Sean Reagan

I bless the world because I bless myself.

One of the fundamental ideas in A Course in Miracles is that in order to have we must give – in fact, we only truly have that which we give away. Thus, when we extend love to the world in the form of cooperation, distributive justice and so forth – we naturally bless ourselves.

It’s like the old saying “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Except we aren’t the boats; we’re the tide.

The lesson emphasizes that we are not talking about material objects here, but rather the thinking that makes them by giving them value. If the mind that makes the world seeks to bless the world, then blessing is what occurs. But the mind has to want – it has to have – the idea of blessing first.

That is to say, it has to recognize that it already is blessed because of what it is in truth. Our acceptance of the Atonement is what makes this clear for us.

If you are to save the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. But you will not believe this is done until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you look upon (W-pI.187.3:2-3).

When we bless ourselves, we are acknowledging our own worth and value. We are accepting ourselves as God’s Creation; we are seeing our selves as God sees us. This, in turn, helps us to perceive the worth and value in others. The discovery of our shared worth and value is also the discovery of our equality. We are one and we are connected in our equality, and in our shared interest in extending the Love that underlies that equality.

In the world, the tendency is to covet and hoard. If we want something, we have to get it and protect it – hide it away under lock and key. But Lesson 187 upends that logic. The best way to protect what is of value is siply to give it away, over and over and over.

Give gladly. You can only gain thereby. The thought remains, and grows in strength as it is reinforced by giving . . . there is no giver and receiver in the sense the world conceives of them (W-pI.187.5:1-3, 5).

What is the idea we are sharing? In a word, love. In more words, our equality in Creation, as extensions of a Loving God. When we hold this idea in mind, it naturally takes form in the world, under the Holy Spirit’s direction.

It might be as simple as buying lunch for someone who can’t afford it. It might be as complex as changing jobs in order to maximize our ability to help others. Our focus is not on the form – which is where ego asserts its preferences – but rather on being clear and generous with the idea, which is how we open ourselves to its extension through us unto the world.

In other words, I want to hold our shared quality in mind. When I see you, I want to see my brother or sister. When I think of you, I want to think of my brother or sister. Recalling our shared nature – our familial nature – in Creation is a basic stepping-stone to becoming comfortable with oneness itself.

It’s not about food for the less fortunate, or overcoming a cancer diagnosis, or changing jobs or partners. It is about knowing what we are in truth.

Illusions recognized must disappear. Accept not suffering, and you remove the thought of suffering. Your blessing lies on everyone who suffers, when you choose to see all suffering as what it is. The thought of sacrifice gives rise to all the forms that suffering appeas to take (W-pI.187.7:1-4).

We are scared to remember our oneness with God. We are! Deep down we think it means giving things up – losing what we value most. We think it’s about sacrifice. If we’re one what happens to potato chips and swimming in the ocean and making love and planting spinach and all the other stuff I love, not to mention the ones I love doing it all with?

The answer to that fear-filled question is to relax and take baby steps. Little tiny baby steps. What counts is willingness. What counts is doing the work, noticing the results, and not giving up.

When we commit to love, then miracles will appear, and they will bless us and the world, and the unity will be clear and we will no longer be afraid of it for we will realize that we are only gazing at our own self.

Now we are on in thought, for fear has gone. And here, before the altar to one God, one Father, one Creator and one Thought, we stand together as one Son of God. Not separate from Him Who is our Source; not distant from one brother is part of our one Self Whose innocence has joined us all as one . . . (W-pI.187.10:1-3).

This is simply the end of the ego’s ideal of separation. It is the acceptance that there is another way, and we are committed to learning what it is, and then following it. We know we are not alone. We know that the capacity to see as Christ sees is inherent in us; we know that nobody can be excluded from our joy and peace.

Whatever we see today – whatever the body perceives – let us quietly remind ourselves that it is blessed in God’s Creation, and that our remembrance makes it so. Thought makes the world; therefore we choose a thought of Love, and by it share the blessing we naturally extend in Creation.

←Lesson 186
Lesson 188→

I call upon God’s Name and on my own.

In A Course in Miracles the statement “God’s Name is holy but no holier than ours” (W-pI.183.1:1) conveys the idea that we, as God’s creations, share the same divine essence and holiness as God. This concept emphasizes the interconnectedness and unity between God and us, upending the notion that we are separate from our Creator or somehow inherently unworthy of Creation.

By asserting that our name is as holy as God’s, the lesson invites us to recognize our true spiritual nature, effectively igniting and sustaining the divine spark within us. This light – however dim, however apparently unstable – allows us to overcome feelings of guilt and unworthiness because it makes clear that the foundation for those experiences is an illusion. By embracing our inherent holiness and worthiness in God’s eyes, we reclaim our rightful home in Creation.

In this context, the lesson promotes the familiar shift in perspective from seeing ourselves as separate, limited beings to recognizing our oneness with God and all of creation. This is literally what a miracle is. By acknowledging our shared holiness with God, we can cultivate a deeper sense of love, compassion, and forgiveness towards ourselves and others. This taste of grace fosters spiritual openness and transformation. We want to be healed, and therefore we are.

Practically, the lesson urges us to repeat God’s Name, ever remembering that it is our name as well. When we do this, we reinforce our awareness of our shared oneness with God. Giving attention to unity in this way enhances inner peace. How can we suffer indefinitely when salvation is as near as a cherished utterance?

Critically, this spoken practice – this embodied remembrance – undoes the ego. Recitation of God’s Name literally brings the cosmos to silence.

The Universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon His Father. And his Father’s Voice gives answer in his Father’s holy Name. In this eternal, still relationship, in which communications far transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal (W-pI.183.11:4-6).

In nondual Christian traditions like A Course in Miracles, the emphasis is on the direct experience of God’s presence in order to remember our unity with the divine. We are less concerned with adherence to dogma or doctrine. We aren’t trying to impress anyone, we are trying to remember who and what we are in truth.

When we repeat God’s name, we undo the part of our brain that relies on order and logic, and allow a deeper sense of relationship to emerge, one that transcends perceived barriers between themselves, others, and the divine and thus allows us to experience the nondual nature of reality.

←Lesson 182
Lesson 184→

I want the Peace of God.

It sounds good, doesn’t it? It feels good saying it. But is it our truth?

To say that we want the peace of God and mean it, is to remember instantly and forever that we are not separate from the Peace of God. But – and the previous lesson’s emphasis on the trickiness of language is relevant here – to say it and not mean it, or mean it only partially or sometimes – can only lead to pain.

Lesson 185 of A Course in Miracles makes clear that the peace of God is the end of the dream of separation. It is the end of guilt and judgment, and it is the end of suffering. Our spiritual awakening (in the context of ACIM) makes clear that our honest desire to remember our oneness with God will perfectly and eternally overcome the ego-based illusion of separation.

No one can mean these words and not be healed. He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot make a hell and think it real. He wants the peace of God, and it is given him (W-pI.185.2:1-4).

The dream of separation refers to the belief that we are individual, separate entities disconnected from God and from one another. According to A Course in Miracles, this perception is an illusion, a dream-like state that causes suffering and conflict – both within us and in the world we project. The dream of separation perpetuates the ego’s need for control and reinforces the mistaken idea that happiness is contingent on external factors.

In contrast, the peace of God represents the ultimate state of unity, love, and harmony. It is a state of knowledge that transcends the ego’s illusions and deceit by remembering the interconnectedness of all life. There is no separation. When we truly desire the peace of God, we signal our readiness to awaken from the dream of separation and embrace the reality of our true nature.

To achieve the peace of God, we must acknowledge our desire for it and also renounce our willingness to accept any alternative. We have to let go of the ego’s insistence on maintaining the illusion of separation. For most of us, this means becoming humble with respect to our need for help and guidance.

We have to actively join with our brothers and sisters and, critically, not insist what form the joining will take.

The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in aform each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand (W-pI.185.6:1-2).

Is it clear? We have to reach a state of profound honesty and integrity with respect to this one desire. We have to mean it. When we mean it, then we will realize it in our living in form that we understand. Our will aligns with the will of God and naturally we begin to experience glimpses of God’s peace.

Don’t insist on form. Insist on peace and be willing to accept it on whatever terms God chooses.

You choose God’s peace, or you have asked for dreams. And dreams will come as you requested them. Yet will God’s peace come just as certainly, and to remain with you forever (W-pI.185.9:4-6).

Our continued practice of forgiveness – which is right-mindedness manifesting as compassion, service and acceptance, the barriers that maintain the illusion of separation are readily undone. We see ourselves and others as extensions of God’s love, rather than as separate entities competing for limited resources. This shift in perception allows us to experience the peace of God more consistently and deeply.

We learn the truth – and it becomes yet another unshakeable stone in the foundation of our learning – that anyone who seeks God can only succeed, for what they seek is only their own self.

←Lesson 184
Lesson 186→

The Name of God is my inheritance.

In the previous lesson, we learned about the power of God’s Name and how it is also our own. Remembering this fact becomes a means of remembering our underlying oneness. Lesson 184 of A Course in Miracles reinforces these ideas by making clear that our oneness is not a choice on our part or God’s but is rather established in Creation itself. How else could it be our inheritance?

The foundation of our ACIM practice rests on the premise that there is but one Creation; God has “but one Son” (T-2.VII.6:1). If the Name of God is my inheritance, it must also be yours. Therefore, our onenes with God is not a thread between us and God but more like an inclusive space gathering all of Creation – people, animals, quasars, dark matter. Nothing can be excluded. Total and perfect inclusion is what Love is.

It is by remembering – not once but eternally – what Love is that we can finally release false beliefs, ego-based thoughts and erroneous perception and thus experience actual inner peace.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that we live by symbols (W-pI.184.1:1). This process of symbolization inevitably fragments reality by separating one aspect of it from another. Symbols can be helpful in sharing ideas and facilitating understanding at the level of the body but they cannot adequately capture the full essence of wholeness.

We cannot be persuaded of oneness and we cannot be sold oneness. We can only realize oneness for our own selves.

In this way, the Course neatly harmonizes with other nondual traditions which consider the fundamental unity of reality or the ultimate truth to be largely beyond the limitations of language or even pictorial symbols. In the Hindu tradition, the concept of Brahman, the ultimate reality, is generally considered to be beyond description or comprehension. There is no prohibition on the word but there is a recognition of its ultimate futility.

So while symbols can point us in the direction of the unity of reality, they are inherently limited by their separative nature, as they break down the whole into parts or concepts. To truly grasp the unity of reality, we need to leave “the sum of the inheritance the world bestows” (W-pI.184.6:1), the “teachig of the world” (W-pI.184.7:1) and discover that “what is true in earth and Heaven is beyond your naming” (W-pI.184.8:3).

Fear and its myriad forms – confusion, anxiety, distraction, conflict – are merely effects of taking literally our capacity to symbolize, believing it can do more than what in truth it can.

There is – because there is always another way.

. . . what you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the world becomes a transitory phase; a prison house from which you go into the sunlight and forget the darkness. Here you understand the Word, the Name which God has given you; the one Identity which all things share; the one acknowledgement of what is true (W-pI.184.10:1-2).

In truth, God has no name (W-pI.184.12:1). But this does not denote emptiness or nothingness. On the contrary.

And yet His Name becomes the final lesson that all things are one, and at this lesson does all learning end. All names are unified; all space is filled with truth’s reflection. Every gap is closed, and separation healed (W-pI.184.12:2-4).

We begin by accepting the limitations of language, and by recognizing how the way in which it functions naturally brings forth the appearance of separation. After that recognition we can become responsible for how we use language. We can use it to ground our practice in silence and stillness and thus decline to reinforce the underlying fragmentation.

This is the essence of the beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson. It is words but not words that force us into a posture of reliance, substituting yet another interpretation for truth. By approaching this prayer in humility and willingness, we easily remember that we can use words and other symbols such that “all foolish separations disppear which kept us blind” (W-pI.184.14:3).

Let us pray and in our prayer remember that the Vision of Christ is our inheritance. Indeed, it is the active tense of God’s Name.

←Lesson 183
Lesson 185→

I trust my brothers, who are one with me

Lesson 181 of A Course in Miracles emphasizes the importance of trust in our spiritual journey. We are called to trust our brothers and sisters in order to awaken and realize our true nature as one with our Creator. In order to facilitate this realization, we are encouraged to let go of past grievances and judgments because they separate us from one another and thus obscure the truth of our underlying connectedness.

When we trust our brothers and sisters – especially those we do not want to trust, believe we should not trust, are perhaps justified in not trusting – we gradually recognize that the Light of Christ infuses all beings. There are no exceptions in Love. Our shared calling is to remember this together.

As we acknowledge our shared purpose and unity, we naturally extend love and forgiveness, which fosters an even deeper sense of connection and healing. In a sense, when we trust our brothers and sisters, we are also placing our trust in God’s Plan for salvation. This naturally leads to a shift in perception.

Remove your focus on your brother’s sins, and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. This faith receives its only sure support from what you see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in you (W-pI.181.2:5-7).

This practice of looking beyond errors in order to see the divinity within others is essential for awakening to our oneness with God. By embracing forgiveness and recognizing the divine nature within others, we experience a deep sense of connection and healing, ultimately progressing on our path towards understanding that the past is gone and healing is now.

. . . the past is gone; the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more. We lay these pointless limitations by a little while (W-pI.181.5:2-5).

This looking beyond error is directly related to our willingness to let go of our fears, doubts, and judgments. We cannot trust ourselves if we do not trust our brothers and sisters and so long as we hold a single grudge, then our trust is not complete. We are not yet fully allowing ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, who helps us overcome the illusion of separation and become aware of our true interconnectedness which cannot sustain the interference of grievances.

This remembrance – this seeing – this knowing our oneness – is tantamount to knowing a “wholly sinless world” (W-pI.181.8:3).

When seeing this is all we want to see, whe this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves (W-pI.181.8:4-6).

Perceiving sinlessness in a brother or sister is what allows us to perceive our own sinlessness. We are basically acknowledging our shared divine essence. And by acknowledging it – by sharing it with the Holy Spirit, who recognizes it for us – we naturally strengthen it. This always leads to happiness.

The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders if joy. He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous (T-6.V.C.1:10-11).

Happiness, however, is not the final goal today. Today’s goal is simpler: in each moment we want to give attention only to our brothers and sisters, and only so that we might place our faith in them, trusting them to do their part to bring forth salvation for the world. We are here for them – to learn from them and to be saved by them.

This harmonizes with the overall focus of the holy instant, which is always teaching us to be fully present to and focused on our practice of forgiveness. Future planning – and escaping or valorizing the past – merely distracts us from the truth the present moment is. In this way, we naturally cultivate and nurture our awareness of our oneness with God which extends to all of Creation.

←Lesson 180
Lesson 182→