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Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 9, 9-18-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 9
9 This lesson takes no time. For what is time without a past and future? It has taken time to misguide you so completely, but it takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace. Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely free and wholly without condemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time.

Journal
Right now as I sit here in front of my computer reading this paragraph it is 11:30 at night. I thought I was going to sleep, but that didn’t happen so I got up to do this instead. I had stayed in bed for thirty minutes but I disliked just laying there so I noticed the thoughts in my mind. I had thoughts that I needed to go to sleep and that I have to be up for a student in the morning. I noticed thoughts that I would be tired and not clear headed. But I am learning that these thoughts are not true.

This has been happening a lot lately and I am fine with it. I wake up with no trouble and I enjoy my day. I have observed that thought without belief has no power to do anything. I questioned the thoughts that how much sleep I get determines my day and saw that they were not true. And now I am free of it unless I choose to believe it again. If I start thinking about how I reacted to sleeplessness in the past, or if I start worrying about tomorrow, then I won’t be doing so well.

This applies to everything. Sometimes I will remember a time when I said the wrong thing and I will feel guilty and maybe embarrassed thinking about it. The mind is in the past. Perhaps I will start to worry that I will do that again and then I will feel even worse. The mind is in the future. But if I notice this and stop a moment to ask the Holy Spirit for a different way to see, then it all turns around.

I am reminded that I am innocent and I forgive myself for thinking otherwise. In that moment, I am absolved, free, and wholly without condemnation. As long as I stay in the moment, this state will remain constant. It is only when I let my mind stray to the past or the future that I perceive problems, regret for the past and worry for the future.

Right now, life is good. I am enjoying this moment and when I realize it is time to go to sleep, I can continue in this good moment, and that is what I want to do. I have started making it a habit to ask the Holy Spirit what to do when I am not at peace. I tell Him that I am not sure what the problem is, or if I know what the problem is I might ask him how to deal with it. He is my constant Companion, my Friend and my Helper. I ask in complete confidence that the answer will bring me back to the holy instant where I want to live my life.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 8, 9-18-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 8
8 The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.

Journal
I was putting it this to the test in my mind. I thought about my concern for my son as he is looking for a job and his money is running out. He is worried and I am concerned this will trigger depression for him. So I look at this concern from the perspective of what I have just read. Is it true that the fear I have for my son is a result of the past and future? In this moment is there anything to fear?

I see that this is true. In this moment he has plenty of money. In this moment he has nothing to be concerned about. He gets upset only when he thinks about the future. I get upset when I project my fears, based on the past, onto him. In actuality, right now nothing is happening and he is fine. He has not run out of money. Is he depressed or worried? Maybe. Probably. But my fear is that these feelings will lead to something worse. And that is just a perceived future, which does not exist.

How about pain? Suppose I have a headache. It hurts in the moment, right? Well, yes and no. I notice that my head hurts when I think about it. When I get distracted, I don’t feel pain. If I start to worry about the pain, start to be concerned that it is not going away, then the pain is worse, and fear enters my mind.

If I think about how I used to get really bad headaches and sometimes migraines that lasted for three days, then I could get afraid and the pain would be very apparent to me. But in any moment I may feel pain, but I notice that it is only disturbing to me when I project into the future. Otherwise, there is no fear.

I have also noticed that without fear, the headaches that used to go on for days, now seldom last long enough for me to get around to taking something for it. It will come and then I get busy and forget about it. Then maybe I notice it again and then it’s gone. I think I have to pay attention to it to sustain it. There is no fear involved in headaches for me now because they don’t seem entirely real to me.

When I had pain from dental surgery, it felt severe. I got completely involved in the fear. I remembered the pain from past surgeries and I anticipated the pain. I became afraid of it and afraid it would get worse and last longer. Then I suffered.

The pain itself was not nearly as bad as the fear of the future pain. Jesus says there is no pain, that pain is not real. There is no physical pain and no emotional pain. These are part of the dream of separation, the effect of guilt. Can I step out of my dark imaginings and into the light of the never-ending present moment? I think that each time I experience emotional or physical pain, I have the opportunity to practice letting my perception be corrected and this will bring me to that moment of freedom.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers Introduction, P 2- 9-17-17

Introduction, P 2
2 To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. 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. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less.

Journal
There are several important points in this one paragraph. Here is what I get from it. I am always teaching what I am, and in the teaching, I am learning what I am. I teach in two ways, one from words and the other from demonstration. Sometimes, my life demonstrates that I am spirit expressing as a body, extending love. Sometimes, my life demonstrates that I believe I am a body, separate and different than other bodies, reinforcing the belief in separation with all its unfortunate effects.

Until my mind is clear, I will go back and forth with this. Sometimes, my words and my demonstration will not be in alignment. In my experience, I can talk the talk but if I don’t believe it, pretty soon what I do believe is expressed through me in some way and that is what I will actually teach.

Studying and practicing A Course in Miracles is how I went from teaching from the ego to teaching from Love. And the more I taught love, the less I believed in fear. Isn’t it perfect the way Jesus set this up? The truth is already in me so it is always possible to teach truth, and the more I teach it, the more I learn it. And everyone around me benefits and then they get in touch with their truth and they teach it and thus learn it and everyone around them benefits. Jesus really knows what he is doing.

There is one more thing that grabbed my attention. Jesus says that:  “Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you.” So this tells me that everything in my life is used for this purpose. I am reminded of the sentence from the previous paragraph that said teaching is a constant process.

These days I am very aware of this responsibility. Whatever I am doing, whatever seems to be going on in my life, I see it as a teaching/learning opportunity, and I do the best I can with it in that regard. So, I am teaching others what I am through my actions and words. I am also teaching myself what they are to me.

Are they my dear brothers, part of my own Whole Self, or am I teaching myself they are separate from me, unimportant, my competitors for whatever it is I think I need to be happy? The other day, I heard someone say that they wished the hurricane would go to Florida instead of toward them.

I was shocked that they thought others had nothing to do with them, that what happened to these people had no impact on them. I remember when I used to think this way when I was only interested in what happened to those in closest proximity to me. I had forgotten that most people still think this way.

What I know now is that everything that happens to everybody happens to me. Not necessarily to the character I play, but to me, to us, to our Self. Thus, the hurricane and all its effects is an opportunity for me to teach this. Where I can express my love through my physical effort, or through financial sharing, I do that.

Where I cannot express my love in those ways, I give my prayers and I remember who they are. They may be very distracted with the business of living, and so maybe what I do for them is to remember that this sad story is over long ago and they are right now safe in the arms of their loving Father. It is what I would want someone to do for me.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of Text, C 15: The Two Uses of Time, P 7, 9-13-17

I. The Two Uses of Time, P 7
7 The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego drives to hell. For the Holy Spirit, Who knows only the present, uses it to undo the fear by which the ego would make the present useless. There is no escape from fear in the ego’s use of time. For time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teaching device for compounding guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, demanding vengeance forever.

Journal
There is no hell other than what the ego makes of the present. The ego uses the present to increase the belief in guilt and fear. There is a way out of this. As we begin to turn to the Holy Spirit for the truth, we learn to face guilt and fear and to recognize that neither one is real. Through consistent practice, this has happened for me.

When I feel anything except peace and happiness, I realize that I am letting the ego use time to compound guilt. I then cancel out what I have just learned from the ego and I ask the Holy Spirit for the truth. It is a simple process and it works to the degree that I am willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s interpretation over the ego’s interpretation.

Here is an example of how I used this process yesterday. I had an ice cream cone with my granddaughter yesterday and this morning I noticed a feeling of uneasiness about it. I knew that uneasiness was the ego encouraging me to feel guilty for eating ice cream.

I recognized the problem immediately because it is one that has been around for a long time. I have been at war with food for my entire adult life. I have been very conflicted in this area. I have a story that if I eat sugar I will get fat. I want the sugary food but I don’t want to get fat so it is an unending battle.

To make it worse, I eat the desert anyway and then feel guilty because I think I shouldn’t. This makes me feel like a failure because I am weak. And now I feel vulnerable because I seem to have no control and this scares me. So now the ego has this unholy trinity going, sin, guilt, and fear. I sinned because I made up a rule and didn’t follow it and now I am guilty of the sin, and I am afraid because I know that punishment is sure to follow and that punishment will be weight gain. My own private hell.

But now I don’t just accept this anymore. I noticed the feelings associated with this thinking, and I changed my mind. What happened is that I quickly realized I was not at peace and this means that I asked the ego what eating the ice cream means. As soon as I accepted the meaning the ego gave it, I would normally ask what the solution should be. The ego would then start telling me things I could do to prevent or undo the expected punishment of weight gain. Go to the gym, maybe, to work it off. Which would only cause more guilt because that wasn’t going to happen.

But now I seldom get to that place. I have been practicing the Rules for Decision for a while and it is automatic thinking for me to see the error and go immediately to the real solution. So I chose not to pay attention to the ego, and instead, I asked the Holy Spirit what the ice cream situation meant. Then I could ask a real question and get a real answer.

Generally, this is enough for me to undo the whole thing, but this time when I told the Holy Spirit I didn’t want those beliefs in my mind anymore, and that He could take them for me, I didn’t feel complete relief. So I asked Him what else I needed to know. The thought that came to me is that in the past, I have always failed to let go of the belief that ice cream was a sin, and I kept repeating the same behavior with the same results.

Ah! I realized that the ego was using this present time to keep me in guilt by telling me this is the one thing I cannot give to Holy Spirit and that my choice to give it up could not work. I decided not to believe the ego and so I asked Holy Spirit for an interpretation and a solution and the thought that came into my mind is that, of course, I can change my mind. Of course, I will give this to the Holy Spirit. There. That’s done!

The whole issue is a construct of ego beliefs that I never questioned. The ego said that I should lose weight for all sorts of reasons, all made up in the ego mind. The ego said that ice cream and carbs, in general, were the problem and that I must not eat them. The ego said that I was guilty when I did and that I absolutely would eat them, and then I would be punished.

The whole thing, all of it, is a lie. There is not one word of truth in it. It is just a collection of unquestioned beliefs designed to keep me in hell. There was a time when I decided that carbs were the way to go and that if I ate fats then I would gain weight and because that was my belief, that is what happened. Now carbs make me gain weight and I can eat all the fat I want without effect because that is my belief. See how insane this is? What we believe is true for us.

Why not believe that nothing I eat makes me gain weight excessively? Wouldn’t this be just as true for me? What would it cost me? Well, the whole world as I see it, for one. And I would have to be 100% responsible for everything if that were true. Maybe that is scarier than the alternative. How about this? What if I choose to be punished with weight gain from eating certain foods because it seems preferable to looking at the real source of the guilt? Maybe I think I am guilty in God’s eyes and I find the idea of being guilty in my own eyes as less frightening.

What I always want to remember is that nothing outside me can affect me so the problem must be in my mind. My body is not creative, it cannot create fat out of food regardless of the fact that we have taught ourselves otherwise. The body is a mirror. It only reflects back to us what we believe. Your mirror is not responsible for what you see in it and it cannot make you look different than you do. Same thing with the body. It is only a mirror of your mind.

So ice cream is not a culprit and neither is the body. I am not guilty and afraid of the ice cream or my body. They simply triggered guilt and fear that is already in me.  So the solution will be to change the way I think. I asked the Holy Spirit to remove the belief in fear and guilt from my mind, and there is nothing to be triggered by the ice cream or my body.

Does it matter, after all, if I feel a twinge of guilt when I eat ice cream? Only that in I have lost my peace, and the loss of peace is hell. And if I believe in hell, then hell is always there waiting for me to rediscover it and so I am not free. And now it is a little stronger in the shared mind and so the entire Sonship is experiencing a stronger attachment to guilt. So, yes, it does matter. I am grateful that this morning I peeled away another layer of guilt and fear. This is the Holy Spirit’s use of time. It is undoing the ego, and so undoing hell.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers, Introduction, P 1. 9-12-17

Introduction, P 1

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.

Journal
It is so typical that everything in the world that I think I understand I have backward. I used to think that I was afraid because something happened to me. Then, I learned I had it all turned around. Here is what was really going on. Something happened to me because I had fear in my mind. This fear is then projected outward where I would see its effects. Using what my eyes showed me I would convince myself that it just happened to me rather than acknowledging that I did it to myself. I know better now.

Jesus says I have had teaching and learning backward, too. I used to think that I knew something. Then I would teach that something to someone. Then I would stop teaching and go on my way, doing something else. But what actually happens is this. I teach something to someone and as I do so, I am learning what I teach. I noticed this is accelerated if I teach what is coming through me rather than using my thinking mind.

And when I am through teaching… oh, wait, I am never through teaching. I teach continuously. I cannot stop teaching and, therefore, I never stop learning. My only choice is what I teach. If I teach from love, I learn love, and if I teach from fear, that is what I learn. It never stops. Even while I sleep, I teach and learn. That’s why I ask the Holy Spirit to help me Awaken while I sleep.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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