Lesson 226 ~ Heaven awaits me. I need only follow the way.

I have been using illusions to replace Truth.  But if I choose, I can leave this world entirely.  Not by death, but by changing my mind about the purpose of this world.  The purpose I gave the world was to give me an experience of "separation from" God, but I can change my mind and use the world to show me the way Home with God's Help.  If I believe the world has value for anything other than Awakening to Reality, it will remain the same for me.  But if I see no value, nothing I want to keep and no goals that need to be achieved.....It will vanish.  Today I accept the world as the dream it is, and all the "people" as aspects of the One Mind which has seemingly been separated and made physical.   I accept that I need accomplish nothing, nor have any goals except for ONE:  to return my mind to the Awareness of Reality.  I accept that I am not in my right mind and that I am experiencing a fantasy rather than Reality.  The "world" was seemingly created by my fantasy to experience being "apart from" God.  In Reality, time and space do not exist.  Mountains, oceans and galaxies exist only as part of the dream.  Father, you await my glad return.  I have always been Safe in You, dreaming of an existence apart from You.  Now I am able to hear Your Voice calling to me, I see Your Arms open to welcome me.  What need do I have to linger in a place of shattered dreams and unfulfilled desires, when Heaven can so easily be mine?

Lesson 225 ~ God is my Father and I Love Him.

Father I return Your Love for me.  Giving and receiving are the same, and You have given all Your Love to me.  I must return It for Those are the Laws of Heaven.  I want this Love in my full Awareness, blazing in my mind.  Fear is behind me now and there is only Peace ahead.  How Gentle the way Your loving Son is led along the road to You!  The way is open and still.  It is Heaven that I seek.  Heaven is my True Home and only Reality.  I will find the Oneness I seek as I accomplish these few final steps which end a journey that was never begun.

Lesson 224 ~ God, my Father, Loves His Son.

My True Identity is so Secure, so Lofty, so Sinless, Glorious, Great, Wholly Beneficent and free from guilt, because this is what God made me to be.  My True Identity Lights all I experience, including the dream-world which seems to be my reality.  My True Identity can not  be fully hidden from me even in the dream-world.  My True Identity as God's Son is my only Reality.  It is Truth.  Father, my name is still known to You, is it I who have forgotten it.  I do not know where I am going, who I am, or what I am suppose to do.  Remind me Father.  I am very weary of the world I see.  Show me what You would have me see instead. 

Lesson 223 ~ God is Life. There is no life except in Him.

I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God as a separate entity, moving in isolation, unattached and housed within a body.  I know now, that my Life is in God.  I have no other home and I do not exist apart from Him.  God has no Thoughts that are not mine, and I have no thoughts that are not His.  Father, let me see the face of the Sonship healed and whole, instead of my mistakes.  Your Holy Son is sinless...sinlessness is my Reality.  I am lonely and restless in a world of dreams.  I search and search and am never satisfied.  I yearn for something and do not know what it is.  I collect "things" to fill the emptiness, only to be left wanting. Heaven is my Home. Today I will return.  My name is Yours, Father, and today I acknowledge that I am Your Son. 

Lesson 222 ~ I live and move in God.

God is my Source of Life.  It is not body, heart, breath, or brain that keeps me alive, it is God.  Nothing "outside" me exists.  Reality is Pure Thought, and the Foundation that sustains me is God Himself.  I live and move in God.  He is the Spirit Which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, guarantees my Safety from all pain, covers me with kindness and care, and holds in Love His only Beloved Son.  The Father shines on the Son....and the Son shines on the Father.  Be still and know this Truth today.  Father I have no words except for Your Name upon my lips and in my mind.  I come quietly into Your Presence now to rest in Your Peace. 

Lesson 221 ~ Quiet all thoughts and make room for Peace.

The only peace that is worthy of the Son, is the Peace of God.  I come in silence to the Father.  In the quiet of my own heart and the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for God's Voice.  I come to hear God's Voice in Silence, Certainty, and Love.  I can be sure that when I call on my Father, He will hear my call and answer me.  God will speak to me and I will hear Him.  I will let my thoughts be still and find His Peace.  He will speak to me of What I Am, and reveal Himself to His Son.   

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness recognizes that what I thought my "brother" did to me has not occurred.  It does not pardon "sin" and make it Real.  Forgiveness sees there was no sin.

What is sin except a false idea about God's Son?  Forgiveness merely sees sin's falsity and lets it go.  What is Free to take its place now is the Will of God. 

An unforgiving thought witnesses to a closed mind that chooses only dreams.  The distortions and falsities of dreams are kept more hidden and obscure.  Unforgiving thoughts cause me to believe more firmly in the dream. 

Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing.  It merely looks, waits and makes no judgment.  I will do nothing but let God show me what to do.

Part II

Words are obstacles to Communication.  Like the story of the Tower of Babel, words help to separate and divide.  Yet ACIM uses words, as it uses everything in the dream, to Awaken me to Reality.  ACIM is simple and clear.  A mind engulfed in dreams will resist the words of salvation, which will come across as "boring," "stupid," "sexist," or "hard to read."  My mind will resist what it does not want. 

But even with ACIM, words will only go so far.  Now it is time for a Direct Experience of Truth.  The lessons that remain are merely introductions to the times in which I will leave the world of pain and enter into Peace.  I begin to reach the goal this Course has set and find the end toward which my practicing was always geared.  Each lesson now is merely a beginning.  For I wait in quiet expectation.  God has promised He will take the final step Himself.  And I am certain that His Promises are kept.  I have come far along the road....and now I wait for Him.  I expect my Father to reveal Himself as He has promised.  God has not left His Son in madness. 

Now is the time of "prophecy" fulfilled.  Now are all "Ancient Promises" fully kept.  God's Will is done!  I have practiced replacing thoughts of madness with Thoughts of Truth as instructed.  I have practiced forgiving "others" and my "self" for sins that were never committed in a world that never existed.  I have practiced forgiving "others" only to experience that there are no "others,"  there is only the One Son. 

So now, I sit quietly with an open and clear mind and wait upon my Father.  I have recognized that it is my will to be with Him, not in a world of insanity.  It is God's Will that He and I are One.  I could never have come this far unless I saw ~ however dimly ~ that God's Will IS my own.

God Himself has taught me how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for Reality.  I will not look back.  I will look ahead and fix my eyes on the journey's end.  I will behold an Experience beyond the dream I made. 

I have allowed ego to guide my journey in the dream-world.  But now I follow God's Guidance to "save" me from my dream.  God's Thoughts have Lit the darkness of my mind.  His Love has called to me unceasingly since "time" began.  The Memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizon of my mind.  A moment more and I will be Safely Home, Where God would have me be. 

The need for practice is almost done.  I will come to understand that I need only call to God and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, I only need to feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, I only need to call His Name.  Instead of judging, I need only be still and let all things be healed. 

Lesson 220 ~ Review VI

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me.

"There is no peace, except the Peace of God."   Any peace, love, joy, or serenity I seem to experience in a body, always has degrees of intensity. It is not without a tinge of judgment, and it never lasts.   That is the way of the "world."  I seemingly created the world for an experience of "apart from" God.  Everything I seem to experience here is "outside" myself.  ACIM tells me that there is nothing outside myself.  There are no "others,"  there is only the One Son and His Father.  Yet while I experience the dream, ACIM teaches me to use it to Awaken to Reality.  The "others" I see are mirrors of my dream-thoughts.  When negative or positive thoughts arise, I seem to be projecting them at and onto "others."  But since there are no "others,"  the thoughts remain in my mind keeping me attached to the dream.  When I encounter an "other," instead of anger or judgment, ACIM tells me to offer forgiveness.  Forgiveness leads to my relinquishment of the dream.  Forgiveness of "others" is my forgiveness of myself.  Today I will not wander from the way of Peace and forgiveness, for I am lost and alone in the dream.  Forgiveness is also a dream because forgiveness is not needed in Heaven.  But it is the only dream that leads me Home. 

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

Lesson 219 ~ Review VI

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

"I am not a body.  I am Free."   I am the Son that God Loves Wholly and Completely.  Thought is the only Reality. God's Son cannot be limited in a "body."  God's Son can only be Joyful, Peaceful, Loving, Happy, Content, Serene and Free.  I wIll quiet my mind and think a moment on this, and experience without confusion, how my Father feels about me. 

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

Lesson 218 ~ Review VI

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

"My judgment and condemnation injures only ME."   My condemnation keeps my vision dark and traps me further in the illusion.  Through sightless eyes I cannot see the Vision of Heaven and my Glory as God's Son. Yet today I can experience this Glory and be glad.  I will replace all thoughts of loss, sadness, worry, impatience, anger, judgment, and condemnation with Thoughts of Truth, and experience my Reality as God's Son. 

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

Lesson 217 ~ Review VI

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me. 

"It is my own gratitude I earn."   The ocean and the waves are one.  The sun and its rays are one.  God and His Son are One.  The Son cannot be separated from His Father.  The Son and the Father are One, and there are no divisions or distinctions in God.   In the dream, it seems the Son is divided into many, each with his own "consciousness," each with his own "body," and each person seemingly has to "earn" his way to Heaven.  I can be grateful this is only a dream.  There is no separation, no distinctions, no bodies, and nothing to "earn."  I am Safe in God, having a fantasy of a world "apart from" God.  No harm can come to me.  I am encompassed in Love, Joy, Peace, and Happiness.  It is only my own thoughts that hold me prisoner in a world of dreams.  Today I replace dream-thoughts with Thoughts of Truth, to Awaken me to Reality.  It may seem that I have to do this over and over and the whole process takes "time."  Yet time is already over.  The Son never left the Father.  I can Awaken in an "instant" or in "ten-thousand years."  Time is a dream too.  When I have decided I am done dreaming, I chose, not death ~ which keeps me in the cycle of the dream ~ but Thoughts of Truth which lead me Home.  When I hate, it is myself who feels the pain.  When I Love, I am released.  When I am grateful, this gratitude fills my mind and benefits me.  There is only One Son...and I am He. 

I am not a body.  I am Free.  For I am still as God created me.