Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 11. 5-15-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 11

11 Perceive any part of the ego’s thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated all of it. This correction enables you to perceive any part of creation as wholly real, wholly perfect and wholly desirable. Wanting this only you will have this only, and giving this only you will be only this. The gifts you offer to the ego are always experienced as sacrifices, but the gifts you offer to the Kingdom are gifts to you. They will always be treasured by God because they belong to His beloved Sons, who belong to Him. All power and glory are yours because the Kingdom is His.

I accept that the ego thought system is wholly insane, delusional and undesirable. And I don’t. I (my ego self) keeps slipping back into insanity and this can only happen if I see some value in it. No matter how many times I do this, I am going to choose again until I want only the Kingdom. Actually, I have come a long way and hardly ever slip all the way back into it. I have moments when I think someone is guilty and then I see what is happening and remind myself of the only truth there is: we are innocent.

This remembering of innocence is the gift I give to God, and what I give to the Kingdom I give to myself. Yesterday toward the end of the day, I found myself on that slippery slope again. I don’t even know what it was that attracted me to the ego. Here is what it feels like to me. I see a thought that attracts my attention and I decide to follow it. I get lost in the thought and all the thoughts that are triggered by that one.

It is like being in a dense jungle or a thick fog. I know I’m lost but I can’t remember how to get out of it. Which means I can’t remember the truth, or the words that will lead me to the truth. Then doubt and uncertainty confuse me further. Paying attention to the ego thought and believing the thought are my gifts to ego, and in return, ego gives me grief. It gives me doubt and fear and guilt.

I’ve been doing this work too long to stay in ego long, and when I come up for air, I remember the truth, and like happened today, I can’t even remember what was so important to me yesterday.

The ego wants me to disbelieve all this metaphysical stuff and wants me to disbelieve that Jesus gave us these words and that Holy Spirit is in our mind just waiting for our permission to wake us up. It takes every opportunity to reinforce the separation thought, and to discourage true thoughts. It is up to me to pay attention and make a better choice when needed.

So, I can believe what Jesus is telling me in A Course in Miracles, be vigilant for my ego thoughts and willing to let them be corrected and in return I get peace and joy. Or I can listen to ego and believe that I am alone and guilty and suffer life after life. Hmm. I wonder which choice I should make.

I think that the main way ego holds my attention for more than brief moments at a time is through its gift of guilt. I spend too much time in judgment and then I feel guilty and start to be afraid I will never wake up. So the way to short circuit this ego plan is to remind myself, immediately, that I cannot be guilty. I see what the ego does, but I am not the ego. I was created innocent, I am innocent, I will always be innocent. Remembering this is my gift to God and He treasures my gifts because He treasures me.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this post.

Printable Page

Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 10.5-14-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 10
10 You are the Will of God. Do not accept anything else as your will, or you are denying what you are. Deny this and you will attack, believing you have been attacked. But see the Love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere because it is everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him with them. They are part of you, as you are part of God. You are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God is understanding this. There is only one way out of the world’s thinking, just as there was only one way into it. Understand totally by understanding totality.

The sentence which means the most to me is the last one. “Understand totally by understanding totality.” I will know peace and love and joy when I accept that I am not alone and separate. I am part of a whole. My brother is myself. I am part of God and part of all there is and the same is true for everyone else.

This is the simple truth that I have been able to avoid so far. I became angry with my co-worker because he seemed a threat to me. How could this be? He is my counter-part. He is a different version of me. He is me playing the part of a young man with a particular personality. But in reality, in truth, he is me and we are God.

How could I be in conflict with him without being in conflict with myself and with God since we are all part of the same Wholeness. If I think I am at war with my brother and we are both part of God, then I must, in part of my mind, believe I am at war with God. No wonder I am not at peace. I am never upset for the reason and this is why. I tell myself that my brother attacks me, but in my confusion I must think that this means I am attacked by myself and by God.

How could I be attacked or harmed in any way? I am part of God, in God and safe from harm and since I am part of all that is, what is there to harm me? If I feel threatened, I must be dreaming. The threat can only be an illusion. Can the Son of God be threatened by an illusion? There is a way out of this confused and insane thinking.

A Course in Miracles offers me the path out and the way Home. I accept that I am God’s Son, part of Him always. Nothing else is possible and nothing else is my desire. I know that I am part of all that is. I know that my brother is part of the same Wholeness. We are One. We are innocent. There are no exceptions to this.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this post.

Printable Page

Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 9. 5-13-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 9

9 Being the part of your mind that does not believe it is responsible for itself, and being without allegiance to God, the ego is incapable of trust. Projecting its insane belief that you have been treacherous to your Creator, it believes that your brothers, who are as incapable of this as you are, are out to take God from you. Whenever a brother attacks another, that is what he believes. Projection always sees your wishes in others. If you choose to separate yourself from God, that is what you will think others are doing to you.

The ego does not think it is responsible for itself so it is always looking for someone to blame. I am vigilant for blame thoughts knowing that this is ego. When I notice them I ask that my mind be healed of the idea that someone else is responsible for my life. This is the way the ego is undone. I choose against it.

The ego has no allegiance to God and so is incapable of trust. I notice when I feel uncertain and doubtful, and I know I must be giving the ego my allegiance. I make a different choice, the only one that makes sense. I choose to place my allegiance in God and to trust Him. This is another way that I undo the ego.

The ego is the idea that I have been treacherous to God. This is insane, but believing it has effects that keep me embroiled in guilt and fear. I cannot be treacherous to God because that would imply God could be hurt, and that God could be offended. God does not have an ego to be offended and God cannot be hurt or diminished by my choices. When I feel guilt or fear I know I am identifying with ego and I choose again. This is the way to undo the ego.

When I am identified with ego, I do believe in treachery and so I believe my brothers are as capable of treachery as I am. This makes them seem dangerous to me. Because I project blame on them, I suspect they are doing the same thing to me. It is like they are pointing their finger at me and saying, “Look, God, I am innocent. She is the guilty one.” This is how I see them as taking God from me.

The ego says I must defend myself by finding more fault in them than they find in me. But the solution is to notice what is happening when I project onto others and let the belief in guilt be undone in my own mind. When I do that, I will see the belief in guilt being expressed by my brother and instead of feeling threatened I will simply see a call for love and ask that this belief be healed in our mind. This is the way the ego is undone in our mind.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this post.

Printable Page

Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 8. 5-12-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 8

8 Attack could never promote attack unless you perceived it as a means of depriving you of something you want. Yet you cannot lose anything unless you do not value it, and therefore do not want it. This makes you feel deprived of it, and by projecting your own rejection you then believe that others are taking it from you. You must be fearful if you believe that your brother is attacking you to tear the Kingdom of Heaven from you. This is the ultimate basis for all the ego’s projection.

I want to follow this logic with something that is happening right now. Seeing something in a concrete way helps me to understand the general principle, which of course, is the only value the world has for me. It shows me what my beliefs look like so I can decide if I want to believe them anymore. In time this is the way the mind works, even though our minds are actually abstract as is God.

Looking at the situation with the co-worker I spoke of last week, he seemed to be attacking me when he failed to do the work correctly and resisted any direction from me. The attack took the form of threatening my income and this brought up fear in me. I would not have phrased it like this, but I guess that I have been seeing my income as my salvation.

If Heaven is my goal and I think that my income is my salvation then I am confused about what I need to be safe, and am confusing financial stability with Heaven. So when this man threatened my finances he seemed to be taking Heaven from me. This would certainly explain why I felt justified in defending myself through attacking him in return.

Once I understood the reasoning behind the belief I was being attacked and the reason I wanted to defend myself, I could understand his motivations, too. I think he must see being right as his salvation, and so of course he would resent my “help” when offered. It must look to him like I am snatching away what matters deeply to him, that I am robbing him of his happiness by telling him he is wrong and needs my help.

I am very grateful that I had A Course in Miracles to help me recognize my error and the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. Friday when I got to work I was very calm about the whole thing. I had allowed my mind to be healed of the idea that he was my enemy so when my supervisor expressed her frustration about the situation I was able to step back from it.

I noticed the ego wanting to join her anger, but I, by this time I knew he was not my enemy. Today I further realize from reading this paragraph that no matter what this man does he cannot deprive me of anything unless I decide I don’t want it. This means I cannot lose my money, or my job, because of anything except my own decision. And nothing can tear God from me, certainly not my brother.

Since I was calm and settled about the whole thing by the time I got to work, I didn’t say anything to him about it, but he came to me and explained his error and took full responsibility for it. He also told me he researched the information to understand where he went wrong. I loved that I didn’t have even the slightest desire to be sure he knew I told him so. ~smile~

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this post.

Printable Page

Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7. 5-9-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7

7 One child of God is the only teacher sufficiently worthy to teach another. One Teacher is in all minds and He teaches the same lesson to all. He always teaches you the inestimable worth of every Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the infinite Love for which He speaks. Every attack is a call for His patience, since His patience can translate attack into blessing. Those who attack do not know they are blessed. They attack because they believe they are deprived. Give, therefore, of your abundance, and teach your brothers theirs. Do not share their illusions of scarcity, or you will perceive yourself as lacking.

If my brother attacks because he feels deprived, then it must be that I defend myself because I feel vulnerable. This is a cycle that I am ready to break. It is unworthy of God’s Son. It keeps me in hell when I could be in the Kingdom. Jesus shows us the simple way to end this sad state of affairs.

When my brother attacks me I have a choice about how I respond. The choice I make depends on my vision of myself. The Holy Spirit will correct my thinking and clear my vision if I ask Him to. Here is an example of how this is working for me right now. A person at work has persistently caused me problems because he won’t listen. He thinks he already knows and so he ignores what he is told.

My first response to his latest error was anger and frustration. I cannot get him to listen to me and his own judgment is flawed. I am the one who suffers for his errors and so I resented him and wanted him to change. He seemed to be the problem and I don’t have influence over him and so there seemed to be no solution.

I want to wake up. I want to wake up more than I want to solve this problem. I know that waking up depends on forgiveness, so I want to forgive him, the situation, and myself. I want to accept the Atonement in this situation because that is the only thing that will bring me closer to God. My way of handling it in the past has only brought me more deeply into the ego illusion. I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind.

In healing my mind He showed me a picture of two children. The little boy wants to win the game. He wants to be the hero and in his mind the hero makes all the decisions himself and they are right decisions. It’s hard to be the hero because he doesn’t have all the tools yet to make those decisions, but it is really important to him that he does so. He needs to appear the hero so he stubbornly persists in doing whatever he needs to so that he maintains this image of himself.

The little girl has an end goal in mind for her game. She has decided what needs to be done to win and since she has played this game often, she is certain she knows the steps to take to win. Winning is important to her because losing would be scary. She sees losing the game as losing everything she values. So when the little boy takes chances with the game and stubbornly fights against her plan, her fear turns into rage.

Seeing us as frightened and stubborn children helped me to diffuse the situation. There are things that must be done, and one of those things is to convince this fellow to do his job differently. I don’t know how to do this or even if I should step into it. Maybe it will be done by someone else in the work place. But, what I feel now is different than it was before.

I feel more understanding and compassionate to both players, both myself and this co-worker. I have invited Holy Spirit into the situation and I trust that He will direct it, so I am not afraid anymore. This opens me to love, which feels more natural. I am reminded that everyone is innocent. I am reminded that my purpose is forgiveness. My only function is to accept the Atonement for myself. I know what I am supposed to be doing and I do it. I am at peace about the whole thing.

I wonder how the story will unfold now.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this post.

Printable Page

Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Page 3 of 5 pages  < 1 2 3 4 5 > 

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Featured Store Items

Spiritual Counselor Training — based on principles of A Course in Miracles, including ordination. More….

24 ACIM Practitioner courses including 50-page study guide, CD's or MP3s, with facilitator. More….

Healing Inner Child 8-week program will help you nurture your inner child, connect with your Higher Self and heal relationships.

Listen & Receive 30-Day Home Study Learn to receive insight for your life in a form that is perfect for you …heal fears, find joy & peace. Learn more.

Hey, Holy Spirit, It's Me Again by Rev. Myron Jones. An indispensible guide for anyone on the path of ACIM with insights on the 1st 90 lessons. More…

True Forgiveness by Rev. Jennifer McSween. The Proven Path from Pain to Power and personal happiness in 5 Simple Steps. Learn more.

From the Christ Mind Book II scribed by Darrell Morley Price. A great supporting supplement to A Course in Miracles. We highly recommend it. More….

Forgiving Kevin Audio book by Rev. Larry Glenz. A moving and inspiring true story of a father/son relationship that withstood seven years of addiction, recovery, and relapse. More….

Healing Family Relationships Applying the Principles of A Course in Miracles audio book by Rev. Myron Jones. Learn how family relationships offer fertile grounds for forgiveness and healing your judgments of the world. More.