Together, We Light the Way

Click link to go to:
Together We Light the Way Index

Study of the Text 9-24-12

9-24-12
30 By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and show them in proper alignment. This places spirit at the center, where it can communicate directly.

As I realized that I am spirit I began to hear the Voice for God. The more I have listened to that Voice the stronger it has become. This is spirit at the center.

Holy Spirit, what would you have me know about this?

Holy Spirit: You do not need to know how this works, and it would not be possible to completely explain this in words. Your desire and acceptance are what is needed to allow this to happen. From desire it flows naturally and will flow until impeded by non-acceptance.

Me: Is this like when I desired to know who I was, but could not believe I was ready?

Holy Spirit: Yes. Your doubt was the block that kept the process stalled.  In a holy instant, born of desire and faith, you joined with your sister in purpose and what you call a “shift” occurred. Do you recall doing anything to make this happen?

Me: No. I simply said, “Yes.” Everything else just happened. After that there was still doubt in my mind, but it was like a shadow, there but not there. I felt like waiting to see what would happen, knowing that what would happen would be perfect and the timing would be perfect. It was joyful.

Holy Spirit: You must protect your decision by making it again daily. You will find this effortless and just as joyful if you dedicate a few moments of time each morning and each evening for this purpose. Do not feel the pressure to do something in those moments. Your desire to give that time is all that is needed. The rest will be done for you.

Me: Here is how it feels. I learned that when I didn’t know what to do to be happy I could ask You and You would guide me to the right action, or all that was causing my distress would just dissolve away. These were miraculous moments. I began to do this more and more until there were fewer instances of stubbornness, where I thought I didn’t need help.

Then it seemed that I was doing this almost without any gaps at all, but I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I knew that I could step aside completely but I didn’t know how. I just kept asking You to help me. That is when my sister stepped forward to offer me her hand. Through her You told me that I could just be where I longed to be.

If I were to describe it I would say that instead of continually stepping aside and allowing You to lead when I was in trouble, I simply stepped aside. Now You are at the helm. You are the unwavering Presence in my mind. Even when I have moments of confusion, I am never confused about that. I know that the only thing that happens when I feel confused is that I am looking out at the world through the ego’s eyes. It’s means nothing and I stop. I laugh when I think how hard I made this seem in the past.

I will protect my certainty as You suggested. I want You at the center. I want You to speak through me, to be my eyes and ears. I want only Your perception. Why would I want anything else, now that I have had it? With You at the center it feels like “I” am not really standing aside, but that “I” have dissolved away along with the unhappiness.

I used to be afraid that this would happen, afraid of the thought that “I” would disappear into You. Now I long for that process to be complete. What a delight to discover that it isn’t scary at all and that I have lost nothing.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 9-21-12

9-21-12
28 Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.

This one is pretty simple. Through revelation we have no fear. But how do we get to revelations? We get there through miracles. So how do we get to miracles? We do not make miracles happen anymore than we make revelations happen. However, miracles occur because we have made our mind ready for them.

I experienced a couple of miraculous physical healings. I did not do this through making the body ready through exercise or healthy food. I didn’t do it through magic words such as affirmations. However, when I added conviction to those words, I became ready for a miracle to occur through me.

When I first began my study of the Course there were many passages that I knew were meaningful but that I could not accept. For example, the Course has always said there is no pain, but my mind was so filled with the belief in the body as real that I could not understand what the Course was talking about.

I had to continue my study and my practice and hear the same thing in many ways before I had emptied my mind of the belief in the body as reality enough to even begin to accept the truth that I am spirit and not body. This “emptiness” made a place for the truth, and the truth led to miracles. Miracles then lead to revelation, which is direct communication from God to us. This communication induces a state of fearlessness.

29 Miracles praise God through you. They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.

First let me look at the opposite of the miracle. I see my son hurt his back and so he must find some treatment that will correct the damage done. I pray that he will find the right doctor. I pray that he will have no more pain.  In my more enlightened moment I pray he will accept a miracle. But all thoughts are prayer and so because I believe in the body so strongly, I also pray that he cannot be healed without the right treatment and I pray that treatment is not available to him and so he will suffer all his life. And even if he receives a miracle, I know he doesn’t believe in them and so I pray he can’t accept it. Yikes!

However, since I study and practice the Course which tells me that I am not a body and that I am under no laws but God’s, I begin the process of emptying my mind of the false beliefs that were the source of my fearful prayers, my prayers to the idol that I had allowed to take the place of my Creator. As I make room for the truth it rises in my mind and the Power that is God is manifested through me as a miracle. I am told that a healed mind is no small thing, and my experience is convincing.

My belief in ego manifests the fear and body-identification that was the source of those crazy prayers for pain and suffering. While thinking with the ego mind I was worshipping an idol. As I allowed my mind to be healed, I denied the body-identification, and began to know myself as spirit. While identified with body I can only hope for relief; identified with spirit I expect miracles. In the first my praise was directed toward the ego as the maker of the body, but in the miracle I praise God as I honor His creation of me as spirit.

Every time I experience pain in my neck or believe in my son’s back injury, but then turn my face from those illusions to the truth that I am as I was created and so is my son, I praise God. I praise Him through my certainty that His creation cannot be undone. If I see any part of His creation as sick and broken, I must be mistaken. I must be dreaming. This cannot be.

There cannot be pain, suffering or death because there is God and only God. When my mind wanders to the scary stuff of ego thoughts of separation, I shake myself awake and remember I am spirit, I am the perfect creation of a perfect God and nothing else can be true. I praise God as I allow the truth to fill my mind and the miracle to manifest in my life.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 9-20-12

9-20-12
27 A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

My son hurt his back several years ago and he is still in pain. Sometimes the pain is very intense as it has been lately. Last night I was thinking about him and I was filled with concern for him. I wanted him to be healed of this injury so much and to be finally free from this pain. I also had the thought this might not happen for him. I know someone who has suffered all his adult life from a back injury with no relief. Suddenly I was filled with fear for my son.

I reminded myself that I am creating this feeling of fear and anxiety for my son. The whole story of my son injured and in pain is a construction of the mind as is everything we think of as the world. It is made up. It is not real. There is no power outside the mind, not in the body or in anything.

Holy Spirit, I forgive myself for seeing myself as separate from You. I forgive myself for seeing myself and others as bodies. I forgive myself for seeing Toby as a body. I forgive myself for seeing myself as separate from Toby and separate from others. Please come into my mind and undo what I have done.

After praying I felt the knot in my stomach loosen. I allowed my thoughts to be corrected and the peace of God flood my mind. True thoughts began to surface in my mind and I knew that forgiveness was moving from God through me to my son. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

How will this affect Toby’s story? I don’t know as it is up to him to accept the healing. My story is my business. His story is his business. However, here is something I have noticed. As we begin to undo the ego through forgiveness, our acceptance spreads through the mind and makes it easier for others to accept as well.

This is why it will not take an endless amount of time for us to wake up as it would seem if each and every person had to come to this place of acceptance starting from a completely confused mind. We do share one mind and when you experience a healing of that mind, I am aware of the healing as well. This may not happen on a conscious level, but it does happen.

Perhaps the next time I decide to let go of a grievance I will be surprised at how easily I forgive. But however it appears in any individual story, each person’s healing has uplifted us all. Each time any of us choose forgiveness we make it easier and more likely that Toby, too will choose to forgive his belief in pain, suffering and death.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of Manual for Teachers 9-19-12

9-19-12
26 Miracles represent freedom from fear. “Atoning” means “undoing.” The undoing of fear is an essential part of the atonement value of miracles.

The world is a scary place. This is true even when it seems beautiful, peaceful or loving. Even when the world is briefly perfect in my experience, fear is never far away because change is never far away. I can be having a lovely day having fun with friends and family, and the ego mind will be busy in the background offering me fear.

The mind will relate this good experience to something in the past that was not so good. Or it will compare this loving moment with my child to one in which we had a disagreement. The ego will go into the past to find something to regret, or it will project into the future to find something to dread. Thus, peace is never complete and fear is only a thought away.

We did this. We made this illusory world as a way to experience separation. It is not real and it is not our home so there is a way to undo what we have done. There is a Guide to help us find the tools that have been placed within the illusion to help free our mind from the illusion, and our Guide will help us to use those tools. A Course in Miracles is such a tool, and through the study and practice of the Course, my Guide has directed me to many processes that have led to the miracles that represent freedom from fear.

One such process was from the book Inner Healing by Dan Joseph.
These three steps involve:
Acknowledging an inner block (any distressing thought or feeling)

Becoming willing to prayerfully release that block
Opening to an inner experience of divine comfort and peace.

I worked with this process, literally, for years. At first it was hard work and often discouraging because I did not fully desire the change. There were distressing thoughts and feelings that I wanted to keep. Eventually, as my willingness grew stronger I accepted the changes and I began to experience the miracle of freedom from fear. The process has evolved over time, though the elements of the process have not.

Right now I am using a process I learned from the book, Busting Loose From the Money Game. This process involves recognizing that I am responsible for what is happening. I created this and it is not real. It is completely made up. I recognize that it is a creation of my consciousness and I reclaim my power from this creation. I appreciate the power that not only made something unreal seem to happen but also convinced myself it was real. This book uses different language than the Course, but the ideas are the same. 

Whichever process I am guided to use, the goal is the same. I am learning that I have been identified with an illusory self and this is the source of all my fears. I let go of that identification and the memory of my true Self returns to me. In other words, I am allowing the illusion to be undone and the result is a miracle that brings me freedom from fear

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 9-18-12

9-18-12
25 Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. Atonement works all the time and in all the dimensions of time.

I can visual an interlocking chain of forgiveness. I can see this in two ways. One way is when I become aware of an ego belief and choose to allow that to be healed, and other similar or connected beliefs are healed as well. An example that comes to mind occurred the other day when I was having my moment with the Apple Support team. It seemed that the tech I was working with was being as deliberately unhelpful as he could be and I became angry and resentful.

I chose to see the situation differently (forgave it) and everything changed. I forgave the idea that my brother was separate from me, which was linked to the belief that I am a victim, which was linked to the belief that something outside me has power. If I were to visualize this differently, I would see them as dominoes. I knocked over the first one and it fell into the next and that one into the next, thus in forgiving the first idea, other ideas were forgiven as well.

Another way the chain works is that I forgive a situation or person and others are affected, perhaps being inspired to their own forgiveness process. Even if they are unaware a change has occurred within their mind, and what that change means, it will have begun. I have noticed that as I have forgiven more deeply and more often, I feel happier and calmer. I seldom become angry or upset and when I do forgiveness is always my immediate response. I have also noticed that the people around me respond to me differently.

Sometimes it’s obvious, as when someone in my circle of acquaintances who in the past disliked me or was ambivalent toward me suddenly seems to have changed her mind. For my part I forgave her, or another way to say it is I recognized she had done nothing to me. She is part of this little play I think of as my life. I gave her the role she plays, the script she speaks from. She is in my play to support me in my awakening process.

Since I brought her into my life, told her what to say to trigger me into a reaction which points to a belief in the mind that needs to be healed, how can I call her guilty? Choosing to see her as innocent I no longer feel any animosity toward her, and in fact feel gratitude. I stopped avoiding her and one day I when I saw her I asked how she was doing and because I really wanted to know, she told me. Our relationship shifted because of forgiveness. I see her differently and it is obvious she sees me differently.

I don’t know the next link in the chain, as that is not my part. Jesus is in charge of the Atonement because he sees the completed process and knew that she was ready for what I could offer if I chose to. For my part, seeing such a clear demonstration of the atonement principle at work increased my confidence and encouraged me to forgive more often. I saw that all the forgiveness happened in my mind and yet it affected the people around me.

Because I had faith in what I read in the Course and did the work when I had no reason to trust the outcome, I have experienced its effects and now embrace the work with joy and gratitude. I have no trouble believing that the Atonement works all the time. I don’t need proof anymore. I just accept that where I am is where Jesus needs me and what is in front of me is the next link in the chain. I don’t know what it means that it works in all dimensions of time but I suppose I will understand someday.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of the Text 9-17-12

9-17-12
24 Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real.

Holy Spirit, if ever I have the thought that there is nothing I can do to heal myself or another, please remind me of this passage. Through miracles I can heal the sick and raise the dead. I made up sickness and death and so I can abolish sickness and death. I have used my ability to create in an uncreative way to make sickness and death, but I can also use it creatively to create lovingly, that is to extend Love.

Only what is created through the extension of Love exists and everything else is just a dream, a nightmare. It does not exist. The world of sickness and death do not exist. This is how I heal; I know what exists and what does not, and I am not confused by appearances. If I do become confused I only need to ask You, Holy Spirit, to heal my mind and clarity returns.

I have pain in my neck. There are two voices speaking to me about this. The ego says that this is a recurring pain I get from driving so many hours or maybe something else I do. I will go to the chiropractor a couple of times and I will be ok for awhile and then it will come back. I have two reactions when I listen to this voice.

I feel in control because there is something I can do and I know what that is, but I also feel afraid because it depends on the actions of someone else, so I am not really in control. I feel discouraged because there is nothing I can do to cure it and if I did cure it there is nothing I can do to prevent a recurrence. I feel like a victim of my life style, of my body, of the chiropractors skill.

When I listen to the other Voice I am told that I did this, and because I did it I can undo it. I can undo it simply by knowing that it is not real, that what I make is an illusion. I remembered this yesterday and for hours I had no pain at all and my neck was loose and moved freely. When I realized that this had happened the ego voice said that this can’t happen and immediately the stiffness and pain returned. And the ego voice said, “See. I told you so. You have pain so you are not healed.”

What has pain? The illusion of a body has an illusion of pain. What does that prove except that I am identified with an illusion. I chose that identity and can easily change my mind again. I identify with the body and I feel things in the body. I identify with spirit and I feel nothing in the body. That is all that is happening here. Was the body healed? How can you heal an illusion?

When my mind is healed of its identity crisis and no longer projects a belief in sickness and suffering onto the body, then the body will no longer reflect those beliefs. It is no different with anything else I seem to experience in the world. Physical pain and sickness, emotional pain and sickness, financial problems, relationship problems, all of these are simply reflections of the same belief in lack.

So will I be able to ignore the illusion of pain I made through mistaken beliefs and allow the manifestation to disappear? Or will my attention be so riveted on the illusion that I forget, again, that I am an infinite and powerful being. Will I sink into the illusion of being a small and separate and limited body, and pretend to be subject to the laws of man?

The ego voice says that my decision matters and a wrong choice is a sin. The Holy Spirit says that infinite beings are perfectly free, and blameless regardless of our choices. After all, I can only pretend to have pain because pain doesn’t exist. Nothing is happening. Can nothing be a sin? I have made this choice many times. I know that making the choice for Spirit is all that matters. It is the only real thing I can do. I know that I will disregard appearances and trust the healing power of truth.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Study of Manual for Teachers 9-14-12

9-14-12
23 Miracles rearrange perception and place all levels in true perspective. This is healing because sickness comes from confusing the levels. 

Very simply, there are at least two levels, mind and body, and all sickness occurs in mind and is then projected onto the body. So in reality the body is never healed, but always it is the mind that is healed and then a healed mind is projected onto the body. When we see it backward, when we perceive that the body is the source of the problem, we try to heal with medicines and other methods. This is what the Course refers to as using magic.

Let’s say I have a migraine. If I am confused about the levels, I think that the migraine is triggered by something I ate or an environmental factor. I might keep a diary of everything I eat or come into contact with and try to find a pattern. In the meantime I see a doctor and get pain pills to make the periodic headaches more tolerable.

As my mind is healed I see things more clearly and realize that headaches don’t come from anything in the world, but are caused by untrue beliefs held in the mind. The only way to cure a headache is to heal the mind of those beliefs. As I become closer to having true perception I have less illness in the body. Sometimes sickness comes anyway, and I think that this is because, like anything else that we call into existence, sickness can be a learning tool for ourselves and others. Or perhaps sometimes, even as the mind heals, what has been put into motion must play its self out.

So if healing occurs in the mind and not the body, why is it that medicine and other methods of healing seem to work? I think it is because we want it to. This is our illusion, our own little kingdom that we made up. It would be intolerable if there were no “cures” within our illusion. Also, if we could not heal the body it would drive us to heal the mind and then where would our illusory kingdom be? Right out the door.

Healing the body is magic because the body is not sick. Healing the body is magic because the body doesn’t exist. It is an illusion. So when we heal something in the body we haven’t really done anything and sickness returns, if not in that particular form then in some other. This applies to all sickness, sickness of the body, of the mind, of relationships, financial, and all forms of lack.

This is why when I get a headache or some other sign of a confused mind I use it as an opportunity to remember the truth. My first thought is that pain is not real. If I am emotionally upset, my first thought is that this is not real. I remind myself that pain of any kind cannot be real because it is not part of God. I ask, “Who am I?” I ask the Holy Spirit to come into my mind and undo what I have done.

If the pain does not go away on its own I take something. If I am sick and the sickness does not go away, I go to the doctor. It is not a sin to use magic to achieve what the mind is not yet ready to accept. I have not found that trying to force acceptance is helpful, nor is it necessary.  I have discovered that the mind will be healed in perfect timing as I am ready, and when it is healed, all else falls away on its own.

To feel guilty for not accepting the healing of the mind sooner or for having pain after I have asked for healing is just a trick of the ego, a way the ego keeps the illusion going. When I feel guilt for anything, I respond in the same way as I do for pain. I remind myself that guilt is not real because it is not part of God. I ask the Holy Spirit to come into my mind and undo what I have done.

It is guilt itself that causes sickness of every kind, so it is certainly not helpful to feel guilty if I use magic to bring relief. Magic can be a handy stop-gap measure until the mind is completely healed. The whole illusion is magic, and medicine is just another form of magic. My experience has been that using these magical cures has not slowed down my healing in the least. Feeling guilty for doing so and failing to forgive myself is what keeps the illusion in place.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 210 of 264 pages ‹ First  < 208 209 210 211 212 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Together, We Light the Way

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.