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GUIDANCE ~ "IN THE STILLNESS OF OUR MIND"
ACIM ORIGINAL EDITION  

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face.  The Guidance is in normal type   

In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You.  

When You see the word 'YOU'  capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.   

~*~

“I will be still a moment” begins Lesson 182. For in that moment of turning from the endless ‘entertainment’ of the ego world, God is waiting with a Love You have forgotten, yet still do You long for It, looking fruitlessly without, while It but waits for You within.

The ego mindset with its constant talking creates this world of pain and chaos. Yet its ‘creation’ rests on no foundation! This is the house I spoke of, that cannot stand, for it’s been built upon the sand.₁

There is no God to it - the ego mindset - thus it isn’t real. It rests on beliefs, and can be healed with a change of mind, with a shift from chaos into quiet.

Why has this world of endless dreaming stood so long, given its unreality? Because the ego keeps You busy endlessly, with self-aggrandizement of one form or another: making money, looking good, working hard, lazing around, social standing, winning at whatever, overcoming good or evil, having progeny, or just basic ‘survival’, not much time for contemplation, and even less for Listening.

And so You do not understand the workings of Your mind, for all these things seem so very ‘natural’.

It is quite important to understand that the chaos - a.k.a. the dream - is not happening ‘out there’, and that You do choose for it, unholy instant by unholy instant, mesmerized by the demands of the world You have seemingly ‘created’. Yet it exists nowhere but in Your collective thoughts. You see what You think.

To see a different world, change the way You use Your consciousness.

Begin by noticing the endless chattering of the ego, claiming to be You, which goes on all Your waking hours (and Your sleeping ones as well). It keeps You quite busy with its incessant demanding of things that You must do to satisfy it. Eat, drink, sleep, get to work, take a swim, work out at the gym. Plow that field, feed the pigs, milk the cows.

Practice for Your piano or Your dance recital. Forage in the garbage dump for dinner. Find plastic bottles put out for recycling and redeem them at the supermarket for Your income. Make that deal. Cheat that person. Steal. Whatever be Your occupation, ego drives You mercilessly to accomplish something!

Even meditation has a goal: to give You back Your peace.

Stillness is ongoing quiet in the midst of chaos clamouring stridently for Your attention.

Stillness whispers gently to You: “This is but a dream. Don’t take it seriously. Turn within and ask the Holy Spirit to take over. Then step back and be attentive, in case S/He has a part for You to play. You will be told if You are to be participant in the matter or a calm spectator. You need make no decision but to give the situations over.

~*~

Now You know the ego will not like this, for it but thrives upon control. Nonetheless, You are not the ego (although You did think so), and need not cater to its whims nor its desires.

For happiness and peace of mind, the ego can’t compare with the Holy Spirit. Which will You choose to Guide You? You know that the choice is Yours.

And You hear Me say as usual: Where once You made a faulty choice, You now can make a better one.₂

Son of God - whether think You Brother or whether think You Sister - You’re not related to the ego. God is Your One Source.

Perhaps You’ve heard these words a hundred times or more. Hear them new this time. And this time make a different choice. For happiness but waits to bless You for an Eternity

As the Bible says so joyously: The whole Creation waits on tiptoe to see the happy sight of the Son of God coming into His own.₃

YOU are that Son of God. And what is Your “own” but Your Christhood.

So long has It been hidden. Won’t You set It free, let It Be? Feel the Joy return, welling up as You, an endless fountain, pouring forth Your Love for All Creation.

And All Creation streams Its Love right back to You, an endless dance of happiness.

Feel My Love for You. Yours is just like It.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

FOOTNOTES

¹Matthew 7 (the Sermon on the Mount)

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

²Chapter 31 "The Simplicity of Salvation"
  VIII. Choose Once Again

⁸³ Temptation has one lesson it would teach in all its forms wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty and bound by what it orders him to feel. It sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. Would you be this if Christ appeared to you in all His glory, asking you but this:  

⁸⁴ Choose once again if you would take your place
among the saviors of the world, or would
  remain in hell and hold your brothers there.

⁸⁵ For He has come, and He is asking this.

⁸⁶ How do you make the choice? How easily is this explained! You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ (as) you. And what you choose is what you think is real. Simply by never using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power. And the light of Christ (as) you is given charge of everything you do. For you have brought your weakness unto Him, and He has given you His strength instead.

⁸⁷ Trials are but lessons which you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before, you now can make a better one and thus escape all pain which what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again."

[Transcriber’s Note: There is no You’ that is not the very Strength and Light of Christ. No separate ‘You’ to contain these Qualities as a part of You, for All of You is Strength and Light. Each Quality augments All the Others. i.e., Your Love is Light Itself; Your Strength is Love Itself, et cetera.]

³ Romans 8:19, Jesus on the JB Phillips translation.