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April-June, 2013

Already Home

by Rev. Paula Richards, O.M.C.

For many years I considered myself to be a spiritual seeker. But one of my favorite inspirational authors, Alan Cohen says, “To step onto any path is to leave our source.” One day, when I was meditating, the Wizard of Oz came to mind and I realized just how brilliantly it illustrates this point.

When Dorothy took her first step onto the yellow brick road, she set out in search of something she already had. But because she no longer realized that she was home, she embarked on a magical but often fearful journey through a land of good and evil, dazzled by beautiful sights and fueled by false promises from an egotistical wizard. The friends she met along the way were also searching outside themselves for something they already had. Eventually they all learned that they already possessed what they were looking for, most importantly, that Dorothy had the power within herself to return home whenever she chose. But it wasn’t until she released her fear, closed her eyes and became still that she was finally able to hear the wisdom of the good witch’s message. “You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back (home). . .”

I can see now that my “human” experience is a lot like a journey through Oz. I keep looking for magical solutions to my imagined problems and trusting in my ego’s guidance to keep me safe. And although my journey can sometimes be very beautiful, I never know what evil lurks around the next corner. A Course in Miracles is helping me to know the truth; that we are really already ONE with God and this thing we call “life” is just, as Auntie Em says, “a bad dream.” All our seeming problems could be solved instantly by simply waking up to the fact that we already are beautiful spirits imagining we’re not. We’re already home.

When asked why she didn’t tell Dorothy sooner, the good witch said, “Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.” And so do we.

Rev. Paula Richards, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Lowell, Massachusetts

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2013

The Gift of I Don’t Know

by Rev. Susan Lewis, O.M.C.

There’s a place in the mind called I Don’t Know. I arrived here by surprise today. There’s a big shade tree with a bench underneath. I’m resting here in peace. I don’t have any suitcases, plans for later on, anywhere I need to go, anybody to please. What seemed to happen yesterday, last year, last century have no life here.

I’ve been getting ready to come here for a while. Studying guides, mapping out the route, listening to travel logs of those who arrived before me. I’ve sent postcards saying “I’m coming.” “Can’t wait to see you there.” “As soon as I can get away, I’ll be there.”

Well, by God, here I Am. But what about______? I don’t know. What should I do about __________? I don’t know. But what if______? I don’t know. But how will________? I don’t know.

I don’t know because I know Who does know. And that is all I need to know.
Ah, the Peace of this place!

Rev. Susan Lewis, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Steep Falls, Maine.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2013

To Diet or Not to Diet. Is That the Question?

by Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C.

It seems that I have spent my whole life in an effort to bring my body weight under control. I have used that particular class room to learn lots of good lessons. The Holy Spirit and I have made good use of this particular challenge. Here is an example of how this has worked for me. This is an excerpt from my book, “Hey, Holy Spirit, It’s Me Again.” This book is a journal of my study of the Workbook including the messages I receive from Spirit as I meditate on the lesson. This particular one is specifically about my confusion around the body and specifically, dieting.

Holy Spirit: “If you believe you need to diet to control your weight, then you need to diet. If you believe you are a body, you need to eat, and you need to follow whatever laws of eating you believe will keep you healthy. Do not allow guilt to enter into this. Do not feel guilty because you believe you are a body. That is not helpful to you. Just notice the purpose you are giving the body and allow me to help you see it differently.

For instance, why do you want to diet? What is the purpose of maintaining a certain size? Do you think that your happiness lies in keeping the body at a certain weight? And does that mean a different weight will make you unhappy? (Obviously I do.) In this case you are using the body to solve a problem that is in the mind. Can you see this ever working? (No, of course I cannot, and it never has.) So you are using the body for the purpose of proving that you are condemned to failure. Even when you seem to get control of this particular problem, the basic error still remains and will manifest in some other way.

You believe that you are a body right now, but this is not the truth. You will learn the truth as you give the body the purpose of learning the truth. You are doing this now. When you asked me to help you see this differently from the way that you have in the past, you chose a different purpose for the body. As you continue to make this new choice, I will continue to correct your thinking. The truth is that you made insane rules to govern a body that does not exist. Can you, who are the Son of God, really be governed by those rules? Only if you choose to, but absolutely, if you so choose. The only way out of this is to change your mind, and as this becomes your true desire, I will help you.

(I feel conflicted, because I really do want to maintain a certain weight, but I don’t know how to feel about that. Should I not want this? I know that I am using the body to make me happy, but I also know that when I have tried not to care, I was kidding myself.)

I am not asking you to change your behavior. It is possible for you to diet and fall off your diet, to lose weight and to gain weight, and not to attach judgment to it. It is not your weight or what you eat that makes you happy or unhappy. If you judge the effect of your thoughts and find yourself wanting, you will be unhappy. If you judge the effect of your thoughts and are happy with what you see, you will be temporarily happy, and that happiness will be tempered by the certainty that is not going to last. If you do not judge the effects at all, they will not have the power to affect your happiness. It is only your thoughts that affect you.

If you want to diet, do so. Do it joyfully. Do it without guilt. Your conflict is not about whether to diet or not, it is about whether to give up control by choosing against the ego. This is a non-choice. You are deciding between your self and your Self. It is the kind of circular thinking that you are using to prop up your belief that you are a body and that you are not responsible for being a body. It is ok to be where you are, Myron, and I will always be there with you. Whatever you are doing in the illusion, keep asking me to help you see clearly. That way, whatever purpose the ego gives it, you will be giving it another purpose, and you will be using it to awaken.

Me: Thank You for helping me. Thank You for meeting me where I am, and for letting me know that it is okay to be there. I am trying to be as patient with myself as You are.

Recently, I have used some other body issues to practice the same lesson. I am learning that I really am not this body by choosing to heal the mind, rather than trying to manipulate the illusory body. I have used Lesson 190, which tells us that pain is not real, to heal some deep seated beliefs about the body. I am learning that I have chosen to suffer and be in pain and eventually die because these beliefs support the idea that I am a body and that the world I made is real. I am making a different choice now as I am learning that I don’t really want to keep these beliefs and that I can let them go simply by accepting the Atonement.

When I first got this message from the Holy Spirit, I was so focused on the body that I failed to completely receive His words. It was only later, once I had practiced a long time with the ideas he gave me that I began to realize how important this message really was. It wasn’t about dieting at all. It was about realizing that the body is just a projection of my thoughts. The things that seem to happen to the body are just projections of my beliefs onto the body. So it is just an illusion projected onto an illusion.

The solution will never be in the manipulation of the illusion. I cannot heal the body with magic solutions and I cannot control the size and shape of the body with magic solutions. Medicine and diets are magic solutions. All I can do with them is to pretend that the imaginary body is responding to the imaginary agents, and it’s ok to do that. Using magic to manipulate the illusion is not a sin. It simply defers the moment of true healing. But the truth will wait for me to be ready for it. When I want to truly heal, then I must go to the source of the projection, which is the beliefs in my mind. The healing itself is simple. I notice the thoughts that are not of God, and I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. This is the same thing as accepting the Atonement. It is accepting the solution Jesus has designed for us to awaken from the dream of separation.

Seems easy right? Then why don’t I just do it? Well, I am learning that this is what I want and I am beginning to accept it as the only solution. However, I sometimes become confused about what I really want. Fear seems to be the key to my confusion. Let’s take dieting for instance. I wanted to wear a certain outfit to a banquet recently. I had gained a few pounds and it barely fit, but I knew I could as easily lose this weight in the few days I had, so I brought the outfit with me with the intention of wearing it.

I know that it is easy to lose weight. I have done it lots of times and lately, I have done it simply by deciding to. This is the result of what I have learned in my practice of Lesson 190. I have learned not to try to control the illusion, but to accept healing of the mind. But what happened is that as the time to wear the outfit got closer, fear that it wouldn’t fit began to create confusion in my mind. I began to doubt myself and the more fearful I became the more I felt the need to protect myself. I wanted to diet, to watch my eating closely and to use the ego will to assure myself I would have something to wear to the banquet.

But I am no longer completely confused about the truth. No matter what is going on in the thinking mind, I know the truth. I can diet if I want to, and remain completely innocent. I can fail to diet and remain completely innocent. Once I remembered that I laughed at the idea of dieting. It became meaningless to me. The day before the banquet, my clothes were fitting tight, and the night of the banquet, the smaller outfit fit me perfectly. I did not change my body, I changed my mind.

Over the past couple of years I have been led to see the body differently. This has happened slowly, a step at a time, and has involved sickness and pain and different forms of suffering. In each case, I have been given the option of choosing the old ego way, or choosing to accept the Atonement instead. Recently, the Holy Spirit has shown me what it means to accept the Atonement and the beauty of it. I still get distracted by the ego thoughts and sometimes respond to them, but I never entirely lose sight of the part of my mind that knows this cannot be true. Even when I get entangled in the ego beliefs, I do so only briefly. I know how to be free now. I stop trying to disentangle myself, and I simply accept the solution. I accept the Atonement and allow Love to heal my mind.

I am always just a thought away from perfect peace and perfect joy, just a thought away from a healed mind. As a fearful mind projects fearful stories, a healed mind projects peaceful stories so I am always only a thought away from living the happy dream. I tell the Holy Spirit that I really want the Atonement. I stand there in the middle of the room with my arms outstretched. “Here I am God. I stand naked and defenseless against Your love. I accept Your offer. I invite Love into my mind, and I ask Love to heal me.” I feel a little foolish, but also giddy with relief. I have discovered the way out of this insanity. 

To diet or not to diet; is that even the question? No. I know this now. I know the question and I know the solution. I open my mind and my heart to God and I rejoice in the healing.

Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Read more of her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways website. http://www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org  Note: Be sure to see Rev. Myron Jones and Rev. Larry Glenz at the 2013 Chicago ACIM Conference, where they will be the speakers representing Pathways of Light.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2013

Why Do Some People Get Sick and Others Don’t

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

Lately I have wondered why some people get sick and others seem to live their lives free of disease. I noticed that it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with how spiritual they are or how nice they are or how good they are. It just seems to have no rhyme or reason. When I think that in order to heal my afflictions I must pray, reflect and change my thoughts, I get a little upset and ask myself, “Why do I have to be good when there are people who are really bad and they don’t seem to have any problems?”

A friend of mine recently said she thought that some people seem to get away with anything they want. No matter what they do to anyone else, they seem to be healthy, happy, and often times wealthy. I went to Holy Spirit with this. I said, “How do I respond to this, Holy Spirit? How can I tell someone else to Love unconditionally when good people seem to suffer and bad people seem to skate through life unscathed? Why is it that a good, kind person can suffer from awful diseases like terminal cancer and others who are not so nice can live seemingly healthy happy lives?”

Holy Spirit responded with, You are judging one or the other. There is no place for judgment in the mind of God. Remember that this world is an illusion made by a thought of something that can never be. If we are all one mind, there really are no differences between us. It is when you perceive separation that a conflict can seem to occur.

Remain clear in your thoughts that the world you see is only a dream. In this world of dreams nothing makes sense at all. There is only chaos. But this is where we heal. When we see without judgment that we are all really extensions of Love, safe in the Mind of God, we all heal together.

The world is full of sickness and death and when we focus our attention on the life we seem to experience on earth, we will experience sickness and pain and death. But we can learn to focus on what we really are, which is eternal Love. So the thoughts that some people seem to get away with everything is really the same thoughts of judgment that we are separate.

Today I practice Loving more fully. Today I practice seeing the Light in all that I see. One day at a time I choose Love. I thank you Father for Loving me and the entire Sonship. In Love we heal each other and ourselves.

In ACIM Workbook for Students, page 87 number 5 it says, My thoughts are images that I have made. Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.

Rev. Peggy Rivera, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Palm Bay, Florida. Websites: http://www.rev.priveralifeministries.com and www.peggyrivera1mt.com

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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