A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 287, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 287 You are my goal, my Father. Only You. 1. Where would I go but Heaven? ²What could be a substitute for happiness?

Lesson 287

You are my goal, my Father. Only You.

1. Where would I go but Heaven? ²What could be a substitute for happiness? ³What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? ⁴What treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my Identity? ⁵And would I rather live with fear than love?

2. You are my goal, my Father. ²What but You could I desire to have? ³What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? ⁴And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth? ⁵You are my only goal. ⁶Your Son would be as You created him. ⁷What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?

When I am angry or judgmental, it is because I want something other than God.

It seems like I have those feelings in response to someone’s words or actions. But the hidden (ego) goal is to distract me from God. When I get sick, it is to turn my attention away from my only goal or to convince me that my goal is impossible. I eat a pint of ice cream and call it supper, and insist to myself that I can’t help myself. I have chosen a goal other than God. When I feel guilty for any of these errors, I have chosen an ego goal over God.

Nothing in the world is going to bring me the joy and the peace that I experience when I choose God. When I feel myself slipping into another story, I ask myself what it is I want. Do I want to be angry, or do I want the peace of God? I cannot have both. Do I want to be sick, or do I want the joy and peace of God? Do I want to pretend that I have no power over my decisions, or do I want the peace of God? I might first choose to punish myself for perceived guilt, but no, I want God. It is important that I look directly at my life and be honest with myself. Then if I recognize insane behavior, I can change my mind.

Not everyone has the same awakening experience.

For me, it has been a slow but steady movement toward awakening. After some stop-and-go efforts, I realized I was not the same person I used to be. This releasing of ego thoughts afforded more light in my mind, and there was a greater change. Then I began my studies with Pathways of Light, and I was much more dedicated to awakening. This dedication, coupled with the tools I needed to go forward, brought me to where I am now.

During each phase, I used the same process with only small changes in the wording. I paid attention to my thoughts, and I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind when I was thinking with the ego. Sometimes I would ask Him to remove certain thinking from my mind, and other times I would ask him to show me another way to see. But always, I turned to the Holy Spirit to heal me.

It felt like it was slow going, but it was what I needed. And it was like a snowball rolling downhill, gaining momentum as it went. I would have advanced more quickly if I had not been so judgmental of my efforts. This is why I emphasize so heavily to watch your thoughts without judgment. Finally, even I could not miss the fact that something significant was happening. Here is something I wrote in my journal at this time.

Every day I get closer to recognizing my Self.

I still stumble, but I haven’t fallen in a while. I don’t get upset with myself for my errors anymore, which is very helpful toward my goal. On the other hand, I don’t have any day in which there are no ego thoughts, and every day I follow an ego thought for a while.

For instance, I received my income tax refund, and I was disappointed that my plans for it didn’t go as expected. However, I know that I don’t know what I am to do with that money. So I pretty quickly got over how life unfolded as it was always going to do anyway and that my plans were not taken into account.

My schedule is pretty full, so when something unexpected gets added, my first response is anxiety, but then I remember to stay in the moment and to let everything be as it is. Somehow it all gets done, and if something doesn’t get done, it must be that it didn’t need my attention after all. I will be glad when I go straight to the solution without first visiting the problem with my ego mind. God is my goal, and I am certain of it. I am learning patience as I go. I am rewarded with more peace than I have ever experienced.

Shortly after that, I had a significant shift.

I shifted into what some call Fundamental Well Being. It is exactly as the name suggests. Fundamentally everything is ok with me. It is looking at life without judgment, and it is very peaceful to live like this. If something needs to change, I change it, but I don’t react to it as I make the change. When there is no judgment of it, there is no need to react. I simply respond appropriately and move on.

I do still have ego thoughts, but I seldom follow them with interest, and that is the difference between peace and lack of peace. Sometimes I do react, but that fades quickly. Once in a while, I fall into a story, but I always move out of it as quickly as possible. Since I teach from my experiences, I use each situation to explain how I undid what I had done. The difference is that I used to live my stories, then I began to let some of them go, and finally, I used them all, but it would take a long time to let them go. Now it is easy and quick for the most part.

Here are the ideas from Jesus that I never forget and know to be true.

I can never be a victim of the world, no matter how it might seem. If I think something outside my own mind is the problem, I am confused. It is never about the other person. I go right to my mind to see what needs to be healed. It is in my defenselessness that my safety lies. Defenses only make me feel more afraid.

The belief in guilt is the problem, and it doesn’t exist. I look at that belief with the Holy Spirit as often as I need to so it can be completely undone. I choose love over fear every time. ⁴The name of fear is simply a mistake. ⁵Let me not be afraid of truth today. Nothing is more important than the peace of God. God is my only goal.

I love my life now and continue to watch my thoughts as close as ever.

It made all the difference in the world when I accepted what Jesus tells us over and over. There is no world. It exists only in our minds. We are not bodies, nor have we ever been in a body. What seems to be these stories of lives happened all at once as our powerful minds entertained the tiny mad idea of being separate from God.

God placed the Correction (the Holy Spirit) in our minds, and as it was done, it was undone. Thus, none of this really happened. As Jesus says, 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) We are simply placing an ancient memory before our eyes. We can and will let it go and awaken to the truth. This is our purpose and what we are doing.

Knowing all this comes to us in time, and we can trust the timing. We can trust everything that Jesus tells us in the Course. In this lesson, he is asking us to consider that the world has nothing to compare with Heaven. As we let go of the value we have placed in it, we will remember who we are. We will remember Heaven, and we will always choose God. Of course, we will.

Regina’s Tips

Yesterday we looked at the positive use of doubt. The Holy Spirit uses doubt, which is part of the ego thought system, to doubt the ego thought system itself.

Likewise, desire is part of the ego thought system. There is no desire in consciousness. But the Holy Spirit (i.e., spiritual intuition) uses desire as a means of directing our attention toward reality. We begin to desire truth, or we desire freedom from suffering, or we experience some other desire that turns attention from the world and places attention inward. In this way, desire is employed to restore us to truth realization.

It is not helpful to deny desire. It is helpful to engage all of the power of desire for the purpose of awakening by realizing over and over again that your spiritual aspiration is all you truly want.

Use today to inquire about desire. What are your world-based desires? Notice them. Will those desires, if achieved, bring everlasting peace, happiness, and clarity? What is your spiritual aspiration? Will it, if achieved, bring everlasting peace, happiness, and clarity? What is your strongest heartfelt desire? What do you want above all else?

I recommend taking time to answer the preceding questions through journaling. Reading my tips is a wonderful first step. Still, if you merely read my tips without following the practice recommendations in the tips, you are probably not taking steps toward your spiritual aspiration. Reading, but not practicing, is another ego-preservation strategy.

My Thoughts

Regina’s tips today are very helpful. I know my world-based desires, and I know that I no longer put much energy into most of them. I also know the difference between enjoying some things without giving them importance. For instance, I am going on three vacations this year. That’s amazing for me since it has been years since I went on a real vacation. These opportunities just showed up, and I accepted them as the gift they are, and I will enjoy them. But if something happened that prevented me from going, I wouldn’t be upset.

My strongest world-based desires are not for something but to avoid something. The other night I fell asleep listening to A Thousand Names for Joy by Byron Katie. I woke up during the night to hear her describing in detail the eye disease she had, which was excruciatingly painful. Her point in doing so was to share her experience of this, which was to love what is no matter how it shows up. But it was so disturbing to me that I had to turn it off.

I have a strong desire to avoid pain.

I use this in a positive way because I realize that the only way to end physical pain is to end the illusion, and so I channel the desire to end pain into awakening. But the desire to avoid the pain that naturally occurs in the world sometimes pulls me into the world.

I also sometimes think about dementia since my mom and her mother, and her sister all had Alzheimer’s. I don’t obsess about it, but thinking about it takes me out of the present moment and into an uncertain and non-existent future. Each time I have these avoidance thoughts, I become more willing to release them and so they are not as disturbing to my peace as they used to be. I trust that they will be resolved as my mind continues to be healed. I don’t want to live in fear, and since love is the only other choice, I am willing to love all things that occur in my life.

One day, a few years ago, I was furniture shopping.

I noticed that I was assigning guilt to myself and to others. I know that the Holy Spirit never judges right or wrong. He would only decide if it were true or false. “Holy Spirit, please help me to see this as you see it.:

Holy Spirit: You need do nothing, you holy child of God. You do not need to study or write. Nor does it matter if you shop or not. You are absolutely free to choose from the vast array of illusional possibilities in any way you want. It truly does not matter what you choose. Do you think you can find your way home only if you are doing something specific, something which you can label as spiritual? Each thing you do brings you to a fork in the road. Your choice is a more direct route home or one that meanders a bit. There are really no other roads than those two.

For instance, when you shopped at the furniture store, you were faced with a fork in the road; you could choose to do so with great energy and joy, asking me to decide with you what you might want to buy. Or you could choose to meander through guilt and fear as you spent your money. While shopping, you were assisted by the clerk to find the piece of furniture you want and then to find a matching piece. You could be with her in gratitude for her helpfulness, or you could separate yourself from her in your suspiciousness and doubt as to her motives. Everything you do is your path home.

Now, look at the choices you made between love and fear.

It is not too late to choose again. You can look at them with fear and guilt for the errors that you made, or you can look at them as learning opportunities. Can you see how perfect they are? Even when you are afraid or guilty, this choice teaches you that you don’t want it. It shows you what it is like not to be as you are so that you can make another decision. You can choose one that will bring you joy rather than suffering. You cannot waste time unless you close your eyes to your opportunities for healing. It is not what you do with your time that matters, dear child, but rather it is who you choose as your teacher that matters.

Me: Again, I end my lesson in gratitude and renewed joy and enthusiasm for what lies before me, my path home. I prefer to choose the fork that brings me directly to my Father, but I am grateful to know that when I forget this decision and choose to wander in illusions for a while that I cannot really get lost as all paths lead me home.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 287 click here.

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