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July-September, 2016

Recognizing Separation

by Rev. Maria Kingsley, O.M.C.

Why is it so difficult to see how we are following the ego? I can recognize that I have fear, that I don’t like what my life looks like. I can let go of individual instances where I chose to stay in fear, but I did not know exactly what it was that made me choose that. I got a better understanding of it recently.

I have been working on individual instances where I had chosen to project, attack, hide or deny what was really happening. I was able to forgive others and myself for my thoughts and actions that I knew were not very good, to say the least. But, ego stuff kept creeping up, and I really wanted to get to the very bottom of this. This is what happened next:

I wanted to bring good hearing back into my left ear. It had been blocked for years, and it bothered me because I had to turn my head to hear with my other side, my right ear. I decided to listen very carefully what the Divine Guidance had to say about it. Recently, during a meeting, we listened to a CD that was spoken by Jesus through a channel, and we also followed the text in the book. I noticed how I perceived differently while listening than when reading. It seemed my hearing led me to my emotional state, while reading, eyesight perception, led into the intellectual understanding. This was interesting. So, I pursued the emotional content of my hearing. I asked for guidance to get clarity on this.

And what came up was my relationship with my father. I had always judged him harshly for bragging and acting very selfish and egocentric. I hated that and had that attitude all my life. And I had the attitude: I don’t want to hear it anymore, I just won’t listen to his bragging. But, what I received was pretty ‘eye-opening’ to me. I know I received Guidance here. And so I applied the principle of: what I see in others I have within me. Upon honest examination I had to admit that this energy was within me. But, it was the opposite expression of that of my father’s. As children will often do, what we don’t like in our parents, we will rebel against and do the opposite. And so I had employed this deceptive device of the ego but had not recognized the deception until now. Wow. This did not feel good at all. I was amazed that after all this work for years of looking at my relationship with my father, I never really saw how my emotional judgment was really what I had made up in my own mind, and it was MY Problem, not his. I had been able to forgive him and myself for specific instances before, but this was a greater insight. It showed me that my father had played a role in my life which helped me to learn to see my own small self, and further that to go beyond and see the power that we both have as Loving Spirits. This did not hurt or change our true Beingness, and so it is all a game we were playing. I can now — after I regain my composure from the shock — laugh about it.

I looked at it with astonishment. Wow again. I had hidden this perception and reversal from my little mind and pretended all these years that it was my father who was the culprit. Yet, it was me who was hiding from life, thinking how wonderful it was that I was not bragging about me like my father was. And then I realized another awesome thing: I recognized that the ego is a thought system that I had accepted. I could actually see the ego’s thought system, and the separation, as outside of the Oneness, a separated way of seeing the world. I had apparently gone beyond the individual instances where I had used fear and attack, and had undone them. For years I looked within to find every instance of where I experienced fear or attack or judgment, and let it go. I was clear I did not want them. But now I could see this ‘system’ as the separation I accepted so early on and had used it, lived with it, applied it and believed it. Now I can see it clearly. It is low energy, and I choose to no longer be on that level.

This does not mean that there will be no ego thoughts within my mind. But I can apply right perception to any situation; I can choose what I truly want; I can discern whether I come from fear or love. And I always have the Oneness, the Holy Self, my Divine Guidance, right there to ask and to honestly search for an answer when I need it. As for my hearing — I expect this left ear to come back to ‘normal’ because there is no longer a reason to not hear, to turn a deaf ear to something that is within me. I trust it will happen in time.

I am so grateful for all the Help that is available, from sources like ACIM and other books that have recently been brought into this world. And I am also extremely grateful for every step away from this separating thought system that brings me back to the Truth, to the Love that I Am, and to true Reality with the Help of True Source. Once that connection is made, and can be sustained, there is nothing to fear, there is no doubt, and there is no need for judgment or attack. It all just IS. It is the Joy of Living fully and freely. I hear the Happiness in the Oneness and I join with It. Thank you.

Rev. Maria Kingsley is a Pathways of Light minister living in Tucson, Arizona. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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July-September, 2016

Welcome Home

by Rev. Joseph Wolfe, O.M.C.

Many years ago, as a small child three years old, I remember traveling in an old car driven by my father. It was a ‘49 Chevy ( a thirteen year old car) and we were leaving Texas, the home of his father and family and headed for the Chicago area. 

I remember standing on the floor of the rear of the car, hanging onto the front bench seat, my left arm around my father as he drove. My older brother sat in the passenger seat next to my dad. I was thoroughly excited and loved riding in his car. 

But he was sad. My father was always sad during these times. I never understood why anyone could be sad.

I loved looking out on the landscape as we drove north. I loved the adventure of it all and the farms along the way, the stops at gas stations and the nights that we slept peacefully in the car. I loved being with my dad. 

One of the memories that stands out most during our trip from Texas to Chicago was the time when I told him that I was hungry. It had been a while since we’d eaten and many years later I reflected on that time when I could see even more sadness and despair in dad’s eyes when he reluctantly pulled into a road-side diner and bought two hamburgers. Not three, just two. One for my brother and one for me.

Many years later I would understand that he was pretty broke around that time. Back then a gallon of gas was about twenty-five cents and a hamburger cost about half of that. But I remember sitting across from him, next to my brother and wondering why he wasn’t having anything to eat. 

Many years later, when I sat with him the night before he laid his body down, he gripped my hand tightly as I sat next to him, and would not let my hand go. He couldn’t talk, having lost his ability to speak, but I could feel his presence flow into me, saturating every fiber of my being. He was asking me, without words, for my forgiveness. He was telling me that he was sorry.  

Our trip from Texas to Chicago would eventually end at an orphanage where he would leave my brother and me in the care of nuns. Homeless and without work, dad was forced to place us in the temporary custody of kind people who would provide a bed and food for his children. I remember the moments when we cried, my dad and I, when he had to leave us there. It would be several years before we were finally back together again. ‘Temporary custody’ turned out to be five or six years and it was during these times when I would be introduced to a world of misery, pain, regret and hopelessness. I would grow to hate just about everything and everyone in the world, as I perceived it through these five very limited senses.

Those initial experiences evolved into even more. There were years of juvenile delinquency followed by many more years of prison, where the feelings of deeply rooted hatred for the world I perceived grew stronger with every passing year. I was convinced that the world was a cruel place, saturated with pain and suffering and that I was an unwilling victim of it.

The thought of God was farthest from my mind. I had buried any childhood glimpses of God’s love and compassion under a mud mountain of belief in the fundamental teaching of elders and peers who constantly reminded me that I was a prime candidate for the ever-lasting fires of hell and damnation.  So, God and His final judgment were not something I looked forward to, and I began to adopt the conviction that God was nothing more than a fabrication by powers in authority to keep people in line. I believed that only the gullible could be taken in by stories of God.

I would live with these convictions for over fifty years.  But during all of that time something else was going on. There was a distinct feeling around my heart that I was missing something. This feeling loomed up into an impending physical sensation sometimes that seemed to demand my attention. Not unlike the feeling of an idea, lingering just at the tip of the tongue but impossible to grasp. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But in my determination to find out what seemed just beyond my reach of understanding, I shifted into a state of willingness to learn. And from that state  of willingness, recollections of suppressed mystical experiences of years passed were loosened and recalled with vivid clarity. 

A Course in Miracles found its way to me and for the next fifteen years remained my constant companion. Here were the answers to every question I ever had. Here was what I couldn’t put my finger on, all during a previous life of belief in a world of misery and depression. Finally, I could relax in the comfort of truths like, ‘Nothing in the world I see serves to give me joy’ [from Lesson 128 in the Workbook] and ‘What could you not accept if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past present and to come  are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?’ [from Lesson 135 in the Workbook.]

Finally, I could embrace the realities that reminded me that I am not a victim of the world I see; I could never be abandoned because I am never alone; that only my own thoughts can harm me;  anticipation plays no part at all for present confidence [Holy Spirit] directs the way; that I am not a body but free and still as God created me.

These gentle reminders, like morsels of nourishment for the soul, lead me safely away from a thought system that could only be alien to the essence of Who and What I really Am, the offspring of God Itself, and onto the lawns of Heaven where a welcoming home has waited patiently in eternity. 

Love, Light & the Peace of God.

Rev. Joe Wolfe is a Pathways of Light minister living in Ormond Beach, Florida. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
If you would like to purchase Joe’s new book or help Rev. Joe Wolfe bring A Course in Miracles and related materials to prisoners, contact him by phone: 708-985-1754. Or go to the Website: Spiritlightoutreach.org

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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July-September, 2016

The One About Rules

by Rev. Stephan Mead, O.M.C.

Who really wants to follow rules? People in prison? Illegal immigrants? Politicians? The clergy? Law (rule) enforcement? Taxpayers? Unhappy people everywhere? Does anyone want to, “follow the rules?”

In ACIM Chapter 30 alone, more than fifteen rules are listed. Jesus has much to say about rules. Throughout the course, He mentions spiritual rules (laws, principles) that, if adhered to, will guarantee salvation. Jesus is also clear that since we haven’t done anything wrong, we really don’t need salvation anyway. (Ya gotta love A Course in Miracles!)

Two types of rules are discussed in the Course — rules that we make up, (ego) and the rules of Reality, which are part of Creation. Since Creation just is, and cannot be changed, improved upon or contradicted, I’m thinking the rules so many of us have problems following are the ones we made up. Hey, it’s actually kind of funny; we make up the very rules we won’t follow — except when they would seem to serve us. It wouldn’t make sense to create a rule if the rule doesn’t somehow lead us in the direction of happiness, right? Yet the resistance to being held accountable to rules seems stronger than our desire to even be happy. And remember, we made the rules up to be happy!

My head is starting to hurt. Wouldn’t life for all of us be much happier if everyone just followed the rules? Of course if I think that is possible, perhaps I should give “rule following” a try myself. Ok, I tried — and failed.

“Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it.” (T-14:XI.12:1) Even that passage sounds like a rule. Conceptually I can accept that following the rules of ego will only lead to suffering and I don’t want to suffer. I never did want to suffer! So why don’t I (we) follow only the rules of Reality? Is there a more accurate explanation than, “insanity?”

A Course in Miracles may have been published to answer that very question. The attraction of the Truth held in its pages invites us to perceive everything differently, to perceive Reality instead of what we thought reality was. Yes, a new perception, one of peace instead of conflict, is miraculous! Will I accept the atonement (the correction of erroneous thoughts) for myself? You’d think so, but I don’t always.

There is a rule in ACIM for people who have difficulty in following rules; it is called being created the eternally free Son of God! Using The Rules for Decision in Chapter 30 is a helpful process in seeing that we are always choosing and giving meaning to our choices. This chapter then provides the subsequent steps to help us see the rules the ego made and that we have mindlessly accepted!

“Your day is not at random. It is set by what you choose to live it with, and how the friend whose counsel you have sought perceives your happiness. You always ask advice before you can decide on anything. Let this be understood, and you can see there cannot be coercion here, nor grounds for opposition that you may be free. There is no freedom from what must occur. And if you think there is, you must be wrong.” (T-30.I.15)

Once we begin to see clearly that indeed, we have simply been wrong, (and also be willing to let go of our judgment on what “being wrong” means!) suggests that now we can be shown, from our own experience, how to be happy!

Rev. Stephan Mead, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Seattle, Washington. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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July-September, 2016

Learning to Forgive Promotes Healing

by Rev. Peggy Rivera, O.M.C.

Relationships are a very good place for opportunities for us to see where we need to heal our minds.

How often do we hear ourselves or our brothers complain about something someone else said or did to make us unhappy? It is our thoughts that get out of control and when we believe our unhappiness is caused by some outside force we fall deeper and deeper into the perception we are alone and afraid and separate from our Source.

If we listen to the voice of the ego, we have chosen fear and pain and sickness. These are blocking us from the healing thoughts of our true Nature.

I imagine having those little beings on my shoulder, the devil (ego) on one side and an angel (Holy Spirit) on the other. And we have to choose which voice to listen to. In the Workbook of A Course in Miracles it says, “I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror not a fact.” (W-pI.304.1:1-3)

We always have the choice that is our freedom. Our call is to hear the Voice and share it. To share makes it increase.

We use the body for communication. We listen to the Voice for God and He guides us gently back to our wholeness. It takes our focusing on hearing only that Voice so that we can heal. We heal through each other; we teach what we learn and we learn what we teach. If we are listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we expand the Love and joy that promotes healing for all of us. So when someone is really down in the depths of despair, we can see what they have forgotten the truth. That is all we really need to do. We do not judge, we support, we offer our unconditional love, kindness and prayer.

I am aware in my own mind that, as I go to Holy Spirit whenever I have symptoms, I receive flashes of insight in my mind. For me it is a process that takes time. I think sometimes healing takes time. Healing is not something we rush through. We all will heal as we focus on forgiveness of ourselves and each other. I think that’s what I am being made aware of. When I experience the flashes of images from my past, I am seeing the opportunity to see differently. Forgiving the dream is essential for all healing. I think it feels really wonderful to know that God has already forgiven us. We just have to accept forgiveness for ourselves. As we share this forgiveness with others, we heal ourselves and the world.

Rev. Peggy Rivera, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Palm Bay,FL 321-914-4694 Email:7seas@bellsouth.net Web: http://www.rev.priveralifeministries.com

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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