A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 256, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 256 God is the only goal I have today. 1. The way to God is through forgiveness here. ²There is no other way.

Lesson 256

God is the only goal I have today.

1. The way to God is through forgiveness here. ²There is no other way. ³If sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are? ⁴Who would still be uncertain? ⁵Who could be unsure of who he is? ⁶And who would yet remain asleep, in heavy clouds of doubt about the holiness of him whom God created sinless? ⁷Here we can but dream. ⁸But we can dream we have forgiven him in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is this we choose to dream today. ⁹God is our goal; forgiveness is the means by which our minds return to Him at last.

2. And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way. ²We have no goal except to hear Your Voice, and find the way Your sacred Word has pointed out to us.

1. The way to God is through forgiveness here. ²There is no other way.

Jesus is uncompromising in this statement. Forgiveness is the way, and there is no other way to God. I must forgive. This is why I am here. It is my mission, and my purpose, and no grievance can be left unforgiven. I live by this. There is no grievance so big I think I cannot forgive. There is no grievance so small I believe I can ignore it.

The last time I wrote about this lesson, I had a different goal.

I had made my goal to be disappointed in myself and to see myself as wrong. I did this because the night before, I fell into an ego fugue and lost my way for a while. The next day, the ego thought system demanded punishment for that sin. I saw myself falling for that ridiculous idea, yet until I read this lesson, I kept falling. I remembered that my only goal is God, and it felt like the darkness had receded, and there was only light.

So, I found my way to God through forgiveness. I forgave myself my error and the idea that I could be affected by an error, that the Son of God could be changed by a dream of imagined sin. The day before, I dreamed of being weak and helpless. After reading this lesson and being renewed, I dreamt of forgiveness. All I had to do was remember my purpose and that I have no goal but God. I asked the Holy Spirit to choose for God for me and the darkness lifted, and I felt happiness and peace once again.

This is from our topic, “What Is Sin?”

2. The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. ²Its purpose is to strive. ³Yet can the goal of striving change.

I had used the body to fill a false sense of emptiness with ice cream, and when that didn’t work, I tried pretty much everything else in the kitchen I could think of. None of it worked, and it only made me feel weak and helpless and all the emptier. I was using the body to strive to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

The next day I used the body to strive to fill my mind with the truth. I was not then guilty, nor have I ever been guilty. Guilt doesn’t exist except in the confusion of a mind that believes it is separate from God. Today, I strive for happiness and peace where it can be found, not at the bottom of a bowl of ice cream but within my own mind.

If we are here, we need to forgive.

It is the only way we are going to awaken. Jesus says there is no other way. He didn’t say forgiveness is one way, but that it is the only way. To forgive as he intends us to understand forgiveness, we undo the ego. When I was feeling resentful toward my friend, I knew I had to forgive that. I didn’t say I forgive her for imposing on me. That would make her guilty first, then pardoning her sin, and is not the same as forgiveness.

I had to recognize that I had projected guilt onto her, and then I had to withdraw that guilt and forgive the idea that anyone could ever be guilty. I know that the ego-self in all of us is guilty, but we are not that. We are not our egos. And the ego is not real, so why would I want to correct it? Why would I want to blame the ego for being the ego? Why do I care what is done as an ego when the ego is only imagination, a hallucination? It’s like holding a grudge against a fictional character in my favorite novel.

Forgiveness is letting go.

When I say that I forgive, I mean that I let go of the belief that is the source of the thoughts in my mind. If I were upset with a friend, I would forgive the belief that someone could upset me. I would forgive (let go) the belief that I or anyone else could possibly be guilty. As I let go of these beliefs, what is there to be upset about? Who could I be upset with?

I also remember this: ⁶Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. ⁷Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. (ACIM, T-3.VII.5:6-7) So, I remember that nothing has happened. It appears as if I have seen something upsetting, but nothing has happened. There is no world, and we are not these bodies. So how is it that I can be upset by the story of Myron? That could only happen if I thought I was Myron. But I know that Myron doesn’t exist. The story of Myron is an ancient memory I put before my eyes. I will use it to undo all stories as I use it to heal my mind.

And here is something else I must remember.

10. 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. (ACIM, T-27.VIII.10:1-6)

I understand from all this that I can easily forgive because there is nothing to forgive. And that is the bottom line.

Regina’s Tips

As we read our special theme today, let’s replace the word sin with “ignorance.” In this case, “ignorance” is defined as ignoring the truth.

For example, “Ignorance is insanity.” Or, “Ignoring the truth is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.”

Let’s read the special theme again. This time, replace the word “sin” with “outward focus.”

For example, “Outward focus gave the body eyes, …” and “Outward focus is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.”

My Thoughts

Whenever I think anyone is guilty, including myself, it is because I ignore the truth with an outward focus. When I have a memory of something I did in the world that I regret, that is an outward focus ignoring the truth that I am not the body nor the person that has done this. I am the watcher, the observer and what I did was part of my script to help me become aware of beliefs that are tethering me to the world. I can then release the belief I am guilty of the behavior.

Regina’s Tips on the lesson

It’s important to look at all of these alternative terms because “sin” typically implies guilt to most people. It reinforces the false idea that something is inherently wrong with me, which reinforces the idea of separation.

However, as we consider alternative terms, we see that there is a habit that has been formed. It is the habit of ignoring our true Self, focusing outward, and believing our thoughts’ judgments regarding everything the body senses. We also see that the body, as the sensing organ, reinforces this habit of looking outward, a habit that has been cherished by the mind.

When we see the problem clearly, we can also see the solution.

If ignoring the truth, focusing outward, and believing the mind’s judgments is the problem, then paying attention to truth, focusing inward and ignoring the mind’s judgments is the solution.

Said another way, awareness-watching-awareness meditation, surrendering to intuition and the Loving All Method are the solutions to insanity.

What is my goal today?

The same as yesterday. Today, I will forgive. I will look at whatever thought might come across my mind that causes me the least discomfort, and I will forgive it. Yesterday, I said something to my daughter that caused her to feel anxious. It was not deliberate, but it happened. She could have taken it differently, and it wouldn’t have affected her, but she took it the way she did.

What I noticed is that her discomfort made me anxious.

I noticed the feeling right away. It was guilt and fear. I felt guilty for upsetting her, even in this little way. And I felt fear because I did not want to damage that special relationship. I saw all of that very quickly. And just as quickly, I realized this was the ego perception of the situation, and I was not interested. I was not interested in the specialness, the guilt, or the fear.

I told the Holy Spirit that I have no use for this and asked Him to remove that thinking from my mind. This is what forgiveness looked like in this situation. It was my goal, and I achieved it. A moment that could have turned into a big deal just faded away. My mind returned to the peaceful place it had been in before. I look forward to another day of peace and choosing only the Voice for God.

Forgiveness is the acknowledgment that there is nothing to forgive.

Once I was in the throes of an ego storm, and for just a moment, my awareness was not in the body but watching the body. I was very aware that Myron was at war with… well, with herself really. I saw her fear and was aware of her decision to be in this situation. It lasted only for a minute or two, but I was “above the battleground” long enough to make a real impression on me. Since that experience, I haven’t had as much trouble accepting that I am not this body.

It helped me to make another decision and to see differently. And no matter what seems to be going on, who is doing what to me, the truth remains unaffected, and I am not guilty of anything, nor is anyone else. We cannot be guilty, ever. I am not really forgiving myself for something I did but forgiving the thought that I could be guilty. We, the Sons of God, are innocent, just as we were created.

Yesterday, I practiced stepping back and being guided.

I experienced this as full surrender. Here I am, God. I belong to You. He gave me a thought of something I have held onto because I was afraid of letting it go. I sat with this until I felt the fear melt away, and my surrender went deeper than it ever has before. Once again, during the day, I had a chance to decide if I am fully committed to surrender.

Though I said I was surrendered, I had to look at the stubborn desire to make decisions on my own and to do that over and over until I finally let it go to God. I think of it this way. I can keep up this fruitless attempt to control the world around me, or I can ask the Holy Spirit to make all my decisions and let Love take care of everything. It is taking some practice on my part to master this decision, but I will.

Here is a beautiful piece of music with a mantra that is perfect for this lesson.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 256 click here.

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