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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: X.The Confusion of Pain and Joy, Paragraph 2. 6-11-14

X. The Confusion of Pain and Joy, Paragraph 2
2 It is surely clear that you can both accept into your mind what is not there, and deny what is. Yet the function God Himself gave your mind through His you may deny, but you cannot prevent. It is the logical outcome of what you are. The ability to see a logical outcome depends on the willingness to see it, but its truth has nothing to do with your willingness. Truth is God’s Will. Share His Will and you share what He knows. Deny His Will as yours, and you are denying His Kingdom and yours.

I have the Kingdom of God and am in the Kingdom of God and nothing can change this because I am that I am. This is not up for debate, nor is it possible to alter it. However, if I choose not to acknowledge my reality, it is as if I am not that. I will seem to be something different, and somewhere different. But seeming and being is hardly the same thing.

If it is my will I can prevent myself from being aware of the truth. I simply refuse to accept it. It is possible for me to do this through my unlimited freedom as God’s Son. However, though I am free to disregard truth, I cannot prevent truth from being true and so it remains in my mind even though I deny its presence. It simply is. Because what I am is always available to me, all I need to do to know my Self again is to decide not to block it from my memory. I do this through the Holy Spirit, Which is also in my mind.

Not only am I hiding my truth from myself and refusing to accept what is in my mind, I am accepting something else instead. I accept all sorts of impossibilities as if they were gospel truth. I accept that I am separate from God, as if that could ever happen. I accept that I am separate from my brothers and from every living thing.

I accept that I am guilty and afraid. I accept the idea that projection will save me from my imagined fears, and that I can save myself by throwing my brothers under the bus. “Here, God, you angry and scary guy, here is someone who is guiltier than me. Take him.” I accept all sorts of insane thoughts into mind. I think I am a body, or at the least, imprisoned in this flesh. I think the body can be affected by something outside my mind. The list of insanity just goes on and on.

What I accept as true is true for me, but only in my dream of being something I am not. The truth remains, and is quite unaffected by my imaginings. In the meantime, since what I believe is true for me, and I believe I suffer, that seems to be true. I think I am suffering. I feel like I am suffering. I believe that this body is real and is me and is afflicted by all sorts of outside forces and so this is the experience I have. I think I get sick and die. I think I lose the ones I love. I think I can be impoverished.

I suffer through my own decisions, and for me, while I suffer it seems of little consequence that it is not really happening. So now that I know suffering is not inevitable, and I am told, not even real, I am motivated to allow the Holy Spirit to heal the only part of me that is sick and needs healing, my mind. I open to the truth by doing my part. I gladly and enthusiastically hand over the false beliefs that are blocking my Self from my awareness. “Holy Spirit, I ask for the Atonement and I accept and receive it. Amen.”

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: X. The Confusion of Pain and Joy, Paragraph 1. 6-10-14

X. The Confusion of Pain and Joy
1 The Kingdom is the result of premises, just as this world is. You may have carried the ego’s reasoning to its logical conclusion, which is total confusion about everything. If you really saw this result you could not want it. The only reason you could possibly want any part of it is because you do not see the whole of it. You are willing to look at the ego’s premises, but not at their logical outcome. Is it not possible that you have done the same thing with the premises of God? Your creations are the logical outcome of His premises. His thinking has established them for you. They are exactly where they belong. They belong in your mind as part of your identification with His, but your state of mind and your recognition of what is in it depend on what you believe about your mind. Whatever these beliefs may be, they are the premises that will determine what you accept into your mind.

It has taken me a long time, but I am beginning to see exactly where the ego will lead us if we follow it to its logical conclusion, and it is not a pretty thing. I have been able to hold onto the ego so far because I have looked at it in only bits and pieces. I have tried to keep the parts I value while letting go of the parts that are clearly painful. I have tried to have some ego and some God. I have discovered that this won’t work. I am so confused that I cannot even tell what is valuable and what is not, what is pain and what is pleasure.

I was once married to a paranoid schizophrenic. His condition when full blown was an example of nearly total confusion. He could not tell what was real and what wasn’t. He couldn’t tell friend from foe, and so everyone was an enemy or potential enemy, even those he loved and who loved him. His fear was complete because there was no trust; he could not even trust himself.

After I discovered A Course in Miracles and thought about Charlie, I realized that this is what it is like to be very deeply identified with ego. Charlie was in and out of this state, but never completely free of it. Imagine, though, if the ego premise was carried to its logical conclusion and this was the state that everyone endured, and endured without respite. Imagine what a nightmare life would be.

If the ego’s premise taken to it’s logical conclusion is total confusion, where will God’s premise take us in Its logical conclusion? Would it be crystal clarity? Would it be absolute certainty and complete stability? If God created me through extending Himself, does that mean I am crystal clear, certain, stable? Does it mean I am unlimited and unchanging? If the premise is that I am created by and of God, and that God is good, doesn’t that mean that I am good?

Does it not also follow that I create as God creates? Ideas leave not their source and so I am in the Mind of God, therefore my creations are in my mind. Since I am in the Mind of God, confusion is an illusion because the Mind of God is crystal clear, and being in it, I am crystal clear. The confusion of ego cannot be there or the Mind would not be what It is.

The Mind is eternal and I am in the Mind so I am eternal. The body, which is mortal, must be an illusion. God is Life and so nothing that dies can be in God. I am in God, therefore I cannot die. God is Love and therefore I am Love. There is only God, so there is only Love. There is nothing to oppose because All is One. There is nothing but Love so there is perfect peace.

Because God is only Love, there is no guilt, pain, fear or suffering in the Mind, so these things cannot be real and cannot be in me either. If I think they are, I must be dreaming. To the extent I believe what must logically be true, I will accept only what is God in my mind. If I want something else, I will believe in something else, and that is what I will accept into my mind.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, A Final Thought. 6-9-14

Chapter 7, Section IX: A final thought.

Reading this section of the Text has shifted me to another place in my mind. I have heard the ego voice this morning as it warned me to hurry or I would be late, but there is a calmness in my mind that answers this warning. How can I have anything to fear? I am the Son of God. I am under no laws but God’s. What is time to me?

What has Jesus told us that has made such a difference to me. Let me review this. He has said that only I can limit my creative power, but God wills to release it. I limit my power when I think it is bound by the ego laws I set up to make a separation story. God would have that power released so that I create as He creates. 

Even here, in this world of illusion, I am free to use my creative power with wild abandon! I can make a happy world instead of an ego limited world of suffering. He does not will that this be possible only when I am a better ego. He wills this for me now because He knows me as perfect and worthy in this moment. God would deny me nothing.

Jesus says that everything He created is given all His power. This means that I have been given all the power that is God. That is why I can make a happy dream as easily as I can make a painful dream. He gave me that power in my creation and that power remains as it was given, so it is available to me now. The power of God is in me because I am in God.

As I accept that all of this is true for all of my brothers as well, I can begin to use the power in the way God wills me to use it. It is only my desire that I be special that clouds my mind. This is why I deny every guilt thought that enters my mind. No matter what I perceive in my brother, I know he is not guilty. I cannot afford the sacrifice of seeing him as guilty because to do so is to deny the Kingdom to all of us.

Jesus says that the ego’s whole thought system blocks extension, and thus blocks my only function. I want to undo the ego so that my function can be fulfilled because I understand that fulfilling my function is my happiness. It is the way I know my Self and remember my creations and open my mind to full communication with my Creator. This is what I long for. So my prayer is always that the Holy Spirit heal my mind and undo what I have done.

Jesus says that a split mind cannot perceive its fullness, and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. My mind is split as long as I still value any part of the idea of separation. I willingly relinquish the self image I have made. I willingly relinquish the desire to be special. I relinquish the idea that I am separate from my brothers and from God.

I enthusiastically relinquish the belief in guilt, in pain, in suffering, and in the ridiculous notion of death. I relinquish the idea that I am something, anything, that God did not create. I see all these ego beliefs as nonsense and I see them as the source of all suffering.

“Holy Spirit, I open my heart and mind to You. Please correct my wrong-minded thinking and bring me back to sanity and to the Kingdom where I belong.”

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7. 6-6-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 7

7 Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence. They are reflections of both your proper identification with your brothers, and of your awareness that your identification is maintained by extension. The miracle is a lesson in total perception. By including any part of totality in the lesson, you have included the whole.

It is easy to forget that my Identity is safe. I see evidence of separation all around me, and I see the ego acting out and I feel vulnerable and small. Who would think that this could be the Son of God? But I can be confident that my Identity remains safe and is never lost in spite of what I seem to be now. My extensions, that is, my creations, are safe as well. We are maintained in wholeness and peace.

Jesus reminds us that miracles are an expression of this confidence. Miracles are the natural result of our returning memory of our Identity. Some of the miracles I have performed have occurred on another level as a result of the healing of the mind, and I am not necessarily aware of them. But many miracles have occurred on this level, and while the miracle is always a healing of the mind, they often have visible effects. They occur as an expression of my confidence in my true Identity, but they also help build that confidence.

Another point that Jesus makes is that miracles are reflections of my proper identification with my brothers, which means that I know my brother and I are one. I know my brother and I share innocence. I know that I extend love to my brother rather than using him as a place to project guilt.

Jesus also says that the miracle is a reflection of my awareness that my identification is maintained by the extension of God’s Being, which is my only function. Obviously, I must remember who my brother is in order to do this, and I must let go of the ego thought system which blocks this extension.

This morning I did today’s lesson, Into His presence would I enter now. During this meditation what came to me were the faces of several people. It started with the face of a young man with whom I had a brief encounter yesterday. When I saw his face I realized there was something wrong, and that he was probably mentally deficient, but he was very friendly and pleasant to talk to. This morning when his face came into my mind, his true presence peaked out at me. This happened with several other people.

I recently watched Avatar again and this experience reminded me of my favorite line in that movie: “I see you.” In the meditation this morning each person showed me his real self. It was a remarkable experience and brought me to tears and laughter. I prayed that I would be able to maintain that vision throughout the day. This experience was a miracle because it changed forever the way I will see my brother. It was not just the words I learned from the Course, but it was the direct experience of those words.

Now I will probably see the effects of that change in my life. Those effects are the visible miracle. I don’t know how that will appear, but I am certain it will. Already I feel a lightness and joy as well as an expansive confidence that I did not feel when I woke up this morning. I was open to this miracle because I was willing to see differently. I was willing to see my brother differently and I was willing to extend God’s Being as well as I could. I look forward to continuing this extension as I am guided.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6. 6-5-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 6

6 You have not failed to increase the inheritance of the Sons of God, and thus have not failed to secure it for yourself. Since it was the Will of God to give it to you, He gave it forever. Since it was His Will that you have it forever, He gave you the means for keeping it. And you have done so. Disobeying God’s Will is meaningful only to the insane. In truth it is impossible. Your Self-fullness is as boundless as God’s. Like His, It extends forever and in perfect peace. Its radiance is so intense that It creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of Its wholeness.

What a beautiful thing to read this morning. Today’s Lesson (156) assures me that I walk with God in perfect holiness. It reminds me that thoughts leave not their source and so as a Thought of God, I remain in God. And now as I read today’s paragraph, I am further assured that it is not possible that I disobey God’s Will. What He has given me is given forever, and I cannot lose it.

As I read this paragraph and take in what it says to me, I am overjoyed. My Self-fullness is as boundless as God’s, and it extends forever and in perfect peace. This is the truth, not the ego small self that I made to take the place of my Self-fullness. I intend to place my focus on the truth today. When I notice that my thoughts are wandering into ego again, I will remember my holiness and place my awareness on the truth instead.

I wonder if this is how we wake up? Do we simply choose to place our awareness on the truth each time we notice that we are focused on ego? After all, nothing is happening when we think our ego thoughts and watch our ego stories. The only thing that is actually happening is happening in God, where I am creating in perfect joy. If I keep shifting my attention back to reality, surely I will soon decide to remain there.

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 6-4-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5
5 Your creations are protected for you because the Holy Spirit Who is in your mind, knows of them and can bring them into your awareness whenever you will let Him. They are there as part of your own being, because your fulfilment includes them. The creations of every Son of God are yours, since every creation belongs to everyone, being created for the Sonship as a whole.

My creations are protected for me and always will be. They are part of my being, just as I am part of God’s Being. Every creation of every Son of God is mine as well because they were created for the Sonship as a whole. This is fairly amazing for me to even think of, but I can accept it as being part of the Self I don’t fully remember yet. I am most certainly the Son of God. I am whole and perfect and like my Father.

I accept all of this as being true even though I am not having the full experience of it yet, and I accept that someday I will not just believe it is true, but I will know it is true. I accept that I will feel like the Son of God when the ego is fully undone. All of this seems like something that is going to happen in the future. Even though I am told that it is happening right now, it feels like something that is coming but is not here yet.

The part that just blows me away is that the Holy Spirit knows of them and can bring them into my awareness whenever I will let Him. Whenever I will let him! Holy Spirit, I just don’t know what to think about this. Can this mean that You can do this for me right now? Can I know of my creations simply because I want to? Do I have to be fully and permanently awake for this to happen?

What has happened as I write this is that I feel afraid. I am afraid that nothing will happen if I say yes, and maybe it is better to not know for certain that the answer is no. Truthfully, I don’t believe anything will happen which probably guarantees nothing will happen. If nothing happens then does that mean the truth is not true, or as I suspect, that I am unworthy of the truth?

Well, I see the fear and the doubt and I know that is the ego. I am not the ego and I want to know what it feels like to remember my creations. I want that awareness in my mind. “Holy Spirit, thank You for helping me to see this fear in my mind. I do want this, and I ask You to heal the part of my mind that is uncertain and afraid.”

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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: IX.The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 6-2-14

IX. The Extension of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of God. You do not know your joy because you do not know your own Self-fullness. Exclude any part of the Kingdom from yourself and you are not whole. A split mind cannot perceive its fullness, and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it. This reawakens the wholeness in it, and restores it to the Kingdom because of its acceptance of wholeness. The full appreciation of the mind’s Self-fullness makes selfishness impossible and extension inevitable. That is why there is perfect peace in the Kingdom. Spirit is fulfilling its function, and only complete fulfillment is peace.

This sentence stands out for me. “Exclude any part of the Kingdom from yourself and you are not whole.” First, I understand that it is the memory of my wholeness that restores me to the Kingdom. The emphasis I want to focus on is that I cannot exclude any part of the Kingdom from myself if I want to know my wholeness. I suppose that should be obvious. If I exclude, then I am not whole. And yet, I notice myself doing this.

As I was sitting here this morning getting ready to read today’s paragraph, I noticed a thought in my mind. It was a thought of exclusion. Someone I know and don’t want as part of my life, part of my self. I don’t have really strong feelings about this person, and in fact seldom think about him. But when I do, my thoughts are thoughts of exclusion.

So I am sitting here getting ready to join Spirit in my morning reading and this thought flits across my mind. This man is not like me. Just at that moment, I glanced to my right and this is where I keep my reminder board. It has a picture of my oldest child, a card from my youngest, and many little notes, helpful ideas, things I want to remember. The note that caught my attention says, “You cannot enter God’s presence if you attack His Son.”

Well, ok. I see my problem. I want to return my full mind to the Kingdom. I want to enter the presence of God. More than anything, this is what I want. Well, mostly more than anything. Would I have to like this man who crossed my mind? Would I have to acknowledge him as part of my Self? Would I have to give up my attack on him? It would seem so.

I started out by saying that I don’t have extreme feelings about him. I don’t hate him; I just don’t want to spend time with him. At one time when I was still trying to negotiate with God to let me in Heaven with some of my more favored sins intact, I would have argued the point. Here are some of the arguments I would have used. I would have said that I am not really attacking him; I just happened to “discern” that he is a jerk. Or, I can love him without liking him. Here is an early favorite; I would reason that I could love everyone else except him. I would leave out just this one person.

In the ego there is always room for compromise. That is what the ego is all about. It varies with the circumstances. It shifts according to mood and perceived needs. It is completely undependable and totally unstable, but it allows me to hold grievances and to exclude anyone who does not meet my expectations. I used to think this was a fair exchange and one that I valued. Fortunately, I have come to my senses.

Truth is uncompromising. It is also completely stable and dependable. It is eternal. It is love and joy and perfect peace. It is my inheritance, my birth rite, mine for the asking. But it is also whole. That means nothing is absent from it. There is nothing outside it. That one man, that irritating person who is not what I think he should be, is part of the Kingdom or the Kingdom is not what It is. I can have the Kingdom, or I can have my grievance. I cannot have both because I cannot enter God’s presence if I attack His Son.

I could talk about this man and I could list his faults and I could try to convince you that we don’t want him in our Kingdom. But honestly, I can’t remember who it was I thought of this morning. I can’t remember him or his sins. It just passed through my mind for a brief bit of time, just long enough to remind me that I still hold the belief that grievances have some value for me. I willingly, and enthusiastically relinquish the belief that my petty grievances, or even my major grievances, are valuable to me in any way.

There is only one way to approach God, and that is hand in hand. No one stands alone or at the back. We are one whole Self and to know Self I must know my wholeness. I am grateful for this moment of recognized insanity. It gave me the opportunity to change my mind. When I stop trying to push my brother away, the Holy Spirit shows me his beauty and his perfection and it is mirrored back to me and I see my Self.

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