CIM Lessons 313-319 and Miracles Principle #46

Miracles Principle #46: “The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.” Holy Spirit communicates from God to us. He is the mediator between reality and the dream. When we are all finished with our dream/experiment of separation and have forgiven everyone including ourselves, we no longer need the Holy Spirit as a link to God. We are then restored to awareness of perfect Oneness and direct communication with God. The miracle and the Holy Spirit have meaning only within the separated world.

Lesson 313—“Now let a new perception come to me.” The vision of Christ “beholds all things as sinless.” (1:1) To see all things as sinless is not something I need to strive to do; it’s a gift, given to me by God. I need only to be open to receive it. When I perceive sin, what I can learn to do is to ask for a different perception. “Now let a new perception come to me.” I can want this new perception, and this is all that’s required of me. Christ—Who is my true Self, eternal and changeless—already “sees no sin.” There is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go; we’re already there. All that’s required is the recognition of what is already true.

What is the Last Judgment? “The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation.” (2:1) Most of us have been taught for generations that in the Last Judgment God will separate the “sheep” from the “goats,” the “wheat” from the “tares”—the good guys from the bad—and send the bad guys into everlasting hell. When we envision standing before God in the Last Judgment, we get a little nervous because we know we’re not perfect. How can there be no condemnation in the Final Judgment? Because God knows He created only perfection. Our Creator “sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.” (2:2) This idea, that the world is “wholly purposeless,” obviously cannot be squared with the idea that God created the world. Would God create anything without purpose? Have you ever looked at the world and thought it was fundamentally without purpose? The endless progression of birth and death doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. We struggle through life, attain what we can, and then we die. Seen without purpose, we can consider letting it go and be willing to be willing to consider that our true home is in God.

Lesson 314—“I seek a future different from the past.” In the ego’s perception, the future is only the result of the past. To the Holy Spirit, “The future now is recognized as but extension of the present” (1:2). What we choose to perceive and believe in the now determines what the future will be like. The future is not determined by the past. By letting go of the past, I bring into being a future different from the past. Without remembrance of the past, fear can have no effect. Let me “choose to use the present to be free” (2:1) The more I practice bringing my fears and hurts to Spirit for healing in the moment, the more peace will extend itself outward into my day. Let me choose to leave past mistakes behind and leave the future in God’s hands.

Lesson 315—“All gifts my brothers give belong to me.” In Lesson 97 we’re told that Spirit will multiply our gifts “tens of thousands” of times—plural tens, so that means as much as ninety million times! The numbers are probably just symbolic of an extremely large number, but Jesus makes it quite clear that an unimaginably large number of minds will be affected by our choice. Every mind that’s open to receive will receive our gifts. In this lesson, we’re given the opposite side of the coin. For all those millions who are open, and who, like us, give the gift of their mind to God for a moment, we, in turn, receive their gifts. All minds are joined, and so this cosmic exchange within the greatest “Internet” in the universe is going on all the time. Everyone is wired in.

Lesson 316—“All gifts I give my brothers are my own.” This lesson is obviously reinforcement to yesterday’s. We not only receive a gift every time one is given by someone else—a smile, a word of mercy, and act of love—but also we receive a gift each time anyone else receives a gift! Our treasure house is full! If we feel uncertain how to go about claiming and recognizing all these treasures, we can join in the prayer that closes this lesson.

Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.

Lesson 317—“I follow in the way appointed me.” “I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone.” (1:1) There is something that is meant specifically for me to do, and until I find and fulfill my part, “salvation waits.” My particular twist on the insanity of separation needs to be healed before healing is complete. But how do I know what my special function is? Ask Spirit. As a clue, you can know that whatever your function is in some way involves alleviating guilt, some way of recognizing and validating the Christ in those around you.

Lesson 318—“In me salvation’s means and end are one.” The goal of salvation is what I already am, and the vehicle for bringing about salvation (happiness) is also what I am. I am what salvation is, and I am the way to get there. Salvation is the recognition of Oneness and therein the recognition of our purity and wholeness. I am the thing I seek because I have been It since I was created. I don’t need to change. I need to accept what I (and my brother) have always been.

Lesson 319—“I came for the salvation of the world.” CIM is very clear that our purpose here, every one of us, is the salvation of the world. This is quite different from the purpose for which the ego came to the world, which was to find a place that God could not enter, a place to hide from God, so to speak, and eventually, a place to die. But Spirit has a different purpose for everything the ego made for its nefarious purposes. Our purpose here is to bring the world back to light by allowing ourselves to be transformed, becoming God’s extension into the dream to awaken our brothers along with ourselves. I am here to help. I am here to heal. I am here to bless. I am here to save the world.

Practical Application: This week think about what others could do to make you feel whole and worthy and loved. Then look for opportunities to do those things for others. Think Random Acts of Kindness. We’ve had this assignment before, but it can’t be too often repeated.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #47. Lessons 320-326. Focus your reading in The Teacher’s Manual. We’ll be focusing on the Manual for the remainder of the year—which is almost over!

CIM LESSONS 299-312 AND MIRACLES PRINCIPLES #44 AND #45

Miracles Principle # 44: “The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement.” We are all one in Christ. The miracle is the awareness of the Christ within, which simultaneously brings to our awareness our Oneness with All That Is.

Miracles Principle #45: “A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.” Think of the model of the hologram, where we are all joined, and all the dimensions of time and space are in each part.  There is no way we can ever grasp the power of what it means to let go of our grievances or let go of our beliefs in separation. “When I am healed, I am not healed alone.” (W-pI.137) This affects not only people who are “here,” but also people who have “died.” Time is not linear, and we are joined in one mind as in the hologram, regardless of the particular dimension of time and space we believe we or others are in. The only thing CIM asks us to do is to accept the At-one-ment for ourselves. The extension of that miracle is not our concern.

Lesson 299—“Eternal holiness abides in me.” Sometimes I can accept the idea that there is holiness in me. I want to accept it more often and more deeply. I want to know that holiness is all that I am. When I am aware of my union with God, that holiness becomes real to me. CIM repeats this point so frequently that I have to realize there is enormous resistance in me to the idea. How can I release this resistance? This day, I affirm that my holiness is not of me (2:1) I’m not responsible for creating it, nor can anything I do, think, or say affect it. God wills I know it and so it will be known. I now allow the truth of me to enter my mind, if only for a moment.

Lesson 300—“Only an instant does this world endure.” This lesson wraps up a series of 10 days in which we’ve been contemplating the idea: “What is the Real World?” The thought for today is the flip side of the “holy instant.” This world is nothing more than an “unholy instant.” The idea for today could be taken negatively, with a focus on the transitory nature of life. On the other hand, the brevity of this world’s existence can be a very encouraging thought. This world is nothing more than a cloud crossing the serenity of my right mind. Let me then seek that serenity now and every time today I can remember to do so.

Lesson 301—“And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.” The title of this lesson is a quote from the Book of Revelation (verses 7:17 and 21:4). We’ve all shed plenty of tears in our lives. How can God wipe away these tears? When I look around with my “normal perception,” it seems impossible not to shed tears for the suffering and unfairness of life and death.  CIM’s answer is that I will choose to no longer look at the world with “normal perception,” but rather with a new kind of vision that I ask for and allow. The vision of the Christ within me. I will begin by allowing myself to imagine how it would feel to know that all the ugliness of the world is nothing but a bad dream. Nobody was really hurt. Only my projected images of fear and separation suffered. God’s Reality was never affected by the dream.

What is the Second Coming? CIM’s teaching of the Second Coming is drastically different from most orthodox Christian churches. Typically, the term refers to a second physical appearance by Jesus to be judge and ruler of the world. Here, the Second Coming is:

1)   The correction of mistakes. Instead of being a cataclysmic event that overthrows the devil in the battle of Armageddon, it’s a gentle correction of our mistaken beliefs in the reality of sin and separation. The old view saw evil as a real force, a will in opposition to God, a will that had to be combated and overcome. CIM teaches there is only one power, God the good, omnipotence.

2)   The return of sanity. The Second Coming is when each aspect of the mind of God’s Son, which has, in insanity, believed itself to be a separate being, is fully restored to its awareness of oneness with all other aspects of the one mind. As long as any part of the one mind is not healed, Christ’s wholeness is not manifest. No one can be excluded from the At-one-ment.

Lesson 302—“Where darkness was I look upon the light.” This is the change the shift in perception brings. What appeared as attack becomes a call for love. Insanity in a brother becomes an opportunity to bless. Stones I stumbled over become stepping stones. All things become lessons my Higher Self would have me learn. The sun is always shining beyond the clouds and darkness.

Lesson 303—“The holy Christ is born in me today.” The birth of Christ in me is what it’s all about. The evil self I made is passing away, and the Christ is being born. What I believed I am is not the truth. The truth of me is the Christ in me.

Lesson 304—“Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.” My world is the world I made to support my ego—the illusory world of separation and attack. The sight of Christ is a faculty that is native to all of us, part of our Being. Christ’s vision shows us reality and oneness, not the fragmented chaos we see with our physical eyes. The world, then, shows us only our own minds. What we see is what we want to see. Today, I will tune in to my natural, God-given desire to bless the world, and a blessed world is what I will see.

Lesson 305—“There is a peace that Christ bestows on us.” This lesson indicates that we judge and therefore resist the peace of God. I judge peace as inappropriate based on my perceived circumstances. Yet since nothing really exists that can take away the peace of God, my insistence that there is such a thing is a delusion chosen to excuse my refusal of God’s peace. There is something, Jesus is saying in this lesson, I think I’ll lose if I accept peace. What is it? It is the ability to justify attack against my brothers. If I simply accept peace, I’d have to give up, forever, the idea that anyone else can be blamed for my unhappiness.

Lesson 306—“The gift of Christ is all I seek today.” Often the closing lessons of the Workbook tell me I can enter the real world today. Yet these lessons appear to be speaking from a vantage point that is beyond my current reach. Most of the time, I don’t feel like I’m on the verge of reaching the end of the journey. One of the means for salvation CIM propounds is the holy instant. The holy instant is a brief interval in which I allow my mind to enter the real world, to reach another state of mind that is, in fact, my natural condition as God created me. I may not yet be able to sustain that state of mind, but I can taste it, and the more I taste it, the more I will realize this is where I want to stay.

Lesson 307—“Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.” “There is no other will for me to have” (1:2) except the Will of God. No other will exists. The idea that there could be something—the devil, myself, even part of myself—that is opposed to God is the root idea of separation. If no will but God’s exists, then “conflicting wishes cannot be my will.” The Jekyll and Hyde within myself must be an illusion. I must learn to accept that the desires in me that seem to conflict with my true Self are not real. In simple terms, I am as God created me. I have no choice in the matter.

Lesson 308—“This instant is the only time there is.” Time is an illusion. It does not flow from the past nor into the future. All there is, is now. One of the keys to reaching “past time to timelessness” (1:2) is in learning to experience now as the only time there is. This is one way of describing the holy instant. Pay particular attention to paragraphs 8 and 9 in regard to practicing the holy instant. Right now is the only time you can have the experience of being saved from time. Forgiveness lets the past go and focuses on the present. So, if you will forgive, you automatically enter the holy instant. Everyone is “equally released from what he made” (4:2) in the Second Coming, which is simply the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.” (1:3)

Lesson 309—“I will not fear to look within today.” “I fear to look within because I think I made another will that is not true, and made it real.” If I look within, often the first things I see are the ugly, grungy things. I will see them, but the good news is that they are not true. All I’ve succeeded in making are illusions. The ugliness is a smoke screen, a mask the ego has placed over the face of Christ. If I will look at the “ugliness” with Spirit, He will translate it into truth about me.

Lesson 310—“In fearlessness and love I spend today.” All of my days are meant to be spent this way. Though I seldom do spend them this way, today I choose to do so. Today I will let a song of thankfulness rise up in me, increasing my awareness that I am joining an eternal song, sung by every part of God’s creation. Where there is love, there is no room for fear.

Lesson 311—“I judge all things as I would have them be.” We don’t have the equipment to judge. We don’t know enough to judge. Instead of attempting to judge anything, CIM asks us to “make a gift of it to Him Who has a different use for it.” (1:5) Another way of looking at it is that we allow Spirit to tell us what we truly want: to see the perfection of God’s creation everywhere and in everyone.

What is the Last Judgment? At the end of time, we shall know that “ . . .what is false is false, and what is true has never changed.” This is the Last Judgment. God’s Son is innocent. God’s love for YOU is always justified because God created you “wholly lovable and wholly loving.” (T-1.III.2:3)

Lesson 312—“I see all things as I would have them be.” This lesson pairs with the previous one. “Perception flows from judgment.” Judgment is synonymous with interpretation. First I want a thing to be true; I therefore judge or interpret what is around me according to that desire; and having judged (interpreted), I perceive what I wanted. It’s hard to admit that what I am seeing is what I wanted at some level of my mind. But I must first be willing to accept that this is true in order to see something different. If I want to see the real world, I will see it. I can look upon “a liberated world, set free from all the judgments I’ have made. (2:1)

Assignment: Lessons 313-319. Miracles Principle #46. Read as Spirit leads you.

Practical Application: This week, practice using the principle of denial. In traditional psychology, denial is described as avoidance of the truth—burying our heads in the sand. As a Truth Principle, denial is a means of rejecting or extinguishing false beliefs. This week when you find yourself judging yourself or others as unworthy, ugly, or grungy, say, “NO! This is NOT the truth. I am, you are, we are still as God created us. Whole and innocent.” This week when you are tempted to play victim, to blame someone or something for your misery, say, “NO! This is not the truth. God gave me complete dominion over my experience of the world. I accept that dominion now. Spirit, let me see this in a different way.” There’s no need to “parrot” the words here. You will have more success if you use words that feel natural or have meaning to you.  

CIM Lessons 292-298 and Miracles Principle #43

Miracles Principle #43: “Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind, or a state of miracles readiness.” This is referring to what CIM calls “right mindedness,” or moving from the ego to the Holy Spirit’s way of thinking. When we give up the ego’s way of thinking—attack, separation, etc.—and choose the Holy Spirit’s—forgiveness, unity, love—we begin to experience miracles. Our mind always brings us “witnesses” to our beliefs and state of mind.

Lesson 292—“A happy outcome to all things is sure.” When we experience the outcome of joy in all things is up to us. My experience of anything less than total joy is due to my own choice to “let an alien will appear to be opposing His.” If I am alike to God in every way, God and I have only one will. Yet all of us go around consciously or unconsciously disturbed by our feeling of resistance to God’s will. We study CIM and resolve to be more loving, more forgiving, and then we encounter a deep resistance to the entire idea, a seemingly immovable wall that won’t allow us to change. We focus on a brother that seems impossible to forgive despite all our efforts. Then we feel despair. We feel we can’t do it. Somehow we are incorrigible. Some part of our will is implacably opposed to God.

As long as we believe that this part of us, which seems opposed to God is real, Jesus is saying we won’t find the real world. We won’t find our escape. We won’t find the happy outcome to all things. We have to come to a point where we are simultaneously aware of that stubborn knot inside us and aware that it is not real. We have to get to the place where we see it, own it, and take responsibility for it, and yet do so entirely without guilt. To look on the ego’s darkness without guilt is possible only if, as we look, we abandon all belief in its reality. It’s all a dream. The ending of the dream is certain and is totally unaffected by the ego’s raging. There simply is no will but God’s will. The craziness of the ego is just a play of images in the mind and nothing more. The most potent force “against” the ego is the simple thought: “It doesn’t mean anything.”  Just bring resistance to the Holy Spirit and let Him handle it. Say, “Oops, I’m dreaming again.” And let it go.

Lesson 293—“All fear is past, and only love is here.” Fear comes from the past. When I make the past real, then I have fear. What I fear is that the past determines the future. If my past is filled with mistakes and “reasons” for guilt, and I consider it to be real, this generates my present fear of the future. The source of fear is making the past real in the present. To say the past isn’t real is a hard pill to swallow. A physical analogy helps me. Does an ocean wave exist? There is no such thing as a wave apart from the ocean. What we call a wave is no more than the play of physical energy on water. The water, the “ocean,” is what is real; the wave is here one moment, gone the next. It doesn’t exist in itself, independent of all else. The entire physical universe is nothing more than a wave in the mind. In this sense, nothing of the past is real. The past of a wave no longer exists as it “melts” back into the ocean. Where it passed now lies the placid and calm. Waves don’t change the ocean. Underneath all the sounds and fear and fury of the “waves,” the Oneness that We Are sings “hymns of gratitude.” The perception of the Holy Spirit is able to penetrate through the veneer of fear we’ve placed over reality. When we share Spirit’s perception, we realize the past is gone, and we see and hear what is here now, which is unity and love.

Lesson 294—“My body is a wholly neutral thing.” This lesson sums up CIM’s attitude towards the body. The body is “neither good nor bad”; it is neutral. Its only usefulness is awakening from the dream, communicating salvation. Accepting that the body is neutral protects us while it has a use. To the mind that is healed, the body is immortal until its work is done and then it is simply “laid aside” because it no longer has a purpose. How can we attain such a high state and gentle “death?” This lesson indicates that our path lies in gradually coming to see our bodies as “of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.”

Lesson 295—“The Holy Spirit looks through me today.” In this lesson, we are asking that Spirit’s vision replace our own limited vision. As we give our lives to God, we begin to experience that rather than living, we are “being lived.” Spirit is looking through our eyes, speaking through our lips, thinking with our minds. It’s an experience of being taken up and carried through life by a limitless energy of love that is far greater than we can contain because it includes everything. Most times, we feel far from that, and yet we know somewhere deep inside that it is nearer to us as breathing. In a way, this lesson encapsulates the entire Course: to let Spirit look through me and bathe the world in love.

Lesson 296—“The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.” When I allow Spirit to look through me, sharing His perception, then He also speaks through me. Through me, Spirit communicates to my sisters and brothers. He speaks the exact words of healing and upliftment that each one needs to remember Who and What He is.

Lesson 297—“Forgiveness is the only gift I give.” What do I want to have? Whatever it is, the way to have it is to give it. The more I grow, the more I realize that “forgiveness is the only gift I want.” What could I possibly want more than absolute freedom from the burden of self-judgment? If this is what I want, let me give it to everyone today. My salvation is already accomplished. There is no need to be restless or anxious. I will realize my divine inheritance when I’m ready to realize it—all in Divine Order.

Lesson 298—“I love you, Father, and I love your Son.” Gratitude is what permits my love to be accepted without fear.  Gratitude is simply the acceptance of and thankfulness for God’s gifts. When I let go of what I thought I made and accept instead God’s gift of my true Self, suddenly my love for God and for His Son is no longer terrifying. All that makes it seem frightening are my vain attempts to make real what never was real and to hold on to my imagined separateness. I’m afraid of my love for God and His Son because I believe that if I give in to it, I will lose myself in the infinity of God. I will lose my “little self” in Him but not my true Identity.

Assignment: Miracles Principle # 44. Lessons 299-305. Read as Spirit leads you.

Practical Application: Try to remember what brought you joy as a child. Re-experience those simple pleasures. 

CIM Lessons 285-291 and Miracles Principle #42

Miracles Principle #42: “A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.” We feel isolated from God and from each other. When we feel separate, we project the blame onto others. Deprivation is the feeling that you are depriving me of something I need or want. CIM says the secret of salvation/happiness is but this: that you are doing this to yourself and are free to choose again.

Lesson 285—“My holiness shines bright and clear today.” The only reason I experience pain or loss is that somewhere in my mind I think I deserve punishment. In some way, I think suffering is good for me. When I accept my holiness, the idea that suffering is necessary becomes poppycock. My mind has complete power to create the experience of life I want. Today I choose to create joy!

Lesson 286—“The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.” We are at home in God, dreaming of exile. We are all already in Heaven. In fact, we never left it. The Christ nature isn’t something I have to develop. The Christ nature is Who I am! If I feel I have to struggle and make difficult changes, I’m listening to the ego. My only problem is thinking that I have a problem! The thought that I don’t “have it yet” is the problem. In the stillness of today, I can taste the reality of the journey’s end, even in the midst of my traveling.

Lesson 287—“You are my goal, my Father. Only you.” This lesson comes from a very high place. It’s something that would be spoken by a person ready to live in the real world, a prayer from the heart of Christ within me. If I feel today I cannot say this without simple honesty, let me ask myself what gift I would prefer over the peace of God. Am I looking to find and keep something I think is more valuable than my own Identity? Recognizing my unwise goals is the beginning of wisdom.

Lesson 288—“Let me forget my brother’s past today.” I cannot come to God without my brother because my brother is me. We all have people we just can’t seem to let off the hook. But the bottom line is, I can’t see myself as having any gift of God that I’m not willing to give to everyone else. “You cannot be holier than your brother.” If I hold him to the past then I am held to the past.

Lesson 289—“The past is over. It can touch me not.” My mind is the cause of the world I see. Past events are not the cause of my feelings. Bringing thoughts of the past into the now cause my misery. When I recognize that my present feeling is caused by viewing the present events through the filter of a memory of the past, I can begin to detach my feelings from what is happening now. The past doesn’t exist. Only my thoughts of the past can affect me now, and so I drop them gladly into the Sea of Nothingness from which I dredged them. The forgiven world can only be seen now.

Lesson 290—“My present happiness is all I see.” If I continue to see through the eyes of the ego, I’m going to continue to see evil, guilt, and danger. If I keep doing what I’m doing, I keep getting what I’ve got. If I can stop for a moment looking at past or future, I will see my present happiness. I’m not being asked to bury my head in the sand. I’m being asked to willingly put on corrective lenses and see the world differently, as a witness to love, joy, and peace. As thoughts of the past or the future come up, I will let them gently float by. If I can do that, what I will discover is my present happiness. I don’t have to manufacture it because it already exists.

Lesson 291—“This is a day of stillness and of peace.” How do we find peace in the midst of the turmoil of the day? This lesson speaks of “Christ’s vision,” which “looks through me today.” (1:1) The peace being spoken of here is the peace that comes from a different perspective, an inner peace. Though my busy “doing” may not cease, my mind can be at peace in the midst of busy doing, a “quiet center” from which I operate. I do not have to understand everything perfectly or fix everything that appears broken. The Father within me is fully in charge of all that matters.

What Is the Real World? CIM’s discussion of the real world seems paradoxical. If there is no world, how can there be a “real” world? The real world is a symbol. Just as the word “tree” is not actually a tree, likewise, the real world is not the thing it represents. The real world symbolizes the opposite of what we made. We made separation; the real world symbolizes unity. We made fear; the real world symbolizes love. We made error; the real world symbolizes truth. The world itself is not the reality of anything. It merely stands for something that exists in the mind, as all perception does. It is the “outside picture of an inward condition.” What changes in the transformation made possible by Spirit is not the world itself, but how we see it; what it symbolizes for us. That is why CIM says this” “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. (T-21.In.1:7)” The real world we seek then is not a changed world, but a changed perception of the world.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #43. Lessons 292-298. Read as directed by Spirit.

Practical Application: We’ve done this before but cannot do it too often. Find a time and a place where you can be quiet for a while. In your mind, list what you feel are your darkest “transgressions” one by one, pausing on each one and asking Spirit to help you see this in a different way. When you feel a sense of peace, which signals Spirit’s “answer,” mentally/visually drop that “sin” into the Sea of Nothingness from which you dredged it. Then move on to the next “transgression” and repeat the process.

CIM Lessons 278-284 and Miracles Principle # 41

Miracles Principle #41: “Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.” The basic principle of the ego is the scarcity principle. We never have enough! We see others and ourselves as lacking.

The miracle reflects the wholeness that is our true Identity. “Wholeness” can be equated with abundance, but this abundance doesn’t relate to material things. Typical “prosperity consciousness” teaches that if I think abundance, I’ll receive abundance. There’s no question our thoughts do influence what we experience. That is how the whole physical world was made in the first place. But that doesn’t make it into a spiritual principle. “Manifesting” things is a psychic phenomenon, not a spiritual one. What makes it spiritual is turning the reins over to Spirit. Without Spirit’s help and guidance, we will merely continue to manipulate the illusion.

The miracle undoes defenses that are based on our belief in separation, lack, and limitation. This process then returns our mind to its original and on-going state of being one with God, having everything God gave us in creation: joy, unity, freedom, etc. Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto us as a natural result of our elevated consciousness.

Lesson 278—“If I am bound, my Father is not free.” The idea that God is a prisoner is inconceivable. Yet, since reality is One, what I believe about any part, I am believing about the whole, whether or not I realize it. God is all there is, and I am an expression of God. “If I accept that I am prisoner within a body . . . then my Father is prisoner with me.” We all believe in lack and limitation. We all believe in death. We are all, for this reason, “lost to reality.” Does that mean our situation is hopeless? No. All we need do is recognize these thoughts are foolish, and ask Spirit for the Truth. That’s all.

Lesson 279—“Creation’s freedom promises my own.” The simplicity of this lesson is staggering. As I recognize that freedom is everyone’s divine inheritance, I find my own.

Lesson 280—“What limits can I lay upon God’s Son?” This lesson calls on me not to deny anyone—my brothers or myself—the limitless freedom in which God created us. We tend to compare ourselves with others and to find ourselves, in some way, superior. This is what CIM calls specialness. We are all equal in the Mind of God. None of us is limited in any way except in illusions.

Lesson 281—“I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.” My true Self cannot be hurt; only my illusory self can be hurt, and that, only by my thoughts. Pain comes when I put my own thoughts in place of the Thoughts of God. When I feel attacked, it is always me attacking myself. It is always me believing the impossible—that I am separate from God and therefore vulnerable to misery and pain.

What Is the Holy Spirit? “The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth.” He bridges the gap between reality and dreams. Because of His function, “those who turn to Him for truth” can be led to truth by means of the very perception that is part of their illusion. Without Spirit, perception leads only to more perception, the illusion continually reinforcing itself. Our part in the equation then is simply to “turn to Him for truth.”

Lesson 282—“I will not be afraid of love today.” Fear of love is insane on the face of it. Of all things we might reasonably be afraid of, love is not one of them. Yet we are afraid of love far more frequently than we realize. Fear of love is fear of our own Self, which is Love. Yet we are indeed afraid to recognize ourselves as Love because it seems a very dangerous thing to our ego. In fearing love we are imagining ourselves to be something other than love—something evil and sinful. In such a picture of ourselves, we imagine we deserve punishment and death. To forget what we are and to believe we are something else, the mind must fall asleep or be deluded. Therefore, to realize today’s idea is a determination not to be asleep in dreams of death (1:3).

Lesson 283—“My true Identity abides in You.” “Abide means “lives or dwells,” but it also means “remains unchanged.” In traditional Christian understanding, man was created innocent and sinless but fell into sin and thus corrupted his nature forever. In the CIM understanding, all that really happened is that we imagined we had changed. But what we really are never changed at all! Creation is still, now, as it always was, because God’s creation cannot be changed. As I recognize this true Identity, I must realize that, being One with All That Is, this Identity must be shared with all creation. When I recognize everything as part of this shared Identity, I will naturally “offer blessings to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world.” (2:2)

Lesson 284—“I can elect to change all things that hurt.” If the origin of all things is thought, I can affect whether or not I experience pain. Nothing outside me can affect me. The cause of all problems, and therefore the solution to them, is entirely within my mind and entirely within my control. Properly perceived, even death is not a cause for grief. This lesson suggests a process we can follow to change our thoughts even about such seemingly extreme loss. It’s not an instant process, but it is possible. Because our Father would not give us anything that would hurt us, and because there is no other Source, we can at least dimly see at the outset that our trials and tribulations are not real.

Five Stages in the Process of Thought Change (from Lesson 284)

1.    Verbal belief—“at first to be but said” At this stage we are basically only giving lip service to an idea.

2.    Mental belief—“and then repeated many times;” In this stage, though we still don’t actually believe the idea, we repeat it over and over, trying to convince our minds it’s true.

3.    Partial belief—“next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations.” Frequent repetition brings us into situations where we find specific experiences that validate the truth of the idea for us. We have a holy instant, or a moment of forgiveness—an aha! experience with the realization of “Now I know what Course means by this!”

4.    Increasing belief—“then to be considered seriously more and more,” Stage 4 is generalization. Once we’ve seen the truth in one situation, we begin to experience it more and more, in situation after situation. Even at this stage, however, we have not arrived at total acceptance of the idea.

5.    Total belief—“and finally accepted as the truth.” This stage represents the end of the “journey without distance.” Now we see the idea as completely true, applying to everything equally.

As with any new skill, the final goal is not reached without effort. We are in the learning process. That is the purpose of our being in the world—to change our thoughts so that we may heal.

Assignment: Miracles Principle # 42. Lessons 285-291. Read as directed by Spirit.

Practical Application: Focus on the process of thought change above. Notice when you are allowing ego thoughts to run rampant. Say to yourself, “This is a thought I choose not to keep.” Be determined not to allow “weeds” to take root and produce after their kind.

CIM Lessons 271-277 and Miracles Principle #40

Miracles Principle #40: “The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God.” The error the miracle corrects is the error of believing we are separate. Whether we’re separated by our bodies or by the “sins” we believe other people do, all the miracle does is reflect the fact that we are one, and that’s what Jesus always remind us of—that we are one with him. The “universal mark of God” is our sharing in the light of Christ.

Lesson 271—“Christ’s is the vision I will use today.” The Workbook lessons constantly remind us that we are continually choosing what we want to see and see it. What we choose is what we want to be the truth for ourselves. If I see victims, it’s because there’s part of me that wants to feel victimized. If I see aggressors, it’s because part of me wants to lash out. The point of this lesson isn’t to point out our negative choices, but rather to point out that there is a choice. If I listen to my ego, I will see sin, guilt, fear, and death. If I listen to Spirit, I will see only love or a cry for love. As my perception merges more and more with Christ’s vision, I will approach the point where perception will entirely disappear. The changed perception will then show me what CIM calls the real world. The disappearance of perception refers to the end of the world and our awakening to Heaven. If I want to see myself as love, let me today see love in my brothers and sisters—all of them.

What is the Christ? Christ is the original creation of God, before we “remade” him and painted another image over God’s masterpiece. We are all aspects of that one Son. Christ is the part of the mind that never lost its knowledge of connection with God. It is this part of our minds we’re trying to become aware of. This is what we’re learning to see in one another, so that we can remember the Christ in ourselves. Not only are we united with one another in this Christ Self, we’re united with God as well. Without God this Self would not exist. He sustains It. It cannot be apart from Him any more than a limb can sustain itself if severed from the tree.

Lesson 272—“How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?” This lesson is telling us to accept no substitutes. We want the real thing. The irony is that most of the time we allow ourselves to be satisfied with illusions—illusions of love (special love relationships), of security (financial security), of meaning (fame, worldly rewards, etc.). We need to ask: “Can illusions bring me happiness?” Though we may find temporary pleasure and satisfaction in some of our illusions, ultimately all will bitterly disappoint us. Today, will I pursue yet another illusion, or will I use my time wisely and choose the peace of God?

Lesson 273—“The stillness of the peace of God is mine.” CIM makes room for all of us. Though we’ve already done 272 lessons, a day of undisturbed tranquility may not yet be attainable. There is no sense of putdown in this. The lesson simply says it isn’t possible for you yet. But even the “yet” has meaning in that it indicates it will be possible for us eventually. Jesus has confidence in all of us. Not just those doing the lessons every day, but all of us. The lesson suggests that even though we may not yet be capable of spending a day in perfect peace, we can still be “content and even more than satisfied.” To lose what peace we have because we aren’t perfectly at peace is, of course, counterproductive. We can be at peace about not being at peace. That is where we all must begin. When disturbances occur, we dismiss them. We are firm but gentle and calm, telling our minds, “Peace, be still,” and asking Spirit, “Help me see this in a different way.”

Lesson 274—“Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.” Fear is what happens when we shut ourselves off from the awareness of Love. It’s only the illusory absence of Love because Love is never absent. Like the physical sun, Love is always shining. We sometimes say, “The sun isn’t out today.” But, of course, the sun is always out, but there is interference—clouds or something in between, which is blocking our awareness of the sun. We then experience darkness, which is no more than the absence of Light. When the interference is removed, light is there, just as it always was. Likewise, when we remove the interference to our awareness of Love, Love is there and fear is gone. Any form of fear is a call for love. It is a symptom of our deep sense of loss. Fear takes many forms—illness, financial catastrophe, jealousy, addiction—but the cause is always the same: the erroneous belief that we are separate from God. When I bring fear symptoms to Spirit, He can reinterpret them so that I can understand that all forms of fear are nothing but an unconscious call for Love and therefore nothing to feel guilty about. The path of the Course lies here, in learning to let go of our fears and to respond to one another with love instead.  

Lesson 275—“God’s healing voice protects all things today.” I can join with Jesus in hearing the Voice of God now. That’s something I can do in the privacy of my home. If the problem is a belief in separation, that problem can’t be solved alone and apart. Being alone and apart is the problem! Any healing, any enlightenment will be something that is shared. If I practice in my quiet time, when I move out into the world, I can extend what I’ve found in Christ’s presence to everyone I meet. I can bring reassurance and safety from my companionship with the Christ to the world, and as I give it, it is given to me. I recognize I don’t know the answers. I can’t figure everything out. But Spirit can and does. I can leave the running of the universe in God’s hands.

Lesson 276—“The Word of God is given me to speak.” The phrase “the word of God” in CIM is defined as “My Son is pure and holy as Myself.” In another place in CIM, it’s said to be, “I am as God created me.” This Word created us: as in the Bible, God spoke, and it was so. I cannot make my Self other than what God created me. Hearing God’s Word is accepting His Authorship, accepting that we are created in His Love and can be no other than what He created us to be. What I want to communicate to my brothers and sisters is that they all share this innocence with me. My criticism and judgments communicate guilt. My forgiveness communicates their innocence.

Lesson 277—“Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.” When CIM uses the term “Son” in this context, with me addressing God concerning His Son, the term usually refers to the whole Sonship, which includes all my brothers and sisters as well as myself. When I place a limit on someone in my mind, if that person is already accepting such a limit in his own mind, I am reinforcing it and placing that limit upon myself. We can see this manifested quite vividly in children. If significant adults “see” the child as limited, the child will often manifest limits. Each person we encounter is equally unlimited and free, the perfect Son of God as God created him. The Son of God has not been changed by anything that has happened to his body, which is changeable. A feather cannot scratch a diamond. Our brothers are not bound by anything except their beliefs. What if, today, I looked upon everyone from this frame of reference? What miracles might occur? What chains might drop away? That is our function as teachers of God.

Assignment: Miracle Principle #41 and Lessons 278-284. Read as directed by Spirit.

Practical Application: Select one limitation that you perceive is yours. (“I can’t talk in front of a group.” “I’m not creative.” “I couldn’t run around the block much less a 3K.”) Then prove to yourself, with the assistance of Spirit, that it isn’t true.

CIM Lessons 264-270 and Miracles Principle #39

Miracles Principle # 39: “The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.” The Holy Spirit realizes that all errors are false or unreal. There are no gradations in errors. One times zero is the same as a thousand times zero. Once I recognize the truth of who I am, the errors of the ego will disappear because all that holds them in place are my thoughts about them. There’s nothing out there that’s real. It’s only my thoughts that make the things of the world seem real in my mind. I can’t forgive a “sin” once I’ve made it real. I can’t say the world is an illusory “classroom” as long as I believe the darkness is real. As we’ve said earlier in class, if I look outside myself and see error, sin, lack, or illness, all that I am doing is projecting my own fears onto the “screen” of life. If I correct my error thinking about myself, if I accept the truth of my Oneness with All That Is, what I “see” outside myself will change. This is quite literal!

This past week, we talked a little about manifesting things—as per The Secret. When I concern myself with manifesting things, I’m merely choosing to play with the illusion. It’s an okay place to start, in that manifesting through the will of the mind can demonstrate the reality of the power of thought. Plus, it’s easier to focus on what’s really important when our bellies aren’t growling with hunger. But if I really want to manifest the ongoing Happy Dream, what is necessary is to know my Oneness with my Creator. So a good place to start, as Jesus says in CIM, is to tell myself a thousand times a day—until it “takes root” so to speak—that I am One with my Creator. All that God is I am. I am God’s beloved. Repeat these phrases, or similar ones that have meaning for you, until their truth takes root. When that happens, your vibration automatically increases, and it is that increased vibration that draws to you your good. In God’s Reality like attracts like. My state of happiness attracts MORE happiness.

Lesson 264—“I am surrounded by the love of God.” The purpose of this lesson is to focus my attention on love, which is “invisible,” rather than on the body and all that is visible. There’s a passage in the Text that says: When you made visible what is not true, what IS true became invisible to you. . . It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else. (T-12.VIII.3:1,3) What is not seen is not “gone.” Love is still in everything, all around me, and I will see it if I will but stop looking at something else. Jesus says if we look at love enough, what is not there will become invisible to us. As we learn to stop wanting to see something other than love, we will stop seeing anything but love. That outcome is inevitable because love is all there is. We want to see separation, we want to see bodies, because we believe it preserves our individuality and because we think it keeps us safe from “facing the music” with God for “sins” which never occurred. The way to experience love is to give love. As I open to let love out, love will flood in. It always flows both ways. And what I’m loving is myself, not a separate thing or things. I am not a separate unit; I only exist in relationship to the Oneness.

Lesson 265—“Creation’s gentleness is all I see.” This lesson clearly states how the world comes to be, apparently, attacking us. “I laid my sins on it and saw them looking back at me.” Though it seems I’m working to forgive others, I’m always working to forgive myself. I feel guilt over some aspect of myself. I project that guilt outward. Projection makes perception. When I feel guilty, I disown a part of my own mind. There’s some part of me that feels a need to overeat, or to be angry at my mother, or to sabotage my career. I do these things because I think I deserve punishment. The original guilt comes not from any of these things, but from my deep belief that I have succeeded at making myself something other than what God created me to be. I believe I am my own creator. And since God is good, I must be evil. I can’t stand that idea and so I push away some part of my mind and lay the guilt at someone else’s feet. I need to look at what I’m afraid of until I realize that all of it is in my own mind. When at last I recognize the truth of that, I’ll be in a place where I can do something about it. If I lift the blot of my own guilt off the world, I will see its “celestial gentleness.”

Lesson 266—“My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.” These are words I speak to my family, my friends, my boss: In you my holy Self abides. Everyone is my “savior.” Everyone points the way to God. If we’re honest, most of us will admit that we perceive our brothers as the stumbling blocks and barriers on the way to God. Let us then consider the possibility that the reason we see them that way has nothing to do with them, or with the truth. Let us consider that perhaps we’ve laid our “sins” on them and see them looking back at us. Let’s be willing to be willing to consider the possibility that our perception is truly upside down and needs to be turned right side up. Let us bring those perceptions to the Holy Spirit for healing.

Lesson 267—“My heart is beating in the peace of God.” What CIM says about us often doesn’t fit the picture of ourselves we have in our mind. The low opinion of ourselves that we constantly maintain is one of our major problems. When we do a Workbook lesson, we need to practice letting go of that poor self-image for a while. CIM constantly tells us that we actively block from our awareness the truth of what we are. We constantly underestimate and undervalue ourselves. As you read these lessons, attempt not to edit them in your mind. Just let them be true for you—at least in the moment. Agree with the way God views you, and say in response, “Yes, my mind is healed.” Read slowly. Give yourself time to absorb each phrase. Recognize your negative responses. Don’t fight or argue with them. Just decide, for these few moments, to listen to the Voice for God instead.

Lesson 268—“Let all things be exactly as they are.” This lesson has been often misconstrued. Many think it’s saying to accept “what is” means to accept what our human perceptions tell us is true. I do not accept illness or lack and limitation because God did not create illness and lack and limitation and, therefore, they are not real. I do not struggle against such illusions because that is counterproductive. I realize instead that what I’m seeing or experiencing is a product of my fear, projected out, not a creation of God. That fear is what I seek to heal.

To let things be exactly as they are means to accept that God made only perfection. If I don’t see that perfection, I need to ask Spirit to heal my thoughts about what I “see.” To say, “Let all things be exactly as they are” is an affirmation of faith that what appears to be pain and suffering is not really there. It’s a response to God’s call, drawing us up out of the world of conditions and into unconditional truth. It’s a phrase that applies not to the world we see with physical eyes, but to the world we can see only with the eyes of Christ. It doesn’t mean that we turn our eyes on a brother in suffering and callously say, “Let that be exactly what it is. There’s a lesson in there somewhere he needs to learn.” That’s equivalent to the old traditional Christian mistake of saying such things are God’s will. To think this way is to make the error real then blame it on God.

As we’ve discussed in class, however, if I’m diagnosed with cancer, I will get treatment. Why? Because as long as I walk this earth, chances are my belief in my mis-creations is so strong that to completely defy them will generate a counterproductive fear. So while I accept the “magic” of modern medicine, at the same time, I consciously recognize that I’m using a crutch only until I am confident I no longer need it.

Lesson 269—“My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.” Today’s lesson is about choosing in advance to see innocence in others. When I encounter judgment in my mind, I need do nothing but recognize that it is there and believe that there’s another way to perceive it. I affirm I am willing to see it differently. I ask for help in understanding forgiveness through this experience. And I wait. I allow myself to look at the anger, the fear, the resentment I am feeling. I don’t try to “stuff” or hide it. That just perpetuates the wrong-mindedness. I recognize that I’m judging myself for feeling these things. So, as I did with the external judgment, I do with the internal: I affirm that I’m willing to see it differently and ask Spirit for help. And I wait. What happens then is of God. A shift occurs in my mind. The shift may seemingly appear in regard to the other, or in regard to myself. It doesn’t matter since the other and myself are the same. When I decide that what I want to see is only innocence, I will see only innocence.

Lesson 270—“I will not use the body’s eyes today.” Obviously this doesn’t mean I’ll walk around with a blindfold on today. Notice the word “translate” in this lesson: “Christ’s vision . . . has the power to translate all that the body’s eyes behold into the sight of a forgiven world.” We are here to heal the world by seeing it differently, and thus we also heal ourselves. The chief component of that different vision is lack of judgment. Making no demand for outward changes. Seeing that everyone and everything is worthy of love, exactly as they are. We are told to overlook error. Then we are told we don’t know how to do it. Instead, we are to turn to the Holy Spirit. Understanding the how of Atonement is not my job, not my function, but His.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #40. Lessons 271-277. Read as Spirit directs you.

Practical Application: Get out of your self this week. Look for ways to give love. CIM says the way to experience love is to give love.