Together, We Light the Way

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

Study of Manual for Teachers 4-19-12

Day 109

18. HOW IS CORRECTION MADE?
1 Correction of a lasting nature,-and only this is true correction,-cannot be made until the teacher of God has ceased to confuse interpretation with fact, or illusion with truth. If he argues with his pupil about a magic thought, attacks it, tries to establish its error or demonstrate its falsity, he is but witnessing to its reality. Depression is then inevitable, for he has “proved,” both to his pupil and himself, that it is their task to escape from what is real. And this can only be impossible. Reality is changeless. Magic thoughts are but illusions. Otherwise salvation would be only the same age-old impossible dream in but another form. Yet the dream of salvation has new content. It is not the form alone in which the difference lies.

Lasting correction occurs when I stop confusing interpretation with fact, illusion with truth. When this is true for me I will no longer feel any need to argue with anyone about their beliefs. I don’t want to argue with them, not even in my mind, because this just makes the idea of magic thoughts (ego thoughts, illusions) seem real with real effects, and something from which I must escape. The entire purpose of the Course is to show me a way out of my belief in illusion, and fighting against illusion is encouraging the belief in it. Who would fight something unless he thought it was real?

There are so many ways in which this happens. I read someone’s status update and think that they are wrong about that. I read a posting on one of the boards and feel a desire to answer it with the “right” interpretation. I listen to my brother explain how things in the world work, and want to correct his interpretation. These are the very obvious temptations, and yet who has not done this at times?

Who has not corrected someone for their own good, or covered their tracks with “kind and gentle” words so the attack seems less cruel. And yet, correction is correction no matter what kind of face we put on it, and to believe in the need to correct is to reinforce the belief that this bit of illusion is certainly real enough to warrant our attention. And if we don’t get this right there will be real consequences from which we must escape.

Any time I have ever felt the desire to respond with correction it has been because I believed my interpretation was more than an interpretation. I have also believed that his interpretation threatened my interpretation. And I believe that one interpretation will be left standing and it has to be mine. I seem to have believed that I could elevate interpretation to fact if I could argue it successfully, when all along I have only elevated illusion in my mind and made it seem so real to me that letting it go seemed nearly impossible.

This is insane and when I am in my sane mind I don’t do this. I don’t want to teach illusion is real because I don’t want to learn illusion is real. When I am in my sane mind I respond from sanity, from the Holy Spirit, the Truth that is in my mind. It tends to be in the form of an “I” thought, a story from my experience. It never calls to question the other person’s interpretation. As often as not the answer is silence.
This is an easy and peaceful way to live. Living from the “I don’t know” mind is an honest way to live. 

© 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 4-18-12

Day 108

9 Madness but seems terrible. In truth it has no power to make anything. Like the magic which becomes its servant, it neither attacks nor protects. To see it and to recognize its thought system is to look on nothing. Can nothing give rise to anger? Hardly so. Remember, then, teacher of God, that anger recognizes a reality that is not there; yet is the anger certain witness that you do believe in it as fact. Now is escape impossible, until you see you have responded to your own interpretation, which you have projected on an outside world. Let this grim sword be taken from you now. There is no death. This sword does not exist. The fear of God is causeless. But His Love is Cause of everything beyond all fear, and thus forever real and always true.

Someone says something to me and I feel a flash of anger. I then tell myself a story to justify this anger, and of course the story is about how guilty that person is for making me angry. In order to maintain my own innocence I must keep this person guilty and as long as he is guilty and I am innocent, we are separate. If I see separation anywhere I see myself outside God, Which is Wholeness. I am now a part of a closed system with no way to escape. My defense has become my prison.

Anger is not a fact. It is not real. It is just a false interpretation of a fact, and when I feel angry and do not question that anger, I am saying that I believe in that interpretation. I am teaching myself and all of the mind that I believe the ego is real. I believe that I have reason to fear God Who would have me lay down my sword and become defenseless before my enemy. Ego interpretation of this is that God is very angry with me for my betrayal of Him, and wants to see me dead. This is an endless cycle of pain, suffering and death.

Into this cycle of pain, God sends His teachers who shine a light into the darkened mind of His confused children. One by one, as they are ready, a book is put before them and they pick it up. Or an idea of light finds a place in the mind and their willingness nourishes it until it fills them and there is no room for the foolishness of separation beliefs. Maybe His teacher appears as a prophet or a guru and those of His children who have reached a stage of readiness walk away from all they have known to seek the truth they glimpse in this One.

I was talking to one of my children the other day about something that happened when they were young. My reaction at the time had been anger borne of fear. In the past I would have felt such shame for my behavior that I would have been scrambling for excuses and people to blame. But all I said was that it used to be hard to be me.

I look back on that lost soul and mostly feel only compassion for her confusion. She was so afraid of everything and that fear often erupted as anger. But what else could she do? Her mind was a thick, impenetrable jungle of crazy thoughts which were fed by a deep underground reservoir of guilt that she didn’t think about. She wandered this jungle, in constant defense against the enemies she saw everywhere she turned, her only weapons, anger and projection.

Into this tangled mess of thoughts that was her mind, a thought appeared and grew; “What if everything I believe is wrong?” That thought was a tiny little light in such a dark, dark place that I am still amazed that it was able to persist and grow until finally it has become so clear that I am beginning to realize that I have been fighting shadows. There was never anything there, just false beliefs appearing as real things.

This wonderful truth is still hard to hold onto. But like the hymn goes, “I was blind, but now I see.” There is enough light in my mind now that even when I become frightened of something I see there, if I keep looking at it I eventually see that it is nothing appearing as something, a shadow dissolving before the light.

How could the answer have been so simple? God is love and so He loves me. I am created like God, so I am love; I love Him. There is only God so I am Him. There is only one so you are me and we are Him. Everything else is a lie, shadows taking form, 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 Manual for Teachers 4-17-12

Day 107

8 Into this hopeless situation God sends His teachers. They bring the light of hope from God Himself. There is a way in which escape is possible. It can be learned and taught, but it requires patience and abundant willingness. Given that, the lesson’s manifest simplicity stands out like an intense white light against a black horizon, for such it is. If anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. Once this is even dimly grasped, the way is open. Now it is possible to take the next step. The interpretation can be changed at last. Magic thoughts need not lead to condemnation, for they do not really have the power to give rise to guilt. And so they can be overlooked, and thus forgotten in the truest sense. 

Jesus says that though our way out requires patience and abundant willingness, the answer is simple. We begin with this one powerful truth; if anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. This little piece of truth is so welcome! I know what to do with all anger. I look at what I think caused the anger and ask the Holy Spirit to show me where I went wrong in my interpretation.

I have been doing this for a long time so I know that it does require patience. I put the ego in charge of perception and the ego has no interest in the facts, only in spinning the facts to make it look like I am alone and vulnerable in a hostile world and must defend myself at all costs. Ego shows me everyone is my enemy and so anger is fully justified.

When I began choosing a different Voice to interpret my world, I found that it required great vigilance to remember to listen to that Voice. Now, years later, the patience and vigilance have begun to pay off. Magic thoughts are quickly reinterpreted for me and anger has little hold on me. I’m still working with this, though now the work is easier and the solution more welcome than when I first began. I have much less resistance because I value peace more than I value my defenses.

An example: Sometimes my boss gets mad at me and if it is caused by something over which I have no control I feel helpless. I want to defend myself, and start thinking of ways to do so. I might find someone else to blame it on, or get angry back at him, or maybe I can be the supplicant and wheedle my way back into his good graces.

Or I can recognize that anger (fear and guilt) are never justified. I must be misinterpreting what is happening. As I ask for a true interpretation I realize that he is acting from his own fear and this is not really about me. If I could place my fully awakened awareness on him for a moment I would know the fear and guilt that drives his actions and realize that as long as he believes in the fear and guilt he has no choice about how he reacts. I know how that feels and I feel less anger and more compassion.

The ego mind tries to pull my attention back by reminding me that compassion is all well and good, but what is his anger going to cost me in the meantime? What if there are consequences to the anger, a monetary loss or even getting fired? Ego says I better think of a defense and quickly.

I find I don’t want to. I don’t want to do anything to make this man more afraid and I don’t want to find someone else to make guilty. I feel strangely safe even though there is a little figure in my mind jumping up and down and screaming at me not to be a fool. The thought that has found a place of prominence in my mind is, “I wonder what will happen next.” It’s such a peaceful thought.

I am still aware of the ego histrionics and I look that way occasionally, and yes, it is still possible for me to get pulled back into the drama of fear and anger, defense and attack. But it is also possible for me to resist that pull, and to choose peace instead. Its very interesting actually. I give my attention to the fearful warnings of ego and I notice my stomach tightening and a weight on my chest. I feel the anxiety and the stress.

I take my attention away from the ego interpretation and I bring it back to the Holy Spirit and I feel peaceful and happy and very glad not to add to the burden this brother of mine carries. I have no desire to increase his fear and anger. I have no desire to increase my own.

I put my attention back on the ego and there is less temptation, but I am still aware of some fear. I go back and forth for awhile and realize it is showing me that the fear and anger are not real, just the result of a false interpretation. If it were real it would not dissipate in the face of truth. This is the way I learn that magic thoughts have no more power than I give them. As I stand defenseless and undisturbed by his anger, I am a teacher of God.

© 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 4-16-12

Day 106

7 But what will now be your reaction to all magic thoughts? They can but re-awaken sleeping guilt, which you have hidden but have not let go. Each one says clearly to your frightened mind, “You have usurped the place of God. Think not He has forgotten.” Here we have the fear of God most starkly represented. For in that thought has guilt already raised madness to the throne of God Himself. And now there is no hope. Except to kill. Here is salvation now. An angry father pursues his guilty son. Kill or be killed, for here alone is choice. Beyond this there is none, for what was done cannot be done without. The stain of blood can never be removed, and anyone who bears this stain on him must meet with death.

Well ok. Jesus could not be any clearer. My fear of God is more like terror of God. This explains why it has taken so long to reach a place of willingness to begin the awakening process. It also explains why there was so much resistance even as I began to accept that I believe something that is not true. Even now I still resist. I am in a whole new place, but I am not yet willing to fully let go of my defenses.

I have to remind myself not to judge this. I am where I am, and honestly, I’m pretty excited about where I am. It is easy to become confused about this, to think I am the one asleep, to think I am my errors. I am not that. Myron is just where I have my attention, where I have placed my awareness. There is something happening which is outside her story.

I think in the past I mentioned that I have started listening to A Course in Miracles as I sleep. Since I started doing this, my dreams have changed. Last night in my dream I felt incredibly peaceful and aware. A character that was someone close to me was like I used to be; he was reacting to the story. As I stood with him I felt what he felt and understood his fear while not believing in it. It was amazing. He was evidently ready to begin his process, too, because he felt something of my peace and wanted it.

Later in the dream there was another person who was going to do something cruel for no apparent reason and I felt him too. I felt the unacknowledged fear deep within him that was driving his actions. I knew that he couldn’t help but do what he was doing, and I didn’t feel any resentment toward him at all.

When I woke up I felt some of the elation of experiencing that kind of peaceful awareness. I just lay there thinking, “Wow, wow, wow!” So I see that there is much more happening than is apparent in my every day life. I am willing to continue doing whatever it is that my Higher Self would have me do. I am doing it with a lot more trust now than I used to.

Something that really stands out to me in this paragraph is the first couple of sentences. Jesus is telling us that our magic thoughts are constantly reminding us of our hidden guilt. Rather than looking at the guilt and allowing our minds to be healed finally, we project the fear and guilt out as a story in our life. This gives us an explanation for the guilt that allows us to go on pretending we don’t know the source of the guilt.

But every time we entertain ego thoughts we are reminded that there is a monster in the basement, and our fear is awakened. We can’t do anything about it, though, because we are denying that the monster is there, and to deal with the source of the fear is out of the question. We cannot admit the source so we can’t deal with it. What a mess we have gotten ourselves into. Thank you, Jesus, my brother, my self, for finding your way out of this and showing us the way out.

© 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 4-15-12

Day 105

6 How can this unfair battle be resolved? Its ending is inevitable, for its outcome must be death. How, then, can one believe in one’s defenses? Magic again must help. Forget the battle. Accept it as a fact, and then forget it. Do not remember the impossible odds against you. Do not remember the immensity of the “enemy,” and do not think about your frailty in comparison. Accept your separation, but do not remember how it came about. Believe that you have won it, but do not retain the slightest memory of Who your great “opponent” really is. Projecting your “forgetting” onto Him, it seems to you He has forgotten, too.

I have said that I just don’t “feel” the guilt of opposing God that the Course talks about, and Jesus is telling me that this is my magical solution to my fear. My inability to identify with this depth of guilt is not accidental. It is my way of escaping it. I then project the same forgetfulness onto God. There, problem solved!

But what is in my mind, no matter how deeply hidden, will affect me. The guilt will peek out of its hiding place and I will experience guilt that I cannot afford to acknowledge directly. So I make a reason for it, and pretend to myself that I have discovered the cause of my guilt and my fear.

Sometimes it appears as a foolish or bad thing that I did to someone. “That must be the reason I am guilty.” Sometimes I make up a story about someone else. “There, that must be the reason I am angry and the reason I must now defend myself. I know that guy was the guilty one. Whew.”

This is endless and it is painful. But through the study of “A Course in Miracles” I have been shown what is actually happening, and through the practice of “A Course in Miracles” I am being gently awakened to the truth that my guilt is self-imposed and my fear is unfounded.

© 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 4-14-12

Day 104
5 Anger in response to perceived magic thoughts is a basic cause of fear. Consider what this reaction means, and its centrality in the world’s thought system becomes apparent. A magic thought, by its mere presence, acknowledges a separation from God. It states, in the clearest form possible, that the mind which believes it has a separate will that can oppose the Will of God, also believes it can succeed. That this can hardly be a fact is obvious. Yet that it can be believed as fact is equally obvious. And herein lies the birthplace of guilt. Who usurps the place of God and takes it for himself now has a deadly “enemy.” And he must stand alone in his protection, and make himself a shield to keep him safe from fury that can never be abated, and vengeance that can never be satisfied.

This phrase is most meaningful to me: …the mind which believes it has a separate will that can oppose the Will of God, also believes it can succeed. When I read that, I felt it in my gut. I know the Course has been trying very hard to get me to understand the source of my guilt, and then to understand that the guilt is unfounded. But it has been hard for me to embrace this idea.

Intellectually I can accept it, but I can’t feel it. This phrase is helping me to more fully accept that I harbor a deep reservoir of guilt which affects everything I believe, and this guilt was born of the belief that I can and did separate myself from God, and that I have a will that is in opposition to God.

Only recently have I understood that the whole world as I see it is a projection of that guilt, a repository for the guilt that is so deeply buried that I am, on the surface, unaware of it. Letting go of the idea that the stories of my life are the source of my fear and guilt has been very hard for me to do. I will think I understand this, but then I notice I still look to my stories for the cause of how I feel.

I had to stop and laugh because just this moment I was thinking that I woke up feeling draggy and was wondering what caused it. Did I sleep too hard? Was it a dream I had? Was it working such a hard week and not sleeping well during the week that caused this draggy feeling this morning? It is, indeed, hard to remember that the cause is not to be found in the story.

Something else that has helped me very much came from The Teachings of Inner Ramana. It talks about fear, but fear and guilt are so closely associated they are interchangeable. This is what it says.

The mind is afraid because the unnatural is not natural. The mind that has forgotten reality knows that something is wrong, but it does not know what that is. It projects stories in an effort to give itself a reason for its fear, but it cannot find the answer it seeks because it is looking in the wrong direction. Its fear does not come from its own projections, and so solutions to those projections cannot end the fear.

My sluggish body is the projection and not the cause. Figuring out how to wake up energetic is not the way to solve the problem. That is looking in the wrong direction.

This really helped me to see that the fear and guilt came from someplace else, not from what was happening in my life. In fact, what was happening in my life came from the fear and guilt that the Course has been trying to help me see. It must be some incredible fear and guilt for me to bury it so deeply that I seem unable (or perhaps more truthfully, unwilling) to extract it. But now I know that I will never be rid of the guilt through trying to fix the story.

As I look back on my life it is as if it were made of one guilty, fearful situation after another with me always trying to make up for something. I would do something that caused circumstances that made me feel guilty and I would then try to fix it, or be a better person to make up for it. I never caught up. I see now that this is because all those things I did were caused by the buried guilt in my mind. Trying to fix the story was like trying to repair the reflection in the mirror. I really was looking in the wrong direction.

I still don’t feel the full burden of that guilt, and that’s ok. I am willing for this slow and gentle healing. I am willing to take the next step and the next. The Holy Spirit knows the perfect path for me and I am content to walk it. I continue to watch my stories and notice what yet needs healing within my mind. I am being guided now to see my innocence and for that I am supremely grateful.

© 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 4-13-12

Day 103
4 Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no one can be angry at a fact. It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts. Regardless, too, of the intensity of the anger that is aroused. It may be merely slight irritation, perhaps too mild to be even clearly recognized. Or it may also take the form of intense rage, accompanied by thoughts of violence, fantasized or apparently acted out. It does not matter. All of these reactions are the same. They obscure the truth, and this can never be a matter of degree. Either truth is apparent, or it is not. It cannot be partially recognized. Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions.

I am happy to say that I really know that it is always my interpretation of a fact that causes my anger. I am never angry that something happened or that someone said something. I am angry because of the meaning I gave that something. It is helpful for me to remember that there are no exceptions to this rule. It is always true regardless of the apparent circumstances.

How does knowing this change things for me? When I become angry with someone I don’t try to figure out how to change them or the situation. I know that they are not the problem. I look to my own mind for the belief that needs to be healed. Sometimes the circumstances can be so compelling that I become temporarily confused. I know that this is my problem, but for a bit I can’t see how that could be. So I have some processes that help.

One thing I can do is to write down on a sheet of paper what happened. I put only the basic fact or facts. An example might be that my boss yells at me for something I absolutely did not do and did not have any control over. I feel very angry. In the wash of emotion I may find it hard to understand why this has anything to do with me. I am innocent and I don’t do that to him or anyone else, I think. My mind is confused because I am holding these two conflicting thoughts. It is my perception that is causing the problem and it is his behavior that is causing the problem.

So I get out my paper and I ask the Holy Spirit to sit with me as I do this exercise and to do it in a way that helps me. I write the fact down; my boss yelled at me for something I didn’t do. Then under that sentence I make a list about every thought I have concerning this situation beginning with, “he is wrong”.

He has no right to yell at me at all. He is taking his upset out on me. I am an innocent victim. He’s treating me with no respect. If he can yell at me for something I didn’t do, can he fire me for something I didn’t do? Sure he can. No matter how hard I work or how good a job I do, he can lose his temper and I lose my job. These will probably lead into more thoughts and I write down all that come to me.

Then I fold the paper so that the first line is on one side of the fold and the other side holds everything else. The side with the one fact (Katie calls it the first generation thought) is the only thing that happened. The other side of the paper is my interpretation of what happened. Just doing this exercise is helpful to me when I am confused. Now I remember that I have given this situation all the meaning it has for me. Everything under the fold is that meaning.

Once this has been established, I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see this differently. If I am ready to choose peace then peace is given me. If not, then I may have to do some more work. One thing I might do is get out a Byron Katie worksheet and ask the Holy Spirit to help me fill it out. This can also give me more clarity and help to bring me to the place where I am ready for healing.

Another way I do this is to sit with pen and paper or maybe at my keyboard, and tell Holy Spirit all about it. Then I ask Him for help, and begin to put down what comes into my mind. This is very powerful. The answer may be the same thing I can read in the Course or some other book, or hear from a teacher, but when it comes from within, it has far more impact.

The work is never about me healing my mind; it is about me desiring healing more than I desire to project blame. Once I truly want healing, I am healed.

© 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 231 of 264 pages ‹ First  < 229 230 231 232 233 >  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.