THE GIFTS OF GOD —Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

The speaker discusses Section VII in Chapter 27—THE DREAMER OF THE DREAM. We are responsible for all the pain and suffering we have attracted to ourselves. We are the "dreamer" of our own dream.  We separated from our Source, then we felt "guilty" about it; we projected the "guilt" onto others by blaming them for our troubles, thus ignoring that we are only attacking ourselves. We are the maker of...

In this podcast the Speaker discusses the dichotomy that the ego insists is its main focus—the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure, all to divert our attention away from our belief in eventual death. The real purpose to see our Immortality and extension of Love seems to be diverted by these "witnesses" of our inner conflict.  This Section points out these two, "pain or pleasure," are dis...

We can only heal ourselves. As we accept the Atonement for ourselves, and the Holy Instant of total suspension of our "attack thoughts," we can accept the healing that the Christ offers us. If we wish only to be healed, we heal. But if we are afraid of healing, we will not have it. We have to "love without attack" if only for an instant.  Fear and attack go together. Conflict is their nature. We d...

The QUIET ANSWER comes from our Divine Connection. In the Will of God, there are no problems that cannot be solved, and solved immediately, once and for all. The "one problem," an imagined "separation" from our Source, has not really occurred, therefore it has already been "solved." But we have to use a different thought system to accept this Answer. The Holy Instant is invoked to give us this Ans...

What are symbols but something that "stand for" something else. They indicate but do not reveal the actual. And if these symbols are contradictory by nature, then they are further removed from reality. This Section asks us to put aside the "symbols" and "pictures" we have of our brother. None of them are true, therefore, none of them represent reality. None of them connect us with the truth of our...

What is the fear of Healing? Do we accuse our brother for our ailments and hurts? In this case, not wanting to give up our projections of "guilt" onto others would make us resistant, even fearful of healing.  We do not want to give up the accusations that resulted in our bodily damage. The unhealed cannot pardon. It is not forgiveness to make the error "real" and then to "pardon" it. True forgiven...

This is one of the deepest, and most difficult facts to see in the whole Course in Miracles —of how the ego projects guilt onto others to avoid seeing its own “guilt,” which it is trying to maintain through blaming others.  Sickness is a defense against the truth of our Innocence. It testifies that "someone else is guilty," and my sickness is my righteous "sacrifice" of myself to field the "guilt"...

What is the end of injustice? Do we still see some anger and attack as justified? This would block the Justice of God, Who Created all in their original innocence. The "mistakes" we have made, or any one else has made, have not altered this fact of total innocence. Therefore, attack is never justified.  The world's view is different. In order for some to be innocent, others must be "guilty." The "...

The Speaker discusses Section IX of Chapter 26—For They Have Come. Who are they? They are the people we have had grievances toward and judgments about from our past. They come forward now, for us to behold their innocence and glory. Without them we cannot go through the gates of Heaven. We cannot enter our own glory without bringing them with us. But They have come to us for this one last release....

The fact is, the “future” never arrives, and we maintain our “problems” because the ANSWER is in the Present, not in the “future.” We think we cannot have full release until we are able to line up the conditions just right. We still need to "pay off” something, with a kind of “retribution,” for the mistakes we made in the past. Therefore, we do not see ourselves as deserving of JOY right now.  Why...

THIS IS A LONG PODCAST about the Laws of Healing. Markus Ray goes through these facts in this Section VII of Chapter 26. We must undo the notion of "sin" which implies "guilt," which demands "punishment" in the form of sickness. "Sin," in its most extreme case, is forever uncorrectable. Our Original Innocence is our Reality. This is the awareness that restores our mind to sanity, and thus is the o...

Who is our Friend? The appointed Friend is the Christ that God has given us to look upon our true Self. He is the Self we share, who never forgot his Holy Relationship with His Creator. He never fell out of His state of Divine Inner Joy.  This “Appointed Friend" is always here for us, but we seem to be endlessly distracted in the workings of the world, in which we are pursuing some kind of "nirvan...

Time is but an illusion, a "sleight of hand," that fools us into thinking that what is long gone is still here now. The dream of the hell of death was such an illusion, long ago corrected, that we scarcely remember that there is no death, and the Son of God, which is our only Identity, is immortal and free.  This Section V in Chapter 26, "The Little Hindrance," discusses this very mistake we made...

MARKUS RAY gives a commentary on Section IV of Chapter 26: WHERE SIN HAS LEFT. What is there to forgive when we see that there is nothing to forgive in the awakened Self? But until we awaken into that Self of Christ Consciousness, there are a lot of errors in our belifs in "sin" that need to be undone. Forgiveness has a mighty role in this "undoing."  Illusions seem real until they are understood...

In this Borderland of thought and perception, the closest meeting we can have with the Truth is to see that thought cannot "know" it, and that we can forgive ourselves for this shortcoming. We live in a world of "separation," and this is why yogis for millenniums have given attention to "joining" with the Truth. What we need to "do" for this to happen is to see that thought is a limitation imposed...

The "problems" that we experience seem many, but there is one correction for all of them. The Holy Spirit is the "solver" of all problems. The various aspects of our problem, in many forms, make it seem like our "problems" are many. The one problems is our imagined "separation" from the Divine Connection that has no "problem." There are no "special" problems or "harder" problems. The Answer is our...

MARKUS RAY begins Chapter 26 in the Text of ACIM. This Chapter, called "THE TRANSITION," starts with Section I, "The 'sacrifice' of oneness." There is a total lack of joining in the world we made up. We maintain our ego based self by identifying with our body. This body separates us from other bodies. All of us are caught in the separateness of a limited and divided view of our self. We seek for O...

Markus and Sondra discuss two Key Lessons from Part II in the Workbook, from the section called "The Second Coming." "There is a peace that Christ bestows on us." This is Lesson #305. Do we want it? Are we open to awaken to what is already ours? The Peace of the Christ is already given us, but have we accepted it? We already have the Peace, but are we with it? The second Lesson, #306, is, "The gif...

SONDRA and MARKUS comment on the last section in Chapter 25 of A Course in Miracles: The Justice of Heaven is an awareness of our total innocence. There is no difference between the spiritual and "physical" world when we see God's Justice bestows peace and innocence on all dimensions. In this view of Justice, Heaven is bestowed upon this dimension of the physical in which we inhabit. Pain is impos...

MARKUS & SONDRA discuss Lesson #183 in the ACIM Workbook: "I call upon God's Name and on my own." What exactly is the call we make upon "God's name?" The Name of God is whole and complete. Ultimately it is the Oneness we all seek, the unification we are assembling in our life, the truth of peace that blankets every atom in creation. God's name encompasses Everything, without exception. Only th...

In this completion of Section VIII of Chapter 25, Justice is Returned to Love. Sin and Justice cannot truly go together. The ego's version is that you are guilty, and you deserve punishment, and this vengeance is justice. This false "justice"also projects "the wrath of God" onto our Creator, making God some entity to be feared and rejected. We are addicted to the "hell" we made up. We are "comfort...

What is real Justice? Certainly it is not "vengeful." The Justice of the Holy Spirit is always to see the truth of our God Created Self, Who is sinless. The "false justice" of the ego's thought system is to project guilt onto us and others, then demand the "vengeance of punishment." This is the "justice" of the world that is not difficult to see. We have a choice which thought system we are to use...

There is only one problem in life we will ever have to solve. This is our "imagined separation" we think we have from our Source, from God, from the Universal Life Force. We think there is "death" in the midst of the truth of Eternal Life. I imagine an "alternative" to the Absolute Truth. LOVE has no opposite in truth, but we have projected all kinds of conflict and h...

There is a "rock" upon which the whole foundation of our liberation from pain and suffering is based: "There is no sin." Eternal Innocence is the nature of our Self. No matter what "mistakes" we may have made in the past, they are all correctable. We are eternally innocent regardless of our errors. It is our responsibility to look on these errors and forgive them, cor...

Our Special Function is to Forgive. This function could be applied to a very specific Relationship with one who is "plugging you in" the most. There is a Blessing in this action. The miracle is in the transmutation of our "special judgments" into the "special love" of Forgiveness that overlooks all errors and disappointments. This is a Home of blessing, joy, perfectio...