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Study of Text, Chapter 11: IV: The Inheritance of God’s Son, P 6. 9-28-15

IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son P 6

6 Christ is at God’s altar, waiting to welcome His Son. But come wholly without condemnation, for otherwise you will believe that the door is barred and you cannot enter. The door is not barred, and it is impossible that you cannot enter the place where God would have you be. But love yourself with the Love of Christ, for so does your Father love you. You can refuse to enter, but you cannot bar the door that Christ holds open. Come unto me who holds it open for you, for while I live it cannot be shut, and I live forever. God is my life and yours, and nothing is denied by God to His Son.

Journal
I cry when I read this. Brother Jesus is holding the door open for us, and this invitation is open for as long as we need it to be. I feel so much gratitude for him, and for God who would deny me nothing. I cannot enter, though it is held open for me, if I come with condemnation in my heart. This hits home especially this morning, because I have been condemning myself.

I read a quote by Mooji that felt very important to me. This is what it said:

Once you have surrendered yourself then you should not be worried about any of these things. If you have surrendered yourself to the supreme existence, then you are not to take excessive care of yourself anymore. Otherwise you’re not really surrendered. Either this thing about surrendering is a joke; it’s just in the mind and we’re playing games, or it’s true. If you surrender, you surrender—you know? There can’t be surrendering and still waiting to see if it works or it doesn’t work. Then these thoughts don’t have a landing place. If they come, you say, “Take it up with the boss, okay? I don’t deal with it anymore; it’s not my business anymore. I’ve handed myself in.” – Mooji

I love the way Mooji says this, with humor and certainty. Take it up with the boss. I’ve turned myself in. I have been trying this idea of surrender, and have moved in that direction so that I know that surrender is a peaceful, happy state. But I don’t stay there. When I read what Mooji had to say about it, I knew surrender was right and what I want. Then a thought surfaced and I felt fear.

I remembered standing in front in the mirror yesterday and thinking that I have gained more weight recently than I have in a very long time. In that moment I felt panicked and all I wanted was to lose some weight. I also felt conflicted because I am not comfortable with the old way of doing so. I felt afraid because I didn’t want to go back to the old story of the body is in charge of my life and I just have to find a way to control it from within the story, the right diet, the right exercise.

On the other hand, I am not completely convinced that I want to surrender this obsession with the body. I don’t know if I can trust this to God. How interested is He going to be in fashion and the image I present to others? Not at all, right? And it doesn’t help that Mooji is kind of a chubby guy himself. Proof that God doesn’t read GQ and Cosmopolitan. This is a problem.

Bear with me here. I am trying to work this out in my mind and can only do so if I am completely honest about my thoughts. I feel real fear at the thought that I turn over everything, completely surrender the self and become the follower, the instrument of supreme existence. On the other hand, I feel really shallow and a bit embarrassed that the sticking point is my body image. But I have to go there because that is where the ego grabs my attention and so it must be true for me at this moment.

I am also aware that I am receiving guidance about what I eat, and I am being guided away from heavy foods and a lot of meat. I have no idea why this matters at all, but then there are lots of things I don’t know, so no surprise there. I also know that I asked that my mind be healed about this business of the body and food. I want to be free of my life long obsession about food and how it affects my body as if my mind had nothing to do with it. Ever since then, nothing has worked the way it did before, and while that is good, it is also frightening to someone who is still attached to body image.

I cannot see myself returning to peace without full surrender. How this came up for me this morning is that as I read the lesson I realized that I am condemning myself. I feel guilty for my body image concerns and for not following clear guidance. I think I am wrong for that and other non-surrender thoughts come into my mind as the ego convinces me that body image is just the tip of the iceberg.

It is just a silly notion I can laugh at even while I guard it against God. There are other more serious ways in which I defend against God and the ego mind points them out so that I will know that it is useless for me to try to enter the door. I am too guilty; I am condemned and it will take me an untold amount of time to earn the right to enter that door. I feel so sad and so discouraged when I listen to that thought.

But I am not alone in my mind with the ego. I am with God. I share God’s thoughts. Some of them are rising up in my mind at my invitation. I see that I don’t have to undo each thought of separation. I don’t have to meet every thought that I am this separate self in control of life, with the desire to surrender. I only need to decide on surrender and all the thoughts of separation will cease to be meaningful. Thank you for that thought, God. Everything was very dark there for a moment and now the sun has come from behind the clouds and it is light again.

I am more certain than ever right now that I surrender this life to the supreme existence, and if I slip back into separate-self decisions, I am not going to condemn myself for it. I will just take Mooji’s words as my own. If they come, I will say, “Take it up with the boss, okay? I don’t deal with it anymore; it’s not my business anymore. I’ve handed myself in.” ~big smile~

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, Chapter 11: IV: The Inheritance of God’s Son, P 5. 9-25-15

IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son P 5
5 If your brothers are part of you and you blame them for your deprivation, you are blaming yourself. And you cannot blame yourself without blaming them. That is why blame must be undone, not seen elsewhere. Lay it to yourself and you cannot know yourself, for only the ego blames at all. Self-blame is therefore ego identification, and as much an ego defense as blaming others. You cannot enter God’s Presence if you attack His Son. When His Son lifts his voice in praise of his Creator, he will hear the Voice for his Father. Yet the Creator cannot be praised without His Son, for their glory is shared and they are glorified together.

Journal
Jesus is trying to help us to understand a very simple thing. We are all part of one Self. What we do to another we do to our self because the other is our self. He is trying to help us understand that blame, whether directed at ourselves or at others is ego identification. If I believe I am guilty, I will believe that others are guilty. If I believe others are guilty, I will believe in my own guilt. Either way, I forget who I am and accept the ego as my identity.
When blame is involved, whether we say something out loud or only think it, whether it seems to be a big grievance or just an idle thought, we are denying our true identity and choosing to align with the ego identity. It is helpful for awhile to look at each situation and let the Holy Spirit guide us to the truth about it, but eventually we must accept the Atonement for the belief in guilt and blame. Then all the stories of wrongdoing will lose their appeal, and so we will stop making them.

There is no way to be in the presence of God if we attack His Son. We cannot know God without His Son, and to see His Son as guilty is to separate His Son from Him. This is an attack on the Son and so an attack on the Father as well. There is nothing that will snap me out of my grievance faster than remembering that I cannot enter God’s Presence if I attack His Son.

It might take me a bit to completely let go of the grievance as I consider the ego justifications for holding onto it. I know that feeling of thinking that I must forgive and at the same time thinking that I can’t let this person off the hook because they really did this. If it is myself that I am blaming, I will have the same experience of thinking that I really did this bad thing and so I must be guilty.

But no matter the appearance, no matter the justification God’s Son is innocent, and no matter where I look I see only God’s Son. It’s up to me when I choose to acknowledge this indisputable fact, but until I do, I suffer the belief I am separated from God, and that is true suffering. It is the cause of all suffering and accepting that we are all innocent as God created us is the only relief we will ever get from this suffering. This is the only way to know my self.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, Chapter 11,IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son, P 4. 9-24-15

IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son P 4
4 Only you can deprive yourself of anything. Do not oppose this realization, for it is truly the beginning of the dawn of light. Remember also that the denial of this simple fact takes many forms, and these you must learn to recognize and to oppose steadfastly, without exception. This is a crucial step in the reawakening. The beginning phases of this reversal are often quite painful, for as blame is withdrawn from without, there is a strong tendency to harbor it within. It is difficult at first to realize that this is exactly the same thing, for there is no distinction between within and without.

Journal
I absolutely accept that I am responsible for everything. I but do it to myself! And yet, I still notice a tendency to want to place blame. For instance, yesterday I got a call from a customer asking why he had not received his report on his water system. My first thought was that someone should have gotten this report to him and I felt anger. The ego always speaks first, but I don’t always listen, thank goodness. I let that thought go.

I looked his information up and saw that he had a problem. I felt frustrated again and felt like the new sales coordinator was never going to be as good as the old one who would have told me about this. Another attack thought. Another attempt to displace blame and deny responsibility. This one was a little stronger which means I liked that idea and was interested in it. But only for a moment, and then I let it go as well.

The truth is, the world I see is one of my own making. I began with a belief that I am a victim and that I am always besieged from without and unfairly treated. From that belief I made an image that represented these ideas, adding some guilt and fear as well. This would be the story of my customer blaming me for what someone else did, and maybe losing that customer as a result of their incompetence. Then I projected the story outward where I pretend that I don’t know where it came from, but certainly it is handy to have it here. I tell myself that things go wrong and it’s not my fault, but, by golly, someone is guilty!

I let that thought go, too, and went to see the customer to reassure him as well as to find the source of the problem. It turned out to be a fruitful visit. I was calm and confident and at peace when I visited him because I had seen my projected image and chosen against it rather than defending it. I chose peace instead and so I gave peace.

I explained the delay in the report and I found his problem and all of it was done quickly and well. He thinks better of me now than he would have if the error had never occurred. Had I held onto the anger and blame, I am sure there would have been a different ending to this story, one where we both would likely have been out of peace and so looking for someone to blame.

As Jesus predicted, when I first began to understand this and started withdrawing my projections, I was dismayed at the resulting self-attacks. I felt so guilty and so hopeless about the whole thing. The more work I did in the Course, the worse I felt. But I kept doing the work and as my mind healed of the belief in guilt, I stopped projecting the guilt onto myself as well as letting others off the hook. Now I am happy to see the error and allow God’s Light to shine it away. I am the Son of God and cannot be guilty, cannot even know guilt. That’s the truth.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11,IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son, P 3. 9-23-15

IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son P 3

3 Your peace lies in its limitlessness. Limit the peace you share, and your Self must be unknown to you. Every altar to God is part of you, because the light He created is one with Him. Would you cut off a brother from the light that is yours? You would not do so if you realized that you can darken only your own mind. As you bring him back, so will you return. That is the law of God, for the protection of the Wholeness of His Son.

Journal
Oh my gosh! I think of the lady at the office that I keep demonizing, and I realize what I am doing to my own mind and I am dismayed. In making her the guilty party I am limiting peace and leaving myself in darkness. I cannot deny a brother light and not experience the darkness myself because we are created whole. If I could do this, I would destroy the Wholeness of God’s Son and so destroy God. Because I am trying to do this I feel like I have destroyed the Son and the Father, and that is why I am afraid of God and why I stay here in the story even though I want to return home.

God has protected His creation, though, by giving me a way out of my dilemma. I made a choice to experience separation and I retain the power of choice. I can choose to bring each brother I have cast into darkness back into light. I do this as I withdraw my projections and accept the Atonement for my belief that I need him to be guilty. I do this through the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the solution to all suffering. He is the undoer of the ego and the restorer of peace. And all He needs to do this is my permission.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: IV: The Inheritance of God’s Son, P 2. 9-22-15

IV. The Inheritance of God’s Son P 2
2 Could you try to make God homeless and know that you are at home? Can the Son deny the Father without believing that the Father has denied him? God’s laws hold only for your protection, and they never hold in vain. What you experience when you deny your Father is still for your protection, for the power of your will cannot be lessened without the intervention of God against it, and any limitation on your power is not the Will of God. Therefore, look only to the power that God gave to save you, remembering that it is yours because it is His, and join with your brothers in His peace.

Journal
My decision to be without God makes me feel homeless and my denial of God makes me feel like God is denying me. All of this can be undone in the moment I stop making that decision. I am powerful because I was created powerful, being an extension of God. I can end this sham any time I want to. I have been given the means to do so and created with the power to use the means. That I am still living a dream is the result of my desire to do so, and not because I can’t wake up.

Probably most Course students have had the thought that they just wish God would pluck them out of this nightmare; He is all powerful and certainly He could do this, so why doesn’t he? The answer to that question is that for God to intervene to get us out of something we chose to experience would be to lessen the power of our will. Jesus says that any limitation of our power is not God’s Will.

This does not leave us lost in our dreams because we do have the power to undo what we have done. We also have the means to do so because it is God’s Will that we have it. The means is in Him and so it is in us. That awakening is so simple causes us to doubt its effectiveness, because we are so accustomed to thinking with the ego mind that depends on complexity to hide its unreality. The truth is we only need to desire awakening to set in motion the means to awaken. From that desire flows the process of awareness of what is not God in our mind, and the release of the untrue beliefs to the Holy Spirit.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: III. From Darkness to Light, P 8. 9-17-15

III. From Darkness to Light P 8

8 In your mind you can accept the whole Sonship and bless it with the light your Father gave it. Then you will be worthy to dwell in the temple with Him, because it is your will not to be alone. God blessed His Son forever. If you will bless him in time, you will be in eternity. Time cannot separate you from God if you use it on behalf of the eternal.

Journal
Clearly, it is my goal while I am here in time to accept the whole Sonship. That means I must accept the politician I love to hate. I must accept him fully and completely and love him with all my heart. The same goes for all my coworkers, even the one who seem to be mean-spirited.

I must love the clerk at Walmart who was sullen and uncommunicative. I must love the pedophile, the murderer, the thief and the scam artist as fervently as I love my children. There must be no difference or degree in my love for these people because there is no difference between them. They are all of them part of me, and we are all part of God.

Can I love God if I hate parts of God? Can I be in God if hate separates me from part of God? Can I be part of Wholeness if hate means I must separate myself from some part of Wholeness? I cannot bring hate into God, because God is Love. I recognize and accept that dislike and annoyance, and fear are just other more acceptable words for hate. My goal is to desire only Love, and in so doing, I welcome the Holy Spirit’s healing presence into my mind.

“Shine away those dark and foolish thoughts, Holy Spirit!”

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11,III. From Darkness to Light, P 7. 9-16-15

III. From Darkness to Light P 7

7 Only God’s Comforter can comfort you. In the quiet of His temple, He waits to give you the peace that is yours. Give His peace, that you may enter the temple and find it waiting for you. But be holy in the Presence of God, or you will not know that you are there. For what is unlike God cannot enter His Mind, because it was not His Thought and therefore does not belong to Him. And your mind must be as pure as His, if you would know what belongs to you. Guard carefully His temple, for He Himself dwells there and abides in peace. You cannot enter God’s Presence with the dark companions beside you, but you also cannot enter alone. All your brothers must enter with you, for until you have accepted them you cannot enter. For you cannot understand wholeness unless you are whole, and no part of the Son can be excluded if he would know the Wholeness of his Father.

Journal
Jesus is telling us that we are in God’s temple right now but we will not be aware of this until we have allowed our minds to be healed of all the false ego thinking. We must leave behind our dark companions, because we cannot enter into His presence (know that we are in Him) with them beside us, just as he tells us in another part of the Text, we cannot enter into His presence if we attack His Son. In fact, in this paragraph Jesus elaborates on this when he tells us we cannot enter into His presence without our brothers. All of them.

When I was judging my coworker last week, I was not at peace. I had to bring this judgment to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to correct my thinking before I could accept the gift of peace. I was not being denied peace as some kind of punishment for disobedience. I simply could not know I was given the gift of peace while I was in judgment.

It is really a simple concept for me to understand. God is wholeness. He is oneness. There is no thought of separation in the Mind of God. That is the nature of God. I cannot bring a foreign thought into God or it would change His nature, and then He would not be God anymore. Judgment is a foreign concept as is separation. So while I think that my sister is not me and while I think either of us is anything other than a perfect creation of God, I cannot enter into His presence. I must leave those dark thoughts behind if I would know myself as part of the Light.

Today, I dedicate myself to bringing peace to each one I meet. Holy Spirit, I ask that You purify my thoughts today, that I can be free of the dark thoughts I have allowed into my mind in the past. I cannot bring peace unless I am at peace. Help me to see my brother as my self. Vision is mine and I want to learn to use it more consistently. I am ready to awaken from this dream that I am separate from Love, and so I am ready to relinquish all thoughts that are not Love.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.