Let us perform a thought experiment: imagine your reactions if you hear that wildfires have destroyed your house. Compare it to another made up news that now your enemy has burned your house. And let's imagine also how we'd react on hearing that our kids were playing, gone too far and burned our house.

Most likely if it were our kids our first intent would be to help them first and calm them down, neglecting all that happened to the house. While wildfires could have set us on the victim's mode to start complaining on some gods, the government and generally on bad luck. And if it were our enemy, oh boy, we could have gone to a crusade in courts... to say the last.

There is a phrase in English, that comes from most unlikely area for spiritual seekers, and it goes: "It's nothing personal, just business". What if we could unplug events from personalities and take events as winds, as an unfoldment of our hidden conciseness in dreams. What if we looked at others as merely actors, who are playing sad or vicious roles not because it's what they really are.

The focus on a body is judgment's first initial step. Remove the pieces off the board, look past all bodies and ask to realize the truth; for it isn't personal, just karma.

As the ‪‎ego‬ would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the ‪Holy Spirit‬ release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to ‪‎God‬. T-15.9.1

The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. W-64.1.2

...forgiveness looks past bodies. This is its holiness; this is how it heals. The world of bodies is the world of sin, for only if there were a body is sin possible ... Only the body makes the world seem real. C-4.5

ACIM begins by stating some of it's concepts that are most difficult to grasp and so they will remain unknown to you for quite awhile. Don't push it, don't try to squeeze the meaning from it but allow it to surprise you and to reveal itself for you instead.

The guiding rope for you to navigate this section is understanding: miracles are not some magic tricks. Behind the word a "miracle" hides mental process of shifting your perception and the tool to make it happen is forgiveness, although the way this book is looking at "for giving" is not what you may think of it right now.

In swapping "miracles" -- "forgiveness" confusion goes away. An act of genuine forgiveness is meant to be applied to every thing that blows your peace, from major accidents to seeming little things like unwashed dishes or just cold outside.

When you maintain that there must be an order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from truth. T-17.1.3

And yet mistakes, regardless of their form, can be corrected. Sin is but error in a special form the ego venerates. It would preserve all errors and make them sins. T-22-3.4

It is not easier to forgive one sin than to forgive all of them. The illusion of orders of difficulty is an obstacle the teacher of God must learn to pass by and leave behind. M-14.3

The miracle forgives; the ego damns. Neither need be defined except by this. C-2.10

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. W-121

Please do not take these notes as my attempt at teaching you the Course, look at it rather as (hopefully!) the Holy Spirit's answers to my own struggles with the book.

The focus here is on the piece entitled "Principles of Miracles" because I still remember how confusing and overall unreadable it felt, despite the fact that it's the very intro to the Text. I later realized that all these short yet powerful one-liners are reminiscent to the quotes of Jesus compiled together in the Bible under the so called Sermon on the Mount. And so although the Principles are minimal in form, they all reflect the foundations of The Holy Spirit's thinking framework presented in this Course and that allowed historic Jesus to reach Enlightenment and see no threat nor value in this world.

This is what now I understand, but back in the beginning of my study I just kept asking Holy Spirit to unfold the meaning of these lines because I had been thinking: if I can't understand and put together in my mind the very first few pages of the book, how can I dare to read it on? Hoping that the answers I received could be of help to more than only me, these notes are offered.

If you are interested in hearing more about my personal experiences with this, please consider visiting this channel on youtube.

The goal of any journey has to be determined right at the beginning or else you wander idly as a leaf in winds. Consider carefully now: why did you take this book? You've read a lot of other books, you have been listening to many gurus, you even might belong to a religion of some sort, and yet you're here and reading this. Inquire: why?

There is a splinter in your mind that fuels your strangeness, it does not allow you to just settle down and "live a normal life". But what's the goal of this desire? What is it that this splinter wants? The only reason that could motivate you to pick up this giant brick of paper and at least imagine taking in its yearly course is very simple: you are deeply disappointed and unsatisfied. All of those books and gurus didn't work for you, as well as many other things that you have tried in "normal life", but something deep in you continues striving forward refusing to give up, it looks for something so majestic that nothing is compared to that. Before you say this strive is meaningless and never could be reached, let me invite a simple question: what if the splinter's goal is happiness? Is this too much to ask?

This course is a unique and self-sustained instruction for guiding you to happiness and it requires not from you to have a background in any other system of a thought. In fact, you'll do yourself a major favor if you would drop all that you've grasped before - those books and gurus failed you, hold on to it no more. Don't try to fit this course in well known patterns, accept the fact you need a teacher and open up your mind abroad. There is no stamp and sign on paper, no court supported guarantee this course is genuine, but if you follow it you'll get experience and only this can ever make you sure.

If happiness is your desire but you do not abide in joy, then it is logical to figure: you must be doing something wrong. Depression, fear, anxiety are rather more familiar to you and so it follows that your habits and your entire thinking framework is dedicated heavily to those. There is a saying that to get a thing you never had, you gotta do what never tried. Another quote asserts: in goodness you are asked to bite the poison and after that the honey flows, while ignorance is giving you the honey barrel, but when you bite it - poison flows. To sum it up, you must be ready for a challenge, because ACIM is going to disturb, you will resist against what it is asking you and yet what if behind of your resistance is the key that's gonna make at last all of the difference in the world?

Your past learning must have taught you the wrong things, simply because it has not made you happy. On this basis alone its value should be questioned. T-8.1.4

You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for you believe that misery is happiness. T-14.2.1

Resign now as your own teacher. T-12.5.8

Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught. T-28.1.7

you are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant. W-42.7

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold.T-24-in.2

If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God. T-4.1.4

God's Will for you is perfect happiness ... You are indeed essential to God's plan. Without your joy, His joy is incomplete. Without your smile, the world cannot be saved. W-100.2,3

How much humility would take for you to order all your guillotines to stop? So many efforts you have put to set this bloody operation going that now it's hard to even think of turning it on hold. Yes, results are outstanding, you've taken care of everything indeed, you even have been kinda generous towards the sentenced for among all the types of executions you chose the most humane. The job gets done in seconds and with those "bastards" no more spoiling the party, the world you hope becomes a better place. In sounds of clanging blades you stand and look around The Justice Square... Behold what you have made.

Of course, the longest line is made of politicians, the traffic drivers are standing right behind and you could see bad parents, cheaters, terrorists, door dealers, lawyers and many others when you stand up on your toes. And yet at least for once you must had thinking: how many guillotines you'll need? It cannot be they haven't heard about your dreadful fame already but why oh why the line of guilties never ends?

If you would find yourself in a completely darkened room, trying to locate a switch, and let's imagine also that you would be allergic to some color, blue. What would have happened when you find the switch and turn it on, the room gets lightened but the bulb... is painted blue. Every single thing the room contains and all of them at once instantly would make you sick and hateful - the walls, the chairs, the table - slowly blending into a giant blueish nightmare forcing you to fall down on all fours. But if we would replace the bulb and light the room again, would you be not surprised to see that literally nothing in the room was blue?

Any pattern situation, when you face the same emotions despite the fact that scenery is not the same, is a potential siren call which when combined inevitably lead you to an extraordinary question: what if the source of all you see is placed in nowhere but within? What if you're occupying not the viewer's chair in movie theater but in the projecting room instead? What if your eyes are not receivers but transmitters of the signal? Would this explain the cause of all psychosomatic symptoms in your body that you feel when looking at their "sins"? What is the point beheading further when you are ready to recall: the only damaged neck has always been but yours.

This ... course ... is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. C-in.1

Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one. C-4.3

Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relations, the course it runs directed, and its outcome sure. W-169.12

Forgiveness is the only function here, and serves to bring the joy this world denies T-26.7.8

Be merciful today. The Son of God deserves your mercy. W-192.9

No one who learns to forgive can fail to remember God. Forgiveness, then, is all that need be taught, because it is all that need be learned. All blocks to the remembrance of God are forms of unforgiveness, and nothing else. P-2.2.3

The way to God is through forgiveness here. There is no other way. W-256.1

Fear not the images related to this word your memories have brought. Recall what author said in introduction: removing blocks to love is Course's one concern. You're not in need of adding content to your mind. A sculptor's masterpiece is ready, when everything unnecessary is removed. Let all illusions be dispelled off you and there is nothing left but love.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. T-16.4.6

You are only love, but when you deny this, you make what you are something you must learn to remember. T-6.3.2

Healing is not creating; it is reparation. T-5.2.1

The miracle does nothing. All it does is to undo ... It does not add, but merely takes away. T-28.1.1

The Atonement does not make holy. You were created holy. It merely brings unholiness to holiness; or what you made to what you are. Bringing illusion to truth, or the ego to God, is the Holy Spirit's only function. T-14.9.1

All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. T-5.4.8

This is a very crucial topic. Fear stands among the leaders of bad decisions' motivators so when you'll grasp the depth of meaning for this subject your life will never be the same.

Let us consider briefly what reasons make you scared. First and foremost you must be thinking that this event or person is absolutely real. The follow up is the idea: this situation threatens you somehow. And final step to get you frightened is to assure you that you have no control.

The combo of these reasons leads you to conclusion you might become a victim so you need react preventively right now. This is a very nasty hook which you can dodge by realizing: all of those statements are equally untrue.

Take time to learn what's in the quotes related, without this solid foundation forgiveness can't be understood.

The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. T-2.6.4

God did not create a meaningless world. W-14

I am not the victim of the world I see. W-31

I have invented the world I see. W-32

The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for what He creates must be eternal as Himself. Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will endure forever. C-4.1

Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. W-99.7

What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood YOU made it up? T-20.8.7

The end of dreaming is the end of fear T-28.3.4

If I defend myself I am attacked. W-135

How safe the world will look to me when I can see it! It will not look anything like what I imagine I see now. Everyone and everything I see will lean toward me to bless me. I will recognize in everyone my dearest Friend. What could there be to fear in a world that I have forgiven, and that has forgiven me? W-60.3

I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. It is not real. And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams. W-342.1

How many times you thought a heavy bank account will make you happy? How many times you thought the same about careers, romantic lovers, fame or children and villa on a sheer? You might have also had some reveries that drinking alcohol will do or using drugs of any kind. Dig deep in this idea: what is it that you really want? If you look good enough you'll see the only reason why you're seeking all those things -- the joy is tied to them within your mind and it is joy indeed you really want. And yet, how many times your idols failed you? Weren't you shocked by the amount of side effects they bring? You thought a zillion coins will give you peace and happiness but what you've got is constant worry and distress. Is it not time for you stop chasing carrots but focus on your real goal instead?

If you would look on anyone more closely to figure out their motivation and what exactly makes them tick, you'll be surprised to see that you are not the only one who's chasing happiness, it is at root for anyone indeed. There is no difference between a mother of a baby and user of some drug except in ways they're looking for it: the mother plans to get it from her baby the other - from the drug. Even the biggest tyrants you can name were doing what they've done only because they honestly believed: this is the way to joy. And so the universal goal is equal but everyone has a unique and special plan on how to get it, a map their very own. But if you've dared to lift this heavy brick of paper, it means you are among of those who've started to suspect: your plan has failed.

what you seek for is a source of joy as you conceive it. T-24.5.1

It never is the idol that you want. But what you think it offers you T-30.3.4

You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of every end that the ego has accepted as its own. When you have achieved it, it has not satisfied you. T-8.8.2

It is essential that you accept the fact, and accept it gladly, that there is no form of littleness that can ever content you. You are free to try as many as you wish, but all you will be doing is to delay your homecoming. T-15.3.2

I will not value what is valueless. W-133

The world I see holds nothing that I want. W-128

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. T-29.7.1

Perceiving equality, the Holy Spirit perceives equal needs. This invites Atonement automatically, because Atonement is the one need in this world that is universal. T-6.2.5

Accept the plan you did not make W-186.5

Only God's plan for salvation will work. W-71

What service could be better for your brother then to undo all curses you have cast on him? You don't perceive your grievances and judgments as harmful spells so far, and yet when being held against your brothers this is exactly what they are.

There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of "idle thoughts." What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. W-16.2

There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level. T-2.6.9

Love holds no grievances. W-68

Let miracles replace all grievances. W-78

Ignorance of the love's presence does not exempt you from being loved.

The steps you take in this direction produce consequences you cannot comprehend. Amazing things will happen when you are willing to be guided, and ask the Gentle Titan instead of following YOUR plan.

Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success. T-18.5.1

I do not perceive my own best interests. W-24

You know not what you do, but He Who knows is with you. His gentleness is yours, and all the love you share with God He holds in trust for you. He would teach you nothing except how to be happy. T-14.5.2

The Prince of Peace, also known as Jesus or Jeshua or simply J calls YOU! To join his Holy Crusade in undoing your ego!

I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind. T-4.1.13

Once you have developed a thought system of any kind, you live by it and teach it. Your capacity for allegiance to a thought system may be misplaced, but it is still a form of faith and can be redirected. T-6.in.2

You have been called, together with your brother, to the most holy function this world contains. T-18.1.13

Please do not use this statement to justify a charity of any kind. The author speaks about the level of the Mind. When a musician shares his song with others, it hardly means for him it's lost; the spreading makes it stronger and gives him opportunities he didn't have before. The Course takes this idea and brings it to the level where you will be amazed for sure.

If you share a physical possession, you do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours although all of it has been given away. T-5.1.1

A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive ... God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but increase thereby. W-105.3

To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special usefulness, because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. W-108.6

All that I give is given to myself. W-126

This brings the light to yet another facet of the diamond which genuine forgiveness is: you practice not in it alone. Your willingness and your allowance are the key to let Divinity step in.

The seekers scroll through stacks of books and pick the things they liked from each to cook their own salvation's recipe. But if it's you who is in charge of your atonement, then why you're not enlightened still?

You cannot be your guide to miracles, for it is you who made them necessary. T-14.11.7

You have not made truth, but truth can still set you free. Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands. His understanding looks back to God in remembrance of me. T-5.3.11

Follow the Holy Spirit's teaching in forgiveness, then, because forgiveness is His function and He knows how to fulfill it perfectly. That is what I meant when I said that miracles are natural, and when they do not occur something has gone wrong. T-9.4.6

Think not that you can find salvation in your own way ... Give over every plan that you have made for your salvation in exchange for God's. T-15.4.2

Only God's plan for salvation will work. W-71

You child of God, the gifts of God are yours, not by your plans but by His holy Will. His Voice will teach you what forgiveness is, and how to give it as He wills it be. Do not, then, seek to understand what is beyond you yet, but let it be a way to draw you up to where the eyes of Christ become the sight you choose. S-2.3.2

I merely follow, for I would not lead. W-324