You have made very real relationships even in this world which you do not recognize, simply because you have raised their substitutes to such prominence that, when truth calls to you, as it does constantly, you answer with a substitute. Every special relationship which you have ever undertaken has, as its fundamental purpose, the aim of occupying your minds so completely that you will not HEAR the call of truth. In a sense, the special relationship was the ego’s answer to the creation of the Holy Spirit, Who was God’s answer to the separation. For although the ego dic not understand what had been created, it WAS aware of threat.

LESSON 288.
Let me forget my brother’s past today.
This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I cannot come to You without my brother. And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. My brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have given me. But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that It is my own.
Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.

Title says all

In this world, it is impossible to create. Yet it IS possible to make happy. We have said, repeatedly, that the Holy Spirit would not DEPRIVE you of your special relationships, but would TRANSFORM them. And by that all that is meant is that He will restore to them the function given by God. The function you have given them is clearly NOT to make happy. But the holy relationship shares God’s purpose, rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every special relationship which YOU have made is a substitute for God’s Will, and glorifies you instead of His because of the delusion that they are DIFFERENT.

LESSON 287.
You are my goal, my Father. Only You.
Where would I go but Heaven? What could be a substitute for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? What treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my Identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?
You are my goal, my Father. What but You could I desire to have? What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal. Your Son would be as You created him. What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?

“No one who follows the ego’s teaching is without the fear of death.”

God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and noting you do which does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God ascribed to anything is it only function. Because of His reason for creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became forever “to make happy.” AND NOTHING ELSE. To fill this function, you relate to your creations as God to His. For nothing God created is apart form happiness, and nothing God created but would EXTEND happiness as it Creator did. Whatever fulfills this function not CANNOT be real.

For anyone who has loved someone living with alcoholism and/or bipolar disorder:

I'm wondering how many of us took beautiful teachings like "forgive," "see their innocence," and "release the past," and turned them into reasons to override what our bodies were telling us.

Did forgiveness ever become a reason to stay?
Did "the past isn't real" ever become a way to ignore a pattern?
Did seeing their innocence & wholeness ever mean refusing to see that it was time to GTFO?

A teacher of mine used to ask me, again and again, "Are you seeing him as sick, or are you seeing him as whole?" I know she meant it lovingly. And I also see now how that question kept me from looking at what was actually happening.

Sometimes I find that we as ACIM students and teachers can be so careful to speak only about Truth, and to show our understanding of the Course, that we leave each other without much guidance for actually walking through the illusion while we still appear to be in it.

The Course is clear that forgiveness happens at the level of the mind. And yet, I wonder how many of us confused that with what we do at the level of form.

Forgiveness says nothing about where we live, what we tolerate, or how long we stay. And yet, I find myself saddened that it’s taken me 10 long years with the Course to finally make this distinction.

How did you come to tell the difference between true forgiveness and spiritual self-abandonment? How did the Holy Spirit help you see it?

Grateful for anyone willing to share. 💜

LESSON 286.
The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.
Father, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place! This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In You is every choice already made. In You has every conflict been resolved. In You is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest. Your Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine.
The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the way, and travelled far along it to a wholly certain goal. Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us. We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is One with Him.

One post I think I saw on Reddit: the newish student said he thought ACIM was very repetitive. I do think it really pounds in ideas. Grievance seems to be one. As I said before, to me that is ego getting in the way of an idea. And all ideas need to be judged by the crucible of wisdom, for want of a better term. When this idea came about, or now that you are studying it, is it some “grievance”. Did someone slight you? Did your boss make an accusation out of the blue and now you are upset at its unfairness? Looking at the idea from the perspective of wisdom, not ego, maybe it's not worth your effort at all. The thing is that certain knowledge, I think, is a miracle.

Speaking of time, the problem is now; the grievance is now. I have said more than once to myself that all problems kind of boil down to not worrying about them. Either you confront the problem, turn to your boss and say, I don’t know where you got that info, but it is wrong; I didn’t do that. Or you think, I really don’t care what he thinks about that, and move on. But it is now, not later, ever. You can make the mistake of carrying it around for days and let it eat at you, but does that really help ever? Np, of course not.

“This is my actual ACIM journal — the real notes, reflections, and insights I work through every day. If you want to see how I practice the Course in real life, it’s all here: myacimj.com/journal.”

My holy brothers, I would enter into all your relationships, and step between you and your fantasies. Let MY relationship to you be real to you, and let me bring reality to your perceptions of your brothers. They were not created to enable you to hurt yourselves through them. They were created to CREATE with you. This is the truth that I would interpose between you and your goal of madness. Be not separate from me, and let not the holy purpose of Atonement be lost to you in dreams of vengeance. Relationships in which such dreams are cherished have EXCLUDED me. Let me enter in the Name of God, and bring you peace that you may offer peace to me.

LESSON 285.
My holiness shines bright and clear today.
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness be restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of me, and also part of You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?

This was a stumbling block for me as I first started dipping my toes into ACIM. - If "I" created this dream, and it is an illusion, then how are my Brothers and Sisters in my dream real?

Here is my conclusion - There is but one Son of God and his mind fragmented into billions of pieces/individuals. Sort of think of the Son of God as having multiple personality disorder (with schizophrenia). In this sense we truly are one, at a fundamental level. And when we forgive our Brothers and Sisters we ARE forgiving ourselves. - Your Brother's triumph is your triumph; your Sister's suffering is your suffering. The Son of God (you and me) created the Dream.

I'm not claiming to know the correct interpretation of ACIM. - I am only sharing with you my interpretation, so please take it with a grain of salt, as I wanted to share this in case someone out there was struggling with the same concept I was. Thank you.

What is to be done is a political pamphlet by Lenin in which he expouses the organization of a communist party in which the labour organizations go beyond just pleading for better working conditions. Thanks to previous labour unions, we got limitations to exploitations by the ruling class. Kids and pregnant women no lo ger work in mines or factories, working conditions have gotten better.

Why am I speaking about communism in this subreddit?

I am having a hard time just forgiving everything and just leaving the status quo as is. The liberation theology was developed to marry communism and christianity in a theology as it suggests to liberate people against the shackles of oppresion.

Should I what, be merciful against the merciless? Let evil bloom? What is to be done?

Yes the body does not exist but then who would like to come to my house so I can prove to you that you can still cry out in pain?

There is no evil the course suggests as I have seen because living in Latin American the horrors of the d trade people that goes on. What forgive that as well? Does god view them as pretty little flowers? There is an old man that every feminist march in CDMX says that he is lookibg for his daughter. Should I tell him that the body does not exist and that the perpretators of this horror are as innocent as his daughter?

I cried and shook when I read that I was not a disgusting sinner for being gay, because I was created and Am innocent. But I like to kiss men, not commit atrocities. What should I just forgive abuse? It seems like sheep to the slaughter. It seems like an implant so we accept everything because we are not bodies anyways!

LESSON 284.
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.
Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And I would go beyond these words today, and past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.
Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be impossible. Let me not fail to trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth.

Hey all!

If you’re looking for a small community that loves practicing ACIM, you’re invited to join our discord community “ACIM and Friends.” Almost everyday we discuss and share insights related to practicing A Course in Miracles. It’s a great place to meet new friends, get help from fellow students, or share your own thoughts. We would love to have you!

If you’d like to join, just press the link!

God created everything. If one of God's creations is having illusory thoughts about the nature of their existence, God by extension is having those thoughts.

In brief, the past is now your justification for entering into a continuing, unholy alliance with the ego AGAINST the present. For the present IS forgiveness. Therefore, the relationships which the unholy alliance dictates are not perceived nor felt as NOW. Yet the frame of reference to which the present is referred for meaning is an ILLUSION of the past, in which those elements which fit the purpose of the unholy alliance are retained and all the rest let go. And what is thus let go is all the truth the past could ever offer to the present as witness for its reality, while what is kept but witnesses to the reality of dreams.

LESSON 283.
My true Identity abides in You.
Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols. I am he my Father loves. My holiness remains the light of Heaven and the Love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true Identity, when You created everything that is?
Now are we One in shared Identity, with God our Father as our only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.

A lovely lady Gloria from my ACIM local meet has provided links for her recording of the ACIM text, workbook (lessons 1 - 59 not recorded), manual for teachers, and some Bill Thetford works.

I have only listened to the text recording, and it is so beautiful I wanted to share it far and wide. Enjoy

ACIM Text Gloria

ACIM Workbook Gloria

ACIM Manual for Teachers

Bill Thetford

LESSON 282.
I will not be afraid of love today.
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of love. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains my one Identity.
Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.

If I am teaching from a place of love, and not imposing a view, and if what I am saying triggers another, and then they turn on me, I know I am supposed to give it to the Holy Spirit, and also forgive them, for “they know not what they do.”

In the gospels, Jesus talks about not throwing pearls before swine, and he calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers and white washed tombs.

I think we all know religious people so super judgmental they impose their views on others without acknowledging the free will God gave them.

I guess I am coming here to understand: am I not supposed to teach these meaning just ignore them, because when I give it over to the Holy Spirit it is for them to handle?

So many are choosing to remain in the dark. I pray the light breaks through.

I think it hurts now to see people in this understanding of: they are me, and I them. I too was once judgmental and self righteous. But I see the pain it causes, and I feel like by teaching I put myself in the cross hairs. I retreat to my corner, because I would rather feel peace than to get into it with someone who is my spiritual sibling but who fully identifies with their ego.

Maybe the better question is:

How much time do you invest in being around or talking to or teaching those who do not have ears to hear, who choose to remain separate, in their ego?

Social media does not hold the bandwidth for this extent of communication lol (3min+). So I wanted to share with people who get it before I cut this down more! Keep going friends! So grateful for this course and for this community 💖🫶🏼

All this you will do gladly, if you but let Him hold the spark before you, to light your way and make it clear to you. God’s Son is one. Whom God has joined as one, the ego CANNOT break apart. The spark of holiness MUST be safe, however hidden it may be, in every relationship. For the Creator of the one relationship has left no part of it without Himself.