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

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 Illusions are investments. They will last as long as you value them. Values are relative, but they are powerful because they are mental judgments. The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw all investment from them, and they will have no life for you because you will have put them out of your mind. While you include them in it, you are giving life to them. Except there is nothing there to receive your gift.

Jesus, I think I understand this, but it would help if you could clarify it for me. I do notice that you said mental judgments are powerful and I had never thought of that. I tend to think of judgment in terms of something I shouldn’t be doing, but I had not thought of them as powerful. But I guess anything that keeps me in the illusion and that holds the illusion in place is powerful.

Jesus: Yes, your mental judgments are powerful even when you are using your ego mind. And when you turn from ego judgments and ask the Holy Spirit to judge for you, you are agreeing to join your self with your Self, and this is powerful beyond anything you experience with your separate small will.

As far as your investment in your illusions, you often hide that from yourself. You hide it behind the images that you call real. Think of your sister in law who you keep saying is dying. Why are you so invested in her body being sick and dying? Death is an illusion. Where have you invested your trust? Is it in the power of God, or is it in the illusion of death?

You hide that you are investing in death behind the illusion of a very sick body. In this way you can say that there is no hope for that body and you can make up stories about why it is better that she let it go, and there is a reason for death in this case, and that somehow either the illusion is stronger than the Will of God, or the Will of God is that suffering and death be real. I assure you neither is true, but as long as you continue to find value in the illusion of death, you keep it in place.

Me: Yes, at first I simply accepted the inevitability of her death. I followed the illusion blindly, not questioning its reality, and not even considering its value to me. Now when I think of Brinda, instead of imagining her death, I imagine that she and I join our will to the Will of God, which is always Life.

But now I have a different fear. What if she dies anyway (something the ego mind insists will happen) and then I will feel afraid because it will mean the truth is not true. It seems when I write this out, that I would rather sacrifice Brinda than prove to myself that the truth is not true. The alternate fear is that she will die anyway and I will have failed to believe enough and let her die in the wake of my weak will.

Jesus: The only thing you are letting die is your investment in the illusion of death. You do that for both yourself and for Brinda. You do it for the entire Sonship. You let it die when you stop feeding it with your fear. You do it when you release your false beliefs to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to heal your mind. You withdraw the value you have placed in this illusion when you ask for and accept the Atonement in this situation. 

It is easy for you to see the illusion as the problem and something to be fixed. I would ask that you look at your thoughts and beliefs and allow them to be fixed for you. I would ask you to give up this iron grip you have on the fear of death, and equally that death really is only an illusion.

You don’t realize it yet, but you fear both and they are the same fear. And the fear of death is the same as the fear that you cannot do this, and the fear that you will succeed. The fear of death is the same thing as the fear I am lying to you, and the fear that maybe this whole path is a lie. You are fiercely invested in the belief in death which encompasses all of those things.

Me: I see that this is true. All of those fear thoughts have been racing through my mind. It is hard to believe that I am afraid of success in this, but that I cling to all the fear thoughts must mean that I would rather look at death than to look at the possibility of its dissolution in my mind. Would I be willing to let go of the illusion of death completely and for all time? I cannot even imagine what that would mean, but could I? How about just this one time? Could I let go of my investment in Brinda’s death?

Jesus: You are doing this now. You have already begun to look away from the images of death, even though you will be tempted to look at the illusion and believe what you see must be true. Do not be concerned about that, and just remember that the illusion is an image of a false belief, not proof the false is true. When tempted to believe in the image, turn to me and give me your doubts and uncertainties. I know what to do with them.

Let this be your part; place your trust in Life rather than in death. You see how strong your trust is; now simply shift it from the illusion to the truth. This is very simple to do. Use the same practice that is familiar to you. When you notice that you are placing your belief in death, ask the Holy Spirit to correct your thinking. Accept and receive this correction. That is all I ask of you at this time. You have done this many times and you know you can do it now. Here is the reminder I would like you to use: “There is no death. There is only God.”

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3. 5-5-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3

3 You do not need God’s blessing because that you have forever, but you do need yours. The ego’s picture of you is deprived, unloving and vulnerable. You cannot love this. Yet you can very easily escape from this image by leaving it behind. You are not there and that is not you. Do not see this picture in anyone, or you have accepted it as you. All illusions about the Sonship are dispelled together as they were made together. Teach no one that he is what you would not want to be. Your brother is the mirror in which you see the image of yourself as long as perception lasts. And perception will last until the Sonship knows itself as whole. You made perception and it must last as long as you want it.

I have noticed that as I allow my mind to be healed, I tend to experience the effects of my beliefs more quickly and clearly. I think that this is because I am open to seeing this now, and I want to be healed so I am shown what needs healing, and I see it without delay. It seems to be all about the level of my willingness. I get what I want and to the degree I want it.

For the last couple of weeks I have experienced a lot of inner conflict. I have felt like I’ve been walking backwards on this path, and that I cannot seem to turn myself around. It has been very frustrating. I never go all the way back. In other words, I might be judgmental, but I never think that the judgment is justified. But after being mostly free of the desire to judge for awhile now, it feels depressing to pick that back up even though I know this is just some ego stuff coming back up so that I can master my desire to let go of judgment.

I have been asking Holy Spirit to help me see the source of this problem and this morning as I read our paragraph of the day, I realized that I have been judging someone in my life without realizing that I was doing so. I judge this person, and since judgment is not discreet, I judge others and I judge myself. Judgment is like a virus. It spreads quickly and indiscriminately.

I didn’t realize I was judging at first because it was not obvious. I seemed to be simply noticing something that was true about her. Then this morning Holy Spirit helped me to see that this could not be true about her because it is not true about God, so I was judging her as less than God, or something other than God. The effect of this judgment is that I began to see myself in this way. I see her has sick and I see myself as sick, because I cannot believe about myself what I am unwilling to believe about my sister.

Suddenly it is very clear to me that I have been judging my perception as true. My perception is just a way of seeing. Because my perception is projected as images into the world, I seem to be right. The proof seems to be right in front of my eyes and so my perception appears to prove itself to me. I have another option, though. Now that I remember that what I see represents a perception that I chose to believe, I could now ask for and receive a healed perception from Holy Spirit.

One of the blocks to my acceptance has been the ego thought that no matter how I choose to see this problem, it is unlikely to change. This morning, I see that my reasoning is faulty. My part in this is to remember the truth. I can do this whether I see a change in the images or not. What is not God is not true. This is all I need to remember.

Sickness, fear, anger, guilt, suffering, and death are not true and never will be regardless of appearances. I cannot make them true, but as long as I believe in them, my life will reflect them as if they are true. And if I believe these things about someone else, I will not be able to see myself free of them. 

I am ready to turn around now. The world will remain a reflection of faulty perception as long as I value that perception. And perception will last as long as I want perception. My job right this moment is to allow my perception to be healed. The next step of giving up perception all together will unfold in perfect timing according to our willingness. For today, I am willing to know the truth rather than to believe in the images of faulty perception. I feel lighter and freer already.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2. 5-2-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2

2 When a brother acts insanely, he is offering you an opportunity to bless him. His need is yours. You need the blessing you can offer him. There is no way for you to have it except by giving it. This is the law of God, and it has no exceptions. What you deny you lack, not because it is lacking, but because you have denied it in another and are therefore not aware of it in yourself. Every response you make is determined by what you think you are, and what you want to be is what you think you are. What you want to be, then, must determine every response you make.

I love the clear and easy stuff from the Course, which is what we have here. When my brother acts insanely (attacks) I have an opportunity to bless him. I need to bless him because I need the blessing myself, and giving it is the only way I can receive it. That is so clear and so unequivocal. He emphasizes that by saying: “This is the law of God, and it has no exceptions.”

No matter what my brother does or says, he is asking for my blessing whether he understands this or not, and he probably doesn’t. If he is attacking it is because he is afraid and feeling defensive. He thinks he must protect himself, and asking for a blessing is the furthest thing from his mind. Therefore, it is up to me, being the saner one at the time, to understand what he needs and give it to him. 

How do I bless him? What does that look like? The form changes according to circumstances, but the content remains love. It can be as simple as a smile, or a nod of understanding. I can say to an angry brother that I can see how upset he is. I can give him my attention. When someone is grieving, I can hug her and offer my condolences.

Even if the attack is directed at me, I can be defenseless and I can ask the Holy Spirit what response is most loving in this situation. Here is an example. I wrote something and shared it on a forum. Someone reading it attacked the content. I felt the attack as if it were personal and asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind.

From that place of clarity I realized that my words had triggered something in the other person and I felt compassion because I know how that feels. I thanked the person for sharing her thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it might be more appropriate to just let it be. What is never helpful is to argue or become defensive.

What I give, I receive and I don’t need to teach myself defensiveness. I already know that posture too well. What I want is to teach forgiveness and innocence because that is what I most need to learn. I let what I want to be determine my response.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1,Continued. 5-1-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1 Continued
1 Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother you will feel deprived, because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. Nor is it possible to love it totally at times. You cannot be totally committed sometimes. Denial has no power in itself, but you can give it the power of your mind, whose power is without limit. If you use it to deny reality, reality is gone for you. Reality cannot be partly appreciated. That is why denying any part of it means you have lost the awareness of all of it. Yet denial is a defense, and so it is as capable of being used positively as well as negatively. Used negatively it will be destructive, because it will be used for attack. But in the service of the Holy Spirit, it can help you recognize part of reality, and thus appreciate all of it. Mind is too powerful to be subject to exclusion. You will never be able to exclude yourself from your thoughts.

This is what I want to contemplate today:

“Denial has no power in itself, but you can give it the power of your mind, whose power is without limit. If you use it to deny reality, reality is gone for you.”

Again and again in the Course Jesus reminds us of the power of our mind. Here he says it is unlimited. This is so hard for us to comprehend. We have denied this power so thoroughly that we can’t say no to chocolate, or we procrastinate to the point we cause our self grief and think there is nothing we can do about it. We fall in and out of love and hurt each other and it seems just to happen to us. We feel like we have no power over our lives at all. And yet, Jesus says we have unlimited power. So we must be doing this to ourselves.

We are talking about the power of denial, specifically. We are told that denial has no power of itself, but the unlimited power of our mind lends it power, so much so that what we deny is no longer true for us. If we deny reality, then reality is gone. At least it is gone from our awareness, just as we desired. That is why we can live as if we have no control over what we eat, that we cannot help being addicts, that we just stumble into and out of relationships and don’t know how it happened.

We do all of this to ourselves and then we deny any knowledge of how it happened and through the power of our minds we believe the lie. It becomes true for us and we are left helpless victims of circumstance. It’s the craziest thing! As insane as this is, backing out of it is no simple thing. We must overcome our own desire and choose to see differently.

We must first understand how it could have happened and then accept that, weak as we seem, we must actually be powerful beyond limit. We must put aside our fear of this power and embrace the idea as something we love and want. That is all we have to do because the rest is done for us, but lord knows, that’s enough.

This would be impossible if we did not have so much help. We accomplish this one step at a time, and I find it very helpful to take the step of realizing that, “Reality cannot be partly appreciated.” Knowing this I have stopped believing that I can love some and hate others and still know Reality. I no longer believe that I can forgive some and hold others imprisoned in my grievances, or that I can hurt someone without hurting myself.

Knowing this one thing helped me to see that awakening is possible after all. There is nothing to decide other than that all of God’s creation belongs to Him. If I want to remember the Kingdom and know myself beside Him there, I must appreciate, equally, all that He created. Nothing can be left out, nothing can be seen as less than, and nothing can be seen as condemned. All must be forgiven and accepted. You cannot get any simpler than that.

I don’t give my blessing begrudgingly anymore. I want my brothers to be innocent, because I understand now that I am only as innocent as they are. I wholeheartedly want them forgiven because their forgiveness is my forgiveness. I am learning to use the unlimited power of my mind to return myself to sanity and to make myself ready for our return to God.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: VII.The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1. 4-30-14

VII. The Totality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1

1 Whenever you deny a blessing to a brother you will feel deprived, because denial is as total as love. It is as impossible to deny part of the Sonship as it is to love it in part. Nor is it possible to love it totally at times. You cannot be totally committed sometimes. Denial has no power in itself, but you can give it the power of your mind, whose power is without limit. If you use it to deny reality, reality is gone for you. Reality cannot be partly appreciated. That is why denying any part of it means you have lost the awareness of all of it. Yet denial is a defense, and so it is as capable of being used positively as well as negatively. Used negatively it will be destructive, because it will be used for attack. But in the service of the Holy Spirit, it can help you recognize part of reality, and thus appreciate all of it. Mind is too powerful to be subject to exclusion. You will never be able to exclude yourself from your thoughts.

There are three things that stand out to me in this paragraph. First there is the sentence, “You cannot be totally committed sometimes.” I think that this sentence is responsible, more than any other, for changing my attitude toward the work we do on this path. I realized at once that my commitment, my dedication, my devotion must be complete. A Course in Miracles is not something I can do when I am in the mood. Forgiveness is not something I do for some and not for others. I must be totally committed all the time or I am not committed at all.

When I divorced my last husband I realized that my commitment to forgiveness means that I cannot throw a relationship away and just start over with someone else. All relationships must be healed, and so I did that. I forgave him and I forgave myself. It took me thirteen years to know that this relationship was completely healed, but that doesn’t matter. Forgiveness is the right use of time.

I may not be quick to forgive, but I always forgive. I understand the purpose of relationships. I know what I am to do with them. If someone at work gets on my nerves, I ask for the Atonement in that situation. If a customer upsets me or a situation with the customer triggers fear in me, I know what to do with that. I ask for the Atonement in that situation and I accept the Atonement. There might be action to take for the story’s sake, but the purpose is forgiveness.

If I experience guilt, that is if I see myself as guilty or someone else as guilty, my purpose is to forgive this. There are no exceptions. No one stands guilty and outside God, and this is what I am teaching myself, and through teaching guiltlessness I am learning that guilt has never existed except in my mind. It is a belief that I made real for myself through the power of my belief.

As I learn to make no exceptions to forgiveness, I am being released from the belief in guilt. Every time I make an exception, every time I believe that some action or thought is unforgivable, whether in myself or someone else, I reinforce the belief in guilt. This is why I must be totally committed all the time. Otherwise I will spend my time dancing back and forth between belief and disbelief, getting nowhere.
Fear is another false belief that I have made very real for myself. My commitment is to back out of that belief. The Holy Spirit does this for me, but only with my permission. As I cling to some particular fear that feels more real to me than another, I keep fear itself in place. It doesn’t matter what form the fear takes. It could be a fear of heights, a fear of poverty, a fear of relationships; it is just fear appearing as a story in my life and so they are all the same, and the solution is the same.

I accept the Atonement in each seemingly different problem. Through accepting that the solution to each problem is the same regardless of the form it takes, I teach myself that there is only one problem. I also teach myself that there is a solution and that I can and will accept the solution. This lesson is not learned if I make exceptions, so I must be totally committed all the time.

I may come back to this paragraph tomorrow.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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