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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5. 3-12-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 5
5 God has lit your mind Himself, and keeps your mind lit by His Light because His Light is what your mind is. This is totally beyond question, and when you question it you are answered. The Answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. That is why the Holy Spirit never questions. His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty. The certain are perfectly calm, because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions, because nothing questionable enters their minds. This holds them in perfect serenity, because this is what they share, knowing what they are.

Everything about the ego mind is the opposite of reality. In the ego mind we question everything. Nothing is absolute. Everything is unstable, doubtful, and uncertain. The more “advanced” science becomes the less we actually know and with each advancement we feel the sand shift beneath our feet as we wake up to discover what we were told yesterday is not longer true today. We seem to get smaller and more insignificant as we discover the vastness of the universe.

But there is in our mind a Light. We never lose that Light because it was placed there by God and so it is what we are. In this Light there is Knowledge that is certain and unchanging. Here questioning is unheard of because there is nothing to question. Here we have no doubts and so we have no fears. In the Light, doubt and fear are unknown. In the Light we are the vastness in which the universes exist.

What incredibly powerful beings we are that we can block from our awareness the brilliant Light that we are, and block it so completely that we must be taught what is already known. And so like not very bright students we muck around in our classroom, our eyes tightly closed against the obvious, pretending we have questions that need answers. The Holy Spirit answers us with the truth: There are no answers because there are no questions.

We will not be taught to make sense of the nonsensical. We will simply be led out of our delusions into Reality. In the end, the only thing that happens is that we open our eyes (metaphorically speaking) to what is right here. We spend all our time learning that there is nothing to learn. We already are what we seek. Sometimes I giggle when I think about this. Imagine how we will laugh when the truth finally dawns on our mind.

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

Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4. 3-11-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 4

4 To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality. The altar is perfectly clear in thought, because it is a reflection of perfect Thought. Your right mind sees only brothers, because it sees only in its own light.

I am convinced that I am meant to be only in the Kingdom and so to stay there the only thing I need to do is to focus my full attention on it. I used to think this was hard. By used to, I mean last week. I have made the most amazing discovery. It is not hard to stay in the Kingdom once you realize you can do this and decide you want to do it.

Yesterday I discovered someone at work made a mistake that caused me some trouble with a customer. For a moment I left Heaven and put myself back in hell as I followed that thought. Then I realized what I had done. I believed the thought that he should not have done that. I believed the thought that this separate person was guilty and that his guilt hurt me and made me upset. And just like that I was in hell.

Luckily, we make our own hell and it is in our mind right where God placed the Solution. I rested in the Solution and felt the peace of God fill me with joy and love and the truth. I realized that nothing happened. There is only innocence. I am one with my brother whom I love. I am in Heaven. I stay in Heaven as long as I want to. All that I need to do is to bring my focus back to Heaven.

Oh my God, I can’t believe it is that simple and that I managed to avoid understanding what Jesus has been telling us for so long. The ego mind wants my attention and warns me that this is all fine and good because it has not been tested by anything really serious. This is a thought I can follow if I start to miss hell. Hahaha.

There is only this moment and in this moment I choose to give my full attention to the Kingdom. What could be easier than that? I focus fully on the Kingdom this moment. In this moment I am in complete joy. If I start to think about what could happen in the next moment or what happened in a past moment, if I start to follow the ego thoughts, I throw myself out of Heaven, just like that!

But I understand now that I did it to myself. No one is forcing me out, pushing me through the door and into the ego storm. Knowing that I am solely responsible and that I have full control over what I think, I see that as Jesus says in today’s lesson, my salvation comes from me. In this moment I am in Heaven. And in this moment. In this moment. . .

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3. 3-10-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 3

3 I said before that the ego’s friend is not part of you, because the ego perceives itself at war and therefore in need of allies. You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all whom you see as brothers, because only equals are at peace. Because God’s equal Sons have everything, they cannot compete. Yet if they perceive any of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition has entered their minds. Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant against this idea, because all your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible, and therefore you have accepted the impossible as true. Is that different from saying you perceive yourself as unreal?

We are told to be vigilant against the idea of competition, and that all our conflicts come from it. I’m happy to be vigilant for these thoughts because I know they are not true. I am one with every living thing. Because all are one, all are equal. Because we are all equal, we have no reason or desire to compete. What would we compete for? Equal brothers have all there is to have.

To feel a sense of competition is to feel separate. It is only in being separate from each other that we could conceive of the idea of being or having less than another. This, I think, is the reason I need to be vigilant for these beliefs that I am in competition. They indicate that I have fallen back into the belief that I am something I am not, or as Jesus puts it here in this paragraph, I perceive myself as unreal.

My peace of mind is dependent on realizing that we are equal Sons of God, that there is no lack in the Kingdom and therefore no need to strive. And certainly, there is no need to compete for anything. Only in the illusion of separation is there any possibility that one brother could have and another could lack. Of course in the illusion we don’t recognize our brotherhood.

As long as I believe in the separation idea, and support it through competition, I will continue to believe that this is where I am and that the illusion is real. To be in the Kingdom I must turn my attention from the illusion. I must walk away from it and choose to see the alternative. I cannot live in both the illusion and the Kingdom at the same time. Through being vigilant for belief in competition, I am alert to opportunities to turn from the illusion and toward God.

Here is a competitive thought my vigilance has shown me. 

I am a heck of a good sales person. The implication in my mind is that others are not so good at this and that makes me the winner. Of course, this thought comes with its opposite and that is the fear that I am not good enough, that someone else is a better sales person. This person could take my job, or if he works for someone else, could take my customer.

With this idea of a good sales person in place, I now have something to defend and so I must have an attack plan in case someone threatens my position as good sales person. I no longer have brothers, but competitors. We have conflicting interests. We are at war and there is no peace in war. I have left the Kingdom so that I can be a winner in hell. Maybe I better rethink this.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 7: III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2. 3-7-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 2

2 God’s meaning waits in the Kingdom, because that is where He placed it. It does not wait in time. It merely rests in the Kingdom because it belongs there, as you do. How can you who are God’s meaning perceive yourself as absent from it? You can see yourself as separated from your meaning only by experiencing yourself as unreal. This is why the ego is insane; it teaches that you are not what you are. That is so contradictory it is clearly impossible. It is therefore a lesson you cannot really learn, and therefore cannot really teach. Yet you are always teaching. You must, therefore, be teaching something else, even though the ego does not know what it is. The ego, then, is always being undone, and does suspect your motives. Your mind cannot be unified in allegiance to the ego, because the mind does not belong to it. Yet what is “treacherous” to the ego is faithful to peace. The ego’s “enemy” is therefore your friend.

In this paragraph Jesus is talking to me, to the real me, not to the Myron personality self that is the ego manifestation. He says that I cannot teach what is clearly not true, and since I am always teaching I am teaching truth. The ego, which I still identify with to some degree, suspects that I am being disloyal to it and so thinks of me as enemy. My mind will never unite with ego because my mind belongs to God.

From reading this I realize how grateful I am to know that my true self is never going to be lost to the ego self. I am grateful to know that while the ego self is busy teaching ego stuff, that is not me, and I am teaching only truth and doing so all the time. I am, above all else, grateful to know that I belong to God. This paragraph strongly reinforces the truth I am coming to accept; I am not ego and ego does not really exist. I am God’s meaning, residing even now in the Kingdom. I am safe in the knowledge that I am still as God created me.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, III.The Reality of the Kingdom, Paragraph 1. 3-6-14

III. The Reality of the Kingdom
1 The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson, and applies it to all individuals in all situations. Being conflict-free, He maximises all efforts and all results. By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself, He teaches you that all power is yours. Its application does not matter. It is always maximal. Your vigilance does not establish it as yours, but it does enable you to use it always and in all ways. When I said “I am with you always,” I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. Because I am always with you, you are the way, the truth and the life. You did not make this power, any more than I did. It was created to be shared, and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another. Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only meaning.

I want to look at this paragraph carefully. Here is what I understand.

1. The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson. In studying the Course with its many words, I can easily lose track of this. I am always learning one thing only, that I am one with God, a part of God, in Him and never any place else. Nothing that is not true of God can be true of me. Everything that is true of God is true of me. Because the Holy Spirit teaches only this one thing, there is no conflict and so it applies to everyone and everything and the teaching is therefore, maximized.

2. The Holy Spirit is teaching me that I am powerful. No, that is not right. He is teaching me that all power is mine. All power. The power of God, is mine.  Its application does not matter. The power of God is mine to use regardless of how I choose to use it. I am using the power of God to make up a world that could never be and that is why it seems so real. The implication, of course, is that this same power can easily dispel the illusion according to my desire to be free of it.

3. My vigilance does not establish it as mine. I talk about vigilance all the time. I am vigilant for my thoughts and vigilant for God. Vigilance has gotten me where I am now. But all the vigilance in the world, the most perfect vigilance imaginable does not establish the power of God as mine. Lack of vigilance cannot undo this power which is mine. What vigilance does do, is make this power available to me.

In making the illusory world we blocked out reality, and now we must unblock it. I imagine it as a wall that we made to keep the truth out, and now, block by block I must remove the wall in order to become aware of what is there, always has been there, and will forever be there. It is for this work, the undoing of the ego wall, that I am vigilant. I watch closely for any remaining blocks to the awareness of loves presence.

4. Here is my favorite sentence, maybe my favorite in the whole book. When I said “I am with you always,” I meant it literally. I am not absent to anyone in any situation. I take great comfort in knowing that I am not alone, and since the beginning of my study of the Course I have come to love and trust my elder brother absolutely. What a relief to know that he does not abandon me in any situation I might put myself in.

It is also a comfort to be reminded that we are one. We cannot be separate. Jesus and I and you are all one mind. We are not any of us absent to each other. In this illusion of separation it is hard to know this and so I remind myself often in many ways. When I become discouraged, afraid, angry, even when I am only sad or lethargic, any feeling that is not reflective of God, I have tried to become absent to myself.

This is not possible, but if I believe I can do this, then it will feel as if I have abandoned myself. Any time I feel any of these ungodly things about anyone else, I have tried to abandon them. Even though I cannot do that either, the power that is mine to use in any way I choose will create an illusion so real that I will think I have succeeded, and I will be flooded by guilt for my imagined sin.

I am greatly relieved to know that nothing has actually happened. Jesus is never absent from me and all power is shared equally by all of God’s Son, I am not ever truly absent to myself or to anyone. I have not sinned and I can forgive the idea that sin is possible. We are One. We are God’s Son. We are powerful in our Oneness. What is true is always true, and nothing can change that.

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