, then I am.  The means are given me.  It will be Perfectly accomplished.  Lay aside false humility and accept my part with genuine humility.  The whole world depends on me because the world is a dream in my mind.  Hear God's Voice and It will tell me what to do. 

In this world I have created an image of myself that is not Real.  God assures me that I have the Strength, Wisdom and Holiness to go beyond images.  I am not weak, ignorant nor helpless.  Sin cannot tarnish the Truth in me.  Salvation of the world depends on me.

All illusion rests on the strange belief that I can make a world without God; that I can separate into billions of different bodies instead of being the One Mind that I am; that I can be something other than Love.  These self-made roles shift and change.  One minute I mourn, the next I am Joyful; I laugh now and moments later I weep.  My very being seems to change as I experience a thousand shifts in mood.  My emotions can raise me high indeed, or dash me to the ground in hopelessness. 

Could God create such instability?  Is this ever-changing being the Son of God?  God, Who is Changeless, shares His Attributes with His Creation.  All images I seem to have made, do not exist and have no effect whatsoever on God's Son.  When I accept my function, these images will disappear, leaving my mind unclouded and Serene.

The functions the world holds in high esteem are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure.  What hope of Happiness can rest on goals like these?

The function God gives me is clear and unambiguous.  There is no doubt of its value for it comes from One Who Knows no error.  My plans can fail but God's never do because He is the Source of all Life.

Do as God directs.  If He asks a thing which seems impossible, remember Who it is That asks, then consider this:  who is more likely to be right, God or a distorted image of myself: confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything?  He remembers me and calls to me Gently.  He comforts me, though He does not know sorrow.  He repairs and restores, though He knows only of Perfection.  He gives me a Gift, though He knows I already have Everything.  His Thoughts answer every question or need His Son perceives.  For Love must give, and what is given in God's Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

Forgiveness is an earthly form of Love.  It is needed in this world of form.  Form given by God can never deceive, because it comes from Formlessness.

Salvation of the world depends on me, who can forgive.  Forgiveness is my only function here.

Lesson 183 ~ God's Name is my own

Religion teaches that I am a lowly sinner, must do penance for my sins and I could possibly go to hell for some of the things I have done; and if I am not of the "correct" religion, I will surely burn in hell.

God's Name is Holy, but no Holier than my own.  To call upon His Name is to call upon my own.  The Father gives the Son His Name.  My brothers share His Name.  God is my Identity.  My Father's Name reminds me of who I am.  Even in the dream-world, a part of me knows this.  God's Name echoes in my mind calling me to remember.  Say God's Name and I invite angels to surround the ground on which I stand on, singing to me as they spread their wings to shelter me.

The dream-world exists only in my mind; since it is limited and contains characteristics that are not of God, it does not Truly exist.  Repeat God's Name, and the world responds by laying down illusions.  All dreams disappear, and where those dreams were lies a star, a miracle of Grace.

Lots of imagery and poetry here; symbols of the good things that I will experience when I call on God's Name.  I still need words and symbols, because those are the language of the dream.  God's World Is; there is no need for talk, words, symbols or sounds.  Communication is Whole, Complete and Instantaneous.  However, I am still lost in the dream, and Heaven uses language for Its Holy Purpose:  to Awaken me from dreams to Reality.

The miracle of Grace: the sick are healed, the blind see, the deaf hear, the sorrowful are full of Joy and tears are turned to laughter.  All symbols of a Healed Spirit.  It is not the body which needs healing, it is the mind. There is no "body," and nothing "physical" is Real.  But these symbols can witness to my Healed Spirit.

Repeat the Name of God and little names have lost their meaning.  Whatever my desires (or "gods"):  wealth, love, status, respect; I will replace these "little names" with the Name of God.  Temptation becomes a nameless, unwanted thing before God's Holy Name.  Repeat His Name and see how easily I forget the names of all the gods I formerly valued.

Repeat the Name of God and call upon my Self, whose name is His.  God is me and I am God.  The sun has rays, but those rays are still the sun.  The ocean has waves, but those waves are still ocean.  There is only ONE, but in my thoughts of miscreation, I have split my Self into many, which appears to be my reality.

I will study and practice what ACIM teaches; repeat God's Name and all the tiny, nameless illusions on earth slip right into perspective.  Those who call upon the name of God cannot mistake "sin" for Grace, nor "physical bodies" for the Holy Son of God.  ACIM tells me to sit with my brother in silence and repeat God's Name quietly in my mind. Do this each time I replace a thought of anger, annoyance, vengeance, sadness or irritability with Love and forgiveness.  With my brother, I have established an Altar which reaches to God Himself and to His Son.  "Altar" being symbolic of the State of Grace. 

Repeat God's Name slowly again and again.  Be oblivious to every name but His. Hear nothing else.  Let God's Name be the only thing that occupies my mind, the only wish or desire I have.  BY doing this, my "small willingness" offers an invitation to God which can never be refused.  God will accept the invitation Himself.

Do I think my prayers go unanswered?  It is because I pray for illusions. Why would God give me something limited and incomplete?

Acknowledge Him as sole Creator of Reality and acknowledge myself as part of Him. Let His Name be the only Idea that holds my mind completely.  Respond to any temptation, desire or problem with his Name.  Use His name to replace the thousand little names I give my illusions.  I do not realize there is one Name for All There Is and all there will ever be:  GOD.  I ask for limits, but God gives me the Unlimited.  I ask for a love than will turn to sadness, but He gives me a Love that lasts Forever.  I ask for death, He gives me Life.  Most of the time, I do not even truly know what I am asking for.  I cannot trust myself, for I am lost in madness.  I will place my trust in God.

Today, I can achieve a  State in which I will experience the Gift of Grace and escape the bondage of this world.  Turn to God for my release, and my release is given.  Only this prayer is needed, for this prayer contains all prayers.  Words are insignificant, and requests are not needed when I call on my Father's Name.

When I study and apply ACIM, all illusions are silent and the little things of the world disappear.  The only Truth which exists are the Father and His Son.  In this Eternal, Quiet relationship, communication transcends all words.  Peace is Eternal and in my Father's Name I experience this Peace today; and in His Name, It shall be given me.

Lesson 182 ~ Be still an instant and go Home

This world I seem to live in is not home to me.  Somewhere in my mind I know this is True.  A memory of Heaven keeps haunting me, as if it were calling me to return.  I feel I do not belong in the world, though I am not sure where I belong.  I am not entirely certain I am an exile here, but there is that persistent feeling.  Sometimes this thought is only a tiny throb and other times I forget completely, but this thought will surely return again.

At times, I may deny this deep sadness, or fill my time with constant activity and change, so I can forget a little while. I may think, "God is dead," "there is no God," or "God is there, but off in the clouds, allowing me to suffer, wanting me to suffer."

For me who walks this world:  I am not at Home here.  Can I honestly say these words do not speak to me?

I am searching.....for what I do not know.  I look in darkness for what I cannot find and never know for certain what it is I am looking for.  I make a thousand homes, yet none of these content my restless mind because I do not understand that I build in vain.  The Home I am looking for has not been made by me and there is no substitute for my True Home.

Am I searching for my childhood home?  Perhaps that would comfort me.  Yet my childhood and my childhood home in the dream-world are a memory so distorted that I merely grasp a picture of a past that never happened. 

Yet, there is a Child in me who seeks his Father's House and knows he does not belong in this world.  This Childhood is Eternal, with an Innocence that will last Forever.  It is this Child who knows His Father and the Father knows Him as His Own Son.

This Child wants to go home so badly, I hear his tiny voice cry out to me to let Him rest a while; just a few moments of respite, just a instant to breathe again the Holy Air that fills his Father's House.  He will come back to me, but give Him a little time to be Himself at Home, resting in Silence, Peace and Love.

The Child is ME.  The Child is my Self, the Christ, the Son ~ all who inhabit this world of "separate bodies;" who are not separate bodies at all, but One Spirit. 

This Child needs my protection.  He is far from Home.  He is so little that He seems easily ignored.  His tiny voice and His call for help almost unheard amid the grating, harsh, rasping noises of the world.  Yet the Child knows that in me abides His sure protection.  I will not fail Him. 

This Child is My Innocence, my Defenselessness and my Strength.  He whispers of His Home unceasingly to me.  He lives as an outcast in a world of alien thought.  He will patiently wait until I hear His gentle, small voice calling me Home.

When I am still for an instant, when the desires and thoughts of the world fade, when valueless ideas no longer have value in my restless mind, then I will hear the Child's voice.  He wants to take me Home with Him, just for an instant now in Perfect Stillness, Silence and Peace; an Experience beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, yet with Sublime Certainty that I am Home.

Rest with Him frequently today.  He comes to me Innocent and Defenseless.  Go Home with Him from time to time today.

Lay aside my little sword, shield and spear: the weapons I raised against a nonexistent enemy.  Let illusions be my gods no more.

I have not lost my Innocence nor my Home

The Holy Child remains with me.  His Home is mine.  Today He gives me His Defenselessness and Innocence, and I accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle which I have made.  The Way is open and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still an instant and go Home with Him today and be at Peace awhile.

Chapter 8 ~ Going Home

A few things for me to consider: 1) everything I now believe is completely false; 2) There is only One. There appears to be many, but there is only ONE; 3) the "world" is not Real and death does not exist; 4) I am Safe in Heaven, dreaming of exile "apart from" God; 5) the part of me who believes I am separated from God is called "ego;" 6) there is no hell, only Heaven; 7) all roads lead Home, but ACIM will get me there faster; 8) the message is important, not who inspired it or who wrote it; 9) God and my job of forgiveness will help me to Awaken; 10) God's Will and mine are One.

The Direction of the Curriculum.  Peace is the motivation for learning this Course.  There will only be "world" Peace when there is inner Peace; Eternal inner Peace.  Then the world as I know it will disappear.

Ego is an hallucination.  It has no power unless I give it power. Truth merely asks me to evaluate ego, the "world," and all situations in terms of their results.  If I am not entirely and Eternally Peaceful ~ which God intended me to be ~ then I may want to question my apparent "reality."  If I come to this point and desire to see differently, I will have Help.  If I want to continue in my unpeaceful state, then Help will wait until I change my mind.  God never goes against my choice.  Nothing God created opposes my will and neither does He.

Every response of ego is a call to war, and war deprives me of Peace.  Yet in this war, there is no opponent, for there is nothing and no one "outside" me.  Those I perceive as enemy, God uses to bring me to Peace.  I give up Peace when I attack and judge "others." Ego is an expert only in confusion.

Has any choice I made in the dream-world truly brought me Happiness?  The exciting new job has become a little boring after several years.  The spouse I just had to marry and make babies with, does not look so appealing after a few years and a few babies.  Do I really know what makes me happy?  What makes me happy today is different than what made me happy yesterday.  "Happiness" in the dream-world changes with my moods and circumstances, how can I trust it?  My past learning and decisions have not made me happy.  On this basis alone, the value of my choices should be questioned.  Ego has never given me a sensible answer to anything.

If I want a different curriculum, a change is obviously necessary.  A good curriculum must be consistent, it should have one goal and one teacher.  There is only One Teacher who knows what my Reality is.  God's Learning is Joyful and easy. 

I may think I have a will different from God's.  Ego convinces me that I have opposed God's Will.  I may think I have impulses and desires which go against God's Will.  This is false.  I am in Heaven dreaming of exile to a world where God is somewhere "outside" of it.  This, too, is false.  My will and God's cannot be different, because they are One.

God will lead me to Freedom by helping me to look past ~ or disregard ~ everything that holds me back.  He will teach me the difference between pain and Joy, and imprisonment and Freedom.  I have taught myself to believe I created and exist in a world where God is remote and absent.   Because God Himself gave me my Creative Powers, they are Mighty and Magnificent.  Because I truly believe that I exist in a world "apart from" God, my belief creates my "reality."  It is "real" insofar as my belief is concerned.  I would be lost forever if I had only myself to rely on, but God Is. He uses my dream and my language and will guide me Home when I chose.

ACIM takes One direction (Truth) and has One Goal (God).  God Willed my being into existence.  He Created me and He Creates only like Himself, so I am like Him.  God is All Power and Glory.  Since I am part of God I, too, am all Power and Glory, and I am as Unlimited as He.

The Holy Encounter.  Glory to God in the Highest, and to my Self because that is His Will.  Ask, and it shall be given me.  Knock, and the door will be opened.   Everything is mine and the door is always open.  Ask for Light and learn that I am     Light.  If I want Understanding and Enlightenment listen to Him Who Knows of It.

God's Will is not be forced on me .  While I dream, I am living in a world of chaos and constant change, I do things I feel compelled to do, unable to to control myself at times.  Yet a World of Peace and Joy patiently awaits my Awakening.

When I meet anyone, remember, it is always a Holy Encounter.  As I see the "other," I will see myself; as I treat the "other," I will treat myself;  as I think of the "other," I will think of myself.  Do not forget this!  In any "other" is my salvation.  Whenever two shall meet, they are given yet another chance at salvation.  "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20.

In the world of dreams I am looking for power and glory, status and success, riches and security.  Ego believes these will replace my experience of Heaven.  Heaven has never been lost to me, but so it seems in the dream.  I created this world and all "others" for an experience of "separation from"  God.  God uses it all to teach me of salvation. My salvation is in all "others" and theirs is in me.  Whenever I am with an "other," I can learn to know my Self.  My brother will respond with pain or with Joy depending on which teacher I am following (ego or God).  I created ego to teach me of "separation."  Heaven will teach me of Unity.  When I meet someone "else," I think he is "else." This is not so.  I will find the Kingdom with my brother.  My "brother" and I are One.

God Wills that I not suffer for a wrong decision  Through His Power and Glory all my wrong decisions are completely undone, releasing me and my "brother" from every imprisoning thought that any part of the Sonship holds. Wrong decisions have no power because they are not true.  Neither is the imprisonment they seem to produce.

Glory is God's Gift to me, because Glory is what God Is.  I will choose to see His Glory everywhere to remember what I am:  the Son of God.

The Gift of Freedom.  God's Will for me is Complete Peace and Joy.  Unless I experience only this, I am refusing to acknowledge His Will.  When I am not at Peace, it is because I do not believe I am with God.  I feel lonely and helpless because I deny God's Will, and choose to live in an illusion of isolation.  Stop telling myself I am lonely!  How can I be lonely if I am not alone?

The Light of God's Message does not attack my world of illusion but only Shines it away.  My only problem is not acknowledging the Will of God.  There will only be "world" peace when there is inner Peace.  If God's Will offers Happiness, Joy, Peace, Love, Serenity, Gentleness and Wholeness Forever and Ever..........who in their right mind would turn this down?  But I am not in my Right Mind. 

In the Christian tradition of the dream-world, Jesus was the first to Awaken.  He is my brother and equal.  Together we are God's Son.  His Awakening United, in the collective unconsciousness, the Will of the Father with the will of the Sonship.  "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," Luke 17:21. But ego made Jesus a god, killed him, then started a religion and completely disregarded the MESSAGE.  That is what ego does. 

Healing is a collaborative venture.  God brings the Message, but I must trust Him and accept It.  Healing reflects our joint Will.  The "separation" is overcome by Union.  I must make the decision for Union.  The decision must be unequivocal.  It is the decision between isolation or Oneness, fear or Love, illusion or Sanity, sorrow or Joy, sadness or Happiness.  Oneness, Love, Sanity, Joy and Happiness; Complete and Eternal, and I do not "die" to receive It.  I merely Awaken.  In order to Awaken I have to choose my teacher:  ego or God.  Then listen for guidance.

God will not oppose my decision.  He Created me with a Free Will.  I am Free to dream and miscreate, yet I am also Free to Awaken.  I choose.  God's Will gave my will its Freedom and Power, and nothing can oppose the Will of God.  God Himself would not oppose it.  The Jesus-experience was an extreme experience.  I do not need to be abandoned, betrayed by friends, whipped, humiliated, tortured or nailed to a cross to learn what I need to know.  The cross was not the lesson.  "Jesus" overcame abandonment, betrayal, humiliation, attack and death ~ not by attack, but by forgiveness ~ THAT is the lesson.  I can take my small, daily humiliations and attacks.........or illusions such as genocide, natural disasters, ethnic cleansing and gang warfare. It appears there are "degrees" of illusion in the world.  The point is, one illusion is no different from another in that:  THEY ARE ALL ILLUSION.

I taught myself the world of illusion, Truth teaches me to Awaken.

God tells me:  "If you want to be like Me I will help you....If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind."   I can play make-believe for as long as I want. It is my choice.  Freedom cannot be taught with tyranny.  Perfect Equality of all God's Sons cannot be recognized through dominion of one mind over another.  God's Sons are Equal. 

Offer Freedom and I will find It for myself.  When I seek to imprison an "other," I imprison only my own mind.  I will find my Self in my brother.  If I hate him, I will hate myself.  If I offer forgiveness, I will forgive myself.  If I offer Love, I will love myself.

The Undivided Will of the Sonship.   Can I be lost in a dream of illusion, forget that I am the Son of God, yet still be at Peace? To heal is to make Whole, therefore, to heal is to Unite with Oneness. Success is guaranteed.

Whenever fear, hatred, sadness, loneliness, envy, isolation or grief intrudes anywhere along the road to Peace, it is because ego has tried to join the journey.  But it cannot.  Defeated and angry, it will sense rejection and attack.  Ego is not the "devil" or a separate entity, it is the part of me who created ~ and wholeheartedly believes in ~ a world where fear, hatred, sadness, loneliness, envy, isolation and grief are possible; a world where "God has stepped aside."  I will leave all illusions behind and reach for the hand of my brother.  In my forgiveness of him, he will guide me Home.

The Treasure of God.   Do not forget the Kingdom of God for anything the dream-world has to offer.  If I embrace the world and all its empty promises, it will blind me from the Kingdom.  If I embrace the Kingdom, the world disappears.  Only one is True.  Which one is True is not my choice.  If it were, I would have destroyed myself long ago.  My destruction is not God's Will.  His Will has saved me.  Not from myself, but from my illusion of myself.  He saved me for my Self.  Only in God's World will I be Happy.  What God Creates can find Joy only in the Eternal, because nothing else is worthy. 

I am like the prodigal son.  The Father will welcome me Home with Great Joy, because I am His treasure.  He wants nothing else.  When I think I have a will that is not of God, I am not thinking straight. I cannot and do not have a Will apart from the Father.  I can only be "apart from" God in dreams and illusions.  If I were in my Right Mind, I would never choose a world of dreams over Heaven.  Yet my thought is so Powerful that I can imprison my own mind by my own choice.

Whom God has joined cannot be separated, and God has joined His Son with Himself.  The journey to God is merely the reAwakening of the Knowledge of myself as God's Son.  It is a Journey Without Distance, to a Goal That Has Never Changed.  Truth cannot be learned, It can only be Experienced.  I can study the characteristics of Truth, but the Experience is given by God. 

I begin the journey Home by my function of forgiveness.  What God has Willed for me, Is and Will Always Be mine.

The Body as a Means of Communication.  Attack is always physical.  The physical is limited, subject to illness and ends in death.  The "physical" is not of God, so the physical does not exist.  But since I believe I am a "body" in a "world," I still have much learn.   Learning is of the dream-world.  Knowledge is of God's World.  There is no need for learning in God's World.

When attack in any form enters my mind, it is because I believe I am a "body."  Ego uses the body for attack.  I do not have to attack physically for this to be my "reality." It seems that attack can get me what I want.  If I did not believe this, the idea of attack would have no appeal for me.

When I believe myself to be a body, I will always experience depression.  The body is limited, subject to illness, and ends in death.  How could a Prince be Joyful living the life of a pauper?  If I see my brothers as bodies,  I will perceive them as negatively as myself.

God will use my miscreation (the body) as a means of Communication.  He will always interpret my miscreations with Light.  Ego uses the body to separate one Son from another.  God uses the body to unite the Sonship.  The only useful purpose the body has is offering forgiveness.  Of itself, the body has no value, but God's use of it will heal the separation.

If I use the body for attack, it hurts me.  If I use it to offer forgiveness, I will understand God's healing Power.  I need not preach or evangelize to any "other."  I will understand that it is only myself I need attend to.  If I use the body in service of Reality, it will be impossible to use it for attack.  In the service of Uniting, the body becomes a beautiful lesson in Communion.

Communication ends separation, attack promotes separation.  The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful according to which teacher I listen to: ego or God.  I will perceive other bodies the same way I perceive my own.  Use the body for Truth and I will see it Truly.  Misuse it and I will misunderstand it.

Loss of any kind is impossible in Truth.  Yet all perceived loss comes only from misunderstanding.  When I look upon another as a "body" ~ doing and saying things, giving me dirty looks, gossiping about me ~ his Power and Glory are "lost" to me, and so is my own.  I will immediately become defensive, and in my defense is attack ~ angry thoughts, hurtful words, furrowed brow, raised voice.  Yet I can choose to not see him this way for my own salvation.  As part of me, he is Holy.  As part of God, I am Holy.

Of myself I can do nothing, but I am not of myself,  I am of God.  He has not withdrawn Himself from me, I have withdrawn myself (into a world of illusion) from Him.

The Bible says, "Word was made flesh." Strictly speaking this is impossible, since it seems to involve the transition of one order of Reality into another.  Different orders of Reality merely appear to exist.  Thought is never physical, thought is Communication, yet while I experience myself as a "body," it can be used for Communication which is the only Real and Natural use for the body.

In the dream-world, not even the body is perceived as whole.  Its purpose is split into many functions ~ the brain does this, the kidneys do that, the liver does this, etc. ~ with little relationship to each other, apparently ruled by chaos.  Guided by ego, it is chaos.  Guided by TRUTH, it is used for Communication and becomes a temple to God.

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to learn a lesson that is impossible to learn, and those are the lessons of ego.  I will feel inadequate and depressed.  Being faced with an impossible learning situation is the most depressing thing in the world.  That is exactly why the "world" itself is depressing.  The lessons the world has to teach are lessons in nothing, which can never be learned.  Love's lessons are never depressing for they are lessons in Joy.

Using the body solely for Communication results in healing.  Mind is Whole.  The belief that part of my Self is "physical" is a fragmented, sick interpretation.  Mind cannot be made physical.

Help and healing are the normal expression of a sane mind working through the body, but not in the body.  If the mind believes the "body" is its reality, then it reinforces the idea of separation from God.  Communication is joining, attack is separation.  Attack is saying, "you are different from me, you are alien to me, I do not know you, you are fearful and dangerous."  Learning must lead beyond the body to re-establish the Power of the Mind.  This can be accomplished only if the mind extends to other minds and does not stop itself.  The mind's thought of "separation" is the cause of all illness, because extension (or giving of Itself) is Mind's True function. 

The opposite of Joy is depression (only in the dream-world can there be "opposites") and if I experience depression instead of Joy, I am listening to the wrong teacher.  Healing is nothing more than Unity.  To see a body as anything except a means for Communication, is to limit and hurt my mind.  And in the world of illusion, a sick mind manifests itself in physical form.  Apart from mind, the body has no purpose at all.

I am not limited by the body, and thought cannot be "made flesh."  Whenever I see another as limited to a body, I am hurting, limiting and condemning myself.  True learning should help me escape from limitations, pain, and condemnation.  I have condemned myself.  Condemnation is not of God, therefore it is not true and its effects are not true. 

I will not allow myself to suffer from the imagined results of what is NOT TRUE.  Freedom from illusions lies in not believing them.  My Reality is Unlimited Communication, Power, and Wholeness.  I will tap into It, by extending Love and Forgiveness.  Instead of thinking of someone negatively, I will think of them with Love and Forgiveness. 

The Body:  Means or End?  The Whole (God) defines the part (me), but the part does not define the Whole.  Yet to know part of the One is to know It entirely.  Perception is of the world of dreams, Knowledge is of God.  In perception, the whole seems to be built up of parts that can separate and reassemble into different configurations.  Knowledge never changes, so Its configuration is permanent.  The idea of part-whole relationships only has meaning in this world at the level of perception where change is possible.  In God's World there is no difference between the Part and the Whole.

The body does not exist, so what determines its so-called "health"?  The mind.  How my mind interprets the function of the body will determine the body's health.  Ego uses the body for attack. 

Have I noticed a key characteristic of every desire, every goal I set for myself?  Whenever I receive what I desire it ceases to satisfy me.  That is why ego is forced to shift ceaselessly from one goal to another so that I will continue to hope the dream-world can yet offer me something more.  It strings me along with hope.  Ego has a profound investment in sickness.  Sickness will try to distract me with the body's "reality." Sickness preoccupies my mind with the "physical," illusory world.   Sickness is a witness to the separation.  Illness is an illusion.  The body is an illusion. Sickness is a way of demonstrating that the "separation" is "real."  It witness to my frailty, my vulnerability, and my extreme need to depend on ego.  It dictates endless prescriptions for avoiding catastrophic outcomes.  God is perfectly aware of ego's meaningless use of the body, but He sees the body only for Communication.

The more complicated life in the dream-world seems to be, the harder it is to recognize its nothingness.  I should ask myself how the voice of something that does not exist (ego), can be so insistent.  Have I thought about the distorting power of desire, even if it is not Real?  There are many examples of how my desires distort perception.  No one can doubt ego's skill in building up false witnesses.

When I lay ego aside, it will be gone.  God teaches me to use my body only to offer forgiveness.  Health is the Natural state of Everything. Health is the beginning of Right perception under the guidance of the Heaven.

Healing as Corrected Perception.  What is my question?  God is the Answer.  When ego tempts me to perceive sickness, I will not ask for healing of the body, but for healing of perception.  I do not have to seek Reality.  Reality will find me.

All forms of sickness (even death) are physical/illusory expressions of fear.  They are attempts to reinforce sleeping (illusions) out of the fear of Awakening (Heaven).  I avoid Seeing by putting blinders on.  "Rest in Peace," is a blessing for the living because rest comes from Awakening to Heaven.  Sleep is withdrawing, Awakening is Joining.  Complete unconsciousness is impossible.  I can rest in Peace only when I am Awake.  Healing overcomes the fear of Awakening.  The decision to Awaken shows the willingness to Love; all healing involves replacing fear with Love.

When I limit myself, I am no longer of One mind.  Limitation is sickness.  Yet sickness is not of the body, but of the mind.  All forms of sickness are signs that the mind is asleep.

Chapter 7 ~ God's Gifts

The Last Step.  The last step in the Reawakening of Knowledge (Atonement) is taken by God.  In ACIM, the individual sections, sentences or paragraphs can be poetic and beautiful.  Individual words can evoke evoke vivid pictures in the mind.  Each chapter, each section within a chapter, is its own book.  One can pick up the book and start reading anywhere.  ACIM speaks to the Soul.

Love extends outward simply because It cannot be contained.  God does not limit His Gifts in any way.  When He gives, He gives Everything, Eternally. Anything that is not Love, exists only in dreams.

If I believe I am lost, alone and sad, it is becauseas this is what I look for "outside" me and this is what I will give of myself to "others."  If I believe I am the Son of God, I will give only Love and It will last Eternally.  Only one of these is Real and will last forever.  The other is a dream that will vanish when I Awaken to Reality.

God will translate the useless into the Useful, the meaningless into the Meaningful and the temporary into the Timeless.

Everything God does is Whole, Complete and Eternal.  God does not teach, because His Creations are Whole.  Teaching is only needed where learning is necessary.  Heaven is Known, not learned.  I know I am dreaming, because everything in the world "outside" me has to be learned.  In fact, learning is essential in the ego-world. In the Kingdom there is no teaching or learning because there is no belief, only Certainty.  "Time" applies neither to God nor His Creations.  God reveals nothing, because He hides nothing. His Light was never hidden, because it is His Will to Share Everything.

My function in the world of dreams is forgiveness of my thoughts and everyone and everything I seem to see.  God will do the rest.  The final step, taken by Him, will be my Awakening to Reality.

The Law of the Kingdom.  Sickness and separation are not of God.  The Kingdom is of God, so if I hide the Kingdom from myself, I perceive what is unGod-like.  To heal is to correct my perception, which will benefit both me and the "world," the "world" being a thought in my mind.  My Inheritance as God's Son requires no learning at all, but when I disinherited myself I became a learner of necessity. Heaven's teaching is a lesson in remembering and forgetting.  I must forget what I taught myself, in order to remember God's Kingdom.  I will not understand Truth's translations while I listen to two ways of interpreting them (God's/ego's).  I must forget or relinquish one to understand the other.  God's World needs no translation as It is Perfectly Known and Understood, but in the world of dreams my perception is upside down. The Creator may alter the form of what He translates, but what He translates preserves the original meaning in all respects and all languages.

The Reality of the Kingdom.  The lesson of Atonement is Universal in that it applies to all "individuals" in all situations.  Heaven maximizes all efforts and all results.  By understanding the Power of God's Kingdom, I learn that all Power is mine.  God's Power was created to be shared, as is everything God creates.  It cannot be meaningfully understood if it is perceived as belonging to any one person at the expense of another.  God's Gifts belong to ALL.

The part of me that believes I am outside the Kingdom (ego) is insane.  It teaches me that I am not the Son of God. It teaches me that I am limited and weak, subject to sickness and death.  Ego always perceives itself at war.  It believes it is at war with God, and everyone and everything "outside" itself.  Yet, I am the Son of God who is never at war.  I must recognize all I see as One.  Brothers are equals, and equals are at Peace.  Because God's Son has Everything, there is no need for competition.  If I perceive a "brother" as anything other than my equal, the idea of competition, or levels of value, will enter my mind.  I will not underestimate my need to be vigilant against this idea.  ALL conflicts come from this very idea.  My Right Mind sees only equals.   My Right Mind has no enemies. 

I have questions about everything in my world:  who am I? what is the meaning of life?  why am I here?  Yet if I knew Reality, my questions would be meaningless.  To be in the Kingdom, I will simply focus my full attention on It.  Reality is mine because I am Reality.  God will undo all my questions, leading to Certainty.  The Certain are Perfectly Calm, because they do not doubt.  They have no questions, because they Know.  They have Perfect Serenity because they Know who they are:  God's Holy Son. 

Healing as Recognition of Truth.  Truth can not be learned, only recognized.  Healing does not come directly from God, but it proceeds from the Laws of God.  God knows His Creations are Perfectly Whole. Yet, in the dream-world, I live in a state of mind that does not know God: sleeping and unaware.

When I heal, I remember the Laws of God and forget the laws of ego.  Forgetting is merely a way of Remembering better.

I will give all of my abilities over to God, Who understands how to use them only for Good.  God knows me only as Whole.  By healing I learn of Wholeness, and in learning of Wholeness I learn to remember God.

Ego always seeks to divide and separate.  God always seeks to Unify and heal. As I offer healing through forgiveness, I am healed.  To know myself as healer, I must give healing.  To think I can oppose the Will of God is delusional.  Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, seek only This, and I will find nothing else.  There is nothing else.  Only the Kingdom of God exists.  The world of dreams is an illusion.  To forget my ego-self will enable me to remember who I am:  the Holy Son of God.

Healing and the Changelessness of the Mind.   In the world of dreams the "body" is home for ego.  Both the body and ego reinforce my belief in a world without God.  Ego teaches me that the body can both communicate and create, and therefore does not need the mind. Ego believes that every time it deprives "someone else" of something, it has made itself better.  Truth can use whatever I make for God's purposes and God's purpose for the body is Communication.  Ego cannot obliterate the impulse to Communicate because It is also the impulse to Create.  Only mind can Communicate, the body does nothing.  Only the mind can Create.  But the Glory and Perfect Joy that is the Kingdom lies in me to give.  As TRUTH enlightens my mind, I offer enlightenment to the world through my thoughts and "actions."   The "world"  heals and this is reflected back to my mind reinforcing my own healing. 

Healing is Love's form of Communication in this world.  Healing only strengthens.  It perceives nothing in the healer that "everyone else" does not share.  Magical thinking (the thinking of this world) always seeks for something "special," and perceives a healer as someone "special" ~ someone who can bestow gifts on those who do not have special abilities.  I do not understand God if I think I have something that "others" lack.  The psychic/medium John Edward always tell his audience: What I do, you can do, everyone can do it.  He is absolutely correct. ACIM teaches me there is no death.  But what "others" like Edwards do, are tap in to the collective consciousness of ego.  Remember, there are no "others," there is only One Mind.  God uses everything I created in the dream to teach only of Reality.  "Jesus" said "what I do, you will do this and greater," John 14:12. 

God's healing always works, and His healing is Consistent and Universal.  Healing Gladdens, produces Harmony and is Predictable.  Healing is Inclusive. 

Learning guided by God is Constant and so Powerful that a Son of God can recognize his Power in one instant and change the "world" in the next. 

Understanding is appreciation because what I understand I can identify with, make it part of me, and accept it with love.  God created me in Understanding, Appreciation, and Love. 

The Mind I share with God is the Mind I share with all "others."  See "them" truly and my mind will be healed.

From Vigilance to Peace.  In the world of dreams, I perceive the Sonship as fragmented; "7 billion souls" on earth. In Reality there is only One Mind.  Mind is the only Reality.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.

It is impossible to see something in part of the Sonship that I will not attribute to all of the Sonship. If I attack part of the Sonship, I attack all of the Sonship.  That is why attack must be given up entirely in thought, word and deed.  Ego creates with fear. God creates with Love.   Thoughts will return to the mind of the thinker and affect his total perception, including his concept of God, his concept of himself, and his concept of "others."  He will not appreciate any of them if he regards them fearfully.  He will appreciate all of them if he regards them with Love.

The mind which accepts attack cannot love.  That is because it does not understand Love and in fact, believes it can destroy Love.  If the mind does not appreciate Love, it cannot see itself as Loving.  It  loses Awareness of Being, inducing feelings of insecurity, loneliness, and utter confusion.  My thinking is very Powerful.  It created a world I very much believe in.  Yet my thinking can also bring me back to Awareness of Reality.  My ability to direct my thinking as I choose is part of its Power.

I will remember my ego is not a separate entity, but is the part of me that believes it is separate from God.  Its job is to maintain the illusion of a world without God.  It does not share the Characteristics of God, so it does not Truly exist.  But my ego's desire to preserve itself is strong.  Ego is perfectly logical but clearly insane.  Though ego is completely dependent on the Power of the mind, it will do everything it can to discount the Mind's Power.  Ego attacks what is preserving it, which results in extreme anxiety.

Ego believes it can not only create a world without God, but that it can attack God, and it convinces me that I have done this.  The mind cannot attack so ego proceeds to the belief that I must be a "body."  Ego wants no part of Truth, because ego itself is not true.  If Truth is total, the untrue cannot exist.  I must commit myself to either Truth or the untrue, and only one exists.  I cannot have both Truth and untruth coexist in my mind without having a split mind.  If I want Peace, I must give up the idea of conflict once and for all.  While I believe in both a world without God and God, I believe in two contradictory thought systems where both seem true for me.  Do I realize my need for vigilance?  Be vigilant only for the Kingdom of God, because there is nothing else.  If I think there is anything else, I am mistaken.

Ego is totally committed to untruth.  Yet, God and I are not separate.  I am not separate  from "others."  To remember the Oneness of the Kingdom is to remember my Wholeness, Sanity, and Limitless Power.  I am the Kingdom of God. I am not a weak, powerless "body," subject to sickness and death.  I must learn to remember who I am:  the Son of God in Heaven with God.

When I believe I am weak and without power, I will attack.  There is nothing to attack, so I make up images and project them "outside" me.  The world of dreams is Nothing.  It has no meaning and it does not exist.  I will not try to understand it, because I will never understand insanity.  I cannot make meaning of the meaningless.  I cannot experience the Power of my Creativity as Son of God while my mind is divided.  My divided mind is blocking the extension of the Kingdom, and extending is my Joy and Reality.

In the dream-world I experience a hopeless and depressed state of mind.  God gently reminds me that I am sad because I am not fulfilling my function as His Son, depriving myself of Joy.  This is not God's choice, but mine.

Opposing God's Will is meaningless and impossible.  If I think I can oppose God's Will, I am mistaken.  God's Will is my will and I am only Happy when I remember this.

The Totality of the Kingdom.  Whenever I deny a blessing to any "other," I will feel deprived.  It is impossible to deny part of the Sonship without denying the whole Sonship including myself.  The Power of my mind is without limit.  If  I use denial to deny Reality, Reality is gone for me.  Reality cannot be "partially" appreciated, so denying any part of It means I have lost the Awareness of all of It.  Denial of Reality is a defense of ego.  Used negatively, denial will be used for attack. Used positively in the service of Truth, denial can help me lay aside dreams and illusions to recognize and appreciate Reality.

When an "other" acts insanely, he is offering me an opportunity to forgive and bless him.  I need the blessing too, but I can only have it only by giving it.  My "brother's" need is mine.  This is the Law of God, there is no exception.  I do not "need" God's Blessing because His Blessing is already mine forever, but I do need the blessing I give to my "brother" to remember who "I" am.

Ego's picture of me is deprived, unloving, and vulnerable.  But I will refuse to see this picture in anyone or accept it for myself.  As long as I dream of a world without God, my "brother" will be the mirror in which I see myself.

Illusions will last as long as I value them.  The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw all investment from them.  While I desire them, I give them life.

I will rest in God's Love and protect that rest by giving only Love.  I cannot know my own Perfection until I have honored all those who seem to be "outside" me.  Every attack is a call for Love.  When I attack, I believe I am deprived.  Therefore, I will give of my abundance to teach my "brother" his. 

I cannot lose anything unless I do not value it.  If I do not value it, I do not want it and I will put it out of my mind.  My ego perceives this as rejection, and I, myself, will feel deprived and believe that "others" are taking something from me.  The ultimate basis for all ego's projections is this:  I believe that a "brother" is attacking me to take the Kingdom of Heaven from me.  It may seem that someone is trying to steal my spouse, my money, my status or my anything.  But those things only exist in dreams.  The only thing of Real Value is God's Kingdom.  I believe "others" are out to take God from me.  Projection always sees my wishes in "others." If I choose to separate myself from God, I will think "others" are doing this to me, no matter the form.

I am the Will of God.  I am the Son of God.  I am God's Creation.  I will not accept anything less about myself or I will feel the need to attack.  The Love of God is in me and my "brother."  If I see it there,  I will see it everywhere.

When I perceive any part of ego's thought system as wholly insane, delusional, and undesirable, I have correctly evaluated ALL of it.  This correction will enable me to perceive God's Real, Perfect, and Desirable World.  This I want and this I will have.  This I will give and in the giving It will be mine.  Gifts offered to ego are always perceived as sacrifices, but gifts offered to God's Kingdom are gifts to myself.  Everything God has He gives to me, His Son.

The Unbelievable Belief.  Without extension (sharing/giving) there can be no Love.  The Law of Extension is the Law of Love, and it is the Law by which I was Created and by which I Create. This is the Law of Sharing and the Law of Life.  I give what I value in order to keep it.  To ego, giving is perceived as a means to "give up" something.  It is the law of deprivation as far as ego is concerned.  Depending on how I choose to apply the Law of Giving (through ego or through Love), it will produce abundance or scarcity.  It is my choice on how to use it, but I will use it.  The mind must project or extend, because mind is Life.

Ego likes to preserve conflict, though it comes up with ways that seem to "diminish" conflict, but its function is to preserve conflict.  Conflict is a characteristic of a world without God.  Ego projects this conflict from my mind onto "others," in an attempt to persuade me that I have gotten rid of the problem.  But conflict cannot Truly be shared, and according to the Laws of God, giving something is how I keep it.  I believe that by seeing it "outside" myself, it does not belong to me.  Everything is in my mind, even if it appears otherwise.  Since the projection has not left my mind, I am forced to engage in constantly activity in order not to recognize this.  When I project conflict I will need to be vigilant for my own safety.  The Laws of God (giving = receiving) have not completely left my Awareness, so when I project fear in any form, a part of me knows that it will return and harm only me. 

I cannot hold bad feelings about "another," without the bad feelings being felt by and about myself.  There is no way out of this, because Mind is One.  Though the mind appears to be fragmented into many bodies, that is Truly impossible.  There is One Mind and "bodies" do not exist.  Any hatred I project will affect me.  I will give all my concerns, anxiety, worry, sadness, negativity, and doubt over to God to be undone completely.  These words of Truth will help me think with the Thoughts of God.

The Extension of the Kingdom.  I will not withhold myself from God.  If He Gifts me with Peace, my countenance will be infused with Peace and I will project it to all "those" I encounter (anyone "outside" me).  When someone makes me angry, sad, fearful, or annoyed, I will try to perceive them with Love.  It helps to think of the person as vulnerable, childlike or helpless, because at the moment (especially if they annoy me or make me angry), they seem to be quite powerful in their ability to make me feel the way I do.  Offer only Love.

Being retains Knowledge of Itself by extending Itself.  To Know myself, I must give myself. Extension is one of the Laws of the Kingdom.  Spirit yearns to share Its Being just as Its Creator did.  I Create by sharing.  My will, like my Creators, is to Create. I Create through sharing.  I extend the Kingdom by sharing.  God's Fullness cannot be contained.  Sharing or extension is the Natural State of God's Kingdom.

A split mind cannot perceive its Wholeness and needs the miracles of Truth to heal.  Selfishness is impossible in the Kingdom, while giving (or extension/sharing) is inevitable.  There is Perfect Peace in the Kingdom because Spirit is fulfilling Its function.  Spirit is not fulfilling Its function here in this world of dreams because I have chosen illusions over Truth, so in my mind there is turmoil, chaos, and war. The Creations of all the Sons of God are mine, since every Creation belongs to everyone. Love protects my Creations while I remain unaware of them.  God can bring them into my Awareness whenever I let Him.  God gives all His Creations Everything, and He gives Forever.

I cannot disobey God's Will.  When I think I can, I am not thinking clearly.  It is impossible to disobey God's Will.  What God creates is Forever and Always and if I think I can thwart God's Will, I obviously think I am more powerful than God Himself.  This is arrogance, not humility.  I have never lost my Identity as God's Son, though I may have forgotten It.  I will be confident in this.  Miracles happen as a result of this confidence.  When I include any one of my brothers (the Sonship), I include All.

Confusion of Pain and Joy.  Ego is in total confusion about everything.  The only reason I could possibly want any part of the world of dreams, is because I do not see the whole of it.  I am willing to look at what ego offers, but not at its outcomes.

It should be clear to me now that I can accept into my mind what is not there (a world without God and all its illusions), AND deny what is (the Kingdom of God).  If I deny God's Will, I deny the entire Kingdom: Eternal Peace, Love, Serenity, Happiness, Joy, etc.  God will never oppose my choice, but He will direct me so as to avoid pain.  If I recognized this, I would never object.  What God is teaches me is True, but do I want to listen?

I do not know what is painful anymore than I know what is Joyful.  I say Love is joyful, yet I continue to pick partner after partner who abuses me.  I say loss is painful, but I make choices which guarantee my loss. Yet, the lessons God can teach me from this will bring me Joy and Serenity.  I am very apt to confuse Joy and pain.  Truth will teach me to tell them apart.  What is Joyful to Reality, is painful to ego.  Ego believes in "sacrifice."  If I listen to Truth, I give up ego, sacrificing nothing and gaining Everything.  Love never asks for sacrifice, but ego always does.

Heaven is Perfectly Trustworthy, as am I.  God Himself trusts me, so my Trustworthiness is beyond question, however much I may question it.  I am the Will of God.  My identification with His Will is not optional, since It is what I am.  Sharing His Will is not a choice, though it seems to be.  In Reality there is nothing to choose and nothing to decide.  Everything has been given me by God's Decision.  That is His Will and I cannot undo it.

The miracles resulting from forgiveness are lessons in Joy.  Every miracle is a lesson in Truth, and by offering Truth I am learning the difference between pain and Joy.  Sharing = Love = Joy.

The State of Grace.  I will trust in God.  He will guide me.  Following His guidance is the easiest and most natural thing to do.  The world perceives difficulty in everything, but God's Will is Joyful, "....my yoke is easy, my burden light...", Matthew 11:30.  My Reality is a State of Grace.  When I am not in a State of Grace, I am in a condition of dreams and illusions; everything is a strain and I will not function well.  The Son of God is Happy only when he knows he is with God.

Consider the kingdom I have made (a world without God); is it worthy for a Son of God?  Is there only (and Eternally) Peace, Joy, Love, Happiness, Wholeness, and Serenity?  If not, it is not a worthy place for me.  Is my world without fear or loss of any kind?  If the answer is no, then it is not a worthy place for me.  Use this criteria to judge anytime I have doubts.  God's World is the only environment in which I can be Happy.  It has been Created for me and I was Created for It.

God watches over His children and denies them nothing, yet I deny myself Heaven by believing that there is a world without God.  My ego too believes in God, but He is "up in Heaven" looking down on me and "gives me free will to do good or bad," and I "may or may not go to Heaven when I "die."  WRONG!  There is no death, all go to Heaven, I have free will to be lost in a dream or to Awaken to Heaven, and there is no place God is not.  Unless I am feeling Perfect Bliss, I have chosen dreams, not Truth.

When my mind has only Light, "darkness'' disappears.   When I accept the Majesty of God, I will accept my own Inheritance.  God gives equally.  He gives All to everyone.  If I recognize His Gifts in any "other," I have acknowledged what is my own.  Nothing is so easy to recognize as Truth.  Its recognition is clear, immediate, and natural.  I have trained my mind not to recognize Truth, and this has been a difficult lesson for me.  When I deny any part of Truth, I deny Truth entirely.

I can choose differently.  And Today I will.  Today, I am vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.

Chapter 6 ~ Love

Whenever I am angry, annoyed, impatient, bored, overwhelmed or depressed, I need to look to the root of the feeling.  The core of any feeling in the world of dreams which is not Love, is FEAR.  There is either Love (and its subcategories) or Fear (and its subcategories).  In God's World there is only Love.  In the world I created ~ a world without God ~ there is FEAR or some form of fear....fear of being alone and lost forever; fear of usurping the power of God, fear of being "apart from" God.  In a world without God I created everything that God is not, and that indeed is a fearful world.

The Message of the Crucifixion.   In the world of dreams I will always feel as if I am being crucified or victimized, because I have hidden from my Awareness that I, myself, created the madness I see.

It seems possible that bodies can be attacked and destroyed.  I do not doubt this in any way.  To think otherwise in the dream-world is madness.  I can look around and see madness in unlimited forms. The crucifixion-story can teach me that it is not necessary to believe in madness.

If I want to believe I am being persecuted and attacked, I can.  It is my choice and I will react accordingly.  In the Jesus-story, he was persecuted as the world defines persecution, but he did not believe in what the body's eyes were showing him .  He did not become angry or resist.  Because He did not share the belief of "persecution," he did not strengthen it in his own mind.  He offered a different interpretation of attack:  If I believe I can be attacked and react accordingly, I will reinforce the dream.

God does not ask me to be crucified for Him.  I can follow the example of Jesus in the face of my own much less extreme temptations to believe in the dream.  There is NO justification for fear and anger.  As God's Son, I cannot be injured.  I am Whole, Perfect and have Everything.  This is the lesson of the Jesus-story. 

My salvation is my re-Awakening.  It is the dawning on my mind of What is already in it.

In another example of the Jesus-story,  the disciples slept during the "agony in the garden."  Jesus could not have been angry with them for "abandoning" him because he knew he could not be abandoned.  His story demonstrates that the most outrageous assault does not matter.  An innocent man was betrayed, abandoned, beaten, tortured and killed. If anyone had justification to retaliate, it was Jesus. He did not retaliate.  His example showed......IT IS NOT REAL.  I do not have to have the same Jesus-experience.  I can learn from his.  I am never called to sacrifice.

The Jesus-story showed me that he was not persecuted, nor am I.  If I am from the Christian tradition, I can perceive the world through Jesus' example.  Teach only Love, for Love is what I am.  Jesus could not hate Judas for his betrayal.  He knew that betrayal was impossible.  Was it likely that Jesus would condemn Judas when He was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?

I will not let fear enter into my thoughts.  There is no need for martyrs, only students.  I am not punished for sin because there is no sin.  No Son of God is capable of sin, though I am capable of miscreation and misunderstanding.

God does not need my gratitude and appreciation, but I do.  I cannot love what I do not appreciate, because fear makes Right-Thinking impossible. 

I must think with God if I am to Know Him again.  God Knows only of Love. I cannot hurt others or be hurt myself.  The world of dreams needs my forgiveness and blessing.

An Alternative to Projection.  Any split in the mind involves rejection of part of the mind, and this is the belief in the separation. The Peace of God can only be appreciated by a Whole Mind.  Through the separation, I dissociate myself from Heaven.  Projection is the main defense keeping the dream foremost in my mind.

What I project, I disown.  Say a man is cheating on his spouse, but in his guilt he accuses her of cheating on him. He projects his own "sins" onto her.  This happens in my mind unconsciously all the time. Through ACIM I learn to understand this and bring it into Light.  When I pass judgment on someone, I am "separating" myself from him.  My "brothers" and I are One, but I have made my Self into two (....billions!).  I project my "sins" onto "others" "out there," but it is all happening inside my mind.  I project and attack, project and attack.  This continues to keep the dream of separation foremost in my experience.  I keep the fact that I am doing this to myself out of my Awareness.

Projection will always hurt ME.  It reinforces my belief in separation.  It is a device of ego to to keep me firmly entrenched in the dream.  Everything that seems to be happening "out in the world" is all happening in my mind. 

There is only One Mind.  I have seemingly split the One Mind into many "beings." All beings that are not "me" are doing things to hurt, annoy or anger me, and my attack on them appears justified.

I am doing it all to MYSELF!

The good news is, there an alternative to projection.  God helps me see myself as the Perfect Being I am.  I share this Perfection with "others" and it is strengthened in the One Mind. This is the only way to find Happiness in this world.  God's World is Inclusive and Loving. The dream-world is unhappy............but I am not of this world.  How else can I find Joy in a joyless place except by realizing that I am not of this world.  "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33. Anything God creates is Inclusive, Unalterable, Perfect, and True.  Everything Unites in the Creator.

God created His Son(s) by extending His Thought.  He retains the extensions of His Thought (me) in His Mind.  All His Thoughts are Perfectly United within themselves and each other.  I can perceive this Wholeness NOW.  God created me, a creative being like Himself.  Yet I cannot truly know my Self as His Son until I am Whole.  I AM Whole, but I have forgotten.

Perception involves judgment, options, and choices. Though perception of any kind is unreal, I made it and God can use it for Good.  He uses perception to lead me to Truth. The end result seems far in the future, yet  "time" is a miscreation and exists only in my fantasies.

The Atonement (the undoing of the dream) is the recognition that the separation never occurred.  The world as I think I know it does not exist; the many people that seem to populate the world are not there; "I" as an individual do not exist.

There is no Heaven to return to, there are no sins I need to atone for, there is no sacrifice asked of me.  I AM in Heaven.  I have not "sinned."  I am Whole and Perfect with God right NOW.

Ego can accept that "someday" I will return to God.  This it can accept.  But ego will make all attempts at that return difficult and convoluted.

ACIM will help my mind think with the Thoughts of God.  Then God Himself takes the final step.  I start by forgiving everyone and everything.  I will finally realize there was nothing and no one to forgive, the world does not exist, and I am Perfectly at Home with God.  I am the Son of God.  But until I realize this I can practice seeing the Son of God in everyone I meet.  The Great Peace of God's Kingdom Shines in my mind, but I am lost in a dream.  I will let that Peace Shine outward so that I become Aware of It.  No darkness abides anywhere in the Kingdom.  My part is only to allow no darkness to abide in my own mind. I will replace dark thoughts, with thoughts of forgiveness.  I will invite God into my mind.  He will guide me.

The Relinquishment of Attack.  Every idea begins in the mind of the thinker.  What goes forth from the mind, remains with the mind as well.  By extending, the mind knows itself.  I can certainly see examples in the world I created.  My deeds first start with thoughts in my mind.  Thoughts extend outward becoming deeds.  The thoughts in my mind are clearly seen by my actions.  I may try to keep some of my deeds secret, but my actions will always reflect my thoughts, even if I am the only one who sees them. All change must begin in the mind. God will never attack my thoughts or deeds.  My "deeds" do not exist and my thoughts, He will never attack.  He will only help me to see them differently.  Like Pig Pen from the Peanuts comic strip, I can walk around in my own stink for as long as I want, but when I am ready to make a change, God is there at my asking.  He will never force anything upon me.  He waits for my willingness.

My God-like mind can never be defiled, but I have taught myself to believe that I am something other than the Son of God.  Now I will embrace only the lessons of God.  Every lesson I believe, I reinforce in myself.  I will extend only Love and do this by forgiving everyone and everything.  As I do this I will learn and reinforce Truth in my mind.

Those who are Safe, hurt no one.  They bless others, because they know they are blessed.  Without fear and anxiety, the mind is Wholly Kind and Beneficent. Safety is the complete relinquishment of attack. Teach any form of attack by my words and actions, and I will reinforce it in myself and it will hurt me.  I cannot NOT teach.  I am teaching constantly with my words and actions, and my words and actions are only a reflection of what is going on in my mind.

The only way to have Peace is to teach Peace.  By teaching (extending) It, I learn It.  Only in this way, can I win back the Knowledge I threw away by seemingly separating myself from God.

Everything I teach, I am learning.  I will teach only Love, and learn that Love is mine and I am Love.

The Only Answer.  Ego is capricious and does not mean me well.  Ego is the part of my mind that believes it is separated from God.  It is entirely caught up in creating dreams for itself.  Ego speaks for the part of my mind that believes I am separate and outside the Mind of God.  I can never find myself within an ego. Ego answers no questions, but raises many.  Ego cannot hear God's Voice.  Ego believes that the best defense is attack and uses everything I miscreate to reinforce "separation from" God.  Ego uses the body to reinforce the "reality" of the separation.  I am preoccupied with my body ~ its needs, wants and desires, its health or sickness, its strength or weakness. In dreams the body's abilities must be developed and learned before I can use them.  This is not true of anything God creates. Being preoccupied with the body keeps me lost in the dream.  God's Creations are Whole, Complete, Perfect, and Eternal.  Is the body any of these?  No one in their Right Mind could believe the body or anything in this world is Real.

The "separation" cannot shatter the Peace of God, but it can shatter mine.   In God's Love and Compassion, I created a problem and He immediately gave Answer.

God has One Answer to all questions that have ever been asked or will ever be asked: I am a child of God, a Priceless Part of His Kingdom.  Nothing else exists and only This is Real.  I have chosen a sleep in which I have had many bad dreams, but this sleep is not Real and God calls me to Awaken and be glad.  There will be nothing left of my dreams when I hear Him.  When I Awaken, I will see Truth around me and my dreams will disappear. The Kingdom will have Great Reality for me, because It is Beautiful and True.

God's Lessons.  How can I wake a child in a more kindly way than with a gentle voice that will not frighten him, but only remind him that night is over and the day has come?  I do not try to convince him his nightmare is not real, because a child believes in scary monsters.  I just reassure him that he is safe now.  Then I help him recognize the difference between sleeping and waking so he will understand that he does not need to be afraid of dreams.  When bad dreams come again, he will learn not to fear.

God teaches me what to do to have Joy.  He does not say, "avoid this, do not do that, stay away from that, this will hurt you, that will make you unsafe." Instead He tells me "Do only that!" Short, simple, perfectly clear, easily understood and remembered.  I am like a child who lacks wisdom and confuses fantasy and Reality, and I am frightened because I cannot tell the difference.  God will show me that dreams contain nothing Real.  He will always answer my call. His Light Shines away my dreams.  His Dependability will make me more Certain. His is the call to Awaken and be glad.

To Have, Give.  When my ego and body and dreams are gone, I will last Forever.  Right now I think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing.  Everything is accomplished through Life, and Life is of the mind and in the mind.  The body neither lives nor dies,  it does not exist and it could never contain me, who is Life.  In the dream-world the body is destructible and separates my "brothers" and I, and therefore could not have been made by God. What God makes is Indestructible.  What I have "created" "apart from" God is unreal.  My body is sick and destructible, and it is a dream.  My mind created a sick body for purposes of ego.  The mind can heal the body, if it so chooses. Only Mind is Real, because only Mind can be shared.  The body is meaningless.  Ego uses the body for attack, pleasure, and pride.  God sees the body only as a means of Communication.  Communication is sharing, and through sharing is Communion.  Perhaps I think fear can be shared as well as Love.  This is not so.  Those who communicate fear, promote attack.  Attack always breaks Communication, making It impossible.  Egos join temporarily in fear, but only for what benefits each individual ego. 

I will learn that to have, I must give.  This begins the reversal of my perception.  I am  never alone in Atonement.

To have Peace, Teach Peace.  When I believe in the separation, I fear retaliation, abandonment, attack, and rejection.  What I perceive, I teach and reinforce in myself.  Strongly aware of ego in myself, I respond primarily to ego in others.  Upside down as always, ego perceives Truth as insane.  "Having" appears to be the opposite of giving.  But the increasing Clarity of God's Voice makes it impossible for me not to listen.  I want Peace or I would not have called upon the Voice for Peace to help me, and I did call upon Him by my search for answers.  There really can be no conflict between Sanity and insanity.  Only one is True, only one is Real.  Truth was decided by God and nothing can change that.  God's World is Changeless.  I  will begin to realize the Quiet Power of Truth and Its Perfect Consistency.  I will allow Reality to lead the way.  I will follow God and He will tell me what to do.  The alternative to conflict is Peace, and I want Peace.  Alternatives have been considered and only One will bring me Contentment. 

Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom.  Heaven will sort out the True from the false in my mind and teach me to judge every thought by God's Light. Ego knows many moods and emotions.  Heaven gives rise only to Joy.  Everything that does not foster Joy, He rejects for me.  I am told not to judge others, because God has Judged His Son and found Him Whole, Perfect, and Worthy.  I would be in error to judge otherwise.  I can be as vigilant against ego as I am for it.  I can and must be consistent.  While there seems to be choice, I must learn to choose for God and His Kingdom.  Yet this is really is no choice.  The only choice is Truth, and Truth Is, It does not need to be chosen. Yet in the dream-world, I need to make a choice. This will liberate my mind from choice and direct it toward the Kingdom.  Choosing with Truth will lead me to the Kingdom.  I learn to remember who I am.  I will allow in my mind only what God put there:  Peace, Joy, Happiness, and Wholeness.  I believe I am without the Kingdom.  I have dissociated myself from It.  Vigilance is not necessary for Truth, but it is necessary against illusions.  As long as I doubt God and His Kingdom, Truth will not be apparent to me.  Truth is without illusion.  Everything "outside"  God's Kingdom is illusion. By making another kingdom, my mind became split.  What I made imprisoned my will and gave me a sick mind that must be healed.  Once my mind is healed, it radiates health and teaches healing.  I must know my goal and relinquish everything else.  If I want Peace, I need choose only Peace.  Vigilance requires effort, but only until I learn that effort itself is unnecessary.  I exert great effort to preserve the world of illusions. Now I will turn my effort against it.  Only this will cancel out the need for effort.  What is True needs no effort at all.  I will call upon the Father and He will answer me.