GREAT COURSE QUOTES

“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.”

POINTED QUESTIONS FORCOURSE CORRECTIONS

“Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them.”

•***

“You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.

Is it your decision to do so?”***

Are you afraid to find a loss of self in finding God? (p. 565)

***“Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God?

You will accept only whom you invite. You are free to determine who shall be your guest, and how long he

shall remain with you. Yet this is not real freedom, for it still depends on how you see it.”

*** (11.II.7:1-4)

“Seek not outside yourself.For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for

what you want, insisting where it must be found.Do you prefer that you be right or happy?”

(T-29.VII.1)

***

“There is no question but one you should ever ask of yourself:

”'Do I want to know my Father's Will for me?'” Chapter 8, Section VI

***"Who walks with me?" This question should be asked a thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and established peace. Today let doubting cease. God speaks for you in answering your question with these words:I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world, I light my mind and all the minds which God created one with me.

Workbook Lesson 156***

“In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is

"What do I want to come of this? What is it for?" The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning,

for it is this which will determine the outcome.”***

"Remember how many times you thought you knew all the ‘facts’ you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were!

Is there anyone who has not had this experience? Would you know how many times you merely thought you were

right, without ever realizing you were wrong?" (M.10.4:1,2,3).

***“How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the

game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children’s toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?” ***“How willing are you to forgive your brother? How much do you desire peace instead of endless strife and misery and pain? These questions are the same, in different form.”

(Text chap 29, VI)

***“Your questions have no answer, being made to still God’s

Voice, which asks of everyone one question only:“Are you ready yet to help Me save the world?””

(Clarification of Terms, The Ego – The Miracle)

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COURSE’S PRINCIPAL MESSAGES?

The Simplicity of Salvation

“The course is simple. It has one function and one goal. Only in that does it remain wholly consistent because only

that can be consistent.”

A Course in Mind Training

“This is a course in mind training. All learning involves attention and study at some level. Some of the later parts

of the course rest too heavily on these earlier sections not to require their careful study. You will also need them for preparation. Without this, you may become much too

fearful of what is to come to make constructive use of it…Some of the later steps in this course…involve a more direct approach to God Himself. It would be unwise to

start on these steps without careful preparation, or awe will be confused with fear, and the experience will be more

traumatic than beatific… ”T-1.VII.4:1ff

*** Know Thyself

“The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is know thyself. There is nothing else to learn. Everyone is looking for himself, and for the power and

glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. Your power and

glory are in him because they are yours. The ego tries to find them in yourself because it does not know where to

look. The Holy Spirit teaches you that, if you look only at yourself, you cannot find yourself because that is not what

you are.” (The Holy Encounter)***

Ideas Leave Not Their Source

You think that death is of the body. Yet it is but an idea, irrelevant to what is seen as physical. A thought is in the

mind. It can be then applied as mind directs it. But its origin is where it must be changed, if change occurs. Ideas

leave not their source. The emphasis this course has placed on that idea is due to its centrality in our attempts to change your mind about yourself. It is the reason you can heal. It is the cause of healing. It is why you cannot die. Its

truth established you as one with God.

Death is the thought that you are separate from your Creator. It is the belief conditions change, emotions

alternate because of causes you cannot control, you did not make, and you can never change. It is the fixed belief ideas

can leave their source, and take on qualities the source does not contain, becoming different from their own origin,

apart from it in kind as well as distance, time and form. Death cannot come from life. Ideas remain united to their source. They can extend all that their source contains. In that, they can go far beyond themselves. But they can not give birth to what was never given them. As they are made, so will their making be. As they were born, so will they then give birth. And where they come from, there will they return….

I walk with God in perfect holiness.Today's idea but states the simple truth that makes the

thought of sin impossible. It promises there is no cause for guilt, and being causeless it does not exist. It follows surely from the basic thought so often mentioned in the text; ideas leave not their source. If this be true, how can you be apart

from God? How could you walk the world alone and separate from your Source? (From Workbook Lessons 167

& 156)

***A Universal Experience, Not a Universal Theology

“A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this

experience toward which the course is directed” (C.in.2:5,6)

***Remove the Barriers to Love

“This course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim,

however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.”

*** “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false.” (T-16.IV.6:1-2).

***There Is No World

“There is no world! This is the central thought the Course attempts to teach.”

(Lesson 132, p.6)

***No Compromise

“This course is easy just because it makes no compromise. Yet it seems difficult to those who still believe that

compromise is possible.”

(Text, Chapter 23)

***God’s Son is Guiltless

“Its central theme is always, ‘God's Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.' It can be taught by actions

or thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any place or time or manner.”

(M.1.3:4,5,6)***

Forgiveness/Overlooking Error

“This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. It is concerned only

with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. The structure of

“individual consciousness” is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the “original error” or the “original sin.” To study the error itself does not lead to correction, if you are indeed to succeed in overlooking

the error. And it is just this process of overlooking at which the course aims.”

(Introduction to “Clarification of Terms,” Paragraph 1)

*** What You Use Body For, It will Become for You

“The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use if for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all…” (Manual, Section 12, 5)

“What you think you are is a belief to be undone.”

Miracles

“There is no order of difficulty in miracles.One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another.

They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.”

***Miracles represent freedom from fear. "Atoning" means

"undoing." The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles (T-1.I.26).

***

“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.They are performed by those who temporarily have more

for those who temporarily have less.”***

The miracle but calls your ancient name. (p. 518)

***“Know yourself in the One Light

where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear.”

Enlightenment

“Why wait for Heaven?

Those who seek the Light are merely covering their eyes.

The Light is in them now.

Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.”

God

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

***“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really

need correct.” VI.2.1

***

“You are the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. This is how a man must think of himself

in his heart, because this is what he is.” III.3-4***

In the workbook, Jesus opens the lesson about wanting the peace of God by stating, "To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything" (W.pI.185.1:1,2).

***“Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan.”

***

“God knows His children with perfect certainty.

He created them by knowing them.

He recognizes them perfectly.

When they do not recognize each other, they do not recognize Him.”

***

“Glory be to God in the highest and to you because He has so willed it.

Ask and it shall be give you because it has already been given.

Ask for light and learn that you are light.

If you want understanding and enlightenment,you will learn it because your will to learn it is

your decisions to listen to the Teacher who knows of light and can therefore teach it to

you.(8.IV.16.1-3)

***

"The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are

forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be

described and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the conditions of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will

dawn upon you of itself."

LOVE

“The search for love is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with love.”

(p. 267)***

“Nothing and everything cannot coexist.

To believe in one is to deny the other.

Fear is really nothing and love is everything.

Whenever light enters darkness, the darkness is abolished.”  (2.VII.5.1-5)

***

“Love created me like itself…Love holds no grievances.”

“Judgment and love are opposites. From one comes all the sorrows of the world.

From the other comes the peace of God. Judgment will bind my eyes and make me blind.” (p. 470)

***

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers

totally without judgment.” (T.3.VI.3:1)

***

“When you want only love, you will see nothing else.”

EGO

The ego lives by comparisons. (p. 52)

The ego cannot survive without judgment. (p. 54)

The ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal. (p. 110)

***“What is the ego?  But a dream of what you really are.  A thought you are apart from your Creator and a wish to be what He created not.  It is a thing of madness, not reality at all.  A name for namelessness is all it is.  A symbol of impossibility; a choice for options that do not exist. We name it but to help us understand that it is nothing but an ancient thought that what is made has immortality.  But what could come of this except a dream which, like all dreams, can only end in death?” (Clarification of Terms, “The Ego – The Miracle”)

***

What is the ego?  Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something.  In a world of form the ego cannot be denied for it alone seems real.  Yet could God’s Son as He created him abide in form or in a world of form?  Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its

illusive nature is concealed behind the words that seem to make it so.

There is no definition for a lie that serves to make it true.  Nor can there be a truth that lies conceal effectively.  The ego’s unreality is not denied by words nor is its meaning clear because its nature seems to have a form.  Who can define the undefinable?  And yet there is an answer even here.

We cannot really make a definition for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not.  And this is shown to us with perfect clarity.  It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is.  Look at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful. The ego’s opposite in every way,–in origin, effect and consequence–we call a miracle.  And here we find all that is not the ego in this world.  Here is the ego’s opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was, for here we see all that it seemed to do, and cause and its effects must still be one.

Where there was darkness now we see the light.  What is the ego?  What the darkness was.  Where is the ego?  Where the darkness was.  What is it now and where can it be found?  Nothing and nowhere.  Now the light has come: Its opposite has gone without a trace.  Where evil was there now is holiness. What is the ego?  What the evil was.  Where is the ego?  In an evil dream that but seemed real while you were dreaming it.  Where there was crucifixion

stands God’s Son.  What is the ego?  Who has need to ask?  Where is the ego?  Who has need to seek for an illusion now that dreams are gone?

Holy Spirit

“The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because It is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control. It does not overcome, because It does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what It reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you may make” (T.5.II.7.1,2,3,4,5,6).

ILLUSIONS & REALITY

“ Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest” (W.pI.198.2:8, 9,10)

THE SON OF GOD/SONSHIP

“He makes no distinctions in what is Himself and what is still Himself. What He creates is not apart from Him, and nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him” (W.pI.132.12:3,4; see also T.2.I.1:1; T.11.I.2,3,4,5,6,7; T.28.II.2:1,2). The Son is the extension of God within the Godhead, “a Oneness joined as One” (T.25.I.7:1)

THE WORLD

“The world has never been at all.

Eternity remains a constant state.”

***

“Forget not the Kingdom of God for anything the world has to offer.

The world can add nothing to the power and the glory of God and His holy Sons, but it can blind the Sons to the

Father if they behold it.

You cannot behold the world and know God.Only one is true.”

***

“This is an insane world, and do not underestimate the extent of its insanity.”

Text, Chapter 13

***“The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt” (T.13.in.2:2; see also W.pII.3.2:1).***

“You must realize that your hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it; and why you must get rid of it before you can perceive the world as it really is.”

Text, Chapter 12

***

What is Forgiveness?

“Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation.”Text, Chapter 3

***

“Forgiveness is for God and toward God but not of Him. It is impossible to think of anything He

created that could need forgiveness. Forgiveness, then, is an illusion, but because of

its purpose, which is the Holy Spirit’s, it has one difference. Unlike all other illusions it lead

away from error and not towards it.”

***

“You who want peace can only find it by complete forgiveness.”  (VI.1)

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brother totally without judgment.”

~ Text, Chapter 3

***

“To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you.”

*** “Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin, except a false idea about God's Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.

Forgiveness is still, and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.

Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, through Him Who is your Guide, your Savior and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success. He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by God. Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees, and whom He honors as the Son of God.”

***

Jesus

“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God.”

(Clarification of Terms, Jesus – Christ, paragraph 2) ***“Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world. Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a brother he would be to you. For he will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto your God.”

***“There is nothing about me that you cannot attain.I have nothing that does not come from God.The difference between us now is that I have nothing else.”

***

"If you want to be like me I will help you, knowing that we are alike. If you want to be different, I will wait until you change your mind. I can teach you, but only you can choose to listen to my teaching (T.8.IV.6:3,4,5).

***

“When I [Jesus] said, “I am with you always,” I meant it literally.

I am not absent to anyone in any situation.

Because I am always with you, you are the way and the truth and the light.

You did not make this power, any more than I did.

It was created to be shared and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as

belonging to anyone at the expense of another.

Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only

meaning.”7.IV.25.1

***"Teach not that I [Jesus] died in vain. Teach rather that I

did not die by demonstrating that I live in you" (T-11.VI.7:3-4).

Fear

“There is nothing to fear.”

***I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

(p. 325)

“All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception

that you have the ability to usurp the power of God.” (II.I.4.1)

***It is but your thoughts that bring you fear.

(p. 365)

“If you knew who walks beside you on this path that you have chosen, fear would be impossible.”

***

“Be not afraid. We only start again an ancient journey long ago begun that but seems new. We have begun again upon a road we travelled on before and lost our way a little while. And now we try again.”

***

“When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you.

Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also.

You believe in what you value.

If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly.”  (II.II.1.4-7)

***

“Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine.

If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.” (2.VI.4.9-10)

***

Heaven

“Heaven is not a place or a condition.It is merely an awareness of perfect oneness.” (p. 359)

***“[Heaven is] an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within” (T.18.VI.1:6)

Sickness & Health

“Illness is some form of external searching.

Health is inner peace.” (II.I.5.10-11)

“All healing is essentially the release from fear.” (2.IV.1.7)

Health is seen as the natural state of everything when interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on anything. Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly. Health is the beginning

of the proper perspective on life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life is, being the Voice for

Life Itself” (T.8.VIII.9:8,9,10).

Prayer

“Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything.”

The Body

“The body is the ego's idol; the belief in sin made flesh and then projected outward.”

~ Text, Chapter 20

***It is impossible to seek for pleasure through the body and

not find pain. (p. 386)

***Pain's purpose is the same as pleasure, for they both are

means to make the body real. (p. 537)

***“The body was not made by love.

Yet love does not condemn it and can use it lovingly, respecting what the Son of God has made and using it to

save him from illusions.” (T-18.VI.4:7-8)

***

“It is essential to remember that only the mind can create, and that correction beings at the thought level…

Spirit is already perfect and therefore does not require correction.

The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind.”  (2.V.1.7-9)

***

The Mind

The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. (p. 457)

***

“Few appreciate the real power of the mind, and no one remains fully aware of it all the

time.

However, if you hope to spare yourself from fear there are some things you must realize,

and realize fully.

The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force.

It never sleeps.

Every instant it is creating.

It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally

move mountains.

It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant,

but that is not the real reason you not believe it.

You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually

afraid of them…

There are no idle thoughts.

All thinking produces form at some level.” (2. VI.9.5-14)

Time

“Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast

illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. The script is written. When experience will come to end your doubting has been set. For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.”

Symbols

“It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of the world, forgetting them forever; yet were asked to take a teaching function. You have need to use the symbols of the world a while. But be you not deceived by them as well. They do not stand for anything at all, and in your practicing it is this thought that will release you from them. They become but means by which you can communicate in ways the world can understand, but which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found.”

Syllogisms

“Spirit is in a state of grace foreverYour reality is only spirit

Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.”

***

“To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines: Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, Then there is not perfect love. But: Only perfect love exists. If there is fear, It produces a state that does not exist. Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.”

“Perfect love casts out fear.

If fear exists,

Then there is not perfect love.

But:

Only perfect love exists.

If there is fear,

It produces a state that does not exist.”

Teaching

“The value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is expressed. In fact, if it used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear. This does not necessarily mean that this is the highest level of communication of which he is capable. It does mean, however, that it is the highest level of communication of which he is capable now. The whole aim of the miracle is to raise the level of communication , not to lower it by increasing fear.” (T 2:5)

“Spirit need not be taught, but the ego must be. Learning is ultimately perceived as frightening because it leads to the relinquishment, not the destruction, of the ego to the light of spirit. This is the change the ego must fear, because it does not share my charity. My lesson was like yours, and because I learned it I can teach it. I will never attack your ego, but I am trying to teach you how its thought system arose. When I remind you of your true creation, your ego cannot but respond with fear.” (T 4:3)

"A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this; somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else's" (M.1.1:2).

REMARKABLE COURSE PASSAGES

All Your Past Except Its Beauty is Gone

“How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal" (T.5.IV.8:1,2,3,4,5,6).

At Home In God

“You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.

Is it your decision to do so?

The Better Way

“Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit.

Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better

way.

As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point.

This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in

physical sight.

The alternating investment in the two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict,

which can become very acute.

But the outcome is as certain as God.” (2.III.3.5-10)

The Forgotten Song “Listen-perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten; and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.

“The notes are nothing. Yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep if you remembered how dear it was to you. You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since.

“Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers

everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.

 “This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. Here is the sight of him who knows his Father. Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you. Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body. You know the ancient song, and know it well. Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn the Son of God sings to his Father still.”

10 And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honour of their Creator gives praise to them as well. The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song. And they will look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering who he is they sing of. What is a miracle but this remembering? And who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one awakens it in all. And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone.

GOD IS

“Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.

We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.”

Love, or A Call For Love

"Where there is love, your brother must give it to you because of what it is. But where there is a call for love, you must give it because of what you are" (text, p.275; T-14.X.12:2-3).

Not One Note In Heaven’s Song Was Missed

God gave His Teacher to replace the one you made, not to conflict with it. And what He would replace has been replaced. Time lasted but an instant in your mind, with no effect upon eternity. And so is all time passed, and everything exactly as it was before the way to nothingness was made. The tiny tick of time in which the first mistake was made, and all of them within that one mistake, held also the Correction for that one, and all of them that came within the first. And in that tiny instant time was gone, for that was all it ever was. What God gave answer to is answered and is gone.

To you who still believe you live in time and know not it is gone, the Holy Spirit still guides you through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone. You think you live in what is past. Each thing you look upon you saw but for an instant, long ago, before its unreality gave way to truth. Not one illusion still remains unanswered in your mind. Uncertainty was brought to certainty so long ago that it is hard indeed to hold it to your heart, as if it were before you still.

The tiny instant you would keep and make eternal, passed away in Heaven too soon for anything to notice it had come. What disappeared too quickly to affect the simple knowledge of the Son of God can hardly still be there, for you to choose to be your teacher. Only in the past -- ”an ancient past, too short to make a world in answer to creation, -- did this world appear to rise. So very long ago,

for such a tiny interval of time, that not one note in Heaven’s song was missed. Yet in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgment and in all belief in sin, is that one instant still called back, as if it could be made again in time. You keep an ancient memory before your eyes. And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is.

Seek Ye First the Kingdom

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven because that is where the laws of God operate truly,

and they can operate only truly since they are the laws of Truth.

But seek this only because you can find nothing else.

There is nothing else.

God is all in all in a very literal sense.

All being is in Him who is all Being.You are therefore in Him since your being is

His.”  (7.V.38, 1-4)

Seek Not to Change the World

“Seek not to change the world,but choose to change your mind about the world.

What you see reflects your thinking.And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want

to see.”

Without Your Smile…

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. (workbook lesson 100)

There Is A Light In You

“There is a light in you which cannot die; whose presence is so holy that the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring gifts to you, and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat, and lay their leaves before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper round your holy head.

The light in you is what the universe longs to behold. All living things are still before you, for they recognize Who walks with you. The light you carry is their own. And thus they see in you their holiness, saluting you as savior and as God. Accept their reverence, for it is due to Holiness Itself, which walks with you, transforming in Its gentle light all things unto Its likeness and Its purity.

This is the way salvation works. As you step back, the light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end of sin in punishment and death. In lightness and in laughter is sin gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an instant in approach to God Himself for such a senseless whim?” ~ ACIM Workbook Lesson 156

Simply Do This…Hold Onto Nothing

“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned

about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one

belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty

hands unto your God.”

~ Lesson 189

The Tiny Mad Idea

Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, possible of both accomplishment and real effects. [T-27.VIII.6:2-3]

Into Christ’s Presence

“Into Christ's Presence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect

Love.”(Lesson 157)

You Smile More Frequently

“There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet and the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before.”

The Voice for the Holy Spirit

“The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command because it is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand because it does not seek control. It does not overcome because it does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what it reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you have made for yourselves. The Voice for God is always quiet because it speaks of peace. Yet peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not increase. No one gains from strife. 25 “What profiteth it a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul?” That means that if he listens to the wrong voice, he has lost sight of his Soul. He cannot lose it, but he can not know it. It is therefore lost to him until he chooses right. The Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. He is the part of your mind which always speaks for the right choice because He speaks for God. He is your remaining communication with God, which you can interrupt but cannot destroy. 26 The Holy Spirit is the way in which God’s Will can be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Projection Makes Perception

“Projection makes perception. The world that you see is what you have put there to see; nothing more and nothing less and so it is important to you. The world that you perceive is the witness to your state of mind, the outward picture of your inward condition. As you think so do you perceive. So do not seek to change the world but choose to change your mind about the world’s reality. What you perceive is a result, not a cause. That is why no miracle is harder than another. What you look upon with your Christ Mind’s Vision is healed and Holy and nothing perceived without It means anything. Where there is no meaning there is chaos.”

The Prodigal Son

"Listen to the story of the prodigal son, and learn what God's treasure is and yours: This son of a loving father left his home and thought he had squandered everything for nothing of any value, although he had not understood its worthlessness at the time. He was ashamed to return to his father, because he thought he had hurt him. Yet when he came home the father welcomed him with joy, because the son himself was his father's treasure. He wanted nothing else."

“The Course in Miniature”

“I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.

I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all

theconsequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.

I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.”

Text, Chapter 5 [This passage is sometimes called "the Course in miniature"]

The Holy Encounter

“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter.

As you see him you will see yourself.As you treat him you will treat yourself.

As you think of him you will think of yourself.Never forget this,

for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.”

~ Chapter 8, Section II

The Journey to the Cross

“Do not embark on useless journeys, because they are indeed in vain. The ego may desire them, but spirit cannot embark on them because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation. “The journey to the cross should be the last "useless journey." Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. If you can accept it as your own last useless journey, you are also free to join my resurrection .... Do not make the pathetic error of "clinging to the old rugged cross." The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. This is not the Gospel I intended to offer you (text, p.47; T-4.in.3:1-3, 7- 10).”

The Lord’s Prayer According to ACIM

“Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true relationship with You, in which there are no illusions, and where none can ever enter. Our holiness is Yours. What can there be in us that needs forgiveness when Yours is perfect? The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your forgiveness and Your Love. Let us not wander into temptation, for the temptation of the Son of God is not Your Will. And let us receive only what You have given, and accept but this into the minds which You created and which You love.  Amen.”  [T-16.VII.12]

The Shift That True Perception Brings

This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out is seen within, and there

forgiveness lets it disappear. For there the altar to the Son is set, and there his Father is remembered. Here are all

illusions brought to truth and laid upon the altar. What is seen outside must lie beyond forgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful. Where is hope while sin is seen as outside? What remedy can guilt expect? But seen within your mind,

guilt and forgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one altar. There at last are sickness and its

single remedy joined in one healing brightness. God has come to claim His Own. Forgiveness is complete.

(from the Clarification of Terms: True Perception –Knowledge)

Teach Not That I Died in Vain

“You will not find peace until you have removed the nails from the hands of God’s Son, and taken the last thorn from his forehead. The Love of God surrounds His Son whom the god of crucifixion condemns. Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. For the undoing of the crucifixion of God’s Son is the work of the redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does not judge His guiltless Son. Having given Himself to him, how could it be otherwise?” (T-11.VI.7.)

Truly Helpful

I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent Him Who sent me.

I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do,because He Who sent me will direct me.

I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.

I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.

(Chapter 2, Section 5, A.8)

What Am I?

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

And I am His Son.

(Chapter 23)

What Am I?“I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,

shining in the reflection of His Love.

In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life.

In me is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite.

I am the holy home of God Himself.

I am the Heaven where His Love resides.

I am His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in my purity abides His Own.”

Lesson 351 (“What Am I?”)

A Universal Theology is Impossible

“All terms are potentially controversial, and those who seek controversy will find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends…

“The ego will demand many answers that this course does not give. It does not recognize as questions the mere form of a question to which an answer is impossible. The ego may ask, “How did the impossible occur?”, “To what did the impossible happen?”, and may sak this in many forms. Yet there is no answer; only an experience. Seek only this, and do not let theology delay you.”

(Introduction to the “Clarification of Terms,” paragraphs 2, 4)

How Long?

“How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children’s toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?”

Choose Again

83 Temptation has one lesson it would teach in all its forms wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son

of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty and bound by what it orders him to feel. It

sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. Would you be this if Christ appeared to you in all His

glory, asking you but this:

84 Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of

the world, or would remain in hell and hold your brothers

there.

For He has come, and He is asking this.”

***

“Trials are but lessons you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty

choice before you now can make a better one. In every difficulty Christ calls to you

and gently says, "My brother, choose again."

O my brothers, if you only knew the peace that will envelop you and hold you safe and pure and lovely in the Mind of God, you could but rush to meet Him where His altar is. Hallowed your Name and His, for they are joined here in this holy place. Here He leans down to lift you up to Him, out of illusions into holiness; out of the world and to eternity; out of all fear and given back to love (C-4.8).

“The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the conditions of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself.”

There is no death because the Son of God is like his Father. Nothing you can do can change Eternal Love. Forget your dreams of sin and guilt, and come with me instead to share the resurrection of God’s Son. And bring with you all those

whom He has sent to you to care for as I care for you.

(Manual for Teachers, Clarification of Terms, page 88)

“Infinite patience produces immediate results.”