The body is a thought made manifest, and thus does not do anything on its own, only doing what mind tells it.
Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its presence. W-199.1:1-4. (Lesson #19- "I am not a body I am free.")
The body is the ego's home by its own election. It is the only identification with which the ego feels safe, since the body's vulnerability is its own best argument that you cannot be of God. T-4.V.4:1,2. (see also: WB Lesson 201: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”)
The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are over evaluated. T-2.IV.3:8,9.
The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it is the victim of itself. The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really suffers. W-76.5.
Learning must lead beyond the body to the re-establishment of the power of the mind in it. T-8.VII.12:6.
The concept of no order of difficulties becomes easier to understand without the limits of time and space.
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. T-1.I.1,1-3. (Principles of Miracles)
Within conventional reality:
The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world's perception. It rests on differences … M-8.1,1,2.
The body's eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind that has let itself be healed will no longer acknowledge them. ... understanding that only two categories are meaningful in sorting out the messages the mind receives from what appears to be the outside world. And of these two, but one is real. Just as reality is wholly real, apart from size and shape and time and place–for differences cannot exist within it–so too are illusions without distinctions. ... The one answer to all illusions is truth. M-8.6,1,2,5-7,9.
Protection is a favorite ego device to proclaim that God's Love is not real. Every reaction to a "threat " makes it real in your mind, and denies Truth.
Light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness, and will not let it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. What needs no protection does not defend itself. Defense is of your making. God knows it not. T-14.VII.5:1-5.
Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one but rests on the belief that you are separate. T-22.V.6:1-4.
Because their hearts are pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves against it. Understanding the lesson of the Atonement they are without the wish to attack, and therefore they see truly. T-3.II.5:8,9.
Joy is the experience of Truth.
The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share it, and promotes the mind's natural impulse to respond as one. T-5.in.1:4-6.
You
do not know your joy because you do not know your own Self-fullness.
Exclude any part of the Kingdom from yourself and you are not whole.
A split mind cannot perceive its fullness, and needs the miracle of
its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. T-7.IX.4:2-4.
Truth
is the opposite of illusions because it offers joy. What else but joy
could be the opposite of misery?... The search for joy in misery is
senseless, ...All that is possible in the dark world of misery is to
select some aspects out of it, see them as different, and define the
difference as joy.
Joy
is eternal. You can be sure indeed
that any seeming happiness that does not last is really fear.
Joy does not turn to sorrow, for the eternal cannot change. T-22.II.2:1,5,6/3:4-6.
[from
a question in A Manual for Teachers: HOW SHOULD A TEACHER OF GOD
SPEND HIS DAY.]There
is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the
day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of
limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it.
M-16.6:1,2.
The willingness to be quiet is a sign of an openness to receive.
You do not have to seek reality. It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions. T-8.IX.2:4,5.
Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. M-15.2:12.
The
Voice for God is always quiet, because It speaks of peace. T-5.II.7:7.
Learn
to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for quietness
is the end of strife and this is the journey to peace. T-12.II.5:5.
… truth
extends inward, where the idea of loss is meaningless and only
increase is conceivable. Do you really think it strange that a world
in which everything is backwards and upside down arose from this
projection of error? It was inevitable. For
truth brought to this could only remain within in quiet, and
take no part in all the mad projection by which this world was made. T-18.I.6:3-6.
The
quiet light in which the Holy Spirit dwells within you is merely
perfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is
fearful. T-14.VI.2:1.
Trying to be aware of Truth, which is what you are, makes sense only to the deluded. Yet the person who believes himself to imprisoned needs help understanding that the door is open.
If
they ask for enlightenment and accept it, their fears vanish. T-12.II.4:2.
If
you want understanding and enlightenment you will learn it, because
your decision to learn it is the decision to listen to the Teacher
Who knows of light, and can therefore teach it to you. There is no
limit on your learning because there is no limit on your mind. There
is no limit on His teaching because He was created to teach.
Understanding His function perfectly He fulfills it perfectly,
because that is His joy and yours. T-8.III.1:4-7.
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. W-188.1:1-4.
A Course in Miracles is an actual course of study. It uses a structured program to gently lead us to a willingness to fulfill the conditions of Truth and thus awaken.
You have exerted great
effort to preserve what you made because it was not true. Therefore,
you must now turn your effort against it. Only this can cancel out
the need for effort. .. . T-6.V.C.10:5,6.
The
Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made, to teach the
opposite of what the ego has "learned." The kind of
learning is as irrelevant as is the particular ability that was
applied to the learning. All you need do is make
the effort to learn, for the Holy Spirit has a unified goal
for the effort. T-7.IV.3:3-5.
The
children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes from
perfect trust. ... the real means are already provided, and do not
involve any effort at all on their part. T-2.III.5:1,3.
Truth calls for faith, and faith makes room for truth. T-17.VII.9:4.
Faith is like going down a ladder and trusting that the next step will hold you. Until you actually stand on it, you don't really know, and yet you can't get anywhere without trusting. Faith is what allows the trust to be confirmed.
… faith can be rewarded
only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. Faith
makes the power of belief, and where it is invested determines its
reward. For faith is always given what is treasured, and what
is treasured is returned to you.The
world can give you only what you gave it, for being nothing but your
own projection, it has no meaning apart from what you found in it and
placed your faith in. Be faithful unto darkness and you will
not see, because your faith will be rewarded as you gave it. You will
accept your treasure ... Whatever you hold dear you think is yours.
The power of your valuing will make it so. T-13.IX.2:4-6/3:1-5.
Have faith in only this one
thing, and it will be sufficient: God wills you be in Heaven, and
nothing can keep you from it, or it from you. T-13.XI.7:1.
… He asks for faith a
little longer, even in bewilderment. For this will go, and you will
see the justification for your faith emerge, to bring you shining
conviction. T-17.V.7.11,12.
Let truth be what it is. Do
not intrude upon it, do not attack it, do not interrupt its coming.
Let it encompass every situation and bring you peace. Not even faith
is asked of you, for truth asks nothing. Let it enter, and it will
call forth and secure for you the faith you need for peace. But rise
you not against it, for against your opposition it cannot come.... What has been
demonstrated has called for faith, and has been given it. ... The
strain of refusing faith to truth is enormous, and far greater than
you realize. But to answer truth with faith entails no strain at
all. T-17.VIII.2:2-7/3:5,7,8.
The wholeness of God's creations have no needs, but within the dream, seeing clearly what is, and what is not, necessary leads towards awakening.
A
sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need
correct.
This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not
distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself
as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because, having made
this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into
levels with different needs. T-1.VI.2.
Appetites are "getting" mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. T-4.II.7:5.
When you make something to fill a perceived lack,
you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. T-3.V.2:4.
The ego can accept the idea
that return is necessary because . ... you can make
the idea of return both necessary and difficult. Yet it is surely
clear that the perfect need nothing, and you cannot experience
perfection as a difficult accomplishment, because that is what you
are. T-6.II.11:1-4.
Your Self does not need
salvation, but your mind needs to learn what salvation is. T-11.IV.1:3.
You will be told all you need to know. T-1.I.4:3.
A Course in Miracles refers to the inner manifestation of Truth as "the Great Rays" - which have been reduced to a spark, when obscured by a belief in a body.
In many only the spark
remains, for the Great Rays are obscured. Yet God has kept the spark
alive so that the Rays can never be completely forgotten. If you but
see the little spark you will learn of the greater light, for the
Rays are there unseen. Perceiving the spark will heal, but knowing
the light will create. Yet in the returning the little light must be
acknowledged first, for the separation was a descent from magnitude
to littleness. But the spark is still as pure as the Great Light,
because it is the remaining call of creation. Put all your faith in
it, and God Himself will answer you. T-10.IV.8
The cornerstone of God's
creation is you, for His thought system is light. Remember the Rays
that are there unseen. The more you approach the center of His
thought system, the clearer the light becomes. The closer you come to
the foundation of the ego's thought system, the darker and more
obscure becomes the way. Yet even the little spark in your mind is
enough to lighten it. Bring this light fearlessly with you, and
bravely hold it up to the foundation of the ego's thought system. T-11.in.3:2-7.
As the ego would limit your
perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit
release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them,
so unlimited that they reach to God. It is this shift to vision that
is accomplished in the holy instant. T-15.IX.1:1,2.
The little spark that holds
the Great Rays within it is also visible, and this spark cannot be
limited long to littleness. T-16.VI.6:3.
You have found your
brother, and you will light each other's way. And from this light
will the Great Rays extend back into darkness and forward unto God,
to shine away the past and so make room for His eternal Presence, in
which everything is radiant in the light. T-18.III.8:6,7.
God's Son … . Within
himself he has no needs, for light needs nothing but to shine in
peace, and from itself to let the rays extend in quiet to infinity. T-13.VII.13:5,7.
The world strives for things that rust and rot away, while Spirit knows that the only real value lies in what that can be given away.
God,
Who encompasses all being, created beings who have everything
individually, but who want to share it to increase their joy. Nothing real can be increased except by sharing. T-4.VII.5:1,2.
It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give M-13.2:1.
Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. T-26.VI.1:1,2.
[Workbook lesson 133:] “I will not value the valueless.”All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. W-133.13:1.
Now
must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what
was valuable and what was valueless. All that he really learned so
far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did want the
valuable. ... He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only
what he really wants in every circumstance. M-4.1.A.7:2,3,8.
Recognize
what does not matter,
and if your brothers ask you for something "outrageous," do
it because
it does not matter. ... No "outrageous" requests
can be made of one who recognizes what is valuable and wants to
accept nothing else. T-12.III.4:1,2,4-8.
The identity of being-a-victim is a favorite ego device for hiding responsibility for what is done within dreams. How could you be Co-Creator with God and yet have all these bad things happen to you? Who could blame you for what you have done compared with all the other sin within the World?
As
long as you perceive the body as your reality, so long will you
perceive yourself as lonely and deprived. And so long will you also
perceive yourself as a victim of sacrifice, justified in sacrificing
others. T-15.XI.5:1,2.
Justice
demands no sacrifice, for any sacrifice
is made that sin may be preserved and kept. It is a payment
offered for the cost of sin, but not the total cost. The rest is
taken from another, to be laid beside your little payment, to "atone"
for all that you would keep, and not give up. So is
the victim seen as partly you, with someone else by far the greater
part. And in the total cost, the greater his the less is yours. And
justice, being blind, is satisfied by being paid, it matters not by
whom. T-25.VIII.4:5-10.
[From
Workbook lesson #32:]
“I have invented the world I see.”… the
theme of cause and effect. You are
not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. You can
give it up as easily as you made it up. W-32.1:1-3.
... He gives
himself the consequences that he dreams he gave his brother. ... Thus
does he fear his own attack, but sees it at another's hands. As
victim, he is suffering from its effects, but not their cause.
T-28.II.7:5,7,8.
[Workbook
lesson #153:] “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”… you
behold the Son of God as but a victim to attack by fantasies, by
dreams, and by illusions he has made; yet helpless in their presence,
needful only of defense by still more fantasies, and dreams by which
illusions of his safety comfort him. W.153.5:5.
It is only because you have exerted so much effort in trying to make illusions true, that effort and vigilance are necessary to free yourself.
It
is only your awareness that needs protection, since being cannot be
assailed. Yet a real sense of being cannot be yours while you are
doubtful of what you are. This is why vigilance is essential. Doubts
about being must not enter your mind, or you cannot know what you are
with certainty. Certainty is of God for you. Vigilance is not
necessary for truth, but it is necessary against illusions. T-6.V.C.8:4-9.
Belief
does not require vigilance unless it is conflicted. If it is, there
are conflicting components within it that have led to a state of war,
and vigilance has therefore become essential. Vigilance
has no place in peace. It is necessary against beliefs that are not
true, … T-7.VI.7:3-6.
When
you strive for anything in this world in the belief that it will
bring you peace, you are belittling yourself and blinding yourself to
glory. Littleness and glory are the choices open to your striving and
your vigilance. You will always choose one at the expense of the
other. T-15.III.1:6-8.
Now
you are merely asked that you pursue another goal with far less
vigilance; with little effort and with little time, and with the
power of God maintaining it, and promising success. T-24.VI.12:1.
What you witness is your interpretation of what you perceive. It is a choice which demonstrates what you believe to be true.
The
world you see is but the idle witness that you were right. This
witness is insane. You trained it in its testimony, and as it gave it
back to you, you listened and convinced yourself that what it saw was
true. You did this to yourself. T-21.II.5:1-4.
Perception
is a choice and not a fact. ... For on
the voice you choose to hear, and on the sights you choose to see,
depends entirely your whole belief in what you are. Perception is a
witness but to this, and never to reality. ... Reality
needs no cooperation from you to be itself. But your awareness of it
needs your help, because it is your choice. Listen to what the ego
says, and see what it directs you see, and it is sure that you will
see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. T-21.V.1:7,9-11/2:1-3.
Every
brother you meet becomes a witness for Christ or for the ego,
depending on what you perceive in him. Everyone convinces you
of what you want to perceive, and of the reality of the kingdom you
have chosen for your vigilance. Everything
you perceive is a witness to the thought system you want to be true.
Every brother has the power to release you, if you choose to be free.
You cannot accept false witness of
him unless you have evoked false witnesses against him. If he
speaks not of Christ to you, you spoke not of Christ to him. You hear
but your own voice, and if Christ speaks through you, you will hear
Him. T-11.V.18:1-7.
You may be surprised to hear how very different is reality from what you see. T-18.I.5:1
A Course in Miracles uses three terms to describe how we think we understand Truth: misperception, accurate perception and knowledge. Only knowledge is is congruent with Truth, which is outside the access of dreaming minds. Misperception keeps us stuck within the dream because we see a reason for attack where there is none. Accurate perception brings our vision into alignment with Truth, which allows awakening to be the next step.
… perception
must be straightened out before you can know anything. To know is to
be certain. ... certainty is strength. Perception is
temporary. As an attribute of the belief in space and time, it is
subject to either fear or love. Misperceptions
produce fear and true perceptions foster love, but neither brings
certainty because all perception varies. That is why it is not
knowledge. True perception is the basis for knowledge, but knowing
is the affirmation of truth and beyond all perceptions. T-3.III.1:2-10.
I
[Jesus] cannot unite your will with God's
for you, but I can erase all misperceptions from your mind if you
will bring it under my guidance. Only
your misperceptions stand in your way. Without them your choice is
certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. I cannot
choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. T-3.IV.77-11.
[From
Workbook for Students lesson #72:]
“Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for
salvation.”
Holding
grievances is an attempt to prove that God's plan for salvation will
not work. Yet only His plan will work. By holding grievances, I am
therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness. ...
I
am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.
If
I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for
my salvation.
This
calls for salvation, not attack.
It
cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a
temporary expedient. It is necessary only because misperception
is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a steppingstone
towards it. The whole value of right perception lies in the
inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary. T-4.II.11:1-3. [You
may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in
this world. That is a reasonable question. You must be careful,
however, that you really understand it. Who is the "you"
who are living in this world? T-4.II.11:5-8.]
The ego fears that the result of purification, which is joy, means the end of its control.
The ego is afraid of the spirit's joy, because once you have experienced it you will withdraw all protection from the ego, and become totally without investment in fear. T-4.I.10:1.
Purification is needed when loving thoughts (the only thing that can be shared), show the confusion of a split mind and include both loving and unloving thoughts. The Holy Spirit teaches us to how to remove the unloving part and thus be able to share them.
Miracles
are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first. T1.I.7. (Principles of Miracles)
Every loving thought held in any part of the Sonship belongs to every part. It is shared because it is loving. Sharing is God's way of creating, and also yours. ... Ideas of the spirit do not leave the mind that thinks them, nor can they conflict with each other. However, ideas of the ego can conflict because they occur at different levels and also include opposite thoughts at the same level. It is impossible to share opposing thoughts. You can share only the thoughts that are of God and that He keeps for you. And of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. The rest remains with you until the Holy Spirit has reinterpreted them in the light of the Kingdom, making them, too, worthy of being shared. When they have been sufficiently purified He lets you give them away. The decision to share them is their purification. T-5.IV.3:1-3,5-12.
In
preparing for the holy instant, do not attempt to make yourself holy
to be ready to receive it. That is but to confuse your role with
God's. Atonement cannot come to those who think that they must first
atone, but only to those who offer it nothing more than simple
willingness to make way for it. Purification
is of God alone, and therefore for you. Rather than seek to
prepare yourself for Him, try to think thus:
I
who am host to God am worthy of Him.
He
Who established His dwelling place in me created it as He would have
it be.
It
is not needful that I make it ready for Him, but only that I do not
interfere with His plan to restore to me my own awareness of my
readiness, which is eternal.
I
need add nothing to His plan. But to receive it, I must be willing
not to substitute my own in place of it. T-18.IV.5:4-13.
[From Manual for Teachers- What Are The Characteristics of God's Teachers, #VIII.] Patience: Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety. Patience is natural to the teacher of God. All he sees is certain outcome, at a time perhaps unknown to him as yet, but not in doubt. The time will be as right as is the answer. ... Patience is natural to those who trust. Sure of the ultimate interpretation of all things in time, no outcome already seen or yet to come can cause them fear. M-4.VIII.1:1-4,9,10.
Your
patience with your brother is your patience with yourself. Is not a
child of God worth patience? T-5.VI.11:4,5.
Now
you must learn that only infinite
patience produces immediate effects. This is the way in which
time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite
patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now
it renders time unnecessary. T-5.VI.5:1-3.
One
Teacher is in all minds and He teaches the same lesson to all. He
always teaches you the inestimable worth of every Son of God,
teaching it with infinite patience born of the infinite Love for
which He speaks. Every attack is a
call for His patience, since His patience can translate attack
into blessing. T-VII.7:2-4.
Faith
in the eternal is always justified, for the eternal is forever kind,
infinite in its patience and wholly loving. It will accept you
wholly, and give you peace. Yet it can unite only with what already
is at peace in you, immortal as itself. T-19.IV.B.10:1-3.
A Course in Miracles assures us that we have an inner guide, The Holy Spirit, who knows our part in the Plan of Atonement:
His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know. T-1.I.4:2,3.
You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you
would not make them. It would merely be further error to believe
either that you do not make them, or that you can correct them
without a Guide to correction. And if you do not follow this Guide,
your errors will not be corrected. The
plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. ... The way to undo
them, therefore, is not of you but for you. T-9.IV.2:2-4,6.
You
have set up this strange situation so that it is impossible to escape
from it without a Guide Who does know what your reality is.
The purpose of this Guide is merely to remind you of what you want. T-9.I.3:5,6.
A guide does not control but he does direct, leaving it up to you to follow. T-1.III.4:6.
The
Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. He is in the part of your mind
that always speaks for the right choice, because He speaks for God. T-5.II.8:1,2.
When
your peace is threatened or disturbed in any way, say to yourself: I
do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not
know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as
the light to guide me now. By
this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the
Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you. He will take His
rightful place in your awareness the instant you abandon it, and
offer it to Him. T-14.XI.6:6-11.
A Course in Miracles uses the metaphors of heaven and hell to contrast how the ego uses fear to keep us imprisoned, compared with how Truth is experienced. 
The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego drives to hell. T-15.I.7:1-4.
... hell and oblivion are ideas that you made up, and you are bent on
demonstrating their reality to establish yours. If their
reality is questioned, you believe that yours is. For you believe
that attack is your reality, and that your destruction is the final
proof that you were right.
T-13,IV.2:3-5.
The
ego teaches that Heaven is here and now because the future is hell.
... … But
the belief in guilt must lead to the belief in hell, and always does.
The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hell to be
experienced is to bring hell here, but always as a foretaste of the
future. For no one who considers himself as deserving of hell can
believe that punishment will end in peace. T-15.I.5:1,/6:1.5-7.
To
everyone Heaven is completion. ... The Holy Spirit knows that
completion lies first in union, and then in the extension of union.
To the ego completion lies in triumph, and in the extension of the
"victory" even to the final triumph over God. ... And therefore
union, which is a condition in which the ego cannot interfere, must
be hell. T-16.V.5:1,4,5,8.
A Course in Miracles uses littleness and grandiosity to show alternate ways that the ego seeks to identify you.
It is like the wave thinking it is separate from the ocean; at one moment it is aware of the immensity of the ocean and its own "littleness", and at another, it is drunk with the idea of being equal to the ocean.
A Course in Miracles reminds us that, as an extension of God, our true identity is one of magnitude and grandeur.
Be
not content with littleness. ... Littleness is the offering you give
yourself. You offer this in place of magnitude, and you accept it.
... When you strive for anything in this world in the belief that it
will bring you peace, you are belittling yourself and blinding
yourself to glory. Littleness and glory are the choices open to your
striving and your vigilance. You will always choose one at the
expense of the other.Yet
what you do not realize, each time you choose, is that your choice is
your evaluation of yourself. Choose littleness and you will not have
peace, for you will have judged yourself unworthy of it. ... there is
no form of littleness that can ever content you. For you will be
content only in magnitude, which is your home. T-15.III.1:1,3,4,6-8/2:1,2,4,6.
The
ego depends solely on your willingness to tolerate it. If you
are willing to look upon your grandeur you cannot despair, and
therefore you cannot want the ego. Your grandeur is God's answer to
the ego, because it is true. Littleness
and grandeur cannot coexist, nor is it possible for them to
alternate. Littleness and grandiosity can and must alternate, since
both are untrue and are therefore on the same level.
Truth
and littleness are denials of each other because grandeur is truth. T-9.VIII.5:1-5/6:1.
The mirror represents what we see the in the world as being a reflection of our inner state.
A mirror is totally impartial - it does not judge what appears in it. It does not present Reality, as Reality has no image, but it does reflect a state of mind.
Your
picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The
source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. Grievances
darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. Forgiveness
lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a
world of light. W-73.5:1-4.
Teach
no one that he is what you would not want to be. Your
brother is the mirror in which you see the image of yourself
as long as perception lasts. And perception will last until the
Sonship knows itself as whole. You made perception and it must last
as long as you want it. T-7.VII.3:8-11.
In
this world you can become a spotless mirror, in which the Holiness of
your Creator shines forth from you to all around you. You can reflect
Heaven here. ... Earth can reflect Heaven or hell; God or the ego.
You need but leave the mirror clean
and clear of all the images of hidden darkness you have drawn
upon it. God will shine upon it of Himself. ...
The reflection of God needs no interpretation. It is clear. Clean but
the mirror, and the message that shines forth from what the mirror
holds out for everyone to see, no one can fail to understand. T.14.IX.5:1,2,4-6/6:3-5.
The world of the ego is concrete, while the world of Spirit is abstract. In one, giving is loss, or at least a kind of bargaining - giving something of a lesser value to get something deemed to better.
To Spirit, giving is the only way that you get to have the experience. 
In
the ego's language, "to have" and "to be" are
different, but they are identical to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
knows that you both have everything and are everything.
Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only when the idea of
"getting," which implies a lack, has already been accepted.
That is why we make no distinction between having the Kingdom
of God and being the Kingdom of God. T-4.III.9:4-7.
The
first step in the reversal or undoing process is the undoing of the
getting concept. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit's first lesson was "To
have, give all to all." ... At
this point, the equality of having and being is not yet
perceived. Until it is, having appears to be the opposite of
giving. T-6.V.B.3:1,2,4,5.
To
be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As
long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are
accepting conflict as your choice. ... Reality is yours because
you are reality. This is how having and being are
ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. T-7.III.4:1,2,6,7.
In the ego's world, illusions battle among themselves, with the ego believing that it can judge which is true.
Either
truth is apparent, or it is not. It cannot be partially recognized.
Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions. M-17.4:10,11.
Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. Illusions battle only with themselves. Being fragmented, they fragment. But truth is indivisible, and far beyond their little reach. ... truth stands radiant, apart from conflict, untouched and quiet in the peace of God.
Conflict must be between two forces. It cannot exist between one power and nothingness. There is nothing you could attack that is not part of you. And by attacking it you make two illusions of yourself, in conflict with each other. And this occurs whenever you look on anything that God created with anything but love. T-23.I.7:3-6,10/8:1-5.
Truth has no meaning in illusion.
The frame of reference for its meaning must be itself. When
you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions
real, and keep them by justifying your belief in them. But to
give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the
illusions are unreal, and thus enable you to escape from them. T-17.I.5:2-5.
The prayers of the ego demonstrate its belief in lack, and the prayers of the heart are answered to demonstrate wholeness.
The
prayer for things of this world will bring experiences of this world.
If the prayer of the heart asks for this, this will be given because
this will be received. It is impossible that the prayer of the heart
remain unanswered in the perception of the one who asks. If he asks
for the impossible, if he wants what does not exist or seeks for
illusions in his heart, all this becomes his own. M-21.3:1-4.
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. Once forgiveness has been accepted,
prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. The
prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that you may be
able to recognize what you already have. T-3.V.6:1-5.
The
Bible emphasizes that all prayer is
answered, and this is indeed true. The very fact that the Holy
Spirit has been asked for anything will ensure a response. Yet it is
equally certain that no response
given by Him will ever be one that would increase fear. It is
possible that His answer will not be heard. It is impossible,
however, that it will be lost. There are many answers you have
already received but have not yet heard. I assure you that they are
waiting for you. T-9.II.3:1-7.
You
can no more pray for yourself alone than you can find joy for
yourself alone. Prayer is the
restatement of inclusion, … You cannot hear the Voice for
God in yourself alone, because you are not alone. ... … If
you would hear me, hear my brothers in whom God's Voice speaks. The
answer to all prayers lies in them. T-9.II.6:1,2,5/7:5,6.
Strictly
speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor
is prayer, or asking. What you ask
for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to
the words you use in praying. ... God does not understand
words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the
illusion of separation. M-21.1:1-3,7.
In the world of dreams, the ego is always trying to get the best deal, choosing and exchanging people and things in order to do "better".
A Course in Miracles starts equality, and states that any attempt to change, and thus improve anything, actually makes it worse; denying yourself the opportunity to learn from it what is True.
To
substitute is to choose between, renouncing one aspect of the Sonship
in favor of the other. For this special purpose, one is judged
more valuable and the other is replaced by him. The relationship in
which the substitution occurred is thus fragmented, and its purpose
split accordingly. To fragment is to exclude, and substitution is the
strongest defense the ego has for separation.
The
Holy Spirit never uses substitutes. Where the ego perceives one
person as a replacement for another, the Holy Spirit sees them joined
and indivisible. He does not judge between them, knowing they are
one. Being united, they are one because they are the same.
Substitution is clearly a process in which they are perceived as
different. One would unite; the other separate. T-18.I.1:3-6/2:1-6.
If you would attempt to substitute one aspect of love for another, you have placed less value on one and more on the other. You have not only separated them, but you have also judged against both. Yet you had judged against yourself first, or you would never have imagined that you needed your brothers as they were not. Unless you had seen yourself as without love, you could not have judged them so like you in lack. T-15.V.6:3-6.
Sacrifice is an idea, that a vengeful God demands punishment - God's response to our independence. How better to demonstrate this than the idea that God demanded his own Son pay "the ultimate price" in order to "redeem" mankind.
A Course in Miracles knows that God's Love is freely given and has no "cost".
The Holy Spirit never asks for sacrifice, but the ego always does. T-7.X.5:5.
Innocence
is incapable of sacrificing anything, because the innocent mind has
everything and strives only to protect its wholeness. It cannot
project. It can only honor other minds, because honor is the natural
greeting of the truly loved to others who are like them. T-3.I.6:1-3.
… fact
that sacrifice gets nothing.
Sacrifice is so essential to your thought system that salvation apart
from sacrifice means nothing to you. Your confusion of sacrifice and
love is so profound that you cannot conceive of love without
sacrifice. And it is this that you must look upon; sacrifice
is attack, not love. T-15.X.5:6-11.
You
who believe that sacrifice is love must learn that sacrifice
is separation from love. For sacrifice
brings guilt as surely as love brings peace. Guilt is the
condition of sacrifice, as peace is the condition for the awareness
of your relationship with God. T-15.XI.4:1-3.
.
Anger is an ego device to proclaim its innocence while at the same time justifying its attack. ACIM responds that anger is solely your responsibility and is never justified.
You
have probably reacted for years as if you were being crucified. This
is a marked tendency of the separated, who always refuse to consider
what they have done to themselves. Projection means anger, anger
fosters assault, and assault promotes fear. T-6.I.3:1-3.
… anger recognizes a reality that is not there; yet is the anger certain witness that you do believe in it as fact. Now is escape impossible, until you see you have responded to your own interpretation, which you have projected on an outside world. M-17.9:7,8.
Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no one can be angry at a fact. It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts. Regardless, too, of the intensity of the anger that is aroused. It may be merely slight irritation, perhaps too mild to be even clearly recognized. Or it may also take the form of intense rage, accompanied by thoughts of violence, fantasied or apparently acted out. It does not matter. All of these reactions are the same. They obscure the truth, and this can never be a matter of degree. Either truth is apparent, or it is not. It cannot be partially recognized. Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions. M-17.4.
Projection
and attack are inevitably related, because projection is always a
means of justifying attack. Anger without projection is impossible.
The ego uses projection only to destroy your perception of both
yourself and your brothers. The process begins by excluding something
that exists in you but which you do not want, and leads directly to
excluding you from your brothers. T-6.II.3:5-8.
Magic is the ego's attempt at proving its connection with spirit; and to explain, and thereby control, miracles. A Course in Miracles responds the you, having been created whole and complete, have no need for what magic offers.
The
ego's ceaseless attempts to gain the spirit's acknowledgment and thus
establish its own existence are useless. Spirit in its knowledge is
unaware of the ego. It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive
of it at all. While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it
does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than
itself. T-4.II.8:5-8.
All
magic is an attempt at reconciling the irreconcilable. All religion
is the recognition that the irreconcilable cannot be reconciled.
T-10.IV.1:1,2.
Miracles
bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from
conviction. Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is
mindless and therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of
mind. T-1.I.14. (Principles of Miracles)
The
avoidance of magic is the avoidance of temptation. For all temptation
is nothing more than the attempt to substitute another will for
God's. These attempts may indeed seem frightening, but they are
merely pathetic. They can have no effects; neither good nor bad,
neither rewarding nor demanding sacrifice, healing nor destructive,
quieting nor fearful. When all
magic is recognized as merely nothing, the teacher of God has reached
the most advanced state. … For magic of any kind, in all its forms,
simply does nothing. Its powerlessness is the reason it can be
so easily escaped. What has no effects can hardly terrify. M-16.91-5,7-9.
This
is from a question in the Manual For
Teachers - HOW DO GOD'S TEACHERS
DEAL WITH MAGIC THOUGHTS?:
How
to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the teacher of God
to master. His first responsibility in this is not to attack it. If a
magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher can be sure
that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has condemned
himself. ...
… Anger
in response to perceived magic thoughts is a basic cause of fear. ... A magic thought, by its mere
presence, acknowledges a separation from God M-17.1:4-6/5:1,3.
Fear is an ego device based on vulnerability and inequality. Like the ego, it is a decision, and your responsibility.
Fear and Love are the two choices in this world; once Love is chosen, fear vanishes.
For fear lies not in reality, but in the minds of children who do not understand reality. It is only their lack of understanding that frightens them, and when they learn to perceive truly they are not afraid. T-11.VIII.14:4,5.
The
correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for
release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask,
instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. T-2.VI.4:1-3.
The
first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the
conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must
somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen.
T-2.VI.7:1,2.
All
aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative
level, and therefore do not exist at all. T-1.VI.5:1.
Recognize
only that the ego's goal, which you have pursued so diligently, has
merely brought you fear, and it becomes difficult to maintain that
fear is happiness. ... For only the insane would choose fear in place
of love, and only the insane could believe that love can be gained by
attack. But the sane realize that only attack could produce fear,
from which the Love of God completely protects them. T-11.V.12:1,9,10.
For
to recognize fear is not enough to escape from it, although the
recognition is necessary to demonstrate the need for escape. The Holy
Spirit must still translate the fear into truth. If you were left
with the fear, once you had recognized it, you would have taken a
step away from reality, not towards it. Yet we have repeatedly
emphasized the need to recognize fear and face it without disguise as
a crucial step in the undoing of the ego. Consider how well the Holy
Spirit's interpretation of the motives of others will serve you then.
Having taught you to accept only loving thoughts in others and to
regard everything else as an appeal for help, He has taught you that
fear itself is an appeal for help. ... If only attack produces fear,
and if you see attack as the call for help that it is, the unreality
of fear must dawn on you. For fear is a call for love, in
unconscious recognition of what has been denied. T-12.I.8:1-7,12,13.
A Course in Miracles emphasizes that teaching and learning are the same thing; and what you teach demonstrates what you believe about yourself.
The
role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of
the world. ... It seems as if the teacher and the learner are
separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to
himself. … to
teach is
to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same.
… teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the
day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well. To
teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you
demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true … The
question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no
choice. The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a
means of choosing
what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn.
You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you
learn through teaching. M-in.1:1-3,5,6,7/2:1,2,4-6.
Since you cannot not teach, your salvation lies in teaching the exact opposite of everything the ego believes. … An idea that you share you must have. It awakens in your mind through the conviction of teaching it. Everything you teach you are learning. Teach only love, and learn that love is yours and you are love. T-6.III.4:1,6-9.
Each teaching-learning situation is maximal in the sense that each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other person at that time. M-3.4:1.
Teaching
is done in many ways, above all by example. Teaching should be
healing, because it is the sharing of ideas and the recognition that
to share ideas is to strengthen them. I [Jesus]
cannot
forget my need to teach what I have learned, which arose in me
because
I learned it. I call upon you to teach what you have learned, because
by so doing you can depend on it. T-5.IV.5:1-4.
The body is a thought made manifest, and thus does not do anything on its own, only doing what mind tells it. 
