Tag Archives: happiness

Daily Lesson

314: I seek a future different from the past

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Lesson 314 “I seek a future different from the past.”


 From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past.  The future now is recognized as but extensions of the present.  Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects.  Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided.  Who can grieve or suffer, when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with hope?

“Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free.  Now do we leave the future in Your hands, leaving behind our past mistakes, and sure that You will keep Your present Promises, and guide the future in their holy light.”

Daily Lesson

103: God, being Love, is also happiness

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Lesson 103 “God, being Love, is also happiness.”

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

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

“God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.”

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

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

“God, being Love, is also happiness.

And it is happiness I seek today.

I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.”

Lesson 103
Daily Lesson

102: I share God’s Will for happiness for me

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Lesson 102 “I share Godʹs Will for happiness for me.”

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

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

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

Begin the longer practice periods today with this acceptance of Godʹs Will for you:

“I share Godʹs Will for happiness for me, And I accept it as my function now.”

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

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

Lesson 102
Daily Lesson

100: My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation

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Lesson 100 “My part is essential to Godʹs plan for salvation.”

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

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

You are indeed essential to Godʹs plan.  Without your joy His joy is incomplete.  Without your smile the world cannot be saved.   While you are sad the light which God Himself appointed as the means to save the world is dim and lusterless.  And no‐one laughs because all laughter can but echo yours.  You are indeed essential to Godʹs plan.   Just as your light increases every light that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go, and take their place beside you in Godʹs plan.

Godʹs messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair.  They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Fatherʹs gifts as theirs.  We will not let ourselves be sad today.  For if we do, we fail to take the part that is essential to Godʹs plan, as well as to our vision.  Sadness is the sign that you would play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God.  Thus do you fail to show the world how great the happiness He wills for you.  And so you do not recognize that it is yours.

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

We will prepare ourselves for this today in our five minute practice periods, by feeling happiness arise in us according to our Fatherʹs will and ours.  Begin the exercises with the thought todayʹs idea contains.  Then realize your part is to be happy.  Only this is asked of you or anyone who wants to take his place among Godʹs messengers.

Think what this means.  You have indeed been wrong in your belief that sacrifice is asked.  You but receive according to Godʹs plan, and never lose or sacrifice or die.  Now let us try to find that joy which proves to us and all the world Godʹs Will for us.  It is your function that you find it here, and that you find it now.  For this you came.  Let this one be the day that you succeed!

 Look deep within you, undismayed by all the little thoughts and foolish goals you pass as you ascend to meet the Christ in you.  He will be there.  And you can reach Him now.  What could you rather look upon in place of Him who waits that you may look on Him?  What little thought has power to hold you back?   What foolish goal can keep you from success when He Who calls to you is God Himself?

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

Lesson 100
Daily Lesson

96: Salvation comes from my One Self

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Lesson 96 “Salvation comes from my One Self.”

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

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

Problems which have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and evil have no meeting place. The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be split in two and still be what it is, and must forever be.

A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. If you are physical your mind is gone from your self‐concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you. If you are Spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality.

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

Yet mind apart from Spirit cannot think. It has denied its Source of strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed against itself, and hiding in the bodyʹs frail support. Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for. Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for?

Salvation cannot make illusions real, and solve a problem which does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can. Yet would you have Godʹs plan for the release of His dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free? Your Self retains Its Thoughts, and They remain within your mind and in the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way to peace.

Salvation is a Thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you, and answered in your name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept among the Thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you. We will attempt today to find this Thought, Whose presence in your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your One Self. Our hourly five minute practicing will be a search for Him within your mind. Salvation comes from this One Self through Him Who is the bridge between your mind and It.

Wait patiently, and let Him speak to you about your Self, and what your mind can do, restored to It and free to serve Its Will. Begin by saying this:

“Salvation comes from my One Self.

Its Thoughts are mine to use.”

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

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

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

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

Lesson 96
Daily Lesson

78: Let miracles replace all grievances

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Lesson 78 “Let miracles replace all grievances.”

Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead.

Today we go beyond the grievances, to look upon the miracle instead. We will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees. We will not wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and gently lift our eyes in silence, to behold the Son of God.

He waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down he will appear in shining light where each one stood before. For every grievance is a block to sight, and as it lifts, you see the Son of God where he has always been. He stands in light, but you were in the dark. Each grievance made the darkness deeper, and you could not see. Today we will attempt to see Godʹs Son. We will not let ourselves be blind to him; we will not look upon our grievances. So is the seeing of the world reversed, as we look out toward truth, away from fear.

We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside, and look at him. Someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who angers you; someone you call a friend, but whom you see as difficult at times, or hard to please; demanding, irritating, or untrue to the ideal he should accept as his according to the role you set for him.

You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. He will be the one of whom we ask Godʹs Son be shown to us. Through seeing him behind the grievances that we have held against him, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen. He who was enemy is more than friend when be is freed to take the holy role the Holy Spirit has assigned to him. Let him be Savior unto you today. Such is his role in God your Fatherʹs plan.

Our longer practice periods today will see him in this role. We will attempt to hold him in our mind, first as you now consider him. We will review his faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain be caused you, his neglect, and all the little and the larger hurts he gave. We will regard his body with its flaws and better points as well, as we will think of his mistakes and even of his “sins.”

Then let us ask of Him who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our Savior shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us. We ask Him in the Holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:

“Let me behold my Savior in this one. You have appointed as the One for me. To ask to lead me to the holy light. In which he stands, that I may join with him.”

The bodyʹs eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.

What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your Savior has been waiting long for this. He would be free, and make his freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in Godʹs Son. And what you see through Him will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining Savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him, that you might be saved.

God thanks you for these quiet times today, in which you laid your images aside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved, and all the world with you.

We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us as part of Godʹs salvation plan, and not our own. Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances. To everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of, or remember from the past, allow the role of Savior to be given, that you may share it with them. For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray: “Let miracles replace all grievances.”

Lesson 78
Daily Lesson

68: Love holds no grievances

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Lesson 68 “Love holds no grievances.”

You who were created by Love like Itself can hold no grievances and know your Self. To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. It is the decision to let the ego rule your mind, and to condemn the body to death. Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to your awareness. It seems to split you off from your Source, and make you unlike Him. It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no‐one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself.

Shut off from your Self, Who remains aware of His likeness to His Creator, your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake. Can all this arise from holding grievances? Oh yes! For he who holds grievances denies he was created by Love, and his Creator has become fearful to him in his dreams of hate. Who can dream of hatred and not fear God?

It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own image as it is certain that God created them like Himself and defined them as part of Him. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.

Would you not be willing to relinquish your grievances if you believed all this were so? Perhaps you do not think that you can let all your grievances go. That, however, is simply a question of motivation. Today we will try to find out how you would feel without them. If you succeed even by ever so little, there will never be a problem in motivation ever again.

Begin todayʹs extended practice period by searching your mind for those against whom you hold what you regard as major grievances. Some of these will be quite easy to find. Then think of the seemingly minor grievances you hold against those you like, and even think you love. It will quickly become apparent that there is no‐one against whom you do not cherish grievances of some sort. This has left you alone in all the universe in your perception of yourself.

Determine now to see all these people as friends. Say to them all, collectively, thinking of each one in turn as you do so:

“I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me, and come to know myself.”

Spend the remainder of the practice period trying to think of yourself as completely at peace with everyone and everything, safe in a world which protects you and loves you, and which you love in return.

Try to feel safety surrounding you, hovering over you, and holding you up. Try to believe, however briefly, that nothing can harm you in any way. At the end of the practice period tell yourself:

“Love holds no grievances. when I let all my grievances go, I will know I am perfectly safe.”

The short practice periods should include a quick application of todayʹs ideas in this form, whenever any thought of grievance arises against anyone, physically present or not:

“Love holds no grievances. Let me not betray my Self.”

In addition, repeat the idea several times an hour in this form:

“Love holds no grievances. I would wake to my Self by laying all my grievances aside and wakening in Him.”

Lesson 68
Urtext Manuscripts

The Urtext, why we use it

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In the video below, I share why I am using the Urtext Manuscripts of A Course in Miracles and why that is working for me. I love the authenticity of the text. Reading it and using it is a whole new experience for me.

Watch the video here

How is this for you? Are you using the blue book, the Foundation of Inner Peace version? That is great too. Feel free to share your experience with A Course in Miracles below.

Daily Lesson

66: My happiness and my function are one

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Lesson 66 “My happiness and my function are one.”

You have surely noticed an emphasis throughout our recent lessons on the connection between fulfilling your function and achieving happiness.  This is because you do not really see the connection.  Yet there is more than just a connection between them; they are the same.  Their forms are different, but their content is completely one.

The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental question of what your function is.  So does it do constant battle with the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is.  It is
not a two‐way battle.  The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond.  He knows what your function is.  He knows that it is your
happiness.

Today we will try to go past this wholly meaningless battle, and arrive at the truth about your function.  We will not engage in ceaseless arguments about what it is.  We will not become hopelessly involved in defining happiness and determining the means for achieving it.  We will not indulge the ego by listening to its attacks on truth.  We will merely be glad that we can find out what truth is.

Our longer practice period today has as its purpose your acceptance of the fact that not only is there a very real connection between the function God gave you and your happiness, but that they are actually identical.  God gives you only happiness.   Therefore the function He gave you must be happiness, even if it appears to be different.   Todayʹs exercises are an attempt to go beyond these differences in appearance, and recognize a common content where it exists in truth.

Begin the 10 to 15 minute practice period by reviewing these thoughts:
“God gives me only happiness.
He has given my function to me. Therefore my function must be happiness.”
Try to see the logic in this sequence, even if you do notaccept the conclusion.  It is only if the first two thoughts are wrong that the conclusion could be false.  Let us, then, think about the premises for a while, as we are practicing.

The first premise is that God gives you only happiness.  This could be false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God as something He is not.  Love cannot give evil, and what is not happiness is evil.  God cannot give what He does not have, and He cannot have what He is not.  Unless God gives you only happiness, He must be evil.  And it is this definition of Him which you are believing if you do not accept the first premise.

The second premise is that God has given you your function.  We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind.  One is ruled by the ego, and is made up of illusions.  The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides.  There are no other guides but these to choose between, and no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear which the ego always engenders and the love which the Holy Spirit always offers to replace it.

Thus it must be that your function is established by God through His Voice or is made by the ego which you made to replace Him.  Which is true?  Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of the ego.  Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts?

Think about this during the longer practice period today. Think also about the many forms which the illusion of your function has taken in your mind, and the many ways in which you try to find salvation under the egoʹs guidance.  Did you find it?  Were you happy?   Did they bring you peace? We need great honesty today.  Remember the outcomes fairly, and consider also whether it was ever reasonable to expect happiness from anything the ego has ever proposed.  Yet the ego is the only alternative to the Holy Spiritʹs Voice.

You will listen to madness or hear the truth.  Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests.   We can share in this conclusion, but in no other.  For God Himself shares it with us.

Todayʹs idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as the same, and the different as different.  On one side stand all illusions.  All truth stands on the other.   Let us try today to realize that only the truth is true.

In the shorter practice periods, which would be most helpful today if undertaken twice an hour, this form of the application is suggested:
“My happiness and function are one,
because God has given me both.”

It will not take more than a minute, and probably less, to repeat these words slowly, and think about them a little as you say them.

Lesson 66
Daily Lesson

65: My only function is the one God gave me

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Lesson 65 “My only function is the one God gave me.”

The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. It also reminds you that you have no other function than this. Both of these thoughts are obviously necessary for a total commitment.  Salvation cannot be the only purpose you hold while you still cherish others.  The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself.

This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the Saviors of the world.  This is the only way in which you can say and mean, “My only function is the one God gave me.”  This is the only way in which you can find peace of mind.

Today, and for a number of days to follow, set aside ten to fifteen minutes for a more sustained practice period in which you try to understand and accept what todayʹs idea really means.  It
offers you escape from all your perceived difficulties.  It places the key to the door to peace, which you have closed upon yourself, in your own hands.  It gives you the answer to all the searching you have done since time began.

Try, if possible, to undertake the daily extended practice periods at approximately the same time each day.  Try, also, to determine this time today in advance, and then adhere to it as closely as possible.  The purpose of this is to arrange your day so that you have set apart the time for God, as well as for all the trivial purposes and goals you will pursue.  This is part of the long range disciplinary training which your mind needs so that the Holy Spirit can use it consistently for the purpose He shares with you.


For this practice period, begin by reviewing the idea for today.  Then close your eyes, repeat the idea to yourself once again,and watch your mind carefully to catch whatever thoughts cross it.  
At first, make no attempt to concentrate only on thoughts related to the idea for today.  Rather, try to uncover each one that arises to interfere with it.  Note each one as it comes to you with as
little involvement or concern as possible, dismissing them by telling yourself:


“This thought reflects a goal which is preventing me from accepting my only function.”

After a while, interfering thoughts will become harder to find.  Try, however, to continue a minute or so longer, attempting to catch a few of the idle thoughts which escaped your attention before, but do not strain or make undue effort in doing this.  Then tell yourself:
“On this clean slate, let my true function be written for me.”    


You need not use these exact words, but try to get a sense of being willing to have your illusions of purpose be replaced by truth.

Finally, repeat the idea for today once more and devote the rest of the practice period to trying to focus on its importance to you; the relief its acceptance will bring you by resolving your conflicts once and for all, and the extent to which you really want salvation in spite of your own foolish ideas to the contrary.

In the shorter practice periods, which should be undertaken at least once an hour, use this form in applying todayʹs idea:

“My only function is the one God gave me.
I want no other and I have no other.”


Sometimes close your eyes as you practice, and sometimes keep them open and look about you.  It is what you see now that will be totally changed when you accept todayʹs idea completely.

Lesson 65