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Manual for Teachers 3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 2. 9-26-17

3. WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF TEACHING? P 2
2 The simplest level of teaching appears to be quite superficial. It consists of what seem to be very casual encounters; a “chance” meeting of two apparent strangers in an elevator, a child who is not looking where he is going running into an adult “by chance,” two students “happening” to walk home together. These are not chance encounters. Each of them has the potential for becoming a teaching-learning situation. Perhaps the seeming strangers in the elevator will smile to one another; perhaps the adult will not scold the child for bumping into him; perhaps the students will become friends. Even at the level of the most casual encounter, it is possible for two people to lose sight of separate interests, if only for a moment. That moment will be enough. Salvation has come.

Journal
This paragraph has made such an impact on me. I used to treat casual strangers as if they did not exist. I looked away from them. When they were waiting on me, I acted like they were machines performing a function. After reading this paragraph, I saw what I was doing and it changed everything.

I still get wrapped up in my little story sometimes and fail to notice an opportunity for salvation, but I make a point to not do that. I have started thinking of everyone in my life as a potential for a holy encounter, a chance to put aside my separate interests, if even for a moment, and acknowledge our oneness with at least a smile.

At first, it was just a thing I did, but as my mind healed more and more, it has become a blessing that I bestow and receive. It is not just a gesture, but a real connection. When I fail to take advantage of that chance encounter, I regret the lost opportunity. I understand now, that it just seemed like a chance encounter. It was really a gift that I either accepted or rejected.

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Study of Text, C 15: The End of Doubt, P 1, 10-5-17

II. The End of Doubt, P 1
1 The Atonement is in time, but not for time. Being in you, it is eternal. What holds remembrance of God cannot be bound by time. No more are you. For unless God is bound, you cannot be. An instant offered to the Holy Spirit is offered to God on your behalf, and in that instant you will awaken gently in Him. In the blessed instant you will let go all your past learning, and the Holy Spirit will quickly offer you the whole lesson of peace. What can take time, when all the obstacles to learning it have been removed? Truth is so far beyond time that all of it happens at once. For as it was created one, so its oneness depends not on time at all.

Journal
In this paragraph, Jesus is sharing with us some difficult concepts, difficult because they are unlike what we experience now. He is telling us that we are given the Atonement in time where it is useful to us, but it has nothing to do with time, being Itself eternal. The Atonement holds the memory of God and nothing with that memory can be bound by time. This is good news because that memory is in us and so we are eternal as well, and cannot be bound by time.

He also talks about the holy Instant as one that is offered to the Holy Spirit. He says that when we offer that moment to the Holy Spirit who offers it to God on our behalf, in that instant we will awaken gently in Him. I have done this many times, this offering the moment to the Holy Spirit, and I don’t seem to have gone past all learning, and I don’t seem to have received the whole lesson of peace.

And yet it must be true. This is why Jesus explains the relationship between the Atonement and time and eternity. In eternity, where we are, the moment was offered and the world fell away. We exist with and in God in perfect bliss. It was instantaneous because there is no time to traverse in eternity. In time, where we think we are, the answer unfolds gently and seems to span time, years usually.

It is all part of the illusion that includes the world and time and space. So we are both awake and waking up depending on your perspective, but there is only one truth, and in truth, we are awake in God because there is only God. I have been practicing shifting my awareness from the world. In this practice, I have had brief instances of something closer to my reality than life as if I am a body. This is possible because it is actually the truth right now. Shift your focus from the body and you will shift into reality, or as close to reality as you are ready for.

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Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 14, 10-4-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 14
14 How long is an instant? As long as it takes to re-establish perfect sanity, perfect peace and perfect love for everyone, for God and for yourself. As long as it takes to remember immortality, and your immortal creations who share it with you. As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. Long enough to transcend all of the ego’s making, and ascend unto your Father.

Journal
I suppose that from my point of view, mired in time/space, it takes a long time to reach that holy instant. I have spent over half of my life, 36 years, deciding that I want to be what I am. In reality, it seems, no time at all has passed. I cannot be other than what I am and everything to the contrary is a dream, an illusion, and never existed at all.

I am not anxious to awaken, but I am determined to awaken and I long to awaken. I want to leave behind this dream experience, and live as I was created to live. I sometimes get frustrated with myself when I ask the ego self to decide for me. But I am also aware that this doesn’t happen as much and that I change my mind fairly quickly now when it does.

In fact, even in the smallest things, I am learning to turn away from the thinking mind and allow myself to be led by the truest part of me. For instance, I was making my bed a few minutes ago and thinking that I want to listen to a teacher while I clean my house. Then I thought about it being Tuesday and my daughter is probably going to call me to visit with her.

I began to go over the pros and cons and to feel uneasy as I did it. Then I caught myself and I changed my mind. I am surrendered to my higher self, and to life as it plays out. I am going to do what comes next and I look forward to seeing how that unfolds. I am not going to fight life today. Instead, I am going to watch it and let the Holy Spirit direct it and interpret it for me.

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Manual for Teachers 2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 5- 10-2-17

2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 5
5 When pupil and teacher come together, a teaching-learning situation begins. For the teacher is not really the one who does the teaching. God’s Teacher speaks to any two who join together for learning purposes. The relationship is holy because of that purpose, and God has promised to send His Spirit into any holy relationship. In the teaching-learning situation, each one learns that giving and receiving are the same. The demarcations they have drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their needs, their interests, and all the differences they thought separated them from one another, fade and grow dim and disappear. Those who would learn the same course share one interest and one goal. And thus he who was the learner becomes a teacher of God himself, for he has made the one decision that gave his teacher to him. He has seen in another person the same interests as his own.

Journal
We are reminded that all it takes to become a teacher of God is that we see in another person the same interests as our own. So when we come together to study the Manual for Teachers as we are doing now, we are sharing the same interest. We put aside our apparent differences, all that seems to separate us, in this coming together. Your interest is the same as mine and mine the same as yours and so we are both teachers of God.

What comes through me comes from the Teacher. This Teacher is the real teacher. What comes from you comes from this same Teacher of God. Coming together like this creates a holy relationship and guarantees His presence in it. You may not say anything aloud in response to what is said in this writing, but within your mind much is happening.

A shift, sometimes immediate, sometimes slowly, occurs. Perhaps it has something to do with what is written here, or maybe not. Maybe it is simply the joining for one purpose that opens the mind to healing. The same is true for me. I might take on the role of teaching, but I am the student receiving the teaching. I am the student receiving the healing from what comes through, and sometimes from responses that open me to another way to see. But always, I receive as I give and as I join in the giving.

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Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 13, 9-29-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 13
13 How long is an instant? It is as short for your brother as it is for you. Practice giving this blessed instant of freedom to all who are enslaved by time, and thus make time their friend for them. The Holy Spirit gives their blessed instant to you through your giving it. As you give it, He offers it to you. Be not unwilling to give what you would receive of Him, for you join with Him in giving. In the crystal cleanness of the release you give is your instantaneous escape from guilt. You must be holy if you offer holiness.

Journal
Clearly, the way to happiness and to freedom is to give love and forgiveness every chance we have.  If someone says or does something unkind, I can defend myself and join them in a hell of our own making, or I can forgive the entire idea and see them as temporarily confused but unharmed by that confusion. They remain in my mind the holy being they always have been and always will be.

There was a time that this was just a concept I wanted to believe. I did understand why it was true but I wanted to feel that way about everyone. It never quite made it from my head to my heart. In the journey, it got tangled up and turned into something else. I would feel like a victim being trampled because it wasn’t spiritual for me to defend myself, and mostly, I just felt resentful.

Things have shifted since then. For the most part, the distance from head to heart has shortened and is usually almost instantaneous. When I slip into the old way of thinking, I don’t stay there long. I want everyone to be innocent. I want to see the true brilliance of every brother. I am happy to see that they are not affected by their temporary insanity and neither am I.

How long does this take? An instant, maybe. And if it takes longer, I know that each time I choose to see what is real about my brother, I shorten the time it takes and I do this for us all. Here is something that I know Jesus said this was going to happen, but it was still something of a surprise; I love myself more now. I believe in myself, and I believe in my innocence much more than I did before. It seems that it is true, as I forgive my brother, I forgive myself. As I free my brother, I free myself.

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Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 12, 9-27-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 12
12 You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. For the instant of holiness is shared, and cannot be yours alone. Remember, then, when you are tempted to attack a brother, that his instant of release is yours. Miracles are the instants of release you offer, and will receive. They attest to your willingness to be released, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it.

Journal
The next time I am tempted to hold a grievance against someone else, I am going to think twice. A grievance is a prison I put them in, a prison of beliefs about them that cannot be undone, and so, in my mind, they must remain condemned.

I remember when I was still working I had a grievance against a coworker. I thought she was the kind of person who would gladly stab you in the back if it was to her advantage. Because I believed that and did not allow that belief to be undone, everything she did seemed to prove I was right. I saw all her actions through the filter of my belief.

I held her prisoner of my beliefs, but I also was prisoner to them. I could not turn my back on her because she might cause me problems with her actions or words. I could not relax around her and my anxiety level was high while we worked together. Through my unquestioned judgment of her, I had taken myself hostage and I could not be at peace.

What a lesson that was! I also had the long-lasting grievance against my son. It didn’t feel like a grievance, but I was judging him and his situation and I believed it was a problem. That is a grievance, too, and confusing it with love didn’t change that. I am getting clearer on that situation, as well. I am learning the difference between love and fear.

Perhaps, having learned from these situations, I will never again do that. I hope not. I know that once in awhile, I get that same feeling of judging someone and believing my judgment, but now I mostly only do that briefly, and then I release the other person and in doing so, I release myself. Ahh, freedom!

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Manual for Teachers 2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 3- 9-26-17

2. WHO ARE THEIR PUPILS? P 3
3 The world of time is the world of illusion. What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. Because your will is free you can accept what has already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there. As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned.

Journal
As Jesus has told us more than once in the Course, this world of time is an illusion. It is not really happening. It is not here. There is no ‘out there’ to see. You see it only in your mind. Just as when you dream at night, the things you see are in your mind only. You don’t even pretend to see them with the body’s eyes, and yet, on awakening, you can describe what was ‘seen’ as clearly as you think you are describing the room you sit in now.

The world you are presently witnessing is not real because all of this is passed. We are living in the past, so to speak. It has already happened and has already resolved itself. What if we simply accepted this? What would happen then? Perhaps this uncertainty is why we don’t simply accept what Jesus is so clearly saying to us.

We are on this particular path with A Course in Miracles, a curriculum designed to bring us to an awakening to the truth. Is it so hard to learn that it should take all of our life or even longer than a life to learn it? Jesus says that all we need to do is to accept it and it is already learned, so no, it is not hard. It is just frightening to us and so we resist accepting it.

This morning, I am questioning what it is that I would lose if I lost this world as I see it. I would lose sickness, pain, suffering, and death. I would lose all sense of being Myron. I would never again have a child who is sick and suffering. I would never again be afraid of anything, nor have regrets and would not even remember what guilt felt like.

What would I gain? I can’t really know this, but I can share what those who have accepted their awakening report. They say that they feel a constant and unwavering joy. They have no fear and no guilt. They see God in everything and see no separation at all. They see that everything is part of the one whole. Some have reported a state of bliss that does not end.

Admittedly, I don’t know too many awakened beings, but of those I know and those I have listened to or read, not one seems to regret their awakening. Not one has anything negative to report about living in that state, not even the slightest complaint. Not one has said that they lost anything that matters. I remind myself of this as often as I can. It is helping me to loose my grip on the illusory story of Myron.

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