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Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 2. 2-24-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 2

2 Perhaps you are accustomed to using guiltlessness merely to offset the pain of guilt, and do not look upon it as having value in itself. You believe that guilt and guiltlessness are both of value, each representing an escape from what the other does not offer you. You do not want either alone, for without both you do not see yourself as whole and therefore happy. Yet you are whole only in your guiltlessness, and only in your guiltlessness can you be happy. There is no conflict here. To wish for guilt in any way, in any form, will lose appreciation of the value of your guiltlessness, and push it from your sight.

Journal
This was an interesting paragraph when I first read it, because it had never occurred to me that I was deliberately choosing to use both guilt and guiltlessness and that I found value only in having both at my disposal. I believed that they each offered me something that I needed and so I needed to keep both. I am learning that this is not true. And I see that I cannot live with only guilt, and since I must choose only one, it is guiltlessness I choose to value.

I discovered that guilt is a surprisingly stubborn belief for something that is so painful. First I had to look at the reasons I think guilt has value to me. I asked the Holy Spirit to clarify this for me and over a period of time He pointed out my perceived need for guilt. For instance, I would get angry with my son for his behavior and think he should do better. This was me making him guilty. What was really happening is that I was afraid for him and I didn’t know what to do with my fear so I projected it onto him as guilt. This made my peace his responsibility

For a long time I didn’t know another way to deal with my fear. I just kept trying to throw it out onto someone else. Another time I saw this happen was at work. I would be concerned about losing a customer and this would make me afraid. So then I would think how ungrateful that customer was, because after all, I had done so much for him. Or I would worry about my boss’s reaction and think how ungrateful he was that he would get mad at me for something I couldn’t prevent, because after all, I had been such a good employee.

Now when I see these ideas in my mind, it is really obvious to me what I was doing as I tried to rid myself of my fear, but at the time, it wasn’t so clear. The fear clouded my mind and made a different choice difficult. It really did seem that guilt was valuable. Otherwise, what would I do with all that responsibility? I would just turn the guilt inward and that would be crushing. I couldn’t see a world with no guilt at all.

There was an underlying reason for the guilt, one that I was oblivious to for a long time. The ego mind wants to continue to exist. That part of my mind likes the stories and likes the idea of being a separate individual with separate goals and separate needs. It likes the idea of competition, of winners and losers. It likes the idea of being its own god. And this desire to play around in the separation idea, which seems to be in defiance of God, creates a lot of unconscious guilt.

The ego mind deals with this guilt through projection. It makes up guilty stories about the self or others that seem to explain away the guilt. Anything I could do, any guilty act would be more acceptable than thinking that I am guilty of defying God. Even better is if I could find someone else to blame for the guilt, but either way, projecting the guilt as a story in the life of Myron seems essential to the ego. Giving up the idea of guilt is not an option to the ego mind because guilt is the glue that holds the whole illusion in place. Ending guilt would end the ego.

The solution to guilt in whatever form it takes is simple. When I notice that I am indulging in guilt, however that might look, I ask the Holy Spirit to show me another way to see it. I ask for mind healing. After doing this for a while now, it seems the more natural response and I do it all the time. I no longer have to work at it, trying to talk myself into it. I just want peace of mind and guiltlessness will give that to me. It requires only vigilance and trust, and it requires that I choose only guiltlessness and forever give up guilt. I am willing.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 1. 2-23-17

III. The Decision for Guiltlessness, P 1
1 The happy learner cannot feel guilty about learning. This is so essential to learning that it should never be forgotten. The guiltless learner learns easily because his thoughts are free. Yet this entails the recognition that guilt is interference, not salvation, and serves no useful function at all.

Journal

I have often wondered if other people have had as much trouble giving up guilt as I did. There is not a lot of belief in guilt left in my mind, but I still find some there. I did yesterday. My daughter comes to my house nearly every day right now and spends some time with me. We talk and enjoy each other’s company, and I take responsibility for the baby at least part of that time. It is a welcome relief for her.

Yesterday she was doing something with the baby and I took a few minutes to take care of some business on the computer. She came in while I was doing it, and told me she was leaving. I felt for a moment like I was guilty for making her feel less than welcome. I might have felt guilty because I was tired and wanted some alone time and it was like she read my mind. It was silly, but there it was. So I released it and went back to peace.

That is the difference now. When I see guilt, I am willing to let it go. I have been doing this study for a long time and mind watching is a big part of it. For a long time it was painful as I saw so many dark and ugly thoughts in my mind, thoughts I had never before allowed myself to acknowledge. It didn’t have to be painful. I could have looked at the thoughts like I do now, as simply something that is not true and needs to be released.

I did eventually come to realize they were not even personal, not “my” thoughts, simply thoughts within the mind that represented certain unquestioned beliefs. They looked like my thoughts because of the form they took, which seemed to apply to my particular story. They seemed like my thoughts because Myron was thinking them. As I let go of the personal aspect of the thought it became easier to let go of the guilt associated with them.

Now I no longer struggle with guilt thoughts like I used. I notice them but I don’t feel a sense of shame or fear. If any of that shows up, I realize it is just a shadow feeling, a memory of guilt. It is easier to use mind watching for healing now and I learn faster without guilt slowing me down.

The main reason I know there is still the belief in guilt in my mind is that I still think others are guilty. I will read some article in the paper or read a political statement on Facebook, and there will be a brief flirtation with guilt. No problem; I see it as an opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to help me see differently. Accepting healing is so much easier without having to overcome the idea I am guilty for needing healing.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: II. The Happy Learner, P 8. 2-21-17

II. The Happy Learner, P 8

8 Behold your brothers in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of darkness. The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you asleep. The vision of Christ is given the very instant that it is perceived. Where everything is clear, it is all holy. The quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is impossible to deny the simple truth. For there is nothing else. God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything. Can he sing the dirge of sorrow when this is true?

Journal

Just as Jesus tells us over and over that the darkness that seems to imprison us is nothing, he also tells us over and over that we find our release in our brother. How does that work? We release our brother and then we are released. We see in his freedom our own freedom. When we hold our brother hostage to our beliefs about him, we imprison our own mind and fail to see our own freedom.

Here is an example. I had an upsetting thought about my son yesterday. For awhile now I have been free from these kinds of thoughts. I gave them to the Holy Spirit over and over and finally left them there. But for some reason yesterday one of those negative thoughts found a sticking place in my mind. I had one unkind thought that had no basis in truth, not even in the shifting perceptions of the world. Just a stray thought, a memory of past transgressions and a “what if it is happening again” fear.

Suddenly I was right back there, judging and feeling anger and resentment and I lost the vision of my son. I traded it for the screwy perception of the ego mind. I was afraid, unhappy, sad and guilty. In other words, I saw darkness in him and I was suddenly standing in darkness and it felt awful. It only lasted a few minutes because I saw immediately what had happened and I let it go to the Holy Spirit. But for those few minutes I put him in hell and followed him there.

The opposite happens as well. Someone asked me for prayers. Their situation would seem impossible to the ego mind, but I see in that person something else, something not in trouble, not afraid, not guilty. I see them with a vision much closer to knowledge of who they really are. In that moment of clarity, I see myself with a vision much closer to knowledge of who I am. The words for this came later, but the feeling was happiness. I felt at peace and happy.

So now when I see someone behaving badly, or when I see someone depressed or angry, whenever I see someone who has forgotten who they are, I realize that is me over there. That is me expressing my untrue nature as if it is reality. That is my anger or depression being acted out by another part of the Sonship. I ask that my mind be healed of what I see in them. I ask for vision to see past the ego behaviors and to know who that is that I am looking at. And surely it is God, because God is everywhere and His Son is in Him with everything. And so It must also be in me.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: II. The Happy Learner, P 7. 2-20-17

II. The Happy Learner, P 7

7 The happy learner meets the conditions of learning here, as he meets the conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom. All this lies in the Holy Spirit’s plan to free you from the past, and open up the way to freedom for you. For truth is true. What else could ever be, or ever was? This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that you believe is locked forever. You made this door of nothing, and behind it is nothing. The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing. Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light. For, like your brothers, you do not realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness.

Journal

Over and over Jesus is telling us that all the darkness that holds us prisoner is nothing. It doesn’t exist except in our minds. And even there it exists only in a past which itself does not exist. There is only truth and nothing else and the truth will surely set us free. The truth is that we are holy, we are safe, we are free, we are Gods. This truth is the key that sets us free, it is the light that shines away the dark forms that make up this experience we think is our lives.

When I got a earache last week, I did not for a moment believe it was real. It felt real and hurt as if it was real, but it was simply the effect of the belief in pain and suffering. It was the ego mind’s defense against God. The earache was meant to convince me that I am a frail and vulnerable body, and that the truth is not true at all. And here is all the proof. The ego mind says that all this pain is what is real, not the nonsense about holiness.

I felt the pain and I remembered that there is nothing my holiness cannot do. I was at war only within my split mind. The part that is clinging desperately to the idea of a separate and unique and very special self, would gladly suffer pain if pain would prove its existence. But, alas, the ego mind is doomed to lose this battle. My awareness has moved slowly but steadily from the ego part of the mind to its true home, the part of the mind where the Holy Spirit resides.

There are many such skirmishes in my mind, but most are very brief and sometimes over before I have time to give it much thought. There are, however, ego strongholds that I still must stand against. I am never alone though, as the Holy Spirit is ever present in my awareness and ever at my side, answering my slightest desire for healing.

It is funny really. All this effort and all this distress, and it is already done. I have been freed from my sleep of darkness. It was done by Jesus, and in that accomplishment it was done for me as well. I fight shadows only, and all that is required of me is that I accept my brother’s gift. Dear God, please, wake me up. I long to know my freedom.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 14: II. The Happy Learner, P 6. 2-17-17

II. The Happy Learner, P 6

6 If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything you have learned to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you. And then begin to learn the joyous lessons that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true. For what is builded there is true, and built on truth. The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity. With truth before you, you will not look back.

Journal

“…you must give everything you have learned to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you.”

In my experience, this is the key to salvation. If I want to be saved or released from my former decision for separation, then this is the path I must take. It has worked very well so far. I learned to vigilant for my thoughts and to release each ego thought as I noticed it to the Holy Spirit for correction.

The more I did this the easier it became. As my mind got clearer, I was able to hear guidance that helped me along the way to discern the ego thoughts that before were confusing to me. I learned to recognize guilt and fear when it showed up in subtle ways. I was guided to helpful processes like the Rules for Decision.

Now I that I have accepted his help in unlearning, I am beginning to receive the joyous lessons. I am beginning to understand and accept the lessons that before were not meaningful to me, or at least that the meaning was only partially seen, and now I am seeing with a lot more clarity. For instance, the holiness lessons have taken on a power they never had before. I am learning the happy truth of who I really am. I could not accept that until I let go of a lot of who I am not.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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