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Study of Text, C 15: IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 9, 1-4-18

IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 9
9 The necessary condition for the holy instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure. But it does require that you have none that you would keep. Innocence is not of your making. It is given you the instant you would have it. Atonement would not be if there were no need for it. You will not be able to accept perfect communication as long as you would hide it from yourself. For what you would hide is hidden from you. In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception, and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep to yourself. Let the Holy Spirit’s purity shine them away, and bring all your awareness to the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He make you ready to acknowledge that you are host to God, and hostage to no one and to nothing.

Journal

There are two important messages in this paragraph. This is the first.

The necessary condition for the holy instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure. But it does require that you have none that you would keep.

As long as my mind is split, and if I still see myself as part of this illusion, then my mind is split, I will have thoughts that are not pure. That is to be expected. My part in this is to be willing to let them go. I must notice when I am deliberately defending them from the Holy Spirit. One way we do this is to pretend that we are not aware of some of these untrue thoughts. We hide them from ourselves.

I have been practicing mind-watching for a long time now. I have gotten to be pretty proficient at noticing thoughts and letting them be corrected. Because of this practice, I am a lot more peaceful than I used to be. What I am discovering as I make a fearless and searching moral inventory of myself is that I have some beliefs that needed to be seen. Since these beliefs are in my mind and therefore available to me, it must be that I was hiding it even from myself. Ah well, as Jesus says, there would be no Atonement if there was not a need for it.

Here is the second important idea in this lesson.

Innocence is not of your making.

I don’t have to do anything to become innocent. I am that, already. There is absolutely nothing I can do to destroy my innocence, though I can act and think in a way that keeps it from my awareness. I only need to be vigilant for all in my mind that is not innocence and allow it to be purified.

This very act of hiding thoughts that I would keep to myself breaks communication. Without full communication with the Holy Spirit, I feel orphaned though I may not be consciously aware of why I feel that way. I used to be so thoroughly caught up in my story that most of my efforts were directed toward improving the story; even my spiritual work was for that purpose.

What I came to realize is that my life is not about my life. It is about using this life to undo the illusion altogether. Now I understand why I do this work. I do it so that I can finally return my full awareness to God. A Course in Miracles offers us only one thing, forgiveness. But, as Jesus says, that is enough. I search out the hidden places in my mind and let the light of purity shine them away and this is forgiveness. It will lead me past forgiveness and into God.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers: X. Open-Mindedness, P 2. 1-3-18

X. Open-Mindedness, P 2
2 How do the open-minded forgive? They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. They have in truth abandoned the world, and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. Nothing is now as it was formerly. Nothing but sparkles now which seemed so dull and lifeless before. And above all are all things welcoming, for threat is gone. No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. Now is the goal achieved. Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough.

Journal

Jesus says that the open-minded have forgiven as they let go of all things that would prevent forgiveness. So I ask myself, “What is in the way of total forgiveness in my mind?” I can find a few images in my life that indicate to me that I have not forgiven. For instance, there is a guy who drops by my page once in a while to make a snide remark about my post, and I often feel an emotional reaction toward this. So I see something in my life that is preventing forgiveness.

And no, it is not the offending guy, but the belief that I can be offended, that is preventing forgiveness. The guy is just offering me another chance to move closer to forgiveness and thus to open-mindedness. There are not many of these images for me to look at, but there are some. Often they are directed at myself, things I wish I had not done.

But, I have come to realize that the images, while helpful to let me see that there is still unforgiveness in my heart, are not the problem. If I ask myself why it is I am upset by this image, I come closer to knowing what it is that is preventing forgiveness. For instance, if I ask myself why it is that I am upset with this guy who keeps poking at me, I find that I don’t know. Haha. Well, I can ask the Holy Spirit to help me see what is going on here.

When I asked for His help, I received the word, insecure. I feel insecure when this happens. That’s a surprise! I never think of myself as insecure, especially when it comes to my spiritual understanding. I know that I am not always right, but I also know that my understanding will grow as I keep opening to my Teacher’s help.

Webster says that insecure means not confident, not certain, not safe. Ah! I see now. There is a place in my mind that is not certain of anything and this makes me feel unsafe. Following the process of asking why I am upset, this insecurity, this uncertainty, opens the possibility that the truth is not true. This is why I feel unsafe.

What if my ego mind is right and the other mind, the part I think of as my holy mind and my true self is just a delusion. This is what ego would have me believe. This belief is what must be forgiven and thus healed. It is maybe the ultimate forgiveness. As I forgive this in my mind, I am open to accepting the truth wholeheartedly.

I know that forgiveness is my desire and the path to peace and happiness. I give the Holy Spirit everything in my mind that opposes the desire for forgiveness. I have no need for any of it and I find no value in retaining it. This is why I practice A Course in Miracles. Jesus says this about the Course. “Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning.” It also says that this is enough to accomplish the rest.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, C 15: IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 8, 1-2-18

IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 8
8 Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off, because you would have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication while breaking communication holds value to you. Ask yourself honestly, “Would I want to have perfect communication, and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?” If the answer is no, then the Holy Spirit’s readiness to give it to you is not enough to make it yours, for you are not ready to share it with Him. And it cannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy instant is given and received with equal willingness, being the acceptance of the single Will that governs all thought.

Journal

Recently, I became part of an Al Anon group and I have been doing the steps. I am on step 4 right now. This one says to make a fearless and searching moral inventory of myself. This has been an interesting experience for me. I am using a book called Paths to Recovery. It asks questions to help me do the steps, and I am doing my best to answer them as honestly as I can.

This morning as I read this paragraph, I find myself wondering if I am being honest. Am I hiding any embarrassing or shameful thoughts? I notice that I am getting frustrated with the process and that increases my suspicions that I am not being in full communication even with myself. Later today I am going back to this project and this time I am beginning the process again, but with the Holy Spirit as my guide.

I am asking Him to help me see what needs to be seen. I am going to trust Him completely. I am willing to let go of anything that interferes with our communication. I do want full and open communication because anything less is not really communication at all. To be in true communication is to be in the holy instant and this will be given to me if I do not oppose it.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers: X. Open-Mindedness, P 1. 1-1-18

X. Open-Mindedness

1 The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ’s image be extended to him. Only the open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.

Journal
What I understand from this paragraph is that I am open-minded when I open my mind to the Holy Spirit. Instead of judging the circumstance, I ask the Holy Spirit what it means. Instead of judging my brother, I ask the Holy Spirit who he is. This is the same thing as forgiving.

Let’s say that someone offended me. That would be the ego version of me as that is the only part of myself that could be offended. I recognize that I am not at peace and so I open my mind and heart to the Holy Spirit and ask for another way to see. The resentment falls away and my mind is at peace. I am happy.

You could say that I have forgiven this one who seemed to have offended me and that I have forgiven my projections onto him. And you could say that I have forgiven myself for believing such insane things about myself and my brothers. This is how open-mindedness relates to forgiveness. I could not achieve forgiveness without this openness to the Holy Spirit. As a result of a consistent practice of being open the Holy Spirit and willing to receive His correction, it is very hard to offend me. And if I feel offended, I know what to do.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 15: IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 7, 12-29-17

IV. Practicing the Holy Instant, P 7
7 How can you do this when you would prefer to have private thoughts and keep them? The only way you could do that would be to deny the perfect communication that makes the holy instant what it is. You believe you can harbor thoughts you would not share, and that salvation lies in keeping thoughts to yourself alone. For in private thoughts, known only to yourself, you think you find a way to keep what you would have alone, and share what you would share. And then you wonder why it is that you are not in full communication with those around you, and with God Who surrounds all of you together.

Journal
Jesus is helping us to understand that we must open our minds to the Holy Spirit so that our thoughts can be purified. We must hold nothing back, nothing we would keep private. What thought would I want to hold back, anyway? What thought would I want to keep safe from the Holy Spirit? At first, I cannot think of anything that I would not share with Him. I want a completely healed mind.

But when I think about it further, I realize that there are times when I don’t accept healing for my thoughts and so it must be that I am withholding them. I am keeping them private and refusing open communication. I can think of an example of this that happened a few years ago.

I was planning to move in with my daughter and help her fix up the mother-in-law house behind her house where I would eventually stay. I knew she needed financial help to keep her house and I decided I needed to do this for her. I would pay her rent while I lived there and this would be the help she needed. I had enough money to fix up the little house and when I moved in there, I would pay rent for that.

I also remember hearing the Holy Spirit in my mind speaking to me, but I cut that communication off in case He was cautioning me against this. I just couldn’t chance that the Holy Spirit would tell me not to help my daughter. I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but that is what happened. I made the decision quickly and then as quickly denied it.

It wasn’t until after the whole project became an uphill battle that I let myself remember that I chose to keep my thoughts about this decision to myself. I deliberately chose not to share them with the Holy Spirit, and thus not to ask for purification. I am sure that the reason is that my motives were unclear, and my need to be helpful could not stand up to scrutiny.

I don’t regret what happened and though it cost me a lot of money, money has never been that important to me. I enjoyed being so close to my daughter and my grandkids. All the problems with getting the little house in order were good lessons. And, I will never forget what it means to keep thoughts away from the Holy Spirit. Not that I never did it again, but I did learn an important lesson and it helped me to see what I was doing and to ask for help to stop.

Now I seldom do this and when I do, I catch it pretty quick. I recognize that I have turned to the ego to make my decisions and I turn that around, usually sooner rather than later. I don’t want any private thoughts, none that I would keep from the Holy Spirit. I want open and full communication at all times. This is the only way I can have a completely healed mind.

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

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