Go Forward With Joy!

photo credit: Jerry Dupy

ACIM Workbook Lesson #57:

Today we review Lessons 31-35. 

I love the freedom of our lesson reviews for today!  "I am not the victim of the world I see."  "I have invented the world I see." "There is another way of looking at the world."  "I could see peace instead of this." "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." I know quite a few people who are ready to stop the madness and let freedom of thought take us to new heights of equality! And it's not just the airy-fairies who think this way, but physicists and learned people from all walks of life. Every thought counts! Let's go forward today with joy, knowing that's something which will spread without any effort -- other than the sheer happiness of it all!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being."

Science & Health Page 260:7-12

Leaving Behind Attack Thoughts

photo by Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #56:

Today we review Lessons 26-30. 

I have just had a long conversation with a young man who tells me he was sent to earth to facilitate change. He is very passionate about the changes he wants to see, and he is becoming very angry that these changes are not happening according to his schedule. Numerous people told him he needed to talk to me; that I could help him. He wants me to go to school board meetings, amass information for him, and do other things to help him carry out his plan. I’m not sure I was able to impart to him that this is not the kind of “help” I have to offer. Seeing this part of today’s review of topics from A Course in Miracles brought a big smile to my face! “My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. All my hopes and wishes and plans appear to be at the mercy of a world I cannot control. Yet perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance. I have tried to give my inheritance away in exchange for the world I see. But God has kept my inheritance safe for me. My own real thoughts will teach me what it is.”  Peace to you, dear One.

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “The nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction.” Science & Health Page 96:13-17

Seeing Through the Illusion

photo credit: Heather Peters

ACIM Workbook Lesson #55:

Today we review Lessons 21-25. 

“I am determined to see” is one of the five review topics today.  I’ve heard people say similar statements when they want to see “through” the illusion of someone’s deception, such as recognizing when someone is being less than honest about some business dealing or something of that nature. Today we are determined to see past the illusions we hold of ourselves. What do we think we are and how does that belief hold us in place? That is what I shall examine today. I will recognize limiting thoughts concerning my world and my place in it, and I will be willing to release these concepts and open myself to the Truth of divine Mind, replacing limiting beliefs with the Love of which I am a reflection. What a beautiful activity for today and every day!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal.” Science & Health Page 563:1-2

Never Alone in Oneness

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #54

Today's review is of Lessons 16-20.

"I have no neutral thoughts."  "I see no neutral things."  "I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing." "I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts."  "I am determined to see." These five topics we are reviewing today point us to the meaning of Oneness. The seeds of understanding have been planted, waiting for us to nurture them! I quote from Lesson 15 in the Course in Miracles workbook: "I would behold the proof that what has been done through me has enabled love to replace fear, laughter to replace tears, and abundance to replace loss. I would look upon the real world, and let it teach me that my will and the Will of God are one." 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.” 

Science & Health Page 467:9-13

What Is a Meaningless World?

photo credit: Aaron Sprinston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #53

Today is the third of a ten-day review of the first lessons. 

In today's ACIM workbook five-lesson review, there are many references to seeing a "meaningless world". You may wonder why anyone would want to see a meaningless world. I'm not sure we would want to see a meaningless world, but that's certainly what we're doing! As we begin to glimpse the difference in spiritual realities and material illusions, we see that the world we hold in place through belief and misperception is a meaningless world. Divine Mind did not create a meaningless world, and to see in Truth we must give up the beliefs and illusions we have created. These exercises we're doing are designed to prepare us to accept the knowledge which awakens us to this unseen Reality. A single glimpse of this is enough to make me want more! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote: 

"Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally employed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is educated up to spiritual apprehension." Science & Health Page 313:14-19

Dissolving Paths of the Present

photo credit: Heather Peters

ACIM Workbook Lesson #52

Today is the second in a ten-day review of the first lessons. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: http://acim.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=52

In looking over the five lessons for today's review, a few sentences jump out as points of beauty: “I am always upset by nothing.” “I will look with love on all that I failed to see before.” “Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.” “The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not.” “I have no private thoughts.” Many comparisons come to mind, correlating and juxtaposing these teachings with daily life. A number of years ago, a dear friend and I had an altercation which was deeply interconnected to many areas in our friendship. If either she or I had held onto the past, we wouldn't share the joy our association has brought through the years. As we are told in this review, it's not a choice of seeing past or present, but to see or not to see. Where I've chosen to shade my thoughts with the unreality of inharmony, I will choose again and flow in Oneness with Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant our feet on firmer ground.”

 Science & Health Page 225:4-7

Illusion or Reality?

photo credit: Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #51:

Today we begin a ten-day review of the first lessons. For a guide to this review, and a short description, go to this link: http://A Course in Miracles.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=51 

The first 50 lessons in A Course in Miracles workbook show us how to determine the difference in reality and illusion. We have learned that what we see with material sense is colored with belief and judgment. We have been experimenting with dropping the meanings placed on things, thereby allowing spiritual facts to become evident.  Everything I see is colored with judgment, both my own and that of others. This judgment has given me whatever meaning I've placed on anything. As these meanings make no sense  -- because they have been interpreted through erroneous thoughts and beliefs -- they cannot be understood. When we learn to look through these illusions, we free ourselves to see Truth. If we accept that our thoughts mean nothing, we allow ourself to release the self-importance we've attached to things. When we are able to release these thoughts, we can replace them with the ideas of Mind. We also have been asked to see that when we become upset, it is never for the reason we think. In order to justify these incomprehensible beliefs which we have set up, we make up a complex defense system of attacks and retreats, which only serve to leave us in a state of disharmony. I don't want this crazy fantasy to be my life! I want to follow the leadings of Love, to hear through Spirit, to see with Soul, to live Life!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes

“The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multitudinous forms of Mind and governs the multiplication of the compound idea man.” 

Science & Health Page 507:15-18