Together, We Light the Way

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Study of Manual for Teachers 7-4-12

7-4-12

7 In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between two choices or two voices. Will is not involved in perception at any level, and has nothing to do with choice. Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it cannot reach knowledge. 

I’m going to take this slowly just to be sure I fully understand. In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between two choices or two voices. However I perceive what is happening or what I am seeing, I can choose differently. I am free to decide if I will see this with Christ Vision and so become free, or if I will see it with ego and remain in bondage.

If I discovered tomorrow that I have cancer, I might think that I need to be free of cancer, but my freedom lies only in my two options. Option 1 is to listen to the world as it commiserates with me, and tells me how bad this is, and how important that something be done right away to try to save the body.

It tells me about treatments and alternatives, stories of loss, and stories of recovery. The world will tell me that this is about my body and safeguarding it, healing it, losing it. It will tell me that I have reason to feel guilty for not taking good care of it, or that someone else is guilty for creating an environment that encouraged the cancer.

Option 1 is the ego and its goal is to make the body and the world very real, and to discourage any other option. The effects of listening to this voice are confusion, fear, anger, guilt, shame, pain, suffering and death. Listening to this voice will bring me deeper into the illusion.

Option 2 is to listen to the Voice for God. This Voice will tell me the truth about my Self and encourage me to focus on it alone in spite of what seems to be happening. It reminds me that I am not the body that seems to be sick, and that I am still as God created me. It tells me that I have done nothing wrong, am not guilty, and do not deserve sickness.

The Voice for God gently reminds me that I am not this character everyone calls Myron and I think of as myself. It tells me not to worry about her because she is just a figment of imagination, a reflection of thought, and cannot actually be sick and die. The Holy Spirit assures me that if something needs to be done in the story I will be told what it is as I listen to only His Voice.

I am reminded that pain is not possible because there is only God and there is no pain in God. I am asked to remind myself often that what is not God, does not exist. God does not have cancer and I am in God; how could I have cancer?

This Voice talks to me about my true nature, about the love of God, about my perfection and my true purpose. He assures me that dream or nightmare, the one thing both have in common is that they are not real. Nothing is happening. No one is guilty. Freedom is just a thought away.

I look around and see all the illusion has to show me. I focus my attention on self as body and personality and see, feel, exhibit symptoms and think surely this is real, and the Voice for God is the illusion, and I’m back in hell. Or I look around and see God’s Work everywhere. I see the love of family, the support of friends. I see people coming together to pray and be as one in whatever way they understand joining. I see beauty even in the illusion of sickness and death as the choice for God is made and the Light of understanding shines through, dissolving the darkness that is sickness. With a change of thought, I am released from hell and out of the illusion.

Tomorrow I will continue listening to Holy Spirit tell me what He wants me to know about this paragraph.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Manual for Teachers 7-3-12

7-3-12
6 Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. Both this world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. Therefore it is not the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is one with God’s.

Through right-mindedness we get to the real world, but even the real world is an illusion. It is a happier illusion, a reinterpretation of the illusion, but still an illusion. To return to the One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, where there is nothing to overlook or forgive, we must first undo what we have done through wrong-minded thinking and to experience our world differently.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of experiencing separation if that is what we want to do. It is not a sin and not even a mistake. We are the unlimited Sons of God and that means we can have any experience we want. However, when we forgot to laugh at the idea and took it seriously, we mistakenly believed in the experience, thus making it true for us. From this mistaken belief fear and guilt arose, and from that a world of separation gone awry.

Choosing to listen to the Holy Spirit is the way we retrace our steps and correct the mistake we made. We can then have the experience we intended before we got lost in fear and guilt. Once we have answered the question, “what would it be like to experience separation,” we can then let the question go, and with it the experience.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Manual for Teachers 7-2-12

7-2-12
5 The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens. Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place. This is the final vision, the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step Himself. Here time and illusions end together.

The mind, our illusion-making machine, can also be used to turn the illusions off, or more correctly, it can help us diminish our desire for illusions. This is true because within that mind is the Voice for God, the Voice that guides us out of our confusion. This Voice will help us awaken from our dream if we listen to it. If we follow the advice given to us, we will begin to see the world differently. Done consistently, we will begin to see the real world, a world without pain, suffering, or death. Past that, we do nothing. God takes the final step, and illusions and time end.

We can do nothing to end illusions, but we can hasten the real world, through learning to listen to the Holy Spirit rather than ego. Learning to do this is only a matter of practice and willingness. Just a little willingness will get us started, and the practicing itself will increase our willingness until finally, we want nothing else.

When I first began to practice watching my mind for dark thoughts, I was afraid of what I would find and so pretended not to see them. But the little I was willing to see gave me something to practice with. I would acknowledge those thoughts and ask for a different way to see them. I became willing to forgive what I saw, that is to realize I was seeing amiss, seeing something that was not what it seemed. Then I asked for something else. My mind turned from the ego to the Holy Spirit for a new interpretation.

That was such a satisfying experience that I did it again and again with much more frequency. I discovered that allowing myself to see the dark thoughts was ok. There were no dire consequences as the ego had warned. My trust in ego diminished and my trust in Holy Spirit grew. As I forgave what I was seeing through ego (that is as I realized it wasn’t true and allowed it to be transformed through Holy Spirit) I taught myself that this is something I want, and so I began to listen to the Voice for God more than I did the ego voice.

I continue this practice and now take great joy in it. My willingness is strong and my desire for God is growing every day. Now when I see myself holding onto a belief that is hurting me, I am not confused about what it happening. I know that I do this to myself. I am amazed that I do it considering how painful it is to defend against God, but I also know that I will turn from the ego, if not now, then soon. I no longer see it as a betrayal to myself and to God, so its not scary. I know it is just a confused mind searching for truth in the wrong place. And I know that the confusion cannot last because I don’t want it to.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Manual for Teachers 7-1-12

7-1-12
4 The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions. Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God’s, seems to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. Creation continues unabated because that is the Will of God. This Will is always unified and therefore has no meaning in this world. It has no opposite and no degrees.

And oh what illusions we make! The variety! The realism!  How clever we were to lose ourselves in the illusions so that we could get the full flavor of the separation idea. And how perfect it was to keep that spark of truth, the memory of our Self so that when we were done with this idea, we would have a Guide to take us out of it. I wonder if guilt and fear were simply an inevitable result of thinking we were separated from God and if we anticipated that part, or if it was an unpleasant surprise?

The ego mind makes illusions endlessly and is not going to stop. It is the only thing it can do, being made for that purpose and only that purpose. This is why I have become willing to start stepping back from the thinking mind. It had never occurred to me I could do so until I started reading from NTI about becoming an empty shell. My Heart responded to that immediately though the part of the mind that is resistant to letting go of the ego identity has not gone down without a fight.

Reading The Teachings of Inner Ramana and practicing what I read has helped a lot, and the thinking, the constant chatter of the ego, has lessened. It is quieter and more peaceful in my mind now. I am far from empty, but I am encouraged to continue my practice by the results thus far.

I cannot create in any true sense from this imprisoned state, but I can learn to slow the illusion machine down and to make gentler illusions. I can learn to allow the Holy Spirit to reinterpret what I see of the illusions. A healed perception is my goal while I seem to be here.

For now, every thought I have, everything I do or say, every choice I make either binds my mind more tightly in the chains of illusion, or further releases me from the desire for this experience. So I do the only thing I can do, I exercise the only freedom I have allowed myself in this game, I choose the guide, the interpreter I will follow. If I look to the ego for meaning, I go more deeply into the illusion. If I call on the Holy Spirit to show me what each thing means, I move out of the illusion. This is not a choice I make and then it’s done. I make this choice moment by moment until it’s done.

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

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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Manual for Teachers 6-30-12

6-30-12
3 Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well. The term “soul” is not used except in direct biblical quotations because of its highly controversial nature. It would, however, be an equivalent of “spirit,” with the understanding that, being of God, it is eternal and was never born.

So, I imagine a duplex with ego setting up housekeeping on one side and spirit on the other. Holy Spirit abides with spirit, but Holy Spirit has many super powers, including xray vision, so He sees through the wall and is aware of what the ego is up to. One of His super powers is to discern the truth, and so He knows the ego for the deceiver it is, but also knows the ego is not real, so He is a dependable interpreter. He shares this information with me, but only when it is welcomed.

For instance, I become angry with a friend who I feel let me down. The Holy Spirit recognizes that this is an ego reaction born of fear. He hears the ego voice egging me on; “What kind of friend would act like that?” He understands why I listen to that voice. He understands my fear and doubts, my worthiness and abandonment issues. But because He knows they are unfounded, He can help me see the situation differently, if I’m up for that.

I start to feel uncomfortable with my judgment and the lack of peace it causes, and I want relief. I know from past experience that my roomie can see things in a way I am temporarily blind to and I want to ask for His interpretation, but I’m reluctant to let my friend off the hook. Would that really be fair? After all, she is guilty of letting me down. And if she is not guilty, who is? I’m the only one here and how could it be fair to make me the guilty party. I didn’t do anything.

The Holy Spirit hears all of this ego justification and He understands it. He knows I hold certain beliefs, and from the standpoint of those beliefs, my behavior makes sense. He also knows they are false beliefs, and waits patiently for me to ask for His help so that I can return to my natural state, which is peace.

I begin to tire of feeling like this so I ask the Holy Spirit for help. I’m not really ready to relinquish all blame, but I am willing to consider there may have been extenuating circumstances and maybe there is some reason she acted the way she did. The Holy Spirit smiles indulgently, knowing that I am not quite ready for His help. In praying for my friend to be less than innocent, I am praying for the truth not to be true and of course this is not a true prayer so He can’t answer it.

Finally, I cannot abide this conflict any longer. I don’t care what it takes, I want to return to peace. I tell the Holy Spirit I have confused myself. I am having trouble remembering how it is that my friend could be innocent when appearances so clearly prove her guilty, but I am willing to see the truth. I ask Him to heal my mind of the belief that she could ever be guilty.

There, it’s done. Ahhh.

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

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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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