We read the section “The Quiet Answer” in Chapter 27, Section IV of the Text of A Course in Miracles today. It reminded me that no meaningful answer can be found within the thought system of separation. All ego-based answers will always be based on the premise that separation is real. Thus ego answers always offer another illusion. The exchange of an illusion for an illusion accomplishes nothing.
If I want to heal and awaken from the dream, I need to replace illusion with true perception. Because I believe I am in the world of separation, true perception cannot come from me. It comes from the Holy Spirit, Who does not believe in separation and is always there to remind me of the truth.
My job is to offer every question to the Holy Spirit with an open mind. An open mind means that I am not placing limits on Holy Spirit’s answer. If I ask, “Which car should I buy?” I am attempting to limit Holy Spirit’s answer to some form of car. Maybe the best answer in the world might be a truck or motorcycle or nothing at all.
Beneath these forms is still another answer and that is to remember that my only need is for Love and I know that need is met by accepting and extending Love. So whether or not to buy a car needs to be answered within the question of what is it for as the Holy Spirit sees it.
This brings me back to the early lesson which says that I do not know what anything means. The Course’s mind training program is a guide to help me let go of my preconceived ideas and beliefs so that I can come with wholly empty hands to the Holy Spirit and receive the answer that will help me loose the world from all I think it is. This is how I remove the barriers to Love’s presence and awaken to Love.
The first sentence of this section is “In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” (T-27.IV.1:1) This sentence has been very helpful to me and I have returned to it again and again when I got caught up in thinking I had a problem. This reminds me that the answer does not lie somewhere in the world. The answer lies in opening to another state of mind — the Holy Spirit’s state of mind.
The ego mind always brings up conflict. It always brings up problems. It always thinks in terms of differences and time and distance. It thinks that individual minds are real. It thinks this world is real. It thinks in terms of constantly building defenses against outside dangers.
Because I still get caught up with the ego mind, I need the practice of stepping back frequently into quietness and remembering once again that I do not know what anything means. I need to allow this mind to quiet and open to the Holy Spirit’s state of mind. This is my true Self. It is everyone’s true Self. It calls to all of us to return Home where we belong.
Today my practice is to answer that call and give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to reverse all the false ideas I am holding on to. With the Holy Spirit I once again return to the awareness that I am still safe in the Mind of God. The whole Sonship is still one with God because nothing has happened to change God’s one Son. Illusions of separation change nothing.
Handing over all my thoughts to the Holy Spirit is the only way that my perceived problems are quietly resolved. And I am so thankful that we could never really leave God and make a world of specialness, constant change and death. The Holy Spirit reminds me in quietness, “It is not so. You, along with every brother, are still Love and nothing else is true.”
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