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Manual for Teachers: 12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 3. 6-8-18

12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 3
3 Why is the illusion of many necessary? Only because reality is not understandable to the deluded. Only very few can hear God’s Voice at all, and even they cannot communicate His messages directly through the Spirit which gave them. They need a medium through which communication becomes possible to those who do not realize that they are spirit. A body they can see. A voice they understand and listen to, without the fear that truth would encounter in them. Do not forget that truth can come only where it is welcomed without fear. So do God’s teachers need a body, for their unity could not be recognized directly.

Journal
I do hear the Voice for God, though not perfectly. I do share what I hear, but again, not perfectly.  I have always appreciated my teachers. These are God’s messengers who hear more clearly and share more precisely than I do. I have always had a teacher, someone who was a few steps ahead of me, someone whose steps I could follow. Not someone who is way ahead of me because then I would not understand the words she gave me, but far enough that she could lead me to my next level of understanding.

If I had no teacher in form, I would still get there, but not as quickly. The support that a good teacher provides has also been important to me. My teachers have not only gently guided me back on track when I temporarily lost my way; they have also reassured me when I was uncertain. They have not told me what I needed to do or believe, but have reminded me of the truth that is always available to me. It is like they put the truth before me to accept or reject. If fear was too strong in me at that time, they left it there for when I was ready.

I have met many teachers over the years and sometimes I met teachers I couldn’t work with. That does not mean there is anything wrong with them, but only that they were not for me. This is why there are many teachers. The ones that are for us will be brought into our sphere. Jesus tells us that as teachers our students are waiting for us. This applies both ways. As students, our teachers are available to us when we are ready for them. It is in this way, teacher to student and student to teacher that we find our way home together.

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Study of Text, C 15: IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God, P 2. 6-7-18

IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God, P 2
2 Our task is but to continue, as fast as possible, the necessary process of looking straight at all the interference and seeing it exactly as it is. For it is impossible to recognize as wholly without gratification what you think you want. The body is the symbol of the ego, as the ego is the symbol of the separation. And both are nothing more than attempts to limit communication, and thereby to make it impossible. For communication must be unlimited in order to have meaning, and deprived of meaning, it will not satisfy you completely. Yet it remains the only means by which you can establish real relationships, which have no limits, having been established by God.

Journal
Our task is but to continue, as fast as possible, the necessary process of looking straight at all the interference and seeing it exactly as it is.

This paragraph goes nicely with the lesson I am doing today which tells us that our goal is to see our brothers as they are rather than as bodies. A good way to achieve that goal is to look straight at the interference with the goal and see it as it is. So when I look at my brother and see him as a body, I know the body, being the symbol of the ego, is the interference Jesus speaks of. The body itself and all that it does gets in the way of vision.

If all that I do is look at the body, all that I will see is the story and that is what I will believe. This leads to judgment and unforgiveness and takes me more deeply into the confusion of the illusion. I don’t want to be there anymore. I want to see past the illusion to the beauty and truth of my brothers and sisters. I want to overlook the story and see straight into the heart, to remember who we are. I want to experience this life with detachment, always asking what everything is for, letting the Holy Spirit interpret it all for me. This will be the fastest route possible for me.

If I do these things, if I am diligent in my practice of seeing past the illusion, my attempts at communication will be, if not unlimited, certainly with fewer limits. As I get closer to unlimited communication, my relationships will not be so limited. I will have holy relationships rather than the special relationships the ego offers.

I was with someone yesterday and I love being with her, but it is always a little stressful. The stress is caused by the limited communication between us. Somehow we each spend too much effort in trying to say the right thing to the other. I have never figured out how to correct this and so I am surrendering that relationship to the Holy Spirit. I am asking to see this precious person with Christ’s Vision. It feels good as I think of this. It feels like an intolerable weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

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Manual for Teachers: 12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 2. 6-5-18

12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 2
2 Thus does the son of man become the Son of God. It is not really a change; it is a change of mind. Nothing external alters, but everything internal now reflects only the Love of God. God can no longer be feared, for the mind sees no cause for punishment. God’s teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world’s need. Yet being joined in one purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be separate from each other? What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? Their minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now as one, for that is what they are.

Journal
Thus does the son of man become the Son of God.

How does this miracle occur? It is a change of mind. My experience has been a change that occurs slowly over time. I used to be afraid of everything and I had very low self worth. I was self-centered and selfish. All of these traits were the result of thinking mostly with my ego mind and believing everything I thought. After I began to study the Course, I began to change outwardly, but only because I changed inwardly.

It has been a radical change, though not a complete change as of yet. It is a daily practice as my willingness grows. I know I am not my ego even though I still get pulled into a drama now and again. I know that I am as God created me even when I have moments of self-doubt. I am learning the value and the joy of surrender and that surrender deepens daily. I step back and let Him lead the way far more often than not. I reflect the Love of God, and one day, I will reflect nothing but the Love of God.

God’s teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world’s need.
Jesus explains how it is that we only need one teacher of God to save the world. While it seems to us that there are many teachers of God, they are all one teacher. This is very hard for our mind to grasp because it is an abstract idea and our human minds are concrete in nature. We look with our eyes and we see many. If we looked with our holy mind, we would see that we are one, that nothing is separate from us.

I think it does not matter if we follow Jesus or Buddha, or Krishna or any other Teacher of God because all teachers are one teacher. If I become a Teacher of God, it will still be one teacher of God. As Jesus says, “Their minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now as one, for that is what they are.”

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Study of Text, C 15: IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God, P 1. 6-4-18

IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God, P 1
1 As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to God. It is this shift to vision that is accomplished in the holy instant. Yet it is needful for you to learn just what this shift entails, so you will become willing to make it permanent. Given this willingness it will not leave you, for it is permanent. Once you have accepted it as the only perception you want, it is translated into knowledge by the part that God Himself plays in the Atonement, for it is the only step in it He understands. Therefore, in this there will be no delay when you are ready for it. God is ready now, but you are not.

Journal
The ego mind sees only with the eyes and so it sees only bodies. Our holy mind will show us what is really there, something that we can see only with the mind, not with the eyes. The Holy Spirit will release our vision and then we will see the Great Rays (the extension of the Light of God) shining from everyone. Jesus says these rays reach to God.

The Great Rays are there now, we just are not aware of them because we are intent on arresting our sight at the body. How do we get this shift of vision? It is accomplished in the holy instant, that instant in which we have chosen forgiveness instead of guilt. This shift in vision will be made permanent, as we are willing to make it the only perception we would have.

So this would mean that we would have no grievances, no attack thoughts. We would then be in the Holy Instant and in that instant God will do His part and translate perception into knowledge. What a thing that will be! The Holy Instant will be the only instant and we will know ourselves as One and as Love. We will know ourselves as part of All That Is and know ourselves as everywhere at once. What bliss that will be! I am excited to read on to see what is necessary to experience this shift so that I will be ready for it.

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Manual for Teachers: 12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 1. 5-31-18

12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD? P 1
1 The answer to this question is-one. One wholly perfect teacher, whose learning is complete, suffices. This one, sanctified and redeemed, becomes the Self Who is the Son of God. He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even as in a body. Therefore he is limitless. And being limitless, his thoughts are joined with God’s forever and ever. His perception of himself is based upon God’s judgment, not his own. Thus does he share God’s Will, and bring His Thoughts to still deluded minds. He is forever one, because he is as God created him. He has accepted Christ; and he is saved.

Journal

“He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even as in a body.”

I am becoming more adamant with myself as to what I am. I remind myself often that I am not this body, and that I am not even in this body temporarily. This body is an illusion that exists only in the mind. I have used words to refer to my self, words like spirit, pure consciousness, awareness, and the Course says that we are the Son of God and sometimes it says, we are Christ Consciousness or the Mind of Christ. None of these words evoke a sense of knowing in me.

What the Course is very clear about is that I am not a body, and of course, the body is the only idea that seems real to me. I have thought of myself as a body for eons, evidently. But believing something for a long time does not make it true, it simply reinforces a false idea to the point that it becomes a hardened belief. And as Jesus says, what we believe is true for us.

Another thing Jesus tells us is that if we believe we are a body we will suffer when the body suffers. I am especially aware of this right now because this body is sick and so I feel sick, not because I must, but because I am identified with the body. But as always now, I notice this phenomenon and realize it is a form of insanity, and as such, I deny it can be true. It is saner to deny what is not real than to simply accept it, and since it is not real, I can eventually learn to perceive it as not real. Then my experience will be of what is real and will know myself as unlimited, as I truly am.

“His perception of himself is based upon God’s judgment, not his own.”

What I have learned and what I am learning to master is that I cannot judge myself or anyone else. I choose to stop giving any credence to the ego’s incessant judging. How do I know that I am judging? If I am not perfectly peaceful, I have asked the ego for its interpretation. This is not hard to discern, nor is it hard to turn around. I asked the ego to begin with and so with a simple change of mind, I disregard the ego and now ask the Holy Spirit for a different interpretation. The Holy Spirit will teach me God’s judgment, which I will share with everyone else. We will remember our oneness. We will be saved.

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Manual for Teachers: 11. HOW IS PEACE POSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD? P 4. 5-28-18

11. HOW IS PEACE POSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD? P 4
4 Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It is no longer, “Can peace be possible in this world?” but instead, “Is it not impossible that peace be absent here?”

Journal
Is peace possible in the world? It depends on what we choose to see as the world. The world that we see with the body’s eyes is a world of war and cannot be anything else. But in T 5:V, Jesus says: “You keep an ancient memory before your eyes. And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is.” What we see with our eyes is just an ancient memory and it is a memory of hell. We are no longer there, we are in Heaven now, but we don’t know we are because we keep the memory of hell alive in our mind.

We can stop believing what our eyes show us and instead ask the Holy Spirit to show us what is really there. Jesus said that God redeemed the world and that it is now peaceful. It has been turned from hell into Heaven by the presence of a Thought of God. Are we not Thoughts of God? Just by being what we are, we transform the world. And yet, we choose to deny our true Self and to dwell in hell a little longer. This can and will change, why not now?

The only thing that keeps this world before our eyes is our desire for it to exist. There must be something of this world that we value or we would have already turned from it as others have done. Let those ideas rise up in your mind so that you and the Holy Spirit can look at them together and see that they have no value after all. As you let them go, the real world, the world that is actually here now, will be revealed.

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Study of Text, C 15: VIII. The Only Real Relationship, P 5. 5-25-18

VIII. The Only Real Relationship, P 5
5 The Holy Spirit is God’s attempt to free you of what He does not understand. And because of the Source of the attempt, it will succeed. The Holy Spirit asks you to respond as God does, for He would teach you what you do not understand. God would respond to every need, whatever form it takes. And so He keeps this channel open to receive His communication to you, and yours to Him. God does not understand your problem in communication, for He does not share it with you. It is only you who believe that it is understandable. The Holy Spirit knows that it is not understandable, and yet He understands it because you made it.

Journal
God does not understand our problem with communication but He understands that we think we have a problem and so He supplies the Answer to that problem. The Holy Spirit can correct this for us because while He knows it is not understandable He understands it because we made it. That is what the Holy Spirit is for and we make use of the Answer when we call on Him to correct our thinking.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit asks you to respond as God does, for He would teach you what you do not understand. My first thought was that I don’t know how God responds so how can I do that. Then the next sentence answered my question. Jesus says that God would respond to every need, whatever form it takes. I think that I am being told to be as open and responsive as God is.

Let me repeat that. God responds to my every need, whatever form it takes. What a wonderfully loving and reassuring sentence that is! I believe this is true and yet, sometimes I fail to receive His response. This is part of my communication problem. I ask for a need to be filled and then I fail to accept the answer and so even though God keeps the communication channel open between us, I cannot take advantage of that channel because I block it on my end.

The real question is why on earth would I ever do this? Why would I ask and then refuse to accept? Part of the problem, I think, is that I have chosen to experience myself as separate from God and this separation is so strongly reinforced in my mind that I no longer even realize how I communicate with my Father.

Sometimes I ask in words for what it is that I think I need. But mostly, it is my heart crying out for help and I may not even be aware on a conscious level that it is happening. My heart, the center of my being, knows what is needed, but my conscious (mostly ego) mind thinks it knows what is needed but is often completely wrong. No wonder I have a problem with communication.

If I ask for help but have already decided what the answer should be, I will not recognize I have been answered with that which is in my best interests. I am learning to ask for help with my heart and to let go of all expectations so that the answer, when received, will be recognized and appreciated, and thus accepted. My prayers now are more like this: “Here is my problem as I see it. Thank you for your answer.” Now, I am much closer to keeping the channel open to receive His communication to me, and mine to Him.

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