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Study of the Text, Chapter 8, II. The Holy Encounter P 6. 7-31-14

III. The Holy Encounter, P 6
6 The Kingdom cannot be found alone, and you who are the Kingdom cannot find yourself alone. To achieve the goal of the curriculum, then, you cannot listen to the ego, whose purpose is to defeat its own goal. The ego does not know this, because it does not know anything. But you can know it, and you will know it if you are willing to look at what the ego would make of you. This is your responsibility, because once you have really looked at it you will accept the Atonement for yourself. What other choice could you make? Having made this choice you will understand why you once believed that, when you met someone else, you thought he was someone else. And every holy encounter in which you enter fully will teach you this is not so.

Two very important ideas got my attention in this paragraph. The first is that to achieve the goal of the curriculum, I cannot listen to the ego because the ego doesn’t know anything. It is my responsibility to look at what the ego would make of me and accept the Atonement for myself instead. I am convinced of this having done just that for several years.

I continue to be vigilant for the thoughts and beliefs that the ego mind offers. I pay attention to my feelings and my actions and words so that I can be aware of what they tell me about my beliefs. It is easy to mistake understanding a concept for healing. I can say all the right words, and I can understand intellectually, and even accept intellectually, what A Course in Miracles is teaching me. However, unless I am living them, they are just information.

How do I know if I am living what I am learning? I just look at my life. How do I feel? Am I peaceful and happy? If not, then I need to pay closer attention. I need to become aware of what thought I am accepting as true that is really an ego thought, and then accept the Atonement for that mistake. In accepting the Atonement, I am asking the Holy Spirit to remove from my mind the thought that is not in alignment with the truth.

The second thing that caught my attention was the sentence:

Having made this choice you will understand why you once believed that, when you met someone else, you thought he was someone else.

First Jesus very clearly states that we are not separate. The lady who took my breakfast order this morning is not someone else. She is part of my own Self. The body she is employing for this separation story is designed to keep the secret that she is me, but I am not fooled. At least, I am not fooled right now. We are not truly separate, just as we are not truly the body device we use in this story of separate beings having separate experiences.

I say that I am not fooled right now because I am sitting alone in my hotel room, listening to Spirit, feeling His closeness, remembering what I am. Then I leave the room and I meet many people coming and going during the day and I get caught up in the story, and I forget my unity with all that is.

But I never completely forget anymore. During the day I will suddenly remember, as I speak to a customer, that we are not separate. Or I will catch a glance of someone on the street and I will remember the truth for that instant. Or driving alone in my car I will know for that brief time that I am not really alone and never could be.

Oh, to know this as my experience all the time! To never forget! To never be confused again! This is why I study A Course in Miracles, why I commune with Spirit, why I am vigilant for every thought that would take me from my goal. I want to feel the perfect peace, the absolute joy of knowing what we are. I can peak behind the veil, and experience this joining at least to some extent, as I allow it to happen in each holy encounter. Today, I would enter fully into each holy encounter so that I can have the full experience of our oneness. I ask for help to remember my purpose.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: III.The Holy Encounter, Paragraph 5. 8-12-14

III. The Holy Encounter, P 5
5 The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is “Know thyself.” There is nothing else to seek. Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. Your power and glory are in him because they are yours. The ego tries to find them in yourself alone, because it does not know where to look. The Holy Spirit teaches you that if you look only at yourself you cannot find yourself, because that is not what you are. Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are teaching what you are. He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher you are following. He will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, and so will you. Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your responsibility to yourself. Give him his place in the Kingdom and you will have yours.

Again my day will be filled with opportunities to remember what I am. Each brother I meet offers me that gift. I can ask the Holy Spirit who this brother is, or I can ask the ego. Yesterday, I can think of one specific time when I asked the ego. I caught myself and tried to back out of it, but I saw that I was really attached to the ego version of this brother of mine. I saw him as incompetent. I resented him for his incompetence. And I did not want to let go of that perception of him.

Because this is how I perceive him and because I believe my perception, everything he does seems to prove that I am right. I see his every action and word as if it were passing through a filter of incompetence. Here is an example of how that works. He was supposed to do something and then report on it. I saw that he did not provide a complete report and my mind saw incompetence. Later I discovered the reason the report was incomplete is that it was not physically possible for him to complete the project.

Seeing this error on my part, this judgment that was based on incomplete information, helped to snap me out of my wrong minded thinking. I stopped listening to the ego and began to listen instead to the Holy Spirit. The ego had been telling me that I can find my true self only in myself. In fact, it says, I can find my true self only as I compare myself to someone lesser. That man is incompetent compared to me, is what the ego says, so now I know what I am; I am competent. That is, I am competent until I see my own incompetence compared to someone more competent.

What I understand now is that I cannot see in myself what I am unwilling to see in the other person, because we are one. That we are separate is just an illusion. I look at my brother and I see incompetence and I have taught myself incompetence. I have claimed it for myself. I look to him to see what I am not, whether that is something better or worse, and I have taught myself that we are separate. How can I find myself if I am looking for proof I am a separate individual with no connection to others? That is not what I am.

I ask the Holy Spirit to show me my brother and I will see his beauty and glory and perfection, and I will teach myself that I am beautiful and glorious and perfect. When I ask the Holy Spirit to show me my brother, I am asking the Holy Spirit to show me myself and so to show me that we are one. Allowing my mind to be guided to the truth of my unity to all there is, is how I remember what I am.

I felt sad this morning when I read this paragraph and realized the missed opportunity yesterday. Even though I asked Holy Spirit to remove the disordered thoughts from my mind, I did not entirely want Him to, and so I kept going back to my judgment. This morning I want to be free of this untrue story of my brother. I want to look at him with the Holy Spirit and not the ego.

I want never to turn to the ego to teach me who this brother is. I have had this long-standing story of a brother who is different from me, who is guilty of incompetence. I don’t need this story anymore. I ask the Holy Spirit to remove from my mind the belief that I can find myself in myself alone. I ask that He remove from my mind the untrue thoughts about my brother so I can see the love and unity that is there. I also ask that the Holy Spirit remove from my mind the thought that I am guilty for my error yesterday.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: III.The Holy Encounter, Paragraph 4. 8-11-14

III. The Holy Encounter, P4
4 When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.

This is one of my favorite paragraphs in the Course. When I read it, I feel like crying, it makes me so happy to know that salvation is only as far away as the next encounter with a brother. It makes me so grateful for my brothers and so happy to remember that we are not these separate individuals with each our own different goals, our own private thoughts and our own needs that are in opposition to each other. We are part of each other, and part of our Creator.

We each have a part in this play of life and so it seems that we are sometimes stranger and sometimes enemy, but in Real Life, we must laugh at such a ridiculous idea. Today, even from within the story, I will laugh at such folly. I ask the Holy Spirit to show me the Son of God in each encounter with a brother. I am willing to set aside what my character thinks of as her personal needs and personal goals and personal will, and see my brother for Who He is.

I will have to remember my desire and not get distracted by his play acting, because my brother is not in on the switch today so he will still be engrossed in his part. I know from long experience how easy it is to fall back into my own role as one thing or another triggers my character. I pray for help to remember the truth today, to peak from behind the veil and see the glorious, beautiful truth hidden behind the mask of separate individual characters.

Maybe Spirit will use this opportunity to bring into my sphere of influence some brother who is ready to be reminded of his true self, and our meeting, brief as it may be, will awaken an ancient memory of Unity. And maybe that memory will be with us from now on, to never be completely lost again.  Every encounter with a brother is a holy one, but today, Jesus, I will remember this, and I am appreciative that you are there with me, helping me.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: III.The Holy Encounter, Paragraph 3. 8-6-14

III. The Holy Encounter, P 3
3 The Will of the Father and of the Son are one, by their extension. Their extension is the result of Their oneness, holding Their unity together by extending Their joint Will. This is perfect creation by the perfectly created, in union with the Perfect Creator. The Father must give fatherhood to His Son, because His Own Fatherhood must be extended outward. You who belong in God have the holy function of extending His Fatherhood by placing no limits upon it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you how to do this, for you can know what it means only of God Himself.

The Course talks about the Father and son, and of the Will of the Father and the Son as being the same, and it speaks of a perfect creation of a Perfect Creator. I think of it this way. The Father creates through extending Himself, so the Son is an extension of the Father. The Son, in His turn, creates through extending Himself so that His creation is an extension of Himself and a further extension of God. It is Perfection creating more Perfection, which creates more Perfection, without end.

Now I see myself dreaming I am outside of this perfection. I see myself using my power of creation to make imperfect things rather than creating perfectly. I have placed limits on creation through my decision to experience something else. I have forgotten how to return to the flow of Perfection and even that I want to do so.

But Perfection does not leave a question unanswered, so the Holy Spirit was placed in my mind. Its function is to wait patiently for the son to ask for His Father, then It answers with Love and Peace and Comfort and guides us out of the wilderness of our imagination. As we answer our holy function, the perfection of Creation continues without interruption.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: III. The Holy Encounter, P 2. 8-5-14

III. The Holy Encounter, P 2
2 To fulfill the Will of God perfectly is the only joy and peace that can be fully known, because it is the only function that can be fully experienced. When this is accomplished, then, there is no other experience. Yet the wish for other experience will block its accomplishment, because God’s Will cannot be forced upon you, being an experience of total willingness. The Holy Spirit understands how to teach this, but you do not. That is why you need Him, and why God gave Him to you. Only His teaching will release your will to God’s, uniting it with His power and glory and establishing them as yours. You share them as God shares them, because this is the natural outcome of their being.

The only way I will ever be perfectly happy and perfectly peaceful is if I unite my will with God’s Will. The way I accomplish this is to notice what I want instead of God’s Will and then ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind, that is to accept the Atonement for that error in thinking. This is the Holy Spirit’s job, and only what I learn from Him will release my will.

When the Atonement has been accomplished there will be no experience except joy and peace. The only thing that blocks this is the wish for some other experience. What experience could I want that is more important to me than uninterrupted peace and perfect joy? The perplexity that I feel when I think about that occurs because I am confused about what makes me happy.

I think if I were thinner and never had to worry about how what I eat affects my body, then I would be happy. So I think the experience I need is to be thinner and how could that keep me from experiencing joy? Being thinner won’t keep me from peace and joy, but the belief that I need this experience to be happy is the problem. Deciding I know how to order my thoughts about this is the problem. Fully surrendering the perceived need and my solution is the answer.

I think I need the experience of being loved and respected by my children. Being loved and respected is not the problem. Believing that this is an experience I must have to be happy is the problem. I look constantly for signs that I have what I need, and when they express their love and respect, I am worried I will do something to change their minds. If I don’t see proof of love and respect, I feel sad and unworthy, or resentful and angry.

Just using these two simple and common examples, I see that the belief I need certain things in the world to happen, and that I can somehow accomplish these things on my own, are the very things that are blocking my joy and happiness. These beliefs represent my willfulness, my belief that I want the experience of a personal will rather than that I share the Will of God.

Asking that the Holy Spirit correct my perception about these desired experiences is the solution, because in doing so I am choosing to abandon the idea that I have a personal will and that it is important to me. I don’t know what I need or how to get it. The Holy Spirit does know and will teach me if I ask, and if I let go of the belief I already know the answer.

I am going to attach an entry from Chapter 5 to this because it relates to what I am learning here.

V. The Ego’s Use of Guilt, Paragraph 7
7 Irrational thought is disordered thought. God Himself orders your thought because your thought was created by Him. Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe you can think apart from God, and want to. Every disordered thought is attended by guilt at its inception, and maintained by guilt in its continuance. Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates. This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly. If the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned for cannot be yours. The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of undoing. You would be responsible for the effects of all your wrong thinking if it could not be undone. The purpose of the Atonement is to save the past in purified form only. If you accept the remedy for disordered thought, a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can its symptoms remain?

I often say that I accept 100% responsibility for the world I see. By that I mean that no one or nothing else is the reason the world appears to me as it does. I am not sick because of germs and I am not broke because I don’t make enough money. It is my thoughts alone that bring the appearance of lack and sickness into the world.

Here Jesus is talking about responsibility of a different order. Now that I accept responsibility for the world I made, I must accept that I cannot undo it on my own. That is not my responsibility. I accept that I am not a victim of the world, that my thoughts made what I see, then I decide I don’t want this anymore and I ask for the Atonement for it.

That is the way it is intended for me to act on my error. Notice the error and ask for and accept the Atonement, that and nothing more. What sometimes happens is that I fall back into the old ego habit of trying to correct my error through re-ordering my thoughts. I try to think of different ways to see it.

For instance, if I think that I am angry with a co-worker, and then I realize that my anger is causing me to be unhappy, the solution would be to ask for the Atonement for the angry thoughts. I would ask Holy Spirit to correct my perceptions. The error would be to try to correct my own perception by trying to think different thoughts about the coworker, or to try to force the thoughts out of my mind, or to think of excuses for the coworker, reasons he is such a jerk.

All of the solutions that involve correcting my own perception will just lead me deeper into guilt because I am using the ego mind to find the solution. The ego mind wants to be the thinker of the thoughts, but my thought was created by God. Listening to and believing in the thoughts I think with ego are guilt inducing because they seem to be in opposition to God.

The Atonement on the other hand, is a true solution. When I ask for and then accept the Atonement in any situation, the mind is ordered because it is returned to its original state, which was created by God, therefore there is no guilt. Without guilt, I am at peace and I am happy. Peace and happiness is how I know I am listening to the Voice for God. Feelings of guilt and unhappiness are how I know I am listening to and believing the ego.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: III. The Holy Encounter, P 1. 8-4-14

III. The Holy Encounter
1 Glory to God in the highest, and to you because He has so willed it. Ask and it shall be given you, because it has already been given. Ask for light and learn that you are light. If you want understanding and enlightenment you will learn it, because your decision to learn it is the decision to listen to the Teacher Who knows of light, and can therefore teach it to you. There is no limit on your learning because there is no limit on your mind. There is no limit on His teaching because He was created to teach. Understanding His function perfectly He fulfills it perfectly, because that is His joy and yours.

I was telling a friend recently, that sometimes I almost know what I am. And then sometimes, I feel like Myron, this body, this personality, and that I feel like a beginner. I feel like I am in first grade and will never get to second grade. But how could that be true? No matter what I feel like I must be as God created me. I must be what God Wills for me.

What I see is that the only difference between the two states, feeling like I am the Will of God and feeling like I am my ego self, is the teacher I am listening to. When I feel lost or hopeless the only thing wrong with me is that I am listening to and believing the ego thoughts in my mind. The truth doesn’t go anywhere just because I am not paying attention to it.

I will have enlightenment if enlightenment is what I want. I will have it because it is always there waiting for me and because I have the Holy Spirit Who was made for this. He teaches perfectly and continuously because it is His function. He teaches joyously and I can learn joyously, as well. As I remind myself of the truth and turn my face toward the light, the very idea of failure becomes ludicrous. I remember to ask that my perception be corrected, and I see that was the only problem, my perception was out of alignment with the truth.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: II. The Difference Between Imprisonment and Freedom, P 8. 8-2-14

II. The Difference Between Imprisonment and Freedom P8
8 To what else except all power and glory can the Holy Spirit appeal to restore God’s Kingdom? His appeal, then, is merely to what the Kingdom is, and for its own acknowledgement of what it is. When you acknowledge this you bring the acknowledgement automatically to everyone, because you have acknowledged everyone. By your recognition you awaken theirs, and through theirs yours is extended. Awakening runs easily and gladly through the Kingdom, in answer to the Call for God. This is the natural response of every Son of God to the Voice for his Creator, because It is the Voice for his creations and for his own extension.

The Holy Spirit awakens us through acknowledging the Kingdom of which we are a part, and when we acknowledge this we bring it to everyone because to acknowledge the Kingdom is to remember that we are everyone, and are all part of the Kingdom. This acknowledgment, this remembrance of the truth, is how we wake up.

I think of awakening as the noticing of what is not the Kingdom and letting it go. Actually, this part of the process is in preparation for awakening, but awakening, I think, is what comes after we do the work. I ask Holy Spirit to heal my mind. I ask him to correct perception. I feel a shift in the way I view things, a change in the beliefs I have held. It feels like the world changes.

This step by step process of removing the blocks to my awareness seems to be necessary. One day, though, I will be ready to acknowledge what has always been here, what all the little shifts have been pointing to. Then the world will fall away. I love that Jesus says, “Awakening runs easily and gladly through the Kingdom, in answer to the Call for God.”

Right now it still feels hard sometimes, and it seems to occur in fits and starts. Looked at from the view point of time and space it is hard to imagine this ease and gladness, and hard to imagine everyone responding to the Call. In a room with 100 people, I might be the only one who hears this call, I think.

But my vision is narrow and my understanding very small. I trust that Jesus is the Atonement and that I need only listen for my call and acknowledge it. My acknowledgment will be the call to someone else who is ready to hear it. It is enough that I understand this part and answer this part. I don’t need to understand more than that to do my part.

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