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

The Attraction of guilt is the ego's chief desire to deny Love. The ego, based on fear, makes guilt "real." The messengers of our perception are sent out to find some error, some mistake, some "sin" to feel guilty about. Either guilt is taken in and used to make us miserable, or it is projected outward onto someone else in order to diminish the guilt we feel in ourselves. L...

The First Obstacle to Peace is the "Desire to get rid of peace." It's hard to believe we are so addicted to anger and conflict, but we are. And the when Peace comes to us, we actually feel uncomfortable because it is not the struggle we are used to, and we "want to get rid of it." This Section IV of Chapter 19, The Attainment of Peace, does very well explaining our "bl...

Markus Ray delivers a general talk on ACIM in the Happiness & Longevity Training in Latvia. Translated in Latvian, this is for anyone who has been studying A Course in Miracles for some years now, or even for someone who is just introduced to it. What are the two thought systems that confront us when studying ACIM? These are made clear in this lecture: The ego's thought system versus the H...

This begins the important Section in Chapter 19, "The Obstacles to Peace." Peace is within us, but there are "obstacles" to our awareness of Peace that we impose, and also experience in the world "outside of us." We have to see the Holy Spirit in our Brother in order to reap the benefits of the Holy Relationship, and thus come to the inner peace that we are after. Stu...

This Lesson #70 states, "My salvation comes from me." We have to see that negative emotions, situations and experiences are formulated in the mind first. Depression is "made up" in ourselves when we think that happiness depends on external situations and possessions being a "certain way." Salvation is the freedom from all suffering. Salvation is the making our will on...

We are still attracted to the Guilt that we think is a Reality of "sin." The ego bring "sin" to our fears and then seeks some form of punishment. We think sin is real and true, therefore guilt is inevitably the result. This can come to us in a disease, a failed relationship, a failure in our career, etc. We can change our notion of "sin" to merely a mistake, without t...

SIN VERSUS ERROR—broadcasting from Estonia 🇪🇪, this is a key Section in A Course in Miracles. Sin is an arrogance, because "sin" accompanies "guilt," and 'guilt" demands punishment. Sin is a "request for death." This is a mistake. Sin is irreconcilable. Sin asks for punishment because it sees it as a ‘retribution.” But "error" is correctable. In oth...

Are we able to look past our brothers' "errors" and not judge them for making the errors in the first place? Anger, attack, guilt, and fear cannot be Love. Love is alway happy and at peace. This is the truth. We would be in error to try to "join" love and anger, as they come from irreconcilable thought systems. The Messengers of Love deliver Love’s messages, but do not judg...

HEALING relies on a couple key ways of seeing the situation. First we must see that the Mind is where the healing takes place. The Body is not sick, but only a "print out" of the thoughts in the mind. Second we must include our brothers and sisters in the healing. What we deserve from God in our healing process, every other person deserves as well, regardless of any "mistakes"...

The Two Worlds are the "world of the ego's thought system" of clouds and deceptions, and the clear Light of the Real World in which forgiveness is complete, and there are no fears, guilts, or anger to obscure this total Atonement's vision of this fearless and timeless place. The Real Self is underneath the thick shroud of "clouds" of fear that block this vision of our T...

The "Little Garden" is a place in which we can nurture the larger whole of our Divine Connection that includes our brothers and sisters. We shift our focus away from the small part of awareness of our ego self of the body to our Spiritual Self liberated from the confinement of the body. We connect with everyone and everything in this Connection to our Source. We are ONE in this Source. W...

"I need do nothing" is a direction from the Holy Spirit that clears away all of our activity that produces no real contact with our Reality. The real purpose of meditation is to make this contact directly, and it is not necessarily a "set of actions" we must take to join with our inner truth. The means we are given is the Holy Relationship in which we join instantly with our br...

There is a HEAVEN STATE that is possible for us to be AWARE of, and it is solely in our Mind. We have contact with this in our Mind. We see the ONENESS within this AWARENESS. We join our brothers there. It is available to us right now. We need not prepare ourselves for this, nor do we need to purify what is already pure. But we do need to give more ATTENTION to this inner Reality. The Body is near...

We are still in the action of cleaning up our life. We forgive our past and transform our "special relationships" into Holy Ones, through the action of the Holy Spirit. When we "turn them over" to this Divine Care, they can become part of the Real World of Happy Dreams. Happy Dreams are loving. They are free of judgments and grievances, attack thoughts and condemnations, motive...

The Little Willingness is only our desire to have the Holy Instant above all else, and our acceptance of the fact that we are asked to give only this "little willingness" for it to be what it is without our interference. We need not "prepare ourselves" for the Holy Instant to be given to us. The Holy Spirit's strength is given, and we are only required to receive it. Our &q...

The Light that we have denied is still in us. The goal is the advance from Fear to Truth, the goal of true Knowledge. The goal is Light. Even though we had forgotten that the Light was always in us, this is not enough to blot out the Light, which is not distinguishable. You cannot put out the Light that God created in you. The downside of the ego is very well described so we can see it and let it...

Why do we dream? Because we feel threatened and fearful, we make up a substitute "reality" in which we are "in control" of all aspects of a story we make up, but one that is not really there. The "basis" of the dream becomes our "protection" from these attacks. We feel attacked, and this is the cause for "dreams." We want a "reality" in w...

There is a "substitute" reality we replace with special relationships. These are not ones which are based on Love, but rather on fear and motives of getting something. The inner journey begins to see that only Love is real, and the fear of the external world divides and fragments. The truth inside is Whole and unified. Turning all Relationships over to the care of the Holy Spirit, their...

What are the conditions for Peace? The Holy Instant is the main condition in which Peace would be the result. It is what every situation should hold as its true meaning. The Holy Instant provides the meaning of every relationship, seen as a Whole. A situation of Perfect Peace is the result because we allow it to be exactly as it is. The Holy Instant is free of all fear, judgment, problems, and gui...

The Call for Faith requires that in any situation that has a "problem" that we have faith that the "problem" can be "solved" with Faith. Is there a change we need to make within ourselves that will bring a solution? To remove the problem to "elsewhere," outside of the situation where the disagreement lies, does not really solve the "problem." There...

When we "set a goal" we can move toward a particular result. When this goal is clear, the result we want is well defined. This is established in the beginning. The goal clarifies the situation. The situation flows in the way of the goal. Without the goal, there is no direction for the situation, and the outcome can vary. Usually we judge the situation according to preferences that are &q...

When we turn over a special relationship to the Holy Spirit's purpose for healing, the Holy Relationship is the result of the transformation that comes about. In the first stage of this transformation we go through an unsettling period when our old "motives” are coming to an end. The growing pain of this discomfort requires faith to persevere. The goal is set with sanity as its purpose, b...

The Holy Relationship is in great contrast to the Special Relationship. Set in an elaborate and bedazzled frame, the Special Relationship is a collection of dismal fears, guilts, and anger that ends in the despair of death. Only the elaborate frame gives it any illusion of desirability. Yet the death that the picture represents is meaningless, and not even there in reality. Were it not for the ill...

What would it be like to have the Christ in all of our Relationships? In fact, this primary Relationship we have with our higher Self is the starting point for all Holy Relationships. The result would have to be happiness, because God's will for us is "perfect happiness," and the function of all relationships is to "make happy." In this Sunday Talk the invocation of the Chr...

The function of all of God's Relationships is "to make happy." The function of the special relationship of the ego is ultimately death. Is this a real choice? The Holy Relationship is aligned with God's will for us, which is "perfect happiness." The ego's relationships are always alert to "threat." There is no threat in the Holy Relationship. We look at tw...