V. The Changeless Dwelling Place
1. There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. ²There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. ³There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. ⁴Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. ⁵And where They are is Heaven and is peace.
2. Think not that you can change Their dwelling place. ²For your Identity abides in Them, and where They are, forever must you be. ³The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. ⁴The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within.
3. Here is the role the Holy Spirit gives to you who wait upon the Son of God, and would behold him waken and be glad. ²He is a part of you and you of him, because he is his Father’s Son, and not for any purpose you may see in him. ³Nothing is asked of you but to accept the changeless and eternal that abide in him, for your Identity is there. ⁴The peace in you can but be found in him. ⁵And every thought of love you offer him but brings you nearer to your wakening to peace eternal and to endless joy.
4. This sacred Son of God is like yourself; the mirror of his Father’s Love for you, the soft reminder of his Father’s Love by which he was created and which still abides in him as it abides in you. ²Be very still and hear God’s Voice in him, and let It tell you what his function is. ³He was created that you might be whole, for only the complete can be a part of God’s completion, which created you.
5. There is no gift the Father asks of you but that you see in all creation but the shining glory of His gift to you. ²Behold His Son, His perfect gift, in whom his Father shines forever, and to whom is all creation given as his own. ³Because he has it is it given you, and where it lies in him behold your peace. ⁴The quiet that surrounds you dwells in him, and from this quiet come the happy dreams in which your hands are joined in innocence. ⁵These are not hands that grasp in dreams of pain. ⁶They hold no sword, for they have left their hold on every vain illusion of the world. ⁷And being empty they receive, instead, a brother’s hand in which completion lies.
6. If you but knew the glorious goal that lies beyond forgiveness, you would not keep hold on any thought, however light the touch of evil on it may appear to be. ²For you would understand how great the cost of holding anything God did not give in minds that can direct the hand to bless, and lead God’s Son unto his Father’s house. ³Would you not want to be a friend to him, created by his Father as His home? ⁴If God esteems him worthy of Himself, would you attack him with the hands of hate? ⁵Who would lay bloody hands on Heaven itself, and hope to find its peace? ⁶Your brother thinks he holds the hand of death. ⁷Believe him not. ⁸But learn, instead, how blessed are you who can release him, just by offering him yours.
7. A dream is given you in which he is your savior, not your enemy in hate. ²A dream is given you in which you have forgiven him for all his dreams of death; a dream of hope you share with him, instead of dreaming evil separate dreams of hate. ³Why does it seem so hard to share this dream? ⁴Because unless the Holy Spirit gives the dream its function, it was made for hate, and will continue in death’s services. ⁵Each form it takes in some way calls for death. ⁶And those who serve the lord of death have come to worship in a separated world, each with his tiny spear and rusted sword, to keep his ancient promises to die.
8. Such is the core of fear in every dream that has been kept apart from use by Him Who sees a different function for a dream. ²When dreams are shared they lose the function of attack and separation, even though it was for this that every dream was made. ³Yet nothing in the world of dreams remains without the hope of change and betterment, for here is not where changelessness is found. ⁴Let us be glad indeed that this is so, and seek not the eternal in this world. ⁵Forgiving dreams are means to step aside from dreaming of a world outside yourself. ⁶And leading finally beyond all dreams, unto the peace of everlasting life. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/327#1:1-8:6 | T-29.V.1:1–8:6)
#ACIM #nonduality #spirituality #peace #God #love #forgiveness
The body cannot heal, because it cannot make itself sick. ²It _needs_ no healing. ³Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it, and the purpose that the mind would use it for. ⁴It is obvious that a segment of the mind can see itself as separated from the Universal Purpose. ⁵When this occurs the body becomes its weapon, used against this Purpose, to demonstrate the “fact” that separation has occurred. ⁶The body thus becomes the instrument of illusion, acting accordingly; seeing what is not there, hearing what truth has never said and behaving insanely, being imprisoned _by_ insanity. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/229#3:1-6 | T-19.I.3:1-6)
#ACIM #nonduality #spirituality #illusion #body #mind
⁴What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years? ⁵And what are you who live within the world except a picture of the Son of God in broken pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay? (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/317#7:4-5 | T-28.III.7:4-5)
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #world #separation
What Is the Body?
1. The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts. ²It is within this fence he thinks he lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. ³For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love. ⁴Identifying with his safety, he regards himself as what his safety is. ⁵How else could he be certain he remains within the body, keeping love outside?
2. The body will not stay. ²Yet this he sees as double safety. ³For the Son of God’s impermanence is “proof” his fences work, and do the task his mind assigns to them. ⁴For if his oneness still remained untouched, who could attack and who could be attacked? ⁵Who could be victor? ⁶Who could be his prey? ⁷Who could be victim? ⁸Who the murderer? ⁹And if he did not die, what “proof” is there that God’s eternal Son can be destroyed?
3. The body is a dream. ²Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born. ³For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear. ⁴Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. ⁵But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.
4. The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity. ²Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. ³The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. ⁴Now is the body holy. ⁵Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.
5. You will identify with what you think will make you safe. ²Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. ³Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies. ⁴Love is your safety. ⁵Fear does not exist. ⁶Identify with love, and you are safe. ⁷Identify with love, and you are home. ⁸Identify with love, and find your Self.
(https://acim.org/acim/en/s/676#1:1-5:8 | W-pII.5.1:1–5:8)
#ACIM #nonduality #body #spirituality #love
It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. ²Only in such a world could everything be upside down. ³This is the strange illusion that makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and impenetrable. ⁴The solidness that this world’s foundation seems to have is found in this. ⁵For sin has changed creation from an idea of God to an ideal the ego wants; a world it rules, made up of bodies, mindless and capable of complete corruption and decay. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/230#6:1-5 | T-19.II.6:1-5)
#ACIM #nonduality #spirituality #ego #guilt #God #world
You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. ²Is it your decision to do so? ³You recognize from your own experience that what you see in dreams you think is real while you are asleep. ⁴Yet the instant you waken you realize that everything that seemed to happen in the dream did not happen at all. ⁵You do not think this strange, even though all the laws of what you awaken to were violated while you slept. ⁶Is it not possible that you merely shifted from one dream to another, without really waking? (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/139#2:1-6 | T-10.I.2:1-6)
#spirituality #nonduality #dream #ACIM
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. ²No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. ³Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. ⁴Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. ⁵For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. ⁶Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream.
(https://acim.org/acim/en/s/313#10:1-6 | T-27.VIII.10:1-6)
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #dream #dreams #salvation
You can stretch out your hand and reach to Heaven. ²You whose hand is joined with your brother’s have begun to reach beyond the body, but not outside yourself, to reach your shared Identity together. ³Could this be outside you? ⁴Where God is not? ⁵Is _He_ a body, and did He create you as He is not, and where He cannot be? ⁶You are surrounded only by Him. ⁷What limits can there be on you whom He encompasses? (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/224#10:1-7 | T-18.VI.10:1-7)
#spirituality #Heaven #forgiveness #ACIM
Dreams show you that you have the power to make a world as you would have it be, and that because you want it you see it. ²And while you see it you do not doubt that it is real. ³Yet here is a world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be outside. ⁴You do not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the emotions the dream produces must come from you. ⁵It is the figures in the dream and what they do that seem to make the dream. ⁶You do not realize that you are making them act out for you, for if you did the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusion of satisfaction would be gone. ⁷In dreams these features are not obscure. ⁸You seem to waken, and the dream is gone. ⁹Yet what you fail to recognize is that what caused the dream has not gone with it. ¹⁰Your wish to make another world that is not real remains with you. ¹¹And what you seem to waken to is but another form of this same world you see in dreams. ¹²All your time is spent in dreaming. ¹³Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. ¹⁴Their content is the same. ¹⁵They are your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change it. ¹⁶In your waking dreams, the special relationship has a special place. ¹⁷It is the means by which you try to make your sleeping dreams come true (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/220#5:1-17 | T-18.II.5:1-17)
⁵All learning is a help or hindrance to the gate of Heaven. ⁶Nothing in between is possible. ⁷There are two teachers only, who point in different ways. ⁸And you will go along the way your chosen teacher leads. ⁹There are but two directions you can take, while time remains and choice is meaningful. ¹⁰For never will another road be made except the way to Heaven. ¹¹You but choose whether to go toward Heaven, or away to nowhere. ¹²There is nothing else to choose. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/299#1:5-12 | T-26.V.1:5-12)
⁵Heaven is not a place nor a condition. ⁶It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/224#1:4-6 | T-18.VI.1:4-6)
How much do you want salvation? ²It will give you the real world, trembling with readiness to be given you. ³The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you this is so intense He would not wait, although He waits in patience. ⁴Meet His patience with your impatience at delay in meeting Him. ⁵Go out in gladness to meet with your Redeemer, and walk with Him in trust out of this world, and into the real world of beauty and forgiveness. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/211#8:1-5 | T-17.II.8:1-5)
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. ²No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. ³Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. ⁴Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. ⁵For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. ⁶Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/313#10:1-6 | T-27.VIII.10:1-6)
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #peace #dreams #salvation
Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true relationship with You, in which there are no illusions, and where none can ever enter. ²Our holiness is Yours. ³What can there be in us that needs forgiveness when Yours is perfect? ⁴The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your forgiveness and Your Love. ⁵Let us not wander into temptation, for the temptation of the Son of God is not Your Will. ⁶And let us receive only what You have given, and accept but this into the minds which You created and which You love. ⁷Amen. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/208#12:1-7 | T-16.VII.12:1-7)
#ACIM #spirituality #peace #forgiveness #love
Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. ²And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. ³The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. ⁴The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. ⁵Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. ⁶Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/252#8:1-6 | T-21.I.8:1-6)
#spirituality #nonduality #God #light #forgiveness #oneness #ACIM
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/205#6:1 | T-16.IV.6:1)
Love is not learned. ⁶Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose acknowledgment of you and yours of Him so far transcend all learning that everything you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the knowledge of love and its one meaning. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/227#12:1,12:6 | T-18.IX.12:1,6)
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #psychology #love
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ACIM T-16.IV
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #psychology #love
The body is outside you, and but seems to surround you, shutting you off from others and keeping you apart from them, and them from you. ²It is not there. ³There is no barrier between God and His Son, nor can His Son be separated from Himself except in illusions. ⁴This is not his reality, though he believes it is. ⁵Yet this could only be if God were wrong. ⁶God would have had to create differently, and to have separated Himself from His Son to make this possible. ⁷He would have had to create different things, and to establish different orders of reality, only some of which were love. ⁸Yet love must be forever like itself, changeless forever, and forever without alternative. ⁹And so it is. ¹⁰You cannot put a barrier around yourself, because God placed none between Himself and you. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/224#9:1-10 | T-18.VI.9:1-10)
#ACIM #nonduality #spirituality #psychology #oneness #forgiveness
Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light. ²And by projecting it the world seems dark, and shrouded in your guilt. ³You throw a dark veil over it, and cannot see it because you cannot look within. ⁴You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is not there. ⁵_The thing you fear is gone._ ⁶If you would look within you would see only the Atonement, shining in quiet and in peace upon the altar to your Father. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/173#7:1-6 | T-13.IX.7:1-6)
#ACIM #spirituality #psychology #innerpeace #spirit #forgiveness
In you there is no separation, and no substitute can keep you from your brother. ²Your reality was God’s creation, and has no substitute. ³You are so firmly joined in truth that only God is there. ⁴And He would never accept something else instead of you. ⁵He loves you both, equally and as one. ⁶And as He loves you, so you are.
(https://acim.org/acim/en/s/219#10:1-6 | T-18.I.10:1-6)
#ACIM #spirituality #nonduality #oneness #forgiveness