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Study of the Text IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 8 12-27-13

IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 9
9 Abilities must be developed before you can use them. This is not true of anything that God created, but it is the kindest solution possible for what you made. In an impossible situation, you can develop your abilities to the point where they can get you out of it. You have a Guide to how to develop them, but you have no commander except yourself. This leaves you in charge of the Kingdom, with both a Guide to find it and a means to keep it. You have a model to follow who will strengthen your command, and never detract from it in any way. You therefore retain the central place in your imagined enslavement, which in itself demonstrates that you are not enslaved.

What an incredible job we have done in making an impossible world where we, the Son of God, can experience our selves enslaved to a set of beliefs we made up. Let me look at the proof that I can awake from this dream any time I want to.

I have a Guide to help me develop my ability to undo what I have done.
I am the commander of the project.
I am in charge of the Kingdom.
I have a model to follow.
My model will strengthen my command and never detract from it.

Does this sound like I am a victim? Does this sound like I can never get out of my illusion? I am pretending to be enslaved, but if I am at the center of the enslavement, the maker of the enslavement, and with everything I need to escape, then how could I be enslaved?

When I feel like I can’t get free of my imagined enslavement it is because I am listening to that voice in my head spouting out the beliefs that make up the world of illusion. They are just beliefs, not jails, not chains. They have no power outside the power I accord them. You see, once again I admit that I am in charge of my own enslavement. I give all meaning and all power to my jailer, and my jailer is just a set of beliefs that I made up.

Jesus, as I think about this I see that it makes sense and I want very much to wake up from the dream. Sometimes I feel so close to awakening. I never ever completely believe in the dream anymore. Even this past week with Toby when I was as close to being lost in the dream as I have been in a long time, I still knew I was dreaming. Even though the fear was paralyzing, I still knew I was dreaming.

How can I be so close and yet not be able (willing?) to wake up? I feel discouraged. The voice of ego is very loud in my head insisting that I can never do this and that this whole idea is ridiculous. It insists that what I am experiencing is real and the idea of a Kingdom and power and love are the illusion, and that is why I cannot wake up. When I listen to the ego voice I feel so afraid and discouraged.

Well, this is interesting. As I wrote out exactly how I am feeling right now, I see that I don’t feel that way anymore. Writing and talking to you, Jesus, has helped me to step back from the thinking mind and look at it with detachment. It is like a little war is going on in there. I see the thought that I am deeply loved and perfectly created. I look over and see the thought that I am a fool to believe that and that all I have to do is look at my life to see the proof that I am not in the least lovable and hardly perfect.

But who am “I”? Who is it that is watching this verbal tennis match? Who is it that is watching Myron caught up in it and being confused and afraid? I am reminded that I do know who I am. Who I am is in my mind and can never be lost. Thank you, Jesus. I know you answered my questions without any words at all. I know this sudden clarity and this sense of peace enfolding me is my answer.

I remember what you just told me Saturday; that this past week is the answer to my prayer to awaken. I am looking at the thoughts I still believe to some degree so that I can let them go and allow my mind to be healed of the craziness that goes on there. That is all that happened. I have been looking at ego beliefs and deciding to reject them.

These are the kinds of abilities you are talking about. I am developing the ability to look with the Holy Spirit at the thoughts and beliefs in my mind and allow them to be corrected. I am developing the ability to step back and see with clarity what is happening, the ability to experience the story with some detachment. I see how these abilities are going to help me return my awareness to the Kingdom.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 8 12-27-13

IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 8
8 The introduction of abilities into being was the beginning of uncertainty, because abilities are potentials, not accomplishments. Your abilities are useless in the presence of God’s accomplishments, and also of yours. Accomplishments are results that have been achieved. When they are perfect, abilities are meaningless. It is curious that the perfect must now be perfected. In fact, it is impossible. Remember, however, that when you put yourself in an impossible situation you believe that the impossible is possible.

God created me perfect. He created me as part of Himself. There is no such thing as abilities in creation, because all is accomplished. With the introduction of the separation idea, abilities were needed because in separation there was now the illusion of imperfection and so there was the illusion that something needed to be done.

I am still perfect and still in God and I do not need to learn anything because in the Kingdom there is not even the idea of learning. However, since I do not believe I am in the Kingdom, since I believe I am separate from the Kingdom, I have placed myself in the truly bizarre position of needing to become perfect and so I need abilities and I need to develop them.

An example of an ability that I developed is listening to Holy Spirit. When I began this process it was pretty shaky. I tried different methods until I found what works for me, which is meditative writing. It sounds pretty cut and dried. Try this. No. Try that. No. Oh, Ok, this works. But it is never easy with ego because ego is questions, doubts and fears.

So I would try meditating in the usual way and would fail. I failed over and over. I watched everyone else succeed and report these wonderful results, and yet, I could not do it. I felt like a failure and I felt like I was the one who was unforgiven. In other words, I suffered. 

That’s the way it works with ego. Ego would have kept me in this process forever if it could, trying one method and then another, reading books on meditation, listening to meditation CDs, taking meditation classes. But I had a burning desire to hear that Voice and enough willingness to keep that desire alive.

Finally I turned from the ego and sought help from my Guide. I didn’t even know I had been trying to learn from the ego what the ego was determined I not learn. I didn’t know that I was finally turning to my true teacher. All I knew was that I still wanted it but that I gave up trying to give it to myself. Surrender is what allowed the Holy Spirit to help me. He can never take from us what we want to keep, or give to us what we are determined to give to ourselves. But the moment we truly want His help, it is done.

Once I discovered that I could speak to and listen to the Holy Spirit as I wrote, it only remained to develop this ability further. I did this through daily practice and even that felt like suffering at first. This is because the ego joined me in the practice, constantly criticizing and discouraging my attempts. But because I truly desire this communication, I learned how to become more fully surrendered to the process.

Actually, looking back on it, I realize it was never hard to hear His Voice. It only seemed hard because I was trying to listen to two completely opposed Voices at the same time. When I finally chose the one Voice I wanted, it became easy and now I look forward to each morning sitting here with Him. While I was at the hospital with my son I was not able to give this time to Spirit and I missed it.

So this is an ability I developed. I learned to hear the Voice for God and to write what I heard. This is a ridiculous thing. How could I not hear that Voice? It is in me. It speaks to me all through the day. It is the only thing that is real. It is both God’s Will and my will. And yet, I had to develop the ability to hear clearly, and still I am further developing the ability to hear even more clearly. It is an insane situation made necessary through insane choices.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 7 12-20-13

IV. The only Answer, Paragraph 7
7 In the Kingdom, where you are and what you are is perfectly certain. There is no doubt, because the first question was never asked. Having finally been wholly answered, it has never been. Being alone lives in the Kingdom, where everything lives in God without question. The time spent on questioning in the dream has given way to creation and to its eternity. You are as certain as God because you are as true as He is, but what was once certain in your mind has become only the ability for certainty.

I long for the certainty that Jesus speaks of here. I am sure that I thought it would be interesting to make an illusory experience where there were questions to be asked and the answers were changeable. This illusion is the answer to the question, “What would it be like?” We asked and because of who we are as God’s Children, the answer unfolded. It has been answered, and now it is time to awaken from that dream of uncertainty.

What is it like to simply be? No questions, no doubts, nothing to fear. I had to forget that existence as a necessary part of experiencing its opposite. I am done. I am ready to return all of my mind, to certainty, to eternity, to God. What does it take to return? I must want it wholly, without exception. This business of watching my thoughts and asking for healing of all that is not truth is my way of reaching the desire for God that is in my mind. I am looking at what I chose instead of God, and deciding against it.

Once the question is answered and I return my full awareness to God, there will not be even a memory of anything other than God. God is whole, complete and without doubt or question. So once answered, the question no longer exists. I will return to perfect peace, to creation. Now interestingly enough, I have already done this. I am in God. Right now. I am creating in eternity, right now. That is why we call this experience an illusion or a dream. It is not actually happening. We are simply watching what happened when the answer to our question unfolded.

Are you tired of the dream? Are you ready to wake up? I am. The ego, the device I made to have this experience doesn’t want to awaken and clings to its sad and scary stories as if they mattered and as if they were valuable. But I am not the ego, but the maker of the ego and the ego does not rule my mind unless I choose that. I, the self that I truly am, have been uncovered to the degree that I am now aware of my desire to return fully to my Home and my Father.  I know how to do it and I am taking those steps. Thank you, God, that my foray into illusion has changed nothing.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 6. 12-19-13

IV. The only Answer, Paragraph 6
6 Hear, then, the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises: You are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake. There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken. Your dreams contain many of the ego’s symbols and they have confused you. Yet that was only because you were asleep and did not know. When you wake you will see the truth around you and you will no longer believe in dreams, because they will have no reality for you. Yet the Kingdom and all that you have created there will have great reality for you, because they are beautiful and true.

Here is what happens each time I bring a grievance to the Holy Spirit. I sit with Him and tell Him all about it. I show Him why I believe the problem is real and has serious consequences. I let Him see my rage. Or I let Him see how frightened I am or how hurt. Then I ask Him to heal my mind and He says, “It’s OK, Honey. It’s just a bad dream. You are sleeping and in your sleep you dreamed this happened. It’s time to wake up now.”

I say, “But what about my finances? What if I lose my job or can’t pay my bills?” He says, “You are dreaming. You are safe. Your Father loves you and cares for you.” I say, What about my fear of heights?” He says, “It’s a dream. You are being called to awaken.” “Ok, I see that, but when I think of my precious son having surgery next week, it feels very real and the possible consequences feel so scary. I can afford to dismiss my problems, but I am afraid to ignore this one. I don’t know how to ignore it.” He says, “Your son is safe, too. He is just dreaming of pain and suffering. He is God’s beloved son, too, and nothing he dreams can change that.”

No matter what I bring to Spirit, no matter how extreme the circumstances seem, no matter how afraid I am, no matter how different the form the problems seem to take, the answer is always the same. I am dreaming. Am I guilty? Is the other person guilty? No. We are just dreaming of guilt. It makes me think of the movie, Inception. They had so many layers of the dream going, that they would become confused and would need a totem to let them know when they were still dreaming or when they were awake.

So how do I know if I am dreaming? Jesus says that the Holy Spirit always says, “You are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is real.” Do I imagine that God created fear and guilt, pain and suffering? I am a priceless part of His Kingdom, a part of God. I cannot experience what God does not experience.

That is my totem. I look at my thoughts and my experiences and I ask myself, “Could I be in God right now and still have this experience?” If the answer is no, then I am dreaming. But that I even questioned it must mean that I am being called to awaken. God is calling me to wake up and I hear His Voice.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text III. The Only Answer, Paragraph 5 12-18-13

IV. The Only Answer, Paragraph 5
5 The ego uses the body to conspire against your mind, and because the ego realizes that its “enemy” can end them both merely by recognizing they are not part of you, they join in the attack together. This is perhaps the strangest perception of all, if you consider what it really involves. The ego, which is not real, attempts to persuade the mind, which is real, that the mind is the ego’s learning device; and further, that the body is more real than the mind is. No one in his right mind could possibly believe this, and no one in his right mind does believe it.

When I look at this situation with Jesus it is very clear. The mind is real, the body and the ego are not. The ego uses the body to try to convince me it is the other way around. Amazingly, this was news to me as it probably was to you the first time you read this or at least before you started your spiritual path. I have certainly spent most of my life firmly fixed on the body as who I am.

I felt like a body and acted like a body. I took care of the body and carefully clothed and decorated it. I exercised it and tried to make up for the way I often misused it. I tried to make it feel better and I used it to both attract and attack other bodies. Even now, a part of my day is spent worrying about and regretting body stuff. The only difference is I notice this behavior and ask for the Atonement. All of this concern and activity around the body occurs because I identified (and to a lesser extent still identify) with the body as self.

I also knew that I had a soul and that the soul was eternal. But that didn’t seem as real to me as the body did. And really, I thought of it like this: I am a body with a soul. Because I had that belief it was easy for the ego to use the body to keep me engrossed in the story and distracted from the Holy Spirit’s Voice. The body needs so much attention! And the body is so vulnerable, so fragile. How could I be God’s Son if I was so unlike God.

Understanding that the body I am most closely associated with, the body I think of as Myron, is only a vehicle to use in this story helps me see more clearly what Jesus is telling us through A Course in Miracles. I am not a body. I am still, in spite of my fantasies, just as God created me. I am spirit, not body.

The term mind is used to represent the activating agent of spirit, supplying its creative energy, and when capitalized, Mind is Spirit or Christ or can refer to the Mind of God. How could mind be schooled by ego or body? Our attempts to do so are laughable, really. Actually we only use the brain as a device to gather and organize information that we have ourselves projected in order to prove our point. The most we can do with the mind is to cloud it with our separation ideas. Once those are released, the mind returns to its true vocation and we see that nothing is lost.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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