ACIM Lesson 120 Review

Lesson 120

For morning and evening review:

(109) I rest in God.

I rest in God today, and let Him work in me and
through me, while I rest in Him in quiet and in
perfect certainty.

(110) I am as God created me.

I am God's Son. Today I lay aside all sick illusions of
myself, and let my Father tell me Who I really am.
On the hour:

I rest in God.

On the half hour:

I am as God created me.

ACIM Lesson 119 Review

For morning and evening review:

[107] “Truth will correct all errors in my mind.”

I am mistaken when I think I can
Be hurt in any way. I am God’s Son,
Whose Self rests safely in the Mind of God.

[108] “To give and to receive are one in truth.”

I will forgive all things today, that I
May learn how to accept the truth in me,
And come to recognize my sinlessness.

On the hour:
“Truth will correct all errors in my mind.”

On the half hour:
“To give and to receive are one in truth.”

ACIM Lesson 118 Review

Lesson 118
(beginning day 118)

For morning and evening review:
God's peace and joy are mine.

Today I will accept God's peace and joy, in glad exchange for all the substitutes that I have made for happiness and peace.

Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Let my own feeble voice be still, and let me hear the mighty Voice for Truth Itself assure me that I am God's perfect Son.

On the hour:

God's peace and joy are mine.

On the half hour:

Let me be still and listen to the truth.

(end day 118)

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ACIM Lesson 117 Review

Lesson 117
(beginning day 117)

For morning and evening review:
God, being Love, is also happiness.

Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy.  And so I choose to entertain no substitutes for love.

I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Love is my heritage, and with it joy.  These are the gifts my Father gave to me.  I would accept all that is mine in truth.

On the hour:

God, being Love, is also happiness.

On the half hour:

I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

(end day 117)

ACIM Lesson 116 Review

Lesson 116
(beginning day 116)

For morning and evening review:
God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

God's Will is perfect happiness for me.  And I can suffer but from the belief there is another will apart from His.

I share God's Will for happiness for me.

I share my Father's Will for me, His Son.  What He has given me is all I want.  What He has given me is all there is.

On the hour:

God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

On the half hour:

I share God's Will for happiness for me.

(end day 116)

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ACIM Lesson 115 Review

Lesson 115
(beginning day 115)

For morning and evening review:
Salvation is my only function here.

My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made.  For thus am I released from them with all the world.

My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.

I am essential to the plan of God for the salvation of the world.  For He gave me His plan that I might save the world.

On the hour:

Salvation is my only function here.

On the half hour:

My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.

(end day 115)

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ACIM Lesson 114 Review

Lesson 114
(beginning day 114)

For morning and evening review:
I am spirit.

I am the Son of God.  No body can contain my spirit, nor impose on me a limitation God created not.

I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.

What can my function be but to accept the Word of God, Who has created me for what I am and will forever be?

On the hour:

I am spirit.

On the half hour:

I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.

(end day 114)

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ACIM Lesson 113 Review

Lesson 113
(beginning day 113)

For morning and evening review:
I am one Self, united with my Creator.

Serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at one with all creation and with God.

Salvation comes from my one Self.

From my one Self, Whose knowledge still remains within my mind, I see God's perfect plan for my salvation perfectly fulfilled.

On the hour:

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

On the half hour:

Salvation comes from my one Self.

(end day 113)

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ACIM Lesson 112 Review

Lesson 112
(beginning day 112)

For morning and evening review:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.

I am the home of light and joy and peace.  I welcome them into the home I share with God, because I am a part of Him.

I am as God created me.

I will remain forever as I was, created by the Changeless like Himself.  And I am one with Him, and He with me.

On the hour:

Light and joy and peace abide in me.

On the half hour:

I am as God created me.

(end day 112)

ACIM Third Review - Introduction (beginning lesson 111 study material)

Third Review - Introduction
(beginning lesson 111 study material)

Our next review begins today. We will review two recent lessons every day for ten successive days of practicing. We will observe a special format for these practice periods, that you are urged to follow just as closely as you can.

We understand, of course, that it may be impossible for you to undertake what is suggested here as optimal each day and every hour of the day. Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period because it is impossible at the appointed time. Nor is it necessary that you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of numbers. Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal.

But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period because you are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control. Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your practicing from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness.

Those practice periods that you have lost because you did not want to do them, for whatever reason, should be done as soon as you have changed your mind about your goal. You are unwilling to cooperate in practicing salvation only if it interferes with goals you hold more dear. When you withdraw the value given them, allow your practice periods to be replacements for your litanies to them. They gave you nothing. But your practicing can offer everything to you. And so accept their offering and be at peace.

The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five minutes twice a day, or longer if you would prefer it, to considering the thoughts that are assigned. Read over the ideas and comments that are written down for each day's exercise. And then begin to think about them, while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming problems and all your concerns.

Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses. Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you. What can you trust but what is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews, the means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail. The wisdom of your mind will come to your assistance. Give direction at the outset; then lean back in quiet faith, and let the mind employ the thoughts you gave as they were given you for it to use.

You have been given them in perfect trust; in perfect confidence that you would use them well; in perfect faith that you would see their messages and use them for yourself. Offer them to your mind in that same trust and confidence and faith. It will not fail. It is the Holy Spirit's chosen means for your salvation. Since it has His trust, His means must surely merit yours as well.

We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five minutes of the day to your reviews, and also give the last five minutes of your waking day to them. If this cannot be done, at least try to divide them so you undertake one in the morning, and the other in the hour just before you go to sleep.

The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally important, and perhaps of even greater value. You have been inclined to practice only at appointed times, and then go on your way to other things, without applying what you learned to them. As a result, you have gained little reinforcement, and have not given your learning a fair chance to prove how great are its potential gifts to you. Here is another chance to use it well.

In these reviews, we stress the need to let your learning not lie idly by between your longer practice periods. Attempt to give your daily two ideas a brief but serious review each hour. Use one on the hour, and the other one a half an hour later. You need not give more than just a moment to each one. Repeat it, and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and in peace. Then turn to other things, but try to keep the thought with you, and let it serve to help you keep your peace throughout the day as well.

If you are shaken, think of it again. These practice periods are planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to everything you do. Do not repeat the thought and lay it down. Its usefulness is limitless to you. And it is meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind. Try, then, to take it with you in the business of the day and make it holy, worthy of God's Son, acceptable to God and to your Self.

Each day's review assignments will conclude with a restatement of the thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each half hour as well. Forget them not. This second chance with each of these ideas will bring such large advances that we come from these reviews with learning gains so great we will continue on more solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith.

Do not forget how little you have learned.

Do not forget how much you can learn now.

Do not forget your Father's need of you,

As you review these thoughts He gave to you.

ACIM Lesson 110 I am as God created me.

Lesson 110
(beginning lesson 110 study material)

I am as God created me.

We will repeat today's idea from time to time. For this one thought would be enough to save you and the world, if you believed that it is true. Its truth would mean that you have made no changes in yourself that have reality, nor changed the universe so that what God created was replaced by fear and evil, misery and death. If you remain as God created you fear has no meaning, evil is not real, and misery and death do not exist.

Today's idea is therefore all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. It is enough to let the present be accepted as it is. It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in passing by.

If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past.

In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own.

The healing power of today's idea is limitless. It is the birthplace of all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the awareness of the world. Practice today's idea with gratitude. This is the truth that comes to set you free. This is the truth that God has promised you. This is the Word in which all sorrow ends.

For your five-minute practice periods, begin with this quotation from the text:


I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing.

And I am His Son.


Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in your mind the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself.

Seek Him within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and brother to the world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save whoever touches Him, however lightly, asking for the Word that tells him he is brother unto Him.

You are as God created you. Today honor your Self. Let graven images you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshiped not today. Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while He is unacknowledged and unknown.

Seek Him today, and find Him. He will be your Savior from all idols you have made. For when you find Him, you will understand how worthless are your idols, and how false the images which you believed were you. Today we make a great advance to truth by letting idols go, and opening our hands and hearts and minds to God today.

We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and loving thoughts for all who meet with us today. For it is thus that we remember Him. And we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:


I am as God created me.


Let us declare this truth as often as we can. This is the Word of God that sets you free. This is the key that opens up the gate of Heaven, and that lets you enter in the peace of God and His eternity.

ACIM Lesson 109 I rest in God.

Lesson 109
(beginning day 109)

I rest in God.

We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world's appearances. We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the thought that will answer our asking with what we request.

"I rest in God." This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. "I rest in God." This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is. Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.

"I rest in God." Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you rest in God. They will not hear another voice than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.

In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from dreams and into peace.

Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest along with you.

With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone. And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the stream begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go.

You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you.

You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, "I rest in God."

(end day 109)

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ACIM Lesson 108 To give and to receive are one in truth.

Lesson 108
(beginning day 108)

To give and to receive are one in truth.

Vision depends upon today's idea. The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites. And what is light except the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true? Even that one will disappear, because the Thought behind it will appear instead to take its place. And now you are at peace forever, for the dream is over then.

True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body's eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there.

This is the light that shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal. This is the light that brings your peace of mind to other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with themselves. This is the light that heals because it brings single perception, based upon one frame of reference, from which one meaning comes.

Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of one Thought whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor which appears to be in second place. Here it is understood that both occur together, that the Thought remain complete. And in this understanding is the base on which all opposites are reconciled, because they are perceived from the same frame of reference which unifies this Thought.

One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction, or that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring salvation to all minds. For these are but some special cases of one law which holds for every kind of learning, if it be directed by the One Who knows the truth.

To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special usefulness, because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. And when this special case has proved it always works, in every circumstance where it is tried, the thought behind it can be generalized to other areas of doubt and double vision. And from there it will extend, and finally arrive at the one Thought which underlies them all.

Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We will use this simple lesson in the obvious because it has results we cannot miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone, and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us, and we can see.

So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today, and say:


To give and to receive are one in truth.

I will receive what I am giving now.


Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to everyone, to have it yours. You might, for instance, say:


To everyone I offer quietness.

To everyone I offer peace of mind.

To everyone I offer gentleness.


Say each one slowly and then pause a while, expecting to receive the gift you gave. And it will come to you in the amount in which you gave it. You will find you have exact return, for that is what you asked. It might be helpful, too, to think of one to whom to give your gifts. He represents the others, and through him you give to all.

Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. Effect and cause will be far better understood from this time on, and we will make much faster progress now. Think of the exercises for today as quick advances in your learning, made still faster and more sure each time you say, "To give and to receive are one in truth."

(end day 108)

ACIM Lesson 107 Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

Lesson 107
(beginning day 107)

Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? Where truth has entered errors disappear. They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by which to be remembered. They are gone because, without belief, they have no life. And so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.

Can you imagine what a state of mind without illusions is? How it would feel? Try to remember when there was a time,--perhaps a minute, maybe even less--when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you were certain you were loved and safe. Then try to picture what it would be like to have that moment be extended to the end of time and to eternity. Then let the sense of quiet that you felt be multiplied a hundred times, and then be multiplied another hundred more.

And now you have a hint, not more than just the faintest intimation of the state your mind will rest in when the truth has come. Without illusions there could be no fear, no doubt and no attack. When truth has come all pain is over, for there is no room for transitory thoughts and dead ideas to linger in your mind. Truth occupies your mind completely, liberating you from all beliefs in the ephemeral. They have no place because the truth has come, and they are nowhere. They can not be found, for truth is everywhere forever, now.

When truth has come it does not stay a while, to disappear or change to something else. It does not shift and alter in its form, nor come and go and go and come again. It stays exactly as it always was, to be depended on in every need, and trusted with a perfect trust in all the seeming difficulties and the doubts that the appearances the world presents engender. They will merely blow away, when truth corrects the errors in your mind.

When truth has come it harbors in its wings the gift of perfect constancy, and love which does not falter in the face of pain, but looks beyond it, steadily and sure. Here is the gift of healing, for the truth needs no defense, and therefore no attack is possible. Illusions can be brought to truth to be corrected. But the truth stands far beyond illusions, and can not be brought to them to turn them into truth.

Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this appearance now and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp. It does not hide. It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. It is impossible that anyone could seek it truly, and would not succeed. Today belongs to truth. Give truth its due, and it will give you yours. You were not meant to suffer and to die. Your Father wills these dreams be gone. Let truth correct them all.

We do not ask for what we do not have. We merely ask for what belongs to us, that we may recognize it as our own. Today we practice on the happy note of certainty that has been born of truth. The shaky and unsteady footsteps of illusion are not our approach today. We are as certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and breathe and think. We do not doubt we walk with truth today, and count on it to enter into all the exercises that we do this day.

Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this undertaking that He be in your awareness as you go with Him. You are not made of flesh and blood and bone, but were created by the selfsame Thought which gave the gift of life to Him as well. He is your Brother, and so like to you your Father knows that You are Both the same. It is your Self you ask to go with you, and how could He be absent where you are?

Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you could be apart from Him. You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to let His function be fulfilled through you. To share His function is to share His joy. His confidence is with you, as you say:


Truth will correct all errors in my mind, And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.


Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar world reluctantly.

And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For you will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes with you will carry to the world. They will increase with every gift you give of five small minutes, and the errors that surround the world will be corrected as you let them be corrected in your mind.

Do not forget your function for today. Each time you tell yourself with confidence, "Truth will correct all errors in my mind," you speak for all the world and Him Who would release the world, as He would set you free.

(end day 107)

ACIM Lesson 106 Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Lesson 106
(beginning day 106)

Let me be still and listen to the truth.

If you will lay aside the ego's voice, however loudly it may seem to call, if you will not accept its petty gifts that give you nothing that you really want; if you will listen with an open mind, that has not told you what salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages.

Listen, and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless, and shows the way to peace to those who cannot see. Be still today and listen to the truth. Be not deceived by voices of the dead, which tell you they have found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend them not, but listen to the truth.

Be not afraid today to circumvent the voices of the world. Walk lightly past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today and listen to the truth. Go past all things which do not speak of Him Who holds your happiness within His Hand, held out to you in welcome and in love. Hear only Him today, and do not wait to reach Him longer. Hear one Voice today.

Today the promise of God's Word is kept. Hear and be silent. He would speak to you. He comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and as wonderful as those you ever dreamed or wished for in your dreams. His miracles are true. They will not fade when dreaming ends. They end the dream instead; and last forever, for they come from God to His dear Son, whose other name is you. Prepare yourself for miracles today. Today allow your Father's ancient pledge to you and all your brothers to be kept.

Hear Him today, and listen to the Word which lifts the veil that lies upon the earth, and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see. God calls to them through you. He needs your voice to speak to them, for who could reach God's Son except his Father, calling through your Self? Hear Him today, and offer Him your voice to speak to all the multitude who wait to hear the Word that He will speak today.

Be ready for salvation. It is here, and will today be given unto you. And you will learn your function from the One Who chose it in your Father's Name for you. Listen today, and you will hear a Voice which will resound throughout the world through you. The bringer of all miracles has need that you receive them first, and thus become the joyous giver of what you received.

Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever. And the lesson has been learned. Today we practice giving, not the way you understand it now, but as it is. Each hour's exercises should begin with this request for your enlightenment:


I will be still and listen to the truth.

What does it mean to give and to receive?


Ask and expect an answer. Your request is one whose answer has been waiting long to be received by you. It will begin the ministry for which you came, and which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to lose. And so the world becomes ready to understand and to receive.

Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, along with you.

Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and learning it of Him. Do not forget today to reinforce your choice to hear and to receive the Word by this reminder, given to yourself as often as is possible today:


Let me be still and listen to the truth.

I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I receive.

(end day 106)

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ACIM Lesson 105 God's peace and joy are mine.

Lesson 105
(beginning day 105)

God's peace and joy are mine.

God's peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept them, knowing they belong to us. And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we receive them. They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in which the giver loses as he gives the gift; the taker is the richer by his loss. Such are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. The truly given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain because another loses. This implies a limit and an insufficiency.

No gift is given thus. Such "gifts" are but a bid for a more valuable return; a loan with interest to be paid in full; a temporary lending, meant to be a pledge of debt to be repaid with more than was received by him who took the gift. This strange distortion of what giving means pervades all levels of the world you see. It strips all meaning from the gifts you give, and leaves you nothing in the ones you take.

A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. For giving has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift. God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but increase thereby.

As Heaven's peace and joy intensify when you accept them as God's gift to you, so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept His joy and peace as yours. True giving is creation. It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself.

Today accept God's peace and joy as yours. Let Him complete Himself as He defines completion. You will understand that what completes Him must complete His Son as well. He cannot give through loss. No more can you. Receive His gift of joy and peace today, and He will thank you for your gift to Him.

Today our practice periods will start a little differently. Begin today by thinking of those brothers who have been denied by you the peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. Here you denied them to yourself. And here you must return to claim them as your own.

Think of your "enemies" a little while, and tell each one, as he occurs to you:


My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.


Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God's gifts to you, and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today. Now are you ready to accept the gift of peace and joy that God has given you. Now are you ready to experience the joy and peace you have denied yourself. Now you can say, "God's peace and joy are mine," for you have given what you would receive.

You must succeed today, if you prepare your mind as we suggest. For you have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours can come to you at last. So tell yourself, "God's peace and joy are mine," and close your eyes a while, and let His Voice assure you that the words you speak are true.

Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but do not think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. At least remember hourly to say the words which call to Him to give you what He wills to give, and wills you to receive. Determine not to interfere today with what He wills. And if a brother seems to tempt you to deny God's gift to him, see it as but another chance to let yourself receive the gifts of God as yours. Then bless your brother thankfully, and say:


My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.

(end day 105)

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ACIM Lesson 104 I seek what belong to me in Truth.

Lesson 104
(beginning day 104)

I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idle dreams. They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. His are the gifts that are our own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them. They belong to us today.

Therefore, we choose to have them now, and know, in choosing them in place of what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize the same as being one. Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given truth for your salvation, should begin with this:


I seek but what belongs to me in truth, And joy and peace are my inheritance.


Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goals made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of dreams.

All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we ask to recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which we come to find what has been given us by Him. We come in confidence today, aware that what belongs to us in truth is what He gives. And we would wish for nothing else, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.

So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. We will not let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for them where He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:


I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want.

(end day 104)

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ACIM Lesson 103 God being Love, is also happiness.

Lesson 103
(beginning day 103)

God, being Love, is also happiness.

Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. Nor can it be experienced where love is not. Love has no limits, being everywhere. And therefore joy is everywhere as well. Yet can the mind deny that this is so, believing there are gaps in love where sin can enter, bringing pain instead of joy. This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited, and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite.

Fear is associated then with love, and its results become the heritage of minds that think what they have made is real. These images, with no reality in truth, bear witness to the fear of God, forgetting being Love, He must be joy. This basic error we will try again to bring to truth today, and teach ourselves:


God, being Love, is also happiness.

To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.


Begin your periods of practicing today with this association, which corrects the false belief that God is fear. It also emphasizes happiness belongs to you, because of what He is.

Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hour today. Then welcome all the happiness it brings as truth replaces fear, and joy becomes what you expect to take the place of pain. God, being Love, it will be given you. Bolster this expectation frequently throughout the day, and quiet all your fears with this assurance, kind and wholly true:


God, being Love, is also happiness.

And it is happiness I seek today.

I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.

(end day 103)

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ACIM Lesson 102 I share God's Will for happiness for me.

Lesson 102
(beginning day 102)

I share God's Will for happiness for me.

You do not want to suffer. You may think it buys you something, and may still believe a little that it buys you what you want. Yet this belief is surely shaken now, at least enough to let you question it, and to suspect it really makes no sense. It has not gone as yet, but lacks the roots that once secured it tightly to the dark and hidden secret places of your mind.

Today we try to loose its weakened hold still further, and to realize that pain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplish anything. It cannot purchase anything at all. It offers nothing, and does not exist. And everything you think it offers you is lacking in existence, like itself. You have been slave to nothing. Be you free today to join the happy Will of God.

For several days we will continue to devote our periods of practicing to exercises planned to help you reach the happiness God's Will has placed in you. Here is your home, and here your safety is. Here is your peace, and here there is no fear. Here is salvation. Here is rest at last.

Begin your practice periods today with this acceptance of God's Will for you:


I share God's Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.


Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting but your choice. You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your choice, and that you share God's Will.

Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. You have no need to be less loving to God's Son than He Whose Love created him as loving as Himself. Besides these hourly five-minute rests, pause frequently today, to tell yourself that you have now accepted happiness as your one function. And be sure that you are joining with God's Will in doing this.

(end day 102)

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ACIM Lesson 101 God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

Lesson 101
(beginning day 101)

God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

Today we will continue with the theme of happiness. This is a key idea in understanding what salvation means. You still believe it asks for suffering as penance for your "sins." This is not so. Yet you must think it so while you believe that sin is real, and that God's Son can sin.

If sin is real, then punishment is just and cannot be escaped. Salvation thus cannot be purchased but through suffering. If sin is real, then happiness must be illusion, for they cannot both be true. The sinful warrant only death and pain, and it is this they ask for. For they know it waits for them, and it will seek them out and find them somewhere, sometime, in some form that evens the account they owe to God. They would escape Him in their fear. And yet He will pursue, and they can not escape.

If sin is real, salvation must be pain. Pain is the cost of sin, and suffering can never be escaped, if sin is real. Salvation must be feared, for it will kill, but slowly, taking everything away before it grants the welcome boon of death to victims who are little more than bones before salvation is appeased. Its wrath is boundless, merciless, but wholly just.

Who would seek out such savage punishment? Who would not flee salvation, and attempt in every way he can to drown the Voice which offers it to him? Why would he try to listen and accept Its offering? If sin is real, its offering is death, and meted out in cruel form to match the vicious wishes in which sin is born. If sin is real, salvation has become your bitter enemy, the curse of God upon you who have crucified His Son.

You need the practice periods today. The exercises teach sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause. Accept Atonement with an open mind, which cherishes no lingering belief that you have made a devil of God's Son. There is no sin. We practice with this thought as often as we can today, because it is the basis for today's idea.

God's Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless. Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself. Fear not the Will of God. But turn to it in confidence that it will set you free from all the consequences sin has wrought in feverish imagination. Say:


God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

There is no sin; it has no consequence.


So should you start your practice periods, and then attempt again to find the joy these thoughts will introduce into your mind.

Give these five minutes gladly, to remove the heavy load you lay upon yourself with the insane belief that sin is real. Today escape from madness. You are set on freedom's road, and now today's idea brings wings to speed you on, and hope to go still faster to the waiting goal of peace. There is no sin. Remember this today, and tell yourself as often as you can:


God's Will for me is perfect happiness.

This is the truth, because there is no sin.

(end day 101)

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ACIM Lesson 100 My part is essential to God's plan for salvation

Lesson 100
(beginning day 100)

My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.


Just as God's Son completes his Father, so your part in it completes your Father's plan. Salvation must reverse the mad belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies, which lead separate lives and go their separate ways. One function shared by separate minds unites them in one purpose, for each one of them is equally essential to them all.


God's Will for you is perfect happiness. Why should you choose to go against His Will? The part that He has saved for you to take in working out His plan is given you that you might be restored to what He wills. This part is as essential to His plan as to your happiness. Your joy must be complete to let His plan be understood by those to whom He sends you. They will see their function in your shining face, and hear God calling to them in your happy laugh.


You are indeed essential to God's plan. Without your joy, His joy is incomplete. Without your smile, the world cannot be saved. While you are sad, the light that God Himself appointed as the means to save the world is dim and lusterless, and no one laughs because all laughter can but echo yours.


You are indeed essential to God's plan. Just as your light increases every light that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go, and take their place beside you in God's plan. God's messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair. They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Father's gifts as theirs.


We will not let ourselves be sad today. For if we do, we fail to take the part that is essential to God's plan, as well as to our vision. Sadness is the sign that you would play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God. Thus do you fail to show the world how great the happiness He wills for you. And so you do not recognize that it is yours.


Today we will attempt to understand joy is our function here. If you are sad, your part is unfulfilled, and all the world is thus deprived of joy, along with you. God asks you to be happy, so the world can see how much He loves His Son, and wills no sorrow rises to abate his joy; no fear besets him to disturb his peace. You are God's messenger today. You bring His happiness to all you look upon; His peace to everyone who looks on you and sees His message in your happy face.


We will prepare ourselves for this today, in our five-minute practice periods, by feeling happiness arise in us according to our Father's Will and ours. Begin the exercises with the thought today's idea contains. Then realize your part is to be happy. Only this is asked of you or anyone who wants to take his place among God's messengers. Think what this means. You have indeed been wrong in your belief that sacrifice is asked. You but receive according to God's plan, and never lose or sacrifice or die.


Now let us try to find that joy that proves to us and all the world God's Will for us. It is your function that you find it here, and that you find it now. For this you came. Let this one be the day that you succeed! Look deep within you, undismayed by all the little thoughts and foolish goals you pass as you ascend to meet the Christ in you.


He will be there. And you can reach Him now. What could you rather look upon in place of Him Who waits that you may look on Him? What little thought has power to hold you back? What foolish goal can keep you from success when He Who calls to you is God Himself?


He will be there. You are essential to His plan. You are His messenger today. And you must find what He would have you give. Do not forget the idea for today between your hourly practice periods. It is your Self Who calls to you today. And it is Him you answer, every time you tell yourself you are essential to God's plan for the salvation of the world.

(end day 100)

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ACIM Lesson 99 Salvation is my one function here.

Lesson 99
(beginning day 99)

Salvation is my only function here.


Salvation and forgiveness are the same. They both imply that something has gone wrong; something to be saved from, forgiven for; something amiss that needs corrective change; something apart or different from the Will of God. Thus do both terms imply a thing impossible but yet which has occurred, resulting in a state of conflict seen between what is and what could never be.


Truth and illusions both are equal now, for both have happened. The impossible becomes the thing you need forgiveness for, salvation from. Salvation now becomes the borderland between the truth and the illusion. It reflects the truth because it is the means by which you can escape illusions. Yet it is not yet the truth because it undoes what was never done.


How could there be a meeting place at all where earth and Heaven can be reconciled within a mind where both of them exist? The mind that sees illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real, because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God.


What joins the separated mind and thoughts with Mind and Thought which are forever One? What plan could hold the truth inviolate, yet recognize the need illusions bring, and offer means by which they are undone without attack and with no touch of pain? What but a Thought of God could be this plan, by which the never done is overlooked, and sins forgotten which were never real?


The Holy Spirit holds this plan of God exactly as it was received of Him within the Mind of God and in your own. It is apart from time in that its Source is timeless. Yet it operates in time, because of your belief that time is real. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see; on sin and pain and death, on grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must still be true; God is still Love, and this is not His Will.


This is the Thought that brings illusions to the truth, and sees them as appearances behind which is the changeless and the sure. This is the Thought that saves and that forgives, because it lays no faith in what is not created by the only Source it knows. This is the Thought whose function is to save by giving you its function as your own. Salvation is your function, with the One to Whom the plan was given. Now are you entrusted with this plan, along with Him. He has one answer to appearances; regardless of their form, their size, their depth or any attribute they seem to have:


Salvation is my only function here.


God still is Love, and this is not His Will.


You who will yet work miracles, be sure you practice well the idea for today. Try to perceive the strength in what you say, for these are words in which your freedom lies. Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which He has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were His Will.


This part belongs to God, as does the rest. It does not think its solitary thoughts, and make them real by hiding them from Him. Let in the light, and you will look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you. Open your secrets to His kindly light, and see how bright this light still shines in you.


Practice His Thought today, and let His light seek out and lighten up all darkened spots, and shine through them to join them to the rest. It is God's Will your mind be one with His. It is God's Will that He has but one Son. It is God's Will that His one Son is you. Think of these things in practicing today, and start the lesson that we learn today with this instruction in the way of truth:


Salvation is my only function here.


Salvation and forgiveness are the same.


Then turn to Him Who shares your function here, and let Him teach you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as Love which has no opposite in you.


Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity and peace. You cannot lose the gifts your Father gave. You do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of God. Forgive yourself the one you think you made. Forgiveness and salvation are the same. Forgive what you have made and you are saved.


There is a special message for today which has the power to remove all forms of doubt and fear forever from your mind. If you are tempted to believe them true, remember that appearances can not withstand the truth these mighty words contain:


Salvation is my only function here.


God still is Love, and this is not His Will.


Your only function tells you, you are one. Remind yourself of this between the times you give five minutes to be shared with Him Who shares God's plan with you. Remind yourself:


Salvation is my only function here.


Thus do you lay forgiveness on your mind and let all fear be gently laid aside, that love may find its rightful place in you and show you that you are the Son of God.

(end day 99)

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ACIM Lesson 98 I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.

Lesson 98
(beginning day 98)

I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.


Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One. We dedicate ourselves to truth today, and to salvation as God planned it be. We will not argue it is something else. We will not seek for it where it is not. In gladness we accept it as it is, and take the part assigned to us by God.


How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfill, and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands in our way. For we have been absolved from errors. All our sins are washed away by realizing they were but mistakes.


The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their safety. They do not appeal to magic, nor invent escapes from fancied threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what it is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability because they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time and place. They took the stand which we will take today, that we may share their certainty and thus increase it by accepting it ourselves.


They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard, and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today.


Is it not worth five minutes of your time each hour to be able to accept the happiness that God has given you? Is it not worth five minutes hourly to recognize your special function here? Is not five minutes but a small request to make in terms of gaining a reward so great it has no measure? You have made a thousand losing bargains at the least.


Here is an offer guaranteeing you your full release from pain of every kind, and joy the world does not contain. You can exchange a little of your time for peace of mind and certainty of purpose, with the promise of complete success. And since time has no meaning, you are being asked for nothing in return for everything. Here is a bargain that you cannot lose. And what you gain is limitless indeed!


Each hour today give Him your tiny gift of but five minutes. He will give the words you use in practicing today's idea the deep conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours, and make each repetition of today's idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean. Today you practice with Him, as you say:


I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.


In each five minutes that you spend with Him, He will accept your words and give them back to you all bright with faith and confidence so strong and steady they will light the world with hope and gladness. Do not lose one chance to be the glad receiver of His gifts, that you may give them to the world today.


Give Him the words, and He will do the rest. He will enable you to understand your special function. He will open up the way to happiness, and peace and trust will be His gifts; His answer to your words. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that what you say is true. And you will have conviction then of Him Who knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven. He will be with you each practice period you share with Him, exchanging every instant of the time you offer Him for timelessness and peace.


Throughout the hour, let your time be spent in happy preparation for the next five minutes you will spend again with Him. Repeat today's idea while you wait for the glad time to come to you again. Repeat it often, and do not forget each time you do so, you have let your mind be readied for the happy time to come.


And when the hour goes and He is there once more to spend a little time with you, be thankful and lay down all earthly tasks, all little thoughts and limited ideas, and spend a happy time again with Him. Tell Him once more that you accept the part that He would have you take and help you fill, and He will make you sure you want this choice, which He has made with you and you with Him.

(end day 98)

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ACIM Lesson 97 I am spirit

Lesson 97
(beginning day 97)

I am spirit.


Today's idea identifies you with your one Self. It accepts no split identity, nor tries to weave opposing factors into unity. It simply states the truth. Practice this truth today as often as you can, for it will bring your mind from conflict to the quiet fields of peace. No chill of fear can enter, for your mind has been absolved from madness, letting go illusions of a split identity.


We state again the truth about your Self, the holy Son of God Who rests in you; whose mind has been restored to sanity. You are the spirit lovingly endowed with all your Father's Love and peace and joy. You are the spirit which completes Himself, and shares His function as Creator. He is with you always, as you are with Him.


Today we try to bring reality still closer to your mind. Each time you practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a thousand years or more are saved. The minutes which you give are multiplied over and over, for the miracle makes use of time, but is not ruled by it. Salvation is a miracle, the first and last; the first that is the last, for it is one.


You are the spirit in whose mind abides the miracle in which all time stands still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using these ideas becomes a time that has no limit and that has no end. Give, then, these minutes willingly, and count on Him Who promised to lay timelessness beside them. He will offer all His strength to every little effort that you make. Give Him the minutes which He needs today, to help you understand with Him you are the spirit that abides in Him, and that calls through His Voice to every living thing; offers His sight to everyone who asks; replaces error with the simple truth.


The Holy Spirit will be glad to take five minutes of each hour from your hands, and carry them around this aching world where pain and misery appear to rule. He will not overlook one open mind that will accept the healing gifts they bring, and He will lay them everywhere He knows they will be welcome. And they will increase in healing power each time someone accepts them as his thoughts, and uses them to heal.


Thus will each gift to Him be multiplied a thousandfold and tens of thousands more. And when it is returned to you, it will surpass in might the little gift you gave as much as does the radiance of the sun outshine the tiny gleam a firefly makes an uncertain moment and goes out. The steady brilliance of this light remains and leads you out of darkness, nor will you be able to forget the way again.


Begin these happy exercises with the words the Holy Spirit speaks to you, and let them echo round the world through Him:


Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.


Expressed through you, the Holy Spirit will accept this gift that you received of Him, increase its power and give it back to you.


Offer each practice period today gladly to Him. And He will speak to you, reminding you that you are spirit, one with Him and God, your brothers and your Self. Listen for His assurance every time you speak the words He offers you today, and let Him tell your mind that they are true. Use them against temptation, and escape its sorry consequences if you yield to the belief that you are something else. The Holy Spirit gives you peace today. Receive His words, and offer them to Him.

(end day 97)

ACIM Lesson 96 Salvation comes from my one Self

Lesson 96
(beginning day 96)

Salvation comes from my one Self.


Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two; as both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant conflict, and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this self-perception. You have sought many such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be compatible. But one exists.


The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you try, what means you use and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you would be saved. Until you have accepted this, you will attempt an endless list of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before, and failing as the next one surely will.


Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and evil have no meeting place. The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be split in two, and still be what It is and must forever be. A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. If you are physical, your mind is gone from your self-concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you. If you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality.


Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression. And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power comes from spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. Without its function then it has no peace, and happiness is alien to its thoughts.


Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think. It has denied its Source of strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed against itself and hiding in the body's frail support. Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.


Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot make illusions real, nor solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can. Yet would you have God's plan for the release of His dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free?


Your Self retains Its Thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept among the Thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you.


We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your one Self. Our hourly five-minute practicing will be a search for Him within your mind. Salvation comes from this one Self through Him Who is the Bridge between your mind and It. Wait patiently, and let Him speak to you about your Self, and what your mind can do, restored to It and free to serve Its Will.


Begin with saying this:


Salvation comes from my one Self. Its Thoughts are mine to use.


Then seek Its Thoughts, and claim them as your own. These are your own real thoughts you have denied, and let your mind go wandering in a world of dreams, to find illusions in their place. Here are your thoughts, the only ones you have. Salvation is among them; find it there.


If you succeed, the thoughts that come to you will tell you you are saved, and that your mind has found the function that it sought to lose. Your Self will welcome it and give it peace. Restored in strength, it will again flow out from spirit to the spirit in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things. Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.


Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. The joy your Self experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking Him Who joins your mind and Self, you offer Him another treasure to be kept for you.


Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your one Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And all of it is given everyone who asks for it, and will accept the gift. Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!

(end day 96)

ACIM Lesson 95 I am one Self united with my Creator

Lesson 95
(beginning day 95)

I am one Self, united with my Creator.


Today's idea accurately describes you as God created you. You are one within yourself, and one with Him. Yours is the unity of all creation. Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. You do not accept this, and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already.


You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God's creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.


We will attempt today to be aware only of what can hear and see, and what makes perfect sense. We will again direct our exercises towards reaching your one Self, which is united with Its Creator. In patience and in hope we try again today.


The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in which you are at present. It is difficult at this point not to allow your mind to wander, if it undertakes extended practice. You have surely realized this by now. You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.


Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at this time. In addition to recognizing your difficulties with sustained attention, you must also have noticed that, unless you are reminded of your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for long periods of time. You often fail to remember the short applications of the idea for the day, and you have not yet formed the habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation.


Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time, planned to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it. Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain heavily defended against learning.


We will, therefore, keep to the five-minutes-an-hour practice periods for a while, and urge you to omit as few as possible. Using the first five minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful, since it imposes firmer structure. Do not, however, use your lapses from this schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can. There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because you have already failed to do what is required. This should, however, merely be recognized as what it is; a refusal to let your mistake be corrected, and an unwillingness to try again.


The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your mistakes. He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. Let us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence, and our failures to follow the instructions for practicing the day's idea. This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather than give it power to delay our learning. If we give it power to do this, we are regarding it as strength, and are confusing strength with weakness.


When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course, you have merely made a mistake. This calls for correction, and for nothing else. To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes, based on the first and reinforcing it. It is this process that must be laid aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions against the truth.


Let all these errors go by recognizing them for what they are. They are attempts to keep you unaware you are one Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace. This is the truth, and nothing else is true. Today we will affirm this truth again, and try to reach the place in you in which there is no doubt that only this is true.


Begin the practice periods today with this assurance, offered to your mind with all the certainty that you can give:


I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.


Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas:


I am one Self.


Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning that the words convey.


You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. You are God's Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. You are one Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself.


You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will be. You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united with your Father in His Will. Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts. This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. You are one Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you.


Do not forget today. We need your help; your little part in bringing happiness to all the world. And Heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try today. Share, then, its surety, for it is yours. Be vigilant. Do not forget today. Throughout the day do not forget your goal. Repeat today's idea as frequently as possible, and understand each time you do so, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.


Your own acknowledgment you are one Self, united with your Father, is a call to all the world to be at one with you. To everyone you meet today, be sure to give the promise of today's idea and tell him this:


You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as one.

(end day 95)

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ACIM Lesson 94

Lesson 94
(beginning day 94)

I am as God created me.


Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God created you. The sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here is salvation accomplished. Here is sanity restored.


True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. You are as God created you. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God's Son. You stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will remain throughout eternity.


Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to the attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching with these words:


I am as God created me.


I am His Son eternally.


Now try to reach the Son of God in you. This is the Self that never sinned, nor made an image to replace reality. This is the Self that never left Its home in God to walk the world uncertainly. This is the Self that knows no fear, nor could conceive of loss or suffering or death.


Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth. God has Himself promised that it will be revealed to all who ask for it. You are asking now. You cannot fail because He cannot fail.


If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five minutes of every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:


I am as God created me.


I am His Son eternally.


Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you. And be sure to respond to anyone who seems to irritate you with these words:


You are as God created you.


You are His Son eternally.


Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. Each one you do will be a giant stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth.

(end day 94)

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ACIM Lesson 93 Light, Joy and Peace abide in me.

Lesson 93
(beginning day 93)

Light and joy and peace abide in me.


You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.


These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation in strange ways; have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of dust,--all this is true by what you now believe.


Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but from a very different reference point, from which such idle thoughts are meaningless. These thoughts are not according to God's Will. These weird beliefs He does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you do not perceive that this is so.


Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil that you think you did was never done, that all your sins are nothing, that you are as pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in you? Your image of yourself cannot withstand the Will of God. You think that this is death, but it is life. You think you are destroyed, but you are saved.


The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal, and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the Son of God. It does not hurt him, nor attack his peace. It has not changed creation, nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin, and love to hate. What power can this self you made possess, when it would contradict the Will of God?


Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated, until it is accepted. It is true. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch it, or change what God created as eternal. The self you made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy and peace abide in you.


Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;--you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.


In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, begin by stating the truth about your creation:


Light and joy and peace abide in me.


My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.


Then put away your foolish self-images, and spend the rest of the practice period in trying to experience what God has given you, in place of what you have decreed for yourself.


You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its Own. Here you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.


You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of each hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can. At least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:


Light and joy and peace abide in me.


My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.


Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing that this is a statement of the truth about you.


If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:


Light and joy and peace abide in you.


Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.


You can do much for the world's salvation today. You can do much today to bring you closer to the part in salvation that God has assigned to you. And you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the day is true indeed.

(end day 93)

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Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life

Good evening.  And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet.
Good evening you holy Sons and Daughters of God.  It is the acknowledgement of your holiness, your willingness to embrace it that actively reconnects you with your Father and sets the scene for returning to your right Mind or, might I say, letting your right Mind be returned to you by virtue of your not holding yourself apart from It any longer.
We’ve talked about the fact that you travel with mighty companions, not the least of which is your Self—the Holy Spirit.  Not only that, you are companioned with by all of your creations and they all wait for you on the other side of the bridge, as it were, that goes across the little gap between illusion and Reality.  In fact, they are mighty enough that they constitute an attraction that will help bring you across the bridge once you have decided to bring the necessary amount of self-discipline and determination to cross it and follow through with commitment.
Now there’s a reason you’re not on the other side of the bridge right now.  And in order to cross the bridge, you’re going to have to look squarely at it so that you may release it, because it is the energizing—the reinforcement of it—that has kept you ignorant of your Father and of your Self. 
This something is called “The special hate relationship.”
I know we’ve been talking about the beautifulness of you as the holy Son or Daughter of God.  And there’s a reason for it.  Not only is it true of you, not only is it the truth about you, the knowledge of it is what gives you the impetus, as it were, to reach for it, to be willing to re-embrace it.
Now, there’s only one . . . there is only one special hate relationship.  And you’re likely to be surprised at who it’s with.  It’s with God.  Strong words . . .  special hate relationship with your Father?  It’s not too strong a word. 
When you decided you would rather see things your way, when you decided you would rather define what things are and you got a divorce from your Father, you stood in flat denial of His Place in your existence—the fact that He actually is the Source of your Being.  You also separated yourself from your Birthright, which caused you, as we have discussed many times, to immediately experience fear and guilt.
Now, you took on the challenge that fear and guilt represented.  You didn’t take it as your sanity telling you, you were in unreal territory, that you were doing something impossible to do . . . and to stop.  And so fear and guilt became forever present with you as a part of existence.
Now, fear of what?  What would the fear be about?  There’s only one thing at this point that the fear could be about and that would be that you would be found out that you had denied your Father.  That in fact, you were in a hate relationship with Him because you said, “I have nothing to do with Him.  I want nothing to do with Him.  I want nothing to do with whatever it is I might deserve in terms of inheritance from Him because I want to experience my independence.”
When you’re in denial of your Source, and subsequently in denial of who you Are because you lose the direct experience of who you Are and your divine Birthright, that is an act of hate.  Self-denial is the most intense form of delusion and it has negative effects.
So, let’s go into the book.  New section:

ILLUSION AND REALITY OF LOVE¹

Be not afraid to look upon the special hate relationship, . .

Now this might seem to be an abrupt shift, after talking for awhile about the holy Son of God that you Are and the mighty companions and your creations and so on and so forth, and the availability you have of the holy instant to access your holiness, to access the direct experience of the Father and to come back into your right Mind.  But this step is the next step once you decide to engage in the holy instant, once you decide to engage in reclaiming your divinity—this must be looked at. 

Be not afraid to look upon the special hate relationship for freedom lies in looking at it.

If you don’t look at it, you won’t realize it’s there.  You don’t go around thinking, “I hate God . . . I hate God!”  But the fact that you won’t let God direct your paths on an ongoing daily basis in every instance, is a demonstration of the fact that you’re in an oppositional relationship.  It’s that simple.
So, you’re unaware of it.  You can’t possibly come Home as long as you’re unaware of it.  Which is why we’ve been talking . . . and talking and talking about coming Home, and how to come Home, and the steps.  And now we’ve come to this place where the step is to acknowledge that you Are a holy Son of God. 
Well, this experience of dissonance caused by fear and guilt, cause you to not like yourself.  So a secondary aspect of this special hate relationship, which is the only one there is with God, is that you end up hating yourself.
Once again you think, “Well, as a general rule, I don’t go around hating myself.  As a general rule, the majority of my life I’ve liked myself.  It’s only when I’ve been depressed that I haven’t liked myself.”
But let me ask you this: “Do you like yourself, you holy Son of God?  Do you like yourself, you holy Daughter of God?”
“Oh-h, there ya go again, bringing that up!  Well, I don’t mind embracing in my head the idea that I’m a holy Son of God, but no, I don’t want it to be public!  I don’t want to claim it and live it and Be it!”
“. . . Oh, so you don’t like yourself, huh?”
That’s what that means.  Don’t be afraid to look at it.  If you don’t want to know of your holiness, then be aware of it.  Because in being aware of it, instead of unconscious of it, you have a choice available to you.  And so you are further ahead of the game. 
It’s essential for you to know that you have a choice in order to cross the bridge, in order to Wake up, in order to come back into your right Mind.

Be not afraid to look upon the special hate relationship for freedom lies in looking at it. It would be impossible not to know the meaning of love, except for this. For the special love relationship, in which the meaning of love is LOST, is undertaken solely to offset the hate, but NOT to let it go.

You see? 
“. . . Oh No, I’m not gonna let it go if it means I have to acknowledge that I’m holy—I’m a holy Son of God . . . I don’t want to let it go.  No, I’m enjoying the intensity and the high I get from attempting to overcome the impossible and in some ways, fool myself into believing that I’m accomplishing it.  No-no!”
But . . .

Your salvation will rise clearly before your open eyes as you look on this. You cannot LIMIT hate. The special love relationship will not offset it, . .

. . . it can’t be changed, it can’t be limited, it can’t be minimized . . .

. . . but will merely drive it underground and out of sight. It is essential to bring it INTO sight, and to make no attempt to hide it. For it is the attempt to balance hate with love that MAKES love meaningless to you. The extent of the split that lies in this you do not realize. And UNTIL you do, the split will remain unrecognized, and therefore unhealed.

So, as you move across the bridge, this is the last thing to be healed—it’s the last thing to be healed because it’s the first unhealed act you engaged in.  Your dissociation from the Father and from your conscious experience of your own holiness was your first act in stepping away from the conscious experience of Reality.  The undoing of it therefore, is going to be the last thing you do as you return Home.
And so, although it might not seem a pleasant thing to do, especially when we’ve had such wonderful talks about your holiness, it nevertheless must be looked at clearly.
Now, what’s “a special love relationship?”  Well, I’m going to put it this way:  A special love relationship is a relationship that covers up a special hate relationship. 
And what’s a special hate relationship . . . humanly speaking?  It’s any relationship you have with a Brother or Sister where you haven’t engaged in the two-step, moved into the holy instant and desired to Know the holy truth about your Brother or Sister.  And then having been infilled with it, relating to your Brother or Sister from the new vantage point revealed to you—a vantage point that is yours because you decided to join with the Father.
Now, as along as you are pretending to be an orphan, in an orphanage, having an orphan mindset, all of your relationships will be unconscious relationships.  And what I mean by that is, that you will be having a relationship with someone Real, but you will be unconscious of who they really Are.  Why?  Because in the orphan mindset, your Brother or Sister is a means to an end,  not a Brother or Sister.  Not Family.  Not someone sharing the same Birthright—the same holy Birthright as you. 
Being a means to an end, all relationships are there to be used—to be used to  your benefit.  And I’m going to say, to be used to help you forget the hate you’re feeling for yourself.
Therefore, you will do anything . . . you will use your Brother or Sister in any way necessary to cover up the fact that you don’t like yourself. 
Every act you engage in is an attempt to overcome the fact—temporary though it might be—the fact that you don’t like yourself, the fact that you don’t feel good about yourself.  You will use your Brothers and Sisters to build yourself up into something worthwhile . . . you hope.  That is your goal.
Now, what does that mean?  It means that you’re seeing your Brother or Sister as an object, as I said, “a means to an end.”  So you’re denying their holiness as well.  And you know what?  You miss connection with them, just as they miss connection with you because they’re seeing you as “a means to an end.” 
And so, existence becomes a dance between people who are not connected with each other, who do the best they can to fool each other into believing that they’re confirming each other’s worth and integrity and value.  And all the time that this is going on, not one of you have stopped to do the two-step so that you might ask of the Father, “What is the truth here about my Brother?  Show me my Brother’s holiness.”
It is amazing that you all get along as well as you do because of the usury nature of relationships as you are practicing them. 
If you don’t see . . . if you don’t dare to look at the fact that the way you are relating to each other as orphans, from an orphan mindset, is cruel and harsh and mean-spirited and destructive, you are not likely to have the impetus necessary to step on across the bridge . . . to reach for the mighty companions Who are with you, as well as all of your creations and the Father Who wish for you to come back into your sanity—your right Mind—where all relationships are holy relationships.

The symbols of hate against the symbols of love play out a conflict which does not exist.

Well, what does it mean “the symbols of hate and the symbols of love?”
Well, as orphans relating to each other as objects, you act in loving ways and you act in unloving ways. 
Behaving lovingly is not being the Presence of Love.
And so all of your behavior constitutes symbols of love, mutually-agreed definitions about what love is and mutually-agreed definitions about what hate is—both of which are false because love is not love and love can be interpreted as hate. 
In other words, if you have mutually-agreed-upon definitions of hate and someone comes along and confronts you with the truth—the real truth about yourself—and says, “You’re the holy Son of God, come join me in the conscious experience of your holiness.”  . . . Oh-boy, that is an unkind thing.
The one who Knows the truth, standing with the Father, says, “You’re indulging in hate relationships, even your special love relationship is a cover-up for your special hate relationship.” 
You say, “This can’t possibly be the truth.  This is a lie.  You are misleading me.  You are hating me . . . because if I were to believe you, I would think I was insane!”  And the one Who Knows the truth, gently says, “But you are insane, but you are not seeing things clearly and there is a clear way to see it and I will show you the clear way to see it.
But, no, this doesn’t add up with the mutually-agreed-upon definitions.  And so it’s misinterpreted.

The symbols of hate against the symbols of love play out a conflict which does not exist.

It’s not happening in Reality.  It’s only happening in minds misunderstanding.

The symbols of hate against the symbols of love play out a conflict which does not exist. For symbols stand for something ELSE, and the symbol of love is without meaning if love is everything. You will go through this last undoing . . .

. . . this undoing of looking at the special hate relationship and the special love relationship, to see that they’re both hateful so that it’s clear to you that there’s no value in holding onto them at all.

You will go through this last undoing quite unharmed, and will at last emerge as . . .

. . . what?

. . .  yourself.

You will come back into your right Mind.  Your right Mind will come back into you, you might say.  And there you, the real You will be.

Be not unwilling now, you are too near, and you will cross the bridge in perfect safety, translated quietly from war to peace. For the illusion of love will NEVER satisfy, but its reality, which awaits you on the other side, will give you everything.

Remember, I said the other side of the bridge is on the other end of your attention.  So we’re not once again talking about going on an internal witch-hunt to find out all the awful things about yourself.  But we are talking about taking an honest look so that you can clearly see that as long as you’re practicing special relationships, as long as you are engaging in them, nurturing them and reinforcing them, you are keeping yourself ignorant of who you Are.  You are keeping yourself unconscious of the Kingdom of Heaven that you’re in the middle of, and you are bound to the trinity of sin, sickness and death.
If you’re looking at this squarely, you’ll see that it doesn’t make sense and that it is at least worthwhile for you to make a determination to cross the bridge.
Now, crossing the bridge is not a matter of growth.  It’s not a process of becoming anything.  Remember, you are neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it.  You are at that point and must understand yourself therefrom.  That’s a journey without distance.  But it’s a giving of your attention where it’s essential for it to be in order for you to be sane.
So as we read, don’t imagine that  this  is  going  to  be  a terrible  amount of work, it’s going to take a long time.  [snaps fingers]  The holy instant . . . that’s it!  Hesitate . . . stop dead in your tracks . . . abandon your conditioned responses.  Be still and say, “Father, what is the truth here?  Holy Spirit, what is the truth here?  My Guide, what is the truth here?”  And then listen for it . . . genuinely, sincerely be the presence of mind that has no other agenda than to have the truth register.
So we’re still talking about something simple.  The reason you’re not on the other side of the bridge is because you still like being an orphan and you don’t see how awful it is, you don’t see how hateful it is, you don’t see how destructive it is.  The destructiveness just seems to be a challenge for you to take on, with an assurance that comes from somewhere telling you that you can take it on and succeed—when it isn’t true.

Be not unwilling now, you are too near, . .

. . . you really are too near . . .

. . . and you will cross the bridge in perfect safety, translated quietly from war to peace.

You could say also, translated quietly from “getting” to “giving.”

For the illusion of love will NEVER satisfy, but its reality, which awaits you on the other side, will give you everything.

. . . on the other side, at the other end of your attention.  That’s all.  Don’t think so much in terms of space, “Well, is it a short bridge or is it a long bridge?  How far is it to the other side?”  No, it’s just to the other end of your attention.

The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt.

Um-m . . . dramatic words, but they’re just describing the state of being as an orphan, where guilt and fear go hand-in-hand, are ever-present and seem to be the impetus for expressions of will that have the securing of safety and success as their goal.  Seems rather reasonable to you, doesn’t it?  Sure, but it’s not.  It’s a process that keeps you unconscious, because it never gets you outside the orphanage.  It never even suggests that you look to the horizon.

The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt.

A soft, caressing, nurturing place, where both of you have found ways to provide each other with some form of encouragement that allows you to let down and not energize your fears so much.  You’re together to get, and you demand of each other to give, “Give me more, give me more!  I’m nervous, I’m upset . . . give me more!  I’m afraid . . . comfort me!” 
And then because the other provides some attention that you define as comforting, you set down some of your fear and experience more peace.  And you fool yourself into believing that your lover has comforted you.  And you fool your lover into believing that he or she has comforted you.  And both of you are still in the mist of delusion and nothing has been accomplished except a temporary lull—a mutual process of fooling each other.

The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt.

And I’m going to add:  Without making any attempts to leave it . . .

. . . the storm of guilt. It makes no attempt to rise ABOVE the storm, into the sunlight.

I would say:  It makes no attempt to walk out of the orphanage and onto the horizon and beyond the horizon.

On the contrary, it emphasizes guilt OUTSIDE the haven by attempting to build barricades against it, and keep within them.

“Um-m, you’re my salvation, you’re the one who gives me peace.  You make me feel secure.  I’m not going to look outside of you for my good and I’m not going to let you look outside of me for your good.  We will imprison each other in the security of the caring that we’re willing to extend to each other in order to make us feel some measure of peace . . .”
Wow, . . get, get, get!  No love, . . no love!

The special love relationship is not perceived as a value in itself, but as a place of safety from which hatred is split off, and kept apart.

Well, you know what?  There may be a certain degree or level of comfort that two lovers can achieve, but if the trinity of sin, sickness and death prevails then no security, no safety has been achieved and the victory of love is a hollow victory. 
And I’m telling you and have been telling you that your Birthright is more than that.  I could say you deserve more than that, but it’s a matter of your Birthright, it’s a matter of Who you Are and the fact that as the holy Son of God or the holy Daughter of God you already are eternal.  And it’s your Birthright to be experiencing that without the so-called threat—the imagined threat—of sin, sickness and death.  That is no part of the conscious experience of your Birthright and it’s time for you to be finished with it.

The special love partner is acceptable only as long as he serves this purpose. Hatred can enter, and indeed is welcome in SOME aspects of the relationship, but it is still held together by the illusion of love.

Illusions holding each other together, or one illusion holding another illusion at bay, it’s still insanity.  It’s still not your Birthright.  It’s still not you in your whole Mind.  It’s not the holy Son of God that you Are at this moment, even though you’re not experiencing it in its Totality.  But you will not shift from the partial experience of it into its Totality if nobody points out to you where illusion is happening, where a special hate relationship is happening, where a special love relationship is happening that doesn’t constitute sanity at all.   If no one points it out to you, you won’t look elsewhere, you’ll just work within the already established parameters.

Hatred can enter, and indeed is welcome in SOME aspects of the relationship, . .

After all, a little bit of it invigorates the relationship, brings some life to it, gets you closer and after all, making up is so wonderful.

Hatred can enter, and indeed is welcome in SOME aspects of the relationship, but it is still held together by the illusion of love. If the illusion goes, the relationship is broken or becomes unsatisfying on the grounds of disillusionment.

Disillusionment simply means: That the illusions you were under have been shown for what they are—illusions.

Love is NOT an illusion. It is a fact. Where disillusionment is possible, there was not love but hate.  For hate IS an illusion, and what can change was NEVER love.  It is certain that those who select certain ones as partners in any aspect of living, and use them for any purpose which they would not share with others, are trying to LIVE with guilt rather than DIE of it.

You see?  You use your special relationships to find ways to live comfortably in the uncomfortable state of guilt by providing a distraction from it.  Um-m, we’ll say, a sweet distraction from it.  But the sweet distraction is an illusion also.  So you try . . .

. . . to LIVE with guilt rather than DIE of it.

Well, here’s the thing:  If you didn’t have the sweet illusion to make you comfortable in the experience of guilt, you would be just simply faced with guilt.  Guilt is unyielding.  Guilt doesn’t give the benefit of the doubt.  Guilt is harsh.  Guilt is cruel.  Guilt is mean.  To live with it would be to die.  But if you are willing to face it, you will realize, without the cover-up of the sweet special love relationship, you will see it for what it is and you will make a choice.  You won’t die of it, because in the honest appraisal of what it truly is you will make a choice.  [chucks]  You will get across that bridge.  You will find it justifiable to hesitate, become still, ask the Father or the Holy Spirit, “What is the truth here?,” and become undefended enough and uncontrolling enough to let yourself be filled from some place other than your best judgments.

This is the choice they see.

You know, . .

. . . to LIVE with guilt rather than DIE of it.

And love, to them, is only an escape from death. They seek it desperately, but not in the peace in which it would gladly come quietly TO them.

[Repeats] They seek it desperately, but not in the peace in which it would gladly come quietly TO them.

You see?  It’s the difference between getting and letting.  It’s the difference between controlling and allowing.

And when they find the fear of death is still upon them, the love relationship LOSES the illusion that it is what it is not. For then the barricades against it are broken, fear rushes in and hatred triumphs.

“Oh, please . . . give me the sweetness of a special relationship to undo hatred’s triumph.”  You see?  And so you scramble again, instead of looking at it squarely and saying, “There has to be another way to look at this.”  To have enough humility to shut up and ask for help from Something outside yourself. That’s the way you undo the divorce.  That’s the way you start across the bridge . . . to where? . . the other end of your attention.

There are no triumphs of love. Only hate is concerned with the "triumph of love" at all. The illusion of love CAN triumph over the illusion of hate, but always at the price of making BOTH illusions.

Meaning that you’re still trapped, you’re still stuck.  The trinity:  sin, sickness and  death  still  governs.

As long as the illusion of hatred lasts, so long will love be an illusion to you.

So . . .

. . . long as the illusion of hatred lasts, . .

. . . well, remember now, your Brothers and Sisters didn’t cause the hatred you feel.  No circumstances out there caused it.  And not even a flaw in your character caused it.  The illusion of hatred is being experienced for a simple reason.  You’ve said, “Father, I want a divorce.  Father, I’m going to ignore you.  Father, I am disinheriting myself, not only of all the abundance that’s mine, but I’m disinheriting myself from my awareness of Who I really Am.”  As long as that is in place, hatred lasts—the illusion of hatred lasts.

As long as the illusion of hatred lasts, so long will love be an illusion to you. And then the only choice which remains possible is which illusion you prefer.

Well, today you’ll prefer a little bit of hate, tomorrow you’ll prefer a little bit of love, and you play both sides of the fence depending upon what it will get for you in terms of securing a so-called safety and security from sin, sickness and death.  That’s a security and safety you can’t ever actually have until you abandon the orphanage.  Until you reclaim your holiness by saying, “Hey, you know what?  Might not be so bad to be holy, especially if I already am.  I am going to clearly look at the awfulness of hate and the awfulness of special love relationships and I’m going to be willing to look at the destructiveness of them and to see that there are no circumstances under which they can be construed as constructive and therefore my intelligence tells me that there’s no profit whatsoever in pursuing them or engaging with them or nurturing them any further.  I will, with commitment and determination, cross the bridge.

There IS no conflict in the choice between truth and illusion.

And that’s a very important point.  Don’t imagine that this is going to be a horrendous process.

There IS no conflict in the choice between truth and illusion. Seen in THESE terms, no one would hesitate. But conflict enters the instant the choice seems to be one between ILLUSIONS, for this choice does not matter.

Why doesn’t it matter?  Because the choice has no effect—a choice of one illusion over another illusion is still illusion.  Nothing is accomplished.  No healing is accomplished.  No return of sanity occurs.  And it’s the futility of choosing between illusions, and the fact that you have been choosing between illusions that needs to become very clear in order for it to be utterly logical to you to see the wisdom of deciding for crossing the bridge.

Where one choice is as dangerous as the other, the decision MUST be one of despair.

[Repeats] Where one choice is as dangerous as the other, the decision MUST be one of despair.

Despair you’re already familiar with, because you’re already making choices between one that’s as dangerous as another.  And you’re ready for more than that . . . you holy Son of God . . . you holy Daughter of God.  You are ready for more than that.
This week, pay attention to how you’re behaving.  Pay attention to whether you’re leveraging your Brother for this, that or the other thing.  Maybe you’re just leveraging that one to feel better or happier because you really care as well as because you want to be important to that one—you want to get something out of it.  Watch what kind of trips you lay on them, whether they’re guilt trips or trips of honor—bestowing honor on him or her, again, so that you can get something.
You know what?  Stop looking for a messiah so that you might give your allegiance and follow him or her.  After all, you don’t want to sidetrack someone from his or her divinity by trying to prove to them that they are a messiah that they’re not, so that you might do a couple of things:  Maybe rub shoulders with that one and be seen as important or maybe get that one to do something for you, to lift you out of your problems without your having to build the bridge yourself.  You see?
There are many ways to be unkind to your Brother.  There are many ways to express hate.  And even love is one of them.  Not real Love, but special love.
Crossing the bridge is the point.  Remember that.  I love you all.