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Gentle Healing Lesson 165.  9-29-19

I skipped this lesson so I am making up for it now.
LESSON 165

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

Journal
“The Thought of God created you. It left you not, nor have you ever been apart from it an instant. It belongs to you. By it you live. It is your Source of life, holding you one with it, and everything is one with you because it left you not. The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting life shine in your mind, because the Thought of God has left you not, and still abides with you.”

I know that the Thought of God is not just me thinking about God. It is the Creative Force that is Life. I could not have lost that or I would not live. It remains with me even in my dreams of separation. All the things that the Thought of God gives me, care, protection, happiness and love, are still there for me and if that is not my experience it is because I have turned away from them. My attention is on the ego’s gifts of pain, suffering and death. As I have released more and more of the ego beliefs, my experience is closer to my reality.

“Sureness is not required to receive what only your acceptance can bestow.”

It’s a good thing this is true. When I started asking for healing, I was not entirely certain I wanted it. I wanted to be free of the effects of choosing ego, but I sometimes still wanted to feel like a victim or unfairly treated. I often wanted to keep pointing at my brother as the guilty one so as to obscure my part. But that I asked, meant that I was answered. And, as I was able, I accepted the answer even if I had to do so a little at a time.

“Ask with desire.”

When I first began this journey, I asked out of desperation for a better life. It took a while before that asking changed to one of true desire. Now my heart longs for the memory of Self and the memory of the oneness of God. Now the answers come quicker and I embrace them faster and more completely.

“Now is all doubting past, the journey’s end made certain, and salvation given you. Now is Christ’s power in your mind, to heal as you were healed. For now you are among the saviors of the world.”

This isn’t 100% true for me 100% of the time, but it is truer for me than it ever has been, and true enough for me to know that the journey’s end is imminent. Abundance dwells in me and what deprivation is left in my mind is being undone even now as I write about this. It cannot cut me off from God’s sustaining Love.

“We count on God, and not upon ourselves, to give us certainty. And in His Name we practice as His Word directs we do. His sureness lies beyond our every doubt. His Love remains beyond our every fear. The Thought of Him is still beyond all dreams and in our minds, according to His Will.”

Regina’s Tips

Today’s workbook lesson encourages us to practice with hope, because hope counteracts doubt.

What if we replaced every thought of doubt with a thought of hope? For example, we could replace, “I do not want truth enough” with “I must want truth more than I think, because spirituality is an ongoing focus in my life.”

Which do you think benefits the purpose of awakening more: negative thoughts of doubt or positive thoughts of hope? Which do you think benefits the ego more?

Let’s do two things today:

1 – Pay particular attention to discover the thoughts of doubt that you listen to. Look at those thoughts with reason, meaning notice that those thoughts serve the ego and discourage spiritual aspiration. Look for reasonable thoughts of hope to replace them with, thoughts that encourage you instead of discouraging you.

2 – Continue to notice awareness-life-presence. Throughout the day, each time you remember, take a moment to notice that you are aware and you exist. Even when you are distracted from awareness-life-presence by doubt, you are still aware and you still exist. Doubt does not change the truth; it only denies it.

My Thoughts

One of my common doubt thoughts was that I do not practice well enough or long enough to realize truth. That is no longer true for me. I have noticed the Holy Spirit’s nudge from time to time to give more time to meditation. It feels more like a strong desire to meditate or just an awareness that I am not as happy when I don’t give time for meditation. It is not that same feeling of dread that I used to have when I thought I was slacking off and my laziness or inability to do this right was going to keep me in hell. I am grateful for these gentle reminders.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Gentle Healing Lesson 166, Manual for Teachers, Text.  9-26-19

LESSON 166
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

God has given us everything. The reason we are not aware of His gifts is because we do not see that our will is one with His. We made a world of our own with a separate will. The world is not real and neither is separate will.  “…but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.”

While we believe in our own separate will and while we prefer it to our true will which is one with God’s Will, we will believe that accepting God’s gifts will be capitulation. It would be a denial of the little self. And so we suffer and think the suffering is a small price to pay to preserve the world we made.

We are so confused. We are afraid to give up the world we know for the world that is our Home but is no longer in our conscious memory. We think we want to be human because we have forgotten what it is like to be Divine Beings. But even in this amnesiac state in which we find ourselves, God goes with us. We are lost in our own senseless wandering mind, but not lost to God who knows us and loves us.

No matter how tragic the story and now much we seem to suffer, we remain as we were created, we remain eternal and perfect. We are literally choosing to replace reality with this imagined world. We defend against Heaven and refuse to see the evidence that proves we are not what God created.

Here is something I wrote a short time ago. I said that I must be closer to awakening, to accepting the truth. I say this because I utter the truth such as I am as God created me. I am an eternal and divine being. I am in God and of God right now. And this time when I remind myself of the truth, I feel a frisson of fear pass through me. It’s hard to put into words. Maybe like, how could that be? What would that be like? I feel a desire to remain small because I know smallness and I don’t know greatness. After the fear passes, I smile because I am not interested. I know that shudder of fear is the ego and I am not the ego.

That fear passed and I became ready for the Christ to help me perceive my Self and to know my Self. I laugh at the perception of myself as small and insignificant, as fearful and guilty. I now know that I am not this body image and this sad little story. I know what is not true about me and I am letting the memory of what is true come in its own time. I simply stay open and receptive and trusting.

“God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but this.”

People often wonder how it is that God could not know of our plan to lose our Self and choose an alien will with which to do this. If we are in God, and God is in us, then how could He not know about our life here and our fears and guilt? I like to remember that God does not believe, God knows and what He knows is eternal and unchangeable. If God knew of the world then the world would be eternal and unchangeable. Not something to wish for, is it?

I don’t know God the Father, and so I cannot know the actual answer to that question of how it is that we can be part of God and yet He not be aware of the world we made. The closest I can come is to think of our experience here as a dream. I am in God and part of the mind is dreaming. God knows that the dream is interrupting our communication and thus interrupting our joy and peace,  and so He placed His Voice within us so that we could awaken when we were ready. His Voice is the answer to our suffering.

“The gifts you have are not for you alone.”

The Voice for God is bringing us back to an awakened state so that we can remember who we are. But as we receive this call to awaken, we must also share it. We must learn to give. We become the teachers of God who help our brothers awaken with us. And how do we do that?

“Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust”

This is my commitment and I live up to it as much as I am able. When I fall short of being the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone, I correct my course and continue to walk the path. He has shared His joy with me and now my job is to share it with the world. That is my mission.

Regina’s Tips
NTI teaches that the ego began with the wish for something different than what is. Because that is the basis of the ego, that is a key element of the ego thought system. If you pay attention to your mind, you will see that this idea shows up in one form or another multiple times each day.

Today we will shift our attention from unhappiness to happiness, from the wish for something different to appreciation for the magnificent treasure that is always present.

Each time you notice the wish for something different in your mind today, pause. Shift your attention to awareness-life-presence, and spend a few moments appreciating it. Be as vigilant in this practice as you can be. I say this, because the wish for something different is a strong habit; it could occur many times during the day without you noticing it.

For example, the wish for something different may show up as the wish for more time to get things done, or as the wish for fewer things to do. It may show up as the wish for less traffic or a shorter line at the grocery store. It may show up as the wish that someone around you were different than he/she is. It may show up as the wish that you were different or that your body was different. It may show up as the wish that the world was different than it is.

Pay attention today for the wish for something different in whatever way it shows up in your thoughts, and then shift attention to notice the treasure. Let yourself feel appreciation for awareness-life-presence. Follow that by slowly saying to yourself, “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”

My Thoughts
My mind is focused today on choosing to remember and love through my highest Self and to see myself as God the Son. It is also focused on my responsibility to share what I am given through the way I live my life. It has taken me a minute to shift my mind to another way to do this. I can also focus my awareness on the mind that wants to think things should be different.

I see the value in changing my mind about that. Thinking things should be different in my life is a reflection of the original tiny mad idea in which I wanted reality to change. So in a sense, my wish for something to be different is the same as the original wish I had for things to be different. Every day is Groundhog Day, and though the form is different, the basis of the form is the same, let today be different than reality.

So today, I will pay special attention to the desire for things to be different. I started out feeling a little frazzled so I stopped to examine my thoughts. I saw that I felt like Monday’s are too full and that I would not have time to get everything done. So, I wanted that to be different. I let that thought go by deciding that today is perfect as it is and I will get done what I get done. Interestingly enough, everything is getting done that I had planned and I am at peace while it is all happening. It just took a simple change of mind.

Text
X. The Time of Rebirth, P 4
4 It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your power to make the time of Christ be now. It is possible to do this all at once because there is but one shift in perception that is necessary, for you made but one mistake. It seems like many, but it is all the same. For though the ego takes many forms, it is always the same idea. What is not love is always fear, and nothing else.

Journal
I know that Jesus is right when he says that it is in our power to make the time of Christ to be now. I also know that I couldn’t do that all at once, not that it wasn’t possible but that I couldn’t do it. From a new perspective, I see how simple it really is. I recognize now that when I felt guilty for some parental error it was no different than when I felt guilty for an angry word, or that I seemed never to learn. That guilt is no different than if I had been a dangerous pedophile or a murderer. In our world of differences, there seems to be many kinds of guilt and some seem worse and some seem to hold greater importance. But that is not true. Guilt is guilt no matter what form it takes.

This same idea holds true for any other form of fear. Fear of heights is no different than fear that I will be late for the show. No matter how different it feels to me, it is just fear. Anger is another form of fear and anger that it is raining on the day I wanted to walk outside is no different than anger that a marriage failed or someone stole from me. If it is not love, it is fear.

I make a choice for Christ each time I reject the belief in fear in whatever form it takes in the moment. That is what I did and it brought me to the place I am now. It is possible to skip all the little steps I took to get to this place, but I didn’t do it that way. From this present perspective this kind of makes me laugh at how much time it took me to recognize what was right in front of me all along.

How much less painful it would have been to simply accept that if it wasn’t love it was fear and then decide I wasn’t interested in the fear. If I refuse to accept fear the only thing left is love.

Manual for Teachers
Introduction P 3
M-in.3. The curriculum you set up is therefore determined exclusively by what you think you are, and what you believe the relationship of others is to you. 2 In the formal teaching situation, these questions may be totally unrelated to what you think you are teaching. 3 Yet it is impossible not to use the content of any situation on behalf of what you really teach, and therefore really learn. 4 To this the verbal content of your teaching is quite irrelevant. 5 It may coincide with it, or it may not. 6 It is the teaching underlying what you say that teaches you. 7 Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. 8 Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. 9 This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real. 10 But it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach.

I see that I am always teaching what I think I am, what I believe about myself and what I believe about you in relation to me. What I say may not be congruent with what I believe, but that will do nothing to change what I believe. This self I teach, and through teaching, constantly reinforce, may not be real, but if it is what I teach it becomes very real to me.

Here is an example, as I understand this. For a long time, I believed that I was a victim of the world I see. Because this was the belief in my mind, this was the interpretation I gave everything that happened to me. For instance, I did not know how to mother my first two children and did not do it well. I felt deeply ashamed and guilty, and I told myself that this was not my fault.

This was the story I told myself. My mother was a poor role model, so I was a victim of my circumstances, and of her failure as a mother. I needed to reinforce this story if I was going to believe it and convince others it was true, so I found a therapist who told me the same story. And I collected friends who were willing to witness to my victimization.

To appear even more innocent (to myself and others) I added martyr to my image as I made excuses for my mom, “she was just doing the best she could” stories. But though my words seemed charitable, they had nothing to do with what I believed, so what I was really teaching was that I was a victim, and she was guilty of victimizing me, but I was a charitable person so I was going to “forgive” her. Of course, this is not true forgiveness but rather “forgiveness to destroy”.

All the time I thought I was protecting (or maybe hiding) this image of myself through projecting blame; I was teaching victimization and learning victimization. And so, many victim stories followed. I was building this image of myself as a helpless victim with layers and layers of stories of being victimized. I often said I did not want to be a victim, and as I learned some psychology, I used different words that sounded good, but those words were hollow because I believed I was a victim and so this is what I taught.

And of course, every victim needs a victimizer so I collected those as well, and reinforced through my relationships with them that they were victimizers. What a sad and self-defeating cycle this is, and yet it is the cycle we all live in one form or another until we choose differently through choosing a different teacher. Now that I have chosen a different Teacher, my life is different so I am teaching differently.

My life doesn’t teach victimization because I can’t imagine ever again believing in victimization. The idea feels absurd to me now. My teaching in this is congruent with my beliefs and actions and so that teaching is the same in a formal situation that it is in what my life teaches. I recently let go of the belief in guilt and because this is recent, guilt thoughts still show up sometimes and my actions and words are not as free of guilt as they will be soon.

It is like I have cleaned my house, but once in a while, I notice something out of place or cobwebs I had missed, dust bunnies under the couch. I simply clean them away and enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. It is like that with guilt thoughts for me. A simple cleaning up of any fragments of the old belief. So, I am not yet teaching innocence perfectly, but will be as this process continues. As I teach myself that I am no longer interested in guilt, I teach others the same thing, and as I teach them, I reinforce the lesson for me.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Gentle Healing Lesson 164, Manual for Teachers, Text.  9-25-19

Lesson 164
Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

“What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ.”

I am one with God. Right now. Not at some later time, am I one with God. Not after I have done something to make this happen, or come to deserve this through effort on my part. The work and effort I put into this is merely to bring me to the point of acceptance. I am already and always have been one with God and so I am That in this present moment. Not through my eyes, but through the eyes of Christ I see this.

“Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.”

Jesus says that Christ answers for me, echoing my Self. I am for a moment confused by this. How is Christ and Self different? I think I understand, though. Christ refers to the Sonship as a whole, the entirety of the Sonship. Self is that entirety but also is part of that entirety. So, I can say Self is Christ, but my Self is a part of Christ. The part that is most important, that really matters in this, is that my voice (my Self, evidently, and not my self) must give consent but the Christ will accept my deliverance for me. So my awakening is done by the Christ as my Self gives consent for it.

We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world.

We do have a part in this. This part seems to be up to the ‘me’ that I most identify with. For a long time, this meant the self that appears to be residing in the world of time and space in this body. I don’t identify with this self nearly as much, hardly at all, but it is the self I am experiencing and to some degree still identify with.

So Myron practices non-judgment all the time. I am always aware of the tendency to judge both other people and myself, to judge situations, to have preferences because that is a judgment as well. When I notice this, I realize I am not interested in that anymore. I believe that I can stop judging people and myself. I believe that because I see how I have changed in that way. I just don’t have the desire to judge as often as I used to.

Maybe this personality I am using in this incarnation will always have preferences and maybe it will always have a tendency to judge. I don’t know. But I have seen that those judgmental thoughts and desires are lessened and that they don’t impact me the way they used to. I prefer vanilla ice cream over chocolate, but I will eat either or neither without caring very much.

Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want.

This is my constant practice. I let go all things I think I want. That brings up a question in my mind. What things do I still want? Those things obstruct what I could have instead, the remembrance of my oneness in God. I want my children to be safe. I want them to live happy lives. I want them to outlive me. The first thought is that there is nothing wrong with wanting this for them. It is the loving thing to do, and how could I want otherwise?

And yet, I have seen that wanting this for anyone is suffering. They have their script to play out and it is not likely to be any different than mine. It will look different, but it will still reflect the unhealed mind and so it will have its share of suffering and it will go where it goes. Wanting it to be different will not make it different and will only cause me suffering.

Knowing this has not completely alleviated the suffering I have experienced because to some degree I resist this knowing. But I am practicing acceptance. I think of something painful that could happen to one of my children and if I follow that thought I find myself in a story and all stories lead to suffering. However, if I have that thought and I am not interested in it, the thought falls away and I have just grown in willingness and understanding. And I can’t ignore the fact that what I want for them doesn’t change what they get so the whole exercise in wanting is a waste and helps no one.

Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can change the world, if you acknowledge them. You may not see the value your acceptance gives the world. But this you surely want; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day.

Text
X. The Time of Rebirth, P 3
3 We who are one cannot give separately. When you are willing to accept our relationship as real, guilt will hold no attraction for you. For in our union you will accept all of our brothers. The gift of union is the only gift that I was born to give. Give it to me, that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift of freedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it to everyone.

Journal

I suppose that I must have accepted my relationship with Jesus as real since I talk to him all the time and ask him for help and advice when that is needed. I take what he says in the Course very seriously and I strived to meet the goals he has placed before me until I had done so. It sometimes felt difficult but in retrospect, I would always understand it was only my resistance that made it feel hard. And I saw that it was never a sacrifice. He is a good friend, a good elder brother.

Now I look for him everywhere and in everyone, not the human form he took, of course, but the Christ he is. If I don’t see the Christ in someone, I know that I have blinded myself with ego thoughts and judgments, so I ask for correction and I ask for Christ’s Vision. It is a gift that is readily given to me as soon as I truly want it. That is why I ask for correction first. If I keep the judgment, I will not truly want to see differently. I cannot judge and see with Christ’s Vision. I cannot be in union with someone I judge. I cannot be free until I am in union with all. With a mind free of dark thoughts I will naturally seek union and naturally offer it to everyone.

Manual for Teachers
Introduction P 2
M-in.2. To teach is to demonstrate. 2 There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. 3 From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. 4 The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. 5 The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. 6 You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. 7 Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. 8 It is a method of conversion. 9 This is not done by words alone. 10 Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than that, but also never less.

Jesus begins by telling us that to teach is to demonstrate. I can teach kindness and love and union all day long but if I then live a selfish, fearful life in isolation, I have demonstrated the opposite of my words. This demonstration is more powerful than anything I simply say or write. I cannot demonstrate the characteristics that are in alignment with my true nature simply by believing I should. I have to release the belief that I must defend and attack, judge and hold grievances. As I do this, I am learning to be a teacher of God rather than a teacher of ego.

Jesus emphasizes that we teach and we do so all the time. We cannot avoid teaching because our words, actions and even thoughts are teaching whether we want them to or not. Jesus says we can use the Course to learn to teach what we want to learn. I want to learn love and peace and joy. I want that to be my life, and therefore, that is what I teach as much as I can. If I see myself drawn to a grievance or a desire to defend, I feel it as if it was a sickness and I reject it as quickly as I can because I have learned to be free and I can’t give that up.

10 Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than that, but also never less. This passage intrigues me. My actions and words will reveal what I am rather than what I want people to think I am. I get that because I have experienced it with other people. I have seen Course teachers say one thing but then in unguarded moments they showed me that they didn’t live what they teach. I have done the same thing, I am sure. Sometimes we believe something to be true but we don’t yet know it and so it isn’t really ours yet. The Course teaches us how to achieve purification so that what we believe becomes what we know and then we will be consistent in what we teach.

The second part of that sentence says that we teach others what they are to us. Without even realizing it, I used to teach the people in my life that they were of use to me. I used them as a source of entertainment when I was bored. Sometimes, I used them to vent my frustrations. I used them to convince me I was loveable and then I used them to prove I was unlovable. It was the same with worthiness. I used others to prove whatever it was I chose to believe about myself. I used them to receive the darkness I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge as mine, projecting my stuff onto them and pretending that it had nothing to do with me. There is no way to avoid doing these things until the mind is healed. Thank God, for A Course in Miracles.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Gentle Healing Lesson 163, Manual for Teachers, Text.  9-24-19

Gentle Healing Lesson 163
There is no death. The Son of God is free.

“Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release.”

“For death is total. Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die. No compromise is possible.”

God is Life and God is all there is. There is nothing outside God and therefore death can only be an illusion. Temporary forms such as the body die, but what is of God cannot die even if it thought it wanted to. I was surprised when I learned that death takes many forms, but really, I shouldn’t have been. Anything that is not part of God, that is, part of Life, must be death. There is no opposite to God and God cannot be undone by an idea of an opposite so my belief in these ideas is a belief in nothing.

We experience these many forms of death leading to the inevitable “final” death of the body because we believe in death. I am pretty sure I don’t believe in death. I don’t seem to be afraid of the idea of dying to this world, not even a temporary death. But I still believe in sadness and anger and those other forms of death so I do believe in death. However, my desire for them is fading very quickly now as I look at these thoughts and beliefs without flinching and gladly drop them.

Regina’s Tips

Today’s lesson says, “Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die. No compromise is possible.” Yet, you can watch a flower come into being, live a short time and then wither and die.

What is this lesson talking about?

Today’s lesson is looking beyond form, which is temporary, to the spirit of all living things, which is eternal. Life itself, which is God and is all things, has no beginning and no end. For life, death is impossible. You can see that if you look beyond specifics.

For example, one flower may blossom and then wither and die, but if you look around, can you find life elsewhere once the flower dies? Is there life in the tree? In the insect? In you? Did life die when the flower died?

We all experience the death of loved ones in our lifetimes. This is a very sad event when it occurs. Yet, has life died when the loved one died? Or can we still find life living?

Temporary form comes and goes. That is the law of impermanence. But life lives. That is all it can do. That is its nature.

Awakening is the realization that you (and other living things) are not the temporary form. You are life itself.

My Thoughts

Regina refers to God as Life and since we are in God and part of God, we are Life as well. Temporary forms come and go but Life continues unaffected by the temporary. What I like about her perspective of God as Life is that it is helping to shift my thinking from the personal. It can be hard to remember that there is no personal, that we are One in God and of God. Reflecting on the continuousness of life-presence of which I, too, am a part, I begin to perceive myself in a more impersonal way.

Text
T-15.X. The Time of Rebirth, P 2
2 The holy instant is truly the time of Christ. For in this liberating instant no guilt is laid upon the Son of God, and his unlimited power is thus restored to him. What other gift can you offer me, when only this I choose to offer you? And to see me is to see me in everyone, and offer everyone the gift you offer me. I am as incapable of receiving sacrifice as God is, and every sacrifice you ask of yourself you ask of me. Learn now that sacrifice of any kind is nothing but a limitation imposed on giving. And by this limitation you have limited acceptance of the gift I offer you.

Journal

How do we regain our power as Sons of God? We do this by giving up guilt. We have to give up projecting it onto ourselves and onto others. Considering how destructive guilt is you would think this would be an easy choice. And yet, we cling to guilt as if it is our savior. I can remember being unwilling to give up making someone guilty because I thought I needed to remember not to trust them. This seemed like a way to defend myself from that person.

I also remember thinking that I had actually hurt others and that it wasn’t fair that I should be free of guilt while they remained damaged by my actions or words. It took me 70 years to finally see the insanity in my thinking and finally let go of the belief in guilt. The ego doesn’t give up and it still tries to entice me back to guilt but I am not interested anymore.

The moments that are free of guilt are holy instants and are the time of Christ. Jesus sees us free of guilt. That is his gift to us. He knows who we are and he is never confused about that. It is my deepest desire to know this for everyone as thoroughly as does Jesus, to never even for an instant, be distracted by the image they have projected.

We project onto the world our beliefs in the form of images that play out these beliefs. In this way, we can see the effects of those beliefs and make a decision to keep the belief or to release it. Either way is fine, we are never guilty for our choices but we do suffer as a result of keeping the ego beliefs. No worry, though. There is only so much pain we can tolerate and so eventually we will choose again. Why not avoid the pain and do it now?

Never be fooled by what the body’s eyes show you. Ask for Christ’s Vision so you can see that love is the only thing that is actually there. Giving up guilt is not a sacrifice no matter how stridently the ego argues that it is. You are never asked to sacrifice and to believe that guilt is a sacrifice is to limit the acceptance of Christ’s gifts to you.

Manual for Teachers
1 The role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of the world. The reversal is characteristic. It seems as if the teacher and the learner are separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to himself. Further, the act of teaching is regarded as a special activity, in which one engages only a relatively small proportion of one’s time. The course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same. It also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well.

We all teach all the time. We teach with our words, with our actions, with our thoughts. We teach to learn, and though we seekers study and study, it is really only through our practice (which is our teaching) that we learn. So, what we do every day, what thoughts we entertain are very important. They are teaching us what we are, or they are teaching us what we are not.

Because to teach is to learn, the teacher and student roles are fluid. Actually, when I teach, I learn, every time. This means that teacher and learner don’t actually switch roles but that they are the same. Because of the courses I offer and my writing, I am very fortunate. Not only do I teach through my life, but I teach in a more formal way and so I am offered so many opportunities to learn. I am very grateful for that.

Jesus says something very interesting in that last sentence. He says that teaching continues into sleeping thoughts as well. In another place in the Course he stresses that we should give our sleep to the Holy Spirit and in another place he says that we can tell who we gave our sleep to by how we feel when we wake up.

I have had a couple of interesting dreams in which I woke up with a fragment of the dream in my mind. In one, I was walking with someone who was teaching me. In another, I was clearly teaching someone. Neither of those dreams felt like dreams. I wonder how often this happens and I simply don’t have a waking memory of it.

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Gentle Healing Lesson 162, Manual for Teachers, Text.  9-17-19

LESSON 162
I am as God created me.

“These words are sacred, for they are the words God gave in answer to the world you made. By them it disappears, and all things seen within its misty clouds and vaporous illusions vanish as these words are spoken. For they come from God.”

I am absolutely convinced that this is the only thing we need to know in order to awaken. If this is completely and without exception accepted into the mind, awakening would be inevitable. What is there to forgive when you know who you are and who your brother is? What is there to defend and who would we as divine beings attack if we knew we were part of one Whole and that Whole was God Itself? Everything we are learning from studying and practicing the Course is leading to this one thing, remembering that we are as we were created, nothing more and nothing less.

I think this is beginning to sink in for me. I have had a couple of occasions to recognize a shift. For instance, I have noticed that I am enjoying watching shows and reading books where there are couples loving each other. I was a little surprised to see this in myself. It is not something that interests me much, but now I am feeling happy when I see this on the screen or read about it. Maybe that means a lot of old stuff from past relationships in this life and maybe others have been truly and finally released.

So, the other night I am watching this show where a couple falls in love and they are feeling so close to each other and so happy an I began to feel lonely. The feeling I had was that this part of my life was probably over. I have been celibate for nearly 20 years now and have not even had a date in all that time. I haven’t been interested and am not interested now, but here I was grieving the loss of something I don’t even want. I guess that’s why it is we keep returning to this world, we like some of it and want to try again.

I went with the feelings that were coming up and sat there crying for a little while just letting the sadness and regret wash over me. Then I asked the Holy Spirit to help me see this differently. I know the solution to any problem I have is not going to be found in the world. I want the real solution. Suddenly, a thought dropped into my mind. “I am not this 70 year old woman sitting alone in her living room feeling lonely.”

It was an absolute revelation! I mean, sure, I understand this concept and even believe it, but receiving it like that I knew it. I just laughed out loud. Of course, I am not that. I am watching and participating in a virtual reality show, but I am the one who is aware of the woman sitting in the chair. I am not a human being, woman or otherwise. I am not alone. I could never be lonely. I am as God created me. I have been floating on a cloud of peaceful happiness ever since. I wonder what happens next.

Regina’s Tips

Yesterday we focused on self-inquiry by looking at our anger. Today we will focus on Self-inquiry.

The single thought that has the power the Course speaks of is not the intellectual idea, ‘I am as God created me.’ It is the realization ‘I am as God created me.’

Pause and ask yourself, “Do I exist now?” And then relax and notice that you do. Ask, “Am I aware now?” And then relax and notice that you are.

When you have a few minutes for a little deeper practice, sit quietly and notice how much awareness can be aware of at once. Notice that it is aware of sounds ahead of you, behind you and to each side simultaneously. Notice it is aware of sensations in the body. It is aware of thoughts in the mind. Notice it is aware of both the outer world (sights & sounds) and the inner world (sensations and thoughts) simultaneously. And as you notice this, notice you are awareness. You are that which is aware of the outer and inner world. Stay a few moments more, resting as awareness.

My thoughts

Regina’s writings about awareness watching awareness has been helpful to me in my practice. Probably, the most important thing I have done in a long time is to sit in silence even for short periods of time waiting to know my Self. Maybe that is what she means. Anyway, it is paying off.

Text
T-6.1.19 Remember that the Holy Spirit is the communication link between God the Father and His separated Sons. If you will listen to His Voice you will know that you cannot either hurt or be hurt, and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for themselves. When you perceive only this need in them, and do not respond to any other, you will have learned of me and will be as eager to share your learning as I am.

When someone is attacking me, there might be a temptation to defend myself. But to defend is to attack. Let’s say that I post something on Facebook and someone else strongly disagree, and maybe their comment stings. The only way to defend myself is to make him wrong and no matter how I cloak my words in silken tones, I am attacking and attack is cruel.

What if, on the other hand, I realize that this person thinks it’s important to be right about this and to be proven wrong would be to teach him he is guilty of being wrong. If I argue my point it must be because I think I am hurt by his post. This is not something I want to teach anyone and not something I want to teach myself. What would be my alternative? Why not just let it be?

In the past, I would have felt compelled to say something or do something. Now, I don’t do that. If it is a question, I will answer it. But if it is a straightforward statement, I allow it to be what it is. I cannot be hurt by someone’s opinion, only by my thoughts about their opinion. I watch my feelings and my thoughts to see if I feel hurt or defensive, and if I do, I ask the HS for correction.

Manual for Teachers

M-20.5:7 7 Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real.

We accept God’s Will when we accept God’s peace. God’s peace comes when we remember that there is no world.

I do believe now that there is no world. I know this is true because the world is not eternal and therefore it does not exist. I don’t deny that we made a world and that we experience the world, but not being real, none of what we experience is real either and that’s good news. As my mind continues to heal to new levels of understanding, I see the impossible world differently and thus my experience of it is different. As more and more of us awaken, we will begin to see the world literally transform into a world based on God’s laws rather than ours. Ultimately, we will lose interest in the world even in its perfect reflection and God will lift us up into Him. The world will cease to exist, just as it has never existed.

How does this new perception help me now? I used to believe the world was an illusion, but now I know it is so nothing that happens here has the same impact on me. This allows me to remain calm and peaceful even while the story unfolds in unexpected and undesirable ways. I might have an emotional response to what is happening, but I also know that everything is fine.

If someone is acting from their ego in such a way as to impact my life, I know that this one is just playing out their script and that in a very short time we will be in the next dimension sharing thoughts on what we learned from it and sharing love for each other so I can’t really hold onto a grievance against them. It seems silly to do so now.

Another thing that has changed with this new perception is that there are not many big deals. I used to be a bit frantic about trips, worrying about what to bring, what time to leave the house so I didn’t miss my flight, and worrying about forgetting something important. I feel the old stuff trying to get a hook into me, but that’s not possible anymore. I remind myself that everything will be fine and the thoughts fade away.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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