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Study of the Text, C.Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 6. 2-6-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 6
6 You learn first that having rests on giving, and not on getting. Next you learn that you learn what you teach, and that you want to learn peace. This is the condition for identifying with the Kingdom, since it is the condition of the Kingdom. You have believed that you are without the Kingdom, and have therefore excluded yourself from it in your belief. It is therefore essential to teach you that you must be included, and that the belief that you are not is the only thing that you must exclude.

I believe that I have left the Kingdom of God and that is the only thing that has happened. I have a belief. My belief convinces me that something has happened and that I am guilty for it. I try to rid myself of the intolerable burden of this guilt by projecting it. The Garden of Eden story is my attempt to project it onto God. Every time I think blame thoughts in any form, it is my attempt to project it onto someone else or onto some situation. But it doesn’t work, of course, because what I give is mine. What I teach is what I learn.

Jesus is showing us the way out of this. He is the way out. I was reading something I wrote earlier about the crucifixion and resurrection which was his part in the awakening. This is, in part, what I said:

The useless journey, or the journey to the cross is death in its many forms. It is sickness, loss, lack, hatred, anger, fear, judgment, jealousy, and depression. All suffering is a form of death. Then, of course, there is the death of the body, the coup de gras, the final proof that I am not what God created, that I am indeed my own creation. The journey through suffering and finally to my death is my ultimate victory against God.

Jesus overcame death and in doing so it is done. All that is required of me is that I accept this gift and then it is done for me, too. His was meant to be the last useless journey, done for all of us and done for the last time. Instead, we have chosen sacrifice (a form of death). We have chosen to follow in his footsteps, endlessly reenacting the crucifixion while rejecting the resurrection which proved that death is not real and it proved that the ego/body/ cannot overcome God’s Will.

So this is done. Now we need only accept it as done. We must do our part which is to reject every form of death and in so doing we will be resurrected from this dream of separation and begin to truly live. We do this every time we notice untrue beliefs in our mind and ask for and accept the Atonement for those thoughts. We do it every time we stop trying to give away our guilt and simply allow it to be healed.

Each time we reject a wrong minded belief it is a little step toward the Kingdom. We will take this journey a step at a time until the mind has healed to the point that we are ready for resurrection and then ascension. The Kingdom has already been won. All we are doing is preparing ourselves to accept our place in it, and we do this by rejecting anything that is not part of the Kingdom.

I have had this crazy belief that I will be at peace when my children are. I will be at peace when I get my house and car paid off. I will be at peace when I am retired. When I have more time. When I have made amends for all my mistakes. When my body has healed. All of these conditions that I put on peace are barriers to the Kingdom of Heaven. I stand at the door with my heavy burden of needs and all I need to do to enter is lay that burden aside. Just lay it down and go on in. The way has been made.

I stand there with my grievances piled high. My dad was an alcoholic. I never knew a normal relationship with a father and that scarred me and kept me from forming healthy relationships with men. My ex husband was not the man I needed him to be. My friend betrayed me. My kids don’t give me what I think I need from them. The guy at work makes me mad.

My competitor took my customer by lying about me. People are unkind, and close minded and the cause of my misery. I stand at the gate with my list of grievances, the proof that these people are unworthy and should not be allowed entrance. And so, of course, I cannot enter either, because then who would bar the door?

All I need to do to enter the Kingdom is throw away my list of grievances. I cannot approach God with hate in my heart, not because I am guilty for my hate, but because hate is not in God. I am learning that to know my nature and to return to truth, I must reject all that is not God’s nature, because that is my nature, too.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, C. Be Vigilant Only For God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 2-5-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 5

5 Choosing through the Holy Spirit will lead you to the Kingdom. You create by your true being, but what you are you must learn to remember. The way to remember it is inherent in the third step, which brings together the lessons implied in the others, and goes beyond them towards real integration. If you allow yourself to have in your mind only what God put there, you are acknowledging your mind as God created it. Therefore, you are accepting it as it is. Since it is whole, you are teaching peace because you believe in it. The final step will still be taken for you by God, but by the third step the Holy Spirit has prepared you for God. He is getting you ready for the translation of having into being by the very nature of the steps you must take with Him.

May this day, all my choices be made through the Holy Spirit. I am running so late this morning that I thought I might skip this writing, but I set aside what I thought I should so and left my heart open to guidance. I would make no decisions on my own, make no plans without the Holy Spirit’s guidance. The ego doubts the Holy Spirit’s choice and feels nervous about the time. But I remember how often I thought I knew something and how wrong I was. I remember the times I turned to Spirit for guidance and I cannot remember a single time that I was misled.

I used to treasure the right to make choices. I felt uneasy and even resentful at the idea of surrendering that right. Now I notice the ego’s grumbling about it, but I feel relieved that I am no longer trying to make decisions based on the little bit I actually know and understand. I am peaceful to know that I am being led step by step to the remembrance of my true Self. I am exhilarated to see what unfolds without my interference.

Choice is the only freedom I have in this illusion. But there are not an unlimited number of things from which to choose. There are only two choices from which to pick; I can choose to live from the ego or choose to be lived by Spirit. I have made my choice. I will spend today protecting that choice. I am allowing the Holy Spirit to prepare me for God.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, C. Be Vigilant Only For God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 2-4-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 4
4 While the first step seems to increase conflict and the second may still entail conflict to some extent, this step calls for consistent vigilance against it. I have already told you that you can be as vigilant against the ego as for it. This lesson teaches not only that you can be, but that you must be. It does not concern itself with order of difficulty, but with clear-cut priority for vigilance. This lesson is unequivocal in that it teaches there must be no exceptions, although it does not deny that the temptation to make exceptions will occur. Here, then, your consistency is called on despite chaos. Yet chaos and consistency cannot coexist for long, since they are mutually exclusive. As long as you must be vigilant against anything, however, you are not recognizing this mutual exclusiveness, and still believe that you can choose either one. By teaching what to choose, the Holy Spirit will ultimately teach you that you need not choose at all. This will finally liberate your mind from choice, and direct it towards creation within the Kingdom.

Jesus is stressing the need for vigilance. I must be vigilant for God rather than the ego. We have already established that we can be vigilant. We have been vigilant for the ego and so we know it is possible. Now we are learning that we want to choose God instead. We are learning this through making the choice for Holy Spirit Who chooses God for us.

For awhile the mind is going to be chaotic as it vacillates between ego and God, choosing one then choosing the other, but this cannot last. Consistency of choice will quiet the mind. I choose God over and over and soon the mind begins to calm because there is not the desire for ego, and so there is not the chaos of conflict in the mind.

Thinking of making a choice for God or ego over and over again just makes me tired. I am ready to give up choice altogether. There was a time when that idea just seemed wrong. The ego rebelled and brought up every objection it could think of. Now it just feels peaceful and right. Jesus tells us why we are drawn to this idea even as the ego mind fights against it. Choice took the place of creation in our Mind, and in giving up choice we truly return to our Self as Creators beside God.

Could then, the relinquishment of choice be a sacrifice? In time choice is our only remaining freedom, but as we allow the mind to be healed we leave behind time to discover we exist in eternity. In eternity we are at peace and choice is not even a memory. For now, I begin to remember who I am through choosing consistently for God.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, C. Be Vigilant Only For God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 3. 2-3-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 3
3 This is a major step toward fundamental change. Yet it still has an aspect of thought reversal, since it implies that there is something you must be vigilant against. It has advanced far from the first lesson, which is merely the beginning of the thought reversal, and also from the second, which is essentially the identification of what is more desirable. This step, which follows from the second as the second follows from the first, emphasizes the dichotomy between the desirable and the undesirable. It therefore makes the ultimate choice inevitable.

Jesus has told us that he teaches through contrast, and nowhere is this more apparent to me than when he teaches me that I want peace. I was so confused that for years I did not even know that peace was what I wanted. I didn’t value peace. I was always focused on winning which is the opposite of peace because to win, I needed to defeat someone or something. Being in opposition guarantees separation stays in place, and this cannot bring me peace because it goes against my nature.

This is an example of how it might have appeared to me in the past. My daughter seemed to be upset with me about something. I did’t know what it could be and maybe I was just being egocentric as I saw her upset and assume it was directed toward me. But she would not even meet my eyes when we visited and so I thought she was angry with me about something I said or did.

My first thought would have been that I was being unfairly treated because I did nothing to deserve this. I would want her to stop acting like I did something wrong. I would think I needed her to love me and not be angry with me. If none of this happened, I would become depressed about the situation because I could not make her love me or not be angry with me.

Then I would be angry with her. I would try to manipulate her with guilt. I might try the silent treatment. I would try to gather allies who would agree that she was being unfair and a bad daughter. It would never have occurred to me to seek peace, and if it did, I would have placed the burden of my peace on her.

Now I have one desire. I want the peace of God. I want the peace of God more than I want anything else. I want to have peace and so I teach peace to have it. The situation is the same. I see signs my daughter is upset with me. I ask if there is anything she wants to talk about and she rejects that offer. I watch my thoughts and feelings.

Her rejection feels personal and so I feel rejected. I cannot be rejected so I must be listening to the ego version of the story. I hand this over to the Holy Spirit to heal for me. I want the peace of God. I want my daughter to be healed, too, but I realize that I cannot do this for her. I feel helpless. I ask that my mind be healed of the belief I could be helpless and I am reminded that my daughter cannot be helpless either.

I will teach what I want to learn. My daughter is having her story. That is all that is happening here. The ultimate ending of all stories is God. Nothing to worry about here. I am at peace. I want only peace. The story cannot bring me peace, nor rob me of peace. It can only be the story. As I choose peace regardless of the direction the story takes, I am teaching peace. Perhaps it is a lesson my daughter is ready for. Because it is a lesson I am ready for, I learn it.

The ego offers me another opportunity to choose war, another chance to win this “argument,” but I am not interested. It tries to scare me with stories of loss. I am not interested. If I become attracted to any of its enticements, I will ask for correction and return to peace. I will do this as often as I need to. This is how my life is different now that I realize that peace is all I want. The contrast between my life now that peace is my goal, and the life I lived when I thought winning was my goal is so stark that I cannot miss the lesson.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, C. Be Vigilant Only For God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 2. 1-31-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 2
2 The Holy Spirit does not teach you to judge others, because He does not want you to teach error and learn it yourself. He would hardly be consistent if He allowed you to strengthen what you must learn to avoid. In the mind of the thinker, then, He is judgmental, but only in order to unify the mind so it can perceive without judgment. This enables the mind to teach without judgment, and therefore to learn to be without judgment. The undoing is necessary only in your mind, so that you will not project, instead of extend. God Himself has established what you can extend with perfect safety. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s third lesson is:

Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.

I have learned to be vigilant for God and His Kingdom, but that was not always the case. I have been vigilant for the ego for many years. An example of being vigilant for the ego is attack thoughts. This morning I woke up thinking about something I forgot to do for a customer. I lay there listening to my mind.

I heard that irritating little voice attack me for my carelessness. Then it attacked my customer for not taking care of his own business. Then it attacked my fellow workers for not doing their part to prevent this. The ego doesn’t care who is attacked as long as I am attacking and defending. If I am attacking or defending, I am being vigilant for the ego.

I used to be vigilant for any sign that I was under attack. I expected to find them and so, of course, I did. I had not yet learned to question the belief that I was a victim of the world I saw and I completely believed this. As a victim or potential victim of the world, I had to be on the lookout all the time. I had to be ready to defend myself against what I saw as unpredictable and unfair attacks. It’s a wonder I had time to do anything else. It takes a lot of effort to be this vigilant.

The good news is that by the time I discovered that I am not the victim of the world I see, but actually the maker of the world, I had established the fact that I can be vigilant. Now I just needed to turn that vigilance toward God rather than the ego. So this morning as I lay there berating myself (and everyone else) for forgetting to do this favor for my customer, I was also watching my thoughts about it.

First I would be anxious and would make plans about how to mitigate the fallout from the situation. This is me identifying with the little mind. Then, from the seat of the observer mind, I would become aware of these thoughts as if I were watching all this on the big screen, and it was hilarious and I would laugh. Then I would slip right back into the ego drama of it all. I switched back and forth for awhile knowing that I was torturing myself with my conflicted thinking.

Finally I noticed Holy Spirit was urging me to get out of bed. I did so and automatically began my morning ritual of coffee and prayerful journaling. As soon as I got up and started my morning, the conflict resolved itself. My vigilance for God means more to me than my vigilance for ego. I gave the attack thoughts over to Holy Spirit to be judged and the situation resolved.

I think getting out of bed was symbolic for me of choosing against ego. It was like washing my hands of ego. As soon as I did it, I felt relieved. It’s funny how the mind works and it’s neat that I don’t have to understand it; I only have to follow the guidance of One Who does. While I was being vigilant for ego, the attacks seemed real and justified, and defending myself seemed urgent indeed.

It was hard to pull my attention away from it, but when I became vigilant for the Kingdom, the idea of attack seemed ludicrous, and my mind returned to peace. From the peaceful mind I teach peace and I learn it. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for relieving me of the burden of judging. I gladly surrender judgment to You.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, B. To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It, Paragraph 9. 1-30-14

C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom, Paragraph 1
1 We said before that the Holy Spirit is evaluative, and must be. He sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to judge every thought you allow to enter it in the light of what God put there. Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. But what is out of accord entirely He rejects by judging against. This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. The ego’s beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous.

One of the beliefs that Holy Spirit purifies is time. We are told not to stay in the past, which doesn’t exist and not to send our mind into the future, which doesn’t exist. This is the way the ego uses time to keep us in the illusion. The Holy Spirit uses time to awaken us. All I have to do is make a decision for awakening and the Holy Spirit helps me to see things differently.

Yesterday I was enjoying the leisurely morning of a snow day. We didn’t actually get snow, but rather ice. Either way, though, the south doesn’t tend to fare well in this kind of weather. We are so unprepared for it. No snowplows, no salting of the roads and no one has snow tires. So I got the day off, two days actually. I love it. I still woke up early, and went straight to my meditative writing and posting. But today it was done at a very leisurely pace.

I also did other things, too. I worked on two of the Pathways of Light courses I am doing with other people. I read and watched a John Mark Stroud video. I made homemade bread and drank hot chocolate. Just a really nice two days. But yesterday I remembered I would be going back to work the next day. Instantly I was out of the now moment and into the future, a future which I based on my experiences from the past. My little bubble of contentment burst.

But (yay for me) I realized that I was misusing time and in so doing, I was destroying my own happiness. I changed my mind. I let the thought that I need to think about tomorrow, and the thought that I know what tomorrow should look like, dissolve. Letting it go right away was good. If I let it settle in for a stay, it would be harder to get rid of it. This is the right use of time, this catching wrong-minded thoughts and letting them go to the Holy Spirit.

As I continue to allow the Holy Spirit to choose for me, many thoughts are being healed. I try to keep an “I don’t know” mind. In this way I give up judging, planning and deciding on my own. One Who knows does this for me. I just keep my mind open and ready to receive.
.

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Study of the Text, B. To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It, Paragraph 9. 1-29-14

B. To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It, Paragraph 9
9 The second step, then, is still perceptual, although it is a giant step toward the unified perception that reflects God’s knowing. As you take this step and hold this direction, you will be pushing toward the center of your thought system, where the fundamental change will occur. At the second step progress is intermittent, but the second step is easier than the first because it follows. Realizing that it must follow is a demonstration of a growing awareness that the Holy Spirit will lead you on.

I see many signs in my life that Holy Spirit is guiding each step I take. I wind up in just the right place, talking to just the right person. I find the next idea that I am ready for.  Sometimes I foolishly believe that I did these things on my own, that I can explain logically how I got from step A to step B. But when I stand back and look at my life I see that this is an illusion. It was all planned for me by One Who cares for me.

The first step, “To have, give all to all”, was hard to understand. Even now I have to stop a moment and remind myself why this is true. It completely turns the separation idea on its head, and my inability to hold onto the idea is a reflection of how much of my faith is still directed to separation.

I must be further along in my understanding than I think, though, because I completely understand and accept the second step, “To have peace, teach peace to learn it.” This makes perfect sense to me. I do this all the time. I teach and in my teaching, I learn. I do this through action, through words, and through my writing.

The Manual for Teachers says this: “The course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same.” It also says of the teachers of God, “They are not perfect, or they would not be here. Yet it is their mission to become perfect here, and so they teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until they have learned it.”

And so this is what I do. I teach to learn. I teach peace to learn peace. Every time I choose peace I see the results and I am motivated to choose peace again. As I teach peace others are affected by this lesson and they become motivated to choose peace. And on yet another level, as this choice is played out in our world, the mind shifts, and we all are affected by this shift.

We can see the effects of this shift, this desire for peace within the mind, as we look at the world. There have been some outstanding teachers of peace such as Mahatma Ghandi who taught change through non-violence. He played out his role on a really big stage and so affected the way many thought. The many little changes shifted the mind that we are.

We have as a whole, moved from believing everything our governments tell us, and from believing that war is our patriotic duty, to believing that peace is a better choice. It is not a complete shift, but the direction of the shift is clear. When I was a child we learned that we should follow our political leaders without question, and that going to war was the only way to protect our country and ourselves. We didn’t question this, and those who did so were considered unpatriotic and were looked on with suspicion.

Later as a teenager and a young adult, all of this shifted. We rebelled against this idea and embraced the idea that peace makers were the real heroes. Through teachings like A Course in Miracles we are accelerating this shift as we learn to see each other as an extension of our self, and to desire for another only what we would want for ourselves. We are learning that peace is all we want.

For most of us, teaching peace to learn peace is happening on a much smaller stage. We find ourselves being attacked in some small way at work, and instead of rallying our “troops” and going to war against our antagonist, we choose forgiveness. Don’t think that because the stage is smaller it is less important in healing the mind. Each time any of us choose peace over attack, the mind responds to this miracle. Because Jesus is directing this chain of Atonement, our choice is more effective than we could ever know.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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