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Study of Text, Chapter 12: VII. Looking Within, P 11. 4-12-16

VII. Looking Within, P 11

11 When you have accepted your mission to extend peace you will find peace, for by making it manifest you will see it. Its holy witnesses will surround you because you called upon them, and they will come to you. I have heard your call and I have answered it, but you will not look upon me nor hear the answer that you sought. That is because you do not yet want only that. Yet as I become more real to you, you will learn that you do want only that. And you will see me as you look within, and we will look upon the real world together. Through the eyes of Christ, only the real world exists and only the real world can be seen. As you decide so will you see. And all that you see but witnesses to your decision.

Journal
As I decide that the peace of God is all that I want, I am also accepting my mission to extend peace. Then as I extend peace more and more often, I also increase my peace. It increases because as I see it manifested, I believe in it and I want it. Why am I not doing this all the time?

Why is it that I don’t hear His answer when I am the one that sought it? It is because it is not yet all that I want. Sometimes I want to be right. Sometimes I become afraid of the dark thoughts in my mind and I want to project guilt. Sometimes I become defensive. I cannot have any of these things and have peace. Peace must be all that I want, to always have peace.

Here is something I had to sit with. “Yet as I become more real to you, you will learn that you do want only that. And you will see me as you look within, and we will look upon the real world together.” This is one of the passages that brings tears to my eyes even though I don’t completely understand it. I cannot truly understand it because I have not fully accepted it. I still sometimes pretend that what I see with the body’s eyes is reality and so I do not always see with Christ Vision.

I love Jesus so much that I long to see him within and I want to see him as with me and see us as part of the same Family of God. So I pay close attention to the world I see. If it is not a joyous and peaceful world, I know that it is not the real world. I know that I have lost sight of the truth and I make a new decision, and that decision for God becomes manifest in my life.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, Chapter 12, VII. Looking Within, P 10. 4-11-16

VII. Looking Within, P 10

10 You are afraid of me because you looked within and are afraid of what you saw. Yet you could not have seen reality, for the reality of your mind is the loveliest of God’s creations. Coming only from God, its power and grandeur could only bring you peace if you really looked upon it. If you are afraid, it is because you saw something that is not there. Yet in that same place you could have looked upon me and all your brothers, in the perfect safety of the Mind which created us. For we are there in the peace of the Father, Who wills to extend His peace through you.

Journal
I cried and cried when I read this. It is so beautiful. Could this be what we are? Oh, to look within and see only what is there! I am setting this as my intention today. Father, I am looking within today and I want to see what is really there. I want to place on the altar everything that is not me, and be left with only with what is real.

I want to be completely open to Spirit that I am an open and clear channel through which the peace of the Father flows through me to everyone I meet. I will do nothing but allow. I will not interfere. This morning I began as usual by surrendering my self to God. I then began my rules for happiness process.

I reminded myself that I would make no decisions on my own. This is my intention to get all my advice from Spirit rather than ego. I then decided what kind of day I will have.
I will love everyone I see and they will love me.
I will feel the joy of being.
I will be serene and still and I will accept all things as they are.
I will be the channel for peace without regard for circumstances.
My flight home will be uneventful and everything will go smoothly.
Time will be arranged for me.

This is the day I will have if I make no decisions on my own.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 12: VII. Looking Within, P 9. 4-6-16

VII. Looking Within, P 9
9 The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. You can decide to see it right. What you made of it is not its reality, for its reality is only what you give it. You cannot really give anything but love to anyone or anything, nor can you really receive anything but love from them. If you think you have received anything else, it is because you have looked within and thought you saw the power to give something else within yourself. It was only this decision that determined what you found, for it was the decision for what you sought.

Journal
Jesus is telling me that there is only love in me and so that is all I can give. Then why is it that sometimes what I give is not love? It can only be that I looked within and saw something else, and since nothing else is there, I made a decision, a deliberate decision to see what was not there. I decided I wanted to see something else and then looked within and found that.

When I was married, I used to often see my husband as guilty. I would say things to him or react to him as if he were guilty. If I am only love and have only love to give, where did the guilt come from? I chose guilt. I chose to feel guilty and I chose to find others guilty. The decision came first, then I looked within and found it.

How funny that I used to think that I found him guilty because of his actions, that is, because he really was guilty. I could list all my justifications for his guilt and would defend my belief he was guilty to anyone who would listen. How funny that I found guilt everywhere I looked and never considered that the guilt was coming from my own mind, and that it wasn’t even true there. It was being generated by a false idea that I chose to believe.

Here is what happens. I find myself in a situation and I ask for advice about how to see it. There are only two advisors in my mind, the Holy Spirit and ego. An example of this would be when I found my husband guilty. The ego told me that I am being attacked and must defend myself, and he is the one guilty of putting me in this position. The ego has now defined the problem and warned me that I need to take action in my own defense. With the situation thus defined, the ego’s solution seems sensible.

If I stop and choose the Holy Spirit as my advisor, He will show me the innocence in the situation. He will show me the one problem, which is that we think we are separated from Love. He will show me that this problem has already been solved. He will show me that as a creation of love, there is only love in me and only love in this man in spite of the apparent circumstances. There is nothing to give now except love.

When I was married to him I became so confused that I really believed in his guilt. It seemed perfectly natural, if really unpleasant, to live like that. I thought he was the problem and the solution was to get rid of him. All along, the problem, being in my own mind, followed me everywhere I went, so divorce solved nothing. I look back on that time and wonder how I could stand to live like that. I am not completely free of my confusion, but every day I let more of it go by deciding for God rather than ego as my advisor.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 12: VII. Looking Within, P 8. 4-4-16

VII. Looking Within, P 8

8 When you want only love you will see nothing else. The contradictory nature of the witnesses you perceive is merely the reflection of your conflicting invitations. You have looked upon your mind and accepted opposition there, having sought it there. But do not then believe that the witnesses for opposition are true, for they attest only to your decision about reality, returning to you the messages you gave them. Love, too, is recognized by its messengers. If you make love manifest, its messengers will come to you because you invited them.

Journal
Jesus is always telling me that what I have is what I want. He says that I am always doing this to myself and that the world I see is the result of the choice to see it. So if I really want love then I will see love and nothing else. He doesn’t say that I have to wait for the world to change, or that I have to change it. He says that when I want only love I will see nothing else.

I accept that this is true. I don’t always understand how that can be, and I certainly don’t understand why I would issue an invitation for anything other than love. But I accept it as true anyway, and I work from there. I have had some days of floating blissfully above the battleground. No matter what has happened, I have been happy. I have felt joy welling up with me. I have felt that strong connection with Spirit.

It has not been uninterrupted joy. There were challenging moments, but I met them with the strength of God that is available to me and they passed easily. But this morning I woke up feeling heavy and earthbound. Nothing is really wrong, nothing bad is happening. I just feel like my feet are stuck in quicksand and I am being held down. No more blissful floating.

I asked Holy Spirit what was going on. It felt bad, and I had a moment of panic because I didn’t know what happened and couldn’t seem to do anything about it. I tried my surrender exercise. I tried to feel the connection. Where did all that joy go? Where did God go? I suspected He didn’t go anywhere, but evidently I did. So I asked. Where did the love go, God?

I was shown the thoughts I have had since yesterday. I am preparing for my trip and there are a few things that must be done and not all of them can be done immediately. I am worried something will be forgotten. My drier stopped working last night and today I have to get a new one on my lunch hour. Will this be complicated? How do I choose a new one? I read what people have reported on all the major brands and none of them seem a safe bet.

I am starting to see where this is going. I am looking to my ego mind to judge what is happening. I feel very defensive. I want to defend against forgetfulness, mistakes, buying the wrong drier, all sorts of things. So let me remember that it is in my defenselessness that my safety lies. Not in keeping good lists and checking everything off. Not in finding the perfect drier. Not in arranging everything just right. Not in staying within some kind of budget.

These are not the things that make me safe. These thoughts are the thoughts that bring fear into my mind. When I defend myself I teach myself that I need defense and have every right to be afraid. I can have fear or I can have love. The circumstances in my life do not determine my choice. What I want determines my choice.

I chose love. It wasn’t hard. I just chose it. The joy is back. The floaty feeling is back. I am above the battleground again. I see the ego down there trying to get my attention, waving lists at me, warning me something could go wrong. I wave back. Not interested, ego. (giggle) It is so funny how confused I sometimes become, how afraid of nothing. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, love is a choice and it is always available to me. The only requirement is that I want nothing else.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, Chapter 12: VII. Looking Within, P 7. 4-1-16

VII. Looking Within, P 7
7 I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. When you think you are projecting what you do not want, it is still because you do want it. This leads directly to dissociation, for it represents the acceptance of two goals, each perceived in a different place; separated from each other because you made them different. The mind then sees a divided world outside itself, but not within. This gives it an illusion of integrity, and enables it to believe that it is pursuing one goal. Yet as long as you perceive the world as split, you are not healed. For to be healed is to pursue one goal, because you have accepted only one and want but one.

Journal
What I project or extend is up to me but I must do one or the other. That is a helpful sentence. I cannot sit on some kind of neutral ground and do nothing. I cannot look at the world and say someone else did it. What I see when I look outward comes from my mind, not from something outside me as there is nothing outside me. Let us say that I go to work today and I walk in on one of my co-workers stealing something.

I first go within to choose an interpreter. I don’t say to myself I am going to do this. It is not a conscious decision, but it is one that is made. If I choose the ego as my interpreter I will see a guilty person. There will probably be a lot of thoughts in my mind about this according to what I have learned about this kind of behavior. Choosing ego as interpreter is deciding on projection. I project onto the person doing the stealing judgments that come from my mind. I give their behavior all the meaning it has for me.

If I choose the Holy Spirit as my interpreter, I will have different thoughts about the person. When this kind of thing has happened to me in the past, I have seen a call for love. This person thinks they cannot be happy without having the thing being stolen. Perhaps they think they cannot be happy unless they have what they covet of another person, not so much the object, but just the idea of having what they think others have and they don’t.

There is no reason to judge. There is never a reason to judge. There is only the understanding that the person is confused about what happiness is and how to achieve it. There is no reason for pity. Confusion is not truth and so it is not real. They will overcome their confusion. That is what we do here. We look at our confusion and we choose against it. Eventually.

If the person’s behavior upsets me it is only because they trigger in me something that upsets me. It has nothing to do with them or their behavior or their confusion. It is about my confusion. I see in another only what is in my mind. All judgment of another is judgment of self as seen in another.

As I look at this person who is stealing, and I look with Holy Spirit, I see only a need for love and so I give love. I may not say a word, but in my heart I know the person for who they are, not what they fear. I know they are the Son of God and lack nothing. I am not fooled by their confusion. This is extension.

When I choose projection, I suffer because projection causes suffering. No one believes they want to suffer, but if we suffer it is because we have chosen suffering. There is nothing in our life we did not choose. We chose suffering through choosing the ego interpretation, which leads to projection and suffering. So we did it to ourselves.

Saying we don’t want to suffer when clearly, that was our choice, is having two goals. The mind is split. We have chosen to leave the Kingdom all over again. I suppose there is no other way we could see ourselves separate from God now unless we choose separation now. Having two goals is separation. So in every moment we are deciding to separate ourselves from God or deciding to know our Self as one with God. It is the original “sin” all over again, over and over.

In the moment I see with Christ’s Vision this person who is stealing, I have extended Love. I have returned to God. In the next moment when I am faced with the choice between extension and projection, I might find myself projecting and so I experience myself as outside the Kingdom. More and more often, the joy of extension motivates me to that choice and eventually, it will be the only choice I make. Then I will be awake in the world, seeing only what Love sees, being in joy all the time.

This is why I choose the peace of God as my only goal. When I forget and choose something else as my goal, then I change my mind and return to my goal. If I think that people should not steal, then I have a different goal. If I think that people should not be grandiose and arrogant, I have a different goal. The ego sees many goals in the world, but I don’t have to embrace those goals as mine. I am free to return as quickly as possible to my one goal as I remember that the peace of God is everything I want.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 12, VII.Looking Within, P 6. 3-31-16

VII. Looking Within, P 6

6 I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me it will be because you have invited Him. For He will send you His witnesses if you will but look upon them. Remember always that you see what you seek, for what you seek you will find. The ego finds what it seeks, and only that. It does not find love, for that is not what it is seeking. Yet seeking and finding are the same, and if you seek for two goals you will find them, but you will recognize neither. You will think they are the same because you want both of them. The mind always strives for integration, and if it is split and wants to keep the split, it will still believe it has one goal by making it seem to be one.

Journal
No wonder we live in such confusion. This paragraph made me think of the ever elusive “love.” Through our real mind we seek for love. Through our ego mind we do not want love. So we seek and do not find. Of course. What else could happen? We seek love and find neediness. We tell ourselves that we were seeking love and so neediness must be love. Our love songs sing praises to it. “I need you so much. I can’t live without you.” Not really songs of love, but songs of ego. Only our minds can’t tell the difference because we have tried to integrate opposite goals.

When we are ready for the truth, we begin the search for love in the only place we will find it; we look within. We are the love we seek and until we recognize this, we will fail to find love. Once we recognize that love has found us, and there is no other place to look, we will see love everywhere. We will be in love with everyone and all things. There will be no place where love is not. This is true because our mind is no longer split. We have one goal and so we seek one thing and what we seek we will find.

I can talk about this because I have had glimpses of it, not enough to discuss it further, but just enough to know this is true. Now I spend all my time recognizing goals that are not love and changing my mind about my desire for them. For instance, I think that I need my daughter to spend time with me. I think I need my son to be something different. I think I need my friend to agree with me. Then I will feel loved.

Ha ha ha. This is not love no matter how the ego argues for it. I watch for that kind of confusion in my mind, and I give it to the Holy Spirit to correct. This is how my mind is healed and my vision made singular. One goal assures success. It is in this way, I will soon reach such clarity about what I want that I will ask for only the one thing. I will no longer obscure the love that is waiting for me to acknowledge it.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 12, VII.Looking Within, P 5. 3-30-16

VII. Looking Within, P 5

5 You see what you expect, and you expect what you invite. Your perception is the result of your invitation, coming to you as you sent for it. Whose manifestations would you see? Of whose presence would you be convinced? For you will believe in what you manifest, and as you look out so will you see in. Two ways of looking at the world are in your mind, and your perception will reflect the guidance you have chosen.

Journal

Jesus says that I will manifest what I want and I will believe in what I manifest. It is another way of saying that I will look within and project what I see there onto the world. Then I will look at the world and say, “See, I knew it was true.” This is why I never look at my manifestation and pray for another different one. I look at my manifestation to see what is in my mind, and then ask that my mind be healed. In that way I heal the source of the problem.

Another way to say this is that I use the world to show me if I am thinking with ego or thinking with Holy Spirit. This is why we can change the world as we change our thoughts, and in fact, must change the world as we change our thoughts. The world is the reflection of our thoughts. This would seem impossible, but it is actually very simple, and even easy when we become convinced that we want to see a forgiven world rather than a vengeful one.

The reason it is simple is that we are always manifesting as we are guided to do. Whose guidance are we listening to? If we are listening to the ego we will believe that we are separate and alone and must guard against all others. We must protect and defend and that means we must attack when we think we are attacked. Or better yet, we must go on the offensive and attack first.

Have you ever had an imaginary conversation in your mind with someone you think might attack you, and in the conversation you get the upper hand? Nothing has happened, you have not been attacked and maybe never will be. But, hey, you have already won the battle and the ego says that’s the way to go. If it keeps you in anxiety, the ego says that’s good. You need to be on the defensive.

The Holy Spirit has guidance that is completely differently. He says we are not separate and therefore not vulnerable. He says we are holy and we are in God and part of God, and cannot be hurt. He guides us to surrender to this reality and we will experience only love and gladness. He says it is safe to disarm, and in fact, He says that it is in our defenselessness our safety lies, because it is this constant defense that is scaring us.

So when I have those imaginary conversations now, I turn from them and ask the Holy Spirit to remove those fear based thoughts from my mind. If this imagined attack occurs and there is something to say, I will be told what that is. From this place of certainty I will feel safe and the “attack” will not frighten me. I will see the call for love and will gladly answer it. Why wouldn’t I?

© 2016, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.