Lesson 181 ~ Trust the Experience of Truth.

My brother is myself.  Remember this, for there is nothing or no one "outside" me. Any hateful or unkind thought I entertain blocks my Awareness of Reality.

Knowledge is of Heaven, perception is of the dream-world.  Yet, perception has a focus because it gives consistency to what dreams show me.  ACIM teaches me to use this focus to embrace Truth.  What I "see" in the world of dreams will reflect my new focus or goal.

I will replace dreams and illusions with Thoughts of Truth.  I instruct my mind that Truth is all I want.  I will not ruminate about the past or worry about the future.  "Past" and "future" do not exist.  I seek only Truth and I look for it only in the present.  TRUTH is my goal.  If I feel anger or dismay, I have turned from my goal.  If a brother's sins occur to me or I turn my eyes to my own mistakes, Truth will be obscured.

I look neither backward nor ahead, but straight into the present and give my trust to the Experience of Truth.  I seek for respite an instant from the misery of the world. This is not an "escape from reality," it is a rest, in Reality, for my weary soul.

I have created the dream-world to give me an experience "apart-from-God."  ACIM teaches me that I may use everything in the dream-world to Awaken to Reality.

Lesson 134 ~ I will see forgiveness as it is.

In the world of dreams, forgiveness is seen as something that provides an uneven sacrifice of good for evil; a gift unjustified and undeserved.  It sees forgiveness as something bestowed by the innocent on the guilty; being fully aware of the evil deed of the "other," yet offering absolution.  "I" forgive "you."  One is innocent, the other guilty. The innocent look past the deeds of the guilty.

This is a twisted view of forgiveness.

First of all there are no "others," the "world" and all its "evil deeds" are a dream in my mind.  I desire to see a world "apart from" God and this was seemingly projected from my mind to "outside" my mind.  The Son seems to be split into "many" and thrust outside of himself.  Oneness was "divided by a billion," creating up/down, right/left, here/there, near/far, safe/unsafe, happy/sad, you/me etc.

Real forgiveness pardons only what is false and untrue.  Truth is God's Creation.  All Truth belongs to Him and reflects His Laws and radiates His Love.  The major difficulty that I find in genuine forgiveness is, I still believe I must forgive something that really happened.  All I need do is forgive what never happened and what was never True.  Real forgiveness sees nothing outside me.

"Sin" is not Real and this makes true forgiveness natural and completely sane; a deep relief and a quiet blessing to my mind.  It does not give illusions any Reality at all, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh and gently lays them at the feet of Truth.  Like a child playing a game of war with plastic soldiers; he looks up to see his mother and father nearby in safe comfort, reminding himself he is only playing.

Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for Truth among the illusions of the world.  It sees their nothingness and looks straight through the thousand forms in which they appear.  Forgiveness looks on what is false and it is not deceived.  It does not become anxious at the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with guilt, but looks on them with quiet eyes and thinks "this is not Truth."

Forgiveness sees illusions as illusions, not as Truth.  It overlooks what is not there and opens the Way to Truth, which has been blocked by dreams of guilt.  While I continue to see a "world of insanity" before me, I will Awaken to Reality by offering forgiveness.

When I am tempted to accuse someone of "sin" in any form, I can understand that there is nothing outside me, that "evil/bad" is only a projection of my own guilt.  What I seem to see "others" saying and doing is a projection of my own mind, for there are no "others" and there is nothing outside me.  I will keep my mind as free of guilt and pain as God Himself intended it to be, and as it is in Truth.

Let all dreams of evil, hatred and attack be brought silently to Truth.  I will not dwell on them and allow them to consume my mind and keep it tormented.  I will gently Awaken from the dream by understanding what I thought I saw was never there. There is no need to "fight" to save myself.  I am Safe in Heaven with my Father, dreaming of exile to a world of madness.

Yet while I see a "world" before me, I must practice forgiveness which joins my mind with the Reality in me.  I will spend 15 minutes twice today in pursuit of Reality. While I see a dream before me, I will choose one brother and think about his "sins" one by one as they cross my mind. Briefly consider all the "evil" things I thought of him and realize that there are no "others" and nothing "outside" myself, so the "sin" I perceive is my own thought of guilt and madness.  I will begin to sense a lifting up, a lightening of a weight across my chest and a deep feeling of relief.  The heavy chains of condemnation I sought to lay on a "brother" have imprisoned only myself and weighed me down.

Today I will practice forgiveness throughout the day, for there will still be many times when I forget its meaning and attack a "brother" who is really myself.  I crucify only myself.  My "brother" is myself.

"I will see forgiveness as it is."

Chapter 10 ~ Sickness/Blasphemy

I am God's Son.  Nothing outside me exists. God will never judge against me or He would be judging against Himself. God does not and will not EVER change His Mind about me. He knows me as His Son. God's Law is Love. Anything other than Love is not Real.  I violate God's laws only in my imagination. "Time" and Eternity are both in my mind and will conflict until I realize that the only proper use of "time" is as a means to regain Eternity. What can upset me, if only Love exists?  If anything upsets me it can only be because I imagined a world other than God's and it can only be a dream.

At Home in God.  I am at Home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of Awakening to Reality.  I know from experience that while I sleep, my dreams seems real. Yet the minute I wake up, I realize I was dreaming.  I do not think this is strange, even though all laws of the world were violated in my dreams (I was able to breath underwater, I fell off a cliff and did not die, my house turned into a car, etc). So......is it not possible that in "waking" from "dreams," I merely shifted from one dream to another, without really waking at all?

I have forgotten my Reality with God, but when I hear His Voice, I will remember. When I remember, I will know being Awake in God is my Reality.  I will remember Everything the instant I desire It Wholly and Completely. Illusions will disappear. Right now I am distracted by dreams; dreams of responsibilities, love, finances, war, disasters, and weather. But when I Remember, dreams will be disappear because I will want only Truth. And finally accepting Truth, It will be mine.

The Decision to Forget. The word "dissociate" means, "to regard as separate or unconnected." ACIM teaches me that I have dissociated from God and His Kingdom. This is all taking place in my mind. The only Reality is Spirit or Thought, so physical dissociation is not truly possible.

In order to dissociate, I first have had to Associate, or know. Knowledge must come first.  I knew God and His Kingdom, and now I have seemingly separated from It. Since this is all happening in my mind, dissociation is nothing more than a decision to forget.  I have replaced Knowledge of God and His Kingdom with dreams.

ACIM teaches me to choose God and His Kingdom.  ACIM is the shortcut Home. 

In my decision to remember God, lies the Joy, Peace and Glory of the Kingdom. God just needs my small willingness, for He retains the Knowledge of Heaven (and myself as Son) and He is waiting for me to accept It.  I gladly give up everything that stands in the way of my remembering......for God is in my memory. To remember, is merely to restore to my mind What Is Already There.

The people, situations, natural disasters, problems, and concerns that weigh heavy on my mind are just distracting me from Reality.  I created an alternate "reality" that distracts me from Reality. When I attack (all attack is in the mind) I am literally attacking myself. Nothing exists outside of me.  I am like a man dreaming of a bear attack, arms and body thrashing in his sleep, only to awaken and realize there is no bear at all! All those "people out there" are One with me. When I look into a brother's face, I will choose to see myself and the face of Christ. Christ is the Son, the sum of all brothers and sisters reunited in God.

The world I created is all about attack in some form or another. Behind every small sigh, is a world of rage. When I attack, I teach and reinforce it in myself. If I only realized the complete havoc this makes of my Peace of mind, I would never make such an insane decision. By choosing the dream-world, I am choosing against God and His Kingdom.

The god of Sickness.  I am not apart from God and I do love Him. The crazy thoughts I think in this world are not even my True Thoughts. I have distracted myself with a world that exists only in my dreams.  I will not be afraid. It is impossible to change my Reality as God's Son.  I am with God in Heaven right now, distracted by dreams that are projected like a movie onto a screen. Any anger, hate, disgust.....even a small sigh, are reminders that I am dreaming.  I am the Son of God lost in sickness.

I think I am in this changing, chaotic world; I think I can be hateful, annoyed or saddened; but I am dreaming.  I believe I can attack and others can attack me; but I am dreaming.  I believe that death is inevitable; but I am dreaming.  I believe I am a body and there are other bodies; but I am dreaming.

Wake up to Life. There are no bodies, there is no world, no one is sick and there is no death. Only Love, Happiness, and Life exist.

To believe that a Son of God can be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love cannot suffer. Love never attacks.  I am Invulnerable in the Love of God.  I am not subject to attack, sickness, and death.  I will accept God in myself and my "brother," for while I see "others" I have many opportunities to offer forgiveness and Love, until I Awaken, no longer need forgiveness, and only Love remains.

To believe a Son of God is sick is to believe in dreams. All dreams are caricatures of Creation, taught by a insane mind too divided to know Creation. When I do not know myself as God's Son, I become sick; sick with hatred, sick with disease, sick with old age, sick with fluctuating emotions, sick in thought.  I always see error in my brother before I see it in myself, but seeing it in my brothers is proof that it is first in me.  I will avoid correcting my brother for my own errors.  I will work only on myself, for One Mind is All There Is.

Sickness is an illusion. The only good use of denial is to deny illusions.  My task is to deny illusions completely.

God is not a jealous god, He knows nothing can replace Him. But I have created my own gods of death, sickness, money, success, fame, power, disease....and these I guard and covet in my dreams, which falsely reassure me that the dream is real. When I dream about a world without God, I block Him from my mind, then I desperately search for other "gods" to fill the emptiness. Yet my dreams will disappear in a cloud of dust when I remember who I really am: The Son of God.  I hear the god I choose to listen to. Will it be the ego-god of the dream-world or will it be my Father?

I do not realize how much effort I put into my gods and how vigilant I am on their behalf. Yet they exist only because I honor them.  I honor death with mourning and monuments.  I honor every disaster my world brings with my attention and emotions. I honor wealth with purchasing as many possessions as I can, or if I do not seem to have what I want, I allow my thoughts to covet it in "another." Illusions are not worthy of honor. To honor them is to honor nothing. If I see the god of sickness anywhere, I is because I have accepted him. If I accept him, I will bow down and worship him because I made him to be God's replacement.

Only at the Altar of God will I find Peace. This Altar is in me because God Himself put it there. His Voice calls me to return. He will be heard when I place no other gods before Him.

The End of Sickness. All "magic" (medicine, surgery, therapy, etc) is an attempt to fix the un-fixable. All religion is the recognition that the fixable cannot be fixed. Sickness and Perfection cannot coexist. God created me Perfect, therefore I am Perfect. If I believe I can be sick, I have placed other gods before my Father. God does not war with the god of sickness, but I do. The god of sickness is proof that I am seeing a world other than God's, and my world cannot coexist with God's. 

If I refuse to "worship" the god of sickness is whatever form he appears to me, he will disappear into the nothingness out of which he was made.

Reality dawns only on the unclouded mind and It is always there to be accepted.  I must be willing to accept It. Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions. Illusion and Truth cannot coexist in my mind. Truth is Whole and cannot be known partially, or by part of the mind. To overlook sickness or illusion (nothingness), is merely to evaluate it correctly. To perceive other gods, is to have a split mind.

God's Laws will keep my mind at Peace because Peace is God's Will and all of His Laws are created to uphold His Will. The Laws of God work only for my good. God's Laws are the Laws of Freedom.  Mine are the laws of bondage. Freedom and bondage cannot coexist, so my laws and God's cannot be understood together. Either I am embracing my laws or God's, it is impossible to do both. There are no other laws other than God's Laws, except in fantasy and dreams. Everything else is lawless and chaotic. Anything not under the Laws of God, does not exist.  My gods do not actually bring chaos, I am endowing them with chaos and accept it of them.  I am doing this to myself.

I have given my peace of mind to the gods I made.  In Reality, I can never lose what God has given me, I can only deny It. But be Joyful. All of this has never been. Nothing except God and His Kingdom are Real.  I am dreaming a dream of chaos and unlawfulness. What I have created in my dream is so unworthy of me that I could never want it if I were willing to see Truly. And when I see it Truly, I will see nothing at all.  My Vision will automatically look beyond, to the Kingdom within me and all around me. Reality cannot break through my denial and illusions, but It will envelope me Completely when I let go of dreams.

The Denial of God. The rituals of the god of sickness are strange and demanding. Joy is never permitted. Depression is the sign of allegiance to the god of sickness. To deny God is to deny my own Identity which is true blasphemy, and in this sense, the wage of sin is death. To deny my Identity will keep me firmly entrenched in a world of change, destruction, and death. Denying Life is to believe in the opposite of Life which is death. All forms of denial replace What Is, with what is not.

God created me as His Son and gave me Everything Good, yet I tell Him, "I am not worthy.  I flagellate myself and do penance and live in this world of chaos, destruction and death.....because I am not "worthy," I tell God that I do not want His Glory.  Is this not arrogance? Is this not blasphemy? Yet I cannot blaspheme, I only think I can.  Blasphemy is self-destructive, not God-destructive.

To deny God inevitably results in projection and in my projection I have created a world "outside" me that seems to be devoid of God.  My dream-world "proves" to my sick mind that God could not possibly exist or if He did exist then He is cruel.   I have projected onto the "world" and "others" all the thoughts and ideas that accompany my denial of God.  I then believe that "others," not myself, are doing evil and bad things. The denial I project "out there," comes back to me in the images I see and hear in the world.  I may believe that I judge "others" by the messages they give me, but I have judged them what I have projected onto them: the denial of God and His Kingdom.

The god of sickness demands the denial of health. To exist in the dream-world, I must perceive and worship sickness with my time, attention, thoughts and ideas. Sickness and death seem to enter my mind against my will, but it was me who created them.  I created the god of depression, the god of hate, the god of war, the god of injustice. In my denial of God, I created a world completely the opposite of God in every way. 

".....(of yourself) you can do nothing...." John 15:5.  But I am not of myself. If I were, what I made would be true and escape would be impossible. It is because God  Created me and I am His Son, I do not need to worry.  My gods are nothing, because my Father did not create them, and I cannot create anything unlike the Father. Only what is like the Father can be Real.

I have not sinned, I have only been mistaken.  Remember.....what I deny, I must have once known. If I have accepted denial, I can also accept its undoing.

God has not denied me. He does not retaliate, He only calls me to return. He calls me from every part of the Sonship. He answers every call, but I have not answered His. The Love of God is in everything He Created.  His Son is everywhere. Look with Peace upon my "brothers" and God will come rushing into my heart in gratitude. Healing is the acknowledgment of God.

What is of God is Eternal and I am of God. Would God allow Himself to suffer? "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?" Luke 11:11. Would God offer His Son anything that is not Whole, Eternal, Joyful, and Loving?  I will accept myself as God Created me and I will be incapable of suffering. If I deny God, I bring sin, pain and suffering to my own mind, because of the Power God gave me to Create. Because of my Free Will, I am able to deny God and His Kingdom. But because my creation of the dream-world does not share the characteristics of God, it does not exist. That I believe it does, is beyond question.

I do not realize how much I have denied myself. God, in His Love, would not have it so. Yet He would not interfere with me, because He Created His Son Free. To interfere with my thoughts and ideas would be to attack Himself, and God is not insane. When I deny God, I am insane. God merely gives me the solution and waits patiently for me to choose it.

Heaven waits for my return.  I am not at home anywhere else or in any other condition. That is why I perceive misery and restlessness. Yet God has given me the means for undoing what I have made. Listen to Him and I will learn how to remember what I Am.

God knows me as Wholly Sinless and it is blasphemy to perceive myself or any "other" as guilty. God knows me as Wholly without pain, it is blasphemous to perceive suffering anywhere. God knows me as Wholly Joyous, it is blasphemous to feel depressed. All of these illusions (whatever form blasphemy make take) are refusals to acknowledge God and His Kingdom.  To deny God and His Kingdom is to deny my Self.

Arrogance is the denial of Love.  Love shares, arrogance withholds. While "time" seems to be my reality, my mind will experiences "choices." "Time" itself is a choice. Choice is not of God. Choice is a concept, not Reality. To remember Eternity, I will look only on the Eternal. Ask myself: is this Eternal? If not, it does not exist. When I am preoccupied with the world and its problems and the things of "time," I will continue to live in "time." As always, my choice is determined by what I value.

Time and Eternity cannot both be Real because they contradict each other. Accept only what is Timeless as Real, and I will begin to understand Eternity and make It mine.

Lessons 361~365 ~ Only God's direction gives me Peace.

If I need a word to help me, God will give it to me.  If I need a thought, that He will also provide.  If I need only a tranquil, open mind, that is the Gift I will receive of Him.  God is now in charge by my request.  He will hear and answer me. 

Lesson 360 ~ The Law of Love is my Reality.

Father, the Law of Love is the only Law There Is, and It tells me that giving and receiving, and receiving and giving,  are One and the same.  You have provided me a way out of the insanity of my own making.  You told me that forgiveness leads to my Awakening.  And as I forgive, I lay aside illusions one by one, making room for Truth.  Truth enters in the form of Peace, Love, Joy and Sanity.  When I receive these Gifts from You, I cannot help but also give Them, because that is the Law of Love.  While I continue to experience (as I am concurrently forgiving) the world of dreams, I will give the miracles of Your Gifts to my "brothers," as they radiate from my very being, and from them to me, for my "brother" and I are One.  There is no separation between us.  When I heal, my "brother" heals. As I heal, the "world" heals.  All that seems to be outside me, is a fantasy within my mind.  The Great Rays of Your Light remain Eternally Still and Undisturbed in me.  I reach for Them in Silence and Certainty.  Nowhere else can Certainty be found but deep within me, who is within You.  In Holiness I was Created and in Holiness I remain.  The Father and the Son are One, and I am like my Father in Perfect Innocence.  Amen.

Lesson 359 ~ I forgive to Awaken to Reality

I have misunderstood all things.  I am not a "sinner" living in a "body" in a "world" populated with things, situations and others "outside" me.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  There are not "many," but only One.  Reality is Pure Thought and I am a Thought of God.  I exist in God, not in a world "outside" God.  Fantasy can never be Reality.  God created me Innocent, Joyful, Loving, Happy and Eternal.  Just because I imagine I am something else does not make it Real.  What I think I am and what I think I have done has had no effects on Reality.  "Sin" is impossible.  My Awakening to Reality with God starts with forgiveness.  When I forgive the shadow-world that seems to be "outside" me, and all the situations, things and people that seem to be outside me, I create a space in my mind for Truth.  Even the thoughts I think in this "world" are not my True Thoughts.  Only the Thoughts I think with God are my True Thoughts.  I am lost in a world of insanity of my own making.  I forgive, to be at Peace.  I forgive, to Awaken to Reality.  I forgive.......and God does (has already done) the rest.  Father, Your Answer is always some form of Peace;  all "pain is healed, all "misery" replaced with Joy, all "prison doors" are opened, and all "sin" is merely understood as a mistake. 

Lesson 358 ~ I trust only God, not my insane mind.

I think I want dreams that upset and hurt me.  I think I want to be split into many, creating a lonely existence in an individual body.  I think I want the happiness that seems to be "outside" me.  My mind is lost in insanity and I do not know what I want.  I can be certain only of this:  No call to God is left unanswered and only His answer is the one I want.  Father, You know what I really am and remember what I really want.  Help me, Father to remember Your Love.  Keep Your Promises to me always in my Awareness.

Lesson 357 ~ There is no "reality" "outside" myself.

Forgiveness helps me escape the prison house in which I think I live.  My Reality as God's Son is pointed out to me, first in "others" that seem to be "outside" me, then in myself.  God's Voice instructs me patiently to hear His Word and to give Truth as I have It received from Him, through my forgiveness of my thoughts and everyone and everything that seems to be outside me.  I will listen for God's Voice instructing me to find the Way to Him.  I will replace all I seem to see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel with Thoughts of Truth.  There is no "reality" "outside" me.  What seems to be "outside" me is a thought in my mind of "separation from" God.   "Proof" of separation was what I had been looking for in the people, things and situations I projected "outside" me.  Today, I choose to "see" differently.  Today I choose to forgive and see through the eyes of forgiveness.  Truth answers every call made to God.  As the result of my forgiveness, God responds first with miracles of Truth and then calls to me to return to Him and be my Self as His Son. 

Lesson 356 ~ God always answers my call.

Father, You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your Son might make to You.  It does not matter where I am, what seems to be my problem nor what I believe I have become.  I am Your Son and You will answer me.  The miracle that results from my forgiveness reflects Your Love.  Your Name replaces every thought of "separation from" You.  Your Name, Father, gives answer to Your Son, because to call Your Name is to call my own.  Insanity is another name for "sin."  My mind is troubled when I think I am "separated from" God, hence it is "sick," or "insane."  Healing is another name for God.  Miracles are the Gifts God gives when I forgive illusions and make room in my mind for Truth.  Will God answer my call when I pray that my team wins a football game?  I am asking for more illusions in the world of illusions, why would He further entrench me in the dream?  Will God answer my prayers for "death" not to take a loved one?  He tells me "this is not so! There is no death you are dreaming, Child."  Will God answer my prayers for my physical or mental pain to end?  He tells me to lay aside my thoughts of the world and He will exchange them for His Own Thoughts which offer only Joy, Peace, Contentment and Love. 

Lesson 355 ~ I accept God's Word.

Father, why should I wait for the Joy You promised me? You keep the Word You gave Your Son in exile. Reality waits for me.  I need only reach out my hand to It.  Even now my hand touches It.  It is very close.  I do not need to wait a minute longer to be at Peace Forever.  I choose You, Father, and my Identity as Your Son.  I wish only to be my Self as Your Son, and to Know You as my Father and Creator.  Today, I forgive all illusions and seek only Reality. 

Lesson 354 ~ I am Certain of my purpose.

I am God's Holy Son, beyond the reach of time and entirely Free of every law except for His.  My will is the same as my Father's Will.  My Reality is Joyful, Loving, Peaceful and Whole.  While I experience an "existence" as a body in a "reality" outside me, I will forgive and forgive and forgive.  My only function now is forgiveness.  Nothing and no one can hurt me except my own thoughts, and even those are not my True Thoughts.  Today, I stand with Truth. 

Lesson 353 ~ I have one task: forgiveness.

The need for learning has almost come to an end.  I have learned that there is nothing and no one "outside" me.  I have learned that I am not a spirit trapped in a body, but I am Pure Thought and I am the Holy Son of God Himself.  I have learned that I have filled my thoughts with the fantasy of being "separated from" God and that I have split my mind into many "others" ....a "universe," "plants," "animals," "cars," "houses," etc.  I have learned that to Awaken to Reality, I must do my part in forgiving all my thoughts and everyone and everything that seems to be outside me.  Forgiveness clears the mind of madness creating a space for Truth to enter.  I have learned that God will do (has already done) the rest.  My only task is forgiveness. 

Lesson 352 ~ Today I choose Love.

Judgment and Love are opposites.  From one comes all the sorrows of the world.  From the other comes the Quiet, Eternal Peace of God.  Forgiveness sees only Innocence.  It never judges.  Judgment will blind me.  God has given me a way to find His Peace again.  All roads lead Home, for there is nowhere else to go.  I can tarry in the world of dreams lifetime after lifetime, or I can choose differently.  I can choose to experience a "world-separated-from-God,"  or I can choose Truth.  I have within me the Memory of God and my Reality as His Son.  The thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not my True Thoughts.  The Thoughts I think with God are my True State of Mind. Father I hear Your Voice and find Your Peace today. 

Lesson 351 ~ I will think only Thoughts of Truth.

When I fill my mind with negative thoughts - judgment, envy, covetousness, impatience, hatred, boredom, weariness, etc. - and dwell on the negative, I block my mind from Truth.  When I see myself and those around me as "sinners" in a "sinful" world, I choose to be alone and friendless in a fearful state of existence.  All my "problems" are by my own choice!  What I "see" "outside" me is what I choose to see, and there are only two options:  Reality or a world separated from God.  When I choose Truth, I see my Innocence and my way is Secure and Clear.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me, and what I seem to see "outside" me is a fantasy in my mind of "separation from" God.  I will forgive all my thoughts, and everyone and everything I seem to see, which creates a space in my mind for Truth to enter.  I only need do my part and my Father will do the rest. 

Lesson 350 ~ Miracles mirror God's Eternal Love.

Father, what I forgive becomes part of me.  The Son of God incorporates all things within himself, just as You created him.  The Memory of You, Father, depends on my forgiveness.  What I Am is unaffected by my insane thoughts.  What I "see" in the dream-world is the direct result of my thoughts.  The thought of separation from You has seemingly created a "reality" outside me. Only my forgiveness will let Your Memory return to me.  My healing will be reflected in the world I seem to see.  Where I once saw poverty, I will see Bounty. Where I once saw devastation, I will see Beauty. Where I once saw sorrow, I will see Joy.  Does that mean that devastation suddenly looks beautiful to me?  No.  But I will understand that the "devastation" that once "proved" to me that I was "separated from" God, does not exist; and I will remember that I am Safe and Wholly Loved in the Arms of my Father; the "devastation" will not frighten me, and eventually, as my forgiveness is complete, the world of dreams will disappear entirely and be replaced by Reality.  As I gather the miracles that result from the forgiveness of all my insane thoughts and everything and everyone I seem to see, I will indeed be grateful.   As the Memory of God is restored to me, I will remember my Reality as God's Son and reestablish my Existence in Eternal Love. 

Lesson 349 ~ I will follow the Law of Love.

I offer Freedom to everything I seem to see, and that Freedom returns to me.  The Law of Love states, that what I give, I will receive.  Father, Your Gifts are mine.  Each one I accept provides me with a Gift to give.  As I give, I will receive.  Your healing miracles belong to me when I offer forgiveness to everyone and everything I seem to see.  God knows my needs and He gives me the Grace to meet them all.  I trust in Him to send miracles to bless my mind as I offer forgiveness instead of judgment.  Judgment keeps me bound to the world of dreams.  Forgiveness releases me and prepares me for Awakening.

Lesson 348 ~ God's Everlasting Love surrounds me.

Father, You are here and I am not alone.  Surrounding me is Everlasting Love.  I am Your Son.  You give me Everything.  I need nothing.  Surrounding me is Perfect Safety.  Surrounding me is Perfect Innocence.  Fear and anger disappear when a space is made for Love to enter.  God's Grace is enough in everything He would have me do.  I choose His Will to be mine.  I lay aside all thoughts except those of Peace, Love and Joy.....I think with the Thoughts of my Father. 

Lesson 347 ~ Today I think with the Thoughts of God.

Father in the world of dreams, I want what goes against my will as Your Son.  I seemingly created the world as an experience of "separation from" You.  Though this is impossible, anything is possible in fantasy.  I seemingly exist in a fantasy of separation from You, and what I want in the world of dreams is more "proof" of separation from You.  My mind is sick, Father and I do not know what I need, want or desire.  I give all judgment to You.  You see what I see, yet You know Truth.  You see my pain, yet understand it is not Real.  In Your Understanding, I am healed.  You give the miracles that dreams hide from my Awareness.  I give all judgment to You, I do not know my own will, but You are Sure it is Your Own.  Today, I choose to set aside dreams.  I will think Your Thoughts, speak Your Words and do what You tell me to do.  Through my forgiveness of my own thoughts, and everyone and everything that seems to be "outside" me, miracles come to me.  I will listen today.  I will be very still and hear the Quiet, Gentle Voice of God assuring me that I am the Son He Loves. 

Lesson 346 ~ I forget all things except God's Love.

Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things.  Time has stepped aside today.  I do not look for the things in the world of dreams.  What I seek today transcends all laws of time.  Today, I forget all things except Your Love.   I live in You, Father and know no laws except Your Law of Love; therefore I find the Peace which You created for Your Son.  I forget all the foolish toys I made as I behold Your Glory.....and my own!  When evening comes today, I will remember nothing except for the Peace of God.  I have learned today, that Peace is mine when I forget all things except God's Love.  The thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not even my True Thoughts.  I do not have to think every thought that comes into my mind.  I can choose which thoughts to think!  Today, I choose to think about God's Love.  And only this, is Truth. 

Lesson 345 ~What I give, returns to me. I offer only forgiveness today.

Father, miracles are shifts in perception resulting from forgiveness; they reflect Your Gifts to me, Your Son.  Everything I give returns to me, reminding me that the Law of Love (to give is to receive) is Universal.  Even here in the dream, the Law of Love takes a form which can be recognized.  The forgiveness that I offer, returns to me.  Here in the "world," the miracle resulting from forgiveness lights the way to You.  I will let Peace settle in my mind today and it will be reflected back to me from the world I seem to see.  The forgiveness I offer, results in miracles to bless my tired mind and be reflected back to me from what seems to be "outside" me.  I will find rest today. 

Lesson 344 ~ The Law of Love: What I give, is mine.

The Law of Love is Your Law, Father, not my own.  I did not understand what "giving" meant.  I had thought that "to give" was a loss to myself.  In this world, I looked on what was my "treasure," only to find an empty space where nothing ever was, is, or will be.  What can an illusion offer me?  Yet when I forgive, my brother becomes my savior and gives me Gifts beyond anything the world can offer.  My forgiven brothers will fill my store with Heaven's Treasures, which alone are Real. This is the Law of Love fulfilled.  And then, Father, Your Son arises and returns to You.  How near and dear my "brother" is to me as we go to God.  How near is God!  The ending of the dream of separation is close at hand!

Lesson 343 ~ The end of the world.

The end of the "world" cannot be loss.  The "world" does not give me Everything.  I may have money and an expensive home, but people envy me and try to take what I have.  I may have a great job, but there is always someone smarter or younger, waiting to take my place.  With every "good" thing of the "world," there is always some opposing, "not-good" thing.  Heaven gives only the Eternal:  Love, Peace, Joy and Certainty, and there is nothing opposite to this.   God only gives.  He never takes away.  And as His Son, I can only give and Everything is mine Eternally.  My Reality is not a "world" of life-followed-by-death, happiness-followed-by-sorrow, or joy-followed-by-grief.  Those I love are part of me.  I exist in Oneness with Everything.  All things are given me Forever and Ever.  As God's Son I am Complete.  No sacrifice or suffering is required of me.  My Reality is not what I "see" with the "body's eyes."  What seems to be "outside" me is not Real at all.  Salvation has no cost.  "Death" will not lead me to salvation.  Only through forgiveness of the dream will I Awaken to my Reality with God.  Father, I will do my part by forgiving the dream and all my thoughts within the dream.  You have done everything else.  Death does not bring my "spirit" to Heaven, only the correction of the dream in my mind can offer me salvation and lead to the Awakening of Reality with You. 

Lesson 342 ~ As I give forgiveness, forgiveness rests on me.

Thank You, Father, for saving me from the hell I made.  The "world" is not Real.  My "body" is not Real.  Anything "outside" me is just a fantasy.  You have given me the means to prove its unreality.  The key is in my hand and I have reached the door.  Beyond the door is the end of dreams.  I have stood before the Gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter and be at Home.  Today, I will not hesitate.  Today I will forgive all things as You have instructed me, including my own thoughts which are not even my True Thoughts.  By forgiveness, I will create a space in my mind for Truth to enter.  Just as "nature abhors a vacuum," my mind will flood with Truth when a space has been created by forgiveness.  Father, today I will remember that I am Your Child.  And when I open the door to Reality, illusions will disappear in the Blazing Light of Truth, as the Memory of You returns to me.   With God's Purpose in mind for my world of dreams, the "others" that seem to exist in this "world" with me, are now seen as my saviors; I forgive them of what they did not do as we join hands and make our way Home.  As we go, the "world" disappears.

Lesson 341 ~ Only Thought is Real.

Father, Your Son is Holy.  I am he, on whom You Smile in a Love and Tenderness so Deep and Still, all Thought shares that Holiness.  How Safe I am!  How Holy I am!  I exist in Your Smile.  I am infused with Your Love.  I am One in You and You in me; Son and Father Complete.  I will not attack my Innocence, for It contains the Word of God and in Its Kind Reflection I am saved. 

Lesson 340 ~ My Awakening is close at hand.

Father, thank You for the Freedom today will bring.  This day is Holy, for today Your Son's suffering is over.   I will hear Your Voice directing me toward salvation through forgiveness of "everyone" and "everything" that seems to be "outside" me, finding Freedom forever from all suffering.  I seemingly created the world of illusions to have an experience of "separation-from-God."  The only use for the world of dreams now, is to find my way Home.  I will be glad today.  I will be glad!  There is no room for anything today except for Joy and thanks.  My Father has pointed to the way Home.  He has created a path, given me the means and all but carries me there!  My only part is forgiveness.  I WILL find my way Home.  There is no doubt about this.  I will forgive all things "outside" me, to create a space in my mind for Truth.  I will Awaken in the Heart of Love, Safe in my Father's Arms. 

Lesson 339 ~ I receive whatever I request.

I do not want pain.  But that is exactly what I ask for when I dwell on thoughts of the world, or think I can find Happiness in the world of dreams. In the world of dreams, I am confused about what I want.  I think a see a variety of things that will bring me happiness:  a good job, a happy family, travel, an education, lots of money, a loving relationship with my parents, drugs/sex/rocknroll, etc.  When I dwell on and ask for things of the world, I am asking for things that will frighten me and bring me pain and suffering.  Anything "outside" me will bring me pain and suffering.  While I continue to seemingly exist in the world of dreams, I can use every person, situation or event as an opportunity for forgiveness.  I will replace thoughts of the world with the Thoughts of Truth I find in ACIM.  Father, to be a "self-made man" is my attempt to be my own god and create an experience apart from You.  I can do nothing apart from You.  Anything I do "apart from" You is only a fantasy and can never be Reality.  Today, I will do nothing by myself.  I will listen for Your Voice in everything I do; seeking only what You offer me and accepting only Thoughts of Truth. 

Lesson 338 ~ I am affected only by my thoughts.

The "world," my "body," and all that is "outside" me are just thoughts in my mind.  I am affected only by my thoughts.  No one can frighten me and nothing can harm me.  I have no enemies and I am Safe from all that seems to be outside of me.   Mind is the only Reality and I am part of the Mind of God.  I Exist in God.  What happens to my sleeping dreams when I wake?  They disappear.   It is the same for the dream of "separation from" God.  It exists only as a fantasy.  Since thoughts of the "world" and all that seems to be outside me are mine and mine alone, I now know that I have the Power to change them.  I can change each thought of fear to a Happy Thought of Love.  I can change thoughts of separation from God to Thoughts of Unity with God.  Thoughts of anger, envy, judgment and impatience, to thoughts of forgiveness.  I crucified myself!  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  To change my "reality,"  I will change my thoughts.  I will lay aside illusions and make a space in my mind for Truth to enter.  Father, Your Plan is Certain.  All others goals and plans will fail.  I will continue to have thoughts that frighten me until I accept that only Your Thought leads to Freedom.  My thoughts will keep me running on the vicious wheel of madness and lead me nowhere.  Thoughts of forgiveness lead me Home. 

Lesson 337 ~ I am protected from all harm.

I am sinless as God's Son.  This ensures me Perfect Peace, Eternal Safety, Everlasting Love and Freedom Forever from all loss and suffering.  Only Happiness can be my State, for Life in God offers only Happiness and Peace.  How do I experience this?  Forgive everyone and everything.  Nothing more, nothing less.  God has already done all the things that need done.  I can do nothing of myself, except to forgive.  I need only accept my Reality as God's Son and feel His Love protecting me from "harm."   Father, You created me sinless.  I was mistaken when I thought I created a reality "apart from" You.  I accept my only function of forgiveness.  My dream is ended now.  Amen. 

Lesson 336 ~ Forgiveness is the way Home.

Everything that seems to be "outside" me is occurring only in my mind.  All "people," all "situations,"  all that is "said" and "done," is a dream in my mind.  If "someone" says something that "offends" me, I can know it is me doing it to myself.  If I "see" a dreary, ugly, fat, stupid, lazy world around me, it is only my mind projecting those images to "prove" that I am separated from God.  I need only forgive, lay those thoughts aside making a space in my mind for Truth to enter. I do not need to dwell on every thought that comes into my mind.  All thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not even my True Thoughts.  My True Thoughts are the ones I think with My Creator.  To know my True Thoughts I forgive, lay aside dreams and make a space for Truth.  Truth cannot enter when I clutter my mind with illusions.  Forgiveness sweeps away distortions.   Through forgiveness, Peace of Mind is restored and the Thought of God returns to me.  And then I can look within to find what I have vainly sought "outside" myself.  I will let forgiveness wipe away dreams of separation.  Father, help me to look within and find my Identity as Your Son.  Reality remains Unchanged within my mind. Beyond the illusions and dreams, awaits Your Love. 

Lesson 335 ~ Forgiveness leads to Awakening.

In the world of dreams I am blind to Reality.  I never "see" anything for what it is.  I have imagined a world "separated from" God, and I believe in what I have seemingly created.  I would be lost forever if I could truly separate myself from God.  But "separating" myself from God is impossible.  It is like a sunbeam separating itself from the sun.  Or a ripple separating itself from the ocean.  It is just not possible.  Yet, in fantasy ~ in dreams ~ anything is possible.  In the world of dreams, I "see" separation from God.  It is to this alone that I respond, however much I am impelled by "outside" happenings.  Today I change what I wish to see from "separation," to Truth.  What could restore the Memory of God to me except to seek only Truth, and forgive the rest?  I can use this world of dreams not for an imagined "separation from" God, but to remember my Reality with God.  Every person, situation, thought or event can be used as an opportunity for forgiveness.  I can forgive everything and everyone for what they did not do.  Beyond fantasy is Truth, waiting to show me the Gifts forgiveness offers.  What happens to my sleeping dreams when I Awaken?  They disappear.  Father, forgiveness changes the goal of the dream from "separation from God" to "Unity with God."  Let me forgive everyone and everything, and Awaken from the dream. 

Lesson 334 ~ Today I claim the Gifts forgiveness offers.

I will not wait another day to find the Treasures my Father offers me.  Dreams and illusions offer me nothing, for Reality is far beyond the world of madness.  Even the thoughts I have in the world of dreams are not my True Thoughts.  I am trapped in a cycle of insanity until I accept that forgiveness of everything and everyone is my only way out.  Why would the Son of God accept insanity over Reality?  It is because I think I separated myself from my Father, and all that I seem to see is "proof" of that despair. God is holding out His Peace and Love to me....will I accept?  Today I use every thought, every encounter and every situation as an opportunity for forgiveness.  Father, today I look for only the Eternal, for I can be content with nothing less.  Nothing can comfort me except what You are offering to my bewildered, frightened heart.  Only Your Gifts bring me Certainty and Peace. 

Lesson 333 ~ Forgiveness ends the dream.

Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be denied, disguised, evaded nor hidden by deceit of any kind.  If I want to escape conflict I must face it directly, see it exactly as it is, in the "reality" which has been given it and with the purpose my mind had for it.  Only then are conflict's defenses lifted, and Truth can Shine upon it as it disappears.  The purpose for anything in the world of dreams, is to "prove" that I am "separated from" God.  In Reality this is impossible.  In dreams, anything is possible.  Father, forgiveness is the only dream that does not create other dreams.  It is the dream that dissolves all other dreams and leads to my Awakening.  Forgiveness is the dream of Restoration that is Your Gift to Your Beloved Son. 

Lesson 332 ~ Fear holds my mind prisoner. Forgiveness sets it Free.

I seemingly created the world I see.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  Mind is the only Reality.  There is only Oneness and I am One with my Creator.  Truth never attacks, It merely Is.  Truth's Presence shines away fantasies, Awakening me to what is Real.  Forgiveness of everyone and everything that seems to be "outside" me creates a space in my mind for Truth to enter in and take Its Rightful Place.  Without forgiveness my mind is in chains, believing madness.  Yet with forgiveness, Light Shines through the dream of darkness, offering it Hope and giving it the means to realize that Eternal Love is my Inheritance.  I will not bind my mind to thoughts of insanity today.  Fear has held my mind prisoner, but Your Love, Father, has given me the means to set it Free.  As I offer forgiveness to "others," forgiveness fills my mind, and a space is created for Truth to enter.  Father, I will not remain a prisoner to insanity when You hold out the means for my Freedom. 

Lesson 331 ~ Forgive the madness.

Father, I cannot suffer, sin, nor die.  You Love me Father, You never created this madness for me.  I am the dreamer of the dream of insanity.  You did not create this Father, I did.  I never left You, and You never abandoned me.  I am Safe in Heaven with You, dreaming a dream of exile and separation from You.  I need only lay dreams aside, one by one, to Awaken to my Reality with You.  I will continue to forgive everyone and everything that seems to be outside me.  Even the thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not my True Thoughts.  I will forgive myself and all the thoughts that enter my mind.  My Reality is Eternal Peace, Love and Joy, and if I do not have This, I am dreaming.  I will forgive all that is not Eternal Peace, Love and Joy and my Father will do the rest.  I am One with my Father and He with me.  Beyond the madness is my Reality.  My only function in the world of dreams is to forgive the madness and my Father Awakens me to Reality. 

Lesson 330 ~ Today I stop hurting myself.

Forgiveness of everyone and everything that seems to be "outside" me is my function.  Forgiveness of every thought that comes into my mind is my function.  Forgiveness of my anxiety and angst is my function.  Forgiveness of my boredom and restlessness is my function.  Forgiveness of my victimhood is my function.  Forgiveness is my only function.  Today I accept my one true function in the world of dreams.  I can gently lay aside images of pain.  God holds out His Power and Love, and bids me to take what is already mine.  When my mind is clear of thoughts of "separation from" God, an empty space is created for Truth to flow in. The Self which God created cannot "sin" or be "separated from" Him.  Therefore I cannot suffer or be in pain.  That I can imagine suffering and pain is evident, but it can never be Reality.  My Identity is in God.  I can, right now, escape forever from the dream of fear.  Father, I am Your Son and I cannot be hurt or injured in any way.  If I think I suffer, it is only because I am indulging in a dream of separation from you.  One by one, I learn to lay aside dreams to make room for Reality.  Today I am saved from what I thought I was. 

Lesson 329 ~ God's Will is my will.

Father, I thought I wandered from You, defied You, broke all Your Holy Laws and created a will of my own more powerful than Yours.  I have punished myself over and over, day after day, in a thousand different ways.  Yet what I am in Truth is Your Holy Son.  This will never change no matter what I dream up.  You are One and I am One with You.  The choice was made for all Eternity.  It cannot change.  My will can never be in opposition to Yours.  Father my will is Yours and I am Safe, Untroubled, Serene and in Endless Joy, because it is Your Will that It be so.  What God Wills is True Everywhere and Always; It does not change because I am dreaming.  Today I recognize my Union with my Source and Everything There Is.  I have no will apart from my Father.  Through His Will, I recognize I am One with Everything.  Through His Will, I find my way, at last, to God. 

Lesson 328 ~ There is no will except the Father's.

What seems to be second place is first, in this world of dreams.  I strive to be autonomous and independent; a "self-made" man, so to speak.  I pride myself on "pulling myself up by my bootstraps" and making a life for myself.  I think I will gain salvation by being independent from the "evil" in the world; I stay away from "evil" and try to do only "good." Yet all I find is sickness, suffering, loss and death.  "Death" is my reward for a life well-lived; or at the very least it seems I must "die" to be able to experience my salvation and Heaven.  I seemingly created this world of separation, not God.  God does not will any of this madness for me.  I do not have a will "apart from" His.  I am not separate from God.  This "world" can be likened to a dream.  A dream of separation from God.  It is not, and can never be, my Reality.  All things I perceive in the world of dreams are upside down....until I listen to God's Voice.  To join with God's Will is to find my own.  Father, there is no will except for Yours.  I am glad that nothing I imagine about the world of dreams is Real.  It is Your Will that I be Safe and Eternally at Peace.  Through ACIM, I find my way back to You. 

Lesson 327 ~ The proof is in the pudding.

I am not asked to take ACIM on the basis of unsupported faith.  For God has promised He will hear my call and answer me Himself.  The proof?  My experience.  The resulting experience will then endure and take me further and further on the road that leads to Him.  He awaits my call to give me all the help I need.  Father, Your Promises will never fail.  My experience will be the proof I need.  I only need test Your plan for salvation to understand this is so.  I will not judge what You ask me to do.  You ask me to forgive everyone and everything?  That is what I will do.  The resulting experience will be the proof that leads me onward to You.  You do not ask me to forgive on blind faith.  "Test it out," You Gently suggest. 

Lesson 326 ~ I am forever God's Son.

Father, I was created in Your Mind; a Holy Thought that never lefts Its Home.  As You created me, I have remained.  You are Cause and I am Effect.  I did not create myself, nor did I create a "world" "apart from" You.  I remain with You in Eternal Bliss, though I am blinded to Reality by choosing to "see" illusions.  I have but ONE problem:  I think I am separated from You.  There is ONE solution:  forgive myself and Awaken to Reality.  All Your Attributes exist within me because it is Your Will to have a Son so like You that together We are Indistinguishable.  Where the Father Is the Son Is, and where the Son Is, so Is the Father.  I have all the Power of my Father, because He Willed it to be so.  I will follow God's Plan for me here on "earth."  His plan is my only goal.  In the end, God will gather His Effects into the Tranquil Heaven of His Love, where "earth" and all thoughts of "separation" will vanish and the Son will remember his True Home with His Father.  I will forgive everyone and everything for what they did not do.  I am making up the dream of "separation" and causing my mind great angst and sorrow. I am doing this to myself!   I will forgive to remember Reality.  I will see signs of my forgiveness reflected back to me from the "world" I seem to see "outside" me.  It will appear forgiven, then transformed, and then fade entirely into God's Holy Will. 

Lesson 325 ~ All things I think I "see" are only symbols.

The key to remembering my Reality is this:  What I seem to "see" reflects a process in my mind; it starts with my idea of what I want (dreams or Reality).  From there, my mind makes up an image of what it desires.  These images are then projected outward.  From insane wishes ("independence" from God) comes an insane world.  From thoughts of judgment comes a world condemned.  Yet from forgiving thoughts, a gentle world comes forth, and the forgiveness I offer comes back to me, giving me a kindly place of respite where my mind can rest a while.  Father, Your plan for me reflects Truth.  My thoughts seemingly "apart from" You reflect only dreams.  I am making up this world and all its experiences; I am doing it to myself.  And because I "created" it, I believe in it.  A mad man cannot help himself out of the madness because he believes what he sees.  He requires someone who does not see the madness to help him.  Father I trust only in You.

Lesson 324 ~ There is nothing I need "do." I merely follow.

Father, You gave me the plan for my salvation.  You have set the way I am to go, the role to take and every step in the path.  I cannot possibly lose my way.  I can choose to wander off a while, but I will return.  Your Loving Voice always calls me back.  I merely follow the way to You as You direct me.  I will follow the Way of God.  I am blinded by dreams and illusions.  I will not trust my own judgment.  God made the plan, the means by which it is accomplished, and He made the ending Certain.  He guarantees a Safe return Home.  I trust in Him and I merely follow the way.
 

Lesson 323 ~ I gladly "sacrifice" fear.

Giving up dreams, illusions, fear ~ all that does not exist is what You ask of Your Son.  You ask me to give up suffering, loss, sadness, anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to my Awareness, healing me of pain and giving me Your Own Eternal Joy.  This is the only "sacrifice" You ask of me, and one I gladly make.  This is the only "cost" of salvation.  The debt I "owe" my Father is merely letting go of self-deception, illusions and dreams.  Truth returns to me in Wholeness and Joy.  I am not deceived any longer.  Love has returned to my Awareness.  I am at Peace again.  Fear has disappeared and only Love remains. 

Lesson 322 ~ I give up only what was never Real.

I sacrifice dreams, nothing more.  Every dream serves only to hide my True Self as God's Holy Son. As dreams disappear I find the Gifts salvation brings awaiting me in Shining welcome with God's Ancient Messages to me.  The Memory of God is in every Gift that I have received of Him.  Father, You ask me to sacrifice nothing.  Sacrifice to You is inconceivable!  You Will only Peace, Love, Joy and Deep Contentment for Your Holy Son.  The dreams I seemingly created have no Reality.  In giving up dreams what loss is there to me except the loss of fear and the return of Love into my mind?

Lesson 321 ~ Father, my only goal is You.

Father, I have searched in vain for "bodies" and "things" to make me happy and whole.  Now I choose to hear only Your Voice directing me.  I will guide myself no more.  I understand nothing here in this world of dreams.  I cannot trust myself among all the distractions I have seemingly created.  But I trust in You.  Your Voice directs me.  The way to You is open and clear at last.  It is my will that I return to You.  The "world" is freed along with me.  As my mind heals, the "world," which is only in my mind, is freed as well.  How grateful I am to find the answer to all questions through the Certain means my Father has established.  My Freedom and Safety is found in God alone.  All cravings are satisfied, all questions answered, all tears are dried; grief turns to Joy, hate to Love, war to Peace, separation to Unity in the Remembrance of my Father.  Perfect Love awaits me. 

Lesson 320 ~ I am learning to Awaken to Reality.

There are no limits on the Son of God.  What he wills with his Creator must be done.  His Holy will can never be denied, because the Father made it so.  I am the Holy Son of God, and the Power of my Father's Will abides in me.  Though when I entertain thoughts of "separation from" God, I am powerless.  Father, Your Will can do all things in me, and this extends to the "world" that seems to be outside me.  There is no limit on Your Will and this same Power has been given to Your Son.  I have forgotten who I am, because I dream dreams of "separation."  I am learning to Awaken to my Reality with You. 

Lesson 319 ~ I am the Holy Son of God.

Here is a Thought from which all arrogance has been removed and only Truth remains.  Arrogance opposes Truth.  But when there is no arrogance, Truth will come immediately and fill the space. Only ego can be limited, and it looks for goals which are made to fail and limit.  My ego thinks if I gain, the rest of the world must lose.  Yet it is the Will of God for me to learn that what is given, is given to the Whole.  Father, what goal but to remember You, could You have given me?  My True Self shares Your Will with You.

Lesson 318 ~ I have everything I need.

All parts of God's Plan for salvation have one goal.  Salvation's purpose for me is to remember my Reality as Son of God.  I am the goal the "world" is searching for.  I am God's Holy Son.  His one Eternal Love.  All that I need to Awaken is within me.  Father, I accept salvation for myself.  When my mind heals, the "world" heals, until I Awaken to Reality and the "world" is no more. 

Lesson 317 ~ I am Safe in my Father's Arms.

Until I choose for Truth, I am the slave of "time" and "human destiny."  When I willingly and gladly choose Truth over dreams, I will recognize that salvation is already here.  Father, Your Way is what I choose today.  I choose to go where It will lead me.  I choose to do what It would have me do.  Your Way is Certain and the end Secure.  The Memory of You awaits me There.  All my sorrows end in Your Embrace.  I mistakenly thought I had wandered from the Sure Protection of Your Loving Arms. 

Lesson 316 ~ I will embrace only Truth.

Giving and receiving are one and the same.  ACIM tells me to avoid thoughts of judgment, anger, envy and hatred because entertaining these thoughts in my mind keeps me firmly entrenched in the dream.  Since there is nothing and no one "outside" me, I am giving these thoughts only to myself, delaying my return to Love.  All beautiful gifts of compassion, love, grace, charity and forgiveness that I seem to see by "others" "outside" me, belong to me as well.  My treasure house is full.  Not one gift is lost and only more are added.  I will dwell where my treasures are and exist where I am truly welcome and at home.  God uses my mis-creation of a world seemingly separated from Him, and turns it into the means for my return Home.  My salvation is accomplished in my mind, for there is nothing and no one "outside" me.  Mind is the only Reality.  The thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not even my True Thoughts.  I am learning to think parallel to the Mind of my Father; to lay aside thoughts of dreams and embrace only Thoughts which reflect Truth.  Father, I accept Your Gifts today.  I do not always recognize them as mine, yet I trust that You will provide the means by which I can Truly "see" their worth. 

Lesson 315 ~ Seek only Truth.

All God Created was made to bring only Joy, Happiness, and Love.  Being lost in a dream, I believe I created another "reality."  Yet even amongst  madness, all I mis-created is ready to move aside and make way for Truth and Reality at my behest.  Each day a thousand treasures are waiting to come to me with every passing moment.  I am blessed with Gifts throughout the day, in value far beyond all things of the world.  Yet in the past, they have gone unnoticed by a mind consumed with illusions.   I can deny Reality no longer.  I have heard and seen glimpses of Truth and the Son of God in me responds.   A brother smiles on another and my heart is gladdened.  Someone speaks a word of comfort, gratitude or mercy and my mind receives this gift and takes it as its own.   All that is "outside" me is a dream happening in my own mind.  Even the "good" in the world is a dream, because there is nothing and no one "outside" the Mind.  Yet while it seems real to me, my task is to look only for reflections of Truth.  I will find them.  Forgiveness is also a dream, but it is a dream which reflects Truth and creates no other dreams.  Kindness is a dream, but it can reflect Truth.  The "love" I find in the world is a dream, but it can reflect Truth.  The healing of my mind will be reflected in the world, until my mind is healed and the world is no more.  Thank You, Father, for the healing of my mind which is a part of Your Own.  You call to Your Son unceasingly, but I have allowed illusions and dreams to drown out Your Voice.  Yet, today, I have listened for You and I will no longer deny Your Words of Truth.  For the dream has brought pain, suffering, death and loneliness.  The Son of God in me is not at home in madness.  I long for my Home with You, Father, and I deny this no longer. 

Lesson 314 ~ Truth illuminates my mind.

With a new perception of the world, there comes a "future" very different from the "past."  The future is now recognized as only an extension of the present.  "Past" mistakes can no longer cast shadows because I recognize there is nothing and no one outside me, and that what I am seeing is my own guilt at seemingly separating myself from God and seemingly existing in a body in a world apart from Him.  I have been mistaken.  It is not possible that I am apart from God.  Death will not claim my future, for Life is now my goal and all the needed means to get me There are happily provided for me.  How can I grieve or suffer when I am freed from a dream which does not exist?  Security, Peace and Joy fill my quiet future.  Father, I have not "sinned,"  I have only been mistaken.  Now I leave the "future" in Your Hands.  I leave behind my past mistakes, knowing that Truth has entered my mind and nevermore will I be the same. 

Lesson 313 ~ Let a new perception come to me.

Father, I can have a Vision which looks on all things as sinless and forgiven.  When fear leaves, Love can enter.  Love will come wherever It is invited.  This Vision is Your Gift to me, Your Son.  I can continue to look for "proof" of separation from God and find a world of chaos, terror, and death, or I can begin to look for Truth.  Though there seems to be many problems in the world with a variety of solutions that never seem to work, there is only one problem:  I think I am separated from God.  And there is only one solution:  forgive everyone and everything, and remember my True Identity as God's Son.   Where do dreams go when I wake from a night's sleep?  It will be the same when I Awaken to my Reality with God.  I am Safe in Heaven, dreaming a dream of separation from God.  I must train my mind to think again with my Father.  Mind is the only Reality.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  Yet while I seem to exist in a terminal body in a terminal world, I can take steps to return to my Reality.  Today I will look upon everyone and everything through Christ-Vision which sees a world forgiven.  How beautiful is my vision, when I look for Truth. 

Lesson 312 ~ My mind has created this dream.

In the world of dreams I perceive "proof" of my imagined separation from God.  Having judged that I am separated from God, I see "separation" in many, many forms.  Anything that seems to be outside me is evidence of this because in Reality I am Pure Thought, and there is nothing and no one outside me.  What I "see," is what I have chosen to see.  ACIM tells me over and over, in many different ways that I have a choice:  I can continue to perceive "separation from" God, or I can choose to think and "see" differently.  Will I choose for chaos and mayhem, or will I choose Love and Peace?  Will I choose to see death and destruction, or will I choose Life and Unity?  I have no purpose for today except to forgive everyone and everything, and to look upon a liberated "world"  set free from all judgments I have made.  Father, this is Your Will for me today.  Your Will is my will.  

Lesson 311 ~ Judge nothing and no one.

The world's judgment was made to reinforce the thought of separation from God.  It judges what it does not understand, and therefore judges falsely.  It judges illusions and dreams.  One dream is not any different from another, they are all false.  The Son of God cannot be contained in a body, in a world separated from his Father.  All that I seem to see "outside" me is false.  Everything.  It is all a dream, and I am doing it to myself.  Yet when judgment is used for God's Holy Purposes, He will use it to relieve me from agony and re-establish my Peace of mind.  Father, I wait with an open mind to hear Your Judgment of the Son You Love.  I do not know my True Identity while I am lost in dreams, so I cannot judge anything and judge it Truly.  I let Your Love lead me today, while I judge no one and nothing.  My only task is to forgive everyone and everything.  Father, You will do the rest.

The Last Judgment

The "Second Coming of Christ" and "the Last Judgment" can be seen as God's Gift to His Son.  This is God's Final Judgment:  "You are my Holy Son, Innocent, Beloved and Pure.  Awaken and return to me.  I am your Father and you are my Son.   Come Home to me Son, your dreams are over."

God's Judgment is the Corrections of dreams and illusions.  It is the complete release from "suffering" and "sin"  and the returned to Peace, Security, Happiness and Union with my Identity as God's Son. 

Lesson 310 ~ I spend today in Fearlessness and Love.

Father, today I spend with You, just as You have chosen all my days should be.  What I will experience is not of time.  The Joy that comes to me, comes from Heaven. Today will be a sweet reminder to remember You, Father.  It is Your Will that I be set Free today.   I spend this day with my Father.  I am restored to Peace and Holiness.  There is no room for fear in me today, for I have welcomed Love into my heart.  And where Love is, fear cannot be. 

Lesson 309 ~ I will not be afraid to look within today.

Within me is Eternal Innocence.  It is God's Will that It be there Forever and Forever.  I, His Son, whose will is as Limitless as His Own, cannot change this.  I have seemingly created a world apart from God.   But because the goal of the "world" is to be "apart from" God, it can only be fantasy.  Nothing, can be apart from God.  It is impossible.  Mind is the only Reality.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  To find Heaven, I must look within.  Part of me fears looking within.  I sleep with the TV on; Musak fills every nook and cranny of every building I enter; I turn on the radio as soon as I get in the car.  I cannot be alone with my thoughts.  Silence unnerves me.   Yet what I fear is only a dream.  The world of illusions has no effects on me.  Within me, deep within the Silence, is the Holiness of God.  Within me is the Memory of Him.  Looking within, Father, is the Sure release from idle dreams of sin.  Your Altar within me stands Serene and Undefiled.  It is also a Holy Altar to my Self, as Your Son.  It is There I find my True Identity. 

Lesson 308 ~ "Now" is the only time there is.

If I choose to reach past time to Timelessness, I must change my perception of what time is for.  The thoughts I think 99% of the time are thoughts of the past or thoughts of the future.  I am rarely in the "now."  The thoughts I think in the world of dreams are not even my True Thoughts; they are thoughts preoccupied with dreams and illusions. "Past" and "present" are illusions.  Salvation exists right "now."  The birth of Christ (my mind healed and Whole) is now, without a past or future.  Christ comes to give a present Blessing to my mind, restoring it to Timelessness and Love.  And Love is ever-present, here and now.  The only good use for "now" is to forgive everyone and everything,  preparing my mind to return to Reality.  Father, it is NOW I am redeemed.  This instant is the "time" You have appointed for Your Son's release, and for salvation of my mind. 

Lesson 307 ~ God's Will is my will.

Father, Your Will and my will are the same.  There is no other will for me to have.  My desire is not to be apart from You in a world of "separation;"  this is senseless and only causes me pain and torment.  Only Your Will can bring me Happiness and only Your Will exists.  In accepting only Your Will, I enter into a Peace where conflict is impossible.  I am One with You.  Nothing contradicts the Holy Truth that I am Your Son and remain with You, just as You created me.  When I join my will with God's, I enter silently into a State where conflict cannot exist.  With this prayer, I acknowledge that God's Will and mine are One and the same.

Lesson 306 ~ I am the Holy Son of God.

The Vision I receive through the lens of forgiveness can offer me a day where I see a "world" so like Heaven that an Ancient Memory returns to me.  Today I can forget the world I made and go past all fear, illusions, and "demons," and be restored to Love, Holiness, and Peace.  I am born anew into a world of mercy and Care; of Loving Kindness, and the Peace of God.  And so, Father, I return to You, remembering that I never left.  In gratitude I come with empty hands and an open heart and mind, asking for only what You would give.  In Your Love, the Gift of the Sonship healed and Whole, is mine. 

Lesson 304 ~ Dreams will not obscure my Sonship

Dreams can only hide Reality from me if I choose dreams over Reality.  It is my choice.  I am doing it to myself.  Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  Perception shows me my state of mind.  What seems to be "outside" me, is a projection of what is going on in my mind.  Is my mind preoccupied with the idea of separation from God?  If so, I will see myself in a "body" in a "world" populated with other bodies.  If I seem to see anything "outside" me, I can be sure, I am choosing illusions over Reality.  Yet, I can choose to think differently.  I can choose to think different thoughts.  Today I will replace dreams with Thoughts of Truth.  I will bless the world of madness by looking at it with forgiveness.  When I offer forgiveness ~ or think thoughts of forgiveness ~ it seems that I am offering it to "someone" or "something."  Yet, since there is nothing "outside" me, forgiveness fills my mind, making it ready for Truth to enter.  When Truth begins to dawn on my mind, It will be reflected in the "world" I seem to see while I seem to see it.  Where do the situations and figures in my sleeping dreams go when I wake up?   It will be the same for what now seems to be my "reality." Father, I will offer forgiveness to recognize my Self as forgiven.  You lead me from darkness to Light; from "sin" to Holiness.  Your Gift to me is that I remember You and my Reality as Your Son. 

Lesson 303 ~ The Son of God is born in me today.

Watch with me angels, watch with me today.  Let all God's Holy Thoughts surround me and be still with me while Heaven's Son is born.  Let earthly sounds be silent and the sights to which I am accustomed disappear.  The Son of God is welcomed where He is at Home.  Let Him hear the Sounds He understands and the Sights that show His Father's Love.  I will no longer be a stranger to my Self, for the Son of God is born again in my Awareness today.   Father, my Sonship has come to save me from the "evil self " I thought I made.  I am the Son You Love above all things.  My Sonship is my Self as You created me.  It is not a Christ that can be crucified.  It is the Christ that represents the Sonship as healed and United.  I am Safe in Your Arms, Father.  Let me gratefully receive the Sonship You have bestowed upon me. 

Lesson 302 ~ Light replaces darkness

Father, my eyes are opening at last. I now see that darkness was of my own making.  Yet with Christ-Vision, when I forgive everyone and everything, my perception sees darkness change to Light.  Fear must disappear when Love has come.  Let me forgive the world of dreams today that I may perceive only Holiness, and understand that It just reflects my own.  Love awaits me as I turn my mind toward Thoughts of Truth. Heaven walks beside me, showing me the way.  God fails in nothing.  God is the End I seek and His Words of Truth are the means by which I remember Him. 

Lesson 301 ~ God wipes away my tears.

Father, unless I choose for dreams, I cannot weep.  Only when I choose dreams do I suffer pain, or feel abandoned and unneeded in the world.  Help me today lay aside all dreams and embrace only Truth.  Let me perceive through happy eyes what forgiveness has released from all distortion.  Let me see a world forgiven and all the tears I have shed will be forgotten.  I will judge nothing and no one today.  I will forgive everyone and everything, knowing that it is I who have done this to myself.  I wept because I did not understand.  But I have learned that there is nothing and no one outside me.  I will look only for Truth today. 

The Second Coming

The "Second Coming" as Sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes and the return of Sanity.  It restores what was never lost and re-establishes what has always been True.  It is the invitation to let God's Word take the place of dreams; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception.

The all-inclusive nature of the Second Coming permits It to embrace my mind while I lay aside dreams, holding me Safe in Its Gentle Advent.  My job, all along, has been forgiveness of everyone and everything.  I forgive because there is nothing and no one "outside" me. What seems to be "outside" me is a projection of the thought of separation from God.  Only Oneness Exists.  I am One with God Forever and Always.  Dreams can only hide this Reality for so long. 

The Second Coming is the only Holy Event that exists in "time" in which the mind is returned to Oneness.  It needs my willingness to forgive everyone and everything in order to remember my Reality of Love, Joy and Peace.  If I hold a thought that seems to be "opposite" of  Reality, that thought will obscure Reality from me.  I am doing it to myself! 

"Christ" is the Sonship healed and United in Oneness.  The moment I had the thought of separation from God, it was healed.  I was released from my prison in less than an instant.  Yet I have chosen to forget.

Today, I will lay aside dreams and embrace only Truth.  I will forgive all who upset me, knowing that I am doing it to myself.  I will forgive all situations that bother me, again knowing that I, myself, have created all I seem to see "outside" me.  There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  Yet I must forgive, forgive, forgive, set aside all dreams and embrace only Truth.  It can take an instant, or I can move through many "bodies" and many "lifetimes."  The choice is mine. 

Lesson 300 ~ The dream is over.

Anything in the world of dreams always ends in death and sorrow, with joy gone before it was even attained.  Yet, today's lesson reminds me that illusions represent no more than a passing cloud upon an Eternally Serene Sky.  It is this Serenity I seek today, unclouded, and Certain.  I seek only You today, Father.  Your Loving Son lost his way.  But I have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and my Sonship.  The world of dreams lasts only an instant.  Today, I will go beyond that to Eternity. 

Lesson 299 ~ God made me very Holy.

My Holiness is beyond my own ability to understand or know while I exist in insanity.  Yet My Father, Who created It, acknowledges my Holiness as His.  Our Will together understands It and knows that It is so.  Father, my Holiness is not part of the insanity in which I currently think I exist.  I cannot destroy my Sonship by "sin" in a world of illusions.  I am not a body subject to death.  What I Truly Am, cannot suffer from attack.  Illusions can hide my Holiness from my Awareness, but cannot destroy It.  It stands Forever Perfect and Untouched.  In my Holiness, all things are healed.  It remains Eternally as You created It.  I can remember my Holiness and I can remember You, Father, because It is Your Will that It be so. 

Lesson 298 ~ I rest in God.

Forgiveness takes away all that intruded on my Awareness of Reality.  I draw near the end of senseless journeys, insane careers, and artificial values.  I begin to accept what God established as mine:  the Sonship.  My salvation is Sure.  There is no doubt.  I move through fear, illusions, and madness without harm.  I am grateful to God for His lessons which reflect Reality.  Father, I come to You today because I am weary and desire only to return Home.  I rest in Your Loving Arms.  Your Way is Certain.  I am grateful for the moments of respite I find in your comforting words.  I seemingly created "apart-from-God," yet You have taken my hand and Gently Guide me out of insanity.  My only task is to forgive myself and all that I seem to see "outside" me, which is also myself. 

Lesson 297 ~ Salvation's formula

Salvation's formula is this:  everything I give, I give to myself. This is not wishful thinking, this is fact. Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want.  If this world is truly a dream, and my True Home is Peace, Love and Joy, and the only way to remember my Home is to forgive everyone everything, then forgiveness is the ONLY gift I want.  So I GIVE it to RECEIVE it.   I had a thought of separation from God and from this thought came tremendous guilt which I seemed to project outside of me, splitting myself into many "bodies" over many "lifetimes," creating a "universe" and a "world" "apart from" God.  It is here I seemingly hide from God, like a little child pretending he is invisible to his parents.  The thought came and went and is already over, but I keep replaying it in my mind through different "lifetimes" and different "characters."  The same scenarios over and over and over.  Yet, there is only ONE problem:  I think I am separated from God.....and ONE solution:  forgiveness.  I forgive what seems to be "outside" me, because in doing so I forgive myself for the thought of separation.  Everything I "give," is given to myself because there is only One.  Father, how certain are Your Ways, how Sure the final outcome.  Salvation is already accomplished by Your Grace.  Thanks be to You for Your Eternal Gifts, and for my Identity as Your Son.  I am Safe in Heaven, dreaming a dream of exile.  But like the Prodigal Son, I will return to You, for there is nowhere else to go. 

Lesson 296 ~ Forgive, forgive, forgive.

God uses my miscreation for His Own Purposes.  He teaches me that while I seem to see "a world" outside me, I will practice my lessons of forgiveness on the many "others" that I created.  In doing so, I learn that I am truly forgiven and saved.  Through my practice of forgiveness, God fills my mind, and my thoughts become One with Reality.  God will teach me what to say and what to do, so I need worry about nothing.  I seemingly created a "world outside" me to "prove" my separation from God.  He uses this very miscreation, to bring me back to Him.  I live in a world of "time," and it seems that it will take a "very long time" to practice forgiveness and return Home.  But "time" is only an illusion just like everything else "outside" me, and God will adjust "time" and "space" when I do my part.  It can take one single perfect lesson of forgiveness, or it can take many small lessons of forgiveness.  It all depends on my willingness to lay aside illusion.  Father, I have no thoughts apart from Yours.  The thoughts I think in the world of dreams, are not my True Thoughts.  I will forgive everyone and everything to set my thoughts Free to return to You.  Your Holy Voice speaks to me of Your Love constantly, will I choose to listen?

Lesson 295 ~ As my mind heals, the "world" heals.

When I give my mind over to God, He will take away all terror and pain, and offer me peace of mind.  As terror and pain are removed from my mind, dreams begin to disappear.   There is nothing and no one "outside" me.  What seems to be "outside" me is in my mind.  As my mind heals the "world" heals.  As my mind experiences "salvation," the "world" is "saved" with me.  Fear appears in many forms, but Love is One.  Father, I will allow Your Love to Bless all things which I seem to see.  Your Blessing is reflected back to me from the "world," and Your forgiving Love blesses me. 

Lesson 294 ~ The body does not exist.

I am the Son of God.  Can I be something else as well?  Can I be a spirit trapped in a body, living in a world apart from God? Can I be what God created AND another thing at the same time?  What God created is Eternal, Whole and Joyful.  If God Is, then a body I am not.  What use has the Son of God for the limited and terminal?   ACIM tells me that while I experience myself as a body living in a world, I should think of it as neither good nor bad.  For ACIM's purposes, while it has a use for me, think of it as a neutral thing.  It is not sick, old, nor hurt.  It is functionless and nonexistent.  While I seem to experience life as a body, I will use it for God's Purposes.  I will use it to carry out the mind's function of forgiveness.  I will not see it as more than this today; of service for a while and afterwards, without a purpose, laid aside and forgotten.  Father, a body cannot be Your Son.  Yet while Your Son experiences himself as a body, I can think of it as neither sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad.  I will use the dream to help God's Plan that I Awaken from all the dreams I made.

Lesson 293 ~it Only Love is here.

Only Love surrounds me and is within me.  All illusions can be set aside because the source (my mind) has been identified.  My Reality is with God.  Love is my present state.  The Source of Love is here now, Eternally.  While I still seem to see a "world,"  I will forgive all and everyone, and it will seem bright, clear, safe and welcoming.  My "mistakes" are gone from my mind.  The "past" never was, the "future" never will be....there is only the now, and in the "now" I choose Love over illusions.  All the world shines in the reflection of God's Love when I have chosen to forgive.  Father, Your Holy Love fills my vision today, because I have chosen Your Love over my illusions.  My ears hear the hymns of gratitude the "world" is singing underneath the sounds of fear.  The world forgiven, is free of all "past" mistakes.  I will choose to see only a forgiven world before my eyes today.

Lesson 292 ~ A happy outcome to all things is sure.

God guarantees that only Joy can be the final outcome for everything.  There are no exceptions.  Yet, it is up to me when this happens.  "Death" does not lead to Heaven and my Awakening...only a change of mind will Awaken me to God.  How much longer will I place illusions before Truth?  The ending of my dreams is Certain, and only Joy awaits me.  There is nothing and no one outside me.  While there seems to be, I will forgive everyone and everything.  God's Will is done, and only God's Will exists.  Anything that seems to be outside me, is not Reality.  Today I will seek and find according to His Will.  Thank You, Father, for Your Guarantee of only Happy outcomes.  Help me not to interfere with Your Will.  Help me not delay the Happy ending You have promised me for every problem that I perceive and every trial I think I still must meet.  There are only Happy endings in You. 

Lesson 291 ~ This is a day of Stillness and Peace.

I can use "Christ-Vision" today, by seeing all things forgiven and at Peace.  What Loveliness I will see!  What Holiness surrounds me!  When I lay aside dreams, in thought, word and deed, I will recognize the Holiness I share with my Father.  Father, I quiet my mind to receive the Thoughts You offer me instead.  I accept what comes from You.  I do not know the way to You, because I made a dream to be foremost in my thoughts.  But You will Guide me, Your Son, along the Quiet Path that leads to You.  Let the Memory of You return to me, as I forgive everyone and everything. 

Lesson 290 ~ Today I seek only Happiness.

I can choose to see illusions, or I can choose to see only Happiness.  What I seem to see apart from God is frightening and painful.  I will not allow my mind to be deceived by dreams any longer.  Today is the day when I choose to seek only Happiness and nothing else.  Father, I ask Your Strength to uphold me today while I seek only to do Your Will.  What I ask, You have already given me and I am sure that I will see my Happiness today. 

Lesson 289 ~ The past never was.

Until I lay the "past" aside as the dream it is, Reality will escape me.  When I look to the "past" I am really looking nowhere; seeing only what is not there.  There is nothing and no one outside of me, so all I seem to see is my own dream-thoughts seemingly projected "outward."  My world of dreams has no "past" and no "future."  When I forgive all I seem to see, it is gone.  Father, I will not dwell on a past that is not there.  I will forgive all "guilt" and "shame" that seems to be associated with a "past." Forgiveness will bring Your Son the Loveliness that shines the way to the end of His dreaming. 

Lesson 288 ~ Forgive everyone and everything.

Father, You will use all my miscreations for Your Own Holy Purposes.  What I created for separation, You use to bring me to Oneness.  I seemed to divide my Sonship into many "others,"  billions of bodies on a planet I call home.  You will use each encounter I have with an "other" as a means for forgiveness and Unity.  I return to You, Father, holding my "brother's" hand.  We walk side by side.  Every "enemy" becomes friend, and in each brother is my salvation.  I will not attack the savior You have given me, and I will let go of the guilt and shame I feel about myself.  Every thought, every encounter and every decision is another opportunity to choose for Truth.  I will forgive everyone of everything I thought they did to me.  I will forgive all sadness, guilt, grief, anger, impatience and envy.  I will forgive my brother for what he did not do to me.  For it has all been a dream.  There is nothing and no one outside of me.  I am the Son of God Safe in Heaven with my Father.  Yet while I see a "world" "outside" me, I will use it only for God's Holy Purpose of forgiveness to Awaken to Reality. 

Lesson 287 ~ God is my only goal.

Where is there to go except for Heaven?  There is nowhere else.  Heaven is All There Is, and nothing else exists.  My world of dreams gives me "temporary" peace, love, joy, happiness and satisfaction.....which is the same as none at all.  Heaven gives Eternal Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness and Satisfaction.  All that seems to be outside of me is within me, and what is not Perfect Peace is only a dream ~ a fantasy ~ of "separation from God."  What treasure could I find and keep that could compare with God's Eternal Everything?  Would I rather live in fear than Love?  Father, You are my goal.  The Memory of You signifies the end of dreams.  Like the Prodigal Son, I seemed to have created an existence "apart from" You, becoming my own "god," and created my own world and "life.".  I created futile substitutions for Truth.  Yet I can laugh, knowing it is not my Reality, but only a dream ~ a fantasy ~ in my mind.  Returning to You, Father, is only a matter of changing my mind about what I want.  Do I want fear, loneliness and other illusions?  Or do I want Love, Oneness and Truth?  Each thought I entertain and every "decision" I make is another opportunity to choose once again.

Lesson 286 ~ The hush of Heaven holds my heart.

Father, how Still and Quiet do all things fall into place.  Today, I have chosen as the day to understand that I do not need to "do" anything; I need do no penance, nor make any sacrifice.   No change needs to happen in the world.  The only change I need make is in my own mind.  In You every conflict is already resolved and in You is everything I hope to find.  Your Peace is mine.  Finally my heart is quiet and my mind at rest.  Your Love is Heaven.  And Your Love is mine.   I have one goal:  Heaven.  "Finding" Heaven is accomplished in my mind.  That means making ONE choice with every thought or decision that crosses my mind.  I choose for Heaven/Reality/Truth.....OR.......I choose for hell/illusions/fear.  The Stillness of today will give me hope that I have found the way.  I will not doubt the Awakening which God Himself has promised me.  I trust in Him and my Self as His Son, who remains One with Him. 

Lesson 285 ~ My Holiness shines Bright and Clear.

Today, I wake with Joy, expecting only the Happy things of God to come to me. The instant I accept my Holiness, I realize that as God's Son, I am entitled to only Joy, Peace and Love.  I have used pain as "proof" of my separation from God.  I have used suffering as "proof" of my separation from God.  I have used (fill in the blank) as "proof" of my separation from God.   Today, I gently brush insanity aside and accept my Holiness instead.  Father, my Holiness is Yours, and Yours is mine.  Let me rejoice in It.  Through forgiveness of insanity, I am restore to Sanity.  My Holiness was created by You, Father.  What can alter Eternal Perfection?  What can change what You Will to Be So? 

Lesson 284 ~ My thoughts should not hurt.

Suffering of any kind is a dream.  Pain is impossible.  There is no reason for grief.  This is Truth.  All suffering is done only in my mind.  I can choose to change all thoughts that hurt.  I will repeat this as often as I can throughout the day, replacing all dream-thoughts with Thoughts of Truth.  Today I will go beyond mere words, past all doubt, and arrive at full acceptance of Truth.   Father, what you give is Perfect and brings only Eternal Peace, Joy and Love.  What is not of You exists only in dreams.  So grief and pain are impossible.  I cannot trust my insane mind which currently believes in dreams.  So today, Father, I trust only You.  I will accept only Your Thoughts into my mind.  I do not have to dwell on every thought that enters my mind because they are not even my True Thoughts.  Only the Thoughts I think with You, Father, are my True Thoughts.