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Study of the Text 1-14-13

3-14-13
2 The Last Judgment is one of the most threatening ideas in your thinking. This is because you do not understand it. Judgment is not an attribute of God. It was brought into being only after the separation, when it became one of the many learning devices to be built into the overall plan. Just as the separation occurred over millions of years, the Last Judgment will extend over a similarly long period, and perhaps an even longer one. Its length, however, can be greatly shortened by miracles, the device for shortening but not abolishing time. If a sufficient number become truly miracle-minded, this shortening process can be virtually immeasurable. It is essential, however, that you free yourself from fear quickly, because you must emerge from the conflict if you are to bring peace to other minds.

Jeepers! The last judgment will last for millions of years unless we do something to speed it up. Only miracles will help. If enough of us become miracle minded we can really shorten the time. All along Jesus has been asking us to allow our mind to be healed and to allow him to direct our miracles so that we can help awaken our brothers. This is the reason. But to do this we must free ourselves of fear quickly so that we can be at peace and bring that peace to others.

The first fear to let go if we want to be part of this chain of Atonement is the fear of the Last Judgment. This fear is really the fear of God, the fear that finally, our misdeeds are catching up with us, that finally we have been backed up against the wall and there is nowhere to run, no way to get away from God. He has seen what we have done and now we will be punished, annihilated for our temerity. We tried to leave God and He is finally and forever through with us.

Jesus says there is no truth to this. He says that judgment is not in God’s nature and that before the separation there was no such thing as judgment. Actually, judgment was made just so that we would have a way out of the impossible situation we put ourselves in when we made up separation. We have looked on judgment as a frightening thing, and in reality, when used correctly it is it is our way out as we shall see when we read further. (I peeked ahead to see what was coming. ~smile~)

Right now, our job is to free ourselves of fear so that we will be useful to the awakening. Not to lose sight of how this is done, I remind myself that all I need do is notice the fear thoughts (remembering that fear is everything that is not love), ask for healing and accept the Atonement. So simple, so easy to do.

This is my goal while I am here, my purpose, the only thing I do that really matters. This is the way I undo fear for myself and for all of us, for all time. This is the way I return my mind to God. I will not become distracted from my holy purpose today. Yes, I will continue to do what seems to need to be done in this life I dream, but it will all be used to undo fear. This is the part I will not forget.

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

Study of the Text 3-13-13

VIII. The Meaning of the Last Judgment
1 One of the ways in which you can correct the magic-miracle confusion is to remember that you did not create yourself. You are apt to forget this when you become egocentric, and this puts you in a position where a belief in magic is virtually inevitable. Your will to create was given you by your Creator, Who was expressing the same Will in His Creation. Since creative ability rests in the mind, everything you create is necessarily a matter of will. It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, though not in the Mind of God. This basic distinction leads directly into the real meaning of the Last Judgment.

I’m not going to think about the Last Judgment right now. I want to think about what Jesus has said about the magic-miracle confusion. He says that the key is to remember I did not create myself. Here is how this feels to me as I rest my mind and allow some clarity to come to me.

God created me like Himself so there is in me the creative impulse. I can, therefore, create as God creates. When I try to see this in my mind, I see creation occurring in a straight line. From God comes creative power which manifests as the Son of God. From the Son of God comes the same creative power which manifests as His creations. This power always moves forward and does not turn on itself. The Son cannot turn the power and re-create Himself. He can only continue to create as He was created. This creative power has never ceased.

There was a tiny mad idea in which the Son wondered what it would be like if creative power could actually allow Him to recreate Himself in an image other than God. This was not possible, but imagining it was. It was imagined in all its possibilities, seen as undesired and dismissed. Some part of the mind is still watching the possibilities as they unfold over and over, deciding when it wants to wake up from the dream of separation.

Within the dream there are always two choices being made in every moment. One is the choice to end the story. This is done by turning the attention to God and giving full desire to that choice. The other is to continue the story as if it is real. In this choice the solution is magic, that is, to solve problems that don’t exist using the tools provided in the illusion, which of course are no more real than the illusion itself.

I like to imagine this as a video game with lots of levels. I made up the game and designed the levels. I hid tools all through the game and planted clues on each level to lead me to the next level. But within the game there is no solution. There is only the illusion that there is a way to win. No matter how long I play, how skilled I become, how many tools I find and use, I never find the way out.

The only way to win this game is to end it because it was based on an impossible premise. The way to win it is to stop looking at the magical solutions, and to start looking for the Holy Spirit clues. Eventually, the Holy Spirit clues become a constant Voice that guides me through the game and, when I am ready, out of the game.

Before I started playing the game with the Holy Spirit, I was trying to use the creative impulse on my own. This cannot be done and that is why it didn’t work. I would get the illusion that I was moving forward, winning at the game, but then I would get knocked back to another level or I would die and have to start over. The creative impulse can make illusions, but does not create when used by myself because it is not the nature of God to be separate and creation is always of God. Creation cannot be anything other than what It is.

Once I begin to follow the Guide and listen to only that Voice, I begin to experience miracles. These miracles are actually the only natural things to be found within the game, though in the game they seem super natural. They occur as a result of the corrected mind which begins to make in a way that, while not creation, more closely resembles creation.

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

Study of the Text 3-12-13

3-12-13
7 I have already briefly spoken about readiness, but some additional points might be helpful here. Readiness is only the prerequisite for accomplishment. The two should not be confused. As soon as a state of readiness occurs, there is usually some degree of desire to accomplish, but it is by no means necessarily undivided. The state does not imply more than a potential for a change of mind. Confidence cannot develop fully until mastery has been accomplished. We have already attempted to correct the fundamental error that fear can be mastered, and have emphasized that the only real mastery is through love. Readiness is only the beginning of confidence. You may think this implies that an enormous amount of time is necessary between readiness and mastery, but let me remind you that time and space are under my control.

So far this study of the Text has been exciting for me. I began it by setting aside all I thought I knew about everything. I have been studying the Course for many years now, around 30 or 31 years. Over all those years I have formed many different opinions. I have also read and studied the writings of various Course teachers and that has influenced my opinions. I have also read other writings, which have colored my beliefs. It has all melded together and without realizing it I have decided on certain things and taken them as truth when maybe they are not.

So the way I do this study is to sit down in front of my computer every morning and read the next paragraph. I notice the thoughts I have, and then I ask Jesus what he wants me to know about this and what he wants me to write about it. The more I do this, the better I get at it, so this is a side benefit of this practice. It’s not as easy to empty the mind of what I think I know as I thought it would be. I am sure I don’t do a perfect job, but it has really made a difference. Learning to listen to Holy Spirit is more important than an understanding of the words so I am grateful for this practice.

This morning, Jesus is reminding us that it is important that we be ready for this study. I understand this. When I first started doing the Course I would often feel regretful that I did not do it sooner. I would think how different my life would have been if only I had known some of this stuff sooner. I still felt a lot of guilt for my life at that time and wanted desperately to be forgiven.

Wanting so desperately to have never done some of the things I had done, I couldn’t help but wish that I had been a Course student all along and then maybe I wouldn’t have made those mistakes. But soon I realized that I could not have done the Course any sooner than I did. I simply wasn’t ready for it. Eventually, I came to understand that those “mistakes” were an integral part of my learning process. And later still, I saw the perfection of each step in my life.

There was nothing in my life that did not belong there; each moment was the foundation of the next. This continues to be true. I still hear the voice of regret sometimes but I recognize it as an ego attempt to draw me back into the story. I sometimes hear about someone else’s journey and wish for that in my life. I would sometimes read something from A Thousand Names for Joy and I would long to be where Byron Katie is in her life. I could almost taste it and I knew it was possible, and yet it was tantalizingly just out of reach.

What I understand now is that each shift occurs only when I am ready for it. The ego desire to experience Byron Katie’s life won’t bring me to that state of readiness. What she says sometimes opens my mind to a possibility I had never considered before and that will sometimes bring me to a new state of readiness. I have experienced that before with other people. Sometimes Regina would write about a learning experience in her life and suddenly, I was right there with her. It is as if reading her experienced awakened the same experience in me. Love it!

I would love to have the sudden awaking that Jan Frazier experienced, but that is not my path either. I used to try to mimic what I saw others do successfully. I thought that if I did what they did then I could have what they have. This was not true. The ego is always trying to be part of my spiritual journey and tries to direct it, but it never works. What I finally realized is that my journey is unique to me, just as everyone else’s is unique to them. This is why it is so helpful to practice listening to Holy Spirit. He is the Guide for each of us and knows exactly what is perfect for our next step.

What I am told in this paragraph is that while readiness is essential, by itself it is not enough. I must then accomplish, which means there is work to do. I need do nothing to be the Son of God, but I need to work diligently and remain vigilant if I want to awaken to the memory of who I am. Jesus gave me the Workbook to help me with this. When I started the Course, I fell in love with the Text immediately, but I really didn’t want to do the Workbook.

I put this down to laziness, and really, I had very lazy work habits. But it was not laziness. I simply did not feel worthy of awakening. I could not even imagine it. Oh certainly if the Course said I could then I would… in some lifetime. It took a very long time, and a lot of starts and stops, for me to reach a state of readiness that allowed me to finish the Lessons. But once I was ready, the lessons flowed easily and I enjoyed each one. I did them again, and this time I asked the Holy Spirit to help me with them and that is how I began journaling with my daily study.

So while readiness is essential for each step, follow through on that readiness is also essential. This is how we reach the stage of accomplishment. Our work isn’t to make something. What we are is already established and needs nothing from us. Our work is undoing. It is not even undoing, really. It is simpler than that. Our work is wanting to undo. It is the acceptance of the undoing.

Jesus says that it might seem that it would take a long time between readiness and mastery, but he reminds us that time and space are in his hands. I heard David Hoffmeister say one time that he did every lesson as if he fully expected this to be the one that woke him up. I think this is an excellent attitude. Every morning now I wonder if today will be the day I reach mastery. I don’t long for it anymore, but I do expect it. I am not concerned when it is not the day; I simply expect it the next day.

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

Study of the Text 3-11-13

3-11-13
6 It should especially be noted that God has only one Son. If all His creations are His Sons, every one must be an integral part of the whole Sonship. The Sonship in its Oneness transcends the sum of its parts. However this is obscured as long as any of its parts is missing. That is why the conflict cannot ultimately be resolved until all the parts of the Sonship have returned. Only then can the meaning of wholeness in the true sense be understood. Any part of the Sonship can believe in error or incompleteness if he so chooses. However, if he does so, he is believing in the existence of nothingness. The correction of this error is the Atonement.

This is the place in the Text where I discovered that I, too, am a Son of God. The mystery deepens as I am told that God has only one Son. I am a part of a whole, it seems and this does seem mysterious to me because I don’t know what this means. All I know, really, is separation and so it is hard to get a feeling for wholeness. And yet, the memory of what I am must be in my mind. This memory, though I cannot access it on a conscious level, is the reason I didn’t toss the whole thing at this point.

Though buried very deeply, the memory of my Self is in my mind and this memory draws me to the Course and keeps me reading it even though nothing in the world validates what I am reading. I try to imagine something that symbolizes this idea of being part of a whole. I think of cells in the body. Am I a cell in the body of Christ dreaming I have a life separate from the body?

It’s not a perfect metaphor but maybe the best I can do. Jesus says that I will not understand this until I return to wholeness, so there is little sense in trying. I will just continue to do my part in the correction of the error through accepting the Atonement. As I have been doing this practice the last few days my experience of it has expanded.

Quite honestly, the idea of accepting the Atonement has had little real meaning for me until very recently. I understood the words and intellectually grasped the meaning, but until I was ready I did not accept the meaning into my heart. As it turns out, “accept” is the key word. In the past I asked for the Atonement, but did not fully accept it. I kept it at bay with my defenses, and so did not really know what it was.

Quite suddenly, really, as I was doing the study and practice of this section of the Text, I accepted what was being offered. In the acceptance of it, I realized that Love came into my mind and healed me. That, evidently, is the Atonement. It is the Jesus’ plan for our salvation. We just keep looking at our thoughts and beliefs, learning to question their validity, and then when we are ready, we open ourselves to Love and all is corrected and the mind healed of its confusion.

Oh, dear Jesus, could it be that simple? Evidently, it is. Of course I still have to accept the Atonement. I still defend against it, but now I see what is happening more clearly than before, and with a startling clarity I see how the ego is undone. I have said before that it is not my job to heal my mind only to want it healed, but now I see it. I see the simplicity and perfection of the plan of atonement. It makes me cry in relief and gratitude as I write this.

Of course my mind is still split so the part that wants to think of itself as a solitary cell with its on little universe is not giving up the fight. In fact it keeps mounting these surprise attacks, some of them very subtle and some quite vicious. I remember something shameful from my past or I become obsessed with a worry thought about possible futures. Soon the ego is putting forth very reasonable presumptions, and I start to doubt reality (which now seems far fetched) and to believe the ego story.

But Jesus has given me the solution and even in my pain and doubt, I remember that this solution works, and now, after practicing it, I know I want the solution. I tell the Holy Spirit that I accept the Atonement in this situation. At first it is tentative and the ego kicks into high gear as it points out that these are just words and what do they mean anyway? But I know I don’t want to live in fear and guilt anymore and I open more fully to the solution.

I tell the Holy Spirit that I really want the Atonement. I stand there in the middle of the room with my arms outstretched. “Here I am God. I stand naked and defenseless against Your love. I accept Your offer. I invite Love into my mind, and I ask Love to heal me.” I feel a little foolish, but also giddy with relief. I have discovered the way out of this insanity.

I accept the Atonement in this situation where I believe I was guilty because I want it more than I want to hide from my guilt. I accept Atonement in this situation where I believe I am endangered because I want it more than I want to protect myself. I accept even in the face of my fear and doubt and uncertainty. I trust and so I accept.

Do you see where this is leading? I dream of my little cell floating nearer and nearer the body of which it is an integral part. “God, swallow me up. Take me in. Return me to my Home. Wake me from my dream of separation. I accept.” I trust that my prayer is answered. I look forward to discovering how much I am willing to accept today.

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

Study of the Text 3-8-13

3-8-13
5 Nothing and everything cannot coexist. To believe in one is to deny the other. Fear is really nothing and love is everything. Whenever light enters darkness, the darkness is abolished. What you believe is true for you. In this sense the separation has occurred, and to deny it is merely to use denial inappropriately. However, to concentrate on error is only a further error. The initial corrective procedure is to recognize temporarily that there is a problem, but only as an indication that immediate correction is needed. This establishes a state of mind in which the Atonement can be accepted without delay. It should be emphasized, however, that ultimately no compromise is possible between everything and nothing. Time is essentially a device by which all compromise in this respect can be given up. It only seems to be abolished by degrees, because time itself involves intervals that do not exist. Miscreation made this necessary as a corrective device. The statement “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” needs only one slight correction to be meaningful in this context; “He gave it to His only begotten Son.”

Fear is nothing and love is everything. I can believe in only one at a time. I cannot hold the idea of fear in my mind and still believe in love. I can jump back and forth, but I believe in only one or the other in any given moment. This is the reason it seems so hard to let go of a fear thought. While I hold the fear in my mind, I cannot believe that it is not real. And if I believe in the fearful image in my mind it becomes real to me.

I believe in the separation and so the separation is true for me. It would not be helpful for me to stand here in the face of fear and say that the separation isn’t real. That is the truth, but I don’t really believe it. If I believed it, I wouldn’t think I was here. Since I believe the separation is real, it is real for me. Yikes! I’m stuck in this cycle of false thinking.

Jesus shows us the way out of it. We cannot take ourselves out of it, but we can be released when that is our desire. First we see evidence that we believe in separation, that is when we experience fear, guilt, sickness, pain, rage, grievances, jealousy, depression or any of the other feelings that come from believing we are separate from God. We acknowledge what is happening. Then we immediately go to the correction. We accept the Atonement and allow love to heal our mind.

It may seem like a subtle difference, saying that fear does not exist as opposed to saying I am experiencing fear and fear does not exist so I accept the Atonement or I accept healing, but in my experience it is a very important difference. The first is denial of what is obviously true for me and will produce conflict in my mind and this will bring me deeper into fear.

Jesus asks us to look with the Holy Spirit at the thoughts in our mind. He asks us to keep nothing from Him. This is what we are doing when we acknowledge our erroneous thinking. The ego likes to step in at that moment and make a lifetime study of the thought, but Jesus warns against this. He says that while pretending it has not happened is using denial inappropriately, to concentrate on error is only a further error. So look at the error, acknowledge it, and then go straight to the correction.

I think for some people, this business of looking at the fear or anger or guilt, or whatever form the separation takes, is simple. For me it was hard to get the hang of it. I had a problem with expressing emotion, which caused me to repress it or to stuff it. And if I repress the emotion, I also repress the cause. This doesn’t work, of course, and even if I deny the fear for a while, it just pops back up.

I would then try to control it by finding solutions. This doesn’t work either as any attempt to control fear just makes it seem more real. I tried to go straight from a fear thought to healing without looking at it or acknowledging it. I saw the error in this when I read that Jesus could not take my fear from me.

At first that was an upsetting thought, but eventually I understood that he was not abandoning me to my fear, but helping me to see what needed to be done to eventually be healed of the belief in fear altogether.  Now when I feel fear I look at it straight on, I feel what is happening to me, I become willing to know anything about it that would be helpful in releasing it. I am not afraid of the fear anymore. I know that this process of looking with the Holy Spirit is safe.

So for awhile now we have placed ourselves in a situation that demands we acknowledge as real something that does not exist so that we can make a different choice about it. Eventually, as Jesus says, we are going to have to make the ultimate decision and accept that there is only God and nothing else exists. This might take a long time as we look at one fear thought after another and allow each to be healed. But finally, we will notice the pattern and the mind will click, I guess. ~smile~

Or maybe it will not take a long while. Maybe we will just, one day accept the truth. I know it is really that easy. If I can let go of a fear thought simply because I want to then I can let go of all fear thoughts, or the belief in fear, simply because I want to. The moment I want this, wholly want this, it is done.

I often think of Jill Frazier (Fear Falls Away). She had a moment of looking at her fear and considered the thought that there could be a way of doing this without fear. After a lifetime of fear, it was her moment of complete release. By the way, reading her story I was struck by the fact that she didn’t know she was doing this, she wasn’t trying to let go of fear. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need our help, only our permission.

The Holy Spirit will always heal my mind to the degree I am willing. Why I hold onto fear when I don’t have to is a mystery to me. But as a matter of encouragement, I will tell you that doing it the slow way does work. I don’t have fear like I used to and when I do, I look at it with less anxiety and choose the Atonement quickly.

I see that one day, maybe soon, maybe later, I will be ready to accept the Atonement completely and permanently. I don’t know when but I see it is inevitable. Jesus says it only seems like it is being abolished in degrees because I believe in time. Well, I can’t do anything with that but go with the program.

As a last thought, I know that the “program” is unique to each of us. Jan Frazier had her program and so did Byron Katie and others. Some seemed to have experienced their awakening suddenly and without any effort on their part. Mine seems to be a slow progressive experience as I do the work and take small gentle steps and share my progress with others. I didn’t choose this. None of us choose our path. We just seem to.

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

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