Buddhists often speak of compassion. They practice compassion in many ways. It occurred to me recently to look at the life of Buddha to see what he meant by compassion.

For those of you who don’t know the story of Buddha, he was born the son of a king. When he was born, a prophet foretold that he would become either a great spiritual master or a great king. His father was determined that he become a great king, so he decided to hide the world from Prince Siddhartha. (I guess his father knew that the world’s suffering was the ‘kick’ that would put Siddhartha’s feet on the spiritual path.)

I know some of you found yesterday’s tip difficult. One ego preservation strategy is denying the full onslaught of suffering and terror caused by the ego thought system. If we looked directly at it, we would give it up. It’s like the movie, “Inception,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In that movie, they are going deep into another man’s dream in order to plant an idea into his head. The question becomes, “How will we wake up from the dream?” The answer is to plant a ‘kick’ in the dream, something that will shock them awake.

This past week, North Korea launched missiles for the second time in a single week. Yesterday, the United States seized a North Korean ship allegedly used to violate international sanctions designed to force North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program. These actions come amid a diplomatic breakdown that has followed the failed summit earlier this year between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear arsenal that can target the U.S. mainland.

In Venezuela, the humanitarian crisis persists. More than  3 million people—about ten percent of the population—have fled Venezuela  as a result of political instability, hunger, inflation, poverty and soaring crime rates. It has been described as the largest exodus in Latin America in a hundred years.

There were two school shootings this past week.  In one, two students were killed and four others were wounded after a gunman opened fire in an anthropology class at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In the other shooting, one student was killed and eight others were injured in an attack on an English class at a K-12 school in Colorado.

Three young children died in the past several weeks at the hands of their parents. One beaten and buried in a shallow grave; one burned in a car set ablaze with its doors chained shut; one beaten to death with a slipper for not finishing her homework.

Congratulations. You have made it to the second review in the ACIM Workbook. I know some of you feel you have not been doing this perfectly. That’s okay. We rest for a bit in the arms of this review in order to strengthen our commitment to truth.

Notice these sentences in the introduction to the review:

Lesson 80. Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

With just a little contemplation I realized for there to be a problem or conflict there must be an opposing idea. But what if there weren’t any opposing ideas? What if there wasn’t anyone or anything outside of me, then what could oppose me or cause me a problem? What if the error, the problem, the separation never really occurred? If this were true then we couldn’t be affected in any way by the illusion of separation.

The revelation that we are all of one mind or will undoes the seeming separation, restores wholeness of the mind and lets me realize my problems have been solved.

Dear God, let me live with the awareness that there has only ever been a perceptual problem. When those misperceptions drop into my mind, I will look at the thought, but I have no reason to accept it. I can set it aside because it is not true. I have no reason to participate with grievances. I have no reason to believe my mind that talks to me about taking care of my needs at the expense of others. I have no need to create a story around perceived problems. I am truly grateful for the peace of mind I have in knowing that the answer to any seeming problem is the answer to every seeming problem. There is no problem.

Lesson 79. Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

The problem is you continue to believe you are a body/mind in a world full of other body/minds; separate from each other and separate from all the body’s eyes look upon. This is the belief in separation. This belief in separation is supported by the chatter of the thinking mind. The thinking mind tells us where to go, what to do and how to do it, based on its fundamental premise of separation. As long as we continue to listen avidly to the dictates of the thinking mind, we will continue to experience “problems”. While the thinking mind purports to help us solve our so-called problems, its actual aim is to keep the belief in separation alive. It succeeds in doing so as we each thrash about thinking and behaving as if we are separate—creating conflict and seemingly trying to resolve it—but all to our “own” advantage.

It is, indeed, like the dog who chases its tail. The dog chases the tail because it believes it is separate from him and a threat to him. The dog would catch the tail that he not be threatened by it anymore. The threat keeps the dog spinning around and around in circles. The dog will never catch the tail. But that’s okay. The tail is not actually the threat. The thought that the tail is a threat is the problem. If the dog were to let go of the thought that the tail were a threat, he could lay down in peace at the feet of his master.

This is exactly what we do when we attempt to solve our problems. Our belief that there is a problem (or many problems) is the mental chatter that keeps us spinning around and around trying to catch our tails. The solution is the same for us as for the dog: quit believing the thought that there is a problem—quit believing the mental chatter that tells us about ourselves, our brothers and our world. This mental chatter is the belief in separation.

NTI Thessalonians tells us: “The belief in sin can also be called lack of peace, for it is this belief that causes the stab that interrupts your peace. Sin leads you to feel guilty or fearful and leads you to believe that there are circumstances you must control for your own safety and happiness. Sin tells you that an outcome must go your way, or you will surely suffer. In this way, sin is a complete disassociation from who you are. Sin is forgetfulness, and in your forgetfulness, you feel the loss of everything that you are.”

“To rest yourself from the belief in sin you must return your mind to who you are. Therefore I urge you, stay in tune with your peace. Whenever it is interrupted, know it is interrupted by the belief in sin. Know that sin is only forgetfulness, and seek to remember who you are with your brothers. As you remember who you are, you remember that Love is all there is. You may then rest in confidence and let the effects of sin pass through your mind in peace and without acceptance, because you have remembered that sin is not possible in a world where separation is not real.”

We can see very clearly then that “Sin is the denial of reality.” The mental chatter we listen to is this denial. Our reality is changeless, boundless peace. We won’t hear that among our mental chatter. We must turn from the chatter and, in doing so, turn from the source of our “problem” to its solution. This mental chatter is “the constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you.” Once this is seen, we also see that we “have the means to solve them all.” We can remove our attention from mental chatter and seek Truth within.

Thus, we must, as we are told in NTI Thessalonians, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, because a quiet life is a godly life in which you hold, within your mind, that the process of life is God. In this way, you hold to the awareness of Love. As you hold to this awareness, you extend it to the brothers who are it along with you.” This is the solution. As we rest here, we know ourselves, we know our Source and we know our brothers as one with us and the All That Is.

Lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.

A miracle is a change of mind.  It is a change from an egoic or limited perspective to a true (or truer) look at reality without fear.  And that is consistent with the title of today’s lesson, Let miracles replace what? All grievances.  What is sweet about this lesson is it has you pick out somebody you have or you have had a relationship with and once you start doing the lesson you realize that your grievances, are the same or at least quite similar to the very grievances that the person you picked, would have about you.  Instantly you can see the miracle!  It is an unexpected change of mind or heart about the way I’ve been seeing for years; “behold the Son of God.”  The grievances I held stand like a dark shield of hate (I wouldn’t have called them hate, but I would have been wrong) before the miracle it would conceal.

Now surely I can generalize this lesson and know it is true for every brother I see.  Can I lay my grievances aside and see truly?  NTI 1 Thessalonians told us we have a habit of automatically denying the thoughts we have that intrude upon our peace.  In order to see my brother truly (to heal) we let everything come out of denial to be looked at.  Our grievances must be exposed. Looking at repressed thoughts and perceptions, ask God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help you see another way. Seeing him another way is seeing him in the light of true forgiveness.  And of course we remember from this meditative sweet spot that we all contribute to the script that is being written. My brother (the one I want to hold a grievance against), is who he is and does what he does because everything else is like it is.

Now that my mind has been shown the light in him beyond my grievances, I ask that I be led to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him because what else can I really do knowing I am One with him.  Now that he is free from the grievances I laid upon him, I realize my own freedom came with his release.  What a blessing and I will happily take the role asked of me and let any temptation go when I “allow each one [I] meet to save [me] when I refuse to hide [my brother’s] light behind [my] grievances and “let miracles replace all grievances.”

Lesson 77. I am entitled to Miracles.

What are miracles? What is mine by right? Surely miracles are that which is beyond the sight of the thinking mind. In common parlance, it seems as if a miracle is a happy resolution to a problem I have defined. This cannot be what a miracle is. We know that I am not capable of defining the problem. Defining the problem and seeking to have it fixed is the terrain of the ego. What, then, could a miracle be?

A miracle is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as “an unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by a god because it does not follow the usual laws of nature.” ACIM tells us “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”

“Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong to you. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You have been assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. We ask no more than what belongs to us in truth. Today, however, we will also make sure that we will not content ourselves with less.”

Finally, we must come humbly to ask what it is our habitual way of seeing has hidden from our sight. What am I that miracles should occur at my request? Father show me how to live in the miracle of my true nature—show me what I Am.

How could I know when a miracle is needed as stated in the lesson? I know when I am believing in the laws I have made. I know when I am believing I am a limited and biased body-mind. I know when I experience less than the peace and joy I have been told that I am. NTI Thessalonians tells us: “Peace is the guiding light that you must follow as you learn to look within the mind. For it is peace that leads you to recognition of truth, and it is lack of peace that reminds you that you are not following your way.”

When I recognize the absence of peace, then, I know “the situation calls for [miracles].” Then, I shall ask and wait in silence for the answer. “We are asking a real question at last.” – What am I? What is God/truth? What is a miracle? Show me, that I may know.

Lesson 76. I am under no laws but God’s.

This lesson says something very important. “… how simple is salvation.”

How many senseless things have seemed to be your salvation?  Our concept of salvation has led us to select some things above all else because we believe that what we select will save us from unhappiness or discomfort or pain or even death.  Today’s lesson tells us the things we seem to select have imprisoned us. We think we need to get them by either the laws of the world or through divine intervention. Either idea is the same mistake. The mistake stems from a fundamental error, the belief that we are bodies.

If we’ll just watch our minds for one day, we will see all the things we avoid or do to protect our bodies.  We buy health insurance.  We buy extended warranties.  We cultivate special relationships and work to keep others at bay.  We buy creams and pills and vitamins.  We buy homes in certain neighborhoods so our children will be exposed to certain things and avoid others.  We buy some medicines in advance just in case we might need the remedy.

The list of laws that we follow goes on and on in the name of protecting our bodies. This lesson calls our quest for salvation “magic.”  Magic is the medicine we take, the salve we rub on our bodies and the protective clothing we wear.  Magic is the ego’s means of protecting the body, but this lesson tells us that magic imprisons, but God’s laws free us.

How do God’s laws free us?  Because we are no longer imprisoned when we accept that “what [magic] is meant to save does not exist. [And o]nly what [magic] is meant to hide will save you.”  Magic is meant to hide the fact that we are so much more than our limited concepts. We are One with All That Is.

Salvation is not divine intervention to receive the cures and fixes we think we need in order to be happy. Salvation is seeing beyond the belief that I am a body-mind. Salvation is realizing what I am, something real that cannot be threatened.

Today, when practicing “I am under no laws but God’s” do not practice with the idea in place that you still need magic, except now you want the magic to come from God. Instead, begin to wonder, “What are God’s laws?” “What am I?” Let truth whisper into your mind and shine in your awareness.

See how simple salvation is. Absolutely nothing has to change. You only need to realize what you are, which is present and available to be seen in this very moment. Salvation need not wait on anything.

Lesson 75. The Light has come.

We have embarked on a grand endeavor. We have come to see that we cannot believe the body’s eyes nor believe our own concepts about the world and ourselves. We have seen that refusing to believe ego thoughts about ourselves, our brothers and our world and turning toward the truth is forgiveness. We have practiced forgiveness consistently and this practice has led us to the threshold of a new way of seeing.

We now rest in the empty space left where illusions once stood. This lesson asks us to devote our practice to “looking at the world that our forgiveness shows us.” That is, it invites us to explore our innermost being without the clouds of the judgments, concepts, grievances and beliefs that have blocked our Vision until now.

“Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving.”

What we are ready to be shown, is the truth of our own being. NTI 1 Thessalonians reminds us that Holy Spirit/Inner Wisdom is “continually with you, looking over you in peace and looking through you with peace as My only sight and the manifestation of My glory. This is why you shall know Me through peace. It is because I am that which is known as the peace of the Heart, which cannot be taken away.”

This is not some abstract promise of heaven; this is simply fact. When we quit relying on the thinking mind to interpret for us—that is when we let go our beliefs, concepts and images that have kept us blind from our Truth we know peace and we know our Self. “To know peace in any moment is to know your Self within your heart. Take care to be grateful for every moment of peace that comes to greet you, and it is moments of peace that you shall continue to know.”

In a very simple statement of cause and effect, the lesson assures us our own Holy Spirit “will be with you as you watch and wait. He will show you what true vision sees. It is His Will, and you have joined with Him. Wait patiently for Him. He will be there. The light has come. You have forgiven the world.”