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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 8. 12-9-16

IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 7

8 Do not be afraid to look within. The ego tells you all is black with guilt within you, and bids you not to look. Instead, it bids you look upon your brothers, and see the guilt in them. Yet this you cannot do without remaining blind. For those who see their brothers in the dark, and guilty in the dark in which they shroud them, are too afraid to look upon the light within. Within you is not what you believe is there, and what you put your faith in. Within you is the holy sign of perfect faith your Father has in you. He does not value you as you do. He knows Himself, and knows the truth in you. He knows there is no difference, for He knows not of differences. Can you see guilt where God knows there is perfect innocence? You can deny His knowledge, but you cannot change it. Look, then, upon the light He placed within you, and learn that what you feared was there has been replaced with love.

Journal
We are caught in a cycle of guilt and fear. At some point in our decision to experience separation, we experienced guilt and now we are convinced of that guilt. We are afraid to look within because we believe we will see only darkness. So instead, we look for the darkness in our brother, and because we want to find it there, we do. But that only makes us feel guiltier for having done so, and guilt continues to blind us to Reality. I suppose it is the way we set it up so that the illusion would be continuous.

It can’t be true, though, because God is not guilt and there is only God. He placed the Holy Spirit in us so that we would find our way out of this cycle of guilt and fear when we were ready. Now that we are ready, we have a decision to make. Do we still want to keep the illusion going? Do we want to continue watching these sad and awful stories? Do we want to continue to make everyone guilty so that we can avoid the inevitable and look within ourselves? There is a light within, placed there by God and this light shines on the truth that there is no guilt to be found. It has been replaced by love.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 7. 12-7-16

IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 7

7 Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light. And by projecting it the world seems dark, and shrouded in your guilt. You throw a dark veil over it, and cannot see it because you cannot look within. You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is not there. The thing you fear is gone. If you would look within you would see only the Atonement, shining in quiet and in peace upon the altar to your Father.

Journal
“Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light.”

I don’t know how to feel about this. I have let go of guilt in a big way, letting go of a lot of guilty thoughts and ideas, letting go of the belief that guilt is real, knowing that when I do see guilt that I can let it go and knowing I want to let it go. And yet, I still am not completely free of guilt. I let it go much more easily than ever before, but it still pops up and I still have to go through a process even though it is a shorter process. I know that some day I will not see one spot of guilt within me, but when? That seems like a tall order.

I had two times today when I made someone guilty in my mind. I saw myself do it and I changed my mind. The first time someone close to me said something that seemed very unkind and I felt hurt by it. I reminded myself that no one can make me feel anything; only I do that. And yet, I still felt upset and I blamed this person for my upset. I asked for help, and what became clear to me is that the person I was seeing as guilty was only afraid.
Understanding her fear turned it around. I still had to talk to myself a few times during the day until finally I let it all go.

The second time it happened I heard something about a close friend that was upsetting to me. This time I got completely caught up in my own fear and forgot everything I know about letting go. This went on for a short, but really uncomfortable period of time. I saw that I was making guilty and I knew that I had to stop if I wanted peace. I couldn’t seem to make it work, though. Finally, I told Holy Spirit I needed His help with this. I didn’t know what to do.

Immediately, I realized that I was looking at a false image and that was all that was happening. I got this false image from ego when I asked the ego for help in interpreting the situation. I changed my mind and asked for the Holy Spirit’s help instead. There was a phone call and both of us were comforted. The whole idea of guilt seemed silly. Guilt doesn’t have the hold on me it used to but it is still in my mind. I really, really, want it gone.

Am I still afraid of looking within? Afraid of what I will see there? That can be the only reason that I would still project guilt onto others. I am willing to be healed, willing to know the truth that I am innocent and there is nothing within that is frightening. It is strange that I would still be holding onto to the fear of looking within, and that I would still cling to guilt. The only thing I know to do is to do what I did today. When guilt stories come into my awareness, I will let them be undone. If there is something else for me to do, I am willing to do that as well.

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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 6. 12-5-16

IX. THE CLOUD OF GUILT, P 6
6 See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself. In every condemnation that you offer the Son of God lies the conviction of your own guilt. If you would have the Holy Spirit make you free of it, accept His offer of Atonement for all your brothers. For so you learn that it is true for you. Remember always that it is impossible to condemn the Son of God in part. Those whom you see as guilty become the witnesses to guilt in you, and you will see it there, for it is there until it is undone. Guilt is always in your mind, which has condemned itself. Project it not, for while you do, it cannot be undone. With everyone whom you release from guilt great is the joy in Heaven, where the witnesses to your fatherhood rejoice.

Journal

“Guilt is always in your mind, which has condemned itself. Project it not, for while you do, it cannot be undone.”

This sentence says it all. As I let go of guilt in all its forms, I undo the ego in myself and in the Sonship. It is the only way to undo the ego. Every time I forgive (or accept the Atonement for a brother) there is great joy in Heaven. Every time I fail to forgive, there is more suffering in my life and within the Sonship. This is unequivocal and there is no compromising. It makes the choice simple and straight forward.

Do I want to be happy? Do I want to be at peace? Do I want to wake up? Do I want to return Home, to know my Self, to know God? This is the way it is done. I accept the Atonement for all guilt thoughts. I forgive the very idea of guilt. If I think that someone else is guilty or if I think that some situation is guilty, then I have perpetuated the illusion and I have condemned myself to suffering and death, along with all my brothers.

Does this mean that Donald Trump is not guilty? How about Hillary? The people who are responsible for the inhuman treatment of protesters? Those who destroy the environment to satisfy greed? The killers of baby whales and dolphins. The people who are deliberately or thoughtlessly cruel to helpless animals. How about pedophiles, murderers, and thieves? What if it hits home? What if the murderer kills someone I love and now will never touch again in this life? What about the little things, the careless driver, the nosy neighbor, the bossy co-worker? Even them?

And how can situations be guilty? Well, if I think that I am unhappy because I am devastated by a natural phenomenon, like a hurricane or forest fire, I am saying that circumstances are the cause of my unhappiness, I have projected my unhappiness onto the world and said the world is at fault. If I am upset because my house burnt down and all is lost, or because my company went out of business and now I don’t have a job; if something happens in the world and I think it hurts me, then that is an example of thinking the situation is guilty, that is I am projecting guilt onto the situation.

The ones that I notice these days are the quick judgments when I hear something sad or scary in the news. I think it is sad that so many people were lost to a warehouse fire. I don’t know them but I can imagine their last terrified moments and their families’ grief. How could that not be a bad thing? How could I possibly see this differently?

Ego argues that fate is guilty, circumstances are guilty, life is unpredictable and devastating. And ego life certainly is. But there is another way to see even these kinds of things, and I can know that other way if I am willing to let go of the ego interpretation, and ask for the Holy Spirit’s interpretation. I will see reflected in the world what is in my mind, While fear is in my mind, fearful incidents will happen. If I continue to project and believe the cause is outside of me, then fear will stay in my mind, and fearful circumstances will continue to occur. Let me take responsibility for everything, and allow it to be healed, and I will help the happy dream to become our reality.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 5. 12-2-16

IX. THE CLOUD OF GUILT, P 5
5 Lay not his guilt upon him, for his guilt lies in his secret thought that he has done this unto you. Would you, then, teach him he is right in his delusion? The idea that the guiltless Son of God can attack himself and make himself guilty is insane. In any form, in anyone, believe this not. For sin and condemnation are the same, and the belief in one is faith in the other, calling for punishment instead of love. Nothing can justify insanity, and to call for punishment upon yourself must be insane.

Journal

Guilt in any form, regardless where it is directed, whether if it is expressed or only believed, is a form of insanity. It is what keeps the illusion in place and it is a defense against Love. It is not possible to know yourself as the Son of God and still believe in guilt. How do you know that you are having guilt thoughts? It might not be obvious to you right away.

Here are some clues:

He shouldn’t have…

She could have done this instead…

I wish he had…

If only I had…

Why did I…

How could he have …

I watch for thoughts that start in this way. When they occur, I know that I have found someone guilty. This morning I have struggled with a feeling. My brother asked me to do something for him and it is very important to him. I don’t want to do this, but I will. I feel anxious about it and as I read this paragraph, I realized that I feel resentment toward my brother for asking me for this favor. That resentment is a form of guilt. He is guilty for asking me and guilty for how I feel now. Any form of resentment is guilt.

I have been struggling with letting go of past regrets. Because I am willing to do this work now, I have been shown regrets about things I did and things I didn’t do. These regrets are just another form of guilt. I should have done things differently and didn’t, therefore I am guilty.

Another form of guilt is projection. Any time I see someone else as bad, or lacking in some way that I find objectionable, it is only because I have projected my belief in guilt onto that person. I used to know a woman who didn’t have a clue about how to discipline her child, or even how to talk to her child in a way that would be helpful rather than making it worse. I found myself getting angry at her for her ignorance. Now I realize that I felt angry because I was projecting my guilt at not being a better mother myself. I was making us equally guilty.

Now when I notice guilt, whether it is directed at another or onto myself, I remember that this is not possible. We were not created guilty, so we cannot be guilty. No matter what story we cook up in the illusion, we cannot prove our guilt. Without a belief in guilt, I look at a mother’s ignorance about child rearing as an opportunity to undo more guilt in the mind. I am able to approach this favor for my brother as an act of love and if I still feel anxious about it, I can ask for clarity. What is it in me that needs to be healed? And I can accept atonement for that error.

When I think how simple this correction is, how straightforward it is, I feel a sense of relief. While it is absolutely necessary to give up the belief in guilt, it is very possible to do so because guilt is not real. We are innocent, and I find that a good mantra for the day. No matter what I see through the body’s eyes, I will remind myself that we are innocent and, without exception, that is the only truth of the situation.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 4. 11-30-16

IX. THE CLOUD OF GUILT, P 4
4 Atonement brings a re-evaluation of everything you cherish, for it is the means by which the Holy Spirit can separate the false and the true, which you have accepted into your mind without distinction. Therefore you cannot value one without the other, and guilt has become as true for you as innocence. You do not believe the Son of God is guiltless because you see the past, and see him not. When you condemn a brother you are saying, “I who was guilty choose to remain so.” You have denied his freedom, and by so doing you have denied the witness unto yours. You could as easily have freed him from the past, and lifted from his mind the cloud of guilt that binds him to it. And in his freedom would have been your own.

Journal
Students often ask me to help them understand what Jesus means by Atonement. I always think of Atonement as undoing, and I think that Atonement and forgiveness are the same thing. I like this explanation even better:

Atonement brings a re-evaluation of everything you cherish, for it is the means by which the Holy Spirit can separate the false and the true…

This is why I bring my thoughts to the Holy Spirit for interpretation. I want Him to separate the false from the true because I cannot do that. As Jesus goes onto say, I have accepted everything without distinction. I have a thought and I tend to believe it, simply because it was in my mind. Actually, I have taught myself not to automatically accept every thought, but I used to do so, and still do so sometimes.

Here is an example. I awoke in the night recently, and lay there worrying about someone dear to me. He is going through a very difficult time and making some hard decisions. I started thinking about all that could go wrong and what those consequences would mean to him. I started feeling so anxious that I knew I couldn’t go to sleep like this. I wanted to be peaceful and sleep through the night. I wanted to stop being afraid for this person.

The reason I was finding it so hard to stop being afraid and to return to peace is that I had automatically accepted my thoughts about the situation as being true; he could make bad decisions and he could suffer dire consequences. What I did was listen to the Rules for Decision section of the Course. Afterwards, I realized that the only thing that happened is that I asked the ego what the situation meant and I joined with the ego in deciding what would happen based on the ego’s interpretation.
I did the steps that Jesus laid out for me to undo that decision and make way for the Holy Spirit to re-interpret for me. He helped me by sorting through the thoughts, rejecting what is not true. What I was left with were some true thoughts that restored my mind to the peace of God that I so wanted. A true thought in my mind was that I must have faith in my brother.

Another was that nothing was happening anywhere except in my mind, which was projecting my fears into a non existing future. The next morning I was guided to this passage: “Your patience with your brother is your patience with yourself. Is not a child of God worth patience?”

All the other thoughts were gone. I wasn’t thinking about all the ways his life could go wrong now, or how unlikely it was that he would succeed. I wasn’t thinking about how this would affect my life, and other lives. I was happy and at peace.
Jesus says the result of not distinguishing between thoughts and simply accepting them all is that guilt has become as true for us as innocence. To free my mind, I had to free this dear person I love. I had to let go of the thoughts that he was guilty of anything and embrace his innocence. I had to let go of the belief in guilt and embrace only the belief in innocence.

Will he make mistakes and will there be dire consequences? I don’t know. But no matter where his lessons take him, I have faith now that all will be as it should be and that he will be successful however it appears in the story. He is guilty of nothing; what happens here is meaningless of itself, and gains meaning only according to our desires. I desire to know only innocence, his and mine. I will be vigilant for thoughts about this situation and ask the Holy Spirit to sort them out for me from now on.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt,  P 3.11-22-16

IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 3

3 The world can give you only what you gave it, for being nothing but your own projection, it has no meaning apart from what you found in it and placed your faith in. Be faithful unto darkness and you will not see, because your faith will be rewarded as you gave it. You will accept your treasure, and if you place your faith in the past, the future will be like it. Whatever you hold dear you think is yours. The power of your valuing will make it so.

Journal
The world is our projection so what can it give us except what we put there and then find and believe and want. Therefore, it is important not to support with our faith what we no longer want. In fact, as we refuse to support what we find in the world, it will lose substance, it will be undone. For instance, we wanted conflict and so conflict shows up in many ways. We got to see the true nature of conflict and what it does to our peace of mind during this election and its aftermath. Conflict has already been projected, but we can undo its effects as we choose not to put our faith there.

When I hear, or read something that encourages conflict about the election and what is going to happen now, I have a choice. I can treasure that conflict, and add to it, or I can help to undo it by withdrawing my belief. The Course tells us this:  “ ... and if you want peace, you must give up the idea of conflict entirely and for all time.” So why does it seem to be so hard to stay out of the conflict? I notice that even though I don’t engage the conflict in an active way, I am still engaging within my mind when I become anxious about what I just read, or I become angry or resentful or afraid.

I withdraw from the conflict because while I still choose conflict, I also know that I want the peace of God. So when I see that I am putting my faith in conflict, I choose again. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of the belief that I want conflict. In the past (and a second ago is the past) I wanted conflict, but I don’t want the future to be the same as the past, so I am letting go of the past right now in this moment.

I have placed within the world what I do not want to see in myself. But I can withdraw my belief in it. I can change my mind about giving it my faith and my desire. As I do this, the world of ego is undone. I will pay close attention to that which I value, and when it robs me of the peace of God, I will make a different decision, because as Jesus says, whatever I hold dear I think is mine. The power of my valuing will make it so. When I am unhappy, I will ask, “Do I still want this?” If not, then I will give it to the Holy Spirit and ask for a healed mind.

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Study of Text, C 13: IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 2. 11-21-16

IX. The Cloud of Guilt, P 2

2 Release from guilt is the ego’s whole undoing. Make no one fearful, for his guilt is yours, and by obeying the ego’s harsh commandments you bring its condemnation on yourself, and you will not escape the punishment it offers those who obey it. The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain, for faith in it is pain. And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. Faith makes the power of belief, and where it is invested determines its reward. For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.

Journal
Do I want to undo the ego? Oh yes! Release from guilt is the way to do it, and since I am meant to undo the ego, I can let go of the belief in guilt. This phrase stood out to me: Make no one fearful… It stood out to me because I have had occasion lately to decide if I want to make someone fearful. I was afraid for someone I love and I had the thought to manipulate and control his behavior through fear.

Of course that was only my fear talking, and I caught it right away, thank God. I knew immediately that I did not want to do anything that would increase his fear. It would have been cruel to do that, and it would have increased guilt in him and in me. It is guilt that I am trying to release so projecting onto others is counterproductive, to say the least.

When I have the desire to project guilt or to accept it in myself, I am putting my faith in guilt. I am saying that guilt is my salvation and I believe in it so strongly that I am willing to suffer and willing for others to suffer just so that I can have guilt. Guilt is of the ego and putting my faith in the ego is always going to cause me pain. Pain is what the ego does and what it is.

I used to treasure guilt, but now I am learning to treasure innocence. I have already decided that guilt is not real, but rather something that we made when we made the ego. I have already decided that I want to let go of the belief in guilt and I want to stop using guilt as a tool to control and manipulate. I want to stop using guilt to punish myself and others. I want to stop projecting guilt in a fruitless effort to make myself feel better and appear innocent through comparison. Now I am spending my time mastering this new choice. And it is taking some time, but getting easier as I practice.

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